"Hybriding" your team: what would you do?

Amal Reddy has asked every team member to send some thoughts on how, where and when they can work better as a team. As the sales & marketing head for a global bank in London, she is starting to prepare the return to the office after a year of lock-down.

Following the awful 2020 results, Amal's sales targets are more aggressive than ever. As much as she trusts each individual in her team, she has been noticing that the communication is not as fluid and spontaneous as before. 

On top of all this, Amal's manager, Alex, is openly pushing everybody to return to the office as soon as possible.


Glancing through the emails, she is surprised to see how meticulous her team members have been with their feedback.  She congratulates herself for involving everyone, especially her key account manager, Nathalie Sanchez, who has sent a comprehensive (wish) list:

TO: AMAL READDY
FROM: NATHALIE SANCHEZ
SUBJECT: IDEAS & COMMENTS RETURN TO THE OFFICE: MY LIST!

• I can do a big part of my job alone, wherever / whenever I want. I only need some quiet space and a laptop, as I –repeatedly– proved during the pandemic. Home-working has helped  me share the children’s tasks, like school runs and rowing practice, with my partner: a total blessing!
• Working from home has also reduced my environmental and time-wasting commute. This is very important to me, PLEASE do not take away this flexibility!
• Part of our internal meetings should be in-person, especially for brainstorms and client reviews, where we feed of each others energy and ideas. 
• Building good client relationships has been difficult online. I need to see them face-to-face at least once a month, so we need a decent travel budget. 
• The company should upgrade our laptops, provide better collaboration software and arrange for faster connections. Moreover, as London is becoming warmer, the company needs to financially support  installing air conditioners at home.
• The office building urgently needs to be redesigned as most meeting rooms are small, dark and “stuffy & sweaty”. Ridiculous to see how big and light the manager’s offices are compared to our “shared” spaces.
• HR should be more flexible and help young working mothers. I get very little support or understanding. 
• As a team, we have become more open and honest during the lockdown. I hope we can maintain this trust. It feels good just to be ourselves...less stressy.
• We need to become more organised with team meetings. We talk a lot but follow up/through is patchy, even before the pandemic.
• I would like more clarity on our strategic direction and the role I/we play. It feels like we lost a bit of our purpose, and “show me the money” is our only focus. Some of my clients have mentioned this too.

Staring into the garden, Amal realises this will be far more complex than she had imagined. Roger and Satu, the newly recruited super talents, are longing to get everyone back together in the office. Miriam, her head of marketing, did not even respond: is she close to burnout?  Alex “green” Jansen is probably still thinking about  his dream to get into volunteering.

She feels confused and trapped: all these ideas and requests could easily threaten the long term performance and the dynamics of the group. Where do I start? Why does HR not send out some guidelines and policies? 

What would you advise Amal to do / where would you recommend her to start?

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