The Intelligent Workplace

Steve Clayton is Microsoft’s Chief Storyteller and General Manager of Microsoft’s Innovation, Culture and Stories team. The team is responsible for the company’s storytelling with a focus on employees, media, customers, partners and candidates. Steve and his team have a history of innovation in storytelling to bring the company’s mission to life for these audiences.

Steve was the architect of the acclaimed “88 Acres” story that heralded a new direction for Microsoft’s corporate storytelling and led to the creation of microsoft.com/stories. His team creates a wide variety of content including keynote demos for Satya Nadella, Microsoft Life, the company intranet, social channels and wide range of storytelling that has helped transform the culture of Microsoft.

Matt is a successful entrepreneur, seeing success with start-ups such as Build Kite Linktree. He has also been on the other side of the equation as a self proclaimed geek trying to get an idea off the ground.

Having co-founded investment firm Pick & Shovel, he was recently named CEO for new fintech venture, Tractor Ventures.

Kelly Michael, co-founder of Human Link, is an experienced psychology practitioner who specializes in positive psychology and wellbeing in the workplace. In this episode she dives into some of the current health and wellbeing issues facing companies and how to navigate them in the modern workplace.

Doc Williams got his start in digital marketing over 10 years ago and has worked in a wide array of companies along the way. From ESPN and the USA Olympic Medical Team to AppSumo and VaynerMedia. He also changed job types too, from being a teacher at community college to a CTO and CIO in three different startups. But he kept coming back to the real problem he wanted to solve. He wanted to develop a solution to help people learn skills more effectively to help them build their dream business.

Alastair Lynch knows how it feels to reach the pinnacle in professional sport. He played over 300 games in the AFL, captained the Brisbane Lions, and won 3 premierships. His was an impressive career, but one that was almost derailed due to a debilitating illness in his prime.

Have you been giving your credit card a bit of a work out with onlie shopping sprees during Covid? Did you ever stop and think about the complex distribution network that supports your online habit? I must admit that I didn’t, until I met Ahmed Javed, the Head of Marketing & Communications for EFL, a global supply chain company.

While many global businesses have been reducing operations during Covid, companies such as EFL may have never been busier. EFL may not be a household name (yet), but chances are they have distributed something to your home in the past. They have 60 offices in 25 countries and have been operating for 37 years!

The EFL story is one of complexity made simple by innovation, and it delivers a fascinating insight into an industry that many take for granted.

Nir Bashan is a world-renowned creativity expert. He has taught thousands of leaders and individuals around the globe how to harness the power of creativity to improve profitability, increase sales, improve customer service and ultimately create more meaning in their work.
He has worked on numerous albums, movies, and advertisements with famous actors and musicians ranging from Rod Stewart to Woody Harrelson. His work on creativity has won a Clio Award and was nominated for an Emmy.
Nir is the founder and CEO of The Creator Mindset LLC, a company that conducts workshops, consulting, coaching, and keynote speeches at conferences and corporate events. His clients include AT&T, Microsoft, Ace Hardware, NFL Network, EA Sports, Suzuki, Activision and jetBlue

Grant Chisnall is a Crisis Trainer, Advisor and Podcaster who has a passion for leadership, communication and decision-making. He has supported some of the world’s leading organisations through crisis events ranging from cyber attacks to coronavirus; activism to aircrashes; and from Natural disasters to workplace fatalities.

His Podcast, Crisis Talks tells the extraordinary stories of people who have led through crises and their stories of leadership and resilience in the face of adversity. Grant’s aim is to help leaders prepare for the worst-case scenarios and respond proactively and with confidence to any incidents that threaten their people, operations or reputation.

Craig Tiley was appointed the role of Chief Executive Officer of Tennis Australia in October 2013 and maintained his position as the Australian Open Tournament Director. Prior to this appointment, Craig was Tennis Australia’s Director of Tennis and the Tournament Director of the Australian Open, a position he has held since 2006.

As CEO Craig is responsible for all aspects of the sport of tennis in Australia. Craig manages a team of over 300 staff during the year, with a temporary staff of over 4,500 during the Australian Open.

Paul Conneally is Head of Global Communications at LiveTiles. In the past, Paul led the Public Communications Team for the International Red Cross Crescent and was on the ground in dozens of challenging contexts with conflict and disaster affected communities including Afghanistan, Sudan, Haiti, and most recently Iraq and Myanmar

Philippe Borremans is an independent Public Relations consultant specializing in Crisis and Risk Communications. He is one of the founders of Reputation & Co., a network of senior communications consultants active in Europe and Northern Africa.
Philippe has held high level international communications roles in companies such as IBM, Porter Novelli and the Van Marcke Trading Group. He is also a regular guest lecturer at the International University of Casablanca, the ISCAE Business School and several universities in Morocco, France, Belgium and Italy.

Callum is the Chair of AI Australia. He is a keynote speaker, author, entrepreneur, and has 20 years of global business experience.

AI Australia is a diverse group of companies that are at the forefront of AI technology in Australia.

Simon Tyrrell has had a long and successful career in the Tech world. Not bad for a failed academic (his words)! He may have a serious role as Chief Product Officer at LiveTiles, but he is also a big proponent for fun workplaces.

LIz McKenzie is Head of PR and Communications at Canva, based in Sydney. Liz previously held comms roles at CSIRO, Data 61 and Ogilvy PR. She has managed PR activities for companies such as Microsoft, Google, HTC and ATA&T.

Chris Adams is an expat American living in Australia and is the founder of the Orbit Media Group. He has worked with companies such as Amazon, Facebook, and Comcast. He’s a keynote speaker at technology and entrepreneurial conferences, and a children’s book author.

Chris has a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Mass Communication and a master’s of Fine Arts in Professional Writing. He combines his love of the written word with his passion for startups by assisting them with the art of corporate storytelling.

Nina is the Founder of Pure Minds and the co-author of the bestselling book Let That Sh*t Go – a book about how to find peace of mind and happiness in the everyday.
Nina has been studying mindfulness for over 20 years and practicing meditation for over a decade. Wanting to take her search for mindfulness more seriously, in 2010, she put her career on hold and moved to Northern California. There she took a 1-year course in meditation & classical spiritual philosophy through the Chinmaya Vedanta Center. During that year, she lived in an ashram in the Redwood forest and completely ‘unplugged’.
She now follows her passion and teaches mindfulness and meditation across various platforms. Coming from a corporate background, she is especially passionate about bringing mindfulness to the workplace, to help companies and employees become their best selves

Steve Clayton is Microsoft’s Chief Storyteller and General Manager of Microsoft’s Innovation, Culture and Stories team. The team is responsible for the company’s storytelling with a focus on employees, media, customers, partners and candidates. Steve and his team have a history of innovation in storytelling to bring the company’s mission to life for these audiences.

Steve was the architect of the acclaimed “88 Acres” story that heralded a new direction for Microsoft’s corporate storytelling and led to the creation of microsoft.com/stories. His team creates a wide variety of content including keynote demos for Satya Nadella, Microsoft Life, the company intranet, social channels and wide range of storytelling that has helped transform the culture of Microsoft.

Step Two is at the forefront of the Digital Employee Experience revolution. Their Managing Director, James Robertson, is a passionate advocate for DEX and shares his insights on this episode.

Sean Ferrel is the founder of Managed Solution, a award winning IT Services Consultancy from San Diego. He describes himself as “Subject Matter Expert on opinions”, and backs that claim up with 20 years experience in the Tech World. One of his passions is the science behind humanizing technology.

Gemma Lloyd, CEO and co-founder of Work180, has been an advocate for women her entire career. Work180 is a global jobs network, operating at the forefront of a new workplace revolution. With a new office in New York and London, Gemma can now amplify her efforts on a global scale.

Mental Health is one of those such issues, and it is having a real effect on the workplaces of today. Global statistics detailing the people affected by mental health issues are confronting. We must do more as a society to address the problem.

The Movember Foundation has been raising awareness for men’s health issues since 2008. Almost two decades later, and what began with 30 mates growing moustaches to raise funds, now boasts 5 million supporters Mo’ Bros and Mo’ Sistas. Recently, Movember has increased it’s focus on raising awareness of mental health issues.

On this episode, Movemeber Co-Founder Travis Garone discusses the the success of their movement and how we as a society are tackling mental health issues.

Tony Habschmidt has 10 years of HR consulting experience with the world’s largest HR consultancies, supporting senior leaders tackling their biggest workforce strategy issues.

Kirsty McGrath is the Managing Director of On-Point Solutions, and is an expert in User Adoption.
 
In this episode of The Intelligent Workplace, Kirsty shares her insights and experiences from over 20 years in the industry.

Sally Illingworth, is one of the new wave of influences with a network of 50,000 LinkedIn followers. She is an experienced Content Marketing Strategist who is an engaging presenter.

Sally is also passionate about diversity in the workplace. #brainsoverbreasts is her online campaign that recognises women for their intellect, not their inherent female body features.

Larry Quick, is the founder of Resilient Futures, a company that specialises in working with their clients to leverage disruption in their industry. He is also the co-author of “Disrupted: Strategy for Exponential Change” and the original developer of the Strategy in Action framework.

Penny Locaso isn’t afraid to shake things up and go all in on what she believes in. She launched BKindred in 2015 and turned her life upside down in doing so. She quit a successful career as an executive, called time on an 18 year relationship and relocated her family across the country. She was searching for happiness and wouldn’t quit until she found it!

Debbie Ireland is the Managing Director of ShareThePoint Ltd, a New Zealand company that specialises in Office 365 and SharePoint training. Debbie’s involvement in the tech industry doesn’t stop there, she also manages the Annual Digital Workplace Conference in Australia and New Zealand.

Other than running her business and organising conferences, Debbie is all about people…understanding what makes them tick and how to get the best out of them alongside the amazing technology we use in our daily lives. I thought I would borrow upon her expertise to discuss something that has been mentioned quite frequently in some of my interviews lately…Change Management.

Heather Newman is a woman of many talents. Not only is she an established podcaster, host of the Mavens Do It Better podcast, but she is also a Microsoft MVP, CMO at Content Panda and CEO of marketing consulting firm, Creative Maven. Add to those responsibilities that she is also a highly sought after public speaker, and its fair to say that I was truly grateful to be able to grab some of her time recently!

On this episode I speak with Lee-Ann Dias, a Partner Solutions Professional at Microsoft, who is thumbing her nose at the statistics. Lee-Ann’s has worked in areas from Customer Success to Technical and Business Development.
 
Lee-Ann is poster child for the The Woman in Tech movement. Her career began off the back of a university degree in computer science and has continued to soar.

Saul Sabath is the Managing Director of Velrada, a global business advisory and digital transformation consultancy that have worked with leading companies such as BHP, Mitsubishi and Treasury Wine Estates. They are also a Triple Crown Microsoft partner and won 2018’s Microsoft Partner of the Year for Dynamics 365 Field Service.

Saul has over 20 years experience in a number of leading edge IT consultancies, working with clients in financial services, higher education, manufacturing, and community care, helping those organizations to improve and accelerate their business in the digital age. He is well versed in many business disciplines.

I invited the President of the Women In Tech Network, Christine Bongard, on to the podcast to help me explore the topic of diversity in the workplace. The WIT network is a community of professional men and women who encourage and assist women and girls to pursue careers in the technology sector, enable women to attain leadership positions and advance their career and support female entrepreneurs.

In this episode I speak with Ash De Zylva, a Customer Success Manager for Microsoft who is very passionate about the human element of the Intelligent Workplace. In fact, his passion for helping his customers recently saw him be awarded a Microsoft Gold Club award. The Gold Club award recognizes the extraordinary performance of individuals who transform and contribute to the overall success and growth of Microsoft. A great reward for all of his hard work.

Alyse Sue is at the forefront of a new wave of young and energetic tech influencers who are dreaming big in a fast moving tech world that is only too happy to support their dreams and ideas. Alyse has a rich and varied skill set that she’s assembled from her experiences as a software developer, a freelance tech writer and an entrepreneur. Once a founding member of KPMGs Innovate Team, Alyse has co-founded three ventures since including a genomic data machine learning startup and her latest venture, Transhumanism Australia.

Priya Gore is a Global Black Belt and Director of AI & Advanced Analytics for Microsoft Americas. She is an experienced Tech executive and has worked in a number of high level positions across the industry, Priya now enjoys helping clients solve their toughest and most challenging business problem. She champions diversity in the workplace, supports the Women In Technology movement and was a founder in the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners in New England.
Aside from all of her amazing work she does in the industry, she is also a wealth of knowledge when it comes to Artificial Intelligence specifically the ethics of implementing AI solutions.

Sam Conway is the CEO of Zegami, a visual search and analytics solution. Zegami transforms visual data into information by combining media, data and AI. It simplifies an organizations interaction with large data sets.

By exploring visual representations of their data, users can uncover valuable insights. They can explore things like employee information, sporting statistics, and even non-traditional data sources like Instagram feeds. Zegami identifies outliers, biases, patterns and correlations within data sets.

From a very early age, Dean Corcoran was inquisitive about everything! It started in his backyard as a youngster, where he would explore the natural wonders he found under rocks, up trees and in the dirt. Fast forward into his adult life and that sense of wonder hasn’t disappeared, but now he’s in a new backyard. And that backyard is the fast paced world of Microsoft.
 
Dean is a Data and AI Solutions Strategist for Microsoft Australia. He works with businesses to integrate the latest technologies that drive workplace improvement. Technologies such as Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things. Dean believes that tech must symbiotically be part of the world we work, live and play in to be beneficial. This idea is something that rings true with the Intelligent Workplace concept.

I am taking a different approach to this episode, looking at the concept of the Intelligent Workplace from another angle. In this episode, my guest Matt Moore introduces the topic of the Unintelligent Organisation. I know that sounds a little different to the direction of the previous episodes, but trust me on this one.

Matt, a lecturer at the University of Technology, has over 20 years experience working in diverse roles such as Knowledge Management, IT Design and Strategy and Collaboration Management. Matt prides himself on bringing people together in new ways to create new ideas, new products and new experiences…enabling smart people to achieve their potential.

Cameron Smith from the highly regarded Australian ICT Services provider, SXIQ, joins Chris’ podcast. His experience is broad, financial services, Insurance, Construction and Communications, and his understanding of the world of technology is top notch, with many years’ experience in enterprise architecture, application development and digital transformation supporting and organisational strategy.

Gregg Lederman was described to me by a colleague, as a must have on this podcast. He is also the founder of Brand Integrity, a leadership development and employee engagement company and has 20 years of experience working within organisation on implementing engagement solutions.

James Dellow describes himself as a human-centered designer and technology strategist. The attributes make him the perfect guest for this new podcast series.
 
This series is all about exploring the many possibilities the Intelligent Workplace presents. Where can we go with it, how do we get there and what technologies will we pick up for the ride along the way. In this episode, James focuses on the human element of the Intelligent Workplace.