Two Days to Remote
Anticipating Change and Maintaining Full Production Capacity Through an Unprecedented Workplace Transition
The Challenge
In early March 2020, as COVID-19 began disrupting workplaces around the world, McKinsey & Company's creative production teams faced an unprecedented operational challenge.
Remote work was not an established option for most back-office colleagues. Designers, team leaders, and other production staff were expected to work from their assigned offices, with limited exceptions. Their equipment, workflows, and working environments had been designed around that requirement.
As Creative Operations Manager, I recognized that the growing pandemic could force a fundamental change in how our teams operated.
The challenge wasn't simply whether colleagues could connect to company systems from home. It was whether they could perform complex creative production work efficiently without access to the equipment and working environments they relied upon every day.
With no advance knowledge of an impending office closure, I began preparing for several possible outcomes, knowing that the time available to implement a solution could be extremely limited.
Anticipating the Disruption
Approximately one week before the closure announcement, I began evaluating the operational implications of a transition to remote or hybrid work.
A fully remote model would require colleagues to establish functional home workstations. A hybrid model would introduce an additional complication: employees would need appropriate equipment in both locations.
Rather than wait for a formal decision, I developed contingency approaches for each possibility.
Fully Remote Operations: I began negotiating with local office managers to allow designers to take their existing monitors, keyboards, mice, and power adapters home if office closures became necessary.
Firm-Funded Hybrid Operations: I worked with a procurement colleague in New Jersey to identify available equipment that could be purchased in sufficient quantities to support additional workstations. The immediate focus was our local team, with the potential to scale the approach if necessary.
Employee-Funded Hybrid Operations: I identified a relatively inexpensive portable monitor, costing approximately $150, that could provide additional screen space for designers working from home. I personally purchased two units to test their suitability before recommending them to colleagues.
Each scenario addressed the same underlying requirement: ensuring that our designers could remain productive regardless of where they were required to work.
The preparation also allowed me to identify potential approval, procurement, and equipment availability constraints before they became urgent.
Turning Preparation Into Action
On Wednesday, March 11, 2020, the Firm announced that offices would close at the end of the business day on Friday, March 13, with access suspended for the following two weeks.
The organization appropriately prioritized client confidentiality and information security during the transition. My focus was the complementary operational challenge: ensuring that our creative teams could continue delivering work effectively from home.
Because I had already begun negotiating equipment access, we were positioned to act quickly.
New Jersey was the first office where I secured agreement for designers to take their existing equipment home. I then used that agreement as a precedent in discussions with other local offices.
This approach was important because equipment policies could not be changed for one function without considering the implications for others. Establishing an initial agreement helped demonstrate that the arrangement was workable and supported broader adoption.
Ultimately, I secured the necessary arrangements for my local-office teams, with the understanding that the equipment would be returned when offices reopened.
What might otherwise have required extensive negotiation after the announcement had already been substantially advanced before the decision was made.
Coordinating the Service Center Transition
The service centers presented a different challenge.
While local offices generally had relatively small populations of support staff, the service centers housed thousands of colleagues across multiple functions. Equipment distribution therefore required a much more structured logistical approach.
Working with managers based in Tampa, we adapted the local-office equipment arrangements to the realities of a much larger operation.
Because COVID-19 was already circulating, minimizing the number of colleagues physically present in the facilities was an important consideration.
Once equipment removal was authorized, dedicated collection windows were coordinated so colleagues could retrieve the equipment they needed without bringing everyone into the office simultaneously.
At the same time, the operation still needed to serve clients.
We coordinated staffing across Tampa and Costa Rica to preserve production coverage while colleagues prepared their home workstations and transitioned out of the offices.
Fortunately, demand was relatively low as organizations everywhere responded to the emerging pandemic. Nevertheless, maintaining sufficient staffing throughout the transition required active coordination.
By Monday morning, March 16, just two business days after the closure announcement, 100% of production capacity across the local-office teams and Tampa and Costa Rica service centers within my management scope was operating remotely.
Making Remote Work Sustainable
Achieving full remote production capacity by Monday morning was an important milestone, but it did not mean every operational challenge had been resolved.
As colleagues began working from home, additional needs became apparent.
Connectivity: Some colleagues, particularly those living in rural areas of Costa Rica, lacked internet connections capable of reliably supporting production work. We arranged mobile hotspots to improve connectivity and help colleagues work more effectively.
Ergonomics: Home environments were not necessarily equipped for extended production work. Colleagues who required ergonomic chairs or standing desks needed access to equipment that remained inside closed offices.
I coordinated arrangements allowing colleagues to retrieve their office furniture through contact-free exchanges. Authorized personnel brought the equipment outside, enabling collection without requiring employees to enter the facilities.
These adjustments continued beyond the initial two-week closure period.
The objective had evolved from getting colleagues connected to ensuring they had the equipment, connectivity, and working conditions necessary to remain productive over an extended period.
Turning a Temporary Solution Into a Lasting Capability
As the remote-work period continued, I began examining our equipment replacement schedules, particularly the lifecycle of the monitors colleagues had taken home.
A substantial percentage of those monitors were already scheduled for replacement later in the year.
Recognizing that remote work was likely to remain part of the Firm's operating environment, I identified an opportunity to convert the temporary equipment arrangements into a more sustainable solution.
I worked with my leadership to revise the original agreement.
Rather than requiring colleagues to return their home equipment when offices reopened, the Firm would accelerate the replacement of eligible monitors, keyboards, mice, and power supplies.
Colleagues could then permanently retain the equipment they had brought home, while replacement equipment would support the reopened offices.
This approach aligned an existing equipment refresh cycle with the emerging need for permanent home-workstation capability.
What began as an emergency accommodation became part of a longer-term solution for supporting flexible work arrangements.
The Results
100% Remote Production Capacity: All creative production capacity within my management scope, including local-office teams and the Tampa and Costa Rica service centers, was operating remotely by Monday morning, March 16, 2020.
Two-Business-Day Transition: Following the March 11 closure announcement, the teams completed the transition before the start of the next business week.
Operational Coverage Maintained: Staffing coordination between Tampa and Costa Rica allowed client production work to continue while colleagues transitioned to their home workstations.
Proactive Scenario Planning: Approximately one week of advance preparation enabled rapid execution once the Firm announced its decision, reducing the need to develop equipment solutions during the limited implementation window.
Improved Remote-Work Infrastructure: Connectivity solutions, ergonomic equipment access, and home-workstation arrangements addressed barriers to sustained remote productivity.
Long-Term Equipment Strategy: Accelerating planned equipment replacements enabled colleagues to retain their home-workstation equipment permanently, supporting a more sustainable remote operating model.
Leadership Insights
Effective change management begins before a decision is made.
When the future is uncertain, leaders can still identify likely scenarios, understand their operational consequences, and prepare practical solutions that reduce implementation time once a direction becomes clear.
Equally important, organizational change requires more than establishing a policy. A decision to work remotely does not automatically provide employees with the tools, infrastructure, or working conditions necessary to succeed.
This transformation also demonstrated the importance of adapting implementation methods to different operating environments. The approach that worked for relatively small local-office teams required significant modification for large service centers, where logistics, staffing, and health considerations were substantially more complex.
Finally, temporary solutions can reveal opportunities for lasting improvement. By examining equipment lifecycles and anticipating the continued importance of remote work, I helped convert an emergency arrangement into a sustainable operating capability.
The objective wasn't simply to move the team out of the office. It was to ensure that the organization could continue operating effectively, wherever its people needed to work.