Transforming Work with Sophie Wade

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

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

Annie Dean, Vice President and Global Head of Team Anywhere at Atlassian, discusses her transformative work in modern workplace experiences. She shares insights on rationalizing meetings and fostering productivity through asynchronous collaboration. Annie highlights the importance of empathy and values in supporting distributed work and how flexible practices emerged pre-pandemic. She reflects on her journey from law to workplace transformation, advocating for a culture that embraces change, driven by data and technological advancements.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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