Hybrid, remote or in office-any which way it needs to be human focused and co-created.

In the last few years we have been completely inundated with large shifts in our society, the world and within our organizations. Some of these changes have caused us to rethink who we are as people, what we value and how we want to live our lives.

These same reflections and conversations have been going on within our organizations as well. In the last few months we have had the privilege to accompany many teams as they navigate the new realities of their working agreements, organizations and visions moving forward. One of the precipitating elements to these conversations has been the whole debate about whether or not people will return fully or partly to the office. This has been a heated and often contentious debate being had all across the globe. We often get asked for our perspective on the issue.

This is what we are suggesting to the organizations who we work with:

1) Have open and honest dialogues with your teams in order to understand what it is you need to accomplish as a team within the vision and mission of the organization.

2) Create norms that work for the team, the department and the organization around what is needed for healthy and productive work to happen. By co-creating norms and agreements, teams create the conditions that work best for them and the organization. Whether hybrid, in-person fully, fully remote etc. the important thing is the freedom to choose.

3) Imposing mandates is a slippery slope and takes away people's autonomy and choice. These are often not winning conditions to high performing teams. The argument that we often hear from organizational leaders is that they feel it is actually easier and more fair to impose a policy. It is certainly easier but the fairness of it can certainly be debated. As stated in the point above when we give people the freedom to choose what works best for them as individuals, as a team and organization then we promote autonomy which feeds into healthy and high performing teams. If you trust in your people then you need to believe that they will do what is right for everyone involved. When we lack trust we feel the need to control and dictate.

The questions that leaders would need to ask themselves are 'what am I afraid of?' and 'what am I hanging onto? Why do I need to control this decision?' These questions have been at the centre of many leadership team discussions that we have facilitated in the last few months.

Without honest and deep insights it is easy for leaders to want to make large sweeping decisions in a unilateral manner. These decisions are not ones that should be made on behalf of people. Especially not if you want to retain engaged and productive teams.

We recognize that this is not an approach that everyone is comfortable with as old patterns, beliefs and paradigms are not easy to let go of. Yet, the world is continually evolving and shifting so we cannot continue to impose dated ways of thinking and operating to a world that is changing. Adapting and thriving is the only way forward. Therefore, instead of just getting hung up on whether or not we need to be hybrid, remote etc let's think about asking how we are shifting to be human centred and forward focused.

Would love to hear your thoughts and know what kinds of conversations you are having at the team and organizational levels about the future of work.

The Pillars envision a future where organizations adopt human centric practices that create alignment for sustained and successful transformation.