The Best Hybrid Work Models Deliver with Results-Oriented Communications

 The hybrid work model is now ubiquitous and has significant momentum. It is a model that blends new work styles that enables employees to work from different locations dynamically: home, office, or on the go. It encourages autonomy and flexibility but keeping it on track puts a significant burden on effective and results-oriented communications. Hybrid models also leverage many traditional and new communication channels. Linking these channels and all their communications is challenging and necessary to deliver the demanded higher performance with great flexibility. Hybrid work models and results-oriented communications go hand in hand. Still, few organizations have a handle on linking results to communications that are the lifeblood of the hybrid work model. Click here for more on results-oriented communications.

Benefits of the Hybrid Work Model:

The benefits of the hybrid work model for the COVID era were plentiful because safety was the number one issue for all involved. Analyzing the benefits now we are down the road a bit yields a clear picture. There are reduced overhead costs exemplified by lowered rent, utilities, office supplies, and such. There is often boosted productivity as office chit-chat is diminished and people are no longer interrupted in a face-to-face fashion. There is also a great reduction in micro-management, which is the bane of real productivity. The commuting is often significantly reduced, and employee well-being is increased because they control their work schedule. Team building occurs quite naturally enabled by better collaboration tools. The benefits are substantial for both the organization and employees; however, it is not all hearts and flowers. Some challenges start to emerge.

Challenges of the Hybrid Work Model:

Both the organization and the employees must up their planning game. Meeting types have to be matched with the kind of supports that is needed. Each participant will have to be considered for remote vs. live. Better resource scheduling by skill type will have to be considered. The level of dress and formality will need to be considered as well. After the meetings, the archiving of issues and solutions linked to actions will need to be recorded and shared will also need a plan. Rethinking the workplace is also necessary. What kind of work can be done remotely, and what should be done in the office is an issue that third-party office spaces can temper?  Management visibility becomes a balancing act. It would be easy to error in the direction of invasive surveillance, so watching deliverables is a better practice. On the other hand, remote workers can easily fall into the trap of thinking they are second-class workers, and fair pay emerges as some locations require more pay than cheaper locations.

Net; Net:

Hybrid Work Models need speedy and innovative solutions that drive organizations towards results-oriented communication infrastructures and tools. Deliverables become the focus of optimizing hybrid work results. These deliverables need to be tied to stakeholder outcomes, requiring technologies that can archive team results and link them to desired outcomes in a shared way. There will be a targeted application of new kinds of collaboration tools that don't just support low-level random communications but link everything to results and outcomes. Hybrid models are here to stay even if COVID dissipates, and we no longer have to deal with threatening scenarios. Hybrid models also optimize on opportunities while linking strategy to operations as they both evolve and optimize.

 

 

Results-Oriented Communications Are Now Emerging

 It is becoming painfully evident that traditional communication channels are just not making the grade in these days of group innovation and fast-moving change. Organizations are dealing with communication challenges that are accelerating in today's demanding world. If you have ever had to manage, influence, guide, or participate in or with groups of various people inside or outside your organization, you know how severe communication issues can be. These issues can only be solved by communications focused on results while all participating can be moving towards results in synchronization. The shift from messages only to include pertinent data tracked to results is the best way to find the straightest line to desired outcomes.

The Need for Outside-In Perspectives

Today customer, partner, community, employee’s needs are becoming more prominent in the most successful organizations. The outside-in approach introduces new sources of communications that will be necessary for organizational progress and success. However, it adds more complexity to an already overtaxed and unfocused set of communication channels, methods, tools, and techniques. 

The Need for Laser Focus

The world will not wait for organizations to untangle their communications messes that are growing in complexity by adding more communications on older point-to-point capabilities like email, messaging, voice, project management, and broadcasting tools. Unfortunately, none of these channels is guided by a common set of expected results or goals, leading to a lack of momentum and focus. Often the results are surprise deliverables that the sponsors did not desire or expect. All of this because of weak and unfocused communications and lack of consistent visibility.

 The Need for Broad Skillsets

The overwhelming need for better customer, employee, and partner journeys with shared goals, policies, and guardrails drive more multi-disciplinary teams that break down organizational, skill, and digital domain silos. Of course, specialized skills and training will still be needed, but lateral thinking and rich sets of compound skills assisted by digital bots or knowledge agents will be the norm.

The Need for Innovative Dynamic Experimentation

A world driven by "do it, try it and fix it" is putting additional pressure on the communications infrastructures that exist in organizations today. With iterative methods being all the rage and new digital technologies that deliver incremental results during development, communications take on new importance for keeping all the team members on point. Change is only accelerating and continues to compound communication issues.

The Need for More Collaboration

All of the above puts tremendous momentum in and around collaboration. It is why point-to-point collaboration tools have taken off, and group video tools are all the rage. Unfortunately, not all the team members can be available to keep themselves in the loop, and they will have to scramble to stay pertinent and on point. Imagine a result-oriented approach that prioritizes the critical content and messages under one roof.

Net; Net:

The need for speedy and innovative solutions is driving organizations towards results-oriented communication infrastructures that share meta-data, data, and traditional messaging methods. We are moving away from unguided point-to-point communications that create tangles and confusion to result-oriented communications that share messages, content, and data under a unified infrastructure—all of this synchronized communication leads to a shared pathway to results. The days of "willy-nilly" communications are numbered. Watch this space for more on results-oriented communications, especially in this hybrid work environment ushered in by COVID.