Innovation is a word that's often used but rarely understood. But research out of the Upwork Research Institute sheds light on what innovative companies have in common.   

Upwork Research Institute's Kelly Monahan joins Get Reworked to discuss her research into how innovative companies approach hiring, AI use and distributed work as a cohesive business operating model — and why that helps them deliver change under tight budget restrictions.

"The three things we all need in a job is we need autonomy, we need to feel like we're learning and mastering, and we also need to feel connected to community. And those three things I think are in really rare regard today for the ways we think about innovation. I would rather ask, well, do you have autonomy? Do you feel connected to your colleagues? Do you feel like you're contributing to something bigger than yourself than necessarily perks? Again, in a perfect world, you'd have both firing on all cylinders, but I think we overlook at the intrinsic side," said Kelly.

• How workplace innovators maintain culture across a blended organization.
• Why Kelly doesn't see innovation and efficiency as being at odds.
• How self-determination theory applies to workplace motivation and satisfaction.

The more technology changes, the more things stay the same.  

That's one takeaway from my conversation with Northern Trust Asset Servicing's Shaelyn Otikor-Miller. She joins Get Reworked to discuss the journey the company went on to launch Dynamics Copilot and how closely — as big a change AI may be — the rollout resembles previous technology launches.

"It does make you question what's the next phase we're about to go through? What's the next corner we're painting ourselves into? What I'm noticing is that there's a lot of passion and concerns around AI and where all the technology is going. I think we just need to slow down the mindset a bit and realize it's just another phase. It's another part of the journey," said Shaelyn.

• The hurdles Shaelyn's team tackled to prepare for the Dynamics Copilot rollout.
• How they handles the change management side of the rollout.
• An overview of how 25+ years of technological changes have changed the workplace — and what things stay the same.

Our online tools facilitate learning new practices and exchanging information at the same time they interrupt our focus and fracture our attention.  

Finding that balance is a motivation for Laura Pike Seeley, knowledge program leader at global architecture firm HKS, Inc. She joins Get Reworked to discuss how the firm strikes that balance through a blend of knowledge sharing practices and approaches.

"Digital workplace design is critical here, right? Most of us spend an enormous part of our day working within the digital workplace and the tools that it connects us to. So this environment can be full of flashing lights and distractions, or it can be an environment that guides you through the noise to find the connections and the ideas that matter most to you," said Laura.

• How HKS Inc balances live knowledge sharing lessons and static knowledge hubs to account for employee needs.
• The differences between knowledge management practices in a consumer packaged goods firm vs. an architecture firm.
• How she finds the balance between information overload and open exploration and knowledge sharing.

For anyone who's ever had an application reboot in the middle of a meeting, who waited days before they received access to a business critical application, whose computer shuts down whenever they try to upload software — this episode is for you.  

Frank McAloon, VP of digital workplace and security delivery at CVS Health joins Get Reworked to discuss the cross-departmental coalition he built to improve the digital employee experience for their 300,000 colleagues. By moving these IT tasks under a bigger umbrella of leaders, he's connecting IT efforts to business results and speeding time to resolution.

"Overall, the success that we're trying to have with the XMO is to reduce stress on our colleagues, making them more productive, making sure they are more streamlined in what they're doing and ultimately helping our clients and customers across everyone that works with CVS. The happier our colleagues can be and the more efficient they can be, the better it is for everyone," said Frank.

• How he and the XMO office approach prioritization in an organization with more than 300,000 employees.
• How CVS Health is using AI to identify potential problem areas for colleagues.
• Why Frank sees a future where IT help desks are no longer needed.

Seven years. That's how long BlackRock spent bringing its new global headquarters from vision to life. 

In this episode of Get Reworked, Jen Schettino, head of digital workplace and control at BlackRock, shares the seven year journey the company undertook to reinvent not only its physical headquarters, but its digital. The team persevered through the pandemic and other setbacks to bring the headquarters to life in 2022 — which resulted in their recognition as a Reworked Impact Award winner for innovative use of workplace technology.

"Change management was the key to our success and really helping people to understand before they ever stepped foot in that building what they were getting, I think really helped us in the weeks and months that followed. And that has been a huge lesson for us as we think about other technologies we roll out, as we tackle other moves like this," said Jen.

• A discussion of the before and after of BlackRock's workplace.
• Why Jen credits change management for the success of the initiative.
• The employee response to the new face of BlackRock.

If someone asked you to define design thinking, would you be able to do it? 

In this episode of Get Reworked, Andrew Lindsay, global head of enterprise design at KraftHeinz, discusses why that lack of a clear definition is in part why design thinking has been called into question and advocates for why it's more important than ever.

"In the absence of a design practice and design strategist and user researchers, engineers and product teams and business stakeholders are the hippo — the highest paid person's opinion — who drive those types of decisions. And so having that third-party perspective, that nonpartisan view coming from the design team really helps the teams take a step back, lead with data and insights, and then make more informed decisions," Andrew said. 

• What critics of design thinking got right and where they missed the mark. 
• Why Andrew views design thinking is one form of business development.
• What goes into choosing which problem to solve when with design thinking.

Have a suggestion, comment or topic for a future episode? Drop us a line at [email protected].

Compassion isn't typically a focus of board-room discussions, but maybe it should be. 

In this episode of Get Reworked, Dr. James Doty, neurosurgeon, author, founder of the Center of Compassion and Altruism Research at Stanford University and founder of Happi.ai joins me to discuss the research behind the creation of his mental health avatar and why companies should learn the science behind why compassion in the workplace pays off for everyone.

Listen: Get Reworked Full Episode List

"The reality is that there are many corporations which are functioning on an old paradigm, which is motivation through fear. And when that is the paradigm, it leads to several negative aspects. One is it decreases productivity, it decreases creativity, it increases healthcare costs, and it has a negative effect or increases, if you will, human resource costs. So if the corporate entity in and of itself is not a compassionate place, that will dramatically increase problems related to mental health issues," said Jim. 

• Why an identified need for self-compassion in part drove the creation of Happi.ai, a mental health avatar.
• The scientific and financial argument for why compassion matters in the workplace.
• How technology can both help and harm our efforts to build connections in the world and the workplace.

Have a suggestion, comment or topic for a future episode? Drop us a line at [email protected].

100,000 employees, 15 intranets and who knows how many individual department SharePoint sites.

That’s the challenge that Chris Harrer and his team at Comcast faced when tasked with bringing this fragmented digital ecosystem together into a seamless digital employee experience with the relaunch of the company’s intranet, ComcastNow. 

In this episode of Get Reworked, Chris, former AVP of digital internal communications at Comcast and IMPACT award winner gives us an inside look into how he and his team untangled the fragmented digital ecosystem that was ComcastNow, the company's intranet, to deliver an unified digital employee experience.

"We did a lot of research. We did surveys, obviously, and we did many individual stakeholder sessions. I think we did 36 stakeholder sessions, and that went from everywhere from literally the CIO, the CHRO, all the way down to department heads. We did end users in general, all the way from the frontline all the way up. Everyone's a user in the end," said Chris. 

• The unexpected challenges that came up during the project.
• The response to the relaunched ComcastNow.
• What Chris wishes he knew when he started that he knew when he ended.

Have a suggestion, comment or topic for a future episode? Drop us a line at [email protected].

Think back to your first day at work. You met your new colleagues, learned about the corporate culture and maybe got some branded company swag. But did you get the tools you needed to actually accomplish your job? 

In this episode of Get Reworked, Spencer Mains, head of digital workplace experience at Pacific Gas & Electric shares how he and his team pushed tech enablement onto the orientation agenda after witnessing how long it took for some of their colleagues to receive their work computer. 

Listen: Get Reworked Full Episode List

"A year ago, we had people coming on board, and it could take an average of five days before you are actually connected to the network with your equipment. And that's a bit of a shame and kind of an embarrassment. It's not right for our ratepayers, it's not right for their colleagues. So we quantified that as lost productivity. We showed the numbers, it was in the millions of dollars of lost productivity, we have people who were actually sitting idle. And we changed that," said Spencer. 

• Why IT needs to be part of orientation.
• Why Spencer uses joy as a key metric.
• Why IT leaders need to practice breakthrough thinking to support their colleagues.

Have a suggestion, comment or topic for a future episode? Drop us a line at [email protected].

Conflict is an unfortunate truth in life, society and the workplace. Some might call it a necessary evil. But is it really that bad? Without healthy tension, diversity of thought and spirited debate, we can’t have innovation, growth or change within our organizations. 

Karin Hurt, CEO of Let’s Grow Leaders and author of the book, “Powerful Phrases For Dealing With Workplace Conflict,” joins the podcast to discuss what she’s learned about addressing conflict with care-filled words and building brighter, bolder cultures in the office.

“If you both care about something really passionately, you're gonna have conflict. It's how you manage the conflict, and so care filled words can make all the difference. And that's really why we wrote powerful phrases for dealing with workplace conflict, so that you can have more productive conflict up, down and sideways in your teams.”

Highlights of the conversation include: 

• The four dimensions of productive conflict.
• The role that building human connections plays.
• How hybrid and remote work have reshaped our approaches to conflict.
• What can be done at the organizational level to normalize disagreements between teams and colleagues.

Plus, hosts Siobhan Fagan and Nidhi Madhavan chat with Karin about why traditional approaches to providing feedback (“I” statements, sh*t sandwiches) don’t work, the G.O.A.T phrases to use instead, and overcoming physical barriers in a remote environment.

Have a suggestion, comment or topic for a future episode? Send it to [email protected].