In this episode of The Real Finds Podcast, host Gordon Lamphere sits down with Cali Williams Yost, CEO and founder of the Flex+Strategy Group, to explore how CEOs, COOs, HR leaders, and real estate decision makers can move beyond simple “return to office” mandates and design truly high performance flexible work models. Cali has been a pioneer in flexible work since the late 1990s, and she explains how technology, shifting demographics, and the shock of COVID created today’s clash between leadership expectations, employee realities, and underutilized office space.

Cali and Gordon dig into what it really means to redefine your operating model around performance across places, spaces, and time. They talk about why “hybrid” is the wrong frame, how to decide what work must happen in person versus remotely, and why some underused space can still deliver strong ROI when it is designed around the right interactions. They also tackle one of the biggest challenges many companies face today: engaging mid career employees who are critical carriers of culture and institutional knowledge, but often the least likely to show up in person.

You will learn:

- Why most organizations are stuck arguing about days in office instead of defining a clear, flexible work model

- How to design intentional in person interactions for development, collaboration, innovation, and culture

- What Cali calls the “clash of contexts” between C suite leaders and early career employees, and how to bridge it

- How to re engage mid career talent so they see in person time as high value, not a waste of time

- The “new math” of workspace utilization and why perfect occupancy is not the goal

- How flexible work principles are showing up in manufacturing, R&D, healthcare, and other on site environments

- Why change management, or “change magic,” is the real unlock for productivity, well being, and culture in a post pandemic world

- How AI fits into the next decade of work, and what should stay fully human

Connect with Cali:

Website: flexstrategygroup.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/caliwilliamsyost

Substack: The Now and Next of Work

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