Instead of RTO and hybrid mandates try 'freedom in a framework' to create high performance flexibility

Forward-thinking leaders have realised that asking ‘how do we get employees to come into the office more?’ is the wrong question.? Continuing to focus on this question and unilaterally mandating certain days a week in the office is damaging trust, leading to increased micromanagement, and disengaging employees.

Offering ‘Freedom in a framework’ does not mean a total free for all. There is a framework (also called guiding principles or guardrails) within which people have the freedom decide where they need to be for the work they need to do. This creates autonomy and choice for everyone - both are known to have a positive impact on engagement, wellbeing, and performance.

The framework provides a clear set of guidelines; these may define regular times people are expected to come together in person during the course of a year, or share guiding principles regarding the organisation’s approach to flexible and distributed working.

Here are three specific examples that might be in a framework - what these might look like for your organisation?

1. Start with the big company-wide events or functional gatherings – things like conferences and off-sites. These may be held two or three times a year and should always be designed to include time for building relationships and connection, as well as strategic and cross-functional work.
2. Next, think about things like quarterly gatherings; team retreats, cross functional collaboration to solve organisational challenges, or developing new products and services.? These may take place with functional teams, project teams, or country teams.
3. Finally, the more frequent gatherings like kick-off meetings, or product launches

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Here's what other organisations are doing that fit within these three categories:

• Some companies have ‘maker weeks’ where a project team or business unit spend a week together each quarter to generate, innovate, and move important work forwards.
• Remote first companies recognise the need to get their people together in person. At Doist they hold half-yearly retreats in different countries where they work on strategic planning, workshops, activities, classes and team-building events. They also budget for their local teams to meet up in-person to build relationships and progress important work together in between.
• Research from Atlassian (1000 days of distributed working) show that their gatherings, which are held once a quarter, boost a sense of connection and collaboration for between 3-4 months before it tails off and needs reinvigorating.? This has created the framework for their approach of ‘intentional togetherness’ where the company comes together in different configurations each quarter.
• Other companies have Focus Fridays, where no meetings are held and people can spend the day focused on getting work done. In other organisations, these kinds of days are agreed at a team level.

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So, how can you come together with intention and purpose not prescription, and generate an environment where people want to come together, rather than ‘have’ to come together?

1. Have a clear purpose for each of the gatherings you create
2. Intentionally schedule these gatherings as part of the framework for your organisation
3. Set an expectation of attendance as part of your guiding principles – this is different to mandating 3 days a week in the office as once the principles are set, teams have the freedom to create their own patterns and models of work.?

Next is the important bit:

• Ask each team to create their own Team Agreement - this gives them freedom and autonomy within the framework.
• The Team Agreement informs their ways of working and sets out how and where they will come together to collaborate in a way that works best for them to deliver their outcomes.
• Part of their Team Agreement will be to agree ways in which they make performance and progress visible to others outside the team, and hold the accountability of making it work.??

I’ll share more on Team Agreements next week.

In summary

There is no ‘one-size fits all’ solution that can be taken off the shelf for your organisation. There will be different needs for different teams, functions, and locations across your business. Here's what we know....?

Things that aren’t producing results:

• RTO mandates and fixed hybrid days in the office - they don’t bring out the best in your teams.
• RTO mandates are harming your business performance, your employee engagement, and talent attraction and retention.
• RTO mandates don’t enable collaboration and ‘serendipitous connection’ unless people sit within 15 feet of each other.
• RTO mandates take up valuable management time and energy in ‘policing’ the policy.

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Things that ARE producing results:

• Smart leaders are doing what is best for their organisation and not being distracted by RTO mandates or what they may personally prefer.
• They view flexible and distributed working as a source of competitive advantage.
• They accept we are all still ‘work in progress’ as we learn what does and doesn’t work in different situations.
• They are focusing on enabling HOW work happens, involving their teams, equipping their leaders to mobilise their teams from afar, and trusting their teams to deliver.?
• They know that you don’t need to be in the office ‘full-time’ to build culture, and they recognise that there is work that needs to be done to redesign their operating model, build asynchronous working skills and processes, and investing in providing enabling technology.

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Leadership

Leading effectively in this new context draws on a different skillset for leaders as they translate the ‘freedom in a framework’ into local ways of working.

Leaders are leading in situations they’ve not faced before. It is likely they will need support to develop new skills and new ways of leading with emotional intelligence and human-centric approaches.?

The office has shifted from being ‘the’ place to work, to being ‘a’ place to work.

This is the where the future of work is going, not back to the past.

Some questions for you to reflect on:

1. Do you see your hybrid working approach as an RTO vs WFH policy decision, or as a strategic shift in your operating model?
2. What guiding principles or frameworks are you using in your organisation?
3. Are you more focused on measuring activity or outcomes?
4. Are you seeing your leaders and managers struggle with new ways of working, or giving them the tools and support to enable them to perform at their best?

Would your leadership team benefit from some advice and guidance to help you transition away from mandated office days and create ‘freedom in a framework’?

Let’s talk - book a no-obligation chat to find out how we can work alongside you.