Creating a productive team was hard enough when we all worked from the same location at (roughly) the same time. Now, according to research by Atlassian, the majority of knowledge workers (43 per cent) are working in a hybrid team. This is compared to 2021, where the majority were office-only (39 per cent). And while everyone agrees that the best part of hybrid work is flexibility, it’s less clear how to balance the flexibility perks with the challenges of collaborative teamwork writes workplace innovation specialist, Charlotte Rush.

So, how do we marry individual flexibility with the necessary accommodations that come with collaborative teamwork?

Here are three tools to use with the hybrid team you manage, to boost their productivity – individually and as a team.

1. Contract your team’s focus work

How much deep, focused work is required each week for your team members to achieve their long-term goals?

As Cal Newport highlights, knowledge workers spend their time on two categories of work: deep and shallow. Depending on your role, level and domain of expertise, the relative percentage of time spent on deep versus shallow work will fluctuate. For example, as a People Manager, 60 per cent of your time may be dedicated to supporting your team members, which translates to a significant number of meetings and responding to requests. In contrast, if you are a technical expert, 75 per cent of your time may be dedicated to solo-focused work.

Given these fluctuations, set up an agreement, or ‘Focus Work Contract’, between you and each of your team members on how much focus work is required in their role to achieve their goals. Are you expecting your team members to do two hours of focus work a day, or a week? And does this align with their expectations and reality?

Once you agree on this, what can you do as a manager to support them in actually getting this focus work done? For example, not calling them during their focus time and helping them prioritise focus work in their calendar.

2. Create a To-Discuss list

Defaulting to asynchronous work is one of the best ways to support your team in working hybrid. Teams that default to asynchronous execute work in a way that doesn’t rely on live communication, therefore reducing the need for meetings that rely on timezones and schedules lining up.

But it can be challenging to provide enough support to your team so that they can get their work done in a timely way. All too often, when we need help with something or we have a question, we shoot off an email or give someone a ‘quick call’. But these small interruptions create significant time losses when you are a manager, and when you work in large teams or with a number of varied stakeholders.

Instead, invite your team members to create a To-Discuss list with you (and anyone else that they have regular one-on-one meetings with, such as clients or project stakeholders). Anytime a question arises, they can add this to their To-Discuss list. Then, book in regular meetings, and work through this To-Discuss list.

Not only does this make your one-on-ones more effective, it saves time by batching all questions into one conversation, as opposed to having a number of small conversations at random times.

3. Align on your team communication guidelines

But hang on, what if someone in your team has an urgent question?

First, we need to be clear on what exactly constitutes an urgent question. Are your team members all aligned on what urgent means for your team, as well as the timelines that sit around urgency? Is it something that requires an immediate response or something that requires a response by close of business? These are all questions to get clarity on with your team.

One way to achieve this is by creating a Team Communication Guide to set expectations at a team level of why and how your team communicates. You can check out exactly how to do this here, with Inventium’s ‘How to create a team communication guide’.

Adapting to a hybrid world has made teamwork all the more challenging. But with the three tools above you can better support your people to be successful individually, and as a team.

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