40 episodes
Work Better Steelcase
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- Business
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4.5 • 41 Ratings
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Welcome to Work Better, the podcast where we think about work and ways to make it better.
A new set of priorities is gaining traction with business leaders around the world. When asked, what workspace issues will be more important in the next year, the answers revealed new perspectives are gaining momentum. Employee wellbeing tops the list and has been considered important for years. Now sustainability, followed closely by diversity, equity and inclusion, have emerged as top issues. These topics are hardly new. But they always lived further down the list of choices leaders need to make – things that were important, but not as urgent. Now that’s changed.
This season on Work Better, we hope to inspire you with new ways of thinking about how to design better futures for people and the planet. We fundamentally believe organizations can have a bigger impact if we collectively take action.
Work Better is brought to you by Steelcase, a global design and thought leader in the world of work. We help people do their best work by creating places that work better. Stay-up-to-date on design, insights and research to help people work better at steelcase.com/subscribe .
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The New Inclusive Campus with Moira Fischbacher-Smith (S3:E7)
The University of Glasgow is the fourth oldest university in the English speaking world. It opened in 1451 and parts of campus might remind you of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies. Yet, in many ways, it is leading the way in higher education. In 2014, the university became the first academic institution in Europe to divest from the fossil fuel industry. And its strategy to create more accessible and inclusive education is changing lives. So how is this university that’s more than 500 years old leading the way in higher learning?
Moira Fischbacher-Smith is Vice Principal of Learning and Teaching at the University of Glasgow. Her focus is on transforming how learning happens. She’s been at the university since 1995 and took the vice principal role in 2019. She is also an LGBTQ+ champion at the university and she thinks really deeply about the impact higher education can make in people’s lives and in our global community..
She’s also pretty pragmatic and has some good advice for how to bring pedagogy, technology and the physical environment together to create really good learning experiences.
Additional resources:
Explore the University of Glasgow https://www.gla.ac.uk/
Read insights about how to create more inclusive learning spaces www.steelcase.com/WBLearning
Get the latest workplace design, insights and research: www.steelcase.com/subscribe
Work Better podcast is hosted by Chris Congdon. Produced by Rebecca Charbauski. Creative art direction by Erin Ellison and Emily Cowdrey. Technical support by Mark Caswell and Jose Jimenez. Digital publishing by Areli Arellano and Jordan Marks. Editing and sound mixing by SoundPost Studios. -
How the Office Can Boost Energy with Benjamin Laker (S3:E6)
Do you hate meetings? Those 30 or 60 minute blocks of time that chew up your day can be frustrating. Some companies have gone so far as to try eliminating meetings completely. But sometimes those meetings make a valuable impact on your work. So we’re asking: When do meetings do more harm than good?
Benjamin Laker is a Professor of Leadership at Henley Business School and since the pandemic has led research around the effectiveness of meetings and meeting-free work days.
Benjamin studies the societal impact of leadership and is the author of Too Proud to Lead and Closing the Service Gap. We talked to Benjamin about his research on meetings, the four-day work week and his ideas about how to reframe the way we think about the workplace when most meetings are now hybrid.
Additional resources:
Learn more about Benjamin Laker’s research at Henley Business School https://www.henley.ac.uk/people/professor-benjamin-laker
Read Benjamin Laker’s articles in Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/benjaminlaker/?sh=69e287233352
Get Benjamin Laker’s most recent book Closing the Service Gap https://www.amazon.com/Closing-Service-Gap-customers-organisations/dp/1292444355
Read insights about how to create more inclusive workplaces www.steelcase.com/WBmagazine
Get the latest workplace design, insights and research: www.steelcase.com/subscribe
Work Better podcast is hosted by Chris Congdon. Produced by Rebecca Charbauski. Creative art direction by Erin Ellison and Emily Cowdrey. Technical support by Mark Caswell and Jose Jimenez. Digital publishing by Areli Arellano and Jordan Marks. Editing and sound mixing by SoundPost Studios. -
Busting Carbon Myths with Sheri Hickok (S3:E5)
What does it mean when you buy a carbon neutral product? Sheri Hickok, CEO of Climate Impact Partners, helps us understand what makes something carbon neutral and, in the process, busts some myths about carbon offsets. She simplifies complicated concepts like how to measure carbon and why supporting projects that slow climate change is a necessary part of an organization’s overall carbon strategy.
Sheri is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and joined Climate Impact Partners from GE Renewable Energy, where she was VP and CEO of the international onshore wind business. She brings lessons from the automotive industry and energy sector to her team’s work helping organizations around the world slow climate change and deliver social impact.
We asked Sheri questions a lot of people are asking: Does this work really make a difference? Why should organizations support projects like this instead of going all in on reducing their own carbon emissions? Sheri shares how her team’s work fits into bigger picture efforts to drive global transformation to a low-carbon economy and address climate change.
Additional resources:
Learn more about Climate Impact Partners https://www.climateimpact.com/
Explore how Steelcase is supporting the wellbeing of people and the planet www.steelcase.com/people-planet
Read insights about how to create more inclusive workplaces www.steelcase.com/WBmagazine
Get the latest workplace design, insights and research: www.steelcase.com/subscribe
Work Better podcast is hosted by Chris Congdon. Produced by Rebecca Charbauski. Creative art direction by Erin Ellison and Emily Cowdrey. Technical support by Mark Caswell and Jose Jimenez. Digital publishing by Areli Arellano and Jordan Marks. Editing and sound mixing by SoundPost Studios. -
Benefits of Foolishness at Work with Poonam Bir Kasturi (S3:E4)
Many MBA students are taught that businesses should be created to fill a market gap. Poonam Bir Kasturi, founder of the home composting company the Daily Dump, believes in the power of business as a force for good. And she says the MBA-way is not the only way. A diversity of business models is important. She even calls her own style a little foolish.
The Daily Dump designs, makes and distributes beautiful home composting products in India. Daily Dump’s purpose is to reduce waste and reduce the pressure on public waste management systems. Poonam was a TED fellow at TED India. She received the Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the Schwab Foundation of the World Economic Forum and a Smart Cities India Award.
Her outlook on business opens up a new way to think about work and the role our companies play in doing more for the wellbeing of people and our planet.
Additional resources:
Learn more about the Daily Dump at https://www.dailydump.org/
Read insights about how to create more inclusive workplaces www.steelcase.com/WBmagazine
Get the latest workplace design, insights and research: www.steelcase.com/subscribe
Work Better podcast is hosted by Chris Congdon. Produced by Rebecca Charbauski. Creative art direction by Erin Ellison and Emily Cowdrey. Technical support by Mark Caswell and Jose Jimenez. Digital publishing by Areli Arellano and Jordan Marks. Editing and sound mixing by SoundPost Studios. -
The Next Economy Company with Kara Pecknold (S3:E3)
Lots of organizations make commitments around sustainability today — which is a good thing. But some are making more progress, much faster than others. So what separates the leaders from the laggards?
Kara Pecknold has some ideas. She is Vice President of Regenerative Design at frog. She consults with organizations around the world to help them develop circular products, services and business models. Some people refer to her as a Swiss army knife because of how she must tap into so many skills as a designer, researcher and leader in sustainability.
She explains how work she did in Rwanda led her down this path of regenerative design. She helps us understand the meaning of regenerative design and she gives us real-life examples of how companies are making an impact right now by redesigning how they do business.
Additional resources:
Learn more about Kara Pecknold https://www.frog.co/authors/kara-pecknold
A game to apply play for solving tough sustainability challenges: http://cardsforsustainability.frog.co
Learn more about frog’s approach to sustainability: https://www.frog.co/insights/chief-challenges/sustainable-business
Learn more about designing sustainable products: https://www.frog.co/designmind/sustainable-product-design-is-our-future
Voices from Cannes: https://www.frog.co/designmind/design-mind-frogcast-bonus-episode-voices-from-cannes-day-4
Discover how biodiversity is key to bringing nature to the business: https://www.capgemini.com/insights/research-library/biodiversity/
Watch a video to learn more about Kara’s views on the world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLqIS24yMRw
Read about how Steelcase is supporting the wellbeing of people and the planet www.steelcase.com/people-planet
Get the latest workplace design, insights and research: www.steelcase.com/subscribe
Work Better podcast is hosted by Chris Congdon. Produced by Rebecca Charbauski. Creative art direction by Erin Ellison and Emily Cowdrey. Technical support by Mark Caswell and Jose Jimenez. Digital publishing by Areli Arellano and Jordan Marks. Editing and sound mixing by SoundPost Studios. -
Designing the New Workplace Experience with Jeremy Myerson (S3:E2)
Over the past 100 years, the office has been integral to how work gets done. It has shaped cities, cultures and how many of us, individually, behave. But the pandemic triggered a complete re-evaluation of the workplace. Jeremy Myerson says it’s time to relearn old habits and rituals and start thinking a little more like Walt Disney when we design offices in the future.
Jeremy is a researcher, author and activist in workplace design and innovation. He is a director at WORKTECH Academy. If you aren’t familiar with WORKTECH, it is a global, online knowledge platform and member network that explores the future of work and workplace. He is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford and Professor Emeritus in design at the Royal College of Art. He’s also published several books on workplace design including his latest, “Unworking: The Reinvention of the Modern Office.”
When we think about the impact the workplace has on people, we have to consider how to create better experiences for workers. Modern office design has to integrate hybrid work spaces, biophilia, social spaces, and contemplation spaces to improve workplace experiences and productivity. As a collector of knowledge, Jeremy shares four specific new ways to think about designing offices for experiences in today’s era.
Additional resources:
Learn more about WORKTECH Academy https://www.worktechacademy.com/
Read Unworking: The Reinvention of the Modern Office
Read insights about how to create more inclusive workplaces www.steelcase.com/WBmagazine
Get the latest workplace design, insights and research: www.steelcase.com/subscribe
Work Better podcast is hosted by Chris Congdon. Produced by Rebecca Charbauski. Creative art direction by Erin Ellison and Emily Cowdrey. Technical support by Mark Caswell and Jose Jimenez. Digital publishing by Areli Arellano and Jordan Marks. Editing and sound mixing by SoundPost Studios.
Customer Reviews
Insightful, Informative, and Interesting
Really enjoy this podcast, genuine insight and conversations. A must listen for those in this sphere.
Enjoyed this!
Found the series to be intriguing and also informative. Steelcase has always been a leader in their field and this is no different. Impressive lineup of speakers. Enjoyed it very much.
Very interesting
I’ve started listening to all the podcasts episodes and they are very enjoyable and interesting. I was just hired by Arbee and I am trying to educate myself on SteelCase and this podcast offers me the ability to learn on my own time and stay up to date on the industry! I have already recommend it to some colleagues!