Are you playing Whack-a-mole with the Hybrid Workplace?

Are you playing Whack-a-mole with the Hybrid Workplace?

In the classic arcade game, Whack-a-mole, the challenge is simple. Armed with a mallet, players are faced with five holes, each hole having a mole ready to pop up. When a mole pops up, the player must hit it with the mallet to score. The challenge is that when you hit one mole in one place, another pops up elsewhere. The pace of the game quickens and eventually, moles appear faster than they can be hit and the player is left playing catch-up. The simple game of Whack-a-mole resembles complex business problems.

Over the last several months return-to-office dates have been pushed back more than once, work-from-home mandates have been modified and hybrid workplace plans revisited. Just like the moles in the game of whack-a-mole, there is a seemingly endless stream of new challenges that pop up and organizations have been left playing catch-up. With continuing questions on return dates, hybrid policies, vaccine mandates and more employees and leaders alike are facing 'decision fatigue'. How should companies address the complexity presented by the pandemic?

Principle #1: The Response to Complexity is Flexibility

  • Complex problems require novel approaches. Business problems can be simple, complicated or complex. Simple and complicated problems can be solved with existing frameworks, processes and expertise. But complex problems, such as those triggered by the pandemic, require a different mindset. These problems cross multiple domains, have no historic precedent and hence require fresh thinking.
  • There are no algorithms that tell you how to solve complex problems. Solutions to these problems are not obvious, the responses are non-linear and the impacts of one system on another are difficult to predict in advance. These problems emerge in dynamic environments and when the environment changes, approaches will need to change. There are no tried-and-tested solutions and rigid approaches may not work.
  • Leaders must respond to complexity with flexibility. In a complex environment, the best-laid plans may not work as intended. Therefore, the key for leaders and organizations is to remain flexible. However, this does not mean that one abandons planning. On the contrary, planning must be done with greater rigor and actions must take on a new dimension.
  • To strike the right balance, define flexibility within a framework. Organizations will be challenged with outlining plans while retaining agility. Flexibility within a framework will allow leaders and organizations to adapt dynamically to change events.

Principle #2: Become a 'Learn-it-all' Organization

  • A 'learn-it-all' culture can help companies leapfrog the competition. A 'learn-it-all' culture embraces new ideas, encourages invention, and supports learning from failure. This ensures organizations adapt quickly when they are faced with crises and emerge faster out of disruptive events. In an era of continuous change, learning creates competitive advantage.
  • Learning is a strategic response to 'continuous change'. Change is no longer episodic, it is continuous. Organizations, teams and individuals will be challenged to adapt dynamically. Learning will fuel fresh thinking, exploration, experimentation and adaptation. Organizations that build learning strategies to enable adaption to change will thrive in the ever-shifting landscape of the future.
  • Organizations must optimize 'learning eco-systems'. The organizational engine is fueled by information. Organizations acquire information from a multitude of sources both internal and external. Often this information resides in siloes and is not effectively utilized by the organizational collective. Organizations must optimize eco-systems to generate collective intelligence, allowing for greater resilience and adaptability.
  • The workplace becomes a 'melting pot' for organizational learning. When workplaces, both physical and virtual environments, allow for the flow of ideas, create cross-functional connection and spur innovation, they become melting pots for organizational learning.

Principle #3: Collective Emotional Quotient enables Adaptability

  • EQ will be a critical component in the new leadership calculus. The spectrum of leadership success goes beyond data and numbers. While adopting a 'try, learn, adapt' system organizations must allow for mistakes to be made and for risks to be taken. Leaders play a crucial role in making it psychologically safe for people to take risks without fear of repercussion or reprisal.
  • Leaders must define a playbook to respond to employees’ emotional states. Leaders must prioritize communication, collaborative problem-solving, and empathy. Employees bring different emotional states to work each day. By enabling emotional expression leaders can help individuals, teams and their organizations to function at their peak. This requires intentional employee sensing and listening with care.
  • Deep listening will allow leaders and organizations to learn and adapt. The pandemic has put the employer-employee relationship to test. To be highly responsive to their people, companies may be tempted to overly rely on listening tools. These tools may have inherent biases or may invoke the fear of surveillance. Leaders and organizations will need to dig deeper and ask nuanced questions to truly understand evolving needs.
  • Collective Emotional Quotient = Adaptability Quotient. Organizations are aggregations of people. The greater the organizational EQ, the greater the agility and adaptability. Collective EQ = Organizational AQ, the adaptability quotient that is so essential as organizational, team and individual resilience continue to be challenged.

The path to the hybrid workplace is iterative

The future remains uncertain as variants, vaccines and more add to an already complex landscape. Organizations that remain 'flexible within a framework' will respond faster to change. In an era of continuous change, a learning mindset will allow us to thrive. Change events will affect individuals and teams differently, and our resilience will be tested. As leaders each one of us will need to tap into our emotional reserves and channel our collective EQ towards organizational adaptability.

The path to the hybrid workplace is iterative — responding to complexity with flexibility, fostering a 'learn-it-all' mindset and channeling collective EQ may hold the key to success.

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About the author: Ram Srinivasan has worked with Fortune 500 companies, real estate developers, and the public sector across the Americas and emerging markets in Asia Pacific. He was previously a Vice President with Deloitte Canada’s Real Estate and Infrastructure Advisory Practice and is currently Managing Director with JLL’s Consulting practice.

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Maribel Guerrero, LEED AP

Innovative, Corporate Real Estate Workplace Strategy Leader

3y

Great article!

Alex Wiffen

MD & Co-Founder | Delivering Talent Solutions in Real Estate, PropTech & ESG | 🎙️Host of "The Future of the Built Environment" podcast

3y

Ram - heres a link to the Cherry Pick People podcast focused on the future of the office (mentioned in my last comment) part 1 went live yesterday... https://bit.ly/3sfrBzP - thought you might find it interesting! Lee Elliott - Global Head of Occupier Research Knight Frank Andrew Lynch – COO & Co-Founder Huckletree Ikenna Nweke – Head of Sales for UK & Ireland Office App Lee Butz – CEO & Founder of District Technologies Michael Grant – Chief Operating Officer at Metrikus & AirRated, During the series - the panel discuss what will be the new “norms” in the post Covid world for the office, along with threats and opportunities and where tech will have the biggest impact… In part one (above) Lee Elliott gives us the run down of the current market conditions for the office world... https://bit.ly/3sfrBzP

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Alex Wiffen

MD & Co-Founder | Delivering Talent Solutions in Real Estate, PropTech & ESG | 🎙️Host of "The Future of the Built Environment" podcast

3y

Very interesting Ram, particularly the relevance of high organisational EQ & AQ. As we work more remotely its even more challenging to connect emotionally across an organisation so this will require extra focus. I'm just in the middle of a podcast series focused on the future of the office one of the points raised was that with more remote working the organisational focused will switch from managing employees time to managing their results (something which I feel will be a benefit to everyone and lead to more productive and happier teams)

Julie Hyson

Builder @ Heart | Built Environment Visionary | Obsessed with Making Meaning for Customers | Lean Construction & Innovative Project Delivery Nerd | Sustainability Champion | Passionate Advocate for People

3y

Alexis Lowell

Silvano Mason MCR, SLCR

Vice President. Real Estate Advisory Services at Deloitte Canada

3y

Great article Ram Srinivasan. Will AI and machine learning programs help to solve this conundrum in the future?

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