London, 200 Aldersgate, Wednesday 5th October, something special was born as a spin off from the Smart Working Summit – a diverse group of people found common purpose. We concluded that we could all benefit from setting aside our silos and building bridges to new, more meaningful solutions for work, the workforce and the workplace. We happened upon a useful label for this nascent network – the Coalition of the Convinced.
Serendipity played a big part in convening a diverse group of 14 individuals who in our own ways have been looking for ways of redefining todays workplace based on creativity and human engagement. As facilitators for this session Caroline Waters, Euan Semple and myself represent these three areas of critical expertise and we engaged with the group by sharing our insights. The ensuing discussion was made all the more powerful by both the inclusion of the sustainability perspective and by having a Millennial along to give us some insights from a leader of the future. We ignore both at our peril!
The theme for the conference was Diversity and this little discussion group built upon the insights gleaned from the various speakers to consider how best to cope with a world of work that continues to evolve relentlessly and at pace. We could all be forgiven for thinking that the search for the workplace of the future has been going on, without any real success, for many years. So why is this? We believe that the answer lies in the siloed nature of property, people and process. In fact, we believe that the latter should now be re-labelled Productivity?
A key conclusion reached was that whatever else happens in this uncertain world, people will always seek out other people and business will always seek out talent. We just have to create a new potential for those relationships, collaborations and ideas by setting aside our silos and building bridges to new, more meaningful working solutions. As the coalition of the convinced, we need 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. Whilst genuinely taking into account the needs, expectations, and context of the next generation.
So in the spirit of collaboration let me by cite the words of a 20 something who works for an NGO and who found herself having the opportunity of engage with this group on a totally unexpected basis. Her reflections on this session were really interesting, they are as follows; –
- Immense encouragement in finding LIKE-MINDED people who want to spearhead changing the 19th/20th century modeled corporate culture; seek to be curious and unlock this potential.
- A call for one another to engage in life-long LEARNING, continually reflecting on the status quo and calling it up to a fresh standard by taking OWNERSHIP
- An overwhelming hope to genuinely build bridges and dismantle siloes, discovering new ways to CONNECT across sectors, departments, and workplace cultures, thus creating a better way of COMMUNICTION through INCLUSION – getting those at the table who need to be there.
- Creating a new norm where there is no norm, but creating a space for personalization, customization, SUSTAINABILITY and INNOVATION
- The exploration of creating a whole new profession that is inclusive and united that seeks to uphold PURPOSE within organizations – where people, place, productivity, process and technology float around this epicenter of purpose
- A need to REDEFINE ‘place’ in regards to corporate real estate, property, etc. in order to create a space to maximize effectiveness and efficiency of the new working generation
- Being CHANGEMAKERS: what we are trying to do is to create a new future and creating a better way of living based on VALUES and new sets of principles
- There is an immense opportunity for purposeful DISRUPTION
So stay tuned…