I wonder how much has been written and discussed over the past 18 months relating to hybrid working or asynchronous working or virtual working – or whatever term we use this week to describe working in a distributed way!

Very few of us worked in one of those ways above before the pandemic but it’s amazing how many “Experts” there are in this area. It seems like we all have an opinion on the best way of working like this these days which is not a surprise given the huge shift we have seen.

There are case studies, blogs, reports, videos on how your company should work in a hybrid way and conduct itself give these “new times” we find ourselves in. Do it this way, it works, or don’t do this as it will never work. Problem is every company is different. Different people, different contexts, different set ups, different cultures.

It reminds me of the Spotify model that is always seen as the go-to example for working in a more Agile way for your organisation. Tons of people seem to try to adopt the Spotify model because it worked at Spotify, even though Spotify themselves explain this is what worked for us… it might not work for you though…

Of course, understanding what is working for others is important and helps people try out ideas and concepts, but finding what works for you is the most important thing. Distributed, asynchronous working may be terrible for your company and people, and that’s okay to admit. Not everywhere lends itself to hybrid working. What is pretty certain is that hybrid working is increasing and the demand is there to build on where we are now.

CMC has gone through several iterations of what this will look like for us and our customers and being able to provide our staff and customers with the best virtual experience possible. It’s not easy, not being in person, using Teams/Soom,  talking over each other, some with videos on, some with videos off… there is a lot to think about.

As a company we were in a fortunate position. We had planned a digital transformation just prior to COVID becoming a thing (more luck than judgement on our part if we are honest) but we knew we needed to change our digital footprint, and thank goodness we did. Office 365 proved invaluable, however the learning curve for even the most digital savvy staff was steep.

We recognised the benefits of the digital transformation fairly quickly and saw it as a huge opportunity. This is still early days and we are learning constantly. We knew in order to deliver remote change consultancy, we would have to really knuckle down and make it engaging. We started using tools like MURAL, Whiteboard, Mentimeter, VideoScribe, Powtoon, Canva….(the list goes on) to find out what would give us and our customers the best experience possible.

We haven’t cracked this by a long stretch, but we have pushed forward and are getting better with every engagement and opportunity that presents itself.

This blog tees up the next where I will explore how we are conducting virtual change in a hybrid environment…

By Mick Brian, Head of Change & Transformation at CMC Partnership Consultancy Ltd