There Is No Going Back
How do you evolve and embrace hybrid work?
Amber scanned her email, her mouth falling open and her heart racing as she read the message from her boss.
We plan to return to working in the office by the end of May. You either need to return to working in the office or be terminated.
Amber’s mind began racing as fast as her heart.
Why were they throwing away all the lessons learned from working differently in the past year? Haven’t we learned how to work smarter? That we don’t have to be in the office to get results? What about all those conversations we had about our productivity increasing without a commute? I’m not doing this again, she thought as she sat back in her chair.
At the same time across town, Peter clicked end on his zoom call after confirming a business trip for this summer once vaccinated.
He immediately felt a pang of “Do I want to do this?Do I really want to return to the life I had pre-social distancing? ”
The past year has left the imprint of the exhaustion from constant travel and time away from his family. Slowing down helped Peter realize the small moments he had been missing, like playing boardgames with his kids at night. Social distancing gave space to laughter, rest, exercise, and sharing family dinners. For all the airline and hotel status lost, irreplaceable family bonding and memories were gained.
“I want to choose what I put back in, not have it determined for me. I don’t want to go back to the chaotic lifestyle. There has to be better balance,” Peter thought.
After a year of waiting, the vaccine has arrived with increasing dread for what comes next.
As I'm working with teams and organizations to figure out their best path forward, we always begin in the same place:
What have we truly learned from the past year?
How do we use this as an opportunity to evolve?
How do we take the clarity gained around what we value most and not lose that over the coming months?
Employees seem to agree on one thing: there is no going back to pick up where things left off in February 2020.
In January 2020, future of work conversations focused on embracing flexible work.
Just the mention made eyes roll and heads shake in protest.
Many companies held fast to myths like leading takes place in-person and culture exists within the office walls.
Or virtual work results in shenanigans and destroys company culture.
March 2020 forced many companies to embrace new ways of working.
The companies that struggled with leading virtually or keeping company culture intact weren’t struggling with the virtual part.
They were struggling with gaps in the way the company develops culture and leaders.
Gaps that had always been there but didn’t become obvious until new constraints were applied and there was no agility to adapt.
Culture doesn’t exist within walls; it exists in interactions.
If anything, culture became more pronounced as people worked differently this past year.
One of the greatest insights to come from this year was companies recognizing they needed to develop their leaders and culture differently.
Companies and leaders that say things like “get back into the office,” or “return to the way things used to be,” are likely facing some employee turnover and a hit to engagement.
People love to over-rotate in response to situations.
We saw this last year with schedules being packed with meetings with cameras on, sucking the life out of people.
Companies run the risk of over-rotating this next phase and expect everything to be in-person.
This is a time to be intentional in what is incorporated moving forward.
This is an opportunity to reflect, reimagine and evolve work with your employees to strengthen engagement.
Where to start:
Don’t make assumptions. The past year has demonstrated that employees don’t have to work in the same office, city or time for successful performance. Some employees will want to return to an office, some want to continue working remotely and others want a hybrid option. Ask your employees for their preferences before you define location.
Involve your employees in the reimagining of how, when and where you will work together. Dedicate time to listen and learn to employee concerns and wishes. Employees have a range of emotions about the next stage of work: from concerns about catching covid to what they put back into their life. Listening helps you learn what is important to them.
Inquire and reflect with individual check-in conversations:
Get curious with a check-in conversation with each employee. What have they learned that will make their work experience easier going forward? Are there ideas to implement for other employees? Your goal for the conversation is to learn about their experience. Identify what to continue or consider doing going forward to improve the work experience and achieve better outcomes.
What did you like best about this past year of work?
Where did you feel challenged?
What is something that made work easier for you this past year?
What is one thing you want to retain moving forward?
What is one change you would like to see?
Dedicate time for team reflection:
Many teams were forced to develop new muscles to interact virtually and produce results. Dedicate a meeting to reflect and define shifts to make as a team. Your goals for this meeting are to be curious, challenge assumptions and define what to do going forward. This discussion identifies challenges and how to experiment with different approaches. You may want to collect responses in advance through an anonymous survey. Give everyone a voice in this meeting and avoid rushing the discussion or decisions.
What have we done well in the past year?
Where have we been challenged?
Where have we been slow to make decisions?
What is one thing we should stop doing?
What is one thing you want to see different in the way we work going forward?
What technology/collaboration tool was most helpful?
What is most important to you in this next phase of work?
Define team norms if you are taking a hybrid or virtual work approach:
Many companies are exploring hybrid approaches to work. The key to success for hybrid teams is defining norms and minimizing assumptions. This works best following the reflection questions above. Your goal for this conversation is for the team to define how, when and where they will work together.
Are there core hours we want to establish for meetings or overlapping working time?
When do we expect each other to use web cameras?
What would be circumstances where we might come together in person?
What are our norms around communicating? Can we text/email/call at any time with a question, or are there team hours practiced?
What tools are we leveraging for asynchronous work? (e.g., file sharing, video, messaging)
Instead of deciding for employees, bring them into the discussion.
Take advantage of the rich insights gained over the past year to reimagine how you work together.
Learn what is important to them as individuals.
Explore how to build on what worked well and experiment with new ideas.
Get curious about how to evolve the culture of your team and organization.
Use each discussion is a way to define and gain agreement with your employees and your teams on the best path forward.
There is no going back.
You get to choose the path forward. What will you choose?
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P.S. Not sure where to start? I am designing and facilitating custom sessions with clients to help them reimagine and evolve how they work. Drop me an email for more information.
