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Transforming Work with Sophie Wade

Transforming Work with Sophie Wade

By: Sophie Wade
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 Sophie addresses current business conditions and explores ways to navigate the disruption. She shares informative insights and interviewing leading innovators who are providing or benefiting from transformative solutions that will allow companies to emerge with sustainable models, mindsets, and business practices. Find out how to transition to more effective, productive, and supportive new ways of working—across locations, generations, and platforms—as we harness these challenging circumstances to drive significant, multidimensional changes in all our working lives.© 2021 Transforming Work Economics Management Management & Leadership Politics & Government
Episodes
  • 156: Andrew Mawson - Increasing Productivity: Key Factors, Brain Capacity, and Mental Load

    156: Andrew Mawson - Increasing Productivity: Key Factors, Brain Capacity, and Mental Load
    Nov 7 2025
    Andrew Mawson, Founder and Managing Director of Advanced Workplace Associates, explores how organizations can enhance performance, especially by helping employees better manage their brain capacity. Andrew shares six evidence-based factors most impacting knowledge worker productivity. He discusses the neuroscience-researched factors affecting brain function and performance. Andrew offers actionable leadership guidance to reduce mental load, enhance employee well-being and resilience, and achieve sustainable results. TAKEAWAYS Chapter 1: Andrew's Early Career [01:18] Andrew studies applied statistics finding it useful, later describing reality through numbers. [01:59] Working in tech and defence, Andrew then joins Fujitsu and leads a program on intelligent buildings. [02:47] Intelligent building initiatives aim to increase computing adoption and data integration. [04:54] Advanced Workplace Associates is founded to bring a business- and people-focused lens to workplace strategy. Chapter 2: Six Key Factors of Knowledge Worker Productivity [07:31] Analysis of past research identifies top factors impacting knowledge worker productivity. [09:28] Factor 1: Social cohesion emerges as the top factor boosting collaboration and innovation. [10:43] Factor 2: perceived supervisory support with leaders tailoring their approach for each person. [11:41] Factor 3: Information sharing enables a culture of openness, countering knowledge-hoarding. [11:59] Factor 4: vision clarity helps employees connect their work to the team and corporate purpose. [12:45] Factor 5: external communication makes teams challenge their ideas and be open to others' views. [13:29] Factor 6: Trust underpins all factors, fostering belief that leaders and colleagues do the right thing. [15:10] Leaders must create a level of certainty to reduce employee anxiety despite external turmoil. [16:21] Social cohesion usefully creates a buffer during uncertain times, enhancing resilience. Chapter 3: Research into Brain Performance [17:16] Humans are individual brains – research identifies 14 key factors to optimise performance. [18:42] Sleep (7.5 hours) is key for brain performance, with quality and preparation critical enablers. [19:50] Hydration, exercise, and a good diet—with breakfast—are also essential for cognitive health. [21:39] Leaders must recognize that lifestyle habits affect their team's productivity and wellbeing. [23:00] AWA is running a cohort trial to educate leaders on brain health and track performance. [23:57] After baselining, coaching how to integrate new habits and track performance. Chapter 4: Cognitive Capacity & Managing Load [24:56] Recognising finite brain capacity, environments can be designed to reduce mental loads. [25:55] Everyone can better manage their well-being and outcomes using workspace that increases capacity. [28:10] A story of making tea illustrates how cognitive load varies by individual and context. [29:37] Brains are managing humans' entire systems unconsciously, consuming much energy. [30:20] Personal stressors, such as family and finances, compound work demands and brain strain. [31:24] Leaders need to monitor workload and not exceed employees' brains' capacity limits. [32:34] When excessive load get to a point that it blocks capacity for planning and logic. [33:26] Managers and employees can manage load together to restore cognitive function quickly. [34:13] Organizations are communities of connected brains aiming to optimise knowledge flow. [35:05] All six factors are linked and applied together can improve productivity and wellbeing. Chapter 5: How Leaders can Improve Performance [36:26] Leaders need to better understand how the brain works to enable high-performing teams. [37:07] Most managers lack vital training; the six factors offer a useful playbook for leaders. [38:17] How many managers believe social cohesion is their responsibility? [38:58] Competitive pressures between teams create division and undermine collaboration. [39:54] Leaders must promote and model trust and social cohesion to cultivate environments that enable success. RESOURCES Andrew Mawson on LinkedIn Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA) website QUOTES "The name of the game is to get everybody as socially cohesive as possible to allow fluidity of movement, of knowledge and, and collision of knowledge." "[External communication is] the idea that you should expose your knowledge and your brain to other things…. going to other places and have other people challenge your understanding so that your understandings remain fresh." "Humans have got a finite capacity and how that capacity is loaded and eaten into is also another important part of the jigsaw." "Organizations ...
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    42 mins
  • 155: Sara Escobar & Corinne Murray - Intentional Design for Modern Work/Place Experiences

    155: Sara Escobar & Corinne Murray - Intentional Design for Modern Work/Place Experiences
    Oct 17 2025
    Corinne Murray, Director of Global Workplace Experience Strategy at American Express, and Sara Escobar, Founder of Wielding Workplace, are co-authors of newly-released 'WORK then PLACE'. Corinne and Sara draw on rich backgrounds from Gensler, WeWork, Hulu, and Netflix to share insights on culture, workplace experience, and productivity. They explain the need for intentional work design driven by employee experience—digital, physical, and experiential—and how human-centric, flexible approaches empower performance in the distributed modern work ecosystem. TAKEAWAYS [01:50] Sara starts out in TV production and then moves to Hulu. [03:01] Joining Hulu as a startup, Sara chooses to develop their workplace experiences. [04:10] Corinne's time at CBRE, Amex, and Gensler, inform her strategic research at WeWork. [05:23] Strong cultures at Hulu and Netflix differ but are both developed with intentional design. [06:12] American Express builds its strong culture based on benefits resulting in long-tenure norms. [07:02] Organizations are not prepared for formal hybrid models before 2020. [07:56] Employees pushed experience and flexibility into focus post-COVID. [09:20] Architects' and Real Estate's periodic interventions limit impact on ongoing work design. [10:45] Flexibility jumped to a top employee after their pandemic experiences. [11:36] Empathy influenced leaders to formalize more balanced, hybrid work options. [12:45] Executives reacted emotionally to shifting work models, resisting a major overhaul. [14:30] Mandates fail to justify office returns since workplace experience is not just physical. [15:44] Corinne and Sara connect in 2021 amid return-to-office debates. [17:08] Sara launches a consultancy to inform and facilitate new workplace strategies. [17:54] Sara reaches out to Corinne to co-author a book, sharing practical strategy frameworks. [20:05] Corinne shifts focus from productivity to effectiveness. [22:56] To 'fix' productivity, it must be shared across teams, not owned by workplace. [24:56] Managers must hold accountability and measure output, not observe activity. [26:02] HR, IT, and workplace must partner to enable teams' effective outcomes. [27:21] Physical-first remits clash with flexible work goals. [28:36] Employees now better understand what makes work function well. [30:17] Team agreements are key to performance in modern work environments. [30:48] Trust grows from enablement, not perks or parties. [33:27] Change must be incremental to facilitate adoption and avoid burnout. [37:10] Start with high-impact, low-effort changes for users. [39:40] Strategy must flex for global, regional, and role differences. [41:03] 'Standards' can allow interpretation, like principles, to enable adaptability. [41:50] The "Daisy" model supports incremental workplace changes. [42:59] Corinne highlights knowledge work – its growth, volatility and success factors. [47:01] Sara highlights external research, such as parenting models, that offer workplace insights. [48:30] WORK then PLACE encourages humans to focus on what technology cannot replace. [49:15] Start by auditing what works to incorporate rather than rebuilding from scratch. [51:25] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: To shift workplace experiences and outcomes, find an executive sponsor, then clarify why and how the change should happen, and how to measure progress. RESOURCES Sara Escobar on LinkedIn Corinne Murray on LinkedIn WORK then PLACE QUOTES "The companies that I've worked with where the culture has been truly wonderful and truly driven forward the company's mission are where that culture is intentional." — Sara Escobar "We are workplace people. We do believe in the value of the physical place. But it's not the catchall for everything." — Corinne Murray "The workplace environment is truly physical, digital, and experiential." — Sara Escobar "Productivity is the responsibility of everyone from the individual to the executives to workplace to HR to IT." — Sara Escobar "We need to do this in a way that doesn't feel threatening and doesn't feel like an extra burden." — Corinne Murray "If you think about, you know, old factory lines, you watched the widgets being produced. That is what we've still fallen into in knowledge work. But you can't watch knowledge work get done." — Sara Escobar "We've identified things that are fundamentally harmful to the ability of knowledge work succeeding. And if knowledge work isn't succeeding, that means the humans doing the knowledge work aren't succeeding" — Corinne Murray
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    59 mins
  • 154: Trond Aas - How Gamified Learning Motivates Sustainable Upskilling

    154: Trond Aas - How Gamified Learning Motivates Sustainable Upskilling
    Oct 2 2025
    Trond Aas is CEO and Co-Founder of Attensi, a leader in AI-powered gamified simulation training. Trond shares his background spanning quantum physics, consulting and gaming. He explains how gamification grounded in behavioral science drives engagement which enhances initial and long-term learning especially for younger employees. Trond describes motivation as a critical success factor for sustainable upskilling. He discusses metrics to demonstrate return on investment in skills development and how to improve skills gap issues starting with cultivating a trust-based culture of learning KEY TAKEAWAYS [01:17] Trond starts studying quantum physics to explore fundamental questions about nature. [02:01] After doing research for his military service, Trond goes into industry seeking practical impact. [02:38] Trond joins McKinsey as a business school type experience before pursuing entrepreneurship. [03:10] Interest in games stems from early programming and creativity cultivated during university. [04:08] In gaming, Trond reveals how behavioral science is used to drive engagement and learning. [06:12] Tribal, team-based successes are key to stimulating successful collaboration online. [06:25] Fascination with learning and awareness of superficial gamification drives Attensi's founding. [07:44] Attensi applies science to drive motivation and behavior change with measurable results. [09:40] Correlating simulated behavior with real-world outcomes to track learning impact. [10:23] Measuring soft skills progress when observable behavior is hard to track. [12:10] As technology evolves rapidly, upskilling must be ongoing across high-competence industries. [12:50] Skill development tailored to specific job challenges is more effective than one-size-fits-all. [13:45] Self-motivated learners thrive, while others need help to develop the motivation that anchors learning. [14:47] Many Gen Zers lack key communication skills and may not recognize this development need. [15:49] Most learning programs fail on motivation, which must be addressed first to succeed. [16:22] Creating mastery experiences significantly increases learner motivation and outcomes. [15:15] Game-based learning builds confidence that translates into better real-world performance. [19:43] Companies underinvest in onboarding due to unclear ROI, hindering workforce readiness. [20:08] Trond emphasizes data, ROI, and clear impact as critical for better training investment decisions. [20:34] Attensi's research shows poor onboarding leads to lower confidence and performance. [23:42] Skill masking arises when employees hide learning gaps, often from lack of psychological safety. [24:18] Cultivating trust-based cultures is essential to reduce skill masking and promote learning. [25:48] Focusing on core skills for each role facilitates the shift to becoming a skills-first organization. [26:44] Skill-based organizations can start small and ensure programs drive skill improvements. [28:33] Maintaining skill use needs continuous feedback, clear expectations, and learning structures. [29:13] Organizations must define competencies to stand out and align training with competitive goals. [30:37] Tailoring programs to learner motivation and challenges supports effective skills development. IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Learning motivation and skills usage are cultivated through mastery. Help employees sense their achievement to encourage their enhanced performance and growth. RESOURCES Trond Aas on LinkedIn Attensi's website QUOTES "We can use these principles of games to drive engagement, drive interest, drive motivation—and then we should be able to impact real behaviors and measure that with data." "Most people experience poor onboarding and most people are convinced that it affects their work afterwards." "Skill masking is that people are actually hiding the challenges that they are having." "Are your people motivated? And if not, address that—that's what you need to address to be able to develop your organization." "When you are able to instill a feeling of mastery in people that has a huge effect on their motivation." "A lot of people think that one [training] system or one approach will fit with all the different employees... and I think it needs to be a lot more nuanced than that."
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    34 mins
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