Work and the Future

In this episode of Work and the Future, economist and keynote speaker Linda Nazareth talks to Dan Pontefract, Author of the new book The Future of Work is Grey about our aging workforce and why organizations need to be planning around the changes. They discuss: Why the demographic trends are powerful and what we need to know about them Why we go through three ‘eras’ in our career and the significance of each Why organizations are wasting talent by not making the best use of older workers Why it might be time for ‘reverse mentorships’ and ‘ageism training’ Host: Linda Nazareth is an economist, futurist and expert on the future of work. The author of five books including her most recent Working it Out: Getting Ready for the Redefined World of Work (2023), she is also a regular columnist for the Globe and Mail and the Host of podcast ‘Work and the Future’. As a sought-after keynote speaker, Linda’s audiences have spanned a range of audiences and have included clients such as The Economist Magazine, LVMH, American Express, and the Bank of Montreal all of whom have benefitted from the way that she can take huge ideas and distill them into information that organizations can use for their own strategic planning purposes. Guest: Dan Pontefract is a Canadian leadership and culture change strategist, best-selling author, and keynote speaker with over two decades of senior executive experience at SAP, TELUS, and Business Objects. He has worked with top organizations like Salesforce, Amgen, Virgin Media O2, and Nestlé to enhance their operations. Dan has written five influential and award-winning books, including Work-Life Bloom and Lead. Care. Win. He writes for Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and other top publications. His newest book, The Future of Work Is Grey, is now available. More details here. Book Linda as your Keynote Speaker: Ready to navigate the future of work at your next event? Linda Nazareth helps organizations understand and prepare for workplace transformation. Visit lindanazareth.com to learn more about booking Linda for your conference or corporate event. __ The post Episode 147: How Should We Prepare for an Aging Workforce? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

On this episode of Work and the Future, Linda Nazareth talks to Gabby Burlacu, Senior Manager at the Upwork Research Instiute about the way that the skills that workers will need is changing in the age of AI. They cover: How the demand for freelance workers is changing and what that tells us about the broader labour market What Upwork research tells us about the way that AI skills are increasingly in demand for existing jobs Why ‘soft skills’ are cited as important, even for freelance workers How learning and development is changing in a world where freelance workers are more prevalent Host: Linda Nazareth is an economist, futurist and expert on the future of work. The author of five books including her most recent Working it Out: Getting Ready for the Redefined World of Work (2023), she is also a regular columnist for the Globe and Mail and the Host of podcast ‘Work and the Future’. As a sought-after keynote speaker, Linda’s audiences have spanned a range of audiences and have included clients such as The Economist Magazine, LVMH, American Express, and the Bank of Montreal all of whom have benefitted from the way that she can take huge ideas and distill them into information that organizations can use for their own strategic planning purposes. Guest: Gabby Burlacu Senior Manager Upwork Research Institute Dr. Gabby Burlacu is Senior Research Manager at Upwork, where she studies how organizations are adjusting their cultures and talent practices to access skilled talent in a rapidly evolving world of work. Her research has been featured in a variety of peer-reviewed studies, articles, book chapters, and media outlets, and has informed strategy and technology development across a range of Fortune 500 companies. Gabby holds a Ph. D. in industrial-organizational psychology from Portland State University. Book Linda as your Keynote Speaker: Ready to navigate the future of work at your next event? Linda Nazareth helps organizations understand and prepare for workplace transformation. Visit lindanazareth.com to learn more about booking Linda for your conference or corporate event. The post Episode 146: What Skills Will Workers Need as AI Takes Hold? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

On this episode of Work and the Future, Linda Nazareth talks to James Fletcher, Assistant Professor at the University of Bath, about the reasons why dementia is a workforce issue and why AI tools can offer support to workers who have received a dementia diagnosis. Why an aging population means that it is time for a cultural shift in the way that we talk about dementia The AI tools that can make a big difference to workers struggling with early dementia Why organizations should be crafting strategies around workers with dementia (and not just to identify and fire them) The potential role for governments in keeping those with a dementia diagnosis in the workforce Host: Linda Nazareth is an economist, futurist and expert on the future of work. The author of five books including her most recent Working it Out: Getting Ready for the Redefined World of Work (2023), she is also a regular columnist for the Globe and Mail and the Host of podcast ‘Work and the Future’. As a sought-after keynote speaker, Linda’s audiences have spanned a range of audiences and have included clients such as The Economist Magazine, LVMH, American Express, and the Bank of Montreal all of whom have benefitted from the way that she can take huge ideas and distill them into information that organizations can use for their own strategic planning purposes. Guest: James Fletcher Assistant Professor, University of Bath James has a background in medical sociology and gerontology. He is interested in digital ageing and creative methods, with a focus on cognitive impairment and inclusive data generation. His research covers several areas of the political economy of ageing and dementia, with an emphasis on using social theory and creative methods to understand later life disability as a political entity. He has published on subjects including informal dementia care networks, mental capacity legislation and its influence on research governance, the anti-ageing technoscience market, anti-stigma and awareness raising campaigns regarding psychiatric disorder, the operationalisation of ethnicity and age in research, the biomarker discovery economy, the curation of dementia-friendly cultural events, dementia prevention public health strategies, environmental effects on cognition in urban settings and the role of fertility technologies in contexts of reproductive ageing. His book  won ‘Best Outstanding Output’ at the Research Excellence Awards 2024. Book Linda as your Keynote Speaker: Ready to navigate the future of work at your next event? Linda Nazareth helps organizations understand and prepare for workplace transformation. Visit lindanazareth.com to learn more about booking Linda for your conference or corporate event. The post Episode 145: How Can AI Tools Help Workers With Dementia? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

On this episode of Work and the Future, Linda Nazareth talks to Paola Cecci DiMeglio, author of Building a Thriving Future: Navigating the Metaverse and Multiverse (MIT Press, 2025) and advisor on AI and virtual worlds at the United Nations. They cover: Why the skills of tomorrow have not yet been defined Why ‘The Forgetting Curve’ needs to be taken into consideration when we think about upskilling workers How virtual reality is already being used in training and what might come next The ‘Recipe for Success’ for organizations that want to invest in upskilling their workers Host: Linda Nazareth is an economist, futurist and expert on the future of work. The author of five books including her most recent Working it Out: Getting Ready for the Redefined World of Work (2023), she is also a regular columnist for the Globe and Mail and the Host of podcast ‘Work and the Future’. As a sought-after keynote speaker, Linda’s audiences have spanned a range of audiences and have included clients such as The Economist Magazine, LVMH, American Express, and the Bank of Montreal all of whom have benefitted from the way that she can take huge ideas and distill them into information that organizations can use for their own strategic planning purposes. Guest: Paola Cecchi-DimeglioHarvard expert on AI and Big Data, Behavioral Science, and Future of Work She holds dual appointments at Harvard Law School and the Kennedy School of Government, where she chairs the ELRWMA initiative. She co-chairs the Global Initiative on AI and Virtual Worlds and leads Sustainability for AI, Big Data, and Metaverse regulation at the UN’s ITU.  She is the CEO of People Culture Data Consulting Group and inventor of I.D.E.A, and the author of Diversity Dividend (MIT Press).  Book Linda as your Keynote Speaker: Ready to navigate the future of work at your next event? Linda Nazareth helps organizations understand and prepare for workplace transformation. Visit lindanazareth.com to learn more about booking Linda for your conference or corporate event. The post Episode 144: What Tools Should we be Using to Improve Workforce Training?   appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

On this episode of Work and the Future, Linda Nazareth talks to Nick Dalley, President of Intentional Communications, about how Artificial Intelligence is changing the ways that we communicate with each other. Amongst the topics they cover are: Why Nick thinks AI is not threatening jobs in broadcasting – yet How to be and sound authentic in the age of AI Why practicing your communications skills matters, especially if you are leading a team Why doing your homework and crafting answers still matters in the world of job-searching Host: Linda Nazareth is an economist, futurist and expert on the future of work. The author of five books including her most recent Working it Out: Getting Ready for the Redefined World of Work (2023), she is also a regular columnist for the Globe and Mail and the Host of podcast ‘Work and the Future’. As a sought-after keynote speaker, Linda’s audiences have spanned a range of audiences and have included clients such as The Economist Magazine, LVMH, American Express, and the Bank of Montreal all of whom have benefitted from the way that she can take huge ideas and distill them into information that organizations can use for their own strategic planning purposes. Guest: Nick Dalley President, Intentional Communications Nick Dalley, President of Intentional Communication, Inc., helps professional communicators with the give and take of the storyteller’s craft. Nick has been in the business of presentation skills development for over 25 years. Prior to establishing ICI, he worked for nine years with a large, Dallas-based broadcast coaching company 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 at SMU’s Cox School of Business, and as an executive coach at The University of Texas Executive MBA Program. Book Linda as your Keynote Speaker: Ready to navigate the future of work at your next event? Linda Nazareth helps organizations understand and prepare for workplace transformation. Visit lindanazareth.com to learn more about booking Linda for your conference or corporate event. The post Episode 143: How Will AI Change Verbal Communications? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

In this episode, Linda Nazareth talks to Dina Denham Smith, lead author of of Emotionally Charged: How to Lead in the New World of Work about the way to lead when workers are worried about job security. Amongst the topics they cover are: Why it is important for leaders to acknowledge the fears that workers are feeling How leaders can use ‘Clarity Buckets’ to reduce uncertainty for their team The value of asking your team for input How leaders can help themselves in a stressful environment Host: Linda Nazareth is an economist, futurist and expert on the future of work. The author of five books including her most recent Working it Out: Getting Ready for the Redefined World of Work (2023), she is also a regular columnist for the Globe and Mail and the Host of podcast ‘Work and the Future’. As a sought-after keynote speaker, Linda’s audiences have spanned a range of audiences and have included clients such as The Economist Magazine, LVMH, American Express, and the Bank of Montreal all of whom have benefitted from the way that she can take huge ideas and distill them into information that organizations can use for their own strategic planning purposes. Guest: Dina Denham Smith Dina Denham Smith is an executive coach to senior leaders and teams at top global companies such as Adobe, Netflix, PwC, Dropbox, Goldman Sachs, Stripe, and numerous high-growth startups. A former business executive, she is the lead author of the bestselling book Emotionally Charged: How to Lead in the New World of Work. Connect with her on LinkedIn or at dinadsmith.com, and subscribe to her newsletter for proven strategies to accelerate your success. The post Episode 142: How Should you Lead When Workers are Worried about Job Security? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

In this episode, Linda Nazareth talks to Kristina Rapuano, Research Scientist at Better Up Labs about the ways that AI Workslop is makng workers less productive. They cover topics including: Why using Generative AI can take the work burden off some workers and then create work for others The costs to workers and organizations when workslop is created Why some people are ‘Pilots’ who use AI more effectively than the average worker What leaders can do to increase productivity while using Generative AI Host: Linda Nazareth is an economist, futurist and expert on the future of work. The author of five books including her most recent Working it Out: Getting Ready for the Redefined World of Work (2023), she is also a regular columnist for the Globe and Mail and the Host of podcast ‘Work and the Future’. As a sought-after keynote speaker, Linda’s audiences have spanned a range of audiences and have included clients such as The Economist Magazine, LVMH, American Express, and the Bank of Montreal all of whom have benefitted from the way that she can take huge ideas and distill them into information that organizations can use for their own strategic planning purposes. Guest: Dr. Kristina Rapuano, PhD Dr. Kristina Rapuano is a cognitive neuroscientist with an interest in mechanisms of risk and resilience. Her research on the neurobiological underpinnings of health-risk behaviors and outcomes has been published in leading journals such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature Neuroscience, Journal of Neuroscience, Cerebral Cortex, and NeuroImage. Currently, Kristina is a Research Scientist on BetterUp’s Labs team, where she explores the psychology at the intersection of technological innovation and personal development. Book Linda as your Keynote Speaker: Ready to navigate the future of work at your next event? Linda Nazareth helps organizations understand and prepare for workplace transformation. Visit lindanazareth.com to learn more about booking Linda for your conference or corporate event. The post Episode 141: Is AI-Generated Workslop Making Workers Less Productive? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

As return to work mandates multiply, office spaces are being pushed to evolve with the policy shifts. Planning for the right mix of desks and meeting areas is difficult, as is even getting workers to want to come back to a physical office. Good design could help but getting things is not an easy task.In this episode, Linda Nazareth talks to Valerie Jardon, Managing Director of Strategy at IA Interior Architects about how the future of work is changing the future of offices. Amongst the topics they cover are:How Valerie determines how to craft the best workspaces for clientsWhy clients are asking for a ‘life raft’ in terms of designWhy it is important to balance the ratio of workspaces and meeting spacesHow creating purpose can be the driver that brings people back to workWhat you should think about if you are setting up a home officeHost:Linda Nazareth is an economist, futurist and expert on the future of work. The author of five books including her most recent Working it Out: Getting Ready for the Redefined World of Work (2023), she is also a regular columnist for the Globe and Mail and the Host of podcast ‘Work and the Future’.As a sought-after keynote speaker, Linda’s audiences have spanned a range of audiences and have included clients such as The Economist Magazine, LVMH, American Express, and the Bank of Montreal all of whom have benefitted from the way that she can take huge ideas and distill them into information that organizations can use for their own strategic planning purposes.Guest:Valerie JardonManaging Director of Strategy at IA interior ArchitectsBook Linda as your Keynote Speaker:Ready to navigate the future of work at your next event? Linda Nazareth helps organizations understand and prepare for workplace transformation. Visit lindanazareth.com to learn more about booking Linda for your conference or corporate event.      The post Episode 140: What Should Office Spaces Look Like in Future? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

In this episode, Linda Nazareth talks to Melissa Swift, Founder and CEO of Anthrome Insight LLC about Melissa’s recent article talking about the things that firefighters could teach corporate leaders. Amongst the things they cover in the episode: Why scenario planning is so important for firefighters and why it needs to be more important in the corporate world Why firefighters have defined roles, and why that makes a difference in a time of crisis Why firefighters are well trained with their tools in a way that corporate leaders are not What leaders can learn about communications from firefighters Host: Linda Nazareth is an economist, futurist and expert on the future of work. The author of five books including her most recent Working it Out: Getting Ready for the Redefined World of Work (2023), she is also a regular columnist for the Globe and Mail and the Host of podcast ‘Work and the Future’. As a sought-after keynote speaker, Linda’s audiences have spanned a range of audiences and have included clients such as The Economist Magazine, LVMH, American Express, and the Bank of Montreal all of whom have benefitted from the way that she can take huge ideas and distill them into information that organizations can use for their own strategic planning purposes. Guest: Melissa Swift is the founder and CEO of organizational consulting firm Anthrome Insight. She is also the author of Work Here Now: Think Like a Human and Build a Powerhouse Workplace (Wiley, 2023). Book Linda as your Keynote Speaker: Ready to navigate the future of work at your next event? Linda Nazareth helps organizations understand and prepare for workplace transformation. Visit lindanazareth.com to learn more about booking Linda for your conference or corporate event. The post Episode 139: What Can Firefighters Teach Corporate Leaders? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

There is no stopping the oncoming train of artificial intelligence, with all that that means for the workplace. At the very least, it will mean training workers with new AI skills but it also means continuously retraining them to keep up with changes in technology. It will be a mammoth task. In this episode of Work and the Future, economist and keynote speaker Linda Nazareth talks to Tricia Williams, Director of research, evaluation and knowledge mobilization at the Future Skills Centre about training and AI. They discuss: The issues around whether AI will ultimately be good for workers Why workplace training is not happening as quickly as might be ideal What governments and educational institutions can do to help workers adjust to AI Why mental stress could be a major issue for workers as the AI transition takes place Host: Linda Nazareth is an economist, futurist and expert on the future of work. The author of five books including her most recent Working it Out: Getting Ready for the Redefined World of Work (2023), she is also a regular columnist for the Globe and Mail and the Host of podcast ‘Work and the Future’. As a sought-after keynote speaker, Linda’s audiences have spanned a range of audiences and have included clients such as The Economist Magazine, LVMH, American Express, and the Bank of Montreal all of whom have benefitted from the way that she can take huge ideas and distill them into information that organizations can use for their own strategic planning purposes. Guest: Tricia Williams, PhD, is Director of Research, Evaluation & Knowledge Mobilization at the Future Skills Centre, where she leads a portfolio of applied research and innovation projects focused on building a more inclusive and adaptable workforce in Canada. With over two decades of experience spanning academia, government, and the non-profit sector, she has developed deep expertise in skills development, labour market policy, and the future of work. Book Linda as your Keynote Speaker: Ready to navigate the future of work at your next event? Linda Nazareth helps organizations understand and prepare for workplace transformation. Visit lindanazareth.com to learn more about booking Linda for your conference or corporate event. The post Episode 138: How Do We Upskill Workers to Make the Most of AI? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

Who can resist the temptation? If you need to write anything these days, the easiest (and some think the best) thing to do is to start with letting AI technologies draft it for you. In doing that, however, it is easy to lose your own voice and create content that is cookie-cutter at best. If used properly, however, then AI technology can be a huge help in helping leaders communicate well. In this episode of Work and the Future, economist and keynote speaker Linda Nazareth talks to Allison Shapira, Founder and CEO of Global Public Speaking LLC.  They discuss: Why AI is being used enthusiastically but not necessarily well to create content How leaders can use AI as a tool while not losing their own voices Why return to office mandates are changing the way that we communicate Why continuous education will be crucial for leaders as the world is changed by AI Guest: Allison ShapiraFounder and CEO, Global Public Speaking LLC Allison Shapira is an opera singer turned entrepreneur. She is the Founder/CEO of Global Public Speaking LLC, a communication training firm that works with emerging and established leaders to help them speak clearly, concisely, and confidently. She teaches public speaking at the Harvard Kennedy School and has spent over 15 years working with Fortune 50 companies, government agencies, and non-profit organizations around the world. She holds a master’s degree in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School and is the author of the best-selling book Speak with Impact: How to Command the Room and Influence Others (HarperCollins Leadership). Her new book, “AI for the Authentic Leader: How GenAI Can Make Us More Human” is coming Fall 2025. She was a finalist for Woman Business Owner of the Year by the National Association of Women Business Owners, San Diego chapter, and she lives in Washington, DC. Linda’s Take: It was great to talk through the challenges of AI as it relates to communication with Allison. Of course there are ways to use it efficiently, but at this point we are early in the process of learning. how to best employ it and that is resulting in some bad decisions. Allison works directly with leaders and she talks to them about how to use AI to perhaps do a first draft of a speech, but then make sure that their own values – their own voice – is in the text.  As she puts it, her goal is to find the boundaries of where it is helpful and where it is just creating cookie-cutter content. One of the things Allison and I talked about is the pace of change, and how difficult it is to see one year in the future let alone five. With things changing so quickly, leaders will need to continuously learn new skills if they are going to be able to lead their teams into the future. Book Linda as your Keynote Speaker: Ready to navigate the future of work at your next event? Linda Nazareth helps organizations understand and prepare for workplace transformation. Visit lindanazareth.com to learn more about booking Linda for your conference or corporate event. The post Episode 137: Can AI Make Us Better Communicators and Leaders? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

In this episode of Work and the Future, economist and keynote speaker Linda Nazareth talks about the labour market and work trends as part of the Economic and Labour Market Update. She covers: The state of the global economy and why it looks better than had been feared eariler this year The data to watch on U.S. jobs in the absent of government reports Canada’s labour market picture and why it is looking a little brighter Why the term ‘Workslop’ is becoming a household work and what that means for the future of AI Why the ‘work’ part of work-life balance is having a moment, amplified by the 996 culture and some support from the new Japanese Prime Minister About Linda Nazareth: Linda Nazareth is an economist, futurist and expert on the future of work. The author of five books including her most recent Working it Out: Getting Ready for the Redefined World of Work (2023), she is also a regular columnist for the Globe and Mail and the Host of podcast ‘Work and the Future’. As a sought-after keynote speaker, Linda’s audiences have spanned a range of audiences and have included clients such as The Economist Magazine, LVMH, American Express, and the Bank of Montreal all of whom have benefitted from the way that she can take huge ideas and distill them into information that organizations can use for their own strategic planning purposes. Book Linda as your Keynote Speaker: Ready to navigate the future of work at your next event? Linda Nazareth helps organizations understand and prepare for workplace transformation. Visit lindanazareth.com to learn more about booking Linda for your conference or corporate event. The post Episode 136: Economic and Labour Market Update appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

Organizations have long been criticized for giving scant thought to employee well-being – but is that now changing? Linda Nazareth talks to Mark C. Crawley, author of the new book The Power of Employee Well-Being about why that seems to be the case, and why that will be good for both workers and organizations. In this episode of Work and the Future, economist and keynote speaker Linda Nazareth talks to Mark C. Crowley, author of The Power of Employee Well-Being. They discuss:   Why organizations have slowly come to the realization that it is in their best interest to have happy workers Why it is important to check in with employees, perhaps as often as weekly The importance of employee engagement and employee well-being, and the differences between the two Why Gen Z may force companies to re-think how they manage workers Guest: Mark C. Crowley, a pioneering leader and bestselling author, is leading a revolution in workplace leadership. With twenty-five years in the competitive financial services industry, he rose to national roles, earning Leader of the Year for his emotionally connected, heart-centered approach that drove exceptional performance and employee growth. On the vanguard of leadership transformation, his book Lead from the Heart (2011, second edition 2023) disrupted conventional management with research proving traditional methods undermine employee achievement. Now taught in eleven universities, it ignited a global movement for humane leadership. In The Power of Employee Well-Being, he advances this vision, demonstrating that thriving teams fuel organizational success. Mark’s Lead from the Heart podcast, ranked in the top 1.5 percent globally, reaches 175+ countries. A sought-after speaker, Fast Company contributor, and organizational culture consultant, he shapes modern workplaces. A UC San Diego graduate, Mark lives in La Jolla, California. Linda’s Take: I first spoke to Mark on this podcast in 2020, at a time when Covid was changing the way that people worked. At the time, Mark was optimistic about the ways that the disruption might improve the ways that organizations treated workers and he believes that in the years since things have changed for the better. We talked about why some organizations realize the importance of managing well, and what that means in practical terms. I enjoyed speaking with Mark and hearing his upbeat take on the state of the workplace. My own vantage point is that of an economist, and as I watch the job market tightening I worry that a lot of the progress we have made over the past few years will be dialled back. Time will tell, but in the meantime any organization that sees the value of employee engagement would be well-served to listen to Mark’s points. Book Linda as your Keynote Speaker: Linda Nazareth is an economist, futurist and expert on the future of work. The author of five books including her most recent Working it Out: Getting Ready for the Redefined World of Work (2023), she is also a regular columnist for the Globe and Mail and the Host of podcast ‘Work and the Future’. As a sought-after keynote speaker, Linda’s audiences have spanned a range of audiences and have included clients such as The Economist Magazine, LVMH, American Express, and the Bank of Montreal all of whom have benefitted from the way that she can take huge ideas and distill them into information that organizations can use for their own strategic planning purposes. Ready to navigate the future of work at your next event? Linda Nazareth helps organizations understand and prepare for workplace transformation. Visit lindanazareth.com to learn more about booking Linda for your conference or corporate event. The post Episode 135: Are Organizations Seeing the Value of Employee Well-Being? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

Using Artificial Intelligence in the hiring process is becoming mainstream, but is that a good or a bad thing? Organizations are embracing the new technology, but there are huge implications for privacy and security, as well as ethical considerations involved. Linda Nazareth talks about the implications of using AI in hiring with Tamara Elsahyouni of Talent Engagement Consulting about what is happening, and what should happen if organizations want to get the most out of the tools at hand. In this episode of Work and the Future, economist and keynote speaker Linda Nazareth talks to Tamara Elsahyouni, Founder of Talent Engagement Consulting. They discuss: How AI is now being used by organizations to streamline the sorting of applications Why AI is causing a massive increase in the number of people applying for jobs Why using AI to interview candidates is a contentious area and one that might cause the best candidates to refuse to take part The implications for finding workers with the right soft skills when AI is part of the process What comes next when it comes to using generative AI in the hiring process Guest: Tamara ElSahyouni Founder, Talent Engagement Consulting   Tamara is a seasoned Talent Acquisition Consultant, HR Strategist, and Executive Coach with over 20 years of experience across diverse industries. After holding different recruitment and HR leadership roles, Tamara leveraged her expertise to help small to mid-sized organizations navigate growth and development through strategic talent acquisition. She is fluent in both English and French, making TEC a valuable resource for a globalized market. Linda’s Take: Artificial Intelligence is not going to go away as a driver or change or a disruptor to the economy so it is important to know as much about it as possible. This conversation with Tamara was really enlightening since she was able to share the things she was learning and observing from the frontlines. One takeway for me from this conversation is that we are in the very early days of understanding the ways that AI, and specifically Generative AI, will change the future of work. Right now we are in kind of an experimental stage as organizations try different things and see what works best for them. In five years, or even in one year, we might be in a completely different place but either way there is no turning back. Book Linda as your Keynote Speaker: Linda Nazareth is an economist, futurist and expert on the future of work. The author of five books including her most recent Working it Out: Getting Ready for the Redefined World of Work (2023), she is also a regular columnist for the Globe and Mail and the Host of podcast ‘Work and the Future’. As a sought-after keynote speaker, Linda’s audiences have spanned a range of audiences and have included clients such as The Economist Magazine, LVMH, American Express, and the Bank of Montreal all of whom have benefitted from the way that she can take huge ideas and distill them into information that organizations can use for their own strategic planning purposes. Ready to navigate the future of work at your next event? Linda Nazareth helps organizations understand and prepare for workplace transformation. Visit lindanazareth.com to learn more about booking Linda for your conference or corporate event. The post Episode 134: What Will AI Mean for the Future of Hiring? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

Why Has Hiring Become Harder? Linda Nazareth speaks to Alexandra Tillo of Indeed Canada about why a surge in applicants is making it harder to hire the best talent and what organizations and job-seekers can do to improve the process. In this episode of Work and the Future economist and keynote speaker Linda Nazareth talks to Alexandra Tillo, Senior Talent Marketing Consultant at Indeed Canada about why hiring has become more difficult. They discuss: Why organizations find it difficult to find quality workers Indeed’s new global survey of employers and job seekers and the insights it gives us about the hiring process The trend towards skills-first rather than credentials-first hiring How AI can help to find workers with the best skills, including the best soft skills What job-seekers can do to stand out in a crowded market Guest: Alexandra Tillo is a seasoned Senior Talent Marketing Consultant at Indeed Canada, where she partners with HR and Talent Acquisition leaders at major Canadian organizations to deliver best practices, thought leadership, and data-driven insights. With over eight years at Indeed, Alexandra brings a wealth of experience, having transitioned from national sales roles to her current position in marketing. Originally from France and based in Toronto for over a decade, she is fluently bilingual and has a deep understanding of the Canadian hiring landscape. Her career has been defined by close client collaboration, leveraging her in-market expertise to meet client needs and drive strategic hiring outcomes. Outside of work, Alexandra is an avid traveller and a self-proclaimed white wine connoisseur.” Linda’s Take: These days it seems like there are two separative narratives on the state of the labour market. Job seekers are frustrated and talk about sending out hundreds of applications and getting little response. At the same time, organizations say that it is difficult to find the talent that they need. Interestingly, the tech now available (including AI) is making the process both easier and more difficult. Speaking to Alexandra really highlighted for me how complex a process it is to find the right talent to take us forward, and what is at stake when it comes to getting it right. Book Linda as your Keynote Speaker: Linda Nazareth is an economist, futurist and expert on the future of work. The author of five books including her most recent Working it Out: Getting Ready for the Redefined World of Work (2023), she is also a regular columnist for the Globe and Mail and the Host of podcast ‘Work and the Future’. As a sought-after keynote speaker, Linda’s audiences have spanned a range of audiences and have included clients such as The Economist Magazine, LVMH, American Express, and the Bank of Montreal all of whom have benefitted from the way that she can take huge ideas and distill them into information that organizations can use for their own strategic planning purposes. Ready to navigate the future of work at your next event? Linda Nazareth helps organizations understand and prepare for workplace transformation. Visit lindanazareth.com to learn more about booking Linda for your conference or corporate event. The post Episode 133: Why Has Hiring Become Harder appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

In this episode of Work and the Future, economist and keynote speaker Linda Nazareth talks about the labour market and work trends. She covers: The latest U.S. data on employment, as well as the why the most recent report on layoffs might be the most important indicator The state of the Canadian labour market and the implications of the recent loss in jobs Why there is beginning to be a backlash against using Artificial Intelligence to interview candidates (and what that means for actual human beings) The significance (or lack of significance) of recent trends such as ‘task-masking’ and ‘micro-retirements’ About Linda Nazareth: Linda Nazareth is an economist, futurist and expert on the future of work. The author of five books including her most recent Working it Out: Getting Ready for the Redefined World of Work (2023), she is also a regular columnist for the Globe and Mail and the Host of podcast ‘Work and the Future’. As a sought-after keynote speaker, Linda’s audiences have spanned a range of audiences and have included clients such as The Economist Magazine, LVMH, American Express, and the Bank of Montreal all of whom have benefitted from the way that she can take huge ideas and distill them into information that organizations can use for their own strategic planning purposes. Book Linda as your Keynote Speaker: Ready to navigate the future of work at your next event? Linda Nazareth helps organizations understand and prepare for workplace transformation. Visit lindanazareth.com to learn more about booking Linda for your conference or corporate event. The post Episode 132: Linda’s Labor Market Update appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

In this episode of Work and the Future, economist and keynote speaker Linda Nazareth talks to Tara Chklovski, founder and CEO of Technovation. They discuss: Why it is a matter of  ‘death by a thousand cuts’ when it comes to girls being discouraged from entering the tech sector Why young girls need to think of tech as rewarding – and fun as well. Tara’s work in helping young people work in teams to build technology prototypes to solve problems they see in their own communities Why skills in innovation will be key as we face the future How AI will disrupt the need for workers and which workers will be most vulnerable Guest: Tara Chklovski, founder and CEO of Technovation, is reshaping opportunities for young women in technology. Inspired by her experiences growing up in India and working as an aerospace engineer, she developed a widely-adopted education model that combines mentorship, hands-on learning, and entrepreneurship to prepare girls to thrive in tech. Named by Techcrunch as “teaching the next generation of AI innovators,” she has built Technovation into a movement reaching 400,000+ people across 160+ countries. Her research shows that AI education for girls could unlock a $200 billion opportunity for the world economy. Through Technovation and The AI Forward Alliance (TAIFA), she’s preparing 25 million young women to lead in AI innovation and tackle global challenges. Linda’s Take: I enjoyed this conversation with Tara, particularly her take on why she started Technovation. Coming as she did from a low-income country, she was intrigued by the fact that in a high-income country like the U.S. young girls were being discouraged, in her view, from gaining skills in tech and in math. She started Technovation to give young women a fun way to gain technical skills and in the process get them excited about working in the sector. I also asked Tara her views about how the AI will change work (a standard question for all my guests these days) and she answered honestly that she saw a huge disruption ahead. Service workers, in her view, might be protected but knowledge workers will be very vulnerable. She also noted that women are not learning about AI as quickly as men, and that that puts them particularly at risk as organizations change how they get work done. Book Linda as your Keynote Speaker: Ready to navigate the future of work at your next event? Linda Nazareth helps organizations understand and prepare for workplace transformation. Visit lindanazareth.com to learn more about booking Linda for your conference or corporate event. The post Episode 131: How Do We Get More Women into the Tech Sector? Economist Linda Nazareth talks to Tara Chklovski of Technovation appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

In this episode of Work and the Future, economist and keynote speaker Linda Nazareth talks to Pablo Listingart, Founder of ComIT about why tech workers are frustrated with their work. They discuss: Pablo’s work training people from non-traditional backgrounds for tech jobs How the current layoffs by big tech companies may be giving an unduly pessimistic read on the tech sector   The findings of a new survey by ComIT that tallies how tech workers feel about their work and why many are willing to change jobs Why money is not always the main motivation for workers to change jobs and why organizations would be wise to invest in training Why AI may end up being neither the saviour nor the apocalypse for workers Guest: Pablo Listingart Founder and Executive Director, ComIT Pablo Listingart is the Founder and Executive Director at ComIT, a Canadian charity that helps people to overcome employment barriers. Since 2016, ComIT has been working with those less fortunate and highly talented, who are in need of a low-cost training strategy, to help them take an active role in the local workforce.  ComIT has expanded its program nation-wide, helping over 500 people per year, offering them full access to a tailored IT education so they can take their rightful role in the Canadian economy.  Nominated CBC Manitoba Future 40 in 2020, Pablo was featured by the Federal Government of Canada on their #ImmigrationMatters campaign where his story and work was shared to portrait the importance of immigrants in the future of the country.  In 2021, ComIT launched along with Google Canada and the support of organizations such as Indspire, Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and many others, its Recoding Futures program for Indigenous learners, reaching people across the country with an interest in pursuing a career in IT, where over 1000 people already participated in the trainings, from coast to coast to coast.  Raised in Buenos Aires, Pablo is the youngest child of a low-mid class family and has called Canada home for 8 years. He holds a Masters degree in Computer Science and an MBA, and has worked in the past for IT corporations such as Microsoft and IBM. Linda’s Take: The tech sector is going through a transition of sorts and that is giving pause to many people who assumed that it was always going to be a source of well-paying, stable jobs. Tech is still and will continue to be an important and leading-edge industry, but my discussion with Pablo was a good reminder that all industries are now in flux and that there are no guarantees of stability for workers from any. I enjoyed Pablo’s upbeat take on things though, and appreciated hearing his views on the future of the sector as AI becomes more mainstream. The ComIt survey on worker attitudes is in sync with everything I have observed about workers over the past few years. In all industries, people want to be heard and supported, and organizations that realize that have a huge advantage when it comes to holding on to top talent.  Book Linda as your Keynote Speaker Ready to navigate the future of work at your next event? Linda Nazareth helps organizations understand and prepare for workplace transformation. Visit lindanazareth.com to learn more about booking Linda for your conference or corporate event. The post Episode 130: Why are Tech Workers Unhappy? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

Back to work mandates are all the rage these days but they may not work out the way that organizations expect. The language around the mandates suggests that top performers understand the need to be at the office and want to be there and if the slackers do not then they are welcome to quit. What if the opposite is true though? What if the best performers are the ones who will quit if they are forced back to in person work? To talk about the issues around ending remote work, Work and the Future host Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Brian Elliott, the CEO at Work Forward and author of How the Future Works: Leading Flexible Teams to Do the Best Work of Their Lives. They discuss the issues around remote work and the challenges that leaders are facing right now and what that means for work and the future. Transcript: Welcome to Work and the Future, a podcast about tomorrow with your host, Linda Nazareth. Linda Nazareth  Well, hello. Thank you for joining us today. We’ll return to work mandates for all the rage these days. The U .S. government has ordered workers back to the office, but so many companies in the private sector, including Amazon, Google, IBM, JPMorgan Chase. More than that, though the language we’re hearing around it is all pretty harsh. They’re kind of an implication that those who want to work from home are in some way slackers and they’re welcome to quit if they won’t. Well my guest today thinks that the exact opposite might be true and that if you force people back to the office you’re going to lose your best performers. His name is Brian Elliott and he’s an executive advisor and speaker as well as the co -author of How the Future Works Leading Flexible teams to Do the Best Work of Their Lives. Now, Brian has done work on holding on to your top performers, how you do that. And he does think that some of the decisions being made now might turn out to be short -sighted. I had a really good conversation with Brian about all the things that organizations are facing now and workers are facing and how maybe we should be taking a longer look at this. He has some really some good insights here, please stay with us to hear it. Linda Nazareth Well, are  back to work mandates a good way to lose your best performers? To talk about that, I’m joined by Brian Elliott. He’s CEO of WorkForward and author of How the Future Works. Brian, thank you so much for doing this.  Brian Elliott Great to be with you Linda. Thanks for asking me.  Linda Nazareth  You know, it’s a very topical subject. Back to work mandates are everywhere, but I’d like to talk about your own career first, how you ended up in a place where you’re advising companies on this.  Brian Elliott Yeah, so I startedoff as a consultant way, way, way back when, in the 1990s, when everybody worked in an office, because by the way, the internet barely existed, jumped into tech back in the 90s and was a startup CEO for numbers. Then in 2020, when the world sort of changed around us from the pandemic, I had to do something that was a lot of fun and something I’ve been wanting to do for a while, which is start a think tank called Future Forum. So I spent the next four years along with the team digging into what was working for people and what wasn’t during and post pandemic when it comes to technology adoption, belonging inside of organizations, burnout, and this whole topic of flexibility in the workplace and what’s working and what’s not. So these days, I spent a lot of my time working with executives on how are you going to adapt your organization? Because we all know that what worked for us in the past may not work for us in the future, especially given all the changes from a technology perspective, generations and demographics that are going on, global competition, generative AI, you name it.  And so how do we adapt our organizations to be sort of fit for purpose in that world? And a big part of that continues to be, unfortunately, how many days a week should somebody show up in an office, which is the silliest of arguments for a bunch of reasons, but undoubtedly we’ll get into that. Linda Nazareth  Yeah. I believe it’s very silly, but gee, it seems like a lot of high -level people are saying, this is the way to go. the argument now is it’s all about productivity. We can’t be as productive if we’re not all together. I mean, some of the companies you mentioned, Google and the like, and U .S. federal government are all over this. Let’s get your thoughts on productivity. How does that go?  Brian Elliott  Yeah. Let’s get into the extremes. A lot of this gets painted at the extremes, right? I’ve worked with companies that have gone to extremes in both directions, and extremes generally don’t work because most people don’t want to be fully remote. They also don’t want to be five days a week in the office. They want something in the middle. And the key question is, is your team all co -located I the first place, or are they distributed across cities and locations? Meaning, more often these days, what you see inside of organizations is, I may be working with somebody who has a time zone away from me. Commuting to the office, if most of my work is being done with people who sit in other offices, it’s not the office that’s the center of where work gets done, it’s all our digital tools and communication. So that’s one factor that plays out in all of this. But the bigger thing that sits underneath this is people do want to  be together on a regular basis for collaboration, for connection, for building gathering. The answers usually lie not in a top -down directive from a CEO, but figuring out what works for a sales team versus an engineering team, for example. Reality is when you do the research and you look at the studies, there are lots of benefits to being together with your team on a somewhat regular basis.  The productivity data is all over the map.  It is. The most negative productivity data comes from a study done in India in 2020, which showed that remote workers were 20 % less productive than they were when they were in the office. The way they measured productivity was how many hours did it take those people to get a body of work done? Mind you, they weren’t paying the people hourly. They were paying them on the basis of the salaries that they made. I worked with engineers in India in 2020. They were tethering off their phones. There was a pandemic going on. They were forced to work from home in conditions that were absolutely horrible and not conducive to good work. They were working extra hours to get the job done because it was much harder. So under those conditions, we shouldn’t be surprised, right? What a lot of firms have realized, though, is that measuring productivity is really challenging and hard. What we should be measuring is what are the results that people are creating. And instead of relying on measuring activity, meaning is somebody sending out a bunch of emails, how many hours a day are they clicking on their keyboard? Are we measuring the results? Are we measuring the basis on which people are getting work done? That shift to performance management for outcomes does a couple things. It aligns your team with the sort of objectives of the business in the first place and it creates a more level playing field for people. It’s hard work because you have to train leaders on how to be good at managing people for result-based performance as opposed to not. But we also all know and we can cite people who may be showing up in an office five days a week but they’re online shopping or they’re working on their second job or they’re not they’re working that hard in the first place. So most of the arguments about productivity have been put aside. If you read the recent pronouncements from an Andy Jassy or Jamie Dimon, they didn’t even mention productivity.  Linda Nazareth  Okay, let’s take that a bit at the time. Yeah, you forgot March Madness and selling cookies when we talk about productivity. But okay, take a Jamie Dimon. They’re writing these directives or letters or telling how it’s going to be. Is that because they’ve looked at these numbers? Is it because they’ve heard from their staff that it’s not working or is it because of something they themselves believe? Where are they coming from?  Brian Elliott  I’ve had this conversation with a lot of HR leaders, especially in the past couple of months again. More often than not, this is a CEO who is making a unitary decision because they feel like they need to have more control over what’s going on. They are returning to an office themselves that they find to be quieter than they want it to be. And you may even get the situation where more than one CHRO has said this to me. We said three days a week and what we’re getting is about two. And the CEO has ticked off because we said three, why are we not getting three? And there’s nothing in our productivity data that shows any real issues. There’s no correlation to time in the office and performance, but they just want to get people back in the office. That’s a broadset of issues.  There’s also some really interesting narrow ones. Amazon has a data-driven culture. At Amazon, you do not make decisions without data to back it up. Their inability to produce data showing why five days a week in the office is better, let alone the three days they went to before that, is a big reason why you’re getting the employee uproar. What people are seeing and hearing in that is not a database decision. What they’re hearing is you don’t trust us. You don’t trust us to be working when we’re at home. And if you don’t trust your own employees, they also tend to drop engagement at the back end of this. There’s a couple other factors that are very clearly going on. One is what Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, before he got pushed out, said out loud, which is we want people to quit, right? We know that a five day a week return to office drive will get people to quit. The people that quit though are usually, may not be the people execs want to have quit. The biggest group that tends to leave are people who have marketable skills. They are your more skilled employees, your higher tenure employees, that other big tech firms that I know that have a two or three day a week hybrid policy or happily cherry picking off of Amazon right now. So you lose those people.  The other people that you lose, and there’s a couple of pieces of research that show this are women by a three to one margin because that shift creates all kinds of shifts at home and mom more often than dad is the primary caregiver in the United States. And so, you know, you’re more likely to have women leave the organization than men.  Linda Nazareth Okay, but maybe arguably that’s okay with some of these guys.  Brian Elliott  That is the governmental intention here, is to shed people without segments, right? If you are a private, look, why they’re doing this on the federal government’s perspective, there are a lot better ways if you want to shrink the size of government than to do it this way, right? Not to mention the fact that half the federal government was already back in the office five days a week and 40 % in three days a week. And that’s only sub 2 % of the budget. So we’ll set all that aside. It’s the federal government, it’s political, they’re making a noise. Private sector, if you are doing this, you will lose talented people. You’re also counting on the fact that it’s a softer job market, right? And we’ve been in enough cycles that softer job markets don’t last forever.  What you lose in this is you lose engagement of your own employees. You lose trust in your own employees. You do lose some of your talented people to your competitors, especially the smaller ones, 90 percent plus of all startups are flexible. But what happens the next time you want to hire people and bring more people back in? They’ll remember this. I do think there’s aspects of this that they’re counting on generative AI to have a knock on employees. So far, PWC put out a CEO survey just like early January showing that given generative AI, thus far, more CEOs have hired more people than decreased them. I think we’re a ways away from actually gen AI proving out that it can actually drive high levels of efficiency. But it’s certainly something that’s a lever that CEOs are counting on, to continue to sort of hold power over employees. I just, I personally know enough other CEOs who are not wanting to wield power in that way because they know that they don’t get the best out of their workforce when they do so. It’s a bit of game of like command and control suddenly re-exerts its head and that’s not proven to be successful long -term. So eventually the tides change and you’re more nimble competitors, you know, you alive.  Linda Nazareth Yeah, not for the public sector, but for the private sector and publicly traded companies. Is there an argument that this is coming from investors that, yes, you’re going to  improve the bottom line. So do the CEOs believe in this, or is this just a matter of, let’s make it look like we’re cutting costs?  Brian Elliott   There’s a couple of factors here that play into that. One is you can track back a couple of years. By the way, this phenomenon is not new. We’ve had waves of returned office demands the past few years. There was a big one two years ago that was largely driven by activist investors. You could almost track the activist investor conversations at firms like Disney, Google /Alphabet, Amazon, Salesforce, look at activist investors showing up and within 30 to 60 days, an announcement about a return to office mandate being put in place, CEOs under pressure will respond to those types of pressures. Second thing is there are pressures also from Wall Street and very specific sectors. Commercial real estate has not had a good time post pandemic. And by the way, the push for the past couple of months has not made it any better. Vacancy rates in the United States in the office sector hit an all -time high at the end of 24. Mortgage delinquencies hit an all -time high at the end of 2024. The push has not been largely successful, partly because for every CEO mandating five days a week back in the office, there’s two others that are sitting there saying one of two things. Either one, that’s great. You go for it. I’m going to steal your talent and I’ll be more flexible than you. There’s another one that’s just like, “This is not a fight I want to have as a CEO.” My firm, we said three days a week, four years ago. Yeah, we’re not getting three all the time, but we’re getting good enough performance out of it. If I really want my people to redesign how they’re working using JIN AI, for example, I’m going to have to be able to reinvent how we work. I’m going to have to have those employees engaged with me. Picking a fight with them over three versus five days a week in the office is not going to help make that happen. I think distribution of leadership is starting to emerge.  Linda Nazareth You talked to all these companies, Brian. Let’s remind ourselves that not every company has gone this route. Some are sticking to the hybrid or even fully remote. Which are the ones that you consider is being successful at that? Brian Elliott   Sure. I’ll give you some examples. It’s actually 68 % of U .S. firms have some form of flexibility. That hasn’t changed for like Q2, Q3, Q4 flex index tracks like 9 ,000 US companies. Number didn’t change at all towards the end of last year. There’s examples in the tech sector, firms like Atlassian and Dropbox and others where you’d sort of understand they’ve got more distributed talent because it’s easier for them to do so.They’ve got tools that they’re really good at using in this. But it’s also places like Allstate, one of my favorite examples, and I’ve talked to them, written case studies about them, 50 ,000 -person insurance firm. What they figured out is there’s no one -size -fits -all. Claims agents that do a very measurable job do in -person training for a couple of weeks, and then they are in -person for the next six weeks, let’s call it, while they prove out to be capable in the job and learn the ropes of it. After that, they can work wherever. The reason why is it’s a very individual driven job, right? And it’s measurable. You can measure their performance. Designers, on the other hand, are in the office three days a week because that team decided that the right answer is for them to be co -located in together three days a week. Analysts are together once a month because that’s the pattern that works for them. So you got to think about this from like a work design perspective of not what’s the right answer for an entire massively scale distributed organization with multiple business units but what’s right down to the ways in which we work at a function and group level makes a lot more sense.  H &R Block is another good example. Classic big Midwestern company had put a return office mandate in place. It wasn’t working. They literally reversed it and said this doesn’t make sense when instead what we could be doing is focusing on performance management, bring people together, especially people that are distributed across the US on a once a quarter basis to build connection and belonging with people that you otherwise would never see if you happen to stumble into an office and improve our retention of employees. Nick Williams got a great study in nature that shows the same thing, by the way, which is there’s a 35 percent decline in in attrition rates of moving to a hybrid schedule from the full -time office schedule You know, we all have reviews mine is that part of the failure of this if it has been a failure Is that managers haven’t been trained to manage the remote workforce, right? It’s been hard.  So it’s all coming from the C -suite. Some of them aren’t unhappy with how it is If you were going to give advice and you do give advice to companies trying to make the success, how would you help those middle managers? First and foremost, it is how do you actually train them to manage people on the basis of performance? And that actually means that as executives, we also have to make some hard decisions, which is what’s most important, where the outcomes that we’re trying to drive.  But the management by walking around default, meaning we promote somebody to a manager and we don’t really train them how to manage people on the basis of the results they generate, how to conduct good one -on ones, just those two basic rudimentary things are really the key starting point for making this work. And I think that has been a big part of the reason for failures of this is failures of management in a lot of ways. But training people on how to have the not once a year performance review, but the once a quarter adding minimum. Here’s what your top three objectives are for the next quarter. We on them, we know how we’re going to measure them so we can have a results -based conversation and we can talk about your professional development requires investment in those people and systems and training to do that. But if you do that, you get a lot better results out of it. You actually get people who actually, what happens, and I’ve worked with firms that have done this, you lower unwanted attrition, right? Because you’re treating people on the basis of their results on their showing up, you actually increase intended attrition. You actually can double or even triple the outward movement of people who are underperforming because you’re putting in place systems that are more regular and more thorough around performance management. From a CEO perspective, honestly, that’s often what they really need and what they really want, which is I want to know that we are taking care of both our high performers and we are dealing with our low performers.  Linda Nazareth You know, I see the whole remote thing as a bit of experiment, right? We tried it in 2020 under not ideal circumstances. We’ve gone back and forth. I never thought it was going to be a straight line. We’re going to say three days a week if anyone’s going to go with that. So now we’re going to the other extreme in some companies. When we get three years from now, five years from now, what do you think it’ll look like?  Brian Elliott We’re going to be One of the phrases that I love, this actually comes from Nick Bloom is, this whole thing looks very much like a duck. It’s calm on the surface, the number isn’t changing much while the churn underneath is fantastic. There’s a lot of companies that are a steady state, but there’s more that are like moving in and out of figuring this out and trying to make it work. By the time we’re five years from now, we will have come to the realization that this was a largely wasted set of energy and effort around this particular topic, because the skills basis on which people are able to generate good work, technology adoption are much bigger factors in organizational performance than days a week in the office. Some form of flexibility will be the norm. If we’re at 68 % in the US today, we’re going to be somewhere between 60 and 70 % five years from now. There will still be those people who are five days a week in the office come come hell or high water, but there’d be a lot of other people that will sit there and say, “This is working for us,” and we’re on to bigger problems and bigger challenges.  Linda Nazareth Let’s see what happens. Brian, thank you so much for joining me today.  Brian Elliott   Linda, thanks for having me.  Linda Nazareth  Brian Elliott is the CEO of Work Forward and the author of How the Future Works.  Well, that’s it for today. If you want to know more about Brian and his work, take a look at our shownotes. You can find them wherever you get your podcasts, but as well on my website lindanazreth .com. Now, if you did like this discussion about the future of work,  please take a moment, leave a rating or a review, wherever you get your podcasts, it will  help people to find us, and that will help keep these podcasts going. If you want to connect with me, you can find me @lindanazareth .com. You can also find me at Instagram, @lindanazareth keynote speaker.  I’m also at X, which used to be Twitter at @relentlesseco. And I would love to hear from you however you want to connect. Thank you so much for listening. And thanks as always to Stoakley Audio for audio production.    The post Episode 129: Are Back to Work Mandates a Quick Way to Lose Top Performers? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

Will ordering workers to return to the office make them less lonely? To talk about that Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Jim Frawley, the CEO and founder of executive development firm Bellwether. Jim is a consultant and coach who has studied and written about the the way that in-person work might be good for our mental health. Guest: Jim Frawley, CEO Bellwether https://www.jimfrawley.com/ Announcer  Welcome to Work and the Future, a podcast about tomorrow with your host, Linda Nazareth. Linda Nazareth Hello and thank you for joining us today. Well, it’s 2025 and one theme of the year is back to the office. I have some mixed feelings about that and we will explore those on the podcast this year as we go forward. But there are definitely some positives to being around people and interacting with them without using a screen.  Now, we’ve been hearing a lot about loneliness lately, and it would seem that being around people, even if it’s just at work, is an effective way to deal with that. But just showing up at work is not necessarily really enough when it comes to forging real connections.  My guest today has studied and written about the way in -person work might be good for our mental health. His name is Jim Frawley, and he is a coach consultant and the CEO and founder of Bellwether. That’s an executive development firm. Jim talked to me about the ways that workers can make connections at work and why that can be a very positive thing. It was a really interesting discussion.  Please stay with us to hear it. (upbeat music) Linda Nazareth Well, is going back to work going to solve the loneliness epidemic? To talk about that, I’m joined by Jim Frawley, he’s CEO and founder of Bellwether. Jim, thanks so much for doing this.  Jim Frawley Thanks so much for having me. I’m excited.  Linda Nazareth Well, it’s 2025 and everything is changing. Looks like one of the themes might be end of remote work, but we’ll come back to that in a second. I’m interested, first of all, in your background, because you’re talking about some interesting topics. How did you end up doing this?  Jim Frawley Yeah, background in a nutshell. I spent about almost 20 years in corporate, everything from executive communications to corporate training to business strategy. I jumped around, couldn’t really find my fit, was very frustrated with it. Turns out I’m very hostile to authority, so I decided to go out of my own. But I really earned my chops in corporate doing executive communications in the financial industry during the financial crisis in 2008. So I got really good access to senior leadership in terms of what are the decisions that need to be made? How do we communicate this under intense pressure? And I use that a lot, helping people navigate through change today.  Linda Nazareth Well, one of the things we’re supposedly navigating now is this loneliness epidemic. You see it everywhere, right? Male loneliness, or loneliness in general, we’re not connecting, screens are the problem. What’s your perspective on that first?  Jim Frawley Yeah, I think it’s, you know, it really came to the, it’s been a challenge for a long time. It really came to the forefront with COVID, even though I don’t like to reference COVID because it was so long ago. But what people realized, I think, during COVID was that they were stuck inside and they were forced to have conversations with themselves that they weren’t ready to have. And then when we think about, we look at what technology is telling us in terms of you’re a terrible person because I’m so great. Like we internalize these things where we just become overwhelmed with this idea of being social. We don’t know who we are as individuals. We don’t know how we present ourselves to other people. We don’t know how to be social. We don’t know how to have the small talk, how to, you know, we’re told how come up with your elevator pitch at a networking event and you have to have this script and everything’s got to be packaged. And we have lost, I would argue, just the comfortable space to be with other people with no agenda. And I think that’s an important focus point for me anyway for 2025.  Linda Nazareth Do you put this down to work? How important is work when it comes to making day -to -day connections?  Jim Frawley It’s incredibly important. I would say it for two reasons. It’s not just, so I put work under one of the categories of social interaction that you need. We need these micro interactions to feel part of something bigger. So when we’re having these interactions in the kitchen, we’re having these interactions with people in the hallway, whatever we’re doing, it reminds us that we have just these little tiny interactions even on the commute, the bus driver, that we’re part of a bigger community, but it also helps us articulate who we are as people. It helps us build resilience, and we nfight for the things that are important, and we go toe -to -toe and we interact with the people. We’re social beings, and so we need to interact with people in a social way, and when work takes up such a big portion of our lives, we need that big portion of our life to have the social component built into it, because it’s also, as we argue, work is such a big part of our purpose that we need to almost actively create a sense of community when we package so many things into the work that we do, our identity, our purpose, our time, or whatever else, our money, our income, everything, that we now have to actively put extra social work into that so that we can make it a more substantial and meaningful part of our lives.  Linda Nazareth You know, before I ask you about the types of connections that we are making or should be making, I’m going to ask you about remote work. I’m actually, I have very mixed feelings on this. I’m mostly in favor of at least a hybrid workforce. I know other people feel differently. What’s your big view on this? Jim Frawley It depends. I’ve seen some small organizations have complete remote work and they work incredibly well. Because they’ve been able to hire people who are capable of working remotely incredibly, incredibly well. What I’ve seen is the more people go back into the office, the more the business benefits. And so there is a benefit for the individual for the loneliness component and all of this. I think the big challenge is one individual might be more productive at home is a big argument. But the collective group is not necessarily more productive as a group, as when they’re all working together in the office.  Now, organizations now have to create meaning to coming into the office. You’re not just going to come into the office, it’s sent on a Zoom call to waste of everything. So the reason people come into the office is to collaborate and to challenge ideas and to have different types of conversations with people from different departments that you normally wouldn’t see. There are a lot of benefits to the business, but there are also a lot of benefits to the individual. You get more exposure passing the senior executive in the hallway, maybe she’s the head of marketing and that you wouldn’t normally see on a call because we’re so narrow in our groups with who we speak to, that getting more visibility in the office is a really, really, it’s a really good thing. So I’m pro back to the office to a point, but I understand why people don’t want to go either.  Linda Nazareth Yeah, it’s an interesting point. You’re right. The visibility helps careers, but, well, is that how we should be deciding? I mean, this is not a subject that we can really delve into. It’s like a big question. Are we talking about people’s work? Are we talking about how they interact?  Jim Frawley And they’re both important, right? Yeah. And one thing onthat is it’s an important question that I ask most of my clients is, How are you defining a person’s salary? Is it 40 hours at a desk in a cube or is it the productivity that they’re able to create and how do you measure that? When you get to scale, it’s a difficult conversation.  Linda Nazareth Let’s get back to how we interact and the loneliness part of this. I saw your article in Fast Company, actually. You talk about three different types of interactions we have. The first one is the support system. tell us about them.  Jim Frawley Yeah, I would say everybody needs three groups of people when we’re managing change, just to give a context. Responding to change requires a focus on the individual and how do we prepare ourselves for managing change? And I say that there’s a physical component, there’s a mental component, mental preparation, and there’s a very important social component that people tend to ignore. And I think a lot of people, we call it social work, I call it social work, it’s not really social work, but it’s your personal social work.  You need three groups of social people that are going to help you as you navigate change, and it’s building your own personal resiliency. And one of those, the first one is support system. And you need a small group, never more than 10 people, probably more like five, who only want the best for you with no agenda attached. And these could be a spouse, it could be a friend, it could be a co -worker, it could be siblings, It could be parents, maybe it’s not family, right? A lot of people will automatically lean into that. So if you were to pause and think, who are the three to five people where I, when I need a push or I need help, or I need just someone to kind of put the arms around each other, who are those people going to be?  So everybody I think really needs that, that support system that they can lean on when they really, really need it.  Linda Nazareth And that is often outside work, right? Some of the other categories are more related to work. You talk about newbies?  Jim Frawley   Yeah, newbies. I think if you’re going to, the reason I love newbies, newbies, I call them newbies, they’re new experiences. New people to challenge your belief system in the way that you think. One of the most important parts of change management or responding to change, adapting to change is to have a belief system in place. But I argue you can’t have a belief system until you can understand why other people believe something differently, right? Beliefs are not truths. And so we need to interact with new people so that we don’t live in this echo chamber of everyone telling us that we’re right when the world just doesn’t operate that way. And I think you see that a lot with people graduating college. They haven’t been challenged in the right kind of way. They’re all kind of like -minded individuals in the same type of school, same type of people. So we need new experiences to open up our belief system to challenge what we actually believe and maybe have to adapt that and evolve our belief system over time.  Linda Nazareth And so we’re talking about this in a work context. These are the people who challenge you at a meeting or the manager who doesn’t want to go along with your suggestion?  Jim Frawley Yeah, in a work context, it could be that because if you’re able to articulate a belief system or to stick up for an idea that you have, the workplace gives you this parameter around the right way to do it, right? And how do you interact in a group setting or a small setting and interact with these other types of people who are going to challenge you? That’s ultimate resilience in terms of what are you believing or what are you pushing forward in? Is this actually the right decision? And then swallowing it or accepting it when you’re not correct. That’s a big part of the vulnerability. There’s so many buzzwords in the workplace, resiliency, vulnerability, all of these types of things. Vulnerability isn’t sharing your problems over the weekend, it’s admitting when someone might have a better idea than you. And we need these new challenges. That’s why diversity is so important in the workplace. That’s why we want these different, these perspectives and histories and angles and all of these things. That’s why in -person interaction is so important because we get these different types of perspectives to challenge the decisions that we’re going to make. Linda Nazareth  What about getting them online? If you were interacting with people through Zoom or through whatever conferencing app or speaking on the phone or email or whatever, what portion do you think you get from that?  Jim Frawley You can get some because people are sharing perspectives. What people don’t understand about communication is that we communicate with much more than words. When you’re in a room and you just see the side eye somebody gives to somebody else who’s not on camera. Or you give the slumping chair, or you see the body language of all these people. You know when you walk into a room, and everybody’s done this, you walk into a room and you feel tension in the room, you know that there’s something up and you need to adjust the way maybe that you’re communicating or presenting your information or seeing how people actually respond who aren’t speaking on camera. There is a big collective learning that you get from seeing how two people interact that aren’t on your call. But you see how their body languages and how they respond and how people are talking about. Did you see how that person talked about that and blah, blah, blah? It’s a big component of in -person social interaction is a big communication lesson for us, as we’re looking about our belief systems, how we communicate and how we interact at the office.  Linda Nazareth The final category you talked about is micro interactions. You mentioned this earlier, this is the casual encounters.  Jim Frawley Yeah, casual encounters are important, are very important because they’re very relaxing as well. They kind of separate us from our work. They are the small talk that nobody likes to do, but you get to see and connect with people on a different type of level. There are many people who interact, and this was a challenge with COVID also, is people went home, they lost all the social interaction they have for people who don’t necessarily have a support system, for people who don’t necessarily have new experiences and meeting new people who might be incredibly introverted and might not do the small little tiny letting a person go in front of you on the elevator, holding the door for someone, meeting someone in the lunchroom and saying, “Oh, thank you for sending that email,” whatever it is, these things, it’s not just for you, it also builds the collective group in a way that makes you feel connected. It builds productivity. It gets people excited. It really does help on many different human levels, not just for the work, but just from a human interaction type of level.  Linda Nazareth So for an organization who wants their workers to get along and be productive and create relationships, what should they be doing? I mean, we’ve seen lots of things tried the last few years during COVID. They kind of stupid online games and then coming back to the office, let’s all have free lattes and you guys stay in line and chat. What are the things that are effective?  Jim Frawley One of the ones that I saw that was incredibly effective is people could go out for a happy hour. You invite three other people. You can’t pick the same people each time and work will give you like a hundred bucks to go do it with no work agenda.  And so I think if you’re going to be bringing people back to the office, it’s not the days of the pizza party areover. Like people who are kind of hip to the kind of false motives on saying, “Oh, well, we’ll give you free coffee if you come into the office and yada, yada, yada.” What we’re ultimately looking to do is there are really three things that work needs to be thinking about when we’re thinking about AI and change and all of that.  Number one is social interaction. We want people to interact socially in person so that they can drive whatever with no agenda. There has to be no agenda. So just put people together, match them up. There’s a, I know one app called Bria that will just match people up in an organization just for coffee where they’re like, you both run marathons, you both have kids in college and you both have dogs. Here are three things to talk about and you just go meet for coffee. And no agenda, no kind of work and there’s no kind of pitching anything or any just honest social interaction is a good place to start. That’s one is social. Two is critical thinking. How do we get people to think about what they want and what they believe and how do they learn to articulate this amid other people? So facilitating these types of discussions, it’s a popular training that a lot of organizations are looking to now is what’s a leadership philosophy? How do you build a personal philosophy and do that’s a really good investment that’s not the normal, right? Let’s work on listening skills. And then the third one is buying power, which I’m not going to get into, but that’s everything’s getting more expensive. People feel stressed and we’re ultimately looking to lower the stress. So understand where humans are coming from. They don’t want to commute. It’s a bigger expense. They’re losing time with their family. So how do you make the time in the office worth it for them so that they can actually feel connection with other people?  Linda Nazareth And if you were talking to one of those workers who says, “Yes, I don’t want to be away from my family just to commute. I don’t want to go in just for a free coffee, which I can get for $2. What would you tell them in terms of trying to make them understand there’s value here?  Jim Frawley Yeah, there’s value. I think it’s, again, it would depend on the individual. I think we have many of us have shifted priorities over the last five years, where the need to go into the office, sit in a cube, sit in an office for so much time, just isn’t necessary when you have little kids or commuting from Westchester County into Manhattan, down into Brooklyn. It’s going to take you two hours each way, five days a week, it’s just not gonna happen. I think people are willing, people are asking now, is the money worth the sacrifice? And what is the balance now and Do I change? Do I make a change? And so the first question I would say to someone is, what ultimately is your priority today and tomorrow? And how do you look at that? And honestly, for some people going back into the office, it could be, it’s just dead in the water. They just don’t want to. And that’s okay. I would say that’s okay if that’s not going to fit. But many of them are saying, I’ll just go get a remote job. There are no remote jobs. The remote jobs are going away. So like, I want people to have a realistic view on what their decisions are going to be, but I do think a lot of people are sacrificing a lot to work in offices, jobs that they hate for a long period of time, and they would be much happier and better off if they had gone and done something different for a little bit less money. And I think that’s fine. I think we do a lot of things just because what the Joneses tell us, we’re supposed to do. But there is a benefit to going back into the office. If you enjoy the work you do, if you enjoy the company you are working for, going into the office, there is immense benefit to getting that social interaction. Linda Nazareth And I agree with you that the jobs, the remote jobs are gone, but maybe that’s not forever. I really think this is something that’s evolving and it’s going to look different as we go through the next one year, two years, five years. What’s your view? Where are we going to to be in one year, where are we going to be in five years? Jim Frawley It’s going , I mean, it’s almost like a new wave. Everyone worked from home for a short period of time. Now people are testing out the hybrid and some people are going to be bringing everyone back this year, I know Amazon already announced to bring everyone back into the office. Nothing is as good as you think it’s going to be, nothing is as bad as you think it’s gonna be. So I think they’re going to take their lessons, they’re going to see what happens. In my dark view of what’s going to happen, I think a lot of organizations are realizing they don’t need all of the people that they have. And so once they call the herd and they realize that they only need 50 % of their workforce, then there might be, you know, these 50 % of the people are the really valuable people that we’re going to keep. Then you might see some more flexibility coming back in on saying, all right, well, you’re really valuable. I know you’re providing it. We figured out it’s not the 40 hours that we need from you a week. It’s this productivity. Here’s how we’re going to measure it. Technology is going to help with that a lot. So I think that’s probably where we’re going to be in the next couple of years. Some people will get their special exemptions, but there’s going to be a wide kind of everyone come back now, and then we’re going to see what happens from there.  Linda Nazareth Interesting times, Jim. Thanks so much for talking to me.  Jim Frawley Thanks so much.  Linda Nazareth Jim Frawley is CEO and founder of Bellwether.  Well, that’s it for today. If you want to know more about Jim and his work, please take a look at our show notes. You’ll see some links there. If you want to connect with me, I’m on Instagram @lindanazarethknotespeaker. I have a website, lindanazareth .com, and I’m also an X at @relentlesseco.  Now, if you did like this conversation about the future of work, please take a moment and leave a rating or a review wherever you get your podcasts. It will really help  people to find us, and that will help keep this going.  Thanks so much for listening, and thanks as always to Stoakely Audio for Audio Production.  The post Episode 128: Will Returning to the Office Solve the Loneliness Epidemic? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

If everything is on the table when it comes to the future of work, should we be talking about having workers own the company – or at least own a bit of it? To talk about that, Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Elspeth Murray,   Director of the Centre for Innovation and Social Impact and CIBC Faculty Fellow in Entrepreneurship at the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University.  They discuss why the benefits from employee ownership can go far beyond money and why this work model might be a good thing for  workers and organizations and maybe for society as well. Guest: Elspeth Murray Director of the Centre for Innovation and Social Impact and CIBC Faculty Fellow in Entrepreneurship at the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University Elspeth Murray has served as the Associate Dean – MBA and Master’s Programs from 2012-2022 and has been a professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at Smith School of Business since 1996. She also holds the CIBC Fellowship in Entrepreneurship, and founded Smith’s Centre for Business Venturing. She is the Director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Social Impact. Prior to joining Smith, she worked in industry for 7 years for several firms including IBM, and Canadian Tire. As an integral part of her work in the strategy and new venture fields, Dr. Murray specializes in the management of change. In 2002, she co-authored a best-selling book, Fast Forward: Organizational Change in 100 Days, Oxford University Press, with Dr. Peter Richardson. She has recently co-developed (with Dr. David Saunders) the Analytics Climate Assessment Tool (ACAT), which is used to assess organizations technological capacity, skill sets, and analytics culture. Current research is focused on best practices in leading and managing change to create an analytics culture. Dr. Murray teaches on many MBA and Executive Education programs, and consults widely with a diversity of firms including BMW, Detour Gold, Wawanesa Insurance, Versacold Logistics and the Auditor General for Canada. She serves as a Director for several firms and is an advisor to several start-ups and CEO’s. Dr. Murray received an undergraduate degree in computer science and mathematics, and an MBA, both from Queen’s University. Her doctorate in Strategy and Management Information Systems was completed at the Richard Ivey School of Business. Links: https://smith.queensu.ca/faculty_and_research/faculty_list/murray-elspeth.php Transcript: Well, hello, and thank you for joining us today. Now, we’ve talked in this show about different forms of work, and one of them is old -fashioned employment, being a full -time employee of a company, not a freelancer, not a contractor, but just working for that company. But should we maybe go further than that? If everything is on the table when it comes to the future of work, should we talking about having workers own the company or at least own a bit of it? Well, my guest today is a fan of employee ownership. Her name is Elspeth Murray, and she’s the director of the Center for Innovation and Social Impact and CIBC Faculty Fellow in Entrepreneurship at the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Elspeth has research written a lot about employee ownership and she sees benefits that go beyond monetary ones. She thinks that if this is done right, both workers and organizations will benefit and maybe society will as well. I had a great conversation with Elspeth. Please stay with us to hear it. Linda: Well, should we be encouraging employee ownership? To talk about that, I’m joined by Elspeth Murray. She’s director of the Center for Innovation and Social Impact at the Smith School of Business at Queens University. Elspeth, thank you so much for doing this. – My pleasure. – You know, it’s a really interesting topic because I’ve been talking a lot on this podcast about what motivates people, what we can do to make people happier. So So I’d like to get into all of that, but first I always like to ask people about their own careers. How you ended up in this area? Elspeth: Well, I have a, this is my third career, so I haven’t always been an academic at the business school at Queens. I worked for IBM as a systems engineer at a marketing rep, went back to school, did my MBA, was fortunate enough to work with a very iconic business in Canada, Canadian Tire at a store level for about seven years, so learned a lot about operations and people. Then my life circumstances changed and I went back to school again and did my PhD in strategy and I was lucky enough to get a job at Queens and that’s what my day job is at the moment And so part of my interest in the whole topic of employee ownership is really rooted in my Canadian tire experience where the stores are independently owned by individuals. Linda: That’s really interesting. I love hearing about people reinventing themselves. Elspeth: We’re gonna hear a lot more. Twice I did that. Well, maybe this is it. Linda: Let’s talk about employee ownership because there’s different definitions of this, right? How would you define it? Or what are the different definitions of it?   So there are many different ways in which employees can own a stake in a company. Many people will be familiar with stock options or stock plans in the startup world. This happens all the time, but there’s been a recent addition into the mix, which is something called an employee ownership trust, which is a different way of having a stake in a business and is relatively new in Canada, but it has been well -entrenched in the U .S. and in the U .K. for many years. So it’s just another way instead of owning stock outright and participating as a shareholder, you now participate more as an owner. So what happens with this legislation, again, borrowed from the US and the UK, is that there is a separate entity called a trust, which is set up, and employees actually own a piece of the business through the trust. Unlike owning shares directly in the company, you own shares in the trust, and the trust essentially runs the company. Linda: Okay, so if we look at the US to the UK, is there a large company that does this? Elspeth:  There are lots of large companies that do this. And for your listeners, I think one of the easiest ones to think about in terms of employee ownership,broadly speaking, not just through a trust, is a great grocery chain called Publix,which has had employees own the company for many years now. It’s one of the most successful grocery retailers. There are tons of stories about how employees have benefited from that ownership. And it’s interesting, a student in one of my classes, I was using this example of Publix and he works in the US and he said, “You know what? We look to set up our businesses close to a Publix because it’s such a great company from a brand perspective, but more fundamentally, when employees own a business, the business tends to do a lot better. Linda: Well, that sounds really nice because one of the things I’ve been wasting time on is work TikTok. And there are so many people who are so unhappy and feel so detached from their workplace. So how does it change if you feel like you have a stake in it? Is there ways we’ve measured this? Elspeth: Yes, absolutely. So there’s about 50 years of research in the US about employee ownership and the many benefits of that. So the most important one is that you have a stake in the success of the enterprise. When you’re working your butt off, you see benefit, not just for the company, but you see benefit for you. So as the company does better, so do you. And that sort of sense of purpose that I’m not just plugging away working for somebody else, but I’m a real part of this amazing enterprise has many benefits. So you feel more empowered, you feel better about your job, you know, there’s that psychological ownership, but also that actual ownership. So, you know, the business does better, But employers are happier, they’re more engaged. And at the end of the day, back to publics, there are tons of examples of millionaires that are created. You’re stalking the shelves or you’re a cashier and you retire, well, guess what? The ownership stake that you have has real value. So there’s a real path to prosperity instead of just a paycheck. So those are just a few of the benefits. Linda Well, that’s pretty enticing. We used to hear that about Walmart, right? Even despite those stories about people stocking shelves retiring millions, they didn’t end up really having that image. People seem unhappy. They feel it’s in many ways not a worker -centric company. It has to be more than just giving people stock, right? Elspeth: Yeah, so, you know, as an owner, you don’t necessarily participate in running the business. So that’s a big part of making any employee ownership work. And with employee ownership trust in particular, you know, you, you know, if I’m an employee and this is presented to me, I’m going to want to know who is going to run the business and how will I interact and how will I have say and how the business is being run. So I think if you go back to kind of the Walmart example, yes, you have input, yes, they work on creating a culture, but at the end of the day, you don’t really own anything. Whereas if you have that ownership piece and you sort of see, yeah, I’m going to do something today, but I will benefit in the future. I will benefit not only today, but I will benefit in the future. that’s a much more compelling value proposition than trying to just have a great culture. I think the other thing, and you know this much better than I would, is this next generation, they want purpose, they want to feel they’re part of something. It’s not just about doing a thing and collecting a paycheck. So this notion of employee ownership just creates more purpose and meaning for people and you’re working really hard. Linda: That’s interesting that you bring that up. I was going to ask you about purpose. When we hear about purpose in younger people, we tend to think they want to see environmental attitudes that are in sync with what they believe, but also actions, right? Plans and things like that. I don’t hear about this very much, maybe because don’t think of people working at companies long -term anymore, especially younger people. They tend to be on contracts or they come and go. This is clearly a model that goes with traditional employment, right? Being there for some period of time. Elspeth: Right. But I would also say that part of the retention issue for many organizations is that people do see that there’s nothing in it for them in the long term. So I’m going to come, I’m going to do my thing, and then I’m going to look around for the next best opportunity. But in many ways, like who wouldn’t want to be part of a lasting enterprise? You You know, you build community, you get to, you know, really enjoy what you’re doing, you build expertise, and, you know, to go back to your comment about the power of purpose. I mean, it’s really a purpose beyond profits. Linda: And so this notion of community and longer -term well -being is all part of that grander purpose rather than just making a bunch of money thatyou’re going to give a way to shareholders? Maybe it’s not exactly part of this model, but how much of a voice do workers have in these organizations versus others? Is there a difference? Elspeth: Yes, because there will be this– if we talk about employee ownership trust in particular, so you have this entity called a trust, and the trust will actually be the way in which you have ownership. So you get to ask a lot of questions as to how that trust is being run. What are the decisions? What is the strategy of the organization? You know, your access information is that much greaternwhen you have an ownership stake. So it’s a completely different dynamic. You know, ultimately, do you get to direct what the company does? No, but do you have a significant voice, the answer is yes, and do you have access to much more aboutwhat’s actually going on? The answer is categorically yes. Linda Interesting. I know you’ve written about the income distribution part of this, so you’ve commented on this,which I found really interesting. Tell us a bit more about that. Elspeth: Well, because with ownership becomes an opportunity for more distribution of the profits. So in Canada, the way in which, and more generally, the way in which an employee ownership trust works is that trust must own at least 51 % of the company. So that’s the majority ownership. So as the company does well, the profits get distributed, and the big chunk of them will get distributed by thoseowners and whoever other chunk, you know, the profits will get distributed there. So that’s how you build wealth over time is, you know, the stock or the company does well, your ownership becomes more and more valuable. So that’s the wealth distribution end of things. And another thing that I think is really compelling in this day and age is sharing that wealth. I mean, the people who are really building the business, the lighting customers, keeping the shelves stocked in the public’s example, why shouldn’t they actually share in the wealth that they create? Linda: And I think more and more, particularly in the younger generation, they’re starting to ask those questions. Like, where’s my opportunity? I’m doing, I’m working hard. So how come it’s a small group of people kind of at the top who are getting paid a lot. Elspeth: Oh, yeah, that gets asked a lot for sure. So if you’re an organization that wants this, what wants the benefits from this at least, where do you start? And is there legislation that we need? Yep. So there’s there’s definitely legislation in the UK, in the US, and in Canada. So my best advice is always talk to an accountant and /or a lawyer, because they will be up -to -date. In particular, the accounts will be up -to -date on the legislation, so which businesses can qualify? And then there are a couple of steps. They’re sort of the, well, can I do this? Then there’s the, okay, yes, I want to do it, so how do I set it up? How do I think about enacting the whole thing, the not some bolts of setting that trust up. And then there’s a last piece, which is how does the transition work? So you asked a great question about, well, you know, what does this mean for employees? So it’s like, well, how will employees have a voice? You know, what will the cadence be of sharing information, so on and so forth. You know, there’s one other thing that I meant to mention before too, one of the, I think the most awesome aspects of these employee trust is it’s another succession vehicle for business owners as they retire. And in North America, there’s a huge percentage of small business owners, small, medium -sized business owners who are going to be retiring in the next 10 years. The greatest generational transfer of wealth anywhere. So these employee ownership trust provide a different way for business owners to actually transition the business. Which means you don’t have to sell your business to a competitor or to a private equity firm or just shut it down, period. You can sell it to your employees. Your employees stay in the community in which you build the business. Ownership stays in the country in which you live. Those are huge considerations for people who want to set up these trusts. You have these business owners who now have another option. I think this is what’s exciting to me about talking about this topic. You’re going to retire and sell your business in 10 years. This is option number three for creating legacy for seeing your business continue to thrive. It’s pretty cool. Linda: And you said small and medium. So there’s no particular size that you need to make this work. Elspeth: There is a particular size. So again, there are other elements of  qualification to be able to set up an EOT employee owned trust. So that’s why the first port of call here is talk to your accountant. There’s some good resources online. If you Google, if anyone Googles Employee Ownership Trusts, there’s a great organization called Social Capital Partners that lobbied long and hard for this sort of legislation. So that’s a terrific resource. But as I said, I always suggest starting with, starting with an account. Linda: Elspeth, really interesting topic. Thank you so much for joining me. Elspeth: My pleasure, thank you for asking. and it’s a great new item in Canada and tried and trued in the US and the UK. Linda: Thank you. – Elspeth Murray is director of the Center for Innovation and Social Impact at the Smith School of Business at Queens University. Well, that’s it for today. If you do want to know more about this topic, take a look at our show notes. You’ll find some links there. If you’d like to connect with on Twitter or X at @RelentlessEco. And I’m also on Instagram. You can find me @LindaNazarethKeynoteSpeaker. The post Episode 127: Should Employees be Company Owners? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

The climate transition has huge implications for the future of work. We know that we need to develop ‘green skills’, although there is not complete agreement about how to define what those are. The  crux of it, however,  is that we are arguably moving into a new, clean energy economy or a green economy and that that will demand different kinds of skills than might be the norm right now. To talk about all of that, Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Hem Dholakia, Senior Research Associate with the Smart Prosperity Institute which is a policy think tank in Ottawa, Ontario Canada. They talk about what the green transition will demand in terms of workers, and how we can develop the labour force that we will need. Guest: Dr Hem Dholakia is a Senior Research Associate at the Smart Prosperity Institute, where he supports the work of the Clean and Resilient Growth team. Before joining SPI, he brings eleven years of international experience managing climate risks for infrastructure, mitigating air pollution and strengthening public health. Providing strategic advice to senior government officials and multilateral organizations has been integral to his experience. Hem is passionate about communicating science to different audiences and has contributed to several knowledge products, workshops, webinars and conferences. A recipient of the International Visitor Leadership Programme Award (US Department of State), he was nominated to the UNFCCC Expert Roster by the Government of India in 2021. He holds a doctorate in Public Policy from the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad), and a Masters in Exercise Science from the University of Brighton (UK). Links: https://institute.smartprosperity.ca The post Episode 126: How Do We Develop Workers with Green Skills? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

The issue of climate and climate change is a huge one today. We know that something is going on with our planet, it is getting warmer and we are having more weather events and that is impacting the economy and definitely it is impacting work. And the impacts are only going to get larger. To discuss all of those issues, Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Steven Rothstein,  Managing Director of the Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets. They talk about the risks ahead as well as the opportunities, and what organizations need to do to develop workforces that are ready to manage the new climate realities. Guest Steven Maze Rothstein is the founding Managing Director of the Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets. Steven’s 40+ years of experience are critical to explore the most effective strategies to focus on and move capital markets towards climate sustainability. Steven has had a successful career starting, managing, and growing several nonprofit, social change, and government organizations. After college he was one of Citizens Energy Corporation’s founding team. He later started and ran Environmental Futures, a management and market consulting company serving enterprises seeking to grow their environmental work. He also ran the New England market for Constellation’s work as a successful electricity broker, the world-renowned Perkins School for the Blind, Citizen Schools, and the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. He has worked at local, state, federal, and international levels of government. Steven served on numerous nonprofit and government boards. He has spoken and written extensively. Steven has a B.A. with Honors in Political Science from Williams College and an M.B.A. from Northeastern University’s D’Amore–McKim School of Management. He and his wife, Susan, have two grown sons and an adorable granddaughter. Links: https://www.ceres.org/people/rothstein The post Episode 125: What Skills Will Organizations Need to Deal with Climate Change? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

It is a complicated time in the work world right now as organizations grapple with policies around the return to the office or remote or hybrid work. As well, the unemployment rate is rising, managers are dealing with stress around the economy and workers are uneasy about all of it. To talk about what the challenges mean for leaders in human resources, Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Paul Falcone, the principal of Paul Falcone Workplace Leadership Consulting and an the best-selling author of several books on human resource and leadership. Guest:  Paul Falcone Principal, Paul Falcone Workplace Leadership Consulting  Paul Falcone (www.PaulFalconeHR.com) is principal of Paul Falcone Workplace Leadership Consulting, LLC, specializing in management & leadership training, executive coaching, international keynote speaking, and HR advisory services. He is the former CHRO of Nickelodeon Animation Studios and has held senior-level HR positions with Paramount Pictures, Time Warner, and City of Hope. He has extensive experience in entertainment, healthcare/biotech, and financial services, including in international, nonprofit, and union environments. Paul is the author of seventeen HarperCollins Leadership, AMACOM, and SHRM Books, many of which have been ranked as #1 Amazon bestsellers in the categories of human resources management, labor & employment law, business conflict resolution and mediation, business mentoring & coaching, communication in management, business and organizational learning, and business decision-making and problem-solving. His books have been translated into Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Vietnamese, Indonesian, and Turkish. His books have sold in excess of 750,000 copies worldwide. Paul is a certified executive coach through the Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Coaching program, a long-term columnist for SHRM’s “HR Magazine,” and an adjunct instructor in UCLA Extension’s School of Business and Management. He is a member of the board of directors of the American Management Association. Paul is an accomplished keynote presenter, inhouse trainer, and webinar facilitator in the areas of effective interviewing and hiring, talent and performance management, leadership development, workplace ethics, and effective leadership communication. Links:  Website:  https://www.paulfalconehr.com/ Author Page: https://www.harpercollinsleadership.com/catalog/paul-falcone/ The post Episode 124: What are the New Challenges for HR Leaders? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

At one point we thought technology threatened jobs in fast food or retail but now we know that is likely to be only the tip of the iceberg.  AI will mean changes for all workers and  knowledge workers – the group that was once thought to be the most protected – may be at the top of the list. To talk about that, Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Anders Haugeto, founder of venture builder and product development studio Iterate. They talk about the disruptions ahead and as well about the way that AI will create opportunities and lead to positive changes, particularly for smaller organizations that might have had trouble competing in the past. Guest:  Anders Haugeto, founder of Iterate – a venture builder and product development studio in Oslo, Norway. Background as technologists, works today as early stage investor, startup mentor and advisor to corporations aiming to become more innovative. Last year Iterate teamed up with Magnus Carlsen, the greatest chess player of all time, and built the first version of his Fantasy Chess venture in just six weeks (using primarily humans and a dash of AI). An Optimist and Futurist, who continually tries to bridge the realities of today with the opportunities of tomorrow. Links: https://medium.com/venturehq/how-ai-workers-will-transform-knowledge-workers-45c531b6bf89 Iterate’s website: https://www.iterate.no/work     The post Episode 123: Will Knowledge Workers Lose Their Jobs to AI? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

Behavioural science Guest: Adrian Camilleri Association Professor of Marketing University of Technology Sydney Business School Adrian Camilleri is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Business School. He uses experimental and survey research methods to understand, explain, and predict the cognitive processes underlying judgment and decision-making, and the application of this knowledge to environmental, financial, managerial, and consumption contexts. Links: Home https://hbr.org/2024/03/how-gamification-can-boost-employee-engagement The post Episode 122: Can Using Gamification Boost Employee Engagement? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

How can leaders develop the mental strength needed in today’s work environment? To talk about that Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by  Scott Mautz,  author of the book  The Mentally Strong Leader. Guest SCOTT MAUTZ, author of THE MENTALLY STRONG LEADER, is the founder and CEO of Profound Performance™, a keynote, training, and coaching company. Mautz is a former Procter & Gamble executive who successfully ran four of the company’s largest multi-billion dollar businesses, he is also the multi award-winning author of Leading from the Middle, Find the Fire, and Make It Matter. Mautz has been named a “CEO Thought-leader” by The Chief Executives Guild and a “Top 50 Leadership Innovator” by Inc.com, He is faculty on reserve at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business for Executive Education and is a top instructor at LinkedIn Learning. He lives in San Diego. Links Website: scottmautz.com  Go to scottmautz.com/mentallystronggift to download a free 60-page PDF that contains the Mental Strength Self-Assessment and prompts to help you get the most out of the book, “The Mentally Strong Leader: Build the Habits to Productively Regulate Your Emotions, Thoughts, and Behaviors”   The post Episode 121: How Can Leaders Develop Mental Strength? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

Is Work Life balance a myth? On this episode, Linda Nazareth is joined by Dan Pontefract, author of the book Work Life Bloom. Dan believes that we need to move to  ‘work life bloom’ rather than ‘work life balance’ and he has some ideas about  what organizations should be doing to make that a reality. Guest: Dan Pontefract is a renowned leadership strategist, award-winning author, and keynote speaker with over two decades of experience helping organizations and leaders improve performance, productivity, and overall engagement. He has presented at four TED events and earned multiple industry awards including Thinkers50 Radar, HR Weekly’s 100 Most Influential People in HR, PeopleHum’s Top 200 Thought Leaders to Follow, and Inc. Magazine’s Top 100 Leadership Speakers. Dan has written five best-selling books and he also writes for Forbes and Harvard Business Review. Links: https://www.danpontefract.com The post Episode 120: Is it Time to Talk about Work Life Bloom? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

Is it time to include pet perks in more compensation packages? With talent acquisition a hot topic, everything is on the table now and perhaps that should include bringing your dog to the office, or at least having some of his health expenses covered by your benefits package. Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Cerys Goodall, Chief Operating Officer + Head of People at Vetster to talk about the options around pet perks and why it might be in organizations’ best interest to consider them seriously. Guest: Cerys Goodall Chief Operating Officer Vetster Cerys is a change agent with over 20 years of experience helping leading tech startups to move from ideation to growth. Links: https://vetster.com/en-ca The post Episode 119: Will Pet Perks be the Next Hot Worker Benefit? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

Can AI help people become better chess players – and if it can, what does that mean for the future of work? To talk about that, Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Henning Piezunka the co-author of a study on  that topic which reached some interesting conclusions. If AI can train people to play chess better, then there are implications for training in the workplace, which in turn suggests that we can leverage AI to make workers more productive. Guest: Henning Piezunka is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise at INSEAD and a Visiting Professor at Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania. Henning’s teaching is focused on startups and entrepreneurship, with a particular emphasis on guiding entrepreneurs in building, scaling and growing their business ideas and ventures. He teaches this material to MBA students, executives and corporations, and coaches start-up CEOs and entrepreneurial leaders. He has received outstanding teaching ratings, been on the Dean’s list for excellence in MBA teaching, and won the INSEAD best teacher award multiple times. Henning is an award-winning researcher. He studies how organisations can tap into the knowledge of their members to foster greater inclusion, innovation and diversity. He has also conducted research into the crowdsourcing of ideas and the wisdom of the crowds. In another stream of research, Henning studies collaboration and competition, such as the factors that escalate competition into dangerous conflict. He has further researched succession in family firms and how people can improve their ability to interact with others by leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI). Through his research, Henning has also developed significant expertise across various domains, including start-ups, technology companies, family businesses and a range of sports. He has leveraged data from sports such as Formula One, soccer and chess to shed light on effective management practices. Henning’s work and expert opinions have been featured in leading business media including Time Magazine, The Economist and Harvard Business Review. Henning obtained a PhD at Stanford University, a Master of Science at the London School of Economics, UK, and a Diploma Kaufmann from the University of Mannheim, Germany. Before starting his academic career, he co-founded a web design company in 1998 and acted as its founder-CEO until selling it in January 2016. By 2016, Henning’s company employed more than 30 people and served customers in more than 80 countries. Links: https://www.henningpiezunka.com https://www.insead.edu/faculty/henning-piezunka https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/smj.3512 The post Episode 118: How Can AI Help Workers be More Productive? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

Workers have lives outside of the workplace, and in many cases that means being caregivers to family members who are elderly or disabled or ill. The strain of that can impact their work, and it can impact the organizations they work for as well. To talk about what organizations can do to support workers – and ultimately support themselves – Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Jeff Moat of Pallium Canada a national, non-profit  focused on building professional and community capacity to help improve the quality and accessibility of palliative care. Guest: Jeffrey B. Moat Chief Executive Officer Pallium Canada Jeff joined Pallium Canada as Chief Executive Officer in 2017 where he brings 30 years of experience in creating organizational excellence, compelling social change programs and increasing consumer engagement within the not-for-profit, private sector and NGO industries. Previous to this, Jeff joined the Mental Health Commission of Canada where he established Partners for Mental Health, the country’s first non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating a social movement to transform the way people think about mental health, and act towards people living with a mental health problem or illness. Jeff also enjoyed an eight-year tenure as National Director of Marketing for Canadian Blood Services. He spent the first half of his career in the financial services as Assistant Vice President for Citibank Canada and Bank One International and later Vice President of Marketing for Alterna Bank. Jeff is a graduate of McGill University where he received his Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing and Management Policy. Jeff also holds a certificate in Finance and Accounting from McGill University and has earned professional certificates in Direct Marketing and Database Marketing from York University. Jeff also has his Chartered Marketer professional designation. Links: Home The post Episode 117: How Can Organizations Support Workers Who are Caregivers? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

Artificial Intelligence is here to stay and as well as changing and eliminating jobs it is creating new roles. On this episode, Linda Nazareth is joined by Cliff Jurkiewicz, Vice President of Global Strategy at Phenom to talk about why it is time for companies to hire for the role of ‘AI Ethicist’ and what challenges those in the role will face in our rapidly changing world Guest: Cliff Jurkiewicz, VP of Global Strategy, Phenom Cliff Jurkiewicz is the Vice President of Global Strategy at Phenom, a global HR tech company based in the greater Philadelphia area. Cliff supports Phenom’s purpose of helping a billion people find the right job by educating leaders at global organizations and their HR and HRIS teams on disruptive technologies, including AI and automation, so they can make meaningful connections with individuals throughout the talent journey. With a strong background in both design and technology, Cliff has held numerous roles in creative design and software development. Cliff is an active pilot who runs the only flight service in the country dedicated to helping those suffering from mental illness and addiction issues – Kyle’s Wish Foundation. The organization is named after Cliff’s son, who died at the age of 26 after a long battle with mental illness and drug use. Links: https://www.phenom.com   The post Episode 116: Should Every Company Have an AI Ethicist? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

Remote work keeps evolving: organizations have been changing the rules around it, workers have been shifting their demands on employers, and the pieces keep shifting. To talk about the new trends in remote work, Linda Nazareth is  joined on this episode by Jelena Djordjevic, Vice President of People at Thumbtack. Thumbtack is a technology company that helps people care for and improve their homes, an they have decided to be  ‘virtual first’ and are not forcing people back to work. That approach is becoming rare, but Jelena explains why it can be the right decision and talks about the ways to make it work. Guest: Jelena Djordjevic, VP of People, Thumbtack Jelena Djordjevic is VP of People at Thumbtack. She leads an organization of 80+ team members spanning Employee Experience, Recruiting, People Business Partners, People Analytics, Compensation, Benefits, Operations, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Organizational Development. In her role, Jelena is responsible for reimagining the future of work at Thumbtack as we embark on a new chapter to be the only app homeowners need to fix, maintain, and improve their homes. Most recently, Jelena served as Chief of Staff at Thumbtack. She held this role for almost three years and was responsible for designing and managing operating processes at the company to ensure we operated effectively and collaborated across the organization. She oversaw Strategic Planning, Internal Communications, Policy and the operations of our leadership forums. Prior to her time at Thumbtack, Jelena was a Case Team Leader at Bain & Company, a global management consulting firm, where she focused on digital and product strategy and change management. Jelena also spent time at Airbnb and Endeavor, where she focused on Business Development and Strategy. Jelena attended University of Pennsylvania and holds an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business. She lives in Berkeley with her family and loves long distance hut to hut hikes. Links: https://www.thumbtack.com The post Episode 115: What are the Newest Trends Around Remote Work? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

Everyone wants to be more effective and motivated at work, but doing that can be harder than it looks. To talk about how to revitalize your relationship with work, Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Art Markman, Professor at the University of Texas at Austin and the author of the book Bring Your Brain to Work. They discuss why motivation sometimes flags as well as practical ways that you can how to jumpstart your motivation and achieve more of your goals. Guest: Art Markman is the Annabel Irion Worsham Centennial Professor of Psychology, Human Dimensions of Organizations, and Marketing and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He has published over 150 research papers on topics including reasoning, decision making, and motivation. Art brings insights from cognitive science to a broader audience through his blogs at Psychology Todayand Fast Company as well as his radio show/podcast Two Guys on Your Head. He is the author of several books including Smart Thinking, Smart Change, Brain Briefs, and Bring Your Brain to Work. Links: http:/www.smartthinkingbook.com   The post Episode 114: How Do You Find Motivation at Work? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

Flexible work goes in and out of fashion, with always loving it and organizations being somewhat more skeptical. To talk about the state of flexible work, Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Cali Williams Yost, CEO and Founder of Flex+Strategy Group. They talk about Cali’s latest research on attitudes about flexible work and why more change is inevitably ahead  in the world of work.  The post Episode 113: Has Flexible Work Gone Out of Fashion? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

The pandemic has changed many things, among them the state of mental health in the workplace. Things were not perfect before the pandemic, there were definitely stresses and people under pressure, but lockdowns and having to manage a different way definitely took their toll. We are now at a different point but we are still struggling to figure out the best ways to work and that is creating its kinds of stress – and people are still struggling. To talk about how mental health has changed over the past years, Linda Nazareth s joined on this episode by  Bernie Wong, Principal and Senior Manager at Mind Share Partners which is a non-profit that is focussed on workplace mental health. Mindshare has done surveys on how workplace mental health has changed over the past few years and their findings are food for thought. Guest  Bernie Wong Principal and Senior Manager at Mind Share Partners Bernie Wong, MHS, is a founding team member and Senior Manager of Insights and Principal at Mind Share Partners, a national nonprofit changing the culture of workplace mental health so both employees and organizations can thrive. Through movement building, custom training, and strategic advising, it normalizes mental health challenges and promotes sustainable ways of working to create a mentally healthy workforce. Follow him on LinkedIn. Links https://www.bernielwong.com https://hbr.org/2023/09/how-to-support-new-workers-mental-health The post Episode 112: What is the State of Workplace Mental Health? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

Gen Z is a unique generation, perhaps more likely to be dealing with stress and anxiety – or perhaps just more likely to talk about it. On this episode, Dr. Sarah Adler CEO/Founder of Wave Life, Inc. joins Linda Nazareth to talk about how organizations can  support the mental health of their Gen Z workers and why that will ultimately benefit all sides. Guest Dr. Sarah Adler is CEO/Founder of Wave Life, Inc, a mental health platform that pairs affordable and quality coaching with engaging and immersive skill-building for Gen Z. She is a licensed clinical psychologist and former hedge fund analyst obsessed with improving access to high-quality mental healthcare. Dr. Adler is a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University. She sits on the advisory board of Redesign Health, and the Board of Directors of mpathic, using AI to improve empathic communication at scale. Previously, Sarah was CCO at a national behavioral health start-up, and Founding partner of Peninsula Behavioral Health, a group practice providing evidence-based-care to the San Francisco Bay Area. Links: Sarah’s LinkedIn Wave’s LinkedIn Wave’s Website The post Episode 111: How Should Organizations Handle Stressed Gen Zs? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

What can an anthropologist tell us about the future of work? A lot as it happens, since they  know a lot about  societies and cultures, which means that their observations about the workplace can help us understand how things are evolving and what might come next. Listen as Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Lizbet Simmons, Senior Anthropologist and Futurist with Cisco as they talk about what things look like from an anthropological perspective and how to get ready for the future. Guest: Lizbet Simmons Senior Anthropologist and Futurist Cisco https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizbet-simmons-phd-b5a89b84/ Links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizbet-simmons-phd-b5a89b84/ https://newsroom.cisco.com/c/r/newsroom/en/us/a/y2022/m04/an-anthropologist-eye-on-the-future-of-work.html The post Episode 110: What Can an Anthropologist Teach Us About the Future of Work? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

The word ‘networking’ may seem a bit outdated, but perhaps it is time to update its meaning. To talk about that, Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Andres Lares, Managing Partner at Shapiro Negotiations Institute. They cover what networking means today and why and how it is something that everyone needs to be doing it in a work context. Guest:  Andres is the Managing Partner at SNI, where he is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the global training and consulting firm. He previously served the role of Chief Innovation Officer until 2017.  His multi-disciplinary and lingual skills broaden SNI’s ability to effectively teach and consult in a wide range of industries, languages, and cultures. Andres’ expertise is in deal coaching live negotiations, and has focused on sports clients such as the San Antonio Spurs, Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Browns, Milwaukee Brewers, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Brooklyn Nets. He also works in several capacities with clients across a wide range of industries – from developing online content to facilitating programs in Real Estate (Lennar), Advisory (PWC, Grant Thornton), Media (ESPN, Roku, Hearst), Banking (M&T Bank), Aerospace (Boeing, Collins Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney), Insurance (Great American Insurance), and Pharmaceutical (Novo Nordisk, Roche), to name a few. Andres has led the development of SNI’s award-winning interactive online negotiation training, mobile applications, and virtual reality based applications, and in doing so has multiple patents pending. Andres has guest lectured on the topic of negotiation and influencing at various universities and conferences including Ohio University, University of Baltimore, University of Maryland, Queen’s University, University of Iowa, and the National Sports Forum. He annually teaches a highly sought after course on Sports Negotiation at Johns Hopkins University. Andres co-authored Persuade: The 4-Step Process to Influence People and Decisions, which was published by Wiley on July 7th, 2021 and instantly became the #1 new release in Amazon’s Education category as well as a best-seller in Porchlight’s business book list. Links:  LinkedIn profile Recently featured: TrainingIndustry.com, Harvard Business Review, SellingPower, Money, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Yahoo, NBC, CNBC, Kiplinger, Sports Business Journal, and UpJourney.       The post Episode 109: Do We Need to Learn to Network Again? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

Workers want more than money when they accept a job and typical looking for things like a manageable commute and a good team to work with as well. Increasingly, they are also interested in working for mission-oriented companies, wanting to work for organizations that are making a difference. But are they trading things, like money, for that? And if so, should they be? To talk about that, Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Insiya Hussain,  Assistant Professor of Management at McCombs Business School, University of Texas, Austin. They discuss her research around mission-oriented companies and what workers should be considering as they weigh the monetary and non-monetary benefits of work. Guest: Insiya Hussain is an Assistant Professor of Management. Her research focuses on understanding how employees can overcome the challenges of speaking up at work to share their ideas and opinions, advocate social issues, and negotiate for personal rewards. Insiya’s research has been published in leading academic journals including Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, and Journal of Applied Psychology. Her work has also been featured in practitioner outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Bloomberg, and Harvard Business Review. She is a member of the Editorial Review Board at Academy of Management Journal and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. Prior to joining academia, Insiya worked at J.P. Morgan’s investment bank and as a Project Manager at technology companies. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Columbia University, and her Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from the University of Maryland. Links: Insiya Hussain, Subrahmaniam Tangirala, and Elad N. Sherf. Aug. 2023.
Signaling Legitimacy: Why Mixed-Gender Coalitions Outperform Single-Gender Coalitions in Advocating for Gender Equity. Academy of Management Journal 66(4): 1233-1262. Insiya Hussain, Marko Pitesa, Stefan Thau, and Michael Schaerer. July 2023. Research: Why Employees Accept Lower Pay at Mission-Oriented Companies. Harvard Business Review (digital), July 27, 2023. Hussain, I. (2023). Job applicants can support a company’s mission—and still ask for more money. Wall Street Journal. June 8.   Insiya Hussain, Marko Pitesa, Stefan Thau, and Michael Schaerer. Pay Suppression in Social Impact Contexts: How Framing Work Around the Greater Good Inhibits Job Candidate Compensation Demands. Organization Science (in press). Hussain, I. (2022). Workplace anti-bias trainings aren’t enough. The Progressive Magazine, Oct 14. Hussain, I. (2023). The ‘power paradox’ that’s holding back workplace allies. Fortune, Jan 30. Insiya Hussain, Subrahmaniam Tangirala, and Elad N. Sherf. Signaling Legitimacy: Why Mixed-Gender Coalitions Outperform Single-Gender Coalitions in Advocating for Gender Equity. Academy of Management Journal (in press). The post Episode 108: Are Workers Trading Pay for Purpose? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

At a time when the world of work is more stressful than ever, how can leaders avoid burning out? To talk about that, Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Lisa Earle McLeod and Elizabeth Lotardo, authors of the book Selling with Noble Purpose. The discuss the ways that  leaders can and should be purpose-driven, but do it in a way that will ultimately be a good thing for all parties involved. GUESTS: Lisa Earle McLeod is a sales strategist and professional speaker whose clients include Salesforce, Kraft Heinz, and Roche. She is the author of Selling with Noble Purpose and an expert in sales transformation. Learn more about Lisa’s work here. Elizabeth Lotardo is a researcher and consultant who helps organizations drive revenue and engagement. She is the co-author of Selling with Noble Purpose and holds a master’s degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Connect with Elizabeth here. LINKS: https://www.wiley.com/en-sg/Selling+With+Noble+Purpose%3A+How+to+Drive+Revenue+and+Do+Work+That+Makes+You+Proud%2C+2nd+Edition-p-9781119700890#:~:text=Using%20real%2Dworld%20data%2C%20compelling,on%20internal%20targets%20and%20quotas.   The post Episode 107: How Can Leaders Avoid Burning Out? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

Artfiicial intelligence is changing the world, and it will inevitably change the world of work – but what will those changes look like? To tackle this huge topic, Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Jason Brommet, Head of Modern Work and Surface at Microsoft.  They discuss just how disruptive AI might be, and why it is time for both individuals and organizations to be ahead of the changes. Guest Links Work Trend Index | Will AI Fix Work? (microsoft.com) The post Episode 106: How Will AI Change Work? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

Organizations talk about the need to have diverse organizations and they may be sincere about that, but actually making that happen can be difficult to do. Designing the right programs is not easy and getting people on board can be even harder. To talk about how organizations can successfully walk the talk on diversity, Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Eddy Ng.  Smith Professor of Equity & Inclusion in Business, Smith School of Business at Queens University. Guest: Eddy Ng https://smith.queensu.ca/faculty_and_research/faculty_list/ng-eddy.php Eddy Ng is the Smith Professor of Equity & Inclusion in Business at Queen’s University. His research focuses on managing diversity for organizational competitiveness, the future of work, and managing across generations. His work has been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grants. He has edited and published 7 books and more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. According to a 2020 Stanford study, he is identified in the top 2% of highly cited scientists in Economics & Business. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and Co-Editor of Personnel Review. He is currently the Chair-Elect for the Gender and Diversity in Organizations division of the Academy of Management. Prior to academia, he worked for the TD Bank Financial Group in Commercial Banking, Domestic Planning, Corporate Audit, and Group Human Resources at the head office in Toronto. Links:   The post Episode 105: How Can Organizations Walk the Talk on Diversity in the Workplace? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

How does an organization get ready for the future and build a workforce that is ready for it when technology is changing so quickly? To talk about that, Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by David Morgenstern, President of Accenture Canada. They talk about the challenges of planning and training and why the latter might have to start with the C-Suite. Guest: David Morgenstern is President of Accenture Canada where he supports leaders in business and government to embrace change, transform their organizations, and become more resilient for the future, through the combination of technology and human ingenuity. David leads Accenture’s Canadian workforce committed to improving how Canadians work and live. With services in advisory, technology and outsourcing, Accenture brings technology-enabled transformation to clients in the private and public sectors, with AI, cloud, data, and security at the core of much of the business. For more than 25 years, David has held progressive leadership roles in the technology services sector, serving in both Asia and in Canada, and joined Accenture in 2010. His time at Accenture has included senior roles in Accenture Operations, focusing on supply chain and procurement services, before leading Accenture’s Products & Communications client groups in Canada. David is passionate about technology-enabled transformation and focused investment in skill development as a path to improving Canada’s position as a leader in innovation and productivity; while building a workforce that reflects Canada’s strength of diversity. He is a member of Accenture’s Global Leadership Council, Chair of Accenture Canada’s Executive Committee and Inclusion and Diversity Council. Originally from Edmonton, David has been based in Toronto since mid-2000, after a decade living in Beijing, Brussels and Singapore. David is a member of the Business Council of Canada, sits on the advisory board of Catalyst Canada and is involved with numerous charities and non-profits in the youth, education and mental health space. David received his B.A. from McGill University and his MBA from INSEAD, where he currently sits on its National Alumni Board. Outside of work, David is an avid cyclist and mountain sport enthusiast, happiest when joined in these pursuits with his wife Caroline and two teenage boys. Links: Generative AI report Tech Vision 2023 Total Enterprise Reinvention The post Episode 104: How Should Organizations be Getting Ready for the Tech-Driven Future? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

Workers want a certain amount of autonomy at work, but leaders have always been wary about providing it.  Finding the right balance is now more important than ever, and also more difficult than ever given that many workers are now working remotely. To talk about how much autonomy is appropriate at work and why leaders should provide it, Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Dr. Julian Barling, Professor of Organiztional Behavior and Bordon Chair of Leadership at the Smith School of Business at Queens University and the author of the book Brave New Workplace. Guest: Dr. Julian Barling, Professor of Organiztional Behavior and Bordon Chair of Leadership at the Smith School of Business at Queens University. Dr. Julian Barling is the Borden Chair of Leadership and Stephen Gyimah Distinguished University Professor at Smith School of Business, Queen’s University. He is an authority on transformational leadership and was named one of the 10 most influential leadership researchers in the world in one analysis. Julian has received numerous awards for teaching and research. In 2002, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and received the National Post’s “Leaders in Business Education” award. Julian is an elected fellow of several international research societies, and the author of over 200 research articles and 15 books, including Brave New Workplace: Designing Productive, Healthy, and Safe Organizations. Links: https://smith.queensu.ca/faculty_and_research/faculty_list/barling-julian.php   The post Episode 103: How Can Leaders Give Workers Autonomy at Work? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

Part of succeeding at work is building a strong brand and the kind of ‘social capital’ that has people thinking about you when projects and opportunities come up. That is hard enough if you are at the office every day, but a lot more difficult if you work remotely and are in a sense invisible. To talk about how to get around that and build social capital even if you work remotely, Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Aliza Licht, founder of Leave Your Mark and  the author of the book On Brand: Shape Your Narrative, Share Your Vision, Shift Their Perception. Guest: ALIZA LICHT is an award-winning marketer, bestselling author, podcaster, personal branding expert, and the founder of LEAVE YOUR MARK, a multimedia brand and consultancy. She advises businesses and mentors individuals on brand building and career development. Licht leverages over two decades of expertise in marketing, communications, and digital strategy in the fashion industry. She was formerly known as the anonymous social media phenomenon DKNY PR GIRL, an award-winning personality and pioneer fashion influencer with over 1.5M fans worldwide. Her reveal generated over 230M media impressions. Licht’s first book, Leave Your Mark: Land Your Dream Job. Kill It in Your Career. Rock Social Media. has been described as “a mentorship in 285 pages.” It has ranked on Book Authority’s “100 Best Career Development Books of All Time” every year, has been translated into multiple languages, and is required reading for many communications majors in U.S. universities. Her weekly podcast, LEAVE YOUR MARK, delivers essential advice and inspiration. Named one of “America’s Next Top Mentors” by The New York Times, Licht is a sought-after consultant for brand clients as well as a members-only career coach, mentoring people on how to shape and amplify their personal brands to drive success. Licht has been featured in global media, including the Wall Street Journal, as one of TIME’s “Six Women Who Rule the Fashion World” and New York Daily News’s “Top 50 Most Powerful Women in New York.” Licht also sits on several industry boards, including the American Influencer Council. Links: https://alizalicht.com The post Episode 102: How Can Remote Workers Build Social Capital at Work? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

Anxiety is everywhere, including in the workplace – but can it be used in a positive way? Better yet, are there ways that leaders and organizations can create an environment where anxiety is reduced if not eliminated? To talk about that Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Morra Aarons-Melly,  author of the book The Anxious Achiever: Turn Your Biggest Fears into Your Leadership Superpower. The post Episode 101: How Can You Handle Anxiety at Work? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

On this 100th episode of the podcast, Linda Nazareth is joined by Carolyn Byer, Human Resources Lead at Microsoft Canada who was one of the guests early in the pandemic lockdowns. More than two years later, Linda and Carolyn reflect on how organizations had to deal with some new realities, what has been learned over this period of disruption and what has changed particularly for women and for younger generations. Guest As Human Resources Lead for Canada, Carolyn works closely with President Chris Barry and the Leadership Team to develop and execute the people strategy for Microsoft Canada. A strong business leader with proven experience in the c-suite and across all levels of management, Carolyn is a champion of Microsoft’s “learn it all” and growth mindset” tenets and is committed to continuing to grow Microsoft’s diverse and inclusive workforce. Prior to joining Microsoft, Carolyn served in a variety of HR disciplines globally at IBM for more than 17 years. She has a Bachelor of Psychology from University of Guelph and a Masters in Human Resources from Rutgers University. Outside of work, Carolyn focuses on her family. She enjoys conversing with others and expanding her perspectives and can typically be found on a soccer field or a lake. Links Follow Carolyn Byer on LinkedIn.   The post Episode 100: How Have Women’s Work Lives Evolved Since the Pandemic Started? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

In the future will we all wear headsets and communicate through avatars with our work colleagues? The metaverse is changing much of how we communicate and that has huge implications for the world of work. To talk about the implications Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by Mark Purdy, an independent economics and technology advisor based in London who works with companies to get ready for the future of work, including work in the metaverse. Guest: Mark Purdy is an internationally recognized thought leader and advisor on issues at the intersection of economics, technology and business. He has over 27 years’ experience as an economist in business and government, including twenty years as chief economist at one of the world’s largest technology consultancy companies. He is Managing Director of Purdy & Associates, an independent consultancy focusing on economic and technology policy issues. He is also a senior advisor to several economics and technology analyst companies. His recent work has focused on topics such as the future of work in the metaverse, ESG, contactless commerce, AI-powered discovery, digital twins, digital trade, the rise of techno-nationalism, the economics of supercomputing, and the issues of bias and quality in AI systems. He has published widely in tier-1 media and business publications such as Harvard Business Review and Sloan Management Review. Mark has also undertaken industry landscape studies in technology areas such as cloud-native, intelligent automation, and the Google and Microsoft ecosystems. He speaks on economics and technology issues at conferences, client workshops and seminars around the world. Links: LinkedIn Profile https://purdyassociates.com/   Selected recent publications: Purdy, M. (August, 2022), The View: Saviour of Global Trade?, op-ed on the metaverse, South China Morning Post. Purdy, M, (March 2022), AI Data Bonanza will intensify Geo-strategic Competition, op-ed, The Straits Times. Purdy, M., (April 2022), How the Metaverse could Change Work, Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2022/04/how-the-metaverse-could-change-work Purdy, M., November 2021, The future of Contactless Commerce, Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2021/11/the-future-of-contactless-commerce Purdy, M. and Chang, X. (2021). Instant language translation can help us talk. But will it help us understand? TechMonitor. Available at: https://techmonitor.ai/technology/instant-language-translation-can-talk-but-will-it-understand Purdy, M., Klymenko M., and Purdy, M. (2021). Business scents: the rise of digital olfaction. Sloan Management Review. Available at: https://shop.sloanreview.mit.edu/store/business-scents-the-rise-of-digital-olfaction Purdy, M. and Klymenko M. (2021). How Machine Discovery can Accelerate Solutions to Society’s Big Problems. Sloan Management Review. https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-machine-discovery-can-accelerate-solutions-to-societys-big-problems/ Purdy, M. (7 December 2020). Forces Driving New Wave of Techno-nationalism. Op-ed in The Straits Times (Singapore). (Available on request) Purdy, M. (2020). Unlocking AI’s Potential for Social Good. Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2020/10/unlocking-ais-potential-for-social-good Purdy, M., Eitel-Porter R., and Klymenko M. (2020). How Swarm Intelligence Blends Global and Local Insight. Sloan Management Review. Purdy, M., Eitel-Porter, R. and Deblaere, T. (2020). How Digital Twins are Re-inventing Innovation. Sloan Management Review. https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-digital-twins-are-reinventing-innovation/ Purdy, M., Zealley, J. and Maseli, O. (2019). The Risks of using AI to Interpret Emotions. Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2019/11/the-risks-of-using-ai-to-interpret-human-emotions Purdy, M. and Reznik, G. (2019). Why Every Company Needs to Think like an Entertainment Company. Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2019/05/why-every-company-needs-to-think-like-an-entertainment-company [     The post Episode 99: How Could the Metaverse Change Work? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.

If you have a job and you have kids, you know that one impacts the other.  Logistics is part of it, but there is more as well. Our work impacts our life outside work, and our families, perhaps  more than we think. To discuss the relationship between work and families,  Linda Nazareth is joined on this episode by  Maureeen Perry-Jenkins, Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and the author of the book Work Matters. They talk about the ways that work impacts families and about what organizations  can do to make sure the impacts are not negative on either side. Guest: Links:   The post Episode 98: How is Your Job Affecting Your Kids? appeared first on LINDA NAZARETH.