Bailey Parnell is an organizational change researcher, global keynote speaker, and founder and CEO of SkillsCamp, a consultancy helping businesses develop leadership and soft skills.

4 Modes of Hybrid Work: How to Improve Workplace Culture Across Space and Time

Valuesare one of the key components of a culture, whether that’s the culture of a country, your family, or a workplace. Valuesguide our behaviors and what is important to us. Collaboration, inclusion, recognition, and excellence are examples of values I see commonly across companies and industries. They are the bedrock of a good corporate culture.

Though many organizations persist with hybrid and remote work setups, they still struggle to ensure their cultural values are maintained when people are no longer together in an office or even in the same country! I found a way to help them think through this challenge.

I first learned of the four modes of hybrid work fromMary Bakerand have since adapted it to help organizations nurture a robust workplace culture that transcends physical boundaries. Knowing the four modes can help you think through how you enact your corporate values in different settings.

The four modes of hybrid work are based on if we are sharing space, time, both, or neither.

4 modes of hybrid work.

1.BOTH: Sharing time and space. This is the traditional setup when we are in the office together and collaborating face-to-face. It’s best for activities that benefit from personal connection, such as sensitive feedback or collaborative brainstorming.

2.TIME-ONLY: Sharing time, but not space. This is classic remote work through our daily video calls and DMs. We are physically apart but syncing up on time to get the benefit of human collaboration.

3.SPACE-ONLY: Sharing space, but not time. This is when we are all in office together but working independently on our own things.

4.NEITHER: Not sharing time or space. This is when we are working remotely and by ourselves. We are still working employees, but just not in overlap with others. This is great for focused work without distraction.

Translating your cultural values across the 4 setups.

If we want a cultural value to be felt by all our remote and hybrid employees, we must think about how we exercise those values in the different modes. Hoping people serendipitously end up at this magical water cooler at the same time is not a strategy. If we want people to have good relationships, we must facilitate it with intention.

As an example, here’s how I might apply the common corporate values of collaboration & relationships andrecognitionacross all four modes:

BOTH: Sharing time and space.

• Collaboration & Relationships: Organize regular team lunches or collaborative workshops that encourage personal interaction and team bonding.
• Recognition: Celebrate team members’ achievements in front of the group, enhancing visibility and motivation.

TIME-ONLY: Sharing time, but not space.

• Collaboration & Relationships: Facilitate virtual team building like intentional coffee meetups, soft skills workshops, or virtual escape rooms.
• Recognition: In your video meetups, acknowledge individual contributions, making them feel valued from a distance. You may ask people to come off mute or write in the chat box and give a “shout-out” to someone for something did that week.

SPACE-ONLY: Sharing space, but not time.

• Collaboration & Relationships: This one is a bit of a trick. My best recommendation would be to push people into mode one by creating intentional reasons to share time, such as over team lunches or collaborative meetings. However, I have also seen companies do all sorts of fun things like a community drawing that is slowly added to over the month and given to someone at the end.
• Recognition: It may be time to bring back the cork board! Create a physical “compliment board” in common areas where team members can post notes of appreciation for their colleagues to see when they are later in-office. BONUS: This helps with relationships too.

NEITHER: Not sharing time or space.

• Collaboration & Relationships: Set up a system of digital check-ins or a virtual “coffee buddy” system that pairs team members for weekly casual chats and pushes them into mode two of sharing time.
• Recognition: Use a virtual kudo-board so people can give recognition to others in an asynchronous way.

You can use these modes to think through any part of your culture and work. For example, how are you thinking about your team’s wellbeing or productivity in the four modes? How do your DEI principles translate in each mode?

The implementation of the four modes of hybrid work is not just a logistical maneuver but a commitment to cultivating a robust organizational culture built on values that cross space and time.

An organizational culture built on strong values will stay a strong culture no matter how the technology or environment changes in the future.