Beyond Hybrid/Remote: Leadership Decisions That Will Define the Next Decade

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Find yourself in.

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Hi, I am Nola Simon.

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I'm the host of the Hope and Possibilities
Podcast, and this episode is really

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to talk about what my, what I'm
seeing for 2026 and for the future.

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And honestly, what I'm seeing
is a move away from my work with

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hybrid, remote and actually just
embedding that into leadership.

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In my personal opinion, we are
not going away from flexibility.

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We are not going away from hybrid, remote.

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What we are going away from, and what
some of us will go away from is the debate

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about who has permission to grant us the
access to the type of work that we want.

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It's what the people want.

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If you talk to people a lot of times
what they need is flexible schedules,

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the ability to make a decision on the
day, because of what's happening with

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childcare, what's happening with elder
care, what's happening with the weather,

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travel schedules, all kinds of different
things, all kinds of different reasons.

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But that flexibility to treat each.

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Individual as a person capable
of making decisions that are in

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the best interest for themselves
personally and for the business.

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That's something that people want, right?

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And people are going to start
working in ways that give

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them more of what they want.

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There's all kinds of studies that have
recently come out that basically said

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that, that wellbeing, that sense of
wellbeing, that sense of autonomy,

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that sense of flexibility, it's work
life integration, and that's more

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valuable to people than compensation.

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Now people are gonna get that
bent because people hear the word

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money and they automatically think
that's the be all and end all.

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But in practice, what we're seeing
is people actually making choices

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that are in line with what they
need financially, but also how they.

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Embed their work into their life so
that they get more of what they need

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to make their families function.

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And family could look
like anything, right?

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Whatever's important to
that specific person.

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How does your day look?

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Who do you live with?

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Who do you interact with and
where does work fit into that?

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And how do you choose what makes
the most sense for you now?

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The circular debate is really caused by
people who are trying to retain identity.

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They're trying to retain process, they're
trying to retain power and control.

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And they have ingrained
narratives about how the way.

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About the way the world works, right?

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Real estate is a big factor of that.

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But it's also identity, if you are a
leader and real estate has been good

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to you both personally, professionally
how do you make the choice to actually

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back away from real estate and recognize
that the depreciation that people have

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been talking about is a real thing?

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How do you convince your board of that?

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It's a challenging thing because
what you're asking people to do is

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reset mindsets about the way the
world works, and that's where that

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circular debate comes in because so
many people are invested in this.

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If you have 20 years of working in
building maintenance, in, designing

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offices and ex employee experience
built around in-person events, you

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have a vested interest in the way that.

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Real estate and space contain
people, and that's your track record.

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That's your CV in moving away from that's
a pivot that you then have to explain.

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People don't do that kind of thing unless
they're really motivated to do that and

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to have external forces push them in that
direction, that's a challenging thing.

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But what we're actually seeing
is convergence because, since the

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pandemic, there's been a distinct
move, obviously towards flexibility

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and the hybrid remote way of working.

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But what now is happening is
AI is being introduced, right?

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And.

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Depending on who you are, what you think
about ai, that's still going to change

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how people work because AI never sleeps.

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So if you're integrating AI into your
role and AI is doing transactional things

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that AI is capable of doing right now,
AI doesn't need to be in a building.

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AI doesn't need to be in a physical space.

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AI can be influenced without.

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Monitoring body language.

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So what does that look like?

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The current narrative that's going on
right now is that AI is likely to shrink

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the workforce, meaning that there's
going to be fewer and fewer people.

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So this push, this narrative to
bring people back to an office is in

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direct conflict with the narrative
that we're seeing around ai.

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Now, I personally don't think
either narrative is right.

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I think that there's going to be
something new and creative because

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I'm always suspicious about a
narrative where, people are told that

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human beings aren't worth betting on,
that human beings are gonna go away.

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We're gonna reduce head count.

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If you reduce head count.

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Who's actually gonna be buying
your products because nobody's

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gonna actually have money.

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Then you get into the whole
government benefit scheme and what

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does that look like, and how long
is that gonna take to work out?

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So I personally don't think we've
come across a narrative of what

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the future is actually gonna be.

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That's compelling, that's persuasive.

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I think the truth is
somewhere in the middle.

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But again, that's going to be.

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Developed over years.

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It's going to be incremental in
the way that we approach that.

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So what really matters are the
choices we make, and that's where my

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pivot from focusing just solely on.

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What up until now I've been most proud of,
which is my ability to actually influence

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the hybrid remote adoption of policy.

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How to make that work smoothly, how to
advise companies on how to adopt it.

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It feels restricted right
now because I don't think.

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That it ends solely there.

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I think it's a leadership decision.

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I think it's more of a question about
reinvention and ongoing, continual change.

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Change is not a project anymore.

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It's actually a reinvention that's
never gonna stop because there's so

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many variables coming at us in all
different aspects of life and work that.

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What we're looking at is how
do we reinvent identities?

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How do we reinvent organizations
to redistribute work, redistribute

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tasks, redistribute value?

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What matters to people?

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How do we make people matter?

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People show up and do a good job when they
feel that they have a sense of purpose

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and they feel that they themselves matter.

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And what we're seeing in the narratives
right now, especially the AI narrative, is

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there's a certain type of
leadership out there that

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basically says people don't matter.

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That's.

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Is never gonna be something I'm gonna put
my weight behind because I think people

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and wisdom, all the things that matter.

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To human beings are far more important
than this narrow story that tech founders

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are going are spending right now.

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That's really only going to benefit a
very narrow section of the population,

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and it's really gonna be detrimental
to others when somebody is telling

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you that something is guaranteed and
this is the way it's gonna be, and

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they're giving you that prediction.

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Futurists don't.

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Give prediction.

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They look at trends and scenarios and
convergences, and that's what I'm seeing

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is we have to look at the decisions that
we're making and that leads me into a.

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The leadership aspect, right?

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And that's, how are
you reducing your risk?

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How are you growing your
potential and your business?

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And how are you doing this
credibly and sustainably?

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That's really what the choice is
gonna be because you don't know the

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future, and the future is coming
at us faster than ever before.

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It's important to look at the way
that we're making those decisions,

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what data we're using to support
them and how we trust that any of

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this is the right direction, right?

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So this is where I'm going to be pivoting
to the business into more of that.

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It's really a matter of
discernment as well too.

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And discernment is a
really tough thing too.

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Teach anyone because it's fundamentally
based in emotional intelligence, but

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it's also based in what your history
has been, what your skills are who

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you trust pattern recognition how you
connect the dots, and how do you take

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that from an individual level and
apply that at an organizational level.

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And discernment is important for
everyone, especially with the way that

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misinformation is becoming so prevalent.

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And even, how day AI is pulling
data and how it's being trained.

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How do you know that what
you're reading is actually true

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and reliable and trustworthy?

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Discernment has become.

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Honestly, one of the biggest things
that I'm concerned about as well too,

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and especially in a leadership aspect,

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you really have to be able to have
those tough conversations about

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how all of that feeds into the
decisions you're making, both EU as an

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individual and you as an organization.

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And I think that's the bigger
conversation where I can be.

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More useful.

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So again, it's not that I don't believe
in hybrid, remote, or flexibility.

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I absolutely do.

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I think it's the way of the future.

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We're seeing all these things about
the four wheel four day work week.

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That all ties into this conversation
about the universal benefit and

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how people are gonna make money.

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And it's going to be not necessarily
just what they're able to earn from

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employment, but it's also, the.

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The side projects the portfolio careers,
all of these things are converging to make

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work be something completely different
than what we've seen up until now.

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But there are forces that
are gonna drag us backwards.

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How do you anchor yourself?

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So that you feel safe and stable.

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And then how do you make that
trust leap to move into the next?

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How do you crash that threshold
into what's going to be your future?

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That's the more interesting
conversation, right?

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And that's where I think
that I can be of more value.

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So fundamentally, it's all.

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Part and partial of it.

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And again, this is more of a a
love letter to the future of work.

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So I'm gonna be changing how
I work on LinkedIn how I do

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newsletters, how I do email.

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You're probably gonna see less of me on a
lot of the social media that I do because

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I do think that long form is really where
I need to be more than anything else.

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And I am, I'm gonna be switching
up what I do with the podcast.

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I don't think I'm gonna be doing
guest episodes unless there's a guest.

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I just can't resist in the opportunity
to have a conversation is irresistible.

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I think that I'm going to be using this
as a way to flesh out conversations

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that need to be had that the nuance and.

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That's something I'm going to
be experimenting with more.

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What can the podcast be?

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Who knew it was gonna be
a Global Globes category.

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Now, podcasting has come so much further
than I ever thought it would going to

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be when I started this five years ago.

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Now.

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I have issues with the way that
the Global Golden Globes actually

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created the criteria and who's
eligible to win those awards.

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But realistically, I'm also not doing
podcasting because I wanna win awards.

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I'm using it for a specific reason
directly related to my business and how I

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communicate and help people think through.

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These types of thorny types of problems.

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And it's not thought leadership.

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It's how do you lead thought, and
that's what I'm interested in.

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So that's how I plan to
use the podcast as well.

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So you'll see more of that.

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My plan really is podcast newsletters,
so LinkedIn, substack and also email.

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I'm really going to lean into
email because I really have not.

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Done a good job.

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I have created email lists.

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I do have a whole raft of people who have
subscribed to newsletters and things that

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I write, but I'm going to be tweaking
that and cleaning those lists and asking

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people to unsubscribe if the new direction
isn't necessarily what they're after with.

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So I can identify people that truly
want to be in conversation with me.

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'cause what I find is a lot of people
follow me, but nobody really ever.

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Has those conversations
on an ongoing basis.

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The people who actually speak to me
about things that matter to them, that's

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a really small kind of group of people,
and I'd like to get more of the people

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who are willing to commit to actual
change and have those conversations

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and then work through that, right?

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So I haven't found.

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The magic in terms of how I create a safe
space for those types of conversations

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that lead into actual business.

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So that's what I'm.

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Working on an ongoing basis.

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So anyways, that's my plan for 2026.

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I will be trying to lay up content
that will support that more.

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But this is the first thing
that I wanted to start with and

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hopefully you find that interesting.

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I will actually be including a
link of been testing out a way for

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you to interact with the podcast.

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You can actually leave a
voicemail and send with questions.

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If you record a message, you can indicate
to me whether you'd like me to be able

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to use that as clips in the podcast.

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Questions are the lifeblood of how you
stay on top of what people are thinking

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and getting that type of information.

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That's really such a valuable,
so what ways work for that?

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I. TikTok.

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Lots of people talk about TikTok being A
F for questions, but I just find TikTok

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to be a little bit toxic, not to mention
it's also really dominated by certain.

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Demographics and countries.

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So I'm interested in the people who are
willing to speak directly to me in a way

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that feels safe to them without actually
having to go through the gates of hell

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on public comment forums like TikTok.

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So that's what I'm
experimenting with as well too.

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So check the show notes for that.

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And I'll also put it in my LinkedIn
thing when I share this, so I'll

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put it on Substack as well too.

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So anyways, hopefully
that's interesting to you.

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I'd love to know what you're
thinking about what questions

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are keeping you up at night.

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The thorny pieces of identity
that really keep on coming up

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is who are you going to be if

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you have to move away from
what has always worked for you?

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So that's an interesting thing.

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A lot of times people don't find these
questions until they've actually been

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laid off or they retire or they move or
whatever happens to interrupt their life.

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A lot of times it's called life quakes.

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Life quakes are an interesting
thing to you to explore.

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But those are the types of questions
I'd love to hear more about.

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What keeps you.

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Awake.

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What helps you think about
the future in a different way?

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And we don't have to have answers.

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It's more about how are
you thinking about it?

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That's the fun part.

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So anyways, talk soon.

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Bye.