Despite employees making it unquestionably clear that they want continued flexibility to choose where they work, when they work, and how they work, many organisations are continuing to procrastinate about what their operating model will look like.

Employees are in the driving seat. Having proved that remote working can work they now have a smorgasbord of potential employers to choose from as they are no longer constrained by geographical boundaries.

Employers who do not meet employee expectations will find their talent walking out the door and being welcomed by the competitor down the virtual road. Whilst you are procrastinating about the future, your employees are evaluating their next move.

This is potentially the greatest opportunity your organisation will be presented with within your lifetime. This is the chance to reflect, rethink, reimagine, and reinvent, but that must be led with a realisation that there is no going back to how it was before March 2020. The future of work is hybrid. Period.

There are many reasons for this procrastination, and I wrote about that back in August 2021. I believe there is one key reason, and that is it the belief that it is just too hard. There is no doubt that moving to a hybrid operating model is complex with many implications and many stakeholders impacted by the change. But this is not a time for fear and uncertain to drive inaction unless you want your organisation to cease to be relevant.

Conquer your procrastination by following the 5Rs.

REALISE

This is the wake-up call. The future is hybrid. Remote work has provided employees with unforeseen flexibility. The genie is out of the bottle and the bottle is broken. There is no going back.

This is the time for the bold and the brave, the experimenters and the innovators, the collaborators and the altruistic, the egalitarian and the autonomists, the true and adaptive leaders. This is the time to stop thinking about “what was” and start thinking “what if?”

Stop making excuses such as productivity deceases when people work remotely; it will impact our culture; if I can’t see them, I don’t know if they are working; we will lose connection; let’s just wait and see what everyone else does; and, we won’t be able to plan our real estate needs. All of those are complete lies and are just used as deceptions to avoid action. If you do not act, you will miss the boat and be left on the dock as you watch your employees sail off into the sunset.

In the words of Brazilian lyricist and novelist Paul Coelho:

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

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?

Reflect on lessons learnt from the organisations that improved their performance during the pandemic. McKinsey referred to these organisations as the “organizational resilients.”

1.     Set clear goals and objectives

2.     Invest in team building, empowerment, delegation, and leadership training

3.     Leaders increase time having coaching conversations with employees and provide meaningful recognition

4.     Absorb and adopt new collaboration technologies with appropriate training and enable access from anywhere

“Change comes from reflection” ~ Genesis P. Orridge

RETHINK

Having reflected, now is the time to rethink. We should not talk about the ‘return to work’ but rather ‘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 desires, 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. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to new ways or working. 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.

The questions to be asking are what our organisational goals are, and can we meet them whilst providing employees with the working preferences they have requested. If you can and you know employee preferences for days in the office and days from home, you can change the question from “how much space will be need?” to “how much space do we need?” Where preferences do not support the delivery of organisational goals, adjustments will have to be made in consultation with the workforce.

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.

When this examination is complete, you can start to rethink your operating model.

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

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 and enable the the leadership competencies needed to effectively operate in a bimodal manner – virtual orchestration and in-person collaboration.  

Reimagine leadership for your organization.

“Live out your imagination, not your history” ~ Stephen Covey

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 you 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.