Make Work Better

Make Work Better explores the dynamics of modern workplace culture, focusing on the impacts of remote and hybrid work models, productivity challenges, mental health, and creating inclusive environments. It offers insights into how flexible work arrangements, technology, and psychological safety can shape future workspaces.

Hybrid Work Models Productivity Workplace Culture Mental Health in the Workplace Technology in the Workplace Employee Engagement Remote Work Impact Workplace Flexibility Psychological Safety Organizational Change

The hottest Substack posts of Make Work Better

And their main takeaways

How a culture fail ruined Boeing

114 implied HN points • 14 Mar 24
💼 Business Leadership Employment Corporate culture Productivity Economic Growth
  1. Boeing failed multiple safety tests, leading to accidents and loss of lives, due to a shift towards prioritizing stock price over quality
  2. A strong corporate culture requires aligning stated values with actual behaviors, empowering employees to make decisions based on those values
  3. Businesses that lose sight of their purpose and focus solely on chasing money risk facing significant organizational failures

More office time is the cost of bureaucracy

130 implied HN points • 21 Feb 24
💼 Business Workplace culture Employee engagement Incentives
  1. Big firms face challenges with hybrid work due to the complexities of communication and maintaining connections as the team size increases.
  2. Research shows that structured hybrid working can boost employee satisfaction and retention, proving effective in small to medium-sized organizations.
  3. Efforts to reduce meeting time, like Asana's meeting purges, can lead to significant productivity gains by eliminating unnecessary meetings and introducing focused work days.

Are culture change programs really destined to fail?

98 implied HN points • 28 Feb 24
💼 Business Culture Employee Experience Remote work Insider trading Meetings
  1. The belief that 70% of culture change programs fail is not supported by valid evidence, so there is hope to succeed with your own initiative.
  2. Deutsche Bank implemented a unique policy to ban Fridays at home followed by Mondays due to concerns about office efficiency.
  3. Culture within a workplace starts with the people and their behaviors, and sometimes addressing cultural issues may involve removing individuals who do not align with the desired culture.
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Inside the culture clashes of F1 & Google

59 implied HN points • 07 Mar 24
🎭️ Culture Organizational Culture Tech industry
  1. Organizations tolerating bad behavior by leaders can lead to a breakdown of cultural norms and values.
  2. Google's once revered culture has come under scrutiny, revealing a slow-moving bureaucracy and lack of innovative products, prompting a need for reevaluation.
  3. Job cuts and layoffs at Google have negatively impacted employee morale and hindered the ability to do brave, inventive work.

Easy life? No, most of us want challenging, rewarding work

98 implied HN points • 14 Feb 24
💼 Business Workplace culture Employee Experience
  1. Many employees value challenging and impactful work that allows them to learn and grow.
  2. Employee Experience initiatives can sometimes end up creating well-intentioned but ineffective programs like wellness webinars.
  3. Employees should be cautious about what they communicate on work chat platforms as bosses may have access to those conversations, and individuals have the right to request all digital data held about them.

Could your office become a home?

119 implied HN points • 28 Apr 23
💼 Business Real Estate Artificial Intelligence
  1. Converted office buildings could help solve the housing crisis by repurposing underused office spaces.
  2. Middle managers working from home are attending too many virtual meetings to show their value.
  3. Zaha Hadid Architects are using AI tools like Dall-E to push the boundaries of their architectural designs.

Psychological safety: ‘You no longer have the option of leading through fear’

76 implied HN points • 21 Jul 23
💼 Business Workplace culture Team Dynamics Remote work
  1. Psychological safety allows constructive disagreement and reduces interpersonal risk.
  2. Teams can build psychological safety by bonding through tasks, normalizing learning from mistakes, and ensuring everyone feels 'seen'.
  3. Seeking input with humility and openness is key in fostering psychological safety in high-performing teams.