The Crux of It

In this episode of  The Crux Of It , we sit down with entrepreneur and workplace strategist Zoe Ellis-Moore, founder of  Spaces to Places  and  Office Tier List , to explore the relationship between people, place and business. Drawing on more than two decades of experience across commercial property, destination marketing and entrepreneurship, Zoe shares why understanding human behaviour is at the...

In this episode of The Crux of It, Heather reflects on the journey of building Crux Design Studio, the future of the business, and the lessons learned from conversations with past podcast guests. The episode explores leadership, growth, creativity, culture, and the realities of building something meaningful over time, while also offering listeners the chance to get to know Heather beyond the role...

Expertise is often brought in to create clarity. In practice, it can introduce complexity. In this episode of  The Crux of It , Heather is joined by Louise to explore how advisory work shapes organisational outcomes as complexity increases. They discuss when organisations typically bring in external expertise, how accountability can subtly shift across advisors and teams, and why progress can slow...

Growth is often seen as a sign of progress, but as organisations scale, things rarely stay simple. In this episode of The Crux of It , I’m joined by Catherine Deane to explore what it takes to grow a business without losing sight of what matters. We discuss how decision-making shifts as complexity increases, why maintaining visibility becomes more difficult, and how the pressure to compromise can...

Technology is often described as a tool.    In reality, it behaves more like an environment.    In this episode of The Crux of It, I’m joined by Andrew from Uncoded to explore how digital systems quietly shape behaviour inside organisations. We talk about what happens when systems don’t align with how people actually work, why workarounds become normalised, and how confidence and decision-making c...

Leadership intent is rarely the problem inside organisations. Translation is. In this opening episode of The Crux of It, Heather speaks with Howard, a workplace strategy leader currently working at Electronic Arts, about leadership, innovation, productivity, and the conditions people actually need to do their best work. Speaking from personal experience rather than in an official capacity, we expl...