How to leverage your return-to-work options to intentionally evolve your culture

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Many are still grappling with their return-to-work options. who should return? When? how often? Weekly or daily for how long? Some consider these choices individual and tactical. it’s not. The environment, including who works independently from where and interdependently, is a central element of culture and is closely linked to behaviors, relationships, attitudes and values. The return-to-work option presents a rare opportunity for management to rethink and redirect cultural evolution.

On the one hand, culture cannot be dictated. It consists of the collective personality of all individuals within an organization, existing and evolving on its own. As each one changes, so does the culture – little by little, step by step. On the one hand, we can influence its evolution. Doing so is a key role of leadership, as culture is the only sustainable advantage an organization has.

Some define culture as “the way things are done here.” Some take a more thorough and complex approach. BRAVE is a middle ground method, simple enough for general use and robust enough to guide choices across behaviors, relationships, attitudes, values ​​and environments.

Different subdefinitions of BRAVE may suit different organizations. Here’s one set to use as a starting point.

action

• Decision: Hierarchical, Managed, Set vs. Diffusion, Argument, Evolution
• Activity content: Purposeful, Prepared, Rules-abiding vs. Intuitive, Original, Exploratory
• discipline: stable, structured, predictable vs. flexible and fluid

relationship

• authority: result-oriented, directive, controlling vs. goal-oriented, encouraging, caring
• unit: independent individuals or groups vs. one interdependent team
• communication: Formal, Written, Impersonal vs. Informal, Oral, Personal

attitude

• strategy: Driving the lowest viable product at the lowest cost vs. innovation to create more value for the customer at a premium price
• posture: Responsive and Expressing Wishes vs. Proactively Anticipating Future Needs
• manners: Sure and steady small steps and big leaps

value

• Purpose: Do good to yourself and what you are good at vs. Do good to others (happiness)
• learn: Instructional, task-driven, rigid vs. open-minded, growth-oriented, flexible
• risk profile: Protect what you have vs. take risks to get more

environment

• Physical: remote, walled, formal vs. present, open, casual
• propulsion For change: changing our ambitions, abilities, mindsets vs. external conditions, changing hurdles
• Growth enabler: scientific, technical, mechanical vs. artistic, intuitive, social

Different individuals can be remote or at different times, just as remote versus current return to work is not a binary choice. All these dimensions are ranges.

Choices are interrelated. Much more effective for those who do more work. interdependently Being physically in the same place, privately discussing, exploring ideas, and encouraging each other.Conversely, those who work more Independently You can take steady small steps that are task-driven and you might be able to formally communicate from anywhere.

Two things a CEO should never delegate are vision and culture. Delegating an organization’s overall choice of where to work is delegating an important cultural component. don’t do it You can do it for subteams and subcultures, but not for the entire organization.

method of procedure

1. Root everything in the essence of the organization. The cultures of design, production, delivery, and service organizations must be radically different. Be clear about who you are and use that as a starting point for your cultural choices.
2. Build a general consensus about the current culture by mapping the above dimensions, or more specifically the appropriate dimension, from 1 to 5. It is enough for this exercise to get this vaguely correct.
3. Build a general consensus on how things should evolve towards the ideal culture based on the core essence of the organization.
4. Choose a very small number of dimensions (such as 1-3) that you chose to evolve first.
5. Develop, implement, track and adjust plans to influence these evolutions. This includes choosing to return to work.

click here A list of Forbes articles (#796 of them) and a summary of my book on executive onboarding: New leader’s 100-day action plan.

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