A few years back we had an earthquake that forced many organizations to stay away from their offices (just days for some but years/permanently for others) becau

A few years back we had an earthquake that forced many organizations to stay away from their offices (just days for some but years/permanently for others) because the buildings were declared unsafe (structural issues, disturbed asbestos, and such). Long-term, one outcomes of that has been a matured approach to flexible working - The tech (if not already present) was rapidly deployed. The biggest change has been a cultural one. Everyone being forced to work remotely for a period of time killed off those little snarky comments about 'shirking from home' that previously were being made about any employee that dared work remotely. Some organisations used the situation as a springboard to push 'flexible working', made easier at the time by the prospect of moving into new offices and planning fit-outs to support it. Working from home presents a similar trade-off for organizations as having open-plan offices. You save on office space, but you risk reducing productivity. A watershed event can take you over the cultural hump - Afterwards there's no longer a question of whether you can support flexible working, because you were forced to work through any barriers to it under urgency. tl;dr strong external driver for something that would otherwise require an unlikely internal drive to accomplish