Recently the Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella called out hybrid work, and the challenge in getting it right.
This is a challenge almost every organisation is battling with, especially with almost every country and US state having a different approach to COVID and handling different and ever-evolving scenarios.
Satya Nadella was quoted as suggesting
“Short-term productivity goes up, long-term creativity goes down”.
With quant data and qual data, many CEO’s and business are reporting and experiencing similar challenges.
Learn Lessons From Remote Organisations
Where many organisations are getting this wrong, is by not discussing how remote companies have had successes, companies like Gitlab (Gitlab all remote guide is brilliant) and Automattic (the Automattic podcast is great) have been successful in operating in a fully remote fashion.
Learning from what makes great hybrid and remote leaders is going to help improve your operations and organisations health.
There Is No One Size Fits All
Satya isn’t the only CEO suggesting the same, Facebook, Apple, Dropbox and Slack have all come at Hybrid from different perspectives with different solutions and ever-changing return to the office dates.
Google’s is it ok to manifesto went viral across LinkedIn and has helped some businesses rethink how they approach this evolving working situation.
No one company has nailed hybrid but many are making significant progress.
The Study Was Too Early
The study that was undertaken with Microsoft employees is a great read, however, the study was from the first six months of the virus and does not account for 2021 data and the way we have adapted and changed over the last 12 months.
Large Company Battles
Companies the size of Microsoft have a number of battles to fight, the first is safety, the second is productivity and the third is keeping shareholders happy.
Keeping staff happy, engaged and helping to balance work demands, home demands and burnout is something every business has to be proactively managing and addressing.
Ensuring teams are productive while away from the office (or working in hybrid) is challenging almost every team member, manager and company leader.
Shareholders are always looking for returns, getting the most of the staff is one of the main concerns for any CEO, especially for companies the size of Microsoft.
The way we work in office environments has changed:
- The demand for video calls increased,
- The demand for more meetings increased,
- The way we continue meeting conversations has evolved,
- “The water cooler moments” decreased
- The way we keep connected has changed and the great unfollow has started to happen
The intentional and deliberate way we address these changing working methods has fallen behind and should be in the most pressing items to address as any leader of any business.
One of our core recommendations is the requirement for a culture community manager for those companies with over 30 people.
So is Satya right or wrong about Hybrid?
Unfortunately, in this situation, every company is different, every company requires their own approach, however with hybrid being deliberate and intentional with the 3C’s: Connection, Communication and Collaboration is key to winning.
Getting Hybrid Right
The future of the required for a large office (or series of offices) is under review, the long term future of work is no doubt hybrid, creating a highly engaged, connected and productive workforce is going to be something we learn to develop and “perfect” over time.
Are You Struggling With Hybrid? Here Is Our Free Guide
Here are other great resources to help you with hybrid: