This week’s episode with Sree Sreenivansan, who is the Chief Digital Officer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Digital transformation in the workplace is a massive topic, everyone from Chief Human Resource Officers, to people in Innovation and Technology are talking about it. Chief Digital Officers are emergent titles; they are springing up everywhere as we move forward in the new digital workplace.  Sree shares what he is doing and thinking about when it comes to the Digital aspects of work.

Chief Digital Officer’s tasks can vary from company to company.  At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sree leads a team that produces all audience facing technologies.  Emails, social media, videos, applications, and development are all part of accomplishing not only the daily tasks at hand, but the goal of his department.  Sree looks at his position as helping to make connections between the physical and the digital content, as he describes, the “in person and online”.  He believes that if you can do that, you will have a successful enterprise. The future of all business is making that connection between the physical and digital.  It is important to build that virtuous circle.  There is a powerful image that highlights this, this example is in regards to the Met.  If you get people to follow your stuff online, and they love what they see, they can get inspired to visit the Met in person. After they visit in person they love what they see, and they are convinced to stay connected on social platforms.  This can be applied to the digital goals of many companies, digital content provided by a business can inspire a visit or a purchase of a product.   

What you will learn in this episode:

• What is the Digital Workplace?
• What are Trends Driving the Digital Workplace?
• What is the Difference between Employees and Managers in this New Workspace?
• What is the Future Going to Look Like?
• Best Practices
• Biggest obstacles
• Internal Side of Digital and Social Platforms
• External Side of Digital and Social Platforms

(Music by Ronald Jenkees)

What this episode is about and why you should care

My guest for this week’s episode of the Future of Work podcast is Sophie Vandebroek.  Sophie is the CTO of Xerox and the President of Xerox Innovation Group, she also has her PHD in Electrical Engineering from Cornell.  Sophie shares her extensive knowledge with us today, including her fascinating perspectives on Innovation. We dive in to her personal and corporate history, which is a very inspirational and relatable story. We look at the Five Best Practices for Innovation, focusing on who is going to be effected by the results of your company’s Innovation, the end user.  We also go into great detail on how to establish an Innovation culture, providing the resources for the proper research and development, and allowing flexibility and freedom to test and try many different solutions for products and services that will fulfill the needs of the consumer.

Xerox is a great example of a company who, is well known for some of their products.  They are constantly looking at the future of work, and have grown and adapted themselves to encompass so much more.   Included in their business, are their Innovation labs located around the world.  Sophie explains how Innovation has changed in her tenure, the best practices she has acquired for successful Innovation research and forecasting.   The acceleration of Innovation is great.  We have advanced so far in technology, with the internet, mobile devices, big data analytics, the room for Innovation in the Future of Work is endless.

What you will learn in this episode

Innovation Best Practices

How Innovation Has Changed

Trends in Innovation

How Millennials are Impacting Innovation

How to Drive Innovation

The Role of Robots and Automation

The Scale of Innovation

Implementation of Innovation

Links from the episode

Xerox.com

(Music by Ronald Jenkees)

Today I sit down with James D. White, the CEO of Jamba Juice. We speak about what the culture is like at Jamba Juice, what the CEO values most at his company. Jamba Juice has spent a lot of time cultivating their corporate culture, and specifically focusing on heath and wellness. We look at the role of technology and trends that are shaping this shift towards organizations spending more time looking at health and wellness. The goal of this podcast is to look at how creating an effective corporate culture centered on a brand's key values is so important to organizations around the world.

The corporate culture at Jamba Juice is centered on their core values. Health and Well-being runs through Jamba Juices's veins. If you can actively engage individuals inside of a company to build a culture they want to live in, you have a much higher chance of being successful. Personal investment of the individuals of your company, helps move the culture and performance of the company as a whole ahead. Many conventional businesses put on constraints, and its easy to stay inside these standards, even when moving from one company to another. It is really important to look at the company's mission, and create the culture rooted in it's own beliefs. What works for one, may not be what is best for another company. There is a large shift in people who want to work for a company that they feel connected to. Using feedback to source your information first hand, you can capture the spirit of each employee, creating the benefits that not only provide a passion to their work, but a corporate culture that drives a happy and productive workforce.

In this episode you will learn:

• What is Corporate Culture 

• What makes an effective Corporate Culture.

• How employees connect to a company

• The Future of Work employees and what they are looking for in their future employers

• Achieving an engaged workforce

• The importance of community

• The trends shaping the happy and engaged workforce

• How to create a great Corporate Culture

• Technology in Corporate Culture

• The purpose driven company

(Music by Ronald Jenkees)

What this episode is all about and why you should Listen

Today I have an interview with Stephen Hoover, CEO of PARC a division of Xerox. PARC is the home of the Ethernet and many other Innovative tools that most people use every single day in the workplace. Stephen & I talk extensively about Open Innovation in the workplace. Open innovation is a very interesting topic and we get deep into what is going on, what is it, why it is happening, what are the trends that are driving it, what are the benefits of open innovation, the challenges, the impact & what organizations should be doing and what they should be thinking about.

Stephen Hoover explains what PARC’s take on the Business of Breakthroughs is all about. Find out what they are working on for the future of work. Stephen’s perspective is very intriguing and spot on with exactly what a forward thinking company needs to be doing and implementing. Discover what his number one tip is when it comes to having a Grand Vision. Stephen really believes that innovation is a contact sport. Find out how he is assisting PARC and their employees with having a Vision beyond what is in the everyday workplace. We explore the problems that arise with people who have an “I can do it all” attitude, and why in the real world you need the assistance of many other smart people to be successful when it comes to open innovation. Stephen talks about how to go out and find those smart people and create partnerships to accomplish open innovation. This conversation is very interesting both from a personal approach and a business approach.

What you will learn in this episode

• What is Open Innovation?
• Why is it happening?
• What are the trends that are driving Open Innovation?
• What are the Challenges?
• What is the Impact in the workplace?
• What should Organizations be doing with Open Innovation and what they should be thinking about.
• Explore what PARC’s take on their very own philosophy is.
• What are the problems with Open Innovation?
• What you need to be thinking about when it comes to implementing Open Innovation.
• Is personal innovation just as important as business innovation?

(Music by Ronald Jenkees)

What this episode is all about and why you should Listen

Today dive in with me as I sit down with Mary O’Hara, of Blue Cross Blue Shield of California on the topic of high performing teams and individuals in the future of work. Mary has a mass amount of insight when it comes to different techniques and everything that encompasses “touching the people” within an organization. She has great tips on Workplace Rewards and how to collaborate across an organization. Listen as Mary explains if she feels Employee Experience is more prominent now than it has ever been in the past.

All things effect different aspects of having a high performing team and individual in the workplace. Talent is extremely important when finding individuals that are at the heart of specific innovation & strategies which leads to less supply. You need to have an employee experience that is reflective in your specific marketplace. Mary shares with me how different industries have different pressure points, and when you have quality leaders in your organization you will differentiate yourself from other companies. Find out what the Lead of Excellence program at Blue Cross Blue Shield is all about. Mary is very knowledgeable on how important it is to grow strong leaders and stay on top of the employee experience in the workplace.

What you will learn in this episode

• Workplace Rewards
• How to Collaborate across an organization
• How to create Trust amongst leaders
• What is fundamental in creating a great employee experience
• What’s going on in the SF Bay Area compared to the rest of the nation when it comes to labor market & cost.
• Growing People from within
• Developing Leaders
• How to measure goals.
• Why annual feedback is important.
• What is a people management index?
• Lead of Excellence Program
• How to evaluate talent.
• How can you be an enabler to execute what development needs to be done to accomplish the overall strategy.
• Having better quality conversations and interactions with those within an organization.
• What advice for employees to become High Performing Individuals?

(Music by Ronald Jenkees)

What this episode is about and why you should care

Today I sit down with Kristen Robinson, Chief HR at Pandora located in Oakland, CA. Kristen flourishes and has a phenomenal impact in the Human Resources department with a vast amount of insight on how to successfully operate in the HR arena with any corporation. Pandora for those of you who don’t know, is a free personalized internet radio service that consists of over 1750 employees. Kristen and I dive into why the Employee experience is crucial in any workplace and how it can benefit any business. 

The Employee experience is about happiness & helping employees fulfill happiness and accomplishment in their lives. Employees that are the happiest both at work and in their lives are the ones that are going to have a strategic advantage compared to other companies. Learn about what Pandora is doing to unleash the employee experience to make it a better work environment for everyone. Kristen shares with me how Pandora is hyper-focusing on integrating very powerful tools to improving the employee experience. Take some time in your day to be sure to listen to Kristen’s view on the overall employee experience. She truly knows what it’s all about and I’m certain you will enjoy and agree with everything she has to say! 

What you will learn in this episode

• Learn about Kristen Robinson and Pandora

• What Kristen is doing at Pandora to help make the employee experience better.

• Learn about the Employee Experience at Pandora & why it is important.

• Why should Managers and executives care about the Employee Experience? 

• How changing your space can affect the mindset of people in your work environment.

• Giving back and how it can personally enhance one’s life. 

• What is PERG’s at Pandora?

• Why Pandora has shifted to having an annual review process without employees having the fight or flight syndrome through Growth & Development.

• Why they employee experience that is so becoming in the world today. 

• In your short time here what are the short phrases that the Pandora Road Crew uses to explain their experience. 

(Music by Ronald Jenkees)

Centro is a media managment software company with around 700 employees. They were ranked as the best place to work in Chicago for 4 years in a row by Crain's, the #1 best place to work by Fortune among all mid-size Ameican companies, and they have a 4.5 rating on Glassdoor. Clearly Centro is doing something right. At the helm of the company is their CEO Shawn Riegsecker. He has a very simple philosophy around work which is that happiness is the new ROI.

In this episode of the future of work podcast Shawn and I explore some of the things he is doing over at Centro, how he defines happiness, the overall business impact of happiness on Centro employees, the role of corporate culture, and much more! Tune in and listen to this episode of the future of work podcast with the CEO of Centro, Shawn Riegsecker as explore why happiness is the new ROI!

(Music by Ronald Jenkees)

My guest for this week’s episode of the Future of Work podcast is Michael Karnjanaprakorn, CEO and Co-Founder of Skillshare. For those of you looking to adapt and learn new skills, you will find this conversation quite interesting. Skillshare is an on-line platform where you can learn almost anything you need to stay relevant in today’s workplace. Michael and I look at why the future of work is all about teaching yourself and not relying on education institutions or organizations to teach us the skills, information and knowledge that we might need to be successful in life.

Why is it that we should be teaching ourselves? Michael talks about the common problems with learning and acquiring skills today. We look at the skills gap, gamification in the workplace, how demographics are changing, and what the future of learning is going to look like. Michael shares his insights taking a look at why creativity is so crucial for the future of work and what learning is going to look like in the next couple of years. Take a moment and listen to Michael’s thought-provoking insights into the future of learning, which I’m sure you are going to enjoy!

(Music by Ronald Jenkees)

I believe you will find this week’s episode of the Future of Work Podcast to be extremely fascinating, insightful and exciting. My guest is Tim Mulligan, Chief Human Resources Officer of San Diego Zoo Global. Most of my guests have been from large brands in very traditional business areas, such as technology, finance, etc. with employees that are typically from a primary group of knowledge. But, Tim is directly responsible for managing a wide range of employees in very diverse areas such as horticulture, botany, zoology, catering, retail, and animal trainers, to name a few. When you think about the future of work in that context, it is very different from the future of work in a company like IBM, Coca-Cola or any other company you may be familiar with. And, one would not think of a zoo as being one of the most forward-thinking and progressive organizations that is also ranked as one of the best places to work in San Diego.

Tim and I have a very, very interesting conversation concentrating on redefining culture to focus on performance. Tim has been with the company for quite some time and he shares with us what it was like when he first started and what it is like now; and why he had to move the corporate culture at San Diego Zoo Global to be more focused on performance. We get an inside look at the initiatives and innovations he has implemented around performance and accountability; employee engagement; talent management; Millennials, Baby Boomers and everyone in-between; the role of technology; and the evolution of management and leadership practices at the company. Listen in to Tim’s very unique and diverse experience that you will definitely learn much from. Enjoy!

(Music by Ronald Jenkees)

This week’s episode is with Eric Severson on work-life integration. Eric is the former Co-Chief Human Resource Officer at The Gap, and is now an Appointee to the U.S. Department of Commerce National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship as well as the director of the Felton Institute. Eric led most of The Gap’s talent initiatives including their move towards work-life integration and the creation of their results-oriented workplace (ROW).

The debate around work-life balance versus work-life integration is a very hot topic. We explore Eric’s perspective on the “winning side,” which to him is work-life integration. And, I must confess that I completely agree with him. In this podcast Eric shares in-depth insights into his initiatives at The Gap to encourage work-life integration. We also talk about corporate culture, why work-life balance is no longer effective and why the shift to work-life integration is happening. Eric explains ROW whereby an organization is purely focused on what employees produce and not the hours they spend doing it. Eric also give us his insights and perspectives on Millennials and the different generations of employees, and the role technology management plays. And, Eric answers your questions posed to him on Facebook; and gives his advice to employees, managers and executives.

If you are interested in the work-life balance versus work-life integration debate, you won’t want to miss this podcast. Enjoy!

(Music by Ronald Jenkees)