HYBRID

“But I can’t see them, how do I know they are working?”

“The team think I’m monitoring them but it’s the tech that tracks all that stuff. I hate it as much as they do.”

“How do I engage with everyone when they are scattered all over the place?”

When I lived in Longreach – in outback Australia – pre Skype, pre Zoom, pre Facetime – every week I stared at the speaker on a landline telephone wondering who was that speaking, what’s so funny, what’s the in-joke, why are they all talking at once, why am I on this call?!?!?

My boss was amazing at keeping me in the loop but there were moments where I felt completely left out. Leading a team who are dispersed requires a fresh approach that conventional leading doesn’t achieve.

COVID has well and truly left a legacy! It has wreaked havoc on what we all thought was a ‘normal’ way of working. Therefore skills for leading and managing your people needs to expand and adjust. With some workers required to be on-site; others wanting a work from home arrangement; some wanting a blend; and organisation’s and governments wanting the economy to improve (yep, this impacts hybrid), this leaves today’s leaders with the challenge of leading and managing a hybrid team.

Shifting from being able to see and engage face to face to a blend of local and remote arrangements requires leaders and managers to re-think how they approach their role, productivity and performance, and still get their own work done. All without burnout!

In this live online workshop, you will explore and learn the strategies to lead and manage a hybrid team. You’ll also learn how to identify issues, communicate and engaged a hybrid team. A hybrid team formation is not all bad, so you’ll explore the silver linings and how to leverage them. You’ll also identify ways in which you can lead yourself and others successfully in diverse working arrangements. Self-leadership during these times of uncertainty, especially when your own boss may not be as accessible as they were before, will also be covered because this sets you up for being a successful leader of a hybrid team.

For years, flexible work arrangements had been on the agenda at Fujitsu, but little had actually changed. Most managers in the Japan offices still prized face-to-face interaction and long office hours—and according to an internal survey conducted not long before, more than 74% of all employees considered the office to be the best place to work. But the pandemic, Hiramatsu foresaw, was about to turn everything upside down.

By the middle of March, the majority of Fujitsu’s Japan-based employees—some 80,000—were working from home. And it didn’t take long for them to appreciate the advantages of their new flexibility. By May, according to a follow-up survey, only 15% of Fujitsu employees considered the office to be the best place to work. Some 30% said the best place was their homes, and the remaining 55% favored a mix of home and office—a hybrid model.

 

Source: HBR 

While it’s the equivalent of a full one-day workshop I run it over two half days for three core reasons:

1. A full day away can be a challenge;
2. A full day online is draining; and
3. You’ll have a chance to apply your learning between sessions.