mad4digital’s Workplace Secrets: Millennials Matter

Modern, well-designed, funky shared office spaces have revolutionised business practices. The opportunities to bring people together to collaborate in a fun and creative environment are huge, which is why we were so excited to move into a new, non-conventional work space ’WeWork’ a co-working space near London Liverpool Street. We thought it would be an opportune time to talk about what goes on, how we work and how that benefits our business, and ultimately, our customers.

Collaboration

Developing and maintaining a happy, empowered, inspired and creative workforce can be a challenge for any business. Having an ‘off the wall’ boss, who gives us fun perks and challenges to work towards, really adds to the work hard play hard culture Every day has something new in store to jump start our creative minds. Today’s theme is funky t-shirt day (one of us looking like a banana milkshake, another looking like a garden flower patch), which has sparked some–let’s say ‘curious’–looks and cheerful conversations with neighbouring workers. This contributes to the social atmosphere that WeWork encourages, whilst also enhancing collaboration and awareness of our business.

Last night at the office ‘Thirsty Thursday’ happy hour, one of our many office neighbours commented on our crazy office music playlist. It goes from techno to rap in a heartbeat and they listen to it with envy. Not only did it spark laughter and conversation, but it also sparked new ideas for a potential mad 4 business venture (or maybe that was just the tequila talking…we will see). Stay tuned!

Team Work

Obviously, every business has its highs and lows, so we’re not going to pretend that everything is fine and dandy all of the time. We’ve got generational stuff to deal with, especially with our maturing boss (‘old’ in the ‘non’ PC days) having to manage a millennial madhouse whilst repeatedly harping back to the line ‘in the old days’. Recently, this came to a head when the conversation escalated from a meeting room to a breakout room (which turned into a metaphorical boxing ring ) at lightning speed.

This wouldn’t have happened in a more traditional company working space. But, a traditional company wouldn’t have spent the rest of the day sitting around a table, getting things off their chests, working out ways to make the business more efficient and brainstorming ways to improve customer service–all whilst chomping on paper-wrapped fish and chips. As a result, we have created better relationships and communication both internally and externally and brought changes to working practices (we’re even considering introducing a reverse mentoring process where the Millennials mentor the Baby Boomers and the Gen-Xers!) which will improve our productivity and take our products and services to an even higher level.

This doesn’t even scratch the surface of what goes on in our Madhouse, but since moving into our new millennial friendly office space, what we do know is this: our working relationships within the small team have tightened and we’ve become more excited, wacky, innovative and disruptive. We’re hungry for new, fresh ideas and ways of working, we’ve created unexpected business partnerships and collaborations, delivered high-quality designs, become efficient and received greater customer satisfaction. In short, we’ve all become MADDER 4 DIGITAL.