Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Designing a Sustainable Hybrid Work and Culture Strategy
The Situation
Like many national labs, Berkeley Lab faced post-pandemic tension around hybrid work, culture, and collaboration. Leaders needed a strategy that balanced operational excellence, employee experience, and the Lab’s mission-critical scientific work, without defaulting to one-size-fits-all mandates.
Our Approach
Caravann partnered with Lab leadership to co-create a hybrid work and culture strategy grounded in data, trust, and practical constraints. We facilitated cross-stakeholder conversations, surfaced points of friction, and helped leaders distinguish between policy questions and culture questions.
Our focus included:
Defining principles to guide hybrid work decisions
Aligning leadership behaviors with stated values
Designing communication and change approaches to support adoption
Training a group of “Culture Champions” to help promote the desired behaviors
Our Client’s Outcome
Berkeley Lab gained a clearer, more coherent approach to hybrid work. The team aligned on a way of working that respected the diversity of roles across the Lab while reinforcing shared cultural norms. Leaders were better equipped to make consistent decisions, and employees experienced greater transparency and trust during a period of change.
