State of Independence

Mark Gilbreath, LiquidSpace

Mark Gilbreathis CEO of LiquidSpace, a leader in hybrid and work-from-anywhere workplace transformation. In this episode, MBO Partners speaks with Mark about what productive work environments look like, why distributed work can be good for both companies and workers—whether employees or independents—and what work culture has to do with it. Mark talks about how the pandemic accelerated the shift from “the orthodoxy of presenteeism” to a “work-from-anywhere” workplace and how companies must look along a few axes of office space suitability to get the transformation right. He speaks on the suitability of the physical environment itself – beyond the binary of work and home – as well as the nature of the employee’s role in the company and the nature of the work being done. He also discusses how companies that are now undertaking workplace transformation are fixated on creating great employee experiences and he talks specifically about how company culture can thrive even in non-centralized workplaces. About This Episode’s Guest Mark Gilbreathis CEO ofLiquidSpace [https://liquidspace.com/], a leader in hybrid and work-from-anywhere workplace transformation where workers can access an online office marketplace and enterprise leaders can access their own workplace management platform. About MBO Partners® MBO Partners is a deep jobs platform that connects and enables independent professionals and microbusiness owners to do business safely and effectively with enterprise organizations. Its unmatched experience and industry leadership enable it to operate on the forefront of the independent economy and consistently advance the next way of working.  For more information, visit​mbopartners.com [https://mbopartners.com/]. Episode hosted by Aassia Haq; produced, edited, and engineered byLeslie Jennings Rowley [https://ljradvisors.com]. With music byBrian Burrows [https://brianburrowsmusic.com]. For more episodes, visitmbopartners.com/state-of-independence/podcast [https://mbopartners.com/state-of-independence/podcast]/. MBO Partners © 2021

Joe Fuller, Harvard Business School

Joseph Fulleris Professor of Management Practice at the Harvard Business School, where he oversees the Managing the Future of Work Project and focuses his research on the changing nature of work and the evolution of the C-suite. He was the founder and longtime CEO of The Monitor Group, the global strategy consulting firm, now Monitor Deloitte. In this episode, MBO Partners speaks with Professor Fuller about what, in this time of rapid change, the term “the future of work” actually means and how we can apply his learnings to workforce design and transformation. Professor Fuller also talks about what he sees as the biggest challenges facing today’s CEO and organizational management and how many of those top requirements for organizational success involve changes to aspects of talent development and sourcing, including contingent work; digitalization and decentralization; diversity and inclusion; globalization and the labor supply chain. He discusses a recent BCG and HBS Future of Work study on the topic of contingent work and discuss how, in the future, more and more organizations will have needs for high-skill contingent talent for business-critical assignments – and how this is shifting the power equation in favor of the supply side of the talent equation. He also provides a look at the higher education sector and discuss the role of credentialization in talent acquisition. Citing his soon-to-be-published research, Professor Fuller talks about the ways AI is poised to improve and expand talent profile of companies in the future – a profile that will begin to also include the contingent worker to a greater degree. About This Episode’s Guest Joseph Fulleris Professor of Management Practice at theHarvard Business School, where he focuses his research on the changing nature of work and the evolution of the C-suite. He was the founder and longtime CEO of The Monitor Group, the global strategy consulting firm, now Monitor Deloitte. At HBS, he oversees with Professor Bill Kerr, the Managing the Future of Work project; the pair co-hosts a podcast of the same name. Research Mentioned in This Episode Fuller, Joseph B., Manjari Raman, Allison Bailey, and Nithya Vaduganathan. "Building the On-Demand Workforce." (pdf) [https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/download.aspx?name=Building_The_On_Demand_Workforce%5B1%5D.pdf]White Paper, Harvard Business School and Boston Consulting Group (BCG), November 2020. Fuller, Joseph B., and Manjari Raman. "Dismissed by Degrees: How Degree Inflation Is Undermining U.S. Competitiveness and Hurting America's Middle Class." (pdf) [https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/download.aspx?name=dismissed-by-degrees.pdf]Report, October 2017. (Published by Accenture, Grads of Life, Harvard Business School.) About MBO Partners® MBO Partners is a deep jobs platform that connects and enables independent professionals and microbusiness owners to do business safely and effectively with enterprise organizations. Its unmatched experience and industry leadership enable it to operate on the forefront of the independent economy and consistently advance the next way of working.  For more information, visit​ ​mbopartners.com [https://www.mbopartners.com/state-of-independence/]. Episode hosted by Aassia Haq; produced, edited, and engineered byLeslie Jennings Rowley [http://ljradvisors.com]. With music byBrian Burrows [https://www.brianburrowsmusic.com]. For more episodes, visitmbopartners.com/state-of-independence/podcast/ [https://www.mbopartners.com/state-of-independence/podcast/]. MBO Partners © 2021

Paul Estes, The Gig Mindset

Paul Estes, the author ofThe Gig Mindset and currently the Chief Community Officer at Mural, is a workforce influencer thinking about how to keep the human at the center of the SaaS industry. In this episode, MBO Partners speaks with Paul about how workers and organizations are transforming themselves using gig economy strategies, as well as how organizations can harness the power of their own communities of on-demand experts to help create customer-centric solutions. Paul talks about his bookThe Gig Mindsetand the TIDE concept of taskifying, identifying, delegating, and evolving to power an independent career. He also talks about his own transition from independent work back to joining the creative SaaS company Mural as its first Chief Community Officer. He talks about the connection between a software-driven economy and the need for in-demand experts. He also touches on outcome-driven work, the companies that do that well, and approaches that both enterprises and independents can take to optimize work. About This Episode’s Guest Paul Estesis an unstoppable advocate for the talent economy, dedicated to creating opportunity for everyone through a thoughtful marriage of technology and human talent. He has held leadership roles at Dell, Amazon, and Microsoft, where he led a team of progressive HR, procurement, and legal trailblazers to launch Microsoft's Gig Economy freelance program. Still keeping an active “gig mindset” of his own, he has recently joinedMural [https://www.mural.co  ]as its Chief Community Officer. He is the author ofThe Gig Mindset. [https://www.paulestes.net/copy-of-book] About MBO Partners® MBO Partners is a deep jobs platform that connects and enables independent professionals and microbusiness owners to do business safely and effectively with enterprise organizations. Its unmatched experience and industry leadership enable it to operate on the forefront of the independent economy and consistently advance the next way of working.  For more information, visit​mbopartners.com [https://www.mbopartners.com/]. Episode hosted by Aassia Haq; produced, edited, and engineered byLeslie Jennings Rowle [http://ljradvisors.com]y. With music byBrian Burrows [https://www.brianburrowsmusic.com]. For more episodes, visitmbopartners.com/state-of-independence/podcast/. [https://www.mbopartners.com/state-of-independence/podcast/] MBO Partners © 2021

Sharon Kan, Pepperlane

Sharon Kan is the co-founder and CEO of Pepperlane, the organization helping mothers turn their skills and ideas into businesses that fit into their lives. She’s also a serial entrepreneur whose startups have been acquired by Oracle, Microsoft, and Barnes and Noble. In this episode MBO Partners speaks with Sharon about how she is shaking up the patriarchal system of work and supporting a 20-million strong market of talented moms that has the power to reshape the small business economy. Sharon talks about how denying our full identities at work—leaving the motherhood label at the door—adversely affected economic output even before the “She-cession” brought about by COVID-19 put many women out of work. She notes, however, how the current situation has also sparked great creativity among entrepreneurial mothers. She discusses how most professional gender gaps are motherhood gaps and the role that independent work plays in closing them. She also talks about the ways that organizations looking to educate and support new sectors of talent can work together to close entrepreneurial knowledge gaps and how a few pointed policies could aid working mothers and society as a whole. About This Episode’s Guest Sharon Kanis co-founder and CEO of Pepperlane, the organization helping mothers turn their skills and ideas into businesses that fit into their lives. She’s also a serial entrepreneur whose startups have been acquired by Oracle, Microsoft, Infor and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, she co-founded WIN, the Women Innovating Now Lab at Babson College to help female entrepreneurs start their businesses. About MBO Partners® MBO Partners is a deep jobs platform that connects and enables independent professionals and microbusiness owners to do business safely and effectively with enterprise organizations. Its unmatched experience and industry leadership enable it to operate on the forefront of the independent economy and consistently advance the next way of working.  For more information, visit​mbopartners.com [https://www.mbopartners.com/]. Episode hosted by Aassia Haq; produced, edited, and engineered byLeslie Jennings Rowley [https://www.mbopartners.com/]. With music byBrian Burrows [https://www.brianburrowsmusic.com/]. For more episodes, visitmbopartners.com/state-of-independence/podcast/ [https://www.mbopartners.com/state-of-independence/podcast/]. MBO Partners © 2021

Liz Elam, GCUC

Liz Elam is the founder of the Global Coworking Unconference Community—GCUC—the largest coworking conference provider in the world. She's also a consultant and a leader in the flexible work space, studying both the design and the structure of the industry. In addition, Liz is a card-carrying futurist and popular coworking podcast host. In this episode, MBO Partners speaks with Liz about the roots of the coworking trend and why coworking and community are so important for the health and well-being of the future workforce. Liz talks about how COVID-19 has accelerated the discussion about flexible work environments but has also potentially endangered workers through the isolation brought on by work-at-home arrangements. She also speaks from the lens of a futurist about what the workplace of 2045 might look like and how individuals and companies can make today’s workplace work as well. She discusses the ways that coworking spaces can benefit workers in all stages and configurations of work and how companies should be looking toward coworking spaces as strategic aids in managing the needs of both their employees and independent workers. About This Episode’s Guest Liz Elamis the founder of theGlobal Coworking Unconference Community—GCUC [https://gcuc.co/]—the largest coworking conference provider in the world. She's also a consultant and a leader in the flexible work space, studying both the design and the structure of the industry. She also hosts theGCUC coworking podcast [https://gcuc.co/podcasts/]. About MBO Partners® MBO Partners is a deep jobs platform that connects and enables independent professionals and microbusiness owners to do business safely and effectively with enterprise organizations. Its unmatched experience and industry leadership enable it to operate on the forefront of the independent economy and consistently advance the next way of working.  For more information, visit​mbopartners.com [https://mbopartners.com/]. Episode hosted by Aassia Haq; produced, edited, and engineered byLeslie Jennings Rowley [http://ljradvisors.com/]. With music byBrian Burrows [https://www.brianburrowsmusic.com/]. For more episodes, visitmbopartners.com/state-of-independence/podcast/ [https://mbopartners.com/state-of-independence/podcast/]. MBO Partners © 2021