HomeWerk presents — 11 Questions with Kristian Lorenzon from O2.

HomeWerk
4 min readAug 13, 2020

“11 Questions with…” is an ongoing blog series presented by HomeWerk to help team leaders learn from each other about how to make the most of working remotely 🌐 💻

Question 1: What’s your name?

Kristian Lorenzon.

Question 2: Where do you work?

O2.

Question 3: And What do you do there?

Performance Media Lead in the Brand & Marcomms, overseeing campaigns and programmes across social, digital and CRM channels. Our main goal is to improve the effectiveness of media through experiences, insight and technology.

Question 4: What’s the best thing about your job?

The access I get to some of the best and brightest talent in marketing and media through our agency, media and technology relationships.

Question 5: How has the industry changed since you started?

The industry has gone through huge change and growth. When I first started Facebook was a desktop only community, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok didn’t exist and Amazon mostly sold books. Fast-forward to today and we’re in a mobile-first world, people see their devices and social media as an extension of themselves. The way we communicate with customers has dramatically changed because of this and the skills we look for in people too.

Question 6: How do you create motivation for yourself and for your team?

I’m a big believer in reward and recognition. We set clear objectives and review them on a regular basis, and we celebrate our successes big and small, as a team. I prefer a flat structure where possible to encourage sharing of ideas and joint accountability.

Question 7: What tips would you give for managing remote teams?

Open communication is key. Enabling an environment where both serious and casual water-cooler conversation can flourish is key to helping people continue to learn and be creative. Setting up modes of communication is important whether it’s a WhatsApp group, ad-hoc video call or some team activities that are more fun, rather than work.

Question 8: How do you maintain work-life balance whilst working remotely?

It’s really key to set boundaries and communicate these openly with your team and stakeholders. It’s really important to plan your working time in advance e.g. split out time for tasks, calls or thinking. Also be strict about your start/end times and lunch. It is important to close the laptop and switch off to avoid burnout and overworking. I personally like to have personal and family time at both the start and end of day. This means you take ownership of your day more.

Question 9: Do you think remote working is here to stay?

I believe that flexible working is here to stay. Many businesses have seen huge value and success by giving employees more flexibility and ownership of their hours and location of work. I still believe there is a place for face-to-face time for tasks like brainstorming, creativity and planning. I believe the future is about offering choice in order to get the best out of people in the preferred environment for a task.

Question 10: What’s something surprising that you’ve discovered about working remotely?

How important workplace fun and creativity is to create an environment of positivity and innovation.

Question 11: And lastly, we always like to ask a question from our get-to-know-each-other quiz called “Who Said That?”. So, what do you think of Garden Gnomes?

A bit creepy, not for me!

— 😂 Thanks, Kristian!

Connect with Kristian via LinkedIn.

HomeWerk is a virtual team-building platform for remote teams. Our mission is to help employees make friends whilst working from home. The HomeWerk platform provides an easy way for colleagues to have fun through shared experiences whilst promoting healthy, modern workplace practises.

Fancy a free trial? Click here 👈

Want some further reading? Check out our post on how the best teams are beginning to realise that when it comes to remote working the idea of “work hard, play hard” no longer need to conflict with one another!

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HomeWerk

weekly, automated, team-building activities for virtual teams.