Alison Hill - Work From Anywhere: The Essential Guide to Becoming a World-class Hybrid Team

ALISON HILL & DARREN HILL

First published in 2021 by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd

42 McDougall St, Milton Qld 4064
Office also in Melbourne

Typeset in Museo Slab 9.5pt/13pt

John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd 2021

The moral rights of the authors have been asserted

ISBN: 9780730390879

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Disclaimer

The material in this publication is of the nature of general comment only, and does not represent professional advice. It is not intended to provide specific guidance for particular circumstances and it should not be relied on as the basis for any decision to take action or not take action on any matter which it covers. Readers should obtain professional advice where appropriate, before making any such decision. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the authors and publisher disclaim all responsibility and liability to any person, arising directly or indirectly from any person taking or not taking action based on the information in this publication.

To those who make our work and world extraordinary (looking at you PT Crew)

You don't need to be told about the ripple effect or chaos theory; how a butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the planet can cause a hurricane on the other. You know how globally connected we all are and how one event thousands of kilometres away can sweep the whole world, affecting every person and business. We all understand this nowin our bonesbecause we all experienced this via the extraordinary events of 2020

Bracketed by the mighty Yangtze and Han rivers, the pulsing city of Wuhan is home to over 11 million people. In late December 2019, this Chinese provincial powerhouse had a thriving economy and grand history; however, it would soon be known worldwide for something else entirely. Wuhan would become ground zero for the most contagious and lethal virus the planet had known in 100 years.

At first, the ripples were barely noticeable. A small but significant increase in pneumonia cases raised concern among the local doctors and healthcare workers in Wuhan. The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission reported this worrying cluster of viral pneumonia cases on its website, and the World Health Organization started to track events. Barely a fortnight after the early identification of this extremely serious respiratory virus, experts confirmed a novel coronavirus (or COVID19, as it would soon be known across the world) had been identified. The first reported death due to this strain of coronavirus was reported on 11 January 2020 and, from there, it would march its way not just through immune systems but also across land, sea and air to tragically claim the lives of well over a million souls (and counting) in its first 12 months, bringing the global economy to its knees along the way, and changing workplaces around the world forever more.

Originating in the subtropical corner of SouthEast Queensland, Australia, Pragmatic Thinking (PT) is something of a rarity, both by profession and by perspiration. Founded in 2008, it has achieved what very few businesses get to dokeep its doors open for over a decade, and reach revenue well beyond seven figures. Pragmatic Thinking is a behaviour and motivation strategy company supporting organisations with leadership development and culture change; the people stuff.

Fewer than 0.06 per cent of businesses ever achieve these combined feats, so you might think that would be a chance for all involved to sit back and indulge in a little selfcongratulation. But survival was never the primary objective for anyone at PT.

It was to be magnificent.

So alongside existing for over a decade, the PT Crew also achieved excellenceas evidenced by many measures, including being named in the Australian Financial Review's Fast 100 across three consecutive annual lists, and being one of AsiaPacific's fastest growing companies.

It was an exciting business, with an exciting story, working with exciting clients.

January 2020 saw the team gather for a twoday offsite to map an ambitious and invigorating journey for 2020 and beyond. This was a regular cultural kickstarter the team looked forward to each year, outlining new goals, new plans, and new hope.

With a focus on accelerating marketing and new product development, the crew at PT had ambitions, goals and energy to make the start to a new decade an energetic and prosperous one. All that came to a crashing halt, however, on 13 March 2020.

Sitting glued to the news briefings with most of Australia, aghast as Prime Minister Scott Morrison outlined the initial isolation and shutdown measures being undertaken to stop the community transmission of COVID19 across the country, the team at PT were genuinely fearful for the future.

While the team had plenty of strings to its bow, delivering services in training, consultancy and internal communications, the vast majority of those services relied on a facetoface delivery model. Across the next week, the business lost upwards of 90 per cent of its projected revenue streams. Along with live events and tourism, the education and training sector was among the most significantly affected.

On top of this, the team and culture that they had created was in keeping with this hightouch approach. The PT vibe preCOVID was one of hugs and fistbumps; it laughingly could've been described as an introvert's minefield, in all the right ways. But clearly that all had to change.

It's not an overstatement to say that unless a radical rethink could be achieved in a short space of time by everyone at PT, complete failure was imminent.

Fastforward 12 months and the bleak future faced back in March 2020 was replaced with a vibrant, exciting new direction. The PT Crew switched, almost overnight, from a traditional (but very cool) colocated team in two funky offices to making its way as a separately located team, with an uncertain future, to finally building excellence in functioning as a hybrid team with a commitment to performance as strong as since its inception.

Commitment to this type of reinvention and the action required is not a common tale; however, it is certainly an achievable one for any business that has entered into being a distributed or hybrid team.

The ripple originating in mainland China that turned into a worldwide tsunami: a global pandemic worse than any other in living memory crashes into businesses, having severe and sudden economic impacts on them and the teams within them.

Sadly, this collision had impacts some businesses have notand will notrecover from. But for others, the chance for radical reshaping might just be the making of them in a new era.