Four Days in London

I am on day four (the final one) of my first trip to London since the pandemic started. The city is definitely alive and vibrant, people are on the streets (but in way less suits and ties then I have ever seen), the traffic is slow (ask any cabbie and there are plenty of reasons why) and events are back (from conferences to a full-ish Wembley Stadium)

I came over for the hybrid Economist Impact Events - Innovation@Work event. It appealed to me for a number of reasons - the content and topics were very relevant to my world (Future of Work), the panelists and attendees (with the literal exception of one person) were unknown to me and they had a specific track on Gen Z with a multitude of diversity topics.

Some musings on the event:

The event was mainly HR and IT executives (I met a handful of RE/Workplace/Property). For me that was the appeal - seeing a different angle on the future of work that a place/building centric one. The convergence of RE/WP/IT and HR is going to be critical,

I think there is still too much focus on "how many days in the office" as a talk track. To me, it is not relevant. The question needs to be what tasks are required by individual, team and department and where are they best carried out.

How we manage the effectiveness of space/place v. task will be critical (as with the tools to optimize how to enable that).

Bruce Daisley cited the five main reasons for a physical space as:

Meeting by appointment

Meeting by accident (I had two of those this week that added incredible value)

Workshops

Learning

Team cohesion

He also invoked the mighty Jurgen Klopp (which is always a winner from me) with the key message - we need to "move from me to we". He further asserted some great content from Leesman that revealed the only group that preferred to be in the office was bosses.

I LOVED the conversations and presentations from the DEI and Gen Z track. I admired the speakers and their drive. I could never have contemplated the insights that Milimo Banji provided in 10 minutes on "Attracting Black Talent".

Mils' session really pulled my attention and made me realize how little I knew. The importance of the influencer, the lack of support for recruitment teams, lack of investment in black communities and jumping straight in were cited as challenges in recruiting black Gen Z talent. The perception of the younger generation goes a lot further than posting a black square on Instagram. You need to live those values and have boards and teams that reflect that.

You also need to ensure you are targeting the niche communities for recruitment. Mils cited 7 and I had never heard of any of them. The platform focus for recruiting Gen Z black talent is also different - YouTube and Instagram being the most effective. His focus on intentionality really resonated, as well as providing support (and learning from) unsuccessful black candidates.

Kaylin Tan held a great session on The Perfect Manager and Mentor - her messaging around holding your graduates hand, explaining the corporate world and being a role model all rang true (but I fear is often lost in the pressures of delivery and schedules)

The content provided by Tanya Marwaha on "What Diversity in the Workplace means to Younger Generations" was again enlightening. 56% of those aged between 18 and 24 would hesitate to take a job if there were no minority or traditionally marginalized demographics represented in the company's SLT. Her comments on "lending power" hit home - more opportunities, the right tools and contributing to decision making.

I learned about intersectionality from Zareen and wanted to share the definition she cited, authored by Alicia Garza:

"Diversity is what happens when you have representation of various groups in one place. Representation is what happens when groups that haven't previously been included are included, Intersectionality is what happens when we do everything through the lens of making sure that no one is left behind"

Employees who experience negative touchpoints in the workplace are 40% less productive and 13 times more likely to leave.

I leave London refreshed with a renewed excitement for the future. I am already looking forward to the next time I am back!