Introduction
The challenge - how do we change the way we work?

When the global pandemic hit the world, leaders had no choice but to change the way their people operated. With lockdowns being used to reduce the impact of COVID-19 many people had to quickly shift to working remotely. This created an entirely new way of working, with kitchen tables becoming the new desk and back-to-back Zoom meetings becoming the new norm. Leaders had to deal with isolation, staff mental health challenges and a massive amount of uncertainty that stretched them beyond typical business practices, and most had to make it up along the way.

Work and leadership has changed. In the past, the pace of life and business was very different from today. Leaders used to have time. They had the luxury of spending their evenings and weekends thinking, and recharging their batteries, knowing that the rest of the business world was also on hold until the next business day. They had the security of knowing that they could work face to face with their people in the office. Now they are leading remote teams with their workforce spread out and trying to identify the best way to work moving forward.

Over the past 25 years I have observed and worked with a range of business leaders in the United States, Asia-Pacific and Europe across corporate industries, the government and the military, as well as frontline managers and small-business owners looking for strategies for improving their performance. During COVID-19 lockdowns some of them increased their performance and operations while others have had to pivot to a hybrid and remote model that they are continuing to navigate beyond the pandemic. Some were able to pivot and maintain or create incredible cultures and achieve amazing results; others have stumbled. I've watched as governments and businesses spent millions and millions of dollars to keep businesses going and identify how to work in this brave new world.

I'm constantly looking for hybrid and remote models that work and can be used in multiple environments and are transferable to other businesses. My goal is to share with you the strategies and pathways that actual leaders are using to achieve increased results in less time, whether in the office or leading remotely.

Throughout this book we will explore issues leaders are facing, such as deciding whether to transition to a hybrid workforce, and, if so, discovering the most effective and efficient ways to make that transition.

Hybrid Workplace hacks: a new approach for a new world

Let's have a look at just some of the changes that have affected workplaces due to the pandemic lockdowns. As you read through these scenarios, consider the difficulties CEOs face when trying to create and execute a traditional business approach in these fast-paced environments.

The business environment has changed?.

• Prior to the pandemic, technology allowed many people to work from home, but few actually did. According to the Productivity Commission in 2019 around 8 per cent of employees had a formal work from home arrangement and worked a median of one day per week from home. This has increased to around 40 per cent of the workforce working remotely, and, during the height of the pandemic, many organisations had 90 per cent of their workforce working from home.
• Hybrid work is inevitable with leaders having to make major changes to accommodate what employees want. The Microsoft 2021 Work Trend Index shows that 73 per cent of employees want flexible remote work options to stay. At the same time 67 per cent of employees want more in-person work or collaboration post-pandemic!
• Organisations are struggling to keep their people skilled and effective for the future. The 2020 Deloitte Insights Global Human Capital Trends survey shows that 53 per cent of businesses say that between half and all of their workforce will need to change their skills and capabilities in the next three years.

Employee dynamics have shifted?.

• Employees are looking at their next employment options; The Microsoft 2021 World Trend Index shows that 41 per cent of the global workforce is likely to consider leaving their current employer within the next year.
• Employees continue to be disillusioned at work, with 80 per cent of employees worldwide either not engaged or actively disengaged at work according to Gallup's 2021 State of the Global Workforce Report. To keep this in perspective, this trend has continued since Gallup started its engagement surveys in 1997, showing that leaders continue to struggle with how to motivate and retain their workforce.
• Because of employees' desire to have more control over where they work, a 2021 Steelcase Global Report found 87 per cent of leaders agree they will have to offer more choice for employees to work from home or elsewhere.

Leaders are being stretched to keep up?.

• According to a 2021 Oracle and Workplace Intelligence report, 85 per cent of C-suite executives reported issues working out of a traditional office environment. Leaders struggled with collaborating virtually, increased stress and anxiety and difficulties learning new technology.
• Leaders are struggling with ways to keep employees working the way they used to. Good Hire's recent State of Remote Work in 2021 report surveyed 3500 workers and found that 25 per cent of Americans would quit immediately if their job forced them to return to the office, with 45 per cent planning to quit immediately or start a remote job search. With the risk of losing key talent, many leaders are kept awake at night trying to identify the best way forward.

This is just a small glimpse at how things have changed. The tsunami of information and new technology is flowing in 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And, as research shows, it's getting faster and faster. Leaders need to re-wire and hack their approach and create flexible workplaces in order to keep up with this new world.

Gone are the days when leaders had the time to analyse a year's worth of data and spend six months preparing a five-year strategic plan. The days of slow thinking and slow execution are gone.

So what is a hybrid workplace hack?

The word 'hack' has changed meaning over time. Initially, the Oxford Dictionary defined the verb 'hack' as 'to cut with rough or heavy blows'. According to Ben Yagoda of The New Yorker magazine, the noun 'hack' was first used at MIT in the 1950s to describe the act of adjusting machines (primarily electrical systems) in ways that were not common. This morphed into a sense of working on a tech problem in a unique or creative way. In the 1980s the word 'hacker' had a negative connotation, describing computer programmers who illegally gained access to early computer systems. Steven Levy's book Hackers described the positive and negative activity of these innovators in the field of technology. This promoted the term 'hacker' and brought it into more common language.

It wasn't long before the meaning of 'hacker' started to gain more positive connotations. Before the launch of Facebook's 2012 IPO, Mark Zuckerberg published a manifesto titled 'The Hacker Way', which provided a unique insight into the meaning of hacking. In this document he says, 'In reality, hacking just means building something quickly or testing the boundaries of what can be done'. He added more around his belief that The Hacker Way is about continuous improvement and finding ways to get things done better and faster?-?often by moving projects around people who are too comfortable with the status quo and unwilling to change.

More recently, the word 'hack' morphed even further when technology writer Danny O'Brien coined the term 'life hack' to describe how computer programmers were creating shortcuts to make their lives easier. This, combined with the explosion of videos on YouTube, enabled anyone with a smartphone to share their hacks or shortcuts with others who could benefit from them. This has led to the sharing of a plethora of hacks, including life hacks, parent hacks, game hacks, political hacks, happiness hacks and?-?my personal favourite?-?a potato hack (which is actually based on a diet from 1849 that focuses on eating mostly potatoes to lose weight!).

Dictionary.com defines a hack as 'a tip, trick or efficient method for doing or managing something'. It adds the expanded definition 'to handle or cope with a situation or an assignment adequately and calmly'.

A hybrid workplace hack is anything that helps you effectively facilitate a transition to a hybrid workforce in less time. This can include:

• shortcuts that may not be commonly known
• simplified steps that make transitioning easier to do
• fast-tracked processes that speed things up and increase success.

Simply put, hybrid workplace hacks are about identifying ways leaders can work with their people to create smarter and more efficient hybrid workplaces that enable people to work remotely and in the office.

Leaders who are successful in their transition create hybrid workforces admired by others because of their ability to work smarter and more efficiently. Wise leaders know they need to develop new ways of working that empower their staff and improve their quality of...