The future is hybrid - the future is now.

🔮  A look into the crystal ball

I’m going to take a look into the crystal ball to see how our ways of working and collaborating will change. A word of warning first:

Back in 2001, renowned futurist Matthias Horx predicted: "The internet will not become a mass medium." And he was so wrong! What can we discern about the future of work today?

One thing is clear: the world of work is changing rapidly. A figure that illustrates the speed of this change well is the time it takes for the world's collective knowledge to double. MIT estimates that this currently happens every 70 days. Exponentially. Hard to imagine, right? International think tanks predict:

“By the end of this decade (2030), every second euro a company earns will come from a product or service that does not yet exist today.”

What does this mean?

Staying flexible and lifelong learning are the core competencies of the future. Offices are no longer planned for 10–20 years; they will be continuously adapted. However, one thing has been clear since the pandemic at the latest: work has become decoupled from location.

Work ≠ Location

Digitalization will continue to advance. Work is becoming more digital. The future is hybrid.

The Future Workforce Report by Upwork (UPWK) assumes that by 2028, 73% of all teams will be working in a hybrid model. In this context, hybrid means that employees collaborate from different locations—whether that’s the office and home office, or two different office locations.

This has consequences for communication, knowledge sharing, team building, and culture.

In recent years, the working world has been turned upside down. In response to the pandemic, many companies introduced remote and subsequently hybrid working. At first, it was a jump into the deep end.
👉 Now it is time to bring structure to these processes.

A question that many companies are currently asking themselves:

Does hybrid, digitized work have an impact on productivity? What is your impression? Is productivity rising? Is it falling?

There are studies from the OECD, Stanford University, and the EBS. They all say something different. Sometimes productivity increases in the home office, sometimes it decreases. Sometimes a 50:50 split is touted. What are we to make of these conflicting findings? 🥴

I believe this indicates that aspects other than the free choice of work location are more relevant when it comes to whether a team is productive or not: topics such as leadership, internal communication, or culture.

📡  Digital communication as the communicative backbone of hybrid teams

When working in hybrid teams, we need digital communication as a backbone that can and will be used by everyone involved. Asynchronous communication can provide team flexibility while increasing a sense of belonging; it can ensure knowledge sharing while simultaneously fostering serendipity. Because one thing is clear: hybrid teams will not function in the long run without effective digital communication! ❌
We need communication guidelines: which channel to use, and when to communicate digitally, in a hybrid format, or in person?

As long as we don't have functional team communication, we don't need to worry about many other issues, such as office attendance quotas.

🏢 Hybrid work also has an impact on the office:

If we look at the general functions of an office, they will continue to evolve. The office as a mere place of work, as a safe shell, is a thing of the past. What will be important in the future when we look at the corporate office?

1️⃣ Individuality

Contrary to the societal megatrend moving away from the individual toward a greater sense of "we," the office needs more individuality! This applies both to its usage—to address the diverse scenarios and needs of users (more on this in an upcoming article on "Activity Based Working")—and to its external image, in order to stand out from the competition and become attractive to employees.

2️⃣ A place for rituals

New forms of digital communication mean that the office must take on the tasks that are difficult to cover digitally. These are

• Personal exchange
• Humanity
• Human inspiration

And we achieve this best through rituals. Because such rituals provide us with security. After all, humans are creatures of habit. I already wrote about this in my OfficeRoxx column #04 .

3️⃣ The office as a place of learning

Lifelong learning is becoming a key competence of the future (remember, knowledge doubles every 70 days). Today, there are already many different ways to pursue further education, learning, and inspiration. A very important type of learning will be the exchange of experience in the office. Emulating what we see, or "mirroring," is one of the primary human learning methods. The office is becoming a place of learning, a place of experience.

4️⃣ Competing with new alternatives

Home offices, third places, workations—the office has gained competition. In the future, it must hold its own against this competition in many respects. The atmosphere, but especially the technology and the quality of the space, must be up to the task.

But what is the most important thing of all?

🚀 We need to view space as a communication tool; not every company needs it, but when used correctly, it can make so many things easier!