The role that our workplaces play in encouraging and enabling our relationships at work, was largely taken for granted, until they were taken away from us.

A silver lining of the pandemic, we realised the impact of our workplaces and the role they play in our establishing and supporting the social & support networks in our lives.

And social connection is a foundation for building any community.

Today’s guest ARC Laureate Fellow Sharon K. Parker. I was first introduced to Sharon and her work through my friend and Colleague Dr Meg Hooper of Carousel Consulting, and her S.M.A.R.T Work Design Model, to develop meaningful and motivating work. This piece of work has been instrumental in underpinning our approach to work design and workplace design, a difference that Sharon will elaborate on in today’s podcast.

Meg has been following Sharon’s work for a very long time, and such I’ve invited her along to co-host today’s episode!

ARC Laureate Fellow Sharon K. Parker is a John Curtin Distinguished Professor, Director of the Centre for Transformative Work Design at Curtain University, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences and Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organisational Psychology.

Sharon has published more than 250 internationally refereed articles on topics such as work design, proactive behaviour, mental health, and job performance, has over 46,500 citations, and is ranked in the top .15% of global scholars in her field.

She is the founder of the S.M.A.R.T model, cofounder of the Thrive at Work Initiative, and has contributed to policy on work design in Australia and internationally.

With the breadth of research that Sharon has done, this podcast could go in any direction, but as we are focused on the role of community in the workplace this season, we’ve narrowed in on this topic and explored how the work she does overlaps with this ability to build community.

So today, we are exploring;

• Her view on the relationship that exists between our workplaces and the role they play in building community
• Her S.M.A.R.T work design model and what the important factors are to consider in building community and where organisations could be letting themselves down
• The role of autonomy in buffering the effects of poor workplace design
• The definition of work design and the overlap to workplace design
• Some of the key consideration that designer, Culture Leaders and property managers/specialists should be looking at when it comes to workplace design
  

Sharon’s perspective on this is fascinating and Meg & I were loving this conversation - we honestly could have chatted for hours. So, I hope you love listening to this episode as much as we loved recording it!

Using Place to connect to the Hearts, Bodies and Minds of your People

Often when we look at our workplaces, we think of them as property. As real estate. And sadly, often as a balance sheet liability. But they have the potential to be so much more than that!⁠

Your work place is an underutilised asset in attracting and connecting to your people.

Often spoken about in the terms of “People, Place & Technology” our workplaces should not be devoid of our humanity.

They are created for our people. That means that they need to Personal. Human.

And when you take a human centred approach to creating a workplace, what you are really doing is connecting to the hearts, bodies & minds of your people.

⁠
❤️ When I say heart, I'm talking about the collective emotion of a space. Otherwise known as the culture of an organisation. The brand and story of a company and the emotional connection it creates and ripples outwards. ⁠
⁠
🧘🏽 When I say body, I'm talking about the physical environment and like a body, is it put together for agility and performance or is it slow rigid and fixed?⁠
⁠
🧠 And when I say mind, I'm talking about the technology that makes it all possible. The ability to plug our culture into our place and connectivity to one another. ⁠
⁠

LINKS

Get your copy of Mel’s new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”

Connect with Mel;

Email Melissa@melissamarsden.com.au

Website melissamarsden.com.au

Website comuniti.com.au

Instagram @melmar

Whitepaper – The Road Map to Employee Experience

Book a 30min Complimentary Discovery Call with Mel https://calendly.com/melissa-marsden/30min

How can we create workplaces where our people are empowered? Where they are given autonomy and choice?

It all starts with culture.

Now that might sound overly simply, but at the grassroots of this, it’s the everyday actions that leaders take that shift and create culture in their teams and organisations. And it really is the simple things that make the difference.

And today’s guest, Meredith Wilson has written the book, on how you too can you use GRASS in your workplace to shift your culture.

Meredith makes culture simple and actionable. Working with executives, CEOs and leadership teams to shape, shift, strengthen and lead cultures. Having led culture at the Executive and Board level for more than 15 years, with ASX10 and global teams, Meredith is a published Author and recognised Culture Expert. Meredith works as a Culture Strategist, Speaker, and Mentor, building cultures that work.

In today’s episode Meredith shares with us;

1. Her G.R.A.S.S model and the simple ways that we can start to rethink culture and how we can then take action everyday

2. The impact of Hope & Safety and how this is foundational in building any culture

3. The 4 things that you need to build a culture worth belonging too

4. The importance of symbols and rituals and how these show up in your workplace

Meredith and I have a shared passion for building communities and thriving cultures, with much of our work and language overlapping in various area’s of workplace design and organisational leadership and culture, so it was an absolute privilege to have the opportunity to explore our ideas of what works more deeply in this episode.

LINKS

Get your copy of Mel’s new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”

Connect with Meredith;

Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website |

Connect with Mel;

Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper - The Road Map to Employee Experience

Book a 30min Complimentary Discovery Call with Mel

Over centuries work has evolved from a labour some, back breaking manual task to what today some of us refer to as a "cushy office job"!

And we have the invention of machines and technology, a few key players and a pandemic to thank, as the catalysts for this change.

However, some things have very much stayed the same, even though the world we are living and working in today, is very different to the world in which these things were created for.

In today's episode I'm winding back the clock just over 100 years as we start to look at;

1. The impact of machines and technology on how we work
2. How and why, we work 8hrs and 5 days a week
3. How technology drove our need for workplaces and their design
4. The research on what our workplaces really need to do now and into the future.

This is one of my favourite conversations and I'm so excited to be sharing it with you here today!

LINKS

JOIN NOW! Workplace Dynamics Blueprint Program

Get your copy of Mel’s new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”

Connect with Mel;

Email | Insta |
 LinkedIn | Website | Website | Whitepaper - The Road Map to Employee Experience

Book a 30min Complimentary Discovery Call with Mel

Curating a community is not a passive activity. It takes conscious effort, care, and a respect for the people that you are embracing in this community.

But when you bringing together a community with no traditional “place” how can you engage with a place temporarily and make it your own?

This is exactly the work that today’s guest, Imelda Miller, does in her role as the Curator of First Nations Cultures at Queensland Museum Kurilpa. A third generation Vanuatu woman, Imelda is a proud South Sea Islander and responsible for bringing together communities of origin through her work with the museum. Working with material culture an archival collections, Imelda’s collaboration, and curatorial approach, combines cultural practice, community engagement and community lead research and development into her projects.

Hosting exhibitions, running workshops and leading teams in these activities, Imelda is consciously curating places for communities to come together to share their stories and create new ones.

Today’s conversation is one of possibility and Imelda shares so many of her secrets in how she fosters this sense of community, to establish belonging, a sense of connection and storytelling that can be directly applied back to our building our own communities in our workplaces.

In today’s conversation Imelda shares with us;

• How she uses place to create community, even when there is no ownership or relationship to place
• How objects enable people to connect, share stories and develop memory in place
• The fundamentals of curating a community atmosphere are
• The healing power that connection and community can create

Throughout this conversation I hear direct correlations to how I think about fostering community in our workplaces and the role that place plays. Establishing connection, creating belonging, and sharing stories, by communicating social contracts and norms and engaging in routine and ritual.

Imelda is a warm-hearted woman with much wisdom to share on how we can take even a little bit of this approach back to our workplaces.

Mel

LINKS

Join the Waitlist for the Workplace Dynamics Blueprint Program

Get your copy of Mel’s new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”

Connect with the Imelda;

You can engage with Imelda’s work here;

https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/discover/exhibitions/plantation-voices

https://www.museum.qld.gov.au/collections-and-research/projects/australian-south-sea-islander-lived-identities

Connect with Mel;

Email Melissa@melissamarsden.com.au

Website melissamarsden.com.au

Website comuniti.com.au

Instagram @melmar

Linkedin Melissa Marsden

Whitepaper – The Road Map to Employee Experience

To listen to more of my episodes, head to my website !!!

Hey!

Have you read Priya Parkers book, The Art of Gathering? If you haven't yet, I highly recommend you do, it's a good read!

In her book Priya shares:

"gatherings in our lives are often vague & unproductive"

And I would argue that our workplaces are in fact a place where we gather, rather than places we "go to" to "work", and if we want people to come to the workplace, we need to be offering them an experience. It needs to be a purposeful, and productive contribution to their lives.

In today's episode I'm expanding on the framework that I share with you in Eps. 139, It's not about mandates, it's about Fostering Community, to dive deeper into the final layer of the framework, Placemaking.

Because the art of placemaking is a complex task, that requires its own framework to fully optimise the creation of a plan that builds community. Plus, I share with you some tangible examples of how place has been used for centuries as a central hub, an anchos, a container for holding and creating community.

If you're ready to learn more about creating your community in your workplace, you can either;

1. Grab a copy of my book "The Next Workplace"
2. Join me in the "Workplace Dynamics Blueprint | The Program" Waitlist now OPEN!
3. Or book a complimentary discovery call with me to chat more!

Until next time,

Mel x

USEFUL LINKS:

Workplace Dynamics Blueprint | The Program - DOORS OPEN!
Are your ready to learn the Art & Science of creating your next Workplace?!?!

Creating your next workplace is a complex task! It requires the input of multiple players within your organisation and the expert guidance of specialist consultants.

BUT it also presents an incredible opportunity for your organisation! Typically, businesses only refresh their space every 10 years. That's a long time in today's fast paced world. So many changes, from technology, to operational delivery, organisational structures, ways of working and more.

Optimising this unique opportunity requires a plan. In this self-paced program, you will learn about the five pillars that underpin the dynamics in your organisation, how to leverage them against your organisations strategic objectives and gain the confidence you need to embark on this journey armed with the knowledge and know how to optimise your next workplace.

Enabling you to inspire the human potential in your organisation.

Join the waitlist and be the first to know when doors open!

Join the waitlist here - https://www.melissamarsden.com.au/blueprint

Get your copy of Mel’s new Book “The Next Workplace; Designing Dynamic Environments that Inspire Human Potential”

Connect with Mel;

Email Melissa@melissamarsden.com.au

Website melissamarsden.com.au

Website comuniti.com.au

Instagram @melmar

Whitepaper – The Road Map to Employee Experience

Book a 30min Complimentary Discovery Call with Mel https://calendly.com/melissa-marsden/30min