Between Two Trapeze Bars

5 myths culture leaders need to break to move forward

This article was published in Fast Company on August 16, 2021.

This past week while recording a podcast, the host asked how I would equip someone trying to challenge their company’s return to office plans?

A simple question with a complicated answer, which we keep trying to solve with the binary: work hybrid or in the office.

This oversimplification misses the opportunity to evolve culture.

Most toddlers have a toy that is a box with openings cut out for different shapes.

Circle, square, star, and diamond blocks are to be pushed through each respective opening.

They spend hours trying to unsuccessfully smash the square through the circle opening before finding the right shape. 

That feels a bit like the time we are in now.

Employees are the blocks and employers keep trying to push them through the openings with return to office plans.

Companies assume employees are the same shape they were in February 2020, not recognizing the changes of the past 16 months.

Through a transformation of personal and professional values, the shape of their non-negotiables are remarkably different.

Trying to force the shape into the wrong opening just doesn’t work. 

Let’s say you cross paths with a colleague you hadn’t seen in 10 years.

You wouldn’t automatically assume they had the same knowledge, skills, experience, and motivation as 10 years prior.

You would recognize they had evolved and would want to learn about who they are today. 

Some employees had many years’ worth of transformation and growth in the past year.

Values were sharpened, behaviors refined, and clarity was gained.

Yet companies and managers are making assumptions that employees and teams are the same shape as February 2020 and missing this opportunity to evolve. 

Both employees and companies are mid-air between two trapeze bars.

Employers are trying to define return to office strategies so employees can plan for the months ahead.

Employees are looking at their non-negotiables and defining their point of no return.

We’ve released the first trapeze and are in motion towards the second, unable to go backwards.

There are two options: try to grab the second trapeze and evolve approaches to work. Or experiment with different options and trust the safety net. Still, many companies are kicking to turn back and grab the first trapeze bar because of five culture myths:

Myth One: We can “fix” culture. This makes culture sound like an initiative with an endpoint. Culture continually shifts and is reinforced or discouraged through actions of each employee. You are never done shaping culture. Healthy cultures are agile enough to make real-time adjustments to support the employee and business outcomes.

Myth Two: Virtual or hybrid work erodes or causes the loss of culture. Remote work doesn’t kill company culture. If your culture isn’t working, it is a symptom of larger issues. There were already things not working in your culture before February 2020. You just either didn’t notice or didn’t experience enough discomfort to make changes. They will surface again until you address them. 

Myth Three: There is a perfect organizational design. Companies spend millions every year making changes, only to change them back a few years later. Focus less on the design and more on equipping leaders and teams to be agile across a variety of circumstances. There isn’t one perfect working location that will solve all problems. Instilling healthy behaviors of frequent check-in conversations and tools to embrace constructive conflict helps navigate a variety of challenges.

Myth Four: Leaders have to see their employees to control their work. Control results in a worse performance and will likely cause your employees to quit, even if they stay in their job. If leaders have to physically see employees, their company hasn’t equipped them with expectations or skills to be effective. Great leaders recognized the pivots needed to keep each team member engaged, performing, and intentionally dedicate time to replace informal interactions. 

Myth Five: We can’t send out a culture survey now, it will be negative. Leaders want to avoid, delay, and peer between their fingers at culture survey results when they think it will be negative. Culture surveys aren’t sent because they only provide positive responses. Withholding sending or sharing results only erodes trust. You should be listening to your organization with increased frequency in times of challenge.

What can you do if you are a company or manager? 

Don’t solve complex problems with binary options. Work location decisions are being made at the company level in an attempt to be equitable. However, not everyone is the same shape. Either/or decisions miss the exploration of nuances. Companies can equip managers and teams to make these decisions at their individual level. 

Embrace experimentation. The safety net is there to catch you as you try different things. Not everything will or should work and that is ok. Evolution and performance comes with experimentation. Test different configurations of work location at the team level. Collectively reflect on what worked and didn’t and decide the path forward.

Reframe your problems into “How might we…” I’ve heard the protest: “People in the office will have informal interactions that give preferential treatment in career advancement.” Reframe that as a problem to solve: “How might we ensure everyone has informal interactions & career opportunities?” Instead of listing obstacles, explore how you might solve for each circumstance. 

Take a hard look at your meetings: Your average employee is only authorized to approve a few  hundred dollars, yet anyone can schedule a meeting that costs tens of thousands of dollars in time. Teams should protect meetings for discussions and decision making, not updates. Give each team member 100 points to allocate across their weekly meetings in terms of value. Review and discuss the distribution to see what shifts and/or cancellations are necessary.

The reverse offsite: Some teams are holding an in-person day-long meeting once or twice a month. They find they are able to cancel many standing meetings and use technology in between for updates. They maximize their time together and minimize their time spent in ongoing virtual meetings.

There is no perfect design or location for work.

However, this is an opportunity for each team and company to explore new and better ways of working to improve performance.

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