As we return to normal, there seems to be general agreement that organizations need to take a hybrid approach to work. But how that hybrid is designed can make all the difference. In planning how to return to work, leaders are faced with balancing issues related to: 1) employee preference for managing their work life balance, 2) the potential of reducing the cost of office space, 3) concerns about what increased commuting will do to the environment, and 4) the need to rebuild a sense of belonging among team members.
The first three issues can be addressed by implementing a policy that requires employees to be in the office only a couple of days each week, and giving them the choice of which days. But addressing the fourth issue, rebuilding a sense of belonging within teams, requires that all the members of a team periodically come together face-to-face. That coming together might occur every other week, once a month, or even once a quarter, depending on the level of the team's task interdependence. The face-to-face time might be for three days or for the whole week, but as we have learned through conducting retreats and other meaningful group interactions, three days is the minimum needed to build and renew relationships after a period of being apart.
Rebuilding a sense of belonging, involves the careful design of the activities that occur when the team is together. While working from home, all of us have missed the feeling of connection and friendship that is so difficult to maintain when we are limited to a technology connection. As good as our technology is, we find ourselves anxious to get off the computer at the end of a virtual meeting, rather than staying on to catch up, as we would at a face-to-face meeting. In the workplace, it is the hallway conversations that sustain our relationships as we talk with each other about family, vacations, sports, and all the other commonalities that unite us. It is noticing others in the lunchroom, on the staircase, passing by an office, and stopping for a brief chat - all those chance meetings that keep us feeling like we are part of a team.
Hallowell names these encounters human moments, "an authentic psychological encounter that can happen only when two people share the same physical space." A human moment requires both physical presence and emotional and intellectual attention.
Equally important, we need time to think together about the work we are doing, to tell each other what happened at the last client meeting or why we believe the new policy is too limiting. We need time to correct minor misunderstandings between team members, so they don't grow into big ones. We've all experienced the mix-ups that are so ubiquitous to email, as well as how easily those mix-ups are dispelled when we see the other coming down the hall with a big smile on their face, clearly pleased to see us. High tech requires high touch! The deeper we move into the use of technology, the more we need to be intentional about designing ways to retain touch that comes from human moments. Weick explains that an organization's culture is formed in the everyday conversations we have. We need face-to-face time to engage in those conversations, which are the rock bed of a culture.
When we are together that "week" in the office, we need to set aside time to have pizza lunches with the whole team, to celebrate accomplishments, to express appreciation for each other. We also need that time to plan together and to jointly solve problems that the team is facing. Google’s Project Aristotle found personalized relationships were the most salient characteristic of its highest-performing teams. Co-location, even temporary co-location, makes personalized relationships possible.
The task of renewing relationship during our time together is facilitated by modifying the design of our work spaces. It makes no sense for workers to come together only to have them sitting in a cubicle in front of their computers – they could have just as easily done that remotely. Instead, team members need welcoming, informal spaces where small groupings can think together and larger spaces where the whole team can circle their chairs to address a difficult issue, where food and drink are readily at hand, and where both serious and playful activities can take place.
If we think carefully about what we want to accomplish when we bring people back to the office, we can design 21st-century work and workplaces that take advantage of what we have learned about getting work done virtually and what we know about what teams need to be successful.