The No.1 Question to Design High-Performance Hybrid Work Post Covid

As usual, we’re trying to always follow a theory-only article with one that offers some practical tips.

In today’s video, we continue talking about the need to step away from any sterile policy creation in favour of asking the big questions and using this golden opportunity to redesign for sustainable change in the way we work not mandate what days people should physically be in the office and how many sanitising stations we ought to have. 

https://youtu.be/Z0dwQuSDbcU

Granted, transforming the way we work is a loaded topic and a heavy one, filled with a myriad of unexamined conventions and workplace taboos. To untangle them and deconstruct our former reality there is much to examine but of all the questions one stands out and in the video, we outline what it touches on. 

If we are to ask “What is productivity and what is performance TO US?” as a starting point for all the design work regarding remote, distributed, etc, then it will undoubtedly also touch on:

• What’s the difference between “remote” and “flexible”? What is “asynchronous work”? What is “outcomes-based work”?
• Are we Agile? Should we be?
• What outcomes/results are we after? What type of work do we need to perform to get them? The proportion of individual contribution versus team collaboration, etc
• What have our people learned during 2020 and what do they want to see happening? What would make them happy?
• How do we keep our customers happy?
• What type of leadership do we believe in? Is there any place for command and control?
• What is our impact?
• How do we achieve and keep a state of flow (being in the zone) for our employees?
• What feedback mechanisms do we have in place and how can we transform them into an honest and frequent dialogue?
• What does an ideal hybrid work set-up look like for each team?
• How are we measuring any of this?

The beauty of it is that if you were able to bring everyone together to answer this important questions and the many that spring from it you would have essentially has an implied vision/mission/purpose, cultural reframe and that can only strengthen the overall company dynamic and create the foundations of Psychological Safety. From then on and irrespective of what you have collectively agreed the future of work will look like in your particular case you need to focus on the teams and ensure they have Psychological Safety at their bubble level to enable them to be productive and performant.  

So in short: Don’t policy for the sake of it, ask the right questions and use this golden opportunity born out of this horrendous year to reshape how you work sustainably, happily and into a highly performant future. 

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Don't send your teams home with a laptop, a Jira and Slack account and a prayer!

Get in touch for our Team Psychological Safety Dashboard and our Stay-Connected-When-Remote question pack at www.psychologicalsafety.works or reach out at [email protected] and let's help your team become healthy, happy and highly performant.