Using place to connect to the hearts, bodies & minds of your people
Work Life by Design
Using Place to connect to the Hearts, Bodies and Minds of your People Often when we look at our workplaces, we think of them as property. As real estate. And sadly, often as a balance sheet liability. But they have the potential to be so much more than that! Your work place is an underutilised asset in attracting and connecting to your people. Often spoken about in the terms of “People, Place & Technology” our workplaces should not be devoid of our humanity. They are created for our people. That means that they need to Personal....
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Shifting Culture with Everday Actions
Work Life by Design
How can we create workplaces where our people are empowered? Where they are given autonomy and choice? It all starts with culture. Now that might sound overly simply, but at the grassroots of this, it’s the everyday actions that leaders take that shift and create culture in their teams and organisations. And it really is the simple things that make the difference. And today’s guest, Meredith Wilson has written the book, on how you too can you use GRASS in your workplace to shift your culture. Meredith makes culture simple and actionable....
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Corner Offices don't build Community | The Evolution of the Workplace
Work Life by Design
Over centuries work has evolved from a labour some, back breaking manual task to what today some of us refer to as a "cushy office job"! And we have the invention of machines and technology, a few key players and a pandemic to thank, as the catalysts for this change. However, some things have very much stayed the same, even though the world we are living and working in today, is very different to the world in which these things were created for. In today's episode I'm winding back the clock just over 100 years as we start to look at; The impact of machines and technology on how we...
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Creating Memory in Place through Community
Work Life by Design
Curating a community is not a passive activity. It takes conscious effort, care, and a respect for the people that you are embracing in this community. But when you bringing together a community with no traditional “place” how can you engage with a place temporarily and make it your own? This is exactly the work that today’s guest, Imelda Miller, does in her role as the Curator of First Nations Cultures at Queensland Museum Kurilpa. A third generation Vanuatu woman, Imelda is a proud South Sea Islander and responsible for bringing together communities of origin...
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The Art of Gathering, a placemaking perspective
Work Life by Design
Hey! Have you read Priya Parkers book, ? If you haven't yet, I highly recommend you do, it's a good read! In her book Priya shares: "gatherings in our lives are often vague & unproductive" And I would argue that our workplaces are in fact a place where we gather, rather than places we "go to" to "work", and if we want people to come to the workplace, we need to be offering them an experience. It needs to be a purposeful, and productive contribution to their lives. In today's episode I'm expanding on the framework that I share with you in , to dive deeper into the...
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Working your M.A.G.I.C at Work
Work Life by Design
"When work starts to work again, it becomes a place where people want to be" Creating a thriving workplace where people want to be, voluntarily, requires us to take a different perspective to the "productivity" approach that our workplaces once swore by. Today's guest is Sharon Darmody. With a background in Occupational Therapy, Sharon is an Organisational Consultant, Mediator and the Founding Director of Strive Occupational Rehabilitation. With over 25 years consulting to organisations, she identified a recurring theme, leading her to develop her M.A.G.I.C model to help businesses, teams and...
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It's not about RTO Mandates. It's about Fostering Community
Work Life by Design
If we’re still talking about getting people back to the office, we’re having the wrong conversation”. I don’t know about you but I’m getting frustrated with all this RTO talk! I think those that are stuck in this vortex, are completely missing the point! What we should be talking about, is what makes a workplace a COMMUNITY. In the work that I do, creating a workplace where people WANT to be is key, BUT while the physical environment plays a large part, it’s not the whole story. “For centuries our communities have centred around sharing an imagined...
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Season 6 Fostering Community
Work Life by Design
🎉🎉🎉 Welcome back for SEASON 6!!! 🎉🎉🎉 As I hit record for this episode, #138, I had a nostalgic moment as I reflected on how much the world has changed since I first started the podcast back in July 2020. We were all living in limbo, as we were very much still in the midst of adjusting to the impacts of the pandemic, in and out of lockdowns. Four years on and SOOOOO much has changed; · The way we THINK about work has changed · HOW we work has changed · WHERE we work has...
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That's it for Season 5! The highlight reel from 48 episodes
Work Life by Design
Well, that’s it for another season! After kicking off season 5 back in November last year, I think it’s well and truly time to switch off the mic for a while! This season has definitely taken on a life of its own and it really snuck up on me that we’ve been going straight for 48 episodes, almost a whole year! I’ve had the pleasure of engaging some incredibly intelligent, wise, and generous guests in conversation over this time which has what has kept me wanting to do “just one more!” episode. But here at COMUNiTI we are heading into our busiest season of the...
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The Art of Focus in a World of Distraction with Angela Lockwood
Work Life by Design
The art of focus in our modern worlds has become just that. An art. With books like Johan Hari’s Stolen Focus and past guest Dr Kristy Goodwin's, Dear Digital we need to talk, the constant disruption, distraction mulit-tasking and task switching that we are all succumbing to is impacting our ability to truly focus. Add to this all the pressures and competing demands of daily life and we are quickly looking at fatigue, exhaustion and burnout. And whilst the rise of flexible working has given us more freedom to design our days and work lives, it’s a bit of a double edged...
info_outlineOne of the biggest misconceptions about “a new office” is that it is simply that. A new place for us to conduct our business from. A design and construction project.
This could not be further from the truth. “A new office” is a whole of business opportunity and at its core it is actually a “cultural transformation project”.
Everything about the way the new office looks, feels, operates is all new. It’s in a new location, with a new commute and with that comes a whole new set of routines and rituals.
Now while some of your team might be excited by the change, there are going to be a lot of your team who will not be. And regardless of where they sit on the continuum of change experience, they are going to bring their own perceptions to the process, until they are guided, communicated to, informed, and educated about what the new workplace will entail.
Because, in the absence of information it is human nature to Make. It. Up!
So, in today’s episode I’m sharing with you why it's important to support your people through change, and what you can do to prepare you and your business to make the most of this unique opportunity.
Remember, creating a new workplace for your business is typically a once in 10 year event, and just think about the ripple effect that doing an outstanding job of supporting your people through this change will have on the next 10 years of your business.
LINKS
Get your copy of Mel’s new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”
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