Remote work was on the rise long before the COVID pandemic hit. The trend was already towards greater flexibility and mobility in how we do our jobs. So, it’s no big surprise that there are some obvious short-term changes in the workplace: more hybrid work teams, ubiquitous webcams (along with the accompanying “Zoom fatigue”) and confusion about what the office should look … [Read more...]
Effective Collaboration on a Hybrid Team
by Kevin Eikenberry One of the reasons some organizations give for their decision to bring everyone back to the office is “we need collaboration.” In fact, after “we need to be together for our culture” (I’ve dispelled that myth in this post) it is the second most common concern about a hybrid workplace. Hybrid team collaboration is possible, if we are willing to think … [Read more...]
Finding the Right People to Work for Your Hybrid Team
It’s one thing to have an existing team change the way they work. But what about bringing new people into the fold on a hybrid team? Most of the focus on returning to work has been on getting your existing team members to work together in more of a hybrid way. Not everyone is going to be back in the office five days a week. Some will, others will be remote most of the time, … [Read more...]
How Do You Define Your Team?
by Kevin Eikenberry It seems like a pretty simple question – how do you define your team? Most leaders would immediately describe or list their direct reports. Most teammates would list their immediate co-workers. Then ask people to think about their working relationships and they will think about that same list of people – the people on “their team." That is … [Read more...]
Inventing Fire and Getting People to Use Teams
Humans have a love-hate relationship with technology. We curse the need to be tethered to email and Slack for work while not being able to avoid our personal screens for more than a few minutes at a time. Everyone complains about the tools they have at their disposal, but shudder at the thought of learning even one more software package or remembering another password. As we … [Read more...]