The Future of work starts today...
? y d a e r u Are yo
“I’m here because I wanted to be disrupted I wanted to get out of my box and do new things; concrete things to make change happen” - Participant, October 2016
Keep up with Quora’s latest news and events via their website +44 (1491) 628654 quoraconsulting.com
Preparing for a different tomorrow
Burning2Learn is thrilled to have been invited to Quora’s final Summit of 2016. We’d like to tell you more about what you can expect from the workplace over the next few years...
Contents
Welcome! Our work is all about preparing young people for their future workplace - and their place in society on the whole - by better equipping them with the skills, knowledge, insights and mindsets that are going to be essential in tomorrow’s workplace. Our aim at this Quora Smartworking Summit was to learn from the key messages and expectations of industry leaders, and feed key takeaways back into the classroom. This magazine has been created by our media team to give more young people a heads up on what to expect in the workplace. It’s also a tool for teachers to discuss students’ views and explore what will engage them in organisations today.
Alan Dean Founder and Director Burning2Learn
01322 614000 www.burning2learn.co.uk schools@burning2learn.co.uk
4: Quora Consulting 6: Caroline Waters OBE 7: Caroline Rainbird 8: Lucy Adams 10: Chris Kane 11: Julie Brown 12: Andy Williams 13: Onno Willemse 14: Dismantling Siloes 15: Creating Productive Workplaces Inclusive Culture 16: Future of FM 17: Technology Innovation Surgery Corporate Sustainability 18: Real world Applications 20: Burning2learn
Written and produced by Maria Peters, Alan Dean and the B2L Media Team, October 2016
Preparing for a different tomorrow
Quora Consulting
We live in uncertain and rapidly changing times. With that change comes a huge pressure on business leaders to get it right, and to do so first time.
Quora uses analytics to gain insights to inform and better enable organisations to make more effective business decisions. Quora supports organisations to optimize costs, improve productivity and critically enhance employee engagement. Operating in North America, Sydney and London, the global organisation is the biggest author and publisher of reports on The Changing Nature of Work.
Quora’s Smartworking Summits 2016 Moving far away from siloed events, Smartworking Summits invite delegates from ranging industries and sectors to explore, observe and discuss some of the most critical challenges of tomorrow’s workforce. This October, Quora welcomed 7 executive speakers to discuss the challenge of unlocking the full potential of women at work. Unlike other summits, Quora also offers the chance to take a deeper dive into seven core areas and encourages participants to consider; what are we going to do about this? What are we going to take away, and how can I do this is my own organisation? Attracting and attaining talent continues to challenge organisations, so it’s a competitive essential to address these issues and unlock the full potential of women in the workplace. What would you do to tackle this challenge? Facts of the day: 72% of attendees were c-suite directors from major organisations. Collectively, the registered delegates interact with over 80 million employees on a daily basis!
www.quoraconsulting.com
“In almost every country that is developing at speed, women are in the workplace and are being productive.” - Andy Williams, Save the Children International
Caroline Waters OBE, Vice Chair Equalities and Human Rights Commission
Unlocking the full potential of women at work Some people would argue that there is so much unpredictability that we can’t honestly talk about the future of work – and perhaps we cannot - but we can talk about population. Quora recently carried out some research looking at job vacancies and are able to project that data over the next 10 years. In doing so, they have uncovered a fundamental problem - we are running out of workers!
are only two realistic responses; reconfiguring our environments to enable employees to stay in the workplace far longer, and by encouraging more women into the workplace. Employers will need to look long and hard at tackling women returning to work from families and will need to make the office a far more friendly place to work.
These figures might help to put the breadth of this The Dept for Work and Pensions and the Office for challenge into perspective: National Statistics have shown that the UK will need to fill 13.5 million job vacancies in the next 10 years. • Women make up almost 7 out 10 of However, there will only be 7 million people leaving those graduating from universities schools and universities during that same period. • 45% of the workforce are women • 93% of executive directors are men This 6.5 million job vacancy shortfall will impact every • Only two FTSE100 CEOs are female single employer - how do we fill the gap? There
Volume Creates The Norm Siloes have played out to create imperfect solutions. We are so embedded within our silos that we are not pulling together our collective needs. Caroline Waters OBE, Vice Chair Equalities and Human Rights Commission, is as huge advocate of dismantling silo mentalities and practices. Here’s why she believes they need to go: Failing to address the issue of cross-departmental communication barriers is something that stands in the way of productivity, viability and longevity of many companies around the world today. We aren’t talking about what’s changing, how we all feel about where things are going and what’s happening now.
So many organisations fail because they aren’t having these kinds of conversations early enough. They can each push forward but will never connect in a way which is meaningful all the time they work in silos.
“It’s about time we stopped talking about it and started getting on with it - and we aren’t going to do that if we stay in our individual siloes!”
Too often when we have these conversations about mind shifts and the need for change we are talking to the Referring to her experiences at telecoms giant BT, converted. Caroline believes that leaders need to spend Caroline talked about the huge benefits of inclusive more time talking to those who are capable of impleworkplace cultures. BT developed a flexible working menting change on a day-to-day level. agenda with support from futurologists which kick-started the conversation about the changing Caroline also reinforced the significance of retention. nature of work. The agenda enabled employees to Hundreds of baby-boomers retire every day and if we revisit everything from the function of an office building can’t keep those people working the 6.5 million job vacancy gap will only continue to widen. to the work-life balance. Emerging conversations challenged that to improve productivity, where we work should be more about wellbeing. Employees actually liked working at the local exchange and feedback conveyed that whilst it’s a bit scruffy, it feels ‘homely’. They liked that they’d often bump into people that they knew as it made such a difference from sitting amongst rows of people they didn’t know or speak to. The agenda also indicated that people felt more able to talk about the things that were going on in their home lives when working away from a traditional office environment. You can’t leave life at the door when you come to work, so this was a really important conversation to be having.
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We can fill that gap by reaching out to people who are furthest away from the labour gap; women returning to the workplace, people with caring responsibilities, and people with disabilities - and most of these people cannot work if we do not have more flexibility. This is not a soft measure, we are talking about the practical lifeblood of our economy - and we cannot achieve any of this without re-educating our leaders. Flexibility of thought is essential moving forward. If organisations took away their rigidity, they could open up incredible opportunities for so many people.
Why should we adapt?
Flexibility brings people back! Being a mum and having a career - there is no magic bullet. Caroline Rainbird is a working mum with two young sons and describes herself as being very lucky to work for an organisation that allows her to combine the two. As Managing Director of Corporate Services for RBS, Caroline firmly believes in supporting everybody within the organisation in the way that they need to be able to combine challenging personal and professional concerns/issues. A shift in thinking has enabled RBS to move beyond traditional structures where previously you needed to be seen in the office to be working properly, to being able to offer things in a different way. RBS has now shifted to a position of delivery which moves beyond office bound restrictions and trusts employees to work around their needs and workload. Employees are able to leave at different times and RBS encourages people to work from home when it suits them. Caroline described the positive impacts that this approach can have on finding that work-life balance for employees as individuals, and referred to her own experiences of leaving work early to do the school run and then sitting at home and finishing her work as she watches the bake-off. “40% of employees now work flexibly. We are not perfect, we are on a journey and still need to be better.”
“It’s about doing the right thing. The wellbeing for all our colleagues is paramount and we should make the workplace and practice equally as attractive to all.” Organisations will need to move with the times if they want to stick around. The future is working anytime, anywhere, using devices and continually adapting as a workplace.
A successful approach Flexibility on when and where you work is a huge bonus to women coming back to work. RBS is proactive in trying to attract women and highlighting the flexibility that’s available to them. Caroline talked about RBS’ ‘comeback’ program which specifically targets women coming back into the workplace to build/regain confidence over a 12 week paid internship. Caroline reported that the programme has been very popular and really helpful in bringing women back into the work place. “There’s no doubt for many women it is hard and tough to progress to senior levels; companies need to open out to unlocking the full potentials of women at work. By 2030 (RBS) aim to have a fully gender balanced workforce.”
As an organisation RBS is moving towards different types of infrastructure, technology and mindsets that support a really flexible way of working. This approach is improving productivity and Caroline’s role is to help reflect the organisations shifting mindsets to feed this style of thinking into the organisation’s living culture. This is something which all leaders need to think about and remember to live in their day-to-day actions. 15
Bringing HR into the 21st Century We know if you have a more inclusive diverse environment that the workforce will be more productive, creative and adaptable – and yet we seem to be still making some quite slow progress. What does this tell us? The logical research based argument just isn’t cutting it. Lucy Adams offered up a new way of how employers can begin to unlock the potential of people. It’s called the ‘each model’ and is a philosophy which looks at how we can unlock potential to unlock demographic changes, encourage and enable them to be more productive innovative creative and capable of coping with change. As leaders we are typically very parental in our approach in the workplace. Lucy used an analogy of anti-theft coat hangers in hotel rooms to describe the type of models that organisations run by. “Somebody stole one once so let’s create an employment policy around that behaviour and annoy or stifle the people who have no intention of doing it... It’s a lowest common denominator mindset and it has to go!” We need to create an environment where people can use their judgment more, instead of ‘now wash your hands’ strategies. We are talking about making real, genuine changes to our approach and moving towards using good judgment. If an organisation’s starting point was to say ‘we trust you to do the right thing and see you as grownups who are capable’, instead of a compliant culture, people can spread their wings and take risks. So we must turn to our leaders who are making simplistic decisions with one size fits all frameworks, and encourage them to be much more sophisticated in their approach. We know that when people are trusted they are more likely to be more productive, agile and creative - so why not enable that to happen?
Getting Creative... What kind of working environment would you like to go into? What would it look, feel and sound like?
Why do we continue to stifle talent? Being a leader is about harnessing the talent of the people you are working with. Why, then, are so many leaders today using approaches that stifle talent? One particular organisation that Lucy has come across sets out 144 different behavioural competencies for leaders. 144.
The ‘each model’ does precisely this and views all employees as adults, consumers and human beings. It doesn’t describe employees as ‘our greatest asset’ - assets are tables, chairs, buildings and computer equipment. In our home lives we expect a level of personalisation, yet at work we typically take an asset based approach. Where is The most important attributes of a leader can be the sense in that? summed up in five words; resilience, engagement, connector, curiosity, humility. “Command and The good news is that personalisation and control leaders that show no weakness are a dying customisation is emerging - more and more breed,” Lucy emphasised. It is about being able organisations are celebrating the fact that we to work across siloes, having the ability to make are all so different and try to accommodate that connections and work across siloes, building as best they can. trust amongst your workforce and having the humility to hold your hands up and say ‘I’m sorry, I got that wrong’.
Breaking down siloes & barriers As Head of Corporate Real Estate for BBC, Chris Kane has had a successful career in creating physical space. He is now working to challenge the industry that he came from to build bridges, not just places!
do throughout their careers. Chris emphasised the importance of becoming better connected leaders who are more able to engage across other levels and, where necessary, start doing some un-learning.
Since leaving the BBC, Chris has embarked on a journey to do ‘interesting things with interesting • Very few people understand the ‘people’ side people’. Today, his journey brought him to Quora’s of place making and utilising space effectively. rich conversation about linking ‘people’ and ‘place’ Place making should be achieved by harnessing st aspects together in 21 century workplaces. the spaces we use in a different way. Whether a building has corner offices or not is irrelevant; it’s Historically, nobody has been able to link work, the about delivering creativity. workforce and the workplace together systemically. In Chris’ view, this is something we are going to have • Moving from a hierarchical framework to a more to get better at - and quickly. Chris looked into making networked set-up: everybody in the organisation sense of key concepts (e.g. diversity and culture) in has a voice and everybody is entitled to have a a business’ built environment. Lots of conversations say. Furthermore, cultural and technological are taking place about predicting change and what shifts have enabled conversations to happen in we’ll need to do to adapt and survive in the future. a much more fluid way than ever before. People As Chris pointed out, “these changes aren’t coming in are used to that type of interaction and expect five year’s time - they are here today”. to be able to communicate just as fluidly - and as often - in the workplace. For Chris, ‘efficiency + effectiveness = value’ in the workplace. It’s about Five big things to happen: getting out, engaging and demonstrating what you, we and the organisation on the whole can Chris challenged delegates to re-approach the way do. Organisational frameworks will need to allow they do things in their own organisations to; ensure for this type of communication if they want to the office is no longer a barrier to home life, move engage current and future talent pools. away from segmented structures and join the dots to enable decent human engagement. To achieve true • There is a criminal case of wasted talent in the transformational change, consider the following: workplace; a waste of human endeavour. When managers do not allow something to happen • Global political uncertainty and huge digitalisation ‘because it does not fit the system’, what they have created the perfect storm - and it isn’t going are actually doing is stifling talent, energy, growth away. Many people and organisations that are and motivation. Further still, Chris also shared asking ‘when are we going to go back to normal?’ his view that there is a waste in how we build need to wake up and start adjusting their mindsets things. Many working environments are created in and actions. the same way because ‘this is how we’ve always done it’. So what? How does that make it relevant • New ideas and practices coming in greatly for today? contrast what many leaders have been trained to
How open is
Your Business? For our next speaker, Julie Brown, the solution to ‘unleashing talents of women in the workplace’ begin much sooner than most people talk about. “For me, it starts by giving children and young girls access to education; because that’s when you give them opportunities,” says the Cafcass Financial Director. Julie used her own experiences as a young girl to demonstrate how quality education and opportunities to build experience can enable young people to create their own platform for their future: “When I was a young girl, it did not occur to me that I couldn’t get into the industry I wanted, or that I might be paid differently or be excluded from working with different clients.” As a 16 year old, Julie built up a huge amount of experience and used any opportunity she could to get people used to working with her - she even worked through every half-term, including Christmas holidays. “When I went off to do my training I had a job offer - without interview - because I was a known quantity to that organisation.” Furthermore, for some employers it can feel more risky to give challenging projects or roles to a female member of staff - even when you
It’ll all be alright on the night... Or will it? do they do well? How do they make you feel?
are known to them. Julie therefore advises that young people and employees begin to catalogue their skills from the get go, rather than reflecting on them later. Cafcass is the largest employer of social workers in the UK and 81% of its employees are women. The challenge for unleashing talent at Cafcass is ‘not just about numbers’, Julie expressed, ‘the big challenge is to retain all of those workers, as well as trying to introduce more men into the industry’. One response that has proved effective at Cafcass is mobile and flexible working. In their line of work, there is no nine-to-five workplace pattern. By harnessing technology and openly trusting the workforce, Cafcass has become a flexible estate with improved productivity and engagement. Every member of staff now works with laptops and smart phones and there are no fixed desk connections. “When we give them (employees) control they find what they are doing more valuable - so it has been a huge strategy for us to work to a mobile and flexible framework”. Reinforcing trust as leaders in employees strengthens the workplace culture, is incredibly empowering and improves retention.
- is We’ve all got different roles in the workplace your organisation open to that? Do you give people it’s as many opportunities as possible to see what like to work and grow in your organisation? Are you trusting enough of their skills and talents?
Let’s not get left behind!
“We need to be careful not to assume we have as long to tackle this issue as we have in the past.” - Andy Williams, Global CIO, Save the Children International. Andy revealed that whilst the gender balance of the charity’s executive team is now about 50/50 - it isn’t always that clean cut. He referred to a diverse leadership program that he ran in the UK where out of 75 CVs, only one candidate was female. He then described the very different models of working and living happening around the world. In African communities women can naturally reach a position of authority. Unsurprisingly, they aren’t having board meetings or corporate gatherings to make this possible - it’s simply embedded within their culture. Everybody in the family unit has a role to play with some form of work, even children. “In almost every country that is developing at speed, women are in the workplace and are being productive.” For Andy, responding to this issue is not something which UK organisations can ignore. It’s just not a choice any more, quite simply, we are being left behind. There are some real challenges in creating equality within the workplace, but for Andy it all stems around creating a multi-cultural appreciation within the workplace. In his view, leaders can start by finding out what the social case and strengths of each individuals are. “All the research says that if you work with people on their strengths they tend to amplify it.”
Are siloes as big a deal as they were? As business evolves and the cultural transitions of the 21st century set in, Andy believes that many typical workplace functions will begin to dissolve, as well as traditional siloes.
Save the Children created a framework for 4500 volunteers to respond to the most recent Ebola Crisis. Within 6-8 months that effort had stopped and contained the Crisis. Could we do that? Could we respond quickly enough in our organisations and environments, pull talent and infrastructure together and fix difficult situations? If they can - we all can.
If, as leaders, we concentrate more on ‘leadership moments’ and start thinking about every single employee as a ‘unique leadership experience’ we will naturally dilute any existing siloes. Andy compared these leadership moments to playing a round of golf and stated, “Wouldn’t it be bizarre if somebody played golf using the same club for every shot? That to me is much like coaching, line management and chairing meetings; every single one of them is different, but we still manage our people in the same way we did it last time because we’ve only learnt to play in one way.” Continuing with the golfing analogy, Andy explained that ‘two speed leadership’ can be very, very unproductive. “The trick is if you want to unleash the full potential of any workforce we’ve got to get better at knowing which shot we are playing, which club we should use and then the role of the caddy”. In business, you rarely have anyone beside you to stop just before you play a shot to ask an opinion. “Wouldn’t it be great if we had a caddy? This idea of unleashing potential doest have to be on our own.”
Is your workplace Adaptable enough? “As a kid I didn’t fit into a box. If I was told ‘you have to stay in the garden’, I found a way to escape. I took different routes to school and always parked my bike in different spots. What I had to learn was how to blend into siloes. How to behave and stay in a box.” - Onno Willemse, Senior Director of Global Business, Philips
Onno attended Quora for the first time in October to share his thoughts and experiences on connecting siloes. “I am thrilled that today is all about creativity, cross-fertilisation and bringing people out of the comfort zones.”
we’ll also need to be thinking about how buildings link into our home lives, as this will be ever more important for the future. It’s all very well setting out what we are going to need to do, but none of us will be able to implement any of this with real, physical actions if we do not first open our mindsets. In the past, we have built many offices but never Today, things are still very segmented and shifting asked what they are for, how we want to work in mindsets, dismantling siloes and offering more them or whether they suit our needs. We should opportunities for collaboration/open honest have been and should now be asking employees conversations is the only way to bring the necessary ‘what is your best working spot for the day based on action. your agenda?’ Not only can we reduce wasted time, but we can make more connections happen. Smart Though Onno has seen some levels of emergence of phones have everything connected in one place; cross-fertilisation and collaboration in the business location, time, travel routes and meeting notes - it’s sector, he shared that from an executive or influencing all there in our pockets. So why is it still so difficult perspective we should start talking about these to get these connections to happen in real life? concepts a lot sooner, so that it is applied sooner to “Because we all still work in siloes,” Onno states. help you become more productive in the workplace. Technology comes so fast and yet we are still building shoe boxes to work in. We need to be thinking about the adaptability of a space and how it is going to help the people within it to adapt. Pretty soon there will be four generations working at the same time (baby boomers, gen y, gen x and millennials). So buildings will need to be adaptable. Onno conveyed that
It is an absolutely common sense view on how we can integrate and do things more effectively. How we can make buildings work for us, make work actually work and enable everybody in the room to collectively perform to their best.
Hottest topics to hit the boardroom right direction? Is your organisation thinking in the g solutions for Have you ever thought about findin these common problems?
ssed discu e r e ics w out Six top -table break t und ummi as ro the S t a ons sessi
Building Bridges - Dismantling Siloes As somebody who represented a minority demographic at this event, being both a millennial and a woman, I quickly realised that what I was observing needed to be voiced. So here we go:
As the millennial generation we choose jobs on the following criteria, and if we can’t find a job that checks all these boxes, then it’s simple – we create one.
I found it profoundly unsettling that discussions were taking place only around the context of metrics, technicalities, and quantifiable data – especially when discussing ‘future talent.’ These nineteenth century expectations and parameters rooted in an industrial revolution based corporate culture has set the future of the workplace up for failure. No longer should society allow a ‘mass-production’ way of doing things through institutionalization. We are living in the twenty-first century and less than 100 years away from the twenty-second century. It’s time to get a move on and realize that the ‘normal’ way of doing things no longer exists.
• Remote desktop working or ‘hot desking’ • Flexible hours • Freedom to work wherever/whenever we like • Collaboration and creativity; we need constant stimulation (we are products of the technological age; being distracted or bored in under 30 seconds!) • Trust and inclusion • Positive working environments • We will likely only stay in a job two years - simply because we want to switch it up and try something new – the world is accessible and at our fingertips!
How do we get a move on? Through increasing our exposure to human engagement, connection, collaborating and communication – whether virtual or face-to-face. The more we engage creatively with one another, we begin to inspire each other towards innovative ways forward. We operate now from nanosecond to nanosecond, our attention spans are shorter, our ideas are crazier, and our accessibility to information is greater than ever before. How do we harness all of this, transform it, and bring it all back cohesively into the workplace? We don’t. We have instead redefined and shattered the idea of ‘workplace,’ which is now officially outdated and irrelevant to the new generation.
An outcome of this roundtable is a working group called the coalition of the convinced. As the coalition of the convinced, we are seeking to convince the unconvinced by becoming epic convincers on a large scale, by spreading this new way forward across our networks. We are actively taking the initiative to create change, to create a new way forward for people, processes, productivity, and technology built upon purpose. Let’s take into consideration the needs, expectations, and context of the next generation and truly build bridges and dismantle siloes between generations by engaging with future talent. - Ashley Muller, IofC UK
#QuoraSummit
Creating Productive Workplaces “There has never been greater pressure to deliver a diverse productive workplace”, states session leader and Quora front man John Blackwell. Overwhelmingly, with 70+% of those graduating from universities being women, this talent pool represents a huge challenge to those charged with creating appropriate workplaces. What challenges does the physical workplace need to respond to? This session uncovered that among those areas to consider are; design considerations, gender inclusiveness, noise, light, air temperature and quality, unconscious bias and egalitarian vs hierarchical. One response to issues concerning workplace conditions could be re-visiting how we configure our working environments. For example, Quora is currently carrying out some work looking into how noise, light, air temperature and quiet space factor into productivity. Each of us in the room has a different temperature and that affects our outputs, as does a shift in any of the other factors. Therefore, we need to be more mindful about how the buildings can respond to these challenges and help create a healthier, more comfortable and productive working environment. With all organisations seeking to retain talent as well as attract it, clearly responding to the needs of our employees is vital; especially given that over coming decade we’re going to face a 6-7 million labour force shortfall.
The Future of FM “We hear a lot about FM’s voice not being heard however if we did not have FM there would be chaos - look at the cleaners’ roles within hospitals to fight infection control,” states Laura Zitver, convener of the Future of FM roundtable session. Facilities management has a pivotal role to play in supporting the organisation’s core business. The “facilities experience“ that stakeholders, both internal and external, receive can affect an organisations’ value proposition. What, then, can be done to ensure that FM maximises opportunities at both a strategic and tactical level to become value-creators? This debate was up for discussion across this session and included; practical definitions of FM and its role, the customer journey, creating valuable competitive differentiation, technology and data, the impact on FM, addressing the convergence of big data and ubiquitous IT, rise of robots and digitisation and so-called cognitive computing. “FM requires strategic leadership, space management and operational management - as well as strategic based knowledge”. The group believes there are issues at the top (around the Boardroom table) with new ways of working. These issues must be resolved, and quickly, as the future of FM is moving quickly...
... Moving towards HR Company culture is very important when dealing with people on mass - we should be aiming for a pro-active service level which creates a positive impact, not just on the business but on the people. FM will always need human contact and a sense of belonging in the workplace. These are the types of workplace brand and internal brand that will attract the next generation of workers. In the future FM will employ through soft skills and the technology side will be completed by robots. Diversification will be key as clients continually challenge organisation for a menu of innovation.
Corporate Sustainability beyond compliance In the world today, sustainability is high on employees’ agenda, but when it comes to a workplace sustainability programme, they tend to lack support. Why is this, and how can we turn this issue into a competitive advantage and attract/retain more great people? Start-ups have the luxury of embedding sustainable practices from their first principles, enabling them to align their operations with their core values. For more mature organisations, embedding sustainability is usually more retrofit than built-to-suit. This inevitably means changing (and improving) existing practices to create more sustainable processes and outcomes. In any change management programme, bringing people with you is essential for success and this is certainly the case with sustainability. When it comes to compliance and meeting minimum expectation, building the business around risk is often the most successful driver in getting buy-in from senior executives. Session leader, Steve Malkin, CEO of Planet First and Founder of the Planet Mark™, explored the power of purpose and looked into; how to identify and align personal and company values, the barriers for putting this into practice and how to bring our mutual ambitions into the centre of a sustainability programme. Steve encouraged delegates to consider strategic and practical actions for sustainability programmes in their own businesses. Here are some of their findings: To tackle the challenge of aligning employee values and interests with the organisation’s, the group considered applying the UN SDGs to organisational frameworks. 17 Global Goals have been created to achieve 3 extraordinary things; end extreme poverty, fight injustice and inequality and halt climate change. There are specific goals that intrinsically appeal to us all as individuals, so the group proposed harnessing the framework and setting up programmes/opportunities for employees to embed their chosen goals into their working agenda. This holistic three-tier
a more “The afternoon sessions allowed for fantastic intimate discussion, and were a from so opportunity to mix with individuals get to many walks of life. How often do you ors, and mix with CEO’s, Consultants, Direct ustries?” Managers from so many different ind
approach could be applied universally and go on to have exponential impacts; for individuals, organisations and the planet on the whole. The group also considered ways for businesses to transform existing buildings into much more environmentally friendly, viable and sustainable places. Retrofitting incorporate new technologies and features into older systems; allowing organisations to improve efficiency, harness exciting modern technologies and reduce transformation costs. Sustainability beyond compliance is a challenge for many organisations, but there are some very simple, easy and extremely effective solutions out there right now. One delegate used telecoms giant BT as an example, stating that by simply changing their packaging so that it fits through a letterbox has reduced their carbon footprint immeasurably, as delivery vehicles only need to do one trip! The solutions are out there - and they don’t all have to be vast and intimidating.
Technology Innovation Surgery Quora’s Technology Innovation Surgery was geared towards understanding how technology can be used more efficiently within a business, and how that can intern help you become a stronger more effective leader. Having explored how employees can access the information they need, while ensuring employers have control and governance over sensitive organisational data, we concluded that organisations need to embrace tools that enable knowledge workers in this new world. Tools that provide secure, controlled and fast content across the workforce can only be effective if employers are more open to trusting them. The session also looked into how technology can support the demands of flexible working and in what ways it can help identify new business borders, whilst securely controlling valuable assets. “Although I work with a number of corporate clients, the conference gave me a much greater insight into the corporate world and reshaped my views on it. An invaluable and interesting summit that has made me seriously reassess the direction I want to take the business in the future.”
Improving quality of life by creating an inclusive culture With a focus on how transparent organisations are with data relating to gender pay gaps and employee gender splits, the pressure is on to ensure that they are doing the right thing. This session will move away from the tactical requirement of organisations to be transparent and will focus on the benefits this can, and indeed does bring. By focusing on creating an inclusive culture, more organisations can deliver an environment that improves the quality of life of its employees; and subsequently improves organisational performance. Ask yourself the following: • What does an inclusive workplace look and feel like? • What are the changing needs of individuals who use your workplace? • What are the challenges you currently face in creating a gender inclusive workplace? • How could transparency create opportunities for your organisation to drive productivity and growth on a human level? • What role does gender inclusivity play in the engagement of employees?
a r o u Q m o r f s y a w Takea od. ing the common greater go ev hi ac in ay pl to le ro a -day We all have s and mindsets in our day-to lue va re co e es th e liv to us e As more leaders encourag school do to help make the or ity un m m co , on ati nis ga actions, what will your or Goals into account as well... al ob Gl UN e th ing tak r ide ns transformation happen? Co Dismantling siloes and inter-departmental barriers: - Come into the workplace with open minds in a broader network - Connect Silos; push yourself to communicate more and r) - Enable cross-disciplinary relationship building (as a leade work practice - Integrate each silos’ competencies; make this a common isation, district and county to work in The challenge: To integrate stakeholders within every organ unity as one? Global Goal #17
Create an environment that can find the four generations balance: - Seek more opportunities to understand more about the way people behave and act - Unlock underutilised talent - Enable intergenerational skills and knowledge transfer - Embed adaptability into all workplace culture - Showcase individual talents to make others aware of their abilities; to be learnt from
Unleash women’s talent in the workplace: - Provide opportunities to become independent leaders who can drive coherence and transparency - Involve them in solving complex problems - Stimulate confidence and emergence - Be more resilient and trust your instincts they The challenge: If more women come on-board lop will help conceive simple solutions for all to deve and implement.
The challenge: To create a diverse, adaptable workplace environment. Global Goals No.s 5,8,9.
‘I have recently become involved with burning2learn and its efforts to translate messages from the corporate sector to education sector. Within the education sector, we would like to participate in raising awareness of the UN’s Global Goals, providing an oppor tunity for young people ands students to engage with global issues, connect with like minded people, be inspired to see change, and equip them to act.’ - Ashley Muller
To support the return of women back into the workplace: - Be flexible in a range of ways - Advertise how flexible you are to attract more women - Set up feeder programmes/internships to help bridge the transition
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able Business is a vital par tner in achieving the Sustain through Development Goals. Companies can contribute impact, set their core activities everywhere to assess their about ambitious goals and communicate transparently eneral) the results. (Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-G
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Creating an inclusive culture: culture - Leaders must live and breath the nication - Provide space and time for commu all - Make leadership ‘moments’ with (Global Goals 3,8, 9 & 10)
In order to go beyond viability alone and truly thrive, we must: - Think holistically - Become human-centred at the core - Let these two elements come alive in our actions The challenge: This cannot just be another ‘add-on’, it has to be a core guiding principle for all actors in society.
The challenge: ion to creating
For leaders to pay more attent
ployees to enleadership experiences with all em completely sure they feel valued, purposeful and integrated within the team.
Move from towards traditional views and practices to a 21st century mindset. - Avoid the traps of history - Enable non-linear innovation - Unleash intrinsic motivations of individuals - Move with the times and listen to employee needs/expectations/ aspirations The challenge: Finding the people, spaces and cultures that would optimize the unleashing of intrinsic motivation? Global Goals No.s 3, 17
The challenge: Many women that would like to be in employment lack the confidence - in themselves and the organisation - to return to work. Show them that you are flexible enough to support their reintegration. Global Goals No 5, 8, 9, 10
Contact schools@burning2learn.co.uk or visit www.burning2learn.co.uk
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Burning2Learn Empowering young people through a platform which builds self-esteem, motivation and confidence.
Burning2Learn continually expands and strengthen its network to ensure that we can offer both students and future employers a look through each other’s lens. For the youngster, we are better equipping them for life in the world of work; and for the professionals we are showing them the routes they’ll need to follow to attract and attain the 21st century talent pool.