“Where is that again? On the drive! No, in the DMS… No, in Teams…”
Sound familiar? This is how conversations go in modern offices every day – and it’s no better in hybrid teams. Where yesterday an email would have been sent, today it’s “the info is in the channel.” But which channel? Teams? Slack? Project board?
The problem isn’t that there are too few digital tools – it’s that there are too many. And even more seriously:
👉 There is no common agreement on which tool is used for what.

Studies and recent analyses show that the flood of digital tools is slowing us down—often significantly.

📌 Switching costs and fragmentation:
According to an analysis by the Work Innovation Lab, employees lose an average of 57 minutes per day just switching between tools. In addition, they spend about 30 minutes deciding which tool to use. That adds up to over 1.5 hours per day that are not used productively – simply because systems are not clearly defined or are left to too many people. Asana

📌 Digital stress among employees:
Studies show that over 60% of employees feel exhausted by the multitude of digital tools – a phenomenon often referred to as digital tool fatigue. Forbes

📌 Tool overload is real:
More than 50% of organizations say they use too many tools, and teams with more than six tools are significantly more likely to report that their work has become complex and inefficient. Buddy Punch

The result: we waste time searching and switching between tools instead of investing it in real work. Information is scattered, our focus is fragmented – and productivity visibly suffers as a result.

The daily chaos surrounding tools costs us time, energy, and focus. Studies show that having too many tools does not make employees more productive, but rather overwhelms them. However, with clear tool guidance, this overhead can be reduced in the long term—and real productivity can be unleashed.

👉 Fewer tools + clear rules = greater efficiency.

And that’s not just nice to have—it’s a real foundation for good collaboration in the digital and hybrid age.

Practical tip: Display your values visibly in the virtual office. Slack channel, Teams pin, or Notion dashboard. That way, everyone will stumble across your culture without you having to mention it specifically.

Extra: Create little challenges around your values. For example, whoever collects the most examples of the values in action during the week gets a little surprise. This way, culture is actively experienced and not just read about.

Note: Culture does not happen automatically. But it can also rock from the home office—if you bring in a little fun, cultivate rituals, and use tools cleverly.

Imagine this: You’re sitting on the train, concentrating on a project – and suddenly a photo of you appears on social media: “This is not what working from home looks like!” 🚄💻
Headlines like this appeared recently when there was discussion in Germany about employees who regularly use their train journeys as working time. Critics see this as blurring the line between productive work and leisure time. But for many, mobile working has long been part of everyday life.

Recent studies provide solid insights:

• Stable trend: According to the Ifo Institute, 24.5% of all employees in Germany worked at least partially from home in February 2025—a stable figure compared to 23.4% in August 2024. This means that working from home has become firmly established.(ifo Institut, The Munich Eye)

• Industry differentiation: Employees in the service sector are particularly likely to work from home (34.3%) – less so in areas such as manufacturing (16.9%), retail (12.5%), and construction (4.6%). (ifo Institut, The Munich Eye)
• Lack of enforcement of formal requirements: A survey conducted by the Indeed platform also showed that over 25% of employees work from home more often than officially permitted—often through informal agreements with their supervisors. (Newsworm)

Imagine: Work is no longer a grueling eight-hour marathon, but a creative raft full of flexibility, personal responsibility, digital tools—and the occasional keen eye on the coffee mug.

New Work is not just buzzword ping-pong, but means: spaces (physical & digital), tools, knowledge transfer, coaching – and above all, people who have a say in when, where, and how they want to work.
At 3kubik, we firmly believe that good work is not just something that gets done – it should be fun, inspiring, and connect people.

1. Hybrid remains, but flexibility reigns supreme

Working from home isn’t dead, but a rigid “everyone comes to the office on Mondays” approach is no longer the norm. Hybrid working is becoming the standard, offering real flexibility and a human touch.
👉 Forbes – 8 workplace trends 2025, IMD – Future of Work

2. Upskilling is the new career supplement

If you stand still, you rust – and today, rust is online. Continuous learning remains the number one trend, especially in areas such as AI, digital working, and soft skills.
👉 Forbes

3. Artificial intelligence is not a hobby – it’s your new colleague

Agentic AI (yes, you read that right) will become a project assistant, idea generator, or memory aid in 2025 – and not just as a gimmick. Digitalization never sleeps – it works with you.
👉 CIO Dive, The Australian

4. Humanity beats algorithms

New work requires empathy, inclusion, and mindfulness: Good workplaces offer mental health, appreciation, and recognition on an equal footing – not robot dictionaries.
👉 BI Worldwide, News.com.au

5. Gig Economy 2.0: Skills are now your calling card

It’s no longer your degree that counts, but what you can do. Project ticket instead of permanent employment? Exactly. More and more high-skilled freelancers are rocking the business on their own.
👉 LinkedIn – Future of Work 2025

But let’s be honest:
An AI project is not an end in itself.
Without change management, it will remain just the latest buzzword – and you will miss the opportunity to create a real market advantage.

👉 Studies such as those conducted by Changefirst show that projects with professional change management generate an ROI of up to 650%—and even 200% for smaller projects.

Without change management, the result is often:

great AI that no one uses,
an overwhelmed team that sees AI as a threat,
or a project that fizzles out before it creates real value.

Real-world examples:

• NHS Digital in the UK: Digital services were successfully rolled out because change agents were involved early on.
• Microsoft’s AI introduction: Success not through technology, but through employee involvement.

Conclusion: Only those who combine AI with change can turn hype into real advantage.

You know how it is: a meeting starts, someone seems irritable, the next person is quiet, and somehow there’s a “storm” hanging over the room—even though the agenda promised nothing but sunshine. Most of the time, we politely ignore it, but secretly everyone is wondering: what’s going on here?
That’s exactly why we have our “Weather Mood” check-in deck—a small set of cards with a big impact.

A quick check-in at the beginning makes the difference between a tedious “drizzly meeting” and a lively exchange.
• No more guesswork: Instead of speculating why your colleague is grumbling today, you know: He’s just having a “storm in his head.”
• More understanding: When someone says, “It’s cloudy in my head right now,” it gives everyone else the chance to respond with empathy.
• Focus instead of drama: A quick check-in about the weather situation – and suddenly it’s all about the matter at hand, not underlying tensions.

In short, the check-in deck is like an umbrella for meetings – it protects against small mood showers ruining the whole meeting.

Being the boss and yet not being one. No title. No announcements. No controlling gaze over the desk. Just the responsibility that remains—no matter how much we work on an equal footing.

For me, New Work means not less responsibility, but a different way of dealing with it. No power games. No hierarchies that delegate decisions. Instead, trust. Genuine closeness. And the courage not to always intervene.

Every day, I assume that everyone here is doing their best. Not because I check up on them, but because I know that these people WANT to work here and always give their best.

I don’t work with employees, but with colleagues. It’s not just a question of language, but of attitude. I want to work on an equal footing as often as possible. Nevertheless, there are moments when decisions are made differently than I would have done. When I think, “I could solve that faster/differently/better.” When my gut screams, “Intervene!”

That’s when leadership begins. Endure. Leave space. Allow growth. Only those who make their own decisions – and make their own mistakes – truly grow.

And sometimes that’s difficult. Especially when I realize: I would have done that completely differently. Then a comment slips out. Or I’m too quick with my assessment. It happens. But I learn, again and again.

For me, trust is an advance payment. I believe that people are here because they want to be and that they give their best. And that’s exactly what I don’t want to do: destroy that through control.

“Trust doesn’t mean looking away. Trust means giving space, even if it’s sometimes difficult.”

If someone had told me a few years ago that I would one day be working with LEGO, I would have looked at my resume with great surprise. Sure, I grew up with LEGO, building castles and fantasy worlds, visiting LEGOLAND in Billund as a child, and somehow never really stopping. My key ring? A LEGO figure (first Gandalf, now Darth Vader). My office? Full of little LEGO setups. But it wasn’t clear to me for a long time that the colorful bricks would one day find their way into my work as a serious method for strategy development and teamwork.
Then came my first contact with LEGO in a design thinking workshop. There, it was used for prototyping. Exciting, but not yet what I pursue today with LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®. Because that’s something completely different: a well-thought-out, scientifically based method for taking creativity and communication to a new level.

The biggest difference to “normal” LEGO building? There are no instructions. No ‘right’ or “wrong.” Instead, it’s about making thoughts visible, shaping ideas, and developing a common language. This happens through metaphors—I build something and explain what it means.
With just six standard bricks, there are over 900 million possible combinations. That’s exactly what makes LSP so powerful: it brings diversity to thought patterns, breaks down mental blocks, and enables a change of perspective. Why does it work?
1. Hand-eye coordination & cognition When building with your hands, new connections are created in the brain. This promotes deeper insights and helps to better understand complex relationships. Studies show that we understand better when we physically design things instead of just talking about them or writing them down.
2. Metaphorical thinking & storytelling Instead of explaining abstract concepts in words, participants build models that make their thoughts and ideas visible. This creates a common understanding, even if there were previously different perspectives.
3. Equal communication Everyone builds and presents their model, which also helps introverts to express themselves. All ideas are valued, not just the loudest voices in the room.
4. Reduction of mental blocks The playful approach promotes open, creative thinking. While traditional meetings are often linear and restrictive, LSP enables a freer, more intuitive, and exploratory approach to problems.
5. Systemic thinking In addition to individual models, group models are also created in the workshops, bringing together different perspectives. This helps to understand complex challenges and develop strategies.

• What specific goal am I pursuing with AI? For example, do I want to:
  o Save time on recurring tasks?
  o Scale my marketing even with limited resources?
  o Automate knowledge management or simplify processes?

At 3kubik, we use AI specifically for the structured elaboration of workshop results, for example to create guidelines, overviews of measures, or campaigns. In doing so, we consistently ensure that no personal or company-sensitive data is used, but instead work exclusively with abstracted, anonymized, or generic content. We also use AI in technical areas, such as JSON formatting in Power Automate or M formulas in Power BI, based on neutral sample data. Our use of AI is therefore compliant with the requirements of the EU AI Act and supports our work where it makes sense, safely, efficiently, and responsibly.

Practical example:

✔ Goal: Save time on workshop documentation

✉ Prompt:“Organize the results of this workshop into an action plan. Break it down into short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals. Target audience: management.”

If you had told me a few years ago that I would be working out of an old pool house, I would probably have laughed at you. But we had our chic office in Bremen’s Überseestadt district! Concrete, glass, stylish meeting spaces – a place with a really good spirit. Unfortunately, there was usually no one there. We were constantly on the road, I myself flew all over Germany three to four times a week. It’s completely crazy when I think about it today.

Then came corona. First there was the forced break, then we got used to working from home. And at some point it became clear that we no longer needed an office. So we pulled the ripcord in 2021. Not an easy step, but one that felt damn right. And of course, we said goodbye with a legendary farewell party. At four o’clock in the morning, all of us completely exhausted – one of us even missed his flight to Gran Canaria. The perfect ending.

I still wanted to have my own place to work. So I converted our old pool house. Sounds cool? It wasn’t at all at first. The pool was completely ruined. When I went to drain the water, a fountain shot up to the ceiling. Total damage. So I took out the pool, put in a new floor, huge window fronts – and my office was finished.
The transition period? Pure chaos. I was surrounded by building dust and tools, living with four people in a tiny vacation apartment in between: homeschooling, home office, a newborn, managing the building site. Complete chaos, but somehow we pulled it off.

Today, I enjoy every second here. I can organize my time more freely, mow the lawn for half an hour at lunchtime – totally meditative for me – and I save myself almost an hour and a half of commuting every day. But how do you keep a team together when no one comes into the office anymore?