Hybrid Work Part 2: It All Starts with Rethinking Company Culture

A couple of weeks ago, we looked at how some predictions I made about hybrid work in the early pandemic have played out in the years since. (You can read that newsletter and subscribe to future editions here.) 

The long and short of that conversation is that the future of work will not be exclusively remote—whether that’s because the technology to make it so doesn't exist (for example, clinicians in a hospital, factory employees, etc.) or because there are challenges that don't yet have a predictable solution. Neither will the future of work be entirely in-person—the benefits of flexible work are too clear to ignore, and technology to accelerate this trend is already in the proverbial lab. Strong-handed tactics to turn the clock back seldom, if ever, succeed. 

So what then, is the way forward?

Reassess, redefine, and relearn! 

Before you start  

I warned you in the last post that this conversation is going to require candor. To redefine the contours of company culture—from an individual's sense of belonging to the company’s identity—is no small feat, and requires constant flexibility, creativity, and humility. With that in mind, I want to share what has, and hasn't, worked for my teams and teams inside other companies that have followed my advice. I do not claim to have the perfect recipe—no one does. But these are the ingredients to get you started. 

Identify your company culture

I know, I know! This sounds broad, and perhaps a bit cliche, but this is an essential first step that must permeate everything that follows. 

Up until now, companies have built culture up by taking advantage of,  and carefully creating shared physical experience for their employees—from a company cafe to common areas with bean bags, all-hands and holiday parties, to special events with big-name presenters and artists, the list goes on. Think of those big, impressive companies whose names and reputations are synonymous with big, impressive campuses. The strategy worked, and worked pretty well. 

But half-way through the pandemic, I had this epiphany: If the majority of company culture is built around shared experiences in a shared location, then how will this work in a post-pandemic world, where companies will be increasingly distributed and remote/hybrid work will fundamentally disrupt this strategy of shared physical experiences? We’re going to have to go back to the drawing board! 

In my own company, we started from a slightly different place because we were already more distributed than average and didn’t really have a single headquarters, but rather multiple offices of similar size, each with their own (sometimes conflicting) culture. The pandemic forced us to become even more distributed, and rely more heavily on the values of the company.

Some of these values (transparency, candor) already existed, and some (fearless innovation) were formed during the pandemic. These were mostly just words pre-pandemic, but since then we have rallied around them like the proverbial town square on which our company culture was reassessed, redefined, and relearned. We made sure that everyone knew about these values and openly discussed and interpreted them for their own context and from their own vantage point. Repetition is your friend here. Repetition not just by the leadership and not just in company all-hands but by everyone and everywhere. When you feel you have overdone it, that’s when you are finally starting.

More than 35 percent of our employees have joined the company during the pandemic, and for them the site-specific culture never existed; the culture was defined and learned exclusively through these values, starting with the first day at job, that first meeting and that first assignment. Have we been phenomenally successful? Time will tell. But for now it has allowed us to move past some of the challenges of maintaining culture in a hybrid work environment. This is our story, and your story will differ from ours!

So start by asking yourself this: What unites your workforce? Is it a shared physical experience, or something more substantial: perhaps a set of values, or specific outcomes, maybe a social mission? There are no wrong answers here. A company based on technology innovation is no better or worse than one driven by corporate social responsibility, which in turn is no better or worse than another company that is hyper focused on its financial results. Now is the time to call upon candor and identify the driving force behind your company culture. 

If you’ve got a clear answer, great! If you don’t, it’s time to reassess and redefine  (and I’m guessing upwards of half of companies should be doing this). And then make sure that these values are more than just words—they must permeate every aspect of your company’s culture.

Rethink your onboarding process 

As I said earlier, an employee gets exposed to a company culture that first day, with that first activity, which in most cases is an onboarding activity and that’s the next step in this journey. 

Onboarding means two things: One is onboarding new hires to the job, giving them the tools they need to perform tasks, making sure they understand the processes to do their day-to-day job, etc.; the other is onboarding individuals to the company’s culture. We redefined both at our company—on-demand and adaptable to how an employee best learns and consumes information. 

With regards to the former, we evolved beyond the idea of a bunch of recruits sitting in a room together—the goal for a new hire should not be having them sit through three excruciatingly boring days of information overload, but instead making sure they know where and how to access the information when they need it. This could mean where to find documents, how to ask questions in central communication channels, or how to connect with a buddy coworker. When you’re thinking about the best ways to be multi-modal in this capacity, consider the many ways you may have implemented to remotely reach your consumers and clients. Why not use this same methodology internally as well? After all, your employees are your internal customers.  

We looked at cultural onboarding similarly. Employees need to know how to connect with coworkers, regardless of physical location, even outside their team, to build community. But most importantly, they also need to experience the company's culture. To achieve that, there’s nothing wrong with being a little on-the-nose: If you’ve identified that innovation is a key tenant of your company culture, hold regular hack-a-thons; if it’s trust that’s important, have teams do a literal trust fall. Giving your employees multiple options at regular intervals allows you to meet them where they’re at, and encourages them to feel included.  This hands-on approach to cultural onboarding worked for me and my teams—we had some good laughs after that trust fall!

Implement new ways to collaborate

Collaboration is at the core of any successful culture. We’ve identified that in-person peer-to-peer communication—in the form of brainstorming in a conference room or walking over to someone’s desk to ask a question, and also social engagements like grabbing drinks after work—have huge benefits on how an individual feels connected to their job and how a group of individuals coalesce into a team. The good news is that these elements can return in some capacity in an office setting. 

But because many employees will need to stay distributed, we can’t rely on in-person interactions as the sole way we build connections and collaborate. Instead, use this as an opportunity to innovate. Now this innovation is easier said than done. While there are tons of applications, products and technologies that claim to achieve seamless collaboration between in-office and at-home employees, the focus needs to be on people and not tech. 

For us, we started with getting input from the relevant parties. You should as well. To do this, have individuals spend some time thinking about what modes of collaboration work best for them personally, then have teams come together and dedicate 10 to 15 minutes to discuss. Is it asynchronous emails? Music-fueled jam sessions over Zoom? As a leader, be ready to operationalize two or three different collaboration avenues—too few and you don’t give folks options for what works for them, too many and you’ve got chaos. 

At the same time, remember that setting this up takes time, money, and an open mind. If people insist that productive conversations can only happen over a cup of coffee, new solutions aren’t going to work. If people think they’re just going to pocket any money saved on real estate and in-person overhead, it’s not going to work. Some of those funds need to be reinvested into tools that effectively facilitate collaboration. Ultimately though, how to collaborate is a team decision, but it’s a company’s job to facilitate that conversation. 

Create centers of gravity

It is no secret that I am an advocate for a distributed workforce and flexible work. And I have learned a thing or two while advocating and implementing both. 

I have found that flashy office buildings are a waste of resources, but entirely dispersed teams can be difficult to form and manage as well. “Find talent wherever it is” can lead to teams spread across too many time zones, languages, and operational or personnel hurdles. Instead, I recommend building your team around “centers of gravity:” essentially cluster a group of employees around a specific “anchor.” 

The employees you cluster together could be based on function, outcomes, or something more personal, like language or cultural background. The anchor you cluster them around could be a time zone, or driving distance to a physical location or anything else that facilitates that Center of gravity. Pick the right anchor for the team, and then start building around that anchor. This will help mitigate some of the challenges around massively dispersed teams. You will get better team cohesion and still provide flexibility to your employees. 

Beware, you might run into some tough decisions as you look at your existing teams. The chosen center of gravity might not work for everyone. There may be outliers—for example, you might choose an anchor to be three time zones wide but have individuals across seven. If they don’t fit in that center of gravity, they need to work as a minority, and not everyone can succeed in that environment. You may find that certain employees need to leave to make way for new hires that can better suit your centers of gravity, and your culture. I never said this will be easy! 

Remember: company culture is never complete

Now, do you need to tackle all of this, all at once, right away? Absolutely not. This is not supposed to be easy or make you feel good, but it’s what I’ve learned needs to be done in order to set yourself up for the future of work. You can choose which of these points you want to go for and which you want to leave for later  (though I strongly recommend finding what drives your culture). Also, keep in mind that what you find works now, may not work by this time next year. We are in an age of infinite change, and we must learn to use change as an asset. 

Leaders are on the front line to constantly reinvent and revise what their teams need to succeed, both personally and professionally. I’ve had to spend an enormous amount of time as a leader looking long and hard at what I can do, for my teams, and also for myself. We’re in a reckoning as a culture and workforce, and if you’re not willing to be introspective, you’re not doing everything you can. But remember, this isn’t binary: if this, then that. This isn’t code. Think of it instead as if this, then let’s consider that. 

It’s a journey. You can do this, and I’m here to support you along the way. 

#futureofwork #leadership