Is hybrid working better than being fully remote or fully in-office? Frankly, that's the wrong question.

This episode explores how decisions about work location are often based on personal opinion rather than data, and why that leads to poor outcomes.

Dr Gemma Dale shares insights from her academic research, showing how deeply held beliefs about productivity and presence still drive leadership behaviour. Many organisations still lack a clear definition of what good performance actually means. Instead, they default to outdated assumptions, such as equating visibility with effectiveness. We explore why so many hybrid models fall short, often because they were never properly designed to support new ways of working.

And we talk about experience bias, and how senior leaders often unconsciously shape policy based on what worked for them in the past. We also highlight the need for organisations to stop searching for a single right answer, and instead look at what works in their own context, based on real data.

This is a call to think more clearly about how work gets done and to build working models that are intentional, flexible and fit for the future.

Key Points Discussed:

• • The influence of experience bias in leadership decision-making
  • How visibility is often mistaken for performance
  • The missing piece: a clear definition of performance
  • The problem with one-size-fits-all approaches to flexible work
  • The value employees place on autonomy and flexibility
  • Why many hybrid models fail without proper design
  • The role of HR in challenging assumptions with evidence

Key Takeaway:

The real question is not where work should happen, but how people can work at their best. Strategic leaders need to focus on performance, purpose and evidence, not outdated habits or loud opinions.

Some research listeners might find helpful (not all mentioned in the episode)

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/uk-workers-increasingly-rejecting-return-to-office-mandates-study-finds

https://www.publicfirst.co.uk/hybrid-work-commission-report.html

Some of Dr Gemma Dale's books:

Flexible Working

How to Manage Remotely

Thank you for tuning into this episode of The Strategic Leader podcast. 

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If you have any questions or want to discuss anything, we’d love to hear from you:

www.gemmabullivant.co.uk (for Gemma)

www.wearegoodthinking.co.uk (for Fi)