After two years of turbulence, the view ahead towards the future of work is finally clearing up. High time to take stock of learnings, developments, and opportunities.
Over the next weeks, our associate partner, Rik Mulder, will share ten trends in internal communications and digital collaboration, including practical advice on how to make the most of them. The first trend will probably not surprise you.
We have all realised by now: hybrid working is here to stay. It allows us to organise our work – and our private lives – better. But we still have a lot to learn. In my view, the most important lesson is: “do as you like” is not a good (lack of) policy. We can manage that in the short term, as we have seen, but in the long term, our organisations would stall.
The pitfalls of our current approach
I see three main problems with a laissez-fair approach to hybrid working.
1. Obstructive habits
People are creatures of habit. Left to their own devices, parents will work on the days their kids are in school, couples will alternate using the home office, and commuters will pick the quietest travel days. So, individuals will always mingle with the same colleagues – and may never run into many others. This defeats the ‘best-of-both-worlds’ fallacy of hybrid working.
2. Lack of learning If they can, seniors will work from home, as they know what to do and value their quiet studies with great internet connection, espresso machines and views of the garden. For juniors, it is a whole different story. Not only do they often share a house, with flatmates or siblings running around, but they also need to learn. And the most effective learning happens by observing others. It boils down to this: the distractions that drive seniors out of the office are exactly the learning opportunities juniors need.
3. Complacency We did surprisingly well during the pandemic, didn’t we? True, but you could argue that this was the easy part: organising already long overdue remote access and supporting each other in an emergency. However, we are still relying on connections we built and ideas we generated before the pandemic. Now comes the hard part, as teams are losing their alignment, innovation is drying up, and company cultures are fading.
Relaunching your team
A good start to bringing structure to hybrid working is to relaunch teams, as Harvard Business School professor, Tsedal Neeley, writes in her new book, Remote Work Revolution. Relaunching a team for hybrid working entails:
Revisiting your shared purpose Are you still aligned on the shared goals of your team?
Reassessing available resources What has changed in your information needs, budgets, support networks, and dependencies?
Understanding members’ constraints Are roles still clear? What is the impact of hybrid working on each team member’s productivity?
Re-establishing communication norms How can you improve norms, such as frequency of interaction, digital tools used, and synchronous versus asynchronous communication?
Neeley even suggests going through this exercise every three to six months to ensure members stay aligned, productive, and happy.
Conclusion
Although we know hybrid working is here to stay, most organisations seem oblivious to the changes needed to make it viable long-term. As we move from survival mode to a new normal, organisations need to consciously design and develop new hybrid ways of working. This requires strategy, policies, tools, experimentation, coaching, support, and evaluation.
In the next blog posts, I will dive into important points to consider, such as virtual leadership, remote learning, building trust, and Working Out Loud. Stay tuned!