How to make hybrid work?

Perhaps one of the topics that has been most talked about in the last two 12 months has been home-office, the abrupt changes in ways of working, the problems, the adaptation needs.

Now what we need is to have a vision for the future. The point is that COVID-19 played an accelerating role for remote work strategies and even the hybrid model. However, this is a desire that already existed before the pandemic in some organizations.

I recently read an article written by Lynda Gratton, a professor of management practice and founder of HSM, a consultancy dedicated to researching the future of work, in the Harvard Business Review that addresses different perspectives. It is a content that addresses different aspects regarding this model. It is extensive, but I recommend reading it carefully. https://hbr.org/2021/05/how-to-do-hybrid-right#

The author talks about a day off, working nine hours, five days out of the weeks, choosing the day you want to work, whether you want to stay home, go to the office, or combine the two.

And, this came a little bit in line with some of the points we make when we talk about transformation in companies. Work on the vision of teams and on mission, leaving aside micromanagement, so that people can organize themselves in the way they prefer. Of course, with that commitment to get results.

We are talking about a very big break of paradigms, a change of thinking. Because today we are in the virtual world and we keep pushing the routine as if we were in the physical world.

For example, we insisted with the weekly meeting, which often had the purpose of the relationship in the face-to-face, to fulfill protocols and is not always productive and has the expected yield. It ties up people’s schedules and doesn’t flow in the same way. This is because the medium does make a difference. In the physical world, you at least gain contact with people. You drink coffee, you get distracted, ideas flow more naturally.

The reflection here can be around adaptation. For you to bring it to the online format, you are not 100% guaranteed to do the “from-to” thing in a totally successful way. Because you have losses that you can’t recover online. And that’s fine. What is needed at this time is more creativity and more adaptation in the sense of being able to create a new model and have the engagement and the expected result.

Plus the models implemented solely by social isolation are transitory and provisional, not definitive. There is a lot to experiment and to mix. And after the vaccine, relaxation of isolation and everything else, we will still experience a new experience that will not go back to the way it was before.

In changing organizational structures, you move and stir with behavior. In the way people do things, and the issue of hybrid work is another element that can help this change.

The office, for example, can go from being a meeting place, a place for relationships, an environment for creativity, for collaboration. The hybrid world brings new elements and discussions.

But, noticeably, and the very article I mentioned reinforces this, employees are realizing the advantages of having more flexibility about where and when they work. There is no longer 100% there or 100% here, and leaders are recognizing that this is a unique opportunity for change.

But to make this transition and the subsequent consolidation, Linda points out that you have to do something that companies don’t normally do: focus on individual human concerns and go beyond the institutional. She also points out an important aspect that the arrangements for adopting hybrid models should never replicate existing bad practices – like the ones I mentioned above or the one from decades ago when companies started automating work processes.

In other words, in addition to looking at digital transformation and the tools that help streamline and virtualize processes, for companies to make a successful transition it is important to focus on people, transform them, and engage them in the business. Making use of technology, people analytics, developing and training people and at the same time managing and performing process. If this is done, it will certainly reflect a more meaningful and productive work life and positive results for companies.