SAY RRRRR …

REALISE – REFLECT – RETHINK – REIMAGINE – REINVENT

1.    REALISE

This is a wake-up call. There is no going back to the way things were pre-pandemic. The pandemic gave your employees a taste of flexibility, adaptability, and autonomy - not through an intended improvement by your organisation but a necessity to work remotely for employee safety.

Your employees want more of the same. Recent research by McKinsey supports the findings of a plethora of similar research – most employees want a more flexible working model after the pandemic is over 

This is leading to a disconnect between employer and employee.

In another McKinsey survey, more than three quarters of C-suite executive reported that they expect the typical “core” employee to be back in the office three or more days a week.

Some CxOs especially in the finance sector are expecting all employees to return to the office on a permanent basis. The main reason being cited it fear of losing the organisation’s culture.

Whilst office design and layout can foster and communicate culture, it does not create it. Slides, bean bags, open lofts and high-end desks do not create culture.

As Dropbox’s Melanie Collins said in a recent podcast with Protocol, “virtual first is an opportunity to evolve the culture from places to people. Culture extends well beyond the four walls of an office.”

The Dropbox definition of culture in a virtual-first world:

“Culture is our shared set of values, beliefs and actions as we work together each day. Our company culture should be something we can experience wherever we are because it isn’t necessarily rooted in a physical space – it is about how we connect, build community and engage with each other.”

This is a once in a generation opportunity to reimagine the way you work. I you don’t realise this now you will miss the boat, be left standing on the dock watching your best employees sail off into the sunset.

Your employees want change and are prepared to go elsewhere if you don’t offer it.

“When there is no turning back, then we should concern ourselves only with the best way of going forward.” ~ Paul Coelho

2.    REFLECT

This is time to reflect on what has happened since the World Health Organisation announced on March 11, 2020, that we had a global pandemic on our hands.

Employees have experienced so much since that time. There was unprecedented stress, anxiety, uncertainty, and concern. There were also positive experiences including the ability to increase connection with family and friends, determine a workday that suited their needs, reduce their costs of travel, regain the commute time and many more.

This has not only left employers to reflect on what has happened but also for your employees to reflect on their relationship with their employer, their work, and the office.

This is the time to reflect and re-evaluate.

This is the time to leverage your learnings from working through a pandemic and organize the future around that. Listen to what your employees, your customers and your business want and need.  What worked well? What have we learned that we can benefit from? What are the challenges and opportunities?

There are many lessons that can be learnt from those organisations that managed to improve performance during the pandemic. These are the organisations that McKinsey call the “organizational resilients.”

You must reflect on the four lessons McKinsey identified and determine how they can inform your way forward

Lesson 1. The leaders of Organizational Resilients invested disproportionately more time crafting clear goals and clarifying strategy for their organizations. Leaders in these organisations worked har to give the clearest guidance possible to employees. The leaders in the resilient organisations where able to break down problems and distribute the work among their teams to drive outcomes. Each team had absolute clarity about near-time goals and objectives

Lesson 2. At Organizational Resilients, small, cross-silo teams focused on outcomes and were empowered to make decisions that drive impact. These organisations invested in team building, increased delegation, and provided leadership training.

Lesson 3. Organizational Resilients’ leaders spent more time on coaching and recognition. Leaders increased the time they spent on having coaching conversations with employees and providing meaningful recognition.

Lesson 4. Organizational Resilients were disproportionately more likely to absorb and adopt new collaboration technologies. They were more productive because they trained employees on virtual-working technologies and eased access to the right tools and technologies outside the office.

“Change comes from reflection” ~ Genesis P-Orridge

3.    RETHINK

Having reflected, now is the time to rethink. We should not ‘return to work’ – we should ‘rethink work.’

There are many parties that need to be a part of this conversation including HR, IT, security, operations, communications, business continuity and property.

Employees must be engaged to determine their needs and preferences.

Many organisations will be keen to establish as sense of normalcy as soon as possible and this can result in trying to find the answers to some simple logistical questions which provide a sense of control. These questions include how many days employees will be in the office, which days will these be, how much space will we need and what technologies do we need to invest in.

These are the wrong questions to be asking as this time. This is putting the cart before the horse. You cannot answer these questions until you have done the rethink, and the reimagine. The answers to these questions will also continue to change as you reinvent.

This is a process, not a project.

There must be oversight during this rethink to ensure that leaders biases and preferences are not driving decisions and that is fair and equitable across the organisation. Employee flexibility and choice must be maintained.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to new ways or working. There is plenty of talk about the ‘hybrid model’ but there are many variations of this model.

You must determine the approach that will work best for your employees and your organisation.

Examine the roles that your employees have and the tasks they undertake. Which roles can work remotely, and which cannot? Your model will centre around this forensic analysis of work done within your organisation.

When this examination is complete, you can start to rethink your working model. This could range from emote only, remote-first, office only, office-central and many variations in between.

This is the time to rethink employee access to resources to perform at their best regardless of location; maintaining cohesion; transmission of culture; employee equity and inclusivity; communication and collaboration; the local employment and taxation laws in remote locations; the safety of employees in remote locations; policies, procedures ,and protocols; performance measurement; and much more.

“If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got.” ~ Henry Ford

4.    REIMAGINE

This is the time to reimagine and ask, “what can be different?”

This is the time to inquire, “what do we want to be different?”

You must empower everyone to reimagine to find the right answers to these questions.

Reimagine your culture to match the new cadence that surfaces when some employees are in the office and others are working remotely. A universal culture must permeate throughout the organization regardless of where employees are located.

Conceive a mix of practices that support an effective hybrid way of working whilst keeping some aspects of synchronous and in-person activities that reinforces the culture.

Discover ways to reconstitute the rituals and ceremonies that were conducted in the office into a virtual world.

Increase the frequency and nature of touch points with employees and teams.

Redefine the employee onboarding process.

Consider the optimal way to work given the virtual possibilities that technology is, and will be, providing.

Reimagine the office to create a positive hybrid work experience. Leverage the best tools and technology for communication, collaboration, innovation, inclusiveness, connection, cohesion, accessibility, engagement, enablement, and integration.

Foster cross-functional formal and informal networking.

Understand the leadership competencies you will need to effectively operate in a bimodal manner – virtual orchestration and in-person collaboration.  

Reimagine leadership for your organization.

Now you can ask the right question. It is now not ‘how much space will we need?” but “how much space do we need?”

Live out your imagination, not your history ~ Stephen Covey

5.    REINVENT

There is no finish line you will cross and suddenly find that the job is done.

This is a journey of reinvention.

Progress is iterative.

You will keep on experimenting and trying new things.

You must constantly explore the art of the possible and design with the future in mind.

Effective communication is always critical. It is of paramount importance throughout this transition and an imperative throughout reinvention.

The conversation should reflect the fact that not all the answers are currently known, and that leadership and employees will work together to find out what works best. There is no playbook or rulebook to provide guidance. This is uncharted territory and there will be bumps in the road.

It is important you build a tolerance for setbacks and embrace them as learning opportunities.

Everyone must maintain an open mind to the possibilities.

Continue to reinvent your hybrid operating model as change happens and you learn more. Never stop aspiring to be better.

Keep reinventing leadership for your hybrid organization.

The reinvention of daily life means marching off our maps - Bob Black

SUMMARY

This is the time that leaders need to be brave, be bold and buoyant.

It is time to throw away assumptions and biases and move forward with an open mind that embraces the opportunities that are being laid out in front of you. Be curious and inquisitive and make informed- decisions.

Keep on listening and hearing the need of your employees. This must be an organisational-wide act of collaboration undertaken with mutual trust, respect, transparency, empathy and willingness to continually adapt to change.

CALL TO ACTION

Is your leadership ready to lead the hybrid team?

Find out with a no-cost, no-obligation HYBRID LEADERSHIP CAPABILITY DIAGNOSTIC.