Alright… I continue to be bored and somewhat creatively stifled when it comes to this whole Future of Work debacle, in particular career journeys of individuals that are shaping the work of today.
As a creative, it’s times like these that I ask myself:
- How can I get in front of interesting people in the space to get their perspectives?
- How can I create the level of comfort needed to get someone’s deeper point of view?
- How can I fuse together the stories people tell me to find some meaning?
And here’s how I’ve been doing this:
- Make content daily, leverage my network, and be persistent to get in front of people I’ve not met.
- Articulate how the threads of my experiences as a pro-poker player, office leasing agent, and my cross-country to an island off the East Coast of Canada called PEI to inform my perspectives on the Future of Work in an attempt to open people up.
- Write about what I learn…
Since joining Kadence, I’ve been doing this a LOT as I talked to real estate, workplace, and IT leaders from some of the biggest companies in the world.
And while there have been many epic chats…one with Tony Vargas, Director, Global Workplace at Sprinklr really stands out.
Tony is an incredibly interesting person with very deep, human-centered views on the Future of Work. His backstory is very compelling because he was never supposed to be in the world of the workplace…it happened by accident.
Tony was a theatre actor! Now somehow he’s shaping the Future of Work! Go figure… and I can sooo relate as I wasn’t supposed to be here either, never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d go from pro-poker to office leasing to workplace experience.
Tony's Background
Tony Vargas is a proud ambassador of a legacy of service, impact, and hospitality, modelled to him by his family throughout his upbringing and by role models and mentors throughout his career.
Throughout his professional experience in entertainment, hospitality, education, and events he has always focused on fulfilling his personal mission: to deliver joy at scale, be a model of kindness, and be of service to others, with optimism and enthusiasm (need this much in the workplace?!).
With that foundation, he leads the Global Workplace function at Sprinklr, to impact people’s daily lives, at a micro and macro level.
When he speaks of joy, it is easy to consider this to be happiness and laughter, and it is. But it is also creating the foundation to support people to let them know that they belong authentically as who they are, so they go through the range of emotions at any given time, be as creative as possible, and do their best and most impactful work. (Yes, Tony!).
Tony's Workplace Philosophies
Based on his experience across industries, Tony relies on the principles of purposeful and transformative gathering. In his mind, every task requires different tools and environments to best support its outcome.
“While there are roles that require a rigid schedule and dedicated space to complete work successfully, other roles benefit from the flexibility of time and space to allow for best execution.”
Clarity is the key to success in a hybrid or flexible work environment from Tony’s perspective.
“When people know the structure, rules, boundaries, and expectations of their work, they can complete it in the best way they can.”
Through deep experience, Tony knows many variations of work structure can be effective. “Organizations need to choose which works best to support their top priorities and be ready to accept the tradeoffs of that choice.”
What word, or words come to mind when you read Tony’s background and philosophies for work?
One word comes to mind for me… Nuance!
And it’s the nuance that is STILL missing from the discourse on the Future of Work. A contextual hook on a LinkedIn post doesn’t grab our attention…divisive ones do… Misleading headlines are more likely to get readers than not (Tori Paulman calls this out beautifully in this video!)
And top-down mandates are “easier” than doing the hard work of fostering flexibility within a framework…We MUST fight the internal urges of our primal critter brains!
That’s why I’m gonna keep sharing the non-linear career journeys and perspectives of Blueflame thinkers like Tony.
Now go find or go hire the unconventional among us in an effort to finally move beyond this binary discourse sagaaaaa…
Get it? Got it? Good!
Dave
Ps. If you haven’t already, check out my conversation with Tom Hitch on his podcast Workplace 3000. There is no office amenity more valuable than the choice to go there or not!
Dave is Kadence’s Future of Work Strategist. He foresees what’s unfolding in the world of work and advises our customers on how to prepare and adapt to the latest trends easily.
