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- Herausgeber: Biteback Publishing
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Many people today feel drained and unfulfilled by their work. Workplace cultures are cracking and some have suffered catastrophic failures. Despite huge advances in technology, companies are struggling to find a way to improve engagement, sustain productivity and deliver business results. Feelings of loneliness, fear and exhaustion are flooding organisations, leaving individuals searching for something more meaningful – somewhere they can feel valued and able to flourish as humans. Drawing on her experience as a work psychologist and leader, Sarah McLellan outlines a vision for a human-led future of work, where businesses and people can thrive. Make It Human includes practical models, new insights and real-life stories, illustrating how we can nurture workplace cultures to invigorate human growth – both for us and for generations to come. Work doesn't have to be a nine-to-five, meaningless, lonely grind. Together, we can make it human.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024
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“Make It Human argues a powerful case for why and how our model of work needs to change. It provides a vision and practical advice for nurturing teams and organisations in which everyone can thrive.”
David Leigh, CEO of AMS
“For years, leaders have focused on ways to sustain business results, but they’ve rarely started with what we, as humans, need to thrive. Make It Human will have you rethinking this equation and leave you feeling ready to make a lasting difference, for people and business!”
Jen McCollum, CEO of Catalyst and author of In Her Own Voice
“The world of work is ripe for revolution. Make It Human provides the path forwards, illustrating how we have been overlooking our greatest gift and opportunity – to make it human.”
Kate Bravery, author of Work Different: 10 Truths for Winning in the People Age and Mercer’s global advisory solutions and insights leader
“Make It Human is required reading for all CEOs and chief HR officers who want to shape a future of work where people provide a human competitive advantage.”
Nick Lynn PhD, author of Employee Experience (EX) Leadership: Build trust through employee experience and engagement
ii “Make It Human is an essential read for HR leaders navigating the challenges of (re-)humanising the employee experience amidst technological advancements and productivity pressures. At last, we have a playbook for the future of work!”
Adrian Seligman, member of the executive board, Top Employers Institute
“Sarah McLellan challenges the organisations of today that are still operating with little focus on the humans that run them. We have reached a tipping point, as company cultures are cracking under the weight of disruption, and we need to find new ways to lead business by focusing on what we are good at: being human. Sarah explores practical models, new insights and tells personal stories to bring to life her guidance which will enable all of us to contribute to building happier and healthier human workplaces.”
Liz Rider, organisational psychologist, leadership expert and LinkedIn Top Voice
iiiiv
vTo Stephen, Georgia and Oscar who make it human for me every dayvi
Contents
Preface: Journey to a Climate of Human Growth
Getting to happy, healthy, human workplaces is a destination many of us struggle to imagine, let alone understand how to reach. Our daily experiences of work can leave us feeling isolated, lost, burned-out and lacking in energy or clarity to create something more fulfilling…
The conditions we’re creating are holding us backWe don’t know which direction to takeWe’re confused about what progress looks likeWe’re failing to develop the skills, systems and tools to help us advanceAnd we’re stuck in an old model where leaders rule through ego, managers are crushed in the middle and people are an afterthoughtWe urgently and purposefully need to consider what we as humans need from our work so we can take steps to nurture more human workplaces. This is a destination eminently reachable in our lifetimes and on our planet, if we claim what is uniquely ours and choose to make it human. x
To help in this journey, here are some useful resources for you to access and use alongside this book:
MAKE IT HUMAN MODELS
Four new models are referenced throughout the book to help demonstrate the challenges we face and the opportunities we have to cultivate better experiences of work. There are some black and white illustrations linked to these models in this book. You can view the full, colour sketches of the models and complete a quick, free ‘culture cracks’ diagnostic (and receive personalised feedback on your culture) here:
The make it human model sketches have been illustrated by Kacy Maxwell of Sketchwell: https://www.sketchwell.co/
xiMAKE IT HUMAN IN YOUR TEAM AND WORKPLACE: JOIN THE MAKE IT HUMAN CLUB
Join a growing community of leaders, managers and individuals passionate about building better, brighter workplaces and receive FREE insights, stories, tools and exclusive offers to help make it human where you are.
Subscribe to receive free insights straight to your inbox, every two weeks (you can unsubscribe at any time):
For further information and consulting support, head to: https://make-it-human.com/
Together, let’s make it human!xii
PART 1
2HORRIBLE WORKPLACES
Chapter 1
Unhappy Humans
My daughter is seven years old. She will likely enter the workplace in ten to fifteen years. Picture this…
The year is 2038. People rarely leave their houses to go into a workplace. ‘Destinations’ have shot up everywhere, turning old offices into on-demand spaces to meet, collaborate and socialise. The destinations look great! More digital tools and zones than you could ever wish for – virtual reality (VR) environments to meet with colleagues ‘face to face’; live information streams across sectors and countries providing second-by-second accounts of events and company progress; and integrated work and ‘work-out’ stations enabling individuals to experience any environment they choose whilst joining virtual meetings and achieving their daily step target.
At home, most houses have similar technology. Individuals come into their work destination maybe once or twice a quarter to synch devices, download the latest software and upgrade systems and to have face time with leaders on the company’s goals. The metaverse is fully operational, to 4the extent that individuals have very little need to physically meet with people outside their immediate families. Social meetups can be achieved virtually, meals out ordered in and experienced with VR restaurant backdrops, games of tennis, football and even swimming completed without leaving the living room.
People have moved out from cities to buy land where they can build extensive homes with space for advanced technology for all elements of life. Work and life are fully intertwined – the concept of a five-day working week has long gone. Teams and companies are more diverse and connected than we ever imagined, but jobs come and go rapidly. Growth cycles are much faster and companies appear and disappear constantly. Without the cost of expensive real estate to house workers every day, companies have generally shrunk in size, relying on flexible workforces to plug gaps when opportunities arise.
And so, individuals are increasingly working for themselves – touting their skills and experiences to multiple employers at once, as they balance contracts. In fact, many larger organisations have adopted talent-sharing programmes – rotating individuals between companies based on skill and organisational need. People are well versed in updating their own websites and skills profiles, asking for recommendations, advertising their capabilities and availability to enable a constant flow of work. On-demand learning and qualifications are freely available. People 5 commonly blend paid-for work with self-driven studying to enable them to keep their profile sharp and relevant.
Autonomy has certainly increased, as people have more control over what they do, when and where. But the risks are intense. With layoffs a regular occurrence, families have gotten used to life without the security of a regular wage, and it is the norm for both partners to work for longer periods of time.
Flexibility is an option, but only for those who can afford to take it. For many, being available and willing to work whenever employers say jump is an everyday reality. Many are working longer hours and longer weeks. Virtual childcare services and surveillance apps to monitor children whilst parents and carers work in other parts of the home have taken off. Screentime is through the roof. There’s barely a moment when we aren’t connected, via technology, to another person or type of reality.
Fuelled by artificial intelligence (AI) advancements, the industries growing quickly are technology, healthcare (focusing on an ageing population, the rise of new viruses and prevalence of well-being challenges) and logistics and distribution (getting supplies to anyone, anywhere, at any time).
The fast manufacture of products required in smart technology are in high demand, as well as the distribution of convenience goods and fresh produce. Local providers of homegrown produce are popular and apprenticeships in 6 running smallholdings, agriculture and sustainable food production have increased. Larger farms have sold off land to renewable energy providers, as the costs of farming at scale became untenable. Individual homes and families are rewarded financially by governments for living in sustainable ways (recycling, buying from sustainable sources, minimising carbon footprints, growing their own produce, producing their own renewable energy) and this has sparked a resurgence in older traditions and skills – e.g. crafts, cookery, horticulture. The contrast between individually driven actions and scaled automation is an interesting feature. At the other side of the spectrum, drones delivering packages to front doors is a common sight and most warehouses, production and distribution sites are entirely robot operated with minimal human supervision. Creative- and communication-focused jobs have increased, as comfort with using AI in knowledge-based work has grown, and the value humans bring has clearly shifted towards our ‘human’ skills.
Communication coaches are an emerging feature in organisations, as emphasis moves towards how we deliver messages rather than what they include (AI can help with that). Creativity permeates all industries and has been accelerated and democratised through AI – in design, art, writing, music, media creation and production. Today, with easily accessed help via AI tools, anyone could design an animation, create an artistic masterpiece, write a book or become a social media influencer – but the bar for success 7and impact is higher. Using AI to get more creative, produce work faster, diversify and build markets is the opportunity. Hospitality is big – but in new channels and destinations – and providers of education and skill development have grown significantly. As individuals become their own companies, lifelong learning in the flow of work is an everyday necessity.
As for my daughter, she’s twenty-two. She completed several work placements as part of her studies in child development and has secured some freelance work providing teaching and tutoring for a global class of nine- and ten-year-olds. She delivers lessons and one-to-one tutoring for children whose parents have chosen, and pay for, additional educational support to accelerate their learning. It’s very popular, and she can be online running classes and sessions at all hours. The flex means she can complete her own virtual learning and join remote exercise classes, catch up with friends in virtual spaces and earn a living.
She rarely meets anyone in person. Her work, socialising and fitness are all done through virtual channels. She has a cohort of new virtual academy teachers she shares experiences with online – they’re dotted across the globe.
Her experience of starting work is night and day with mine. I went to a workplace most days. Met with people in real-life. Could ask questions about little things – what to wear, what not to say, how to complete processes. I bonded with colleagues through mistakes, funny moments and overcoming challenges. We experienced emotions together 8– and, importantly, I could see the impact I had on others, and equally felt the impact people and situations had on me. We developed emotional intelligence, sensing when to adapt or use a different approach. I even made friends, many of whom I still have today, whom I can approach for advice and enjoy spending time with. I learned through observing others, getting feedback following meetings and presentations, joining group training sessions, overhearing conversations and interactions in an office environment.
In this vision of our working world, it would be difficult to capture these elements. There is, for some, more autonomy and flexibility. It might be easier to autonomously develop new skills and gain experiences across multiple companies. And perhaps technology has at last accelerated productivity through bringing together people and job opportunities without locations and time zones presenting barriers and through making tasks simpler and faster.
In this future world of work, feedback is mainly AI generated. Automated hints and tips shared through applications, advising on time spent talking, words overused, lack of questions etc. There are no chance encounters – bumping into someone new or in another team – interactions are carefully orchestrated or even avoided through virtual worlds and planned use of time. My daughter’s reality is almost entirely virtual. Her milestones and accomplishments gamified through badges appearing on her virtual profile. She rarely sees, in real life, the impact she has on 9 others. Emotions are muted; she has become almost desensitised, able to simply switch off the game-like version of work (and life) she plays.
In this vision, my daughter dips in and out of multiple virtual worlds with ease, juggling work and life (mainly from home), but is this the future we are looking for?
This might be an extreme view of what the future could hold, but it isn’t too much of a stretch to imagine a world like this. Today, AI is advancing at such pace that many leaders are beginning to issue caution around the risks this poses to humankind and to take a step back. Children and teenagers mainly know a digital world. As they get older, so many of their experiences and connections are delivered via technology. Companies and employers are engaged in great debate over what the workplace should be for, how often people need to come in and the benefits of remote and in-person working.
A vision within reach, but is this a reality we want?
To answer that, let’s first go back and consider where we are today and how we got here.
In today’s world of work, we’re far from succeeding. People are lonely, productivity continues to plateau, we face huge challenges through inequality and how we sustain resources and our planet remains a vital challenge.
We can travel to the moon, we use technology to mimic human interaction, we have developed new vaccines and made significant progress in treating diseases, we have 10 designed robots, created virtual realities, made the car go faster for longer and yet… as a global population, we are more unhappy than we have ever been.
Since the Industrial Revolution, we have become preoccupied with measuring things. How many hours? How many people? How fast? How much money? How can we go faster, make more money, do more with less? Yet, in our questions, we rarely consider the experience we create – how does this make people feel? Are our teams happy? Do they feel supported and able to be truly innovative? How are we contributing to society and the world around us? What more could we do to make a difference?
Today, we can spend over fifty years of our lives working. That’s longer than most other roles and commitments in our lives. Generations to come could find themselves working for longer, say fifty-five to sixty years, as life expectancy increases and we must find ways to fund a longer life supporting younger and older dependants.
When the Industrial Revolution shaped the structure of work that we broadly recognise today, people were expected to live to about forty. Forty-five if they were lucky.
The mission was very different. Inextricably time-bound, individuals typically spent around twenty-five years employed and they were quite likely to literally die working. Work was predominantly manual, so measuring outputs to optimise inputs – hours worked, number of workers, equipment used – was logical. Families relied on one wage, typically the man’s – because of the physical nature of the 11 role and societal attitudes towards gender – and women took on risks and responsibilities associated with raising children.
Now, work takes multiple forms for everyone in different places. Increasingly, both partners go out to work. People have transferable skills, side hustles, portfolio careers with squiggly paths and several chapters. We can reinvent, reskill and flex to what’s happening around us – our skills and interests, our families, the market, the world.
What we are trying to achieve, the time we have available and the tools we have access to are fundamentally different to what shaped us. Many have said we are now entering the ‘human’ age of work. The goal is longevity, sustainability, maintaining relevance, making a difference, leaving a legacy for generations to come and doing this through feeling part of something, learning and growing, making friends, maintaining health and well-being and experiencing happiness. Elements of this will probably feel familiar. Many people and companies have included these words in their missions and values; they talk about a peoplefocused culture on their website and employees share a lofty elevator pitch when describing their company. As work has become increasingly knowledge focused, companies have certainly made progress towards this goal. Leaders have recognised the need to focus on people and business and, in many cases, the intent has been good.
However, the road towards this destination is difficult to navigate and full of bumps and obstacles. The bold company 12 statements and words used to describe culture frequently jar in our heads and feel peculiar when we say them out loud. This isn’t what we genuinely feel at work. We might have attempted to get here before, but it’s a destination few have reached.
To move forwards, we must first understand what is behind our collective state of unhappiness.
WE’RE LONELY
Interactions were already becoming increasingly sparse before the pandemic, and then Covid made us anxious about meeting people. Whilst most individuals are now rebounding from this traumatic period, many carry the scars through loss and harrowing experiences. We got used to a more isolated existence and this continues to shape our priorities and behaviour today. Every day, workers weigh up the benefits of going into a shared workspace and seeing real people versus staying home, skipping the commute, connecting virtually with those we need to when we need to and getting stuff (work and life) done. For many, the option to stay at home, save money and time, wins. This comes with a price. It has been well documented that ‘having a best friend’ at work is a top driver of retention. Friendship is rarely formed through task-based, virtual interactions. It’s the shared challenges, laughs, triumphs, and it’s not always those we work with directly – people we bump into, or maybe join company training courses or induction programmes with. These are the trusted confidants, the people 13 we can meet for a coffee and vent with, and feel sure that however ridiculous your claims, they will go no further. Friends help guide you, share information and news with you; they can make work feel more than tasks and deadlines. For many – they are the reason to go into a workplace.
Yet a huge number of people today are missing this. Headlines have emphasised the trade we have made – joining more virtual meetings over making friends. I recently read an article that said individuals entering the workforce today are Googling more than ever how to make small talk at work. They need to proactively think and prepare to interact with other humans, seeking advice on topics to discuss and avoid. This must be a wake-up and smell-the-coffee moment for us all – if we are having to train people on how to talk to other people, something has seriously gone awry. This could serve to broaden the gap between groups with disabilities and minority populations. Reliance on virtual communication can leave more open to interpretation – something those with neurodiverse conditions can find difficult – as body and facial language can be more readily concealed. Perhaps our ability to tune in to others, to sense their feelings and interpret the unsaid will be limited, too, without concerted effort to sharpen this skill.
It’s not just connection that is suffering but creativity and problem-solving too. Within sparsely populated workplaces, our ability to have chance encounters, overhear conversations, seek guidance and counsel from those we don’t purposefully interact with is declining. This affects 14diversity of thought and innovation, as well as efficiency and speed (with our heads down in our own silos, we make the same mistakes time and again). Across many companies today and despite a plethora of advanced technology at our fingertips (virtual meetings, collaborative tools and platforms), cross-functional working – sharing of ideas and learnings to better our impact on our joint mission – is under threat. Loneliness is also about feeling isolated when hitting obstacles. Tasks and problems can feel insurmountable if we feel alone in our journey to tackle them. How we create the water-cooler chats in a hybrid and virtual world appears to be a question yet to be solved.
WE’VE LOST SENSE OF HUMANITY
For most knowledge-based roles, work is now synonymous with technology and being online. Logging-in, turning green, being available. Documents are live and shared – individuals can collaborate on the same content from thousands of miles away and across time zones. Our work wardrobes have morphed with our home ones: trainers have been promoted to an everyday item, and if you’re like me, there’s a whole section of your wardrobe now untouched – waiting for a moment when more corporate dress is required. ‘Appearance’ is everything. Appearing to be online, doing the infamous mouse waggle to reactivate a hibernating status; dialling into mass broadcasts but using the time to catch up on emails; dressing for Zoom – smart top half, pyjamas or joggers below! 15
When I first started work, meetings were in person. I spent a lot of time meeting clients at their offices – sharing proposals, delivering development feedback, brainstorming ideas and, at times, delivering difficult messages. How many people have now been fired or made redundant over a virtual call? How many have joined new companies and never actually met anyone in person? How many have never seen and felt the impact of their work on others? That rush of adrenaline when standing up to present to a room full of people isn’t the same over a virtual call. Neither is seeing the anger bubble in a client when you must tell them you can no longer meet the timeframes agreed, nor the rush of excitement and feeling of camaraderie when a project team makes a breakthrough. For so many of us now, we simply switch on a computer, tune in to a digital world and then switch it off. I fear we are becoming desensitised – switching off from our own and others’ emotions. The road ahead from here could be quite scary: if we are able to disengage our human reactions and emotions to regulate behaviour (of ourselves and others), will there be a limit to what we are prepared to do in a virtual world? Are we heading back towards a world of people as resources, easily replaced should they burn out or become too difficult to manage? Could this propel us somewhere even worse, towards a vision of life without human guardrails? To virtual environments where it is survival of the most callous, where reward waits for those who choose to prioritise themselves, mentally torment, discriminate and destroy those around 16them to progress their careers and feed their egos. Could a Squid Game existence become our reality?
WE’RE BURNING OUT
With the divide between work and home increasingly blurred, it has become harder to switch off. For many, work is accessible via a laptop, from anywhere, at any time. For those working remotely or in hybrid routines, we have grown accustomed to different or varied work environments. The great advantage of working remotely is flexibility. However, the risk presented through loss of natural ‘cues’ to trigger a change in activity or end of a working day are often now absent or different. Physically leaving a workplace to go home brings definition. Space between work and life. Now, we are often working at home and living at work. This continues to create challenges around balance, space, burnout and employer expectations (you’re online, so you’re working). This is reflecting in our wellbeing. Record numbers of people are experiencing burning out across all demographics, especially those in the early stages of their careers. This could be because many in Gen Z have only experienced working life in and following the pandemic. The connections, friendships, support networks usually developed in person haven’t been possible, and this cohort have become very effective at working independently. But this takes its toll.
People in management roles are also experiencing this slightly more than others. The role of a manager has 17expanded – with constant change, novel scenarios, navigating and brokering new ways of working, the volume of tasks for managers is vast. The content of conversations has become more significant and meaningful, as work and life combine, and work challenges become increasingly hard to unpick from life, e.g. supporting individuals managing the significant rises in cost of living but also needing to encourage people to spend money to come back into offices. Or enabling people with caring responsibilities – an increasing burden on so many as the population ages – to balance work demands. For everyone, things have felt harder, choices more strained, consequences more severe, and this is on top of an inability to separate work from life and growing pressure around job security as organisations rapidly grow and contract, leaving many suddenly without work. Some companies have even glamourised overworking – presenteeism (even if through showing green online) is still a thing. The pressure has become intense and the cracks in us, as humans, are clearly showing.
WE’RE SEARCHING FOR MEANING (AND STRUGGLING TO FIND IT)
The final aspect contributing to the challenge in finding happiness is our search for meaning. Management consulting firm McKinsey released research a few years ago linking purpose or meaning to the most significant outcome – death. Their research revealed that people who have a strong sense of purpose are five times more likely to report 18 higher levels of well-being. They have a 15 per cent lower risk of dying over the next decade and, at work, are four times more likely to report higher levels of engagement and to help the organisation deliver higher profit margins.
That’s huge.
Today, many are struggling to find this. As we began to emerge from the pandemic in 2021, work psychologist Adam Grant described this feeling as ‘languishing’: ‘Languishing is a sense of stagnation and emptiness. It feels as if you’re muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield.’
Finding individual purpose and meaning can be a game-changer. Yet many people report feeling stuck in jobs and companies where they fail to feel this. Work is simply a list of tasks to tick off. Colleagues and customers are merely faces and voices joining meetings. Decision-making and autonomy are throttled by bureaucratic processes and controls. It can be easy to feel swept up in the quagmire of things to do. We have disconnected tasks and instructions to do following specific rules and processes, without really understanding why. Companies which have experimented with removing controls around expense policies or holiday allowances and replaced these with guidelines such as ‘spend in a way that helps the company grow’ or ‘take the holiday you need to help sustain team performance’ have been rewarded with cost savings, retention of talent and increased feelings of engagement. Being trusted to do what’s 19 right and understanding how our work contributes to a meaningful mission sets the stage for feelings of accountability and ownership.
A desire for purpose starts at an early age. Many conversations between parents and children revolve around why something is important. For most, the moments of motivation come from knowing that there is impact – I painted a picture and now I feel proud sharing my work with my family. I learned times tables and can work out how much pocket money I will have saved in six weeks’ time (and plan what I can buy with that!). I trained hard to get better at swimming and now I get to join the group with my friends and take part in the competitions. Tapping into intrinsic motivators will provide more sustainable drivers to guide energy, and whilst the content will differ by individual, a core focus on the impact we make will likely provide a common recipe for success.
Companies committed to purposeful work clearly articulate a galvanising mission bigger than themselves. They successfully ask why we exist and what we ultimately need to achieve, beyond financial results. They authentically and constantly link their work to making a difference in the world – to people, communities, the environment. They embed this in everything they do, sharing stories of impact and, importantly, giving individuals space to bring their own flavour and interpretation to this goal. Being part of something, feeling a sense of belonging and community 20 and finding opportunities to learn and grow all feed into this, connected by an overwhelming sense of greater meaning, driving us forwards every day.
The core elements that define us as humans – using our cognitive capabilities to make decisions; solving problems that make a difference to others and the world around us; being immersed in an interesting project where we learn and grow; and meeting our need for interaction and emotional connection with others – have become compromised.
The longest study so far into what makes us happy followed a cohort of people across an eighty-year span. The paper, by Harvard, concluded that there were two key elements that happier people held in common:
They prioritised how they wanted to spend their time (in other words, they identified what was most meaningful to them and focused their time on these aspects).They spent time building and maintaining social connections.If we are to design a new world of work with happiness as our goal, what would we include?
I believe there are three key ingredients we must prioritise to create conditions where we as humans can thrive:
Autonomy (feeling empowered, trusted and able to make individual choices) 21Meaning (being fuelled by purpose in what we do and experiencing strong social relationships such that we feel a sense of belonging and inclusion)Growth (developing, learning and growing through interesting and varied career opportunities)Could this pave the way to a happier, more fulfilling vision for workplaces in 2038 and beyond?
Here is an alternative vision for my daughter entering the workplace in ten to fifteen years from now. Picture this…
My daughter joined a pan-company early careers programme to design and deliver virtual skill development content. She doesn’t work directly for one company, rather a joint venture with investment from four enterprise organisations alongside funding from governments to accelerate national skill development. The programme runs for two years, and she has joined a cohort of twenty-five people across Europe from a variety of backgrounds.
In the hiring process, she completed several psychometric tools to pinpoint motivators, style and understand her current skills. These are used all the time to build individual understanding and maximise learning and growth opportunities. Each person has two mentors, and these can vary based on the individual’s needs and objectives as the programme progresses. They have regular conversations evaluating how things are going through the lens of autonomy, meaning and growth and together identify actions 22and support to ensure these are maintained. Whilst it’s clear individuals are responsible for their own career and development, the infrastructure has been designed specifically to enable this.
Everyone works four days a week and success is measured through outcomes, not the hours spent online or being visible. In fact, within the four days, work patterns vary significantly, although there are anchor days in workplace destinations typically one to two days a week. They use this time to collaborate, brainstorm ideas, test concepts with colleagues and gather feedback. This aligned yet personalised approach, with clarity on expectations, widens the gate for people from all walks of life to contribute to the company’s mission. This makes for more diverse and inclusive teams, facilitating broader ideas, thoughts and knowledge sharing. My daughter also has regular check-ins, very often in person, with her local mentor, to help solve challenges in the flow of work and seek advice on broader topics and scenarios, spanning work and life.
There is a lot of technology. Countless virtual reality and digital tools, AI-driven chatbots and idea generators. My daughter and her workmates have multiple apps – to gather feedback on themselves, to network with colleagues and work on projects and content. As a team, they are very focused on how they’re tracking – both as individuals (well-being, growth and development, and their connection with the project, its direction and purpose) and as a team driving agreed outcomes. I notice they are not afraid 23to have open and direct conversations; holding one another accountable for the objectives they’ve set and when navigating challenges. Similarly, they hold a mirror up to each other around work–life balance and the behaviours they demonstrate, asking difficult questions and encouraging reflection. Lessons learned are shared each week – in short burst sessions – and talking about what has been challenging or what hasn’t worked well is engrained in the culture. They’re focused on bringing a human approach – wanting the best for each other and the whole project team – using a combination of technology, human emotion and judgement to achieve the right blend.
The programme is exceptionally purpose driven. They are focused on reducing the skills gap for every country in which they operate. This has very visible and shared goals and, of course, can be clearly articulated in terms of impact on people, communities and society. They regularly spend time with the people who access and use the content they design, seeing first-hand how they use this, the impact it makes and what else they would like to do with it. At the start of the programme, the group spent two weeks together with a global cohort, immersing in the purpose of the initiative, understanding and adapting to the ways of working and culture and meeting with mentors to support and guide them through this journey (they had a say in whom they wanted to work with too). The core philosophies are very visible: supporting both individuals and the team; getting comfortable with failing and learning from 24this; providing honest and constructive feedback; and respecting boundaries – the four-day week is upheld and not interrupted – work and life are equally as important.
My daughter is developing fantastic skills, both technical – coding, content development, user interface (UI) design, analytics – and human skills (interacting with diverse stakeholders, working across cultures, presenting and storytelling skills, learning how to cope when things fail or how to manage receiving tough feedback), which she could use in a variety of roles moving forwards. She relishes the focus on understanding her, as an individual, and the commitment to personalising experiences to help keep her learning, growing, feeling included and, ultimately, thriving. At the same time, she enjoys the transparency around accountabilities and objectives. She finds it motivating to have a shared understanding of expectations as well as a clear link with the programme’s broader goals. She loves the flexibility, variety and camaraderie she gets by spending time with colleagues at similar stages of life, learning and solving things together, as well as the access to diverse, experienced mentors. They work hard, learn and grow, make (and see) an impact, value insights from those around them, enjoy other people’s company and place a high value on the time away from work, too.
Both visions for a future of work feel eminently possible and yet each promise quite different experiences and outcomes.
The choices we make will shape the work experiences of 25 our children and grandchildren. As a parent, an employee, a leader, a work psychologist and a human, I feel we have a duty to learn through our own experiences, to listen to our concerns and anxieties and to prioritise our aspirations for something brighter.
Make It Human outlines how we can bring to life a human experience of work.
I believe we all have a role to play. If we step back and allow things simply to evolve, I fear we will slip into an entirely technology-led, always-on, remote, task-focused experience of work within which we, as humans, deteriorate further. Leading isolated, lonely lives where mental health issues are rife, feeling numb to the impact we have, relying on AI to make key decisions and solve problems, we fail to find balance or meaning. This outcome would call into contest every aspect that makes us human.
Now is the moment to create workplaces and cultures where we, as people, can thrive.
I hope you join me in this mission, using the tools, models and insights shared in this book to make it human in your experiences of work and life, every day.
If we don’t make it human, who will?26
Chapter 2
Workplace Warfare
Lift the lid on many well-known companies and you are likely to want to close it quickly.
All sorts of organisations have fallen victim to toxic culture. Experiences of discrimination, abuse, criminal activity, safety breaches, even loss of life if deemed ‘systemic’ are frequently put down to cultural failings.
Workplaces can be cut-throat, unkind, politically driven, even inhumane environments. Not at all conducive to feelings of safety, support and inclusion, let alone productivity and innovation. A far cry from the conditions we as humans need to thrive. (That’s not to say there aren’t shining, hopeful examples of organisations where humans are flourishing, which will be explored later.)
First, here are a few stories from companies where workplace warfare has raged. This chapter includes analysis of where these issues might have started – the early signs that cracks were beginning to silently spread – before they caused catastrophic failure. I share these because there are lessons for us all. Culture doesn’t just break overnight; it 28 starts with a tiny crack. As you’ll see, the well-known, established companies that have been damaged mean that no one is immune. These examples and the culture cracks model (explored in greater depth in the following chapter) can help us to identify how to build and maintain cultures where humans and business can thrive.
PUTTING THE CULT IN CULTURE
Following the 2008 global financial crisis, people and organisations were searching for the new promise of success. This came in the guise of technology. Apple turned mobiles into smart devices for everything. Facebook and Twitter revolutionised social media. App-driven start-ups emerged overnight: Uber turned car owners into an army of taxi drivers; and Deliveroo transformed takeaways into instant meals. Investors went crazy. There was a feeding frenzy, as entrepreneurs and start-ups sought seed funding and the tech industry sky-rocketed (now, in 2024 and beyond, perhaps we’re seeing the unravelling of this as several technology companies make mass lay-offs following excessive hiring).
Amidst the foray, a new vision for how we work was being prepared. A utopia of kibbutz-inspired communities, in open-plan, collaborative, tech-enabled, sociable environments for the cool entrepreneurs to mingle, co-create and possibly solve world peace.
But this wasn’t just real estate; it was a radical new approach to the very essence of how we work. The ‘we’ 29 generation, the company’s founder and future CEO claimed, didn’t discriminate – it saw the best in everyone, as humans. A mission to overhaul the established convention of how and why we work was launched. This was WeWork.
The target market – creatives, independents, entrepreneurs – initially rushed to sign up. The spaces were refreshing, looked edgy and vibrant, and those in the ‘in’ crowd were leading the way. And it wasn’t just office space – a technology platform was created to enable people to connect, share and form alliances to do more with their lives. Huge summer camps spanning several days were organised for everyone in the WeWork generation to gather, listen to seminars on their calling and opportunities to make things better. People wore T-shirts emblazoned with slogans such as ‘Elevate the world’s consciousness’ and ‘Strive to be better, together’. Groups held hands and closed their eyes to envision a better future.
Looking in, you could easily confuse the company with a cult. Presentations were preacher-like, joint commitments were voiced, stories of how lives had turned around discussed excitedly. The CEO had a Jesus-like status amongst the group. People waited for, and acted on, his every word. He was engaging, inspiring, future focused and enigmatic.
They inherently believed he knew the path ahead and would make it, and everyone around him, better and more successful. The rollercoaster was picking up pace, and more were climbing on board. The ‘tech’ real estate company was also 30 impressing the investors and valuations were steadily rising. A Japanese investor raised the biggest ever venture capital fund based on the company’s projections and put in $4 billion for the CEO to ‘go crazy’ and take the brand global.
At that stage, the company was valued at $20 billion and the pace of growth was unlike anything ever seen in office space before. WeWork spots would open up with builders and decorators finishing floors as they were unveiled. The brand expanded – the ‘we’ approach being applied to how we live, how we access education. Even the concept of life itself was up for grabs, and the company eventually reached an epic valuation of $47 billion.
Behind the scenes, all was not as it seemed.
Cracks were beginning to show, and those individuals bowled along by the vision and excitement were beginning to question the reality.
Some employees had been exposed to ‘firing lists’ circulating the company. Costs were mounting and pressure needed to be relieved. Was this part of the ‘we community’ mission? Under stress, the CEO’s behaviour became unpredictable. It was reported that he would regularly threaten to fire people on impulse, or expose their perceived failings in public settings, undermining trust and fostering fear.
Financially, the numbers just didn’t add up. The company invented its own approach to calculating EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) to re-engineer its profits. It was reported that, at one stage, WeWork was burning through $100 million a week. 31 The CEO and his family were reportedly spending company money on luxurious properties and holidays, flying employees out to meet them in their exotic locations, whilst preaching a modest and community-focused mantra. Profit can be open to opinion, but this was taking it to another level, and it was looking like this tech unicorn was mythical.
Things unravelled quickly when the main investor pulled out. They were unable to deliver on commitments made to their own investors and it quickly became untenable. The company’s price fell dramatically from $47 billion to $15 billion.
The bubble had burst. Some rescue attempts via an IPO were proposed but failed to get off the ground. Eventually, the CEO was forced to make the decision to step down and mass lay-offs followed to enable a financially viable business to emerge.
Employees felt angry and deceived. Many had completely bought into the mantra of a ‘we generation’ and had worked hard to bring this to life. Now it was in tatters.
This story all played out across approximately ten years. From concept, to start-up, to rapid growth, with around 12,500 employees worldwide across 850 WeWork locations, the company had a galvanising mission and people – employees and customers – bought into it. It also had bold growth plans, but initially, people weren’t clear what it really was. The CEO talked about being a tech company, but it was real estate, right? Yet, its financial projections treated it like tech, and in response, investors did too. It was mysterious, 32 enigmatic, elusive and oh so cool. Celebrities and influencers endorsed it. To be in the ‘in’ crowd, you needed to be part of the we generation. A lot of this emanated from the CEO. Like the leader of a cult, he was inspiring and believable. What he said made sense. It all looked and felt eminently possible. And yet, behind the glossy exterior, he had created a phenomenal, yet possibly fabricated, narrative of the financial basis of the organisation, was living way beyond his means to finance the ‘we’ lifestyle and would manipulate and cut down those who dared challenge him. Those around him, colleagues, employees, wanted to believe and therefore saw what they wanted to see. The culture kept the rollercoaster on the tracks, until it veered too far off, and the cracks in double standards and toxic leadership behaviour became too much to overcome. In 2023, WeWork filed for bankruptcy. However, as this book went to print, although looking unlikely to succeed, Adam Neumann had pulled together a bid to try to buy back WeWork. Could the organisation find itself flung back into a similar cycle? Or will the board exercise greater caution, given their previous experience?
WOLF OF WALL STREET (AND INDUSTRY?)
For many decades, many financial organisations have been portrayed as macho, misogynistic places. The Wolf of Wall Street, a film based loosely on the life of Jordan Belfort (a stockbroker ultimately jailed for fraud), is awash with trading floor parties, drinking and drug use, macho ‘chest 33 beating’ ceremonies, even dwarf throwing. The focus is on the lavish lifestyle of those in investment banking – making millions, taking risks, crossing the line to live life excessively and making a lot of noise about it. Whilst this depiction might be extreme, company collapses and financial crises suggest there is some truth to the cultural experiences and ways of working for some in this sector.
In the 2000s, the culture in multiple banks and financial institutions swirled. Focus shifted towards aggressive selling, risk taking and flexing the rules. Some in key positions saw an opportunity to manipulate the system and achieve phenomenal results. Initially, this seemed to work, and momentum built. Those at the top were said to ‘lose sight’ of what was happening on the ground – the decisions being made, rules massaged, exaggerated claims made. Risk-takers were being rewarded. Employees who brought in the big deals (millions, if not billions) were rewarded for the results they achieved, no matter how they achieved them. Some employees were likely to have seen the poor behaviour behind the scenes, but few would have felt able or willing to speak up and share their concerns. This was a tight labour market and jobs were at a premium, plus, very often, those at the top were turning ‘star’ performers into company heroes. Some felt the greed-induced behaviours being witnessed in banks reflected broader societal attitudes towards risk-taking and making money. A banking survey by Deloitte reported: ‘There is a societal, cultural problem around acceptance of norms of behaviour around 34 greed and money, which has changed in the last twenty years. The typical person who was a banker has changed in their attitude, values and behaviours.’
Bending the rules appeared to be socially acceptable when the outcomes were deemed worth it – and there was some serious money being made during this period.
That was, until things went too far.
In 2008, a global financial crisis began to unravel. Many will remember scenes playing out on TV of well-known, well-respected financial institutions going under. Whether Lehman Brothers on Wall Street or Northern Rock on the UK high street, the term ‘credit crunch’ was entering our lexicon, and at pace. Businesses had overstretched, borrowing more than they could afford, and individuals, families, companies and even countries were being swept up in the aftermath.
