Work and the Future

What does flexible work mean to you? It might mean leaving a few minutes early to catch your kid’s soccer game, or it might mean totally restructuring your job so you can travelfor a few months. In both cases, however, employers have traditionally been hesitant to open up the floodgates and embrace too much of it. Our work-lives have tended to be defined by barriers that set up when and where we work, and although there has been some fraying around the edges, for decades there has been reluctance to change too much. Now,with teh pandemic, all of the rules are being re-thought, and to some extent we are designing a new workplace. As that happens, is it now time for workers to set the boundaries? How do you resist having work and leisure blurred into one, and is that even a desirable outcome? With everything up for grabs, it is a good time for a discussion on what ‘flexible’ should really mean and how we can make it work best from both sides of the table.

Guest: 

Cali Williams Yost

CEO and Founder Flex+Strategy Group

A visionary workplace futurist, strategist, author, and keynote speaker, Yost is the Founder and CEO of the Flex+Strategy Group, a solutions company helping organizations unlock performance and engagement by reimagining how, when and where work is done. For more than two decades, Yost has been among the first to foresee many flexible workplace trends. She’s used those insights to help leaders build dynamic, responsive organizations that attract and retain an engaged, diverse workforce; increase productivity and innovation; enhance employee well-being and respond rapidly to operating disruptions.

Clients have included: Con Edison, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Quest Diagnostics, BDO USA, UBS Americas, National Institutes of Health, EY, Freddie Mac, the Singapore Government, the United Nations, Columbia University, NYU, and Stanford University.

A former commercial banker who approaches flexible work transformation as a strategic business imperative, Yost graduated with honors from Columbia Business School where she’s noted as an alumnus “Changing the World.” In 2018, Yost was named one of the global management thinkers “On the Radar” by Thinkers50, and she has been cited as one of Forbes’s 40 Women to Watch Over 40. Yost’s work meets at the intersection of strategy, infrastructure and a culture of shared leadership. It is rooted in original research on the skills individuals need to take control of their work+life “fit” in order to do their jobs and manage their lives. She coined and codified the concept in the empowering book, Tweak It: Make What Matters to You Happen Every Day, (Center Street/Hachette, 2013), and the critically-acclaimed, Work+Life: Finding the Fit That’s Right for You (Riverhead/Penguin Group, 2004). Called “one of the most sophisticated minds” on the transformation of work by The New York Times, her commentary frequently appears in the media including in the Wall Street Journal, USA TODAY, NPR and the TODAY Show.

Yost has been named one of Mashable’s top career experts on Twitter and awarded “Best of the Web” distinctions by Forbes.com. Yost lives in NYC metro area with her husband, two daughters and sits on the Board of a local YMCA.

Links;

Here are the links to Cali’s website, and to some of the work she has done around the issue of remote work

The post Episode 16: How Do You Set Work-Life Boundaries in a World of Remote Work? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

The school year is starting and the pandemic is not ending  and Generation Z will have to deal with that. In fact, they will probably have to deal with the impact of the pandemic for years as the effects of it shape the way that they approach their lives and careers. But never mind the future: right now their parents are trying to figure out how to configure their own work with the educational needs of their children. It is a work in progress.

Our guest today is Rebecca Holmes, who is the President of the Colorado Educaiton Initiative. Even before the pandemic she led that states’ work on finding areas for innovation aimed at preparing students for learning, work, and life in the 21st century. She has an interesting background – Before had her current job, she was originally a middle school teacher, and She also has been a program officer, committee member and Trustee with several philanthropic foundations as well as being a s private sector Consultant on change management and talent strategies and she is parent. So she has a lot of perspective, and she is going to give us her views on what this reimagined education experiment is going to do for kids longer term, and for parents now.

Guest Bio: 

 Rebecca F. Holmes, President & CEO, Colorado Education Initiative

Rebecca has led the Colorado Education Initiative (CEI) as President and CEO since 2017. Previously, she was the Associate Commissioner at the Colorado Department of Education.  There, she led the state’s work on Next Generation Learning initiatives, identifying areas for innovation aimed at preparing students for learning, work, and life in the 21st century while also supporting systems-level innovation activities at the district and state levels.  Additionally, she oversaw the state’s work in postsecondary readiness, dropout prevention, student engagement, health and wellness, and adult education.

Rebecca began her career as a middle school teacher and spent many years leading a system of schools serving over 90% low-income students, leading the schools to record levels of student achievement. She has been a program officer, committee member and Trustee with several Colorado philanthropic foundations and also has private sector experience as a Senior Consultant with Deloitte Consulting, where she worked with a variety of clients on change management and talent strategies. Rebecca is product of Colorado’s public schools who also holds degrees from Yale University and Harvard University.

Rebecca is a trained youth facilitator and is passionate about elevating the role of student voice in education policy discussions.  She and her husband try to remain equally passionate about youth voice at home, where they are raising two young children.

Links:

[email protected] | coloradoedinitiative.org

The post Episode 15 – How Will the Pandemic Affect Gen Z in the Workplace? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

It is something you hear about a lot  – the need to be innovative. We hear that innovation is the key to economic growth, or the companies need to encourage innovation – but what does that really mean?  Our guest on today’s episode is Anders Haugeto who is the founder of a company called Iterate which is a tech company  whose main purpose it to become more innovative. He believes there are actionable things you can do to be more innovative, and that by doing them you can improve your own company’s productivity as well as the economy as a whole.

The post Episode 14: How Do You Create an Environment for Innovation? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is in full swing and according to the World Economic Forum,  the transformation it imposes on us will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before. For business to weather this revolution and come out on the right side of it will take the right leadership, particularly as this revolution intersects with the pandemic. To talk about how that can happen, we are joined on this episode by Jeffrey Russell , who is the President of Accenture Canada. We talk about what leaders should be thinking about when it comes to the robot revolution, which industries are making the best progress in transitioning into it, how to find the right talent to power it and much more.

Guest:

Jeffrey Russell is President of Accenture Canada and is responsible for all aspects of Accenture’s business in Canada.

Previously, Jeffrey was the Chief Executive for Accenture’s Products business in North America. He was responsible for all facets of this multi-billion business, working closely with clients and leaders, supporting them to grow their impact and value to underpin the aspirations and growth strategies across Accenture’s Products industries in Hospitality and Travel, Retail, Consumer Packaged Goods, Life Sciences and Auto/Industrial.

Jeffrey has more than 30 years of consulting and industry experience living and working extensively in Asia Pacific, Europe and North America, working with a wide range of leading clients in several Consumer based industries. He is focused on assisting clients in transforming their end-to-end business and value chain performance.

Jeffrey joined Accenture in 1998 in the Melbourne, Australia office and has been based in Australia, Singapore, the United States and the United Kingdom.

He is a regular speaker and contributing author on a variety of strategic business issues facing organizations focused on creating a more profitable and sustainable business model. Jeffrey sits on the board of Junior Achievement USA and is a Board member of the Frost Science Museum. He also plays an active role in the Accenture Development Program (ADP), supporting several our client teams in helping NGO’s around the world including GBC Health and IRC.

Jeffrey holds both a Bachelor and Master of Engineering degrees from the University of Manitoba in Canada.

Links:

Find the Accenture report referenced in the podcast here

 Accenture – COVID-19: Post-Coronavirus technology trends report 2020

The post Episode 13: How Can Leaders Step Up to the Fourth Industrial Revolution? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

Climate change it was an issue before the pandemic, and it will be an issue when the pandemic is over.More than that, the issue of climate change will be a long term issue that impacts the future of work.  Between the ways that we operate our factories and organizations to the kind of careers that the next generation follows, so many of our economic decisions that we make will be linked to issues around climate change, and in turn they will impact our work-lives for decades to come.

To delve into the subject of climate change and the future of work, we are joined on this episode by Keith Stewart, Senior Energy Strategist with Greenpeace Canada. He talks about how the pandemic may impact climate change, the issues he sees for industries including energy, and what the implications are for those caught in the midst of transition.

Guest:

The post Episode 12: What Does Climate Change Mean for the Future of Work? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

When we think about the words that go with ‘leadership’, ‘heart’ is rarely among them but perhaps it should be. The pandemic has shown us that business as usual is no longer going to get the job done, and as well we are all acutely aware that we are indeed fighting a global pandemic together, This may well be the time to think more about compassion and heart, not just because of any moral principles but because leading from the heart may well be the most effective way to get the job done.

Our guest today is Mark C. Crowley, who says that his mission is to change how we lead people in the workplace. Known for his book Lead from the Heart and his podcast of the same name, Mark talks to us about the life circumstances that led him to manage the way he did during his long career and why he believes the norms in management need to be changed up as we head for the future of work.

Guest: 

Mark C. Crowley is the author of “Lead From The Heart: Transformational Leadership For The 21st Century,” and his mission is to fundamentally change how we lead people in workplaces around the globe.

Mark is a regular contributor to Fast Company Magazine and has been published by USA Today, Reuters, The Huffington Post, Gallup, CEO Magazine, Great Britain, and the Seattle Times.  His two recent LinkedIn Pulse articles on employee engagement and managing millennials have been read well over a million times.  His book is now being taught in nine American universities, including the educational PhD program at Brandman University in California & the MBA program at the University of Iowa.  His “Lead From The Heart” podcast now has an audience in 142 countries.

Before writing his book, Mark spent over 20 years in the dog-eat-dog world of Financial Services.  He held two national level positions at one of America’s largest financial institutions where he was named leader of the year. Quite untraditionally, Mark proved that deeply caring about and supporting people, and thereby positively affecting employee’s hearts, had a remarkable affect on driving sustained engagement, loyalty and productivity.

New and breakthrough medical research Mark draws upon in his book now proves that the heart is actually the driver of optimal human performance. A leadership pioneer, Mark shows us that leading from the heart is the most informed and enlightened thing a manager or organization can do.

Mark is a graduate of the University of California, San Diego and the University of Washington’s Pacific Coast Banking School. A business person at heart, he holds a California Real Estate Broker’s license and several investment securities licenses. He speaks and consults around the world.

He lives in La Jolla , California.

Links

Here is a link to Mark’s website

SPEAKING

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Why choose one career when you can do more than one at the same time? In these days of gig jobs and the need to pivot as the economy change, maybe we should thinking hard about ‘portfolio careers’ or doing several things at the same time. That could happen in the context of one organization where one worker can wear many different hats, or it could be that more of us will do one multiple things at once. It is what used to be called moonlighting kicked up a notch, with an assist from technology and the realization that it is probably a good thing to diversify your career as much as well as your stock portfolio.

Our first guest today, Scott Snyder of Heidrick Consultng, looks at the way that the labor market is changing overall and shares his insights of how portfolio careers can be part of the new mix. Then, our second guest, Jackie Wong, talks about how he juggles two very different careers, one as an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Co  and the other as the man the Wall Street Journal calls ‘the most trusted voice in figure skating’.

Guests: 

Scott Snyder 

Scott Snyder is a partner in Heidrick & Struggles’ Philadelphia office and a member of Heidrick Consulting, where he leads digital and innovation.

Scott is a recognized thought leader in technology and innovation, and has more than 25 years of experience in business and technology leadership at GE, Lockheed Martin and several startup ventures. He was recently the chief technology and innovation officer at venture firm Safeguard Scientifics. He also co-founded and served as president and chief strategy officer of Mobiquity, a leader in delivering innovative digital solutions for enterprises, where he continues to be chairman of the advisory board.

Scott has authored two books, Goliath’s Revenge: How Established Companies Turn the Tables on Digital Disruptors and The New World of Wireless: How to Compete in the 4G Revolution and numerous other articles on emerging technologies and innovation.

Scott is a senior fellow in the management department at the Wharton School, an adjunct faculty member in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania, and has lectured on digital innovation, emerging technologies, business and IT strategy, and new venture creation at MIT, Babson, Duke, Georgia Tech and INSEAD.

Scott founded and directs the Game Changer Collaborative, which is made up of leading companies focused on cross-sector digital innovation opportunities. He also holds three patents for analytics solutions and has been quoted as a thought leader in numerous publications including CIO Magazine, WIRED, Forbes, Knowledge@Wharton, Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Education:Scott earned his BS, MS, and PhD in systems engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

You can find out more about Scott’s book, Goliath’s Revenge, here

Jackie Wong 

Jackie Wong is an Engagement Manager at McKinsey and Company. In this capacity he advises clients in a variety of industries in agile transformation, digital marketing, customer experience, and diversity and  inclusion topics.

Jackie is also the blogger, podcaster, and analyst behind his company, Rocker Skating.

Links:

Here is the link to Rocker Skating

https://www.rockerskating.com

Here is the Wall Street Journal article that refers to Jackie as the ‘most trusted name in figure skating’

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-most-trusted-name-in-figure-skating-news-1519303962

The post Episode 10: Are We Headed to the Age of Portfolio Careers? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

What does a Navy fighter pilot have in common with leading during the pandemic? A lot, at least according to our guest today.  Communicating wel, reinforcing core values, remembering to listen- these are all things that leaders in the navy are trained to do, and they are things that can serve leaders well as they navigate un-chartered territory now.  Join us as Jeff McLean, former fighter pilot turned consultant at ghSMART talks about why the lessons from his first career are serving him well in his second and why your organization can learn from them as well.

Guest:

Jeff McLean is a Principal at ghSMART. He advises public and private company boards, CEOs, and investors on their most crucial leadership challenges including executive team selection and development, CEO succession, M&A diligence, and organizational change initiatives. Drawing on his combined experiences as a leader and advisor to national leaders, Jeff brings thoughtful and pragmatic insight to drive business performance.

Prior to joining ghSMART, Jeff was Director of Strategic Initiatives and Asset Management for a large privately-held family office with operating businesses in multiple industries. Previously, he served as a Senior Policy Advisor and White House Fellow in the White House Office of American Innovation, where he helped lead nationally impactful initiatives including government technology modernization, prison reform, and future workforce development.

Earlier in his career, Jeff served as a fighter pilot and test pilot in the U.S. Navy, where he completed three deployments aboard aircraft carriers, including 51 combat missions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. As a test pilot, he served as Project Officer of the revolutionary “X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System,” an unmanned jet aircraft that pioneered autonomous aircraft capabilities including successful landings on an aircraft carrier and autonomous aerial refueling.

As a Fulbright Scholar and Truman Scholar, Jeff earned a degree in philosophy, politics, and economics from Oxford University. He also earned an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Naval Academy. He lives near Milwaukee, Wisconsin with his wife and two children.

Links

Here is the article that Jeff wrote on leadership for Wharton

Four Ways to Keep Teams Calm and Focused During a Crisis

Here is the link to Jeff’s website

Home

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We are all used to interacting with one another in person, at the office, at meetings, just casually.  Particularly when it is a business context, we tend to think about how we should present ourselves and we know all about the firm handshake (now a thing of the past) and looking attentive at meetings. Now though we are increasingly interacting by video conference and the rules for that are very different.

Being on video – whether we are talking about Zoom, or Microsoft Teams or anything else – is really like being on TV and to be on TV you need to think about specific things like how present, but also about lighting like how you look even. If that sounds superficial well maybe it is  but the reality is that is you are using technology to communicate you have to think differently.

To talk about all of that, today we are  joined by Nick Dalley who is an expert in communicating and how to coach people to do it well. He talks to us about communicating in general, giving presentations and being effective, but as well he talks to us about the world of video conferencing and how we maybe need to get our minds around the idea that we are all sort of video stars, whether we want to be or not

Guest 

Nick Dalley, President of Intentional Communication, Inc.,

Nick helps professional communicators get their messages across more effectively whether the recipient of the message is a virtual audience, a live audience or an individual.  Nick has been in the business of presentation skills training for the past 30 years.  For ten years, beginning in the 80’s Nick worked with a New York presentation development firm with international reach.  Prior to establishing ICI, he worked for nine years with Audience Research and Development and Talent Dynamics where his title was Senior Talent Coach and Vice President of Executive Development.  He has also served as an adjunct professor for the Business Leadership Center for Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business and for the past nine years for The McCombs graduate business school at the University of Texas. His lectures and workshops have been delivered on the campuses of The University of Georgia, University of North Texas, TCU, Kent State, and Harvard to name a few. 

Dozens of TV stations, American, European, and Canadian, and networks (ABC, CBS, CNN, CBC, CTV, Business News Network and Global Canada) have improved the human element of their programming by applying Nick’s recommendations.  Having previously been the coach for ABC’s Good Morning America and 20/20, Nick has had personalities in his coaching sessions ranging from George Stephanopoulos to Diane Sawyer to Joy Behar.   Fortune 500 companies from coast to coast have entrusted their CEOs, middle and upper managers to Nick’s training techniques as well.  Clients as diverse as Heads of State, and professional sports teams, have turned to Nick for help in telling the whole story, not just the part represented by the words.  

Nick’s work has been especially tuned-in to helping communicators at all levels of business and broadcasting improve the quality and effectiveness of their message.  These improvements in turn positively impact the way they are perceived by their audiences.

For his work with corporate clients Nick has developed workshops including; “Effective Team Presentation for Business Development,” “Coaching for Improved Employee Performance,” and “Refining Televisual Skills for Corporate Executives.”

A brief listing of some of the companies Nick has worked with includes:

Merck Motorola Rockwell International

STP Nuclear Quaker Foods Hewlett-Packard

Texaco Proctor and Gamble Toronto Dominion Bank

Exxon Mobil Black and Decker Pfizer

Canadian Pacific Rail IBM Southwest Airlines

McCann Erickson Advertising KPMG General Motors 

Nick received a Bachelor of Arts degree through work at the University of Texas at Austin and UT Arlington. He received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Trinity University of Texas.  He lives in Winston-Salem North Carolina with his wife Jill. 

Links

Take a look at Nick’s website here

presentwithintent.com

Read Nick’s some of Nick’s articles on presenting here

https://presentwithintent.com/blog/

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Freelance work something of a controversial workforce trend.

To some, it is the dreaded gig economy, those who are forced to work on contracts or driving ride shares because they cannot find that holy grail, the full-time job. To others though, it represents freedom, the ability to have some control over their professional lives and maybe even to earn more money while they are doing it.

To be sure there is some of the first out there, but we should not lose sight of the fact that it is the second part that is growing and becoming an economic force. Certainly that was true before the pandemic started.  According to a survey from the platform Upwork.com, as of 2019 there were as many freelancers in the U.S. who saw being freelance as a long term choice as there were those who saw it as temporary.  By their count 35% of working adults in the U.S. freelanced in some way, possibly as a way to augment income, possibly full time.

Of course, that was last year, when the unemployment rate in the U.S. and in Canada and in many other countries was at a generational low. People were choosing to freelance, but perhaps now they have lost jobs – the unemployment rate in each country is over 13 percent now – they have to choose it. What else has changed? Is freelancing going to grow from here, or will the jobs dry up? Well to explore that we have two guests from different sides of things to give some perspective.

Guests:

Sarah Tang

Vice President, Enterprise

Freelancer.com

Sarah Tang is an intrapreneur – founder and Vice President of Freelancer.com Enterprise, where she heads up the strategy, product and account teams to co-create workforce transformations with leaders at Fortune 500s. NASA, Deloitte and Facebook are amongst the partners of Freelancer.com Enterprise, to name a few. Previously she worked as a Product Manager, then Head of Global Operations for the company. She is on SIA’s Global Power 50 of the world’s most influential women in Staffing x Tech. She currently collaborates with Harvard Business School and LISH (Lab of Innovation Science) on research and thought-leadership to build the future of work. https://digital.hbs.edu/platforms-crowds/the-curation-of-collective-intelligence/

Danny Margulies is an independent freelancer, writer, entrepreneur, and coach. His works have been featured in major online publications, including Forbes, Inc., Bloomberg, Business Insider, and more. He regularly publishes his best tips for succeeding at freelancing via his blog, at FreelanceToWin.com.

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