How to Foster Innovation in Your Hybrid Organization across groups

Discover the levels of innovation in remote, onsite and hybrid workers

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Recently, I engaged in another leading-edge conversation about The Future o Work with business leader Scott Gleason, DM . Scott conducted a doctoral study aiming to discern differences in the innovative work behaviours of employees who work fully remotely, fully on-site, or in a hybrid capacity.

This kind if research is extremely valuable for companies, since we are still at the beginning of the learning curves. We had a very interesting discussion about some of the results of the research, the potential drivers behind the different levels of innovation across groups, and we touched upon possible people strategies to increase innovation in hybrid organisations.

Read on for the surprising results, and the best strategies to enhance innovation in your hybrid workplace across all groups.

Findings

Scott unveiled one of the most interesting findings:

100% remote workers are just as innovative as their 100% office-based counterparts.

This challenges the common narrative that physical proximity is crucial for a company's innovative powers. But it gets even more interesting:

💡Hybrid workers demonstrate even greater innovation than their fully remote and fully on-site peers.

Which leads to the following question:

What factors contribute to this heightened innovation among hybrid workers, and how can we leverage these insights in our people strategies?

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Drawing from my research on effective management styles for knowledge workers and my experience as a People Strategist, we theorized on potential reasons:

🤖Autonomy is critical for innovation, and hybrid workers enjoy more autonomy than their office-bound counterparts.

🤖Innovation thrives on interaction with others, a facet readily available in hybrid workplaces but potentially lacking among remote workers.

🤖 The diversity in location and daily routine positively influences innovation, as does the opportunity to decompress and take breaks during the workday.

🤖 Moreover, deep focus work, free from excessive distractions, is vital for fostering innovation. Thus, it appears that the hybrid model is the right mix of necessary ingredients for innovation. This revelation may bolster advocates of a hybrid-by-default approach and provide rationale for the 2/3 day model. However, as it's impractical for all companies and workforces to adopt hybrid models, so the real question is:

🎯 How can we harness what makes hybrid workers innovative to enhance innovation among fully-remote and fully-office based groups?

Scott and myself strategised and identified that remote workers, alongside high levels of autonomy, require facilitation in changing scenery and fostering interpersonal connections, such as by providing access to local co-working spaces. Additionally, they need support for better virtual interaction and collaboration. For fully-office based workers, we underscored the need for flexibility even on-site, designated innovation spaces, fewer meetings to allow for more focused work, and improved work-life balance. This kind of conversations are adding to the future of work debate, deepening our understanding of how innovation happens in a new world of work, where enabling diverse work setups within one organization is necessary.

More strategies to leverage innovation across all groups

After the conversation, I deep-dived to identified further strategies to enhance innovation across all groups:

Fully-Remote Workers:

1. Autonomy in Work Scheduling:
2. Virtual Interaction and Collaboration:
3. Promotion of Diversity and Inclusion:
4. Encouragement of Breaks and Mindfulness:
5. Investment in Virtual Team-Building Activities:

Fully-Office Based Workers:

1. Flexibility in Work Arrangements:
2. Creation of Collaborative Workspaces:
3. Cross-Functional Collaboration Initiatives:
4. Recognition and Reward for Innovation:
5. Promotion of Work-Life Balance:

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts on fostering innovation in different work environments. Which strategy resonates with you the most?

1. Hybrid-by-default: Embrace a mix of remote and office-based work.
2. Virtual collaboration: Enhance interaction for remote workers.
3. Innovation spaces: Create dedicated areas for creativity in the office.
4. Flexible schedules: Offer autonomy through adaptable work arrangements.

Feel free to share your choice and any additional comments or insights below! Your input will contribute to the ongoing conversation on innovation in the modern workplace.

POLL: Which strategy resonates with you the most?

Go here to vote

Poll Results last week:

Last week, we talked about if HR will evolve into People and Culture - the outcome? 40%/60% in favour for P&C as the next step for HR. It seems not everybody is convinced: I got some messages from people who think that the broader P&C aspects are simply not an HR responsibility but rather need to stay in the board. And some people seem to think there will be a separation rather than a evolution, with P&C co-existing next to HR.

Stop theorising, start strategising (and use the 80/20 rule)

The leading-edge conversations I have with my clients are not about theory. They are not about repeating the common narrative (there is a lack off talent), pointing out the obvious  (employee well-being is important) or navigating polarized and hyped discussions (Hello RTO debate). Instead, I add value by identifying the main pain points and identifying relevant people strategies according to the 80/20 rule.

One, sometimes simple solution, or one new perspective, can tick many boxes, such as:

✅ More productivity

✅More innovation

✅Cost reduction

✅Higher levels of Well-being

✅Better Employee Experience

✅Social responsibility

Obviously, this approach will bring a tremendous return on Investment – making them a no-brainer to get your fellow leaders onboard as well! Do you want to identify an innovative People Strategy that will give your organisation a high ROI?

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See you next week.

Angelique