Latest / The DEX Show: A Show for IT Change Makers / Storytelling as Strategy: DEX Strategy 1:1 with Laura Reeves

Transcript

Storytelling as Strategy: DEX Strategy 1:1 with Laura Reeves · The DEX Show: A Show for IT Change Makers

0:02
Speaker 1: Hey, it change Makers, and welcome to the Deck Show
0:05
Speaker 1: with Tom mc grath. Let's get into it.
0:10
Speaker 2: It's the Deck Show, it's Tom mcgra here with you today,
0:12
Speaker 2: and it's a very very special and unique occasion for me.
0:16
Speaker 2: I have to say, right, because as as Deck Show
0:20
Speaker 2: host and Next thinker, I get to work with a
0:24
Speaker 2: lot of really good people and good friends. I've I've
0:28
Speaker 2: been doing this a few years, so across Next Think
0:30
Speaker 2: I've got a lot of people I count as as
0:32
Speaker 2: friends and even close friends. And this this person, I,
0:36
Speaker 2: you know, not to pick favorites, but she's she's definitely
0:39
Speaker 2: up there. She is definitely up there, and she's so
0:42
Speaker 2: up there that in all these years I've been doing
0:45
Speaker 2: this show, it never occurred to me to invite her own,
0:48
Speaker 2: which I which you could say, indicate something really terrible,
0:52
Speaker 2: or in fact indicates I think, so I couldn't see
0:54
Speaker 2: the wood for the trees. I was so I was
0:56
Speaker 2: so close to this person. I could just never imagine
0:58
Speaker 2: recording one of our conversation. And it took somebody else
1:01
Speaker 2: to say, hey, why don't you invite Laura reeves On
1:04
Speaker 2: suddenly seemed like the most obvious best idea I'd heard
1:07
Speaker 2: all day and for a long a lot longer than
1:10
Speaker 2: a day, and I'm delighted to welcome her for the
1:14
Speaker 2: first time to this show. Laura, Hello, and introduce yourself,
1:19
Speaker 2: and if the audience don't know you, tell them who
1:21
Speaker 2: you are and what you do for us.
1:24
Speaker 3: Thank you for that intro, Tom, And yes, I mean
1:26
Speaker 3: as my next Think bestie. I'm honored to be here.
1:29
Speaker 3: So yes, I mean, as you said. We've known each
1:31
Speaker 3: other for over seven years and I do feel like
1:33
Speaker 3: we could have recorded many of our chats and made
1:36
Speaker 3: them into a podcast. I'm so glad we finally are,
1:38
Speaker 3: so thank you for the warm welcome. So just introduce myself.
1:42
Speaker 3: I'm Laura Reeves. I live in London and I'm a
1:44
Speaker 3: client director at next Sinc. And in my capacity that
1:48
Speaker 3: means holding overall responsibility for the relationships in partnership between Nextinc.
1:53
Speaker 3: And some of our most innovative scales and complex clients,
1:57
Speaker 3: and I acts as a strategic sponsor and executive connection
2:01
Speaker 3: for those clients.
2:02
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I meant to say, you know, I often end
2:05
Speaker 2: up through you, Laura, were getting to work with some
2:07
Speaker 2: of the most impressive dex professionals, some of the really
2:10
Speaker 2: world leading digital workplaces. It's it's always fascinating. The partnerships
2:15
Speaker 2: you strike up at the industry always super valuable. And
2:18
Speaker 2: is it is it seven years? I don't think it's
2:20
Speaker 2: quite It's probably seven years for you, pushing near to
2:23
Speaker 2: seven years for me, Isn't that isn't that? Isn't that crazy?
2:26
Speaker 2: And you've had an unusual path in dex right you didn't.
2:31
Speaker 2: You didn't just start out in this world. Maybe give
2:33
Speaker 2: us the overview of that journey first of all for
2:35
Speaker 2: you on a personal.
2:36
Speaker 3: Level, that's true, and time does fly, and you're right,
2:39
Speaker 3: we'll have to celebrate our seven year I don't know
2:42
Speaker 3: next singniversary together, but yeah, you're quite right. So yeah,
2:45
Speaker 3: and you're and you're right. I did and you know,
2:48
Speaker 3: and I remember you joining and I knew we'd get
2:50
Speaker 3: along just fine, And it seems like just yesterday. But yeah,
2:54
Speaker 3: at that time that I joined, we were around four
2:57
Speaker 3: hundred employees and gosh, I mean, look how we rocketed
3:00
Speaker 3: and scaled into a three point two billion dollar company
3:04
Speaker 3: at the forefront of AI powered decks. And mean, I'm
3:08
Speaker 3: not saying it's because of us entirely. I'm proud to
3:14
Speaker 3: say we've played our part in this journey. So as
3:17
Speaker 3: you say, I've had a nonlinear journey at next think
3:21
Speaker 3: and I think, actually many career journeys in reality are
3:24
Speaker 3: like an undulating or squiggly line. And yeah, I mean
3:29
Speaker 3: casting my mind. Back in February twenty nineteen, I was
3:32
Speaker 3: actually hired to run and form a marketing strategy for
3:35
Speaker 3: Northern Europe region, which is next thing's largest region in
3:38
Speaker 3: a MEA. And that formative period was really interesting for
3:42
Speaker 3: me because I spent time getting out there, as you
3:45
Speaker 3: just said, meeting technology leaders at organizations across Europe. And
3:48
Speaker 3: it's fair to say that the decks market was relatively
3:52
Speaker 3: immature compared to now, but technology leaders across industries I
3:57
Speaker 3: saw recognized the shift that was happening and had to happen.
4:01
Speaker 3: That the most important component, or one of the most
4:04
Speaker 3: important components of the workplace happens at a screen, and
4:08
Speaker 3: that is too important for it to not have a
4:11
Speaker 3: seat at the strategic table. That reactively fixing things without
4:16
Speaker 3: data is an unsustainable way to operate around your primary
4:19
Speaker 3: source of wealth creation, your people. So I became invested
4:24
Speaker 3: in the stories i'd hear and see forming from meeting
4:27
Speaker 3: organizations and This is a fixation that you know, stays
4:30
Speaker 3: with me today. And it's particularly significant for, as you said,
4:34
Speaker 3: for you and I because we worked on many exciting
4:36
Speaker 3: public projects together, including some successful PR work where I
4:41
Speaker 3: recognize you are a better interviewer than me. Indeed so
4:46
Speaker 3: and that's partly because you, you know, I think I
4:49
Speaker 3: offer too much when I'm in you know, when I'm
4:51
Speaker 3: trying to interview, because I try and support the person
4:53
Speaker 3: that's speaking and get too into it. You actually are
4:55
Speaker 3: so much better at sitting back and listening like you're
4:57
Speaker 3: doing now. So I guess the highlight of my th
5:00
Speaker 3: First yet Next Think was running an x LA road
5:03
Speaker 3: show and across the UK, and of course hosting Next
5:06
Speaker 3: Thinks Experience conference. My gosh, how much that's grown. And
5:10
Speaker 3: that one was in London and I was able to
5:12
Speaker 3: work with the likes of Toyota Johnson and Johnson and
5:15
Speaker 3: of course the deer late Alan Nance to present on
5:17
Speaker 3: stage about the rise and potential of decks.
5:20
Speaker 2: So the host back in twenty nineteen, Laura, Yeah, yes,
5:25
Speaker 2: that was just before I joined.
5:28
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, yes, gosh, so well, and I guess then
5:31
Speaker 3: just to add on to that then, so as well
5:32
Speaker 3: as Northern Europe. I also then moved on to have
5:37
Speaker 3: the pleasure of also working with our Middle East region,
5:40
Speaker 3: which obviously my heart felt thoughts are with you at
5:42
Speaker 3: this tumultuous time, but I was. I was astounded by
5:47
Speaker 3: the passion and investment in DEX in the Middle East region,
5:50
Speaker 3: particularly in Egypt and UAE and Saldi at the time.
5:54
Speaker 3: And this was including meeting household names and in financial institutions.
5:59
Speaker 3: And then this is an interesting period to look back
6:02
Speaker 3: on now around lockdown, I then did I made my
6:05
Speaker 3: first major shift. I explored a fantastic opportunity to establish
6:09
Speaker 3: Next Thing's Digital Marketing department, which was really in my eyes,
6:13
Speaker 3: a global mechanism to be able to expand storytelling at scale,
6:18
Speaker 3: which became even more pertinent during the pandemic. So I
6:22
Speaker 3: was establishing and scaling up a department and that would
6:24
Speaker 3: help our industry create, discover and interact with content and
6:27
Speaker 3: information needed to navigate the shifting and transforming DEX landscape,
6:32
Speaker 3: for example by working with search engines on discoverability around
6:36
Speaker 3: deck subjects. And one key project I know that we
6:38
Speaker 3: were kind of both involved in was establishing the DEX Hub,
6:43
Speaker 3: which is a go to digital destination for DEX industry
6:47
Speaker 3: content now and certifications, and it's brilliant to see how
6:50
Speaker 3: vibrant and busy that is today.
6:53
Speaker 2: And it was.
6:53
Speaker 3: Interesting to be building something through lockdown because we found
6:56
Speaker 3: that the demand and narrative around DEX amplify organizations almost overnight.
7:02
Speaker 3: And we could see that in the digital world and
7:04
Speaker 3: what the market was searching for online, especially those who
7:08
Speaker 3: had to rapidly transform like never before to support a
7:10
Speaker 3: hybrid and in many cases remote workforce. And I remember
7:14
Speaker 3: the phrase new normal coming up so much. You remember that,
7:19
Speaker 3: And I mean I mentioned narrative and I mentioned storytelling
7:22
Speaker 3: because regardless of my role, my favorite part was always
7:25
Speaker 3: engaging with technology leaders and teams to keep me dialed
7:28
Speaker 3: into reality and bring out their stories. And I mean,
7:32
Speaker 3: you'll know this, you'll laugh at this. Often the leaders
7:34
Speaker 3: who are self admittedly the most humble to use a
7:37
Speaker 3: kind word, at showcasing their achievements are the ones that
7:40
Speaker 3: make for the most groundbreaking, show stealing stories. And coming
7:44
Speaker 3: out of Lockdown into twenty twenty two having established a
7:48
Speaker 3: digital marketing department which could run beautifully without me and
7:52
Speaker 3: today has a fantastic team driving it and obviously you
7:56
Speaker 3: played a huge role in that. I took an interim
7:58
Speaker 3: role in twenty twenty two run Emere wide marketing and
8:02
Speaker 3: supporting a brilliant field marketing team there to run the
8:06
Speaker 3: first Experience conference series tour in Europe Europe Wide since Lockdown,
8:10
Speaker 3: and which again a huge personal highlight for me was
8:13
Speaker 3: working with Honeywell with their wonderful VP of IT t
8:17
Speaker 3: at the time, Darren Wright, who stepped on stage and
8:19
Speaker 3: showcase their transformational journey to establish a scalable IT ecosystem
8:24
Speaker 3: that slashed human raised tickets permanently and shifted their services
8:29
Speaker 3: to become a system of record almost for proactivity.
8:31
Speaker 2: Really groundbreaking case study, right like clone in what DEX
8:35
Speaker 2: can do and the willingness of DEX practitioners to demonstrate
8:40
Speaker 2: their success that you sort of worked with him on.
8:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, and actually I mean it's you know, people
8:45
Speaker 3: still watch it, you know, to this day. And he
8:48
Speaker 3: basically spoke about how over the time seventy percent of
8:51
Speaker 3: the tickets were proctively raised and solved by next Thing
8:53
Speaker 3: automations and that was that was huge. And then I guess,
8:57
Speaker 3: just to kind of bring us back to the present,
8:59
Speaker 3: a few months after that in twenty twenty three, I
9:02
Speaker 3: took the role that I have today to be at
9:04
Speaker 3: the forefront of our new global client organizations. Yeah, definitely
9:08
Speaker 3: a squiggly line, but an exciting one.
9:11
Speaker 2: The through line of that'squiggly lion, Perhaps Laura is storytelling.
9:16
Speaker 2: Would you agree from different from different facets and angles,
9:20
Speaker 2: you know, that's for consistent, recurring motif here. Do you
9:23
Speaker 2: agree with that?
9:24
Speaker 3: Oh? Absolutely yes, And I think it's just a fixation
9:27
Speaker 3: that I'll continue on. And you know, I think I'm
9:29
Speaker 3: always looking for the narrative and the headline and the story,
9:32
Speaker 3: and I'm fascinated by you know, people's ability, you know,
9:35
Speaker 3: to bring that forward and kind of unlock that for
9:37
Speaker 3: some people as well. So I'll never stop that. That
9:40
Speaker 3: is definitely a motif.
9:42
Speaker 2: As you say, well, I we'll explore that a little
9:44
Speaker 2: more in some of the some of the later conversation,
9:46
Speaker 2: but before we do, just let's just stop and consider
9:49
Speaker 2: the evolution of decks itself during that time period. Now
9:53
Speaker 2: pushing a little bit nearer to a decade and a half,
9:55
Speaker 2: a decade right spent in decks and maybe using some
10:00
Speaker 2: example or examples as specific as possible, how is the
10:03
Speaker 2: status and scope of what decks can do evolved during
10:07
Speaker 2: that time period. What do you think what examples would
10:10
Speaker 2: you choose to illustrate that evolution That.
10:13
Speaker 3: There's so much just to say, and this I mean,
10:16
Speaker 3: I guess, I mean that kind of sounds on a
10:18
Speaker 3: cliche to say, but I guess we were experiencing like
10:20
Speaker 3: this looking forward. But the evolution of decks can only
10:23
Speaker 3: be appreciated now looking backwards, and it's interesting to reflect
10:26
Speaker 3: on it. So the biggest shift I've seen can be
10:28
Speaker 3: described probably in like the quality of the questions and
10:30
Speaker 3: discussions in the industry. So you know, seven six, seven
10:34
Speaker 3: years ago, it was well, kind of what is dex
10:36
Speaker 3: and what is an x l A And we're just
10:38
Speaker 3: trying to fix issues faster. And at the time I
10:40
Speaker 3: remember trying to use analogies to explain the current state,
10:43
Speaker 3: like watermelon it which is a classic one, which is yes,
10:46
Speaker 3: if you fix things faster and meet the KPI designed
10:49
Speaker 3: around a broken system, it will all look green on
10:53
Speaker 3: the surface, but slice into that green watermelon, it's red.
10:55
Speaker 3: At the time, that's quite groundbreaking and it's still relevant today,
10:59
Speaker 3: but it's you know, we were saying it's read because
11:01
Speaker 3: most users, don't raise tickets and the real impactful work
11:04
Speaker 3: to be done to be brilliant at the basics, which
11:07
Speaker 3: is a phrase I love, and drive beyond traditional esslay
11:10
Speaker 3: is in the underreported and unreported issues in your environment.
11:14
Speaker 3: The focus at the time was on visibility. You know,
11:17
Speaker 3: the visibility was a term that was rising in response
11:20
Speaker 3: and you know, as many organizations put it, they were
11:23
Speaker 3: switching the lights on for the first time. Now fast
11:27
Speaker 3: forward a few years, it was a very exciting time
11:30
Speaker 3: when the Forester wave came out and there's Gartner Magic
11:33
Speaker 3: quadrants arrived because they really planted a flag in decks
11:39
Speaker 3: and for next think it's been a wonderful recognition of
11:41
Speaker 3: our organizations like Relentless Innovation to continue to lead and
11:45
Speaker 3: define the space. And for me, it's been interesting to see,
11:50
Speaker 3: you know, specifically, job roles and organizations change to reflect that.
11:54
Speaker 3: I see dex managers, I see experience directors, I see
11:56
Speaker 3: chief experience officers, I see digital experience offices being created,
12:01
Speaker 3: experience management offices. It's been tremendous to see it. Professionals
12:05
Speaker 3: gain career capital by elevating their focus on experience, which
12:09
Speaker 3: gives them a seat to the strategic table now. I
12:12
Speaker 3: guess I started off talking about conversations. The quality of
12:15
Speaker 3: conversation now is around driving experience equity, optimizing the productive
12:21
Speaker 3: potential of colleagues, making intelligent, insight driven decisions on hardware
12:25
Speaker 3: and software, benchmarking decks, mobilizing dex ops, establishing experience management
12:31
Speaker 3: offices that can transcend it and be wide and horizontal,
12:35
Speaker 3: and of course managing the rise of agenda. AI. We're
12:37
Speaker 3: having completely different conversation now than we were those many
12:41
Speaker 3: years ago. So I think that's the I guess, the
12:44
Speaker 3: most simple way I can explain how much has moved on.
12:48
Speaker 2: Well, put, I was going to say, as well, you
12:50
Speaker 2: mentioned a new normal a minute ago. To what extent
12:53
Speaker 2: do you think that was something of a catalyst in
12:56
Speaker 2: elevating it professionals roles, Right, Like, that whole period you
13:00
Speaker 2: described where everybody, everybody was haddingly pushed to work from
13:03
Speaker 2: home seemed to kind of reorientate the way it was
13:06
Speaker 2: seen in so many organizations, right.
13:09
Speaker 3: I totally agree, And actually, and I think we saw
13:11
Speaker 3: that firsthand, you know, from organizations speaking to us about
13:15
Speaker 3: the fact that we did not have a remote working
13:18
Speaker 3: strategy as a company, and overnight, we had to have
13:21
Speaker 3: one and all of a sudden, you know it, you know,
13:24
Speaker 3: weren't those people fixing things, They were at the at
13:27
Speaker 3: the helm of driving this change. And so it came
13:30
Speaker 3: more of a transformation conversation. You know. We we've spoke
13:34
Speaker 3: with you know a few organizations that said, this gave
13:37
Speaker 3: us the right to innovate, which is really powerful and
13:40
Speaker 3: I do think it genuinely, you know, organizations that really
13:42
Speaker 3: leaned into this and saw actually that it should have
13:46
Speaker 3: a seat at the strategic table boocause Actually, when things
13:49
Speaker 3: like this happen, these huge changes, these unpredictable things happening,
13:53
Speaker 3: having the right data and the people to help navigate
13:56
Speaker 3: it is transformational and change will continue to happen, and
14:00
Speaker 3: so I'm glad to see that it continue to have
14:03
Speaker 3: a seat at the Strateio say, well, but I agree
14:04
Speaker 3: with you. I think I think that lockdown was a
14:06
Speaker 3: huge catalyst for many organizations to put it in the
14:09
Speaker 3: spotlight for all the right reasons.
14:12
Speaker 2: And so different is a different angle on the storytelling
14:16
Speaker 2: motif right, As we mentioned, so joined around the same time,
14:21
Speaker 2: and I really remember, for a former boss you've seen
14:25
Speaker 2: doing your scenes, I doing a presentation out in Lausanne
14:28
Speaker 2: in Switzerland, where he kind of sketched a future facing
14:32
Speaker 2: dream for decks right, which was specifically I guess the
14:35
Speaker 2: next thing because it pertained to the Digital Experience score specifically,
14:39
Speaker 2: which is that, you know, maybe even in the future,
14:42
Speaker 2: in five years and ten years whatever he was thinking
14:44
Speaker 2: people would in somebody or some people in their job interviews,
14:49
Speaker 2: they might ask a question of the interviewers, you know,
14:54
Speaker 2: what is your digital experience? You know? And I you know.
14:58
Speaker 2: Regardless of the quaintness of that specific imagined interaction, the
15:02
Speaker 2: idea that DEX could be like a component in an
15:06
Speaker 2: employer brand was extremely interesting and if ambitious, also like
15:13
Speaker 2: a worthwhile ambition to kind of keep in mind as
15:15
Speaker 2: an organization. Ultimately though, it's never going to be next
15:19
Speaker 2: Thing's job to sort of command that that kind of
15:22
Speaker 2: status the DEX, but to try and facilitate it, to
15:25
Speaker 2: try and encourage it. Almost ten years later, you know,
15:29
Speaker 2: where do you think that that storyline currently stands and
15:32
Speaker 2: where do you see it going next?
15:35
Speaker 3: That's a great question, and that would be so cool.
15:37
Speaker 3: I think organizations do recognize largely that wealth creation, especially
15:42
Speaker 3: in high knowledge work environments, is built by productive people.
15:47
Speaker 3: And you know, it's fair to say that dex certainly
15:49
Speaker 3: broadens your data landscape of how organizations operate by providing
15:54
Speaker 3: observability into the employee systems of productivity. So organizations focus
15:59
Speaker 3: on max this understand the power of having market leading
16:04
Speaker 3: employer brand to attract and retain the best talent. And
16:07
Speaker 3: it's a real challenge even for you know, market leading
16:10
Speaker 3: organizations to continue, you know, kind of that race, right,
16:14
Speaker 3: and it's ever more crucial, you know, in a world
16:16
Speaker 3: where I know, we continue to say this but climbing
16:19
Speaker 3: complexity to manage the needs and expectations often consumer grade
16:24
Speaker 3: expectations of employees in an hybrid and a diverse global workforce.
16:29
Speaker 3: And I guess the rise we're seeing in organizations establishing
16:32
Speaker 3: experience offices demonstrates employers taking this very seriously, I guess
16:36
Speaker 3: to your point, but yes, it would be so cool
16:39
Speaker 3: potential employees asked about a question about the deck scot
16:42
Speaker 3: But I think the expectation around what a productive and
16:45
Speaker 3: healthy working environment and how employees are rising to construct
16:49
Speaker 3: it demonstrates the awareness of this area. Kind of to
16:52
Speaker 3: your point.
16:55
Speaker 2: Another angle on the same kind of topic, which is
16:59
Speaker 2: employee ee branding from employer branding to employee branding, which
17:03
Speaker 2: is maybe where a bit, which is where I think
17:05
Speaker 2: we're significantly more advanced, and we've already touched upon it
17:08
Speaker 2: in terms of the evolution of the profile, the strategic
17:12
Speaker 2: profile of the professional. But more generally, how do you
17:19
Speaker 2: see the development of this trend going forward in twenty
17:21
Speaker 2: twenty six and one of the most effective exemplars and
17:25
Speaker 2: evangelists of decks doing well in their organizations that that
17:29
Speaker 2: I know, particularly you get to work with.
17:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, And obviously, as you know, this is a big,
17:33
Speaker 3: big personal interest of mine. I mean think just the
17:36
Speaker 3: concept of personal branding, right and storytelling such an important
17:39
Speaker 3: vehicle for that, So I mean I totally agree. So,
17:42
Speaker 3: and I recall actually a few years ago it must
17:45
Speaker 3: be now next think did release the Career Capital Report,
17:48
Speaker 3: because I guess at the time we were seeing a
17:50
Speaker 3: trend that you're kind of alluding to in technology professionals able.
17:55
Speaker 3: You know, we're are kind of being empowered to advance
17:58
Speaker 3: their personal visible in personal brand and advance their career
18:03
Speaker 3: by removing their worth from being the person that fixes
18:07
Speaker 3: stuff by being the go to person that understands experience
18:10
Speaker 3: and experienced data that can help organizations meaningfully navigate transformation
18:14
Speaker 3: decisions and drive employee productivity with insight. So I guess
18:19
Speaker 3: the key word right now in productivity is friction. So
18:23
Speaker 3: friction is poison. And there are two layers of friction,
18:26
Speaker 3: technology performance friction eating away employee productivity and digital dexterity
18:31
Speaker 3: friction the ability for colleagues to adopt and effectively utilize
18:35
Speaker 3: the technology manage this in a meaningful way. Even small
18:39
Speaker 3: incremental gains add up and scale in huge ways. And
18:43
Speaker 3: I think the individuals that understand that and understand how
18:46
Speaker 3: to create the right narratives around this are the ones
18:50
Speaker 3: that start to really put the spotlight them a spotlight
18:53
Speaker 3: on themselves in a very powerful way. And I guess
18:56
Speaker 3: asually so many things are popping into my head. Just
18:58
Speaker 3: to follow up on your last question too. I believe
19:01
Speaker 3: the dex's movement has come such a long way, as
19:04
Speaker 3: we've said, and there is so much potential still because
19:07
Speaker 3: there are huge shifts in the workplace now right and
19:10
Speaker 3: I see des becoming even more significant and critical with
19:12
Speaker 3: the rise of agentic AI. And this is where I
19:15
Speaker 3: believe technology leaders can really advance themselves personally Further, so
19:19
Speaker 3: to your question, the people who are the best are
19:22
Speaker 3: the ones that align to their company strategy and figure
19:26
Speaker 3: out a way to contribute their narrative in a way
19:28
Speaker 3: that passes the Silwat test. So what is your company's
19:32
Speaker 3: currency of success? What matters? It is so easy to
19:36
Speaker 3: be strected by cool stuff and cool technology and to
19:38
Speaker 3: monitor this and tinker away at this, But are you
19:41
Speaker 3: contributing to the company's data horizon, data driven decisions on
19:45
Speaker 3: transformation and ultimately your ability for your people to be productive.
19:49
Speaker 3: The people that are good at understanding where they can
19:53
Speaker 3: be part of that conversation are the ones that catapult
19:57
Speaker 3: themselves in a really exciting way. And we see it.
20:00
Speaker 3: We see people elevating themselves, you know, kind of out
20:03
Speaker 3: of the trugery of fixing stuff into really productive transformation
20:07
Speaker 3: or strategic conversation. So that's why, that's where what gets
20:10
Speaker 3: I guess certainly me very excited to see that.
20:12
Speaker 2: And there's individuals so interesting, there's a there's a parallel.
20:16
Speaker 2: In fact, there was there was a space quite recently
20:19
Speaker 2: of a lot of sort of what would traditionally be
20:22
Speaker 2: called writers or copywriters in marketing or such like online
20:26
Speaker 2: on LinkedIn talking about the way that companies were no
20:29
Speaker 2: longer hiring writers for maybe obvious reasons, you know, but
20:32
Speaker 2: they were hiring storytellers, you know, the ability to you know,
20:37
Speaker 2: with AI in marketing, storytelling became the key focused rather
20:41
Speaker 2: than specific skill sets. There's kind of a parallel with
20:44
Speaker 2: the way I T is developing as you as you
20:48
Speaker 2: kind of lay it out, and again with this kind
20:52
Speaker 2: of through line of narratives and storytelling and their centrality
20:57
Speaker 2: to success. Kind of industry question though for you there's
21:03
Speaker 2: obviously you know, we went from four hundred employees, a
21:06
Speaker 2: sort of niche kind of pursuit and a niche sector
21:10
Speaker 2: to something which is starting to dominate. But again narrative
21:14
Speaker 2: around either the future of it more broadly, what do
21:18
Speaker 2: you think the industry needs to do technologically, strategically or
21:22
Speaker 2: both to best ensure all the potential that everybody's senses
21:28
Speaker 2: as an organization, as a space and for all the
21:30
Speaker 2: individual companies who who want to push their own dex
21:35
Speaker 2: capabilities forward to fulfill that potential. What do you think
21:40
Speaker 2: needs to happen most on a macro or micro level.
21:43
Speaker 3: It's a good question. I hope I'm not about to
21:46
Speaker 3: go to out there. But I guess this is what
21:48
Speaker 3: kind of popped into my head. So it's because I
21:50
Speaker 3: recently ready to report that, you know, in the workplace,
21:54
Speaker 3: we humans are disrupted every two minutes. And I'm not
21:58
Speaker 3: even talking about technology breaking up. I'm talking about the
22:01
Speaker 3: reality of work, the pings, the dings, the rings, and actually,
22:03
Speaker 3: to be fair, sometimes I feel like it's more than
22:05
Speaker 3: two minutes.
22:06
Speaker 2: It's sat there at our fingers, just just just a
22:09
Speaker 2: microsecond away at all time, exactly the cause of distraction
22:13
Speaker 2: that is in.
22:14
Speaker 3: And well, this is true, right exactly, and so and
22:18
Speaker 3: I guess, you know, just to add on to that,
22:19
Speaker 3: you know, coming back to the report, you know, I
22:22
Speaker 3: read that work on presentations spike one hundred and twenty
22:26
Speaker 3: two percent in the ten minutes before a meeting and
22:29
Speaker 3: calls after eight pm our year on year. So there
22:32
Speaker 3: is there's so much noise, you know, going on, right,
22:36
Speaker 3: And I do believe, and obviously the science are back
22:39
Speaker 3: up that humans are not designed for this constant context
22:42
Speaker 3: switching and distraction and repetitive tasks. And so actually, you know,
22:47
Speaker 3: we're on the frontier where the digital workplace is looking
22:50
Speaker 3: to shift and shift in a way where dex becomes
22:53
Speaker 3: all the more crucial with a GENTAKI on the rise,
22:55
Speaker 3: as I've mentioned, and so right now we are seeing
22:58
Speaker 3: AI assistance are coming into the workplace to help us
23:02
Speaker 3: kind of do the same work faster and better. But
23:06
Speaker 3: then we may be progressing into a world we're having
23:09
Speaker 3: potentially digital colleagues and human lad agentically operated teams, which
23:13
Speaker 3: I know almost sounds a bit sci fi, but this
23:15
Speaker 3: is this is what we're seeing emerge. And so but
23:18
Speaker 3: the potential it means that you know, humans potentially will
23:22
Speaker 3: be cleared of some of this repetitive and constant noise
23:25
Speaker 3: and friction in the you know, this kind of obstructing creative,
23:30
Speaker 3: intelligent work, which actually I think we're designed for, and
23:33
Speaker 3: that will require a deck strategy built to empower knowledge
23:37
Speaker 3: work like never before, because the trend is moving towards
23:41
Speaker 3: humans in knowledge environments being set up to work creatively, intelligently, expansively,
23:47
Speaker 3: not the constancy of noise potentially, and it sounds it
23:52
Speaker 3: does sound of a sci fi to speak about it,
23:54
Speaker 3: but this is emerging now, and so this is kind
23:56
Speaker 3: of where I think we're on. We're on the path
23:58
Speaker 3: of which is you know, I think I think this
24:01
Speaker 3: emergence of agenta KI is something that we you know,
24:05
Speaker 3: we need to continue to navigate. But there's a lot
24:08
Speaker 3: of exciting potential for for DEX leaders in this as well.
24:13
Speaker 2: Made me think of a DEX as a kind of
24:15
Speaker 2: it rittle in we all, we all need it all.
24:20
Speaker 2: I'm very good, very good stuff. I don't't to let
24:23
Speaker 2: you go about a word about women in Dex for
24:26
Speaker 2: the event series you I don't think you've mentioned at
24:28
Speaker 2: the top, but you've also founded tell us a bit
24:31
Speaker 2: about that, where it's going and how maybe interested listeners
24:34
Speaker 2: can get involved.
24:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, thank you for creating space of this. So
24:38
Speaker 3: I've been really blown away by the demand and nd
24:40
Speaker 3: around the women in Dex space. So last year we piloted, uh,
24:46
Speaker 3: you know, an event at the Lanes for a hotel
24:48
Speaker 3: last year because we were hearing in pockets, you know
24:52
Speaker 3: about kind of a desire to create something and so
24:56
Speaker 3: it was wonderful, you know that that first event, that
24:59
Speaker 3: was the energy around at the conversations we were having,
25:01
Speaker 3: the caliber of people and discussion that was happening. So
25:05
Speaker 3: we then went on to host two summits alongside Next
25:09
Speaker 3: Thing's Experience Conference, one in London and one in Boston,
25:12
Speaker 3: and the attendance and the energy around them was tremendous.
25:15
Speaker 3: The idea of Women in Dex is to form a
25:19
Speaker 3: global collective, a conversation and by all means it's not
25:23
Speaker 3: designed to be a silo and it sounds almost cliche
25:26
Speaker 3: tod it, but it's designed to be a center of
25:28
Speaker 3: gravity attracting professionals who want to continue to drive the deck.
25:32
Speaker 2: Space.
25:33
Speaker 3: Women in Dex, now, I'm really excited to say has
25:35
Speaker 3: two co chairs to run the board of governors, Sarah
25:39
Speaker 3: Jones from GSK and Jennifer Hewittt from Truist Bank, two
25:43
Speaker 3: powerhouse leaders in their respective industries. And I'm excited about
25:48
Speaker 3: this because it was very intentional to have two external
25:51
Speaker 3: leaders at the helm of our board as opposed to
25:53
Speaker 3: next think. They will be driving the conversation, voicing the direction,
25:58
Speaker 3: the narrative. And actually this podcast got an exclusive here
26:02
Speaker 3: because we haven't fully announced this yet. I guess your question,
26:06
Speaker 3: how can listeners get involved? So in March around International
26:10
Speaker 3: Women's Day, we launched the virtual space or Women in
26:12
Speaker 3: Dex by launching our LinkedIn group. So I'm really excited
26:18
Speaker 3: because in its first couple of weeks it's shot up
26:20
Speaker 3: to over one hundred members from all over the world.
26:22
Speaker 3: Were very little promotion, so very simply if you search
26:26
Speaker 3: women in Dex and LinkedIn, the group should pop up.
26:29
Speaker 3: And it welcomes women and allies who work in professional
26:32
Speaker 3: capacities connected to employee experience. And we're seeing people join
26:35
Speaker 3: that not only just work in iteen technology, but also
26:38
Speaker 3: HR as well. And we have lots of exciting ideas
26:41
Speaker 3: and activities in store, but a major one that I
26:44
Speaker 3: have to call out is the Women in Dex World Summit,
26:47
Speaker 3: which will be held during next Thing's Experience conference in
26:50
Speaker 3: Orlando and October. So so excited about this, but thank
26:53
Speaker 3: you for you know, obviously allowing me to chat about it.
26:57
Speaker 2: This This is true that first mention of this year's
26:59
Speaker 2: experience we've heard, but there it is. It's just got live.
27:01
Speaker 3: Basically, this is true, very very timely, phenomenal.
27:06
Speaker 2: You know, they are some genuine powerhouses. I've had a
27:09
Speaker 2: pleasure to work with myself, so a distinguished organization you founded,
27:14
Speaker 2: the Laura without a doubt. Last question for today, given
27:19
Speaker 2: that squiggly line, that squiggly line you describe its moving however, ever,
27:23
Speaker 2: forward some pretty interesting twists or twists and turns already.
27:29
Speaker 2: Where do you think it's going to go next? Where
27:31
Speaker 2: do you want it to go next? What excites you
27:33
Speaker 2: about the next year, two three years of your career?
27:36
Speaker 3: Well, that's that's a big question. I will say. Actually,
27:39
Speaker 3: I actually received your promotion yesterday, which I'm still which
27:45
Speaker 3: I'm still processing, So thank.
27:47
Speaker 2: You job for a while.
27:49
Speaker 3: Actually, maybe you do this, maybe do this a little.
27:52
Speaker 2: Bit so we would be a bit too impatient.
27:55
Speaker 3: Yes, indeed, no, I know it's great timing to be
27:57
Speaker 3: fact found I found out, you know, yes, so you
28:00
Speaker 3: know this. I'm unable to process and celebrate this on
28:03
Speaker 3: this podcast. But you know, I'm moving to more senior
28:05
Speaker 3: capacity in the client's space, which I'm very excited about.
28:08
Speaker 3: By gosh. I mean, you know, I feel like we're
28:10
Speaker 3: in a very exciting space together. You know, we're in
28:12
Speaker 3: a company pouring investment into its technology and it's people,
28:15
Speaker 3: and you know, I look forward to being at the
28:17
Speaker 3: forefront of this and carving, as you said, my own
28:19
Speaker 3: squiggly line journey. And I mean, that's let's see where
28:22
Speaker 3: it takes us. Both Tom, it is La.
28:25
Speaker 2: I might be a squiggly you might be the arrow
28:28
Speaker 2: soaring through, the burning arrow, soaring through this guy. But
28:32
Speaker 2: so so so glad to finally thought to have had
28:36
Speaker 2: you on the show, and so sorry it has taken
28:37
Speaker 2: so long, and to make up for it, Please come back,
28:40
Speaker 2: not just in some generic, vague future, but this year.
28:43
Speaker 2: Come back and see us. This year. We have, as
28:45
Speaker 2: people will have noticed that, a series of recurring guests
28:48
Speaker 2: on the show. We'd love for you to be one
28:50
Speaker 2: of those, and to come back and talk to us
28:53
Speaker 2: about storytelling and how you know, employee branding and all that,
28:56
Speaker 2: some of the stuff we've touched on today, go into
28:58
Speaker 2: it in more depth, address current stories as they pop up,
29:03
Speaker 2: and it might be fun as well too. And maybe
29:06
Speaker 2: if we could, you know, I know you work with
29:07
Speaker 2: such fascinating people, maybe introduce pull that invite them onto
29:12
Speaker 2: the show. Maybe you and I could could do a
29:14
Speaker 2: bit of our older co interviewing like we used to
29:17
Speaker 2: back in the day in marketing together.
29:20
Speaker 3: Absolutely, I mean, yes, thank you for finally having me on.
29:24
Speaker 2: It is a pleasure.
29:26
Speaker 3: It's been an absolute pleasure. Indeed, yeah, no, it's been
29:30
Speaker 3: so much fun. But I look forward to returning and
29:31
Speaker 3: absolutely well plenty more conversations and a lot more stories
29:34
Speaker 3: to be.
29:34
Speaker 2: Told, wonderful glories. Thank you so much, thank you.
29:40
Speaker 1: That's it for this week's Deck Show. We'll be back
29:42
Speaker 1: next week, and if you don't already, be sure to
29:45
Speaker 1: follow the show so you don't miss an episode until
29:47
Speaker 1: next time.