“Better learn balance. Balance is key.”

– Mr Miyagi

Mr Miyagi, from the 1980s film The Karate Kid, had it right all along. Balance was not just a lesson for karate, but a lesson for the whole life. The balance between work and life has been a subject of debate for decades and the past few years have added a few new wrinkles. The new catchall post-pandemic term of “hybrid” has become a badge to represent new sides of the divide between what was (traditionalists) and what could be (visionaries).

Now of course each side has much more fruity nomenclature for the other side, but while many industries cannot function without a physical presence (be it a factory, a lab, or a railway), others have seamlessly moved to virtual (office workers, creative agencies). Now many of us are now trying to get the resulting Rubik’s Cube of Work, Life, Physical and Virtual back into some shape.

The answer will be, as always, a compromise - some form of rationalisation that will suit the team, the people, the work and the clients. Having spent decades looking after creative agencies, many of them multinational, the work balance between digital and in-person is already familiar for geographically separated teams - technology has helped that enormously. Now we are learning to help those of us used to “only” working face-to-face every day. Throw in the cultural need to recognise the levelling up of the personal, home and work balance and we’ve all needed to adapt. 

The elephant in the room that had to be quashed overnight was around productivity. Companies (and especially ad agencies) in the past have been concerned about allowing their staff to WFH, feeling employees would be distracted or not do as much as they would in the office. The pandemic has actually smashed that preconception. According to Forbes, 60% of UK managers suggest that working from home increases productivity, which is a big shift from pre-pandemic and potentially antiquated views that at-home working was a distraction. 

Here are three things we consider at Lively:

Balance 

Remote working with digital connectivity has helped many but it needs to be matched to frequent face-to-face days together that allow creativity through collaboration, unscheduled learning and a deepening of relationships between the team. We believe this balance is imperative to an individual’s mental health allowing the time that once was used for commuting to be spent doing sports, helping with childcare or simply having time to oneself.

Blend

Individuals and teams need a crafted blend between working from the office, working from home and also being able to work from anywhere (WFA)! Currently, at Lively, we look at two days WFH (work from home), two days WF2F (work face-to-face) and one day that suits – WFA. This blend changes but it’s never all of one or the other.

To make it work we have a deep level of trust in each other to crack on and complete the work needed on a day-to-day basis. This means the time we do spend together is collaborative, rather than heads stuck behind laptop screens or even worse on continuous calls that could have been done solo at home. 

Bespoke

Personalised solutions for different situations can help the team and are vital in how we treat people. Currently, two of our team are working thousands of miles away in Canada and Australia for a month or so because they want to. When a team needs more F2F time, we offer different co-working spaces all over the world or around the corner. Our team can choose and ask for options that suit them and their teams - we only ask that the work we do for our clients is unaffected. 

Why is this important?

Lively understands this new hybrid environment as it has always been a big part of our DNA. Even before the worldwide pandemic, we have offered employees the opportunity to have a work/life balance that works for them. Our company ethos is centred in offering our clients flexibility, agility and bespoke solutions that transcend geographies and time. And we believe that this must be reflected in how we work internally as a team; whether face-to-face (creative collaborators), virtual (work from anywhere) or flexible (never a rigid plan). 

This is a mantra we live and breathe. Just this past Christmas we were faced with the desire to meet and celebrate the fantastic year we achieved together as a team. However, with train strikes and other travel issues, this was proving tricky. So we asked the team if they would prefer more time with loved ones and a well-deserved recuperation, which was received with a resounding yes. We, therefore, gave everyone two full weeks to be with family, friends or in the sunshine, with the one rule of returning recharged and refreshed. A bespoke solution that allowed us to reconnect to that work/life balance we all need and deserve.