“I don’t want to go back there. I don’t want to go back there”, he cried on the first day of school. “But you have to,” she insisted. “Why? No one talks to me. They all hate me. They won’t miss me at all,” he moaned. “You must go back to school. You’re the principal!”, she said. This is an old joke that suddenly seems very relevant for business and other leaders as they contemplate a return to the physical workplace in amid our nervous co-existence with Covid, even if we have not defeated it as yet. At the moment, this return to work seems to be partial for most organizations, departments and teams here in Rwanda and across the world. For example, one municipal agency has two teams and one of them spends a week in the office and then a week at home while the other one does the opposite. Surveys have shown that many workers around the globe are generally happy with such flexible, ‘hybrid’ arrangements as they can continue to juggle their professional and personal responsibilities at home; begin to travel again; and satisfy more of their needs for social affiliation, intelligence-gathering, manager guidance, direct feedback, and career networking in the office. But for leaders, this can be a mixed blessing as they try to balance such seeming polarities as control and trust; structure and flexibility; speed and consensus: How do I maintain control and oversight over the whole team’s vision, objectives and milestones while trusting everyone to ask for what they need and do what they need to do with varying levels of supervision? How do I create and impose a new sense of structure, routine and order for my team as a whole while giving each individual the freedom and flexibility to manage their own work goals, schedules, flows and deadlines? How do decisions get prioritized, finalized and implemented in an efficient and timely way while allowing for team consultation, input and brainstorming of new, creative solutions? Context will clearly determine how each leader can find balance in each of these dilemmas but a common key to answering all of these questions is conscious, clear, concise and consistent communication within the team and with each individual team member. For example, how will leaders plan and facilitate hybrid all-staff or full team meetings now? How will they ensure that everyone feels included and every voice is literally heard in these meetings? Let’s assume that for an important meeting, there are 10 people in the office, six people working from home and three people out in the field or on a work trip to another city or country. Most leaders would try to muddle through this complexity by organizing a hybrid meeting in which the 10 office workers would gather around a conference room table and interact via audio or preferably video conference with their nine remote colleagues, who are each calling in on their individual mobile phones, laptops or desktops. Even if technology is working perfectly – which is certainly not always the case – remote workers frequently report that with such a set up, they feel excluded or sidelined from the main conversation around the table in the office where team members can see each other and respond to each other much easier and quicker. This feeling of being left out may be reinforced by something as simple as why did everyone laugh all of a sudden? What did I miss? This sense of exclusion can certainly be mitigated if leaders employ such ‘conscious communication’ techniques as: Co-creating a detailed agenda, with an up-to-date roster of invited participants and appropriate pre-work/reading for everyone Pre-assigning specific tasks to remote team members, such as providing a brief oral project update by phone while a colleague in the office advances the PowerPoint slides for them on screen Asking office workers around the table to identify themselves by name every time that they speak to their remote colleagues, especially if there are new remote team members Reminding each team member to speak slowly and clearly with a minimum of slang, colloquialisms, etc., especially if there are remote workers, who are not native speakers of the predominant language of the meeting Following up quickly with essential notes from the meeting, plus brief, specific action items with who will do what by when But there is one somewhat counter-intuitive way that leaders can ensure that everyone is fully included every time: scattering everyone. Office workers may object but even if there is only one team member who is not in the office, that means that no one in the physical workplace gathers around the big table. Instead, every office worker calls in from their own phone and their own space in their private office, their cubicle, in their car or even in the car park or parking lot. Or in the words of my colleague, Sue Brightman, “One remote, all remote”. Try it and see how it works! The views expressed in this column are entirely those of the writer who can be reached at jeremy@jeremysolomons.com editor@newtimesrwanda.com
