Dear Human Resources

Our regular columnist, Aidan Stoate, CEO New Zealand at Inspire Group, shares his heartfelt insights into leading people.

How would we best define our current workforce environment and the rapid emergence of its new flexible ways of working? Is it a gradual evolution or a radical revolution?

The evolutionary perspective suggested significant change was coming. This was even before the Covid-shaped fork in the road, which instantly and aggressively threw us into the chaos of imposed remote working routines, a near-exclusive reliance on virtual communication, and the emergence of more flexible work patterns as our professional and personal environments collided with greater force. Once the pandemic receded and restrictions were lifted, the pertinent question became, “What does the new normal look like?”.

Four or so years on, this is a question many organisations are still asking. Few have been able to conclusively answer it. What does seem clearer, however, is the sense of growing disparity between traditional organisational cultures and the needs and expectations of the modern-day workforces they comprise.

The workforce revolutionaries, emboldened by the proof that flexible work models can succeed under even the most hostile conditions, are advocating for permanent change. With ranks bolstered by an emerging generation that expects flexibility as a standard professional benefit, they also have the advantage of numerous studies highlighting increased productivity, improved work–life balance, and enhanced employee satisfaction resulting from flexible work arrangements.

Like most revolutions, however, even the most compelling ideologies can’t always easily overcome longestablished systems and hierarchies. Organisations that based their historical successes on traditional ways of working are struggling to reconcile such an exponential increase in flexible working demand. These challenges are compounded by legitimate concerns relating to leadership capability, maintaining healthy communication and collaboration, managing performance, and retaining a working culture that provides a clear identity and vision.

Perhaps inevitably, HR has found itself on the frontline of this debate, trying admirably to operate with diplomacy in attempts to mitigate growing dissent, as established legacy clashes with transformative potential.

The best investment of time, energy and capital may well be in equipping leaders to navigate these complexities with improved confidence and competence. We can’t and won’t go back to ‘the way things were’, nor can we expect people to instinctively adapt to ‘the new normal’ without supporting them to thrive within these new, consistently evolving, and increasingly complex dynamics.

This is where, dear HR, you may find you have the most meaningful influence. Does your current learning offering adequately enable your leaders, teams and individuals to be adaptable, agile, resilient and change-ready? If not, what opportunities might exist within your organisation to rethink ‘how’ you develop people in these areas?

This does not necessarily require a radical overhaul, instead a subtle shift of learning design and delivery could be applied to a small development offering as proof of concept.

This could be a compromise that satisfies the revolutionaries, the evolutionists, and even the totalitarian regimes.

Aidan Stoate is the New Zealand CEO of Inspire Group, an award-winning learning design consultancy that delivers worldclass solutions to organisations globally. Aidan has a passion for helping organisations improve their culture and performance through innovative learning and development interventions. As an ICF-accredited organisational coach, Aidan provides subject-matter expertise for the design and delivery of leadership programmes, while leading the Inspire Group New Zealand business across all projects and disciplines. Having led organisations and teams in the United Kingdom, South-East Asia, North America and Australasia, Aidan brings a nuanced perspective while promoting inclusive, engaging and contextualised solutions that drive genuine behaviour change and strategic benefits.