11 Decisions to make about your hybrid team.

What does it mean to return to work? For a lot of people, it means their organization is implementing a hybrid model. My question is — what does that mean? I’m sure you’re grappling with this question, too.

At one level, it’s about flexibility. Organizations are allowing more flexibility about who needs to be in the office, and when. On another level, it’s cost – financial, psychological, emotional. The hybrid solution is not one-size-fits-all. An organization I partner with is implementing a hybrid model that means everyone is in the office Tuesday through Thursday with flexibility on Monday and Friday. Others are viewing it as some people come back to the office full-time and others stay remote full-time. For others, the model will vary by work function. I could fill the better part of this blog with the various options that will be implemented.

No matter the option, the question leaders and their teams should be asking on a deeper level is what does this really mean for us? For how we operate? For how we build our team?

As you and your team move into the next new-way-of-working, here are some decisions you need to make:

11 Key Decisions About Hybrid Teams

How will we fulfill our vision or purpose working this way?
What does success look like for us in our hybrid model?
How do we ensure we don’t slip back into patterns that no longer serve us?
How will we apply the lessons learned from how we worked during the pandemic?
How will we communicate to our customers – internal or external – about our work arrangements?
How will we ensure strong collaboration across boundaries and silos?
Will we need to be more intentional about how we build or maintain our culture?
How will we measure performance? Does our current approach to measuring performance give an advantage to people who are in the office? What if it was built for a completely onsite workforce?
How will we ensure career growth? How will we create visibility for those who are remote?
How will you onboard remote team members? Will it look different from team members who are in the office? How do you make it feel highly engaging for both?
How will we increase our diversity, equity and inclusion in our version of the hybrid model?

It’s a lot to think about. How many of these decisions have you already made?

We partner with leaders who know they need to change how their teams or organizations operate and need help making it happen more quickly. Working with teams at inflection points is one of the things we do best.