Search Results for: people management

When the chairs took over the world and what it all meant

When the chairs took over the world and what it all meant

by • Comment, Facilities management, Furniture, Workplace, Workplace design

rows of chairsOf all the things we buy, with the exception of our clothes, furniture is the most intimate, the one item we spend most time in contact with. According to JG Ballard who dedicated himself to understanding our relationship with the world around us, ‘Furniture constitutes an external constellation of our skin areas and body postures’. Whether he would have recognised it as such, Ballard was a pioneer of the principle we now refer to as psychogeography, defined by one of its founders, Guy Debord, as ‘the study of the precise effects of setting, consciously managed or not, acting directly on the mood and behaviour of the individual’. More →

Industry: the art of working from anywhere

Industry: the art of working from anywhere

by • Comment, Everything Omni, Flexible working

Eugenia Anastassiou is stopped in her tracks by a painting of a quintessential  21st century phenomenon – working from anywhere.Walking into Bristol-based artist Gail Reid’s studio, I literally stopped in my tracks! There it was a painting of everything I had been researching and writing about with workplace strategist Chris Kane for our book “Where Is My Office?” both pre-and post-pandemic. Gail, was a Semi-Finalist in this year’s Sky Art’s Portrait Artist Of The Year –  alas she didn’t make the final – although she impressed everyone with her talent and charisma. She also impressed me in managing to convey via the very traditional medium of an oil painting, a quintessential  21st century phenomenon – working from anywhere. More →

Jennifer Bryan

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Jennifer Bryan is a published author, speaker and Director of Change and Leadership, who has worked with nearly 40 different organisations across multiple industries.  She is also a Non Executive Board Member of the ACMP (Association of Change Management Professionals) UK Chapter.  She believes in helping people – in whatever capacity she can – by making sure people are thought of first, last and throughout change projects and programmes. She has created a unique leading change framework, the ABChange Model, and uses her commercial insight to help lead people in change. Jennifer is author of Leading People in Change – A practical guide. 

If you want to increase productivity, let an algorithm decide the incentives

If you want to increase productivity, let an algorithm decide the incentives

by • News, Workplace

Targeting workers with different incentive schemes based on their individual characteristics leads to greater performance and increased productivity and is much more effective than a one size fits all approachTargeting workers with different incentive schemes based on their individual characteristics leads to greater performance and increased productivity and is much more effective than a one size fits all approach, according to new research from Frankfurt School of Finance & Management and published in the Management Science Journal. To study the impact of targeted incentive schemes on performance, Timo Vogelsang, Professor of Accounting at Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, alongside colleagues from University of Cologne, ran two large-scale experiments with more than 12,000 participants on Amazon MTurk. More →

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

by • Features, Premium Content

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 →

A quarter of projects don’t meet their stated goals – but that’s not because of remote working

A quarter of projects don’t meet their stated goals – but that’s not because of remote working

by • Business, Flexible working, News

A quarter of all projects do not meet the business goals that their organisations set for them but remote working is not a major factor in outcomesA quarter of all projects do not meet the business goals that their organisations set for them, according to research published by the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the 15th edition of its Pulse of the Profession report – The Future of Project Work. The newly released report, based on the responses of over 2,000 project professionals and 300+ senior leaders around the world, paints what the report says is a concerning picture of project outcomes across various industries globally. The report also highlights the reasons for this and excludes remote working as a major factor. 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

by • AI, Facilities management, Podcasts, Premium Content, Technology, Wellbeing, Workplace Cocktail Hour

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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Two in five architects say they are already using AI on projects

Two in five architects say they are already using AI on projects

by • AI, Architecture, News, Technology

New research by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) suggests that 41 percent of UK architects are already using artificial intelligence (AI) on at least the occasional projectNew research by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) suggests that 41 percent of UK architects are already using artificial intelligence (AI) on at least the occasional project, and of those, 43 percent think it has made the design process more efficient. The RIBA AI report includes the findings of a survey asking architects how they are using and plan to use AI. In the next 2 years, 54 percent of architects expect their practice to use AI, and 57 percent think it will improve efficiency in the design process. However, this ambition this doesn’t yet seem to be matched by investment, as 69 percent say their practice has not invested in AI research and development, and only 41 percent expect their practice to invest. More →

Memories of the Office Age 

Memories of the Office Age 

by • Cities, Features, Working lives

memories of the office ageNo author uses the built environment like J G Ballard. In his 1975 novel High-Rise, the eponymous structure is both a way of isolating the group of people who live and compete inside it and a metaphor for their personal isolation and inner struggles. Over the course of three months, the building’s services begin to fail. The 2,000 people within, detached from external realities in the 40-storey building, confronted with their true selves and those of their neighbours, descend into selfishness and – ultimately – savagery.  More →

Rejection of flexible working request shouldn’t blind employers to their legal duties

Rejection of flexible working request shouldn’t blind employers to their legal duties

by • Comment, Flexible working

Amy Leech of Shoosmiths looks at a recent case following the rejection of a flexible working request and considers its implicationsFlexible working has continued in many workforces since the pandemic. The most common pattern is a hybrid one where employees split their time between the office and home. However some employees are now looking to work remotely on a permanent basis. This is what happened in Wilson v Financial Conduct Authority 2302739/2023. The Claimant submitted a flexible working application requesting to work entirely remotely using her computer and other electronic equipment and to complete all her work without attending a physical office location. The Respondent’s policy was that post-pandemic, the Claimant was expected to work in the office 40 percent of the time and could work the other 60 percent remotely. More →

Cities worldwide are grappling with the delicate balance between nighttime charm and sustainability

Cities worldwide are grappling with the delicate balance between nighttime charm and sustainability

by • Cities, Environment, Features, Lighting

Cities worldwide, from London to Sydney, are grappling with the delicate balance between nighttime charm and prioritising sustainability. As well as the delights of daytime, cities around the world have long been defined by how their iconic landmarks come to life at night. Think of London’s illuminated riverside or Amsterdam’s canals lit up after dark. These vistas almost come to be synonymous with these places’ very identities. Aston Woodward, co-founder of asset management firm Oxygen also brings one of Australia’s best-known destinations into the mix. “Well-lit buildings at night in any city are attractive. Sydney is a good example and at night is dramatic. Many tourists as well as residents sit and admire a variety of size and colour and interactions generated from the buildings’ lighting.” More →

Middle managers are the secret sauce of productivity, say knowledge workers

Middle managers are the secret sauce of productivity, say knowledge workers

by • Business, News

Research from ClickUp claims to reveal the crucial role that middle managers play in driving productivity.Research from ClickUp claims to reveal the crucial role that middle managers play in driving productivity. The study found that 81 percent of knowledge workers who responded to the survey think that middle managers, defined as those below top level management and typically in charge of departments or groups, are the people most responsible for driving team productivity, with 68 percent rating the middle managers they work with as very or extremely effective. More →

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