What happens when you go from 1 to 200 offices in a matter of weeks?

Consultancies are all about people. We exist to harness the expertise, creativity, brainpower and passion of our people to solve client problems. The office has always been our hub; a home for our creative family. A place to spark ideas, to listen, to learn, to laugh, to cry, to support each other and importantly to have some fun. We are approaching a year, full time, of working from the place we call home. Our teams work from their bedrooms, kitchens, gardens, garages, lounges, lofts and even bathrooms. That’s not all. Our homes have also diversified into virtual schools, second-rate pubs and woefully equipped gyms. At Ketchum we’ve had a fully flexible working from home policy for years but having no central meeting point, or physical hub, for such a long period of time, that how we work across the board has shifted. I’ve looked at the areas we’ve had to adapt the most – our teams, working with clients and pitching for new business.   Our teams We have spent a lot of time and effort trying to find new ways to increase connections and camaraderie since taking permanent residence in our home offices. You name it, we’ve tried it……quizzes (obviously), cocktail making, pizza-making kits, random one-to-one meetings, days off, daily email updates, ask-the-CEO sessions, coffee mornings, virtual office updates, external training and inspiration sessions, the list goes on… We have built our approach around empathy and understanding, and a realisation that as an agency and as a team we need to constantly review what is working for us and what needs to evolve. Setting and maintaining boundaries and the work/life balance has been a particular challenge. It is tough to deal with at the best of times, but we have introduced policy changes to directly address this; a ‘quiet hour’ each day where we avoid having any meetings to allow people a break from screens and ideally get outside as well as no meetings after 5.30pm. We’re also trialling our first ‘no-meeting day’ this month. Naturally, motivation, energy levels, client and home demands fluctuate daily. So, listening, hearing, adapting and responding quickly with new ideas is how we have adapted during these uncertain times. What we’ve learnt is going to put us in a an even better position to nurture talent when some sense of normality resumes (please, let it be soon!)   Our clients One of the things we always talk about with clients is how to bring the outside in. I believe an agency partner is at its best and most impactful when it provides fresh and considered perspectives to the client. The connections and conversations we have can help clients see things that aren’t always possible when they are dealing with the pressures that in-house comms roles bring. When I was a client, my weekly trip to the agency office was always a way to lift my head out of the internal tunnel and connect with the wider world. So whilst we can’t offer our office environment as a physical destination to share, we’re constantly introducing new ways to bring the outside in, be it knowledge sharing, cultural trends or innovative thinking through data and analytics.   Those we wish to work with Pitching for new business is hard. But doing it from your kitchen table is really bloody hard, as is building rapport virtually. Pitch theatre has taken on a new meaning and chemistry and outcomes are harder to judge. Keeping people’s attention amongst inevitable distractions is challenging. I’ve been interrupted mid-pitch by my three-year-old kicking me in the shin and once when someone arrived to fix the washing machine just as I was about to present. And don’t even get me started on the tech issues that crop up, despite all the advance preparation, sometimes connectivity just isn’t your friend. We’ve had to change how we pitch, what we show, when we show it. We’ve adapted so much that it will be odd to ever go back to pitching with everyone in the same room! But it is likely we will move to a hybrid model next, having some people in the room and some people attending virtually, that will be another skill to master and will require another evolution in approach and style – we are already thinking about what this looks like.   So, a year on from moving into 200 offices across the UK, we continue to learn and adapt every day. The desire to constantly improve how we work and the work we do, is what gets me out of bed every morning with a spring in my step (well, apart from two toddlers demanding breakfast). This has been a year we will never forget. There isn’t a playbook for any of this – we are writing it as we go but I think it’s a playbook that will help us however many offices we have in the future.