I’m guessing you fit into one or more of these categories: a) you primarily work from home; b) you primarily work in a workplace; c) you balance both home and workplace work successfully; d) you balance both home and workplace work unsuccessfully…
Boris Johnson and other key figures seem to have it in for hybrid working. They favour of a full return to work. The prime minister has said staff were “more productive, more energetic, more full of ideas” when in the workplace with colleagues. (he does add that usage of the London underground at the start of May was less than 70% of levels seen in January 2020, with all the city-based spending that goes with having millions of people toing and froing each day to the ‘smoke’).
According to the Guardian, Johnson has also criticised the civil service for what he claimed was a “post-Covid manana culture.” I suppose that’s one way to motivate people who have just come through a proverbial hedge backwards.
Is it true that those of us who actually prefer to work from home entirely or at least in part, are doing it because we are on some kind of extended vacation?
The data from the Office of National Statistics paints a different picture however.
Among some 8.5 million working adults in May who have worked from home for a period of seven days who did not work from home prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic people report in (16 to 69-year-olds):
Improved work-life balance 78%
Quicker to complete work 52%
Fewer distractions 53%
…but in support or our PM’s view:
Harder to work with others 48%
So, while these are inconclusive statistics when it comes to finding a one size fits all policy as the old adage goes, it’s more a case of different strokes for different folks, and we need to adopt a more complex approach.
But surely a Draconian management edict to drag people against their wills out of their pyjamas and into the office will be a backward step? Not to mention a waste of the significant investment so many companies have made in making hybrid work.
With hybrid working, there are many of us who derive clear personal benefits to our mental and emotional wellbeing, not to mention how having less of us hurtling around in cars, planes and trains means we make less of a mess of our planet.
Can we aim for the best of both worlds by examining how to keep improving, in Boris’ words: productivity, energy and ideas? Surely the challenge is to take a forward step in looking at how to maximise the pluses of hybrid working and minimise the minuses?
There are many new tools and methods that enable people in remote locations to be creative and productive. Are we using these to their potential?
At Soul Corporations, we’ve been delivering a full process of assignments and online workshops for an enlightened US client who saw a big need to help their executives establish thought leadership for their personal and corporate brands when they deliver online and in-person presentations to key stakeholders. The entire programme was researched, sold, structured and delivered without a physical meeting and we’ve experienced some fantastic innovation in its design as our UK and USA colleagues have connected successfully.
We’re not even using all the bells and whistles available. We use Zoom rooms with some pre-work activity, some whiteboard exercises and a lot of participation with coaching and feedback. Engagement levels are extremely high, and the results have been stunning so far. And we’ve not expelled any jet or car fuel fumes into the atmosphere. Everyone wins.
Delegates and the coaches establish real and nourishing relationships. All online.
Our key learning from using online platforms to be highly productive, create real energy and a flood of great ideas:
- Use a big screen and a good sound system. If people look like and sound like real people on the screen, close to your face, they feel like they are in the same room.
- Reduce all inputs/presentations to a minimum (10-15mins max) and create engaging interactive exercises for most of the sessions using breakouts.
- Use plenty of great stories and anecdotes. Relevant ones. Yours and theirs.
- Take concrete steps to ‘show them you know them.’ Connecting with the mind is one thing, connecting a group of people at the heart and soul level is another.
Another client, part of the UK Civil Service, have combined some of the above with an exciting theatre-based day after their online sessions, where their leaders also learn how to fill a room with an authentic presence that inspires trust and develops their professional impact.
So, we really can have the best of both worlds.
Next steps for you
If you’d like to know more about our online and/or in-person work helping leaders become more impactful and engaging communicators – online and/or in-person – please do get in touch.
nick@soulcorporations.com or +44(0)7778-356954.
