Events
The Future of Work - Beyond Hybrid
The Future of Work - Beyond Hybrid
Author: Ulrike Fuehrer | Director at Context
What allows us to thrive and perform in happy, well-functioning and high-achieving teams?
Much has been said about hybrid working. A recent experience profoundly changed my way of looking at virtual and hybrid teams.
In 2019, I alone had 83 work-related flights. There seemed no other way of doing my job. When Covid forced me to stay put I was grateful, not for the pandemic but for the paradigm shift in multilingual simultaneous interpreting, despite all its technical challenges. Our first international online meeting with 6 languages was held on 26th March 2020. Hundreds of similar events followed. Two years later we introduced combined meetings with an online and an onsite element. Participants were able to have chats at the coffee dock and over dinner while keynote speakers from the US logged in remotely for their half-hour input. Once the technical hurdles had been scaled, the benefits of reducing travel to the necessary and meeting in-person for clearly defined purposes became apparent and were met with approval and relief.
Our ‘in-house’ team doubled in size during this period and was geographically as dispersed as our thousands of freelancers and their respective meeting participants.
Over the next two years, we embraced a hybrid work format with small groups coming together in the same physical space some of the time for training and team activities, for project and strategy meetings. On those office days, animated conversations between peers and pairs permeated the building, creating an atmosphere of quiet excitement. Work-related road blocks tended to be removed in minutes; small challenges that may have been put on the back burner were addressed, and a sense of inspiration and contentment was palpable.
Two years on, we pushed out the boat and held a full onsite team event, bringing together all operational and support people from 4 countries and 7 counties. Some of us had been working together closely, yet never met in person. This large facilitated event took place at a beautiful countryside location with a variety of indoor and outdoor facilities, in lovingly furnished buildings surrounded by flowers and vegetable gardens. Working on an intense agenda and committing to a range of actions felt like child’s play in this environment. Meeting the 3D version of our Zoom colleagues released creative energies, courage to tackle bold projects, a sense of a shared purpose. We all came away smiling. The depth of personal and professional engagement experienced on that day made us realise what we had been missing. It showed us that we need to build regular, meaningful in-person events into our working lives.
Yes, it has its advantages to work from home some of the time. However, realising what we need and miss in our hybrid world might sharpen our awareness of the values that underpin our culture, commitments and success. A great starting point is to look someone in the eye – rather than into a Zoom or Teams camera.
There is no simple way of making this magic happen for dispersed teams. It requires organisational effort to provide for those personal and professional interactions, that depth of dialogue, the heated or measured exchanges, a meeting of minds and bouncing of ideas. It’s an effort well worth it.
Spending time together in the same physical space, sometimes away from traditional work environments, allows us to thrive and to perform as a happy, well-functioning and high-achieving team, in the interest of our personal wellbeing and to the benefit of our clients and suppliers.
How much direct personal interaction is desirable for the New Work and New Culture of 2024? What can we learn from Frithjof Bergmann 50 years on?
The Power of Technology, Teamwork and Tenacity
Case Study: Striking Success
The Power of Technology, Teamwork and Tenacity
Author: Ulrike Fuehrer | Director at Context
Strikes occur in Belgium nearly as often as in Paris, Berlin or Madrid and frequently affect the transport system. They are as powerful as they are disruptive.
On 20 June 2022, access to all Belgian airports and train stations was severely disrupted, also impacting on participation of two parallel meetings we supported in Brussels. As a project manager on site in Brussels, I received a flood of emails, phone calls and messages from participants and interpreters scheduled to arrive from 13 different countries who were unable to reach Belgium.
The stakes of the meetings were high. The organisational effort of getting everyone together – after 2 years of lockdowns – had been considerable.
At 6pm that evening, I took stock of the situation on the ground: We had some participants in Brussels, some participants from the same and/or from other countries stuck at their home airports, some interpreters on site and some equally stranded elsewhere.
During the next 3 hours, I discovered the power of advanced conference technology and the pivotal role conference technicians and a committed team of interpreters can play. With the help of the two most dedicated and determined technicians and a lot of communication back and forth, a solution was designed that allowed all participants, whether in Brussels or at home, and all interpreters likewise to connect successfully.
Both meetings went ahead the next day as scheduled. The software and hardware deployed in Brussels interfaced in a technically highly complex solution, supporting an event which ran as smoothly as the proverbial swans gliding across the lake. The amount of peddling beneath the water was extraordinary.
One interpreter received a call from her airline at 5am that morning offering her an early evening flight; she interpreted remotely on day 1, rushed to the airport at close of business, caught a flight and worked from the Brussels booth the next morning. Half of the participants made it to the destination on day 2, the other half logged in online and stayed where they were.
While travel may have been a small nightmare during that week, the technical challenges were of a different magnitude altogether. My gratitude and respect for our solution providers took on a new dimension. Our long-term take-aways have been: a creative, solution-focused, state-of-the art technical provider is worth their weight in gold. A committed interpreter team of versatile travellers, unfazed by any eventualities and ready to surmount any obstacles is as crucial as a group of excellent linguists. And: All meetings need to be planned with an in-built virtual component, to be activated in case of a volcanic ash cloud, an air controller strike, icy weather conditions and – strike.
