Editorial
We came so close to the future of work. We were this close to unlocking the ultimate work revolution: a world of increased productivity, where flexibility reigns and a real togetherness and sense of purpose persisted. And we almost got to use our digital workplace tools to the best of their potential.
The fact that we maintained productivity with relative ease in challenging circumstances dawned the realization that Big Change was possible. That — when we have to — we can all shift our habits. And habits are without a doubt the hardest thing to change in the workplace. Those stubborn "I'll never move desk, it's intrinsic to my essence" habits all shifted, instantly.
It was as if the prophecy from my 2015 article “What Will the Team of the Future Look Like?” was about to come true: a more conversational, human-centric approach, effective cloud-based meeting apps, important information being pushed out to us automagically, more autonomy, more trust.
The technology and our work habits combined effectively for the first time. For years and years, the tools of work — technology and workplaces — drove our habits. Finally, habits that were born out of necessity, unleashed the true potential of our tools. Microsoft Teams and Zoom became alive with the noise of conversations and … some hiccups. The future of work, thanks to a global pandemic, arrived.
And we all worked happily ever after. The end.
The Big Change Is Receding
Or so we thought. Productivity gains made during lock-downs are being lost as we add more technology to the mix combined with unhealthy working habits. “Always on,” “too many tools,” “meeting overload” and “will someone please stop these Teams notifications” are today’s corporate jargon.
The urgency and clarity of pandemic working masked some realities that work is nuanced and tools are complicated. Emerging from this into the various hybrid formats of today, we have yet to really define working practices, why and when to use specific tools, and the needs of the team. So we stuff all three of these factors into a bag, shake it around and hope we get a perfectly formed digital team.
If we do, it’s sheer luck. What we tend to see is a mess. If expectations of when and where we work aren’t clear, combined with the scattergun use of tools, this can unleash a massive hit on productivity.
It becomes logical, therefore, to simplify how we work, to create some boundaries that make it easier to understand when and where we need to be. To define simple hybrid practices that we can all understand and adopt.
Related Article: Work Smarter and Save Time With a Few Simple Changes
Is Back to the Office Taking Us Back to the '90s?
Is the return of Indiana Jones, Barbie and Gladiators part of a sinister plot to return to the 1990s in ways beyond a simple sense of nostalgia?
With so much technology and the adoption of more flexible practices, the appeal of going back to basics and having a sense of control over how we work is clear. Hybrid working is messy, remote working can lead to a loss of trust between teams and their managers. So mandating office days, encouraging email-centric working and using meetings as the way to have visibility of work and people are the simplest measures to enable the hamster wheel of work to continue. Not exactly the promised land of 'work from anywhere.' But it is one way of simplifying how we work. Make some parameters mandatory and everything else will fall into place.
The team of the future, therefore, becomes the team of the '90s, with the bonus of being able to continue working when we get home. And over the weekend. And before we set off in the morning. But with the added bonus of a couple of days a week working from home, which are full of meetings with exactly the same people we saw in the office the day before (and didn’t speak with), so we can’t actually get anything done.
We’re trying to create a uniform work environment when in reality, each team and individual has unique needs. And this is where hybrid working is failing as we treat it as a simple working practice dealt with a simple solution. It isn’t, and requires ceding more control to teams to design their practices.
The 1990s was a step change, but the digital workplace then was really just a change in technology, not practices. Email replacing faxes, word processing software replacing typewriters, mobile phones replacing landlines — not the pocket computers of today.
This focus on uniform simplicity risks undoing much of the trust placed in us as remote workers during the pandemic.
Related Article: Amazon Tracks Employee Attendance in Bid to Enforce 3-Day Office Mandate
One Solution for All?
Maybe we just have to pick one scenario: office or remote as the pendulum swings wildly from one to another. On the one hand, we have loud headlines about Zoom ordering some of its staff back to the office proclaiming that remote working has had its day. On the other hand, we’ve been told that the near collapse of WeWork is heralding the death of the office. Which trend is right?
At the end of the day, it’s just work. Trying to place all work in a ‘remote,’ ‘hybrid’ or ‘office’ box simply isn’t helpful. It really all comes down to people, and designing work around their needs. Whether a self-organizing project team (remember those?) or a very hierarchical delivery team, we always have people and we always have stuff to do.
To get this right, there is one thing that has stood the test of time.
Related Article: Why Some Organizations Are Going All-In on Employee Experience
Trust Remains the Most Important Factor
Back in 2015, I leant heavily on the findings of Google’s project Aristotle on what made a high performing team. It isn’t about individual skills and experience, but on the dynamics that make people feel empowered, trusted and able to be honest.
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And as we look to make today’s team of the future, trust is just as important, if not more so. Truly flexible hybrid working is stymied by a lack of trust, replaced by control over where we work, and to a large extent, when we work.
“If I can’t see my team, I’m not sure what they are doing” and “I don’t like it when my team doesn't tell me they are stepping out when at home.” Fears like these make managers want to bring people back into the office. But trust is a two-way thing: if managers don’t trust what and where their teams are, it’s because the team members don’t trust their managers to be honest to say where they are, when they are stepping away for an hour, what they are struggling with. And it’s these sort of conversations that create strong bonds.
Here’s where trust and technology intersect to create the team of the future:
- We’re safe to say when we’re working and, crucially, when we’re not working. High performance doesn’t happen when we’re always at the computer waiting for the boss to acknowledge and praise our permanent online presence. Good teamwork depends on honesty and transparency. If we don’t feel empowered to admit we’re going out for a walk, it doesn’t bode well for collaboration on a complex project.
- To office or not to office? Yes, it is important to connect in person, but it doesn’t always have to be in an ‘office’ situation. If we find ourselves lined up at a bank of computers not speaking with anyone, this is probably not a good use of office time. The September 2022 Work Trend Index report found that about 85% of people were motivated to go into the office purely to socialize and to rebuild team bonds. We don’t always have to do this in a building full of grey rows of computers and meeting rooms adorned with inspiring messages about ‘pulling together’ or how to connect the monitor in 25 easy steps.
- Building and maintaining relationships will be key. Whether it’s training, meeting new starters, holding workshops or simply hanging out in person, spending time with others in both formal and informal settings is essential to a high-performing team. Microsoft has identified that if new starters have met teammates in person within 90 days, they were more likely to seek feedback, feel included and feel trusted by their team.
With working patterns where not everyone is in the same place at the same time, it is down to leaders to facilitate some together time — whether that is in virtual meetings, allowing time for genuine conversations rather than ticking off agenda items, or getting the team together to meet new starters informally. - Asynchronous working is the secret sauce to managing the demands of true, flexible hybrid work. Prioritize the face-to-face time for relationship building and more complex demands of work, such as problem solving or project kick-offs and move as much of the regular, repeating work to asynchronous methods. The agenda items in the previous point are ripe for moving to asynchronous meetings: if we don’t really want a conversation, just share the agenda and cancel the meeting.
- Using the technology to share more than just the task or essential information. The application of AI to proactively share information and activity that is relevant to our work will soon be a core dependency. One key use case of Microsoft Copilot is the surfacing of content we may have missed or that will add value to our work. However, this will only be as good as the information we put in. Narrating our work, surfacing problems and barriers, asking for help: honest and open sharing will ensure that AI can see the bigger picture, and in the meantime, so will our colleagues (arguably more important).
If we do place more trust in our colleagues, ultimately, we spend less time monitoring, enforcing, clarifying and micro-managing. Big wins for everybody. The technology has been with us for some time now, it’s time we used it properly. And turn it off sometimes.
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