1. Creating today's place for
tomorrow's talent
connecting the dots
8th June 2016 Smartworking Summit
Widely acclaimed industry leaders brought
together by Quora Consulting to explore
the positive momentum Smartworking can
have on the workplace.
Bringing the
hottest topics of
tomorrow's
workplace to life
today
2. What we do...
We are committed to
helping organisations
comprehend and respond
to the changing nature of
work and avoid ‘solving the
wrong problem really well’.
In June, I was thrilled and honoured to find myself
voted as one of the top 100 global influencers
(W100™) in the workplace field by the acclaimed
analysts CREinFOCUS.
Smartworking Summits are our riposte to the
countless PowerPoint-laden, industry siloed events
that traditionally dominate and quite frankly distort
the seminar and conference calendar.
Staged three times/year, Smartworking Summits
reflect the realities of corporate life by featuring
widely acclaimed industry executives – CEOs, CFOs,
COOs CIOs CHROs and Group Property Directors -
under Chatham House rules in a PowerPoint-free
environment talking openly about how they are
addressing the changing nature of work.
Summits are a truly unique opportunity to be
amongst leaders learning from leaders. I trust you
will be able to come along and experience the
journey with us.
“...we need to be open to the idea that things we did in
the past may hold us back in the future..."
Greg Searle, MBE
John Blackwell
Managing Director, Quora Consulting
john.blackwell@quoraconsulting.com
Tel: +44 1491 628654
2
3. Greg Searle MBE, Triple Olympic champion, Gold medal
Simon Hay, CEO, Dunnhumby
Richard Bandell, CEO, GRG
Cheryl Kennedy, Director of Digital Services, Barclaycard
Josefin Holmberg, Director Transform. Thomson Reuters
Johnny Dunford, Director of CRE, BNP Paribas
Richard Copley, Head of Transformation, DWF llp
Smartworking and
the paradigm shift
Quora's Smartworking Summit delivered
pioneering approaches towards tackling
some of today's most critical challenges.
The full-day programme at the stunning
200 Aldersgate, London venue, offered
peerless opportunities to network with
prominent executive speakers
throughout the morning. The afternoon
followed with a deeper dive into
business critical issues through six
intimate round table sessions.
Attracting 250 c-suite executives keen to
explore workplace challenges and
address the rapidly changing nature of
work, everyone left with distinct and
clear takeaways.
Afternoon round tables considered business critical issues
The morning delivered compelling insights from seven
executive speakers;
Creating productive workplaces
Improving quality of life for tomorrow’s talent
What’s the future of FM?
Corporate sustainability beyond compliance
Technology innovation surgery
Engaging & retaining future talent3
4. Quora Consulting
Preparing for a different tomorrow
Who is Quora?
Quora is an 88-person independent consultancy that
guides mid-large size organisations to achieve high
performance work practices and workplaces through
unique analytics. Our work enables organisations to
optimise costs, increase productivity and crucially
enhance employee engagement.
The bottom line is that we help frontline leaders
focus limited resources on critical decisions,
providing clarity to ensure optimal investments are
made in changing work practices and 'avoid
solving the wrong problems really well'.
With recognised thought-leadership in transforming
work practices and workplaces, Quora is a global
practice, operating out of Seattle for the North
American market, Sydney for the Asia Pacific market
and London for the wider European market.
www.quoraconsulting.com
Our research
We are globally renowned for thought-leadership
research. Through a long-term sponsorship with six
global leading universities, providing they act as a
network, we fund their research and, in return, they
assist with the development of our core workplace
analytics.
With over 110 reports currently available in our online
repository and 8-10 new reports released each year, we
are the single largest publisher of research into the
rapidly changing nature of work.
Our research is open to public domain via a no-cost
subscription and currently attracts over 30,000
subscribers, with some 800 new subscribers joining
each month.
By the very nature of our research, the subscribers are
predominantly c-suite readers from FTSE 100/ Fortune
500 organisations.
4
5. “You can’t solve a
problem at the
level it started”
Josefin Holmberg, Business Transformation
Director, Thomson Reuters
5
6. What do the Global Goals mean
to you and your organisation?
Takeaways from the
We all have a role to play in achieving
As more leaders encourage us to live these core values and mindsets in our day-to-day
In September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly formally adopted the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development, along with a set of 17 bold new Global Goals, which Ban Ki-moon, United
Nations Secretary-General hailed as a universal, integrated and transformative vision for a better
world. These Global Goals provided a framework backdrop for our Summit outcomes.
We all have a role to play in
achieving the common greater good.
As more leaders encourage us to live
these core values and mindsets in our day-
to-day actions, what will your organisation
do to help make the transformation happen?
Working in unison to:
Connect Silos
Enhances cross-disciplinary relationships
Integrate each silos’ competencies.
The challenge: To integrate stakeholders
within your organisation to work
in unity as one?
Global Goal #17
Identify the high potentials
in every organisation to:
Become independent leaders
Solve complex problems
Drive coherence and transparency
Stimulate cross-departmental emergence
The challenge: If high potentials from all
societal stakeholders can turn their
attention to Global concerns, they will conceive
simple solutions for
us all to develop and
implement.
Global Goals # 3 & 4
The responsibility of CEOs:
Living and breading the culture
Relentlessly deliver your busy today
Avoid the traps of history
Enable non-linear innovation
Global Goals # 3, 4, 11 & 12
The challenge: To enable the organisations to lead
and instil a human-centred culture.
Propel the impacts into communities
and sustainable cities around the world.
Develop
enhanced un
of people as indiv
Make better, more
Unlock under-util
tale
Understand mo
people beha
The challenge: To c
workplace for open,
less conv
Global Goals
7. “The new agenda is a promise by leaders to all
people everywhere. It's an agenda for people,
for good health & well-being, gender equality,
economic growth, industry innovation &
infrastructure, equal pay for equal work all its
forms – an agenda for the planet, our common
home.”
“Business is a vital partner in achieving the
Sustainable Development Goals. Every
organisation can contribute through their core
activities everywhere to assess their impact, set
ambitious goals & communicate transparently
about the results.” Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-
General
Smartworking Summit
these goals for the greater common good.
actions, what will your organisation or community do to help make transformation happen?
Aligning to and delivering
against these Global Goals
can provide organisations
with a tangible advantage in
attracting and recruiting
critical talent as well as
improving productivity,
collaboration, and innovation
To bring emergence
into business we must:
Find a band leader who respects the
talents and feelings of each soloist
Allow the individual personalities to shine
Bond with and follow the natural leader
The challenge: This systemic connection
goes beyond rules and processes, it's
about being intrinsically connected at a
human, emotional, intellectual and spiritual level.
This enables us to
contribute to the common greater
good, whilst contributing with
our own unique skills and
talents.
Global Goals
#4 & 17
In order to adapt to
the changes ahead we must:
Think holistically
Become human-centred at the core
Let these two elements come alive in
our actions
The challenge: This cannot just be
another ‘add-on’, it has to be a core
guiding principle for all actors in society.
Global Goals #3 and 10
Unleash intrinsic
motivations of individuals,
organisations and cities to align:
Values
Purposes
Drivers
The challenge: Finding the people,
spaces and cultures that would optimise
the unleashing of intrinsic motivation?
Do they even exist yet? Beginning with
those who want to do something
different may encourage others
to follow.
Global Goals # 3, 9, and 11
ing an
derstanding
iduals in order to:
informed decisions,
ised potential and
nts
re about the way
ve and act
reate spaces in the
honest and taboo-
ersation.
5, 8, and 9.
7
8. Greg Searle, took us through his personal journey
as a world-class competitor looking at how culture
breeds unity and accelerates transformation. He
revealed how scrapping uniforms spawned unity,
moving furniture fostered friendship and ditching the
sunglasses sparked strength.
At each of the four Olympic games that he has competed in,
Greg increasingly understood more about the key to
developing a strong, united team. At the 1992 Olympic
Games Great Britain took home just a single gold medal.
Twenty years later. at the London Olympics, Team GB
won 28 gold medals. How was this achieved? As Greg
would have it, it’s a lot to do with culture. He recalled
intimidation he felt in his first games when thrown
into the same environment with all the other athletes.
Each Great Britain sports team wore a different uniform,
which caused a huge cross-disciplinary divide. Greg would
even opted to sit with rowers from other teams rather
than sitting with his own GB Team.
Everything changed for 2012, with every single Team
GB athlete wearing the same uniform regardless of their
sport. The team came together as one and went on
to achieve phenomenal success. Those 28 gold medals
were won because the whole team stopped being one
that was broken into silos with short term goals, and
became one connected organisation that brought
together a variety of equally important skills and talents.
Greg states, “We recognised the importance of everyone”.
Next, Greg recalled a period during his training when he
and his team mate decided to move the newest addition
to their team into the same room as them whenever they
travelled. They wanted to make him feel valued and part
of the team. “Everyone is of equal value, we put his bed in
the room to have a different kind of conversation and find
out more about each other”. Through something as
simple as having a conversation, Greg and his team were
starting to become more than little silos working alone.
“The key to a good culture is about the
kind of conversations that we have... when
we have genuinely honest conversations
and encourage others to take risks we
grow a level of trust, which ultimately
enables that person to deliver.”
Is there a need for some unlearning?
Many organisations are very proud of what
they have achieved in the past. The pace of
change, however, is growing evermore and, as
leaders, we need to be open to the idea that the
things we did in the past may hold us back in
the future - or as Greg puts it - there may be a
need to do a little ‘unlearning’.
At 28 years-old and competing in his third
Olympic Games, a new German coach was assigned
to Greg’s team. As a seasoned competitor with two
previous games under his belt, Greg felt confident
in his knowledge and experience about the way
the team should work. When his view differed from
that of the new coach, Greg was prepared to
quietly go against and undermine him. As a
team, they never really connected properly or
had the honest conversations about what really
drives them. “I was undermining the culture I was
part of.”
So when it came down to it on race day, Team
GB were overcome when a French coach for the
boat next to them screamed the names of the
rowers’ children. The coach’s injection of
internal motivation pushed his team to
overtake Great Britain and win the race.
“Shouting the names of their children pushed them
to win the medal, our (coach) simply said ‘pull
harder’.”
Developing a
Winning Culture
How better to learn the importance of working
in a team than from a Great British Olympian?
8
9. Levels of communication framework
Greg encouraged participants to work their way through the framework’s levels, illustrating
the impacts that open and meaningful conversations can bring. When these values are
lived and embodied our silos can become unified. How could civil society contribute
towards this unification?
“It feels good when we move up
these levels, it’s much more
engaging and makes a real
difference. Every organisation
I’ve worked with has some kind
of values, but it’s about what
you do with them. Whether
you live and breath them,
ensure that people care about
them and that these things
aren’t just talked about.”
As the business world understands and applies this for itself: it connects silos, enhances
cross-disciplinary relationships and integrates the different silos’ complementary
competencies.
Could the next step be to bring together all societal actors to do the same?
Should we integrate stakeholders within every organisation, district and county to work
in unity as one? Global Goal #17 invites people around the globe to do so!
9
10. The Changing
Nature of Work
Reflecting on some lessons learned and
challenges faced, CEO at Dunnhumby
Simon Hay explored the topic of workplace
culture and its role in supporting strategy.
Hoverboards are a metaphor for
our time
Up until the spring of 2015 most people didn’t
know what a hoverboard looked like, much less
what one of them can do. Then photos and
videos emerged online of superstars Mike
Tyson, Wiz Khalifa and Justin Bieber mounting
them and subsequently spring-boarding these
smart scooters into the mainstream.
Overnight, hoverboards become the ‘must have’
accessory of 2015. Such were the extreme
heights that popular demand called for a city in
China to produce half a million hoverboards in
just one month! They were at the pinnacle of
popularity ... until suddenly things started to go
wrong.
These ‘must have’ gizmo's dipped out of favour
when reports of the scooters catching fire
began to headline every news outlet around the
world. They were immediately withdrawn from
Amazon and other household retailers, as the
products were no longer deemed to be trusted
or safe.
Drawing on this narrative, Simon believes that
the rise and decline of hoverboards mirrors how
things seamlessly move in and out of our lives.
The swift lifespan of such a promising product
illustrates the global ripple effect that takes
place in every industry.
Change can come so quickly and competition
can come from anywhere. How do we cope?
How do we build ourselves up for competitive
advantages? How do businesses survive?
“It ain’t what you don’t know
that gets you into trouble, it’s
what you know for sure that
just ain’t so.”
Simon Hay, CEO Dunnhumby
paraphrasing Mark Twain
10
11. Creating a business that lasts
Three critical elements:
How do you relentlessly deliver, with
efficiency, your busy today?
How do you avoid the traps of history?
How do you enable non-linear innovation?
These must become an ongoing loop as this
is what will move us forward.
Culture vs Strategy
Simon also talked about the precedence of
culture over strategy, stating that, "Culture
eats strategy for breakfast". He believes that
establishing clear values is the thing that will
determine an outcome, as culture determines
how successful your strategy is and how it
materialises on a daily basis. “Culture comes
alive in your actions,” he says.
“Strategy is important, but culture is
the number one responsibly that I have
as CEO.”
“Change will never be this slow again"
Truth vs Reality
According to Simon, “Insanity is in every
organisation - and that’s what you have to
change”. He explained that organisations
seem reach a point where the truth detaches
from reality, and if you’re not courageous
enough to talk about it, things will start to go
wrong.
Unfortunately, truth is often the hardest thing
for people to say and deal with. Simon added,
“When opinions get presented as facts that’s
when you get into the dangerous territory”.
“It’s easy to think a better version of what you
do today is innovation, it’s not.” There is a
pattern of becoming dynamic, positive and
constructive yet it is all about developing
the right culture, of which the CEO needs
to become the ultimate sponsor and ambassador
Tying into
Global Goals
# 3, 4, 11, & 12
Who are the CEOs in the UK responsible for our culture
within communities, districts, and counties? How do
businesses and politics address the common culture
today?
How can we make this happen for a better wellbeing in
education, sustainable cities and the circular economy?
11
12. “How can you get
them to have an
affinity with your
aims if you don’t
have one with
theirs?”
Identify your
high potentials
Richard Bandell, CEO of GRG talks about
improving productivity through high potentials.
Have you identified the high potentials
in your organisation yet?
Unlocking our intrinsic motivators
What gets you out of bed on a Monday morning? Is it
your boss? Colleagues? Or is it something else?
There are very personal reasons as to why we all go to
work, says Richard. Sure, we could use the money,
but it’s more than just that. And if as leaders we
do not recognise and encourage people to meet their
full potential, we are doing it wrong.
Research suggests that 7-out-of-10 people are not
engaged with their company’s vision. If you
compared that to players on a cricket team, it’s like
saying that 3 players are determined to win the
game, 4 players aren’t bothered either way and 3 of the
team are actively playing for the opposition.
Richard therefore believes that it is the duty and
responsibility of business leaders to actively go
about recognising, understanding and promoting the
personal motivators and drivers of the workforce as
individuals.
Once they are stimulated to fulfill their highest
potential, they’ll become more engaged, productive and
synchronized with the organisation’s overall vision.
Lose the hierarchy
Richard shared his findings from transforming his
organisation’s business model from hierarchical to an
adhocracy. “The first thing we realised was that
culture had become very stagnant, it was a
hierarchical and clam like organisation.” He
determined that when there is a hierarchy, people
are afraid to step outside of the lines, and that
their behaviour is quickly corrected on the
occasion that they do. In one example he shared,
the reaction from leaders to employees who tried
something different was even described as a
’drive-by shooting’! These models are counter-
productive as far as employee engagement is
concerned.
When people don’t authentically, genuinely
believe that leaders value their aspirations, this
results in a huge problem - not just in business, but
across all areas of society. As Richard asked, “How
can you get them to have an affinity with your aims
if you don’t have one with theirs?”
As follows, the organisation’s business model
was completely disrupted and a very bold new
vision and goal were determined: A vision to
12
13. inspire people to meet their full potential and a goal
to hit a huge financial target that was sky high.
Both the vision and goal were established to
encourage employees to shoot for the stars,
even when it seemed beyond the organisations',
and indeed their own capabilities.
The organisation brought in new attitudes,
approaches and programmes to really bring the
best out of their employees. These included
defining behaviours, not values, and introducing
a recognition system to boost peer-to-peer
awareness, support and value.
“Instead of defining a strategy we actually asked
people to constantly define the strategy and their
own productivity targets. We gave people permission
to make mistakes and applauded the effort and
bravery that went into doing something different.”
Discovering High Potentials
GRG also developed a High Potentials Programme
designed to discover self-selecting workers who
had fuller potentials that were previously being under
utilised. Open to all, it was quietly advertised in
order to prevent scaring anybody off. Once people
had put themselves forward, they were
interviewed and a selection of candidates were
then invited to attend an assessment day. This
included tests, tasks and psychological profiling to
explore their personal drivers in more depth.
Those twenty individuals are now driving some of
the most important change within the organisation.
Richard described them as ‘informal leaders in
the business’ who are so pleased for the development
opportunity that they are really pushing to
meet the company’s new vision and previously
‘unattainable’ goal.
Each disruption transformed employee engagement
and productivity, as well as making the workplace
a fun, happier and more interesting place to be! It
comes to the high potentials in any business,
who have access to altruism, empathy and a
holistic understanding, to create cross-disciplinary
emergence.
High potentials exist in all organisations. It is our task to find them and, in return, they
will solve complex problems, drive coherence and transparency.
If high potentials from all societal stakeholders can address the Global Goals #3 and 4,
they will conceive simple solutions for us all to develop and implement.
13
14. Nurturing a balanced culture
within the workplace
Creating spaces for open conversation
Director of Digital Services at Barclaycard, Cheryl
Kennedy dismisses the idea of treating everyone as
equals and states, ‘we are all different and should
treat people as individuals’. And she’s right, we all
have different likes, dislikes, talents, abilities, roles
to play, and Cheryl encouraged leaders everywhere to
get to know their workforce as individuals.
As a leader in business, Cheryl is passionate about
gender equality in the workplace and inspiring
more women at work. Getting the gender balance
right with recruitment is a tricky task in any
organisation, but it shouldn’t be one that is
ignored or that goes unresolved. Cheryl pointed out
that there is so much potential to be found in ‘head-
down’ female workers; and if they are unaware
of their own abilities, it’s the responsibility of the
leaders to promote their opportunities for growth. In
turn, they will become an inspiration for others.
In order to achieve this, Cheryl believes that
leaders need to prioritise create spaces for honest
conversation across the organisation. There are
types of conversation, about gender and
workplace diversity in particular, that are typically
taboo topics. All employees should feel safe
and trusting enough to talk openly about any
issues, especially when they play such a significant
role in the workplace.
Alternate location working
Companies think that they are cooperating
internally, but in practice there isn’t much cross-
silo communication about their experiences.
Cheryl believes that developing an alternate location
working policy is an excellent response to this
challenge, as it implicitly conveys a sense of trust to
employees which in turn acts to strengthen
engagement levels. This becomes fundamentally
opposite to the traditional hierarchical waterfall
models that encourage working separately.
“There isn’t necessarily going to be a silver bullet for
fixing everything”, Cheryl admits, “but if you can
develop a culture of trust and communication, people
will become naturally more open to trying and
experimenting with new ideas”. It’s about linking
and nurturing everybody who makes up the
workforce.
It might not be enough to say ‘we have the
right balance of male and female workers’, it
might be more about the differences in the
way we think, make decisions, behave and act.
We all have an opportunity to bring about
change on some of these topics, as seen in the
actions of Global Goals # 5, 8, 9.
14
15. Re-engineering to recognise
individual motivators
Head of Transformation, DWF llp, Richard Copley
took us through his fascinating journey through a
working life beginning smashing bottles in a
factory, to a career in law. Along the way, he
explored the meaning behind our motivators as
employees, and why the are relevant in prospering
fundamental organisational transformation.
Types of workers and what they mean
Many people get great satisfaction from their work
and take great pride in it; others view it as a
burden, and simply work to survive. Many
management theorists and social psychologists
have explored the topic of employee motivation.
As a result, two fundamental cultures have
emerged, Theory X and Theory Y:
Theory X refers to employees who are naturally
unmotivated, who dislike work and need to be
directed. Theory Y relates to those who and are
motivated to achieving goals, who seek
responsibility and can solve problems
imaginatively. Richard referred to both models to
illustrate the importance of harnessing employee
motivators as an accelerator of transformation.
Disruption is happening now
Richard described a disruption, based on
motivations, that is taking place within the law
industry to find out what’s working, whether the
way things are being done is right and where
things needs to be changed and improved.
“Often, the way we do work is not the way
it should be done. In many cases the wrong person
is doing the work. The law industry is changing and
it’s an industry that’s reshaping itself”.
In many cases, there are better ways to do the
work that is currently being done. For example in
law, many tasks can be automated and more focus
can be put into supporting the people who do the
work; by taking into account the different
aspirations that they have or what personal goals
they are aspiring to. This approach also identifies
stronger routes to collaboration.
Additionally, Richard reinforced his belief that there
is ‘pride in drudgery’ which leads to the ‘self-
realisation of the workforce’. All work has some
drudgery in it. It is down to the individual to
develop the resilience to find the greatness in what
they are working on, to stay open minded and to
ask themselves, "how can I do my mission and that
of my company, industry and society to actually
bring added value?". To just stay where you are is
not harnessing all the potential within you.
Richard’s experience with the industry reshaping
itself is a microcosm for what’s going on in society
on the whole. We need to re-engineer the whole
system so that people are in the right roles for their
capabilities.
“Weareindangerofathree-tiersociety.
Weneed to do something if we want to
make a world for our children, if we continue
doing what we are doing it’ll get worse.”
To unleash intrinsic motivation it's essential that the
values and purposes of individuals, organisations, cities, society
are aligned.
Where are the people, spaces and cultures that would optimise
the unleashing of intrinsic motivation?
Do they even exist yet?
We believe that if we start with those who want to do
something different, the others will follow.
Global Goals # 3, 9, and 11
15
16. Have you ever considered matching jazz with how
emergence happens in business? There are no rules,
but you know when it’s time to listen, time to talk, time
to stay quiet.
Educated lawyer and musician Josefin Holmberg is a
perfect personification of her views on embracing the
unexpected.
Borrowing a little knowledge from jazz music, Josefin
laid out three core components for operating
effectively in business: Foundation, Personalisation
and Connection.
For foundation, it’s essential to have a band leader who
knows the audience, who fundamentally respects the
other musicians and their crafts, and who brings
everything back on track. To have personality, the
band leader must allow for different people to solo at
different times. You need to know when that time is so
that you can be there to push that solo forward with
positive encouragement.
As for the connection, you’re not going to play on
your own - it just doesn’t happen. You need to really
listen to and respect others’ contributions, otherwise
you’ll end up playing in isolation.
Josefin concluded that once the three core
components are aligned, we can grow our businesses
by tackling more challenges together. “We cannot just
function as a collection of lots of different things, we
are one business that needs to grow organically.”
This model is something which Josefin has
implemented as Director of Business Transformation
at Thomson Reuters. Josefin revealed that there
needs to be a ‘massive investment’ from leaders into
what really makes their employees tick.
“We started by actually getting out there and talking to
people face-to-face. We got into what drives them as
people (foundation) and asked them ‘who is the band
leader? We spent even longer on the personalisation.”
Adjusting to
modern times
In 2008 the entire world was changed unhesitatingly.
The financial crash catalysed a tipping point in society
that ricocheted irreversibly across every industry at every
level. As a result of the tumultuous world our prospects
were thrown into, our mindsets shifted.
Director of CRE, BNP Paribas, Johnny Dunford spoke of
how in the eight years that followed, expectations have
advanced and leapfrog technology has propelled
perhaps the most instantaneous mindset shift of modern
times. “We want everything now. Delayed gratification is
almost gone and it’s all about top quality at the lowest
price!” Johnny affirmed. Mindsets and attitudes have a
huge effect on productivity and the impact of an
organisation on the outside world. He characterised this
by conveying several urban myths that govern the way
many of us work and manage our employees.
This theme about how you build life and work
together will come through ever-more moving
forward. The most influential element for our
cities and organisations to adapt to the changes
ahead effectively is going to be in their ability to
become holistically human-centred.
This cannot be an ‘add-on’, it has to be a core
guiding principle. Global Goals #3 & 10
Welcoming the Unexpected
16
17. Josefin and her team worked with their employees on
being present, on mindfulness and on recognising their
impact on others. “We asked them about the shadow
they cast and what it means for other people.”
Through positive reinforcement, Josefin was able to
change leadership competencies and began to
encourage the whole organisation to embrace the
unexpected. People began to ask more thought-
provoking questions and began to think differently
about their roles.
One 22 year old inquired why she couldn’t use Snapchat
instead of sending emails. She asked, “Why do I have to
work in a way that I would never live outside of work?”
Preparing for the shift: There is a huge generation
shift in the workplace and we have to understand the
changing needs in order to avoid any discord.
“We’re not going to have workplaces in the same way”,
Josefin concluded, “fundamentally we need to know
what our foundation is and who the leader is. We need
to allow for personality and to be able to connect better
both inside and outside of businesses.”
"...To bring emergence into business, we must respect the talents, feelings of each personality and bond with the
natural leaders. This systemic connection goes beyond rules and processes, it's about being intrinsically connected
at a human, emotional, intellectual and spiritual level. This enables us to contribute to the common greater good of
the orchestra and the audience, whilst contributing with our own unique skills and talents..." Global Goals 4 & 17
What people really want is for their work to be an
extension of their home life and to find connections and
building relationships.
Looking ahead
Moving forward, facilities will change rapidly as our needs
and wants in the workplace continue to evolve. Already
we see it in the emergence of The Internet of Things (IoT).
IoT allows us to do things remotely; to deliver - without
even thinking about it - the appropriate environment to
be healthier, fitter and more productive.
As we adapt we must embody a mantra that places the
workforce/individual using the space at the centre of what
property groups/Facilities Managers do. “We haven’t
been very good at measuring productivity in the past. We
need to concentrate on how to be effective whilst putting
the customer at the heart”.
In order to achieve this, a fundamental mindset shift to
become more open-minded, collaborative and fun is
required. “Work is what you do and not a place you go. It
is actually a social activity.”
One urban myth enforces that ‘everyone wants to
work from home’. Is this strictly true for everyone?
“How do you connect with others?” Johnny mused,
“What if you’re on a conference call and the dog won’t
stop barking?” Working from home seems to reduce
cost so people do it and leaders encourage it but that
doesn’t mean that it is going to work for and suit
everybody.
Another urban myth depicts that Charles Darwin’s
Origin of the Species states it’s about ‘survival of the
fittest’. “It isn’t,” Johnny argued, “It’s about the ability
to adopt change”. He used 88 year old retail company
BHS to reinforce his view, as he believes that their
cease in trading could be in great part due to their
inability to adapt to the change fast enough.
So what is the correct mindset?
Let’s start by looking at what people want. People
want to be part of something real, something that
engages them in a group and gives them a sense of
belonging. “Loyalty is really important,” he adds, “as
people like being together.”
17
18. Six afternoon round table sessions
Offering a more intimate deeper dive into some of the hottest
topics challenging today's boardroom
Is your organisation thinking in the right direction?
Are you sure you're not solving the wrong problems really well?
Have you ever thought about what other organisations are doing to
address these common problems?
The six round table sessions at the June Summit debated;
Creating productive workplaces
Improving quality of life for tomorrow’s talent
What’s the future of FM?
Corporate sustainability beyond compliance
Technology innovation surgery
Engaging & retaining future talent
Each of these six topics were debated at length by delegates attending the June Smartworking Summit
and indepth details can be found at www.quoraconsulting.com
18
19. Creating productive workplaces
Improving the effectiveness of those whose jobs consist of interactions with other colleagues,
customers, suppliers, et al and involve complex decision-making based on knowledge and
judgment continues to confound most organisations.
The stakes are high: raising productivity represents a major opportunity to drive GDP growth.
Unfortunately, business leaders have a hazy understanding of what it takes to bolster productivity.
This lack of clarity is partly because today’s work involves more diverse and amorphous tasks than
at any previous time.
Likewise, performance metrics all-too-often prove hard to come by, making it challenging to
manage improvement efforts (which often lack a clear owner in the first place). Against this
backdrop, it’s perhaps unsurprising that far too many organisations settle for scatter-shot
unfocused investments.
The first hour of the round table
debated "What’s productivity and
what's it comprised of?" Among the
factors agreed to adversely impact
workplace productivity were;
• Light,
• Noise,
• Well-being,
• Collaboration,
• Personal respect,
• Happiness,
• Work settings,
• Management,
• Disruption,
• Trust.
• Measure productivity
at individual level,
• Understand tangible
vs intangible
measures (what's
truly intangible?),
• Need for clear
metrics,
• Need for education,
especially at manager
and executive level,
• Include measures of
'happiness' in
workplace planning,
• Act on interventions
aimed at enhancing
productivity,
• Offer the ‘customer’
choice,
• Create a sense of
quality across the
workplace setting
The second hour debated how to enhance
productivity across workplaces & what actions could
be tried in the respective attendee organisations;
19
20. Improving quality of life for
tomorrow’s talent
What is quality of life?
Just as with the changing nature of work, the dimensions of ‘quality of life’ are evolving at
a rapid pace. Current leading edge practice for quality of life considers six dimensions;
• Physical environment concerns everything that contributes to an individual’s comfort and security:
optimal temperature in a corporate environment; quality room furniture in a hospital and effective
energy and well-monitored environment in universities,
• Social interactions refer to factors that help to strengthen bonds among individuals. In a company this
could be meal sharing experiences. In a hospital, actions could include comfortable visiting areas. In a
university, this could mean on-line student communities,
• Ease and efficiency involves factors that impact an individual’s ability to carry out activities smoothly:
flexibility of working hours in a corporate environment; reducing waiting time in a hospital;
transportation services in a university setting,
• Health and nutrition represents: nutritious and healthy meals, advise on nutrition and lifestyle, access to
fitness and athletic programmes whether in a company, a hospital and a university,
• Recognition includes factors that help an individual to feel truly valued, such as non-financial employee
rewards or incentive programmes for companies,
• Personal growth refers to everything that helps individuals to learn and progress, for instance: offering
first professional experience to students in universities.
The debate surfaced that employees are now looking to their work environments to
contribute more to their quality of life. Some of the emerging expectations are;
• Meaningful environments,
• Measures of ‘happiness’,
• Inspiring, creative and innovative work settings,
• Far greater choice and variety of workplace
configurations,
The round table concluded with all agreeing that organisations must be increasingly nimble
and responsive to adapt to this rapidly evolving work ecosystem.
Finely balancing physical environments, people, technologies, and cultures, along with the
ever-present drive to optimise productivity and control costs while maintaining the crucial
quality of life across the workplace requires a precise analytic understanding of how work
works.
20
21. What’s the future of FM?
Facilities Management has a pivotal role to play in supporting the organisation’s core
business. This round table considered how the ‘Facilities Experience’ that stakeholders,
both internal and external, have when interacting with an organisation can affect an
organisation’s value proposition and what can be done to ensure that FM maximises the
opportunities at both a strategic and tactical level to be value creators.
In the first hour the group debated...
• FM Services – what should organisations be looking for when selecting FM providers?
• How to measure the value of FM to an organisation?
• What FM means to different stakeholders?
• Leveraging technology and data analytics for FM stakeholders.
• Balancing long term vision with short term requirements.
• Why would someone want a career in the FM industry?
In the second hour we debated how to address the items discussed in the first hour and
what takeaway’s we could have...
• The need to discuss value creation partnerships with FM providers; share strategic objectives on both
sides; possible risk/reward contractual arrangements; avoid race to the bottom around cost.
• Engage FM stakeholders to map out where they can add value to an organisation’s customer journey;
listen to both employees and clients for insights.
• Use the cross functional insights that FM have to shape the impact of business transformation across
organisations.
• Create checklists and Standard Operating Procedure(SOP) documentation to engage and inform
stakeholders about what FM does and outline benefits; create Best Practice Centres.
• Opportunity for FM practitioners to engage and shape the ‘big data’ agenda providing a high-level
roadmap for information that aligns business needs to growth in analytic sophistication with the
underlying technology and processes; transform the value of what FM does with evidenced data.
• Raise the awareness with key stakeholders, particularly those in HR to the benefits of a career in FM,
the qualifications that can be obtained and the successes that have been achieved; utilise industry
bodies like RICS and BIFM to help support and promote the messaging.
21
22. Corporate sustainability beyond
compliance
This round table focused on 2 basic factors of sustainability that corporates must address:
1. Sustainability in the Workplace
2. Education and Awareness
1. Sustainability in the Workplace
• Sustainability - an opportunity to design company values into the workplace.
“The office is the modern coal mine,” said one executive. “We spend so much
time indoors that the office environment is essential for health, well-being
and productivity.”
The ingredients of success are:
Integrating company values into the design
Think strategically and creatively
Support / sign-off from the CEO
• Concept stage
“This is the time to embed sustainability,” according to a second executive.
“Challenge the design and specification and ensure you get the right brief by
engaging facilities management and office managers.”
Engage six-months prior to starting on site,
Use the ‘seven-stages of grief’ sessions to confront and communicate the workplace
change to people,
Top tip – seek ‘change champions’ from inside the business rather than external
consultants as when you leave they have to carry on the best use of the workspace,
Productivity boost by 298%
Design productivity from design stages. See the ‘cognitive function test’ by
Joseph Allen, from Harvard, to set volatile organic compound levels and
ventilation targets as high performing offices can improve cognitive function
by 298% over a business as usual office.
1. Education and Awareness
• A bridge between the classroom and the world of work
• UN Sustainable Development Day
A 24-hour global day for children to celebrate their chosen Sustainable Development
Goal
• Initiatives of Change
Charity working with UN on projects of change around the world, coming together for
conversation and peace-building
22
23. Technology innovation surgery
Our seemingly insatiable appetite to share almost every aspect of our lives online has
undeniably revolutionised the way we connect and maintain relationships, however this has
crept into the workplace and is creating real business problems.
Employees are sharing sensitive information online or via email without understanding the
damage to the company if this information gets into the wrong hands. Security breaches and
data leaks continue to be problematic yet many companies neglect to address how
information is shared externally.
Compounding matters, organisations are challenged by changing working habits & workplace
demands. IT consumerisation, social expectations, coupled with the demands of knowledge
workers requiring access to information across multiple devices is amplifying complexity.
Traditional approaches to IT security by protecting corporate boundaries create frustrations.
Add to this the penalties, both fiscal and to brand, the ever-increasing risk of regulatory non-
compliance, and the risk of customers is incalculable.
Safeguarding your business from over-sharing employees
This round table explored how can business leaders can know if their organisation is at risk of data
leakage by an employee who unwittingly divulges information and what can be done about it?
Consider a simple 5-point checklist to determine how much control you have over sensitive business
data;
1. Do your employees use email as the primary method of sending information back and forth both
internally and externally?
2. Do your employees utilise file sharing services such as Dropbox?
3. Do employees have more than one device, often blurring the lines between personal and work
devices?
4. Does your business solely rely on firewalls to secure your sensitive data?
5. Do you know what information is being emailed and shared by your employees?
Staff need tools that fit their work styles, tools that provide both secure and fast content sharing with
anyone with a vested interest in the content. During the second session, we explored;
• Alternate location knowledge work demands,
• Considering regulatory compliance,
• Controlling valuable assets,
• Securing documents & content,
• Identifying new business borders.
23
24. Engaging & retaining future talent
This session, debating the challenges of "engaging and retaining future talent",
started by sharing the results of our recent research study where half of graduates
said they consider themselves under-employed or working in a job that doesn't
require a degree level qualification.
This led the group to debate about how organisations position their recruitment and
the perennial issue of overselling of requirements for roles that only result in hard-
won talented people leaving.
The round table further explored what employers could do to attract and retain all
generations and genders across the workplace.
Some of the ideas explored included;
• Making connections with local colleges and universities and offering work experience or
apprenticeships – a great way to get a recruitment pool and spot the talent before the
competition does,
• Changing out-dated recruitment processes to be able to reach out and attract talent in a
language and with a process (digital) that appeals to new hires,
• Research suggests that only a small percentage of graduates want to work for a large
corporate. So, those organisations will need to adapt to attract and retain talent, e.g. replace
outdated appraisal systems, re-think the line manager role, ensure opportunities for
innovation etc.,
• Offer lots of development – it's expected if you want to keep your talent!
• Create a fun environment – most people are motivated by working for a sociable company
over a higher salary.
The round table discussed at length the challenge of an aging population and how
to attract and retain older workers, knowledge or freelance workers. There was
unanimous agreement on the need for all types of workers as the needs of
businesses are changing faster than ever previously experienced.
The workforce must be flexible to resource up and down, just as the work is more
flexible e.g. bringing in skills for short bursts as needed for projects and similar.
24
25. Key themes
... a look back on the Summit - part i
The morning of the Summit saw seven acclaimed executives with a
combined 188 years experience of transforming performance at high
profile organisations share their learnings.
Culture is key to a successful business, it’s more important than strategy – various speakers
discussed culture and its impact on the workplace.
Greg Searle stated “The key to a good culture is about the kind of conversations that we
have. When we have genuine honest conversations and encourage others to take risks, we
grow a level of trust that ultimately enables employees to excel.” We must avoid working in
silos, recognising the importance of everyone and not undermining the culture of a team/
organisation.
Simon Hay recognised that “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” and establishing clear
values is what will determine an outcome on a daily basis as “Culture comes alive in your
actions”.
Cheryl Kennedy highlighted the need to treat people as individuals – we all have different
likes, dislikes, talents, abilities, roles to play. She encouraged leaders to get to know their
workforce as individuals and create spaces for open conversations. “If you can develop a
culture of trust and clear communication, people will become naturally more open to trying
and experimenting with new ideas”. It’s about linking and nurturing everybody across the
workforce
Motivation at work and tapping into individuals’ intrinsic motivators is key to attracting and
retaining employees – this was covered by a number of speakers:
Richard Bandell highlighted “Research shows that 7-out-of-10 people are not engaged with
their company’s vision.” “If you compared this to players on a cricket team, it’s like saying
that 3 players are determined to win the game, 4 players aren’t bothered either way and 3 of
the team are actively playing for the opposition.” So it’s important for leaders to actively go
about recognising, understanding and promoting the personal motivators and drivers of
the workforce as individuals. Bring in recognition systems to boost peer-to-peer awareness,
support and value that reward behaviours linked to the aims of the organisation that have
an affinity with their personal motivators.
Josefin Holmberg posited the idea that there “needs to be a ‘massive investment’ from
leaders into what really makes their employees tick.” She has worked with both her team
and employees on being present, on mindfulness and on recognising their impact on
others. “We asked them about the shadow they cast and what it means for other people.”
25
26. Key themes
... a look back on the Summit - part ii
The key themes emerging from the Summit were the importance of
culture, motivation to change, respecting people as individuals, talent
attraction and retention, trust (especially from management),
understanding productivity, and the need to shift mindsets, particularly at
middle and senior management levels
Quality of Life linking to sustainability in the workplace – an opportunity to design
company values into the workplace. “We spend so much time indoors that the office environment
is essential for health, well-being and productivity.”
Designing productivity from design stages. Setting and measuring volatile organic compound
levels and ventilation targets for high performing offices can improve cognitive function by
298% over a business as usual office. Engage six-months prior to starting, and use ‘seven-
stages of grief’ sessions to confront and communicate workplace change to employees.
Seek ‘change champions’ from inside the business to maintain and enhance the best use of the
workspace. Surface employee expectations about quality of life at work especially around;
meaningful environments; measures of ‘happiness’; inspiring creative and innovative work
settings; choice and variety of workplace configurations, etc.
Creating productive workspaces highlighted the challenge of getting performance
metrics but agreeing the following factors can adversely impact workplace productivity; light,
noise, well-being, personal respect, happiness, work settings, management, disruption, trust.
What could be done to enhance productivity? Important factors to consider are; understand
tangible vs intangible measures, need for clear metrics, need for manager and executive level
education, offer the ‘customer’ choice, create a sense of quality across the workplace setting.
Johnny Dunford highlighted how mindsets and attitudes have a huge effect on
productivity and that employees want to be part of something real, something that
engages them in a group and gives them a sense of belonging. “Loyalty is really important
as people like being together.” What people really want is for their work to be an extension
of their home life and to find connections and building relationships.
26
27. Key themes
... a look back on the Summit - part iii
Who should 'own' and lead the essential and ongoing mindset change
interventions remains a hot debate. The natural home in organisations
should be HR but overwhelmingly the Summit speakers and delegates
felt that "...HR are not stepping up to the challenge...". In the face of the
ever-increasing changing nature of work, ownership of this issue needs to
be addressed
Safeguarding your business from over-sharing employees. Balancing the way people
work to get work done productively while managing risk effectively.
Using a simple 5-point checklist to determine to determine how much control you have over
sensitive business data and giving staff tools that fit their work styles, tools that provide both
secure and fast content sharing with anyone with a vested interest in the content while
addressing ‘alternate location knowledge work demands’, ‘regulatory compliance’, ‘control of
valuable assets’, ‘securing documents and content’, ‘identifying new business borders’.
Richard Copley stated “Often, the way we do work is not the way it should be done. In
many cases the wrong person is doing the work.” Look at using automation to support
people who do the work; take into account the different aspirations that they have or what
personal goals they are aspiring to. This identifies stronger routes to collaboration.
Focus the 'Facilities Experience’ on improving an organisation’s value proposition.
Discuss value creation partnerships with FM providers; share strategic objectives on both
sides; explore possible risk/reward contractual arrangements; avoid race to the bottom
around cost; engage FM stakeholders to map out where they can add value to an
organisation’s customer journey; listen to both employees and clients for insights.
Use the cross functional insights that FM have to shape the impact of business
transformation across organisations and leverage technology and data analytics for
stakeholders.
27
28. Smartworking Summits
are the voice of the rapidly changing nature of work.
Unique and compelling, they are the only events
where you solely hear from 'unplugged' c-suite
speakers of the very highest acclaim.
It's your opportunity to be amongst leaders learning
from leaders.
5th October
is the date of the final Smartworking Summit of
2016.
As usual, there's a remarkable speaker line-up but
with spaces strictly limited to 250, you'll need to
book your place now to avoid disappointment.
Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire RG9 5LX United Kingdom
Tel: +44 1491 628654 Web: www.quoraconsulting.com
