There has been much energy around Marissa Mayer’s (CEO Yahoo) decision to not allow Yahoo employees to work from home. First off, I applaud any CEO who takes a position. Whether I agree with a position or disagree, I love people who take a position. I think there is another reason that she may have made this statement. See ‘the real reason’ below.

What do I think?

Well, first off, the announcement was a bit harsh and should have been approached by first internally vetting the change, before making a mass declaration. Quite possibly there were those at Yahoo who have the option to work remotely, may have received the news in a memo and BAM! – have to change their lives to accommodate. So, firstly, when you are introducing such a change, best start the shift from within (slowly, gradually) rather than using media fanfare.

Secondly, while we can never be sure what her intent was, the tone implied that working from home was wrong and needed to be fixed. So, folks, let’s regroup here: When people are hired and we ‘allow’ them to work from home or remotely and when that continues for a while, it becomes a practice. To criticize anyone, we first need to look within to the executive layer and HR, before making the employee feel badly about their ‘choice’!

Today, we have plenty of platforms, encouraging and allowing virtual connection and collaboration. Our platform ProVokeLiVeNetWork, PLN was designed to allow collaboration remotely and effectively, bringing global teams together, So, I could say: “We have all the tools we need to collaborate so going to the office is no longer necessary”. But I would not be truthful. I believe we need to bring teams together and nurture active collaboration to innovate, BUT, that is not the entire story.

There is a chemistry and culture that is created by being in a physical environment together. Learning happens because you happen to speak to someone by the elevator , or because you met over lunch. The absence of such culture is frightening. The truth is that this culture CANNOT be made virtually to start off with . Think about Google. Think about the sensation and tingling of collaboration you have when you walk through the campus? Think about the inspiration? Can you really recreate a campus ‘virtually’??? Yes, we can create the campus, but not the culture.

Once the culture is built, and chemistry in place, then remote collaboration is easily possible and the right thing to do. More importantly, we need to bring global teams together who are by default remote.

The real reason in my opinion that Marissa made this statement is that she is desperate to build a culture. She inherited a fractured company, with weak to no identity, and in despair. Her only job I believe was at Google, so what she knows is how to build the culture when folks are at work (and not remote), like Google. Right or wrong, at least she is trying and not just collecting a fat paycheck and riding her golden handcuffs.

Let’s be honest, Yahoo is in trouble. They need to build its market position and do it quickly. Easier to do so by having people at work, constantly collaborating and building. I believe in the integrity of individuals, and I think folks work very hard at home. But there are distractions at home. Very few individuals have a totally separate offices at home, which means there are chunks of time that folks are disconnected from work and unreachable. As an ex and current CEO, it is a challenge to build and maintain a culture, doubly hard to do so if folks are not there in person. Once the culture is built and everyone is board, then consider allowing employees to work remotely. But until then, it remains a challenge.

Net-net her tactics and approach were wrong but there is a positive intent at play and not just her ego, unlike much of Silicon Valley behavior. It is far easier to criticize than to put ourselves in her shoes and her tasks. Would we have ‘really’ acted differently?

Short order, I think Marissa needs to surround herself with advisors to help her slow down her knee jerk reflexes and be more patient in bringing about change to Yahoo. She stands to build a legacy or just run a company. If the former is her goal, she needs to keep her passion and drive but do so ‘with’ the company and avoid public declarations!