As I wiped down my chair and a nearby desk that I may or may not have touched with various cleaning supplies, I looked up at my colleague, Deanna, and said “okay…returning to the office will be weird for everyone.” We had just finished a walking meeting and were reflecting on how the emergence of hybrid work will impact people – from cleaning workstations to crafting new habits for leading hybrid meetings, we will need to create new habits that reflect shifts in how we think and investments in digital dexterity.
Based on feedback and preferences from employees, our organization is exploring strategies and tactics that blend flexibility, connectivity, and performance for folks coming into the office two or three days a week.
I am noticing that some employees are highly social, highly trusting, and keen to connect in-person. Others are in-love with the deep-focus-capability of remote work and have outstanding questions about health and safety protocols. Returning to the office will be weird for everyone, so organizations need to focus on how to help folks, especially leaders, get comfortable with being uncomfortable with the in-person elements of hybrid work.
Remember how weird it was when pretty much every knowledge worker suddenly shifted to remote worklife?
For those of us who transitioned to work from home arrangements, we experienced all sorts of discomfort as our worklife blended. We parented and educated while we worked (or tried to). Some folks experienced profound isolation working from bachelor suites and basements. I led a learning team that trained over 2,000 employees on using Microsoft Teams and other virtual meeting tools. My mom’s book club transitioned to Zoom meetings by testing and learning along the way.
My point is that we have collectively shared in pandemic-induced disruption before, we know that our brains (and probably hearts) are not designed to navigate this kind of uncertainty forever, and we are finding new ways to resiliently adapt every day. Leaders of all titles have emerged to create new norms, focus on outcomes, not time-in-chairs, and demonstrate how empathy and learnability are two of the most critical capabilities in which to invest.
People and teams excel when we get comfortable with being uncomfortable, lean into the weirdness of situations and the human responses to them, and, most importantly, when we do it together with a lot of learning, confidence, and humility.
Returning to the office will be weird and, probably, a little bit uncomfortable – the science is clear that it is often through discomfort that we grow the most.