Work Life by Design

Gaining clarity on our own sense of purpose and the values that we wish to live by form the foundation from which we can then live out a life of alignment. When we are unclear on these aspects of our life, we can get off course, make decisions that don't feel right and enable others to make decisions for us, as we have no real clarity on where we are heading, our North Star.

By centring ourselves around our purpose and being able to articulate what it is that we stand for and stand against, we are empowered to make decisions confidently, to communicate what it is important to us and to attract people into our lives that align with our desire.

This episode will take you on journey to prompt contemplation of what your north star looks like and the actions you can take to re-orientate yourself in its direction.

You can download a copy of the worksheets I mention in the episode at the link below.

Download Ikigai & Values Template

Cassandra Goodman is a coach, facilitator and the author of the newly realised book Self-Fidelity. With over three decades of business experience across multiple industries she has held many different senior leadership roles, including Global Director of Employee Experience at a healthcare company where she activated the organisation's purpose 'Longer, Healthier, Happier Lives' for their 86,000 employees across the world.

In addition to growing her own business, Cassandra is a Thrive Global facilitator and executive coach. Thrive Global is an organisation founded and led by Arianna Huffington with the mission to end the global epidemic of stress and burnout. Cassandra is passionate about contributing to this mission.

In this episode we discuss;

• what is "self-fidelity" and why is this important in creating workplaces that inspire human potential
• How our conditioning in the workplace may have been misguiding us and preventing us from living our true nature as humans
• The 4 elements of self fidelity
• The one thing that you can do today to align your work aspirations to your true nature.

You can connect with Cassandra on LinkedIn and if you'd like to learn more on Self Fidelity you can purchase a copy of her book at the link below. Use the code DESIGN at the checkout for FREE shipping.

Cassandra Goodman LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/cassandra-goodman/

Cassandra Goodman Website | www.CassandraGoodman.com

Self Fidelity | www.Self-Fidelity.com

Have you ever considered the link between the values and the expected behaviours in your organisation? When we set the values of our organisation, we need to go deeper in order to clearly communicate the expectations of our culture. In going to that next level we are looking at the behaviours that we expect to see when we are living in alignment with the values of our organisation. When we have clarity of the behaviours, we can then begin to use our environment to encourage people to do more of the things that align with the expected values of the business.

This episode is going to give you a sneak peak into what we cover in this module in the Your Workplace Future Ready program. In the program we dive into this topic looking at the science that sits behind our workplace design, and how you can uncover the values and then articulate the behaviours that you'd like to observe in your workplace. You'll also understand how to use your workplace to reinforce the desired behaviours to enable your organisation to live out its values.

Melissa Marsden | www.melissamarsden.com.au

Your Workplace Future Ready program | Join the wait list

In today's episode, the tables are turned and I'm being interviewed by Amanda Bulow from the Awesome Women Podcast. We discussed;

• all things workplace design,
• how our workplaces have evolved,
• the different types of typologies and space settings that we have in our workplace environments,
• we debate whether or not the open plan office is dead,
• what we might be expecting to see in our workplaces in a post COVID World; and
• how the workplace will need to consider the next generation.

Amanda wraps up the episode with a dive into my career history, discussing how I came to be an Interior Designer and the Founder & Director of COMUNiTI plus I share some of my thoughts on what it takes to run a successful business and what I wish I'd known when I first started out.

Melissa Marsden | www.melissamarsden.com.au

Amanda Bulow | www.awic.org.au/

Awesome Women Podcast | Click here to listen

Creating a new workplace environment can be a really exciting, but also a pretty daunting time. So it's important to get the right people on your team to guide you.

This episode gives you a shopping list of the external advisors that you might want to have on your side and engaging with across your journey. Designing and building your new workplace doesn't happen all that often and you want all the help you can get to make this as enjoyable and as fun as possible, while making sure that you're getting the right advice.

We cover everything from leasing through to building your new dream workplace and who you'll need at each step of the way.

Melissa Marsden | www.melissamarsden.com.au

Tom Price is the Founding Director of Aston Qld and Simon Backhouse is the company's Associate Director of Workplace Technology. Aston are specialist building services engineers and technology consultants operating solely in the commercial workplace sector. They are dedicated to delivering advice, design and technical support in the areas of engineering and workplace technology. With clients such as Atlassian, Zoom & Dropbox in their portfolio, Aston are at the forefront of what's happening in workplace design and technology and the impact on our future of work.

I was fortunate enough to get an insight into how they see the future of work playing out in technology space in this interview.

We cover everything from our desire for intuitive technology to the impact that working from home has created on the technological infrastructure of our organisations.

In this episode you'll learn about;

• The richness of conversations that are now happening around workplace design as a result of COVID
• How workplace management systems will be able to support the organisation of people and place into the future
• The ability to see how our workplaces are really being utilised through data
• How technology is an important component of how we feel about our workplace environments and our experience of work
• The dramatic evolution of workplace conferencing technology and the shift from large expensive purpose built systems to mobile and agile
• Cautions the overuse of technology and the opportunity to support both sides of our brains
• How enabling your organisation to be future ready needs to encourage a little bit of play
• The possibility that Virtual Reality will bring to our workplaces
• The inequality challenge that we are now faced with around "work from home'
• The challenge of replacing the face to face watercooler conversation with technology

Whilst this conversation is a lot about the technology of organisations we also get a little philosophical about us as humans and leaders and how technology is not necessarily the answer to everything.

Melissa Marsden | www.melissamarsden.com.au

Aston Consulting | www.astonconsult.com.au

Achieving optimal results from your next workplace requires input from a variety of stakeholders. It requires a diverse range of opinions and view points to ensure that you have looked at the possibilities from the view point of each of the users, and you might even be a little surprised by what you learn about your organisation.

In this episode

• I'll be guiding you through who you should be involving in the process in order to achieve the best outcome.
• We talk about why you would involve these people and the contribution that they can make to rounding out your workplace brief.
• I'll share with you some of the ways you can engage with these stakeholders in order to facilitate their feedback, and
• How through using our 3 step model you can begin to design a future workplace together.

If you are looking to transform your workplace for the future, YOUR WORKPLACE FUTURE READY can support you in laying the foundations you need. A 6 module online program covering the 5 pillars of the Workplace Dynamics Blueprint. www.melissamarsden.com.au/programs

Melissa Marsden | https://www.melissamarsden.com

Does that "ping" of your email make your whole body tense? Chances are you could be experiencing "digital stress".

Dr Kristy Goodwin is a speaker, author, researcher and media commentator exploring the impacts that our digitalised lives have on our physical health, mental wellbeing and productivity. She works with organisations, both big and small, to optimise employees' digital wellbeing and productivity as they navigate remote working arrangements.

Kristy makes understanding the why of how we engage with technology and how we can counteract our dependencies with it, easy and tangible. Using scientific research, Kristy works with individuals and organisations to tame their tech in order to consciously manage their digital distractions to enhance mental wellbeing and productivity.

In this episode we discuss the impact that our technology is having on our physical health and particularly our eyes, the side effects of being tethered to technology and how we need to balance our "screentime with greentime". We also get a bit nerdy discussing neuroscience and the chronotypes that guide us in finding our most productive work time.

One of the most challenging situations for us all at the moment with the shift to remote working, is the setting of what Kristy calls "techspectations", the rules that underpin the use of technology and the expectations that we have within our organisations.

Kristy shares with us the three most important things we can do as leaders in our organisations to move the needle for our employees and their relationship with technology.

Passionate about changing our relationship with technology this is one chat that we can all take something actionable away from.

Melissa Marsden | www.melissamarsden.com.au

Dr Kristy Goodwin | www.drkristygoodwin.com

Your Workplace Future Ready | https://www.melissamarsden.com.au/your_workplace_future_ready

An organisations brand is far more than a logo, website or a suite of colours. It is the representation of the organisations purpose, why they exist, where they came from and where they are going. It is their story and personality. Your brand is much more than a logo and a suite of colours. Your brand is a representation of who you are, what you stand for and how you want people to experience you. "Your brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room".

The brand of an organisation runs deeper than its logo and colour pallet. It's the stories that have shaped it through history and the impact that the business is making in the world. The secret is in exploring this and then infusing it into the built environment so you can feel it, touch it and see it.

Every business has a unique brand personality and when this is infused into the very fabric of the environment, it elicits emotion, a feeling of connection and leads to the creation of culture.

With all the challenges that 2020 has delivered to us, I'm witnessing the need of many organisations to revaluate their workplace environments and how they wish for their people to engage. And that means that the space we need to facilitate those engagements also needs to change.

As many of us are still navigating this time, I've decided to share my 20+ years experience in creating environments that enable high performing teams in my new program "Your Workplace Future Ready".

This program will dig deep into the psychology of work, look at the science of how we work and help you unpack the intelligence that already exists in your organisation to guide you towards your future of work.

Click on the link below to join the Waitlist. Doors open 20th October.

Your Workplace Future Ready | https://www.melissamarsden.com.au/your_workplace_future_ready

Melissa Marsden | https://www.melissamarsden.com.au/

As humans we are hardwired for social connection in order to survive, a deep need to feel like we belong. My guest in this episode helps us to understand the connection between organisational culture and the rules of belonging.

Fiona Robertson is a culture and leadership expert, she is also the author of Rules of Belonging - change your organisational culture, delight your people and turbo-charge your results.

Fiona was also the Head of Culture at NAB, and was actually there at the same time as our last guest Sarah Skeats who was Head of Brand, and it was together that they transformed the brand and culture of NAB delivering a completely integrated brand strategy "more than money". IF you haven't had a chance to listen to that episode, skip back to Episode 13 after this one and take a listen to her take on the connection between brand and culture.

Fiona shares with us her experiences of how culture is often misunderstood and how having the best strategy in your organisation is only a piece of paper unless you have the culture required to execute it.

We discuss the impact of the physical environment on our behaviours and she also shares a beautiful example of how just the shape of a table shifted mindset and changed the conversation, decision making and balance of power within a room.

This conversation covers a lot of ground from the impact That working from home is having on our sense of belonging, the brain and its interpretation of social pain and her iceberg model describing the reasons for functional & disfunctional behaviour.

Fiona and I could have talked about this topic for hours! Her passion and deep connection to enabling organisations to align strategy, culture and belonging radiates from her.

Fionarobertson.com

Fiona Robertson LinkedIn

Melissamarsden.com.au

Your Workplace Future Ready Program

Melissa Marsden Instagram | @melmar