What Hybrid Work Looks Like In Real Life - The LEGO Workplace Experience, with Timothy Ahrensbach and Anne Sofie Fedders

11/09/21 • 41 min

Summary

Timothy Ahrensbach and Anne Sofie Fedders from LEGO join Kursty to share insights from the hybrid work model they are currently implementing. Since the pandemic, the future of work has been one big experiment. Our perspective about work from home and hybrid work life has changed month by month since the beginning of COVID-19 lockdowns.

Tune in to hear Tim and Anne Sofie’s insights into how they created principles and guidelines to facilitate an effective and happy hybrid working environment. They discuss, among other things, what it’s like to build community and run meetings in a hybrid working world.

Timothy Ahrensbach is the Head of Workplace Experience at LEGO and Anne Sofie Fedders is the Head of LEGO Ways of Working.

“We’re still trying to figure out what the future of work is while we’re implementing it.” - Tim Ahrensbach
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Timestamps

[00:49] Episode overview: The best of both (LEGO)

[02:18] What’s been going on at LEGO Workplace Experience the past 9 months?

[03:35] What hybrid working at LEGO is like.

[07:11] Why is their hybrid working initiative called The Best of Both?

[07:55] Crafting and coordinating the LEGO hybrid working plan.

[12:23] Two-pronged approach to building a trust-based system.

[15:55] The main question to consider when rolling out a hybrid work programme.

[21:23] The practical side of rolling out a hybrid work programme (behaviour and mindset)

[23:32] How is the workspace changing to accommodate hybrid work?

[25:21] The necessary feedback loop between workspaces, individuals, and teams..

[28:00] The beauty of the LEGO Leadership Playground model.

[29:35] Co-creating unique shared experiences in the office to grow a strong culture.

[36:45] How do the different parts of the hybrid experience work together?

5 Key Highlights

The LEGO hybrid work plan was tested with several stakeholders before it was presented to the executives. The plan had to comply with local legal requirements.
People are now much more aware of what they want to get out of the office and more particular about their experience of it.
Coming into the office is not merely a personal affair but a collective one. Structures and systems are needed to ensure a certain amount of time spent in the office, for the well-being and harmony of the whole team.
Workplace culture should be co-created with staff, not imposed. It's influenced by the relationships formed between people; strengthening culture is about strengthening relationships.
A principle that can streamline hybrid work is that if one is online, then everyone is online. This can eliminate the awkwardness of having part of the meeting cohort online and the other part offline.

Links

Connect with Tim Ahrensbach: LinkedIn | Twitter

Connect with Anne Sofie Fedders: LinkedIn

Connect with Kursty Groves: LinkedIn | Twitter
Support the show

Support the show

Follow The Office Chronicles Linkedin page for more information, to share an idea for an episode or start a conversation around any f the topics covered in the show.

Summary

Timothy Ahrensbach is the Head of Workplace Experience at LEGO and Anne Sofie Fedders is the Head of LEGO Ways of Working.

“We’re still trying to figure out what the future of work is while we’re implementing it.” - Tim Ahrensbach
Support the show

Timestamps

[00:49] Episode overview: The best of both (LEGO)

[02:18] What’s been going on at LEGO Workplace Experience the past 9 months?

[03:35] What hybrid working at LEGO is like.

[07:11] Why is their hybrid working initiative called The Best of Both?

[07:55] Crafting and coordinating the LEGO hybrid working plan.

[12:23] Two-pronged approach to building a trust-based system.

[15:55] The main question to consider when rolling out a hybrid work programme.

[21:23] The practical side of rolling out a hybrid work programme (behaviour and mindset)

[23:32] How is the workspace changing to accommodate hybrid work?

[25:21] The necessary feedback loop between workspaces, individuals, and teams..

[28:00] The beauty of the LEGO Leadership Playground model.

[29:35] Co-creating unique shared experiences in the office to grow a strong culture.

[36:45] How do the different parts of the hybrid experience work together?

5 Key Highlights

The LEGO hybrid work plan was tested with several stakeholders before it was presented to the executives. The plan had to comply with local legal requirements.
People are now much more aware of what they want to get out of the office and more particular about their experience of it.
Coming into the office is not merely a personal affair but a collective one. Structures and systems are needed to ensure a certain amount of time spent in the office, for the well-being and harmony of the whole team.
Workplace culture should be co-created with staff, not imposed. It's influenced by the relationships formed between people; strengthening culture is about strengthening relationships.
A principle that can streamline hybrid work is that if one is online, then everyone is online. This can eliminate the awkwardness of having part of the meeting cohort online and the other part offline.

Links

Connect with Tim Ahrensbach: LinkedIn | Twitter

Connect with Anne Sofie Fedders: LinkedIn

Connect with Kursty Groves: LinkedIn | Twitter
Support the show

Support the show

Follow The Office Chronicles Linkedin page for more information, to share an idea for an episode or start a conversation around any f the topics covered in the show.

Previous Episode

How reducing office space can improve collaboration with Sue Glew (BT)

Summary

Sue Glew joins Kursty to discuss how she’s changing the work environment affecting 52,000 people with a 200 person team after realizing that BT has too many offices. They talk about how the physical workplace environment can influence productivity, why there shouldn’t be a standard way to implement hybrid working, and how BT adapted to COVID-19.

Sue Glew is the head of the Better Workplace program at BT. She specializes in change management and HR transformations.

“Someone once said to me: do any kind of change ever, but don’t mess with people’s desks... and here we are messing about with 52,000 of them”
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Timestamps

[00:28] Episode overview: Growing an animation studio in the pandemic.

[02:13] How (and why) BT decided that it is better to have FEWER offices.

[03:43] A vision statement for creating better physical workspaces.

[05:48]Enabling key workplace experiences by changing office design.

[10:23] How to run an office where nobody owns a desk.

[13:38] How BT acted when COVID hit.

[16:34] Why going back to the office will be more challenging than transferring to remote work.

[18:33] What is smart working? (experimenting after COVID)

[22:43] Why it is ok for autonomy in the workplace to be confusing (and not standardized).

[25:40] Multitasking in the hybrid working world.

[29:11] What Sue Glew is most excited about!

4 Key Highlights

Moments that matter in the workplace (that you might not think of immediately): being welcomed into the office, solo focus time, collaboration time, and moments of relaxation and refuelling. When redesigning workspaces, it is important to take these significant moments into deep consideration. Great workspaces are key to retaining the best talent.
People need to feel at home in the workplace. This is why, even in highly collaborative workplaces where no desk spaces are assigned - it is important for people to be able to find each other. One way around this challenge is to have ‘neighbourhoods’ for every team. So, you roughly know where you can find someone when you need them.
People adjusted to work from home very rapidly because they had no choice. However, going back to the office will likely be a lot more challenging.
Autonomy in the workplace does not have to look the same for every team in the same company. People have different working styles and personalities. It is best to leave it up to every individual team to decide how autonomy looks for them.

Links

Connect with Sue Glew: LinkedIn | Website

Connect with Kursty Groves: LinkedIn | Twitter

Support the show

Support the show

Follow The Office Chronicles Linkedin page for more information, to share an idea for an episode or start a conversation around any f the topics covered in the show.

Next Episode

How COVID-19 Launched a Constantly Changing Future of Work with Sudhir Saseedharan, Tetra Pak

Summary
Workplace experience expert Sudhir Saseedharan joins Kursty to discuss the opportunities the pandemic has presented in terms of reshaping work and the workplace. They talk about the four main pillars of the Tetra Pak workplace experience framework, why policies and frameworks should never be set in stone, and the realities of rolling out a framework globally.

While you might not have heard of Tetra Pak, you might have used it. Tetra Pak is a packaging company servicing 170 countries. It employs over 25,000 people.

Sudhir Saseedharan is the Director of Workplace Experience and Future Working at Tetra Pak. He has an impressive educational background that encompasses design, engineering, and social science.
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Timestamps

[00:33] Episode overview: Tetra Pak (the company all over the globe that you probably should know)

[02:19] Who is Sudhir Saseedharan (in his own words)?

[04:02] Why every adversity (like the pandemic) is an opportunity.

[05:22] Why everyone in the food industry should be considered a key worker.

[06:38] The packaging that keeps food fresh without preservatives.

[08:35] 4 main pillars of an optimal workplace experience.

[10:26] Why you should map out personas of your employees.

[12:47] The future is now (what does that really mean?).

[14:15] How to convince leadership to accept constant iteration.

[17:08] What is the workplace experience like at Tetra Pak?

[22:14] The challenge and excitement of innovating at a company with a mixed age demographic.

[23:47] How do you roll out a framework globally (across 170 countries)?

[26:57] Quick-fire question round (coming up with awesome ideas, getting into flow, etc.)
3 Key Highlights

Workplace experience can be broken down into four main pillars: (1) flexible working arrangements (2) workplaces (3) digital tools (4) health and wellbeing. To understand how to tackle each of these aspects, it can be a good practice to map out employee personas and use the personas to create a framework that considers everyone.
Working productively, dynamically, and capably across teams is heavily catalyzed by having a hyper-collaborative work culture and ethic. The future of work involves everyone and not the workplace experience team alone.
Rolling out a policy framework globally is undoubtedly a complex process. That being said, if we view policy frameworks as a constant work in progress (rather than instructions that are necessarily set in stone) it allows us to manage obstacles as they arise.

Links

Connect with Sudhir Saseedharan: LinkedIn

The Sharing App: Olio

Connect with Kursty Groves: LinkedIn | Twitter

Support the show

Follow The Office Chronicles Linkedin page for more information, to share an idea for an episode or start a conversation around any f the topics covered in the show.