As the pandemic begins to ease, many companies Now is the time, as you reimagine the postpandemic are planning a new combination of remote and organization, to pay careful attention to the effect on-site working, a hybrid virtual model in which of your choices on organizational norms and culture. some employees are on premises, while others work Focus on the ties that bind your people together. from home. The new model promises greater access Pay heed to core aspects of your own leadership to talent, increased productivity for individuals and and that of your broader group of leaders and small teams, lower costs, more individual flexibility, managers. Your opportunity is to fashion the hybrid and improved employee experiences. virtual model that best fits your company, and let it give birth to a new shared culture for all your While these potential benefits are substantial, employees that provides stability, social cohesion, history shows that mixing virtual and on-site identity, and belonging, whether your employees working might be a lot harder than it looks—despite are working remotely, on premises, or in some its success during the pandemic. Consider how combination of both. Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer ended that company’s remote-working experiment in 2013, observing that the company needed to become “one Yahoo!” again, Cutting the ties that bind or how HP Inc. did the same that year. Specific If you happen to believe that remote work is no reasons may have varied. But in each case, the threat to social ties, consider the experience of downsides of remote working at scale came to Skygear.io, a company that provides an open- outweigh the positives. source platform for app development. Several years ago, Skygear was looking to accommodate several These downsides arise from the organizational new hires by shifting to a hybrid remote-work norms that underpin culture and performance— model for their 40-plus-person team. The company ways of working, as well as standards of behavior soon abandoned the idea. Team members who and interaction—that help create a common culture, didn’t come to the office missed out on chances to generate social cohesion, and build shared trust. To strengthen their social ties through ad hoc team lose sight of them during a significant shift to virtual- meals and discussions around interesting new working arrangements is to risk an erosion over the tech launches. The wine and coffee tastings that long term of the very trust, cohesion, and shared built cohesion and trust had been lost. Similarly, culture that often helps remote working and virtual GoNoodle employees found themselves at virtual collaboration to be effective in the short term. happy hour longing for the freshly remodeled offices they had left behind at lockdown. “We had It also risks letting two organizational cultures this killer sound system,” one employee, an extrovert emerge, dominated by the in-person workers and who yearns for time with her colleagues, told the managers who continue to benefit from the positive New York Times. “You know—we’re drinking coffee, elements of co-location and in-person collaboration, or maybe, ‘Hey, want to take a walk?’ I miss that.”1 while culture and social cohesion for the virtual Successful workplace cultures rely on these kinds of workforce languish. When this occurs, remote social interactions. That’s something Yahoo!’s Mayer workers can soon feel isolated, disenfranchised, and recognized in 2013 when she said, “We need to be unhappy, the victims of unintentional behavior in an one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being organization that failed to build a coherent model of, together,” having the “interactions and experiences and capabilities for, virtual and in-person work. The that are only possible” face-to-face, such as sense of belonging, common purpose, and shared “hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new identity that inspires all of us to do our best work people, and impromptu team meetings.”2 gets lost. Organizational performance deteriorates accordingly. 1 Clive Thompson, “What if working from home goes on … forever?,” New York Times, June 9, 2020, nytimes.com. 2 Kara Swisher, “‘Physically together’: Here’s the internal Yahoo no-work-from-home memo for remote workers and maybe more,” All Things Digital, February 22, 2013, allthingsd.com. 44 What now? Ten actions to emerge stronger in the next normal September 2020