Audrey Khusid, the Founder and CEO of Miro - a digital whiteboarding platform, mentioned that, based on his observations and the fact that their userbase has grown from 3.7M to 9M since March 2020 and is now used by 95% of Fortune 100 companies, he predicts and shares with Greg Nichols from ZDNet that an evolution of the changing workplace will happen, i.e., Work from Home (WFH) will become Work from Anywhere (WFX).
WFX Also Names “Hybrid Work”
To understand the future of work we must first understand Hybrid Work, as it builds and encompasses different software or hardware. Hybrid work aims to provide people with more flexibility to decision making power as to when and where to work. It offers benefits for employees to balance between work and personal lives, rather than having a specific and fixed time blocked out to work in the office. Another way to better describe the two ways of working would be structure and sociability vs independence and flexibility.
Working in a remote environment can have its benefits but also comes with a lot of challenges, with employee “Communication” being one of the toughest one to tackle. This includes educating, managing and adapting at both a team and company level.
Adapting To The Hybrid Work
In 1928, Dr. William Marston wrote the book "Emotions of Normal People". In this book, he introduced the DISC-model. This model sets the foundation of the World of Difference at MapsTell. With the DISC-model, Marston introduced a simple way for us to interpret and understand the differences in human behaviours. From his research, he theorized that the behavioural expression of emotions could be categorized into four primary types, stemming from the person's perceptions of self in relationship to their environment.
Here’s a very brief overview of the four types.
Ø Decisive - Confident, direct and motivated by power and success.
Ø Influential - Sociable and enthusiastic and motivated by group activities.
Ø Stable - Patient, loyal and motivated by appreciation and cooperation.
Ø Conscientious - Precise, analytical and motivated by attention to quality.
When we move into a world of remote working; the need for clear and efficient communication becomes much more important. Challenges like maintaining good relationships and morale between colleagues through social distancing continue to be a huge headache for most organizations. Yet, these are definitely problems that we hope to solve through learning and adapting to human behaviour.
Work Tips With Others Well For Hybrid Work
Ø People with high Decisive energy are probably excited by the new challenge of WFX but might experience challenges with their directness and assertiveness, especially in a remote setting where others can’t read their body language.
Tips - Schedule regular check-ins and maintain effective communication with the team. Use check-ins for status updates and also to see how your employees are doing on a more personal level. Find ways to show your care and celebrate accomplishments together.
Ø People with high Influential energy encourages open dialogue even in a virtual environment, they might face challenges when sometimes talking over them during video calls and might get distracted easily.
Tips - Allow your enthusiasm to show in the virtual world. Plan on how to handle possible distractions. Remember to take breaks. Find ways to stay engaged and encouraging with remote colleagues. Your verbal communication skills may come off stronger than writing, hence put in the extra effort to ensure that your writing is clear and easily understandable.
Ø People with high Stable energy are willing to put in extra effort to check-in and care for their team. Though they might sometimes feel hesitant to speak up and ask for clarity and support from others.
Tips - Take care of yourself. Find ways to connect with people in a social setting and as the supporter you already are. Saying “no” can be difficult for you but there may be times that it is necessary.
Ø People with high Conscientious energy are probably feeling comfortable when working alone without the distractions of others; they are at ease when they can set up their personalized workflow, procedures and ground rules. However, they might face the challenge of delaying delegation and forgot to check-in on others’ progress.
Tips - Remember that it’s OK to ask for help when you need it (ambiguity). Find ways to let others know that you care about them (empathy). Find innovative ways to connect with others and lock it in on your calendar.
Last but not the least, there are plenty of user-friendly apps nowadays to help you prioritize your work, connect with others and achieve goals together. Check out a few below, you might find something that can really change your day: Today Habit tracker; Success Coach - Life Planner; Any.do; Grid Diary - Journal, Planner.