Afleveringen
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Dart Lindsley is Strategic Advisor, People Experience at Google. He is also a writer, speaker, and host of the Work for Humans podcast â on a mission to humanize work. Dart share insights about his realization that businesses are multisided marketplaces where employees are (overlooked) customers of work and work is a product. To better design the work product, Dart recognizes teamsâ agency and ability to allocate their attention among themselves to complete tasks effectively. He discusses a flipped org chart with managers in supportive, rather than authoritative, roles. Dart advocates for more leadership closest to the customer.
TAKEAWAYS
[02:05] Dart is an undergraduate for seven years partly because his brother told him never to graduate!
[03:47] Dart explores unpopular forms of writing which makes earning a living hard.
[04:37] Being a criminal defense investigator rearranges Dartâs soul.
[06:45] After a masterâs degree, Dart becomes a recruiter to earn more as he starts a family.
[08:34] Dartâs family are scientists, so his career transitioned to analytical work after a recruiting downturn.
[09:49] Dart inserts himself into the team doing strategic work designing the new staffing system.
[10:52] Finding a home in analytical disciplines which are less burdensome and emotional.
[12:26] Dart explores tooling, UX, change management and Six Sigma, ending up with organizational design.
[13:36] Facilitating business architecture resonates with Dart who is very interested in how large systems create experiences.
[15:03] Companies are ânâ dimensional: humans cannot observe them or handle more than 3 dimensions.
[15:49] Human Resources had not been analyzed from a business architecture point of view before.
[17:03] Business architecture is only needed for companies going through significant transformation to discover new operational capabilities needs and how they interrelate.
[18:08] Translating strategic capability requirements into tech systems and architecture is not easy.
[20:48] Business architecture change derives from either market changes or new tech capabilitiesâas now.
[21:20] The pace layer of technology is usually the slowest thing. Not now, so much experimentation is needed.
[22:35] Dart initially subscribes to the traditional model of HR where employees are the inputs of production.
[23:48] Employee has happiness has not been a concernâonly productivity which Dart finds ethically flawed.
[25:10] Dart notices âemployeesâ show up in two placesâinside (production inputs) and outside (customers).
[25:59] Working on a patent for Cisco, Dart explores multi-sided businesses and realizes employees are also (forgotten) customers.
[28:25] If employees are customers, what are we selling them? We need to design work better.
[29:03] Do people want only autonomy, mastery and purpose? Dart finds 35+ more answers!
[30:15] People usually want 8 things from work. Only 4 likely overlap, so how to optimize individually?
[31:05] Lack of autonomy is a cost of a job, like social anxiety and threats to health and safety.
[32:33] Managers are key to a design-centered solution.
[33:28] Design is about empathy, understanding employeesâ needs, scaling with managers below on the org chart.
[34:10] Managers are brokers between demand for the teamâs labor and the market for workâthe work people want to do.
[37:10] A team can act as a smart organism allocating its attention to work and delivering value.
[38:32] Color coding how rewarding work isâgreen, yellow, and red. What happens when colors change.
[39:41] The range of issues and solutions affecting the cost side of work.
[42:14] How do we design our lives so as not to be âinputs of productionâ?
[43:31] How a team agrees on what business value is and the core mission.
[44:25] Is the manager winning the work the team wants to do? And the type of client the team wants?
[47:10] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: To enable a dexterous organization, let the edges closest to the customers lead. Giving more agency to the agents will facilitate guided emergence, while anchoring your organization with values, purpose, and focus.
RESOURCES
Dart Lindsley on LinkedIn
Dartâs website
Dartâs Work for Humans podcast
Bill Burnetâs book âDesigning Your Lifeâ
QUOTES (edited)
âif you're an input to production and my main objective is to make you productive, then if I can make you productive by being happy, great. But, if I can make you productive and you're miserable, great. It's not a concern.â
âThe only reason I'm going to care about a human is because of what they give me as a company? It just struck me as like ethically flawed.â
âFor the first 10 years of working in HR, I subscribed to the traditional model of HR which is that employees are inputs of production who must be acquired.â
âIf employees are customers, what are we selling them? Weâre selling them work. If workâs a product, then itâs a design problem and we can design it better.â
âManagers are designers, even âproductâ managers. [They act] as a broker between two markets. One market is the demand for the labor of the teamâso the value that flows towards the traditional customer. The other is the market for work and the work that people want to do.â
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Melissa Puls is the Chief Marketing Officer and SVP of Customer Success at Ivanti which provides software solutions that elevate and secure EverywhereWork. Melissa brings deep experience building and leading decentralized teams. She shares her critical learnings that have enabled effective teamwork and successful outcomes. Melissa discusses key principles when implementing flexibility, the importance of change management, and how to identify non-performing remote team members. Melissa describes the holistic support distributed employees need, especially including IT and security.
TAKEAWAYS
[02:27] Melissa studies communications and psychology not realizing their connection with marketing.
[03:40] Melissaâs mother is head of marketing at a tech company teaching Melissa women can do anything.
[04:17] Her entrepreneur father becomes mayor wanting to do good things for their country city.
[04:50] Her parents partner well, managing to prioritize Melissa and her sister, and demonstrating the importance of workplace flexibility.
[07:15] As her mother exits Kronos, Melissa feels purposeful in her starting role as a fulfillment coordinator.
[08:55] Melissaâs mother put the human element first in building teams, embracing different points of view.
[09:35] After setting up the fulfillment center, Melissaâs time is freed up. Should she relax or solve new problems?!
[10:15] Melissa pitches a promotion to help out the stressed-out marketing managersâher boss says yes!
[12:05] Wanting to live and raise a family by the ocean, and tired of commuting, Melissa leaves Kronos and moves to the Cape.
[13:16] Melissa lands a lead marketing role at a local tech company which then rolls up into a billion-dollar global organization.
[13:55] Maintaining her boundaries, Melissa stays remote, managing her teams based everywhere.
[15:26] At times, Melissa commutes in part of the week when certain leaders didnât share her mindset.
[16:56] The first, critical principal is to give people the benefit of the doubt that they will do the right thing.
[17:10] Put people in an environment where they can do their best work and respect their boundaries.
[17:51] Many leaders donât trust people to do the right thing. How to identify the few employees who donât?
[18:57] Every employee must understand their purpose, how it relates to the bigger picture, and have clear metrics and expectations.
[19:40] What people say and how they react if there isnât a good fit.
[21:28] Melissa learned from her father that some choose to set their boundary at doing the minimum work.
[22:42] Melissa joins Iron Mountain for an integrated growth marketing role.
[23:25] Highly corporate centric when she joins, Iron Mountain decides to move and shrink their office space.
[24:39] Employees get two choices: all in-office with a dedicated desk or flexibility with a shared desk.
[26:30] Motivated by costs, Iron Mountrain creates great new space and supports othersâ change to work flexibly.
[28:16] Engagement goes up, people are more productive opting for the environment they can work best in.
[29:41] Iron Mountain is set up for success with a strong culture, purpose, and good performance management principles and protocols.
[30:17] Not everyone is on board with the changeâwhich is natural.
[31:19] Ask, not assume, if people can meet your needs.
[32:21] Impressions can be misleading. Set your boundary and have the tough conversation.
[34:36] Melissa's current company is paving the way for flexible work everywhereâinternally and for customers.
[35:44] Leaders support flexible work, but are IT and security professionals set up to support them?
[35:15] In new work situations, what new risks are employees under that need to be addressed?
[37:56] Silos between security and IT are decreasing their effectiveness.
[40:32] Frontline managers need to buy in fully to the value of flexible working, not be âtoldâ.
[42:09] Deploying flexible work principles: holding people accountable and respecting their independence.
[42:58] Every industry, company, and job is different, so flexibility differs.
[44:23] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Put people in an environment where they can do their best work being clear about purpose, roles, responsibilities, outcomes, and deliverables, and ensure there is alignment between IT and security teams so they can provide and support the right tools for flexible work. Then trust that employees will do the right thing.
RESOURCES
Melissa Puls on LinkedIn
Melissa on X
Ivantiâs website
Ivanti on X
Ivanti on Instagram
Ivantiâs 2024 Everywhere Work Report
QUOTES (edited)
âWe understand flexibility is not only about what the company needs, but also what the individual needs.â
âIt takes time and effort and energy and focus for an organization to bring along the right frontline managers so that they understand the purpose of what they're doing and making sure they deploy those principles of flexible work.â
âHire the best people for the best job it really doesn't matter where they're located.â
âMost important is to give people the benefit of the doubt that they're going to do the right thing.â
âEvery single person in your organization needs to understand what their purpose is and how it relates to the bigger picture, vision, and mission of the company and what they can do to contribute to that.â
âOnly upside for the company financiallyâthey were in a better spot, less space, more flexible. And the people that opted for that were in an environment where they felt that they could do great work.â
"The importance of having alignment between IT and security, where they have real insights into how the business is operating so they can provide the right tools and really maximize flexible work."
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Juliette Powell is Founder and Managing Partner of Kleiner Powell International, a consultancy working at the intersection of responsible technology and business. She is co-author of âThe AI Dilemma: 7 Principles for Responsible Technology.â Juliette brings rich technology research and innovation experience to evaluate our evolving landscape as we anticipate AI integration. She explains her core concernsâwhat we need to pay attention and lean into. She discusses the importance of personal data ownership, creative friction, digital trust, and logic. Juliette explains how diverse contributions diminish divergent, asymmetric trajectories, so we all need to be actively involved.
TAKEAWAYS
[02:30] Monopoly is Julietteâs favorite game as a kid, showing how you can change your circumstances.
[02:50] Juliette studies finance and international business to understand global interconnectedness.
[03:15] At university, Juliette develops a TV career focusing on the business side of media.
[04:32] Interviewing Janet Jackson and Nelson Mandela reveals juxtaposed insecurity and confidence.
[07:30] Julietteâs first book results from her involvement with TEDâs original founder producing the conference and meeting visionary thinkers.
[08:10] Transitioning from TV, Juliette explores technologies and the rise of social media.
[10:25] Citizen journalism and political messaging delivered using digital channels fascinates Juliette.
[12:10] Juliette tries to lead as her whole self, seeing people disconnecting their work/non-work lives.
[13:20] Where engineers can experience misalignment making decisions in their AI-related work.
[14:20] Juliette highlights those who live holistically as fully integrated people in her first book.
[15:00] Integrated work/life experienced early on meeting a couple working remotely in Thailand.
[16:50] Early career motivation to find work thinking about Maslowâs hierarchy of needs.
[18:58] How the internet extended possibilities beyond someoneâs local geography.
[19:50] Ecosystem pressures raise mental health issues and people trying to survive not thrive.
[20:50] Navigating uncertaintyâpersonally and professionallyârequires having Plan A, B, C, and D.
[21:44] Juliette founded the Gathering to ensure diversity and avoid past mistakes in tech development.
[24:41] At TED, there is no separation between the expertise on stage and the audience.
[26:04] Turing AI and WeTheData.org focus on the personal data ecosystem, ownership, and ethical use.
[27:48] Research reveals four grand challenges include digital trust and digital infrastructure/access.
[29:30] An âeBay for dataâ to aggregate and monetize personal data as Finns do.
[31:31] Research on Americansâ and Europeansâ different attitudes to their personal data.
[35:26] Most of Julietteâs NYU students are terrified of the potential impact of AI on their skills.
[36:25] Studentsâ potential questions âWill I have meaning? Can I contribute anything?â
[37:40] Juliette teaches students research methods to reduce fear and build confidence.
[41:30] The importance of creative friction to reconnect across seamless technology divides.
[42:45] Taking a moment to rise above the sand, things have changed a lot, probably within yourself.
[43:40] Diverse teams earn the most as they take the longest time to deliberate.
[44:45] With diverse debate, deliberating longer, with ongoing feedback, we can create better AI systems.
[45:53] Bias is part of human nature, so how we can reduce asymmetry of power?
[49:00] If we wake up to the power we have and give away, what we can do with that power.
[50:08] Juliette is excited to be alive right now when we are shaping the future such as digital infrastructure, digital literacy, and digital trust.
[50:40] Historically, curators of knowledge have been our sources of truth.
[53:05] We must be able to manage all this uncertainty on the individual level as a community.
[53:45] The Four Logics framework: government, corporate, engineering, and social justice logic.
[54:35] Increasing awareness of misalignment between employeesâ morals and employer brands.
[55:47] Checking on personal values, culture, and vision that enable fulfillment.
[56:33] How reducing human biases with AI leads to other biases.
[57:27] Encourage employee experimentation with AI and launch internal challenges.
RESOURCES
Juliette Powell on LinkedIn
Juliette Powellâs website
Kliener Powell Internationalâs website
The AI Dilemma: 7 Principles for Responsible Technology" co-authored by Juliette
Julietteâs first book. â33 Million People in the Room: How to Create, Influence, and Run a Successful Business with Social NetworkingâJulietteâs co-authored book âThe AI Dilemma: 7 Principles for Responsible Technology.â
QUOTES (edited)
"I've always been of the perspective that I'm a whole person. There are many different parts to my whole person, but nonetheless, I try to think of myself holistically as I navigate the world."
"Creative friction can only come from deep diversity. The more diverse, the more they produce questions, the longer it takes to deliberate, but the better the outcomes."
"We need to take responsibility and intentionally co-create with AI to ensure diverse perspectives are debated, increasing initial friction to reduce asymmetries and improve capabilities and relevance."
"Digital trust is kind of key. If we want data, personal data, to work for everyone on the planet, and not just the usual suspects, we need to address digital trust and infrastructure."
"If you feel that your personal morals are being confronted by what you're being asked to do at work, now is the time to recognize that disalignment and seek a place where you can be fulfilled and work on meaningful things."
"I'm excited about shaping AI's future because we are the generations that get to shape it. The decisions we make now will determine where digital trust will be in the next hundred years."
âThere is expertise in the everyday person. We don't necessarily reward financially or recognize that, but that tacit knowledge is invaluable.â
âIf we take longer to deliberate around our AI systems in their specific use cases and context, bring in the various communities that will be affected before we start building them, and deploy them constantly incorporating that feedback, we'd have much better systems that would work for far more people.â
âIf we all woke up a little bit more to the kind of power that we give away, then we could also realize the kind of power that we actually have if we decide to do something about it.â
âWe have to be able to manage all this uncertainty on the individual level as a community.â
"If you feel that your personal morals are being confronted by what you're being asked to do at work, now is the time to recognize that disalignment and seek a place where you can be fulfilled and work on meaningful things."
"I'm excited about shaping AI's future because we are the generations that get to shape it. The decisions we make now will determine where digital trust will be in the next hundred years."
âThere is expertise in the everyday person. We don't necessarily reward financially or recognize that, but that tacit knowledge is invaluable.â
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David Abrams is the co-founder and CEO of HILO, a platform that is digitizing customer experience to create connected communities of people in buildings. David is also host of the TEN, the Tenant Experience Network podcast. David brings his entrepreneurial and marketing background and context to explore commercial real estate landlordsâ, ownersâ, and occupiersâ evolving circumstances. He explains why they need to be collaborating to create hospitality-driven, new tech-enhanced environments and programmed experiences for tenantsâfor each individually and together as a community.
TAKEAWAYS
[02:29] David takes a while to sort out what he wants to study at college ending up focusing on marketing and accounting.
[03:01] David enjoys the ability accounting gives him to explore how businesses operate.
[03:49] As a first entrepreneurial opportunity, David gets involved in repositioning a struggling agency.
[04:58] Early agency clients span commercial real estate and nonprofit, the latter which David finds especially satisfying.
[05:45] Raw Society is launched to focus on critical strategic work before the creative process begins.
[07:15] The ESG movement makes building operators start to think about environmental impact.
[07:52] What is the effect of the densification of people living and working in central business districts?
[09:13] New thinking is first driven by occupants, relating to basic ESG initiatives like recycling.
[10:14] Operators go paperless, initiating digital communications their tenantsâ employees.
[11:32] David loves the opportunity to start creating environments that people enjoyed being in.
[12:16] The smartest operators recognized they could develop better relationships and community by connecting their tenants.
[12:55] The ultimate goal is to improve tenant retention through better customer service and experiences.
[14:09] Every building has constant turnoverâboth tenants and tenantsâ employees.
[14:51] David launches his new company in 2019, gets financing and is in full growth mode when the pandemic hits.
[15:37] As an entrepreneur, David recognizes his two choices - give up or dig in.
[17:38] With little clarity about the future, they tried to be pragmatic about future technology needs.
[21:30] New realizations emerge after a difficult period that extended operatorsâ boundaries.
[23:09] Operators realize their responsibility to be involved in spaces beyond their buildings.
[24:24] Extra costs can be covered by charging premium rent or sharing new community spaces.
[26:20] Connectivity is a huge driver of experience when it is pervasive and consistent.
[27:18] Investments go into programming, content, services and staff to offer white glove experiences.
[28:51] Office and multifamily categories are all hiring people from the hospitality industry.
[29:37] Programming, services, and staffing are becoming integral and significant to buildingsâ offerings.
[31:00] The key factor is not the size of the building, but the commitment of its ownership.
[31:49] Across building classes, technology can be an equalizer to provide higher levels of service.
[34:05] Technology delivers better experiences and reduces friction when people choose to enter the built world.
[35:27] How can we put the power of personalization into the hands of the individual?
[36:29] David imagines we are between first and second base in the evolution of office buildings.
[37:15] People need to congregate for the right reasons in the right environments to do the right kind of work.
[39:49] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Occupiers and landlords need to think beyond the work that needs to get done in an office and co-create experiences that support good work. Consider all the various touchpoints for each person across technology, programming, content, services and staffing.
RESOURCES
David Abrams on LinkedIn
Davidâs company HILOâs website
HILO on Instagram
TEN â The Tenant Experience Network
QUOTES
âBuildings are not silos. They're part of a neighborhood, they're part of a city and they create community.â
âIt's a conversation around where should I work on any given day where can great work happen?â
âHow can we put the power of personalization into the hands of the individual. How can they use technology to better connect and engage with all the various spaces and places in their lives and have it not be top down driven.â
âPeople need to come together for the right reasons in the right environments with the right people to do the right kind of work.â
âThe occupier and the landlord need to be open minded. They need to think beyond just the work that needs to get done and start to think about creating an experience that will support great work.â
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Dr Zofia Bajorek is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Employment Studies (UK). She was HR Magazineâs Most Influential Thinker in 2022 and 2023. Zofiaâs recent work has focused on the quality of work to improve workforce health and wellbeing. She describes why giving employees good quality work improves results, why good work matters, and what it comprises. Zofia explains how good management contributes significantly to employee retention and well-being.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
[02:33] Zofia studied psychology to understand how people think, as well as behavior change, why and how we do things.
[04:17] Zofiaâs Masterâs focuses on the Future of Work and occupational stress/health at work.
[05:03] Zofia is curious about temporary work arrangements after her ownâvoluntaryâexperience.
[06:18] Temporary workersâ different agency and autonomy affects their experiences and health.
[08:01] Zofiaâs PhD analyzes temporary staff management and patient care in NHS emergency departments.
[08:47] Possible safety/quality effects when emergency dept. employees get temporary assignments.
[09:42] NHS âbankâ and agency staff differences highlight many important talent management nuances.
[11:56] A systems approach to analyzing the UKâs âSpeedy Summary Justiceâ â the promise.
[12:45] The effect of disconnects in a system that is overworked, underpaid, and understaffed.
[13:50] The practical reality of human messiness and how organizations and people work.
[15:02] Evidence shows workersâ health and wellbeing affects their productivity and retention.
[16:00] Q: What interventions make the biggest difference to employeesâ health and well-being?
[16:50] A: Good management and good employment relationships are the most impactful.
[18:05] In 2006, two researchers discover âWork IS good for your health IF itâs good quality work.â
[18:26] People donât really know what good quality work is.
[19:27] Good work includes: varied tasks that match interests and skills, co-collaboration, having a voice, autonomy and a fair work environment, with growth opportunities and strong work relationships.
[22:50] âSecure workâ depends on the contractual arrangementâimposed or two-way.
[24:24] To achieve a healthy workplace with engaged employees, good quality work is essential.
[25:42] An important factor is someoneâs choice about the work they have and can do.
[26:27] Zero-hour contracts are detrimental when managed badly with no communication or flexibility.
[27:28] Freelancers can have good choices: clients, autonomy, relationships, and interesting work.
[28:48] Empathizing is important to discover what encourages people to work, their values, what they bring to the workplace.
[30:26] Companies with embedded focus on wellbeing and good work pre-pandemic were able to transition well through and beyond the crisis.
[31:36] Good management practices including consistent communication, listening, and workplace policies.
[32:15] Zofia shares some examples of data points companies can colligate to increase understanding of their employeesâ well-being.
[37:32] The challenges facing organizations are numerous, but a lot of the change can be addressed with good management practices.
[43:55] Young and old want the same thing from the workplace, but demographic pressures are changing the face of retirement.
[47:46] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Good work requires good managers. Ensure those promoted to managerial positions have people management skills and technical excellence. They need training, coaching support, and feedback to help them continue to improve.
RESOURCES
Dr. Zofia Bajorek on Linkedin
Follow Dr. Bajorek on X @DrZofia
Website for employment-studies.co.uk
The Institute for Employment Studies
Interesting articles by Dr. Bajorek:
âPeople leave managers, not companiesâ - but is the manager really at fault?
Are we âpulling more sickiesâ or do organisations need to focus more on âgood workâ?
Health and wellbeing at work: where we are and where we want to be
Itâs time to stop squeezing the âsqueezed middleâ, for everyoneâs benefit
Will management âproductivity paranoiaâ be the undoing of hybrid work?
The line management conundrum â letâs hug and not squeeze our line managers
QUOTES (edited)
âIf we don't look after people's health and well-being in the workplace it can have an impact on both retention and productivity levels.â
âWork is good for your health, but there is a strong caveat that it has to be good quality work. And that is where we are still struggling because people don't know what good quality work is.â
âEvery human has fluctuating mental health. But what's important for the workplace is that work doesn't make it worse.â
âIf you want good work and good health, you have to have good management.â
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Dr. Gleb Tsipursky is the CEO of Disaster Avoidance Experts, a consulting, coaching, and training firm. Gleb is a behavioral scientist and best-selling author of seven books, including âNever Go With Your Gutâ and âLeading Hybrid and Remote Teamsâ. He shares his interest in human behaviors focused on decision-making and cognitive biases. Gleb explains his passion to help people make good decisions, discussing the role of emotions, and why to try to prove yourself wrong. He emphasizes how to optimize work-related decisions to improve working environments, experiences, policies, and outcomes.
TAKEAWAYS
[02:59] Interested in human behaviors, Gleb studies history--people in their historical contexts.
[03:53] Gleb narrows his research to behavioral science decision-making in historical and contemporary contexts.
[04:53] Glebâs interest focuses on motivations and historical archives reveal what people were saying behind the scenes.
[05:39] Weâre not very good at making decisions. We often follow our intuition or go with our gut.
[06:32] How a clientâs early experiences affect how he handles conflict as a business leader.
[07:41] How do individuals and groups make decisions? What motivations cause what effects?
[08:12] How to have healthy conflicts with people.
[09:32] How do you make good decisions, proofing yourself against future disruptions?
[10:50] Decision hygieneâidentify biases including not what you donât do, that's a decision too!
[13:55] How you can misperceive yourself, your skills.
[15:04] Blind spots and how humans are full of contradictions.
[16:42] Glebâs early books about different aspects of decision making.
[17:29] Before making a decision ask: Q1 - What information haven't I fully understood yet?
[19:28] Q2: What judgment errors haven't I fully considered?
[20:30] The need to be introspective about our emotions so they don't dictate our decisions.
[21:50] Gleb starts his own company, Disaster Avoidance Experts, in 2018.
[22:30] Glebâs targets people whose possible bad decisions could have disastrous consequences.
[23:35] Paying attention to leading indicators to make informed decisions early in the pandemic.
[24:49] The challenges belief bias and confirmation bias can cause.
[26:30] What comparable data is relevant to ensure you are making good decisions?
[29:40] Looking at the data and challenging the motivation to be back in the officeâfor what?
[31:10] Managers weren't comfortable that they could control their teams working remotely.
[31:56] Combining training and techniques to not manage by walking around the office.
[33:04] Switching to weekly performance evaluations with three to five goals per week.
[35:27] Coaching style leadership was gaining ground long before the pandemic.
[38:32] College educated males choose to work fewer hours, valuing well-being and leisure more than before the pandemic.
[40:02] Research and resignations show willingness to take a 10% pay cut to keep flexibility.
[40:38] The impact of not being empathetic about your employees.
[42:37] What is best for knowledge workers? Not sitting in factory style offices.
[43:22] For knowledge work: creativity and collaboration of the human mind determine any companyâs value add.
[44:33] The four principles of knowledge work to set up workplaces of the future.
[45:44] To establish trust, new systems and processes are needed including regular performance evaluations.
[47:20] Don't let one bad apple spoil it for others.
[49:35] Finding truth through content curation versus creation in an AI-powered world.
[51:40] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: To adapt to modern work, survey employees about they feel about hybrid work, best practices, problems, and opportunities for improvement. Focus conversations on trust, autonomy, support, and collaboration.
RESOURCES
Dr Gleb Tsipursky on LinkedIn
Gleb Tsipursky on X
Dr Gleb Tsipursky on Instagram
Facebook at DrGlebTsipursky
Dr. Gleb Tsipursky speaker video
Dr. Gleb Tsipurskyâs books include:
The Truth-Seekerâs Handbook: A Science-Based Guide.
Never Go With Your Gut: How Pioneering Leaders Make the Best Decisions and Avoid Business Disasters
Returning to the Office and Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams: A Manual on Benchmarking to Best Practices for Competitive Advantage
QUOTES
âPeople often don't know what their own motivations are. They don't know how they interact, and they don't understand why they make the decisions they do. We're not very good at making decisions. We often just follow our intuition; we go with our gut.â
âThere was research showing that in order to have healthy conflicts with people, you should follow a 5:1 ratio. For each one conflictual thing you do at least five equivalently positive things.â
âTaking all the social intelligence, emotional intelligence, and cognitive biases. If you can identify those in yourself right now, you can really set up set yourself up for a lot of success down the line.â
âWe are human beings, we are full of contradictions.â
âSeeing the truth is very important to make a good decision, but that's not the same thing as making a good decision.â
âIf you actually want to make a good decision what you want to do is try to prove yourself wrong. Try to prove that your decision is incorrect. Try to disconfirm your decision.â
âOne issue is the empathy gap. We might underestimate the emotions that other people are experiencing. One of the biggest challenges in business decision making is failure to think sufficiently about emotions, our own emotions and other people's emotions. We don't realize how important emotions are.â
âNot being empathetic and understanding emotions matters. The emotions of your employees matter. How they feel matters. And they're actually taking steps based on their feelings around retention, engagement, productivity, morale.â
âKnowledge workers function best as a combination of providing them with trust, trusting them to work in the way that they know how; providing with autonomy, having control over their time and location of work; providing them with necessary and appropriate support, giving them knowledge, information, tools: and facilitating their collaboration with others.â
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Amina Moreau is the CEO and co-Founder of Radious, an online marketplace offering companies flexible work locations to give their employees commute-free, homestyle, collaborative workspaces. She is a serial entrepreneur, multiple Emmy-winning filmmaker, and photographer. Amina explains why employers need to create a framework and processes that enable workplace flexibility and support employeesâ autonomy, incorporating comfortable and convenient work environments. Amina shares insights about empathetic leadership and upskilled managers to improve employeesâ experiences and performance. She describes critical environmental and social components of new workplace solutions.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
[02:38] Amina changes majors five times exploring what she wants to be when she grows up!
[03:35] Amina loves photography but also thinks learning how the brain works is handy.
[4:40] Storytelling means understanding who people are and how they think and see their future.
[05:49] Aminaâs first business initially emphasizes innovative technology and equipment.
[07:04] Taking wedding storytelling to the next level â what has shaped who these people are?
[07:44] Tomatoes are a metaphor for one coupleâs relationship.
[09:22] How relationships evolve on film and with clients.
[10:46] Entrepreneurship is Aminaâs pathâstarting in her dorm room.
[11:47] A talent for seeing gaps in the market spawns multiple new ventures.
[12;15] Amina develops opportunities related to her core passion.
[14:30] Pandemic-related issues are the genesis for non-profit Float Small Business.
[15:43] Creative ground support for local businesses keeps Amina busy during a tough period.
[17:34] A new venture to suit flexible workstyles emerges from their Airbnb host business.
[19:22] Eliminating the overnight component increases safety and solves other hosting pain points.
[21:25] New adaptations as employers integrate remote policies for the long term.
[23:30] A compelling combination: no commuting, collaboration space, and the comforts of home.
[24:28] Who pays for the space? Shifting to a B2B model.
[26:24] Current RTO headlines donât match the majority of companiesâ work policies.
[27:50] Amina believes most companies are trying hybrid as they are stuck with office leases.
[28:38] The benefits of flexible, on-demand office spaces and who is likely to benefit most.
[32:12] Have leaders who proclaim remote work isnât sustainable been trained to manage in remote/hybrid environments?
[34:20] Terminology needs to evolve to reflect the variety of remote work options and benefits.
[35:58] Empathetic leadership leads to better team outcome for which leaders need upskilling.
[36:58] Team level agreements need setting about expectations and communication styles.
[38:35] How much autonomy is optimal to drive motivation and outcomes?
[39:27] Companies signing up for flexible workspaces need a framework and process to ensure their employees use it.
[40:22] Working with companies to understand their context and help them choose relevant workspaces.
[41:29] Aminaâs sense of purpose that energizes her and the teamâweâre here to help bring fulfillment and work/life balance.
[43:35] Radiousâs core environmental and social solutions are significant motivators for Amina.
[44:40] Local workspaces also support community relationships and business.
[46:04] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: It doesnât have to be a two-sided equation â either working at the office or from home. There are many other options to consider to support your employees, which donât have the costs or commute of an office, yet offer camaraderie and community.
RESOURCES
Amina Moreau on LinkedIn
Radious.pro
Radious on X @RadiousPro
Radious on Instagram @Radious.Pro
QUOTES (edited)
âOne of the best things that you can study is how people think because in any profession, understanding how the brain works is kind of handy.â
âIt turns out that having a psychology background is really valuable in storytelling.â
âThere are some companies that from the beginning of the pandemic were hell-bent on getting people back to the office. Come hell or high water, those companies still exist. Thankfully, they are in the minority.â
âThe headlines we see about RTO are usually made by the biggest companies on the planet which have the largest PR megaphones ⊠and the largest real estate holdings.â
âA lot of people equate remote work with working from home, but remote work is now an umbrella term that encompasses a wide variety of ways, and places to work from. And it doesn't have to be in isolation.â
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Tom Hunt is the Founder and CEO of Fame which builds profitable podcasts. Tom is also host of the podcast âConfessions of a B2B Marketerâ. He leads a fast-growing fully-remote company and shares his journey intentionally learning effective leadership styles, management methods, and organizational practices. Tom discusses what he looks for in successful leaders and how he purposefully develops and upskills inexperienced employees.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
[03:01] Why Tom goes from studying chemistry to consulting.
[04:11] A pivotal role working on outsourcing projects happens by chance.
[05:19] Tom realizes being employed is not his thing and focuses on selling online.
[06:32] Tom's first venture leverages his experiences outsourcing for large companies.
[07:33] Tom focuses on what he enjoys doing and is good at.
[08:41] The ability to fail and keep going is one of the best predictors of success.
[09:53] The genesis of Fame and how they landed their first client.
[11:19] Tom shares the multifaceted benefits of being transparent about Fameâs earnings.
[13:36] Empathy is a crucial skill for leaders which takes more effort in distributed settings.
[16:14] The benefit of paying attention to signals in asynchronous communications.
[16:50] Continuing to explore how best to nurture distributed culture and connection.
[17:56] Building culture through values awards.
[18:29] Impactful for remote cultures: client-focused operational excellence and engaging elements in team meetings.
[20:51] Employees are trained in interviews to assess for specific work history criteria.
[23:19] Office space has been considered and Tom explains what issues it would create.
[25:00] Fame's business is output-driven and well-defined effectively supported by strong, positive performance management.
[26:59] intentional training and management engages and retains employees and adds value to less experienced hires.
[27:45] Multi-touchpoint, frequent check-insâwith superiors and peersâhelp account managers grow.
[28:35] The intentional approach to help supervising managers improve too.
[30:45] The onboarding process is a key value add driver for Fame, continually evolving and being improved.
[31:34] One employee's career development and why upskilling people builds strong cultures.
[33:03] Tom promotes employeesâ proactive and self-determined progression.
[33:57] Study of leadership focuses Tom on creating cohesion, communicating with clarity, and reinforcing the clarity.
[36:24] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: For leaders of fully distributed teams, use live interaction time with team members wisely to collect and convey information to improve peopleâs work lives. Donât take those meetings for granted. You have to do your best work as a remote leader.
RESOURCES
Tom Hunt on LinkedIn
X @TomHuntio
Instagram @TomHuntio
Fame.so
Confessions of a B2B Marketer podcast
Top Grading by Brad and Geoff Smart
High Output Management by Andy Grove
The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni
QUOTES (edited)
"The thing that I was looking for most with angel investing was founder resilience. Had this founder failed before and kept going? The ability to pivot, tweak things, and then go forward is probably the most important at that very early stage."
"Empathy for each individual is one of the crucial aspects of leading. If you understand how each person is feeling, you can tailor your approach to working with them to maximize the output for both them personally and their group."
"We decided that if a team member meets another team member in person, whether theyâre doing work or not, they get an allowance for that meeting to be spent on anything. Itâs a decentralized campaign that promotes in-person interaction, which benefits the company and the individual."
"Itâs not a process in which we try to fire somebody. Itâs a process in which weâre looking to support someone to perform better."
âThe monthly chat with managers is the review of: âWhatâs gone well this month? Whatâs not gone so well? What do you want to more of?â and weâve added in âHow can I be a better manager for you?ââ
"If you have something that you want to learn or do and thereâs a business need for that thing and youâve mastered your current role, then you can do it. You just have to find the person whoâs going to replace you."
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Debbie Lovich is Managing Director and Senior Partner at Boston Consulting Group (BCG). She leads BCGâs thinking on making work work. Debbie describes Harvard research conducted at BCG on work/life balance. She shares insights as to why lasting solutions must be co-created, continuously improved, and include teams having open discussions about team norms. Debbie explains why her focus on joy (and productivity) is an economic one especially as Gen AI forces everyone to rethink work. Debbie portrays the Generative Leader and explains how their intent for improvement and team approach enables transformation projects to succeed.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
[02:28] Debbie loves business from an early age so she studies economics.
[02:56] Companies move too slowly! Debbie discovers quickly that consulting is the right fit for her!
[04:12] A random connection introduces Harvard professor Leslie Perlow about a research study on work/life balance.
[05:01] Debbie has no work/life balance but wonders what Leslie might come up with.
[06:30] Detailed data reveals consultants expect long hours but the lack of predictability is a huge issue.
[07:30] Leslie wants to conduct an experiment with one team testing a more predictable schedule.
[08:52] Looking for a team for the experiment, Debbie hears âGreat idea, but why not your team?!â
[09:57] How the lack of predictability is experienced by BCG consultants.
[11:02] Debbie asks her important local client to support doing the HBS research with her team.
[12:10] The experiment is successful and the model is scaled to the rest of BCG.
[13:17] Debbie temporarily leaves BCG to commercialize the research results with Leslie.
[14:34] Scaling a model is very different than managing one controlled experiment.
[15:50] Data on client value delivery is key to convince others as the model is expanded.
[16:56] Everyone has to design the changeâat the start and evolving improvements over time.
[18:40] Agreeing team norms is essential so different people and projects determine parameters.
[22:01] With new tools, ubiquitous work is possible with zero boundaries and much waste.
[23:35] When you constrain work, people have to prioritize and innovate.
[24:10] In todayâs labor market, work/life balance is an important reason to rethink work.
[27:44] Debbie believes that work is fundamentally broken.
[28:38] In a VUCA world, employers are giving workers more to do with fewer resources.
[29:27] - The âunbroken stateâ is when we are all in this together.
[30:32] Debbie focuses on joy for economic reasons.
[32:51] Trader Joe's employee-centric positive results.
[34:56] Why organizations should think of employees like customersâincluding emotional benefits.
[36:12] Gabby Novacek's work reveals everyone is motivated differently. Programs focusing only on few segments won't succeed.
[38:24] Who Generative Leaders are.
[39:18] Debbie explains the head, heart, and hands of generative leadership.
[40:54] The most important things employees want from leaders and where leaders spend their time.
RESOURCES
Debbie Lovich on LinkedIn
BCG.com
QUOTES (edited)
âIf you want to make change stick, there has to be something in it for all parties.â
âEveryone has to design the changeâŠ15 years later, thousands think that they invented it, because they did.â
âIf you tell people they canât work 24/7, you have to think about whatâs the most important work to do. Are there different ways to get it done? And that leads to better work.â
âWe need to solve the needs of the work and the needs of the team in how we rethink work.â
âWhen you constrain the work, you force people to prioritize. You force teams to talk about whatâs going to get in the way of everyone getting their time off and making it work. So it forces innovation of new approaches.â
âHow do we make work more productive and more enjoyable at the same time?â
âGen AI is coming and is forcing everyone to rethink work.â
âMy focus on joy is an economic one.â
âEmployees are customers too. They choose to work with you. They choose to expend their energy at work every day as opposed to just punch the clock.â
âYou need to think about not just the functional needs of pay and benefits and hours, but the emotional needs of feeling supported, enjoying your work, feeling respected.â
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Denise Brouder, Founder and Head of Data and Insights at SWAY Workplace. As a flexible work skills expert, researcher, and consultantâwith a Wall St background in financial oversight and controlsâDenise discusses a risk-adjusted systems approach to implement flexibility and optimize performance. She explains why AI is a key factor driving us from fixed hybrid to flexible models as the only viable long-term solution. Denise explains the critical importance of empathy-based trust to effect flexibility at scale and fuel high-performing teams and that to work differently, we need to start by thinking differently.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
[02:39] From rural Ireland, Denise writes to Wall St. banks asking for an internship and gets one!
[03:55] Denise is systems-oriented, finding banksâ capital, economics, and operations fascinating.
[04:37] Denise compares Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs as organizations and employers.
[05:17] As a young mother, Denise leaves Wall Street to join a tech startup and get more flexibility.
[06:00] Denise finds she loves the process of starting with a problem and building something.
[06:48] Working in a large company becomes transactional while at a startup to see how your everyday effort contributes to progress.
[07:41] At a fast-paced startup, Denise learns to hustle, figuring things out as they build the business.
[08:22] Denise finds building and scaling with limited resources a very interesting challenge.
[09:02] Denise follows a colleague to LugTrack, launching with five people and a patent.
[10:19] Persistence, creativity, and grit are critical for success as a startupâwhich are emotional skills.
[11:06] Lithium-ion batteries catching fire on planes meant LugTrackâs business runway ran out.
[11:49] After a course on the Future of Work, Denise takes a big leap of faith and founds a company.
[12:30] Denise recognizes the work change ahead and wants to productize how to work flexibly.
[14:29] Denise wants to yell âAI is coming! AI is coming!â from the hilltop!
[14:45] Denise feels strongly about mastering flexible work at scale to propel everyone forward.
[16:10] Denise thinks that flexibility at scale levels the playing field for women.
[17:10] The first iteration of SWAY is a technology play using apps to convene the conversation digitally around new ways of working.
[18:15] The advancement of women will happen by changing the system from the inside out, making flexibility a gender neutral issue.
[19:38] Denise discovers she is a systems thinker and we have a systems problem.
[20:32] The Science of Flexibility helps de-risk flexibility as an operational strategy for a large company.
[21:17] If flexibility is demonstrated, measured, and communicated like a risk-adjusted talent model, senior leaders can get people on the same page.
[22:49] In SWAYâs work, EQ and empathy demonstrate the intelligence that is in flexibility that weâre going to need in an AI-influenced world.
[23:42] High-performing flexible teams are fueled by empathy-based trust.
[25:32] Emotions are fundamental to our human design, but we only just starting to understand them.
[27:47] Traditional working norms evolved around visual-based trust.
[28:26] In hybrid models, trust levels feel low and are questionedâthese are growing pains.
[29:16] Flexibility at scale requires empathy-based trust.
[32:03] The social contract used to provide stability. Now, what is the system? Do we trust it?
[32:49] Reimagining the social contract may be an even bigger shift to prepare for in the future of work.
[33:40] Denise is concerned that some employees are not fighting RTO mandates anymore.
[36:05] In-office mandates are not long-term models, but the current situation is still malleable.
[36:45] In face of AI disruption, Deniseâs goal is to articulate that flexibility is not a fad or a perk but an intelligent model for the modern era
[38:33] Mindset is firstâto facilitate adaptability and resiliency.
[40:08] If we want to work differently, we have to think differently.
[41:20] Cultural differences about work and historical religious underpinnings.
[43:00] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: First, the Future of Work is a journey, not a destination. Take the pressure off âcompletingâ the transition as it is an evolution. Second, we learn and communicate new ways of working through documentation rather than observation. Third, lead by outcomes and create social space to learn team membersâ work styles.
RESOURCES
Denise Brouder on LinkedIn
@SWAYworkplace on X
@SWAYworkplace on Instagram
swayworkplace.com
QUOTES (edited)
âOur original social mission was to level the playing field for women at work, using flexibility at scale.â
âThe Science of Flexibility is my way of communicating with senior leaders who are accountable for performance within a flexible model. We have to demonstrate how it works, why itâs better than before, how we measure the impact, and how we deploy it.â
âItâs a risk-adjusted talent model. We explain it in a condensed, easy-to-consume setting under the umbrella term âthe Science of Flexibilityâ specifically for senior leaders.â
âIn an AI-influenced world, where a lot of our work is going to be transformed, we are left with the work of being human to one another.â
âWe evolved our working norms around visual-based trust. When we were all shifted home for fully remote work, it was a very uncomfortable period. A lot of leaders found themselves on Teams wondering if we trust each other.â
âAn in-office model of work is not suitable for where we need to grow economically, regardless of where your industry is. It just isnât.â
âIf we want to work differently, we have to think differently, and if we want to think differently, we start with resiliency.â
âGen X has always associated a hard dayâs work with a sense of decency, patriotism, and honor, and when they look at the younger ones looking to reach those outcomes differently, they have a hard time associating value with that style of work.â
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Phil Kirschner, Senior Expert and Associate Partner, Real Estate & People and Organizational Performance at McKinsey where he advises executive teams on the future of work, employee experience, organizational health, and workplace strategies. Phil discusses systemic changes, expected rebounds in citiesâ commercial real estate, and organizational health. He shares insights about workplace utilization, the critical emphasis on âhowâ we work and change management to evolve behaviors, and the new retail-oriented perception of work.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
[02:25] Phil calls himself an accidental work strategist, starting out in banking.
[03:37] Phil starts in the efficiency management group looking to save money in real estate.
[04:40] How workplace innovation by Google and Microsoft caught public attention.
[05:23] Competition for talent from other industries drives investment to improve work âplaceâ.
[06:30] Balancing not having your own desk with other amenities to improve the experience.
[08:06] Trying to reduce office-based friction with shared environments.
[09:00] Most managers absorbed a bit more pain to give team members a better experience.
[10:00] The loss factor and importance of change management to establish new behaviors.
[11:32] Where managers set the example carefully, the highest satisfaction is reported.
[14:02] These are not real estate projects, but culture projectsârequiring a cultural shift.
[16:21] Ten years ago, productivity at the bank was measured through self-attestation and surveys.
[17:00] Team dynamics, peopleâs ability to focus, and overall engagement all increased significantly.
[19:57] McKinseyâs Organizational Health Framework and Index helps analyze work practices and how these tie to performance.
[21:04] Studying fully remote companies to isolate specific variables, Phil finds them to be top decile performers.
[23:20] Organizational practice surveys show if you give someone flexibility, they are much more likely to report positive outcomes for the organization.
[25:25] You have to teach people how to use new environments and tools differently.
[27:15] The four ways companies are showing up in the world nowadays.
[28:35] Building facilities for very specific purposes rather than trying to solve all needs all the time.
[30:10] Clearly defining the purposes of a workspace unlocks better outcomes.
[32:37] Progressive companies with flexible hybrid policies are working hard to figure out how to adapt fully to all the new ways of working.
[36:45] Most companies need to be focusing on ways of working and responsive spaces.
[40:27] Technology is undoubtedly driving the change in how we work, Phil touches on how AI may change this further.
[44:22] Phil explains the increasing retail nature of our work choices and some of the implications of this when it comes to competition.
[46:56] The HR/IT/Real Estate stool now needs a seat to bridge the gap in employee and customer experience.
[51:10] RTO is not sustainable; Phil explains why and what RTO focused companies can expect.
[55:47] Phil breaks down what commercial real estate issues and positive trends to watch for in the coming years.
[59:05] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Stop thinking about inputs, the days in the office, or âwhatâs the right hybrid?â Focus on outputs and the impact on organizational health. Study work practices and outcomes across your organization based on how people work and collaborate to figure out the secret sauce, then pilot, test, learn, and scale those behaviors, and keep evolving.
RESOURCES
Phil Kirschner on LinkedIn
McKinsey.com
QUOTES (edited)
"Those work environments with the bean bags, the beautiful amenities, and the campus also have a desk for each employee. We didnât have the means for that, so to give you a better experience, you had to make a trade with us: give up your assigned seat."
"We found that where you had the managers who were willing to be sitting in the open having calls or conversations in the open, those zones by far were the ones where people would report the highest satisfaction."
"These are not real estate projects, they are change projects. They are culture projects that happen to manifest in space."
"When youâve created a culture where lots of work can happen in the open, it eases demand for the formal spaces."
"Fully remote companies that have never had an office, who were born remote and not forcibly remote are top quartile, if not top decile performers against McKinseyâs 20-year experience of measuring Organizational Health."
"If you give someone a choice in where they work, either in the office or home or when theyâre working their hours, we find that theyâre about one and a half times as likely to report positive outcomes for the organization."
"I am fully a believer that the ways of working are far more powerful as a tool for organizational performance and experience than where we happen to be working. And I wish I knew that 10 years ago."
"For a city like New York, we have to make it compelling and affordable for people to want to live here, even if theyâre not working for someone who is here."
"I will go back for experiences that I enjoy, back to the same restaurant, same bar, same shows. We like that our customers are repeat customers. We can be repeat workers, and thatâs going to be a huge unlock in the coming years."
"Changing the way we work is hard, no matter the best tools in the world. It's still hand-to-hand combat group by group, culture by culture, process by process. Itâs hard, so instead of doing the hard thing, we do the easy thing and there is a call to all go back to the office."
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Michelle Coulson is Founder and Chief Remote Rebel at Remote Rebellion whose mission is to enable people to live the life that they choose. Michelle shares her journey working around the world finding opportunities in response to economic, pandemic, and workplace changes. She explains how the COVID19 crisis gave everyone time to reflect about their life, work, and happiness. Michelle discusses reactions to being told to go back to the office--and finds meaning in launching her own venture. She questions what people settle with but could ask for and explains how to explore and navigate new remote working possibilities.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
[03:02] Michelle early love of travel guides her studies.
[04:06] 2009 is a bad year to graduate, so Michelle makes her way to Thailand via Australia.
[05:50] Michelle finds comfort and a better version of herself in Southeast Asia.
[07:15] Working as a tour guide takes its toll on Michelleâs health and she turns to digital marketing.
[08:27] Planning to cycle the globe motivates Michelle to find more lucrative opportunities, she stumbles into recruitment, and a relationship.
[11:27] Catalyzed by a breakup and the pandemic, Michelle leaves London for Bali.
[12:22] A forced return to the office prompts Michelle to quit and explore what career will let her work from anywhere.
[14:14] Michelle explains the birth of Remote Rebellion.
[17:19] Recognizing âthere is more to life than work,â Michelle explores what makes her happy and builds a remote community.
[20:43] After reflecting during the pandemic, many people still feel guilty to ask for more for their lives.
[21:49] Michelle dives into Remote Rebellionâs mission vision and purpose.
[23:56] Remote Rebellionâs clients are diverse and yet all enjoy choosing where they work.
[26:09] Jack is one client who went from fitting kitchens to SEO work!
[28:53] Building confidence is a significant part of the journey.
[30:45] What Michelle misses and hopes for the future of Remote Rebellion.
[32:46] Remote work is here to stay while growth has slowed, for now.
[34:15] Michelle is wary of some companiesâ reasons and parameters for their hybrid model.
[36:21] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: If you want a remote job, first check why you want it. If you arenât happy with your life, what would enrich your life and how can you achieve that? Remote working may not be the solution, but if you think it is, also investigate the downsides. Then experiment to see if you like it.
RESOURCES
Michelle Coulson on LinkedIn
@RemoteRebellion on X
Remote Rebellion on Instagram
remoterebellion.com
The 4 C'S Formula: Commitment Courage Capability and Confidence, by Dan Sullivan
QUOTES (edited)
âI changed and I became quite materialistic, which I hadnât been before. I bought a designer handbag, and I don't even like this stuff. What am I doing?â
âAnd when the call back to the office came, I was literally holding onto the post⊠I donât want to do this. I said, if you wonât let me work remotely from here like I have been for the past year and a half, then I quit.â
âI felt like it was a rebellion because I was angry that we were being forced back into the office when we didnât need to be. We were working great. A lot of people work better when theyâre able to have the freedom to choose where they work from.â
âIâm not anti-hybrid. I'm anti being told and being forced when you go into the office. And a lot of hybrid companies do do that. I just think thereâs a lack of trust.â
âDo you not get lonely if you work remotely? If your only source of social interaction is in the office or the people you work with, maybe you need to be questioning that.â
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Nick Bloom, Professor of Economics at Stanford University and co-Founder of wfhresearch.com and wfhmap.com, has studied remote work for over two decades. Nick discusses fundamental data issues, sources, and collection as well as understanding macro and firm level productivity. He talks about the demise of RTO (Return To Office) efforts and the stabilization of hybrid models. Nick describes the changing attitudes and demographics of people working from home. He also shares insights about HRâs rising strategic importance as talent management increases in complexity.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
[03:02] Born and educated in the UK, Nick starts off consulting and working at HM Treasury.
[03:35] On a speaking engagement in California, Nick is offered a job and returns to live long-term.
[04:42] Nick was interested in management practices early on and, as a child, experienced both parents working from home.
[05:22] One of Nickâs students is a travel agent. Their randomized WFH trial generates much interest.
[04:42] Focused on daily commuting, early WFH data only tracked fully remote or fully in the office.
[06:50] Nick begins bridging the gap and finding multiple sources as government data collection lags.
[07:35] Nick finds ways to collect reliable and more frequent data from many businesses.
[09:41] Productivity is easy enough to measure at the macro level, critical for setting interest rates.
[10:31] At the firm level, productivity is very hard to measure for many disciplines and jobs.
[11:34] Initially surprised at the pandemicâs duration and effect on WFH, Nick then visualizes the tombstone for Return To Office.
[12:35] Nick explains the inherent bias in Kastleâa data for trending upwards.
[14:01] The perception of working from home is much more positive than a decade ago.
[15:28] People working remotely are now more likely to be higher paid professionals.
[16:25] The leisure boom resulting from reduced commutingâwhy not play golf then?!
[17:57] With hybrid stabilizing, HR is more important to manage more complex talent dynamics.
[20:55] In-person outperforms virtual teaching for now, but Nick expects this to evolve.
[22:11] How important coordination is to improve in-office experiences and activities.
[23:34] MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) learning is likely to improve dramatically with technology advances (e.g. new headsets).
[25:58] Why CEOs tend to have the most negative opinions about remote working.
[26:49] At all levels, most people find no change to corporate culture caused by working from home.
[27:32] A reasonable cadence of in-person connection to build and maintain culture.
[28:49] Nick was amazed hybrid stabilized so quickly.
[29:33] Top human resources pay has risen steeply recently to support new work- and talent-related developments.
[31:10] How work arrangements are best tailored for the target audience, product/service, and talent.
[32:16] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Your priority should be getting your hybrid model to work. If compliance is low for four days a week in the office, try one or two days and make those a success so people feel itâs valuable time spent in the office (not on Zoom).
RESOURCES
Nick Bloom on LinkedIn
wfhresearch.com
wfhmap.com
QUOTES
âHybridâs going to get better in the sense of more coordination, better use of space.â
âAt the end of 2022, there's a little tombstone somewhere that says âReturn To Office, Rest In Peace.â And since then, work from home levels have been stable.â
âI could easily see a norm being two or three days a week in the office and two, three days. The thing for me is that coordination really matters.â
âMid-managers tend to actually be relatively positive working from home because they have houses and kids.â
âMeeting up once a month for a day or once a week for one or two days, you can really get a big boost to culture building and there are diminishing returns which is why hybrid is so popular. You just donât need to be in all five days.â
âThere's been a leisure boost. The typical professional is working from home two and a half days a week. You typically save 70 minutes a day when you work from home. If you add it up, you're looking at two, maybe three hours. And you can easily sneak in a game of golf.â
âI think now we have stabilized in hybrid. I know you occasionally read scary headlines from Elon Musk or Jamie Diamond, but in the data I'm looking at, you just don't see that.â
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Jeff Frick is the host of âWork 20XXâ and âTurn the Lensâ podcasts, a media entrepreneurâfounder and principal of Menlo Creek Media, and a seasoned operator from the tech sector. Jeff shares his journey experiencing Silicon Valleyâs technology evolution, starting with early hardware and emerging software ventures exploring internet commerce. Pivoting with the pandemic, Jeff uses technology to enable collaboration and create and elevate community. He shares his predictions for tech-driven changes as we learn, appreciate, and integrate new applications that facilitate and (re)shape our working lives.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
[02:29] Studying economics, Jeff is inspired by the new perspectives of his psychology professor/pilot.
[03:46] Jeffâs lab rat encounter and observations as he learns the addictive nature of random payouts.
[05:43] Delving into cockpit design to explore the hierarchy of needs for human/machine interactions.
[07:37] Jeff double majors in economics and psychology to better understand humansâ emotional drivers.
[08:15] Working in sales elevates the importance of emotion and empathy and what makes people tick.
[10:00] Consumer electronics gets disrupted, so Jeff goes to business school, then starts a tech career.
[10:54] The clunky beginnings of Intelâs early chip, with its accompanying ecosystem and jargon.
[12:32] Jeff has the most retail experience as Intel/SAP try to launch one of the first B2C online malls.
[13:33] Offline supply chain basic logistics hamper early B2B internet commerce.
[14:40] Jeff rides the internet bubble as auction and software ventures get funded and bought or crater.
[16:24] Early learnings from online commerce backend issues and front end behaviors.
[18:12] His motherâs questions prompt Jeff to invest in himself and take an entrepreneurial route.
[19:00] The business of bug fixing and transitioning!
[20:11] Atlassian had a different (Australian!) attitudeâshare, be open, and build schools in Africa.
[22:40] The bugs drive Jeff into an out-of-body experience, out of Jira, and right into theCUBE.
[23:44] theCUBEâs format enabled people to tell their story in a professional setting.
[25:32] Jeff hosts over 2000 live interviews with many memorable tech sector CEOs.
[27:42] Technologyâs rapid and often surprising evolution is a key reason Jeff loves the field.
[29:29] AIâs outputs are pretty generic now to Jeff, but he anticipates much change in a short period.
[31:50] The pandemic generates new media consumption habitsâasynchronous and collaborative.
[33:40] Jeff experiences collaborations across overlapping communities and building new audiences.
[36:15] The Super 73 makers have nurtured an engaged and powerful community driving the brand.
[38:47] Developing a community to become a movement.
[40:10] Experiments with a new medium and audience are a driver for Jeff to launch his podcast.
[42:47] Jeff podcast is evolving with the world of work as new threads and issues emerge.
[44:16] The future of work in 2024 with a real estate reckoning and tight labor supply.
[46:37] Distributed teams have been around forever and work isnât at the office itâs on your phone!
[48:47] There is no steady state to expect, Jeff emphasizes how fast things are moving today.
[51:25] Jeff shares his excitement about drones heralding how much more 2024 can bring.
RESOURCES
Jeff Frick on LinkedIn
Work20xx.com
turnthelenspodcast.com
QUOTES (edited)
âMost people never get the opportunity to tell their story in a professional setting. And most people have an interesting story to tell if youâre willing to dig a little.â
âAuthenticity is the key and often that works well as a leader.â
âWhatâs interesting about technology is that it seems like weâre always in the first inning. We never get to the third inning! Suddenly thereâs something new thatâs big, and it just keeps accelerating. It just keeps going faster.â
âWith AI, the other piece of the puzzle thatâs not talked about enough is that itâs a new way for you or me to interface with a supercomputer on demand without writing code and that is really pretty amazing.â
âWe misjudge time. Say it takes something 10 years, it isnât that long from now.â
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Cecelia Girr is the Strategy Director at TBWA\Worldwide and Director of Cultural Strategy at TBWABackslash. Ceceliaâs career has been focused on researching, gathering, and distilling cultural intelligence to understand cultural changes, prevailing sentiments, core issues, and emerging trends. She shares insights from Backslashâs new Future of Employee Engagement report including employeesâ desires and concerns, why flexibility and upskilling matter, and the importance of investing in employeesâ experiences. Cecelia advocates for healthy employer/employee relationships with life stage-related and tailored benefits that help employees live better lives.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
[02:52] A love of stories prompts Cecelia to study political science, having considered documentary filmmaking!
[04:12] Political science studies power that shapes the world, paying attention to nuance and ambiguity.
[05:43] Explaining cultural intelligence and solutions journalismâwhich focuses on learning from people trying to solve problems.
[06:51] Gathering intelligence and looking at the unintended consequences of actions and events.
[08:05] Before 2020, workplace culture was emphasized, but more as a âcult of workâ mentality.
[08:55] An earlier work revolution to make work sexy and coworkers pseudo family members.
[09:50] The pandemic caused us to recognize âtoxicâ aspects and develop more healthy employer/employee relationships.
[12:05] Culture isnât focused on âplaceâ, but more on flexibility now and different aspects that are driving our relationship with work.
[13:38] The four big tensions comprising the employee experience today.
[15:20] Cecelia shares her key work-related issuesâflexibility is top, then customizing benefits.
[16:37] Ceciliaâs friends are focused on flexibility and always on upskilling, since college isnât enough.
[17:28] How upskilling needs are affecting people of Ceceliaâs parentsâ age.
[18:44] Heat protection innovation is solving issues for outdoor workers facing hotter temperatures.
[22:00] As the speed of change increases, employees are needing to become educators.
[22:59] How employers are changing their attitude to investing in employees.
[24:25] Upskilling and internal marketplaces are not just for retention, they will be future recruitment tactics too.
[26:20] Companies are trying a variety of flexible optionsânot clear what the ârightâ solution isâand employees will find their fit.
[28:31] Some companies are offering employees the chance to experience different countries.
[30:14] Artificial intelligence presents many positive opportunities as well as some concerning elements.
[31:57] Cecelia is excited about new employee benefits that can help people live better lives.
[33:35] Benefits that boost wellbeingâsuch as those supporting employees at family planning, life, and caregiving milestones.
[35:13] Compensation structures can now be customized to suit employeesâ current priorities.
[36:33] Earned wage accessâbeing paid at the end of the shiftâenables workers to achieve more financial security.
[37:06] New emphasis on trying to find a wellness-oriented relationship with work.
[38:23] The possibilities of work helping you live a better lifeâfrom scheduling to adaptive pay and life-stage customized benefits.
[39:10] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: First, encourage transparency, listen to employeesâ needs, and make long-lasting efforts to respond. Second, embrace flexibility, beginning by understanding employeesâ lives and them as human beings. Third, invest in the employee experience, financially.
RESOURCES
Cecelia Girr on LinkedIn
Download The Future of Employee Experience Report at Backslash.com
Backslash on Instagram @tbwabackslash
QUOTES (edited)
âCulture in the workplace was not emphasized with an eye towards the health of employees or with the individual at heart.â
âNow when we hear the word culture being used by company leaders, I feel itâs more about showing new intentionâŠand making sure thereâs a healthy relationship there between employer and employees.â
âFlexibility and upskilling are front of mind for people. The rate of change in what skills are demanded and desired is so quick. University doesn't exactly set you up for the workplace of today like it used to.â
âAn evolution that's happening Is employers putting investment into becoming educators and âalways on upskillingâ for their employees.â
ââAlways on upskillingâ is not just about retention. It will be the recruitment tactic of the future.â
âI think people will look to the companies that define the kind of workplace environment that they want.â
âIt's about becoming more customized and tailored to the specific life and life stage of the employeeâwhere you're at in your career, where you're at in your finances, what you actually need in terms of supportâall of these things are just going to make work help you live a better life.â
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Sophie Wade is a work futurist and strategist, workforce innovation specialist, keynote speaker, and host of this show. She is an author and authority on the Future of Work, and a course instructor with over 0.5 million LinkedIn Learning learners on Gen Z, empathy, and Future of Work skills. Sophie shares three key pathways for 2024 and decisions to make to move forward successfully. She describes the human-centric system of modern work, highlights the guiding work/LIFE principles, and recommends learning the fundamental practices.
TAKEAWAYS
[01:29] Sophie predicts what will significantly impact your companyâs outcomes this year.
[02:19] You have noticed some of the new eraâs defining characteristicsâsuch as how customers are reacting and how tasks are changing.
[03:59] This year, figure out what works for your company, not wait to see what others do.
[04:41] High-performing companies that have embraced modern work are demonstrating the principles and fundamental practices.
[06:09] During turbulent conditions, emphasize cohesive principles of modern work internallyâLearning, Intention, Flexibility, and Empathy.
[07:53] The meaning of work/L.I.F.E equilibrium.
[08:17] Is your company equipped for the new digital rules of engagement?
[09:10] Sophie predicts three roads ahead in 2024 and explains the choices and challenges.
[11:49] Using workplace policies to explain CEOsâ (lack of) commitment to modern work.
[13:39] The difference between conceding to a policy compared with committing to it.
[15:49] What strategic framework applies to modern work?
[16:28] Starting with target customers and their needs to ensure everyone understands them and is aligned.
[18:59] Discovering and assessing your Customer Journey and how to make meaningful improvements.
[20:12] The importance of the complementary Employee Journey.
[21:17] Evaluating and upgrading all stages of the Employee Journey.
[22:15] The long-term benefits of shared values and deeper connections throughout your business ecosystem.
[24:27] How does a human-centric system and an emphasis on talent change outcomes for your business?
[25:24] The fundamental practices of modern work.
[26:55] Survey data from workers providing important intelligence for decision-making and progress.
[28:13] Weighting historical and recent data in the current environment.
[29:19] Balancing old and new inputs, making measured decisions, using data, logic and reasoning.
[30:40] Which path will you to commit for 2024 keeping work/LIFE principles top of mind?
RESOURCES
Sophie Wade on LinkedIn
Sophieâs company website Flexcel Network
Sophieâs book âEmpathy Works: The Key to Competitive Advantage in the New Era of Workâ
Sophieâs book âEmbracing Progress: Next Steps for the Future of Workâ
QUOTES
âThe essence of modern work can be captured in four core principles that are relevant for any ecosystem, organization, team and individual. These are: Learning, Intention, Flexibility, and Empathy.â
âThe Employee Journey is the âyinâ to the Customer Journeyâs âyangââ.
âThe human-centric approach is applicable all along your supply chain as extensive ripple effects potentially impact everyoneâs revenues and future growth possibilities.â
âTech is a given. Talent is a gift.â
âRight now, recent data is often most relevant and reliable for projecting out the possible pathways.â
âOur habit as humans, our instinct, is to invent and innovate, to continue our evolutionary path forward, to learn from disruptions and gain from turbulent disconnection to make jumps and leaps forwardâwhich arenât necessarily comfortable at first. â
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Josh Bottomley is CEO of Dunnhumby (UK), a global leader in customer data science. Josh has led digital transformation initiatives at media and finance businesses. After overseeing customer data-focused traditional print businesses, Josh gained invaluable strategic experience early in the digitalization of organizationsâ income streams and operations. Josh shares his insights about how he aligned multiple internal groups as new tech-enabled opportunities cut across business units. He explains the importance of working frameworks and freedom for employees and how to view any roadblocks.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
[02:46] From childhood, Josh was interested in what will eventually be called systems thinking.
[03:52] Joining the Financial Times during the internetâs early days, Joshâs job takes an unexpected turn.
[04:47] How the internet changes the way a newspaper needs to operate.
[05:51] Josh tries to recruit for jobs and titles that donât exist yet.
[06:46] The importance of details in marketing.
[09:43] Digital transformation isnât easyâhow Josh succeeds by talking to customers.
[12:54] Using YouTube as a Trojan Horse to move parts of advertising budgets from TV to the Internet.
[15:45] How Josh finds an innovative way to create alignment in teams and mindsets.
[17:38] Digital integration is done cautiously across a company, working closely with customers.
[19:59] The perfect place to be is one step ahead of your customer, not three.
[21:58] What Josh took from Google to HSBC and every organization after.
[24:47] Why we now think more about systems and ecosystems to understand our world and business.
[27:02] What Dunnhumby has been doing for over 30 years.
[29:20] How ânudgesâ help people get what they want.
[31:40] How to strike the right balance relating to employeesâ need for freedom and structure.
[35:05] Clarity about expectations and sustaining individual motivation are key to empower employees.
[37:54] Having a sense of purpose and nurturing it in others helps internal mobility, Josh explains.
[39:40] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Pick a theme, a sense of purpose. Leadership is a journey. You may or may not get to your destination. Rather than getting frustrated, be curious about the silly stuff that gets in the way â see them as roadblocks to overcome as you progress. Life is an obstacle course, not a sprint.
[42:21] Gen AI may be leveling blue and white-collar work--the impact has yet to be estimated.
RESOURCES
Josh Bottomley on LinkedIn
dunnhumby.com
QUOTES (edited)
âWe would spend $200 million a year on direct marketing and get a response rate of 2%. If we could get the rate to 3%, we would be getting 50% more customers for our money because one person in a hundred is making a different decision. So the lesson was, I might operate in this business at a level of detail such that one person in a hundred makes a different decision.â
âThe perfect place in the business is one step ahead of your customers, not three.â
âGet curious about whatâs getting in the way. And once you know whatâs getting in the way, you can usually find a way to fix it.â
âShoppers are not totally rational. Thatâs why I love businesses where the data and the tech result in some form of human decision.â
âI'm so impressed by younger generations because I think life is much harder. The default career options arenât there. I think itâs much harder coming into the workforce now than it was when I was at that stage.â
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Rob Sadow is the CEO and Co-Founder of Scoop and Creator of the Flex Index. He is a LinkedIn Top Voice on Flexible Work and a Forbes Future of Work 50. Rob shares how his own commuting experiences generated the initial focus on flexible working which morphed during the pandemic as employee behaviors evolved. Rob explains the genesis of the Flex Report, which tracks employersâ workplace policies. He brings insights about employersâ and employeesâ changing sentiments during 2023 and the challenges of measuring productivity and workplace policy compliance. Rob describes his expectations for flexible working in 2024 and Scoopâs emphasis on the core issue designing how to work effectively.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
[02:45] Rob chooses consulting after college to learn by working with top companies and executives.
[03:58] After a transfer to San Francisco, Rob decides to launch a business with his brother.
[05:52] Scoop addresses commuting pain which Rob is familiar with from high school.
[07:51] When COVID end a significant portion of commutes, Scoop has to reinvent itself.
[09:56] Rob explains their bet in 2020 with the information they had at the time.
[11:19] Society does not adapt to rapid change easily.
[12:28] The two things COVID did to work as we knew it.
[14:27] Rob details the implications of a remote and hybrid operating system.
[17:00] The realization that all that is expected and promised may never come is a stark gift from COVID.
[19:05] How the Flex Index came about.
[22:45] What does scaling a fully remote company look like?
[24:21] The biggest problem facing a fully remote or even hybrid future according to Rob.
[26:13] Rob shares why compliance is complicated with examples of grey areas.
[29:25] What the most successful companies are doing since compliance is challenging to enforce.
[30:45] Rob offers data points reinforcing the broad benefits of offering workforce flexibility.
[32:36] Rob expects recognition of higher performance from employers with flexible working policies will shift sentiment further in 2024.
[34:50] Hybrid is the hardest. We must be intentional about âhowâ we work.
[37:23] How the Flex Report data is generated and how companies can use this tool to monitor competitors.
[39:16] The Flex Indexâs expansion plan to include granular subpolicy information.
[41:09] Productivity is hard to measure and Rob proposes tracking aggregate employee outcomes instead.
[43:49] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: To move forward productively in 2024, start with a good recurring cadence of getting feedback from employees on whatâs working for them so you can make adjustments. Second, update leadership development to focus on managing outcomes, projects, and performance, checking in on people you donât see daily. Third, design a better workflow supported by appropriate documentation and tools.
RESOURCES
Rob Sadow on LinkedIn
Scoopforwork.com
Scoop on X @scoopforwork
The Flex Report
QUOTES (edited)
âIt is hard for society to adapt to rapid change. Most adoption cycles take decades.â
âWe need people who have grown up in this experience. The executives of the future who grew up in a hybrid or remote capacity, and who will usher in a different set of best practices and understanding on what it means to build companies.â
âHybrid and remote work fundamentally are not just policies, they are operating systems, and they require a different way of thinking about culture building and relationship development and synchronous versus asynchronous work.â
âThe biggest problem for a lot of companies is that a lot of CEOs â in their heart of hearts â hope that hybrid work is a way-station on the way back to full-time in office. So, you have a lot of companies that have laid out a policy, but have done no more than that because they're hoping it's transient.â
âCompliance is somewhat meaningless in practice: You are relying on managers who are going to raise the flag on their employees who are not coming into the office, which is a really fast ticket to total loss of employee trust and bad relationships.â
âCEOs that are pushing hard on five days a week in office are almost deliberately not paying attention to the people who can't do that. And for whatever reason, that conversation still hasn't come really to the forefront.â
âI think the companies that are not requiring full-time in the office are going to outperform on recruitment, retention, engagement, satisfaction, and a bunch of different key employee outcomes that most people believe are leading indicators of performance.â
âThe best fully remote organizations in the world are unbelievably intentional in terms of when they're online and offline and how they coordinate on those things, where they document things and how they get together in person.â
âProductivity is extremely difficult to measure because there's a different âbestâ productivity metric for every different role type and it is variant by industry.â
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Margaux Miller is the Global Director of Community at Toptal, a podcast host, emcee, and remote professional. She is focused on engaging Toptalâs fully remote worldwide network of freelance talent. Margaux has much experience building networks and leading community engagementâincluding her passionate involvement supporting women in tech. Margaux shares insights about the importance of community to create connection and belongingâacross fully remote and hybrid teams and organizations. She explains how to build strong community engagement without competition and meet core human relationship needs.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
[02:20] Margaux decides she wants to be a background actor and gets into voice acting very early.
[03:58] Margaux side hustles as the voice of a cartoon for two years while at university.
[05:17] Recording all your lines alone can be challenging!
[06:28] Margaux starts in experiential marketing, quickly leading large teams.
[07:39] Community is a group of people with mutual concern for one anotherâs welfare.
[09:13] Margaux describes the broad set of skills required for effective community building.
[10:49] Margaux finds her passion building a community for women in technology, combining multiple communities.
[14:04] Trust is a critical for a community to thrive together with clear identity and rewarded participation which all need continuous practice.
[16:43] Distributed communities get stronger during the pandemic as behaviors change.
[18:36] How to maintain a community at a completely remote company.
[20:13] Toptalâs values are discussed in interviews to assure a good mutual cultural match.
[22:03] A community needs a clear boundary or itâs a mob!
[23:26] How Margaux keeps a global community engaged to retain Toptalâs talent network.
[25:32] Connecting people with similar skill sets but in non-competitive ways yields beneficial results.
[27:56] Pulse surveys are one key tool for managing a 140+-multinational diverse community.
[31:24] Margaux advises how create a level playing field to bridge the potential divides of hybrid models.
[33:10] How equitable rule and tools establish new norms to engage fully remote and hybrid workers.
[34:45] Why protocols matter and need to be followed.
[36:34] The biggest benefit of regular in-person gatherings is to reinforce existing relationships.
[39:38] The importance of local connection and communities, which Toptal fosters actively for employees.
[43:08] Where does culture end and community begin?
[44:13] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: To build and strengthen community and belonging, create occasions and environments that are open and accessible for everyone to get involved: design events and spaces where people are encouraged to have fun and build connections. Generate activity with multi-level stakeholders on board, joining in to show itâs safe to share, and reward participation.
[48:11] As a remote professional, Margaux feels the world is her oyster!
RESOURCES
Margaux Miller on LinkedIn
Margaux on X @MargauxAMiller
Margaux on Instagram
Margaux on YouTube
QUOTES (edited)
âFor it to be truly a community, there has to be a mutual concern for one another's welfare. Or you could frame it another way to say, a community is a group of people who care about each other and feel they belong together.â
âIt goes identity, trust, and participation. When you get people to trust you they're going to come and do the thing: come to the mixer or the event or whatever, be part of the online chat. And then you need to reward them for that behavior.â
âI think that people would be surprised by how much humans want to connect with one another in non-competitive ways. People do truly want human connection, even introverts.â
âPeople stay with companies so often because of their managers or because of the team that they're on, not necessarily the company, but it's often that group that they're within, that micro-community.â
âEveryone has to be equal at the official event. If you cannot have a level playing field, don't do it. I've seen bosses of small companies take people out for a big dinner and just give everyone a gift card if they can't come. It's not equivalent, you've created a hierarchy now of how people can connect with you as the boss.â
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Paul Wolfe is Author of âHuman Beings First - Practices for Empathetic, Expressive Leadershipâ and a Human First Leadership advocate. Paul was the long-term CHRO of Indeed with a seasoned career in HR leadership. Paul shares how he transferred skills from Customer Service to Human Resources and built his expertise across different cultures and industries. He explains the value of transparency during periods of transformation and offers new career paths options as we transition from career ladders. Paul describes why flexibility is important for every employee and the difference human first leadership makes.
TAKEAWAYS
[02:35] Paul goes to college with a full scholarship but doesnât like it which displeases his mother, a teacher.
[03:45] Paul leaves college, starts working, then joins American Express and finishes his degree in parallel.
[05:47] CitiSearch.comâs CEO and Founder ask Paul to move from Customer Service to Human Resources.
[06:30] Paul agrees to try the HR role for six months, transfers his skills and enjoys the new role.
[07:50] CitySearch and other companies go under Ticketmasterâs umbrella and Paul takes on an international role.
[09:54] Working three months in each country opens Paulâs eyes about work and other cultural differences.
[11:10] Paulâs philosophy as a CHRO: People get their work done well and clients are taken care of. Timing and surf/walk breaks are not a concern.
[12:03] Recognizing the realities of people working in other countries challenges our assumptions.
[12:50] Paul moves to Match.com initially to run both HR and Customer Service!
[14:05] Moving again within IAC, Paul helps Cornerstone build up an engineering group and go digital.
[16:10] Transparency is key during periods of change to explain whatâs happening and why.
[18:04] During the pandemic, with almost no data to inform decisions, Paul increases transparency and discusses what information supports the latest direction.
[20:29] Organizations are living, growing beings with a culture generated by the environment that is everyoneâs responsibility.
[22:09] At Conde Nast, Paul explores a non-tech industry and checks he is good at his job!
[24:39] As a storied, family-based corporation, Conde Nast gives Paul new insights about culture.
[26:35] Paul is offered the top HR job at Indeed, but he turns it down. He doesnât want to move again.
[27:36] Six months later, Indeed still wants Paul to head up HR, agreeing he can stay in NYC.
[29:41] Indeed only uses Indeed to recruit, experiencing what its customers go through.
[30:36] Paul finds everyone focused on protecting Indeedâs culture.
[31:18] Growth is strong, the workforce expands from 1000 to 12,000 and attrition stays low.
[31:41] Paulâs first epiphany about human first leadership happens during a Zoom call in 2020.
[33:44] We are all the same before we become different.
[34:08] Paul does a âDigâ and discovers âBetterâ is the word driving his personal operating system.
[35:08] To make the world better, Paul leaves Indeed to write a book and spread the message.
[36:42] Employee flexibility is key. Paul believes in treating people like adults.
[37:48] If executives believe hybrid working is negatively impacting collaboration, how were they measuring collaboration effectiveness before?
[38:31] Why not be transparent: describe metrics, trial a plan, and review the data in six months?
[39:02] What about asking employees to discover the range of situations they are dealing with and using that information to develop policies?
[40:52] How much (better) were people really working when in the office at their desk?!
[41:31] Flexibility for employees who have to work onsiteâgiving them equitable options.
[42:18] Managers are not great at performance reviews, so making remote working a reward for performance is complicated.
[44:30] How leaders can help employees deal with ongoing changes, especially with many unknowns.
[45:38] Transparency about AI and its potential impact supports change management.
[46:35] Individual contributor career paths present new options for those who donât like or arenât good at managing, which has been developed in engineering but not other areas.
[48:52] Letâs create two different career pathsâa leadership track and an individual contributor track.
[51:51] Engagement, upskilling, career development, and performance should be ongoing discussions.
[56:20] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: We are all human beings first. We are all dealing with a lot and self-care for leaders and everybody is important. Whatâs more, no one has all the answers. Itâs okayâas a leader--to say I donât know. Itâs ok to be vulnerable. IF you have curated a good team, they are going to rally. The better solution comes from collective thoughts from different perspectives.
RESOURCES
Paul Wolfe on LinkedIn
Paul Wolfe on X
Paulâs book âHuman Beings First - Practices for Empathetic, Expressive Leadershipâ
Paulâs website
QUOTES (edited)
âI would always hope that I'm open enough that my perspective on something, my truth on something, can be changed by experiencing something or talking to somebody or hearing a different idea.â
âI think leaders in general, not just HR leaders, need to get more in the mindset of every organization is this kind of living and growing being. It needs nurturing, it needs care taking. You can call it culture. You can call it whatever you want to. But that's not HR leader's responsibility. It's everyone's responsibility.â
âThe more that you create this transparency, you start to set the stage for psychological safety within an organization and generate ongoing two-way communicationâemployees to leaders, leaders to employees, employees to employees. And you end up with better ideas, better solutions to problems, and a more kind of engaged and informed group of people. â
âI've always run my HR organizations with this simple philosophy, treat people like adults more often, not they will act like adults. And the two to 5% that will never act like adults you deal with separately.â
âWe all have different needs. So the idea of one size fits all is not right anymore. It's one size breaks all.â
âLet's figure out where your skill gaps are. We'll agree on those. Some of the stuff you're going to have to go get on your own and I'll point you in the right direction. I'll make sure that I give you interesting projects that love that start to tap into those areas that you don't have expertise in. And I'll block and tackle for you because a leader's job is to block and tackle most of the time.â
âMy hope with performance, career, and engagement, it just becomes this ongoing conversation that happens.â
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