Transforming Work with Sophie Wade

Rekha Magon is the co-founder and Head of Education at Boundless Life and an ed-tech entrepreneur. Rekha shares her journey from accounting to combining homeschooling and entrepreneurship before and during the pandemic, incorporating mindfulness as a key component. She describes the genesis of Boundless Life and explains their transformative approach to combine education, work, and community. Rekha shares the accelerating expansion of the lifestyle network as hundreds of families join Boundless to experience the multiple destinations—enabled for remote work, cultural immersion, and a forward-thinking education system for children.     KEY TAKEAWAYS   [02:43] With a love of math and interest in people, Rekha studies accounting and HR together.   [04:09] Rekha’s parents took her on meditation and mindfulness retreats from a young age which become integral to her life.   [05:19] Pregnant with her first child, Rekha has five months of bedrest to reflect on what fulfills her.   [07:56] In Thailand when the tsunami hit, Rekha found life full of purpose helping Thai people.   [09:25] Mindfulness is important for kids as well as adults and Rekha wants all children to benefit.   [11:06] Rekha’s son is not showing his usual curiosity and creativity in the traditional school system.   [12:08] With a fresh approach after much research, Rekha starts homeschooling her son.   [13:30] On bedrest, pregnant with her daughter, Rekha develops her company the Mindful Scholar.   [14:36] When the pandemic hits, Rekha joins a new learning venture using MIT’s creative pedagogy.   [16:44] The student led orientation and empowered education environment was hard to leave.   [18:37] Boundless Life begins with locations in Portugal, then Greece, Italy, and now Bali.   [19:06] Rekha explains the genesis of Boundless Life and the solution it offers for families.   [20:28] The founder offers Rekha an empty canvas to develop and run the education program.   [21:09] Rekha finds her children always grow and evolve significantly whenever they travel.   [22:38] Boundless Life’s creates an education system with the world at the forefront so children learn about other people as themselves.   [24:26] Boundless Life launches quickly during the pandemic—the time is ripe with parents working from home.   [25:23] For many people, it is a pivotal moment as they consider returning to a prescriptive life/lifestyle.   [28:04] Community becomes one of the biggest value propositions which was a surprise for the team.   [29:14] How does Boundless Life work? What do the different programs offer?   [31:16] Who are Boundless parents? How are they able to join the programs?   [32:44] New offerings for older kids and a travelling school!   [35:07] Rekha shares what happens to kids going back to “normal lives” after Boundless.   [36:54] Parents’ reactions when they get back home after their Boundless experience.   [38:35] Embracing the lifestyle, 40% of families join the longer term cohort—6, 9, and 12 months.   [41:14] Visas currently limit long-term stays, but Boundless enables families to try out a new country.   [42:20] The demand for programs for older kids implies a desire for a long-term lifestyle offering.   [43:00] Despite growing through word of mouth, hundreds of families have already participated in Boundless programs.   [44:03] Mostly US and Canadian to start, now more European families—including Italian, Greek and Polish—are signing up.   [44:45] Rekha explains Boundless offers the Nordic Baccalaureate curriculum.   [46:45] Breaking the older fear-based apprehensions about education is part of the process.       RESOURCES   Rekha Magon on LinkedIn Boundless.Life       QUOTES (edited)   “At this point, mindfulness wasn't a thing. Calm didn't exist. Headspace wasn’t doing anything specifically for kids. I just knew it was what I needed to teach my kids, but why should it only be my kids?.”   “Why can't families be able to travel and educate their kids at the same time?”   “I saw how my kids grew and evolved to the next levels whenever we were traveling. So to me, that was the most appealing part of this, facilitating more parents to be able to give this lifestyle to their children.”   “We need more kids to see each other and other people around the world as themselves and not as opposing enemies. The best way to do that is to take them to countries they've never been to and to get them to learn about the culture and feel like they're part of it.”   “Boundless puts older kids in more of a leadership role, and the younger ones have these mentors in their area. So I think there's a lot of growth when it comes from these social skills and communication skills and having the autonomy and responsibility to tackle real-world problems.”   “I think what we do experience is that some parents want something independent and alternative in terms of education, but they're still very much fear-based and still very indoctrinated that education needs to look like the way we were educated as kids.”

Barry O’Reilly is the author of the best-seller “Unlearn: Let Go of Past Success to Achieve Extraordinary Results”. He also co-authored best-seller “Lean Enterprise” — part of the Eric Ries series. Barry is also Co-Founder and Chief Incubation Officer at venture studio, Nobody Studios, and faculty at Singularity University. Barry brings insights from his career at the intersection of business model innovation, product development, organizational design, and culture transformation. He describes how we can learn but not make progress and how some discomfort enables breakthroughs. He explains what questions can help you identify where you get in your own way, and what small iterative changes can do for you.     KEY TAKEAWAYS   [02:22] Barry was interested in business but a new university tech course takes him by surprise.   [04:49] Barry moves to San Francisco to work for CitySearch.com which almost merges with Elon Musk’s first venture, Zip2.   [05:39] The power of technology in business becomes clear to Barry.   [06:28] When Barry finishes his degree his pre-signed job with an economic downturn.   [08:24] Barry moves to Edinburgh and starts building games for Sony, Sega, and Disney.   [09:20] Barry and team find out they have no idea how to scale when the business takes off.   [10:12] A 6-month sabbatical after 3 years working is Barry’s preferred working rhythm.   [11:44] Australia offers Barry an interesting opportunity in e-learning and ‘game’ businesses.   [13:02] On to London, Barry joins pioneers in the agile movement and shares the genesis story.   [14:34] Working at ThoughtWorks is a mad experience and a huge accelerator for Barry.   [15:11] The company was contrarian. It had no-rules, but a strong culture, setting the bar for how people showed up.   [16:12] Barry was inspired by Ricardo Semler, the young CEO of a Brazilian manufacturing company.   [18:17] Why have people report to you if they know what they’re doing?   [19:29] ThoughtWorks was 30% female engineers—publishing this data openly which supported diversity.   [21:16] Barry co-authors Lean Enterprise his first book.   [24:03] Barry’s ‘unlearning’ Aha! And Eureka moments in a Sichuan restaurant in San Francisco.   [25:40] Diagnosing limiting beliefs, ‘Unlearn’ as a system of experimentation.   [27:00] Asking the questions to find out where you’re stuck, what you’re afraid of doing.   [28:04] Barry offers piercing diagnostic questions--what 3-4 ideas do these questions raise for you?   [28:42] Barry’s personal example of using the Unlearn method.   [29:18] Figuring out what the outcome is you actually want.   [30:42] After defining the goal, experimentation starts with small uncomfortable shifts in behavior.   [33:48] Leaning into discomfort is one way to find breakthroughs.   [35:01] A senior bank executive used unlearning to stop making any decisions!   [38:10] Barry trains with BJ Fogg an innovators of behavior design, author of Tiny Habits.   [39:24] Defining your vision and future is key to finding focus and moving forward.   [43:22] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: You don’t just have one shot, you actually have many. If something didn’t go how you would like, that wasn’t IT. It was just a moment. Take the lessons from it—look for some hard lessons rather than to other folks as to why it didn’t work. Then dust yourself down and prepare for the next opportunity because it WILL arrive.     RESOURCES   Barry O’Reilly on LinkedIn Barry O’Reilly on X @barryoreilly BarryOReilly.com   Barry’s books: Unlearn: Let Go of Past Success to Achieve Extraordinary Results Lean Enterprise: How High-Performance Organizations Innovate at Scale.     QUOTES (edited)   “Every single person that walked through that door was bright, talented, and capable. Culture has a huge impact on the way people feel comfortable and how it can also cause an adverse reaction.”   “I strive not to have anyone to report to me. I want them to own their work. I want people to be engaged and focused on their work. I'll be there to provide feedback, guidance, mentorship, whatever it is. That's my responsibility.”   “If you don't make diversity visible people will not know it's a place that they can be. They need to see people like them in leadership roles.”   “A lot of Unlearn is a system of experimentation. You are diagnosing limiting behaviors or beliefs and reframing them as outcomes that you want, and then experimenting to drive those outcomes.”   “The trick is doing uncomfortable things but making them smaller.”   “You never learn stuff, if you don't create the space for it to happen.”   “What can hinder us from creating an exciting future for ourselves, each one of us is the habits of the past.”  

Danielle Farage is a Gen Z, digital native and nomad, and a work futurist. Danielle helps seasoned senior executives attract and better understand their young workers as well as giving advice to fellow early career talent so they can find employers who will support their growth and mental health. Danielle explains how vulnerable approaches help connect us with others’ experiences. She shares insights about what resonates with Gen Z, from culture, values, and leadership, to onboarding and career progression, especially for those entering the workforce for the first time.     KEY TAKEAWAYS   [02:46] Danielle's interests have always been closely connected with people, leading her to major in psychology.   [04:49] Danielle notices her older siblings did not love their jobs.   [05:17] Danielle asks herself why do companies not treat their employees like human beings?   [07:26] Focusing on leadership, Danielle discovers the best leaders have good human skills including empathy and active listening.   [08:18] Danielle’s first job is an internship turned full-time, turned remote by the pandemic, and deteriorates.   [10:45] Danielle has an exemplary leader as her next boss.   [12:23] Valuing a tough initial experience, Danielle is pushed further and develops a broad array of new skills   [13:49] Onboarding was a meaningful experience, firstly, highlighting diversity and inclusion and their steps to eliminate bias.   [15:39] Secondly, the Head of Sales breaks down Danielle’s goals showing they are interested in her growth.   [17:02] Why a three-month contract to start is such a win for Danielle.   [21:04] Producing different events, Danielle notices conversations about the Next Generation do not include inputs from Gen Zers.   [22:28] Danielle starts sharing her voice moderating ideas about mental health, culture, and leadership.   [24:25] Mixing a diversity of people and of ages is key to building generational bridges.   [25:15] Danielle's audiences on LinkedIn are mostly older decision makers and on Instagram are Gen Zers.   [26:39] Danielle finds being curious and open-minded, she is able to start changing people's minds.   [27:15] Danielle shares a recent situation explaining her point of view about leadership vulnerability.   [30:17] how people's experiences affect their perspectives about loyalty.   [31:11] What the right culture looks like to Danielle.   [35:23] Gen Zs didn't start ‘job-hopping’ or ‘quiet quitting’, they illuminate existing problems.   [37:08] Fear, uncertainty, expectations, and choices make career exploration challenging for Gen Z.   [40:35] Startup experience—wearing multiple hats—and rotational programs are helpful for early career talent to experience.   [41:10] To recruit and retain people, invest in them.   [42:29] Students coming out of college still don’t feel prepared for the workforce.   [45:00] Danielle asks friendtorship workshop attendees three questions to help them discover what they want to learn.   [46:50] Discovering people's knowledge bases, skills and interests to leverage people for the job they were hired into AND the job they might want to explore.   [48:48] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Inspire younger employees in ways that will benefit them as well as being vulnerable — such as sharing daily stressors as points of connection to empathize, and mutual support and accountability.   [53:24] Gen Z is motivated to make change but disheartened by how inauthentic Corporate America is.   [54:53] Danielle shares succinct advice for people whose career launch was impacted by the pandemic.     RESOURCES   Danielle Farage on LinkedIn     QUOTES (edited)   “Why does it seem like companies are treating people like cogs in a wheel rather than human beings with lives and aspirations and goals and children?... The problem must be that people in these organizations don't really understand what people want.” “It was a three-month contract, which I really appreciated: it’s a full-time job but if it’s not the right fit, it’s not the end of the world. And you haven’t invested so much into them to the point of an average employee, which can be a higher cost.”   “I would want my leader to talk about some of the vulnerabilities that they struggle with so that I could feel safe enough to come to tell them what I have to deal with.”   “You're looking at an entry-level job that requires you to have two to five years of experience, no guaranteed training, and there’s no pension, there’s no lifelong employment. You’re an at-will employee, which means you can literally be fired any time. Would you commit to staying 25 years with that?”   “The ideal is those rotational programs where you get to really experience different things. I think that’s the best investment a company can make in early career talent. I think it’s a great way to recruit and retain people.”

Sophie Wade is a work futurist and strategist, author and authority on the Future of Work, instructor on Gen Z, empathy, and Future of Work skills, and host of this show. Sophie discusses modern work—what it is, why and how it is different and human-centric. She explains how to adapt to be prepared for the ongoing changes around and ahead of us, accelerated by AI. Sophie sets the landscape, describes enterprise needs, and why employees are the focus for the future. She shares the core principles of modern work and why practicing empathy is key.     TAKEAWAYS   [00:45] Sophie wants to take stock of where we are and what’s ahead that we need to prepare for.   [01:27] Our environment is highly-digitalized and interconnected, generating fast-paced change.   [03:30] Artificial intelligence has become a top strategic priority for most businesses.   [04:19] Driven by technology, is your customer base changing, how you serve them, or how quickly you have to upgrade your products?   [04:49] To respond to marketplace demands, operations become more flexible and the nature of work evolves.   [05:52] The pandemic catalyzed us along a path we were already on.   [06:12] The impact of technology updates on employees needing frequently to upskill and reskill.   [07:07] Why enterprises need to create a skills inventory and be mapping every employee’s skills.   [07:28] Hierarchies have flattened for businesses to be more nimble.   [08:10] Non-linear careers must be planned and managed even when skills and roles are evolving.   [08:50] Internal talent marketplaces and cross organization relationships facilitate non-vertical career development.   [09:41] Why younger employees quit if they can’t easily move internally with their current employer.   [10:43] Jobs with high and low automation potential can be compared for skills matching to assess possible future transfers.   [11:53] How BCG consultants used GPT4 and completed more tasks faster and better!   [13:11] Why the Future of Work is tech-driven and talent-focused.   [13:54] Empathy is essential in modern work to ensure the emphasis is on people.   [14:38] Each business is different so there are principles of modern work to adapt appropriately.   [15:10] The core principles of modern work are: Learning, Intention, Flexibility, and Empathy.   [16:25] Why workers need to be creators.   [17:04] Thinking outside the box is critical and what the box symbolizes—before and now.   [17:45] A strong culture is essential, grounded by empathy and other timeless values.   [18:50] AI is likely to net out creating more jobs, but much will shift during the transition.   [19:10] What is the broader impact of encouraging your team to use of AI?   [20:11] Empathy can help us focus on progress rather than more debates about work locations.   [20:52] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: To start the transition to modern work, be curious and open-minded. Ask coworkers for ideas and recommendations and explore new possibilities. Curiosity primes you for learning, being flexible, and empathy about other’s viewpoints.   [21:27] Modern work IS different—adjusting for our new environment as well as enterprise and employee needs.   [22:17] The process of transformation is messy, but there are great benefits all round when we create and co-create together.     RESOURCES   Sophie Wade on LinkedIn   Sophie’s personal/speaker website   Sophie company Flexcel Network’s website     QUOTES   “These change that are upon us has been building in momentum for years already and causing strain within our fixed internal structures.”   “We have been transitioning for years already to modern work which is about flexibility—accommodating activities that are less linear, less routine, with more collaborative and cross disciplinary.”   “Numerous rigid layers of hierarchy have intentionally been reduced significantly in many cases to enable businesses to be more nimble and responsive.”   “Stronger relationships are critical to develop deliberately across organizations to permit non vertical career development, so that managers are willing to share one of their rising stars to another team or division.”   “For now, it is easier for employees to quit to advance their careers than move within their own organization.”   “The Future of Work is tech-driven and talent focused.”   “Empathy is essential in modern work—giving us each ability to understand other’s perspectives and connect with their experiences.”   “Everyone providing value to your business across your entire workforce needs to be a “creator”.”

Joe O’Connor is the Director and Co-founder of the world's first Center of Excellence in Work Time Reduction. Joe brings his previous experience as CEO and global pilot program manager of 4 Day Week Global, where he led the design and implementation of four-day week trials all over the world. Joe explains the intention and process of reduced-hour, productivity-focused new work routines and shares data, insights, and predictions having supported over 200 employers and 10,000 employees make the transition.     TAKEAWAYS   [03:00] After studying accounting, Joe does a master’s in strategy and innovation management.   [03:57] Leading a work-related research project within the Irish Public Service, Joe makes a surprising discovery that working parents can achieve the same results in less time.   [05:16] Applying Parkinson’s law in reverse, what might be possible? Joe wonders.   [06:57] Competitiveness, productivity, and hours worked—how the US and Europe actually compare!   [07:27] The short workweek is public sector driven in Europe and by private sector experimentation in the US and Canada.   [08:33] The private sector catches up where the initial impetus comes from government, eg Iceland.   [09:08] Technology advances previously reduced worktime, but that hasn’t happened recently in the US and the UK.   [10:00] What the 4-day week really means in Iceland and elsewhere.   [11:27] The central premise of the 4-day week and associated commitment.   [12:14] The different variations that companies adapt for their specific business and workforce.   [13:11] Worldwide, companies’ interest in experimenting with reduced work time skyrockets with the start of the pandemic.   [14:46] Infrastructure needs to be developed to support the number and variety of organizations trialing the 4-day week.   [16:20] Why we should focus on the process of HOW to adhere to the 4-day week.   [17:08] How participants’ habits change and what potential is unlocked.   [18:03] Inefficiency and optimization lie in “off system” tasks that aren’t designed or documented.   [18:56] Why operational excellence must be at the core of a trial project.   [21:01] The diagnostic phase answers: readiness, constraints and challenges, and optimal structure/model.   [22:17] The corporate culture—and related mindset—affects a pilot project’s progress.   [23:27] Companies most likely to succeed have cultures that elevate trust, autonomy, and experimentation.   [25:49] Key hurdles to overcome: resetting boundaries and expectation and aligned resource management.   [27:22] Clients are part of projects too—benefiting from transparent communication.   [28:53] Three implementation variations relate to (a) pre-work, (b) a graduated rollout, (c) client interaction.   [30:21] Recognizing and adjusting for interdependencies is critical—requiring flexibility for employees.   [31:23] Understanding trade-offs and hand-offs.   [32:19] The 4-day week is not about eliminating discretionary effort or flexibility.   [33:04] Framing the intention: redesign and bite-size rather than intensify and speed up.   [33:50] The essence is to eliminate wasted efficiency and unlock potential, incentivizing psychological behavioral benefits.   [35:25] Some leaders ‘just do it’ and—rather chaotically—make it work!   [36:10] The high success rate results from organizations self-selecting.   [36:41] A few companies dropped out usually caused by some other unexpected significant change.   [37:20] Most organizations can make the 4-day week work with clear benefits for attraction and retention.   [38:18] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: To propose a four-day week trial at your company, pitch a feasibility study to build the business case, recognizing the conditionality of a trial based on hitting targets and offering nascent thinking about what could be done differently.     RESOURCES   Joe O’Connor on LinkedIn Work Time Reduction Center of Excellence on LinkedIn Work Time Reduction Center of Excellence website     QUOTES   “There is not a linear relationship between hours worked and productivity.”   “The idea that advances in productivity and technology can be shared in the form of reduced work time has been an age-old reality.”   “On one side there's a commitment to a genuine reduction in hours for the same salary, and on the other side there's a commitment to maintaining output which in itself assumes some form of increase in terms of hourly productivity.”   “I think part of the reason why some leaders and some organizations are resistant to this idea is because of how it gets interpreted in the media. It's very outcome driven rather than process driven. It's focused on the results rather than how organizations did it.”   “I think one other misunderstanding about the shorter work week is that it is a very rigid model. Actually this is not about eliminating flexibility. This is not about eliminating discretionary effort.”   “If you've got a top down command and control style leadership this is probably not going to work. It relies on a very bottom up approach where there's a partnership between employees, managers, and leaders.”

Francis “Fran” Saele is Managing Principal at Mortevita which provides specialty consulting on the new knowledge workplace and corporate real estate. Fran has deep experience in the corporate real estate sector. He shares his insights and views about the history, dynamics, and future of office infrastructure and the evolving impact on Central Business Districts. Fran is passionate about new ways of working and the workplace transformation that supports it—developing the infrastructure of distributed work. He discusses workplace flexibility and the timing for making decisions and moving forward.   KEY TAKEAWAYS   [03:27] Fran starts studying psychiatry but moves to psychology after challenging lab sessions!   [05:03] Fran is tasked with finding a purpose for a newly built building with a lot of empty space and catches the development bug.   [06:37] The difference aspects of real estate and development work.   [08:11] Speculative development requires incorporating flexibility to allow adjustments for prospective landlords' and tenants' needs.   [09:56] Market needs differ, but similarities remain regarding office spaces.   [11:00] In the decade before the pandemic, large businesses' trend to centralize operations generated Central Business District (CBD) clusters.    [12:40] To compete for talent, Fran had already developed remote working capabilities for his team before 2020.   [15:00] The mechanisms that enabled quick adaptations to remote work.   [17:44] Why there are 'Return To Office' mandates and why the push is a mistake.   [20:30] How organizations are thinking about mitigating reduced office usage.   [25:11] Can the shock to the corporate real estate sector trigger a recession?   [27:11] How can we reuse of office spaces: Condos? Vertical farming?   [30:21] Smucker’s workplace flexibility model developed after discussion with employees.   [33:44] Hybrid isn’t meant as a permanent solution. Working out compromises will require “Smucker’s” type moments.   [36:10] The tension surrounding 'Return To Office' mandates have yet to result in mass action by employers.   [40:14] The role the public sector has to play in reinventing business areas.   [42:41] Fran explains the future of the office within the community, including the evolution of malls.   [46:30] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: To discover the right work model for your company, do a meaningful diagnostic to find out what your company needs to be and wants to be in the future and how best to get there. Identify management bias first, then talk to employees and understand what makes sense from their perspective. Then decide how best to redesign to achieve more progressive workplace operations, which drive real estate decisions.   RESOURCES   Fran Saele on LinkedIn fran.saele@mortevita.com     QUOTES (edited)   “There's a natural instinct in everyone to return to a homeostatic state—a state that worked well for you. Hence the ‘Return To Office’.”   “If you talk to anybody in a real estate organization: service providers, brokers, owners, or lenders, they recognized that any material change to how work was done was going to be a threat to their investments, their loans, and their economic future.”   “There are billions of dollars of existing financing on thousands of buildings across the country that will come up for refinancing. How much is that going to affect the non-real estate sector, and does it have the potential to drive the economy into a very deep recession?”   “Hybrid was never really intended to be a final solution. It was a compromise solution that allowed employees to have some time away and management to have people back in the office.”   “I think organizations need to be careful about being too pushy on ‘Return To Office’. A matter like this is likely to lead to some type of labor action, some attempts to move in the direction of unions.”   “They’ve got to figure out what to do with the buildings. If they don't, if there is no mission at all — and this will be true for a lot of B, C, and D quality buildings around the country — they’re going to at some point demolish them because there will be no uses that make any sense.”   “The infrastructure of distributed work is going to happen, it’s just going to take time. Getting rid of the large investment in CBD office is going to take time.”

Paula Allen, Global Leader and SVP of Research and Client Insights at Telus Health, brings her career-long expertise spanning health and productivity management, workplace and mental health, and total well-being strategies for the workplace. Paula shares her insights about how increased uncertainty and overwhelm in a fast-changing world affect workers. She explains why investing in a strong culture and relationships at work, and well-being initiatives which focus on empathy and recovery, are key to achieving and sustaining a healthy workforce and business outcomes.     KEY TAKEAWAYS   [03:03] Images of stress-related structural brain changes cause Paula to study neuropsychology.   [06:00] Paula is appalled witnessing how adults with mental health issues are treated in the workplace.   [06:32] The CEO asks if Paula wants to change the situation—she says “Yes!”.   [07:17] Paula boldly calls a prior CEO at her company after hearing him talk about providers’ failings.   [08:14] They had the opportunity to redesign the system from the beginning so people struggling would get what they needed.   [09:30] With an empathy-based approach for physical health, they achieve better outcomes.   [10:30] With access to research, Paula hones in on the drivers behind different workplace behaviors.   [12:27] Focusing on and sharing expectations of recovery are beneficial all round.   [13:30] They discover a correlation between the decrease in middle management and increase in mental illness.    [14:30] Most supervisors know something is “off” early on, but they just don’t know what to do.   [16:45] A manager’s core job is to ensure teams are productive but that only happens when people are feel safe and get training.   [18:20] We have had a reset relating to mental health since the pandemic.   [18:58] Because people derive part of their identity from their work, fostering a healthy environment is critical.   [20:35] A few reasons why employees in need are not using their employer’s benefits.   [22:32] Stigma comes from lack of knowledge; Paula shares an interesting way to reframe how we treat people who are struggling.   [24:36] Occupational health is also mental health. Paula notes her predictions with the coming change of pace with AI.   [28:17] Paula talks about the recent organization-led innovations in the mental health space and shares some interesting demographic data.   [31:12] The very real increase in stress younger generations is having to live with and how to face it.   [33:08] Paula touches on the increasing pace of change and its negative impacts on human mental health — and what to do about it.   [36:23] Paula shares an interesting research parallel between the management of dementia and overwhelm.   [38:18] The Stockdale paradox.   [40:30] Paula discusses the types of support benefits that exist today and the ones that would be ideal for flexible, distributed workforces.   [44:41] The solution to mental health in the workplace is multi-layered.   [46:26] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Our best source of resilience is our relationships with other people. Social support is the core of everything to feel a sense of belonging in some group. So if you are feeling off, reach out and talk to someone — you don’t have to talk about what the issue is. Just be connected. On the other side let people in your life understand that they’re important and keep connected to them.     RESOURCES   Paula Allen on LinkedIn Telus.com Telus’ Mental Health Index Telus Mental Health Index July 2023     QUOTES (edited)   “Giving people what they need allows the clinical work to come to fruition.”   “When you look at drivers of productivity, of absence, of turnover, of innovation, of collaboration, of really strong workplace culture, you end up coming back to mental health and well-being.”   “A manager’s job is to help make sure that their teams are productive. People are not going to be productive if they don’t feel safe. We’re not training managers to be counselors, clinicians, or psychologists! We’re training them to create healthy workplaces that are productive.”   “If your people aren’t in a good place, you’re not going to be in a good place as an organization. The pandemic made this pretty clear.”   “Make sure that people do not feel alone, that they feel connected to your workplace. Have team meetings that are small enough that people can’t be on a screen with the camera off. If your employee is feeling isolated in your workplace relationship, you are going to pay for it and they are going to suffer.”  

Dan Mapes is the Founder and President of Verses.AI, an advanced artificial general intelligence and spatial web company, and Founder and Director of the Spatial Web Foundation enabling the 3D Internet. He also co-authored the best-selling book, The Spatial Web. Dan explains what globally networked artificial general intelligence can do now, what will become possible soon—especially with AI-run operations—and his vision of our AI-empowered planet in 2100. Dan discusses augmented working capacities, our ongoing caterpiller-like metamorphosis, and how we can all benefit by learning about and leaning into our growing capabilities. KEY TAKEAWAYS   [02:37] Working on his PhD in AI at Berkeley, Dan clearly sees the ultimate goal of creating software that rewrites itself.   [03:36] ChatGPT is a machine rather than a self-evolving system which can learn from its mistakes.   [05:02] The ultimate software interface would be a 3-dimensional environment.   [06:04] Dan creates a lab to do R&D and work across sectors to solve intractable computer problems.   [07:14] The role of game theory in our lives and when developing artificial intelligence.   [08:23] Dan’s lab develops: databases that handle game objects, early capabilities to move images over a network, digital humans.   [10:18] How biological design using an action perception modeling cycle is a game changer in a co-evolutionary process.   [14:16] There are two classes of AI now—(1) content creation (neural nets) and (2) operations.   [16:28] We are at a new inflection point—leaving the industrial age and entering an intelligent globally networked age.   [17:40] Dan shares a practical use case—his company won an EU contract to manage drones in flight.   [20:40] The new AI enabled a universal language of AI – Hyper Space Modeling Language HSML.   [22:46] Dan describes what sharing a co-evolutionary brain worldwide means with collective intelligence rising.   [27:13] How the internet developed into the World Wide Web.   [29:12] The internet was always going to evolve into the Spatial Web once bandwidth increased enough.   [30:43] What the Internet of Everything will look and feel like as the 3D Spatial Web.   [33:25] The worldwide web’s three big flaws are being fixed by identity, security, and location layers.   [37:04] How everyone having self-sovereign identity improves privacy with zero knowledge proofs.   [39:16] The data exchange built into the Spatial Web allows each person to trade their personal data, if desired.   [40:12] Shopping will be a very different experience with AI-enabled mass personalization.   [41:43] The worldwide web aas a prototype—a useful 25-year experiment preparing us for what’s next.   [43:24] Dan anticipates a shift of similar magnitude to when we transitioned to the Industrial Age.   [45:24] When the network IS the economy, workers are location independent nodes on the network.   [46:43] We are transitioning to a planetary civilization, thinking about key problems at a planet level.   [48:50] Transforming education outcomes when AI can assess capabilities and personalize learning.   [51:34] The caterpillar, the butterfly, and the metamorphosis we are currently cocooning through.   [56:20 Dan’s vision of abundance moving beyond the Industrial Age and cooperating at global scale.   [57:09] Understanding the historical and potential trajectory of planetary wealth.   [58:59] What might be possible combining AI and quantum computing?!   [1:00:44] Evolutionary force is driving new developments—such as creating a digital neocortex to augment the human neocortex.   [1:03:57] Earth is an evolutionary planet.   [1:05:40] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: To prepare and start adapting for an AI-powered future — learn more, educate more — read whitepapers, watch relevant videos and interviews — and come from a fundamental position of trust; trust with care. Feel positive about what we are evolving toward while paying attention to possible misuses.     RESOURCES   Dan Mapes on LinkedIn Verses.ai spatialwebfoundation.org     QUOTES (edited)   “We want what humans are. We don’t download better brains, we learn every day, evolving an interior model of reality. A baby has a small model, a child has a larger model, and an adult has a sophisticated model, so they can make better decisions. So the same thing with software. That’s been the dream of AI for a long time.”   “We are on the cusp of a new civilization that can do things we couldn’t do during the Industrial Age. It looks like another inflection point. We left the Ag (Agricultural) Age and entered the Industrial Age. Now we're leaving the Industrial Age and entering an Intelligent Global Network Age. And we’re the only company in the world doing this.”   “The whole era from 1970 to today is 5% of what the Spatial Web is going to do. Instead of connecting every machine or every document to each other, it's going to connect every building in the world, every car, every boat, every train, every plane, everything. It’s the Internet of Everything.”   “The Spatial Web knows exactly where everything is and the AI functions as its own immune system. It knows where things are. If there’s a bad actor, people report it and the ISP takes it down.”   “I’m a free person and I don’t have to report who I am to everybody. Having self-sovereign identity unlocks a really interesting concept called zero-knowledge proofs.”   “You own your data in the Spatial Web. You have an identity. You’re not being surveilled and sold, so you can sell your data. We built data exchange into the spatial web and we’ll buy from you and sell it for you to the advertisers. But you can choose.”   “The last time we went through such a major shift was when we left the farm and moved to the cities and people had to quit farming. It used to take 80 people to run a farm and once you had mechanization of the farm, it was eight people. So, we say “Oh my God! We’re losing our jobs!” No, no! You move to the city and learn to make tractors.”   “We’re moving toward a planetary civilization. Our climate problems are planet-level, our weapons proliferation problems are planet-level, we think at planet-level. We’re waking up.”   “An average working person [today] at median level income lives better than the King of England did 100, 200 hundred years ago. The king would trade immediately! If you got sick 200 years ago, you’re probably dead. That means that the average person in 2100 may be wealthier than the wealthiest person is today.”   “The caterpillar butterfly model is such a valid model because you could never predict the butterfly from the caterpillar. It’s a little fat worm crawling around on a stick, and then this thing comes out flying for 5,000 miles and has some kind of intrinsic knowledge of where it’s going. So we probably have intrinsic knowledge of where we’re going. The DNA of what we’re about to become is already within us.”   “A turtle will lay eggs on the beach and the little baby turtles will crawl to the water when they hatch, and then they’ll swim for two years in the open ocean, come back to the exact beach where they were born, and lay their eggs. I mean, that is machine intelligence, maximum.”

Chase Warrington is Head of Remote at Doist, a LinkedIn Top Voice on Remote Work, Global Top 20 Future of Work Influencer, Future of Work advisor, and host of the About Abroad podcast. Chase discusses his more than 15 years of remote team leadership. He shares insights, strategies, and tactics to elevate culture and connection—with a strong in-person strategy—across a fully distributed company. Chase explains how they select and onboard people effectively and teach employees how to work well asynchronously with a foundation of a culture of documentation.   KEY TAKEAWAYS   [02:40] Chase has moved to Crete for a few months for a new work/life environment and experience.   [03:27] At college, Chase’s international studies pair him with students in Shanghai to work on a project.   [04:34] Chase enjoys an internship experience working in media in China.   [05:10] Learning a different language, with different expectations around work, and a foreign culture.   [07:14] How Chase figured out working in a cubicle was not for him.   [07:56] How Chase’s mother turned her nursing career into a remote job working 4 days a week in 1999!   [09:02] Chase starts looking for jobs that will allow him not to be office-based.   [10:14] Negotiating with a prospective employer to be on the one team that works remotely.   [11:34] Learning early how to work asynchronously.   [12:42] Experiencing firsthand, the disadvantage of being remote from a great office culture.   [14:54] Chase takes a gap year with his wife, traveling and working.   [16:16] Missing being part of a team, Chase looks for a rare fully-remote non-engineer job.   [17:52] Chase joins Doist heading up their international marketing team.   [18:58] How to make Doist a company synonymous with remote work—part of the wave of the future.   [19:59] After the pandemic hits, how can they stay at the forefront of the remote evolution to help build the Future of Work?   [22:30] Doist finds most people in N. America and Europe work in similar ways, resulting in an inward focus developing new products.   [24:51] Chase focuses on culture and connection to improve Doist’s already high remote working standards.   [26:01] Chase does internal and external research to figure out how to build more meaningful connections.   [27:28] With a culture of strong documentation, they rethink their central source of truth approach.   [29:32] Chase restructures and formalizes the focus on culture and connection—their IRL Strategy.   [31:19] How Doist employees work hyper asynchronously!   [32:25] How to connect people socially who work very asynchronously.   [33:47] The purposeful way Doist handles onboarding—in-person and online.   [34:40] New hires are assigned a mentor for six months.   [35:58] Doist tries to schedule two synchronous activities a month and two whole company trips a year.   [37:38] The people that come to asynchronous companies, and those who leave them.   [39:38] The role of local communities in supporting remote working employees.   [42:41] Changing the way we work is not easy, Chase encourages leaders to think about if they are building for yesterday, today, or tomorrow.   [44:42] A strong in-person strategy—including offsites and retreats—is key to building strong remote companies.   [46:58] On About Abroad, Chase’s podcast.   [49:05] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: The ultimate goal is for asynchronous work to be the default. Put a stake in the sand for what percentage of asynchronous work you are committing to. Then start optimizing the way your company works. Question every single work-related activity to see if it fits the async or synchronous model better. Create a culture of documentation and meetings become the last resort, not the first.     RESOURCES   Chase Warrington on LinkedIn Doist.com About Abroad Podcast aboutabroad.com     QUOTES (edited)   “This proximity bias is something that just happens even in the best, well-intentioned companies.”   “There’s plenty of data to back up the fact that while all these CEOs are worried about remote workers not working, they should probably be more worried about burnout and overwork than they should people not showing up to work.”   “Nobody reports having, on average, more than five hours of meetings per week!”   “We urge people to get out to disconnect from work. You don’t get rewarded for working long hours or being the first or the last one online. We want people to show up fully and disconnect completely.”   “We fund people! If you need a co-working space, it’s covered. Gym membership? Covered. Activities outside? Learning and education and social groups? Covered.”   “There’s plenty of research out there from unbiased resources that show that while we’re seeing a dip in work-from-home days compared to in the middle of the pandemic, we’re still five, six, seven times where we were pre-pandemic.”   “There’s this whole mentality that remote first means remote only, but everybody that has been in this space for a while believes that not to be the case.”   “Incorporating a really strong in-person strategy is becoming a core element of doing remote really well.”  

Lata Hamilton is a change leadership expert, change management consultant, and creator of the "Leading Successful Change" program. Lata has worked with some of Australia’s largest companies on operating model changes, global cultural transformations, and digital transformations. She shares her insights about leading people to achieve long-lasting change, especially paying attention to offline process elements. She discusses learnings from pandemic pivots, change leaders’ examples, and a winning top-down/bottom-up combined approach. Lata describes the emphasis shifting from tasks and roles to skills and expertise contributing value to deliver results.     KEY TAKEAWAYS   [03:12] Lata starts her career in advertising to explore her creative side.   [05:35] Lata assesses the career model looking for balance—fulfilling work and being well-compensated.   [06:52] A graduate program offers many growth opportunities.   [07:52] Lata is ambitious, wants variety, and to make an impact.   [08:35] How pay should match professional growth and upskilling.   [09:48] Lata moves sector using her transferable skills.   [10:37] Process work becomes Lata’s focus.   [11:32] Lata leaves a graduate role having documented all the team processes.   [12:27] In financial services, Lata develops compliance and process skills and discovers project management.   [14:14] A colleague suggests change management after reviewing Lata’s range of skills and experience.   [16:00] What hadn’t Lata mentioned that is critical for change management work?   [17:48] The employee experience drives a great customer experience.   [18:39] How they pivoted at a major retailer when the pandemic hit.   [21:33] The deep caring Lata observed from people working on the frontline.   [22:34] How the change team led by example to demonstrate new ways of working.   [23:46] Affecting change, the critical work is off the system—offline process elements such as culture.   [25:33] During the pandemic, having had no preparation there was much remediation and helping to transition and cope after the fact.   [28:30] Change can be painful, taking much commitment and energy.   [29:16] Lata shares what can go wrong for companies not preparing for the future.   [31:08] Lata sees an explosion of AI automation and workforce transformation.   [31:22] Many organizations are recognizing they have low change management capabilities.   [32:58] Lata’s prediction that people’s roles will matter less than who they are, their skills and expertise used to deliver value and results rapidly.   [33:57] How “Business As Usual” roles and job descriptions need to be rethought and employees empowered.   [35:52] Lata questions leaders’ productivity baseline and metrics used to support Return To Office mandates.   [37:15] How should we be measuring success?   [38:54] Leading indicators for profit are a reflection of the employee experience.   [40:18] Why track sentiment and how confidence—determining how people show up—can bridge gaps.   [42:22] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: To affect lasting change, lead from the top and model the change, and also open it up, co-create, and co-design with your teams. Invite them to provide feedback, give them tools, and teach them how to think critically and flexibly, building their capabilities to accept change in their personal and professional lives.   [45:30] – How a hackathon co-creates a new operating model and gets people committed to the future state.   [47:00] The multiple benefits of tapping into people’s desire to pass on their skills and knowledge.     RESOURCES   Lata Hamilton on LinkedIn Visit: www.latahamilton.com Leading Successful Change course     QUOTES (edited)   “Change management is really a focus on people in order to reach a result.”   “It’s not fluffy. We help people move from doing things in one way to doing things in a new way. We do it through communications, training, and business readiness. We do it to realize business benefit that is actually successful, sustained, and embedded into the future.”   “There is this big trend to build change capability. There’s also a trend around right-sizing teams and looking at how are we operating: ‘What do we need for the future?’ We are going is going require workforces that are more empowered.”   “From a workplace relations and employment relations perspective, we’re still stuck in the industrial era.”   “When people feel like they get communicated to, they are confident in what they are doing or the change that’s coming down the line.”   “If I am feeling really confident then I’m willing to be flexible and to adjust my approach.”   “I know I’m gonna be leaving a role, so I’ve always just wanted to come in, share as much as I can, and deliver as much value as I can. I want to leave the team better than what I started with. And I want to leave them with skills, tools, and capabilities to carry on this great work after I’ve gone.”   “When you co-create job descriptions you’re suddenly doing two things. You’re getting people committed to the future state. But what you’re also doing is you’re helping people to write themselves into roles.”