Get Reworked

The word friction typically carries negative connotations, seen as an abrasive or discordant force. Yet the right kind of friction can also inspire feelings of belonging, engagement and meaning.

In this episode of Get Reworked, we talk to Soon Yu, author and international speaker, about how introducing good friction in your workplace can inspire employees to do more, give them a greater sense of purpose and inspire them to experiment.

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"Good friction in the work environment is actually asking more of your employees. And part of what you're asking more of them is to co-create the culture, to have ownership and the ability to influence what happens," said Soon. "And it's not just a top-down situation where the senior leader has a vision and states the values and everybody just follows that, you're actually asking for this idea of feedback, loop engagement and collaboration at all different levels."

Highlights of the conversation include:

• The difference between good and bad friction.
• Why asking employees for more effort can build a sense of ownership.
• Why employees should identify if their workplaces support autonomy, mastery and purpose.
• How hybrid workforces can introduce good friction.
• Why thriving brands introduce good friction to promote loyalty, belonging and more.

Plus, co-hosts Siobhan Fagan and Mike Prokopeak talk with Soon about boxed cake mixes, the seven virtues of good friction, and why Soon thinks working retail is harder than any white-collar job. Listen in for more.

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

Mention LEGO and most people will immediately picture building and playing with the company's famous multicolored bricks. But there's another whole level of design that goes into building an office where employees can't wait to come to work.

In this episode of Get Reworked, we talk to Tim Ahrensbach, head of workplace experience at The LEGO Group, about how the Danish company completely redesigned the corporate office to be a place that is more than just a place to get work done. It's about encouraging play and building the connections that bring people together.

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"We've done that in a really exciting way that makes our colleagues, when they come into LEGO campus, realize there's a reason why I've gone into the office today," Tim said. "I'm not just doing it out of habit or because there's this policy."

Highlights of the conversation include:

• Lessons learned from the April opening of Lego's new 600,000 square-foot campus.
• What workplace experience looks like at LEGO.
• LEGO's outlook on the hybrid workplace.
• What employers can learn from the hotel and hospitality industry.
• What makes an office worth coming to.

Plus, co-hosts Siobhan Fagan and Mike Prokopeak talk with Tim about go-to karaoke songs, what makes co-working spaces good, and Tim's all-time favorite LEGO set. Listen in for more.

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

Human resources has come a long way since its days as the personnel department. Yet tensions remain between organizations that view HR as a strategic partner and those that still see HR people as paper pushers and party planners.

In this episode of Get Reworked, we talk to Dr. Marie Harper, Dean, Dr. Wallace E. Boston School of Business, American Public University System. Marie's professional path started in a personnel department, but hasn't stopped evolving since then. She believes HR professionals who don't view themselves as change agents will "be destroyed."

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"Every time there's a problem, you can't say, we will train people," said Marie. "Rather, you should look at what is going on in the system, do I need to change employees do I need to change policies, procedures, the systems that we use, and that's how you make change in the organization. I truly believe in that, you have to look at the big picture before you try to assist and help individuals."

Highlights of the conversation include:

• How Human Resources moved beyond administrative work.
• The risk of burnout among HR professionals and why some organizations still aren't addressing it.
• Why people should think in terms of personal growth and not careers.
• What gives Marie hope about the next generation of HR leaders.

Plus, co-hosts Siobhan Fagan and Mike Prokopeak talk with Marie about important skills for HR professionals, why she hates the word 'career,' how a Philadelphia mayor's election loss spurred her into HR and Mickey Mouse as a potential cure for burnout. Listen in for more.

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

In any ecosystem, it's the balance that is important. Too much of one thing can lead to negative consequences for the whole. It's a concept that carries through to the digital workplace.

In this episode of Get Reworked, we talk to Aaron Kim, senior director and head, digital workplace solutions, at Toronto-based Royal Bank of Canada (RBC). When it comes to the tools for a digital workplace, it's important to not get too comfortable with the status quo. A healthy workplace ecosystem depends on balancing the familiar with innovation and experimentation.

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"When things change, people tend to long for what they lost or they miss the old days," Aaron said. "By doing that, they fail to see the new opportunities in front of them. There's a whole new world that probably has more opportunities than the previous one had."

Highlights of the conversation include:

• How a biology student transformed into a digital workplace executive.
• Thinking about the organization as a multiverse with multiple realities.
• How to focus on the big picture while ensuring local teams have the tools they need.
• Balancing competing priorities and navigating workplace conflicts.
• How to use enterprise search to surface content relevant to employees.
• The enduring legacy of Web 2.0 in today's enterprises.

Plus, co-hosts Siobhan Fagan and Mike Prokopeak talk with Aaron about Web3 hype, Elon Musk's bid to takeover Twitter, hockey vs. soccer, and the enduring appeal of vintage 1960s Batman. Listen in for more.

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

There's no single recipe when it comes to internal communications. But one thing that's consistent is the importance of employee feedback.

In this episode of Get Reworked, we talk to Judy Whitcomb, senior vice president of organizational strategy and effectiveness at Vi, a Chicago-based operator of luxury senior living communities across the US. Throughout her career, she's worked in HR, learning and development, marketing and communications. The pandemic and its aftermath put all that experience to the test.

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"One thing we learned early on was that we had to be thoughtful and we had to be intentional about our communication strategy," Judy said. "And we couldn't share information with residents without sharing things with our employees at the same time, so we understood the necessity of communicating concurrently about what was going on."

Highlights of the conversation include:

• How Vi adapted employee communications to the challenges of the last two-plus years.
• The keys to effective internal communications, whether it's in a crisis or normal times.
• The role of HR in employee communications.
• How to ensure that all voices are heard as part of an employee listening program.
• Why the company decided to rollout ViHive, its new internal communications app.

Plus, co-hosts Siobhan Fagan and Mike Prokopeak talk with Judy about learning management systems, how useful it is for HR to think like marketing and whether it's better to be an HR generalist or specialist. Listen in for more.

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

For many companies, remote work was just a stopgap measure to address a temporary disruption to business as usual. For others, it's a way of life.

In this episode of Get Reworked, we talk to Betsy Bula, all-remote evangelist at GitLab, about how and why her company came to embrace all remote all the time, and what others can learn from their example. GitLab has collected the lessons learned in a publicly available guide to remote work that runs to the thousands of pages. Despite that experience and documentation, it remains a work in progress.

"Even still, this has been a journey," Betsy said. "We're always iterating and making changes. Even for a company that's been long remote like GitLab, it's not a thing that always remains the same."

Highlights of the conversation include:

• Just how successful remote work has been throughout the pandemic.
• Why GitLab decided to go all remote and how they overcame objections.
• How remote work is a constantly evolving set of practices.
• Whether or not a company should hire a head of remote work.

Plus, co-hosts Siobhan Fagan and Mike Prokopeak talk with Betsy about North Carolina basketball, the legacy of Duke's Coach K and why hybrid work as an operating model is overrated. Listen in for more.

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

For many people, talking about pay is one of the most difficult conversations they have at work. One reason is that it's so tightly tied up into their perceptions of their own self worth and value.

In this episode of Get Reworked, we talk to David Turetsky, vice president of consulting at Salary.com and host of the HR Data Labs podcast, about pay transparency and why companies should be more open about what workers get paid. More often than not, secrets lead to deals that are ultimately bad for business.

"Bargains are bad," David said. "People shouldn't be offered bargain deals. When recruiters hire people, they should be recruiting them for the job at the pay they're going to pay other people. And there shouldn't be this secretive back-and-forth."

Highlights of the conversation include:

• Why it's so hard to talk about salary in today's workplace.
• How pay transparency can lead to greater pay equity.
• Why opening up with employees about pay won't lead to bad results for business.
• The role of regulation and legislation in making pay more transparent.
• Why basing pay on location is short-sighted in today's market.

Plus, co-hosts Siobhan Fagan and Mike Prokopeak talk with David about universal basic income, the importance of a realistic minimum wage, and what it will take for them to open up about their own salaries. Listen in for more.

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

A craft circle may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think about how to bring a dispersed workforce scattered across the globe together. But it might just be the answer you're seeking for the complex management challenges facing today's organizations.

In this episode of Get Reworked, we talk to Molly Anglin, community manager at Valtech, and the firm's former chief strategy officer, Freek Bijl, about how and why they focused on communities of practice — what they call "craft circles" — to bring people together at the global consulting firm. After a period of rapid acquisition-fueled growth followed by a pandemic-forced move to remote work, craft circles became the way they wove a community out of separate global fabrics.

"It was really important for us to have some kind of flexible system where it prioritized continuous learning support, finding people, sense making, and knowledge management without a really heavy handed kind of top-down approach," Molly said.

Highlights of the conversation include:

• How Valtech created a community-based approach to management and knowledge sharing.

• Why historical approaches to knowledge management and intranet design are too static for the way work is done now.

• How leaders can support community development and sustainment.
• How to get employee buy-in when starting up a community of practice.

• Why a community-based approach to work is right for this moment

Plus, co-hosts Siobhan Fagan and Mike Prokopeak talk with Molly and Freek about whether web3 is overrated or not and bartending as the way to understand human psychology. Listen in for more.

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

The reason why employees decide to quit is often not very complicated. But that doesn't mean the solutions are easy, particularly as the Great Resignation has legions of workers looking for the door. And with more and more companies heading back into the office, nearly every corporate decision is under a microscope.

In this episode of Get Reworked, we talk to Beverly Kaye, career expert and author of multiple books on employee engagement, talent development and performance management including "Up Is Not the Only Way" and "Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go." Retaining your best people during times like this starts with knowing what employees are feeling, and then taking targeted actions based on that understanding.

"Leaders have to know that people are coming back either burning, churning or yearning," said Beverly. "Burning meaning, 'I can't wait to get back and meet with my colleagues.' Churning meaning 'I'm coming back kind of half-heartedly. I don't know if I really want to.' And yearning, meaning 'Well, maybe now it'll be different."

Highlights of the conversation include:

• Why the issues underlying the Great Resignation aren't new, but the scale is different.
• How to respond in situations where employees have the leverage.
• What managers can do to hold on to their people, and what to do when they can't.
• Why you don't need AI and advanced technology to boost employee retention.

Plus, co-hosts Siobhan Fagan and Mike Prokopeak talk with Beverly about the power of stay interviews, what it means to be "loose in the saddle," and whether bonuses and incentives are effective retention tools. Listen in for more.

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

In many ways, the leaders organizations need today are exactly the ones they're most likely to overlook.

In this episode of Get Reworked, we talk to Jennifer Kahnweiler, leadership expert and author "The Introverted Leader," about the strengths that introverts bring to the workplace and how organizations can tap into them during this particular moment at work. What's needed is a closer look at how we communicate and collaborate at work.

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"We have a world that's structured for extroverts. It's very fast-paced [and] it's not getting any slower," Jennifer said. "So much is geared towards teamwork, which really is not necessarily the strong suit of the introvert all the time. So some of the forces that we have actually in work structures and organizations really don't lend themselves to the sweet spots of the introvert."

Highlights of the conversation include:

• The difference between shyness and introversion.
• Why work structures are biased toward extroverts.
• The strengths introverts bring to the disrupted workplace.
• How to balance introversion and extroversion in teamwork.
• What organizations should do differently as they head back to the office.

Plus, co-hosts Siobhan Fagan and Mike Prokopeak out themselves as introverts, talk with Jennifer about the viability of workplace personality assessments and engage in some introvert-friendly awkward silence. Listen in for more.

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