Work is what we do, not where we go.

Whilst many organizations are rushing to embrace this new reality and gain competitive edge, you also need to consider the factors that if not addressed could be your undoing. Do not ignore the hybrid hiccups.

This is a transformation that is multi-faceted. It requires a fundamental mindset shift and the evolution of new operating models.

Consideration needs to be given to security, health and wellbeing, the war on talent, performance measurement, real estate, unified communications, micromanagement, proximity bias, onboarding and provisioning.

A week or so ago I shared an article and a series of video blogs called “Resilience Is Not Like A Rubber Band.” I made a call for the analogy to stop because rubber bands snap and dry out if not looked after.

Both the article and videos received great feedback. Therefore, this week I thought I would continue the theme and look at other resilient analogies and why they should be scrapped or thought about more carefully.

Workforce resilience is not like bamboo unless you nurture it. It is not like a diamond that had 3 billion years to become resilient. It is not like a blow-up ball that can be squeezed and then return to it normal shape.

We need to stop belittling the need for workforce resilience by using analogies that are seriously broken.

Great leaders provide emotional support. This should be provided at all times but is especially important for employees working in a hybrid team for the first time.

Emotional support for employees regardless of their location is crucial. Often those working remotely feel less cared for than those in the immediate proximity of a leader. That cannot be allowed to be a new reality.

Emotional support comes from leaders who lead with vulnerability, empathy and compassion and have the wellbeing of every employee as an overarching priority.

Resilience is described as the ability to stretch yourself when the pressure is on and return safely to your normal shape thereafter – just like the rubber band. When change is constant when do employees return safely to their normal shape?

The statistics in relation to the state of employee mental health in your Australian workplace are damning.

Yet the solution is right in front of you. Develop a multi-faceted solution as shown in this infographic and watch how a healthy organisation leads to a wealthy one.

Microsoft recently realised its first-annual Work Trend Index. Titled “The Next Great Disruption Is Hybrid Work — Are We Ready?” the report uncovers seven hybrid work trends every business leader must know as we enter a new era of work. The resounding response to the question is NO.

In a hybrid world, leaders must be willing to make themselves available to their team members in fundamentally different ways. Employees need to be able to reach out for support and advice whenever they need it. They cannot see if the virtual office door is open or closed.

Leaders at every level of your organisation have to be visible. Not all employees are passing your leaders desks or offices as they navigate the office corridors. They need to see who is steering the ship regardless of where they are located.

The new challenge facing many leaders leading hybrid teams, is how to engage those working locally and those working remotely in an equitable manner.

The spontaneous face-to-face interactions and conversation that happen in an office are not available to those who are remote.

Remote workers may not have an opportunity to contribute to the conversation or listen in.

This can impact morale as remote workers feel they are being left out of decision-making discussions.

OCM is a top 5 priority for the CIO according to Info-Tech Research Group.

Priority number 3 for the CIO in 2021 is to strengthen the organisational change management capability to help maximise technology investments.

As CIOs look ahead, helping to combat change fatigue and foster change resilience amongst staff should be a key leadership priority.

Most managers have never led hybrid teams before. Their approach to setting objectives and managing performance have to fundamentally change.

This is uncharted territory so let’s chart it here.

Capability invisibility is term coined via Deloitte to mean that when capability is not visible, employees can be given tasks they are ill-equipped for or their useful skills are not fully utilised.

The visibility of employee capability is a power tool for hybrid teams and increases connection, collaboration and engagement.

Good leaders make such that everyone feels included and valued regardless of where they work.

Psychological safety is an environment in which everyone is comfortable expressing themselves. People are comfortable to ask questions, challenge ideas and basically be themselves.

Employees should be given autonomy and empowered to deliver the desired outcomes as they see best.

As a leader of hybrid teams you have to trust your employees to do the right thing, and with the right leadership, they will.

The mirrors, signal, manoeuvre is a safe driving routine used to avoid dangerous or potentially dangerous situations. Changing lanes on a fast-moving highway without checking the mirrors and signalling intent could have fatal implications.

Unfortunately, the routine often gets ignored or used incorrectly.

Just as on the road, in business the routine does not get used resulting in loss of competitive advantage.

You cannot manage what you don’t know. So how can you ‘manage’ unprecedented change?

That makes ‘change management’ an oxymoron.

I argue that you can’t. You can only ‘adapt’ to it.

Organizations that embed adaptability to change into the essence of their being are the ones that will not only survive, but thrive in the face of whatever is thrown at them.

Superteams can give organizations the opportunity to re-architect work in more human ways, leveraging technology to elevate teams’ ability to learn, create, and perform in new ways to achieve better outcomes.

We are waking up to the reality that work is what we do, not where we go.

Whilst leaders of multinational organisations may have been leading hybrid teams for many years, for most of our leaders they have never done this before.

This is a new challenge facing many of our leaders and the reality is that most are not equipped to deal with it.

Leaders have to give employees more freedom – autonomy – to choose how to shape their work environment in ways that allow them to perform at their best.

When you align employee passion and interest with organizational needs will improve performance at the individual, team and organizational level.

Making the shift from“survive’ to “thrive” depends on an organization becoming distinctly human at its core - a different way of being that approaches every question, every issue, and every decision from a human angle first.

Organisations committed to looking after the mental well-being of their people create an ecosystem of information, instruction, interactions, interventions and integrations - the five I’s - that are not bolted on to work as an after thought, but embedded into the fabric of the organisation through both intentional and thoughtful design.

As we start 2021, none the wiser of what it will look like as we did at the start of 2020, I thought I would take a look at the LinkedIn articles I wrote during last year which grabbed people’s attention.

I have listed the top 5 based on the number of reactions the articles received rather than the number of views. That is, I have counted the ones readers took the time out to like, celebrate, support, love, found insightful or made you curious.