Key Takeaways:

• The "foot-in-the-door technique" and the "door-in-the-face technique" are two social science-based approaches that could help leaders to get beyond 'active inertia.'
• Companies have discovered that they need additional ways to drive employee engagement, besides video conferencing.
• Despite employees' love for hybrid work, it could be detrimental to other aspects of the employee experience if it is not carefully modeled.

Introduction:

• This report provides and summarizes three articles on the specified topics that were published in the past two weeks. None of the podcasts found were published by reputable sources of the level that was specified. Below is an overview of the findings.

Selected Findings

Change Management

Persuading Your Team to Embrace Change

• Article published by Harvard Business Review on April 12, 2022.
• This article provides insights into how leaders can overcome the natural tendency of employees to resist change and persuade them to embrace changes they would rather not. It outlines two social science-based techniques that could help leaders to get beyond 'active inertia' the tendency of organizations and people to "seek comfort in the old ways of doing things, even (or especially) when the world around them is changing dramatically."
• The techniques outlined are the "foot-in-the-door technique" and the "door-in-the-face technique." The first approach recommends developing people's sense of confidence and commitment by asking them to make small changes or do easy tasks before getting them to make big changes or do more difficult things. The second approach is to insist that people perform more dramatic and bigger tasks than the leader wants them to handle, and when they resist and refuse, the real objectives will seem tamer by comparison.

Employee Engagement

Why Employee Engagement Is Much More Than Just Zoom Calls

• Article published by Forbes on April 19, 2022.
• According to the article, companies are relying only on video conferencing solutions, such as Zoom, for employee activity and engagement; from coaching and training sessions to social events and HR updates. However, while this worked for a while, companies started noticing that employees were becoming more disengaged with many either not participating or multitasking.
• The article adds that companies discovered that they needed additional ways to drive employee engagement. It recommends that companies should build offline and online communities, recognize employees' achievements, deliver asynchronous training, use Zoom strategically, and provide mentorship opportunities.

Business Innovation/Ideas

Hybrid Work: Making it fit With Your Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategy

• Article published by McKinsey on April 20, 2022.

• This article begins by highlighting McKinsey's new research that established that hybrid work will persist due to employees' love for the convenience and flexibility that it offers. About 80% of respondents said that they would prefer retaining hybrid models and 66% would seek other opportunities if they are forced to return to the traditional onsite model. Despite the love for hybrid work by employees, it could be detrimental to other aspects of the employee experience if it is not carefully modeled.

 

Source

 

• While hybrid work offers employees the desired levels of flexibility, experience, and "work-life balance," it may be at the expense of performance as well as "diversity, equity, and inclusion." The hybrid model may also tilt the playing field and "amplify in-group versus out-group dynamics, which can flip those advantages to the liabilities side of the ledger." The article further provides insights into the inclusion practices that employees want their employers to improve the most as part of the hybrid model.

Research Strategy