Spatial Attraction

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Summary 

Best-selling author Julia Hobsbawm joins Kursty to discuss her new book The Nowhere Office. In their discussion, they discuss how workplaces need to shift to embrace social health, how they can be a source of wellness, what managers need to do to overcome the 'Great Resignation', and the biggest powershift in the workplace. 

Since Covid, people have strongly insisted on a genuine work-life balance. Organizations that don’t understand this desire are losing out to the great resignation. Those who do understand this fundamental mindset shift are now in the process of becoming forever changed. Tune in for a deep dive into what organizations must do to stay relevant, productive, and desirable. 

Julia Hobsbawm is the author of The Nowhere Office. She is also the author of five other highly acclaimed books and is the founder of Editorial Intelligence. Julia has been awarded an OBE for her services to businesses. 

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Timestamps

[00:21] What is Space Matters about?

[00:47] Who is Julia Hobsbawm (Author of The Nowhere Office). 

[03:51] Do you feel like you’re in a Nowhere Office? 

[05:30] Writing the book while dealing with heavy personal issues. 

[07:36] Two key approaches have shaped The Nowhere Office's ideas. 

[09:44]  6 ways our work landscape is permanently changing (and why the workplace will never return to pre-covid ways). 

[12:16] What if work was a source of well-being (instead of stress and confusion)?

[16:02] The unreasonable expectations placed on HR departments. 

[20:00] The biggest post-covid powershift in the workplace (and how to navigate hybrid working schedules). 

[27:37] Where is The Nowhere Office (how physical workplaces are changing forever)? 

[31:26] The great resignation: what managers MUST change to attract top talent.

[35:10] What’s next for Julia Hobsbawm (book launch, pilates, and what she did with her office)? 

5 Key Takeaways

1. Work is shifting in 6 significant spheres. These are (1) time and place, (2) identity, (3) purpose and productivity, (4) the way we network, (5) management and leadership, and (6) wellness and wellbeing.  
2. The workplace shouldn’t limit itself to providing mental health support for people who seek it. Rather, work should be a source of well-being in itself. Some workplaces can be a source of unreasonable expectations, elitism, and confusion. 
3. HR departments usually have a huge mandate that keeps them busy. Paradoxically, they are awarded too little agency to do it well. 
4. A significant result of the pandemic is a power shift between managers and employees. Knowledge workers have amassed much larger negotiating power than pre-COVID. This is particularly evident when negotiating remote working schedules and work preferences. 
5. The idea of an office filled all the time with a particular number of people is now an outdated, unproductive, and undesirable idea.  Organizations that want to remain relevant and attract top talent must shift their policies to keep up.

Links 

The Nowhere Office by Julia Hobsbawm

Connect with Julia Hobsbawm:  Website

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Spatial Attraction is written, produced, and hosted by Kursty Groves.

Original music and sound production by Lee Golledge.

For episodes and updates, visit https://kurstygroves.com/podcast/ - and follow Spatial Attraction on LinkedIn and Instagram.

To suggest a theme or guest, email [email protected].

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Adding to the inspiring leaders in well-known organizations who share what they're doing and how they're implementing new ways of working, including hybrid, we'll look beyond physical space. 

We'll explore my hypothesis is that there are three further types of space that impact how we think, feel, behave and interact in order to do our best work: digital space, social space and  cognitive space.

Embarking on a year-long journey of exploration, Kursty will be speaking with experts from the worlds of psychology. Neuroscience, organizational development, tech, architecture, and design to understand whether and how space matters in all of these different areas for high performance work. 

Support the show

Spatial Attraction is written, produced, and hosted by Kursty Groves.

Original music and sound production by Lee Golledge.

For episodes and updates, visit https://kurstygroves.com/podcast/ - and follow Spatial Attraction on LinkedIn and Instagram.

To suggest a theme or guest, email [email protected].

Send us Fan Mail

Interview with Sabine Ehm of Locatee, and host of The Workplace Leader.

We dig into what makes inspiring work environments and touch upon some of the misconceptions around creativity and collaboration:

❗Collaboration does not equal everybody together all the time. 
❗Creativity does not equal bright colours and post its everywhere. 

A thing will not make you or your people creative. So, for instance you cannot install a foosball table and then expect creativity to happen. 
It is much more important to understand the fundamental human elements that support creativity like 

☀️ natural light, 
🌳 exposure to nature and
🏃 movement.

Support the show

Spatial Attraction is written, produced, and hosted by Kursty Groves.

Original music and sound production by Lee Golledge.

For episodes and updates, visit https://kurstygroves.com/podcast/ - and follow Spatial Attraction on LinkedIn and Instagram.

To suggest a theme or guest, email [email protected].

Send us Fan Mail

Summary
Workplace experience expert Sudhir Saseedharan joins Kursty to discuss the opportunities the pandemic has presented in terms of reshaping work and the workplace. They talk about the four main pillars of the Tetra Pak workplace experience framework, why policies and frameworks should never be set in stone, and the realities of rolling out a framework globally. 

While you might not have heard of Tetra Pak, you might have used it. Tetra Pak is a packaging company servicing 170 countries. It employs over 25,000 people. 

Sudhir Saseedharan is the Director of Workplace Experience and Future Working at Tetra Pak. He has an impressive educational background that encompasses design, engineering, and social science.

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Timestamps

[00:33] Episode overview: Tetra Pak (the company all over the globe that you probably should know)

[02:19]  Who is Sudhir Saseedharan (in his own words)?

[04:02] Why every adversity (like the pandemic) is an opportunity.

[05:22] Why everyone in the food industry should be considered a key worker. 

[06:38] The packaging that keeps food fresh without preservatives. 

[08:35] 4 main pillars of an optimal workplace experience. 

[10:26] Why you should map out personas of your employees. 

[12:47] The future is now (what does that really mean?). 

[14:15] How to convince leadership to accept constant iteration. 

[17:08] What is the workplace experience like at Tetra Pak?

[22:14]  The challenge and excitement of innovating at a company with a mixed age demographic. 

[23:47] How do you roll out a framework globally (across 170 countries)?

[26:57] Quick-fire question round (coming up with awesome ideas, getting into flow, etc.) 

3 Key Highlights 

1. Workplace experience can be broken down into four main pillars: (1) flexible working arrangements (2) workplaces (3) digital tools (4) health and wellbeing. To understand how to tackle each of these aspects, it can be a good practice to map out employee personas and use the personas to create a framework that considers everyone. 
2. Working productively, dynamically, and capably across teams is heavily catalyzed by having a hyper-collaborative work culture and ethic. The future of work involves everyone and not the workplace experience team alone. 
3. Rolling out a policy framework globally is undoubtedly a complex process. That being said, if we view policy frameworks as a constant work in progress (rather than instructions that are necessarily set in stone) it allows us to manage obstacles as they arise.

Links 

Connect with Sudhir Saseedharan: LinkedIn

The Sharing App: Olio

Connect with Kursty Groves: LinkedIn | Twitter

Support the show

Support the show

Spatial Attraction is written, produced, and hosted by Kursty Groves.

Original music and sound production by Lee Golledge.

For episodes and updates, visit https://kurstygroves.com/podcast/ - and follow Spatial Attraction on LinkedIn and Instagram.

To suggest a theme or guest, email [email protected].

Send us Fan Mail

Summary 

Timothy Ahrensbach and Anne Sofie Fedders from LEGO join Kursty to share insights from the hybrid work model they are currently implementing. Since the pandemic, the future of work has been one big experiment. Our perspective about work from home and hybrid work life has changed month by month since the beginning of COVID-19 lockdowns. 

Tune in to hear Tim and Anne Sofie’s insights into how they created principles and guidelines to facilitate an effective and happy hybrid working environment. They discuss, among other things, what it’s like to build community and run meetings in a hybrid working world. 

Timothy Ahrensbach is the Head of Workplace Experience at LEGO and Anne Sofie Fedders is the Head of LEGO Ways of Working. 

“We’re still trying to figure out what the future of work is while we’re implementing it.” - Tim Ahrensbach

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Timestamps

[00:49] Episode overview: The best of both (LEGO)

[02:18] What’s been going on at LEGO Workplace Experience the past 9 months? 

[03:35] What hybrid working at LEGO is like. 

[07:11] Why is their hybrid working initiative called The Best of Both? 

[07:55] Crafting and coordinating the LEGO hybrid working plan.  

[12:23] Two-pronged approach to building a trust-based system. 

[15:55] The main question to consider when rolling out a hybrid work programme. 

[21:23] The practical side of rolling out a hybrid work programme (behaviour and mindset)

[23:32] How is the workspace changing to accommodate hybrid work? 

[25:21] The necessary feedback loop between workspaces, individuals, and teams..

[28:00] The beauty of the LEGO Leadership Playground model. 

[29:35] Co-creating unique shared experiences in the office to grow a strong culture. 

[36:45] How do the different parts of the hybrid experience work together?

5 Key Highlights 

1. The LEGO hybrid work plan was tested with several stakeholders before it was presented to the executives. The plan had to comply with local legal requirements. 
2. People are now much more aware of what they want to get out of the office and more particular about their experience of it. 
3. Coming into the office is not merely a personal affair but a collective one.  Structures and systems are needed to ensure a certain amount of time spent in the office, for the well-being and harmony of the whole team. 
4. Workplace culture should be co-created with staff, not imposed. It's influenced by the relationships formed between people; strengthening culture is about strengthening relationships. 
5. A principle that can streamline hybrid work is that if one is online, then everyone is online. This can eliminate the awkwardness of having part of the meeting cohort online and the other part offline. 

Links 

Connect with Tim Ahrensbach: LinkedIn | Twitter

Connect with Anne Sofie Fedders: LinkedIn

Connect with Kursty Groves: LinkedIn | Twitter

Support the show

Support the show

Spatial Attraction is written, produced, and hosted by Kursty Groves.

Original music and sound production by Lee Golledge.

For episodes and updates, visit https://kurstygroves.com/podcast/ - and follow Spatial Attraction on LinkedIn and Instagram.

To suggest a theme or guest, email [email protected].

Send us Fan Mail

Summary 

Sue Glew joins Kursty to discuss how she’s changing the work environment affecting 52,000 people with a 200 person team after realizing that BT has too many offices. They talk about how the physical workplace environment can influence productivity, why there shouldn’t be a standard way to implement hybrid working, and how BT adapted to COVID-19. 

Sue Glew is the head of the Better Workplace program at BT. She specializes in change management and HR transformations. 

“Someone once said to me: do any kind of change ever, but don’t mess with people’s desks... and here we are messing about with 52,000 of them”

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Timestamps

[00:28] Episode overview: Growing an animation studio in the pandemic.

[02:13] How (and why) BT decided that it is better to have FEWER offices. 

[03:43] A vision statement for creating better physical workspaces.

[05:48]Enabling key workplace experiences by changing office design.

[10:23] How to run an office where nobody owns a desk.

[13:38] How BT acted when COVID hit. 

[16:34] Why going back to the office will be more challenging than transferring to remote work. 

[18:33] What is smart working? (experimenting after COVID)

[22:43] Why it is ok for autonomy in the workplace to be confusing (and not standardized).

[25:40] Multitasking in the hybrid working world. 

[29:11] What Sue Glew is most excited about!

4 Key Highlights 

1. Moments that matter in the workplace (that you might not think of immediately): being welcomed into the office, solo focus time, collaboration time, and moments of relaxation and refuelling. When redesigning workspaces, it is important to take these significant moments into deep consideration. Great workspaces are key to retaining the best talent. 
2. People need to feel at home in the workplace. This is why, even in highly collaborative workplaces where no desk spaces are assigned - it is important for people to be able to find each other. One way around this challenge is to have ‘neighbourhoods’ for every team. So, you roughly know where you can find someone when you need them. 
3. People adjusted to work from home very rapidly because they had no choice. However, going back to the office will likely be a lot more challenging. 
4. Autonomy in the workplace does not have to look the same for every team in the same company. People have different working styles and personalities. It is best to leave it up to every individual team to decide how autonomy looks for them. 

Links 

Connect with Sue Glew: LinkedIn | Website

Connect with Kursty Groves: LinkedIn | Twitter

Support the show

Support the show

Spatial Attraction is written, produced, and hosted by Kursty Groves.

Original music and sound production by Lee Golledge.

For episodes and updates, visit https://kurstygroves.com/podcast/ - and follow Spatial Attraction on LinkedIn and Instagram.

To suggest a theme or guest, email [email protected].

Send us Fan Mail

Summary 

Managing Director of Blue Zoo Animation Studio Tom Box joins Kursty to discuss how they almost doubled their staff during the pandemic. They talk about how to successfully set up a hybrid working environment, ensure you are true to your corporate values, and what doesn’t work well when going fully remote. 

Tom Box is the co-founder of Blue Zoo Animation Studio and AnimDojo. Blue Zoo animation started when a few friends at university decided to start an animation studio from their bedrooms. Today, Blue Zoo has been responsible for creating some of the most popular children's TV animations. Their clients include Nickelodeon, the BBC, Disney, and many more.

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Timestamps

[00:35] Episode overview: Growing an animation studio in the pandemic.

[02:01] Who is Tom Box, and how has he doubled the size of his team during the pandemic (Blue Zoo Animations)?

[05:24] What allowed Blue Zoo animations to thrive during the pandemic (satellite studios and company values)? 

[09:50] Why you should never send a blanket email to all your staff about following the rules.

[12:00] A litmus test to check if you have a culture of trust in your workplace. 

[14:56] How can a creative animation studio run on remote working? 

[17:37] How Blue Zoo adapted to the pandemic (technology, communicating with clients, mental health). 

[20:52] Lessons learned from running a fully remote animation studio in the pandemic. 

[24:06] Why this animation studio will NEVER go fully remote. 

[27:37] The undocumentable learning experiences you miss out on if you only work remotely. 

[34:11] 3 things to consider before setting up a hybrid workplace.  

[39:32] Making physical changes to your office to make it more democratic. 

[42:00] Why companies who won’t figure out hybrid working will lose out. 

[43:55] The future of Blue Zoo, B Corp certification and sustainability.

[46:16] Do you need to know how to draw to work in animation? 

[48:51] How to connect with Tom Box. 

5 Key Highlights 

1. Trust and diversity can make your company resilient in the face of a storm (like COVID-19). Ask yourself: Why do you force people to work in ways that aren’t suitable for them? 
2. If you want to authentically build trust in the workplace, ask yourself, “Does this rule treat my staff like children?” before you establish any office rule. If it doesn’t pass that test, then you must have a strong (pretty much legal) reason to implement that rule. 
3. People really thrive by seeing each other. There is a tonne of value in having meetings without an agenda.  You need a good balance between social communication and project communication. 
4. Working remotely does not bring to life the physical movements and nanosecond facial expressions crucial to bonding, creating, and communicating. 
5. Getting your sound set up right and having enough screens to facilitate good eye contact are two important aspects you need to consider before setting up a hybrid workplace. Ignore this, and you'll turn Zoom meeting participants into second-class citizens. Experimenting is how you get hybrid working right.

Links 

Young Animator of the Year UK: Website

Support the show

Support the show

Spatial Attraction is written, produced, and hosted by Kursty Groves.

Original music and sound production by Lee Golledge.

For episodes and updates, visit https://kurstygroves.com/podcast/ - and follow Spatial Attraction on LinkedIn and Instagram.

To suggest a theme or guest, email [email protected].

Send us Fan Mail

After almost two years of working from home, companies are unsure about what to do with their office space—but Airbus has a plan. Rob Fretwell, Head of Space Management UK for Airbus, joins Kursty to discuss the Airbus Workplace of the Future initiative and tell all about what they are doing to transform the office space by incorporating agile and tailored ways of working. 

The workplace tries to be one-size-fits-all, but Airbus knows this will no longer fly. The pandemic has made that all too clear. 

“If we try to go back to how we were, then we’ve not learnt from the lesson...we shouldn’t forget this knowledge, we shouldn’t forget what it (the pandemic) taught us.” - Rob Fretwell, Airbus

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Timestamps

[00:16] Episode overview: Workplace of The Future Initiative

[01:15] Who is Rob Fretwell (and his role at Airbus)?

[06:16] How did Airbus manage operations and protect staff in the pandemic?

[11:31] How long did it take for Airbus to adapt to the pandemic? 

[13:32] Dealing with technical difficulties while working from home for Airbus. 

[16:36] What is the Workplace of the Future and how does Airbus create customized work environments? 

[23:42] One amazing thing Rob Fretwell looks forward to going forward. 

[26:15] How Airbus figured out how to transform their office space. 

[28:35] Should companies go back to how they used to operate pre-pandemic?

4 Key Highlights 

1. The pandemic has helped companies introduce technological innovations much quicker than possible. It goes to show that many challenges we consider technological are just behavioural challenges. A mindset shift can be all it takes. 
2. The Workplace of the Future initiative aimed to create a new way of working for Airbus employees that allows them to work how, when, and where they want to maximize their productivity. It is based on three main pillars: people, behaviour, and policies; the office environment; and technology. 
3. Gen Z and Millennials are entering the workforce after graduating from very flexible, open, and collaborative university environments. The workplace (as it stands) doesn't match this energy; it stifles creativity and doesn't inspire young people. 
4. Returning to how things were before Covid-19 completely misses the point of our experience in the pandemic. We must value the ride we have been on since March 2020 by learning the lessons it taught us and staying agile. 

Links 

Connect with Rob Fretwell: LinkedIn | Twitter

Connect with Kursty Groves: LinkedIn | Twitter

Support the show

Support the show

Spatial Attraction is written, produced, and hosted by Kursty Groves.

Original music and sound production by Lee Golledge.

For episodes and updates, visit https://kurstygroves.com/podcast/ - and follow Spatial Attraction on LinkedIn and Instagram.

To suggest a theme or guest, email [email protected].

Send us Fan Mail

Head of Workplace Experience at LEGO Tim Ahrensbach joins Kursty to discuss how play can revolutionise the workplace. It is his job to make sure LEGO’s offices are as fun and as awesome as their LEGO sets and throughout the episode, he talks about how he does that. 

Tune in to learn: 

• The six layers of workplace experience; 
• What it means to play at work;
• Why being a fully remote workplace might stifle creativity.

“The aha moment for us was realising what our colleagues were missing was play” - Tim Ahrensbach

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Timestamps

[00:23] Episode overview and who is Timothy Ahrensbach? 

[02:16] What was happening at LEGO before the pandemic? 

[04:05] Adding a little bit of play to the interview! (walking the walk)

[07:29] How play helped keep people connected during the pandemic (does it matter if it’s forced?) 

[08:16] What does unconventional productivity look like (much more than getting through a to-do list)? 

[10:56] Why and how people have struggled to do strategic creative thinking remotely. 

[14:45] How LEGO was prepared for the pandemic. 

[16:46] The big aha moment for LEGO in the pandemic. 

[24:54] The SIX layers of workplace experience.

[30:06] How play revolutionized the LEGO workplace in the pandemic (what is play in the workplace?) 

[33:04] Examples of what play can look like in the workplace.

4 Key Highlights 

1. Activity-based working gives people a lot of variety in their work. However, activity based working is not very community centred. 
2. Our conventional measures of productivity can be completely misleading (eg: how many emails you send per day). For example, investing time in building relationships is not a conventional measure of productivity. That being said, it is through building relationships that you can get work done more quickly and in a fun way.  Creative outcomes don’t just come from sitting at your desk for hours. They also come from having coffee with a colleague. 
3. Working remotely is much easier when you already have a strategic creative plan that you are following. It is much more challenging when you don’t have a plan and need to create one remotely. Collaborating creatively is easier face to face. One of the reasons for this is that it is much easier to pick up on body language face to face. 
4. The pandemic compelled people not only to be their best working selves but also their best working colleagues. The future of work post-pandemic needs to work for people personally but also for companies as a collective. This is why work cannot be fully remote nor fully in person. 

Links 

Connect with Tim Ahrensbach: LinkedIn | Twitter

Connect with Kursty Groves: LinkedIn | Twitter

Support the show

Support the show

Spatial Attraction is written, produced, and hosted by Kursty Groves.

Original music and sound production by Lee Golledge.

For episodes and updates, visit https://kurstygroves.com/podcast/ - and follow Spatial Attraction on LinkedIn and Instagram.

To suggest a theme or guest, email [email protected].

Send us Fan Mail

Graham Marshall, Head of Organization Development at Shell, joins Kursty to discuss autonomy in the workplace. 

Tune in to learn: 

• How employment can be a force of good in the world (not just financially); 
• The worst thing about working from home during the pandemic;
• Why the demise of the office is completely untrue. 

Graham also describes how they developed leaders as role-models during a big HQ refurbishment and how they used the move to leverage engagement and introduce new behaviours.

Recording took place towards the end of 2020.  Apologies -  the sound quality isn't perfect, but it's full of insights, so well worth a listen!

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Timestamps

[00:30] Episode overview and who is Graham Marshall? 

[02:07] The organizational development philosophy at Shell. 

[03:37] The different types of workspaces at Shell (where do people do their best work?).

[08:22] How does autonomy in the workplace empower staff and make companies thrive?

[11:35] Training leaders to be welcoming hosts: why it matters. 

[17:44] What you had to learn and unlearn about managing the workplace when COVID hit (And what is legacy-free reinvention?). 

[22:57] What is the intimacy paradox? (working from home vs. working AT home)

[28:44] What is the BIGGEST challenge we all face at work because of the pandemic? 

[30:33] Why are the rumours around the demise of the office greatly exaggerated? 

[33:45] How can you shift mindsets about working from home and diversity and inclusion? 

4 Key Highlights 

1. The workspace matters. Space influences how people work. Space has to enable people to do their best work. Different personalities require different spaces and different types of work require different spaces. 
2. Giving people autonomy in how they organize themselves, their time, and their work creates thriving workplaces. Autonomy is inclusivity. 
3. People’s personal circumstances heavily affect their work from home experience. The work from home experience varies from country to country, it also varies by health condition and financial wellbeing. People require different types of care. 
4. The biggest challenge of working from home during the pandemic is the monotony of work. Being around people brings about spontaneity and variety. 

Links 

Connect with Graham Marshall: LinkedIn 

Connect with Kursty Groves: LinkedIn | Twitter

Support the show

Support the show

Spatial Attraction is written, produced, and hosted by Kursty Groves.

Original music and sound production by Lee Golledge.

For episodes and updates, visit https://kurstygroves.com/podcast/ - and follow Spatial Attraction on LinkedIn and Instagram.

To suggest a theme or guest, email [email protected].