Hybrid Help: 7 Tips From One CEOs Experiment

Still trying to find your way with hybrid? You’re far from alone. After all, up until the pandemic, we’d been working in much the same ways as our grandparents. Then came Covid. Now, we’re still figuring it out.

That’s why we’re convening on April 27—in-person—in New York City for our Making Hybrid Work Great Summit . Bestselling author Stephen Covey will help us reshape our leadership techniques for this new era, and Bank of America, Steelcase and other great companies will share what they’re learning—and doing. It’ll be a day to join your peers and think more mindfully about how you and your teams get things done.

It's just part of our ongoing work to help you win in a new era for work. As part of that, Chief Executive talked with Brian Macias, CEO of Embrace Pet Insurance, who shares how he’s been navigating the change from all-in to virtual and now to two mandated days a week—Tuesdays and Thursdays—back in the office.

Why Tuesdays and Thursdays? “That really happened organically,” he says.?“’Middle of the week’ is the guidance we gave early on because we just figured Mondays are days for really catching up, having been off over the weekend, and a lot of task-oriented, individually productive kinds of things happen on Mondays. Then, we figured?Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays were great times for meetings, collaborations, meeting with clients, etc. And then Fridays tend to be days again where people are now winding down and so they’re tying up any loose ends from the week.” What else is he learning?

• Take cues from the organization. Leaders should take cues from their organization's culture and values when making decisions about hybrid work.
• Tweak as needed. The world is changing fast. Leaders should be prepared to change their hybrid work policies and not get locked into anything.
• Offer a variety of workspaces. Leaders should offer a variety of workspaces to meet the needs of different employees and different types of interaction.
• Continue to invest in technology. You can’t have worse Wi-Fi than they have at home, and keep people happy in the office. Leaders should continue to invest to support hybrid work.

Finally, and most importantly, be okay with just trying stuff out.?There is no one-size-fits-all approach to hybrid work. Leaders need to experiment and adapt to find what works best for their teams. “The key,” he says, “is to experiment and find things that work for your people.” Read the full interview | Join us for Making Hybrid Work Great >

—???Dan Bigman, editor, Chief Executive. [email protected]

From our partner:?

Reshore & Secure Critical Supply Chains Puerto Rico offers a solution: logistics expertise, world-class talent, US legal protections, & unmatched tax incentives. 8 of the world’s top 15 biopharma companies have operations on the island, securing their critical supply chains. Made in Puerto Rico is Made in the USA.? ?

Try no-agenda meetings. In this edition of our Corporate Competitor Podcast, Maxwell Leadership Thought Leader Don Yaeger sits down with longtime Retirement Advisors of America CEO Ron Simmons to discuss his trust-building skills as both a business leader and member of his state legislature.

Friend, foe or fad? JPMorgan just became the latest company to ban ChatGPT from the workplace, joining Amazon, Verizon and Accenture, but strategic advisor Denise Graziano says that won’t eliminate the risk from generative AI, which is already impacting every company, like it or not.

Risks of overlooking IT. A new survey, conducted with our partner Elliott Davis, shows the majority of CEOs are not looking at IT as part of due diligence, and as a result, they’re likely losing value on the deal .

??ON YOUR RADAR: OTHER HEADLINES WORTH NOTING

• Crypto conspiracy charges. Federal prosecutors unveiled a new indictment Tuesday that charged FTX founder?Sam Bankman-Fried?with conspiring to pay off Chinese government officials to restore his access to frozen accounts containing more than $1 billion in cryptocurrency, in violation of U.S. antibribery law. (WSJ)
• Splitting into six. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group said it plans to split itself into six independently run companies that could seek separate IPOs, effectively dismantling a business empire built over two decades by charismatic entrepreneur Jack Ma just as the tycoon reappeared in China. (WSJ)
• For all the hype around innovation and creativity—one recent survey?of 1,500 CEOs pegged creativity as the top skill for business leaders—these muscles remain some of the most underdeveloped in organizations. Even with the best innovation strategy in place, companies can’t develop new ideas and products until their teams become more creative. And the reason teams aren’t creative is because leaders have failed to understand how creativity really works. (HBR)

For more CEO Resources or to sign up for our free newsletter, visit us at www.ChiefExecutive.net