Work Life by Design

Season 7 has been one of the most personal yet—an honest reflection of a year filled with growth, insight, and powerful conversations. In this wrap-up episode, I'm sharing the key themes and lessons that emerged across the season: How personal transformation fuels professional fulfilment Why mastery isn't perfection, but a commitment to growth The connection between workspaces, well-being, and culture The impact of neurodiversity and designing for inclusion The wisdom of nature, rest, and healing From solo reflections to rich guest conversations, this season was about designing a work life that actually works for you.

When was the last time you let yourself be swept away by the sheer beauty of the world around you? Maybe it's the sun sinking into a golden horizon or the way light dances through trees. These moments remind us of the profound joy that's available — if we pause long enough to notice. In this special conversation, Dr. Meg Hooper and I explore the concept of awe, inspired by Julia Baird's remarkable book Phosphorescence — a guide to finding light and wonder even in life's darkest times. In this episode, we explore:

In a world where distractions rule and our attention is constantly hijacked—how do we reclaim our focus and find clarity? In this powerful and practical episode, I sit down with Angela Lockwood, occupational therapist, author, speaker, and the brilliant mind behind The Focus Formula. With a career dedicated to helping people tune out the noise and tune into what truly matters, Angela shares the tools, mindset shifts, and daily habits that can help you own your attention and thrive—especially in leadership and business. From a life-altering accident that changed the course of her teenage years to becoming a sought-after voice in attention mastery, Angela's story is both inspiring and relatable. Whether you're drowning in to-do lists or feel like your mind never stops racing, this conversation will give you the clarity and calm you've been searching for.

What if your next office move wasn't just about real estate, but a radical reset for your entire business culture? In this episode, I sit down with my client Stephen Fryer, Greater Sydney Leader at Northrop Consulting Engineers, to explore how a lease expiry sparked a workplace transformation that redefined leadership, engagement, and innovation. From flexible work models to culture-led design, discover how Northrop turned relocation into reinvention, and how the team at COMUNiTI supported him to make it happen.

In today's episode, we explore something deeply human yet often overlooked in business: community. When we shift focus from the bottom line to the broader picture—our people, our values, and our environment—we open the door to more meaningful success. I've welcomed Amber Hawken, a thought leader in this space, to explore how leadership, mindfulness, and nature can help reshape workplace culture. What You'll Learn: ✔ The first steps businesses can take to foster a deeper connection with their communities. ✔ Why leadership must drive the change from the top down. ✔ How small rituals, like mindful breathing, can shift workplace energy. ✔ The powerful role nature plays in building sustainable and harmonious work environments. ✔ Practical ways to integrate these principles into daily operations. Amber shares her expertise on how businesses can go beyond profits and create a meaningful impact—one that enriches both their teams and the communities they serve.     Learn more and join Amber? iSoma Meditation Practitioner Training

This season of Work Life by Design is deeply personal. Inspired by Brené Brown's reflections on "what's on my heart and mind," I'm bringing you honest, unfiltered conversations about the challenges, insights, and lessons that have shaped both me and the work we're doing at COMUNiTI over the past year. Over the last 12 months, I've faced my own health challenges—burnout, adrenal fatigue, and gut issues that left me completely exhausted. This experience has reshaped how I approach 2025, and this season is all about sharing that journey with you. It's real, it's raw, and it's exactly what's on my heart and mind. In this seventh season of the podcast you can expect thought-provoking discussions on: ✨ Body burnout—what causes it and how to truly heal ✨ Neurodiversity in the workplace—creating inclusive spaces that embrace our brain-based differences ✨ The power of community—what we can learn by looking back, embracing rituals, and reclaiming rites of passage ✨ Lesson in business—what I've learned about building a successful business ✨ …and so much more! I can't wait to dive into these conversations with you. I hope they inspire, challenge, and support you as much as they have for me. But in today's episode we're going to dive into how I came to my word for the year – MASTERY. For the past 10 years, I've started each year with an intentional planning session—a ritual that's helped me realign, refine, and design a life I love. What once felt like a complete reset is now about softening into more of what I love and making small, meaningful tweaks. This January, I also guided a group of ambitious businesswomen through this process at my Business Planning Day, helping them get clear on what they want from life so they can build a business that truly supports it. I focus on intentions over goals—because intentions shape who you want to become, not just another task on your to-do list. From this, my word for 2025 emerged: MASTERY—not about perfection, but about continuous growth, refinement, and deepening my craft in both life and business. So I invite you to reflect on your intention for the year?  

The role that our workplaces play in encouraging and enabling our relationships at work, was largely taken for granted, until they were taken away from us.  A silver lining of the pandemic, we realised the impact of our workplaces and the role they play in our establishing and supporting the social & support networks in our lives.  And social connection is a foundation for building any community. Today's guest ARC Laureate Fellow Sharon K. Parker.  I was first introduced to Sharon and her work through my friend and Colleague Dr Meg Hooper of Carousel Consulting, and her S.M.A.R.T Work Design Model, to develop meaningful and motivating work.  This piece of work has been instrumental in underpinning our approach to work design and workplace design, a difference that Sharon will elaborate on in today's podcast.  Meg has been following Sharon's work for a very long time, and such I've invited her along to co-host today's episode!  ARC Laureate Fellow Sharon K. Parker is a John Curtin Distinguished Professor, Director of the Centre for Transformative Work Design at Curtain University, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences and Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organisational Psychology. Sharon has published more than 250 internationally refereed articles on topics such as work design, proactive behaviour, mental health, and job performance, has over 46,500 citations, and is ranked in the top .15% of global scholars in her field.   She is the founder of the S.M.A.R.T model, cofounder of the Thrive at Work Initiative, and has contributed to policy on work design in Australia and internationally.     With the breadth of research that Sharon has done, this podcast could go in any direction, but as we are focused on the role of community in the workplace this season, we've narrowed in on this topic and explored how the work she does overlaps with this ability to build community. So today, we are exploring; Her view on the relationship that exists between our workplaces and the role they play in building community Her S.M.A.R.T work design model and what the important factors are to consider in building community and where organisations could be letting themselves down The role of autonomy in buffering the effects of poor workplace design The definition of work design and the overlap to workplace design Some of the key consideration that designer, Culture Leaders and property managers/specialists should be looking at when it comes to workplace design   Sharon's perspective on this is fascinating and Meg & I were loving this conversation - we honestly could have chatted for hours.  So, I hope you love listening to this episode as much as we loved recording it!  

Using Place to connect to the Hearts, Bodies and Minds of your People   Often when we look at our workplaces, we think of them as property. As real estate.  And sadly, often as a balance sheet liability.  But they have the potential to be so much more than that!⁠   Your work place is an underutilised asset in attracting and connecting to your people.   Often spoken about in the terms of “People, Place & Technology” our workplaces should not be devoid of our humanity.   They are created for our people.  That means that they need to Personal. Human.  And when you take a human centred approach to creating a workplace, what you are really doing is connecting to the hearts, bodies & minds of your people. ⁠ ❤️ When I say heart, I'm talking about the collective emotion of a space. Otherwise known as the culture of an organisation. The brand and story of a company and the emotional connection it creates and ripples outwards. ⁠ ⁠

  How can we create workplaces where our people are empowered? Where they are given autonomy and choice?   It all starts with culture.    Now that might sound overly simply, but at the grassroots of this, it's the everyday actions that leaders take that shift and create culture in their teams and organisations. And it really is the simple things that make the difference.    And today's guest, Meredith Wilson has written the book, on how you too can you use GRASS in your workplace to shift your culture.    Meredith makes culture simple and actionable. Working with executives, CEOs and leadership teams to shape, shift, strengthen and lead cultures. Having led culture at the Executive and Board level for more than 15 years, with ASX10 and global teams, Meredith is a published Author and recognised Culture Expert. Meredith works as a Culture Strategist, Speaker, and Mentor, building cultures that work.   In today's episode Meredith shares with us; 1.    Her G.R.A.S.S model and the simple ways that we can start to rethink culture and how we can then take action everyday 2.    The impact of Hope & Safety and how this is foundational in building any culture 3.    The 4 things that you need to build a culture worth belonging too 4.    The importance of symbols and rituals and how these show up in your workplace   Meredith and I have a shared passion for building communities and thriving cultures, with much of our work and language overlapping in various area's of workplace design and organisational leadership and culture, so it was an absolute privilege to have the opportunity to explore our ideas of what works more deeply in this episode.   LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with Meredith; Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website |   Connect with Mel; Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper - The Road Map to Employee Experience  Book a 30min Complimentary Discovery Call with Mel  

Over centuries work has evolved from a labour some, back breaking manual task to what today some of us refer to as a "cushy office job"! And we have the invention of machines and technology, a few key players and a pandemic to thank, as the catalysts for this change. However, some things have very much stayed the same, even though the world we are living and working in today, is very different to the world in which these things were created for. In today's episode I'm winding back the clock just over 100 years as we start to look at; The impact of machines and technology on how we work How and why, we work 8hrs and 5 days a week How technology drove our need for workplaces and their design The research on what our workplaces really need to do now and into the future.   This is one of my favourite conversations and I'm so excited to be sharing it with you here today!       LINKS JOIN NOW!  Workplace Dynamics Blueprint Program Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”    Connect with Mel; Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper - The Road Map to Employee Experience  Book a 30min Complimentary Discovery Call with Mel  

  Curating a community is not a passive activity.  It takes conscious effort, care, and a respect for the people that you are embracing in this community.  But when you bringing together a community with no traditional “place” how can you engage with a place temporarily and make it your own? This is exactly the work that today's guest, Imelda Miller, does in her role as the Curator of First Nations Cultures at Queensland Museum Kurilpa.  A third generation Vanuatu woman, Imelda is a proud South Sea Islander and responsible for bringing together communities of origin through her work with the museum.  Working with material culture an archival collections, Imelda's collaboration, and curatorial approach, combines cultural practice, community engagement and community lead research and development into her projects. Hosting exhibitions, running workshops and leading teams in these activities, Imelda is consciously curating places for communities to come together to share their stories and create new ones. Today's conversation is one of possibility and Imelda shares so many of her secrets in how she fosters this sense of community, to establish belonging, a sense of connection and storytelling that can be directly applied back to our building our own communities in our workplaces. In today's conversation Imelda shares with us; How she uses place to create community, even when there is no ownership or relationship to place How objects enable people to connect, share stories and develop memory in place The fundamentals of curating a community atmosphere are The healing power that connection and community can create Throughout this conversation I hear direct correlations to how I think about fostering community in our workplaces and the role that place plays.  Establishing connection, creating belonging, and sharing stories, by communicating social contracts and norms and engaging in routine and ritual. Imelda is a warm-hearted woman with much wisdom to share on how we can take even a little bit of this approach back to our workplaces. Mel       LINKS Join the Waitlist for the Workplace Dynamics Blueprint Program  Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with the Imelda; You can engage with Imelda's work here; https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/discover/exhibitions/plantation-voices https://www.museum.qld.gov.au/collections-and-research/projects/australian-south-sea-islander-lived-identities     Connect with Mel; Email Melissa@melissamarsden.com.au Website       melissamarsden.com.au Website       comuniti.com.au Instagram     @melmar Linkedin       Melissa Marsden Whitepaper – The Road Map to Employee Experience     To listen to more of my episodes, head to my website !!!  

  Hey! Have you read Priya Parkers book, The Art of Gathering? If you haven't yet, I highly recommend you do, it's a good read!  In her book Priya shares: "gatherings in our lives are often vague & unproductive" And I would argue that our workplaces are in fact a place where we gather, rather than places we "go to" to "work", and if we want people to come to the workplace, we need to be offering them an experience. It needs to be a purposeful, and productive contribution to their lives.   In today's episode I'm expanding on the framework that I share with you in Eps. 139, It's not about mandates, it's about Fostering Community, to dive deeper into the final layer of the framework, Placemaking.    Because the art of placemaking is a complex task, that requires its own framework to fully optimise the creation of a plan that builds community. Plus, I share with you some tangible examples of how place has been used for centuries as a central hub, an anchos, a container for holding and creating community. If you're ready to learn more about creating your community in your workplace, you can either; Grab a copy of my book "The Next Workplace" Join me in the "Workplace Dynamics Blueprint | The Program" Waitlist now OPEN! Or book a complimentary discovery call with me to chat more!   Until next time, Mel x   USEFUL LINKS: Workplace Dynamics Blueprint | The Program - DOORS OPEN! Are your ready to learn the Art & Science of creating your next Workplace?!?! Creating your next workplace is a complex task! It requires the input of multiple players within your organisation and the expert guidance of specialist consultants. BUT it also presents an incredible opportunity for your organisation! Typically, businesses only refresh their space every 10 years. That's a long time in today's fast paced world. So many changes, from technology, to operational delivery, organisational structures, ways of working and more. Optimising this unique opportunity requires a plan. In this self-paced program, you will learn about the five pillars that underpin the dynamics in your organisation, how to leverage them against your organisations strategic objectives and gain the confidence you need to embark on this journey armed with the knowledge and know how to optimise your next workplace. Enabling you to inspire the human potential in your organisation. Join the waitlist and be the first to know when doors open! Join the waitlist here - https://www.melissamarsden.com.au/blueprint Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with Mel; Email Melissa@melissamarsden.com.au Website       melissamarsden.com.au Website       comuniti.com.au Instagram     @melmar Whitepaper – The Road Map to Employee Experience Book a 30min Complimentary Discovery Call with Mel https://calendly.com/melissa-marsden/30min

"When work starts to work again, it becomes a place where people want to be" Creating a thriving workplace where people want to be, voluntarily, requires us to take a different perspective to the "productivity" approach that our workplaces once swore by. Today's guest is Sharon Darmody. With a background in Occupational Therapy, Sharon is an Organisational Consultant, Mediator and the Founding Director of Strive Occupational Rehabilitation. With over 25 years consulting to organisations, she identified a recurring theme, leading her to develop her M.A.G.I.C model to help businesses, teams and individuals rediscover what makes work, work for them. In today's conversation Sharon and I delve into; The foundations of what she's observed to foster community within organisations We explore her M.A.G.I.C model and how you can explore aspects of this within your business The challenges and opportunities that organisations have to fostering community How simple Ground Rules, can support individuals, teams and organisations to thrive Plus, Sharon shares a personal story of how humanising a workplace and building an authentic community puts people first and the ripple effect of this on individuals, families and their surrounding communities, changing lives. If you're looking for ways to re-engage and ignite your teams, you're going to enjoy this episode!

If we're still talking about getting people back to the office, we're having the wrong conversation”.   I don't know about you but I'm getting frustrated with all this RTO talk!  I think those that are stuck in this vortex, are completely missing the point!  What we should be talking about, is what makes a workplace a COMMUNITY. In the work that I do, creating a workplace where people WANT to be is key, BUT while the physical environment plays a large part, it's not the whole story.   “For centuries our communities have centred around sharing an imagined reality crafted out of words, which has enabled large numbers of strangers to come together to coordinate effectively” Yuval Harari, Author of Sapiens.   At COMUNiTI, we use our Workplace Dynamics Blueprintä to dive deep with our clients to understand the purpose of place and the fundamentals that needs of a place.  By using our five pillars we can identify the opportunities and the gaps across the organisation to co-create a space that lays the foundations to building a community. In today's episode, I'm sharing with you the framework that I've developed to building community in organisations, from the foundations up!       LINKS Doors to our Workplae Dynamics Blueprint program opening soon - join the watilist here! Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with Mel; Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper - The Road Map to Employee Experience Book a 30min Complimentary Discovery Call with Mel https://calendly.com/melissa-marsden/30min

Well, that's it for another season!   After kicking off season 5 back in November last year, I think it's well and truly time to switch off the mic for a while!   This season has definitely taken on a life of its own and it really snuck up on me that we've been going straight for 48 episodes, almost a whole year! I've had the pleasure of engaging some incredibly intelligent, wise, and generous guests in conversation over this time which has what has kept me wanting to do “just one more!” episode.   But here at COMUNiTI we are heading into our busiest season of the year in the final sprint to Christmas so it's time to take a breath and make the space needed to ensure we finish the year strong.   So, in this episode I'm sharing with you the highlights of 48 episodes, marking some incredible milestones including;

The art of focus in our modern worlds has become just that. An art.   With books like Johan Hari's Stolen Focus and past guest Dr Kristy Goodwin's, Dear Digital we need to talk, the constant disruption, distraction mulit-tasking and task switching that we are all succumbing to is impacting our ability to truly focus.   Add to this all the pressures and competing demands of daily life and we are quickly looking at fatigue, exhaustion and burnout.   And whilst the rise of flexible working has given us more freedom to design our days and work lives, it's a bit of a double edged sword. As many of us have relied on the routine, ritual and structure that our daily to commute has given to us to support our cognitive function and the daily need to “do our job”.   We now need to develop a new skill. The ability to distinguish what is worth our attention, to do this intentionally and then to be able to focus.   And that's what today's guest is here to share with us.   Angela Lockwood is on a mission. To empower individuals to thrive amidst the distraction of modern life.   As an Occupational Therapist with a wealth of real-world experience working alongside both children and adults, she has developed a unique approach to unlocking the power of our thinking and actions in ever-changing environments.   After sustaining a life-changing head injury she became obsessed with learning how we can use our time and energy to thrive and has focused her career on helping others do the same.   She is the author of two business self-help books, "The Power of Conscious Choice" and “Switch Off and Find Calm” and the engaging host of "A Kid's Life" Podcast.   She's been featured on Channel 9 Today EXTRA, The Australian Financial Review, Good Health magazine, Huffington Post, Mamamia, Radio 2UE and numerous parenting and lifestyle publications. She also has a regular segment on The Luke and Susie Show which is syndicated across Australia.   Angela has an infectious energy and she's highly relatable.   So in today's episode Ange and I are going to look at; Why the conversation about focus has become such a prevalent one Intentional Focus – what it means and how to manage it The importance of switching off The difference between time management and energy management Plus she's also sharing with us some tools to get us started   A great conversation on how to focus your attention on the things that really matter so that you have more energy for life!   LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with Angela; LinkedIn | Insta | Website   Connect with Mel; Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper - The Road Map to Employee Experience Book a 30min Complimentary Discovery Call with Mel

One of the biggest misconceptions about “a new office” is that it is simply that.  A new place for us to conduct our business from.  A design and construction project. This could not be further from the truth.  “A new office” is a whole of business opportunity and at its core it is actually a “cultural transformation project”. Everything about the way the new office looks, feels, operates is all new.  It's in a new location, with a new commute and with that comes a whole new set of routines and rituals. Now while some of your team might be excited by the change, there are going to be a lot of your team who will not be.  And regardless of where they sit on the continuum of change experience, they are going to bring their own perceptions to the process, until they are guided, communicated to, informed, and educated about what the new workplace will entail.   Because, in the absence of information it is human nature to Make. It. Up! So, in today's episode I'm sharing with you why it's important to support your people through change, and what you can do to prepare you and your business to make the most of this unique opportunity.   Remember, creating a new workplace for your business is typically a once in 10 year event, and just think about the ripple effect that doing an outstanding job of supporting your people through this change will have on the next 10 years of your business.      LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with Mel; Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper - The Road Map to Employee Experience

Is the workplace really just a ‘task' place?   This is one of the thought-provoking questions that today's guest poses, for us to ponder about our reality of work and the workplace.   Dr Agustin Chevez is the author of The Pilgrim's Guide to the Workplace. It was after reading a book on the diversity of Iguana's in the Galapagos Islands, that Gus set off on a pilgrimage from Melbourne to Sydney, to explore the impact that isolation has on the diversity of our idea's.   Fast forward a few years and Gus is sharing his insights as 34 signposts from this exploration in his book, inviting us to reimagine our workplaces.   As an Architect and researcher, Gus has dedicated his career to understanding the notion of work and uncovering environments that best support our working lives. His interest in the relationship between people, space and technology saw him pursue a PhD on the evolution of workplace architecture as a consequence of technology development.   His work has been presented at various international forums and publications. As a sought-after speaker, Agustin has delivered international keynotes and is a TEDx speaker. He has also contributed to workplace strategies in Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.   Gus is the Workplace Futures Lead at the Centre for the New Workforce at Swinburne University and an Honorary Fellow at the School of Management and Marketing at the University of Melbourne.   In this episode we are going to find out How Gus took this idea that he had to explore diversity of thinking to actually, walking from Melbourne to Sydney What the distinction is between a Pilgrimage and a Walk and how this applies to the workplace How the introduction of absurdity to the workplace enables us to bring more human traits to our experience of work Why removing friction from our environments can impact our ability to be innovative and its impact on our personal resilience as we overcome adversity How the conversation and questions we're asking when approaching the design of workplaces need to change in order to create an enhanced environment for work   A fascinating conversation with someone who has incredible mind to explore ideas in a new way to challenge biases and see new opportunity.   You are going to love this conversation with Dr Gus Chevez.   LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with Gus; LinkedIn | Website / Book The Pilgrim's Guide to the Workplace   Connect with Mel; Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper - The Road Map to Employee Experience

One of the reasons that I first started exploring this idea of Workplace Strategy was because I am fascinated by how businesses tick.   What makes one business a roaring success and another flounder?   And one thing that continues to fascinate me is the gap that I see emerge in almost every engagement.  And it's a gap that I feel like I automatically step into fill without a second thought. But this gap is one that differentiates what we do at COMUNiTI apart. When clients approach us, they are likely to be seeking a Design Solution.  They don't go to the design team looking for a business solution.    And that is the difference. Often as the opportunity is misunderstood, or it wasn't even on the radar to begin with.  So many times, I have been told by clients, “We didn't even know that what you do is a thing!”. So today we're diving into the opportunity to transform your business that you likely didn't even know what a possibility, as I've been reminded that what I thought everyone knew, they likely don't, and that is a huge, missed opportunity for every business.   LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with Mel; Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper - The Road Map to Employee Experience

With more of us embracing the opportunity to work from home, it's leaving our workplaces underutilised as occupancy levels in the workplace drop. The impacts of this vary from workplace ot workplace depending on the design style and approach ranging from limited variety in the spaces available for employees to perform their work through to a lack of energy and “buzz' that comes from bringing people together in the space. As someone who engages with organisations daily in this delicate dance of who gets to own their desk and who doesn't, weighing up the commercial realities of leasing costs vs underutilised floor area and the opportunity to provide variety and choice to employees in where and how they work within the workplace, this is a topic of conversation that I am keen to explore.   So, when today's guest Dr Jenna Mikus shared an article written by BBC on LinkedIn, questioning if the hybrid office will ever feel like home, with her view of the impact of this approach I was keen to engage her in a friendly debate on the pros and cons of the “to own a desk or not to own a desk”.   Jenna shared; While this sounds ideal in theory, this Choose Your Adventure approach to daily working could backfire, as it introduces the risk of proving exhausting and therefore off-putting to workers often already overwhelmed with work obligations. Not everyone embraces change, let alone adventure...especially on a daily basis.   As an advocate of creating workplaces that respond to the unique and individual needs of organisations, their teams and their people, my view is that by relinquishing individual ownership of our workpoints, we can inturn optimise our work environments to cater to a greater variety of work styles and activities, further enhancing our experience of work.   Dr Jenna Mikus is the Founder and Managing Partner of the Eudae Group, which advises clients on organizational and spatial (both physical and digital) transformational change relating to built environments curated for health and wellbeing. Her clients have included commercial office owners, operators, and tenants as well as military, government, healthcare, higher education, aged care, and more on a global scale, with particular emphasis on the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia.   As an advocate for bridging industry practice with academic theory/research, Jenna is also a Visiting Fellow with QUT's Centre for Decent Work & Industry, an Honorary Fellow with the Centre for Conscious Design, a former Health Equity and current Research Advisor for the International WELL Building Institute, and a contributor to Harvard University's Human Flourishing Program's Flourishing at Work Interest Group.   Jenna leverages her education across engineering, architecture, and design with her depth and breadth of work experience relating to strategy, change management, and design thinking to encourage multidisciplinary cross-pollination in theory and practice and to guide the creation/curation of intelligent, sustainable, and flourishing environments for all.   Jenna is well versed in supporting organisations to create environments that support us all in flourishing at work, having worked in organsiational change and recently completing her PhD focused on flourishing health and wellbeing, so I was pleased when she agreed to engage in this conversation, so that we could explore it from a few angles and see where we land.   This is an interesting conversation exploring the role of workplace design on the individuals that occupy them.   LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with Jenna; LinkedIn | Website   Connect with Mel; Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper - The Road Map to Employee Experience

The end of financial year is a great time to check in and see how we are tracking against our goals. As someone who loves to set myself up at the beginning of each year with a number of intentions and an overarching word to keep me on track, it's a great opportunity for me to check and readjust for the next 6 months.   This year my word was Flow.   And its been interesting to see how this word has shown up, the shape its taken and the way in which it has realigned my thoughts and actions throughout the year to date.   To mark this EOFY I took myself off to a fancy “lunch for one” and what ensued was something that I have since reflected on as quite magical.   This simple act of creating time and space, allowed my mind the capacity to truly get into flow. Creating a stream of consciousness that resulted in a manifesto for COMUNiTI and for me.   But whilst I didn't intentionally design this, it certainly didn't happen by accident.   So, in today's episode I'm sharing with you the ingredients that enabled this magic to happen plus some serendipitous learnings that I've had of late and the culmination of these in forming my philosophy on why mindwander, flow and spaciousness, are the key to innovation and creativity.   Take this as a friendly reminder that creating time and space to smell the roses can have a profound impact on the trajectory of your career and your business.   LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with Mel; Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper - The Road Map to Employee Experience

Establishing a strong and purposeful employee experience in your organisation can take an incredible amount of time, dedication, and invested energy.   So, if you could find all the People tools and resources that you needed packaged up in one platform, backed by science and data, how much easier would that make your life as a leader and give you the confidence to know that you were giving your organisation the best possible advantage?   Well, today's guest is here to tell us that this is possible. Damon Klotz, who has what could be described as one of the coolest titles, is a Work Culture Evangelist at Culture Amp, a market-leading employee experience platform.   I first discovered Damon and his podcast Culture First, in the midst of the pandemic tuning into his episode with Jen Sauer-Klein, an experience designer in the States. This singular episode gave me a new perspective on the role of our environments in how we influence experiences consciously through design, adding another tool to my tool kit.   Jen is among a number of incredible guests that Damon has had the opportunity to engage in conversation on his podcast, so I was incredibly happy when he agreed to join me here to learn more on what have been some of the most impactful conversations that he has had.   What I also learnt through this episode is the diverse career that Damon has had that led him to his current role as Work Culture Evangelist. As you'll hear Damon is quite the overachiever, prior to Culture Amp he was leading community HR groups, through to being the Global Manager of Digital Strategy for Ramsay Health Care, a keynote speaker on the future of work, and the Co-Founder of Spur Projects, a social enterprise dedicated to reducing the suicide rate of men in Australia.   And he shares how a desire to be a sports manager and leverage the community of teams has found its way through to the work he and the team at Culture Amp do.   You'll also learn more about Culture Amp and the wealth of data that they have accumulated from supporting the employee experience across numerous countries since launching in 2009, How the platform supports organisations to leverage this “data lake” to continue to enhance the employee, manager and team experience And how taking a community focused approach to building Culture Amp has been a key foundation in its success, growing the company from 100 to 6500 customers, and the role that Damon played in establishing it Plus what Damon has learned about communication, transparency and trust from his conversations about People & Culture throughout the pandemic   So many interesting highlights in this episode, along with some great additional listening recommendations over on the Culture First podcast.   Damon also leaves us with some insights into how he has consciously continued to grow with the organisation from start up to now and its various iterations, all great self-reflection points for us to consider in our own growth mindset and experience of comfort.   LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with Damon; LinkedIn | Culture Amp   Connect with Mel; Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper - The Road Map to Employee Experience 

Imagine having the ability to curate the entire experience that your employees take when they come to your workplace.    To influence each touchpoint of their journey.    The things that they see, hear, do... the things they feel.    In episode 127, I shared how you can use an Empathy Map to consciously design the sensory experience of your people at work, a tool that can be used both to support cultural design and physical design.    In today's episode we're going to take that a step further and see how you can take that sensory experience and apply it to every touchpoint in your employees' journey to and from the workplace.    With just three questions at each of the touchpoints you can curate your employee journey and enhance their overall experience.    Whether you have an existing workplace that could be infused with some conscious changes, or you have the open possibility to start from scratch with a new workplace, today's episode will provide you with a foundation from which you can take more informed decisions about the employee journey you wish to create for your people. 

No doubt throughout the course of your career, you've experienced moments where you've questioned yourself and your ability to lead not only your team through the next transition, but also leading yourself.   Stepping up into a new role, guiding your team through a new project or perhaps you've just been swallowed up by the overwhelming wave of pressure of work.   I can empathise with you at each of these points, because I've been there too.   I also know, from the work that we've been doing at COMUNiTI across organisations, that many managers and leaders are also facing similar challenges. With our need to manage our teams in new ways due to remote and hybrid work practices, one of the key challenges we consistently identify that requires greater support, is leadership capability.   And it's an area that today's guest, Rebecca Christianson specialises in.   Rebecca is an Executive Coach, Facilitator, Speaker and the Founder of Thriving People.   Throughout her career, she has partnered with Executive Teams globally to build leadership capability and implement organisational change. One of her many superpowers is stretching leaders to the edge of their thinking to support mindset shifts, with a view to increase self awareness, influence, effectiveness, focus and wellbeing.   With her purpose to support senior leaders to love life at the top of business. Having been an executive leader herself, Rebecca brings her lived experience to her work, having walked in the shoes that she now supports.   In today's episode, you'll hear some of the common challenges that Rebecca observes in the leader she supports along with the one thing that we can all do to start building our own leadership capability, so that we can each build our toolkit to navigating the uncertainty of the world we work in with more confidence and ease.   LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with Rebecca; LinkedIn | Thriving People    Connect with Mel; Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper - The Road Map to Employee Experience 

Reimagining your next workplace is the perfect opportunity to take a step back and take a fresh look at your whole business.   One of the ways that I encourage leaders to do this, is by embracing “Shoshin”.   Shoshin is a Buddhist concept meaning “beginners mind”. It is about approaching a situation as if you are seeing it for the first time. When we come with curiosity, openness, eagerness, and no preconceptions, our mind is open to new possibilities.   And this is especially valuable when you are reimagining the experience that you want your people to have of work.   In today's episode we explore 4 ways that you can redesign work with empathy, using an employee empathy map.   An empathy map is a useful tool to visualise yourself in the shoes of someone else and how you would like to curate their experience.   What they See, Think & Feel, Do & Hear.   And this is especially valuable as you embark on your journey to creating your next workplace and how you can positively influence the experience that your people have of work and place.   It's also a great tool to reset patterns of behaviour in your organisation as we embark on a new world of work.   Tune in to learn more!   LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential” Connect with Mel; Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper - The Road Map to Employee Experience

In last weeks episode I spoke about wellbeing rhythms in the workplace and the need for us all to be building in moments of self-care.   I then read an article in the Harvard Business Review by author Greg McKeown, who's written two of my favourite books and are recommended reading at COMUNiTI; Essentialism & Effortless. In this article Greg says that for organisations to build top performing teams, they should only be asking for 85% effort. The premise that when we consistently perform at 100% we burn out.   Prior to this Dr Meg Hooper and I discussed the recent legislative changes around psychosocial hazards in the workplace.   I see a theme emerging… the conversation as to the health and wellbeing of our people is being elevated in our workplaces and is at the core of all business performance.   So, this week I've invited Dr Ali Young to join me, to better understand what is that we can be doing to support ourselves individually, and what we can be doing as teams and organisations to practically support the health and wellbeing of our people.   Dr Ali Young is a health strategist, who works with mums owning and operating health practices. After recovering from burnout in 2019 and writing a book about it, she has become passionate about supporting other health practitioners, particularly mums, to navigate the same stressors with a different outcome.   In this episode Ali shares with us not only the science that backs up why we should be taking better care of our health, but if we are not giving ourselves the permission to pause, no amount of sleep, trips to the gym or healthy eating is likely to change our perception of stress and impact our wellbeing.   We discuss how a simple conversation with your team can uncover opportunities to support everyone's wellbeing and the simple changes in schedule that have led to increased performance in her own practice.   She also shares with us her three tips to ensuring maximum wellbeing in our work week.   So, why not take a walk, tune in and use this 30mins as your permission to pause.   LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with Ali; LinkedIn | Instagram | Website   Connect with Mel; Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper - The Road Map to Employee Experience 

As we cross the halfway mark of the year, this is the perfect time to look back, check in with your intentions for the year and adjust the sails ready for the second half.   One of the tweaks that I'll be making as I set myself up for the home stretch is to recalibrate my selfcare regime. As a busy mum, navigating the ebb and flow of our project load, this is usually the stuff that I forgo from my calendar to accommodate the other demands on my time.   But here's the catch , as knowledge workers, our most valuable asset is the quality of our thoughts. We are literally paid to think!   The quality of that thinking is significantly impacted by the quality of our sleep, nutrition, movement, and relaxation [aka self-care!] all the good things that help us maintain our stress and anxiety levels and improve our cognitive function. Our ideas!   So, when organisations begin to question, why employee wellbeing should be their concern, the simplest answer is that, when your employees are well, they are more productive, which is good for business.   In today's episode we discuss. How our workplaces can create connection and support socialisation at work – a key factor in employee wellbeing How our workplaces can enhance our experience of work How changing work rhythms require a change in work environment The impacts of schedule flexibility and employee loyalty to those businesses committed to wellbeing Plus we take a look at Entain, and the impact that their 9 day fortnight and meeting free Wednesday is having on their organisation, aside from employee productivity and engagement   What small tweak of your sails can you maketo support you in entering the second half in your best form to see you through to the finish line?   LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with Mel; Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper - The Road Map to Employee Experience

In April this year, the Managing the risk of Psychosocial Hazards at work Code of Practice 2022 came into effect.   As someone who runs a business and employs people, naturally I was interested to learn more about what this means for me and for the projects that I work on.   To help me understand the code further, I invited my colleague and friend Dr Meg Hooper to join me to discuss it.   Meg is the CEO and Principal Consultant at Carousel Consulting, the experts in organisational change and building resilient teams. So, with Meg's background in supporting many an organisation, she was the obvious choice to talk me through it.   In this episode we discuss; What is a psychosocial hazard in the workplace How is a psychosocial hazard different from psychological safety Who is impacted by the code? What do businesses need to do?   Plus, we explore a few of the hazards that we encounter in the work that we do and what organisations can do to mitigate their risk.   An interesting and highly relevant conversation that left me with a much broader understanding of the code and in many ways, how the work that we are both already doing is setting organisations up for success.   Communicationcations Kit for Small Business - Managing the Risk of Psychosocial Hazards at Work - Code of Practice   Managing the Risk of Psychosocial Hazards at Work - Code of Pratice 2022   Managing the risk of psychosocial hazards at work Code of Practice 2022   LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with Meg; Linkedin | Carousel Consulting   Connect with Mel; Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper - The Road Map to Employee Experience

On the 1st July 2023, my business COMUNiTI celebrates its 10th year of business.   Reaching this milestone in business does not come without both its highs and lows and I could not think of a more fitting way to celebrate this milestone than accepting the offer of my friend and colleague Dr Meg Hooper to turn the tables and interview me.   Meg and I have enjoyed both a personal and professional relationship, having partnered on several projects together. She has witnessed both my growth and that of the business through some of the most challenging years.   Meg is the CEO and Principal Psychologist at Carousel Consulting, the experts in organisational change and building resilient teams.   As could only be expected of a psychologist, I felt this was more like a session on her couch then a podcast interview, but as only Meg could, she helped uncover some true reflections of what business has been like over the past 10 years and how it has shaped me, and COMUNiTI.   Plus, I even let you into my predictions for where and how I'd like to see Workplace Strategy evolve to in the future.   LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with Mel Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper - The Road Map to Employee Experience

As we approach the mid-point of the year, I would hazard a guess that you're already feeling like the tank is near empty! And you are not alone!   Thanks to the events of recent years, COVID, lockdowns, floods, new ways of working, to name a few, what's resulted is a lack of physical and emotional connection. Which has been at the expense of our human relationships, our creativity, and our emotional intelligence.   A situation that today's guest is all too familiar with.   Deanne Boules is the Founder of Insync Workplace Solutions & a highly respected People, Safety, & Culture Consultant, Coach, Facilitator, & keynote speaker. With over 30 years of experience, she has developed a proven track record of building high-performing, inclusive, physically & psychologically safe workplaces that enable individuals to bring their authentic selves to work, feel valued, have a sense of purpose & belonging, thrive & go home safe & well each day.   Dee is passionate about supporting organisations to rehumanise their workplaces, by putting people back at the core of the business. Having started her career as a police officer with the NSW Police Force, she traversed a number of other roles, before founding Insync Workplace Solutions in 2012. A specialist WHS and HR Consulting and Training Practice, fulfilling her passion for redefining and re-humanising how human resources, workplace safety, and all things people, safety, and culture-related are practised worldwide.   During her career, Dee has experienced first-hand the devastating impact of workplace fatalities & serious injuries, attending more than most. Through these experiences, Dee started to question why people do what they do & why they make the decisions they make. Dee and I could have easily talked about this concept for hours, as fostering community is at the core of humanising our workplaces.  We discuss the benefits of taking a human-centred approach in the workplace, some of the barriers and mindset shifts to be overcome along with simple ways that organisations can take the first step.   LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with the Deanne; Linkedin | Great Game of People Conference   Connect with Mel Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper - The Road Map to Employee Experience

In my book The Next Workplace: Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential, I share a story of a client expressing their concern, that their current workplace was having a detrimental impact on the business. It was not supporting the behaviours that the employees were told were wanted.   The organisation wanted to see collaboration; however, the environments spatial cues told a different story.   Sadly, this is not a unique conversation.   Our environments have the ability to influence our behaviour. Our environment, provides us with messages about the way we should interact, communicate, and engage, and these messages can be consciously influenced with the right approach.   Within organisations, behaviours are the actions that we can see, that when communicated effectively, reflect the values and culture of the organisation. What we consider to be important.   And there are three ways that our environment can influence these behaviours with the right messages, which I share with you in today's episode.   LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with Mel Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper - The Road Map to Employee Experience Book a 30min Complimentary Discovery Call with Mel

As organisations are navigating this new landscape of “hybrid” work, a conversation that is happening more and more, is one that centres around “how do we work?” and “how do we want to work?”, before we start talking about, “what does our office look like?”.   Today's guest, Dan Mottau, did just that.   Dan was introduced to me by a mutual colleague when I was looking for thought leaders in the People & Culture space to join me for my book launch panel in Melb.   From the first conversation I had with Dan, I was completely blown away with his approach to work and workplace. This was someone who spoke my language and absolutely understood the impact of how a workplace design NEEDS to respond to the operations of the business.   So much so, that when the opportunity arose for Dan and the team at Redbubble to create a new workplace, rather than heading straight out to market and chatting with leasing agents, though took a moment to really think about “how do we want people at Redbubble to work?”   That simple question set them off on a journey that completely transformed, not only the way they work, but then also the place that would best support that way of working.   So, I've invited Dan to join me here for a conversation, to share what really is a progressive, insightful and in some ways quite a radical approach to the whole process, and one that I would welcome more organisations to consider when embarking on the opportunity of creating a new workplace. To first, really question the nature of work, the way their people work and then what they truly want from their workspace to facilitate and enable that work.   What I find fascinating about this approach, is that it was a people led approach. As Dan shares with us, the project lead was their head of DBI. This was not a project that was handed down to the facilities team, via finance, it was entrusted to the People teams to deliver, hiring in the support they needed, when they needed it.   This is an approach that I want to highlight, as taking this approach to creating your next workplace, leads your business to creating a very different outcome. An outcome that puts you people at the centre, and a focus on create a space that optimises the performance of your people, not just the performance of your building.   Dan is a senior people, organisation development, learning and communications leader, who enjoys examining the underlying motivations and patterns of thinking that elicit amplifying and diminishing behaviours within and between teams.   His approach is heavily influenced by behavioural psychology and anthropology, especially as their principles may be applied to team functioning and the cultivation and sustainment of psychological safety and high performance. With a passion for accelerating the growth of leaders, and for increasing their personal impact through the success of their people.   As you'll hear him say, he's a people geek!   So, let's jump into today's conversation!   LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with the Dan; Linkedin   Connect with Mel Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper - The Road Map to Employee Experience

If I asked you to describe your Brand, I'd wager that the first thing you tell me is what colour your logo is!   Whilst colour and our mark are important factors in defining our brand, they are only one very small component of your brand and cannot begin to communicate the complexity of your brand experience.   A company's Brand Experience is the way they want people to feel when they do business with them.   And this experience starts with understanding. Understanding your Purpose, your vision, your values. Understanding where you came from, where you are going and the impact that you want to make on the way.   Once you understand who you are, who you want to be and the guiderails that are going to keep you on course, then, you can infuse that into your space telling your unique story!   Tune into today's episode as I share the next two steps to making this a reality!   Your workplace is an opportunity to make a lasting first impression. Make it count!   LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with Mel Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper - The Road Map to Employee Experience

If I brought you together in a room of your peers, and asked one simple question, “Who here would call themselves a Creative?”, chances are you're unlikely to raise your hand.   As my guests today describe, we often mistake creativity for artistry, the ability to draw or paint. However, many of us are practicing creativity everyday, without realising it. Singing, cooking, problem solving, are all acts of creativity.   Paul Fairweather and Chris Meredith, are the Two Common Creatives.   Paul is a recovering architect, formerly the co-founder of the award-winning Architectural practice Fairweather Proberts, he is also an artist, inventor and property developer.   Chris is a former Marketing Director, he is a speaker, writer, podcaster and business coach and when he's not at work you'll find him in, on or under the ocean, usually with a camera in hand.   Together they have combined their passion and pursuit of creativity to engage businesses to embrace theirs, helping their people create, capture, and communicate great idea's, to solve business problems.   Their goal is to make creativity as common as a loaf of bread and as well understood as common language.   As someone who would raise their hand when asked if they were creative, I'm fascinated by this conversation as Paul and Chris share how they encourage people to unlock and embrace their creativity.   We explore; the role of creativity in our professional lives if you can teach creativity the common block or resistance to embracing creativity and what they have learned and observed about how our physical environment can impact on an individual's creativity   As businesses struggle to solve new problems in our fast-paced world, encouraging creativity in our organisations is a key metric of success, and Paul & Chris leave us with their thoughts on where we can all start.   LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with the Paul & Chris Paul - https://www.paulfairweather.com/ Chris - https://www.chrismeredith.com.au/ TCC - https://www.twocommoncreatives.com/   Connect with Mel Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper - The Road Map to Employee Experience

It's time to change the conversation!   There has been so much talk about the organisations that are struggling to get the workplace dynamic right, but very little highlighting those that are!   Launching my book The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential, was an opportunity to shine a light on the incredible work that a number of leaders and organisations are doing to explore the edges of employee experience and navigating this new frontier in a bold way.   With events held in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, I took this opportunity to start a conversation with these incredible leaders, and whilst the questions had a similar context in each location, what came from each event was a very unique flavour of conversation bring the panellists unique thoughts and perspectives into view.   What emerged from these conversations were three key themes, with a few core ides as to how we can all elevate our experience of work.   So today's episode is a wrap up of these learnings, plus a thought provoking question to get you pondering HOW this is showing up in your workplace and what your opportunity is to elevate it.   LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with Mel Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper - The Road Map to Employee Experience

This is our FINAL episode in the 6-part series bringing you all the conversations from my book launch events in Brisbane, Melbourne & Sydney, as we celebrated the release of The Next Workplace: Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential.   Today is Part 2 of our Sydney event conversations so if you missed part 1 or any of the previous 5 conversations for that matter, be sure to pop back and tune into those as well!   Each of these events were held with the purpose of starting a conversation on all things Work, People & Place. To take the opportunity and do something very intentional in progressing the conversation of enhancing and reimagining our workplaces for a new future.   Joined by leaders navigating the new frontier of what work looks like and the role that place plays in elevating our experience of work.   Our Sydney conversation explored the topics of what they have realised about the importance of the workplace, how they have seen the evolution of curating the employee experience in the workplace and what that looks like for them, how our workplaces can effectively support belonging and build connection in our people, what flexibility at work really looks like, and ultimately what does a good workplace look like?!   To join me in this conversation I invited Brad Krauskopf, CEO of HUB Australia to join us, along with Sophie Hart, Co-Founder of the Serenity Collective, host of the Thriving Workplace Event, and Nicole Karagiannis, Chief People Office at Harrison.ai.   Each of our guests bring a unique perspective to this conversation, with thoughtful insights that invited me to think more deeply about some of my own idea's.   I hope this episode also inspires your thinking on what you can do to elevate the conversation in your workplace.   This is Part 2, from our Sydney conversations and our final episode in the 6 part series, so if you have missed any of the conversations from Brisbane, Melbourne & Sydney, be sure to head back and tune into those!   But to wrap up the book tour, lets get into today's episode!   LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with Mel Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper

The last few weeks have been quite the adventure as I've been celebrating the release of my book The Next Workplace: Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential.     Hosting events in Brisbane, Melbourne & Sydney, each of these events were held with the purpose of starting a conversation on all things Work, People & Place.  Joined by leaders navigating the new frontier of what work looks like and the role that place plays in elevating our experience of work.    Each of these conversations are being shared right here on the podcast over 6 episodes.    Today is the fifth episode in that series, and the first part in our two-part series from our Sydney event conversations.  Hosted by HUB Australia in their Wynyard office it was a beautiful evening with many familiar faces and few new ones as well.   Our Sydney conversation explored topics of; ✨ what they have realised about the importance of the workplace, ✨ how they have seen the evolution of curating the employee experience in the workplace and what that looks like for them, ✨ how our workplaces can effectively support belonging and build connection in our people, ✨ what flexibility at work really looks like and  ✨ ultimately what does a good workplace look like?!?   To join me in this conversation I invited our venue host, Brad Kraskopf, CEO of HUB Australia to join us, along with Sophie Hart, Co-Founder of the Serenity Collective, host of the Thriving Workplace Event and Nicole Karagiannis, Chief People Officer at Harrison.ai.   Each of our guests bring a unique perspective to this conversation, with thoughtful insights that invited me to think more deeply about some of my own idea's.    I hope this episode inspires your thinking to start a conversation in your workplace to elevate our experience of work.   LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential” Connect with Mel Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper

The old metrics of a desk for a person no longer apply. So, as we are all navigating a very new frontier of work, what are the right metrics?   This was the opening question for my panellists as we dove into our discussion on all things work people and place in our second stop on the book launch tour, celebrating the release of my book The Next Workplace in Melbourne.   For this conversation I was joined by Jacqui Whiteman, Chief Operating Officer at Davidson, Kylie Baullo, Managing Director at ADP, Petrina Stewart, People and Inclusion Lead at KPMG and Dan Mottau Global Director Organisation Development and Learning. We explored a range of topics from what is the right approach for organisations to take when thinking about creating a new workplace through to leveraging your workplace as a key asset in your employee experience value proposition through to the role your workplace plays in creating belonging, supporting diversity and inclusivity.   A conversation that had the audience engaged and jumping in with questions, we could have talked for hours!   Each of our panellists sharing their experiences of rethinking work, the workplace and the whole experience of work, this conversation leaves us each with a lot to think about!   This is the second part of our two-part conversation from Melbourne. If you missed the first part, head back and tune into my conversation with Jacqui Whiteman on how the team at COMUNiTI and I worked with Davidson to reimagine their next workplace in both Brisbane and Melbourne.   LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with Mel Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper

The Melbourne launch event celebrating the release of my book The Next Workplace was a treat! This time I was indulged in reminiscing over another of my favourite projects, and a featured Case Study in the book, Davidson, a national workplace performance firm. What's special about this client is that we have worked together on two projects now, Brisbane and Melbourne, and… this was the first time that Jacqui Whiteman, Davidsons COO, and I had met face to face!   Delivering Brisbane in the midst of the pandemic saw us experimenting with all the tech tools to continue to deliver our first-class service to our clients. With Melbourne following shortly after, and with their extended lockdowns, the entire Melbourne project has been delivered virtually.   This was a lovely opportunity for us to connect #IRL over a wine and reminisce, heading back to the very beginning, recalling the initial challenges that Davidson were facing in their space and the impact it was having on their people, their teams and overall business performance. Exploring the inspiration in their corporate values and social pillars, and the solution in the finished design, we then discuss the impact that the space has had and continues to have on their people, their recruitment, the cross-disciplinary collaboration and to their bottom line.   This is Part 1 in a 2-part conversation. Part 2 will follow in next weeks episode as Jacqui and I are joined by Kylie Baullo, Petrina Stewart and Dan Mottau for a panel conversation on all things work, people and place.   Melbourne is our second stop in the festivity's celebration the launch of the book. Having kicked off in Brisbane, we finished in Sydney. All of these conversations are being shared right here on the podcast, so if you've missed the first two episodes from Brisbane, head back and tune into those. All up there will be 6 episodes sharing all of the conversations from the evenings, with so many takeaways on how we can all elevate our experience of work.   LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with Mel Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper

To celebrate the release of my book The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential, I hosted a series of events in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney to start a bigger conversation on all things work, people & place. And how we can leverage one of our greatest assets, our Work Place, to elevate our human potential.   Our first event was in Brisbane, hosted by Hall Chadwick, a past client of COMUNiTI.   In Part 1 of our conversation, shared with you in the last episode, Director Rob Sendall and I were interviewed by Nadia Taylor, CEO of Mapien, another past clients of COMUNiTI, were we reflected on “Unearthing a Brand Story; How Hall Chadwick went back to its roots to redefine the Employee Experience”.   Today in Part 2 of our Brisbane Launch conversation, Rob, Nadia and I are joined by Kate Hill, Corporate Real Estate at APA and Jessica Sharpe, Chief People Officer at Entain Aust, as we dive into a lively conversation.   Through this conversation we discuss the role of the employee experience in our workplace and how brand experience shows up and the purpose of the workplace and how this supports their organisations to perform. We close out our conversation with an emotive conversation on the controversial 4-day work week, the opportunities and challenges whilst also taking a look at what flexibility can look like in varying service and product-based industries.   LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with Mel Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper

To celebrate the release of my book The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential, I hosted a series of events in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney to start a bigger conversation on all things work, people & place. And how we can leverage one of our greatest assets our Work Place, to elevate our human potential.   Our first event was in Brisbane, hosted by Hall Chadwick, a past client of COMUNiTI. To kick off the conversations I invited Director Rob Sendall to join me as we were interviewed by another of my former clients at COMUNiTI, Nadia Taylor, CEO of Mapien.   Together we reflected on the journey we embarked on almost 6 years ago and the continued impact that the workplace has had on their business since. “Unearthing a Brand Story; How Hall Chadwick went back to its roots to redefine the Employee Experience”   This is the first part, in a two-part series from the evening. In Part 2, I'll be sharing with you the panel conversation that followed, where we are joined by Jessica Sharpe, Chief People Officer at Entain and Kate Hill, Corporate Real Estate at APA.   You can see more of the Hall Chadwick Project below; Case Study | Video   LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with Mel Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper

Creating employee incentive programs and wellbeing initiatives have been known to take a “scattergun approach” offering the infamous fruit box or step count challenge or even prove to be nothing more than lip service beyond a company announcement. However, to embed programs that make real transformative change to an organisation, the business first needs to understand their people and what would make the greatest impact on them and in return the organisation. And that's exactly how today's guest has approached the implementation of such successful initiatives in their organisation. Nicole Karagiannis is the Chief People Officer at Harrison.ai. With over 15 year's experience in the Human Resources sector. Forging her career at Westpac prior to working in the fintech, health and disability sector, Nicole combines her experience and deep passion of care with the future focus of technology, to lead the Talent, Business Partners, Learning and Development, and IT professionals who enable harrison.ai to grow meaningfully, whilst fostering a culture of innovation and inclusion. Harrison.ai is a health-tech scale-up dedicated to impacting millions of lives a day through comprehensive AI solutions as medical devices. The company operates two joint ventures: annalise.ai and franklin.ai. In her current role at harrison.ai, Nicole led the design of the organisation's innovative “Becoming a parent” program which provides support for employees and their partners through early pregnancy loss and miscarriage. In today's conversation we explore Harrison.ai's 6 pillar wellbeing program and how the pillar of Social Connection has impacted the design of their remote first workplace plus how Nicole came to develop the Becoming a Parent Program, the catalyst for the program, and how she developed a business case for the program that even got the CFO on board. If you are business leader looking to push the boundaries of employee experience and to innovate new ways to become an employer of choice, or an employee considering the next phase of your life in starting a family, this episode will inspire you to think bigger about how your workplace can make a meaningful and intentional difference in the lives of your people. LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with Nicole LinkedIn   Connect with Mel Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper

Businesses often miss a HUGE opportunity when they start designing their next workplace. Often jumping in and trying to solve the immediate problem, they either start scribbling on floor plans or heading straight to market to see what the best leasing deal is. And while both activities are part of the process, they are not where organisations should start. This approach will leave your business with a short-term fix, rather than looking at the long-term view of the horizon. The first chapter of my book The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential, and the first pillar in my Workplace Dynamics Blueprint, is Reimagining the Future of Work. And for good reason. This is the first step that so many businesses miss, leaving them with a workplace that they begin to quickly outgrow or is no longer fit for purpose. So. in today's episode I'm sharing the three key things that all businesses should do BEFORE they embark on this exciting adventure to creating the next workplace, and how you can maximise this opportunity that you are likely to only get every 10 or more years.  LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential” Connect with Mel Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website 

Introducing plants into our indoor environments can have an incredible impact on health, wellbeing and general disposition.  Biophilic Design has been gaining traction in the design industry for several years now, and if you're not familiar with this term, its essentially describing the innate human connection that we have with our natural world.  And in relation to our indoor environments, it is, in essence bringing the outside in.  Which is the perfect segway to introduce today's guest, Ryan McQuerry of Auckland based interior plantscape firm, Outside In.  As budding entrepreneur and lover of horticulture and nature, Ryan co-founded Outside In, in 2014.    Ryan and his team have been creating some incredible indoor plantscapes, describing the physical, emotional and profitable impact of introducing plants into our city workplaces, against the ability for us to access nature in our dense, built environments.   One of these projects is for litigation firm Meredith Connell in the heart of Auckland's CBD.  Inspired by the stress reducing, calm inducing great walks of New Zealand, Meredith Connell's CEO wanted to recreate this immersive experience in their CBD office, for all their employees.  Incorporating a custom designed Forest Floor and temperature-controlled forest terrarium, spanning 2 floors and 1,400sqm, this project is an incredible example of what is possible. Ryan shares with us the inspiration for the project, the technical aspects of the install along with the observed and reported impact that the space has had on their employees.  The first of its kind, this project is sure not to be the last to embrace immersive interior plantscapes.   LINKS Get your copy of Mel's new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”   Connect with the Outside In; Website | Email | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Meredith Connell Workplace Connect with Mel Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website