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Hey there, Maureen Chona here, founder of the MindSights Academy, NeuroCoach to Executives, Leaders, Entrepreneurs, and a Neuroleadership Trainer using insights from neuroscience to help you deliver results by learning to work smarter, be in control of your brain, manage yours and others' emotions, change behaviors, flourish and exceed expectations. Welcome back to another episode of Lead2 Excel Podcast. I am so thrilled to be with you today. But before we get into that, remember to subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to it. Because it will help other people find it and give them the opportunity to understand how they can rewire their own brain to enable them to achieve their goals. So without wasting any more time, grab your cup of coffee or your drink or whatever that might be, put your feet up and listen in. Our episode this week is titled Is the Future of Work Really Hybrid? I remember requesting that I have flexible working hours where I could work one day from home a week to enable me to focus and actually be more productive and getting turned down quite a few years ago. Fortunately, the pandemic has shown us that it's possible. Many organizations are considering a move to hybrid working for the future, while some are resisting this move, still pushing to go back to the way things were before the pandemic. There are many questions that need to be answered, such as can things ever really go back to the way things were in the past? Does life really work that way? How will you make people or force people to unlearn what they have learned during the pandemic? How will hybrid working benefit your business and what's the best way to implement it? Are managers and leaders equipped to manage hybrid work? How can they be equipped to do it effectively? Hybrid working is not a new concept, but its prevalence has been sped up by the pandemic. But deciding on the new model or what new model to implement can be quite challenging. As working practices continue to evolve, even the definition of hybrid working model is still quite varied, and even though it might be the best choice for many organizations, actively understanding what it entails and how to manage it has to be the priority. The fact is that now that many employees have experienced the benefits of working from home, some form of remote working looks said to become a permanent part of the day-to-day. So establishing a successful working model is definitely key. So I want us to start by looking at the benefits of hybrid working. Hybrid working offers huge benefits for organizations and teams who deliver it well, and the key word is well, delivering it well, delivering it effectively. I really decided to speak on this topic because I have so many people ask me what to do. A lot of people are worried, so many leaders are concerned, a lot of managers are getting anxious about how to manage a workforce that is hybrid. So I hope this podcast really helps you understand how you, as an organization, as a leader, as a manager, can support your people to really embed hybrid working and also for you to give you that peace of mind and to enable you to lead even more effectively with this hybrid model. But also, I hope it enables you to ask yourself a lot of questions. Questions such as which one do you favor? Why do you favor it? Or are you imposing your own desires on people? What are you doing? How are you communicating this with your team or your people? So I hope this podcast really enables you to ask those questions, reflect deeply, and also have tools to enable you go through this transformation effectively. So, hybrid working offers huge benefits for organizations and teams who deliver it well. The truth is that many employees want it. So it will help you attract a more diverse workforce that will ultimately increase your productivity and boost your corporate culture. It will also bring about increased employee well-being as it will make employees feel happier, healthier, more productive, less stressed, and more in control of their lives. One huge benefit for organizations will be the ability to cut down costs as less space will be needed. Cutting down on real estate, utility bills, and other associated costs will go a huge way in helping a lot of organizations with their budgeting and their finances. And one aspect that there's been so much myths about and so much false information is innovation. The fact is that hybrid working increases innovation. While no one shared an office space during the lockdown, surveys have shown that we had the most highly innovating years globally, perhaps since the Second World War and maybe even ever. People don't need to be in the same room five days a week for innovation to occur. And I'm going to go into a bit more detail later. So another benefit is that it will provide it provides faster and better learning. I have done in-person learning for so many years and started delivering virtual training four years ago. With virtual learning, you're able to deliver learning in people's comfort zone. It gives them the opportunity to work in their own space. Once I discovered to really deliver training based on how the brain works, hybrid training became my go-to. That is why I started doing it four years ago. It gives people the opportunity to actually stay in their location and do the learning so they're not having to travel, so there's no wasted time. You can also have people together in one room and deliver the virtual training. The key thing is that it's important to space the training out so that people can implement the learning that is taking place as opposed to this one-hit wonders that happens a lot where you deliver training over a whole day or two days, and that's it. Learning doesn't take place that way. So this hybrid working will give organizations opportunities where training can be delivered to a whole organization or to a whole team or to people who are spread out in different locations and still have even better impact than in-person training. Hybrid working also increases productivity, and you also have less bias decision making and an opportunity to create more inclusive practices. It's also worth noting that these benefits apply to part-time employees as well as full-time hybrid ones as well. But yes, there are challenges that need to be overcome. And let's discuss some of these challenges. The question for organizations and leaders is what variation of the hybrid model to adopt, such as remote only, occasional office working, office mainly with occasional remote. Also, the question of whether to give employees control of their work schedule as long as they hit the objectives, maybe not to allow them to choose but decide for them or allow decisions at a team level. The problem is that dictating when employees should or should not be in the office takes away the autonomy, which ultimately causes resentment. A recent survey by Stanford University showed that 59% of people said that they would look for another job if forced to return to the office full-time. Many leaders and managers also fear that they would lose control, ownership, and possibly a level of certainty. There's also the issue of implicit biases, which shapes people's perceptions and affects the decisions leaders make, because their view of situations is different from that of the employees. Despite many organizations coming to the realization that the hybrid workplace is likely to be the best choice and will most likely be around for a while, if not permanently. Many C-level executives, especially in the financial industry, believe that it will hinder productivity, and this is a huge challenge for its success. Command and control approach demotivates people because the brain shuts down when there is an autonomy threat. Much of the resistance, in my opinion, is from executives and leaders who either have a fixed mindset about how they perceive the workplace should be and want to maintain the status quo of the traditional working model. But you also have those who are just resistant to the hybrid concept of change. Let's now dig a bit deeper into these challenges and how to mitigate them. Let's start with looking at autonomy. When something is perceived to be out of control, it creates stress. Employees with more autonomy report greater job satisfaction and less anxiety. Autonomy reduces stress and it lifts performance. When people perceive that they have a choice, it offers both a sense of predictability and control. This in turn reduces strong stress emotions. The point is that when you give people autonomy, especially unexpectedly, it creates a very strong sense of reward in the brain. You also need to be careful of just throwing the question out to managers and people asking if they want a hybrid model, which is a survey that I have seen some organizations do. It has to be focused on something tangible, such as performance, productivity, efficiency, and creativity. So let's look at ways to maximize autonomy. Location. This is deciding on the number of people that will be in the office on any particular day. You could also look at availability where you decide on the number of team members that need to be available to work during particular times on specific days for a particular task as well. Another option is synchronous hours, looking at the number of people in the office at any one time. More autonomy will not feel good for everyone, especially leaders or managers. So it's really important to really equip and help managers and leaders brush up on their leadership skills to enable them to manage this transition and manage this working model effectively. As I previously mentioned, your leadership style will go a long way in determining if you can lead a hybrid workforce successfully. Power impacts on how people perceive others. For example, some leaders will not think about the impact on others as they just focus on themselves, believing that the idea is the right way. Biases shape cognition. Leaders with experience bias where the brain is using a fast intuitive system that enables it to make decisions based on the information that is easily accessible and feels right. They don't want change as they just focus on wanting the easy option, which is maintaining the status quo. Some managers want to regain the control that they feel they lost during the lockdown so they will resist change as they believe and feel that they won't know what's happening if they don't see their people. So it's really important for organizations to train managers and leaders in habits to help them mitigate these biases. This is why I truly recommend my training on emotional intelligence for leadership. Someone said to me recently that emotional agility is more important than emotional intelligence. The fact that emotional agility is actually a little part of emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is so broad, and if you really want to know more, I've done some podcasts on emotional intelligence, but also go and visit the MindSight Academy and look at the training because it actually goes into a lot more detail about what the training entails. We as human beings make decisions based on our thoughts and our emotions, our behavior, our actions, whether we experience stress, how we experience stress, anxiety, confidence, all that is determined by our emotional intelligence. So it's really important as a leader, your leadership style is determined by how emotionally intelligent you are, and that is a fact. So if you really want to learn how to manage a workforce effectively, especially in this new model, changing a model, looking at your new looking at your culture at transforming a culture, you need to be equipped effectively with the right leadership style. And if you really want to understand more about this, get in touch because we can do a brain mapping analysis to understand how you currently perceive situations, understand your current behavior pattern, and enable you to understand what you need to do to change that pattern as well. And it's really critical here. I will just mention quickly that inclusivity and belonging is really important, especially when you're moving into a new model of working. So being able to level the playing field, for example, have some meetings as all virtual, as opposed to having meetings where you've got most people in the room and others are coming in virtually, because what you will have there is an imbalance where the people that are not in the room actually don't feel a sense of belonging or don't feel a sense of actually being heard. Leaders, you really have to let go of your biases because every time you lose a high talent, it's going to be a huge cost to your organization. To be able to effectively handle this process effectively, there has to be lots of consultation. Allow choice is the key. The question of productivity comes up a lot. The fear that productivity will suffer with the perception that people will be laid back and do less when they are home. Surveys have shown that on average, working from home increases productivity by about 20%. A study by New York Times during the pandemic showed that productivity went up, not down. It showed that 86% of people were satisfied working from home, 75% felt the same, or the organization experience improved productivity, 60% felt that they had more chance to focus on their health. So it was a huge benefit to so many. Innovation is what I mentioned before that a lot of people feel that innovation suffers when people are not together. Actually, like I said, when no one shared an office, we had the most highly innovative year globally, and this is partially because innovation is easier when people are actually not always together, and this is really because brainstorming actually reduces original thinking. So when you're actually brainstorming with people, because that's the model a lot of people use first, come together and brainstorm. Yes, it works, but it actually reduces original thinking because as you're listening to what other people are saying, it starts changing your own thought process. Only about 10% of people do their best work thinking at work, and the sleep on it effect is actually real because you know when you say I need to sleep on it, or you tell people to go and sleep on it, that's because that's the way the brain works effectively. Because when you go away to reflect on things and allow the subconscious brain to do the connections, link with other information, come up with ideas and insights. When you're in your own space, when you're taking walks, when you're probably driving home, you find so being able to walk you know, work on your own gives you that space to actually sleep on it. Meeting on platforms allows for quick iterative sessions over time as opposed to being in person and a lot of chit chat here and there. So the key is trying minimal meeting Mondays or mornings for maximum creativity. And now let's look at culture. Culture is about behavior, not location. While effective hybrid working is about matching the task to the location and doing the right work in the right place so that your organization's culture can continue in a hybrid world. Culture is not about where you work, but rather how you work and how you interact with others. Many organizations noticed that their culture was actually not impacted negatively during the lockdown, and for many, it actually got stronger with increased zoom time. Culture is built on shared everyday habits, and for many, it became more evenly distributed when people were working remotely. This is research that was done by the Neuro Leadership Institute. Leaders must be intentional to make this work. You've got to keep great connections with your people. You've got to give them autonomy. Build on that employee choice. Give them the opportunity to make the choice about how they work through discussion, through communication. You can then look at the model of where you bring people together during certain times. It could be weekly or even monthly. There's a great opportunity now to re-examine your company's vision and purpose, then embed a growth mindset culture to help you identify what actual work needs to be done in the office and what can be done remotely as a guide for when employees can work remotely or when they have to be in the office. So, in conclusion, autonomy is the key. You've got to give people autonomy, which enables you to manage for fairness. It's that you know that perception of being fair that will give your people trust and that will enable them to prove that they can work effectively. Effectively from home. And it's also asking the question: Will you be able to offer a hybrid arrangement to everyone in your team or organization? If you don't think you can, what will the impact be? Unevenly implemented hybrid working can lead to an influence gap between an office-based in-crowd and their more remote-based peers. This could have a knock-on effect on your diversity and inclusivity, especially with more women or carers or people with health issues who opt to work from home. So, how would you make sure that their voices are being heard? And finally, hybrid workspace is not about combining remote working and office working, but rather focusing on how to work more effectively across the different domains. So go back to basics and identify your organization's culture and determine if it needs to change, is it serving you well? Is it sustainable? Design a work environment that focuses on giving employees autonomy to have a say on how they work. This requires a mindset shift that focuses on work effectiveness and accountability and will ultimately increase engagement and motivation. Ensure all employees have equal access to opportunities and resources by developing equity such as professional development, technology, policies that are clear and consistently managed. Making everything hybrid is critical for it to work and for fairness, so leaders have to reinforce the new working paradigm by adopting the new habits and being role models and not saying that people can work hybrid, but you would be in the office five days a week. Create positive work relationships by having times dedicated for social calls, having clear guidelines or possibly finishing meetings five minutes early to give people time to recover. Have clear guidelines about work styles, for example, office work based on specific tasks to encourage collaboration and creativity as well. Managers should be trained to lead with emotional intelligence to enable them to support and communicate effectively with all employees, regardless of where they are working from, and to equip them to trust their people to work autonomously and to create opportunities for collaboration as well. Training and performance management should be reviewed and updated to match the hybrid model. Employees need to be supported financially, technologically to enable them to work well remotely. It's really worth investing the time and training to get this right. So I really hope that this has given you a lot to think about, a lot to reflect on, a lot to act upon. And if you do need any help to help your organization to shift into an effective hybrid workspace, do get in touch. My contact details are in the description, and I look forward to really working with you, working with your managers to get this right. Thank you once again for tuning in. And remember that if you haven't subscribed to this podcast, click on the button wherever you listen to it so that you don't miss an episode. And I would really appreciate you leaving a review as well or even a comment on the podcast or ideas of topics that you want me to talk about in future. I've got some exciting episodes coming up with some interesting guests that you really wouldn't want to miss. So, in this climate, wherever you are, do remember to keep safe, look after yourself, and I truly wish you perfect health. Stay limitless, and I look forward to seeing you in the next episode. Bye for now.