Video discussion with John Dale, Global Energy Practice Lead and Brian Cole, Ph.D., Senior Principal

If you checked out the first two posts in our series on leading decarbonization/net-zero work, then you’ve been ramping up your own influence skills and verifying how to assess change in your organization. Still, you know it will take a constellation of effort across teams to make and keep progress steady.

To maximize the value of moments spent with other leaders and colleagues, dedicate some time to planning out how you’ll approach them as stakeholders and prepare them to talk about, implement, and support change consistently. When you put objectives and challenges in your own words, and help others to do so too, everyone stays on the same page – especially when it’s time to problem-solve quickly.

This is a Video discussion with John Dale, Global Energy Practice Lead and Krystyna Riley, Strategic Accounts Leader

If you’re leading a decarbonization/net-zero initiative, then you’re utilizing influence skills all the time. So, how can you confirm whether your efforts are paying off? When an overall transformation is both unprecedented and long-term, and the teams involved are variable, it’s hard to know where to look for a sign that everyone’s on board.

Video discussion with John Dale, Global Energy Practice Lead and Kacie Linegar, Business Transformation Expert

When leading an organization through the interconnected changes that are crucial to decarbonization/net-zero, it’s common to face resistance, confusion, or distraction from your workforce. Still, you need to sustain a sense of urgency and high performance. 

To keep your teams on track, here’s something you can do immediately and professionally: influence your key stakeholders. Moreover, make a habit of influencing them in subtle, convincing, and genuine ways – ones that are authentically yours.

Imagine this scene: Fade into a senior leadership team meeting, in progress:

"Wait, wait, wait! Didn't we already decide that we were moving forward with the design?" asked Heather.

Stefano jumped in, "I thought we agreed on what we were going to do, but we still need to talk through how we're going to do it."

"I remember having a conversation about it but not making a decision," replied Nanda.

"What are you talking about?" quipped Millie.

Sadly, this type of exchange happens too often within leadership teams*.

Recently ALULA's own Danielle Hochstein (Geissler), Ph.D., participated in a leadership roundtable at the American Biomanufacturing Summit in San Francisco, CA. The discussion focused on how to elevate female leaders, especially in male-dominated industries. 

(Note to readers: We received a lot of valuable feedback on this post! People requested more detail on how to observe remote workers, so we expanded our previous post. Thank you for reading, and we hope the additions are helpful! )

How do I know people are doing the right things in the right way when they are working remotely?

I’m hearing this question a lot as remote and hybrid working have become the “new normal.” Operating virtually creates a genuine barrier, and we all know it. But it’s a barrier that skillful leaders can leap over.

In our series on preparing for return to office (RTO) and hybrid work arrangements, we have focused primarily on what organizations and leaders need to consider in making these arrangements successful. However, at the end of the day, the success of these transitions ultimately depends on how all employees—regardless of title or position—are able to be engaged, safe, productive, and successful.

While it’s clear how expectations, processes, and support structures—put in place by organizations and leaders—have a huge impact on how the change to a hybrid work environment happens, there is actually a lot each employee can do to prepare for the transition and own some of that success.

As we start thinking about a sustainable hybrid workforce model, it’s important to also consider how we’ll know that hybrid models get the benefits we need in terms of employee engagement and business results. That means leaders can’t forget to measure progress and impact.

“The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” -George Bernard Shaw

I’m sure we’ve all heard this quote before. But at no time did it ring truer to me than now. Before the pandemic, communication was routinely one of the biggest challenges of any transformation—or rather, the inconsistency, ineffectiveness, or complete absence of any given communication. But now we live in a time where ensuring timely, effective communication is concurrently easier (through technology) and more difficult (through remote work) than ever before.

On that backdrop we are now tasked with one of the trickiest transformations yet: the Return to Office (RTO). Whatever your model will look like—all virtual, hybrid, a mix depending on role—the transition will be difficult. What’s making it even more difficult is the fact that right now we can’t say for sure if the new ways of working will stick, or if once we’ve made the move, we’ll just have to return to virtual work in the near future.

In an ever-shifting hybrid workplace, diversity and inclusion may be even more relevant as new biases develop. One that we’ve already seen manifest is Proximity Bias, when leaders unintentionally favor those working in the office compared to those working remotely. But where does this show up, how does it affect business, and how can you put a stop to such biases?