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The New Rules of Teamwork in a Hybrid, AI-Driven World · Unspoken Career Truths

• 0:00
  Welcome to Unspoken Career Truths.
• 0:02
  I'm Lauren Levette Gilbert. And I'm Cara Wood.
• 0:05
  And we're here to be the coworkers you can trust.
• 0:09
  Hi everyone, It is February and Lauren and I were talking about
• 0:17
  all the change and all of the focus on future of work and we
• 0:21
  wanted to make sure in this month of love that we dedicated
• 0:25
  some time to the things that we don't want to change, the things
• 0:28
  that we love. Yeah, we talk a lot about AI and
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  how it's changing the way we work and changing the way we
• 0:35
  think about skills and what we need to focus on.
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  And there's so many elements of being human that will never go
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  out of style that are really, really important and things and
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  skills to home. So we're going to talk about
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  this. Yeah.
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  So first up is teamwork and you know, we all I feel like know
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  what good teamwork looks like and feels like.
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  Lauren, do you have any fun description of kind of memories
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  of what good teamwork feels like?
• 1:01
  Working with you, Cara. But seriously, I mean, that is
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  very interesting. But I mean, just like when
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  you're on like a really great team, you just all feel like
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  you're In Sync and feel like you're in a flow and you feel
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  like you can like lean on each other and get work done.
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  I've had that in my career and I'm so, so grateful for it.
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  And you know it when you have it.
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  That is true. I love it when you have Co
• 1:26
  workers that you actually can like predict what they're going
• 1:28
  to do. For me, I feel like even when
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  you're a little kid and the whole like winning the pizza
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  contest together and getting the like free pizza on Fridays
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  because you all met some reading goal or some, you know, goal
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  together. Like you all know what you're
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  working towards and everyone's on the same page.
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  And then hopefully you got to celebrate a little bit.
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  Pizza parties were the best. Yeah.
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  Let's bring those back. That's what we should.
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  Do that's that I think is the thing to love for sure yeah and
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  I mean there's also like, you know interpersonal barriers that
• 2:01
  can arise that get in the way of good teamwork.
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  You know we want to hear your pet peeves.
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  Lauren, are you willing to share?
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  I mean, I. Really don't like
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  micromanagement and I don't know if that that's not necessarily
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  A-Team thing. It can be a leader thing, it can
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  be a team thing, right? Like that, that really kind of
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  gets me. I, I really like when you're on
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  a team, when you can trust the people around you are doing
• 2:25
  their job and they're doing the work they need to get done and
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  then you can all come together and get to the final product.
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  I, I really micromanagement is like just something that really
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  kind of kind of gets me because to me it kind of signals that
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  you're not trusting that the person can handle it and do it.
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  And I don't necessarily perceive that very well.
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  You're right that it shows up both from leaders and from
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  teammates. And I think from teammates often
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  how it shows up for me is when someone's following up more
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  often. Like, it's like, hey, I had this
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  deadline. I told you when it was going to
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  be. And then they're following up in
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  between. Or they're asking you to follow
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  a certain, you know, formula or schedule.
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  And you're like, I got this. Like, trust me.
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  Yeah. That is my least favorite when
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  you're like, it's due on, I don't know, whatever day and
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  then like a week beforehand it's like, are you, do you have it
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  yet? I'm like, well, do you need it
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  today? For sure, because this year is
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  about preparing you for the future of work.
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  We wanted to discuss some like big trends that are actually
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  destabilizing or maybe threatening the strength of a
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  team that you're on and you want to get back to that pizza party
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  vibe. So let's do it.
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  And that first trend is like going remote and hybrid.
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  So what's happening? You know, most companies have
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  made the call now if you're in an office space, they may have
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  made it like in person mandatory.
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  They may have like a remote remote as a standard practice or
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  they might have a hybrid model. And Gallup actually says that,
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  you know, half of the office work that is remote capable is
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  now offering hybrid. So hybrid is probably the most
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  common option at the moment. And then another quarter are
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  full time remote and then like about that same quarter of
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  people are in person. I think what's interesting there
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  too is like a lot of companies have done the back to office
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  mandate because they still have their offices and so they need
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  to use the space that they have. And so I think it's interesting
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  to see how that might change as we continue to kind of progress
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  in this future of work and the model becomes even more hybrid.
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  The model even becomes where you are managing agents as Co
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  workers like I. It'll be interesting to see how
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  it continues to evolve because I think COVID has proven that
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  hybrid work, it's possible it exists, you can still be
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  productive. And how is that going to
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  continue to change? Yeah.
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  And I think with hybrid work, one of the things that you run
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  into too is that if you're hiring all across the country,
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  then you have to for hybrid work, you either have to have
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  the budget to then ask people to come in and commute a certain
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  way, or you have to have the number of people in certain
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  locations to make hybrid possible.
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  So in addition to the office space, you also need to still
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  focus your hiring in certain areas, which really has for
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  anyone who's like working fully remote, that's sort of gone
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  away. And it's changed the way that
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  people think about talent in addition to how they think about
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  how they work together. And it can really limit your
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  talent pool, right? Like let's say you live in a
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  state that isn't as populated and there's no major city,
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  right? Like it, it could really kind of
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  limit your ability to recruit for certain roles and you don't
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  want that. Would you rather have the best
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  talent in the role and have a remote setting?
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  So again, it depends on the job. Like, I can't make a
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  generalization like that, but it is definitely something to think
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  about. Yeah.
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  And I mean thinking about like, hey, we can't make
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  generalizations. I think knowing like what it
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  actually means for your team that more companies are hybrid
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  and you know, quarter of companies are remote is like you
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  need to know what style works best for you.
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  You know, what are your communication and connection
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  preferences and you have to factor in like the cost of
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  commuting versus working from home.
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  You know, there's so much freedom when you got to work
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  from home, you might be able to manage your household in
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  addition to working and so like you lose.
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  That laundry, it's my favorite thing.
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  I can do laundry in the middle of the day.
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  It's a huge game changer. And what I learned about myself,
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  I am like a someone who zones in.
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  And so I will just once I'm at in work mode, if I'm, if I, if
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  I'm in the office or if I'm home, if I'm in work mode, hours
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  and hours can pass. And the only thing that disrupts
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  me is my cat telling me it's 5:00 PM and he's hungry.
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  That is literally otherwise time just passes.
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  I get lost in the day. So I don't do I wish I did like
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  the chores that other people talk about doing, but I lose.
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  I, I just, I just focus. I just lock in.
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  I really hate sitting for that long, so it's my way of like
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  getting myself up because otherwise I'll literally just
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  sit in a chair all day and then I'll stand up and be incredibly
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  sore. So it's my way of being like,
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  OK, here's like a little errand I can run in the house to get up
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  and stand up. That's that's very responsible
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  of you. My back will thank me.
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  Yeah. And so and so another big like
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  impact I think that hybrid work has is that there's this
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  opportunity now to focus on outcomes instead of kind of like
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  butts in chairs. Like we're talking about South
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  Time. You know, you got the thing
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  done, you're just, and then it's done.
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  And that I think is actually really powerful thing anything
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  about teamwork, because so often it's about setting shared goals
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  together. So it's like, did we get the
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  thing done? Then you don't have to maybe
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  micromanage quite so much. There's so much tech out there
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  that can like, help you better collaborate, whether you're
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  remote or you're in person. Like, there's a lot of ways to
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  solve a lot of those challenges. Yeah.
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  And actually that's like that connects perfectly to that last,
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  like the last thing I want to touch on with hybrid and remote
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  work, which is just in this environment, you no matter what
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  default to getting good at remote work because it is, it is
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  potentially the future, but it's definitely like a part of
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  hybrid. And so, you know, Lauren, you
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  mentioned like tools. What are some of your other
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  favorite ways to kind of like be good at remote?
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  I mean, so I've used like project management tools like
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  Asana, like if you've had Slack or Teams or insert chat
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  functionality, I think that's really great.
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  It kind of replaces the, hey, let me go walk over to their
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  desk and ask them a question kind of thing.
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  So I do that a lot. I really like like shared
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  calendars. So if it's like a project that
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  you're working on, you can clearly put your specific like
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  timeline and what you need to finish and what the status of it
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  is. So there's a lot more kind of
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  like checking in and status updates there.
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  But then you, your whole team, your leadership have visibility
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  to what you're doing. So I find there's actually less
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  questions because like when you were in the office, it was like,
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  oh, let me grab this person, let me talk to this person.
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  I never got any work done because everybody was asking me
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  things. But now you can kind of put it
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  in a tool and have a virtual chat about it on your own time.
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  Yeah, and you can set up like. I love setting up like you're
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  saying expectations where you're like, here's the boundary of
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  this is when I'm actually like available for questions or being
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  kind of consistent with your schedule or being really
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  transparent with your schedule. So people know when you're
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  available and then they also kind of know where you're at or
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  know where to send the questions if you're not available in that
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  like moment in time. So yeah, so then the second big
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  trend that you know, people are probably seeing is that the HR
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  policies have really like shifted.
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  So we've got inclusive human first HR policies that came
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  about about 5-6 years ago and now we've got these.
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  They're really being tested I think by like some outside
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  forces. There's AI oversight that's now
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  happening. There's more data collection
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  that's happening inside companies.
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  And there's also this environment of like federal
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  government bans around DEI language.
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  And so some of the things that were put into place to make
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  people feel like they could bring their whole selves to work
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  are now, you know, being reversed depending on which
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  industry you might work in or, or which ways that your
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  company's funded. I've also really seen a big
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  shift in HR thinking about how to measure AI or like how to
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  measure the usage of AI or if you're managing an agent, like
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  what does that mean for your specific goals and the way that
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  you're evaluated as an employee? Like there's, there's a lot of
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  things that are shifting now as we're getting more kind of
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  augmented agents. Yeah.
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  And I think a lot of people now are having learning AI,
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  incorporating AI as part of their job descriptions.
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  And what's actually surprised me, the stats surprised me.
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  General Assembly did this survey in July of last year, and they
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  found that a third of the 300 HR teams that they interviewed
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  actually said that they're using AI already for employee
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  evaluations. I feel like that makes sense
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  though, right? Because you can aggregate data
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  really well with AI. I'm glad you pointed that out
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  because I think the source of your performance could come from
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  a lot of places. Like we think about it as coming
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  from our bosses or our Co workers.
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  When you think about employee evaluations, they could come
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  literally from just outputs and AI could measure that, but then
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  who's judging the quality of the outputs and the expectation on
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  the time outputs take? Or it could be that AI somehow
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  evaluates you like I can, I've, I've heard from people who, you
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  know, have done first round interviews with an AI bot and I,
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  I, that to me doesn't feel like the way to be evaluated.
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  And so I wouldn't like to think that there was an AI chat bot
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  evaluating an employee at the end of, you know, at every
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  quarter or something. When I think about like a like a
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  billion valuations, there's one thing that always sticks in my
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  mind. So one company that I worked at,
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  there was 2 buckets of what you were evaluated on.
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  It was the what and the how. And I really liked that because
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  the what was obviously very tangible, right?
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  Like did you meet your goal? Was it a sales goal or a number
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  or whatever? Like very easy to kind of
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  define. And then the how was like, how
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  did you get there? Like did you collaborate?
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  Did you not collaborate? Like did you play well with your
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  teammates? Like were you kind?
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  Were you supportive? Like, and that how proportion
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  really matters a lot, especially when you're in a larger
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  organization, I mean a small organization too, but like that
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  how piece is really, really critical.
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  And so whenever I think about evaluating like my team or just
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  in general, I always like to think about it in those two
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  buckets because I think it gives a lot of context to the what?
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  Yeah, I, it's funny, I think there's another bucket that I
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  would add to that and it might be working at small, really
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  fast-paced companies. I feel like the there's a what
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  happened bucket because sometimes those goals you set
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  where you're like, here's the thing that I wanted to have
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  happen and then something changed or, you know, something
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  pivoted or you met the goal early and then you raise the bar
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  like, you know, it, whatever the situation was, kind of
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  understanding whatever happened over that length of time.
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  And then the decision points that you had to like navigate
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  what you made. And then to your point, there's
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  still outcomes. But I always think of a play
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  evaluations as a little bit of a narrative around what you did
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  over the last quarter. And so, yeah, AI isn't always
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  nuanced, but it could help you aggregate that data around what
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  had happened. Context matters.
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  Yeah, exactly. And so I think with all of these
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  changes that are happening with HR, it's almost even more
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  important for you to understand what policies the HR department
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  that you have have what they're thinking about.
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  Like are they using AI monitoring tools?
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  What are the policies around using AI?
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  How are they incorporating it into their process?
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  And similarly, how, what kind of what's your company feeling
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  around DEI? Are they doubling down on how
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  human diversity is a strength? Are they trying to revert to
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  back to like, hey, there's only one way we expect everyone to
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  follow a certain standard. Knowing that can really help you
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  choose and understand. Like yes, this is a place that
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  feels comfortable for me to work.
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  And I also think it's important to sit down and if you are a
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  leader, set the tone for your team, right?
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  Like, how are you thinking about kind of bringing everyone
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  together? Like, how are you thinking about
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  collaborating? What does that look like?
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  Like what kind of culture do you want to create?
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  And I think as we move into this kind of future of work state,
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  it's even more critical because there's a lot of fear and
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  anxiety around the future of work, especially with AI.
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  So how can you create a safe learning environment where
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  everyone feels comfortable about what their future is in their
• 14:50
  role? Yeah, I love that.
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  Like if you're a leader out there collecting the questions
• 14:54
  that people have around AI, like making space to like hear back
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  their feelings. And then I think, again, knowing
• 15:00
  really strongly what your HR team's feelings are, what your
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  internal policies are going to be, because as a leader, those
• 15:07
  policies are going to trickle down and affect you.
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  So can you surface up data to them and be proactive about it
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  so that you can sort of help shape how they might be thinking
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  about it? I love that.
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  Yeah. So then the last trend that we
• 15:21
  want to talk about was just kind of faster cycles, higher
• 15:23
  learning expectations and how pay might actually get tied more
• 15:27
  to performance and outcome, not time at all.
• 15:29
  I love this one. Say more, Lauren, Say more.
• 15:34
  No, I I just love this because I think it ties or it weaves into
• 15:37
  the other two really well, right.
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  So like if you're thinking about the hybrid or remote, if
• 15:42
  they're, if people are measuring like time on screen or time in
• 15:45
  office, like that doesn't actually equal efficiency and
• 15:49
  that doesn't equal productivity, right?
• 15:51
  And if we're thinking about the usage of AI and you're measuring
• 15:55
  like, did you use it? How often did you use it?
• 15:59
  Did you engage with AI? It's not actually measuring the
• 16:02
  right things. So to me this is like a really
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  big call to action to understand what are you actually measuring
• 16:09
  that is providing value to the business, not just like check
• 16:13
  box productivity, things like what is actually going to drive
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  value and what can you measure to make sure you get there.
• 16:20
  Yeah. And I think this relates all
• 16:21
  back to team, right, because we talked at the start of like good
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  teams feel great when you know what to expect from your Co
• 16:28
  workers and what to expect for like the shared goal and win
• 16:31
  that you all have. And with this change, what's
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  happening is that your team might be then expected to have
• 16:38
  these outcomes and there may be expectations around doing them
• 16:42
  faster because one of the key ways right now that people are
• 16:45
  measuring the success of AI is around like productivity.
• 16:49
  So it was really fascinating. I sort of dug into these stats
• 16:52
  and we have the article, LinkedIn, our show notes if
• 16:56
  anyone wants to dive deeper with me.
• 16:58
  But basically, they've done all these rounds of like data
• 17:02
  around, OK, what impact is AI having?
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  And, you know, 96 percent, 95% depending on if you ask at last
• 17:10
  year or MIT say, that companies have yet to see ROI on AI, which
• 17:14
  is what people actually want out of, you know, any investment.
• 17:17
  But what they are seeing is this nuanced impact on people's
• 17:21
  productivity. So people get faster on a task
• 17:26
  level. But then when you dig into that,
• 17:28
  if they're already skilled at what they're doing, AI may not
• 17:31
  even speed them up. And so goes right, all back to
• 17:35
  your point, Lauren, around how are we actually incorporating
• 17:39
  AI? What are the expectations on
• 17:41
  your entire team when it comes to the impact AI is going to
• 17:45
  make? And are you choosing the right
• 17:47
  one? You know, because again, the,
• 17:49
  the real important thing for any company is are we improving our
• 17:54
  ROI? Like are we making more money?
• 17:56
  That's usually what the company cares about.
• 17:57
  Are we making an impact if you're at a nonprofit?
• 18:00
  And so if that's your interest, then doing it faster sometimes
• 18:06
  makes more money, but doing it better is actually the goal.
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  I love that because I think the impression is always like more
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  and more and more and I think we need to step back and realize
• 18:17
  that everybody's doing a lot and they might not be doing the
• 18:20
  right thing and also like maybe they're doing too much.
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  And So what AI does is takes away a lot of the stuff that
• 18:27
  like people shouldn't be doing. Like there's so many like weird
• 18:31
  tasks I have to do because there's no integration or I
• 18:33
  can't figure out how to do it another way that AI has totally
• 18:37
  helped me with. And it's not that it's kind of
• 18:40
  enabled me to necessarily do more.
• 18:41
  It's freed up time for me to think better about the things
• 18:44
  that I have to do so I can have more thoughtful answers.
• 18:48
  I can be more strategic. So yes, I'm being more
• 18:51
  efficient, but my output is still saying staying the same.
• 18:54
  It's just getting better and higher quality and I'm getting
• 18:57
  better results. So it's just a really good
• 18:59
  reframe for people to think about, especially when you're
• 19:03
  looking at AI as an efficiency metric.
• 19:05
  You just need to just reframe how that is going to come to
• 19:09
  light in your organization. Yeah, I think this is the time
• 19:13
  to like do the experiments and show other people how you have
• 19:18
  incorporated it. And don't feel rushed to do that
• 19:21
  either. It's like think about the things
• 19:23
  that AI could inform you of or aggregate data for you or like
• 19:28
  you said, Lauren, integrate systems that are chunky and
• 19:31
  don't integrate yet and then share when you learn, share what
• 19:35
  you learn with others. So go team.
• 19:39
  That is our team episode. And like I said, we'd love to
• 19:42
  hear sort of what your keepers are, especially when it comes to
• 19:46
  your teammates. And you know, in closing, like I
• 19:50
  think key things factor the working conditions into your
• 19:56
  into your job quality, you know, a remote hybrid.
• 19:59
  Like, you know, are they inclusive?
• 20:01
  Are they conservative? Like what kinds of things?
• 20:03
  Where do you thrive? Ask questions about systems,
• 20:06
  incentives, and share what you learn with your team.
• 20:09
  And then, you know, find your favorite lab partners.
• 20:12
  I always think of like chemistry, like, you know,
• 20:15
  there's so much experimenting going on.
• 20:17
  So like, who are the people that you trust and communicate with
• 20:20
  that you can like try new things out with?
• 20:22
  But Carl, the most important piece is bring back pizza.
• 20:27
  And bring back pizza parties, right?
• 20:28
  Celebrate the wins. I yeah, you're, you're so right.
• 20:32
  And that's a wrap. Thanks for joining us on
• 20:35
  Unspoken Career Truths. Don't forget to follow us on
• 20:37
  Spotify and Instagram. And if you like this episode,
• 20:40
  share it with a friend.