Florian Idenburg, co-founder and partner of Brooklyn architecture firm SO-IL and author of the forthcoming book Human(s) Work, believes the office of the future will involve increased flexibility, autonomy, and imagination. 

On the episode, he considers the pandemic as a moment to rethink our relationship with the workplace and our jobs, the need for project-focused workrooms, and how workspace design might be best approached by focusing on experience instead of function.

Bärí A. Williams, author of Diversity in the Workplace: Eye-Opening Interviews to Jumpstart Conversations about Identity, Privilege, and Bias, discusses why an expanded sense of diversity and inclusion is essential to the success of both employees and employers.

On the episode, she shares her nuanced approach to finding social and cultural balance in the workplace; why businesses should encourage vulnerability in conversations among colleagues; the rise of values-based businesses; and her cautious optimism around the future of technology, representation, and workplace health.

Amy Edmondson, the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School and author of the book The Fearless Organization, discusses the steps leaders should be thinking about as companies look to bring their employees back to the office.

On the episode, she touches on workspace safety, her concept of “psychological safety,” and transformative takeaways from her early years working for the forward-thinking 20th-century designer and engineer R. Buckminster Fuller, best known as the inventor of the geodesic dome.

San Francisco–based designer and entrepreneur Yves Béhar discusses the profound life-and-work shifts happening before us. On the podcast, he offers insights on how the COVID-19 pandemic is reshaping companies’ and employees’ views on work and home, why honesty and integrity are becoming more important, how virtual tools are transforming collaboration and creativity, and how surfing can serve as a metaphor for leadership.