Towards a Hybrid Team Culture
Our colleague Henk Vandenbroucke wrote this; we are happy to share it in English with you.
"Hybrid". It is one of the buzzwords of 2022, stemming from the corona period, when a lot of organisations discovered home-based and hybrid work. Before we gently slide into the end-of-year period, I wanted to share these thoughts. Home working was anything but new, but suddenly it became mandatory. Teams started working together differently. At least out of necessity, but gradually also out of conviction, a mandate was given to teams and their members to arrive at a result-oriented organisation of work, independent of place, and in some cases also independent of time.?
Yet we saw that the discussion still focuses very much on home working as an "exceptional situation", as a temporary privilege, in some cases even as a villain, as a destroyer of collaboration and culture. However, we dare say that the discussion about whether or not hybrid working, working at home, working in the office, is actually beside the point. It is about how organisations, teams, and people individually, can organise their work, their problem-solving capabilities, their exchange in an autonomous way, without a one-size-fits-all, taking into account the needs of client, team, organisation and individual. Organisations that were not too good at this before scored even worse in a hybrid setup. However, for years online and on premise have been perfectly compatible. So it was possible for a long time, suddenly it was necessary, now we can start anchoring. Hybrid work is not a problem, it is the perfect occasion to reflect on how we work.?
Collaborative, self-organising structures, with room for autonomy, customisation, self-determination, within a framework of clear objectives and agreements, are ideally placed to make the most of hybrid work. Because it flows more naturally from their belief that autonomy is a good thing. Still, they too are quite conscious about how they want to approach hybrid work. But any organisation can bring about cultural and structural change in the way they work together and deliver results, with room for hybrid work in it.?
Organization Level
The starting point could be for the company to issue a minimum rule, establishing a clear principle. E.g.: "We are an organisation where a Flexible Schedule is the rule. We find teleworking, with room for sufficient individual focus and opportunities for good work-life integration, evident. But we also provide opportunities to get together, to connect with each other in an authentic way, both online and on premise, depending on what is needed for people, teams and clients. However, we will not issue general rules for this and leave it to people and teams to reach agreements in this. We give the entire organisation the confidence to do so.”
It is also best for the organisation to introduce a number of principles into its culture, such as:
1. Focus on impact, rather than input (results are more important than the hours people are present; presentism is outdated)
2. Work-Life integration rather than Work-Life balance, intertwining "work life" and "private life" in a way that makes sense according to the individual.?
3. Asynchronous working, with meetings only when necessary, and producing and using information at times people choose. Provide best of breed documentation platforms, high-performance information exchange systems and "single sources of truth". Indeed, if you always need meetings to coordinate then you get... a lot of meetings, which online then escalates further into Zoom fatigue.?
4. Flexibility, rather than "one size fits all": let teams organise it themselves. They can do that just fine. Suppress the tendency to issue central general rules (see above, the minimum rule).
Leadership
The leadership team can change its attitude: let go of control. Work on creating connection between people, guard 'digital first', become a facilitator rather than a manager, put trust at the centre of everything, be obsessive about communicating well with the diverse workforce, ensure psychological safety and authentic connection, and guard against anyone being left behind.?
What teams can do
Teams can also work on this. For example, they can work out a Team Charter describing their way of working together, the expected behaviour. This charter is not set in stone; the team can experiment with it and evaluate and adjust it. Specifically, it can include the following elements:
1. What is our raison d'être? You don't have to sit together in a room to work together. You do need a clear unifying "purpose", an answer to the question "what impact do we want to have as a team on the world around us". This is all about identity and meaning.
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2. What are our core values? What do we believe very strongly in?
3. How do we make decisions? As a group? As individuals? When do we consult each other? Which decisions do we make synchronously in group, which rather asynchronously??
4. What written and unwritten norms, rules, priorities do we have??
5. What behaviour are we going to reward? What behaviour will we not tolerate??
6. What rituals do we have? What symbolic moments that keep our team culture alive??
7. How do we ensure inclusion, openness, authentic relating, non-violent communication and psychological safety??
8. When do we work in the same place at the same time? What kind of "deep work" do we do together? Indeed, that team strategy meeting is best done together in a nice central location...
9. When do we work at the same time but not in the same place? Consider space for meeting-free days, online check-ins,...
10. When do we work in a different place at a different time? Think contributing to a document, giving feedback on something, doing research, sharing ideas? And when in the same place but a different time??
What we can do
People themselves can also reflect on all this: what rhythm do I have? When do I come up with the best ideas, have the most attention? When am I better doing more superficial work? How much space and silence do I need? How do I disconnect, reflect? How do I connect to my colleagues, even when we are not sitting together? How can I turn every physical meeting into a nice moment? How can I communicate asynchronously??
Conclusion
Hybrid work is not the issue. It is about working together as a group of people, and anno 2022 (and actually since much longer) it is normal for that to be hybrid. The office can become the exception. You can shape a culture of working together. As an organisation, as a leadership team, within each team, and through each individual.?
Want to exchange about this? See what Phusis can do for you? We have solutions, ranging from team charter sessions to recalibrating the culture and structure of your organisation, up to and including true co-management principles. Schedule a meeting with Henk, or send us an e-mail: [email protected].?Merry Christmas and a Happy 2023!