Leading Innovation at Work

DeMarcus Means Sr. is a young leader with a bright future in FM. I first became familiar with DeMarcus through his glowing reputation at IFMA. In just 2 years, DeMarcus consecutively won IFMAs World Workplace Facility For Future and the Sheila Sheridan Sustainable Facilty Operations and Management awards. In this episode of Leading Innovation at Work, DeMarcus shares with host Lorri Rowlandson the origins of his love for the built environment, how life and his entrepreneurial spirit directed him towards a degree in FM, and what excites him about the future of facilties management. DeMarcus also shares his best advice to other young people on how to gain more hands-on FM experience in their student careers.

In this episode of the Leading Innovation at Work podcast, host Lorri Rowlandson chats with her co-author and favourite (ok, only) sister, Barb, about innovations borne out of, or accelerated by, the coronavirus pandemic. Lorri and Barb each expand on their own favourite areas of technology innovation, and also talk about changes in attitudes towards mental health in the workplace. Past episodes with industry experts are woven into the conversation, and Lorri and Barb talk about what to expect inside The New Normal online community.

In this episode of the Leading Innovation at Work podcast, host Lorri Rowlandson chats with Zale Tabakman of Local Grown Salads about the impact of the vertical farming revolution. Local Grown Salads's method of indoor vertical farming provides fresh local produce, is the highest-yielding method of growing (32 sq ft of vertical farm produces as much as an acre of farm land!), and provides over 6 million fresh salad bags/year to retailers, institutions like schools and hospitals, and prepared food providers. Listen and learn about indoor vertical farming technology, and how vertical farming helps keep food local, increases food security, and reduces emissions for a healthier planet.

In 2020, video conferencing has become the norm - lines between work and home are blurred and productivity is hindered in the process. In this interview, host Lorri Rowlandson chats with Betty Rhiger, Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft, about the meteoric rise in popularity of Microsoft Teams. Betty shares how Microsoft Teams is a collaboration first/video conferencing second platform, allowing for productive collaboration without always having to get on a call. Betty and Lorri talk about dependencies needed for distributed teams, changes to the physical office, and what features we can expect next from Microsoft Teams.

Michael Redding, managing director at Agile Oak LLC and member of the IFMA board of directors, is a forward thinker. In this conversation, Michael responds to themes in host Lorri Rowlandson's recently published book, "The New Normal." Kindness, compassion, the need for a shift in video conference culture, career development in the age of COVID-19, and the importance of innovating beyond what has worked in the past are all themes explored in this interview.

Tune is as Lorri Rowlandson chats with Colette Temmink, President of Property Services at Eden,  about how space planning affects the war for talent, creates HR challenges, and the need for a digitally-forward portfolio.

In this episode, all-around great guy and host of the Workplace Innovator Podcast Mike Petrusky and Lorri Rowlandson talk about coping with long-term remote work. Mike explains how our cognitive load is higher than ever, leading to "Zoom" fatigue, and the need for more authentic and creative engagement if we're committing to remote work for the long-haul. Lorri and Mike also talk about genuine connection with colleagues, defining productivity, and why "recharging your batteries" is just as important as the work you do.

VP, Workplace Advisory at Colliers Int. and Global Chair of Workplace Evolutionaries Kate North talks with host Lorri Rowlandson about how the COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated much needed change to the way we work, emphasizing that work is not where we go, but what we do.

Leading Innovation at Work host Lorri Rowlandson talks to Peter Ankerstjerne, Global Lead of Facility Management and Experience Services at JLL and Chairman of the Board of IFMA. Lorri asks Peter for his top predictions on how the world of work will change post-COVID-19.

Approximately 40 million American adults have anxiety. COVID-19 has stoked anxiety even further. In this episode of Leading Innovation at Work, Lorri speaks with wellness expert Rani Glick, who works with organizations to help employees manage their stress and anxiety. Rani explains the difference between Mental Health vs. Mental Illness, the stages of anxiety, signs of mental illness to look for, factors that influence anxiety, and how companies can make coming back to work easier after pandemic restrictions have eased.

We dedicate this episode to Lorri's friend Robert Struthers, who suddenly passed away last year. Robert was the head of real estate for Bell, he was not only a client but he was a friend to many.  Robert paved the way for women in real estate as well as mental health - he was a huge advocate of Bell's Let's Chat program.  It's remarkable to have such a senior leader expressing such vulnerability around the topic of mental health, and we are so grateful for the difference that he made in our lives.  Never forgotten.

Is this the death of the office? Not likely! In this episode, host Lorri Rowlandson and Tony Gill, CEO of Beakns Inc. cover off a wide range of topics related to post-COVID-19 workplace needs, including the evolution of virtual culture, agile and resilient spaces, applications and gamification for creating engagement, and intermediary facilities for collaboration.

Elevators, elevators, elevators! LIAW host Lorri Rowlandson has been asked about elevator safety more than anything else during the COVID-19 pandemic.  In this episode, Lorri loops elevator expert Gregor Vahramian into the conversation. Lorri and Gregor talk about some of the short and long term solutions for elevator health and safety, human behavior, and an old-but-new material that could naturally protect elevator surfaces from viruses.

We've recently experienced a massive shift to remote work, and one of the resulting questions that has arisen from this change is "how do we measure employee productivity when people aren't working from the office?" In this podcast, Lorri Rowlandson aims to challenge your perceptions about measuring productivity. Lorri's hope is to erase biases against remote work, share which methods of productivity she effectively uses when managing teams, and reveals which methods she thinks need to be retired forever.

Strategizing and innovating for the future are Lorri Rowlandson's workplace "raison d'etre." When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Lorri's mental wheels started turning towards how the global health crisis will change the spaces where we work. In this episode, you'll hear the advice Lorri is giving to clients and peers about how to adapt office spaces to accomodate new work styles.

Mim Senft prefers the phrase "employee well-being" over "employee wellness." Why? Well-being implies more than just physical health, reflecting a more well-rounded approach to an individual's overall wellness. In this episode, Mim and Lorri talk about how wellness programs are (slowly) changing for the better, the new benchmarks for well employees and healthy spaces, and why companies need to contribute to the better health of their greatest investment - their employees.

This episode is a follow up to Lorri's earlier podcast about the top 10 ways Covid-19 will change the world of work, with a particular spin on real estate. Lorri expands on the coming changes to this industry, touching on points such as innovative technology, rationalization of real estate portfolios, changing the way we measure employee experience, risk management, and more. It's a sampling of the kind of advice you'll find in Lorri's post-Covid guidebook and online learning portal, scheduled for release in June 2020.

The world was turned upside down as COVID-19 quickly required people to transition from working in the office to working remotely. Now as businesses prepare to receive workers back into the office, there are some pretty big questions surrounding what should be included in new policies and protocols in the post-pandemic workplace. In this episode, LIAW host Lorri Rowlandson, Sr. VP of Strategy and Innovation at BGIS - a multi-national corporate real estate and facilities management company - shares her expertise on the built environment. Lorri offers listeners 10 considerations that every business should make before welcoming employees back to the office, with advice on sustaining change management and governing behaviors. This is a must-listen to episode for everyone - employers and employees - before returning to the office.

In this episode, Lorri chats with Rushi Raja, CEO of Core (Centre for Outsourcing Research and Education). Rushi shares information from initial research Core has conducted on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on companies who rely on outsourced service providers. Rushi forsees a shift in how arrangements between organizations and services providers will change in the immediate future.  He also has valuable insights on the preparadness of organizations to deal with major disruptions, how the gaps in preparation revealed themselves in the wake of Covid, and underscores the importance of making plans to improve employee wellness as many companies transition to a remote-work model.

In this episode of Leading Innovation at Work, Lorri talks to Stephen Brown, VP of Global Market Development at the International WELL Building Institute. Stephen explains WELL Building certification, and encourages us to think about the role our physical spaces play in keeping employees healthy and improving work culture as a whole. Stephen covers multiple facets of what makes a healthy building, discusses regional differences in determining priorities for healthy buildings, and shares the career journey that led him to become passionate about improving people's health by creating standards for the spaces they work from. 

Just as 9/11 changed the world forever, the COVID-19 pandemic will permanently alter how and where we work. In this special episode of Leading Innovation at Work, Lorri Rowlandson, SVP of Strategy and Innovation at BGIS, offers her top predictions for permanent changes precipitated by the current pandemic, and ponders what really matters during our time in social isolation.

Join us in this episode of Leading Innovation at Work, where futurist Nikki Greenberg talks about what she predicts for tech-enabled spaces in the next 5 years. Nikki shares with Lorri why she started Women in Proptech - an org that endeavours to make women visible in a male-dominated field- and discusses why the average person shouldn't be timid about diving into the new, exciting world of property technology.

In this episode of Leading Innovation at Work, Lorri has a "fireside chat" with Enrique Rubio, a leading figure in the world of HR and founder of Hacking HR - a global community that allows professionals to connect and share insights about the future of work.  Enrique shares the journey of his career and explains why in this time of global crisis it is more important than ever for people to work together and feel connected. Listen as Enrique elaborates on how the global COVID- 19 pandemic has rapidly redesigned how people work, and why it is critically important that we retain the changes and learning that comes with this experience. Lorri asks Enrique questions that are specific to how rapid change will affect the built environment. 

Wellness expert and renowned author of "The Healthy Workplace Nudge" Rex Miller is on a mission: to sound the alarm and raise awareness about the unsustainable cost of ignoring issues around employee wellness. In this episode, Rex and Lorri talk about why chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, addiction and other lifestyle-related illnesses are on track to create a major financial crisis in America, why wellness programs shouldn't be treated like a budget line item, and how to nudge healthier behaviours in employees. This is a must listen for anyone concerned about profitibility or fostering a healthier work environment.

Lorri was recently asked to participate at Hacking HR, an online event pioneered by future of work, design thinking and HR expert Enrique Rubio. The panel discussion Lorri was asked to participate in was entitled "Thinking and Doing Innovation."  Due to technical difficulty, Lorri was unable to join the event, so this podcast is her opportunity for a "do-over." Lorri takes this opportunity to answer questions given to the panelists prior to the event, and shows us how facilities are intricately connected to HR, employee experience and workplace culture.

Mim Senft prefers the phrase "employee well-being" over "employee wellness." Why? Well-being implies more than just physical health, reflecting a more well-rounded approach to an individual's overall wellness. In this episode, Mim and Lorri talk about how wellness programs are (slowly) changing for the better, the new benchmarks for well employees and healthy spaces, and why companies need to contribute to the better health of their greatest investment - their employees.

In this episode, innovation at work expert and self-proclaimed nerd Lorri Rowlandson shares a little about her professional career, and talks about what inspires her about the future of work.