Building a hybrid office
How we’re empowering a cross-disciplinary team that feels at home even when it’s remote. This is how we’re making Manyone London our first fully hybrid office.
It’s been just over eighteen months since Manyone opened the doors to its London office, and what an eighteen months it’s been. Having successfully navigated working in an ad-hoc, hybrid fashion for the last year due to the restrictions across the UK, there’s been highs and lows and lots of learning along the way. We’ve taken those experiences onboard and now we’re starting 2022 with a fresh perspective.
Building a hybrid-first team with London as its home
Going forward, Manyone London will be embracing a hybrid model. We will be the Manyone office for those who are looking to join one of the world’s fastest-growing, independent strategy-design consultancies — while enjoying all of the benefits of being in a hybrid remote setting.
Establishing a hybrid office is actually very close to our company values and the organisation we’re building.
We’re a rapidly growing company with an ever-increasing international footprint. Our teams work from 12 offices in 10 countries. From London to Singapore, Denmark to São Paulo, Manyone is a global team of teams. Each one of these teams already has a high level of autonomy. Autonomy and flexibility are vital as each office grows and morphs in a way that best suits its own circumstances.
At Manyone we believe size and adaptability are imperative to drive real impact. In fact, one of Manyone’s People Mantra’s is that ‘We are always adaptable’:
“Fast is good, change is fantastic, and curiosity is everything.
We’re entrepreneurial to the bone and built for constant change.
We know that only by having an open mind and leaning into new possibilities, can we be part of shaping a better future.”
So, with all of that in mind, we’ve decided to shape the future of our London team, by fully embracing a hybrid and remote way of working.
Switching to a fully hybrid model
Manyone London is already a tightly-knit team that works across disciplines, teams and geographical boundaries. From the day we established the office, we’ve been collaborating closely across the Manyone office network, to deliver industry-shaping design and strategy solutions to businesses both in London and worldwide. None of this is changing, we’re simply putting that experience into practice.
Over the next 12 months, we will increasingly formalise this as our way of working — to research, design, prototype and iterate to find the optimal approach that delivers the best hybrid office setup for our team and for our clients.
What does this look like in practice?
To begin with, Manyone London will be reevaluating what it needs and expects from a physical space and how we utilise it. The aim is to create an environment that encourages community and company culture. We will move away from the traditional office space, and instead, create a space that can be used to help grow team cohesion and creativity. People will be free to come and go as they please, to use the space in a way that best suits their needs, so they can work where they feel most comfortable and inspired.
It’s important to state at this point, the irony isn’t lost on us. We know that for some, it might sound strange that we are promoting a hybrid model of working while still talking about the need for a physical location. We want to encourage those who are looking to or are already working remotely to join our London team. However, we feel it’s important to still be connected in some way to a physical location. It gives everyone a home, and a central location that they can call theirs.
We will also be growing our team considerably over the next 12 months. Whether you’re in the UK, or perhaps a European country that doesn’t yet have a Manyone presence, then we’d love to hear from you. Maybe you want to work with the team physically from London, or remotely from a place of your choosing, that’s completely up to you. We want to help craft a workplace experience that meets the needs of everyone within the team.
We’re consciously trying to develop a culture that fosters creativity while at the same time considering the wellbeing of all. We’re designing ways of maintaining those serendipitous interactions, those ‘water cooler’ moments, for those physically present and remotely present. One example of how we will be doing this, every 6 to 8 weeks we will have a 2-day on-site collaboration and culture-building session with the whole team either in London or at one of the other Manyone offices (all expenses paid of course).
Transparent in the face of challenges
It would be dishonest to say we haven’t faced, or won’t face further challenges during this transition. For example, the disconnect between those physically present versus those connected via screens. How do we manage, technology issues both on-site and at home? How do we make sure that those working remotely don’t overwork themselves and ensure that they take breaks away from the screen? All of these examples are challenges we’ll address and find ways to overcome.
Going forward, we’re sure we will run into further challenges as the team grows and we settle into our new space and routines. That’s why we are designing and putting in place new guiding principles that are focused on the well-being of the team and the business. From revised hybrid onboarding processes to the creation of our core values that we want to stand by as a hybrid team. We are and will continue to work collaboratively with all of London’s Manyones, to design and tailor a hybrid model that works for everyone.
Join us on this journey
This will likely be the first of an ongoing series of blog posts where we update you openly and honestly on the progress of this transformation for the London team. We’re excited about the journey we are setting out on. It’s a long term project that will involve a great deal of self-evaluation and honest analysis. We’re not just redesigning a workspace, we’re redesigning the entire experience, for our Manyone team members and for current and future clients.
If you want to know more about the ongoing transformation, or simply want to further discuss possible opportunities within Manyone London, please feel free to reach out to me Adam Walker, or one of my colleagues, or keep your eye out for the next instalment.
We also invite you to listen to this podcast episode: Everything that’s next in workspaces.
Here, Rasmus Møller Sørensen from Manyone speaks with Mik Strøyberg, the founder and CEO of Good Monday , an office service and management platform, about the future of post-covid workspaces.
Manyone is a strategy-design hybrid. Visit us at Manyone.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
