Meaningful Work Matters Designing Environments for Our Best Selves: Lessons from Jenna Mikus
Work does not happen in a vacuum. It happens in spaces that shape how we feel, think, connect, and grow.
In this episode, Andrew sits down with Jenna Mikus to explore what it means to design for human flourishing. Jenna brings a rare interdisciplinary lens that bridges architecture, wellbeing science, organizational design, and philosophy. Together, they unpack the concept of eudaimonic design and what it looks like in practice, from homes and workplaces to educational and community environments.
Key Takeaways
- Meaningful work depends on the environments that surround us, including physical, organizational, and social conditions.
- Eudaimonic design blends external structure with personal agency, recognizing that flourishing emerges through interaction, not control.
- Inclusive design strengthens wellbeing for everyone by offering choice, flexibility, and dignity across diverse needs and life stages.
- Sensory experience, awe, and delight play an underappreciated role in motivation, creativity, and connection at work.
- Designing for flourishing requires interdisciplinary thinking and a willingness to sit with complexity and uncertainty.
Why This Episode Matters
As organizations rethink work, space, and culture in a post-pandemic world, this conversation offers a deeper foundation for those decisions. Rather than asking how to bring people back or drive performance, we should consider what conditions help people become their best selves.
This episode expands the meaning of meaningful work by showing how design, wellbeing, and purpose intersect in everyday environments.
About Our Guest
Jenna Mikus is a strategic advisor and researcher who brings together architectural science and wellbeing science to shape environments that support human flourishing.
She is the Managing Partner of Eudae Group, where she guides organizations in designing spaces and experiences that elevate health, belonging, creativity, and innovation. Her work draws on more than twenty years of consulting experience, a background in engineering and design, and ongoing research across Human Buildings Interaction, salutogenic design, and inclusive environments.
Jenna also serves as the Flourishing by Design Chair and holds fellowship appointments with the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Wellbeing Science and Queensland University of Technology’s Centre for Decent Work and Industry.