Spontaneity, Perfect Hybrid, and Visibility Traps

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    Welcome to this week’s Remote Work Tips Newsletter! Each week we drop a remote work tip video, a work-from-anywhere insight, and a recommendation to discover more about remote work.

    If you work in a hybrid setting, is there an optimal number of days per week to work in an office? Of course, this is highly situational. However, there are some clues to be found, and they come from the nature of the type of work employees do as individuals and in teams. Dr. Gleb Tsipursky (who will be a guest on a future episode of our remote work podcast) has looked into this in some detail, something he covers in his very interesting book – Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams. Most of us do a combination of work that is naturally suited to be done in isolation (what we at BillionMinds call “me” time) and work that is naturally suited to be done in the company of others (what we call “we” time). Interestingly according to the work of Dr. Tsipursky and others, most of us spend the vast majority of time doing the former type of work, and the split can be as high as 90:10.

    You can maximize the 90% by working at a place that is most conducive for focusing, which is often away from the office, but how do you maximize the 10%? Well for some teams this DOES mean gathering together as a group, so team members should agree on days where everyone who can be in a shared space, and all team members should focus on collaborative work at that time. Dr. Tsipursky’s work suggests that in the majority of circumstances, this is no more than 1 day per week. If you do this well as a team you should see individual and team productivity increase dramatically.

    What if you are 100% remote? Well, actually the principle still applies. For example, you may agree on a day each week which is focused on collaboration, put team meetings on those days, and perhaps have open ad hoc working sessions where cameras are on in the background and interruptions are encouraged. By separating the “me time” and “we time” in this way, you can get more done overall.

    Recommendation

    If you work at least some time out of the office, it means you are spending at least some of that time online, even if your audience is your colleagues in the office. That can make you vulnerable to something called “The Visibility Trap”. Our latest blog post called – Avoiding the Visibility Trap in the Remote Workplace examines this, and looks at how to maintain the right level of visibility in your workplace. Check it out!

    Remote Work Tip: Getting Spontaneous in Hybrid or Remote Teams

    Video Length: 107 Seconds

    Plenty of serendipity happens in the online world, but strangely many of us find it hard to create these types of spontaneous interactions in remote or hybrid work settings. Innovation is a key driver in almost every business, so it’s important to ensure that you create spontaneous interactions between employees. Here’s a simple, low tech idea that can help you accomplish just that.

    About Us

    The Remote Work Tip Newsletter is brought to you each week by BillionMinds. BillionMinds helps employees develop the skills they need to do great work outside of the office, and become certified as Remote Work Professionals. For more information, visit us at www.billionminds.com.