ThemeTools, space & tech
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Questions5 to explore

Physical Workspaces

How we set up the spaces for hybrid

The spaces people work from shape how they work, and in a hybrid team those spaces vary so much that differences need to be named.

Some team members have a quiet dedicated home office. Others work from a kitchen table shared with a partner and two children. Some prefer the office for focus. Others come in only for meetings. In a hybrid team, people make their own space decisions constantly, and those decisions affect what they can do and when.

The team's approach to physical workspaces needs to be explicit: what is the office for, given that people do not use it every day? Is it booked in advance, or are there enough seats for any given number? Is working from a café acceptable? What about working from a different city or country for a week?

Getting clarity on this prevents the quiet resentment that builds when someone feels they are missing out (those at home) or doing extra work (those who come in and run the room). It also surfaces practical things: if the office has ten desks and twelve people, who comes in on which day?

Make it explicitWrite down what the office is for in a hybrid context, how desk or room booking works, and what flexibility is available for working from other locations.

How strong hybrid teams handle it

The same building block, handled well. These are patterns from teams that work well across locations, offered as illustrations to react to, not rules to copy.

Define what the office is for

Hybrid teams that articulate the purpose of the office (collaboration days, onboarding, deep focus, social connection) use it more intentionally than teams that just say 'come in when you want'.

Coordinate rather than mandate

Rather than requiring people to be in on certain days, some teams coordinate overlapping office days so that when people do come in, they are more likely to find the colleagues they want to work with.

A working-from-elsewhere norm

Teams that discuss and write down their norm on working from a café, another city, or abroad give people clarity without making it a big ask every time. The question 'can I work from Barcelona next week?' should have a known answer.

Questions for your team

Use these on your own or in a group. There are no right answers, only better conversations.

What is the office actually for, in our team's hybrid model, and does everyone have the same understanding?
Do team members have what they need in their home workspace to do a full day's work well?
How do we coordinate who is in the office on which days, to make the most of overlap time?
What is the norm around working from other locations, like another city or a café, and is it written down?
Are there people on the team whose home workspace is not adequate, and do we know about it?

Watch for

The people who come into the office most often can start to feel like they carry the team's operational weight: they run the rooms, manage the tech, and act as proxies for remote colleagues. That role should be named and rotated.
A hot-desking setup that works on paper breaks down when the office fills up unexpectedly. Teams that do not coordinate office days can find the space overcrowded some days and empty on others.
Home workspaces that are genuinely unsuitable (no desk, shared space with no quiet hours, poor connectivity) are not improved by telling people to 'sort it out'. Some people need real support.