Transforming Work with Sophie Wade

“JJ” Jessica Reeder, a workplace innovation and culture transformation leader, shares insights from her deep experience designing communications systems, scaling multicultural teams and aligning culture with strategy. Bringing pivotal learnings from early fully-remote companies such as Toptal and GitLab, JJ explains how self-management, thorough documentation, and systematized collaboration underpin successful remote work. She describes the cultural shifts required for hybrid and distributed workforces and advocates for systems thinking and clear communication to empower modern work managers.     TAKEAWAYS   [01:24] JJ didn't know what studying linguistics would entail when she chose it but she loved it.   [02:47] Linguistics gives JJ a framework to understand the history of humanity and migration. [03:10] Living in another culture opens up her global perspective and gives her a different lens. [04:24] JJ's appreciation for engineers stems from their clarity and direct information transfer style. [05:49] JJ transitions early to working remotely focused on content and communication projects. [06:35] Noticing the growth of formal distributed work, JJ joins one of the first all remote companies.   [07:14] JJ starts building a distributed community across cultures for a global virtual developer network. [08:15] Nurturing connections among talented remote professionals requires deliberate strategies. [08:56] Remote talent feels more connected when engaged with a peer community. [09:54] JJ moves to GitLab to explore systematized connectivity and is launched into remote work consulting by the pandemic. [13:01] GitLab was designed for remote work with full documentation, tools, and systems. [14:11] Realizations they need to understand other companies' different perspectives. [16:44] Conviction in remote work but recognition that unprepared managers are challenged. [18:30] JJ highlights self-management as a cornerstone of GitLab's decentralized operating model. [19:07] Clear documentation and SOPs reduce managerial load while teaching remote processes. [20:35] Others' embrace of remote work affirms JJ's long-held belief in the global distributed workforce. [22:34] JJ studies industrial organizational psychology and joins Upwork for an applied learning experience.   [23:24] JJ helps Upwork transition from an office-based to remote-first workforce. [24:12] Engagement is often relationship based, differing between employee and freelance contributors. [25:00] Emotional connection isn't always needed; the mission can generate engagement. [26:43] JJ finds that many workers thrive as project contributors without deep social integration. [28:08] More varied distributed operational models are needed, especially for larger companies. [30:36] Distributed work effectiveness requires more than dedicated time for human connection.   [31:25] Clearly documenting and consistently applying standard operating procedures and behaviors is crucial. [32:05] Standardizing—behaviors, tools, expectations—was a major Upwork project JJ worked on. [32:47] Accessible knowledge and intentional transparency are essential and must be intentional. [34:58] The Forest Ranger book gives JJ great insights about distributed operations.   [36:19] The ‘manual' shows how philosophy, behavioral standards, transparency and documentation empower independent workers.   [37:24] To train distributed workers, companies must clarify expectations—behaviors, work, standards. [39:15] Hybrid work requires embracing a digital-first mindset even when working partially in-office. [40:54] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: To become digital first, one, understand time—such as core hours, two, communicate digitally—with documented processes, and three, systematize collaboration—designating how and where work is done. [41:57] Communication processes must be modeled by leadership and enforced by managers. [42:26] Systematized collaboration tools create visibility, drive cohesion, and replace physical context.     RESOURCES   “JJ” Jessica Reeder on Linkedin JJ's website The Forest Ranger book       QUOTES   “This decentralization of management. Instead of someone managing your work, there's somebody who is directing your output or directing your outcome. So understanding how to empower people to self-manage their work.”   “Collaboration is really just about trading work back and forth and doing it in a very effective way.”   “To be effective at our work, we need to have a source of motivation. We need to have proof that our work is doing something that we believe in. We do need to have some sort of a mission that we're contributing to, but we don't need to necessarily be deeply emotionally engaged.”    “Having standard operating procedures and behavioral standards is clearly documented and consistently applied throughout the organization is crucial in remote work. It is absolutely a deal breaker if you don't have people understanding how they are supposed to work.”   “One of those things where you have to decide - how transparent of an organization do we want to be. If we don't buy in on transparency, then we're going to have challenges with distributed work.”   “Becoming a digital first organization doesn't block your ability to have a functioning hybrid organization. In fact, it enhances it. It really will make your hybrid organization more powerful. It will help people to get the most out of work, whether they're in the office or not.”   “All of the things that you need to have a highly functioning team can be empowered by really embracing the digital first mentality.”   “Collaboration needs to be systematized. It needs to happen on as few disparate tools as possible.”

Mark Dixon, Founder and CEO of IWG, which he started in 1989 as Regus, discusses workplace evolution and flexible work trends. He shares insights from building IWG's 18-brand network serving 8 million users across 120+ countries. A serial entrepreneur, Mark shares how evolving workforce needs and digital tools shape location-agnostic office strategies. He emphasizes structuring real estate portfolios to empower employees and align with their work, and critiques outdated RTO policies. Mark discusses reshaping onboarding and productivity practices across roles and generations. He debunks in-office apprenticeships in today's tech-facilitated world.      TAKEAWAYS    [01:36] Mark Dixon find school too slow and leaves to start getting involved in business.    [02:39] After his first—sandwich—venture, Mark travels the world to gain more experience.    [02:59] Mark builds a successful hotdog business, then co-living apartments in Belgium.    [03:45] Exploring entrepreneurial opportunities in Europe lays the foundation for IWG.   [05:37] Mark's struggles securing office space in reveals a market need for flexible workspaces.   [06:07] On a hunch, the first center opens in 1989, based on simplicity, speed, and outsourcing needs.   [07:21] Companies want flexibility, speed, and capital-light solutions—not real estate complications.   [09:32] IWG's first clients are mostly large enterprises, while half now are SMEs and entrepreneurs.    [10:31] All clients' reasons are the same: efficiency off the balance sheet with flexibility and speed.    [11:19] IWG's 18 brands offer diverse options from flexible warehouse space to a private members' club.   [13:07] A hospitality mindset is key—providing functioning workspaces with good internet and support.    [14:05] Technological advances enable management at distance, where employees have support.   [15:32] Workers increasingly self-optimize office usage: hourly, daily, or long-term team project space.   [16:50] Good management skills, not location, drives productivity and effective team outcomes.   [18:49] More projects and fractionalized work are driving demand for short-term collaboration spaces.   [20:58] IWG supports distributed workers and teams globally with platform-like flexible access.    [21:23] Businesses shift to convenient offices near where people live to reduce commute strain.   [23:30] RTO mandates are based on leaders responding to questions with data support.    [24:00] 80% of Fortune 500 companies are becoming more distributed, often providing offices nearer to where people live.     [25:22] Virtual onboarding and apprenticeships are effective supported intentionally with technology.    [28:45] Workspace purchasing shifts from real estate to procurement, finance, and HR departments.   [29:30] Many companies want offices which are convenient for the people they want to hire.    [30:00] Organizations are focused on their balance sheet and being capital light and flexible.    [31:54] IWG spends significant resources studying work design for customers and IWG employees.    [32:48] Design investments encompass tech needs and usage and evolving user expectations.   [33:52] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: To optimize work and location for outcomes, structure your portfolio, not your policy, and give people the best support for the jobs they are doing.      RESOURCES    Mark Dixon on LinkedIn  IWG's website  Some IWG brands' websites: Regus, Spaces, HQ workspaces  The Hybrid Working Calculator white paper  The Future of Work – A trends forecast for 2024 white paper      QUOTES    “Business people in general understood the value of capital light - focus capital on core business, not on peripheral activities. The value of service. The value of immediacy. I can just take it--the value of flexibility.”    “Companies are understanding that they're in the job of supporting people to be more productive. That's the job. They're very focused on their balance sheet. They're very focused on capital light. They're very focused on flexibility.”    “In a modern tech-facilitated world, you structure your portfolio, not your policy. It's not a question of RTO or not—it's about enabling the best support for the people for the job they're doing.”    “80% of Fortune 500 use us, and the majority of them are moving to a more distributed workplace.”    “We used to deal with just property directors. Now we are talking to procurement, human resources. and to finance people.”    “Companies are understanding that they're in the job of supporting people to be more productive.” 

Steven Puri, Founder and CEO of The Sukha Company and former Academy Award-winning CGI producer and Hollywood executive, shares his insights from movie production and experiences as a tech entrepreneur. Emphasizing applied learning, Steven offers strategic and tactical insights for designing remote and hybrid work, cultivating focus, and supporting fulfilled cohesive teams to reduce churn. Drawing parallels with the Hollywood model, he discusses project-based collaboration, individualized productivity rhythms, and creating environments that support deep, self-directed learning and growth.     TAKEAWAYS   [01:33] Steven shares how each beneficial life opportunity has come from unexpected “left turns.”   [01:57] Early on, Steven balances interests in journalism and coding, influenced by his engineer parents.   [03:42] At USC, Steven's tech fluency gives him entrée to film during the shift from analog to digital.   [04:30] Working on trailers and music videos, Steven connects with aspiring filmmakers and directors.   [05:26] Independence Day needs digital effects launching Steven's Hollywood experience producing visual effects for major directors and films.   [06:49] Co-founding a company after Academy Award success, the team delivers for investors.   [10:43] Returning to technology to have agency, Steven starts and raises money for two tech companies.   [12:01] Reviewing failed ventures, Steven's top learning is to listen more to others.   [13:30] Recognizing the Hollywood production cycle has always operated in remote, hybrid and in-person phases.   [14:50] How remote/hybrid/in-person phases of filmmaking offer insights for modern work design.   [15:37] The principle about personal productivity is to find a dedicated place where your mind settles.   [18:17] In film projects, separation of visionary and operational leadership roles is critical.   [19:18] ‘Flow' principles—such as feedback loops and daily metrics—enables continuous improvement.   [20:42] End of day progress reviews in film production supports high-intensity teamwork.   [23:32] Creative breakthroughs are enabled when the brain is distracted, not singularly focused.   [27:07] Steven buys a friend's startup's code base to build upon the to-do list using Hollywood learning. [28:07] The Sukha platform is rooted in work design insights to enable deep focus.   [29:55] The app improves focus by limiting overwhelm and breaking major tasks into sub-steps.   [31:07] Sukha's assistant adapts to personal styles—momentum-building or starting with difficult tasks.   [33:38] Understanding your own work rhythms to optimize for deep productivity.   [35:17] Sukha uses curated music and real environmental sounds scientifically tuned for flow states.   [37:30] Timers and breaks prevent burnout and encourage brain recovery post-focus.   [38:49] Feedbacks help users learn from distractions and track progress with real-time productivity scores.   [40:08] Optional co-working “coffee shop” to share energy and foster community accountability.   [41:06] Social facilitation theory supports the idea that seeing others work can increase your output.   [44:41] A user describes how Sukha helps him be being present with his kids or lose the whole day.   [45:46] The goal is not just productivity, but meaningful, self-fulfilling work that leads to happiness.   [46:18] Steven renames the company “Sukha” - a Sanskrit word meaning happiness and self-fulfillment – which is his ultimate goal for people to achieve.   [46:51] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Cultivating self-fulfilled, cohesive teams reduces churn. If people are enabled to do great work, they want to stay.       RESOURCES   Steven Puri on LinkedIn The Sukha Company website Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport       QUOTES   “That pulse has existed for a hundred years in film. It is very well respected. Here's what you do as a leader of these teams that are remote, hybrid, in person, hybrid, remote.” “Set your environment up properly—that's one principle of getting into flow.” “The principle about productivity, even if you work from your home, have a dedicated place where your mind settles into, ‘oh this is where I focus'.” “You can only be as good as you want to be. We are just tools to help you be great. To do something that you're capable of. You have inside you something great if we can help you get it out. That's why I'm here.” “We want to evoke that coffee shop—that clubhouse of people all trying to write the next great script.” About creativity: “It's always about the other thing.”

Prithwiraj ‘Raj' Choudhury, Lumry Family Associate Professor at Harvard Business School, shares insights from years of research included in his newly released book “The World is Your Office: How Working from Anywhere Boosts Talent, Productivity and Innovation”. As a scholar of geography, talent, and innovation, Raj describes real world examples to illustrate how decoupling location from labor creates options and opportunities for employers and employees. He explains the economic benefits of 'working from anywhere' models for local communities. Raj emphasizes practical hybrid frameworks and team-based decision-making to unlock innovation, as well as AI and digital twins to offer more flexibility for all workers.   TAKEAWAYS   [01:40] Raj studies computer science and engineering but would have loved to study literature. [01:57] As a singer-songwriter, Raj discusses writing songs in Bangla and playing in a band. [02:47] Raj starting out at IBM and then starts consulting and travels the world. [03:19] Switching to academia give Raj flexibility and creativity to focus on research and poetry. [04:32] Raj becomes a migration scholar researching the match of distant talent with work. [06:17] Infosys' hiring from small Indian towns revealed underutilized high-potential talent. [07:08] Challenging early-career postings develop superior problem-solving skills that boost Indian bureaucrats' later careers. [09:05] Gen Z can benefit from digital nomad visas to travel and work globally and build connections.   [10:25] “Work from Anywhere” enables a person to choose the town, city, or country to work in.   [10:54] Raj stresses in-person connections so “working from anywhere” is often not working from home. [12:15] Tulsa's remote worker program is a win-win benefitting individuals and the community. [12:50] Lower cost of living and greater community engagement make smaller cities attractive for remote talent. [13:51] Work from anywhere helps reverse brain drain as talent returns to or remains in smaller towns. [15:57] Raj frames three hybrid models for teams based on meeting frequency and venue flexibility explaining when “working from anywhere” is feasible. [19:33] Performance should be measured by work quality, not time, presence, or attendance.   [20:16] Managers remain essential for setting direction and motivating teams—not monitoring activity. [22:33] Managerial span of control can increase with remote tools, leading to leaner organizations. [24:46] Generative AI can codify individuals' knowledge into scalable personal bots. [25:27] AI-driven bots can extend a person's ‘human capital' across time zones and workloads. [26:30] Questions arise about bot/IP ownership—e.g. who controls the bot if an employee changes jobs. [28:29] Bots can assist with non-personal tasks, but human connection remains essential for leaders.   [30:41] Raj emphasizes in-person gathering benefits rather than debating where events are organized. [31:20] Research shows people cluster by identity at in-person events unless serendipity is engineered. [32:09] Shared transportation like taxis can build bonds across silos and increase connection diversity. [33:23] “Virtual water cooler” meetings with senior leaders improved intern ratings—but bias remained. [35:40] Raj's book outlines Working from Anywhere: the business case, solutions for the challenges, and future possibilities. [36:27] Digital twins make work from anywhere possible for blue-collar roles such as in factories and hospitals. [37:30] Remote operation of facilities from centralized hubs is becoming feasible and more widespread. [38:40] Work from anywhere extends flexibility to all worker types, closing the white-blue collar divide.   [39:55] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Working from anywhere is the way to attract and retain talent nationally or globally. It's a talent strategy, not a work arrangement.     RESOURCES   Prithwiray Choudhury on LinkedIn   Choudhury's new book “The World is Your Office: How Working from Anywhere Boosts Talent, Productivity, and Innovation”   Research by Prithwiraj Choudhury   Phone-er Tare Pakhi song by Prithwiray Choudhury   Ekader Sohor song by Prithwiraj Choudhury     QUOTES   “Instead of moving the person, move the work. Let the person live where he, she or they want to live and just move the work to where the person is. So that's what I call ‘Work from Anywhere'”.     “Performance should only be measured based on the quality of work and nothing else. So how many days people work, how many hours they work, how many meetings they attend, how many times does the manager see their face? All of that is irrelevant.”     “The manager should really matter in setting the high level policy, setting the goals of the quarter of the month. And then really inspiring people to bring the best out and mentoring and coaching them, and acting as a problem solver.”     “Hybrid is a mix of work from anywhere days and in-person days. Work from anywhere and in-person being equally important…There are two decisions to make. The first decision is how frequently should they meet? Should they meet every week or once a month or once a quarter? And the other decision they need to make is the venue of meeting.”     “I honestly feel that instead of telling the whole company that they need to do the same form of hybrid, every team should be left to its own devices to choose what works best for them.”   “Working from anywhere is the way to attract and retain talent nationally or globally. It's a talent strategy, not a work arrangement.”   "With AI and automation and digital twins, now it's possible to work from anywhere in a blue collar setting for factory workers, for folks working in a hospital or a warehouse and in a power plant or an energy rig. And so now this white collar/blue collar divide about work flexibility is going to get mitigated."

Kamber Parker Bowden, Founder and CEO of Generational Performance Solutions, explains how leadership must evolve to integrate a multigenerational workforce in modern work environments. Kamber shares research insights and her personal journey that sparked her focus on closing workforce gaps and fostering cross-generational collaboration. To bridge differences, Kamber emphasizes clear communication, setting expectations, and empathy. She explores how different generations value flexibility, entrepreneurship trends, and side hustles' appeal for younger workers. Kamber recommends building trust and supporting internal growth pathways to engage and retain younger talent.      KEY TAKEAWAYS    [01:42] Kamber shares her early dream of becoming a broadcast journalist before shifting paths.   [03:32] Kamber's first job in corporate insurance proves to be a poor fit and she doesn't stay long.    [04:24] Many of Kamber's friends also leave their jobs after 18 months or less—why?   [05:41] Common narratives of starting work after college and climbing the corporate ladder.    [06:33] Lack of clear expectations and poor communication emerge as key reasons for early exits.   [07:16] Despite good salary and benefits, Kamber leaves because of poor mental, physical and emotional health.   [08:03] Taking a pay cut at a nonprofit which offers flexibility, Kamber develops her business on the side.   [09:30] Companies often focus heavily on recruitment while neglecting retention and development.   [13:48] Check which generational research to trust.    [14:39] The issues of skills gaps as skills not being transferred sufficiently from experienced workers.   [15:14] A feature of modern work is Gen Zs' interest in side hustles and the Creator Economy.    [17:31] The current lack of trust in the establishment and younger employees' desire for fulfilling work.   [18:24] Job satisfaction and career growth outweigh stability and recruiters become more aggressive.   [19:36] How can organizations cultivate opportunities to entice younger employees to stay?    [23:08] Millennials have a unique position understanding both older generations and Gen Zers.  [23:51] Millennials reject being grouped with Generation Z.   [24:23] Micro-generational differences shape unique experiences and perspectives.    [25:01] “Entitlement” is best understood through generational context and upbringing.   [26:45] Gen Z seeks in-person connection; Millennials look for flexibility and remote work.   [28:06] Communication breakdowns arise when expectations go unspoken or unmet.   [30:46] Data helps leaders understand generational change, trends, and frustrations.    [31:56] Kamber asks leaders to consider the risks of falling behind if they resist adapting to change.    [32:57] The importance of understanding senior professionals as well as younger workers.   [34:38] Helping young and emerging leaders build bidirectional communication skills.    [35:45] Recognizing people as individuals with different communication styles.    [36:10] Kamber trains on respectful tech mentoring and basic professionalism.   [37:42] Trust starts with understanding each team member's communication preferences.   [38:24] Asking about preferred communication methods can transform team dynamics.   [40:03] Generation Z's ideas of professional dress vary widely, so clarity is essential.   [41:10] Kamber suggests sharing dress codes during hiring to avoid judgments and misunderstandings.   [44:10] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: “To improve how you lead a multi-generational team, build trust, set clear expectations, and ask your team their top communication style.”        RESOURCES    Kamber Parker Bowden on LinkedIn Generational Performance Solutions website       QUOTES    “So many companies put so much effort into the recruiting and not as much on the growth, the development, the retention, the activation of talent.”    “We rarely talk to any young professionals that either don't have a side hustle or don't have that interest.”    “Trust is broken or never even begun. When there is a lack of clear expectations, when there is a misunderstanding, that typically leads to some type of disconnect. How you bridge that is truly through understanding how people communicate.”    “If somebody is not fulfilled, even if they're getting paid what they want to get paid, but they're not fulfilled in other ways and there aren't growth opportunities, they will leave.”    “We have to be what I like to call ‘generationally curious' and I think that's a true leadership skillset.”    “And I always ask [leaders] ‘what happens if you don't?' Things are not changing, they've already changed. And so are you going to be ahead of the curve? Are you going to be ahead of your peers or are you going to kind of sit back and see what happens and then risk being farther behind in 10 years? And usually that snaps them into attention.”   

Stephen Dooley is Founder of Roamr, a corporate travel accommodation platform built for distributed teams. Merging insights from trust dynamics and the sharing economy, Stephen explains how a personal pain point led to an innovative travel solution rethinking cost structures and workplace needs. He shares how listening to customer feedback evolved the initial concept into a fresh approach to business travel that—being empathetic and practical—supports flexibility, connection, and culture while delivering measurable impact for businesses and employees alike.     TAKEAWAYS [01:22] Stephen studies commerce aligning early interests in business and entrepreneurship. [01:45] A year abroad gives Stephen an exciting experience and global perspective. [03:11] The year studying in the US sparks Stephen's ambition and sharpens his interpersonal skills. [03:47] Graduate research initially focuses on financial technology and wealth management. [05:15] Stephen is interested in tech-related consumer psychology dynamics and adoption drivers. [06:25] The sharing economy reverses historical fundamental trust patterns and behaviors. [07:11] Younger consumers now influence their parents' tech-based adoption decisions. [08:34] Stephen takes a new role then the pandemic hits, requiring rapid learning. [09:28] A light bulb moment about new realities for travel, lifestyle and career compatibility. [09:47] A great workation opportunity is dashed by unaffordable accommodation. [10:42] Identifying remote work necessities reveal need for better infrastructure. [11:17] Location flexibility is widespread, but how to take advantage of new opportunities. [12:21] Societal tailwinds are behind Working From Anywhere and distributed work. [12:55] Roamr launches with an employee-focused offering home swaps for workations. [13:49] During customer discovery, many employers ask to apply the model to corporate travel. [14:20] Employees get alternatives to hotels, financially benefit, and firms save money. [14:52] Now business travel is more relationship-focused, so culture and collaboration benefits can outweigh reduced costs. [16:31] Travel expenses can be significant so more than 20% in savings is valuable. [17:09] Improved culture, engagement, and retention offer meaningful additional benefits. [19:21] More younger workers understand the Roamr concept and have much interest to connect and network. [20:09] Hosting income also helps employees towards meaningful financial goals. [21:04] Roamr aligns CFO cost savings priorities and CPO employee experience goals. [22:40] Global platform partners expand reach to over 100 countries. [24:31] Top talent understand their worth and if not offered flexibility will work elsewhere. [25:50] Finding the option(s) that work for each person—where is the middle ground? [28:08] Research revealed how taxi rides fostered long-term interactions. [28:46] Engineering connections by mapping users to have facilitated serendipity. [29:32] Adding personal networks to expand reach, connectivity, and flexible opportunities. [31:50] Employees can create and plan local events during work trips. [32:30] Visibility avoids missed connections among nearby remote coworkers. [33:15] Highlighting common interests to encourage sharing experiences while traveling. [34:11] In-person sales increase in relevance as AI outreach becomes oversaturated. [36:02] Commoditized business travel offers few incentives for employees to reduce costs. [37:15] Incentivizing smart booking combined with uplifts for culture and engagement. [37:47] Buffers in travel planning processes reveal hidden budget inefficiencies. [38:55] Roamr is a win-win choice – an optional, flexible alternative to hotels. [39:18] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP – How can you think differently about business travel processes to avoid or reduce bloated costs?       RESOURCES   Stephen Dooley on LinkedIn Roamr's website     QUOTES   “What if we could make work from anywhere, work from everywhere?”​  “It's a platform that helps companies save 30% on their corporate travel accommodation and we do that by paying employees instead of hotels.”​  “We believe that's a way better way to build culture rather than a kind of team building awkward session in the middle of the office.”​ “So we're not just saying we want to save money. We actually want to make the experience better, more intentional, more engaging.”​ “How do we find a way to give some flexibility, but also bring teams together and make it work?”​ “Everybody can send a million emails now. How are we going to stand out? How we're going to build those relationships?”​

Kelli Lester is the Co-founder and Partner at Onyx Rising, a change management consulting firm. Kelli discusses how leaders can navigate uncertainty, empower their teams, and drive innovation. She highlights the importance of leaders' vulnerability, adaptability, and inclusive decision-making in today's evolving business landscape. Kelli draws from her experiences navigating mergers, workforce integration, and cultural shifts to offer insights for leaders wanting to improve workplace dynamics and foster meaningful collaboration. Kelli explores strategies for developing high-potential talent, bridging generational divides, and cultivating authentic leadership.     TAKEAWAYS   [01:50] Kelli studies communications to have her own TV show and develops her voice.   [04:00] Working for the Mayor's office, Kelli needs to understand the pulse of the community.   [04:50] Kelli works at the Census Bureau exploring why people might not want to be counted. [05:54] The Mayor reinforces understanding and serving the community's needs. [07:02] Mergers and acquisitions at Sara Lee reveal leadership challenges in cultural integration. [08:10] Required field experience to get promoted reveals assumptions that Kelli's boss questions. [10:12] A human-centric leadership approach creates a more integrated company.   [11:01] Transforming the talent review processes to increase transparency and fairness. [12:00] Layoffs can be done with empathy, when leaders speak the truth and are authentic. [14:20] Organizations often rely on external voices, such as consultants, to challenge leadership. [15:08] A colleague's feedback helps Kelli adapt and improve team collaboration. [16:46] Leaders must proactively understand individual motivations and work preferences.   [18:51] Modeling behavior as a leader is essential. [19:55] Organizational and personal “whys” drive lasting behavior change. [21:28] Self-awareness helps leaders recognize their thought process and expectations. [24:41] To create an innovative organization, it is vital to learn to seek and receive feedback.   [26:23] Leaders benefit from actively seeking input from those who challenge them. [29:18] Psychological safety enables innovation and trust through vulnerability. [31:56] Exposure to different perspectives strengthens emotional intelligence in leaders. [33:40] Kelli's leadership model focuses on exposure, inclusion, understanding, and disruption. [34:59] Leaders can disrupt exclusionary behaviors and outdated leadership models. [36:22] Many companies talk about innovation but lack true commitment. [37:01] Risk-averse industries approach innovation as a necessity rather than an opportunity. [38:16] Think tanks help diverse teams generate innovative ideas and solutions. [39:16] Younger employees' adaptability supports problem-solving and innovation. [39:47] Innovation thrives when integrated into culture, performance, and reward systems. [40:08] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Modern leadership traits include self-awareness, seeking, receiving, and giving feedback, and promoting psychological safety     RESOURCES   Kelli Lester on LinkedIn   Onyx Rising's website       QUOTES   "There isn't one way to lead. There are also two versions of the truth, right? Two truths can exist at the same time."   "Leaders must involve multiple layers in decision-making for better outcomes."   "We have to learn how to seek and receive critical or negative feedback."   "Exposure to difference is critical. Many times, people are navigating the world thinking everything is set up the same way for everyone."   "If you tell a leader, this is what good leadership looks like, you integrate it into your performance management, you have ways to reward that behavior, then you'll see more and more of it."

Phil Kirschner, Founder of PK Consulting, is an innovator at the intersection of employee experience, corporate real estate, organizational effectiveness, and technology strategy. Drawing on his background at Credit Suisse, WeWork, and McKinsey, Phil shares insights about professional and personal responses to workplace changes. He discusses leaders' and employees' intuitions and the frictions affecting trust. Phil explains the cultural impact of co-working environments and how a hospitality mindset helps achieve strategic human-centric productized work experiences to meet employees' modern work needs.   TAKEAWAYS   [01:57] Phil shares his experiences in corporate real estate, workplace strategy, and employee experience. [02:45] Cost management taught Phil the importance of understanding workplace dynamics. [04:20] Phil loves the dimensions of workplace change recognizing people's emotional responses. [05:41] How work-life integration can mean the physical manifestation of a policy in the work world. [06:38] Place is personal, affecting choices, relationships and how people communicate. [07:44] How office changes impact managers' perceived control over their teams. [08:45] Executives visiting WeWork's offices were often surprised by the energy and vibrancy. [10:12] Employees embracing the WeWork hospitality, community culture, and work patterns typically had better experiences than those who resisted. [14:00] How smaller companies smaller office investments allows them to be more responsive than large organizations which often struggle with underutilized space. [15:15] COVID revealed more humanity at work—executives were seen differently and trusted. [16:22] The Edelman Trust Barometer shows the first ever dip in trust in corporate leadership. [16:50] Employees' and executives' different intuition about what was ‘better before' and for whom. [18:22] Discrepancies in pre-COVID experiences change expectations for new work environments. [19:22] Phil shares how a real estate company failed to extend workplace flexibility to frontline staff. [22:00] A critical missing question: what needs to be true to allow greater flexibility and not have core metrics dip? [24:40] Remote work enables business continuity and offer an operational risk mitigation framework. [25:00] Digital-first companies have better organizational health by adapting for being distributed. [25:45] Experiencing inefficient processes to develop metrics and optimize operations. [29:02] HR, IT, and Facilities Management need to collaborate to enable modern workplaces. [29:54] Work experience needs productization and someone in charge. [31:07] Real estate reporting to HR help shift the focus from cost control to employee experience. [32:35] Hospitality oriented experiences are typically revenue lines not expense related. [34:31] Companies with “virtual-first, but not placeless” mindset rethink workplace strategy effectively. [35:53] Many executives assume office presence is essential without analyzing why. [39:10] Organizational health and connecting business objectives and work experience. [40:30] How corporate cultures can connect and align employees with purpose enabling change. [43:06] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: The first questions to ask at the start of any good change program: who thinks something is wrong? What do they think is wrong? And who else knows?     RESOURCES   Phil Kirschner on LinkedIn Phil Kirschner, Contributor – Leadership Strategy, Forbes     QUOTES "Many employees are feeling gaslit when they hear leaders say, ‘It was better before,' because that doesn't resonate with them." "Trust in organizations dipped for the first time in Edelman's latest trust barometer report." “When I walk into the building, if the experience of getting in or registering a visitor or attending event is, is not a great one, at that point, I do not know or care whose problem it is. I want one place to go easily and I want a hospitality feeling in the response to that, which is really difficult for groups that are viewed as an expense.” “The companies that say place isn't the thing, then tend to come back around with much more interesting and studied uses and new designs of place, whether that's somebody's house, whether that's a coworking space, whether that's an “office” that they retain for gathering purposes, right? These are the same companies that tend to staff up on workplace experience. They staff up on customer success for tools, they staff up for gathering.”

Ashley Proctor, Founder of Creative Blueprint, Coworking Canada, and COHIP, is one of the founders of the coworking movement. She shares her experiences designing coworking environments as catalysts for creative and business synergy with economic sustainability and social impact. Ashley explains the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration and how intentional community-building leads to long-term success. She emphasizes how coworking represents a shift in how people connect, co-create, and thrive together shaping the future of work.      TAKEAWAYS   [01:45] Ashley Proctor chooses to study art and design for its creative problem solving.   [02:34] Ashley feels at home with people at college who are all ‘a little bit weird'!     [03:42] Space issues during a renovation lead Ashley to create a shared study and learning environment.   [04:55] XSpace is created to provide an external, student-run environment which has lasting impact.    [06:22] Coworking for artists looks different than for information workers with laptops.   [06:51] The Foundry building creates a maker space for artists, entrepreneurs, and tech startups.    [07:53] Cross-industry coworking results in artists being more entrepreneurial and entrepreneurs being more creative in problem-solving.   [09:49] 312 Main transforms a former police building into a coworking hub focused on social impact.   [12:18] A bold vision and complex situation requires extensive community consultation and is a slow build.    [13:34] Co-creation stimulates the necessary transformation supported by the local community.   [14:40] Thoughtful coworking design includes harm reduction, de-escalation strategies, and cultural inclusivity. [24:00] The coworking movement is rooted in accessibility, inclusion, and empowering independent workers. [26:30] COHIP (Coworking Health Insurance Plan) emerges to address gaps in coverage for freelancers. [29:00] Ashley's personal health crisis highlights the need for sustainable, independent health coverage.  [31:30] COHIP expands to serve artists, entrepreneurs, and small businesses across Canada. [34:00] The IDEA Project challenges coworking spaces globally to enhance inclusivity and accessibility. [37:00] Coworking is about fostering connections and collaboration, not just providing office space. [39:30] Larger organizations can benefit from coworking's agility and cross-pollination of ideas. [42:00] Companies are increasingly funding coworking memberships to support hybrid work needs. [45:00] Employees thrive with autonomy in choosing coworking spaces that suit different tasks. [47:30] Coworking hubs in rural areas provide professional environments without long commutes. [50:00] Ashley shifts focus to mentorship and ensuring long-term sustainability of coworking models. [53:00] Community land trusts and coworking hubs can serve multiple civic and emergency functions. [56:00] Larger organizations should see coworking as a strategic investment, not just a perk. [58:30] Flexible workspaces help companies reduce costs, improve retention, and boost productivity. [1:01:00] Coworking spaces offer expertise in workplace design, benefiting both employees and companies. [1:03:30] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Your company can benefit from coworking by realizing lease cost savings, the coworking provider's informed use of assets, tools, and space, and improved employee wellbeing and retention.  This episode emphasizes how coworking drives innovation, inclusivity, and economic growth while providing practical benefits for individuals and organizations alike.  RESOURCES  QUOTES  Verbatim Quotes from Ashley Proctor Episode Title: Coworking as a Catalyst for Innovation and Community  "Working as a movement."  "I feel like I'm solving problems and sometimes founding an entity is the way to do it, to continue to solve it for other folks."  "When we build those spaces with intention, we can have a lot of layered impact."  "I've been saying from the beginning that what we're doing really is about what we're doing when we're working together."  "The magic that happens when we work together."  "It was a massive vision for a very complex space in a complex neighborhood."  "The key pillars, like I said, is that essential upfront communication, so the design and what we're working towards is fully community-led and then community-centered."  "Coworking is about what happens when we work together."  "The coworking movement and industry remains inclusive, diverse, equitable, and accessible."  "The diversity and the collaboration is what makes it work."  "To empower their employees to do their best work, they need to give them that flexibility of choice as well."  "I'm seeing a lot of growth in rural communities or outside of the urban core, where people don't want to commute all the way downtown to go to work."  "Happy and healthy employees are productive and loyal employees."  "We don't need to maintain headquarters in these office spaces around the world that are mostly empty."  "We are really just starting to see this blossom around the world."   

Dan Bladen, CEO and co-founder of Kadence, and Dave Cairns, Future of Work Strategist at Kadence, each discuss aspects of the evolving dynamics of modern workplaces and spaces. Dan shares insights from Kadence's journey developing workplace technology and breaking down and rebuilding work to facilitate workflow and rhythm for distributed workers. Dave highlights the benefits of data-driven understanding of people flow and space utilization as well as intentional gatherings. They recognize flexible hybrid models' acceptance and leaders' increasingly purposeful coordination.       TAKEAWAYS   Dan Bladen Interview   [01:22] Dan explains his background in theology, music, and technology.   [02:57] Growing up with engineers, hardware, and gaming encouraged Dan to build computers.   [05:04] Traveling around the world in 2012, connectivity and charging are basic needs.   [05:40] Dan co-founds Chargify to make wireless charging a game changer as WiFi did for connectivity.   [06:41] Dan notices offices were already half-empty as people start ‘agile working' in the 2010s.   [07:25] The business of checking an employee into a hot desk while also charging their laptop.   [08:06] Strong growth stops with the pandemic, then a Fortune 50 company asks to use Chargify's software to enable safe office-based work.   [09:36] The checking-in capability leads to a business pivot to workplace coordination software.   [11:02] Dan isn't enthralled, but the market is large and 90% of companies are going hybrid.   [12:20] Dan sees the potential of hybrid work to benefit from more work-life balance.   [12:44] Finding rhythm with your family and your team and having a contract with your employer.   [13:35] In the past, people had to act predictably as spaces were static.   [14:36] Kadence philosophy breaks down the ‘work stack'—starting with the ‘why' of work—vision and values   [15:13] Moving from performative inputs to quantitative outputs.   [16:10] Work defined by time not place—so what is the work ‘operating system'?   [18:08] Kadence starts as desk-booking software and becomes a hybrid work management platform.   [20:05] The hybrid shift is influenced by market conditions and economic pressures.   [21:00] Data shows the best-performing companies are hybrid.   [21:40] Servant leadership is rising and thinking about culture and the next generation.   [22:51] Over 50% of hybrid companies now organize regular in-person events.   [23:16] Time to trust is accelerated during face-to-face times of togetherness.   [23:29] Leaders must be intentional about when and where they gather their teams.   Dave Cairns Interview   [24:32] Dave discusses how deep friendships build up live and asynchronously.   [25:33] The mismatch between real estate supply and demand that Dave notices in 2019.   [26:10] Pandemic shifts remind Dan of his poker-playing time when he was working remotely.   [27:37] Merging two experiences, learning more about the nature of work, beyond office space.   [28:07] Learning from many sources for the first time that office spaces pre-COVID were half empty.   [29:30] Dave's content resonates with people struggling with their working lives and rigid policies.   [30:36] Many workers feel forced into office attendance without a clear reason.   [32:23] Canada has a quieter acceptance of hybrid work compared to the U.S.   [33:19] New York seems to have the most polarized views on remote and in-office policies.   [36:17] The mismatch between work policies/mandates and actual employee behaviors.   [37:26] Employees often coordinate informally and inefficiently, giving organizations no insights.   [38:27] Most firms still lack clear data on how their offices are actually being used.   [40:30] Some leaders demand full office occupancy despite low attendance rates.   [41:06] Gathering granular data to understand people flow and office space utilization.   [42:06] High lease costs, renewals or financial pressure are key factors to drive real change.   [43:19] Proactive companies learn workflow and people coordination before downsizing space.   [46:04] Leaders are balancing executive mandates with employee flexibility to achieve results.   [49:31] Companies recognize hybrid's importance but lack the knowledge to execute well.   [51:56] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Have an intentional gathering strategy. Accept that teams can make some of their own decisions. Figure out how your office spaces, your workspaces, if you have any, are being used.       RESOURCES   Dan Bladen on LinkedIn Dave Cairns on LinkedIn Kadence's website       QUOTES   “Now there's this opportunity for people to be more unpredictable and spaces to be flexible.” – Dan Bladen.   “So the only way to measure if that work was getting done was by measuring and observing the quality of the outputs.” – Dan Bladen.   “We started rebuilding it [work]. And really it boils down to people, places and the projects that they're working on.” – Dan Bladen.   “Work doesn't happen in a place anymore. It actually happens in the working week. And where you choose to place yourself is part of your toolkit and your coordination layer.” – Dan Bladen.   “Work is going to be reimagined a bit like an OS.” – Dan Bladen.

Darcy Marie Mayfield is a specialist in culture architecture and experience design. Darcy shares her experiences in hospitality at Airbnb and designing systems to codify and scale company culture at early fully remote organizations. She discusses how initiatives like Tulsa Remote have revitalized cities by attracting remote workers and fostering local collaborations. From engineering serendipity to creating consistent rituals and empathetic leadership, Darcy offers actionable insights into creating inclusive, connected thriving communities and environments for remote and distributed workers and teams.     TAKEAWAYS   [01:27] Darcy's early and enduring passion is hospitality and helping people feel they belong.   [02:34] At Airbnb, Darcy pilots early remote work initiatives to explore flexible work models.   [04:06] Darcy leaves Airbnb as they lack remote work flexibility and moves to a rural area.   [04:23] TaxJar's leadership wants to take the company fully remote, so Darcy joins for the challenge.   [05:10] The vision is to build a strong company with a strong product and strong profits while people enjoy their lives.   [06:00] Darcy works with academic researchers to study and codify culture in a fully remote organization.   [06:56] How do you architect culture where there are no physical walls?   [07:40] Codifying culture for scale involves understanding the founders' DNA and origins.   [08:56] Deep listening sessions to co-create with employees and reveal how values show up.   [09:20] Transitioning from an SMB to a mid-market culture means balancing collaboration with structure.   [11:16] During the pandemic, TaxJar's remote model enables significant growth and low attrition.   [12:05] Darcy wants to help people and prove remote working works, but it gets exhausting.   [14:06] To normalize family-friendly environments, TaxJar's CEO has to set the example.   [15:00] They are proud of having top talent who are really empathetic.   [16:29] At Stripe, Darcy observes strong identity tied to the office causing hybrid work challenges.   [18:26] Redesigning hybrid work, prompting leaders to model flexibility and track energy patterns.   [19:56] Understanding offsites, her team considers how to include remote participants equitably.   [20:34] Why to create experiences for remote workers that rival office-based interactions.   [22:18] Darcy describes Tulsa Remote and attracting remote workers to boost economic growth.   [23:34] The benefits of industry diversification and reverse the brain drain for Tulsa.   [24:33] Why people choose to move to Tulsa and partnering to solve local problems.   [25:09] “Engineering serendipity” to connect remote workers with local communities.   [26:28] Piloting a workation program that fosters deep connections between participants and locals.   [28:10] The pilot program results in nine out of twelve participants moving to Tulsa.   [29:28] Darcy personalizes participants' experiences connecting them with relevant locals.   [32:59] How other cities have increasing willingness to benefit from digital nomads.   [34:17] The opportunity to create a blueprint for “sister cities” ready to create consistent, impactful remote work experiences.   [37:20] Madeira Friends aim to show the long-term economic benefits of attracting digital nomads.   [39:26] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: To improve hybrid and remote outcomes, lean into cultural architecture. One, name channels to evoke desired behaviors. Two, cultivate consistent rituals. Three, give yourself permission to experiment.     RESOURCES   Darcy Marie Mayfield on LinkedIn Darcy on Instagram Tulsa Remote     QUOTES   "How do you architect culture when there's no physical walls?"​ "Codifying culture allowed us to emotionally and intrinsically move our culture from an SMB culture to a mid-market culture because that's where our customers were going."​ "Words make worlds. Use words that emote the behavior you want to see."​ "Remote workers bring not just economic benefits but also a diversification of skills and innovative ideas to communities."​   "Leaders must set the tone—if a leader is going to take a walk in the middle of the day, then everybody else will follow."​   "It's about designing the connections and programming so people feel like they belong so much earlier and so much more often."​ ​

Show host Sophie Wade welcomes 2025 focusing on the natural dynamic of modern work to facilitate executives' and employees' abilities to adapt. She outlines three priority areas for the year ahead, recommending how to adjust for and integrate AI as a core component of our tech-driven business and work. Highlighting research and examples, Sophie focuses on: human-AI collaboration, designing work for agility, and upskilling employees rapidly in the flow of work. Sophie emphasizes the principles of modern work: learning, intention, flexibility, and empathy, as well as systems thinking to help us recognize the full ramifications of our inventions and actions.   TAKEAWAYS   [00:42] Sophie sets the stage for 2025, focusing on adapting to rapid change.   [01:29] Embracing change is essential. Rigid work structures conflict with human nature.   [02:40] Work norms evolved based on prevailing possibilities and were not healthy or sustainable.   [03:25] Flexibility and adaptability are natural and essential human traits.   [03:58] Customization in work and products recognizes our individuality and different needs.   [04:40] Human-centric approaches and tools foster creativity and problem-solving.   [05:18] Early rigid work environments suppressed autonomy and innovation.   [06:18] Modern work requires collaboration and proactive preparation for change.   [07:20] Adapting to change thoughtfully can reveal the best evolutionary pathways.   [08:44] Systems thinking helps anticipate and manage the ripple effects of innovation.   [09:43] Modern work requires intentional action to navigate interconnected global systems.   [11:10] AI integration is transforming the workforce into blended human-AI collaboration.   [12:21] Leaders must identify opportunities for AI to complement humans and our skills.   [14:05] Flattening hierarchies and skills-based work systems boost agility and engagement.   [15:18] Internal talent marketplaces promote cross-functional use of employees' skills.   [16:37] Upskilling is critical for addressing skill gaps and maintaining competitiveness.   [18:04] Continuous learning must be integrated into workflows for successful transformation.   [18:35] Approaching change with intention, flexibility, and empathy reduces friction and boosts outcomes.   [19:27] Empathy-centered leadership enables multigenerational and distributed teams to thrive.   IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Incorporate learning, intention, flexibility, and empathy into workplace strategies.     RESOURCES   Sophie Wade on LinkedIn Sophie's company Flexcel Network SophieWade.com   QUOTES “We can lean into our natural capacity to adapt if we reframe what we've been used to and why.”   “Work is in flux, nothing is set in stone, and adaptability is essential all along the way.”   “Human-centric approaches and tools foster creativity and problem-solving because we are not machines and aren't good at pretending to be.”   “How you approach change, and specifically the significant ongoing changes occurring in and across our professional world, affects your ability to flex and adapt.”   “Adapting to modern work requires continuous learning as a core habit, integrated into workflows and supported as part of daily operations.”   “Empathy-centered leadership is critical, recognizing that each person has different skills, adapts at a different pace, and may encounter hiccups along the way.”   “Internal talent mobility isn't easy or obvious to operationalize, but it is necessary to keep pace with the faster evolution of modern work.”   “Systems thinking recognizes that our actions are not independent or isolatable but always have ripple effects on others—and reciprocally on us.”   “AI integration is enabling the emergence of a collaborative, blended human-AI workforce that complements uniquely human skills.”

Mehmet Baha is the author of “Creating Psychological Safety at Work” and a psychological safety trainer and speaker. Baha, as he is known, discusses the critical role of psychological safety in team performance in the modern workplace. He shares insights about how open dialogue about mistakes and a strengths-based approach enhance trust, collaboration, and results. Baha explains the importance of curiosity and empathy, and giving autonomy. He offers leaders actionable tips for cultivating vulnerability and fostering safe spaces that support innovation.     TAKEAWAYS   [01:59] Baha's childhood in Cyprus—a divided island—prompts his interest in conflict resolution.   [03:28] Assisting his father, facilitating leadership training shapes Baha's career path.   [04:30] Music influences Baha's innovative approach and teamwork skills.   [06:22] At Facebook early on, Baha experiences a psychologically safe workplace.   [08:05] Google's Project Aristotle shows psychological safety is key for high-performing teams.   [09:00] Psychological safety becomes central to his training and consulting work.   [10:40] Clarity, purpose, and high standards are other key elements driving team success.   [11:28] Collaboration and openness drive better  than hidden mistakes.   [12:20] Amy Edmundson's 1990's study connecting reported mistakes and successful outcomes.   [13:33] Research shows learning from mistakes boosts team performance.   [14:46] Sharing mistakes, building upon ideas, and appreciating employees' strengths create psychological safety.   [16:25] Five points for leaders to model the vulnerability vital to foster psychological safety.   [17:40] Examples include creating "failure reports" to promote organizational learning.   [18:53] Openness helps leaders improve team trust and psychological safety.   [19:45] One leader fosters openness that enables company-wide sharing of team mistakes.   [20:50] Team performance is seen when participants are willing, open, and ambitious.   [21:33] Leaders must be role models for sharing and learning from mistakes.   [22:05] The ratio of positive to negative feedback plays a crucial role in creating psychological safety.   [23:38] A case study about an award-winning practice of quarterly “mistake breakfasts”.   [26:32] How innovation and a turnaround at a bank is stimulated by psychological safety.   [28:08] Traditional organizations benefit from psychological safety, also enhancing physical safety.   [29:15] Leaders' role in co-creating safe work environments.   [31:05] Why to encourage employees—closest to the work—to share and implement their ideas.   [32:12] Psychological safety supports creativity and sharing of innovative ideas.   [32:43] How employees' silence in meetings indicates an environment lacking psychological safety.   [33:19] The seven points demonstrating Fearless Organizations.   [35:08] Baha connects empathy with conscious listening which is key for safe workspaces.   [35:56] Curiosity is crucial, starting with curiosity about ourselves.   [38:06] Leaders can support safe work environments despite more pressure and workload.   [36:55] Leaders need to encourage open dialogue about challenges and mistakes.   [39:21] How AI can help us work with more humanity, compassion, and authenticity.   [39:27] Empowering employees through autonomy enhances psychological safety.   [40:22] Autonomy is important as micro-management greatly hinders psychological safety.   [40:35] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: To improve psychological safety, show curiosity, share mistakes and give employees autonomy.       RESOURCES   Mehmet Baha on LinkedIn Baha's book “Creating Psychological Safety at the Essential Guide to Boosting Team Performance” Baha's book “Playbook for Engaged Employees: Practical Insights to Master Leadership, Agility, Teamwork, Learning, and Psychological Safety”     QUOTES   “Sharing mistakes, learning from them, and improving is one key element of creating psychological safety.”   “In a psychologically safe team, mistakes are seen as opportunities to learn, not as reasons to blame.”   “If we cannot listen well to others, we cannot really talk about psychological safety.”   “One of the biggest barriers to creating psychological safety is micro-management behavior.”   “As leaders, managers, we can share a mistake we made, what we learned from this, and what we did later to improve it.”   “In high-performing teams, there is a ratio of three to five positive feedback for every negative feedback.”

Helen Lee Kupp is Founder and CEO of Women Defining AI and co-author of best-selling book “How the Future Works: Leading Flexible Teams to do the Best Work of Their Lives". She discusses her experiences as a strategy and operations leader benefiting from collaborative experimentation and elevating use cases when exploring AI and other technologies for business and workplace transformation. From her tenure at Slack, Helen emphasizes data fluency and intuitive decision-making, defining and applying metrics, and implementing flexible systems. Her insights offer guidance for navigating AI adoption, hybrid work, and creating flexible human-centric frameworks that empower people and processes.   TAKEAWAYS [02:21] Helen interest in chemistry and bioengineering prompts her to study chemical engineering. [03:43] Helen loves to pair biology's organic messiness with engineering and systems thinking. [04:36] Reflecting on a non-linear career path guided by attraction to ambiguous problems. [06:17] Helen's desire for real-world impact leads her from lab work to consulting then startups. [08:07] Joining Slack early, Helen drives innovation projects, expanding as a consumer product. [09:30] The challenge of using data effectively, needing shared definitions across teams. [11:01] How leaders must foster data fluency to enhance decision-making processes. [11:50] Building operational intuition to make decisions using data and metrics in context. [14:05] Flexibility is integral for organizational systems to adapt to changing market conditions. [15:52] A ‘bridge' describes a balanced need for stable data infrastructures for specific metrics and flexible systems for evolving demands. [18:19] An innovative process to elevate metrics from team insights to company-wide KPIs. [20:28] Hybrid data approaches enable both innovation and operational consistency. [22:36] Slack's approach to dynamic work systems shapes Helen's understanding of agile leadership. [24:02] How workplace tech evolves impacting team collaboration and decision rhythms. [26:15] Helen is an early Slack user and comfortable and effective async worker as an introvert. [29:17] ‘How the Future Works' enabled the authors to share personal experiences and codify the redesigning of work. [32:24] Helen's consulting trained her about team protocols enabling effective teamwork. [34:36] How personal work preferences are supported by team agreements. [37:55] Helen is prompted to actively define AI inclusively not stumble into it. [38:58] Women Defining AI launches serendipitously to craft AI development and adoption. [43:18] A community of experimentation, Helen approaches the future with a flexible mindset. [45:01] The importance of building intuition for using AI—it's just as messy as humans! [45:01] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Embrace discovery mindsets and start small by piloting AI in manageable areas of your work, ensuring hands-on practice and learning opportunities for your teams to explore its potential impact.     RESOURCES   Helen Lee Kupp on LinkedIn Women Defining AI Almost Technical Helen's book “How the Future Works: Leading Flexible Teams to do the Best Work of Their Lives”     QUOTES   “We have a chance to redesign it all right. To redesign not just how we operate together, but to be thoughtful about how different everyone is and bring all that into the redesign.”   “People are looking for structured guidance. They're not looking for all the answers. But they're looking for at least that you are thinking through it and that they can try.”   “Experimenting and piloting use cases with individuals and teams to see what works for them and finding ways to elevate that across the broader organization and share practices. The more you can do that, the faster you'll learn.”   "I appreciate the consulting training because we had to come together in teams so frequently with new teams and new managers. We needed a process around how do we understand how we operate, which may be different than your last team. How do we communicate best and how do we ensure we solicit the best of everyone in this group?"

Michael (Mike) Todasco, Visiting Fellow at the James Silberrad Brown Center for Artificial Intelligence at San Diego State University. He shares insights from driving innovation at PayPal and discusses AI-enabled opportunities for non-technical users and potential entrepreneurs, drawing parallels with earlier transformation generated by GPS access. Mike explains the need for participation, exploration, innovation, and updated education to foster creativity, adapt, and thrive in AI-integrated workplaces. He elevates humans' ingenuity and discerning of quality which complement advanced technical capabilities.     TAKEAWAYS   [01:55] Mike's interest in finance starts with selling baseball cards as a child.   [03:03] Mike joins General Electric after a college professor talks so much about Jack Welch.   [04:06] Mike doesn't get his first choice. He is sent to work on aircraft engines.   [04:20] The rotation program helps Mike find out all the jobs he doesn't want to do!   [04:57] The lasting impression a new employer can make being nimble and scrappy.   [06:22] Cool tech lures Mike who starts his own venture, then joins PayPal.   [07:29] Working on innovation products being launched at PayPal.   [08:33] Mike has a game-changing meeting with a group of patent lawyers.     [09:35] Brainstorming innovative products across PayPal teams, Mike develops a new skill.   [10:21] Innovation is stimulated by asking good questions and building on each other's ideas.   [11:08] Generating new ideas by imagining what if resources weren't an issue.   [11:57] An innovation use case taking a completely different perspective.   [13:40] Mike is captivated by the potential of AI particularly because he cannot code.   [14:39] Mike recognizes the magical possibilities of AI and becomes obsessed!   [16:28] Using the GPS example to try and project what AI might generate in future.   [18:49] Mike shares his mother's ER experience to illustrate how we might integrate AI support.   [22:06] The early predictions that AI would automate away radiologists were totally wrong!   [24:01] The history of illusion and the perception gap humans have.   [24:57] We find significant personal improvement hard to imagine (as necessary or possible!).   [25:52] We may not know, but we need to explore, the possibilities of AI tools.   [27:56] The AI apps Mike uses daily.   [29:22] Exploring new application versions and having AI running your life!   [30:32] How AI can augment your daily personal, professional, and family habits.   [32:56] Practical advice for how leaders can stimulate essential AI exploration.   [34:22] The challenge of (too much) choice—never mind, just get involved!   [35:36] Mike plans his daughter's birthday party using ChatGPT.   [37:37] Where and how AI is beneficially used in work processes.   [38:18] What AI is good at, better at, and not so much!   [39:58] What happens if AI does interns' work?   [40:30] Mike's hopes for the possible fundamental impact of AI.   [43:56] How should schools be integrating AI?   [45:43] What some teachers are doing with AI in class.   [47:19] Ideas to change college curriculums to incorporate AI.   [48:47] The rising value of ‘taste'—‘what is ‘good?' matters since AI offers average results.   [51:50] The Steph Curry effect–we care about what humans do (and how to make viral videos).   [54:13] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Get in front of the AI change as much as you can in your workplaces with your teams. Set up a channel to share, post and cold call on team members to spur ideas and activity.     RESOURCES   Michael (Mike) Todasco on LinkedIn Mike's AIdeas podcast     QUOTES   "Even just asking the right type of question is a way to just really force people to take a step back."   “By definition, AI is almost always going to be average right now. Ultimately, taste will matter more in the future, to know ‘what is good'?”   “We are becoming directors of this new future where being able to recognize quality, being able to understand what makes something good, what makes something bad, are going to matter much more than being able to put words on a blank white page.”   “People need to know how to use AI and embrace it and understand it. You could teach both the fundamentals without it and then teach them how to do even more with it.”

Henrik Jarleskog, Head of Future of Work at Sodexo, shares his multinational perspective transforming workplace strategies, services, and experiences to enhance employee and business performance. Henrik explains the shift from building-centric to human-centric approaches. He describes facilitating implementation of wide-ranging future workplace strategies and systems, adapting for changing business, workforce, and cultural needs, for Sodexo's more than 400,000 employees worldwide. Henrik recognizes the critical flexible, social, and strategic imperatives of modern, distributed work, and models essential experimentation with AI promoting adoption and integration.       TAKEAWAYS   [02:12] Henrik studies mechanical engineering for its creativity, design, and business focus.   [03:29] The benefits of creativity in business for transformation and solving complex challenges.   [04:00] Henrik's early career focuses on data-driven decisions and performance improvement.   [05:26] 20 years ago, workplace strategies were building-centric.   [06:11] The integrated facilities management trend resulted in more strategic higher-level deals.   [08:04] Workplace solutions and experiences are tailored for cultural and regulatory differences.   [09:44] Outsourced facilities management contracts taught leadership and management running significant P&Ls.   [11:58] Henrik gains great experience becoming a consultant to learn the skillset and tool box.   [12:50] Vested partnerships focus on buying outcomes instead of transactions from a supplier.   [13:42] The collaborative benefits of a relational contract which is transparent.   [14:45] A Nordic airline achieves a vested transformation throughout the supply chain.   [17:00] Transformation requires vision clarity and aligned incentives, communication, and actions.   [18:12] In transparent strategic partnerships, agree critical business metrics together.   [20:45] Henrik works with Sodexo, then his new family encourages him to take their job offer.   [22:17] How management consulting roles involve substantial solutions selling.   [23:20] Henrik works hybrid, while holding three roles, transforming the Nordic businesses.   [24:29] When the pandemic strikes, Henrik builds a fully digital region of 16 countries.   [26:00] Providing sustainable food solutions with broader services as workplace experiences to corporations.   [28:05] Sodexo recognizes the pandemic's disruption, choosing to emerge as a thought leader.   [30:22] In employee surveys, preferences showed a huge shift in people's expectations.   [31:10] How Activity Based Working changed workplace dynamics in Europe 20 years ago.   [33:56] New work norms and generational preferences such as flexibility and choice.   [35:45] Henrik supports companies spanning models ranging full-time in office to fully flexible.   [36:35] Providing knowledge and data for Future of Work and workplace systems and strategies.   [38:15] Clients need ‘magnetic offices' supporting recruitment with great office-based experiences.   [39:31] Considering manufacturing site working experiences and the effect of monitoring.   [41:20] Building relationships and connection with social hubs to support collaboration.   [42:46] Two major structural changes: doing more with less and distributed work is here to stay.   [45:45] How do Fortune 500 companies' hybrid/flexible models affect their performance?   [46:55] Nostalgia rather than data mostly drive five-days-a-week RTO mandates.   [47:35] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP:  To move your company forward effectively. One, your honor, people-centric, flexible journey. So ask your teams what's working for us and not. Two, ensure your work model aligns with the corporate mission. Three, design flexible, fantastic workplace experiences. Four, ensure everything is as sustainable as possible.   [50:13] How Henrik views AI, experimentation and AI Agents.   [54:10] Being a leading role model in using AI.   [52:10] The future of work requires empathy and human-centric focus.       RESOURCES   Henrik Jarleskog on LinkedIn Sodexo.com       QUOTES   “Distributed work is here to stay… it's not being hybrid, it's distributed work. And that trend is so strong that everything else about two or three days a week, being flexible or not is just a big distraction compared to that.”   “Zero of these Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. are full time in office. If you look at the same in Europe for the top 10, they are 100% hybrid…Is there a correlation between how flexible you are as an operating model and your business performance? This is becoming more and more focused on now over the last quarter.”   “I haven't still met one company who has decided to bring their people back to the office five days a week that transparently can show me the data that is building that decision. Mostly, these type of decisions are based on nostalgia and not data.”   “Leaders of this world are in different degrees ready for leading hybrid, for leading remote, or in different versions of whatever it can be, because this is a difficult thing. But data indicates that we are on a flexible journey.”   “If you look at the performance of the best and largest companies of this world…they have a people centric approach. They are asking their teams, their organizations, “What is working for us? How do you think we should be formalizing our next generation operating model?”

Stephan Meier is Professor of Business Strategy at Columbia Business School and author of The Employee Advantage: How Putting Workers First Helps Business Thrive. Stephan describes how behavioral economics examine social dynamics and decision-making. He describes the importance of intrinsic motivation and fairness at work and the effect on behavior of monetary and non-monetary incentives. Stephan explains how fast-evolving business conditions require trusting leadership and empowered employees. He shares insights about flexibility and relatedness as key motivators which affect hybrid/remote working models.     TAKEAWAYS   [02:27] Stephan was fascinated by history but studied economics to understand the world better.   [03:19] Traditional economic models, though predictive, lack alignment with human behavior.   [04:09] Stephan explores behavioral economics to study non-rational behaviors and model deviations.   [06:03] For his PhD, Stephan researches intrinsic motivations and non-selfish human interactions.   [08:08] Early management models assumed people are lazy therefore control and incentives were essential.   [09:01] Lack of training to support employee-centric versus control, incentive mechanisms.   [11:06] Stephan's thesis emphasizes intrinsic motivations and the joy achieved by helping others.   [12:01] Fairness and social norms are important to foster collaboration and group motivation.   [13:00] How monetary incentives can undermine social relationships.   [14:21] The dynamics of social and intrinsic motivation compared with financial motivation.   [17:13] Stephan's Federal Reserve work focused on behavioral economics and improving financial decision-making.   [19:31] How people revert to status quo choices when tired and lacking nourishment.   [22:00] Money affects work-related decisions for people who are distracted by financial stressors.   [23:33] How behavioral science and economic rational competition determine our behaviors which need to be balanced.   [24:50] We overestimate our own decision-making abilities, not conscious of influential factors.   [25:35] How managers, as humans, are affected by layoffs and unemployment benefits.   [28:32] Thinking about employees like customers and improving their experiences.   [29:11] Competition and transparency are two key reasons for the new employee emphasis.   [30:27] A third reason is having more data and tools to personalize work experiences.   [32:35] Employee centricity: fixing pain points and finding moments that matter along the Employee Journey.   [33:21] The need for constant feedback and innovation to improve employees' experiences.   [35:07] What really motivates people and using technology to enhance not destroy this.   [35:52] At the current pace of change, the importance of trusting relationships and autonomy.   [36:35] Especially in AI-integrated, flatter companies, we need to empower employees.   [37:20] Upskilling employees by matching them with opportunities just as Netflix matches viewers with their preferences.   [40:00] Flexibility and relatedness are important motivators to consider when optimizing hybrid and remote work models   [40:16] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: To achieve a more employee centric approach, tap into two motivators: flexibility, giving people autonomy about how, when, where to work; and relatedness having social interactions which include in person.   [41:45] Leaders need to embrace behavioral insights to adapt for new working environments.   [43:16] Being intentional about workplace culture and coordinating office-based working.   [45:30] Treating employees well is a win-win.   [46:30] We must understand what motivates employees and use technology to enhance these motivators.       RESOURCES   Stephan Meier on LinkedIn Stephan's website Stephan's book “The Employee Advantage: How Putting Workers First Helps Business Thrive”       QUOTES   “If we think people are lazy and we want to control, technology gives us the amazing tools to control to the level that we never could before. But that will be exactly destroying everything about the trusting relationship.”   "If you integrate more AI, normally the hierarchies become flatter. Now you actually need teams who work more autonomously. You empower them and it's a very different way of managing because you now have to trust them as well.”   “The same trends that led to customer centricity lead to employees centricity. We actually have a lot of tools about customers that we can now apply to employees. We can figure out what are the pain points, what are the moments that matter or whatever you want to call those for our employees to actually delight them.”   “We do have to empower employees more. Top down works really well when it's relatively stable and not changing in working when it's moving fast, you have to change.”    “Most leaders are not trained in understanding what motivates people beyond monetary control mechanisms.”

Heather E. McGowan is a keynote speaker and author of The Empathy Advantage and The Adaptation Advantage with deep experience in the Future of Work field. She describes the importance of empathy with AI's growing influence and fostering a connected, resilient, and adaptable workforce. Heather discusses how AI can transform cognitive work and why leaders must shift from relying on their own expertise to harnessing collective intelligence. She explains how the promise and tacit agreement of work has changed, leading to younger generations' focus on mission, impact, and mentorship.     TAKEAWAYS   [02:35] Interested in human behavior and art, Heather goes to RISD to study industrial design.   [04:00] Heather learns to ask the right question – is the process, not the product, that matters.   [04:54] Observing people helps Heather identify unarticulated needs, as seen with the Swiffer.   [06:21] Heather designs various products then does an MBA to bridge design and business.   [07:36] Her mentor's influence directs her towards ESG-focused private equity work.   [09:49] Integrating design and business, Heather works in academia for several years.   [10:50] Heather starts defining how work is changing for her academic and corporate clients as the Future of Work emerges.   [12:24] Challenging the concept of having to take single discipline courses before collaborative studies.   [13:00] The importance of having a common mindset around problem solving.   [13:31] Using basic systems thinking to understand the impact of solutions.   [14:33] Interesting reactions to mixed-year participation in courses.   [15:25] How people responded to integrated design-thinking projects.   [16:15] Heather gets delayed positive feedback to their innovative approach.   [16:39] Insights from Heather's experiences in education such as getting people to think propositionally.   [17:00] The genesis of the Adaptation Advantage book.   [17:45] The impact of set occupational identity and the rigid 'education-career-retire' model.   [18:26] Lifelong learning with learning and careers overlapping not sequential stages.   [18:55] Retirement is not good for us, now that life expectancy has increased.   [19:30] The AARP starts to focus on people's ‘next' or ‘encore' chapter rather than ‘retirement'.   [20:46] Heather's research and writing focuses on Future of Work tacit vs explicit knowledge.   [21:17] Explicit knowledge can be automated, while tacit knowledge needs human interaction.   [22:15] AI as a “third lens” for understanding human cognition and expanding our capabilities.   [23:39] Heather warns that over-reliance on automation risks atrophying our skills.   [24:59] The benefit of enhancing cognitive capabilities, not just reducing costs.   [26:16] The long broken agreement about work between employers and employees.   [27:38] Gen Z seeks mission, meaningful work, and mentorship since there is no job security.   [28:04] Empathy is necessary to connect with employees and understand their mentoring needs.   [28:55] Leaders must not rely on individual intelligence but shift to collective intelligence.   [30:34] Heather predicts AI will disrupt cognitive work much like electrification disrupted labor.   [31:28] Heather connects rising polarization with declines in socialization and greater loneliness.   [32:08] How our brains are shaped for agitation because of our solitude.   [33:00] Workplaces serving as essential social trust-building spaces.   [34:32] Leaders must build trust through authenticity, logic, and empathy.   [35:30] The compelling letter Airbnb's CEO wrote to employees being laid off.   [37:36] Being transparent about the challenges of fast-changing circumstances.   [38:16] Human-centered policies which optimize for thriving employees improve retention and financial performance.   [40:45] When leaders reach a very senior level in organizations their empathy decreases.   [42:47] Heather encourages reweaving the social fabric to foster collaborative exploration.   [44:16] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Talk with coworkers about shared values. Ask how they're doing, if they're getting enough sleep, if they're working on a project that is meaningful to them. Share experiences where you've been able to bounce forward, not back. Your job is to help your team adapt to change and become the next best version of themselves.       RESOURCES   Heather McGowan on LinkedIn Heather's website Leading the Day After article Sven Hansen and the Reliance Institute Letter from Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, to employees Frances Frei, HBS Professor       QUOTES   “We need to start taking longer strides and putting greater visions out there and say it's going to be hard, but it's going to be worth it."   "Trust comes down to three things. Authenticity, logic, and empathy. So authenticity is do people experience the real you? Do they feel like you're giving them the honest approach when you're delivering things to you, or are you putting on a Persona? Logic is, do you have a sound theory of what you're asking people to do? Ability to communicate, a division of where the organization is trying to go? And then do you demonstrate that you care what that work means to the individual?"   “Now, most leaders are leading teams of people who have skills and knowledge they do not have at least some of them, and it may not even be within their group. So you can't lead with Individual intelligence, you have to lead with collective intelligence. You cannot get collective intelligence without empathy. So that's the first piece of how we need to lead differently.”   “If we only use technology to replace what humans currently do, it's a race to the bottom. If we only let humans get lazy by using ChatGPT, we will lose. What we need to do is ‘Where is the ability to enhance? Where can I become better? Where can I make my organizational capacity stronger, greater, more resilient?”   “The promise and the agreement on work, the tacit agreement we've had for work has changed. It really became the last promise for the Boomers was ‘I trade my loyalty to an organization for the security of employment'. That promise has been broken for many decades, But the organizations that are still expecting that loyalty, that be it not providing that promise of security, have to realize they have to provide something else.”   “I think what Gen Z is pushing for, which I think a lot of folks are on board with, is instead, I know I'm not going to get security. So I want three things. I want mission. I want to be part an organization that's trying to do something big and hard and meaningful. I want to be part of something bigger than myself essentially. I want meaningful work.”

Luis Velasquez Ph.D. is the author of Ordinary Resilience, an executive leadership coach, and former research scientist. He describes his journey after a brain tumor forced him to leave academia and reinvent himself, using endurance sports goals during recovery. Luis explains how resilience means defining who you are, accepting your circumstances, and adapting to change, not toughness. He emphasizes intentional reframing, focusing on what you can control, and building relationships to foster social resilience and weather challenges. Luis shares insights and mental models for leaders managing teams as we navigate change at work and beyond.     TAKEAWAYS   [02:27] Instead of becoming a farmer, Luis loves science and does a Ph.D. in molecular biology.   [02:59] Luis returns to Guatemala after a scholarship to college in the US, as he had committed to.   [03:38] Luis takes the hardest class—plant pathology—wanting to improve resistance to disease.   [04:49] Becoming a professor of fungal genetics, Luis wants to protect plants.   [05:40] Suddenly, Luis gets a brain tumor and his full life stops.   [06:50] Luis describes growing up amidst poverty and political violence in Guatemala.   [07:24] Surviving the tumor, Luis's ‘recovery' goal is to run a marathon which takes him a year.   [07:57] Luis has to reinvent himself and recognizes ‘what I do is not who I am'.   [09:18] Luis gives his tumor a funny name and begins his second journey.   [10:00] Exploring the various ways Luis can use the same tools; he chooses Human Resources.   [12:21] With reflection and research, Luis realizes everyone has resilience within that they can access.   [14:07] Overwhelming amounts of information now at work put us in a phase of beginners.   [15:02] In flatter organizations, how can we learn what we need to know?   [15:53] We must be intentional about connections, not optimizing meetings only for efficiency.   [17:32] How trusting relationships change interpersonal dynamics.   [18:45] The power of social resilience, including allowing us to mimic solutions.   [20:07] The most important question is ‘what is the problem you are trying to solve?'   [21:48] Resilience is not changing, but adapting, who we are.   [22:44] Luis's niche is helping people who are difficult at work, often misunderstood.   [23:31] When intention is not aligned with action, and how to motivate alignment.   [24:43] What small adjustment can be made to fulfill your intention and be perceived differently?   [26:34] How entrepreneurs perceive failure if they attach their identity to their product.   [27:55] The mental model that separates outcomes and outputs.   [29:46] The power of reframing – such as the difference between a position and an option.   [32:13] Younger employees are afraid of making mistakes and losing face.   [32:58] The three types of failure and the issue of not clarifying when failure happens.   [33:58] Resilience: taking a small risk, being able to make a mistake, adapt, and improve.   [35:25] Luis's mental model ANT: an Annoying Negative Thought!   [36:08] How to dispel swirling negative thoughts.   [37:05] Everyone has what it takes to be resilient - a commitment and a decision to move forward.   [38:11] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: To be more resilient to change, describe yourself—who are you? Then give yourself permission to move forward in the direction you want. Make a choice. Make a decision as the first step.       RESOURCES   Luis Velasquez on LinkedIn Luis's company VelasCoaching.com Decisive by Chip and Dan Heath     QUOTES edited   “I realized that who I am is not what I do or even what I have.”   “I learned over the years that the world doesn't belong to the people that know the most but to the people that learn the fastest.”   “We all are in a phase of beginners because we cannot know everything…Right now, a lot of the things that we are trying to work on, we don't even know how to start. Everybody's doing something new.”   “Whatever problem you are having, whether it is a work or in life, somebody already went through that. All we need to do is ask…If you are socially resilient, you will find people who are going to solve your problem.” “The entrepreneurial spirit is not tied to the product…Separate the identity of these individuals [entrepreneurs] with what they're trying to accomplish. Those are two completely different things.”   “When you take a position, it's very hard to defend. And it's also very hard to see other options available. But if you shift it and say this is an option – how else can we do it?”   “Younger employees are afraid of making mistakes. Losing face is a big issue. I think that that fear comes from the inflexibility of organizations to accept mistakes and failures.”                                                                                                                     “Resilience is taking the first step and moving forward.”   “I think that the biggest gift that life has given us is the ability to make a choice. You can, I can, everybody can say, I am going to do something different. I am going to stop doing X. Just making that decision will take you a long way. It's making the decision as the first step.”

Vidya Krishnan, Chief Learning Officer at Ericsson, combines her engineering experience, systems thinking, and love of learning to connect core upskilling with corporate strategy. For Vidya, learning at the speed of technology development requires a learning mindset and future-focused dynamic approach to jobs and skills. Vidya explains how a project marketplace enables internal talent mobility: redesigning work with a skills-focus; facilitating evolution to ‘resource fluidity'; and allowing organic shifts into emerging areas as employees gravitate towards where work is flowing. Vidya recommends stability management with change management.     TAKEAWAYS   [02:06] Vidya studies electrical engineering influenced by her family's engineering legacy.   [03:16] Deeply admiring engineering and loving learning, Vidya admits she had ‘will before skill'.   [04:14] Vidya promotes internships: good summertime feedback boosts her while some college studies challenge.   [05:07] For personal reasons Vidya leaves AT&T joining Nortel (acquired by Ericsson) in Dallas.   [06:19] Always an engineer, now focused on people's experiences in L&D, Vidya loves teaching.   [08:24] Learning is as the heart of every transformation for Vidya's team and workplace.   [09:19] Learning even more from failure, by addressing both shame and ignorance after mistakes.   [11:11] Technology and people are inherently upgradable—ongoing learning at a tech company.   [12:34] How engineers need "power skills" like storytelling and managing stakeholders.   [14:05] Looking creatively to other industries, like aviation, to solve engineering challenges.   [16:49] Vidya has a double life for three years learning and networking at learning conferences.   [18:54] Managers want her to advance in engineering, but Vidya is determined to change field.   [19:45] Vidya overcomes self-doubt and family concerns while transitioning her career.   [21:15] After three years, Vidya transitions horizontally into technical training for customers.   [22:56] Becoming a studio offering digital learning using multimedia and experiential techniques.   [23:41] How to create capabilities that customers will pay for and employees value.   [27:00] Systems thinking to describe work's three dimensions: digital ecosystem, business system, and culture system.   [30:14] A systems vs programmatic approach to work is strategic and natural at a tech company.   [31:20] Skills development is vital and therefore must be connected to company strategy.   [33:21] Constructing a framework where skills are derivative of corporate strategy.   [34:20] Starting with the one skill that is most consequential to the strategy—less is more.   [36:20] Two sets of skills—global critical skills (top down) and job role skills (bottom up).   [37:30] Digitalizing a job architecture starts development of a skills taxonomy.   [38:23] Getting on the skills games board through credentialing and contribution.   [39:13] To be future focused, skills and job roles are digitalized into a relational database.   [40:40] Skills' journey phases: initialize, mobilize, and capitalize advancing with winnable games.   [43:10] "Resource fluidity" is where employees' skills are not confined to their job role—reskill and constantly redeploy.   [44:45] A talent marketplace that is a project marketplace redesigns work to put skills to work.   [47:43] Disaggregating work into projects enables work packages doable outside of people's day jobs—a third space—to develop new skills.   [50:30] Enabling employees to gravitate towards emerging areas from eroding areas.   [51:35] The hypothesis that progressive career reinvention at scale will pay for itself.   [52:25] A project marketplace creates capability and expands capacity.   [54:50] Partnership is the new leadership, and co-creation and co-ownership are key to execution.   [56:10] Stability management needs to accompany change management.   [57:16] How business cross-functionality can allow varied thinking and ‘wicked' problem solving.   [58:13] Project marketplace decouples work from many traditional boundaries.   [01:00:21] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Start now. Start small with one critical skill. Connect it to strategy, which is done systematically.     RESOURCES   Vidya Krishnan on LinkedIn Ericsson.com Books mentioned: Range by David Epstein The Problem with Change by Ashley Goodall Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Lalou     QUOTES (edited)   “If we give people the opportunity to put their skills to work, this is actually very healthy for the company because we are organically self-shaping away from eroding areas into emerging areas …people naturally gravitating to where the work is flowing.”   “You have a dynamic platform that's digitalized for jobs and skills to stay in lockstep with industry evolution: what's emerging, what's eroding, and for that stuff to easily automatically flow through every other system in the company where people are making decisions about who to hire, how to evolve their career, how to specify the requirements for this requisition, what job roles need to go out the window, what new job roles need to be introduced.”   “How do you put learning in the flow of work and work in the flow of learning so that it's happening to people experientially?”   “Work has three dimensions: there's an ecosystem, a business system and a culture system.”   “The logic was that if things that are vital should be systematic rather than programmatic so that they happen no matter what, because that's what vital things should do. And then you fundamentally believe that skills are vital, as I do, because they are what connect strategy to execution. So if you believe that, then it follows you must take a systematic approach.”   “Strategy without skills is a daydream. Skills and execution without strategy is a nightmare.”   “Capabilities are what create execution of the strategy.” “It's a means to an end. What's the end? It's to execute strategy. Therefore, it has to be systematically connected to strategy.”   “Partnership is a new leadership and co creation and co ownership is actually the key to execution, which is not clean and it may be a little bit messy.”

Mark Ma, a research professor at the University of Pittsburgh, studies social and economic issues including Return To Office (RTO) mandates, AI, and tax evasion. A working parent during the pandemic, Mark describes how personal and community experiences initially generated his interest in researching remote work options and hybrid policies. He shares his discoveries that stock market declines generated RTO mandates but not improved corporate results. Mark discusses the dynamics of executives' control, power, and distrust affecting work policies. He advocates for workplace flexibility—giving employees and teams choices.       TAKEAWAYS   [02:23] While Mark's parents advised him to study accounting, he found it fascinating.   [03:01] For his PhD, Mark explores financial analysis, and his tax avoidance research is cited.   [03:45] Passionate about research, Mark pursues academia, also appreciating the flexible lifestyle.   [05:09] Parental challenges during the pandemic fuels Mark's interest in remote work options.   [05:50] Noticing neighbors' complaints about returning to the office, Mark attends a conference and hears about working from home research.   [06:41] Mark gets tenure and explores risky research projects that help improve people's lives.   [08:25] In late 2022, Mark starts collecting data on companies' return-to-office mandates.   [09:25] Leaders say remote workers aren't working hard, while employees keep performing.   [11:06] Return-To-Office mandates often happen after a stock price crash—but why?   [12:00] How remote work gets blamed—without evidence—for poor performance.   [14:36] RTO mandates also result from executives' loss of control and not trusting employees.   [15:40] Companies may also use RTO policies to easily/cheaply lay off employees.   [18:16] Male and powerful CEOs—with higher relative salaries—issue more RTO mandates to assert control.   [21:38] Employee and team choice is recommended combined with intentional office time.   [22:32] Mark needs data from companies offering employee choice to confirm the best approach.   [24:58] Amazon's shifts to 3-days/wk then 5-days/week RTO has caused employee dissatisfaction and departures.   [25:50] One example of Nvidia's flexible policy enables it to benefit from Amazon's rigid one.   [26:59] Mark finds no evidence that RTO mandates help firms' performance or stock price.   [27:43] Should productivity be measured appropriately and over what time period?   [29:12] States level data shows structured hybrid work reduces depression and suicide risks.   [32:00] Fully remote workers often self-select which fits their lifestyle and social setup.   [32:50] Companies going fully remote need regular off-site engagements to mitigate isolation.   [34:18] New research explores RTO mandates' affect turnover, especially in finance and tech.   [35:20] Initial findings show higher turnover, especially among women, follows RTO mandates.   [36:48] After RTOs announcements, turnover increases quickly as some people can't go back to the office.   [39:06] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: “First, allow flexibility so employees have choice. Second, promote flexible team leaders to signal that people working from home will not be penalized. Third, for new graduate hires who want to work at the office, ensure mentors are present to support them.     RESOURCES   Mark Ma on LinkedIn Is Workplace Flexibility Good for the Environment? Research on Return To Office Mandates Mental Health Benefits of Workplace Flexibility     QUOTES “The more powerful CEOs and the male CEOs are more likely to impose return-to-office mandates.”   “You should allow team choice plus employee choice. That means teams decide when they want to come to office together. And on those in office days, those meetings should be intentional.”   “We clearly do not find any evidence that Return To Office mandates help firms' performance or stock price.”   “Five-day in-office work is not necessarily good for your mental health.”   “A lot of top executives, when they do not see the employees in the office, they do not trust the employees. They feel they have lost control of the employees.”   "Firms are telling their employees, you can work from home, but you will not be promoted. That's not a good strategy because your good employees will leave."   "By promoting flexible team leaders, you will send a signal to those people who want to stay remote or hybrid that there is a clear career path for them."

Mika Cross is a Workplace Transformation Strategist at Strategy@Work. She discusses her military career and years federal government agency experience including talent management, workplace flexibility, and wellness. Mika shares her approach to distributed teams, performance management, and work-life balance. She describes how flexible private sector workforce management policies, informed by public sector successes, foster engagement, retain talent, and meet the diverse needs of the modern, distributed workforce. Mika describes how remote work options allow us to reimagine veterans' and civilians' working lives and communities.     TAKEAWAYS   [02:39] MIka works wants to be a journalist then has to take a break in her studies.   [03:17] A mentor suggests military service so Mika can complete her education and serve nobly.   [04:26] Mika has some job options from Uncle Sam after finishing top three in her officer training class.   [05:35] Mika is attracted by inclusive workplaces that support the whole soldier and family.   [06:32] Working for a rapidly deployable unit, Mika must support distributed teams holistically.   [07:33] The military is facing shortages, how can retention be improved using flexibility?   [09:15] How to share knowledge across agencies while dealing with confidential information.   [10:31] What does employee experience look like in the federal government?   [11:49] The power of communication to enable effective policy implementation.   [13:41] Managers want discretion and information to make the right decisions for their teams.   [16:11] With deep knowledge of federal regulations, Mika takes an integrated systems approach.   [17:44] What are the blocks to effective equal opportunity?   [18:37] Mika finds some workplace flexibility policy options blocked by supervisors.   [19:50] Mindsets can prevent advancements or enable cultural transformation.   [21:26] How to measure the impact of policies including cost savings.   [23:04] Taking a multi-pronged approach with broad buy in and incentivized training.   [24:25] Celebrating wins, measuring engagement, and saving on leases.   [25:34] The benefits of getting multiple share stakeholders on board.   [26:36] The USDA gets recognition and rewards as one of America's best workplaces.   [27:25] Achieving savings of $8 million per year through telecommuting.   [31:00] Negotiating work policies with 92 unions!   [36:34] Enabling veterans' smooth transitions into civilian jobs requires many types of flexibility.   [38:20] Mika explores upskilling, reskilling and benefits.   [40:14] Veterans often returning to Hometown USA find few jobs after years of rural brain drain.   [41:20] Three ways to provide thriving healthy supportive workplaces to veterans.   [42:43] Military spouses need remote work options as they support transitioning veterans.   [45:01] The wild opportunity to reimagine the nation, rebuilding Hometown USA.   [46:58] The importance of soft skills -- or success skills as Mike calls them.   [48:18] Mika believes in career readiness skills so workers learn how to work.   [49:14] Moving to a skills-based talent economy.   [50:27] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: If you don't include flexibility in your work policies and turnover increases, recognize the burden on employees who stay and the loss of skills and organizational knowledge. Instead, extend a little trust and autonomy first, hold people accountable second, and teach flexible open mindsets.     RESOURCES   Mika Cross on LinkedIn Mika's website MikaCross.com     QUOTES   “I ended up seeing the power of inclusive workplaces, supportive workplaces, policies, procedures and programs that supported the whole soldier in order to get the best out of our troops, especially when they are deploying into conflict and being separated from their families and having to support the other half of that equation, which is their spouse, their families, their children, their loved ones.”   “It really helped me to inform, regardless of what my work was or what projects I was working on, how are people interpreting even the wording in these policies to be able to implement them successfully the way we intended.”   “The Secretary of Agriculture had included telework work life and wellness as a component of his vision for cultural transformation and had monthly metrics to which he reviewed and held his sub cabinet committee accountable for each and every month.”   “If you have jobs that are suitable to be done in a remote capacity, could you be leveraging those remote jobs for the purpose of attracting and hiring an amazing skillset of talent from either military spouses or transitioning veterans?”   “We're looking at wild opportunity for our nation to rebuild and put emphasis in areas of the country that sort of have been left behind in the past.”   “When you consider older workers staying longer, trying to continue working, this can really create opportunity not just for employers, but for those communities where they live. If they're able to continue contributing their tax base, to the infrastructure, and re-imagining what our Hometown USAs can look like all around the country.”   “What we used to call soft skills; I like to call them success skills—skills that any worker needs in any industry and occupation. These are what can set you apart from someone else. Things like critical thinking, autonomous work ethic, conflict resolution skills, interpersonal, and intergenerational skills.”

Paul J. Zak is a Professor and Director of the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies at Claremont Graduate University. Paul is the Founder of Immersion Neuroscience a company that enables measurement of immersion in experiences in real-time. He has authored books including Immersion and The Trust Factor. Paul emphasizes customer lifetime value and the effect of creating extraordinary experiences for customers and employees. He discusses the neuroscience linking trust, psychological safety, and employee engagement to improved business outcomes. Paul highlights emotional fitness and how leaders creating empathetic, trust-based cultures enable employees to flourish, boosting their satisfaction and well-being.     TAKEAWAYS   [02:43] Paul studies mathematics, biology, and neuroscience to understand human behavior.   [03:21] ‘Why are we nice to each other?' has been a core area of study in Paul's lab.   [04:00] Humans are naturally group-oriented and thrive when working collaboratively.   [05:35] Creating extraordinary employee experiences is key to engagement and performance.   [06:52] Paul focuses on Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) supported by strong employee engagement.   [07:40] Improved customer service helps customers and can boost employee satisfaction too.   [10:12] Businesses must focus on retaining talent by fostering employee growth and satisfaction.   [11:15] Paul advocates for a coaching model of leadership that encourages autonomy.   [12:06] Trust with psychological safety allows employees to be comfortable and burn less neurologic energy.   [13:46] Leaders must create environments for people to flourish, not expecting consistency.   [14:39] The "Whole Person Review" is forward-looking focusing on professional, personal, and spiritual growth.   [16:56] With empathy and trust closely related, leaders best recognize employees as humans with emotions and personal lives.   [18:12] Paul enjoys daily huddles fostering team connection and alignment at work.   [19:04] Leaders benefit from in-person interactions to build and sustain relationships.   [22:04] What experiences do people value? Offer the office as a social emotional hub.   [24:24] Six peak immersion moments per day lasting three minutes build emotional fitness.   [24:56] Adding a social layer to any experience increases neurologic immersion and satisfaction.   [25:32] Video conference interactions achieve 50- 80% of the value of in-person interactions.   [28:35] Leaders need to understand brain responses to nurture psychological safety.   [29:20] Teams of 15-20 perform better because individuals can maintain strong connections.   [30:09] Creating an environment where people can flourish and be fully engaged at work and outside work.   [32:18] Eight factors generate peak immersion moments so employees can adjust assignments with their supervisor.   [33:09] A Google employee finds she loves coaching and moves to Facebook to mentor developers.   [34:38] Crafting jobs that challenge people—to do what is hard to master but achievable.   [35:40] Conversations about investing in professional development—a key trust factor.   [37:50] Train extensively then delegate generously to give people control over their work lives.   [38:41] Autonomy and job satisfaction improved when hospital nurses had more decision-making power in patient care.   [41:12] Leaders should model behaviors they want to see.   [43:52] Stress is not bad—manageable challenges can stimulate engagement and bonding.   [44:42] Paul's skydiving experiences and his oxytocin and stress levels inverted over time.   [46:05] Challenges at work enable employees to perform at their best and achieve satisfaction.   [47:02] Create environments where employees can flourish, be safe, have immersion moments, and connect with each other.   [49:14] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: For a longer happier life, invest time in things that excite and engage you to build up emotional fitness and resilience. Emotional fitness motivates people to exercise more, eat and sleep better which improves health and extends life span.       RESOURCES   Paul J. Zak Ph.D. on LinkedIn Paul's company Immersion's website Paul's books “Immersion”, “The Trust Factor”, “The Moral Molecule”       QUOTES (edited)   “If employees do not love what they're doing, they're just not going to perform as well. So how do I create this environment where employees can really flourish and share that with customers?”   “You have this kind of inverted pyramid where leadership is at service of the individual--employees who are creating value. Then you see this great connection with the company's purpose.”   “If we can create an environment where employees have this real sense of mission, they're connected to the purpose of the organization, they're working in an environment where they really can flourish professionally, then when they come home, they actually are more satisfied with their lives outside of work.”   “If I understand an employee as a leader—you're not human capital, you're a human being—you have emotions, you have a personal life. Hopefully, you love what you do here, you feel like you're fairly compensated and you're excited about how we improve our customers' lives. If I recognize all of that, then I'm going to be much more of a guide or a coach and less of a top-down micromanager.”   “I have to have this empathy of intolerance for the kind of weirdness of human beings!”   “Am I creating this environment of psychological safety where people are sufficiently comfortable, so they have the brain bandwidth to be fully in on the tasks they're doing?”   “From a psychological perspective, when people have control over their work lives, they have greater job satisfaction. They don't get burned out as often. And when an employee is trained, then they need some discretion on how they execute their job.”

Kelly Monahan, Ph.D., is Managing Director of Upwork's Research Institute, with research published in applied and academic journals. Kelly is the author of “How Behavioral Economics Influences Management Decision-making: A New Paradigm.” She shares insights from studies of strategic leadership and organizational behavior. Kelly urges executives and managers to rethink their approach to work and leading a distributed, blended, and AI-augmented workforce. She emphasizes accessing versus acquiring skilled talent enabling businesses to be agile and compete.     TAKEAWAYS   [02:21] Kelly misses a human element in her business degree so gets into strategic leadership.   [03:10] Kelly aligns with Edward Deming's thinking that systems are the issue, not the people.   [03:57] Leadership feels broken. As part of her Ph.D., Kelly researches how people learn.   [04:55] Kelly discovers business philosophy is founded on the assumption that people are lazy.   [05:50] Kelly focuses on how leaders can appeal to people's intrinsic motivations.   [06:31] Early in her career, Kelly works as a media planner during the financial crisis.   [08:55] In 2015, CEOs 3 big worries: more distributed work, blended workforces, AI taking jobs.   [12:05] Leaders struggle to manage distributed and cross-functional teams.   [12:35] Leading through influence, not hierarchy, requires the new power skill, empathy.   [13:13] Most leadership theories derive from the military and don't translate well for business.   [14:37] Kelly finds more emphasis on empathy in the military than business leadership.   [00:15:19] At Accenture, the pandemic lockdown stops Kelly from announcing a new people-first approach.   [00:17:27] During the crisis, Kelly stress-tests the framework and sees employees' needs evolve.   [00:19:40] Kelly joins Meta, excited about the possibilities of VR/AR in shaping the future of work.   [00:20:28] Tech companies have location-centric cultures so what is distributed work going to look like? [21:20] Hands-on, Kelly tries to understand how leadership norms and careers will evolve.   [22:00] Relying on local talent will not be sufficient as engineer must be hired further afield.   [22:50] How Ready Player One expresses some of Kelly's technology-related fears.   [23:28] Meta focuses on bringing social presence and connections into digital environments.   [24:53] Kelly is bullish about personal connections and realistic human presence in virtual space.   [26:05] Virtual environments could democratize access to learning, but there are trade-offs.   [26:45] Kelly goes to Upwork seeing the urgent need for companies to access skilled external talent.   [28:58] Over 2-3 years, Kelly predicts companies have a more blended talent mix to be more agile.   [31:16] Freelancers tend to stay competitively upskilled compared to full-time employees.   [32:14] GenAI is disrupting tasks, causing leaders to rethink how work is done and by whom.   [35:05] HR strategies do not align with Gen Zers' desire for diversified work to have financial stability.   [37:05] Kelly advocates more dynamic “talent access” rather than “talent acquisition.”   [39:00] Using an abundant mindset rather than a scarcity ‘war for talent'-type mindset.   [41:00] Kelly highlights NASA which successfully uses external talent to solve big problems.   [42:56] Kelly believes connecting business performance with new ways of working is key for businesses survival.   [45:15] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP:  Rather than thinking of a job when analyzing work, consider ‘what's the problem I'm trying to solve for?' Then what are the skills you need to achieve the project and how can AI and skilled freelancers be incorporated as part of the solution?      RESOURCES Kelly Monahan on LinkedIn Upwork Upwork's Research Institute Care to do better Research     QUOTES (edited)   “The true power skill today of how people lead—it's not through formal structure, it is through their ability to empathize and move people to move in a direction they otherwise wouldn't.”   “Whether it's transformational leadership or servant leadership or authentic leadership, all these different theories, they really didn't translate well into the business world because so much of it was actually still from a transactional, top down driven approach.”   “Today's need, urgent need, is to help leaders begin to realize that there's really skilled outside talented, that they need to learn how to capture and create the processes and leadership styles and environment to actually bring in this talent in order to continue to navigate the turbulent times we were in.”   “I think the next wave of innovation is going to come from a much more disciplined approach of how companies are organizing their talent, in particular, and beginning to really right size the mix that they need. Skills change too quickly to continue to keep really large, full-time core up to date. It's nearly an impossible task.”   “Freelancers tend to be at the bleeding edge of their skilling. When your livelihood depends on it, you make the time to upskill and learn. We're seeing that with generative AI as being the most recent use case—freelancers are much more ahead of this technology curve.”   “How much is this [Generative AI] actually disrupting work at the task level itself, which is going to cause leaders to rethink ‘How do I actually really need to get this work done? Is it a full time employee or is it a combination of a freelancer and AI working together to get this work delivered?'”   “Leadership and talent in HR strategies have not kept pace with the way that the social contract has changed. When you ask the majority of Gen Z'ers today in particular, ‘Where do you find the more stability? Is it that one to one relationship or is it the one to many?' The majority of Gen Z are telling us it's the one to many is where they actually feel more stable and they feel more in control of their career.”   “The majority of executives have been taught 'I'm in a war for talent'. When you have that mindset, it's very much a scarcity mindset. Because we're dealing with people and human beings, I encourage much more of a collaborative ecosystem, an abundant mindset as opposed to a scarcity mindset.”

John Hopkins PhD is Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management at Swinburne University of Technology. He is also Founder of WorkFLEX which helps people transition to new ways of working. John discusses how his academic involvement in supply chain dynamics and traffic congestion led him to investigate flexible working. He highlights the long-term sustainability of hybrid work, emphasizing its potential to reduce supply chain bottlenecks and improve work-life balance. John discusses Australia's new “Right to Disconnect” law and other countries introducing healthy work boundaries. He predicts work time reduction is the next big work topic.     TAKEAWAYS   [02:08] John starts his working career with a mechanical engineering apprenticeship.   [02:37] John studies mechanical engineering with management, focusing on supply chains.   [03:15] Learning about global business flow working at a car parts supplier.   [04:10] John's PhD on e-commerce explores emerging virtual marketplaces.   [05:35] A UK defense project John works on uses technology to support fast decision-making.   [06:34] Researching traffic flow, supply chain challenges relate to office-centric work culture.   [07:30] John questions why people are commuting each day to the office.   [08:55] Employees' tools are no longer city based.   [09:50] John and his partner travel around the world, love Australia and pledge to go back.   [11:40] John's interest in technologies enabling supply chain communication and collaboration.   [12:20] John wins an innovation fellowship and uses his research on flexible working to launch WorkFLEX.   [13:30] The pandemic hits and John develops online course content to help people adapt.   [15:20] #1: Companies wanted flexible working and reacted quickly given enough motivation.   [16:23] #2: Attitudes and behaviors adapted rapidly as well.   [17:20] #3: 2024 has been a seminal year as hybrid is firmly embedded in Australian work practices.   [18:24] John finds the hybrid compromise to be a win-win.   [19:57] Most companies are not implementing hybrid well, not customizing the model.   [22:00] We need to discuss with employees what work they are doing and where = how.   [24:50] How the pandemic shone a light on the supply chain.   [25:30] John was Mr. Toilet Paper for a while in 2020!   [27:40] Research that combines supply chains and flexible working.   [30:32] Lack of effective risk management in supply chains was highlighted during the crisis.   [32:35] Cities were designed based on people flow—e.g. where water processing is needed.   [33:40] Some of the return to office push is related to investment in city infrastructure.   [36:19] Scale is the biggest issue with supply chains.   [37:10] Technologically sophisticated supply chains are patchworks of thousands of moving parts.   [38:22] We take for granted the relationships that enable us to have easy access to so much.   [39:25] Trust is essential to make the supply chain work.   [41:28] The new “Right to Disconnect” law in Australia comes into effect in August 2024.   [42:25] Before 2009, we actively needed to “connect” to access work outside office hours.   [44:44] The norm of being connected was never specified, so the law is a first healthy boundary on work practices.   [47:40] France's similar law in 2017 did not reduce productivity and emergencies are excluded.   [48:22] Giving workers confidence to not respond and reverse unhealthy behavioral norms.   [50:04] Governments may not need to create more mandates; flexible work is already in process.   [50:38] The Right to Request Flexibility laws in Singapore and the UK.   [51:25] Next step may be the Four Day Workweek, now ‘work' is being discussed broadly.   [52:50] The intensification of work combined with longer working hours.   [54:04] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Keep it simple. Go to the basics. Make decisions based on ‘would the customer care'?       RESOURCES   John Hopkins PhD on LinkedIn WorkFLEX Australia John Hopkins PhD press on the “Right to Disconnect”       QUOTES (edited)   “We need to start thinking about what the work is that the people are doing and how often they should come together based on that, not based on anything else.”   “I feel that one thing the pandemic has done is that it's allowed us to have discussions about anything to do with work.”   “Trust is a really big thing. So in terms of supply chain, you need to be able to trust that you are going to get from a supplier what you need when you need it, in the quantity that you need, and the quality that you need.”   “We've got this intensification of work because we have all these tools that do things quicker and quicker for us. We're working more hours and doing more per hour.”   “Let's not have these mandates that just say two days or three days or whatever, with no further thinking or justification behind that. That's going to upset everybody.”   “Looking at flexible and remote work and flexible work arrangements and how that can impact and benefit supply chains. Let's remember that almost every organization has a supply chain. So everybody's got some support in a supply chain somewhere along the line.”   “My big prediction in terms of what will happen next in this whole kind of field is more about work time reduction.“   “It was never written into a policy that I'm aware of where we would say, you will be available to do this, you will be available to do that. It's a societal norm that has evolved.”   “What this law is doing, or it's certainly taking the first step towards achieving, is putting a boundary around work time and rest time.”   #fourdayworkweek #timereduction #supplychain #hybridmodel #righttodisconnect #australia #bottlenecks #flexibility #flexibleworking #congestion #trafficflow #worklifebalance

Dan Smolen is the host and executive producer of the "What's Your Work Fit?" podcast and a veteran executive recruiter. He explores how talent dynamics are evolving in the modern workplace as recruiters shift to focus on candidates' ability to adapt, learn continuously, and work collaboratively. Dan shares his insights on early talent's new definitions of success, their emphasis on work/life balance, and preferences for flexible working. Dan describes how these changes are reshaping recruitment strategies and the critical role of empathy in modern hiring practices.Top of FormBottom of Form     TAKEAWAYS   [02:03] Dan chooses his college based on his interest in broadcasting.   [03:02] The Watergate scandal stimulates Dan's passion for journalism at high school.   [03:44] Dan's goal was to become a news producer as he loves the news!   [04:53] An internship at Cube during college helps Dan realize broadcasting isn't a good fit.   [06:16] Mentored by a legend in advertising, Dans focuses on marketing.   [07:31] During his early career, Dan works long hours and deals with difficult creative talent.   [09:04] Dan soon manages significant revenue for a top ad agency.   [10:56] While achieving early success, Dan's workload impacts his well-being.   [11:57] Offered an interesting and lucrative opportunity, Dan transitions to recruiting and loves it.   [15:51] Recruitment requires deep understanding of both client needs and candidate fit.   [17:15] As clients recover from 9/11, Dan adopts a more human-centric approach.   [19:50] LinkedIn's launch in 2003 fosters Dan's consultative recruiting approach.   [23:26] Dan goes deeper into clients' organizational issues and achieves more success.   [25:34] Situational interview techniques better match candidates with new job realities.   [27:28] Fast-paced marketplace changes require recruiting adaptable, lifelong learners.   [29:11] Companies shift from seeking specialized skills to valuing generalists willing to learn.   [32:26] Dan notices the benefits of proactive recruitment, engaging talent before roles open up.   [34:52] Early engagement with prospects helps companies build better, longer-lasting teams.   [37:17] Dan's uses a "rent to own" model for testing candidate-company fit when necessary.   [39:53] Dan predicts more entrepreneurship as young people seek flexible work arrangements.   [42:54] Traditional office-based arrangements roles are less appealing to younger generations.   [43:50] In 2017, Dan decides to end his recruiting career and pursue his passion for podcasting.   [46:22] Dan's relationships with talent were a key driver for his recruiting success.   [47:42] "What's Your Work Fit?" podcast explores what makes work meaningful for individuals.   [49:34] Each guest is asked, "What makes work a wonderful part of your day?"   [51:24] Dan believes people are increasingly seeking meaningful work that balances with life.   [54:03] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Your success is what you make of it. You don't know where you're headed. Don't worry. Put on a good pair of shoes, strap on your backpack and enjoy the journey. Even savor the screw-ups, the mess ups and the learning opportunities!   [55:32] Dan emphasizes the importance of hobbies and diverse experiences for a fulfilling life.   [56:04] Engaging with people and creating serendipity are key to living a balanced, inspired life.     RESOURCES   Dan Smolen on LinkedIn “What's Your Work Fit?” podcast Dan Smolen's website     QUOTES   “The opportunity that we have before us is to impart to workplace entrants like our children's ages, is to say to them that your success is what you make of it. Don't let others define what it means to be successful".   "You don't know where you're headed. You don't know where it's going to lead you. You don't know the milestones along the way. Don't worry. Put on a good pair of shoes, strap on your backpack, and enjoy the journey“.   “Savor the screw ups and the mess ups and the learning opportunities, because without those, you're not going to end up in a beautiful place. You've got to have the learning that comes from pain and disappointment and longing in your career so that you grow as a person."   “They look at that and say, that's not a life. I want to have a day where I'm doing work, I'm doing things that I really enjoy, but I may want to do blended things.”   “For the first time that I can recognize, talent look at the day where work is a beautiful part of it.”   "If you don't know how to work on a team now, if you don't know how to be part of something bigger than yourself, I think it's going to be very difficult ongoing.”

Annie Dean is Vice President and Global Head of Team Anywhere at Atlassian. She oversees their Real Estate and Workplace Experience teams and Team Anywhere Lab—dedicated behavioral scientists focused on designing and validating evidence-based ways of working. Annie is responsible for Atlassian's shift to a distributed first company. She highlights core elements of their ongoing research-driven, vetted transition supported by strong cultural values. Annie shares Atlassian's new culture of work practices including rationalizing meetings, pursuing core work, hospitality-focused office operations, and redesigning teams, all facilitated by asynchronous methods and AI.   TAKEAWAYS [02:43] Annie attributes her diverse interests to her liberal arts family upbringing. [03:30] Annie is interested in what society values, how it expresses itself, and how people change it. [04:00] At law school, Annie realizes she doesn't want to be a lawyer while appreciating the educational benefits. [05:05] A busy lawyer and new mother, Annie's set up is not working for her. [06:40] Does the system need to change or Annie? She decides it is the system. [07:15] A seminal article questions assumptions about women not reaching leadership positions. [08:01] Co-founding Werk, Annie helps companies assess non-traditional work opportunities. [08:32] Pre-pandemic there is significant demand for flexible working. [10:26] Annie finds strong interest in disrupting norms to resolve known work-related issues.  [11:05] Data is crucial to try and convince CEOs to align with and adopt new ways of working. [12:39] From 2016 to 2020, office culture peaks, with limited progress on workplace flexibility. [13:25] Research identifies common pain points including commuting, care-giving, and wellness. [14:20] Access to flexibility can address widespread pain felt by ambitious high-performers. [15:32] Pre-pandemic, technology disrupts consumer not working behaviors—resulting in insufficient will to change work practices. [16:16] Annie cowrites an article positing that a pandemic would force adoption of remote work. [20:05] The ease of transitioning to remote work during the pandemic proves the potential of existing technologies. [20:35] Employees are not surprised they could work well remotely—it's a more human way to work. [21:10] Atlassian's shift to distributed-first aligns with its business and the co-founders' long-term expectations about work. [22:04] The modern culture of work at Atlassian focuses on reducing meetings, prioritizing core work, facilitated by asynchronous methods and AI-driven norms. [24:07] Atlassian's values are the backbone of how the company runs and inform how people treat each other. [25:50] Sharing research and vetted practices, Atlassian helps others update their culture of work. [27:22] Key shifts include new ways to connect, operate offices, design teams, and organize work. [28:35] Atlassian emphasizes intentional togetherness and a hospitality approach to office use. [29:00] Designing teams by time zones and capturing organic changes in daily work habits. [30:28] Modern culture of work practices emphasize effective meetings and prioritize core work. [30:50] Asynchronous methods and AI tools enable meeting rationalization and effective working. [32:04] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Create conversations that prompt experimentation new ways of working are addictive. They feel good. People will adopt quickly because once they try, they get it. [33:54] Clear and effective business writing is vital in a distributed work environment. [35:35] The transition to tech-driven, distributed work is inevitable. [36:35] Resistance to using steel in construction mirrors current resistance to work changes. [38:22] Annie notices a technology gap for taking full advantage of modern work opportunities which easy-to-use AI can now fill. [39:40] Annie is optimistic about technology enabling more efficient and flexible working.     RESOURCES   Annie Dean on LinkedIn Atlassian's website Lessons Learned: 1000 days of distributed at Atlassian Smart Brevity by Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwarz     QUOTES "Data is the only thing that will convince a CEO that a change needs to happen." “From 2012 to 2020, it was clear that technology was disrupting all our consumer behavior, and yet it wasn't disrupting our working behaviors. It was very clear to me that this different future was possible. It just didn't seem like there was enough will in the executive teams that I was working with to really make the holistic change.” "Because the pandemic was so overwhelming and distracting in many ways, these strategic questions of what a new culture of work should look like were left behind. We are now in 2024 and able to start answering those questions.” “We've adapted a really unique set of practices that helps us manage across time zones and manage in a distributed environment. It's those practices and our products that really carry us forward as a distributed company.” "The office is not required to get work done though they will continue to be great community spaces to work from." "We realize that the modern culture of work is that we replace most meetings, we know what work really matters, and we organize ourselves to pursue core work, not work about work, and each of those things is facilitated by asynchronous behaviors and AI driven norms." "Using new practices, I think we unlock the power of technology and the Internet and AI to build a new culture of work." "Once people try these new ways of working, they adopt them very quickly because they are addictive in that they feel really good."

Daan van Rossum is Founder and CEO of FlexOS where they are building a 21st Century work experience that enables people to learn, grow, connect, and thrive at work. He also hosts and runs the “Lead with AI” podcast, course, and community. Daan shares his tech-driven early education and jobs that underpin his emphasis on AI and integrating AI teammates and advisors effectively. He explains his proactive career steps working internationally, developing cultural understanding and tapping into ‘What If' creative energy to achieve more fulfilling work experiences. Daan describes his learning journey and how we can all intentionally engage in meaningful work and achieve greater happiness.     TAKEAWAYS   [02:28] At 15 years old, Daan decides he prefers working to being at school.   [03:17] Daan persuades his parents and the government and gets an exception to leave school.   [04:22] Daan begins his career at an ISP help desk then an early online food delivery business.   [05:59] After producing a family ‘newspaper', Daan's online help page gets attention and lands him a digital media job.   [09:13] The transition to Ogilvy is motivated by a desire to land a ‘real job'!   [09:54] After moving to New York, Daan wins an internal talent competition asking ‘What If?'   [12:36] Daan makes proactive internal moves at Ogilvy to Chicago, then Singapore.   [14:00] Using his strategist skills, Daan transitions internationally learning about local cultures.   [15:15] Daan is entranced by Vietnam's young society and optimistic, high energy.   [16:20] How Singapore developed fast integrating behavioral psychology nudges.   [16:53] Daan moves to Vietnam and discovers the two-world experiences of young employees.   [19:17] Co-founding a venture, Daan focuses on workplace happiness, fulfillment, and wellbeing through storytelling and courses.   [22:13] Daan studies wide-ranging topics relating to happiness, psychology, leadership, and more.   [23:13] The happiness-related content business is not viable in a developing market.   [23:55] The monetizable model integrating well-being content into coworking spaces.   [25:54] Key learnings about happiness to incorporate into DreamPlex's workplace offerings.   [31:16] Ensuring services align with what Gen Zers want in Vietnam.   [33:00] A 4-month pandemic lockdown in Vietnam affects Dream Plex and how they got through it.   [34:55] The challenges of hybrid working models in Vietnam compared to Singapore which was highly-digitized before 2020.   [38:35] Transitioning from agricultural to professional work settings and trust issues at work.   [42:10] The opportunity to align personal goals with organizational needs.   [43:15] The importance of intentionality in career and life decisions, especially now.   [45:30] Creating happier, productive workplaces by listening to employees and optimizing workflows.   [48:15] Self-awareness surfaces personal work preferences allowing alignment with job roles.   [52:20] Understanding how companies work reduces misunderstandings and misplaced entitlements.   [53:45] Optimizing time at work and using AI to not waste valuable hours.   [55:40] AI as your senior advisor, especially when no one else is around!   [56:15] How/what kids are learning differently now and AI's potential future role/integration.   [58:12] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: To improve work experiences, go back to the core. What you are doing and why. Are you doing it well? Do you believe what you are doing is meaningful? Practically, empathize and listen to your team members discovering the joy and toil in their workflows to map out and solve issues together.       RESOURCES   Daan van Rossum on LinkedIn FlexOS.work Lead with AI podcast, course, and community Laurie Santos Martin Seligman books     QUOTES "Could we ask 'What If' more? Instead of trying to focus on all these new channels trying to be innovative. Could we make this even better? So it was really more about the core of creativity and about curiosity." "You have to find your happiness in the here and now. If you slow down and look around, all your conditions for happiness are already here…Happiness is very makeable. It's not something that either happens to you or you're born with it. It's something you determine almost 100% yourself." "If two years from today someone makes a movie about your life, what would it be called? What would it be about? What would they showcase as your journey and what you've achieved?" "There's this concept called the hedonic treadmill... once you have [achieved a goal], there may be a temporary moment where you feel good. But the deeper sense of happiness has to come from something bigger." "See AI as a coworker that first and foremost can take over all the parts of your job that you don't like doing and are not getting you closer to your goal." "AI can start to be a senior advisor. It can be someone that co-creates with you, especially in those moments where you're on your own and need guidance or a second opinion."  

Corinne Murray is Chief Strategist and Founder of Agate, an organizational transformation and workplace strategy consultancy. Corinne brings her formative experiences in commercial real estate, workplace strategy, and pre-pandemic implementations of remote and hybrid work models. She shares the benefits of empathizing with employees' and executives' different work experiences and explains how experiences inform culture. Corinne advocates for incremental, measurable steps to reduce workplace friction, improve performance, shift mindsets, and build momentum to effect change.     TAKEAWAYS   [02:18] Corinne studies religious studies and philosophy learning about different cultures.   [03:31] Leaving college at the end of the Great Recession, Corinne starts in real estate.   [03:53] Corinne focuses on market research and repositioning older buildings at CBRE.   [05:22] It's déjà vu with real estate trends!   [05:34] Moving to American Express, Corinne shifts to workplace strategy and culture change.   [06:37] Amex facilitates workplace flexibility and remote working in 2013-2014.   [08:14] Corinne help employees transition to remote work addressing home setup challenges.   [10:22] The Blue Work program aims to create consistent brand experiences in all Amex offices.   [12:09] Post 2008, real estate strategy focuses on efficiency and densification.   [13:32] Workplace design and environments are adapted to different teams' needs.   [14:10] Desk booking capabilities are implemented to reduce friction and improve flexibility.   [15:12] Reinstituting Blue Work with user-friendly changes and active listening.   [16:16] Desk booking is eliminated having caused—rather than eliminated—friction.   [17:39] Neighborhood seating naturally supports teams and flexible desk usage.   [19:15] Corinne join Gensler to explore the external advisory role.   [20:48] How UX/UI is applicable to workplace strategy.   [21:31] Joining WeWork, Corinne helps prepare the company for the Future of Work.   [24:16] The holistic employee experience extends beyond the physical space.   [25:07] The importance of good employee experiences to increase productivity.   [26:32] Frameworks for improving workplace environments through UX principles.   [28:23] Ensured basic workplace needs are met to reduce mental load and enhance productivity.   [29:58] Joining RXR Realty in February 2020, the pandemic impacts Corinne's intended work.   [31:42] How Activity-Based Working supports different work activities.   [33:06] Corinne's understanding of city dynamics changes her view of Central Business Districts' viability.   [36:24] How reduced foot traffic affects commercial real estate.   [38:02] Corinne recognizes the shift in employee sentiments and work-life balance priorities.   [41:55] Executives different work experiences lead to their challenges with hybrid models.   [45:06] Millennials are driving change because of where they are in their careers and need for balance.   [52:02] Executive resistance to hybrid work can be reduced emphasizing data and gradual change.   [55:36] Corinne encourages an incremental approach to effect organizational change.   [56:20] “Hybrid work is broken” — what does Corinne mean by that?   [58:03] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Consider the dynamics of hybrid work and why it happens rather than just where it happens. Sequence and shuffle the puzzle pieces to figure out what needs to be decided first.     RESOURCES   Corinne Murray on LinkedIn Corinne's company Agate's website   QUOTES (edited)   "We can't decide what a culture is. We can decide what an experience is and what that collective experience amounts to is the culture."   "We are getting stuck focusing on where things happen, not why they happen, or how they can be done better."   "Executives lived experience is so radically different than everyone else in their organization, and yet they're the ones who are dictating how everyone else should be behaving."   "If we just assume that everyone wants to be productive, even if everyone's definition of it is different, how do we get stuff out of the way so people can do more of it."   "Hybrid is broken....Our application of it is what's broken. And why it's broken is because we have been almost exclusively focused on where hybrid happens rather than what are the dynamics of hybrid work."

Tim Oldman is the CEO of Leesman and Founder of the Leesman Index - the world leader in measuring and analyzing the experiences of employees in their places of work. Tim is an expert in user experience of the built environment. He explains why we need to be considering whether work environments are supporting employees' activities, needs, and satisfaction. Tim brings his wealth of knowledge to explore and reveal how workplaces—wherever people work—are tools for organizational performance and how we can measure that.      TAKEAWAYS   [02:25] Having always enjoyed building things, Tim studies interior design at college.   [02:51 Tim opts for a shorter course in interior design admitting he is impatient!   [03:22] Tim would love to study at university now with rapid prototyping and other advances.   [04:00] Encouraged by his uncle and tutor, Tim secures his first design job at 16.   [05:36] Tim first works in transport design, realizing the impact of design on bus stations and airports.   [07:06] The attention and detailed science in every aspect of airport design, including signage legibility.   [08:08] Tim wants to apply more and more rigor and science as his career develops.   [09:33] Tim discovers retail design is more numerically driven that he had understood earlier.   [11:27] The shift in retail emphasizing the shopper's brand experience.   [13:26] Tim's time at Vitra exposes him to extraordinary design history and expertise.   [14:20] It was a mind-boggling experience to work on the campus every day for five years!   [15:10] The user-centric design of a new distribution center makes Tim energized and very curious.   [17:22] Using transport examples to illustrate the importance of employee-centric office design.   [18:48] Developing the Leesman Index, Tim encounters naysayers to begin with.   [19:46] Initially provocative, “space is a tool in organizational performance” sticks.   [20:59] How space is a tool in organizational performance.   [21:48] Contrary to expectations, the design community initially resists the Leesman Index.   [23:07] A friend's referral leads to the first successful deployment of the Index.   [23:36] The index reveals engineers' preference for compressed, energetic workspaces.   [24:41] The facilities management industry becomes a key user.   [25:02] Executive leadership teams appreciate data-driven insights.   [26:43] Tim describes the Index's methodology and its impact on workplace design.   [27:50] The Leesman index measures employee activities and their satisfaction with workplace features.   [29:41] ‘Sentiment Superdrivers' are crucial to accommodate to achieve workplace satisfaction.   [32:54] The importance of supporting individual focused work.   [33:29] The pandemic highlights the inadequacies of traditional office designs.   [35:52] Many organizations are now seeking to improve their offices to better support employee needs.   [36:44] The rise of video conferencing underscores the need for better acoustic and visual privacy.   [38:12] Organizations increasingly seek to create offices that employees genuinely want to visit.   [39:45] Tim's new venture aims to help clients improve both remote and office-based work environments.   [42:31] Commute satisfaction correlates with the quality of the office environment.   [45:28] The shift towards higher-quality, more amenity-rich office spaces.   [47:40] Standard Chartered Bank exemplifies successful office space reduction while enhancing quality.   [49:24] Tim advocates for clearly articulating the purpose of office spaces.   [52:15] How Facilities Management can create more technologically advanced, smarter buildings.   [54:09] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Use evidence and be real, conversational, human. Find out what impacts the human experience as the human dynamic is motivational guidance. Live a day in the life of a frontline employee, experience it yourself.     RESOURCES   Tim Oldman on LinkedIn Leesman's website     QUOTES   "Whether it's an exhibition stand that you're building that's only up for five days, or it's a retail environment, or it's a bus station, or as we now are looking at the impact of office design on the organizational performance of the companies that we're working with.”   "I would leave work in a day feeling more energized than I arrived there in the morning. And I wanted to know why, fundamentally, I couldn't work it out. And that was really where the ideas behind Leesman and the idea of a measurement protocol started to seep through."   “It's all economics driven. Whether it's an exhibition stand that you're building that's only up for five days, or it's a retail environment, or it's a bus station, or as we now are looking at the impact of office design on the organizational performance.”   "Having thought about your day at work in the way that you have, can you tell us what you think about the following things in relation to your workplace? So, does it enable you to work productively? Are you proud of it? Do you enjoy it? Do you think it supports your organization's environmental sustainability standpoint?”    I think the bigger a workplace gets, the harder it is to satisfy everybody, because the more people are in it, the more variability there is in the work that they do and their personalities and their size and their demeanor and all the other things that make us different than individual human beings."

George Bradt is the Founder and Chair of PrimeGenesis, an executive onboarding and transition acceleration consultancy. He has authored many books including “The New Leader's 100-day Action Plan.” George brings his international senior management experience, including witnessing and welcoming new leaders and team members into many large multinational corporations. He shares his experiences highlighting the importance of corporate cultural assimilation and relationship building for new hires. George explains when and how onboarding optimally starts and ends and how to update the process for a distributed workforce.   TAKEAWAYS [02:30] After studying economics, George starts in sales working for an industry leader.   [04:02] George brings a successful, different approach to selling.   [04:54] George moves to Procter and Gamble, the academy company for marketing at the time.   [06:36] The success of a multi-step process for his sales team at Unilever starts George realizing what onboarding means.   [08:39] At Procter and Gamble, it was all purposeful, disciplined onboarding.   [07:05] How ongoing support and alignment are crucial for the success of new hires beyond the initial onboarding period.     [09:10] He challenges the traditional notion of onboarding being limited to the first day, week, or month.     [10:30] Deliberate efforts are necessary to build relationships and company culture in distributed work environments.     [14:00] George's Forbes article gets much feedback about corporate cultures with distributed workforces.     [17:02] Onboarding new hires effectively is essential for productivity and retention.     [20:30] Coca Cola does not have a copy strategy while George is there.     [21:50] George explains his shift towards focusing on onboarding after realizing an unmet need in the industry.     [23:11] The four main ideas of effective onboarding.     [24:35] Why a structured onboarding plan before Day One matters.     [26:00] Consider an onboarding scenario, highlighting the different sentiments and expectations.     [27:20] Building relationships before starting a new job to set a positive initial dynamic.     [28:45] How leaders can onboard new team members, aligning and accomodating them.     [30:10] He suggests companies allow new hires to conduct due diligence before officially accepting a job offer.     [32:00] Transparency and providing necessary resources are crucial from Day One.     [33:25] George shares his experience with Procter and Gamble's rigorous and specific onboarding process, including the one-page memo format.     [34:50] After six years at Procter and Gamble, George contemplates staying forever.     [38:00] George explains experiences at Coca Cola that led him to focus on onboarding.     [39:40] He notes that despite Coca Cola's history, they had a flawed onboarding process for new hires.     [41:10] The importance of understanding and co-creating the ideal future culture with your team.     [42:30] He suggests that leaders should pay more attention to onboarding and actively create personal onboarding plans for new employees.     [44:00] To support onboardin cultural rituals are important to understand.     [45:15] He emphasizes aligning new hires with the current culture before co-creating an ideal future culture.     [46:30] George points out the lack of attention to onboarding by leaders and the need for their involvement in the process.     [47:50] He concludes by highlighting the importance of focusing on culture and relationships in a hybrid work environment.     IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: As soon as possible after someone accepts their new position, before Day One on the job, get their manager to sit down with them to co-create the person's own personal onboarding plan, particularly emphasizing culture and building relationships.      RESOURCES   George Bradt on LinkedIn Prime Genesis website George's book “The New Leader's 100-Day Action Plan”     QUOTES   "The one most important idea is you have to converge into an organization or a team before you try to evolve it. You have to become part of the team and evolve it from the inside."   “If you're onboarding somebody who's working remotely, you've got to be incredibly deliberate and invest so much time in building the relationships."   "Give them the time, give them clarity of direction, give them the resources, and then eventually give them the authority they needed to do what they needed to do."   "All that matters is relationships. Any question, any meeting, you know, the answer to any question is you're caring about building relationships."   "Acquire them in the way that's going to work going forward, accommodate them so that they can do work, assimilate them so they can work with others, and then stick with it and help them accelerate."   "Ultimately, culture is the way people behave, the way they relate, their attitudes, their values, the environment. What's different with remote work is how deliberate you have to be about relationships."

Allison Vendt is Senior Director, People Operations (Virtual First, People PMO, People Analytics) at Dropbox. She shares key reasons and research behind Dropbox's transformation to ‘Virtual First' starting with an office-centric culture. Allison discusses insights since the initial design phase and implementation including the change management required. She explains the ongoing evolution of the company's virtual first approach to the Future of Work as they continue to pilot, learn, and iterate. Allison describes how they create high impact employees' experiences with emphasis on culture, connections, and community.     TAKEAWAYS   [02:38] Allison quickly discovers law school is not for her and finds American studies fascinating.   [04:00] Allison wants to do something creative and starts working in media planning.   [04:55] Wanting more daily impact on people, Allison does a graduate degree in education.   [05:16] Allison was a student athlete herself – a swimmer.   [06:20] As an academic advisor, Allison runs orientation, tutoring, and development programs as well as coaching and counseling.   [06:48] Intrigued by Silicon Valley, while at Stanford, Allison runs a technology-integrated program for entrepreneurs.   [08:46] Parallels between high-achieving student athletes and Allison's current coworkers.   [10:19] Starting her first job in tech, Allison feels at home at once thanks to Dropbox's culture.   [11:24] While the L&D group transitions, Allison is open to experimenting and shifts role.   [13:18] Exploring how employees can own their careers through personal growth plans.   [14:08] More current focus on mentorship and skills.   [15:30] Pandemic shifts give Allison ‘Virtual First' as her first strategy and operations project.   [16:40] Before 2020, Dropbox explores remote work while having an office-centric culture.   [18:02] The company's mission is relevant as they become intentional about reinventing what modern work looks like.   [20:44] Mindset shifts for virtual first, prioritizing human connection and adopting asynchronous by default   [22:22] Research on effective distributed work principles focused on an asynchronous by default mindset and upskilling everyone.   [23:48] Needing to reinvent everything, one work stream is dedicated to culture and community.   [24:57] Investing in cultural tethers and touchpoints that connect people and drive belonging include a neighborhood program with local relevant events.   [26:53] A mentoring program helps build weak ties, reinventing core elements for Virtual First.   [27:54] The empowering essence and elements of Dropbox's self-serve mindset and strategy.   [29:48] Investing in training managers who play a critical role in distributed work effectiveness.   [30:52] Iterative ongoing piloting and learning with an open source Virtual First toolkit.   [32:19] Research drives the decision not to choose hybrid to avoid creating two employee experiences.   [34:06] Being transparent about choices and principles, Virtual First still wasn't for everyone, but some have returned.   [34:46] Virtual First is executed with a learning mindset, just like Dropbox builds products.   [35:26] Change management is critical for the organizational transformation.   [36:30] Onboarding is overhauled and refined—identifying synchronous and self-paced aspects.   [37:29] What are the frameworks for success? How to make Virtual First work for you.   [39:14] The potential for AI to reduce friction at work starting with AI training.   [40:40] Potential AI opportunities as behaviors and tools must go hand in hand to get more focus time and flow time.   [42:35] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Consider virtual first over hybrid. Whatever the size of your organization, you can adapt the core framework appropriately. Try a virtual first approach with one unit of your company to see if it could work. The benefits of happy productive employees outweigh the challenges.     RESOURCES Allison Vendt on LinkedIn Dropbox on LinkedIn Dropbox on Instagram Dropbox on X     QUOTES edited   “We really had to take this opportunity to reinvent what modern work looked like.” “We wanted to do our due diligence. We came up with a set of guiding principles that four years later continue to guide the work. It was really important for us to be intentional about what we were doing to have a solid design to kick us off.”   “Virtual First means we work remotely, that's our primary orientation of work. But we do prioritize human connection. We really believe there's just no replacement for that face-to-face in-person connection.”   “We had to reinvent how we work. All the research that we had done on effective distributed work principles was leading with an asynchronous by default mindset that we had to get really good at.”   “We try to think about meetings being for debate, decision making, and discussion, not about status updates, for example, which you can easily do asynchronously.”   “We were very clear we need to reinvent everything, including looking at our culture.”   "We've done a lot of transformation around the knowledge management piece. So much about Virtual First is about empowerment -- individual empowerment."    “The role of the manager is so critical in any workplace, but certainly in a distributed environment. So we've invested a lot in manager training, making sure that all of our Virtual First principles, research that we're learning and insights that we have are getting are embedded into our manager training.”   "We deliberately elected not to adopt a hybrid model that was based on the research that we had done. Ultimately, we felt like leveraging a hybrid model was going to create two different experiences for employees."

Ryan Anderson is Vice President of Global Research and Insights at MillerKnoll leading research and providing workplace strategy and application design advisory services. He also hosts MillerKnoll's “About Place” podcast. With much experience at the intersection of workplace research, innovation, and technology, Ryan discusses evolving working needs un/tethered by technology. He explains how urban landscaping concepts support human-centric office-based design. Ryan recommends incremental office improvements to match evolving work needs and change management to support any facility update.     TAKEAWAYS   [02:19] A random decision to study marketing, however Ryan finds he loves the audience focus.   [03:55] In furniture product development, Ryan finds the commercialization process tough, but learns a lot.   [04:24] Ryan is drawn to the conceptual phases, empathizing to understand unmet needs.   [06:07] How West Michigan has a concentration of workplace design companies.   [06:54] Ryan grew up thinking furniture was boring but learns how much more there is to it.    [08:35] In Chicago, Ryan meets his wife and studies purpose-driven business and ethics-based leadership.   [10:27] Ryan transitions to a corporate/design role as technology integration changes work settings.   [11:19] Commercial interior design and Ryan respond to employees' new technology setups.   [13:14] A history lover, Ryan describes key design people and an office landscape movement.    [13:37] The fascinating use of urban planning principles for office landscaping.   [14:30] Desk-based workers' needs drive workspace planning and fuel industry growth.   [15:00] The original goal of the cubicle—to provide workplace variety!   [16:08] Workspaces need to evolve to keep in tempo with work.   [17:07] Tech trends dictated earlier workplace constraints and are now releasing us from them.   [18:36] Understanding evergreen needs while envisioning and maturing ideas through experimentation.   [20:00] Ryan moves company to align with designing for the tech user not the technology.    [21:42] Mid-2010's, The Living Office anticipates and amplifies the consumerization of technology.   [22:52] Partnering with big tech companies to revisit office landscaping for the modern era.   [23:40] Exploring ‘prop tech' – the technological evolution of the building – smart buildings.   [24:30] Sensors and other tech enhancements start to personalize office experiences.   [25:00] The SaaS business model interest Ryan who joins a fast-growing prop tech venture.   [26:18] Ryan shifts focus to changing digitized work experiences rather than tech integration.   [26:59] The workplace ‘product' must support diverse teams' evolving digitalized work needs.   [31:08] Douglas McGregor's framework of Theory X and Theory Y management.      [32:45] With distributed work, designing spaces to supervise work is unrealistic.   [33:58] Community building and urban planning are enabling an ecosystem of people.   [34:51] Optimizing for office-based work activities, such as for longer form collaboration.   [35:53] What do offices best provide – structured collaboration and focused concentration?   [37:03] Understand teams operating in a facility to address their changing activities and needs.    [38:25] Not many organizations are supporting their employees' home working settings yet.   [39:51] The prospect of major projects and expensive capital are stalling renovation plans.   [42:03] Service As A Space concepts also involve investing in space that evolves over time.   [43:55] AI has the potential to create safer, healthier, smarter buildings.   [44:56] The possibilities of AI tools to augment the design process.   [48:28] Work is best determined by a social contract that's beneficial not location-based or too restrictive.   [49:52] Ryan shares how his team updates their team working agreement protocols.   [50:49] Rewind assumptions to consider old and new ideas to support teams' needs.   [51:10] Neighborhood-based planning allows connectedness, attachment, and scalability.    [54:18] New office landscaping uses neighborhoods similarly to 15-minute cities.   [55:00] Why strong and weak ties matter.   [50:49] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Real estate strategies follow talent—so develop incremental office improvements that purposefully encourage connection and interaction. Create in-office neighborhoods to support teams' sense of community and belonging with flexibility for regular updates responding to evolving work needs.     RESOURCES   Ryan Anderson on LinkedIn MillerKnoll's website MillerKnoll on Instagram HermanMiller on Instagram Knoll on Instagram HMInsightGroup on X MillerKnoll on X Douglas McGregor's framework of Theory X and Theory Y     QUOTES (edited)   “We're all looking at what is the post desktop, post cubicle era of working looks like.”   “You design for the technology user, not the technology. You have to understand the patterns of behavior, even though the tool sets evolve.”   “Recognizing that our work experiences are increasingly becoming digitized and virtual, the work is becoming digital, but that we're physical beings and physical spaces. We need to figure out how to allow people to exist in these physical spaces and use those tech tools in a really healthy, fun, productive way.”   “Facility managers and corporate real estate leaders are product owners that own the product—the workplace. The focus is on helping them better understand their teams, the diverse nature of those teams, the evolving nature of the work, and trying to conceptualize a space that gets better over time.”   “Regardless of your inherent perspectives on management, the thought of using a space to supervise work in an era of digitized distributed work is extremely unrealistic.”   “What can this space do to help our employees to collaborate in new ways, offer them experiences they can't have at home. That is a healthy and better approach. It's just complicated. It's more complicated than saying, well line 'em up in rows so that I can watch them effectively.”   “It's urban planning. We're taking these principles, we're bringing them inside the building. We're enabling an ecosystem of people.”   “Any facilities project is a change management project, and any real estate strategy has to follow talent.”

Jenny He is the Founder, CEO, and licensed contractor at Ergeon, a construction company making home renovation easier for consumers and contractors. Jenny combines her strong engineering, technology, and consulting background to convert and facilitate contractors' construction projects as well as to manage Ergeon's fully distributed workforce. She applies a consistent, rigorous approach to contracted project progress and outcomes as well as to evaluating individual employees' task and teamwork results. Jenny shares her thoughtful analysis of how productivity can be assessed and tracked appropriately for specific disciplines, teams, and individuals.       TAKEAWAYS    [03:15] Jenny is born in China to parents who are both engineers.     [03:53] Jenny moves to the UK at 10 years old as her father pursues research and his PhD.    [04:48] The family moves to Canada and Jenny studies electrical engineering at college.    [05:24] Enjoying solving hard problems, Jenny's PhD optimizes Internet routing protocols.    [07:23] A random situation results in Jenny becoming a consultant and joining McKinsey.    [08:37] Learning leadership and soft skills, Jenny follows good managers, not projects.    [09:34] The hardest part is not solving the problem but defining the right problem to solve.    [11:42] Jenny discovers insufficient technology is built to support skills tradespeople.     [13:00] Jenny proposes a useful solution for a skilled field tech—how else can she help?    [13:59] EZ Home's app gamifies workflow for gardening service providers.    [15:28] The CTO/Founder of EZ Home also co-founded Odesk and has great relevant experience.    [16:22] Tackling physical work projects is even harder than Odesk's business.    [16:48] Why the technology needs to be more mature for the new venture.    [19:29] Jenny wants to empower high skilled trade entrepreneurs.    [20:50] Renovating her home, Jenny plans and uses technology and has a positive experience!    [23:02] The name Ergeon captures the vision of the company.    [25:07] Measuring customers' experiences is a key productivity metric.    [28:12] Jenny takes project complexity into account and assesses contributions to set prices.    [29:09] How Jenny's business takes care of most front- and back-office construction coordination.    [36:06] Creating a scalable, full distributed factory with an iterative communication process.    [31:02] Scalable groups perform tasks with construction knowledge embedded into the technology.    [32:28] They identify specific skills to hire for and teach the rest.    [33:25] Is the unit of productivity the team or the individual?    [34:55] To measure productivity, there often need to be sufficient similar jobs to compare.    [36:44] Onboarding is very deliberate since Ergeon hires many people with no experience.    [37:32] In the first few days, new hires are trained about processes and best practices.    [38:44] Role-playing in initial weeks' boot camps increase knowledge and confidence.    [40:25] Onboarding timeframes and programs depend on the type and complexity of the role.    [42:30] Distributed working issue #1: Building trust is hard.    [43:15] Transparency is important to avoid a tiered system of senior execs and everyone else.    [44:12] Distributed work issue #2: Mitigating time zones using async methods and alignment.    [45:13] Distributed work issue #3: Interpersonal connections need purposeful nurturing.    [47:03] How to evaluate individuals whose productivity is measured at a team level.    [50:34] Technology progress leads to reskilling, evolving roles, and supported outplacement.    [53:27] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: To measure productivity, start with performance and assess variation between identical roles. Address systematic challenges hindering goal achievement including employees' access to suitable tools before identifying productivity measures and ensure people have the training and support to focus their efforts.    [54:48] Jenny is revising for multiple exams so Ergeon can operate in many more U.S. states.        RESOURCES    Jenny He on LinkedIn  Ergeon's website  Ergeon on Instagram  Ergeon on X  Ergeon on Facebook        QUOTES (edited)    “Often the hardest part isn't solving the problem, but defining what is the right problem to solve.”  “We also have other teams in the company like supply ops because it's a small team. we're looking at the team level targets and productivity versus the individual. Because I do believe, unless you have say five plus people doing exactly the same job, they can't be having some different variants of the job.”  “Building trust is hard, and it is harder in a distributed environment.”  “We are trying to create a scaleable factory where no one's co-located.”  “We do a lot of async communications and make to make [work] sustainable for people. We're generally thoughtful about hiring for specific roles where async work is easier.”  On connection, “It's not even just about distributed or not, it's if everyone is co-located, it happens somewhat naturally. When you can't not see other people and have casual conversations, it has to be then very purposeful to create that environment. To give people that opportunity to connect.”  “Start with performance, before you think about productivity. Understand how much variation you have within the exact same roles. If the delta is huge, what is causing the delta—are there systematic challenges that make it difficult for people to achieve their goals?”   

Dart Lindsley is Strategic Advisor, People Experience at Google. He is also a writer, speaker, and host of the Work for Humans podcast – on a mission to humanize work. Dart share insights about his realization that businesses are multisided marketplaces where employees are (overlooked) customers of work and work is a product. To better design the work product, Dart recognizes teams' agency and ability to allocate their attention among themselves to complete tasks effectively. He discusses a flipped org chart with managers in supportive, rather than authoritative, roles. Dart advocates for more leadership closest to the customer.       TAKEAWAYS   [02:05] Dart is an undergraduate for seven years partly because his brother told him never to graduate!   [03:47] Dart explores unpopular forms of writing which makes earning a living hard.   [04:37] Being a criminal defense investigator rearranges Dart's soul.   [06:45] After a master's degree, Dart becomes a recruiter to earn more as he starts a family.   [08:34] Dart's family are scientists, so his career transitioned to analytical work after a recruiting downturn.   [09:49] Dart inserts himself into the team doing strategic work designing the new staffing system.   [10:52] Finding a home in analytical disciplines which are less burdensome and emotional.   [12:26] Dart explores tooling, UX, change management and Six Sigma, ending up with organizational design.   [13:36] Facilitating business architecture resonates with Dart who is very interested in how large systems create experiences.   [15:03] Companies are ‘n' dimensional: humans cannot observe them or handle more than 3 dimensions.   [15:49] Human Resources had not been analyzed from a business architecture point of view before.   [17:03] Business architecture is only needed for companies going through significant transformation to discover new operational capabilities needs and how they interrelate.   [18:08] Translating strategic capability requirements into tech systems and architecture is not easy.   [20:48] Business architecture change derives from either market changes or new tech capabilities—as now.   [21:20] The pace layer of technology is usually the slowest thing. Not now, so much experimentation is needed.   [22:35] Dart initially subscribes to the traditional model of HR where employees are the inputs of production.   [23:48] Employee has happiness has not been a concern—only productivity which Dart finds ethically flawed.   [25:10] Dart notices ‘employees' show up in two places—inside (production inputs) and outside (customers).   [25:59] Working on a patent for Cisco, Dart explores multi-sided businesses and realizes employees are also (forgotten) customers.   [28:25] If employees are customers, what are we selling them? We need to design work better.   [29:03] Do people want only autonomy, mastery and purpose? Dart finds 35+ more answers!   [30:15] People usually want 8 things from work. Only 4 likely overlap, so how to optimize individually?   [31:05] Lack of autonomy is a cost of a job, like social anxiety and threats to health and safety.   [32:33] Managers are key to a design-centered solution.   [33:28] Design is about empathy, understanding employees' needs, scaling with managers below on the org chart.   [34:10] Managers are brokers between demand for the team's labor and the market for work—the work people want to do.   [37:10] A team can act as a smart organism allocating its attention to work and delivering value.   [38:32] Color coding how rewarding work is—green, yellow, and red. What happens when colors change.   [39:41] The range of issues and solutions affecting the cost side of work.   [42:14] How do we design our lives so as not to be ‘inputs of production'?   [43:31] How a team agrees on what business value is and the core mission.   [44:25] Is the manager winning the work the team wants to do? And the type of client the team wants?   [47:10] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: To enable a dexterous organization, let the edges closest to the customers lead. Giving more agency to the agents will facilitate guided emergence, while anchoring your organization with values, purpose, and focus.       RESOURCES   Dart Lindsley on LinkedIn Dart's website Dart's Work for Humans podcast Bill Burnet's book “Designing Your Life”       QUOTES (edited)   “if you're an input to production and my main objective is to make you productive, then if I can make you productive by being happy, great. But, if I can make you productive and you're miserable, great. It's not a concern.”   “The only reason I'm going to care about a human is because of what they give me as a company? It just struck me as like ethically flawed.”   “For the first 10 years of working in HR, I subscribed to the traditional model of HR which is that employees are inputs of production who must be acquired.”   “If employees are customers, what are we selling them? We're selling them work. If work's a product, then it's a design problem and we can design it better.”   “Managers are designers, even ‘product' managers. [They act] as a broker between two markets. One market is the demand for the labor of the team—so the value that flows towards the traditional customer. The other is the market for work and the work that people want to do.”

Melissa Puls is the Chief Marketing Officer and SVP of Customer Success at Ivanti which provides software solutions that elevate and secure EverywhereWork. Melissa brings deep experience building and leading decentralized teams. She shares her critical learnings that have enabled effective teamwork and successful outcomes. Melissa discusses key principles when implementing flexibility, the importance of change management, and how to identify non-performing remote team members. Melissa describes the holistic support distributed employees need, especially including IT and security.     TAKEAWAYS   [02:27] Melissa studies communications and psychology not realizing their connection with marketing.   [03:40] Melissa's mother is head of marketing at a tech company teaching Melissa women can do anything.   [04:17] Her entrepreneur father becomes mayor wanting to do good things for their country city.   [04:50] Her parents partner well, managing to prioritize Melissa and her sister, and demonstrating the importance of workplace flexibility.   [07:15] As her mother exits Kronos, Melissa feels purposeful in her starting role as a fulfillment coordinator.   [08:55] Melissa's mother put the human element first in building teams, embracing different points of view.    [09:35] After setting up the fulfillment center, Melissa's time is freed up. Should she relax or solve new problems?!    [10:15] Melissa pitches a promotion to help out the stressed-out marketing managers—her boss says yes!   [12:05] Wanting to live and raise a family by the ocean, and tired of commuting, Melissa leaves Kronos and moves to the Cape.   [13:16] Melissa lands a lead marketing role at a local tech company which then rolls up into a billion-dollar global organization.   [13:55] Maintaining her boundaries, Melissa stays remote, managing her teams based everywhere.   [15:26] At times, Melissa commutes in part of the week when certain leaders didn't share her mindset.   [16:56] The first, critical principal is to give people the benefit of the doubt that they will do the right thing.   [17:10] Put people in an environment where they can do their best work and respect their boundaries.   [17:51] Many leaders don't trust people to do the right thing. How to identify the few employees who don't?   [18:57] Every employee must understand their purpose, how it relates to the bigger picture, and have clear metrics and expectations.   [19:40] What people say and how they react if there isn't a good fit.   [21:28] Melissa learned from her father that some choose to set their boundary at doing the minimum work.   [22:42] Melissa joins Iron Mountain for an integrated growth marketing role.   [23:25] Highly corporate centric when she joins, Iron Mountain decides to move and shrink their office space.   [24:39] Employees get two choices: all in-office with a dedicated desk or flexibility with a shared desk.   [26:30] Motivated by costs, Iron Mountrain creates great new space and supports others' change to work flexibly.   [28:16] Engagement goes up, people are more productive opting for the environment they can work best in.   [29:41] Iron Mountain is set up for success with a strong culture, purpose, and good performance management principles and protocols.   [30:17] Not everyone is on board with the change—which is natural.   [31:19] Ask, not assume, if people can meet your needs.   [32:21] Impressions can be misleading. Set your boundary and have the tough conversation.   [34:36] Melissa's current company is paving the way for flexible work everywhere—internally and for customers.   [35:44] Leaders support flexible work, but are IT and security professionals set up to support them?   [35:15] In new work situations, what new risks are employees under that need to be addressed?   [37:56] Silos between security and IT are decreasing their effectiveness.   [40:32] Frontline managers need to buy in fully to the value of flexible working, not be ‘told'.   [42:09] Deploying flexible work principles: holding people accountable and respecting their independence.   [42:58] Every industry, company, and job is different, so flexibility differs.   [44:23] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Put people in an environment where they can do their best work being clear about purpose, roles, responsibilities, outcomes, and deliverables, and ensure there is alignment between IT and security teams so they can provide and support the right tools for flexible work. Then trust that employees will do the right thing.     RESOURCES   Melissa Puls on LinkedIn Melissa on X Ivanti's website Ivanti on X Ivanti on Instagram Ivanti's 2024 Everywhere Work Report     QUOTES (edited)   “We understand flexibility is not only about what the company needs, but also what the individual needs.”   “It takes time and effort and energy and focus for an organization to bring along the right frontline managers so that they understand the purpose of what they're doing and making sure they deploy those principles of flexible work.”   “Hire the best people for the best job it really doesn't matter where they're located.”   “Most important is to give people the benefit of the doubt that they're going to do the right thing.”   “Every single person in your organization needs to understand what their purpose is and how it relates to the bigger picture, vision, and mission of the company and what they can do to contribute to that.”   “Only upside for the company financially—they were in a better spot, less space, more flexible. And the people that opted for that were in an environment where they felt that they could do great work.”   "The importance of having alignment between IT and security, where they have real insights into how the business is operating so they can provide the right tools and really maximize flexible work."

Juliette Powell is Founder and Managing Partner of Kleiner Powell International, a consultancy working at the intersection of responsible technology and business. She is co-author of “The AI Dilemma: 7 Principles for Responsible Technology.” Juliette brings rich technology research and innovation experience to evaluate our evolving landscape as we anticipate AI integration. She explains her core concerns—what we need to pay attention and lean into. She discusses the importance of personal data ownership, creative friction, digital trust, and logic. Juliette explains how diverse contributions diminish divergent, asymmetric trajectories, so we all need to be actively involved.      TAKEAWAYS   [02:30] Monopoly is Juliette's favorite game as a kid, showing how you can change your circumstances.   [02:50] Juliette studies finance and international business to understand global interconnectedness.   [03:15] At university, Juliette develops a TV career focusing on the business side of media.   [04:32] Interviewing Janet Jackson and Nelson Mandela reveals juxtaposed insecurity and confidence.   [07:30] Juliette's first book results from her involvement with TED's original founder producing the conference and meeting visionary thinkers.   [08:10] Transitioning from TV, Juliette explores technologies and the rise of social media.   [10:25] Citizen journalism and political messaging delivered using digital channels fascinates Juliette.   [12:10] Juliette tries to lead as her whole self, seeing people disconnecting their work/non-work lives.   [13:20] Where engineers can experience misalignment making decisions in their AI-related work.   [14:20] Juliette highlights those who live holistically as fully integrated people in her first book.   [15:00] Integrated work/life experienced early on meeting a couple working remotely in Thailand.   [16:50] Early career motivation to find work thinking about Maslow's hierarchy of needs.   [18:58] How the internet extended possibilities beyond someone's local geography.   [19:50] Ecosystem pressures raise mental health issues and people trying to survive not thrive.   [20:50] Navigating uncertainty—personally and professionally—requires having Plan A, B, C, and D.   [21:44] Juliette founded the Gathering to ensure diversity and avoid past mistakes in tech development.   [24:41] At TED, there is no separation between the expertise on stage and the audience.   [26:04] Turing AI and WeTheData.org focus on the personal data ecosystem, ownership, and ethical use.   [27:48] Research reveals four grand challenges include digital trust and digital infrastructure/access.   [29:30] An ‘eBay for data' to aggregate and monetize personal data as Finns do.   [31:31] Research on Americans' and Europeans' different attitudes to their personal data.   [35:26] Most of Juliette's NYU students are terrified of the potential impact of AI on their skills.   [36:25] Students' potential questions ‘Will I have meaning? Can I contribute anything?'   [37:40] Juliette teaches students research methods to reduce fear and build confidence.   [41:30] The importance of creative friction to reconnect across seamless technology divides.   [42:45] Taking a moment to rise above the sand, things have changed a lot, probably within yourself.   [43:40] Diverse teams earn the most as they take the longest time to deliberate.   [44:45] With diverse debate, deliberating longer, with ongoing feedback, we can create better AI systems.   [45:53] Bias is part of human nature, so how we can reduce asymmetry of power?   [49:00] If we wake up to the power we have and give away, what we can do with that power.   [50:08] Juliette is excited to be alive right now when we are shaping the future such as digital infrastructure, digital literacy, and digital trust.   [50:40] Historically, curators of knowledge have been our sources of truth.   [53:05] We must be able to manage all this uncertainty on the individual level as a community.   [53:45] The Four Logics framework: government, corporate, engineering, and social justice logic.   [54:35] Increasing awareness of misalignment between employees' morals and employer brands.   [55:47] Checking on personal values, culture, and vision that enable fulfillment.   [56:33] How reducing human biases with AI leads to other biases.   [57:27] Encourage employee experimentation with AI and launch internal challenges.     RESOURCES   Juliette Powell on LinkedIn Juliette Powell's website Kliener Powell International's website The AI Dilemma: 7 Principles for Responsible Technology" co-authored by Juliette Juliette's first book. “33 Million People in the Room: How to Create, Influence, and Run a Successful Business with Social Networking” Juliette's co-authored book “The AI Dilemma: 7 Principles for Responsible Technology.”       QUOTES (edited)   "I've always been of the perspective that I'm a whole person. There are many different parts to my whole person, but nonetheless, I try to think of myself holistically as I navigate the world."   "Creative friction can only come from deep diversity. The more diverse, the more they produce questions, the longer it takes to deliberate, but the better the outcomes."   "We need to take responsibility and intentionally co-create with AI to ensure diverse perspectives are debated, increasing initial friction to reduce asymmetries and improve capabilities and relevance."   "Digital trust is kind of key. If we want data, personal data, to work for everyone on the planet, and not just the usual suspects, we need to address digital trust and infrastructure."   "If you feel that your personal morals are being confronted by what you're being asked to do at work, now is the time to recognize that disalignment and seek a place where you can be fulfilled and work on meaningful things."   "I'm excited about shaping AI's future because we are the generations that get to shape it. The decisions we make now will determine where digital trust will be in the next hundred years."   “There is expertise in the everyday person. We don't necessarily reward financially or recognize that, but that tacit knowledge is invaluable.”   “If we take longer to deliberate around our AI systems in their specific use cases and context, bring in the various communities that will be affected before we start building them, and deploy them constantly incorporating that feedback, we'd have much better systems that would work for far more people.”   “If we all woke up a little bit more to the kind of power that we give away, then we could also realize the kind of power that we actually have if we decide to do something about it.”   “We have to be able to manage all this uncertainty on the individual level as a community.”   "If you feel that your personal morals are being confronted by what you're being asked to do at work, now is the time to recognize that disalignment and seek a place where you can be fulfilled and work on meaningful things."   "I'm excited about shaping AI's future because we are the generations that get to shape it. The decisions we make now will determine where digital trust will be in the next hundred years."   “There is expertise in the everyday person. We don't necessarily reward financially or recognize that, but that tacit knowledge is invaluable.”    

David Abrams is the co-founder and CEO of HILO, a platform that is digitizing customer experience to create connected communities of people in buildings. David is also host of the TEN, the Tenant Experience Network podcast. David brings his entrepreneurial and marketing background and context to explore commercial real estate landlords', owners', and occupiers' evolving circumstances. He explains why they need to be collaborating to create hospitality-driven, new tech-enhanced environments and programmed experiences for tenants—for each individually and together as a community.     TAKEAWAYS   [02:29] David takes a while to sort out what he wants to study at college ending up focusing on marketing and accounting.   [03:01] David enjoys the ability accounting gives him to explore how businesses operate.   [03:49] As a first entrepreneurial opportunity, David gets involved in repositioning a struggling agency.   [04:58] Early agency clients span commercial real estate and nonprofit, the latter which David finds especially satisfying.    [05:45] Raw Society is launched to focus on critical strategic work before the creative process begins.   [07:15] The ESG movement makes building operators start to think about environmental impact.    [07:52] What is the effect of the densification of people living and working in central business districts?   [09:13] New thinking is first driven by occupants, relating to basic ESG initiatives like recycling.   [10:14] Operators go paperless, initiating digital communications their tenants' employees.    [11:32] David loves the opportunity to start creating environments that people enjoyed being in.   [12:16] The smartest operators recognized they could develop better relationships and community by connecting their tenants.    [12:55] The ultimate goal is to improve tenant retention through better customer service and experiences.   [14:09] Every building has constant turnover—both tenants and tenants' employees.   [14:51] David launches his new company in 2019, gets financing and is in full growth mode when the pandemic hits.   [15:37] As an entrepreneur, David recognizes his two choices - give up or dig in.    [17:38] With little clarity about the future, they tried to be pragmatic about future technology needs.   [21:30] New realizations emerge after a difficult period that extended operators' boundaries.   [23:09] Operators realize their responsibility to be involved in spaces beyond their buildings.   [24:24] Extra costs can be covered by charging premium rent or sharing new community spaces.    [26:20] Connectivity is a huge driver of experience when it is pervasive and consistent.   [27:18] Investments go into programming, content, services and staff to offer white glove experiences.   [28:51] Office and multifamily categories are all hiring people from the hospitality industry.   [29:37] Programming, services, and staffing are becoming integral and significant to buildings' offerings.   [31:00] The key factor is not the size of the building, but the commitment of its ownership.   [31:49] Across building classes, technology can be an equalizer to provide higher levels of service.   [34:05] Technology delivers better experiences and reduces friction when people choose to enter the built world.   [35:27] How can we put the power of personalization into the hands of the individual?   [36:29] David imagines we are between first and second base in the evolution of office buildings.   [37:15] People need to congregate for the right reasons in the right environments to do the right kind of work.   [39:49] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Occupiers and landlords need to think beyond the work that needs to get done in an office and co-create experiences that support good work. Consider all the various touchpoints for each person across technology, programming, content, services and staffing.       RESOURCES   David Abrams on LinkedIn David's company HILO's website HILO on Instagram TEN – The Tenant Experience Network     QUOTES   “Buildings are not silos. They're part of a neighborhood, they're part of a city and they create community.”   “It's a conversation around where should I work on any given day where can great work happen?”   “How can we put the power of personalization into the hands of the individual. How can they use technology to better connect and engage with all the various spaces and places in their lives and have it not be top down driven.”   “People need to come together for the right reasons in the right environments with the right people to do the right kind of work.”   “The occupier and the landlord need to be open minded. They need to think beyond just the work that needs to get done and start to think about creating an experience that will support great work.”

Dr Zofia Bajorek is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Employment Studies (UK). She was HR Magazine's Most Influential Thinker in 2022 and 2023. Zofia's recent work has focused on the quality of work to improve workforce health and wellbeing. She describes why giving employees good quality work improves results, why good work matters, and what it comprises. Zofia explains how good management contributes significantly to employee retention and well-being.     KEY TAKEAWAYS   [02:33] Zofia studied psychology to understand how people think, as well as behavior change, why and how we do things.   [04:17] Zofia's Master's focuses on the Future of Work and occupational stress/health at work.   [05:03] Zofia is curious about temporary work arrangements after her own—voluntary—experience.   [06:18] Temporary workers' different agency and autonomy affects their experiences and health.   [08:01] Zofia's PhD analyzes temporary staff management and patient care in NHS emergency departments.   [08:47] Possible safety/quality effects when emergency dept. employees get temporary assignments.   [09:42] NHS ‘bank' and agency staff differences highlight many important talent management nuances.   [11:56] A systems approach to analyzing the UK's ‘Speedy Summary Justice” – the promise.   [12:45] The effect of disconnects in a system that is overworked, underpaid, and understaffed.   [13:50] The practical reality of human messiness and how organizations and people work.   [15:02] Evidence shows workers' health and wellbeing affects their productivity and retention.   [16:00] Q: What interventions make the biggest difference to employees' health and well-being?   [16:50] A: Good management and good employment relationships are the most impactful.   [18:05] In 2006, two researchers discover “Work IS good for your health IF it's good quality work.”   [18:26] People don't really know what good quality work is.   [19:27] Good work includes: varied tasks that match interests and skills, co-collaboration, having a voice, autonomy and a fair work environment, with growth opportunities and strong work relationships.   [22:50] “Secure work” depends on the contractual arrangement—imposed or two-way.   [24:24] To achieve a healthy workplace with engaged employees, good quality work is essential.   [25:42] An important factor is someone's choice about the work they have and can do.   [26:27] Zero-hour contracts are detrimental when managed badly with no communication or flexibility.   [27:28] Freelancers can have good choices: clients, autonomy, relationships, and interesting work.   [28:48] Empathizing is important to discover what encourages people to work, their values, what they bring to the workplace.   [30:26] Companies with embedded focus on wellbeing and good work pre-pandemic were able to transition well through and beyond the crisis.   [31:36] Good management practices including consistent communication, listening, and workplace policies.   [32:15] Zofia shares some examples of data points companies can colligate to increase understanding of their employees' well-being.   [37:32] The challenges facing organizations are numerous, but a lot of the change can be addressed with good management practices.   [43:55] Young and old want the same thing from the workplace, but demographic pressures are changing the face of retirement.   [47:46] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Good work requires good managers. Ensure those promoted to managerial positions have people management skills and technical excellence. They need training, coaching support, and feedback to help them continue to improve.     RESOURCES   Dr. Zofia Bajorek on Linkedin  Follow Dr. Bajorek on X @DrZofia Website for employment-studies.co.uk The Institute for Employment Studies Interesting articles by Dr. Bajorek: ‘People leave managers, not companies' - but is the manager really at fault? Are we ‘pulling more sickies' or do organisations need to focus more on ‘good work'? Health and wellbeing at work: where we are and where we want to be It's time to stop squeezing the ‘squeezed middle', for everyone's benefit Will management ‘productivity paranoia' be the undoing of hybrid work? The line management conundrum – let's hug and not squeeze our line managers     QUOTES (edited)   “If we don't look after people's health and well-being in the workplace it can have an impact on both retention and productivity levels.”   “Work is good for your health, but there is a strong caveat that it has to be good quality work. And that is where we are still struggling because people don't know what good quality work is.”   “Every human has fluctuating mental health. But what's important for the workplace is that work doesn't make it worse.”   “If you want good work and good health, you have to have good management.”

Dr. Gleb Tsipursky is the CEO of Disaster Avoidance Experts, a consulting, coaching, and training firm. Gleb is a behavioral scientist and best-selling author of seven books, including “Never Go With Your Gut” and “Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams”. He shares his interest in human behaviors focused on decision-making and cognitive biases. Gleb explains his passion to help people make good decisions, discussing the role of emotions, and why to try to prove yourself wrong. He emphasizes how to optimize work-related decisions to improve working environments, experiences, policies, and outcomes.       TAKEAWAYS   [02:59] Interested in human behaviors, Gleb studies history--people in their historical contexts.   [03:53] Gleb narrows his research to behavioral science decision-making in historical and contemporary contexts.   [04:53] Gleb's interest focuses on motivations and historical archives reveal what people were saying behind the scenes.   [05:39] We're not very good at making decisions. We often follow our intuition or go with our gut.   [06:32] How a client's early experiences affect how he handles conflict as a business leader.   [07:41] How do individuals and groups make decisions? What motivations cause what effects?   [08:12] How to have healthy conflicts with people.   [09:32] How do you make good decisions, proofing yourself against future disruptions?   [10:50] Decision hygiene—identify biases including not what you don't do, that's a decision too!   [13:55] How you can misperceive yourself, your skills.   [15:04] Blind spots and how humans are full of contradictions.   [16:42] Gleb's early books about different aspects of decision making.   [17:29] Before making a decision ask: Q1 - What information haven't I fully understood yet?   [19:28] Q2: What judgment errors haven't I fully considered?   [20:30] The need to be introspective about our emotions so they don't dictate our decisions.   [21:50] Gleb starts his own company, Disaster Avoidance Experts, in 2018.   [22:30] Gleb's targets people whose possible bad decisions could have disastrous consequences.    [23:35] Paying attention to leading indicators to make informed decisions early in the pandemic.   [24:49] The challenges belief bias and confirmation bias can cause.   [26:30] What comparable data is relevant to ensure you are making good decisions?   [29:40] Looking at the data and challenging the motivation to be back in the office—for what?   [31:10] Managers weren't comfortable that they could control their teams working remotely.   [31:56] Combining training and techniques to not manage by walking around the office.   [33:04] Switching to weekly performance evaluations with three to five goals per week.   [35:27] Coaching style leadership was gaining ground long before the pandemic.   [38:32] College educated males choose to work fewer hours, valuing well-being and leisure more than before the pandemic.   [40:02] Research and resignations show willingness to take a 10% pay cut to keep flexibility.   [40:38] The impact of not being empathetic about your employees.   [42:37] What is best for knowledge workers? Not sitting in factory style offices.   [43:22] For knowledge work: creativity and collaboration of the human mind determine any company's value add.   [44:33] The four principles of knowledge work to set up workplaces of the future.   [45:44] To establish trust, new systems and processes are needed including regular performance evaluations.   [47:20] Don't let one bad apple spoil it for others.   [49:35] Finding truth through content curation versus creation in an AI-powered world.   [51:40] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: To adapt to modern work, survey employees about they feel about hybrid work, best practices, problems, and opportunities for improvement. Focus conversations on trust, autonomy, support, and collaboration.     RESOURCES   Dr Gleb Tsipursky on LinkedIn Gleb Tsipursky on X Dr Gleb Tsipursky on Instagram Facebook at DrGlebTsipursky Dr. Gleb Tsipursky speaker video Dr. Gleb Tsipursky's books include: The Truth-Seeker's Handbook: A Science-Based Guide.    Never Go With Your Gut: How Pioneering Leaders Make the Best Decisions and Avoid Business Disasters  Returning to the Office and Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams: A Manual on Benchmarking to Best Practices for Competitive Advantage   QUOTES   “People often don't know what their own motivations are. They don't know how they interact, and they don't understand why they make the decisions they do. We're not very good at making decisions. We often just follow our intuition; we go with our gut.”   “There was research showing that in order to have healthy conflicts with people, you should follow a 5:1 ratio. For each one conflictual thing you do at least five equivalently positive things.”   “Taking all the social intelligence, emotional intelligence, and cognitive biases. If you can identify those in yourself right now, you can really set up set yourself up for a lot of success down the line.”   “We are human beings, we are full of contradictions.”   “Seeing the truth is very important to make a good decision, but that's not the same thing as making a good decision.”   “If you actually want to make a good decision what you want to do is try to prove yourself wrong. Try to prove that your decision is incorrect. Try to disconfirm your decision.”   “One issue is the empathy gap. We might underestimate the emotions that other people are experiencing. One of the biggest challenges in business decision making is failure to think sufficiently about emotions, our own emotions and other people's emotions. We don't realize how important emotions are.”    “Not being empathetic and understanding emotions matters. The emotions of your employees matter. How they feel matters. And they're actually taking steps based on their feelings around retention, engagement, productivity, morale.”   “Knowledge workers function best as a combination of providing them with trust, trusting them to work in the way that they know how; providing with autonomy, having control over their time and location of work; providing them with necessary and appropriate support, giving them knowledge, information, tools: and facilitating their collaboration with others.”

Amina Moreau is the CEO and co-Founder of Radious, an online marketplace offering companies flexible work locations to give their employees commute-free, homestyle, collaborative workspaces. She is a serial entrepreneur, multiple Emmy-winning filmmaker, and photographer. Amina explains why employers need to create a framework and processes that enable workplace flexibility and support employees' autonomy, incorporating comfortable and convenient work environments. Amina shares insights about empathetic leadership and upskilled managers to improve employees' experiences and performance. She describes critical environmental and social components of new workplace solutions.     KEY TAKEAWAYS   [02:38] Amina changes majors five times exploring what she wants to be when she grows up!   [03:35] Amina loves photography but also thinks learning how the brain works is handy.   [4:40] Storytelling means understanding who people are and how they think and see their future.   [05:49] Amina's first business initially emphasizes innovative technology and equipment.   [07:04] Taking wedding storytelling to the next level – what has shaped who these people are?   [07:44] Tomatoes are a metaphor for one couple's relationship.   [09:22] How relationships evolve on film and with clients.   [10:46] Entrepreneurship is Amina's path—starting in her dorm room.   [11:47] A talent for seeing gaps in the market spawns multiple new ventures.   [12;15] Amina develops opportunities related to her core passion.   [14:30] Pandemic-related issues are the genesis for non-profit Float Small Business.   [15:43] Creative ground support for local businesses keeps Amina busy during a tough period.   [17:34] A new venture to suit flexible workstyles emerges from their Airbnb host business.   [19:22] Eliminating the overnight component increases safety and solves other hosting pain points.   [21:25] New adaptations as employers integrate remote policies for the long term.   [23:30] A compelling combination: no commuting, collaboration space, and the comforts of home.   [24:28] Who pays for the space? Shifting to a B2B model.   [26:24] Current RTO headlines don't match the majority of companies' work policies.   [27:50] Amina believes most companies are trying hybrid as they are stuck with office leases.   [28:38] The benefits of flexible, on-demand office spaces and who is likely to benefit most.   [32:12] Have leaders who proclaim remote work isn't sustainable been trained to manage in remote/hybrid environments?   [34:20] Terminology needs to evolve to reflect the variety of remote work options and benefits.   [35:58] Empathetic leadership leads to better team outcome for which leaders need upskilling.   [36:58] Team level agreements need setting about expectations and communication styles.   [38:35] How much autonomy is optimal to drive motivation and outcomes?   [39:27] Companies signing up for flexible workspaces need a framework and process to ensure their employees use it.   [40:22] Working with companies to understand their context and help them choose relevant workspaces.   [41:29] Amina's sense of purpose that energizes her and the team—we're here to help bring fulfillment and work/life balance.   [43:35] Radious's core environmental and social solutions are significant motivators for Amina.   [44:40] Local workspaces also support community relationships and business.   [46:04] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: It doesn't have to be a two-sided equation — either working at the office or from home. There are many other options to consider to support your employees, which don't have the costs or commute of an office, yet offer camaraderie and community.     RESOURCES   Amina Moreau on LinkedIn Radious.pro Radious on X @RadiousPro Radious on Instagram @Radious.Pro     QUOTES (edited)   “One of the best things that you can study is how people think because in any profession, understanding how the brain works is kind of handy.”   “It turns out that having a psychology background is really valuable in storytelling.”   “There are some companies that from the beginning of the pandemic were hell-bent on getting people back to the office. Come hell or high water, those companies still exist. Thankfully, they are in the minority.”   “The headlines we see about RTO are usually made by the biggest companies on the planet which have the largest PR megaphones … and the largest real estate holdings.”   “A lot of people equate remote work with working from home, but remote work is now an umbrella term that encompasses a wide variety of ways, and places to work from. And it doesn't have to be in isolation.”

Tom Hunt is the Founder and CEO of Fame which builds profitable podcasts. Tom is also host of the podcast “Confessions of a B2B Marketer”. He leads a fast-growing fully-remote company and shares his journey intentionally learning effective leadership styles, management methods, and organizational practices. Tom discusses what he looks for in successful leaders and how he purposefully develops and upskills inexperienced employees.   KEY TAKEAWAYS   [03:01] Why Tom goes from studying chemistry to consulting.   [04:11] A pivotal role working on outsourcing projects happens by chance.   [05:19] Tom realizes being employed is not his thing and focuses on selling online.   [06:32] Tom's first venture leverages his experiences outsourcing for large companies.   [07:33] Tom focuses on what he enjoys doing and is good at.   [08:41] The ability to fail and keep going is one of the best predictors of success.   [09:53] The genesis of Fame and how they landed their first client.   [11:19] Tom shares the multifaceted benefits of being transparent about Fame's earnings.   [13:36] Empathy is a crucial skill for leaders which takes more effort in distributed settings.   [16:14] The benefit of paying attention to signals in asynchronous communications.   [16:50] Continuing to explore how best to nurture distributed culture and connection.   [17:56] Building culture through values awards.   [18:29] Impactful for remote cultures: client-focused operational excellence and engaging elements in team meetings.   [20:51] Employees are trained in interviews to assess for specific work history criteria.   [23:19] Office space has been considered and Tom explains what issues it would create.   [25:00] Fame's business is output-driven and well-defined effectively supported by strong, positive performance management.   [26:59] intentional training and management engages and retains employees and adds value to less experienced hires.   [27:45] Multi-touchpoint, frequent check-ins—with superiors and peers—help account managers grow.   [28:35] The intentional approach to help supervising managers improve too.   [30:45] The onboarding process is a key value add driver for Fame, continually evolving and being improved.   [31:34] One employee's career development and why upskilling people builds strong cultures.   [33:03] Tom promotes employees' proactive and self-determined progression.   [33:57] Study of leadership focuses Tom on creating cohesion, communicating with clarity, and reinforcing the clarity.   [36:24] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: For leaders of fully distributed teams, use live interaction time with team members wisely to collect and convey information to improve people's work lives. Don't take those meetings for granted. You have to do your best work as a remote leader.     RESOURCES   Tom Hunt on LinkedIn X @TomHuntio Instagram @TomHuntio Fame.so Confessions of a B2B Marketer podcast Top Grading by Brad and Geoff Smart High Output Management by Andy Grove The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni   QUOTES (edited)   "The thing that I was looking for most with angel investing was founder resilience. Had this founder failed before and kept going? The ability to pivot, tweak things, and then go forward is probably the most important at that very early stage."   "Empathy for each individual is one of the crucial aspects of leading. If you understand how each person is feeling, you can tailor your approach to working with them to maximize the output for both them personally and their group."   "We decided that if a team member meets another team member in person, whether they're doing work or not, they get an allowance for that meeting to be spent on anything. It's a decentralized campaign that promotes in-person interaction, which benefits the company and the individual."   "It's not a process in which we try to fire somebody. It's a process in which we're looking to support someone to perform better."   “The monthly chat with managers is the review of: ‘What's gone well this month? What's not gone so well? What do you want to more of?' and we've added in ‘How can I be a better manager for you?'”   "If you have something that you want to learn or do and there's a business need for that thing and you've mastered your current role, then you can do it. You just have to find the person who's going to replace you."

Debbie Lovich is Managing Director and Senior Partner at Boston Consulting Group (BCG). She leads BCG's thinking on making work work. Debbie describes Harvard research conducted at BCG on work/life balance. She shares insights as to why lasting solutions must be co-created, continuously improved, and include teams having open discussions about team norms. Debbie explains why her focus on joy (and productivity) is an economic one especially as Gen AI forces everyone to rethink work. Debbie portrays the Generative Leader and explains how their intent for improvement and team approach enables transformation projects to succeed.     KEY TAKEAWAYS   [02:28] Debbie loves business from an early age so she studies economics.   [02:56] Companies move too slowly! Debbie discovers quickly that consulting is the right fit for her!   [04:12] A random connection introduces Harvard professor Leslie Perlow about a research study on work/life balance.   [05:01] Debbie has no work/life balance but wonders what Leslie might come up with.   [06:30] Detailed data reveals consultants expect long hours but the lack of predictability is a huge issue.   [07:30] Leslie wants to conduct an experiment with one team testing a more predictable schedule.   [08:52] Looking for a team for the experiment, Debbie hears “Great idea, but why not your team?!”   [09:57] How the lack of predictability is experienced by BCG consultants.   [11:02] Debbie asks her important local client to support doing the HBS research with her team.   [12:10] The experiment is successful and the model is scaled to the rest of BCG.   [13:17] Debbie temporarily leaves BCG to commercialize the research results with Leslie.   [14:34] Scaling a model is very different than managing one controlled experiment.   [15:50] Data on client value delivery is key to convince others as the model is expanded.   [16:56] Everyone has to design the change—at the start and evolving improvements over time.   [18:40] Agreeing team norms is essential so different people and projects determine parameters.   [22:01] With new tools, ubiquitous work is possible with zero boundaries and much waste.   [23:35] When you constrain work, people have to prioritize and innovate.   [24:10] In today's labor market, work/life balance is an important reason to rethink work.   [27:44] Debbie believes that work is fundamentally broken.   [28:38] In a VUCA world, employers are giving workers more to do with fewer resources.   [29:27] - The ‘unbroken state' is when we are all in this together.   [30:32] Debbie focuses on joy for economic reasons.   [32:51] Trader Joe's employee-centric positive results.   [34:56] Why organizations should think of employees like customers—including emotional benefits.   [36:12] Gabby Novacek's work reveals everyone is motivated differently. Programs focusing only on few segments won't succeed.   [38:24] Who Generative Leaders are.   [39:18] Debbie explains the head, heart, and hands of generative leadership.   [40:54] The most important things employees want from leaders and where leaders spend their time.       RESOURCES   Debbie Lovich on LinkedIn BCG.com       QUOTES (edited)   “If you want to make change stick, there has to be something in it for all parties.“   “Everyone has to design the change…15 years later, thousands think that they invented it, because they did.”   “If you tell people they can't work 24/7, you have to think about what's the most important work to do. Are there different ways to get it done? And that leads to better work.”   “We need to solve the needs of the work and the needs of the team in how we rethink work.”   “When you constrain the work, you force people to prioritize. You force teams to talk about what's going to get in the way of everyone getting their time off and making it work. So it forces innovation of new approaches.”   “How do we make work more productive and more enjoyable at the same time?”   “Gen AI is coming and is forcing everyone to rethink work.”   “My focus on joy is an economic one.”   “Employees are customers too. They choose to work with you. They choose to expend their energy at work every day as opposed to just punch the clock.”   “You need to think about not just the functional needs of pay and benefits and hours, but the emotional needs of feeling supported, enjoying your work, feeling respected.”

Denise Brouder, Founder and Head of Data and Insights at SWAY Workplace. As a flexible work skills expert, researcher, and consultant—with a Wall St background in financial oversight and controls—Denise discusses a risk-adjusted systems approach to implement flexibility and optimize performance. She explains why AI is a key factor driving us from fixed hybrid to flexible models as the only viable long-term solution. Denise explains the critical importance of empathy-based trust to effect flexibility at scale and fuel high-performing teams and that to work differently, we need to start by thinking differently.     KEY TAKEAWAYS   [02:39] From rural Ireland, Denise writes to Wall St. banks asking for an internship and gets one!   [03:55] Denise is systems-oriented, finding banks' capital, economics, and operations fascinating.   [04:37] Denise compares Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs as organizations and employers.   [05:17] As a young mother, Denise leaves Wall Street to join a tech startup and get more flexibility.   [06:00] Denise finds she loves the process of starting with a problem and building something.   [06:48] Working in a large company becomes transactional while at a startup to see how your everyday effort contributes to progress.   [07:41] At a fast-paced startup, Denise learns to hustle, figuring things out as they build the business.   [08:22] Denise finds building and scaling with limited resources a very interesting challenge.   [09:02] Denise follows a colleague to LugTrack, launching with five people and a patent.   [10:19] Persistence, creativity, and grit are critical for success as a startup—which are emotional skills.   [11:06] Lithium-ion batteries catching fire on planes meant LugTrack's business runway ran out.   [11:49] After a course on the Future of Work, Denise takes a big leap of faith and founds a company.   [12:30] Denise recognizes the work change ahead and wants to productize how to work flexibly.   [14:29] Denise wants to yell “AI is coming! AI is coming!” from the hilltop!   [14:45] Denise feels strongly about mastering flexible work at scale to propel everyone forward.   [16:10] Denise thinks that flexibility at scale levels the playing field for women. [17:10] The first iteration of SWAY is a technology play using apps to convene the conversation digitally around new ways of working.   [18:15] The advancement of women will happen by changing the system from the inside out, making flexibility a gender neutral issue.   [19:38] Denise discovers she is a systems thinker and we have a systems problem.   [20:32] The Science of Flexibility helps de-risk flexibility as an operational strategy for a large company.   [21:17] If flexibility is demonstrated, measured, and communicated like a risk-adjusted talent model, senior leaders can get people on the same page.   [22:49] In SWAY's work, EQ and empathy demonstrate the intelligence that is in flexibility that we're going to need in an AI-influenced world.   [23:42] High-performing flexible teams are fueled by empathy-based trust.   [25:32] Emotions are fundamental to our human design, but we only just starting to understand them.   [27:47] Traditional working norms evolved around visual-based trust.   [28:26] In hybrid models, trust levels feel low and are questioned—these are growing pains.   [29:16] Flexibility at scale requires empathy-based trust.   [32:03] The social contract used to provide stability. Now, what is the system? Do we trust it?   [32:49] Reimagining the social contract may be an even bigger shift to prepare for in the future of work.   [33:40] Denise is concerned that some employees are not fighting RTO mandates anymore.   [36:05] In-office mandates are not long-term models, but the current situation is still malleable.   [36:45] In face of AI disruption, Denise's goal is to articulate that flexibility is not a fad or a perk but an intelligent model for the modern era   [38:33] Mindset is first—to facilitate adaptability and resiliency.   [40:08] If we want to work differently, we have to think differently.   [41:20] Cultural differences about work and historical religious underpinnings.   [43:00] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: First, the Future of Work is a journey, not a destination. Take the pressure off “completing” the transition as it is an evolution. Second, we learn and communicate new ways of working through documentation rather than observation. Third, lead by outcomes and create social space to learn team members' work styles.   RESOURCES   Denise Brouder on LinkedIn @SWAYworkplace on X @SWAYworkplace on Instagram swayworkplace.com     QUOTES (edited)   “Our original social mission was to level the playing field for women at work, using flexibility at scale.”   “The Science of Flexibility is my way of communicating with senior leaders who are accountable for performance within a flexible model. We have to demonstrate how it works, why it's better than before, how we measure the impact, and how we deploy it.”   “It's a risk-adjusted talent model. We explain it in a condensed, easy-to-consume setting under the umbrella term “the Science of Flexibility” specifically for senior leaders.”   “In an AI-influenced world, where a lot of our work is going to be transformed, we are left with the work of being human to one another.”   “We evolved our working norms around visual-based trust. When we were all shifted home for fully remote work, it was a very uncomfortable period. A lot of leaders found themselves on Teams wondering if we trust each other.”   “An in-office model of work is not suitable for where we need to grow economically, regardless of where your industry is. It just isn't.”   “If we want to work differently, we have to think differently, and if we want to think differently, we start with resiliency.”   “Gen X has always associated a hard day's work with a sense of decency, patriotism, and honor, and when they look at the younger ones looking to reach those outcomes differently, they have a hard time associating value with that style of work.”  

Phil Kirschner, Senior Expert and Associate Partner, Real Estate & People and Organizational Performance at McKinsey where he advises executive teams on the future of work, employee experience, organizational health, and workplace strategies. Phil discusses systemic changes, expected rebounds in cities' commercial real estate, and organizational health. He shares insights about workplace utilization, the critical emphasis on ‘how' we work and change management to evolve behaviors, and the new retail-oriented perception of work. KEY TAKEAWAYS   [02:25] Phil calls himself an accidental work strategist, starting out in banking.   [03:37] Phil starts in the efficiency management group looking to save money in real estate.   [04:40] How workplace innovation by Google and Microsoft caught public attention.   [05:23] Competition for talent from other industries drives investment to improve work ‘place'.   [06:30] Balancing not having your own desk with other amenities to improve the experience.   [08:06] Trying to reduce office-based friction with shared environments.   [09:00] Most managers absorbed a bit more pain to give team members a better experience.   [10:00] The loss factor and importance of change management to establish new behaviors.   [11:32] Where managers set the example carefully, the highest satisfaction is reported.   [14:02] These are not real estate projects, but culture projects—requiring a cultural shift.   [16:21] Ten years ago, productivity at the bank was measured through self-attestation and surveys.   [17:00] Team dynamics, people's ability to focus, and overall engagement all increased significantly.   [19:57] McKinsey's Organizational Health Framework and Index helps analyze work practices and how these tie to performance.   [21:04] Studying fully remote companies to isolate specific variables, Phil finds them to be top decile performers.   [23:20] Organizational practice surveys show if you give someone flexibility, they are much more likely to report positive outcomes for the organization.   [25:25] You have to teach people how to use new environments and tools differently.   [27:15] The four ways companies are showing up in the world nowadays.   [28:35] Building facilities for very specific purposes rather than trying to solve all needs all the time.   [30:10] Clearly defining the purposes of a workspace unlocks better outcomes.   [32:37] Progressive companies with flexible hybrid policies are working hard to figure out how to adapt fully to all the new ways of working.   [36:45] Most companies need to be focusing on ways of working and responsive spaces.   [40:27] Technology is undoubtedly driving the change in how we work, Phil touches on how AI may change this further.   [44:22] Phil explains the increasing retail nature of our work choices and some of the implications of this when it comes to competition.   [46:56] The HR/IT/Real Estate stool now needs a seat to bridge the gap in employee and customer experience.   [51:10] RTO is not sustainable; Phil explains why and what RTO focused companies can expect.   [55:47] Phil breaks down what commercial real estate issues and positive trends to watch for in the coming years.   [59:05] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Stop thinking about inputs, the days in the office, or “what's the right hybrid?” Focus on outputs and the impact on organizational health. Study work practices and outcomes across your organization based on how people work and collaborate to figure out the secret sauce, then pilot, test, learn, and scale those behaviors, and keep evolving.     RESOURCES   Phil Kirschner on LinkedIn McKinsey.com     QUOTES (edited)   "Those work environments with the bean bags, the beautiful amenities, and the campus also have a desk for each employee. We didn't have the means for that, so to give you a better experience, you had to make a trade with us: give up your assigned seat."   "We found that where you had the managers who were willing to be sitting in the open having calls or conversations in the open, those zones by far were the ones where people would report the highest satisfaction."   "These are not real estate projects, they are change projects. They are culture projects that happen to manifest in space."   "When you've created a culture where lots of work can happen in the open, it eases demand for the formal spaces."   "Fully remote companies that have never had an office, who were born remote and not forcibly remote are top quartile, if not top decile performers against McKinsey's 20-year experience of measuring Organizational Health."   "If you give someone a choice in where they work, either in the office or home or when they're working their hours, we find that they're about one and a half times as likely to report positive outcomes for the organization."   "I am fully a believer that the ways of working are far more powerful as a tool for organizational performance and experience than where we happen to be working. And I wish I knew that 10 years ago."   "For a city like New York, we have to make it compelling and affordable for people to want to live here, even if they're not working for someone who is here."   "I will go back for experiences that I enjoy, back to the same restaurant, same bar, same shows. We like that our customers are repeat customers. We can be repeat workers, and that's going to be a huge unlock in the coming years."   "Changing the way we work is hard, no matter the best tools in the world. It's still hand-to-hand combat group by group, culture by culture, process by process. It's hard, so instead of doing the hard thing, we do the easy thing and there is a call to all go back to the office."  

Michelle Coulson is Founder and Chief Remote Rebel at Remote Rebellion whose mission is to enable people to live the life that they choose. Michelle shares her journey working around the world finding opportunities in response to economic, pandemic, and workplace changes. She explains how the COVID19 crisis gave everyone time to reflect about their life, work, and happiness. Michelle discusses reactions to being told to go back to the office--and finds meaning in launching her own venture. She questions what people settle with but could ask for and explains how to explore and navigate new remote working possibilities.     KEY TAKEAWAYS   [03:02] Michelle early love of travel guides her studies.   [04:06] 2009 is a bad year to graduate, so Michelle makes her way to Thailand via Australia.   [05:50] Michelle finds comfort and a better version of herself in Southeast Asia.   [07:15] Working as a tour guide takes its toll on Michelle's health and she turns to digital marketing.   [08:27] Planning to cycle the globe motivates Michelle to find more lucrative opportunities, she stumbles into recruitment, and a relationship.   [11:27] Catalyzed by a breakup and the pandemic, Michelle leaves London for Bali.   [12:22] A forced return to the office prompts Michelle to quit and explore what career will let her work from anywhere.   [14:14] Michelle explains the birth of Remote Rebellion.   [17:19] Recognizing “there is more to life than work,” Michelle explores what makes her happy and builds a remote community.   [20:43] After reflecting during the pandemic, many people still feel guilty to ask for more for their lives.   [21:49] Michelle dives into Remote Rebellion's mission vision and purpose.   [23:56] Remote Rebellion's clients are diverse and yet all enjoy choosing where they work.   [26:09] Jack is one client who went from fitting kitchens to SEO work!   [28:53] Building confidence is a significant part of the journey.   [30:45] What Michelle misses and hopes for the future of Remote Rebellion.   [32:46] Remote work is here to stay while growth has slowed, for now.   [34:15] Michelle is wary of some companies' reasons and parameters for their hybrid model.   [36:21] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: If you want a remote job, first check why you want it. If you aren't happy with your life, what would enrich your life and how can you achieve that? Remote working may not be the solution, but if you think it is, also investigate the downsides. Then experiment to see if you like it.     RESOURCES   Michelle Coulson on LinkedIn @RemoteRebellion on X Remote Rebellion on Instagram remoterebellion.com The 4 C'S Formula: Commitment Courage Capability and Confidence, by Dan Sullivan     QUOTES (edited)   “I changed and I became quite materialistic, which I hadn't been before. I bought a designer handbag, and I don't even like this stuff. What am I doing?”   “And when the call back to the office came, I was literally holding onto the post… I don't want to do this. I said, if you won't let me work remotely from here like I have been for the past year and a half, then I quit.”   “I felt like it was a rebellion because I was angry that we were being forced back into the office when we didn't need to be. We were working great. A lot of people work better when they're able to have the freedom to choose where they work from.”   “I'm not anti-hybrid. I'm anti being told and being forced when you go into the office. And a lot of hybrid companies do do that. I just think there's a lack of trust.”   “Do you not get lonely if you work remotely? If your only source of social interaction is in the office or the people you work with, maybe you need to be questioning that.”

Nick Bloom, Professor of Economics at Stanford University and co-Founder of wfhresearch.com and wfhmap.com, has studied remote work for over two decades. Nick discusses fundamental data issues, sources, and collection as well as understanding macro and firm level productivity. He talks about the demise of RTO (Return To Office) efforts and the stabilization of hybrid models. Nick describes the changing attitudes and demographics of people working from home. He also shares insights about HR's rising strategic importance as talent management increases in complexity.   KEY TAKEAWAYS   [03:02] Born and educated in the UK, Nick starts off consulting and working at HM Treasury.   [03:35] On a speaking engagement in California, Nick is offered a job and returns to live long-term.   [04:42] Nick was interested in management practices early on and, as a child, experienced both parents working from home.   [05:22] One of Nick's students is a travel agent. Their randomized WFH trial generates much interest.   [04:42] Focused on daily commuting, early WFH data only tracked fully remote or fully in the office.   [06:50] Nick begins bridging the gap and finding multiple sources as government data collection lags.   [07:35] Nick finds ways to collect reliable and more frequent data from many businesses.   [09:41] Productivity is easy enough to measure at the macro level, critical for setting interest rates.   [10:31] At the firm level, productivity is very hard to measure for many disciplines and jobs.   [11:34] Initially surprised at the pandemic's duration and effect on WFH, Nick then visualizes the tombstone for Return To Office.   [12:35] Nick explains the inherent bias in Kastle'a data for trending upwards.   [14:01] The perception of working from home is much more positive than a decade ago.   [15:28] People working remotely are now more likely to be higher paid professionals.   [16:25] The leisure boom resulting from reduced commuting—why not play golf then?!   [17:57] With hybrid stabilizing, HR is more important to manage more complex talent dynamics.   [20:55] In-person outperforms virtual teaching for now, but Nick expects this to evolve.   [22:11] How important coordination is to improve in-office experiences and activities.   [23:34] MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) learning is likely to improve dramatically with technology advances (e.g. new headsets).   [25:58] Why CEOs tend to have the most negative opinions about remote working.   [26:49] At all levels, most people find no change to corporate culture caused by working from home.   [27:32] A reasonable cadence of in-person connection to build and maintain culture.   [28:49] Nick was amazed hybrid stabilized so quickly.   [29:33] Top human resources pay has risen steeply recently to support new work- and talent-related developments.   [31:10] How work arrangements are best tailored for the target audience, product/service, and talent.   [32:16] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Your priority should be getting your hybrid model to work. If compliance is low for four days a week in the office, try one or two days and make those a success so people feel it's valuable time spent in the office (not on Zoom).     RESOURCES   Nick Bloom on LinkedIn wfhresearch.com wfhmap.com     QUOTES   “Hybrid's going to get better in the sense of more coordination, better use of space.”   “At the end of 2022, there's a little tombstone somewhere that says “Return To Office, Rest In Peace.” And since then, work from home levels have been stable.”   “I could easily see a norm being two or three days a week in the office and two, three days. The thing for me is that coordination really matters.”   “Mid-managers tend to actually be relatively positive working from home because they have houses and kids.”   “Meeting up once a month for a day or once a week for one or two days, you can really get a big boost to culture building and there are diminishing returns which is why hybrid is so popular. You just don't need to be in all five days.”   “There's been a leisure boost. The typical professional is working from home two and a half days a week. You typically save 70 minutes a day when you work from home. If you add it up, you're looking at two, maybe three hours. And you can easily sneak in a game of golf.”   “I think now we have stabilized in hybrid. I know you occasionally read scary headlines from Elon Musk or Jamie Diamond, but in the data I'm looking at, you just don't see that.”

Jeff Frick is the host of ‘Work 20XX' and ‘Turn the Lens' podcasts, a media entrepreneur—founder and principal of Menlo Creek Media, and a seasoned operator from the tech sector. Jeff shares his journey experiencing Silicon Valley's technology evolution, starting with early hardware and emerging software ventures exploring internet commerce. Pivoting with the pandemic, Jeff uses technology to enable collaboration and create and elevate community. He shares his predictions for tech-driven changes as we learn, appreciate, and integrate new applications that facilitate and (re)shape our working lives.     KEY TAKEAWAYS   [02:29] Studying economics, Jeff is inspired by the new perspectives of his psychology professor/pilot.   [03:46] Jeff's lab rat encounter and observations as he learns the addictive nature of random payouts.   [05:43] Delving into cockpit design to explore the hierarchy of needs for human/machine interactions.   [07:37] Jeff double majors in economics and psychology to better understand humans' emotional drivers.   [08:15] Working in sales elevates the importance of emotion and empathy and what makes people tick.   [10:00] Consumer electronics gets disrupted, so Jeff goes to business school, then starts a tech career.   [10:54] The clunky beginnings of Intel's early chip, with its accompanying ecosystem and jargon.   [12:32] Jeff has the most retail experience as Intel/SAP try to launch one of the first B2C online malls.   [13:33] Offline supply chain basic logistics hamper early B2B internet commerce.   [14:40] Jeff rides the internet bubble as auction and software ventures get funded and bought or crater.   [16:24] Early learnings from online commerce backend issues and front end behaviors.   [18:12] His mother's questions prompt Jeff to invest in himself and take an entrepreneurial route.   [19:00] The business of bug fixing and transitioning!   [20:11] Atlassian had a different (Australian!) attitude—share, be open, and build schools in Africa.   [22:40] The bugs drive Jeff into an out-of-body experience, out of Jira, and right into theCUBE.   [23:44] theCUBE's format enabled people to tell their story in a professional setting.   [25:32] Jeff hosts over 2000 live interviews with many memorable tech sector CEOs.   [27:42] Technology's rapid and often surprising evolution is a key reason Jeff loves the field.   [29:29] AI's outputs are pretty generic now to Jeff, but he anticipates much change in a short period.   [31:50] The pandemic generates new media consumption habits—asynchronous and collaborative.   [33:40] Jeff experiences collaborations across overlapping communities and building new audiences.   [36:15] The Super 73 makers have nurtured an engaged and powerful community driving the brand.   [38:47] Developing a community to become a movement.   [40:10] Experiments with a new medium and audience are a driver for Jeff to launch his podcast.   [42:47] Jeff podcast is evolving with the world of work as new threads and issues emerge.   [44:16] The future of work in 2024 with a real estate reckoning and tight labor supply.   [46:37] Distributed teams have been around forever and work isn't at the office it's on your phone!   [48:47] There is no steady state to expect, Jeff emphasizes how fast things are moving today.   [51:25] Jeff shares his excitement about drones heralding how much more 2024 can bring.     RESOURCES   Jeff Frick on LinkedIn Work20xx.com turnthelenspodcast.com     QUOTES (edited)   “Most people never get the opportunity to tell their story in a professional setting. And most people have an interesting story to tell if you're willing to dig a little.”   “Authenticity is the key and often that works well as a leader.”   “What's interesting about technology is that it seems like we're always in the first inning. We never get to the third inning! Suddenly there's something new that's big, and it just keeps accelerating. It just keeps going faster.”   “With AI, the other piece of the puzzle that's not talked about enough is that it's a new way for you or me to interface with a supercomputer on demand without writing code and that is really pretty amazing.”   “We misjudge time. Say it takes something 10 years, it isn't that long from now.”  

Cecelia Girr is the Strategy Director at TBWAWorldwide and Director of Cultural Strategy at TBWABackslash. Cecelia's career has been focused on researching, gathering, and distilling cultural intelligence to understand cultural changes, prevailing sentiments, core issues, and emerging trends. She shares insights from Backslash's new Future of Employee Engagement report including employees' desires and concerns, why flexibility and upskilling matter, and the importance of investing in employees' experiences. Cecelia advocates for healthy employer/employee relationships with life stage-related and tailored benefits that help employees live better lives.     KEY TAKEAWAYS   [02:52] A love of stories prompts Cecelia to study political science, having considered documentary filmmaking!   [04:12] Political science studies power that shapes the world, paying attention to nuance and ambiguity.   [05:43] Explaining cultural intelligence and solutions journalism—which focuses on learning from people trying to solve problems.   [06:51] Gathering intelligence and looking at the unintended consequences of actions and events.   [08:05] Before 2020, workplace culture was emphasized, but more as a ‘cult of work' mentality.   [08:55] An earlier work revolution to make work sexy and coworkers pseudo family members.   [09:50] The pandemic caused us to recognize ‘toxic' aspects and develop more healthy employer/employee relationships.   [12:05] Culture isn't focused on ‘place', but more on flexibility now and different aspects that are driving our relationship with work.   [13:38] The four big tensions comprising the employee experience today.   [15:20] Cecelia shares her key work-related issues—flexibility is top, then customizing benefits.   [16:37] Cecilia's friends are focused on flexibility and always on upskilling, since college isn't enough.   [17:28] How upskilling needs are affecting people of Cecelia's parents' age.   [18:44] Heat protection innovation is solving issues for outdoor workers facing hotter temperatures.   [22:00] As the speed of change increases, employees are needing to become educators.   [22:59] How employers are changing their attitude to investing in employees.   [24:25] Upskilling and internal marketplaces are not just for retention, they will be future recruitment tactics too.   [26:20] Companies are trying a variety of flexible options—not clear what the ‘right' solution is—and employees will find their fit.   [28:31] Some companies are offering employees the chance to experience different countries.   [30:14] Artificial intelligence presents many positive opportunities as well as some concerning elements.   [31:57] Cecelia is excited about new employee benefits that can help people live better lives.   [33:35] Benefits that boost wellbeing—such as those supporting employees at family planning, life, and caregiving milestones.   [35:13] Compensation structures can now be customized to suit employees' current priorities.   [36:33] Earned wage access—being paid at the end of the shift—enables workers to achieve more financial security.   [37:06] New emphasis on trying to find a wellness-oriented relationship with work.   [38:23] The possibilities of work helping you live a better life—from scheduling to adaptive pay and life-stage customized benefits.   [39:10] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: First, encourage transparency, listen to employees' needs, and make long-lasting efforts to respond. Second, embrace flexibility, beginning by understanding employees' lives and them as human beings. Third, invest in the employee experience, financially.     RESOURCES   Cecelia Girr on LinkedIn Download The Future of Employee Experience Report at Backslash.com Backslash on Instagram @tbwabackslash     QUOTES (edited)   “Culture in the workplace was not emphasized with an eye towards the health of employees or with the individual at heart.”   “Now when we hear the word culture being used by company leaders, I feel it's more about showing new intention…and making sure there's a healthy relationship there between employer and employees.” “Flexibility and upskilling are front of mind for people. The rate of change in what skills are demanded and desired is so quick. University doesn't exactly set you up for the workplace of today like it used to.”   “An evolution that's happening Is employers putting investment into becoming educators and ‘always on upskilling' for their employees.”   “'Always on upskilling' is not just about retention. It will be the recruitment tactic of the future.”   “I think people will look to the companies that define the kind of workplace environment that they want.” “It's about becoming more customized and tailored to the specific life and life stage of the employee—where you're at in your career, where you're at in your finances, what you actually need in terms of support—all of these things are just going to make work help you live a better life.”

Sophie Wade is a work futurist and strategist, workforce innovation specialist, keynote speaker, and host of this show. She is an author and authority on the Future of Work, and a course instructor with over 0.5 million LinkedIn Learning learners on Gen Z, empathy, and Future of Work skills. Sophie shares three key pathways for 2024 and decisions to make to move forward successfully. She describes the human-centric system of modern work, highlights the guiding work/LIFE principles, and recommends learning the fundamental practices.       TAKEAWAYS   [01:29] Sophie predicts what will significantly impact your company's outcomes this year.   [02:19] You have noticed some of the new era's defining characteristics—such as how customers are reacting and how tasks are changing.   [03:59] This year, figure out what works for your company, not wait to see what others do.   [04:41] High-performing companies that have embraced modern work are demonstrating the principles and fundamental practices.   [06:09] During turbulent conditions, emphasize cohesive principles of modern work internally—Learning, Intention, Flexibility, and Empathy.   [07:53] The meaning of work/L.I.F.E equilibrium.   [08:17] Is your company equipped for the new digital rules of engagement?   [09:10] Sophie predicts three roads ahead in 2024 and explains the choices and challenges.   [11:49] Using workplace policies to explain CEOs' (lack of) commitment to modern work.   [13:39] The difference between conceding to a policy compared with committing to it.   [15:49] What strategic framework applies to modern work?   [16:28] Starting with target customers and their needs to ensure everyone understands them and is aligned.   [18:59] Discovering and assessing your Customer Journey and how to make meaningful improvements.   [20:12] The importance of the complementary Employee Journey.   [21:17] Evaluating and upgrading all stages of the Employee Journey.   [22:15] The long-term benefits of shared values and deeper connections throughout your business ecosystem.   [24:27] How does a human-centric system and an emphasis on talent change outcomes for your business?   [25:24] The fundamental practices of modern work.   [26:55] Survey data from workers providing important intelligence for decision-making and progress.   [28:13] Weighting historical and recent data in the current environment.   [29:19] Balancing old and new inputs, making measured decisions, using data, logic and reasoning.   [30:40] Which path will you to commit for 2024 keeping work/LIFE principles top of mind?       RESOURCES   Sophie Wade on LinkedIn   Sophie's company website Flexcel Network   Sophie's book “Empathy Works: The Key to Competitive Advantage in the New Era of Work”   Sophie's book “Embracing Progress: Next Steps for the Future of Work”       QUOTES   “The essence of modern work can be captured in four core principles that are relevant for any ecosystem, organization, team and individual. These are: Learning, Intention, Flexibility, and Empathy.”   “The Employee Journey is the “yin” to the Customer Journey's “yang””. “The human-centric approach is applicable all along your supply chain as extensive ripple effects potentially impact everyone's revenues and future growth possibilities.” “Tech is a given. Talent is a gift.”   “Right now, recent data is often most relevant and reliable for projecting out the possible pathways.”   “Our habit as humans, our instinct, is to invent and innovate, to continue our evolutionary path forward, to learn from disruptions and gain from turbulent disconnection to make jumps and leaps forward—which aren't necessarily comfortable at first. “

Josh Bottomley is CEO of Dunnhumby (UK), a global leader in customer data science. Josh has led digital transformation initiatives at media and finance businesses. After overseeing customer data-focused traditional print businesses, Josh gained invaluable strategic experience early in the digitalization of organizations' income streams and operations. Josh shares his insights about how he aligned multiple internal groups as new tech-enabled opportunities cut across business units. He explains the importance of working frameworks and freedom for employees and how to view any roadblocks.     KEY TAKEAWAYS   [02:46] From childhood, Josh was interested in what will eventually be called systems thinking.   [03:52] Joining the Financial Times during the internet's early days, Josh's job takes an unexpected turn.   [04:47] How the internet changes the way a newspaper needs to operate.   [05:51] Josh tries to recruit for jobs and titles that don't exist yet.   [06:46] The importance of details in marketing.   [09:43] Digital transformation isn't easy—how Josh succeeds by talking to customers.   [12:54] Using YouTube as a Trojan Horse to move parts of advertising budgets from TV to the Internet.   [15:45] How Josh finds an innovative way to create alignment in teams and mindsets.   [17:38] Digital integration is done cautiously across a company, working closely with customers.   [19:59] The perfect place to be is one step ahead of your customer, not three.   [21:58] What Josh took from Google to HSBC and every organization after.   [24:47] Why we now think more about systems and ecosystems to understand our world and business.   [27:02] What Dunnhumby has been doing for over 30 years.   [29:20] How “nudges” help people get what they want.   [31:40] How to strike the right balance relating to employees' need for freedom and structure.   [35:05] Clarity about expectations and sustaining individual motivation are key to empower employees.   [37:54] Having a sense of purpose and nurturing it in others helps internal mobility, Josh explains.   [39:40] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Pick a theme, a sense of purpose. Leadership is a journey. You may or may not get to your destination. Rather than getting frustrated, be curious about the silly stuff that gets in the way — see them as roadblocks to overcome as you progress. Life is an obstacle course, not a sprint.   [42:21] Gen AI may be leveling blue and white-collar work--the impact has yet to be estimated.     RESOURCES   Josh Bottomley on LinkedIn dunnhumby.com     QUOTES (edited)   “We would spend $200 million a year on direct marketing and get a response rate of 2%. If we could get the rate to 3%, we would be getting 50% more customers for our money because one person in a hundred is making a different decision. So the lesson was, I might operate in this business at a level of detail such that one person in a hundred makes a different decision.”   “The perfect place in the business is one step ahead of your customers, not three.”   “Get curious about what's getting in the way. And once you know what's getting in the way, you can usually find a way to fix it.”   “Shoppers are not totally rational. That's why I love businesses where the data and the tech result in some form of human decision.”   “I'm so impressed by younger generations because I think life is much harder. The default career options aren't there. I think it's much harder coming into the workforce now than it was when I was at that stage.”