Evolving to support the hybrid workforce at KMWorld 2022

The next-normal workplace will be characterized by open, diverse, agile, and networked organizations—one where the workers from all over the planet work together in remote and hybrid settings.

This new paradigm will come with a whole host of leadership challenges including those related to knowledge sharing and leverage, collaboration maximization, learning and innovation, and talent development and retention.

James Kerr, principal, Indispensable Consulting, and Author, Indispensable—Build and Lead a Company Customers Can’t Live Without, demystified these challenges while offering a simple, six-step approach follow for resetting your culture for the next-normal world during his KMWorld 2022 session, “How to Reset Your Culture for the Next-Normal World.”

According to an Edeman Trust survey, 67% of people polled said their company’s culture needs to be reset, Kerr said.

According to Kerr, the drivers for this change should include:

• Strategic alignment
• Communication
• Trust
• Resilience

“The last three years have been very tough for people,” said Kerr. “People are under stress, there’s uncertainty, as a consequence it’s another driver for how we need to reshape the corporate culture and how it works.”

Transitioning from COVID, the new workplace normal includes a hybrid of in-person and virtual interactions. Communications and workflow must be designed to seamlessly connect and disconnect, as required, Kerr explained.

Knowledge sharing and leverage is a challenge in this new paradigm. This can lead to knowledge gaps for new employees entering the workforce and issues with retaining knowledge within an organization after other employees depart a company.

“We have to redefine the way we collaborate,” Kerr said. “If you entered the workforce in July 2020, you didn’t get much coaching.”

The six-step methodology to adapting to this new world includes:

• Strategic framework: business principles
• Baseline characterization: current situational assessment
• Target vision: vision story
• Gap analysis: opportunities identification
• Culture reset planning: project plans and timeline
• Plan governance: structures/processes to maintain/execute the culture reset plan

A delicate balance must be struck among these levers to establish the desired cultural dynamics, Kerr stressed.

“The vision tells the story of how people can be successful inside the business,” Kerr said. “You have to make it so compelling that people want to accomplish this.”

When planning this transformation process, describe the objectives, deliverables, talent required, duration, and additional investment. Kerr said to keep governance in mind during this phase to make sure the organization is compliant.

“There are going to be roadblocks to this, people don’t like change,” Kerr said. “You need an executive sponsor behind this.”

KMWorld returned in-person to the J.W. Marriott in Washington D.C. on November 7-10, with pre-conference workshops held on November 7.

KMWorld 2022 is a part of a unique program of five co-located conferences, which also includes Enterprise Search & Discovery, Office 365 Symposium, Taxonomy Boot Camp, and Text Analytics Forum.