The Future of Work is already Hybrid.
The Way of a Hybrid Agency: There is greater value in work that empowers people and allows them to decide where the organization is going. Now it's time to design practices for the new working pace.
Disruption is rarely embraced by anyone. Disruptive events bear a degree of destruction, loss, and irreversible transformation, outside our control. Yet, their effect can sometimes be life-changing for the better. The truth is, we do not choose the scale of disruption or the speed at which it spirals. But, we can choose how we approach tackling complex problems like hybrid work. Disruption creates an opportunity to question what we have taken for granted for so long. And that is one of a kind opportunity.
We need to pay more attention to the trendy term "hybrid work," because it is just the tip of the iceberg. Underneath it, there are growing concerns on the effects of automation, urgent needs for upskilling, socio-economic shifts, refugee crisis, climate change, environmental chaos, and indigenous integration. It isn't about what we will do in case another global pandemic happens, but how we can better manage the complexity of our society and our relationship to the environment.
Hybrid work is not a solution but a way to better understand people's needs without downplaying their circumstances. The beginning of a more conscious way to do business starts here. By understanding possibility, flexibility, differences, and not converging and reducing the world's complexity for short-term or localized benefits at the expense of others, hybrid work pertains to the diverse many, as opposed to the similar few.
We are entering the age of agency which implies establishing a better relationship between our human agency and organizational dynamics. So, how do we do it? By diving into the heart of a problem, prepared to learn and change our minds before we are ready to build anew.
The heart of the problem
On the surface, disruption might come off as a one-off event. But for designers, changemakers, and strategists, disruption is a process. The opportunity to innovate emerges in the process, but it requires a committed, creative hand in the game.
Doing things differently has proven to be the main requirement during the pandemic. Going back to normal or the "new normal" are attempts to simplify how we treat disruption. We shouldn't think of it as a local event to reduce our discomfort sprouting from the unknown. If we can't "fix" the world, we can, at least, think differently about how we want to work in the future.
What disruptors do well is a useful lesson for everyone because the world will likely become more and more disrupted going forward. The new ways of working that emerged during the pandemic transformed many businesses. Our economic models are not yet compatible with the ongoing transition. Still, we must begin to think about hybrid work and beyond as these new models will affect many organizations to their core.
Prepared to change our minds (the future of work)
The need to rethink how we work was there all along. But there was no urgency, so we just ignored it. Then, the urgency suddenly emerged as everyone adopted new routines and priorities. The pandemic heightened the tension between people and their jobs for long enough so that it became obvious that the change was long overdue. And people began to question their values. We entered on a new path, influenced by a few emerging trends:
#1. Parting ways with uniformity
Uniformity and super-specialized work is no longer an option for the masses. With the ongoing automation, many workers are losing their jobs to machines. This is a general worry. Automation disrupts the job market because it enables cheaper and faster mass production and digitalizes tasks requiring human involvement. These benefits, however, trigger over-production, waste, and big environmental issues.
At the same time, society is confronted with phenomena like the Great Resignation, which expresses the value shift of well-being and quality time over hard work that comes with little or no freedom to grow. Compromising with a very narrow scope and job description is quickly becoming a thing from the past.
The possibility of remote work became a necessity overnight. This, too, is an ongoing disruptive process that happens in parallel with automation. Some people fear losing their jobs; others feel they are better off without their jobs. The polarized spectrum has massive consequences. When we don't understand the scale and the scope of disruption, a crisis surfaces. It is a very complex problem that demands a systemic approach, not a patchwork of desperate measures.
We are taking small steps in rethinking our superhuman power in terms of creativity and empathy. But, we must continue further. We need to develop more creative solutions that will make work meaningful – not daunting. If we are hired to do a job in the future, what will that be?
#2. The one-size-fits-all model is outdated
Remote work is by no means a solution for every kind of work. But in recent months, it has proven fairly effective and appealing to many people and in many circumstances. One of the most common concerns now is how companies embed it in their routines once the pandemic is over.
Employees are changing their lifestyles, and many prefer to work remotely than go for a full-time office job. As long as we have the digital space available, why shouldn't we make good use of it?
On one side, critics like Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon called remote work "an aberration that we are going to correct as soon as possible." The negative attitude towards remote work leads to friction between employees and the organization. However, having a sense of structure alongside clear work-life separation is a good thing. Many companies have hierarchies with clear roles and responsibilities. The company culture may incline towards preserving the boundaries between work and free time, so employees don't feel stressed and pressured by the mix. If they agree with the structure, then it is a win-win.
On the other side of the spectrum, many companies recognize that their employees could benefit from remote work, building on the flexibility and self-organization that comes with it. PwC is one of the leaders embracing the trend. About 40,000 of their employees who are teleworkers will have the opportunity to work virtually anywhere in the continental US. Their new policy aims to offer a permanent work-from-anywhere option that could help create a more inclusive culture and equity, closing the pay gap for discriminated groups.
#3. "Employee" becomes a loosely defined term
Perhaps the biggest shift in the mindset is realizing that employers "need" employees too, not just the other way around. With enough diversity on the job market, people don't have to sacrifice what matters to them the most and take their time to find a workplace that will comply with their need for flexibility and personal fulfillment.
Society is beginning to override the inflexibility of industrial times and prioritize other aspects of the work. Based on a recent study, for 3 out of 5 working adults, flexibility is one of the most important factors. When deciding what company to work for, they are even willing to accept a lower salary.
Ready to rebuild anew (new hybrid models of working)
We see the current disruption as a great opportunity to improve work, making room for hybrid models that help organizational transformation alongside people growth. There are two important stages in the process:
#1 Re-designing workspaces
The debate has been ongoing for decades, but many companies still struggle to define what a hybrid workspace means to them. A culture that is not built around trust, but delivering results within predictable frameworks, will struggle to create what employees now value:
If management's choice is to trade productivity for supervision, remote work is a challenging set-up to manage teams.
If businesses have extensions in digital scape (spatial re-configuration of work), management and organization in a hybrid mode are possible. Communication, however, is key.
The change is very systemic, which comes with an expected degree of resistance. So we need to learn more about the ties between space, work, and organization, if we want to make the right changes for us and our teams.
Spatial re-configuration of work requires company culture and organizational structure to become compatible with more fluid and digital interactions independent from the type of work. Having a narrow vision of what these hybrid workspaces mean is detrimental to creating more meaningful work.
"Hybrid workspaces are not simply relocated or dislocated, but multiply located... The new ways of work seem to shift to a more flexible model, counting on the individual to take on more independent work, initiative, multitasking. Ideally, the organization may become 'an extremely loose web of individuals, capital and technologies' which may operate in amalgamation as the ultimate flexible organisational form."
The hybrid type of flexibility offers people the choice to attune differently to how they perform their workload. But it takes a real transformation to open up these new pathways. It isn't a simple task because it means treating employees differently, trusting them more, and allowing self-emergence. It is a culture transformation at its core. While there might be a valid point regarding work-life separation by structuring where people perform their duties, the power is when employees choose.
Take, for instance, coworking spaces that emerged long before the pandemic. They are meant to "combine the best parts of an office environment- community, collaboration and access to the right tools - with the benefits of working at home or working for yourself - convenience, flexibility, autonomy... The benefit of having community workspaces serve local communities by offering quiet spaces for locals to work alongside each other; unoffices encourage discussions, meetings, and social interactions and generally recreate the office dynamics for independent workers."
Dislocation or virtual working relies on technologies as the primary medium to perform work. In this case, space becomes less relevant as long as it provides an Internet connection and office equipment. So, of course, not all work "works" remotely, but that doesn't mean flexibility cannot exist. Increasing wages while shortening hours (4 days work week) is not a dream but a reality for many companies. The new working model shows early signs of success: companies see increased productivity, and employees are generally happier, making work better fitted in their lives.
#2 The Hybrid Agency
If we want to create an inclusive environment, it is time to rethink the new practices and how they truly affect people. Embracing diversity is not easy; being inclusive is even harder. Having an inclusive practice means opening a sphere of possibility for different people to have unique ways of engaging with their work. That leads us to "The Age of Agency," which implies establishing a better relationship between our human agency and organizational dynamics.
"Agency is a temporally embedded process of social engagement, informed by the past, oriented through evaluation of present toward future possibilities."
Priming an understanding of people's agency can help us design more inclusive work practices without reducing individual complexity. This approach is more enticing to workers because they can define their boundaries and capabilities as "agents" while exercising a sense of autonomy. But it requires a shift in the culture for companies to connect with diverse backgrounds and visions that align with collective creativity as an unbounded act.
Companies can better cope with the disruption than anticipate it centrally if the agency becomes a priority over content and occupation. And, the organization itself must take a form of an agency, a hybrid agency, that complements the human one.
"Hybrid agency thus presupposes as its context a long-term collaboration between two activity systems that preserve their identity in the collaboration and a platform that bridges the divergent activities and supports their coordination."
The road ahead is exciting, to say the least! Now it's the right time to design better working models. The creative effort we invest into the coming months will determine the flow of at least a few years' worth of change.
Bibliography:
The CEO Of Goldman Sachs Called Remote Work An Aberration—Here’s Why His Employees May Disagree by Robert Glazer (May, 2021) https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertglazer/2021/05/11/the-ceo-of-goldman-sachs-called-remote-work-an-aberration-heres-why-his-employees-may-disagree/?sh=23de10a62377
‘I quit’ is all the rage. Blip or sea change? Christina Pazzanese, The Harvard Gazette (October, 2021) https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/10/harvard-economist-sheds-light-on-great-resignation/
PwC announces nearly 40,000 U.S. employees can work remote from anywhere in the country by Jennifer Liu (October, 2021) https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/01/pwc-says-us-employees-can-work-from-anywhere-in-the-country.html
Employees Would Trade Pay for Flexible Workplace by Ned Smith (October 2021) https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/1419-flexible-workplace-options-survey.html
The Pandemic Has Given Birth To The Age Of Agency by Dan Pontefract (October 2021) https://www.forbes.com/sites/danpontefract/2021/10/26/the-pandemic-has-given-birth-to-the-age-of-agency/?sh=1a80026b4857
Coworking: A Transdisciplinary Overview by Julian Waters-Lynch, Jason Potts, Tim Butcher, Jago Dodson, Joe Hurley (February, 2016) http://www.ssrn.com/abstract=2712217
Hybrid Agency in Co-Configuration Work by Jaakko Virkkunen (Outlines Critical Practice Studies, 2006) https://www.academia.edu/30331324/Hybrid_Agency_in_Co_Configuration_Work
Hybrid workspace: re-spatialisations of work, organisation and management by Susan Halford (New Technology, Work and Employment, 2005) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-005X.2005.00141.x