Here we have selected videos and audio featuring issues and ideas in the the worlds of flexible working, transforming workplaces, and the future of work.
Bookmark this page to find more recorded media as it becomes available, and do subscribe to our YouTube channel, Future Work with author Andy Lake.
Why the Future of Work is about More Than Work
There’s a tendency for many discussions about the Future of Work to be inward looking – but we should be aware of how much society today has been shaped by the structures of work, and the assumpptions about how, where and when it happens.
In this video Andy Lake explores the wider landscape, and why we need to be ready to change a whole range of polices and assumptions about work’s place in soceity, if we are to reap the potential benefits from the changes that are fast coming upon us.
Does Hybrid Working really only have a neutral impact on productivity?
In this video Andy Lake deconstructs some dubious wisdom going round, that Hybrid Work has a flat or neutral impact on productivity. Andy comes as close to a rant as he ever does, about the widespread misinterpretation of average findings from research – “beware the seduction of averages!” he warns.
Why we need to go Beyond Hybrid Working
Hybrid Working seems to be “stuck in a moment”. Here Andy offers some sound advice about how to move forward from simplistic solutions by adopting a dynamic approach to flexibility, based on understanding the needs of different kinds of work tasks and having a mindset for innovation.
Podcast: How Smart is Hybrid Working
Great conversation with Ian Ellison and Chris Moriarty of Audiem in their Workplace Geeks podcast. With additional commentary at the end from Dan Wakeling too. [Opens in new window]
Fireside Chat with author Brian Elliott, on How The Future Works
Brian Elliott is well-known as one of the strongest advocates of Flexible Working – and he has a track record in amking it happen too. Here Brian joins Andy for a fireside chat about his book How the Future Works, which is full of grounded and practical advice about how and why organisations should adopt flexible working, and enable teams to do the best work of their lives.
Transforming the Public Sector
Helen Attia, VP of People & Partnerships, and Andy Lake in conversation about the role of new ways of working in transforming the public sector, in this video from Kadence. Exploring work at a granular level and engaging people in improvement are key parts of the story.
Forget “Home versus Office” – It’s time to embrace the Wider Workplace
“As offices get ever smaller, the workplace as a whole gets ever larger”
In this short online presentation, Andy explores the implications of the Extended Workplace”, and why we need to think muuch more broadly about all teh places where work can take place. This wider workplace provides the context for a thorough rethinking of how to make both work and the work experience better. Crucially, the interaction between locations and settings needs to be taken into account, for both the design of work and the design of workplaces.
Flexibility, Productivity and Sustainability – What does the research say?
A longer video, this one – exploring in half an hour the contentious issues of the impacts on productivity and sustainability of smart/flexible/agile working. As well as digging into 20+ years of research, Andy critiques the nature of some of this research and proposes new directions that are needed. On balance, research tends to show that flexible working boosts both productivity and sustainability. But there are known ways to maximisse the positive impacts snd to mitigate any downsides. Filmed at the Workplace Trends Research Summit April 2024.
The Social Infrastructure of Work – and Why the Workplace industries need to think outside their Ever-Shrinking Boxes
In an article for Work & Place*, the leading journal for the workplace industry, Andy Lake explores the range of trends from homeworking during the pandemic to Industry 4.0 that mean we need a transformational approach to designing and supporting all the places where people work, and an end to the exclusive – and intrinsically conservative – focus on the collective workplace. In the podcast, Marcus Bowen interviews Andy about the thinking behind the article.
