Three ways to prepare your teams for hybrid work
Just over a year ago, the pandemic wreaked havoc on workforces around the globe. In a matter of months, we reset priorities, addressed emerging customer needs, implemented new processes and found new opportunities for growth. The pandemic forced us to change how we work. Employee well-being, hybrid working models, and digital transformation became high-priority initiatives. And employees found themselves learning to be more agile and technologically savvy.
Resilience was the emotional buzz word that pushed us through it all. But as we face this next chapter of our workplace transition, we’re going to need more than resilience to rally us forward, because the change coming could actually create even more disruption.
Companies are reducing their real estate footprints and renovating buildings to encourage more collaboration. They’re preparing for flexible in-office hours to accommodate at-home productivity and deploying new workplace tools that provide additional access, security and connectivity. These initiatives are important steps toward a more adaptive workplace, but they come with behavioral challenges that will need to be addressed.
With some team members spending more physical time at the office together, and others more remote but also more isolated, teams will face fragmentation, impacting natural chemistry and open communication. Re-socialization will be required as they adjust to new working environments and schedules for in- and out-of-office work. And the demands on leaders will increase to lead their teams through the transition and ensure proper up-skilling while staying focused on productivity.
To navigate these challenges, we can prepare teams to take on the future of work with a few strategic exercises:
1. Re-unite your teams and set new norms through working retreats.
Your teams will be re-entering a work environment that requires everyone to be on the same page, focused and energized. If designed properly, a team re-set retreat will re-kindle chemistry and shape the blueprint for how they will adapt to new working norms. Time spent together should address fundamentals like team mission and the roadmap for the year, but also define how the group will leverage their new hybrid work culture. You should be answering questions like: When should we come together, for what purpose and what should that look like? What skills and processes do we need to improve in order to maximize our use of collaboration technology? What do we need from leadership to be successful? How will we ensure our teams’ new schedules don’t lead to siloing or stalled personal growth?
2. Evaluate your collaboration tools, and the use of them.
Our traditional behaviors around collaboration need to change. We’ve had a taste of asynchronous work, but in a live/remote environment, the demands on how we collaborate inclusively will increase. Defining and perfecting new behaviors will require two things: the right tools, and on-the-job training to use them properly. Unlocking the full potential of these tools will fuel a team’s ability to flourish. With your team’s new norms defined, you’ll want to assess the tools and processes used for collaboration. Ask yourself if they’re the right ones, and if they are being used to their full potential.
3. Evolve your leadership skills
The dynamics of leadership have been changing for a while - shifting from leader- as-commander to leader-as-servant to leader-as-coach. But as the pace of change increases, leaders need to blend these skills into a North Star leadership style. One that guides teams through changing environments and advises them on the skills needed to master effective collaboration. A leader that acts as a North Star sets direction but creates trust by driving chemistry and creating the autonomy that helps team members grow. This job will come with hard skill expectations too. Leaders who don’t learn how to use technology to collaborate and communicate will become obsolete. And if they’re not able to coach while providing autonomy, they’ll bear the cost of replacing valued employees. Now that you know what your team’s new norms need to be, and the tools and processes that enable them, you should up-skill your leaders to support all of it. The process is a long journey, but you can start immediately by re-defining what’s expected of them in your organization.
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Research from Gallup, McKinsey and many more has shown that flourishing workplaces contribute to top- and bottom-line growth, insisting that initiatives to create them are no longer a nice to have, but a strategic imperative. But to flourish in the transition, teams will need to be more adaptive, leaning into the new working behaviors, technology and spaces critical to their personal, team and organizational growth.
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Do you need help with building a more adaptive workplace, or preparing your teams to step into one? Reach out to one of our Amphibians for a conversation. We’d love to help.
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