Hybrid Working And Neuroscience Project – An Exciting Milestone
Our project began mid last year when one of my favourite clients asked us: “How do we do leadership team building in Hybrid Working?”
We’ve researched and worked with clients for the past 8 months drawing on the latest advanced work in Cognitive (thinking) and Social (interpersonal) Neuroscience.
The objective is to develop better models of what is really going on, in and between, the minds of people when they're in virtual and hybrid working situations.
Remember this truth: “All models are wrong, some are useful”. A model is only useful when it usefully represents reality but a model isn’t reality. (Umpire#1 thinks it's reality – see my previous post)
The purpose is to upgrade and add to our inherited models that are being made less and less useful by VUCA.
What have we found useful so far?
It is certain that visual senses play the most crucial role in the success of relationships, culture, and situations of uncertainty.
And language and hearing play the dominant role in the communication of knowledge, meaning and certainty.
Are there real challenges with hybrid working? “Yes, but it depends”. The challenges are complicated by organisations not knowing when or how it depends or the consequences.
The clarity on vision is – if hybrid is working for you, improving how much people can see each other will help.
If hybrid is not working, do everything humanly possible to increase how much people can see each other and change behaviour to increase how much people are willing to see each other. Especially in virtual meetings.
We’ve developed and tested a range of tools and knowledge on how to do this.
Imagine we knew 3 years ago what we know now, hybrid working would have been designed with all the knowledge available.
We know enough to make Hybrid Working an asset and fit for the future, not something we cope and live with.