Shifting Focus: Emphasising Quality Over Quantity in Office Hours

Harnessing Hybrid 2.0 for quality and intent in time spent at the office

Two weeks ago, I hosted a seminar ‘The Future of Hybrid Working’?at the Remote Working Summit in The Netherlands and during the session, someone said this:

“This is such a fresh wind compared to the dominant narrative in hybrid work today: ‘bringing people back to the office’. You are the only one who is saying that office attendance is about?quality and intent?and not about a certain amount of time”

This conference was my first time back in the saddle as a speaker at a larger conference post-pandemic. Of course, the world has changed a lot since my last time speaking.

Almost all companies are now in some form of hybrid, what was beyond imagination for many beforehand. And although this might be groundbreaking for some companies, it is not the end of the transformation that will take place this decade.

I predicted that the initial post pandemic hybrid models would not be the status quo. And now I feel that the world is gaining more and more momentum to move to the next phase of ‘hybridisation’.

But what will that new phase look like?

From the current models we can potentially move towards smarter and better ways of hybrid working and reap all kinds of benefits for organisations, such as: retaining talents, more productivity, higher well-being etc etc etc.

But how can we assure that we are really moving towards progressive, sustainable models and not just to a different version of the old, outdated structures?

What 3 factors will be determining hybrid 2.0?

At the beginning of the session, I asked the participants to think about the 3 most important factors that will influence hybrid 2.0.

The group came back with a large variety in the answers (rather unexpectedly I must say) - and they were all valid.

Maybe it was not?that?unexpected, because indeed, there are many factors that determine how we are moving forward and, as one participant rightly said, this will require a holistic approach.

I was pleasantly surprised however, to find that in a random group of people so many different answers popped up in just 2 minutes, because often answers in such exercises are limited to 3-5 common ones, based on the dominant narrative of the topic.

This high variety in answers shows that we can’t really pinpoint one, two or three things that will determine what hybrid 2.0 will look like. Amongst the many factors, we need to include the needs of Gen Z, AI, labour law regulations, the labour market, the prices of gas, lack of housing, tools and technology, leadership paradigms, corporate responsibility, DEI and more.

What do you think are the 3 most important factors that will determine hybrid 2.0?

A broader context is needed

But this variety of answers also means something else:

We can not just look at what the employees or organisation need when it comes to successful hybrid working. Demographical, societal, political and economical developments also play a part in how we shape the way we work, and in some cases that also goes the other way around.

When we want to define or shape the future of hybrid working, we need to do so from a broader context. For example, I believe that one of the mayor benefits from smarter hybrid working is a more equal society with higher levels of well-being,?while some of the current hybrid models increase inequality.

Six themes for hybrid 2.0

In this seminar I presented six themes related to the future of hybrid working and the paradigm shift needed to achieve a progressive and sustainable next phase of hybrid work for each of these themes.

I also shared concrete strategies for organisations to move forward to successful hybrid 2.0.

> Scroll down for the full presentation

One of the themes I included in my presentation was the?quality vs quantity of meeting time in hybrid work designs. As the participant who shared the above feedback said, we need to change the dominant narrative before we can move to a new phase with succesful hybrid work.

More is not necessary better

Many companies feel there is a lack of engagement, collaboration and connection when individual flexibility leads to low office attendance. The ‘solutions’ that many companies choose to solve this perceived lack, are fixed office days or a minimum amount of time that needs to be spend in the office.

The idea behind that approach is that connection and engagement ‘magically’ will happen as long as people are spending enough time together in the same location.

It is just that it often doesn’t, and this approach even can be counter productive because it does not meet individual needs. It is also not?‘true’ hybrid?but a merely an adjusted form of co-located office based work.

Here are some other key take-aways around the theme Quality over Quantity:

• A fixed, rigid office mandate is not a sustainable solution and can even be counter productive.
• Building culture, engagement and knowledge transfer are not exclusively achieved by being in the same physical space.
• Key is to learn how to create a great inclusive culture, collaboration and knowledge transfer in a virtual set-up parallel to a physical setup.
• Quality and intent of meetings should be the main focus - more is not necessary better

The recommended strategy for leaders is: to encourage to meet and collaborate with intent. Shift the focus from meeting more often to?meeting when needed, desirable and meaningful.

How?

But how do we do that??You might ask, as one of the participant did.

Indeed it is not easy, and both the current policies and the current narrative (people need come to office x amount of time / more often) prove that there is no real solution available.

As with everything, it starts with mindset and then building culture and leadership to experiment with and encourage new behaviour - in this case, focussing on quality and intent of meetings.

I am not going to lie here - I am afraid we have a long way to go given what I hear and see from leaders in companies, even here in The Netherlands with decades of experience with flexible working schemes.

First of all, we need leaders and change agents who step up, and who adapt to new mindsets and are actively encouraging others to look different at the way we perceive work.

Sharing this article is a good starting point

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Work is not?‘the place I go to 3 days a week and then the thing I do the other 2 days from home’

It is now about being able to understand and balance ones own needs in both individual work and collaboration with the needs of the overall organisation and act accordingly

This requires a lot of continuous experimenting, learning and self-reflection in trying to find the optimum before we will get it right - hopefully in the next 10 years or so ??.

Recognising the complexity, scale and duration of the required behavioural change, I do not think we can do this without intelligent technology.

So, to put my money where my mouth is, I have been co-developing such technology for the last months, bringing my experience as Organisational Sociologist, HR Director and Future of Work Strategist to a tech start-up.

Livvwork ?uses AI to continuously support employees in focussing on quality and intent when it comes to meetings and choosing their ideal work location on a daily basis - so they can optimise both their work-life harmony and thrive at work.

I am convinced that the combination of encouraging new behaviour in organisations and a tool such as Livvwork will be the key to a smarter, better way of hybrid working.

The world is ready for change

Looking back it was really good session - and of course, that was also because of the audience.

My messaging really resonated with this group - making it a co-creating session rather than a talk.

Everyone participated pro-actively and was highly engaged during the full 45 minute session, with many people staying behind afterwards to share a compliment, feedback, or a follow?up question.

I can’t remember anybody took there phone out apart from taking a photo of the slides (nowadays an key indicator of engagement). Even at three in the PM ( a lunch-dip moment) and with a very popular topic at main stage, people were engagement and there were more people who wanted to join then we had seats in the room.

First of all, I want to thank everybody who was their for their interest and contribution.

Secondly I want to point out that this is a huge indicator that the world is ready for change and transformation and I think we are now approaching a tipping point towards a new world of work.

(I know it is different this time around. I have had too many people staring back at me with blank expressions when I was sharing my message about ‘rethinking work and the place it has in our lives’ back in the early years).

Quality is not just about meeting

One of the participants of the seminar contacted me afterwards, told me how inspired they were and send me?this article.

(Do not let the click bait title and the photo of ‘he who shall not be named’ scare you away - it is worth reading, I promise)

The piece is written by a scholar and strongly aligns with both my vision around work and my personal, 10+ year experience as a (semi) remote worker.

In short, the article emphases that what we are suddenly expecting to happen in the office just is not happening magically by just putting people together, and office work has downsides as much as the anticipated upsides.

Instead, we should look at tasks and overall needs to perform well, both as an individual and as part of a larger organisation, and choose our location where we work from accordingly.

This quote in particular resonated with me:

‘Organising our days around the desired state and then selecting spaces that fulfil these needs is what the future of work looks like’

3 wishes for the future of work

I started the workshop with asking which three factors would determine the future of work. In the last part I wanted to emphasise the three most desired outcomes to leave the participants inspired and empowered.

Only a few days before the conference I had come back from Bahia, Brazil, where I have spent the last 2,5 years. I had brought a souvenir for my guests:?Fitas of Senhor do Bonfim , the famous bracelets that traditionally are tied to the Church of the Lord of Bonfim in Salvador, or around your wrist.

It is tradition to tie the bracelets with three knots and make a wish with each knot. I asked the participants to do so and make three wishes about what they’d hope the Future of Work would look like.

These are the desired outcomes that should be the center of the work of transformation for this decade and beyond.

What do you wish that the future of work will look like?

In appreciation,

Angelique

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