How to build trust in the hybrid organisation

Together with the Association of Danish Lawyers and Economists, DJØF, and a group of management experts, IDA has prepared a series of themes with tips and tools to help you organise hybrid work in the best way possible as a manager. The first theme on this page focuses on relationships and trust in hybrid collaboration, i.e. organisations in which some employees are present in person and others digitally.

All elements and tools on this page were prepared with Lars Pedersen, the author of the books Er der en leder til stede? (Is there a manager present?) and Samarbejde - hver for sig (Collaboration - when working apart) and senior consultant at Pitstop Management. This page includes:

• A video with Lars Pedersen, who gives a brief description of the challenges and possibilities of hybrid collaboration.
• The article: Trust enables collaboration at a distance by Lars Pedersen.
• Two tools (Trust formula 1 and 2): As a manager, you can use the first to reflect on the hybrid form of work, and the second to start a dialogue with your team. 

How to start the dialogue

Our forms of collaboration changed after the Covid-19 pandemic, and they will keep developing. When you meet in new constellations, you should have a dialogue about how to best work together.

You can do as follows:

• Start by showing the video at a joint meeting and discuss the most important challenges and strengths of hybrid collaboration.
• Divide your staff into groups, each with their copy of the tool Trust formula 2 - version for team collaboration and ask them to discuss the questions and take notes of their discussions.
• Recap with all the groups together and let the groups present the main results from their discussions.
• Agree the next steps with the team, and who does what.

Video: Challenges and possibilities of hybrid collaboration

Start by watching the video with Lars Pedersen to get a general idea of the challenges and possibilities of hybrid forms of collaboration.

Article: Trust enables collaboration at a distance

"Knowledge sharing is gold in cross-cutting collaboration, but when you are spread across many workplaces, you can end up in mental silos," writes Lars Pedersen in this article.

You can share the article with your staff before your dialogue meeting, so that you have a common preunderstanding when talking about hybrid forms of work.

Trust formula - dialogue tools

Download the two tools here. Trust formula 1 - version for the manager's own reflection: you can use this to prepare before meeting your team. Trust formula 2 - dialogue tools: you can use this when you meet in your team as described previously.

Trust formula 1: For the manager's reflection

Trust formula 2: For team collaboration