Making Hybrid Work: Facilitating the Right Work from the Right Place at the Right Time
By Wendy A. Cocke
The Right Work
It’s hard for many leaders to lose direct control of their teammates, which is what is necessary to provide them with flexibility. As long as the company is getting exactly what it needs to be successful, and the teammate is getting exactly what they need to feel balanced and energized, then there are infinite ways to get work done. Creatively managing these options sets excellent leaders apart from average ones. More importantly, as we are shifting into a hybrid workforce, teammates are going to be looking for leaders who have embraced this sort of creativity.
I encourage you to embrace new ideas and look for ways to incorporate them into your framework. There is no right or wrong way to achieve success; it’s a journey.
Generally speaking, there are two types of arrangements: “traditional,” aka 9-5, the thing most people did prior to 2020, and “non-traditional,” with the most common being flexible (taking a fluid approach to how and where the work is done), hybrid (mixing remote and in-person work) and remote (not having an on-site presence).
Regardless of what you call it, good leadership is about facilitating work in a way that best meets the needs of the company and the team. As a leader, you should set clear expectations for performance and, if you provide flexibility, it’s even more critical to have these expectations clearly outlined. As a refresher on objective setting, follow the process described by Doran, Miller, and Cunningham in 1981 and make them SMART.
- Specific: What do you want the person to deliver?
- Measurable: How will you know if the product they deliver is good?
- Achievable: Is this something they are capable of doing within the agreed-upon arrangement?
- Relevant: What does the business need and how can those needs be met?
- Time-bound: When would you like this task or project to be done? Is there any benefit to them being done sooner? How do they fit in the overall priority?
The Right Place
When I started working (at the “turn of the century,” as my teenage son calls it), phones were exclusively used for talking and computers had to be attached to the wall to access the internet. Today, we have a variety of options for getting work done effectively. As fast as things have evolved in the last twenty years, that change will only accelerate in the future. By allowing yourself to hear your employees’ struggles and encouraging them to bring creative solutions to you, you can shape the work in countless ways.
Does your teammate have a device, gadget, application, set-up, or anything else that will make them more effective? To be a supportive leader, it’s imperative that you see all options as possibilities and attempt to envision a way to make them work, as opposed to identifying reasons why they won’t.
If you are serious about supporting hybrid work, there is more work for you than just saying yes. When you begin to give some people (or everyone) the ability to flex in and out of the office, it can affect the way your space is utilized, the technology needed for the job, and how people interact—including the potential for jealousy. As the leader, you have a lot to consider, but if you have the time and energy to do it right, you can position yourself as the person, department, or company that everyone will want to work for.
Assess Your Space
Traditional office spaces were not designed for hybrid work. Most are either filled with doors and large private spaces that will be underutilized in a hybrid environment, or have open floor plans originally intended to increase collaboration, but which have very little privacy and can be distracting in the virtual world as a result. Here are some things to consider:
- How is space currently divided and utilized? Does that strategy drive the business forward?
- How will you minimize the visual distraction of the rest of the office environment and the background noise?
- Do you have enough conference room space and technology to support the video calls? What AV upgrades does your facility need?
Evaluate Your Equipment Needs
Many people express specific workstation requirements to be effective at their job, and while some are legitimate, others are likely just a preference. As a leader, proactively thinking about how you will make sure that everyone can work successfully is critical to the success of hybrid work.
- Will people have assigned seats, or will there be a sharing strategy? (be sure to include office equipment and real names in the sharing scenario.)
- What equipment will be on-site, versus what equipment will travel back and forth with individual teammates?
- What specialized equipment will need to be duplicated for office and remote locations? Who pays for it?
Help Teammates Find Value in the Office
When people understand the reason for coming to the office they not only do it willingly, they also move the business forward. Collaborative, creative, and strategic work is often more effective when we work in the same physical space. The opposite can be true for heads-down, focused work, due to the potential for distractions. Here are some examples of work to consider be completed in-person:
- Celebrating a milestone or accomplishment.
- Training and onboarding new teammates.
- Working through information where details are important.
- Needing a big block of time (three to four hours) to accomplish the task.
- Workshops that require breakout group time.
The Right Time
When everyone is together physically, it’s easy to see work happen, butit’s also easy to mistake presence for productivity. As a leader, when your team isn’t within eyesight, you must trust that you have assigned the right amount of work to everyone, and accept that when high quality work is delivered, it doesn’t matter when and where it happened.
With today’s technology, work can happen anywhere. Whether it’s a teleconference by the pool, a video call from a parking lot, or a group huddled together in a conference room, work is work. Understanding this is what sets excellent leaders apart from the average ones. More importantly, as companies shift to using more hybrid workforces, teammates are going to be looking for leaders who have embraced this sort of creativity.
Once you let go of the idea that successful employees must be able to come to the office on a regular basis, you won’t be limited to job candidates living in your area. Additionally, as traditional work constructs continue to be broken down, top talent will no longer be limited to jobs in their geographical location and will be able to choose not only what role they take, but who they want to work for. This means that being the best leader around isn’t going to be good enough. You need to get proficient at understanding what you need done and setting clear expectations the first time, creating an environment where teammates are honest about their workload and are motivated to ask for more, establishing regular check-ins to ensure ongoing alignment through answering questions, not asking them, and being comfortable with a final product that isn’t (exactly) what you envisioned as long as it meets your needs.
Wendy Cocke, author of “Making Flex Work” and “Reimagine Your Work” is passionate about redefining the working world. As a working mother and engineer who moved up the corporate ladder in Fortune 500 companies on a part-time schedule, Wendy is an expert on thinking about work differently and loves to work with people and organizations who want to do the same. Wendy can be reached at [email protected].