"How many of your other clients are doing this?" 

That was the question a CEO asked me after I presented their workplace strategy, proposing a shift to unallocated seating. My answer? ALL. OF. THEM. 

Not long after, I was at a workplace conference. A room full of designers, strategists, "workplace specialists," all sharing stories of how their legal, accounting and tech clients were approaching their offices. Every one of them spoke about unallocated seating like it wasn't even a decision anymore. Not even a conversation being had. They'd moved on so far beyond that question that they were navigating entirely new challenges. 

I sat there thinking about my own client list. Some of them are exactly where these companies are. Others haven't touched their office in years, and are still working out whether shared desking is even a reasonable thing to raise with their people. 

That second group wasn't anywhere in the room. Not a position being argued against, just absent from the convers...

Last week we ran a change workshop with our client to support the move to their new workplace. 

On paper, it could be considered a "simple" relocation. They're already hybrid, working in an unallocated seating model - no real new ways of working, in theory. New building not too far from the current, minimal commute disruption for most. Multiple floors consolidating down to one, with more space and better amenity. All good things, in the big picture. 

But an hour into the workshop, it was clear how much there actually was to communicate, and how differently people needed to hear it. 

Changes in workpoint quantities, workpoint styles, meeting rooms, collaboration space and quiet rooms all meant that even though these spaces already existed in some form, the ratios were different in the new environment. Different ratios mean new ways of working, whether anyone had framed it that way or not. 

The people who are primarily desk-based five days a week have completely different questions a...

When a space stops being decorative and starts sharing its story.

I got goosebumps. A lump formed in my throat and my eyes started to well up. 

That's when I knew we'd nailed it. 

We'd been brought in on a facility that, at that point, was still just lines on a drawing board. The technical and functional aspects had already been scoped and documented; the construction detailing was sorted. But this building needed something else. It needed a presence. An impact. And that wasn't going to come from the architectural drawings alone. 

The client had a beautifully articulated brand package; logo, colour palette, strong copy. But that deck had never been built for a physical space. It was built for marketing and print. It had nothing to say about how a person should actually feel standing in the room. 

So instead of starting with the brand guidelines, we started with different questions.

Why does this space exist?

Who's going to move through it?

How does their life or career chang...

I was sitting with an organisation last week and they shared their occupancy data with me; 40% attendance on Mondays and Fridays, with an 80% peak on Wednesdays.

This didn't surprise me, because it's a pattern I'm seeing consistently across multiple organisations I'm working with. This isn't an anomaly, it's a trend, and the global data backs it up.

According to XY Sense's latest Workplace Utilization Index, drawing on data from over 63,000 workspaces across nine countries, Tuesday utilisation reached 52% globally while Friday held at 30%, a 22-point gap that has remained stable across multiple consecutive reporting periods. What I'm seeing on the ground is entirely consistent with what the global data is telling us.

The questions they asked: "What are other organisations doing about this when creating their new workplace? Is the goal to increase attendance? Improve performance? Get people back in the office?" 

All great questions but I don't think they're asking the right one. Thi...

There's usually a moment in every workplace project where someone leans over and whispers, "I'm so sorry about Sally. She's just... difficult. We can work around her if we need to."

It always gives me a little giggle, but I say: "Sally is exactly who I've been looking for."

In every project, I'm actively searching for the anarchist - the person who's going to object, who's uncomfortable, who's pushing back at every turn. Because what most people miss is that they're not trying to derail your project. They're your canary in the coal mine, showing you exactly where you need to think differently push harder, dig deeper to create a design that genuinely works for everyone, not just the easy-to-please majority.

 
The challenge: Turn resistance into advocacy

It's become my personal mission: find the anarchist and turn them into an advocate.

When we do our job right [when we actually listen to what they're saying underneath the resistance], when we push ourselves as a design team to solve...

The Workplace Strategy Most Organisations Skip (And What It Costs Them)

There’s a misstep that I’m observing organisations make, again and again, and honestly, I find it concerning.

The lease is expiring. Seems innocuous enough but the flurry of activity that this provokes sends organisations into a spin.  Procurement springs into action, calculating current headcount, projecting growth, and heading straight to market. Meanwhile, IT is planning new technology rollouts. People and Culture is redesigning how teams collaborate. Finance is looking at cost per square meter. The CEO is talking about strategic direction and cultural transformation.

Everyone's moving fast.  Everyone’s being proactive.  Everyone's solving problems.

But… no one's actually talking to each other. And the reactive decision that gets made in all this chaos? You're going to be living with for the next seven to ten years.

What If You Started Differently?

Here's what I want you to consider:

what would change ...

Finding the right words to share what has happened these last few days at Exhale has left me speechless in ways I’m unfamiliar.  But here goes…

Witnessing women remember who they are is an honour.  And this is exactly the privilege I had of seeing this past weekend and it was beautiful, incredible and so deeply inspiring. 

The magic started in our opening circle when something shifted.  An invitation to look deeper, with gentleness and compassion, offered the space for armour to soften and masks to drop.  A moment that rippled through the space and these beautiful women allowed themselves to be seen.

Not for who the world expected them to be, but for who they truly are. 

And in that stillness, I felt the magnitude of what we had created together.  A space for women to come home to themselves.  Over our three days, I had the privilege of witnessing this moment again, and again.

As each woman gave herself permission to honour what was calling her, and set aside the noise, the expe...

I often ask myself a simple question when I start working with a new client: what will bring this workplace to life?  It goes without saying that it should be functional and efficient, so how do we then make it feel truly alive?  

The answer has become clear over time: it's people feeling connected, a sense of belonging and like they are part of something bigger than themselves. That’s what drives us.  Guiding organisations to transform their workplaces into communities where purpose is at the heart of everything. 

Last week, I had the privilege of exploring community with a group of heart-led leaders at the Serenity Collective Deep Dive Day. Walking into the room, you could feel the energy of curiosity and openness. People were ready to pause, reflect, and challenge the ways they had been thinking about culture, connection, and the spaces they inhabit. 

We started by acknowledging a reality that has been quietly reshaping the modern workplace: 

Our workplaces are no longer just...

What I discovered when I finally addressed my exhaustion—and why it transformed my business

You're scrolling through client messages while your coffee goes cold.

Your team needs an urgent decision, but you're already in back-to-back meetings until 6pm. You agreed to review that proposal tonight because saying no feels impossible, and now you're staring at your laptop screen feeling the weight to exhaustion and wondering when it’ll let up.

You've cancelled lunch with friends again because work is too busy. You snap at your kids over something small because your patience is paper-thin. You lie awake at night mentally preparing for tomorrow's presentation, even though you know that you’ll be wading through the brain fog, because you never really switched off.

If this sounds all too familiar, I want you to know: it’s not that you’re broken, or that you “haven’t got what it takes”.  

You're exhausted. And I know, because I've been exactly where you are.

When Success Comes at a Co...

Why workplace change feels harder than it should, and what we often miss about it.

If you’ve ever led change at work, maybe you moved offices, rolled out hybrid working, shifted systems or team structures, you’ve probably run into something unexpected.

Even when the change makes sense…
Even when it’s been well-communicated…
Even when it’s genuinely better than the old way…

It can still feel like pulling teeth to get everyone on board.

There’s resistance. Frustration. That awkward silence in meetings where you thought there’d be momentum. Little signs of disengagement that you can’t quite put your finger on, but you feel them.

And it can leave you wondering: Why is this so hard? Why aren’t they embracing this?

Here’s what I want you to know, something most change strategies completely overlook:

Change isn’t just a checklist or a rollout plan.
It’s a nervous system event.

Even positive change, when it’s smart, strategic, progressive, still creates uncertainty. And our brains? ...