How do we boost resilience and productivity in a hybrid workplace?
Amanda Campbell
Intuitive Coach | Kinesiologist | Speaker | Author | Clinic | Courses Podcast & Blog | Workshops teaching the power of flexibility & the art of Bending Like Bamboo
“In the era of Covid-19, the hybrid workplace — one in which some employees are co-located in an office and others are doing their jobs remotely — presents a number of challenges for managers.”
- Says Harvard Business Review ?
So how do we ensure practices that ensure employees in the office are connecting and in sync with those working from home? First let’s look at some of the problems we face, adapting to a hybrid workplace environment.
Wellbeing at work and the problems we face
According to the Australian Psychological Society, there are three themes associated with workplace wellbeing that work together in dynamic interplay.
?
Lack of management skills
Firstly, we have many managers without good management skills. This is despite an increase in business management education. In 1995 the Karpin Report (a government-commissioned review of Australian management practices) suggested that the main problem with Australian management was a lack of leadership skills, and a failure to develop future leaders.
?
Rapidly evolving work environments
Secondly, we are living and working in a volatile, uncertain and globally influenced environment, where the way all of us work is being challenged and changed. We don’t know what the world will look like in five years, let alone 20 years. Workplace changes in the last decade have been dramatic. Increased global volatility has resulted in job destruction and job insecurity. Increased emphasis on cost reduction has demanded greater output from fewer workers, supported by increasingly sophisticated and ‘connected’ 24/7 technology. These changes are recent. For example, it was only in 2007 that Apple introduced the iPhone and in 2010, the iPad.
There is also an increased need to work with people from different cultures, in ‘virtual’ teams, or across multiple projects. There is a greater pace, scale, and intensity of change and our sense of wellbeing at work has reduced.
Unchanged expectations of managers
Lastly, we have the same expectations of our managers that we had last century. Both managers and employees are caught in the old management model that had a clear distinction between the manager and the non-manager role. In reality, this distinction has become more muted and more variable. Instead, we are disappointed when our managers fail to live up to the role, we expect them to play. Managers are becoming more stressed at not being able to work in the way they have in the past.
The impact
When we are tired, stressed, and anxious we become stuck. We are in our heads overthinking the past and overanalysing the future. We disconnect, we feel disengaged and we begin to switch off, living on autopilot. This mindset impacts our ability to be at our best, at home, at work, and within our relationships.
It is a mindset. When you are in the middle of this type of stress response, you may think there is no way out. The truth is, right now you have no idea how adaptable you are.
The Covid-19 Pandemic has us living in unprecedented change, since 2020 we have had to adapt to a hybrid working environment. A hybrid team is a?flexible work structure where some employees work remotely, and other team members work from a central location or office. Hybrid team structures allow employees to decide whether they prefer an office environment or working from anywhere remotely.
We are also dealing with added turbulence from expectations of our leaders and managers, who are also expected to navigate us through unprecedented change in the way that we work, the way that we think, and how we will perform.
The solution
With fresh and innovative solutions that can lead our people, kids, and colleagues through change, we can alleviate the pressure and disconnection that comes with stress and chaos.
Here’s what I believe. I believe that flexibility builds strength, and a flexible mindset builds resilience.
I believe that mastering change with flexibility builds resilience in people and building resilience in people improves business.
As a Kinesiologist, resilience trainer, and keynote speaker, working with CEOs, business leaders, and individuals, it is my passion to help them master resilience, uncover blind spots, and achieve their personal and professional goals.
How do I do this? I teach people, both individuals, and teams, how to Bend Like Bamboo.
Naturally, you might ask, what does Bend Like Bamboo mean, and how is this relevant to my workplace and my leaders?
Bamboo is one of the most robust and most flexible trees in the world, so flexible that globally, architects, builders, and engineers are discovering new ways to harness the power of bamboo in the construction industry. Bamboo is powerful, bamboo is flexible, bamboo is resilient, and we can have those same qualities; harness, apply, and practice this in both the workplace and in everyday life.
A flexible attitude impacts everything that comes your way. Being open to change can have an enormous positive impact on the work environment, leading to improved relationships and quality project outcomes.
Business productivity and performance are lifted when teams become more resilient and quickly identify stress and negative patterns. Understanding this and, when mastered, benefits employees and employers alike.
领英推荐
It was finding and resilience and understanding how powerful it can be that truly changed my life.
Why you should care
It is not surprising to see a substantial increase in the incidence of work-related stress injury. In Australia, this is estimated to cost the community not less than $25 billion annually (Safe Work Australia, 2012).
Overwork and fatigue are implicated in at least half of the $60 billion cost of physical injuries at work.
Benefits of developing resilience
Developing resilience helps all of us deal more effectively with stressful situations. We are smarter, we are more compassionate, flexible, creative, and patient. We are physically healthier. Having resilient employees also provides benefits for the organisation, with likely outcomes such as higher engagement, higher productivity, better customer service, greater flexibility, more cooperation and collaboration, lower turnover, and less absenteeism.
Developing resilience enables us all to better deal with challenges in our own way, in our own time, whenever it is needed.
Why I care
At age only 24, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, a debilitating illness that left me only a few years later paralysed. I was 29 years of age and faced with the concept of never walking again. Everything was stretched.
At my emotional limits, this was at me and every odd was being stacked against me. I was in a vacuum of fear for losing everything I had wished to be – love, family, and career ambitions.
Then with the right support and guidance, I learned to change my mindset that created a focus on positive outcomes. It was not as simple as turning on a switch, but a re-build of myself on a mental, physical, nutritional, and emotional level.
At first, I began to walk again; I was undertaking a complete transformation of mind, body,?and life. I had started to Bend Like Bamboo.
Within six weeks, I was able to run, and I haven’t stopped. All of this speaks to the mind’s capacity to control our health and overcome challenges.
What we believe is what matters.
My recovery ignited me. I went on to create businesses focused on helping others do the same.? The lessons I learned walking again, also applied to performing on top of my game as a CEO at work.
My passion now is to inspire others to embrace their obstacles as an opportunity to awaken their potential. As a keynote speaker, I am available to share my experience and help people to master flexibility, believe in themselves, feeling resilient so they can reach their fullest potential.
I am available both in-person and online to educate and inspire those within your business.
Available onstage and online
The Bend Like Bamboo workplace resilience program
?
The Online Resilience Program for individuals: