THRIVING IN HYBRID TEAMS

Thanks for having me!

Thank you for inviting me to share my work on Hybrid Teams! This will be a challenging time to manage and lead in the public sector, but I’m optimistic that, with your leadership, hybrid arrangements can play a valuable role in the future of work. I’ve been working remotely for 7 years, but when I dove into the research to build our course on remote and hybrid teams, I learned much about what can go wrong. Our human psychology makes hybrid work challenging. The good news is that I’ve got lots of tips and techniques based on research.

RESOURCES

Cover Slide for Thriving in Hybrid Teams

SLIDES: Thriving in Hybrid Teams

Here’s a link to the slides from the session. 

La présentation

PRÉSENTATION: Prospérer dans les équipes hybrides

Voici un lien vers la présentation.

Picture of a newsletter showing a team around a table and talking with people over video

HYBRID TEAMS OVERVIEW: Liane’s Watercooler Psychology Newsletter

I devoted an entire issue of my LinkedIn newsletter to hybrid teams. There are plenty of tips and tools that you can share with your team. (While you’re there, check out my issues on Toxic Work Environments and Productive Conflict.)

Person collaborating with teammates in a virtual environment over a laptop
ARTICLE: Building Trust in Remote and Hybrid Teams
This article provides ideas on how to build trust at each of the four levels: connection, competence, reliability, and integrity. Building trust can be harder in a remote team but it’s worth it!  
Cover of Team Check In Exercises
Tool: 3COze Team Check-In Tools

As you’re trying to foster trust and strengthen the connection on your virtual or hybrid team, try one or more of these exercises to increase Mutual Knowledge.

Knowledge Sharing Guide
Tool: Unseen Work Exercise

Working remotely means hours spent laboring over tasks that can be physically, cognitively, and emotionally taxing. When you aren’t acknowledged for that effort, it can lead to resentment that is particularly toxic to virtual  or hybrid teams. Use this exercise to expose and address the unseen work on your team. 

Three teammates together talking with multiple teammates on a video call
TOOL: Office or Virtual?
Use this tool to determine whether your interaction would be best-suited to being in-person in the office or whether it’s a good candidate for your remote days. (Click the checklist to download.)
VIDEO: If your team is only together in the office on select days, how do you decide what goes on those precious office days and what can be done just as effectively when folks are remote? Here are the criteria you can use to decide what interactions should be a priority for office time.

Picture of Liane Talking

To create the conditions for behavior change, you need to get the heat level right. You don't want your team to be too comfy to care or two anxious to act.
TOOL: WR Communication Planner

This communication planner will help you clarify your intent and reduce the likelihood that your message will fall victim to negativity bias. 

2x2 grid of virtual collaboration technologies
ARTICLE: Are you using the right virtual collaboration tools? 
How to determine whether you need rich vs. lean and synchronous vs. asynchronous collaboration… and examples of each of the four collaboration technologies.
VIDEO: Having conflict productively is especially important on virtual and hybrid teams. That said, it’s easy to procrastinate an uncomfortable conversation when you don’t see one another all the time. Use these tips to have healthy conflict on your remote team. YouTube video on remote conflict
Three teammates together talking with multiple teammates on a video call
ARTICLE: How to Strengthen Connection on Remote and Hybrid Teams
Forging a strong hybrid team requires more than just being efficient and getting tasks done. Great hybrid teams complement the structured, on-task time with unstructured work time and also with structured and unstructured social time. 
List of 10 tips for better remote management

Reset Your Remote Management Approach

I have put together my best advice for how you can reset your management approach to be more effective with remote and hybrid teams. I have stuffed it full of research, advice, and practical tips to help you and your organization’s leaders to succeed in this environment. It also includes a link to the handy-dandy poster version.

2x2 grid of virtual collaboration technologies
ARTICLE: How to Stop Email from Being a Soul-Destroying Task
Improving your email is really critical when you’re on a hybrid team. This article will give you a few techniques to implement across your team in hopes of making email more efficient and effective. 
Diverse team of people

ARTICLE: Why Promoting Diversity is Hard for Teams
Diversity is absolutely critical to healthy teams, and yet it can make things more challenging in the short term. Diversity can make it harder to build trust. It’s worth it!

Phone showing the Slack app sitting on top of keyboard

ARTICLE: Are you using the right virtual collaboration tools?
Collaboration approaches can vary between rich and lean communication and between synchronous and asynchronous interaction. This guide will help you identify the right approach for the task at hand.

Thumbnail for How to Handle Conflicts with Your BossVIDEO: How do you speak truth to power without making yourself unnecessarily vulnerable? Here’s how.

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