We’ve been doing some workshops with clients to help them clarify what kind of culture they have (and need) to support a new hybrid workplace, where a lot more of the work is happening outside of the office on a permanent basis.
Reopening the office with new hybrid rules is a daunting challenge for most organizations, but we find it helps if you start with the culture component, because that will guide the many decisions you need to make in the process.
For example, one of the culture decisions we work through in our workshop is around how customized your organization is willing to be, specifically around the needs of employees. There’s not a single, right answer there. Each organization will have its own reasons for being more or less customized and employee-focused. But if you know where you want to be—and why—the decisions you need to make around how much time people spend in the office, or whether or not you’ll let people move to a different state and work remote 100% of the time, will actually be easier. And they will also be more easily understood by employees if you can explain that core culture decision to them as part of it.
The workshop also covers decisions related to collaboration, supervision/accountability, and the cultural value of your physical work space. We run the workshop virtually, typically for your management team (though you can include others if you like), and you can sign up and pay directly in our online learning center—once you’re in the course there will be instructions for setting up the four different meetings where we cover each of the questions. After the sessions, we’ll write up a report with guidance and recommendations on how to move forward.
Remember, you’re not really going “back” to the office, because the changes we’ve experienced in the last year or two are structural, so it’s impossible to really go back to the way it was. You’re creating a new workplace, so do it right by starting with culture.
Photo by Artem Beliaikin