The world is changing and more workplaces than ever before are trying to find their feet as hybrid organizations. Hybrid workplaces call for new ways of collaborating - in this article you can learn how to communicate and collaborate in a better and more efficient way, even if you don't see each other in the office every day!
A survey from Djøf shows that there is a high demand for the ability to work from home from time to time. Hybrid collaboration is the future - so we might as well get good at it as soon as possible! Luckily, we've prepared 5 key elements of hybrid collaboration that are worth keeping in mind to ensure your team can achieve seamless collaboration across time and place.
What exactly is a hybrid workplace?
The hybrid workplace means that work is more fluid, with a combination of office spaces and home offices - work can take place across place, time and borders. The hybrid meeting includes meetings where some people participate in the same physical location (e.g. a conference room) and others participate virtually.
In the article you will gain insight into:
- How do you ensure direction in your hybrid collaboration?
- How do you make decisions efficiently and smoothly?
- How does the team communicate and collaborate - together and separately?
- Best practice for meetings in hybrid collaboration
- How can you continuously improve your collaboration as a hybrid team?
1. How do you ensure direction in your hybrid collaboration?
The importance of setting expectations
When transitioning to a hybrid workplace, be aware that there can be a lot of uncertainty around the rules, norms and expectations of hybrid work. For example, questions such as: When am I expected to come into the office? What does it take for us to succeed as a team? How do we create and maintain social relationships?
In the hybrid workplace, it becomes important to set expectations for the team in terms of how the team will function and act in the hybrid context. This is also known as a team agreement!
A team agreement is a written statement of expectations that outlines the team's rules, norms and expectations on how your team works best together.
Setting expectations properly ensures you work effectively in a smoother collaboration, reducing uncertainty and building trust in the workplace around hybrid collaboration.
When creating a good team agreement for your hybrid team, it's important to make implicit norms explicit. This makes the agreement visible to all team members and ensures that you actively talk about how you as a team want to work together and respond to the various challenges that hybrid collaboration brings with it.
Tips for a valuable team agreement:
- It should be based on everyday issues, friction and challenges in your team
- Write it down and make it easily accessible - open to all and online, so it can be easily referenced and continuously adapted
- Make agreements that are often referred to or used in critical situations
The written team agreement for hybrid working also has the added bonus of being extremely useful for creating habits or setting expectations so that new team members can quickly follow suit.
Clarify your team agreements
"So what should we include in such an agreement?", you might ask. Specifically, it may be relevant to agree on operational rules about how, when and where we work in a hybrid organization, norms for work-life balance, agreements regarding meetings, culture, communication, socialization and much more.
It's not always easy to make sense of such an agreement in the beginning, but in the following, we provide inspiration for relevant themes to include in your team agreement.
Of course, it's crucial that the alignment of expectations is based on your particular organization or team - and your friction - but maybe this will spark some reflection anyway 😊
2. How do you make decisions efficiently and effectively?
Greater transparency
In hybrid collaboration, you often have a less clear overview of the team's tasks and workload, making transparency even more important. This can be done by visualizing the work (use MS-planner, Trello, Asana, Kanban boards or similar).
TIP:
An easy way to create more transparency in your team is to ask "what's on your agenda today/this week?" at every hybrid meeting or weekly check-in to increase visibility of each other's workload.
The increased visibility of each other's tasks and workload helps to create clarity within the team, enabling you to make effective decisions and work together more smoothly. At the same time, it allows you to focus on prioritizing tasks to clarify important tasks for each other, as well as to get a handle on coordination and sparring needs. It can also provide an overview of whether you have an uneven distribution, where some employees are drowning in tasks while others are twiddling their thumbs.
Clarity in decision-making
Decision maker
In the modern workplace, decisions need to be made all the time, and it can be beneficial if this responsibility doesn't just rest with the leader or a few individuals in organizations, but instead leverages the many brains in the organization by distributing decision-making among more of its members.
However, when there are multiple decision-makers on a task, it often becomes a muddy process - even more so in hybrid collaboration. Therefore, decisions in hybrid collaboration can be made more efficiently and smoothly if you're clear about who the decision-maker is for the task or process. This person is responsible for making the final decision. You may want to clarify the decision ownership of tasks in a shared document so that it creates more legitimacy and is clear to everyone.
Read more about trust-based management here
When selecting a decision-maker, it's a good idea to keep in mind that the person closest to the task is often best suited to make the decision - not necessarily the most senior or experienced employee.
Why is it important to be clear in your choice of decision-maker?
- It clarifies who has the authority to make different types of decisions
- It reduces time spent in decision-making meetings
- It increases trust and autonomy
Being explicit and proactive about decision rights is even more necessary in hybrid collaboration, where organic opportunities for alignment are rarer and the need for clear clarification of decision ownership is more crucial to effective decision-making.
Decision-making process
In hybrid collaboration, as with face-to-face collaboration, it's important to be mindful of choosing and clarifying the best approach to making decisions. This requires becoming aware of the needs surrounding the decision: Does the decision need to be made quickly? Or does it need to be worked through from several sides?
Individual decision maker vs. Consensus decisions
The extremes of decision-making processes could be called individual and consensus, which look like this:
- Individual - One person makes the decision.
Advantages; is that it can be very quick when speed is needed.
Disadvantages; poor decisions can be made as the individual doesn't see all facets and consequences of the decision.
- Consensus - Everyone agrees on the decision.
Advantages; ensures that no one feels left out and can therefore be good for creating acceptance around the decision.
Disadvantages: It can take an incredibly long time to agree. Furthermore, there is a risk that the decision ends in a compromise that no one really likes.
Fortunately, there are alternatives that leverage the best of both worlds. Perhaps you've heard of the Consent and Advice method?
Consent and Advice decision method
There are two decision models that prescribe a set process for how a decision maker can make decisions. One gives more freedom to the decision-maker than the other, where the group has more control over the decision.
This has an impact on whether you should simply include other people's input as advice and reflections to speed up the process, or whether a longer process is needed to build agreement and consensus among different perspectives before making a decision. Below you can see an overview of the methods:
If you're more curious about this, take a look at this videowhich goes in-depth with the consent method.
Similarly, you need to be clear and explicit about the expectations at the end of the meeting; do we need to make a final decision or is it not possible to make the decision today? - especially if you're not sitting in the same place.
3. How does the team communicate and collaborate - together and separately?
More communication
Good communication is essential for any team, both to ensure coordination of work, valuable knowledge sharing and in building social relationships. In hybrid teams, the need is even greater as we no longer work from the same place at the same time. Therefore, it's worth putting a little extra effort into writing an update on Teams or scheduling time in your calendar for sparring with colleagues or similar.
Similarly, the risk of misunderstandings is even greater in hybrid collaboration, where it's harder to read people. This requires you to be extra good at navigating and understanding each other's differences, and the ability to give and receive feedback becomes even more important. You can get even better at feedback here.
Because we're not always in the same room as our colleagues, it's especially important to be conscious of sharing new information, reflections, ideas, etc. with those who aren't necessarily in the office. Whether it's a budding new business idea, everyday pocket philosophy, a funny anecdote or an update on the customer you're working with right now - everyday coffee break conversations can easily be lost on those who sit at a distance, so creating new habits in the hybrid workplace requires attention and focus if you want to continue to strengthen knowledge sharing and social networking.
Tips for smoother collaboration:
- Be extra clear about intention and urgency in your online communication - "Hi, I need your input on XX for tomorrow. Can we talk before 2pm today?"
- Use @ to tag people when you need their attention
- Pay attention to your status - switch between unemployed, busy, etc.
Work "in public"
When we work from different locations at different times, it can be harder to stay in sync, we often get delayed feedback and we don't necessarily know what the rest of the team is working on. Therefore, we can benefit from sharing our work on an ongoing basis to create a sense of working in the same direction. We call it "progress over perfection". When we share our work on an ongoing basis, even if it's not fully developed, we can get continuous feedback and avoid working in the wrong or different directions - we get better outcomes from less effort.
For example, you can work in 'live' documents so that the process and changes happen in real time and together - also to avoid misunderstandings when you're working alone after a meeting.
However, it can often be a good idea to articulate this 'new' culture; that drafts will have flaws and need improvement - that's the point! It's also important to create a good feedback culture so that we can help each other constructively.
Psst... If you want to be a feedback master too, check out this article check out this article!
Rounds
In the hybrid space, it becomes even more important to create space for everyone to have a voice. Especially if you're in a meeting where some are physically present while others are participating virtually. Here, there can be a greater barrier to speaking up for those at a distance who can't easily engage in a natural conversation. A good way to meet the challenge is to use rounds and take turns so that everyone can take turns to speak without interruption - this is a good trick to avoid only certain people, the manager or the physical attendees getting the chance to speak.
It's a good idea to be explicit about the process and say: "Let's take a round to hear what we each think about X".
See more about rounds here.
For example, you can use a check-in round where you invite participants to share where they are and how they are feeling at the start of a meeting - this could be "how is the energy today?", a status on projects or similar.
Or use a check-out round to round off the meeting and share what people are taking away from the meeting, what they're doing this weekend or something else.
You can also run a round where participants have the opportunity to ask clarifying questions about a given issue before reacting or taking a position, or a round with the opportunity to share feedback and suggestions for improvement.
There are many options and it can take some getting used to, but it can create great productivity and a sense of community, so practice makes perfect!
Tips for rounds:
- It's a good idea to articulate when remote people should join the round so they feel like a natural part of the circle - it's generally good to articulate the order along the way to avoid confusion or frustration.
- It's good to make each round about a specific topic or purpose, so it doesn't become one big muddy round of conversation for everything.
- Don't react to each other's input during a round, or we risk losing the thread and getting sidetracked.
- Leave room for thinking time
Social ties - new habits
Since we as colleagues may experience more distance from each other and may have less interaction on a day-to-day basis, it's important to make an active effort to maintain social ties, which are often more challenged in the hybrid workplace.
This includes the spontaneous chatter at the coffee machine, the conversations at the lunch table or jokes over the desk - all the places where we normally bump into each other in the physical workplace.
In a hybrid workplace, extra effort may be required to maintain the social ties that are important for motivation, sense of community, spirit and knowledge sharing. In other words, you need to create new habits for informal socializing when you're no longer just bumping into each other by chance. So what do you do?
Check-ins can be a great way to maintain social relationships when you don't see each other every day in the office. It can be a walk-and-talk call with a colleague, scheduled regular check-ins with the whole team, 1:1 check-ins, remembering to write a "how are you" message to colleagues once in a while, or something else entirely.
It's just important to clarify the intention of these check-ins - is it more work-related, a socialization opportunity or a wellbeing aspect? It can be quite useful to articulate the importance of social check-ins when you're not physically close to each other - understanding that it's not just a waste of time, for example, hearing about your colleagues' weekend when you'd rather just get on with work. You can also create team channels for fun or coffee chats, etc. It's about creating a 'new normal' - rediscovering being social in a new way.
4. Best practice for meetings in hybrid collaboration
Intention of the meeting
One of the biggest downsides of hybrid collaboration is multiple meetings and overcrowded schedules. In addition to regular meetings, you may need to schedule extra meetings to replace the informal chat at the coffee machine or schedule meetings to ensure you're in sync. But this just creates an abundance of meeting requests and the workday can quickly get sucked into one long meeting after another, where the focus on the meetings disappears and you're left with the feeling of "when do I have time to do my real work?". It is therefore important to have a clear purpose for each meeting to create value in the time together - even if the purpose is "informal coffee break chat for 15 minutes".
Therefore, it's important to clarify what the intention of the meeting is.
- Do you need a concrete action plan?
- Do decisions need to be discussed and made?
- Do you need to collaborate on a task in the meeting?
- Should we share the work throughout the process and give feedback during the meeting?
- Is the meeting learning-oriented?
- Or is the meeting not meant to move the work forward, but instead is a more informal connection meeting to strengthen social bonds and collaboration?
Avoid imprecise meetings where people have "this meeting should have been an email" thoughts!
TIP:
Knowing the type of meeting and its intention is often more important than having a detailed agenda. Make it a habit that a meeting invitation should always have a clear indication of the intention of the meeting.
Hybrid meeting 101
We have now uncovered that it is important to align the rules and norms for hybrid collaboration, clarify the purpose of the meeting, determine who makes the decision and how it should be made.
To achieve the best hybrid meetings, it's relevant to have a framework for your hybrid collaboration - what do you do when one or more people sit in virtually while the rest of the team is physically together? For some, it works best if everyone sits at their own computer, while others like to achieve more dynamics when those physically present sit together and can talk to each other too - as long as they are remembered virtually. Use the team agreement to get a handle on the preferences of your team! The most important thing is to include equal opportunities for participation, whether you're in the physical office or at home.
Tips for including virtual participants:
- Let a virtual participant be the meeting leader - it shows that you can also have those roles even if you are in the meeting virtually
D↩ - Give the floor to virtual participants first. This avoids excluding remote workers and also helps to encourage everyone to actively participate in the meeting
- Create a shared live document that you work in during the meeting that everyone can access and contribute to equally - or digital whiteboards if you need to sketch etc.
It's also crucial to the success of the meeting that the technology is in place! Audio, camera and internet must work so that remote workers can participate on the same terms. A good tip is to use video in your meetings, as it allows participants to see and hear each other in real-time. Not only does it make it easier to read each other, but it gives a sense of connection and engagement, as well as providing better opportunities for discussion and dialog.
In addition, it is important to have a good structure for the online or hybrid meeting, where you can 'lose' people if the framework is not clear. Therefore, show (preferably in advance) a clear agenda for the meeting and set the framework for how the meeting will run, who has which roles and how remote people can participate. The meeting will run more smoothly if there is an active facilitator or host for the meeting who can handle logistics, ensure everyone is present, coordinate rounds, etc.
5. How can you continuously improve your collaboration as a hybrid team?
By now you've read a lot of advice on how to strengthen your hybrid collaboration, but we'll end with the (perhaps) most important advice of all: try it, learn from your experiences, be right, and keep developing your (hybrid) collaboration!
It's also what we call the 'Test and Learn' approach to help you continuously improve your collaboration and become an effective hybrid organization! It's an approach that uses experimentation to help you find out what works for your team - by continuously testing, observing and allowing solutions to emerge and emerge. This is true, for example, with your team agreement, which can't simply be set in stone, but should be evaluated regularly and often. This is especially true as a good agreement for your team should reduce tension from practice and real life - circumstances change, and so should the agreement!
"Okay, I get it - but what does the 'test-and-learn' approach look like in practice?" you might ask - here's the thing:
- Set a framework:
For the transition to the hybrid organization, what is possible for your organization in terms of contracts, policies, collective bargaining agreements, etc.
- Run experiments:
E.g. "We want to try hybrid meetings", then make the 'experiment' explicit by writing it down and formalizing it: how will we do it? What resources are there? What timeframe do we have? What do we want to get out of the experiment? What are the evaluation criteria/success criteria? When has it succeeded/failed?
- Then let the experiment play out - be patient and give it time. It doesn't necessarily work from the beginning!
The important thing is that it shouldn't be so stationary. By doing it this way, you can try things out and test different procedures - whether it's "For the next three months, let's try having everyone meet on Tuesdays to have a community day" or "Everyone should have a camera in video meetings to test presence" or something else.
Thanks for reading - now you're ready to take your hybrid workplace by storm!
If you want more inspiration for your collaboration, check out our previous webinars on "Leadership and learning in hybrid organizations" or "Strengthen collaboration in distributed teams".
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