Spatial Attraction

Redefining Work In this episode of Spatial Attraction , Kursty Groves is in conversation with Jeremy Myerson about why the return-to-office debate refuses to settle. Together, they explore the “halfway house” we’re living in now: work that feels more flexible and more unsettled at the same time. Jeremy is Professor Emeritus at the Royal College of Art, founder of the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design...

Spatial Attraction is a podcast about the spaces we work in, and the forces that shape how we think, interact, and perform. In each episode, Kursty Groves explores the conditions people are working inside across physical, digital, social, cognitive, and temporal space - and what to notice, name, and redesign when those conditions are working against us. Support the show Spatial Attraction is writt...

Space for Trust In this episode of Spatial Attraction , Kursty Groves is in conversation with Rachel Botsman about how trust has been reorganised over time, and what that means for the spaces we work inside now. Together, they explore how trust is shaped by the conditions people are working inside, and how uncertainty, discomfort and friction interact with visibility, proximity and format to subtl...

What’s a better life? What’s a better office? Those two questions are inherently connected. Your workspace’s biggest challenge is to stay relevant, and it’s impossible to do so without obsessively making being in the physical workspace an incredible life experience. This is IKEA’s workspace development philosophy and in this episode, Momo Pavlovic shares how IKEA brings it to life through an infin...

What’s it like to design, build and operationalize a Workplace project during 2020 a Netflix office? What’s the workplace culture like? How does Netflix stay genuine?  Nasreen Potter from Netflix tells all about what it’s like to work there.  She shares the Netflix workplace philosophy, how they justify their office space investments, how they engage employees with relevant communication and the s...

What if you could have a ‘destination office’ rather than a bland office that people dread coming into?  How do you create spaces at work that energize people?  How do you make people look forward to their days in the office?  It’s not just hitting KPIs that creates value at work. Connection, community, and collaboration create immeasurable value. Tom Kegode and Kursty discuss how to use office sp...

Resilience - why doesn’t it work? Most people get resilience wrong.  In this episode, we’ll reframe what resilience really is and how to tap into it for yourself and your organization. Bruce Daisley and Kursty discuss the 3 pillars of resilience that people don’t usually take into account, the connection between childhood trauma and resilience, how your sense of identity can predict your well-bein...

How Does Your Office Space Manifest Your Culture? With David McKay How do spaces change the way we talk to each other? The way we feel about work? And the way we behave at work? David McKay from Innocent Drinks joins Kursty to discuss how their spaces manifest their company culture. They explore how spaces can bring people in, why they invested in a sustainable factory that’s filled with plants, h...

Solving hybrid work challenges requires us to talk less about desks and more about how we work. Emma Morley and Kursty discuss what it’s like to solve hybrid work, all the things that get in the way, and how to be more intentional in solving for it. Different stakeholders around the office often have conflicting and ever-changing requirements for what the office should be like and what it should b...

Plants can change your mood, so should offices have more of them around? Kali and Katie from The Glasshouse project join Kursty to discuss how plants can boost mental wellness, productivity, and creativity. They also chat about how having plants in the office can encourage staff to want to work from there rather than from home. Rediscover why you need more plants in your life throughout this episo...

Sonya Simmonds joins Kursty to discuss how to meaningfully bring out your brand through workplace and office design. They explore how office design impacts employee morale, productivity, and work ethic, why the ‘wow factor’ of designing office spaces shouldn’t stop at gimmicks and fragmented Instagramable spots, and Spotify’s Work From Anywhere program that allows staff to choose between a ‘home m...

In the final part of this series, listen in to the last two hot topic discussions from the LEGO workplace symposium on (1) designing spaces and (2) orchestrating purposeful meetings. During the discussion on designing office spaces, we discuss how to create spaces that break traditional norms and influence positive behaviours. You’ll discover insights on whether activity-based office space design...

Be a fly on the wall in two hot topic discussions that took place in the LEGO Workplace Symposium:  What is the purpose of the workplace?  Hybrid headaches over the past year  You’ll listen in on groups of executives from many large companies like Microsoft, Netflix, Unilever, Spotify, Ikea, and Booking.com discuss a range of topics about finding a compelling purpose for returning to the office an...

In the first part of this three-part special, Kursty and Sabine recap their experience at the LEGO Workplace Symposium in Billund, Denmark. The symposium focused on key issues in workplace design and experience. It was organized by the Ways of Working team and was attended by several corporate giants including Microsoft, Netflix, Unilever, Spotify, Ikea, and Booking.com. Kursty and Sabine share wh...

Scott Witthoft joins Kursty to discuss how we are becoming more intentional with how we use and divide physical and digital spaces. They explore many thought-provoking questions like: why do some things work in some places and not work in others? Are in-person meetings and activities catalysts for progress? And why are some office spaces abandoned? Scott and Kursty explore how the pandemic helped...

Jason Fried joins Kursty to share wisdom on how he runs a fully remote company by simplifying things and focusing on what matters. They explore where deep work happens, how to create space for it, why rigid workplace rules can kill passion and create distractions, and why companies that want to run remotely need to adopt a new mindset.  Jason Fried is the co-founder of Basecamp and has been runnin...

Trend forecaster Li Edelkoort joins Kursty to discuss the anatomy of trends, the ecology of fashion, and the post-pandemic workplace. Reflecting on the state of the world, Li discusses how to redesign the modern workplace to respond to new and upcoming trends. She explores how the pandemic has made us more in tune with nature and the good things that have come of it. Throughout the discussion, Li...

Interview with Ian Ellison and Chris Moriarty, two brilliant workplace thinkers 'on a mission to find and celebrate the most exciting and inspiring workplace research in the world'. A fascinating geek-out into Kursty's second book, Spaces for Innovation , which dives into the science and design of inspiring environments that support creativity and collaboration. Some of the topics c...

Summary  Expert author Rachel Botsman joins Kursty to discuss the relationship between trust and space. They talk about how significant it is for organisations to empower individuals to have a rhythm of work that sends them into immersion mode, why getting through to-do lists shouldn’t be the most prized priority in the workplace, and what negative capability is.  Rachel is the author of Who Can Y...

Summary  Workplace strategist Neil Usher joins Kursty to discuss the nuances of navigating hybrid work, brain states that trigger creativity, and the research opportunities we missed in the pre-pandemic world. In their conversation, they accentuate that what makes hybrid working complicated is not just the space aspect but the time aspect as well.  They chat about self-imposing discipline, interna...

Summary  Best-selling author Julia Hobsbawm joins Kursty to discuss her new book The Nowhere Office . In their discussion, they discuss how workplaces need to shift to embrace social health, how they can be a source of wellness, what managers need to do to overcome the 'Great Resignation', and the biggest powershift in the workplace.  Since Covid, people have strongly insisted on a genui...

Adding to the inspiring leaders in well-known organizations who share what they're doing and how they're implementing new ways of working, including hybrid, we'll look beyond physical space.  We'll explore my hypothesis is that there are three further types of space that impact how we think, feel, behave and interact in order to do our best work: digital space, social space and...

Interview with Sabine Ehm of Locatee, and host of The Workplace Leader. We dig into what makes inspiring work environments and touch upon some of the misconceptions around creativity and collaboration: ❗Collaboration does not equal everybody together all the time.  ❗Creativity does not equal bright colours and post its everywhere.  A thing will not make you or your people creative. So, for insta...

Summary Workplace experience expert Sudhir Saseedharan joins Kursty to discuss the opportunities the pandemic has presented in terms of reshaping work and the workplace. They talk about the four main pillars of the Tetra Pak workplace experience framework, why policies and frameworks should never be set in stone, and the realities of rolling out a framework globally.  While you might not have hear...

Summary  Timothy Ahrensbach and Anne Sofie Fedders from LEGO join Kursty to share insights from the hybrid work model they are currently implementing. Since the pandemic, the future of work has been one big experiment. Our perspective about work from home and hybrid work life has changed month by month since the beginning of COVID-19 lockdowns.  Tune in to hear Tim and Anne Sofie’s insights into h...