‘HYBRID WORK’ IS NOT TWO KINDS OF WORK

Return to office? Stay at home? Increasingly, companies are choosing both—going with a hybrid model that’s viewed as a compromise between old and new. But to do it right, you must treat it as a radical reimagining of how we work.

- GLEB TSIPURSKY

By the end of this year, 39% of all global knowledge workers will be hybrid workers. That’s a forecast from Gartner, and it’s more than just a statistic; it’s a harbinger of a seismic shift in our work culture.

Some business leaders may mistake this trend as a partial return to “the way it was.” But that is shortsighted. The hybrid model isn’t just “old office life” for half the week, and it also isn’t a free-form, work-from-home life for half the week. To embrace the hybrid work model means reimagining the very fabric of our work environment. The pandemic taught us that work is not a place you go; it’s something you do—so the office must now serve as a hub for collaboration and innovation, not a factory for rote tasks.

I’m a business consultant who has helped over two dozen companies adopt hybrid work models, and I get plenty of pushback from managers who are used to “management by walking around.” But in the hybrid world, leadership will require a more nuanced understanding of remote team dynamics, and a focus on results rather than hours spent at a desk.