Hybrid work is like …. blindfolded trying to hit the piñata
Return to the office working hybrid reminds me of the kids’ game of striking the piñata.
The lucky player attempts to strike the papier-mâché figure filled with “prizes” using a wooden stick. And to make it fun and challenging, they do this blindfolded.
However, in the current game, we are all blindfolded, we are all swinging sticks of decisions and policy, and the fragile figures represent our teams and organizations with the prize being that we keep delivering value and our colleagues are happy with the new way of hybrid working.
We have to be careful not to cause damage to others in the field as we “swing” our way into this next new way of working.
To add to our “fun”, the news arrives fast and frequent about how or who is moving back to the office.
Iterate your Way
When the pandemic hit in spring of 2020, work was forced to transform to fully remote. If you have experience in organizational change, you know this can always cause problems and in some cases organizational trauma. The fact that we have seen this on a global scale just helps to explain the confusing amount of noise on hybrid work.
Many organizations plan to move back to the office. Being forced out of the office almost two years ago represented a rapid and traumatic transition. Moving back to the office will take time, planning and patience and it represents another transformation for your team or organization. I always find large transformations work best if you iterate. This means you make smaller changes, gather feedback, decide what to keep and decide on next changes.
Iterate means you are prepared to experiment your way to the “new normal” because there are too many variables and dependencies to figure out at once.
The best thing you can do would be to set favorable conditions for your team or organization to iterate to what works best for them. We see some organizations already making this move to iterate to their new way of working such as Capital One (going hybrid) Dropbox (going remote-first), and Facebook (going remote-first). They chose not to make all the decisions for their employees and are giving them some choice.
Hybrid Roadblocks
When we transition to hybrid some difficult situations include:
- Those working remotely feeling isolated from those in the main office
- Those working remotely feeling left out of chance conversations in the main office
- Those working remotely having to work at strange hours from those in the main office
- Not everyone aware of what others are working on whether they are in the office or remote.
- What we see here is how “remote” appears relative to those in the office or in a main office.
I use the term “main office” because some hybrid teams might have small clusters of people “cluster team” working together in several locations. If none of the remote people work together, they seem like satellites that orbit the office. We forget they exist until they stop working, but then it could be too late. These “satellite teams” need to maintain communications. And some people just need to be in the office. They thrive in that environment.
Hybrid Tactics
Over the years, I collected some tactics to counteract the difficult situations with hybrid work:
- Backchannels in text so everyone can stay in touch whether remote or in office
- Online toolsets that allow everyone to keep track of how everyone else brings value
- Buddy Systems to make sure everyone remote had a buddy in the office to conn
- Co-pilots to help coordinate the collaborations of cluster teams
- Remote team working agreements like “if one remote, all are remote” and “everyone with equal access to all”
Yet, these tactics sometimes fail unless a key principle is recognized by a majority of the team members and supporting leadership:
For a better hybrid work experience, everyone seeks to maximize co-creation and minimize isolation.
If everyone seeks to share the responsibility of co-creating the work and the work environment, the hybrid team continues to move the work forward and allow everyone to do their best work regardless of where and when they are. Those in the office deeply value the contributions of their other colleagues. You observe different cadences to different types of work within the successful hybrid team but the cadences remain similar whether team members are in the office or not. Also, if a team member needs to step away due to illness, family need, or other personal need, successful hybrid teams have already built resilience to step in for that team member and keep moving forward.
Be careful with your swings
To repeat: I always find large transformations work best if you iterate. Iterate means you are prepared to experiment your way to the “new normal” because there are too many variables and dependencies to figure out at once.
So step carefully on the piñata field. Be aware of colleagues, partners, customers and what they swing for. Maybe you should tap (iterate) before take a hard swing. Make sure that the move you make will take your team and organization in a helpful direction.
These have been my observations of successful hybrid teams. You can read more of my observations here.
And don’t just take my word for it. Take a look at the “What is a Head of Remote?” section from GitLab.
