The Toolbox for High-Impact Hybrid Work

When Tom Kegode helped launch a movement to reconnect colleagues with offices, his team was small. It consisted of him. Keeping everyone informed through individual calls would have consumed the time he needed to do the work. So he created an open chat, shared updates there and let colleagues engage without adding another meeting to every calendar.

The example captures his approach to changing work at Lloyds Banking Group: question the familiar process, then make participation easier. In this episode of Innovation Rockstars, the People, Comms and Connections Lead explores hybrid working through concrete choices about communication, offices and team routines. The question extends beyond where employees sit. It includes how a workshop begins, who has time to think before speaking and whether a new tool actually makes contributing more difficult.

Give the office a purpose people can recognize

Kegode describes himself as a friendly disruptor, particularly when the explanation for a process is that it has always been done that way. His shorthand for change is direct.

“Move fast and do the right thing.”

That outlook shapes his view of the office. He sees a role for physical workplaces, but expects them to offer something worth traveling for. Human connection and community are central to that value. Collaboration can grow from those relationships; it does not automatically appear because people share a building.

The physical experience matters too. An outdated monitor or an environment that makes work harder is difficult to justify when someone has a well-equipped setup at home. Equally, a comfortable home office cannot be assumed. Kegode points to colleagues sharing homes across generations or living, eating and working in one room. For them, another place to work can make a substantial difference.

Those differences are why he emphasizes conversations about individual, team and organizational needs. Line managers need the skills and discretion to work through them, rather than treating flexibility as one identical arrangement for everyone.

Start the workshop before people enter the room

Kegode uses an ideation workshop to show what a more inclusive hybrid experience could look like. If the session is on Tuesday, open the conversation in a virtual channel on Monday or the week before. Share the questions and invite people to contribute early.

The live session then begins with ideas already taking shape. People who prefer time to reflect have an opportunity to prepare, while the discussion can develop what has been submitted. Participation becomes a sequence of opportunities, rather than a single moment in which the quickest response dominates.

This is what he means by considering the whole experience. Hybrid design includes the preparation and the way contributions are captured, as well as the meeting itself. For an R&D team trying to draw on different kinds of expertise, that is a useful shift. It makes room for more than one way of thinking and communicating.

Remove the extra task between a person and an idea

A new collaboration platform can look like an obvious way to improve ideation. Kegode asks whether people first have to learn how to use it. If they do, the tool has introduced another task before they can contribute.

His team found that Microsoft Teams was already part of colleagues' daily work. They could use the chat directly, while also inviting spoken contributions. There was no need to move everyone into an unfamiliar whiteboard application just to collect their thoughts.

“We want to try to make it as easy as possible.”

He describes short workshops called ideation kickabouts: roughly half an hour focused on three substantial questions, working with a part of the business that needed colleagues' input. One explored offices of the future and the destination-office concept that informed their thinking.

The format was intentionally energetic. Kegode wanted people to leave interested in the ideas, rather than exhausted by the session. He also suggests making space for ideas within existing routines, such as a brief discussion after a stand-up. Innovation becomes easier to participate in when it fits the work already happening.

Change the setting when the discussion needs it

Kegode's own day often includes a walk by the sea near his home in Plymouth. The setting gives him time to reflect and a sense of perspective. He brings a similar willingness to change surroundings into team work.

One of his favorite meetings took place in a central London park, with the innovation team combining a picnic-like gathering, team building and discussion of their work. He also describes the possibility of a walking call, with one person recording ideas while others take inspiration from their surroundings.

These are options to consider for the task and the people involved. Their value is in questioning whether the default meeting setup is helping. The same curiosity that challenges a product assumption can be applied to the way a team generates and develops ideas.

Keep experimenting after the emergency ends

Kegode recalls teams coming together during the pandemic to make changes that previously seemed difficult, including moving contact-center work into homes. Bringing the relevant expertise together, with authority and accountability to act, helped decisions move faster.

The challenge is to retain useful parts of that approach when a crisis no longer supplies the urgency. He sees hybrid working as something that will continue to evolve through learning, rather than a model an organization can declare permanently finished.

His memorable innovation event brought internal and external contributors together for workshops, discussions and a live hackathon. That enthusiasm for connection also runs through his smaller interventions: an open chat, a question shared early, a workshop short enough to leave people wanting more. Each gives colleagues a practical way to join in. That is where his version of hybrid work begins to make innovation part of an ordinary working day.