Sociologists sounded the alarm on technology’s more negative effects on people and places many decades ago. In season 4’s final episode, we revisit the past to chart a new way forward for the workplace. Listen in to discover how space planning can rebalance our relationship with technology and prioritize human interactions to create workplaces where people want to be. Host: linkedin.com/in/ryaningr/ For more About Place, visit: millerknoll.com/ideas-in-action/about-place-podcast Connect with Mil...
Jan 09, 2025•22 min•Season 4Ep. 11
Innovation at work happens when we feel safe to fail, but how can we feel safer with our teammates in an era of distributed work? In this episode, sociological researcher Caitlin Begg and Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmonson deepen our understanding of psychological safety and discuss how spending more time together as teams can enable smarter risks and unlock innovation. Guests: authsocial.com instagram.com/caityb/ hbs.edu instagram.com/amycedmondson/ Host: linkedin.com/in/ryaningr/ F...
Dec 19, 2024•53 min•Season 4Ep. 10
This season, we've tapped into the ways organizations are innovating to support new ways of working and people coming back to the office. For this episode, we turn to Sara Klinges, Head of Real Estate and Workplace Effectiveness at Genentech, to find out how social, technological, and place-based strategies can fuel workplace effectiveness long term. Listen in as we discuss the perks of team-based agreements, ways to catalyze workplace effectiveness, and more. Guest: Gene.com Host: linkedin.com/...
Dec 05, 2024•38 min•Season 4Ep. 9
Enticing Office, a workplace study authored by environmental psychologist Nigel Oseland in collaboration with MillerKnoll, revealed key factors that attract people to the office, even when they have the option to work from home. Now Nigel joins us for an episode that dives into the topic of making workplaces desirable. Learn insight-driven and sometimes surprising ways designers and organizations can make the office a place where people want to be. Guest: https://workplaceunlimited.com Host: lin...
Nov 14, 2024•42 min•Season 4Ep. 8
As a field that studies the effects of aesthetics on how people think and feel, neuroaesthetics can be a valuable tool for designing workplaces that make everyone feel comfortable and enabled to do their best. In this episode, Joseph White, Director of Design Strategy at MillerKnoll, and Suchi Reddy, Architect and Founder of Reddymade Architecture and Design, cover what you need to know about this emerging field and its impact on the future of workplace design. Guests: https://reddymade.designin...
Oct 24, 2024•47 min•Season 4Ep. 7
The demands of design for healthcare environments can teach us multitudes about creating healthier, more efficient workplaces. For this episode, we’re joined by Michelle Ossmann, PhD, MSN, Director of Research at MillerKnoll, in a conversation on the innovations advancing design for healthcare environments and how to apply them in your next facility project. For more About Place, visit: millerknoll.com/ideas-in-action/about-place-podcast Connect with MillerKnoll: Instagram: instagram.com/millerk...
Oct 10, 2024•43 min•Season 4Ep. 6
CBRE’s Workplace360 concept produces vibrant offices for the commercial real estate firm’s global workforce. Listen in as Peter Van Emburgh, Senior VP and Global Head of Real Estate and Karen McCallum, Managing Director of CBRE Design Collective, share the strategy behind Workplace360, how they keep the concept fresh across a global portfolio, and what organizations can learn from their progress. Guests: CBRE.com instagram.com/cbredesigncollective/ For more About Place, visit: millerknoll.com/id...
Sep 26, 2024•51 min•Season 4Ep. 5
A new mixed-use retail and office space in Bentonville, Arkansas is redefining work and play in the mountain biking capital of the world. Apart from a six-story indoor bike path and art installation, Ledger includes places to shop, gather, work, and move — refreshing notions of what an office building can be. Listen in as architects Christian Callaghan and Haruka Horiuchi dive into a discussion on Ledger’s design and take a deeper look in our article on the Ledger project. Guests: callaghanhoriu...
Sep 12, 2024•37 min•Season 4Ep. 4
Workplace strategy experts Domino Risch and Kirsten Brown share how companies in Australia are layering workplace hospitality, new technologies, and a “give-it-a-go" attitude to guide workplace innovation and catapult the market into one of the most progressive in the world. And as flexible space outpaces commercial real estate as the new office go-to, they discuss what it takes to integrate authenticity in workplace design. For more About Place, visit: millerknoll.com/ideas-in-action/about-plac...
Aug 29, 2024•38 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Designing the perfect operational model gets easier when organizations prioritize their stakeholders in the process. In this episode, Assal Yavari, VP of Global Real Estate and Safety at Workday, shares how rigorous feedback systems help prioritize employees—and drive successful return-to-office rates. We also learn how the team uses “centers of excellence” to nurture talent.
Aug 15, 2024•40 min•Season 4Ep. 2
What does workplace planning look like at a global company in the business of play? Timothy Ahrensbach is LEGO Group’s Global Director of Workplace Innovation. Listen in as he shares intuitive models for planning workplaces that are inclusive, productive, and of course, a bit playful. Plus, learn about the developments powering the LEGO Office 2.3 concept.
Aug 01, 2024•42 min•Season 4Ep. 1
In this season of MillerKnoll’s podcast, we’re deepening our focus on the impact of the workplace on organizational outcomes—and our lives. What new ideas or practices are making the places where we work and live better around the world? How can we all apply them? We get into it in this season of About Place. Start listening. millerknoll.com/ideas-in-action/about-place-podcast
Jul 18, 2024•12 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Two experts from MillerKnoll’s Global Research and Insights team recap last episode’s conversation on the Harkin Institute’s inclusive design, before revealing new insights from our Global Workplace Assessment and examining the current state of work location policies. Next season, we’re reshaping the podcast to examine the future of work, plus our clients’ most pressing near-term needs for supporting new ways of working.
Nov 22, 2023•28 min•Season 3Ep. 11
The road to inclusivity stops for many buildings at ADA compliance, but two architects for The Harkin Institute for Public Policy and Citizen Engagement at Drake University are charting a different path. Listen in as they discuss replicable design principles of the institute, which combines sustainability, accessibility, and inclusivity for people with an array of disabilities.
Nov 08, 2023•36 min•Season 3Ep. 10
Thirty years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), there’s one research institute still pushing for more inclusive spaces for all. The Harkin Institute for Public Policy & Citizen Engagement at Drake University was created to deliver lasting support for social justice issues such as disability advocacy. Listen in as its founders, Ruth Harkin and former U.S. senator Tom Harkin—who authored the 1990 ADA—revisit the fascinating makings of the ADA and share about the in...
Oct 25, 2023•29 min•Season 3Ep. 8
What does it take to create workspaces people actually want to be in? Using smart technology as a sandbox, our guests explore how workplaces can forecast employee needs, measure results, and use data to ideate new people-centric solutions for using space. Listen in as Alea Fairchild, Ph.D., Director of the technology policy think-tank The Constantia Institute, and Jeremy Pollack, CEO and co-founder of the workplace experience platform Calven, talk about how we can effectively push the needle on ...
Oct 11, 2023•43 min•Season 3Ep. 7
Office density before the pandemic didn’t provide an ideal workplace experience for anyone. That’s just one of the takeaways from our chat with two experts from the Global Research and Insights team at MillerKnoll. Listen in as Katie Finlayson, our Workplace Strategy Manager, and Bertie Van Wyk, our Insight Programme Manager, touch on employee connection and belonging and unpack the power of purposeful, personalized strategies for supporting employees whether they work remotely, in the office, o...
Sep 27, 2023•44 min•Season 3Ep. 2
For this episode, we welcome two guests from the Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies (CIFS). Carsten Beck is Director of Research and Lovisa Volmarsson is an Advisor and Futurist. Our conversation started with a question about the implications of remote work on urban centers, but wandered into issues of livability, sustainability, economics, and public policy. The discussion generated plenty of ideas about how cities might adapt to become more affordable, regenerative, and desirable places t...
Sep 13, 2023•40 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Like most weeks this season, we welcome two guests to this episode. However, since both have a knack for looking at issues from multiple angles, it feels like we’re packing in more insights per minute this time. Pallavi Shrivastava is Head of Workplace Consulting, West Asia for global real estate services firm JLL. Mike Petrusky is Director of Podcasts for global worktech company Eptura. He also hosts their Workplace Innovator Podcast and Asset Champion Podcast. Pallavi offers perspective on the...
Aug 30, 2023•48 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Our guests for this episode come bearing research from their respective organizations to spark business leaders to think differently about the physical environment. Despina Katsikakis is an Executive Partner and Global Head of Total Workplace for global real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield. Kevin Delaney is CEO, Editor-in-Chief, and co-founder of Charter, a future-of-work media and research company. They balance eye-opening data with practical advice throughout their conversation wi...
Aug 16, 2023•47 min•Season 3Ep. 4
When the insights come at you as fast as they do in this podcast, sometimes you need a chance to reflect and consider how they apply to your world. So, this season, we’ve invited members of our Global Research and Insights team to join Ryan to discuss the themes that surface every couple of episodes. This week, we welcome Michelle Ossmann, PhD., Director of Healthcare Knowledge and Innovation, and Mark Catchlove, Director of our Global Insight Group. They reflect on themes that stood out for the...
Aug 02, 2023•37 min•Season 3Ep. 3
This week’s guests explore workplace wellbeing in both theory and practice. Gethin Nadin is a psychologist and Chief Innovation Officer at Benefex, a UK-based employee experience software company. He also consults with organizations like BT Consumer, where Andrea Kilgour serves as People Director. Together, they challenge listeners to think more strategically about employee wellbeing, from the role of the physical workplace to the link between wellbeing and productivity to the psychological bene...
Jul 19, 2023•48 min•Season 3Ep. 13
To kick off Season 3, host Ryan Anderson welcomes Matthew Boyle, Senior Work Shift Reporter at Bloomberg News, and Annie Dean, VP of Team Anywhere at software development firm Atlassian. The dynamic among the three of them is fast-paced and the insights come one after the other. Listen as Matthew shares takeaways from his reporting on what he calls “the messy present of work,” while Annie adds practical advice for leaders looking to understand the purpose of the office today and build well-conne...
Jul 05, 2023•48 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Welcome to Season 3! To kick off this season, your host—and our VP of Global Research and Insights—Ryan Anderson offers his thoughts on the state of the workplace today. Get his take on the variables affecting the future of work around the world, how the workplace can better support flexibility (hint: it’s not just through hybrid policies), and why organizations need to do more to address employee wellbeing. We hope you’re looking forward to going even deeper into these themes throughout the sea...
Jun 23, 2023•15 min•Ep. 12
We’ve come to the end of another season, but there’s still time to look back in our season wrap-up. Host Ryan Anderson puts a bow on Season 2 by sharing new data that challenges listeners to shift their focus from returning to the office, and toward a reimagining of the office for this new era of work. For more MillerKnoll insights, visit millerknoll.com/ideas-in-action .
Oct 05, 2022•15 min•Season 2Ep. 11
As our Digital Marketing Strategy Lead at MillerKnoll, Chris Coleman has been helping Ryan Anderson answer questions from customers wondering whether they should start hosting meetings or other work functions in the metaverse. These questions get asked so often that Ryan invited Chris to join him on the podcast to share a digestible explainer of all things metaverse—or, as Chris prefers to refer to it, Web3. If you’ve ever found yourself lost in conversations about blockchains, NFTs, virtual rea...
Sep 28, 2022•31 min•Season 2Ep. 10
This week, we welcome Corinne Murray, founder of Agate Studio. As a leading workplace strategist, Corinne helps organizations think differently about how they approach the creation, management, and evolution of their places of work. In an enlightening conversation, Ryan and Corinne explore the nuanced world of the future of work, touching on several approaches employers can use to evaluate both the built and social work environments to improve employee experience. For more MillerKnoll insights, ...
Sep 21, 2022•36 min•Season 2Ep. 9
Disruption has been the theme of Ronen Journo’s 28-year career, so his perspective on this period of rampant experimentation in corporate real estate is particularly prescient. Ronen is Senior Managing Director and European Head of Management Services & Operations at Hines, a privately owned real estate investment, development, and management firm. In this episode, he and Ryan discuss how the pandemic provided an accelerant for challenges that had been on a slow burn for decades, and the nee...
Sep 14, 2022•32 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Inclusive design is a topic not nearly enough people are talking about. This week’s guests are working to fix that. Jolene De Jong is an Applied Insights + Design Specialist at MillerKnoll and Joseph White is the company’s Director of Design Strategy. They recently collaborated on a white paper for the peer-reviewed CRE Journal. In it—and in this episode—they unpack the need for architects and designers to move beyond accommodation of unique needs and toward a more widespread adoption of the not...
Sep 07, 2022•38 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Host Ryan Anderson could not wait to share this episode with you. Our guest, Cali Williams Yost, has spent her career helping organizations reimagine not just where, but also how and when their people work to improve performance and well-being. With a mix of infectious enthusiasm and the truth-bomb directness of someone who has been advocating for these shifts for 27 years, Cali makes a strong business case for embracing flexible work and remaking the office into an intentional enabler of a more...
Aug 31, 2022•31 min•Season 2Ep. 6
