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About Place

MillerKnollwww.millerknoll.com
Hosted by Ryan Anderson, VP of Global Research and Planning at MillerKnoll, About Place explores the evolving role of place in our lives, at work and beyond. Each episode features conversations with thought-leaders, designers, researchers, and more, all of whom bring expertise and understanding about how the places we create can positively impact how we work and live. Visit millerknoll.com/ideas-in-action for more.
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Episodes

S2, E5: Expanding the concept of workplace

On this week’s episode, we chat with Craig Robinson, Chief Growth Officer at flexible workplace provider, Industrious. With more than 20 years of experience in the commercial real estate business, Craig helps organizations to be more innovative in their approach to real estate by expanding their concept of "workplace" and providing greater employee choice while managing costs and risk. Join host Ryan Anderson and Craig as they discuss ways to support optionality, flexibility, and environments th...

Aug 17, 202231 minSeason 2Ep. 5

S2, E4: Fixing what’s broken

Our guest this week is on a mission to convince organizations everywhere to take the double disruption of COVID plus inflation as an opportunity to change for the better. Debbie Lovich is a Managing Director and Senior Partner at Boston Consulting Group. She brings her sharp wit and analytical mind to this conversation about the need for leaders to model flexibility, how our reasons for being in the office today have increased demand for shared space, and what the future of work looks like for t...

Aug 03, 202235 minSeason 2Ep. 4

S2, E3: The pros of dynamic work

Season 2 rolls on with a visit from Samantha Fisher, Head of Dynamic Work at Okta, an identity and access management company that’s actually expanding its number of offices even though it does not require its 5,000-plus employees to come into the office. In an insightful conversation with host Ryan Anderson, Sam breaks down the implications of enforcing a standard eight-hour workday and shares how a dynamic work schedule and environment encourages productivity, equity, and empowerment. For more ...

Jul 27, 202238 minSeason 2Ep. 3

S2, E2: Rethinking the future of offices

Host Ryan Anderson welcomes Phil Kirschner of global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. A self-proclaimed “accidental workplace strategist,” Phil fell into managing workplace strategy transformation efforts at Credit Suisse more than a decade ago and never looked back. As a result, his openness to supporting new ways of working fuels this fast-paced exploration of the need for executive-level change management, for widening our perception of what “hybrid” means, for using AI to i...

Jul 13, 202236 minSeason 2Ep. 2

S2, E1: The science of social connection

Kristin Leimgruber, Ph.D., joins us to kick off the season. Kristi is a behavioral researcher at BetterUp, the virtual coaching and mentorship platform whose science-based approach helps people thrive in the workplace. She and host Ryan Anderson link the rise in workplace burnout with the decline of our sense of social connection at work—an unintended consequence of remote work. It’s an important and timely conversation—and ultimately, an optimistic one, as Kristi and Ryan explore strategies for...

Jul 06, 202228 minSeason 2Ep. 1

Season 2 Preview

Host Ryan Anderson takes time to share some highlights from Season 1 and set the stage for Season 2 by answering the two most frequently asked questions he gets asked once people find out what he does for a living: What is the current state of return-to-office? And what does it mean for the future of the workplace? For more MillerKnoll insights, visit millerknoll.com/ideas-in-action .

Jun 06, 202219 min

Episode 9: Everyone wants belonging

For the final episode of Season 1 of Looking Forward, we welcome john a. powell, Director of the Othering and Belonging Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. After a thoughtful discussion of belonging in general terms, john and host Ryan Anderson pivot to focus on what organizations can do to foster belonging in the workplace. From the impact that belonging has on employee retention to the long-term effects more flexible work arrangements will (or won’t) have on workplace culture,...

Nov 09, 202133 minSeason 1Ep. 9

Episode 8: Rebuilding our organizational networks

Our guest this week on the podcast is Andreas Hoffbauer, Ph.D., a sociologist by trade and the founder and director of the organizational and behavioral design studio Atelier Kultur. In a heady conversation with host Ryan Anderson, he explains how our organizational networks have been weakened throughout the pandemic—and how prototyping spatial interventions can help strengthen them. For more MillerKnoll insights, visit millerknoll.com/ideas-in-action ....

Oct 19, 202130 minSeason 1Ep. 8

Episode 7: Putting our insights to the test

This week on the podcast, we offer a glimpse behind the scenes of our recently renovated Design Yard facility in West Michigan. Home to several teams that have embraced hybrid working, our transformed Design Yard provides choice and bolsters engagement. Matt Stares, Senior Vice President of Global Real Estate, Architecture and Development here at Herman Miller, and Gretta Peterson, our Senior Manager of Global Workplace Strategy and Development, join Ryan Anderson for this enlightening conversat...

Oct 12, 202130 minSeason 1Ep. 7

Episode 6: Architecting interaction

Stephanie Akkaoui Hughes, Founder/Lead Architect of AKKA Architects in Amsterdam, is the type of guest we could talk with for hours—but you’ll have to make do with 37 minutes on this week’s podcast. She joins host Ryan Anderson to discuss how organizations can design spaces in a more participative manner and create environments that are ready for the future of work—a future in which workplaces actually support the diverse needs of the people who use them. Their conversation is a master class in ...

Oct 05, 202137 minSeason 1Ep. 6

Episode 5: Know your customer

Our guest this week is Steve Todd, AVP, Global Head of Workplace at Nasdaq, and creator of Open Sourced Workplace—a resource for real estate and workplace information. Steve joins host Ryan Anderson to share how he’s been able to move Nasdaq beyond a spreadsheet-driven understanding workplace ROI and toward a more user-centered approach—including some of the factors he’s identified that influence productivity. For more MillerKnoll insights, visit millerknoll.com/ideas-in-action ....

Sep 28, 202137 minSeason 1Ep. 5

Episode 4: Better experiences through smarter buildings

This week, Ryan welcomes Andrea Chegut, Ph.D., Director of the Real Estate Innovation Lab at MIT. A data scientist first and foremost, Andrea’s work involves listening to data and leveraging what she learns to help designers and business leaders align the built environment with the needs of people. In a fascinating conversation, she and Ryan cover the four biggest struggles corporate real estate needs to address and touch on how the pandemic has surfaced connections between physical space and he...

Sep 21, 202137 minSeason 1Ep. 4

Episode 3: Rethinking the concept of workplace

This week, host Ryan Anderson welcomes one of the most experienced and insightful leaders in the workplace strategy space: Adrienne Rowe, Head of Workplace Strategy at Raytheon Technologies. Their conversation starts with the current state of workplace strategy as an evolving field of practice, and springboards into a range of topics, from activity-based working to the challenge of balancing flexibility with providing an equitable experience for all employees. For more MillerKnoll insights, visi...

Sep 14, 202130 minSeason 1Ep. 3

Episode 2: Remote work for inclusivity and better living

This week, Ryan tackles remote work with one of the world’s foremost experts on the topic, Darren Murph. Darren is Head of Remote at GitLab, a DevOps platform that helps co-located, hybrid, and remote teams collaborate and build software. Darren shares lessons that GitLab has learned as a completely officeless company with more than 1,400 remote employees—including boundary-setting at the organizational level, balancing synchronous and asynchronous tools, and the benefits their people have enjoy...

Sep 07, 202137 minSeason 1Ep. 2

Episode 1: Embracing a more flexible future

For our inaugural episode, Ryan welcomes Brian Elliott, Executive Leader of Future Forum, a consortium launched by Slack to help companies rethink work in our digital-first world. Topics include managing distributed teams, the effect of the pandemic on employee expectations—including the ripple effect those changing expectations are having on HR policy—and avoiding "false flexibility." For more MillerKnoll insights, visit millerknoll.com/ideas-in-action ....

Aug 27, 202136 minSeason 1Ep. 1
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