In this fourth episode of our “In Conversation…” podcast series for 2024, Lucy revisits a fascinating conversation she had on navigating and managing workplace conflict with David Liddle, founder and CEO of TCM Group. 

Recorded in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic, this conversation from 2022 resonates with many of the challenges businesses are experiencing today. Growing societal divisions and tensions are increasingly spilling into the workplace, such that navigating and managing workplace conflict is emerging as a key business priority.

“Conflict is unavoidable, inescapable. In fact, it’s a healthy expression of working life and indeed I would argue that when it’s managed well, conflict can be a really important driver or a catalyst to innovation, creativity, growth, insight, and learning. In fact, well-managed disagreements and conflicts within our workplaces are the antecedent to growth.”

In this episode, Lucy starts by exploring the reasons behind today’s growing workplace conflict challenges. Then we rewind to 2022, where David and Lucy discuss a variety of potential solutions and approaches.

Key Takeaways:

• Take a restorative, rather than a retributive, approach to conflict. Reframe HR policies and procedures with purpose-led, person-centered and values-based approaches to conflict and complaints resolution.
• Managing conflict should be a strategic, leadership priority. Provide managers and leaders with the skills, training and support to intervene early and resolve issues constructively at the source.
• Dialogue must have primacy. Start by listening and creating space for people to engage in dialogue. 
• Conflict is not to be feared. When managed well, conflict can be a catalyst to innovation, creativity, growth, insight and learning. 

In the third episode of our “In Conversation with…” podcast series for 2024 Lucy is joined by Ben Willmott, Head of Public Policy in the CIPD. 

The relationship between employer and employee is changing and the “social contract” is evolving. There’s a growing focus on ethical behaviour, on people’s individual needs and on “good work”. In this episode, Lucy and Ben explore what “good work” is and why it should matter to employers and their people. They consider the key drivers shaping the good work agenda and the role employers and the government have to play in promoting good work practices. Ben highlights the importance of people management skills in creating trust in the employment relationship to develop a productive, resilient and sustainable work culture. 

Key Takeaways:

• Good work is a shared agenda: Investing in good work practices is the responsibility of both employers and the government. Areas of recommended public policy reform include statutory sick pay reform, increased occupational health support for small businesses, and introducing skills or training levies. 
• Start by investing in people management training: Day-to-day people management skills are fundamental to employees’ engagement and productivity in work.
• Incorporate the principles of good work into job design processes: By designing jobs that give employees flexibility, autonomy, purpose and challenge, this can both improve job quality, as well as supporting business performance and productivity.
• Flexible working arrangements should benefit the whole workforce, not just those who can work from home: Employers should consider putting in place flexible working arrangements that benefit all employees, including those who can’t work from home, for example term-time working, job shares, or compressed or annualised hours.

 Over the course of this year, we’ve hosted conversations with leading experts and thinkers to explore their perspectives on the future of work and consider the opportunities and challenges ahead for employers and their people as the world of work continues to evolve rapidly.

In this final episode of 2023, our podcast host, Lucy Lewis, Employment Partner at Lewis Silkin, reflects on the conversations she has had this year and draws together a range of insightful perspectives shared by her guests.

Lucy spotlights the key themes that emerged across her conversations - from the role of trust and employee voice in the workplace, to the four-day working week, the importance of organisational resilience, adapting to an ageing workforce, what the future of the platform economy looks like and the impact of automation and AI on jobs and workforce skills. 

At the end of each discussion, we asked each of our guests to share their thoughts on what is missing from the current conversation on the future of work. What is not getting enough attention? What are we not talking enough about? Tune in to hear what they had to say!

In the ninth episode of our “In Conversation with…” podcast series for 2023, Lucy Lewis, partner at Lewis Silkin LLP, is joined by Paul Miller, Chief Creative Officer and founder of the Digital Workplace Group. 

“We are living in a time which is no longer the industrial age, it’s not even the digital age; it is the living age.”

Lucy and Paul discuss the need for organisational adaptiveness and resilience to better withstand and respond to the current disruption and pressure on business, and explore concepts from Paul’s book ‘Nature of Work: The New Story of Work for a Living Age’. In this book, Paul draws on patterns from the natural world to provide leaders with the language and questions to evolve their workplaces from organisations to organisms. 

Key takeaways from the conversation: 

• Organisations are organisms: Companies seeking to build a sustainable organisation and to humanise workforce experiences can benefit from viewing their organisation as a dynamic and living thing rather than a rigid and industrialised structure. 
• Corporate purpose is key: Companies must focus on taking corporate purpose from concept to practice and identify where they can have a direct impact at a local level. 
• Leadership today is challenging:  To succeed, leaders should consider adopting “servant leadership” and reflect on core values around meaning, purpose, empowerment and agility. 
• Advances in generative AI are deeply significant: AI will change the way we work and raises important ethical and societal concerns. However, the current labour shortages experienced by many countries are likely to remain. 
• We may need to rethink tax: As technology continues to significantly impact on jobs, debate is growing on the merits of an “AI tax”. 

In the third episode of our “In Conversation with...” podcast series for 2023, Lucy Lewis, Partner at Lewis Silkin LLP, speaks to Philip Ross, Founder and CEO of UnGroup and Cordless Group and Jeremy Myerson, Director of WORKTECH Academy. 

Jeremy and Philip recently co-authored the book ‘Unworking: The Reinvention of the Modern Office’ and, in this episode, they share their insights into the future of the office. Philip and Jeremy consider the habits and rituals we will need to ‘unlearn’ in order to reimagine the workplace of the future, with a particular focus on rethinking both learning and leadership, as well as how to make the workplace as inclusive as possible.     

Key takeaways from the conversation: 

• Leadership is being reimagined: Leadership will be less focussed on presenteeism and more focussed on outputs and purpose. Leaders must drive a sense of purpose and belonging, and organisations will need to rethink their physical spaces to align with this vision. 
• Space will no longer define status: While workspace does not dictate culture, it reinforces and supports it. Organisations are moving away from the idea of modern efficiency – rectangular spaces in box-like buildings – towards more democratic spaces, such as circular and curvilinear spaces. 
• Workplace experience is key: Companies need to take workplace experience seriously. Many are introducing workplace experience apps to enhance workplace experience and drive a sense of purpose and belonging. 
• Office design should support diversity and inclusion: A diverse workforce has diverse needs, and employees may work best in different conditions and environments. To be truly inclusive, the workplace of the future must be heterogeneous and provide employees with genuine choice and variety. 
• Organisations need to rethink learning: Hybrid working has resulted in a rapid shift away from the ‘eavesdropping’ model of learning, requiring companies to rethink their current practices and invest in new and emerging technologies.     

In the second episode of our “In Conversation with…” podcast series for 2023, Partner Lucy Lewis speaks to Penelope Mantzaris, Senior Vice President at Edelman Data & Intelligence about trust and how it is evolving. 

“Trust is the foundation that allows an organisation to take responsible risk and to innovate and, if it makes mistakes, to rebound from them”.

With the 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer hot off the press, Penelope and Lucy consider the role that trust has to play in an increasingly polarised society and what this means for employers. 

Key takeaways from the conversation: 

• Factors such as distrust in the government, a lack of shared identity in communities and economic pessimism are leading to intense polarisation in society. However, trust in employers remains high. 
• Trust is local. People trust those that they have real interactions with like their neighbours, co-workers and the CEO of their own employer. 
• Consumers and employees are applying pressure to business, buying brands which match their values and choosing to work for companies that have a positive societal impact. CEO behaviour matters.
• To build trust, leaders must place their trust in employees first, provide information about contentious issues and make employees feel comfortable voicing their opinions. 
• Businesses should use trusted voices at each level of the organisation, particularly if difficult decisions need to be taken. 

For more on this topic, visit the Future of Work Hub. 

In the seventh episode of our ‘In Conversation with…’ podcast series for 2022, Lucy Lewis speaks to Harriet Molyneaux, Managing Director at HSM Advisory.

As a future of work expert, Harriet shares her practical expertise on the big future of work trends of the moment. Harriet explores how organisations can embrace hybrid working to create sustainable high performance environments with productive and happy employees before turning to how employee voice can be harnessed as a check and balance mechanism for organisations. 

Moving onto demographics, Harriet explains how the three stage life of education, work and retirement isn’t fit for purpose in technical high speed change environments, suggesting that it might be time to retire the word ‘retirement’. Finally, Harriet concludes with her thoughts on what the future holds for HR and how HR professionals need to evolve. 

In the sixth episode of our ‘In Conversation with…’ podcast series for 2022, Lucy Lewis speaks to David Liddle, founder and CEO of TCM Group and best selling author.

David is passionate about reforming organisational culture and HR conflict resolution processes, believing we need to move away from the retributive systems of blame, shame and punishment within workplaces. David explains how managing conflict needs to become a strategic priority, with dialogue having primacy rather than retribution. Ultimately, HR will need to decide if they want to focus on people, culture and values or simply governance, rules and processes. David finishes by talking about the clear business benefits of shifting to a people centred, purpose led and values based leadership system. After listening to David’s conversation, you won’t feel the same way about the grievance process found in every employee handbook.

In the fifth episode of our ‘In Conversation with…’ podcast series for 2022, Lucy Lewis speaks to Kevin Cook, CEO and co-founder of TreasurySpring, a fintech company launched in 2016.

Kevin discusses the ESG demands that are at play in the market as well as exploring how awareness and focus on ESG has shifted over the past few years. Kevin explains that pressure doesn’t only come from investors, but also employees who want to understand company views on fostering an ESG agenda, with a clear warning not to fall into the trap of greenwashing or lip service. Lucy and Kevin also discuss why TreasurySpring took the decision to become remote first with Kevin sharing some practical tips to avoid two tier culture.

To find out more about TreasurySpring, please visit www.treasuryspring.com. 

In our final ‘In conversation with…’ podcast for 2021, our host, Lucy Lewis, reflects on the perspectives shared by our ten guest speakers on what the future of work could hold. Our conversations have covered a lot of ground, reflecting the dynamic landscape of the world of work. Highlights include how the role of trust between people and business is changing, the rise of hybrid working and the future of the office and how the workforce is shaping the sustainability agenda. Lucy concludes with a look back at what some of our ten leading experts and thinkers consider will be the biggest and most radical change for the future of work that we’ll see coming out of the pandemic.

Our tenth episode of our ‘In Conversation with…’ podcast series features Andrew Magowan, Director of Sustainability and General Counsel at Berry Bros. & Rudd. 

In this episode, Andrew explores the significant impact on businesses, both as employers and brands, of the expectation to “do the right thing” in terms of sustainability. Andrew shares his thoughts on the government’s role in driving change in relation to sustainability issues, noting the value and impact government intervention has made in other areas. However, believing business must take the lead, Andrew shares his perspectives on approaching sustainability as a risk management issue and offers some practical advice on how to take those first steps to meaningful sustainable change. 

For further information about Andrew, you can follow him on LinkedIn here, or if you’re headed to Northern Ireland, check out the Inside Track. 

James discusses his new report, the Eight Drivers of Change, analysing that whilst the pandemic has been a leading catalyst for change in the future of work, it is only one of many drivers of change. James talks through the emerging themes he has identified as a result of the drivers of changes, in particular exploring how changes to the labour market will see ongoing skills shortages and the pandemic meaning employers will be striving to restore a sense of belonging at work.  Finally, James makes some thought-provoking predictions for the future, predicting we will all work less hours yet work for longer.

Our seventh episode of our ‘In Conversation with…’ series features Philippa Wagner, creative strategist and thought leader with over 20 years’ experience in strategic trend forecasting and shaping the future of some of the world’s leading brands. 

Philippa explores the rise of the sustainability agenda and the response of businesses, together with their role in helping consumers make better choices.  Philippa shares her thoughts on brand activism and the increasing convergence between what employees and consumers want and expect from businesses today and in the future. Philippa also shares advice on creating an environmental strategy and redesigning office space, post pandemic, through the prism of wellbeing and our carbon footprint.

For more information about Philippa’s work, please visit her website. 

In our fourth podcast of the series, we talk to property workplace expert and change leader, Neil Usher. 

We discuss how the pandemic has caused us to question the purpose of the office, the future impact on our workspaces and the growing importance of sustainability. 

For those contemplating a return to the office, Neil offers advice on how to adopt an experimental mindset when designing a fantastic workspace for the future, without losing sight of employee wellbeing and workplace culture. 

For more information about Neil’s work, he can be found on Twitter @workessence.

In our second podcast of the series, we talk to Peter Cheese, Chief Executive of the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, championing better work and working lives. 
Peter discusses how 2020 has changed the agenda for businesses, the potential for the end of the 9 to 5 working day and the future of the office. We go on to discuss how people professionals should be planning for the future of work, the increasing importance of employee voice and why upskilling to futureproof your workforce is so important.
To learn more about the work of the CIPD and read their People Profession 2030: a collective view of future trends report, please click here.