December 8, 2017
Microsoft’s blueprint for its new headquarters
How work changed to make us all passionate quitters
Workplaces send subconscious signals to people
Ten workplace meta-trends for 2018
Why are we convinced robots will take our jobs despite the evidence?
One in seven employers won’t hire a woman who might have children
The real risk of automation is boredom
December 1, 2017
Why cities are full of uncomfortable benches
Regulating AI before we reach the tech singularity
What you need to know about Germany’s plans to scrap the 8 hour day
As tech firms mature, so do their headquarters
Managers aren’t doing enough to prepare staff for the future
How the sandwich consumed Britain
A robot has passed a medical licencing exam
November 24, 2017
In his famous 1988 book The Design of Everyday Things, the cognitive scientist Donald Norman suggests that the way we interact with objects and our surroundings is determined almost entirely by their design. People cannot be the primary reason things succeed or fail, because they are constant, while the design of the object itself is the variable. People can expect to learn how to use things better, but without an underlying people-centric and intuitive approach to design, the design will fail to some degree or other. He concludes that the designer should focus their attention on the interaction between people and the design of objects and surroundings. This principle becomes more relevant with each passing day, as the number of interactions we have with designed objects increases. This is most obvious with regard to our interactions with technology, but it is also apparent across our entire lives.
November 24, 2017
There is currently a great deal of talk about the way people experience the workplace. It is a subject linked to the changing nature of work but also a growing awareness that the old demarcations of time and place are falling, and with them the demarcations between the workplace professions. This subject may be topical but it has been a long term preoccupation for today’s guest on the podcast Debra Ward. Earlier this year Debra joined JLL in the new role of Strategy & Growth Director and one of her first aims has been to focus on the firm’s approach to human experience. This is encapsulated in a major global report on the subject but it’s one that Debra has always championed in here previous roles with MITIE, Macro and Condeco. Debra is forthright, informed, bright and passionate. Everything you need in a podcast in fact.
November 23, 2017
Yesterday, the Chancellor Philip Hammond announced the details of the UK government’s latest budget. While Brexit inevitably cast its shadow over the whole thing, there were a number of announcements relevant to the workplace, construction, tech and built environment sectors, many of which have been broadly welcomed by commentators, industry bodies and experts. Among the announcements in the budget were new plans for infrastructure and planning, skills and training, the environment, productivity, AI and regional development.
November 21, 2017
There is a theory that if you want to know how the economy is doing, you ask a taxi driver. The basis for this idea is that they are the first to know when money is getting tight, because people make more use of buses and tubes. In a similar way, one of the best ways of gauging workplace trends is to ask an office furniture company. They’ve always functioned in a fiercely competitive market, but are also the first to notice an economic downturn or a shift in the structure of their markets.
November 17, 2017
How to navigate beyond sustainability buzzwords
The communist party offices around the world
Hawking’s fear that AI may replace humans altogether
Tech giants are transforming Sydney’s business district
How AI will transform the employee experience
Promotion improves men’s job satisfaction but not women’s
Why we value physical objects over digital
November 15, 2017
The introduction of agile working into organisations has typically focussed on the workstyles of different job roles, but has tended to treat the jobholders within these groups in the same way. The successful introduction of new ways of working clearly relies on the willingness of the people occupying the job roles to embrace new ways of working; yet there has been little investigation of the needs of agile workers with different personality types beyond looking at the needs of extroverts and introverts. These studies have tended to focus on the workplace; for example, the Cushman Wakefield Workplace Programme briefing paper examines how organisations can accommodate the needs of extroverts and introverts working together in the workplace. However, using OCEAN personality profiles, Nigel Oseland found that different personality types have different preferences, which in turn are likely to affect their performance at work.
November 10, 2017
UK law firms chop staff space despite headcount growth
What 15 minutes of solitude does for your emotions
Like it or not, popularity at work still matters
How younger men can help to break the glass ceiling
What do small businesses really contribute to the economy?
What technology will mean for traditional real estate models
Poor posture in people with disabilities can be fatal
Image: Claremont Group Interiors
November 3, 2017
The link between air pollution and worker productivity
Amazon’s wish list for it new HQ and what it means for the future of cities
WeWork in talks to buy £785 million London project
The startup era may be ending in the tech sector
Rocking and rolling with the new era of workplaces
Is Google’s plan for smart cities an attempt to control them?
Offices that embrace the idea of a human workplace
October 23, 2017
I recently had the pleasure of travelling to Cape Town to present a keynote address at the Dare to Lead conference organised by Green Building Council South Africa (GBCSA). I had just 20 minutes to speak on a psychologist’s view of health, wellbeing and performance; that’s a huge subject area and pretty much my whole career condensed down to the typical time it takes to boil a pan of potatoes. So, I focused on just three psychological theories: motivation, personality and evolutionary psychology.
October 13, 2017
A Google engineer has created a religion which will have an artificial intelligence as its God
Nobody seems to know what mindfulness actually is
Most people are neither extroverts nor introverts
We are literally sleepwalking into a health and productivity disaster
Are you working alongside a zombie?
The five major roadblocks to smart city infrastructure
Shooting the same people on the way to work for nine years
What Norman Foster got wrong about the Apple HQ, and what it means for everybody else
