“They struggle to create “serendipity”, happy coincidences. This happens through socialization,” translates Rachelle Houde Simard, author and community management expert.
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AWAKENING-MORNING. LOrganizations already have what it takes to thrive in a hybrid work world, says Rachelle Houde Simard, who has worked in web marketing communications for nearly three decades.
The key is to create a community and an environment where its members, or employees, can cultivate the bonds that bind them. In other words, he summarizes for readers who read his book “Sociable, building a strong corporate culture in a hybrid world” published in September 2023, leaders must draw inspiration from the approach of community managers on social networks.
“Already in 2018 I began to draw the parallel. Often, when I accompanied leaders who had just hired nomadic employees and who had no opportunity to socialize, I would remind them that if we can do it on the Web, there is a way to do it in business, says the community management expert on the line .
Regardless of the nature of the community for which they are responsible, these managers must ensure that the culture, this bond between members, is effectively transmitted there. It goes without saying that teleworking and the hybrid mode have not facilitated the task of company managers, the author admits in her book, who before March 2020 were not used to doing it virtually.
She invites them to follow the formula she has developed over the years for the management of virtual communities, that is, finding a balance between “the four sociable cultural dimensions”.
Therefore, leaders must understand the “relationships between community members, the experiences they have together, the stories shared among members that convey common values, morals, and interests, and the spaces in which members interact. »
Where things often get stuck in this matrix is understanding the role of spaces, he notes. “We were not trained to think of digital as a space. We need to change our perspective, ask ourselves how can I adapt this environment so that relationships, experiences and stories are shared.”
The book serves as a springboard to start this reflection, Rachelle Houde Simard indicates, to better understand one’s culture, how it is experienced by employees and how to transmit it, regardless of where they are.
Virtual synergy
For employers who want to bring their team members back to the office because they miss the synergy of face-to-face, he replies that it is entirely possible to find them remotely.
“They struggle to create “serendipity”, happy coincidences. This happens through socialization, moments outside of collaboration and prescribed appointments,” translates the expert.
He cites, for example, these employees who gather virtually to work, with the camera on and the microphone closed. “Our mirror neurons activate and this allows us to concentrate,” he reports. It is an “anti-meeting”, which allows us to have small moments at the beginning and at the end to discuss the coffee machine, and to create these synergies”.
The real challenge, the expert notes – and it is the same for all virtual communities – is that we still struggle to be “sociable” virtually. The problem is that this learning is rarely among leaders’ priorities.
Sociable leadership
For an organization to stand out and create a feeling of belonging among its employees, even in hybrid mode, it is obvious that the management style adopted is worth its weight in gold, recalls Rachel Houde Simard.
This is why it pushes leaders to apply “sociable leadership”, an approach based on compassion, kindness and hospitality, qualities that community managers must demonstrate.
This involves in particular “adopting a position of giver rather than recipient,” of being humble, but also of caring for your colleagues, he explains in his book.
Therefore, beyond the tools used to enable employees to collaborate remotely, the key will be to ensure that encouraged behaviors and shared values “enable all members of a group to feel included and valued,” writes Rachelle Houde Simard.
To telework or not to telework, this is the question that puts many companies in turmoil.
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2024-01-19 16:31:40
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