Experiment to Exactitude: Making Hybrid Work, Work

Experiment to exactitude

Hybrid work is reshaping corporate culture, leadership, and collaboration. At the Shure Rose Experience Centre, technology leaders discussed biases, workplace design and strategies for successful hybrid models.

Hybrid work has become one of the defining topics of the corporate world. Few others inspire such spirited debate across so many linked elements. Work- and home-place culture, productivity, employee engagement, work-life balance, team structure, leadership, collaboration and collaborative technology; all these and more are worthy of independent research and treatment. Which is, of course, why hybrid work is so complex a challenge to solve: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. 

Leaders are facing objective realities in terms of organisation size and sector, office space and design, and hybrid working practices. They are also contending with subjective, or hidden, factors, such as power dynamics and behaviour, bias, and, yes, even the personality of their CEO. At the same time, the industry is moving at breakneck speed to capitalise on generative AI whilst attempting agility in the face of geopolitical headwinds. 

Finally, each leaders’ version of hybrid work is unique. Leaders learn what they can from their peers, and the rest through conscious experimentation and evolution. 

The results are more than worth it, however. Leaders who intentionally seek to understand how their teams work, how that fits with the aims of the business, and clearly communicates the purpose of their hybrid working strategies alongside its technologies, processes and people, will pull ahead of peers, at a critical time for global business.

At the Shure Rose Experience Centre, a select group of technology leaders came together with HotTopics and Shure to debate how to do this. They explored the nuances of hybrid work, discussing biases, leadership perspectives and strategies to create an optimal balance between remote and in-office collaboration. Key insights from the discussions, interviews and panels shed light on the challenges and solutions organisations and its leaders face today.

Hybrid work: Overview

• The role of bias in shaping work culture
• The power of workplace design
• Leadership's role in driving change
• The human side of hybrid work
• The future of hybrid work
• Closing thoughts

1. The role of bias in shaping work culture

One of the central themes discussed was cognitive biases that influence workplace policies and cultures. After hearing from CEO, Author, and leading behavioural psychologist Nuala Walsh, we learned that many organisations have hesitated to fully embrace hybrid models due to confirmation bias. In this context, it is the belief that remote work is inherently less effective simply because that is the prevailing opinion. However, data often fails to support this assumption, and leaders must rely on both instinct and evidence to determine what works best for their teams.

Key takeaways:

• Hybrid work challenges conventional norms, requiring leaders to reevaluate assumptions; that does not make it bad for business.
• Biases such as status quo bias (preference for familiar methods) hinder innovation and change.
• Companies must be data-informed but not blindly driven by flawed metrics.

2. The power of workplace design

Some leaders emphasised that workplace design that puts the team member first significantly impacts engagement and collaboration. Industry insiders have dubbed this ‘human-centric office design’. Many organisations have attempted to lure employees back with perks like on-site dining, gyms, and social spaces. However, physical spaces alone are insufficient—the real driver is team culture and purpose-driven collaboration. And once there, the trick for leaders is to continually remind employees of the benefits of the office; in one example, employees forget how much they like an in-person team meets within one week.

Pragmatically speaking, business continues wherever we have worked. As Nick Bloom, a Stanford economist, wrote: “Work from home works.” Just over a quarter of paid work days are now worked from home, compared with about 7 percent pre-pandemic. 

Notable examples:

• Google’s London office: Free gourmet meals and well-designed communal spaces encourage spontaneous interactions.
• A Japanese bank’s hybrid floor: Modular spaces allow employees to switch between private work and open collaboration.
• Netherlands teaching hospital: Advanced virtualised surgical education enables students to observe real-time procedures remotely.

Key takeaways:

• Simply building attractive office spaces does not guarantee attendance.
• Companies should align workplace design with a ‘human-centric approach’ that prioritises the actual needs of employees.
• Hybrid models must balance structured collaboration with flexibility to maintain morale.

3. Leadership’s role in driving change

The way leadership frames hybrid work directly influences adoption and success. During the working lunch component of the afternoon, leaders shared reflections on their own teams’ engagement with the last five years of mixed messaging. Confusion stymies innovation—and impacts mood. In fact, team mood or emotions were mentioned at different parts of the lunchtime discussions. 

One engineering services organisation, we heard, had brought people back into the office wholesale to good effect, only for merely a week later employees to have “forgotten” these positive feelings, having to be reminded at a later stage. When they were reminded, the uptake to return jumped. It was a powerful reminder for leadership on how emotion, mood and memory work to shape cultural habits, as discussed by former professional rugby player Ross Neal, now Founder of The Culture Chain, has explained separately. Leaders can be far more proactive in shaping team mood than they believe, and a better culture can be built on top of that foundation.

On top of mood, clarity was another key lesson.

Organisations with clear, purpose-driven policies foster trust and engagement, as we heard from the CIO of AXA, while unclear diktats create friction.

At AXA, for instance, leadership introduced smart working policies, categorising employees into:

1. Office-based roles (requiring physical presence);
2. Hybrid roles (flexible office attendance);
3. Location-independent workers (fully remote);
4. Home workers (contractually remote but may visit offices).

Key takeaways:

• Leaders should clearly define hybrid policies instead of relying on informal agreements.
• Employee well-being and autonomy must be factored into work arrangements.
• Hybrid work success depends on trust, not micromanagement: experimentation risks failure but is the only proven method for innovation, too.

4. The human side of hybrid work

One often overlooked aspect is the psychological and social effects of hybrid work. Employees working remotely sometimes miss casual office interactions, which can impact morale and innovation. But if forced to come to an office to simply collaborate on virtual calls, many teams question the validity of new policies.

Employees should be able to engage with their responsibilities on their own terms, within the parameters of their employer. It is a fine balance. Some organisations, like Salesforce, have created structured “team agreements” to establish when and why employees should gather in person.

Key takeaways:

• Hybrid work should balance social or collaborative engagement with focused individual work.
• Companies must ensure virtual interactions feel as natural as in-person conversations, most likely with new technologies such as that of Microsoft AI features across its Teams products.
• High quality video and audio are needed to maintain the hybrid experience across virtual and in-person teams; it also means new tools such as Microsoft Co-Pilot can be better utilised.
• Employees should have a say in when and how they engage with the office.

5. The future of hybrid work

As organisations experiment and refine hybrid strategies, standardised best practices may emerge. Some experts predict an ISO-like certification for hybrid workplaces, ensuring minimum standards for flexibility, employee well-being, and productivity.

Trends to watch:

• Smarter hybrid models: AI-powered scheduling tools may optimise team collaboration, or engagement.
• Evolving leadership approaches: Managers must develop new skills to lead remote teams effectively.
• Increased regulatory considerations: Companies may need to adjust employment contracts to reflect new work realities.

Closing thoughts

Hybrid work is not a temporary experiment or a hard problem simply in need of a firm hand. It is an evolving model requiring continuous adaptation and learning. The most successful organisations are those that embrace its flexibility while maintaining a strong sense of community and purpose, and enjoying the fruits of many of the positive aspects of our advancing technological innovations.