Known Unknowns | Anna Gurun
KNOWN UNKNOWNS IS A SERIES THAT PROFILES MOVERS AND SHAKERS MAKING A DIFFERENCE
TO DRIVE BETTER, MORE SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS PRACTICES.
Meet Dr Anna Gurun - a Future of Work Advisor and Speaker, helping organisations adapt to the trends impacting work. She directs Future of Work by HSM, which brings together senior leaders from over 30 multinational organisations to solve the challenges around the future of work and create sustainable ways of working.
Anna’s academic background focused on social movements, exploring how people use social networks and connections to instigate change. This has continued in her work with organisations, where she has developed expertise in varying theory and practical action - taking abstract concept but exploring how they work in practice, how they are perceived and how institutions can take steps to build and develop them.
HSM Advisory is a management consulting firm that works towards organisational change and transformation. Can you tell me about HSM Advisory’s purpose?
We are a research advisory consultancy that was founded by Professor Lynda Gratton, 13 years ago. Our purpose is to help organisations thrive in the future of work, which will be about a humanistic approach, tailored to an organisation's own unique context and rooted in the lived reality of its people. We want to help employees navigate the various trends and changes that are shaping work, whether that’s to move to a hybrid way of work or a big cultural change that they want to implement.
What is your role at HSM? What does a typical day at work look like for you?
I'm an associate director and an advisor. I also direct the Future of Work by HSM which is our consortium that brings together multinational organisations from around the world to think about some of the biggest questions around the future of work. I work across our advisory projects and direct our research engine that we do within the future of work. My role is varied, but includes tasks like presenting external presentations at conferences, working with organisations to create their hybrid-working framework, and helping run a crowd sourced conversation with an organisation who really wanted to map out their culture and involve the voice of their employees in a culture change.
Can you tell me about the Future of Work Research Consortium?
The consortium was founded 10 years ago by Linda Gratton, right at the start of HSM. I have been directing this research engine for 3 years now. It is essentially a retainer-based subscription for multinational organisations that have a global presence, to allow them to solve their specific challenges within the future of work. The retainer has a combination of insight sessions that we run throughout the year, where we bring together over 30 multinational organisations to discuss inclusiveness and diversity. Organisations get to choose from a menu of options to solve their challenges, which could be anything from attending a series of webinars on innovation to a leadership session on cultural change. The goal is always to build lasting relationships - the kind that allows us to truly partner with our clients so that we can help them solve their own difficulties.
The HSM website talks about “co-creating a sustainable future”. What does this mean at HSM?
Co-creation is our key approach that we take when it comes to consulting with clients. Co-creation means bringing together the voices of employees to help them solve their own challenges in a sustainable way. We believe that a sustainable future is rooted in the experience of employees and involves the voice of employees, so they feel accountable for it and involved in it. Part of helping organisations become sustainable means identifying where they want to go, visualising how they want to get there and helping bring their employees along with them on that journey. Co-creation is not about creating change from the top down – it is a collective experience.
The HSM website talks about how people’s expectations have changed - how so? What do employees want now, especially in a post-covid world?
I think this past year and a half showed organisations and employees alike that they can make big changes in a short space of time. Previously, it would have taken months or maybe have been unthinkable to achieve things like working from home or spending time with family. Covid has led organisations to rethink what work can be and as a result, employees don’t want to return to business as usual. There is also a broader discussion around talent, attraction and retention that's happening right now - people are rethinking what they want from their lives and from work on an individual level. Employees are looking to their organisation to provide a narrative and a direction for change.
COVID was a turning point for many businesses - some flourished while others sadly did not survive. What impact did COVID have on HSM Advisory?
When covid first hit, we were in a crisis phase like most because of the huge amount of uncertainty the world experienced; but now we have seen it as an opportunity for progress. Covid saw the growth of a new practice area, called hybrid-working. Our hybrid approach helps organisations move to remote-working because they no longer want to return to the way things were before COVID. You could say that while others saw the future of work as a nice to have, we have always seen it as an inevitable so in a way, we have been prepared for this change for a long time now. The result is that hybrid-working is now one of our highest revenue-generating practice areas.
What advice would you give those just starting out in their careers?
Be curious and pay attention to your network and identify who you want to build relationships with. People often think of relationships as something that needs to have an immediate impact but really, it’s something that you nurture and develop over time.
If you could give all leaders/ c-suite execs one piece of advice, what would it be?
From an expectation point of view, we have seen a shift from wanting leaders to know everything and being the expert to rather having what’s known as informational power: the ability to know who to call on for support. This is a type of leadership that is seen as a shared activity and not an individual one; it’s about identifying who else you can learn from.
As we leave behind 2021, what will you be taking with you into the new year and what will you be leaving behind?
2022 is about retaining the ability to change, adapt and experiment - but to do so in a sustainable way so that employees are not left feeling depleted. 2022 is about leaving behind things that slow you down and drain your energy - how we use time is one of them. Too many organisations think of flexibility of place but are not thinking of flexibility of time. Do we really need to spend so much time in meetings, or can we rather spend it on conserving our energy?
Rapid Fire
What do you do for fun? I spend time with friends and family; I go travelling - anything social that allows me to be in a new place or learn new things.
What keeps you awake at night? Climate change is one of them. Agism is another. We are seeing workers over a certain age being discarded and left out of our talent pools and we are losing important knowledge as a result. It goes back to how we think about full-time work and looking at new ways to run your organisation - do you bring them on as a contractor? Do you bring them on as a consultant? Do you bring them on to teach others so that you still have that knowledge? These are important questions to think about.
What podcast are you currently listening to? Am I normal? Mona Chalabi
What is one thing people don’t know about you that may surprise them? I am half Scottish, half Turkish
What makes you feel powerful? I think power comes from knowledge, and having knowledge builds confidence. This combination of knowledge and forming a thoughtful opinion has always helped me feel a sense of power.
Fill in the missing word/s…. I dream of a world where …. Everyone feels like they have a seat at the table.
For more information about the work HSM is doing, visit: https://hsm-advisory.com