The workplace of the future is exciting. It’s a place many of us want to be, where innovation and creativity will be encouraged and there will be greater opportunities for peer-to-peer learning (JLL Future of Work survey, 2022).
And if current trends continue, it is a place where the majority of people will continue to work between the office and home.
Hybrid work is now firmly the dominant work style. Globally, 63% of office workers spend three days or less in the office (Leesman Power of Place, 2024) and in Australia nearly three quarters (72.5%) of knowledge workers work in a hybrid way. (Thanks to Dr John Hopkins for the early release of this data on LinkedIn last week.)
Hybrid work brings exciting opportunities – the obvious potential to consolidate and to refine the office so that it’s a stronger lever for all the business-relevant things the office can do so well. McKinsey articulated these so beautifully: “accelerating innovation, upskilling the workforce, advancing digital and technological transformations, stimulating collaboration… diversifying talent, and getting closer to customers.”
That sounds attractive and desirable, and who on earth wouldn’t want it? It’s hard to imagine how any executive would want to be left behind.
But at the same time, you might be having trouble getting everyone around your executive table to embrace the concept.
You’re excited about the future but it doesn’t feel like they’re with you. And that probably doesn’t make sense at all. That is, until we look at the stages of transition that are required, before they can be firmly on the bus.
If your executives are not excited and hopeful about your hybrid workplace concept, there’s a possibility they are still in the first stages of the Bridges Transition Model.
Executives could be still dealing with ending, losing and letting go (Stage 1) – where they haven’t yet acknowledged and dealt with the losses caused by the change. Or, they could be in the neutral zone (Stage 2), where they are starting to think innovatively and creatively but they’re also experiencing confusion and distress about the prospect.
In short, they’re experiencing a range of unpredictable emotions, perhaps in reflection of the challenges they know they’ll face as they lead their people into a new phase.
This might seem irrelevant, in the face of the obvious destination that the organisation needs to head towards. Yet people will be people, and if you’re trying to show them how exciting the future looks while they’re still acknowledging and dealing with the losses caused by what you’re proposing, you won’t get far.
You need to give your executive team sensible opportunities to process the losses. That can be an uncomfortable conversation, which requires sensitivity.
It helps to partner with someone adept and credible at making sense of the lived experience a hybrid workplace requires of leaders and teams.
Having that conversation is one of the ways I can help.
– Nina
P.S. If this post caught your attention, you might enjoy my mini-series for Property Directors and COO’s on how to deliver a high-performing hybrid workspace, while garnering strong executive buy-in. Click through to the mini-series to find out more.
