March 31, 2023

Are we asking the right questions about the workplace?

by George Muir • Comment, Everything Omni, Facilities management, Property

In 1989, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, performed a TV sketch called Information. You can watch it below. It featured Stephen Fry sitting at a desk with a placard displaying the word “INFORMATION”. He asks, “Can I help you?” to which Hugh Laurie replies, “Oh, I would like some information, please”. Though, in the discussion, Hugh Laurie expects to get information without asking any questions, Stephen Fry explains that he has lots of information, such as “the average weight of a rabbit”. In response comes the statement, “Well, I didn’t know that, that there was an average weight of a rabbit!” More →

March 30, 2023

Every workplace innovation contains the seeds of its opposite

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology

The announcement by Apple that it wanted its employees to work in an office for three days a week sparked the usual, tedious pile-on about how many days people should spend in a physical workplace each week. This included the columnist at Grazia who joins the tens of millions of people around the world who not only know where Apple is going wrong, but also how to run every other organisation in the world and what’s best for everybody who works for them. More →

March 29, 2023

People have to create great leadership in the face of unrealistic expectations

by Karen Meager • Business, Comment

While modern business leaders are still expected to provide strategic thinking, leadership and make business decisions, their effectiveness is no longer just about profits. These days leaders are also being held responsible for employees’ mental health and wellbeing, psychological safety, as well as diversity and inclusion. They are expected to be decisive yet flexible, empathetic yet analytical, and clear yet nuanced. It can be exhausting. More →

March 28, 2023

MIPIM 2023 confirms that green sells. But is commercial real estate buying?

by Anna King • Comment, Environment, Property

MIPIM may have returned last year, but 2023 was the year it felt back. That was despite widespread concerns over the rising costs of refinancing and a banking crisis that started with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in the US and quickly moved to Europe, with Swiss financial regulators beginning to put together during MIPIM week the deal that would see UBS buy Credit Suisse in an emergency rescue. More →

March 24, 2023

What Studs Terkel can teach us about how we talk about work

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, HR, Workplace design

Studs Terkel is a particular hero of mine. I like his name, his style, his association with jazz but also the way he wrote. His characteristic approach was marked by interviews with ordinary Americans about their jobs and how they felt about them. He did lots of other stuff but that was his work. What is especially striking is that he saw himself as a chronicler of other people’s lives rather than a commentator on them. More →

March 24, 2023

Company culture is one of the hardest but most valuable things to get right after a merger

by Siobhan Byrnes • Business, Comment

Like never before, 2021 saw record-breaking levels of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity globally, a trend that continued into 2022 until a challenging macroeconomic landscape resulted in a sharp decline in activity. This was mainly because businesses waited to see what the coming months would bring. Whilst experts believe that M&A activity won’t return to levels seen in 2021, they do expect an increase as markets adapt, recover, and look for ways to increase profit. And that has major consequences for company culture, which is so important to get right in the mergers and acquisition process. More →

March 23, 2023

Getting back to basics in The Great Workplace Conversation

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, Technology, Wellbeing

There’s nowhere near enough talk about our base instincts in the Great Workplace Conversation. Objectively speaking, we remain relatively highly evolved, communal and intelligent primates. And so we are driven by things we like to admit to – love, empathy and the Golden Rule. But also things we don’t care to admit to in quite the same way – status, jealousy and self-interest. More →

March 16, 2023

The circular economy is a great opportunity, but it doesn’t add up yet

by Joanna Knight • Comment, Environment, Workplace design

The circular economy, carbon measurement, product material content, rental, ‘take back’, reuse and recycling – all actions for a more environmentally responsible workplace sector. But what are the priorities? Manufacturers and suppliers are arguably challenged by lack of clarity, requirements for significant investment, combined with cost pressures in a heavily subscribed market. More →

March 14, 2023

The allure of workplace bullshit

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Although the legend of Faust is one of the Germanic world’s foundational narratives, its archetypes and themes were already established by the time Goethe codified them in his 1808 play. They have since become universal. The idea that somebody would sell their soul to the Devil to gain something or rid themselves of unhappiness is as resonant now as it was in Renaissance Europe. It has inspired books films and artists to such an extent that its derivatives now have their own Wikipedia page.

March 9, 2023

Progress depends on heterodox thought and difficult questions

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Between the 9th and 13th Centuries, the world’s intellectual centre and the source of much of its progress, discovery and achievement was Baghdad. This was the Muslim Golden Age and at its core was the House of Wisdom, established by the Caliph Harun al-Rashid. At one point, this library housed the largest collection of books on Earth and drew the greatest minds in the world to share ideas, innovate and explore ancient sources of science and wisdom from Greek and Persian texts. Muslim, Jewish, Christian and atheist scholars worked together to advance human understanding until a slow decline culminated with a later Caliph declaring that its diversity of thought should bow to a literal interpretation of the Quran and Hadith.

March 6, 2023

The six skills managers will need for the future of work

by Lea Kimpele • Comment, Flexible working, Technology

Conversations around how work and leadership will change in the coming years have inevitably been accelerated by the pandemic. Companies all over the world have been urged to seek new digital tools, solutions and methods for communicating, making decisions, and activating projects remotely. The companies that emerged most successfully from the Covid era were those that, despite all the uncertainty at the time, decided to adapt and view the pandemic as an opportunity for change rather than an obstacle. When it comes to the future of work, we need new guidelines for building change-ready and vulnerable leadership. More →

March 3, 2023

Artificial intelligence could mean we all do more work, not less

by Barbara Ribeiro • Comment, Technology

There’s a common perception that artificial intelligence will help streamline our work. There are even fears that it could wipe out the need for some jobs altogether. But in a study of science laboratories I carried out with three colleagues at the University of Manchester, the introduction of automated processes that aim to simplify work — and free people’s time — can also make that work more complex, generating new tasks that many workers might perceive as mundane. More →