In episode 339, host Mike Petrusky speaks with Rex Miller, an expert on human and team performance, strategic foresight, and organizational transformation with a long history of serving the facility management and corporate real estate communities. They chat about their recent time together in Dallas at the IFMA / CoreNet North Texas Tech Symposium, share some of the challenges facing workplace leaders in 2025, and explore how the industry needs to shift its focus from technical skills to human and leadership skills. Miller also talks about workplace culture and how companies can understand the new attitudes, habits, values, and behaviors of their employees. Leadership is about influence, not positional power, so facility managers and corporate real estate professionals can lead by leveraging their influence.
Agenda
- Current state of the workplace and technology
- Importance of having a balanced perspective
- Concept of adaptive problems
- Four types of cultures within an organization
- Role of facility and corporate real estate managers in change
What you need to know: Workplace takeaways
Takeaway 1: The importance of leadership and reframing setbacks in times of disruption and uncertainty
During disruption and uncertainty, there’s a need for leadership to manage internal anxiety and maintain curiosity, rather than reacting immediately to setbacks.
“The number one skill for all of us is to reframe when we get a setback. How do we reframe that and take that forward?” Miller suggests.
Resilience and the ability to reframe problems also play parts when working to move forward.
“Let’s look at how to reframe this and then let’s look at the assets that you have, the strong relationships you have. None of us will get through this alone, none of us have all the answers,” he says.
So, leaders must focus on what they can control and to build social capital.
Takeaway 2: The need to re-evaluate the culture within companies at times of change.
In many organizations, whatever company culture thought they had, doesn’t exist anymore, so organizations need to re-evaluate what their culture is now.
And it’s often more than one. Miller mentions the existence of different cultures within organizations, including aspirational, legacy, outlier, and shadow culture, and the importance of recognizing and understanding them so the organization can move forward.
“There’s an overemphasis on technical skills and virtually no emphasis on the human skills and the leadership skills of adapting organizations to new realities,” Miller notes.
Takeaway 3: The role of facility managers and corporate real estate professionals drives cultural change
Throughout the conversation, Petrusky explores the role of facility managers and corporate real estate professionals in driving cultural change within organizations. He suggests that these professionals can improve the user and workplace experience, even if they don’t always know it.
He recalls when asking people in the industry: “Do you all feel you are empowered to really move the needle in these areas, these bigger concerns, these culture questions, these human behavior questions, these leadership concerns, and… I sometimes got blank stares.”
Echoing Miller’s position, Petrusky encourages professionals to recognize their influence and leadership potential while focusing on what they can control.
“It’s stoic philosophy, right? Know what you can control, know what you can’t control, focus on what you can,” explains Miller.
Workplace management insights
- The future of the workplace is being shaped as we go, with no clear consensus on what it will look like
- There are four types of cultures within an organization: aspirational, legacy, outlier, and shadow culture.
- There are technical and adaptive problems in the workplace. Adaptive problems require organizations to adapt to new realities and value things differently.
- Leadership is about influence, not positional power. Facility managers and corporate real estate people can lead by leveraging their influence.
- Managers and leaders need to manage anxiety internally during times of uncertainty to maintain curiosity and adaptability.
- The number one skill for everyone is to reframe setbacks and take them forward. Building social capital is part of getting through challenges.
Learn more about Rex and get his books here and listen to the past episode about finding your “Genius Spark” on the Workplace Innovator Podcast.
