In his MIT Sloan Management Review article, “Hybrid Work: How Leaders Build In-Person Moments That Matter,” Brian Elliott writes that many employees commute from their quiet environments at home only to find themselves in quiet offices and in Zoom meetings all day rather than benefiting from in-person activities.

Leaders need to use worker office time well. Those moments are “most successful when they’re designed around specific workplace goals and events that include team development, onboarding and training, new-team formation, project kickoffs, and specific times for function-specific roles, such as sales,” Elliott writes. In-person activities should build engagement and develop relationships, which can help with conflict resolution and skills identification.

Managing conflict became more complex when teams suddenly had to communicate and collaborate via technology. Leaders can assist their organizations with relationship strain in a variety of ways.

Dedicated training programs

In-person gatherings can help alleviate conflict, but managers still need tools and skills to provide effective resolution. “To help managers approach situations with empathy, organizations should consider incorporating dedicated conflict management trainings,” advises Gartner’s HR Toolkit: 9 Future of Work Trends for 2024. Such training programs create “shadowing and coaching opportunities for new managers to see how experienced leaders resolve employee conflicts and … ways to recognize and reward effective conflict resolution at all levels of the organization,” the report notes.

Natural biases

In “A Guide to Supporting Hybrid Team Leaders,” a TD at Work guide, Chris Coladonato advises that individuals and managers consider their natural biases that trigger conflict. Proximity bias occurs when people tend to favor those working in the same environments, either remote or in-office. In a hybrid environment, humans need to be more intentional about sharing information, such as project status, to avoid misunderstandings.

Team norms

Implementing team norms also reduces the potential for conflict. The MIT Sloan Management Review article, “When Hybrid Work Strategy Aggravates 20-Somethings,” explains that “norms typically include an articulation of response-time expectations, the communication tools team members should use, why teams meet, and how often—such as monthly planning sessions for an engineering team or Tuesdays for pipeline review in a regional sales team.”

In addition to conflict, hybrid environments cause other challenges, including how to identify workers’ skills, ensure that individuals retain learning, and promote career development.

Leaders can work toward solutions in the following ways.

Upskilling initiatives

It can be difficult for TD leaders to recognize skills and identify which team members to develop when working in a hybrid manner. In the TD at Work guide “Upskilling for Talent Mobility,” a TD at Work guide, Preethi Anand shares a three-step program design for upskilling employees, using education, exposure, and experience. For educating employees, “most organizations use a hybrid approach,” Anand writes, that includes teaching digital skills via self-paced learning and facilitating leadership skills via instructor-led sessions. Anand suggests that learning designers “make the most of available content as well as … cater to different learning preferences.”

Reflective learning

As noted on the London Business School website, reflective learning helps with critical thinking skills, which suffer in a world of artificial intelligence and technology. “Reflective learning is commonly applied through the use of reflective journals, portfolios or more formal processes such as action research projects,” the London Business School explains. Reflection aids in self-directed learning, informing one’s social identify, and becoming more goal-oriented, continues the article.

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