All change. Jennifer Bryan on the Workplace Cocktail Hour

All change. Jennifer Bryan on the Workplace Cocktail Hour

Change management consultant and author Jennifer Bryan invites Mark Eltringham to share a Cosmopolitan and discuss how firms can better help people to thrive in a rapidly changing world. Along the way they talk about the futility of trying to work out how much time everybody should spend in an office, how an American came to use words like brilliant and Zed so effortlessly, the need for crises to get things moving some times, and what happens next. More →

Don’t worry, be ‘appy. IN Magazine issue 20 is here for you

Don’t worry, be ‘appy. IN Magazine issue 20 is here for you

The new digital edition of IN Magazine is now available to read online.The new digital edition of IN Magazine is now available to read online. In this issue: reviews of both MIPIM and the Workspace Design Show; a reappraisal of scientific management; what the new generation of workplace apps tell us about how we work; a case study that prompts the question of why office designers don’t make more use of reused products; the road to hell is paved with bad information; Domino Risch on the workplace’s Kodak moment; why facilities managers are the goalkeepers of the workplace; the final word on self-awareness; and much more.  More →

New issue of IN Magazine + All you need to know about new flexible working rights + A warning from history about office design

New issue of IN Magazine + All you need to know about new flexible working rights + A warning from history about office design

Insight Weekly includes a round up of the best stories and commentary from the past seven days. It includes free premium content including features, podcasts, supplements and a link to the digital editions of IN Magazine and Works Magazine. In this week’s issue: it now costs more to commute by train than car in the UK; everything you need to know about flexible working rights and other new legislation; the new issue of IN Magazine; what remote work is doing to people’s pay and careers; and a thirty year old take about an office design that has lessons for today; our Events diary; and much more. You can subscribe to this and our magazines here.

FAANGs for the memories: how tech palaces lost their lustre

FAANGs for the memories: how tech palaces lost their lustre

With the downfall of wunderkind Sam Bankman-Fried and the demise of his Bahamas HQ, does this mean that instead of being heralded as inspiration, tech palaces have instead become dated and toothlessI was alerted by the great Jack Pringle during a presentation course he was giving to an unforgettable YouTube clip of Steve Jobs speaking to the local council as part of a planning application for his Apple Park in California, one of the great tech palaces that sprang up in the wake of the digital revolution. Jobs, in familiar black polo neck jumper and wire-rimmed spectacles, took the officials of Cupertino City Council on a journey of opportunity, awe and inspiration. More →

New issue of Works magazine focuses on sustainable office design

New issue of Works magazine focuses on sustainable office design

As you’ll see as you make your way through this new issue of Works magazine, we’ve spent even more time than usual discussing and learning about sustainable office designAs you’ll see as you make your way through this new issue of Works magazine, we’ve spent even more time than usual discussing and learning about sustainable office design – and in particular how the interiors industry is determined to keep sustainable products, business practices and processes at the forefront of our thinking. More →

No more zero sum games … the Workplace Cocktail Hour with Joe Croft

No more zero sum games … the Workplace Cocktail Hour with Joe Croft

For the second week running, the football talk takes place off mike. Joe Croft shares a coffee and a chat with Mark Eltringham. Instead of the mixed fortunes of Middlesbrough and Stoke City, they talk about everything to do with sustainability in office fitout and construction. They discuss the limit of accreditations and standards, the need to get beyond box ticking and greenwash and what best practice really looks like. They also discuss what might happen when our favoured recycled materials become scarce, and also how resource hungry the online and digital world is. More →

Insight Weekly on The joy of routine + There never was a new normal + The art of remote work

Insight Weekly on The joy of routine + There never was a new normal + The art of remote work

Insight Weekly includes a round up of the best stories and commentary from the past seven days. It includes free premium content including features, podcasts, supplements and a link to the digital edition of IN Magazine. In this week’s issue in addition to those in the headline: Boots calls everybody back to the office; people have already lost faith in AI; the top office fitout trends for 2024; why projects fail; Sally Gunnell in conversation; our Events diary; and much more.

You can subscribe to this and our magazines here.

Finding the spark of creativity in the routine and boredom of every day

Finding the spark of creativity in the routine and boredom of every day

Every day, after a leisurely breakfast in bed and the opening of his post, Roald Dahl would wander down his garden to the grubby little hut crammed with personal paraphernalia he had created. There he would sharpen the six yellow pencils that were always by his side while he worked, settle into an armchair, put his feet up on an old suitcase filled with logs, place an American yellow legal pad of paper onto a makeshift board on his lap and work for two hours. More →

The only way is ethics … the Workplace Cocktail Hour with David Sharp

The only way is ethics … the Workplace Cocktail Hour with David Sharp

David Sharp joins Mark Eltringham on the Workplace Cocktail Hour to share a bourbon and discuss a wide range of issues - also avoiding one that won't help either of themDavid Sharp joins Mark Eltringham on the Workplace Cocktail Hour to share a bourbon, discuss a wide range of issues – and avoid one that won’t help either of them. They discuss the ethics of artificial intelligence, why we need more friction in our lives (and less seamlessness), the philosophy of work, how to deal with social media, the importance of making your own life more difficult on purpose, and the pleasures of finding out you are wrong about something.
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They call it mellow yellow. Issue 19 of IN Magazine lands

They call it mellow yellow. Issue 19 of IN Magazine lands

The new issue of IN Magazine has been published today.The new issue of IN Magazine has been published online today. In this issue: we ask why firms are so reluctant to change what they do; a dream of the past and future of work; Andy Lake talks about his new, visionary book; how AI might make cities worse; what inclusive design means; a panel of experts discuss what changing work practices mean for major business districts; why we must rethink how we light our streets and squares; how to strike the right balance when it comes to creating meetings in offices; and we take a grand tour through the Bucharest HQ of the world’s biggest travel group. More →

Going with the flow … with Domino Risch

Going with the flow … with Domino Risch

Sharing a hot drink separated by numerous time zones, Domino Risch chats with Mark Eltringham about what firms get wrong about hybrid and in-office work, the best places to have ideas and how hard the modern world makes it to achieve flow statesDomino Risch uses her new found freedom to discuss the limitations of relying on a single place to get work done. Sharing a hot drink separated by numerous time zones, she chats with Mark Eltringham about what firms get wrong about hybrid and in-office work, the best places to have ideas and how hard the modern world makes it to achieve flow states. They discuss the potential of anthropology to change the way we work. And what the current news about Deutsche Bank’s insistence people come into the office on Mondays and Fridays tells us about the avoidable tensions that exist in the tedious debate about remote work and so-called return to office mandates. More →

Raising the bar (and hell) with Antony Slumbers

Raising the bar (and hell) with Antony Slumbers

Over a well-earned G&T, Antony Slumbers and Mark Eltringham discuss what makes work great and how we escape the binary loop of headlinesOver a well-earned but unseasonable G&T, Antony Slumbers and Mark Eltringham discuss what makes work and workplaces great, and why bosses aren’t doing all they can to make them so. They also riff on the origins and wisdom of determining how much time people should spend in an office and how we escape the interminable binary loop of headlines about whether the home or the office is a better place to work. Antony talks about the role of AI in the future of work and property and what people should focus on in their changing lives. More →