How Hybrid Working Impacts Company Culture

Jan 25, 2022

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Leveraging Workplace As a Tool In the Platform of Work -

Matt Grimshaw, Founder of The Pioneers joins Bold Founder Caleb Parker for the eighth episode of Season 6 they discuss how company culture is created in the workplace.

They talk about creating workplaces that are both flexible and suitable for the needs and growth of the people within them, and explore what workplaces and company culture may look like post pandemic.

Matt shares his insights on the future of company culture, how to build a workplace that will complement the needs and interests of employees, and how working from anywhere might impact the future of our workplaces.

Connect with Matt Grimshaw on LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/grimshawmatt/

Connect with Caleb Parker on LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/calebparker/

If you have any questions or feedback on this episode, email podcast@workbold.co

Value Bombs:

I think there's a human need for being with the people you work with. - Matt

If I had a crystal ball in front of me, I would see a large percentage of employees in companies around the world fitting into a third category; a hybrid category. - Caleb

You've got to create a space that's attractive for people and people either need to use because they have to use those facilities, or that they want to use it. - Matt

We can't just sell a big white box with a bunch of desks in it and think that's good enough these days. We're at this point now where we know that we don't have to have an office to be productive and to get s**t done and to grow our company. - Caleb

Organisations with high psychological safety tend to outperform others. They tend to be more innovative and they tend to make fewer mistakes as well. - Matt

I'd like to think that the office and the workplace can still be leveraged as a tool, as part of the mix to support culture. - Caleb

Scale-ups grow very, very quickly and they are also trend setters. If you're working in an office place with a pool table, table football or free coffee, that started from the scale-up space. I think keeping an eye on what these innovative companies are doing is important and interesting. - Matt

Resources:

Shout Outs:

About Our Guests:

Matt Grimshaw

Connect with Matt Grimshaw on Linkedin

https://www.linkedin.com/in/grimshawmatt/

Matt is the founder of The Pioneers, who help scale-ups create cultures that make their people, customers, and investors happy.

They do this by helping them design and build their People Operating System, a systematic approach to people management that enables their clients to create a coherent people experience and a workplace that flows.

Matt got his law degree at Oxford University and prior to starting The Pioneers in 2008, was an HR change manager for a FTSE 100 manufacturing group DS Smith.

About Our Host:

Caleb Parker

https://www.linkedin.com/in/calebparker/

Caleb Parker is an American entrepreneur in London, and Founder of Bold (acquired by Newable/NewFlex in 2019).

He believes in "challenging the status quo" and is a champion for entrepreneurial and innovative thinking.

Caleb has served as founder, Board member, advisor, investor and consultant to numerous start-ups and small businesses, and has a keen focus on innovation and technology, with interests in the MICE market, Space-as-a-Service, and the future of work.

Caleb has been a guest lecturer, speaker, and moderator for topics such as entrepreneurship, the sharing economy, the future of work and commercial real estate at academic institutions and large corporations. He regularly takes the stage at numerous trade conferences as keynote speaker, MC, host or facilitator.

Earlier in his career, Caleb was named one of Savannah, Georgia's “40 under 40” business leaders" in 2006 after launching two successful small businesses in the city's booming hospitality industry. A year later he moved to Washington, DC to join the The Regus Group DC management team. In 2009, Caleb co-founded a flexible workspace consulting firm where he brokered flexible workspace and advised businesses on agile working strategies.

Caleb is one of the first licensed commercial real estate agents to speak on the flexible working trends and the rise of flexible workspace, and has been quoted in numerous publications.

Timestamps

[05:35] Matt gives a description of how The Pioneers support scale-ups.

Matt outlines how as a start-up founder your personal influence is your key tool to get the best out of your team.
As your company grows this will be insufficient and you will need a people management system that helps people work together effectively.
The Pioneers help people to build these systems.

[07:35] How is company culture created?

There’s no ‘one right answer’ to this question. A definition of culture taken by Edgar Schein describes company culture as shared learning or a distributed learning. It influences what people pay attention to and influences their decision-making and behaviour.
As a start-up, you try things. If they work you stick with it and the more ingrained that becomes within your organisation and within your culture.
Larger organisations will have a set of social norms that define what people need to notice, think, feel, and do in order to be accepted or to feel like they belong to the group. This is what is meant by culture.
There are four influences on organisational culture. The first is the personality, the values, the behaviours of your leaders and founders.
The second is events, the things that happen within the organisation. You'll respond to it. And if it works, you'll tend to stick with it.
The third thing is a meta culture. The cultural norms that apply across companies. The cultural assumptions will differ between companies and sectors.
The fourth factor is the situation or the system in which people work.

[09:50] What effect does ‘working from anywhere’ have on company culture?

Some companies have managed to create good company culture in a fully remote working environment. The hybrid workplace is a more challenging as there’s less established answers that you can pull out of a meta culture and apply to your organisation.
Fully remote organisations that work really well tend to be software-oriented companies that are comfortable with that asynchronous communication. And it's less well-suited where there are organisations have that human need to be together.

[14:00] How do you manage and give people the tools they need to excel under those guidelines and policies?

When you look at the workplace as part of a system for how you manage your people or how you want to work, it opens up opportunities for doing different things with your workplace in order to support the particular ways of working, or the culture you're trying to create within your organisation.

It’s about creating workspaces that work for people in and out of the room and to have access to different types of environments that will support the different needs of individuals on any given day.
In the future, shared workspaces may become more important and utilised for specific tasks.

[18:40] What trends are you seeing scale-ups utilise in order to grow and manage this growth?

Companies are moving away from traditional longer leases, big fit-outs and big spaces.
Scale-ups need the flexibility in how they engage with all the other providers that service their business.

[20:55] How do you see the workplace fitting in as a central place for employees to congregate at times?

Companies need to create a space that's attractive for people, and create a space people need to use either because they have to, or want to use the facilities within them.
If you can create a space that really connects and resonates with people’s needs, then people will keep coming back to you.

[22:50] When marketing a workplace, should we be proactive or reactive regarding how we make that space suitable for the company’s culture?

Both are important but establishing the needs, values and desired culture of each organisation is essential.
Providing the things that influence people's decision about whether they should join, thrive and stay in an organisation is important.
Working collaboratively and having the flexibility to tweak spaces as people grow is necessary to create culture.
The use of shared spaces for scale-ups is both collaborative and more cost effective.

[24:30] Coming out of COVID do you think there's lessons that more established companies could learn from scale-ups in terms of workplace and hybrid and remote working?

To change things that aren’t working. Be flexible in the workplace and respond to the unpredictability that we are currently facing.
Utilise the space in a way that gives you competitive advantage. Use your space in a way that drives a particular aspect of your culture or a particular aspect of your employee experience.

[27:30] Quickfire Round Questions

Matt’s go-to for inspiration is an old philosophy teacher, Mark Rock Rocky.
Matt would like to use a magic wand to bring hidden aspects of company culture to the surface, and to help organisations be more flexible, adapting to people's needs to allow them to flourish.
Matt’s favourite holiday destination is Italy. He loves the food and the weather there.

Sponsors

Headline Sponsor: TSK

TSK creates inspiring workplaces for some of the world’s biggest brands across the UK and Ireland, They’ve been working for 25 years to deliver the best employee experiences and the vision of their clients. Not only do they create great places to work, TSK share workplace content every week from the latest data to inspiring spaces they’ve designed and built. You can read their latest insights at www.tskgroup.co.uk or check out their LinkedIn and Instagram pages to become a follower, fan and friend.

Fortune Favours the Bold

Bold merges property management & Space-as-a-Service to drive asset value and help office customers grow faster. Now part of NewFlex (www.workbold.co)

Future Proof Your Portfolio with NewFlex

NewFlex delivers and manages a range of branded solutions for every type of building, in every type of location, for every type of occupier. Including the flexibility to develop your own brand. All enabled by flexible management contracts where we are invested in making money for you. (www.newflex.com)

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