Natalie Singer-Velush

This is the story of how one company analyzed meeting data to uncover the true cost of one weekly Executive Committee meeting. The results showed how quickly things can spiral out of control.

In this blog series, we share real-time learnings as we measure the impact of the recent, unprecedented shift on how people work, connect, and balance their lives. We hope these insights will teach us something about how work is changing and how we can respond to get through this—together. Series editor.

Resilient organizations weather crises and emerge stronger. But it can be hard to identify and measure factors such as stability and churn that drive resilience. Enter organizational network analysis.

For more than a decade, Microsoft Netherlands had been a pioneer in experimenting with new ways of working to empower employees. But when the market shifted, digital distractions mounted, and their internal and external relationships needed more attention, the innovative team found itself asking how it should reinvent work next.

How Microsoft Netherlands used data and relentless experimentation to reinvent the way it works.

A sales organization turns to behavioral analytics to accelerate digital transformation and improve sales.

Business was booming in one major technology company's hardware division, except for one thing: reports of poor work-life balance among engineers. See how leaders harnessed powerful data to solve the mystery and improve wellbeing.

How do you save time, money, and sanity while seating thousands of employees who all want the best desks? Play this interactive story to find out.

Workspace planning is a hot topic, and where people sit at their jobs matters significantly to both workers and companies. So what happens when there's competition for the best desk? Data wins.

Why do most of us have such a hard time unplugging from work, even on weekends and holidays? One reason: we're anxious about what's ahead.

Chadd and Vlada Knowlton will never forget the day they most feared for their youngest child.
They were driving to school and from the back ...

Q Johnson knows what it’s like to not be fully accepted for who you are. She felt the tension as a teenager, growing up in a family that didn’t tolerate the idea of same-sex love. After she graduated high school, her mother found out she was gay. “She told me, ‘That’s not allowed in my house. If you’re going do that, you need to leave,’” Johnson sai...

Until La Shanda Hurst took the mic, the conference room full of new Microsoft employees was quiet enough to hear a PowerPoint slide click. On a recent early morning at the company’s Redmond, Washington, headquarters, several hundred people sat silently sipping coffee and juggling the nerves and excitement of a first day at a new job.
Then Hurst, Microsoft Philanthropies program manager, moved to the front. “Good morning everyone!” she called as a giant photo of a little girl in a red T-shirt ...

While working on the Mars Pathfinder mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, I came to a fork in the road. It was a moment when I had to decide whether to move out of my comfort zone and take a risk.
NASA was putting together a 25-person launch team that would temporarily move from California to Florida n...

A community plaza where employees can gather, learn, and play. Car-free zones and a cross-campus bridge just for pedestrians and bicyclists. Energy-optimized smart buildings; spaces to spark creativity with teammates; trees, trails, and transit close at hand.

A major redevelopment is coming to the Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, one that will rocket forward a modern vision of workspace that has already started, in recent years, to lift off across the campus and the globe.