I’ve been doing a lot of work around how to prepare for hybrid working lately. This has been with organisations of all shapes and sizes, and at varying stages of the process. Some are surging ahead in the journey to become hybrid. They have protocols in place and everyone feels they know what they are doing, how to make it work and what’s expected of them. Others are not so far down the road, and are working out what to do, how to do it, and how to share it with colleagues. Some are still wondering where to start and have no framework yet.

If you are still assessing how to make hybrid working work, both for yourself and your team, a great place to begin is asking yourself ‘where’s the good stuff that I want to keep?’. By this I mean what has come out of the pandemic and your experience of home working that has worked well. There is a strong likelihood that you and your team members actually have a lot of the answers already you just need to tap into them.

If you are in a place of resilience, you will be open to tapping into existing knowledge, and won’t feel the overwhelm that can come from trying to start with a blank page. Those who are resilient are able to assess the here and now, draw on their experience, anticipate what’s coming down the road, be open to change and spot the opportunities and possibilities it may bring. They are also able to anticipate any pitfalls and feel confident that they will be able to overcome these, because they have planned for them.  

Building resilience means taking time to develop each area of the Resilience Wheel regularly. Resilience is not a magic rabbit that can be pulled out of a hat when things go wrong. It is something that needs to be worked on continuously, so that when things don’t go to plan, or you need to work through a challenge, you have already built up a resilience reservoir to draw from.

Teams that work well together understand this. They build their own and each other’s resilience by creating a psychologically safe environment. This means an environment where people feel able to be their true selves, and speak openly about their feelings, without fear of judgement or negativity.

In this environment, resilient teams can see hybrid working as an opportunity to improve working practices. They are open to change, try new things, and work iteratively to adapt their ways of working through trial and error. They may even feel energised by this process.

If you are still trying to work out the path to hybrid working, you could try asking your team; “If we visualise where this path leads, where does it lead us to and do we like this? If so, why/why not?” You might be surprised by some of the answers you get, which could reveal some interesting ideas and new ways of working.  

We can also apply the principles of VUCA Prime to set the direction of travel, while being open to the need to be agile and adapt to changes. Team members may have differing views of what the road to hybrid looks like, and a consensus needs to be reached. In order to do this, strong company values and a common sense of purpose can help. One thing to be wary of though is pushing an unwelcome approach onto colleagues, by taking the stance of “this is where we are going, if you aren’t happy, you just need to be more resilient so you can accept it.” This is when resilience becomes a dirty word.

If you’d like to explore ways of successful hybrid working, or building resilient teams, why not get in touch?