The Great Hybrid Work Productivity Puzzle

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by Gleb Tsipursky0 views·Updated Jul 15, 2024
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Global productivity decline may trace back to forced return-to-office policies eroding trust and autonomy, hindering the symbiotic relationship between trust and productivity. That's the key take-away message of this episode of the Wise Decision Maker Show, which talks about the great hybrid work productivity puzzle. This article forms the basis for this episode: https://disasteravoidanceexperts.com/the-great-hybrid-work-productivity-puzzle/ 📧 Make sure to register for the FREE Wise Decision Maker Course and get a FREE copy of the "Assessment on Dangerous Judgment Errors in the Workplace" as part of the first course module https://disasteravoidanceexperts.com/subscribe/ 📖 Check out Dr. Gleb Tsipursky's latest books: "Returning to the Office and Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams: A Manual on Benchmarking to Best Practices for Competitive Advantage" is available at https://disasteravoidanceexperts.com/hybrid/ "Never Go With Your Gut: How Pioneering Leaders Make the Best Decisions and Avoid Business Disasters" is available at https://disasteravoidanceexperts.com/nevergut "The Blindspots Between Us: How to Overcome Unconscious Cognitive Bias and Build Better Relationships" is available at https://disasteravoidanceexperts.com/blindspots The Wise Decision Maker Show is produced by Disaster Avoidance Experts and Dr. Gleb Tsipursky https://disasteravoidanceexperts.com/wdmg/ 👉🏻 Let's Connect! Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DrGlebTsipursky/ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-gleb-tsipursky-89ab4b23/ Twitter https://twitter.com/gleb_tsipursky Instagram https://www.instagram.com/dr_gleb_tsipursky/ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClfR0oE9ZbMtvxkDOCR89nA Spreaker https://www.spreaker.com/show/wise-decision-maker-show Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/wise-decision-maker-show/id1558000276

Audio TranscriptAuto-generated

  1. Hello,
  2. everyone and welcome to another episode of the Wise Decision Maker Show
  3. where we help you make the wisest and most profitable decisions.
  4. My name is Doctor Gleb
  5. Ursy. I'm the CEO of disaster avoidance experts,
  6. the future of work consultancy that sponsors the Wise Decision Maker Show.
  7. And today we'll talk about the great hybrid work productivity puzzle
  8. and that has to do with a slowdown, serious slowdown in productivity.
  9. So the Institute for Corporate Productivity I four CPA
  10. report by them shows that us labor productivity hit a historic low of
  11. 1.1% from 2019 to 2023 the worst drop in worker output since 1947.
  12. And
  13. the thing is it was rising from 2019 to 2021 and then it
  14. went down.
  15. This is a serious drop.
  16. The problem isn't just in the US UK and
  17. Canada saw their weakest annual growth in productivity since 2013
  18. and the same thing in Australia.
  19. So we're seeing low productivity around the globe,
  20. what's going on?
  21. Well, global productivity is suffering and there are many theories that they can,
  22. can explain it.
  23. But the leading theory
  24. show suggests that it's a top down forced RT
  25. O policies that are the primary cause policies that
  26. aren't supported by workers that don't give flexibility and
  27. autonomy within a broader context of hybrid work.
  28. The policies undermine trust and autonomy
  29. and that is what make workers less productive.
  30. It's not simply the hybrid work itself. It's not simply the return to office itself.
  31. It's the undermining of trust and autonomy that are the problems.
  32. So let's talk about that.
  33. Now, there's a perception gap in productivity.
  34. So Microsoft studied hybrid work and it found that 87% of
  35. employees report being productive at work when they're at home.
  36. Whereas only 15% of leaders
  37. were confident that their workers were productive when they were
  38. working at home as opposed to from the office.
  39. So clearly, we see that
  40. there's a large perception of productivity
  41. differences and leaders report a lot of
  42. difficulty trusting their workers to be productive
  43. when the workers are working from home,
  44. whether it's full time remote or hybrid work, just when they're working from home,
  45. leaders have difficulty trusting workers to be productive.
  46. So as they return to policies are enforced, what do employees feel
  47. they feel not trusted naturally? And indeed the leaders don't trust them
  48. and employees feel resentful about not being trusted.
  49. And that causes a backlash against the return
  50. to office mandates that are tapped down,
  51. not based on worker buying and trust.
  52. So when you see these terms of employment,
  53. around return to office change abruptly trust really erodes.
  54. That's why the rapid return to office mandates
  55. have really faced a lot of opposition,
  56. for example,
  57. consider what happened with Amazon suddenly
  58. very quickly reversing its flexible policy of
  59. teams doing what they want to announce a free day in office policy.
  60. That was a very quick, very abrupt shift.
  61. And thousands of Amazon workers walked out in protest of this mandated office
  62. return policy on the first day when the office return policy was enacted.
  63. So let's talk about. So that's an example.
  64. And there are many,
  65. many other examples of companies that have not worked
  66. out well with the return to office policy.
  67. So let's talk about what actually fuels productivity.
  68. And the key thing is trust, trusting workers, trust workers, trusting each other,
  69. trusting employees.
  70. This is key trust is the visible fuel of productivity.
  71. So
  72. this is something that we need to realize the I FOUR
  73. CP report showed a clear correlation between trust and productivity,
  74. high performance firms prioritized both the what
  75. of goal achievement and how they're achieved.
  76. They cultivate a culture of trust by offering
  77. flexibility and considering the needs of their staff.
  78. Let's talk about what trust involves. There are five key elements here,
  79. five key elements. One is senior leaders, trust, employees,
  80. managers, trust their team members,
  81. managers are trusted by their team members,
  82. employees trust their team members, their fellow team members.
  83. And finally, senior leadership team is trusted by employees
  84. and firms saw an 18% productivity rise in these elements post pandemic.
  85. So let's talk about what that means
  86. and what the gap is.
  87. There is a clear trust gap between high and low performing firms,
  88. high performing firms were more likely to agree with the five trust statements
  89. by a factor of 3 to 11%.
  90. So employees, there were more likely to agree with these statements
  91. for among low performers,
  92. only 2% strongly agree that senior leaders trust employees
  93. and a mere 3% said employees trust leaders.
  94. By contrast,
  95. high performers had 11% were more likely to
  96. strongly agree that leaders and employees trust each other
  97. so much much, much more a huge difference over an order of magnitude.
  98. The absence of trust is a breeding ground for toxicity.
  99. So trust boosts productivity but the absence of trust
  100. really undermines productivity and just creates a toxic culture.
  101. So the I FOUR CP study reveals that those who describe toxic cultures are
  102. 16% more likely to cite lack of trust in senior leaders as a serious issue
  103. and they're 10% more likely to report
  104. an unsafe environment for expressing their opinions.
  105. What about the healthy organizational culture? What does that involve
  106. that is marked by the presence of strong
  107. trust indicators include leaders who lead by example,
  108. as opposed to just giving orders and not behaving
  109. in accordance with their own words,
  110. accountability for employee outcomes,
  111. not how employees do things but really the
  112. outcomes regular communication of firm values and immediately addressing
  113. what is defined as poor behavior.
  114. So you want to align, going back to the office return,
  115. you want to align employee needs with the office return trust is not a nice to have.
  116. It's a must have organizational success
  117. and the return to office mandate without considering employee
  118. needs and getting their buy in really undermines trust.
  119. So the key is to maintain flexibility,
  120. foster culture of trust and that's what leads productivity to flourish naturally.
  121. No,
  122. let's talk a little bit about autonomy
  123. that is crucial for flex for productivity as well.
  124. So we have trust and we have autonomy
  125. and autonomy catalyzes productivity for catalyzing trust
  126. if you don't give people autonomy, of course,
  127. that is an indication of lack of trust that people feel mistrusted
  128. and they will not like it.
  129. So autonomy, we have research showed sparks creativity and fosters innovation.
  130. So the I four CP report shows that productive
  131. firms grant high levels of autonomy to their teams.
  132. Autonomy is closely tried to trust.
  133. And of course,
  134. like we talked about autonomy helps cultivate trust and influences productivity.
  135. In fact, it explains 15%
  136. of the variability difference in productivity, which is a pretty huge amount.
  137. Imagine if your firm could be 15% more productive
  138. autonomy and trust are thus vital for both innovation
  139. and productivity. Innovative companies offer both flexibility and autonomy.
  140. Teams and individuals
  141. are able to choose the right work model for their roles.
  142. So teams are able to figure out and collaborate
  143. with their individual team members to figure out what works
  144. best for each team mandating officer turns is something that
  145. diminishes autonomy and trust and that hampers organizational progress.
  146. So let's compare organizational approaches to autonomy.
  147. The I four CP report highlights serious differences in autonomy levels.
  148. High performing organizations offer high levels of autonomy
  149. to individuals at 77% and teams at 82%
  150. but lower performing organizations lag behind,
  151. they offer autonomy to individuals at only 58% and teams at only 62%.
  152. So clearly much less autonomy offered.
  153. So
  154. the future of work is going to belong to companies that have high autonomy,
  155. trust and flexibility.
  156. The forced officer turn is really like fitting a square peg into a round hole.
  157. It's not going to work out well for you so
  158. strongly rethink your workplace strategy
  159. to boost productivity through autonomy,
  160. trust and flexibility, which are should be top priorities.
  161. Let employees working together as part of a team,
  162. choose their work environment and get employee buying to call the big trust.
  163. You want to give autonomy for team decisions regarding in office,
  164. work time and have the teams figure out what works best for each team.
  165. All right, everyone.
  166. I hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Wise Decision Maker Show.
  167. Please make sure to subscribe wherever you checked out the show
  168. and please leave a review. It helps others discover the show and helps us improve.