Description

Four episodes in and the Geeks are cooking on gas! For this one, we're joined by the wise and insanely amiable Ryan Anderson, VP of Global Research and Planning at workplace furniture giant MillerKnoll, home of Herman Miller, Knoll, and a host of other iconic design brands.

Ryan has lived and breathed workplace for over three decades in a wide range of roles. It's no surprise then that his thoughtful, considered perspectives on workplace design, strategy, experience and technology step beyond conventional wisdoms and overtraded ideas. We caught up with Ryan to talk furniture, industry research, post-pandemic strategies and how MillerKnoll's new concept of Relationship-Based Workdeveloped after some recent research with Workplace Unlimited (and Audiem!) called Enticing Office. Highlights include:

• The Grand Rapids, Michigan furniture legacy and how it shaped Ryan’s career
• What the sector got wrong pre-pandemic, and how to do better now
• The problem with trying to solve complex workplace challenges with cookie-cutter solutions
• Key insights from Dr Nigel Oseland and Gary Raw’s Enticing Office research
• The importance ofplace-attachment for the 'return to office'
• Why 'life stage' and 'career stage' might be better thinking tools than generic generational classifiers
• Designing for meaningful human interaction, not just work activities

Also featuring a rich Reflection Section with the always-fabulous Esme Banks Marr (BVN Architecture) exploring age demographics, the sociology of workplace interaction and motivation theories, with a healthy level of constructive critique!

🎧 Dialogue editing by David Crackles

Transcript: 

 Before we go back to the episode, a quick word about Audium. When people think about workplace feedback, they tend to think about surveys, but some of the richest workplace insight is often hiding in places organizations rarely look. Take FM helpdesk tickets. Every day, employees leave thousands of comments about buildings, technology, catering, cleaning, temperature, meeting rooms, and dozens of other workplace issues. Individually, they're just tickets

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🎧 Dialogue editing by David Crackles