PRODUCTIVITY (current name is Briefing)
– all articles relating to work, coworking, hybrid working, landlords/developer content, meetings, collaboration, hot desking, access to virtual backgrounds, etc.
We’re thrilled to launch Greater Encounters – a podcast series straight from the hearts and minds of The Great Room and Greater Business Club, recorded and produced in the Podcast Room at The Great Room, Afro Asia, Singapore.
Listen and watch our guests unravel fascinating insights and valuable takeaways from a lineup of powerhouse leaders. Catch all the episodes in Season 1, where inspiring stories drive professional and personal growth. Episodes here. RSS Feed
A Workspace That Moves With You
The Great Room by Industrious is coworking inspired by hospitality, with 160+ international locations across APAC, US and Europe where members have access to all workspaces in our global network.
The shared workspace offers benefits that reach far beyond mere hot desking. Discover the custom, hybrid solutions coworking can provide to the modern enterprise in the rapidly changing world of work.
Over the last two years, the way people work has changed significantly, and it’s still in flux. The workplace has had to evolve, too; rethinking space distribution and allocation of resources. Hybrid work schedules are now the norm rather than the anomaly, meaning traditional space allocations are vastly inefficient and creating unnecessary costs.
The Great Room Gaysorn Tower, Bangkok
Hybrid ways of working – where people spread their work time between home (or elsewhere) and the office may be different from what many larger firms are used to. However, it is a reality that all businesses, no matter what their size, need to remain nimble.
Traditional office spaces and conventional arrangements are often unable to meet the demands of an evolving business – let alone the evolving purpose of the workplace itself. Coworking spaces, meanwhile, are primed for evolution and change, the perfect place to set the foundations for your modern team and business.
How coworking helps enterprises build a solid foundation for the future of flexible work
Say goodbye to lengthy, long-term contracts From a financial perspective, coworking does not require you to sign a conventional commercial lease – instead, clients can enjoy lower overhead costs and month-to-month rental flexibility. These flexible terms allow you to adapt the space as your business needs changes, like adding additional desks or booking meeting rooms as you need them. You pay for what you need when you need it.
The Great Room Raffles Arcade, Singapore
For developer security platform Snyk, this was part of the appeal in signing on as a member of The Great Room in Singapore. They chose coworking over traditional office space because it offers “easy scalability as Snyk expands,” says Jane Black, Chief of Staff of Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) for Snyk.
“It’s great for a start-up that went from two employees in Singapore in March 2021 to 15 by Nov 2021. We’re looking to be 30-plus by April 2022,” says Shaun McLagan, Vice President APJ.
With our expertise as office solution providers, you can leave the heavy lifting to us Establishing a new office also requires time and capital for design and fit-out of your workspace. Here too coworking spaces offer another advantage: you get a workspace that’s a great canvas for the office of your dreams. And it comes complete with desks, chairs, power access, and the extra benefit of amenities you wouldn’t find in a traditional office.
For Snyk, cost-effectiveness was another reason to join The Great Room rather than opting for a conventional office. Here, “We don’t have to worry about facilities or IT, and we don’t waste money,” says McLagan.
The money and time you save on rent and amenities can then be put to use elsewhere: talent acquisition, or building culture.
The Great Room Centennial Tower, Singapore
A considered environment for your brand and corporate culture to thrive in At The Great Room, it’s not simply about hot desks and small offices for start-ups. Larger teams can also take up dynamic enterprise spaces within The Great Room’s locations, complete with the privacy, design customisations you want, and the corporate branding you need. The Great Room Enterprise team will even help you with space planning based on your team’s needs.
Discover The Great Room’s Enterprise Solutions
An enterprise space is a type of managed office space that can be customised to suit the needs of larger teams. These exclusive, flexible offices give you access to personalised private spaces that also facilitate valuable human connection, enabling you to build a diverse and engaging collaborative culture.
An example of this is the Enterprise floor on level 6 at The Great Room, Afro-Asia. More than 13,500 square feet of space is divided into three Enterprise office spaces – all of which are kitted out with the features a Fortune 500 company would expect from a premium workspace.
Enterprise tenants can give input on the look and feel of their workspace. Then there’s added support in the form of an in-house design and build team that can advise on the latest trends, and that can help tailor the space with a bespoke fitout. The Great Room’s team has fulfilled requests for everything from private entrances, dedicated bars and server rooms to on-brand welcome lounges and floorplans with a customised split of desks and activity space.
The team will also manage the space and provide soft services that heighten the work experience.
Ultimately, the enterprise space is a private office within a coworking or serviced office environment. What it looks like will vary from company to company, based on their specific needs. Some may need a move-in ready office and a standard array of amenities. Others may need something more bespoke, tailored to the organisation’s unique team and brand ethos, perhaps with communal lounge areas within their exclusive space, as well as work booths, brainstorm studios… the options are limitless, and you get to choose.
The Great Room has seven locations across Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok – Asia’s gateway cities.
Find out how we can help your business adapt to the flexible future of work. Select the city below for more details.
What didn’t work in 2021? How can we do things differently in 2022? It’s time to consider new ways of working so you can build a more productive business that lasts the distance.
As one year ends and another begins, many businesses are reflecting on what worked and what didn’t.
For many, the rigidity of the 9-to-5 in-office working day (or the 8-to-8, as the case may be) was one thing that didn’t. Fixed hours have their benefits, of course. For one, your teams are coordinated: they’re in the same place at the same time. Everyone knows where they need to be and when, and there’s a steadiness in that. It provides some much-needed solidity in a constantly wavering world.
But the day-to-day realities of the last two years have also shown us that people can be productive – perhaps more so – when they work to the beat of their own drum. This is because people tend to feel more fulfilled when they work their way. They can find time for exercise, to get their admin done, or spend time with children, while also getting the job done, and done well.
The Great Room Singapore, One George Street
We are all individuals, after all: one person may be more productive at 8am, and another at 11am; another person may have family needs to factor into the workday, while yet another may like to exercise in the mornings and work late at night. It’s easy to see how the obligation for these individuals to follow a strict schedule could lead to stress, dissatisfaction and eventually, burnout.
There’s also the added factor of commuting to and from the office: this takes time, and, if you’re stuck in traffic or navigating different trains and buses on a daily basis, it can add to the anxiety and that feeling of being subject to the daily grind.
Focus on employee wellness to build organisational strength and sustainability
Consider, then, the workplace trends on the cards for 2022 and beyond. Many of the forecasts claim that talent will be looking for companies that prioritise workplace wellness. This ranges from offering non-traditional benefits (such as family leave and childcare support), mental health support and opportunities for social connectivity (online and in-person) to financial planning assistance and education, access to fitness, and flexible working hours and locations.
Miskawaan Health Group (MHG) is one organisation that has already discovered the benefits of the flexible approach. MHG offers bespoke healthcare solutions that take a functional medicine approach, looking at root causes of illness and using natural substances such as supplements and infusions to address issues and to optimise at an individual level.
The Great Room Bangkok, Gaysorn Tower
MHG decided to take a hybrid approach to how they worked, with support staff dividing their time between home and the office. The organisation has a full-service health clinic in Gaysorn Tower in Bangkok, but they needed different arrangements for support staff.
“Fixed hours would create inconveniences for those who wish to access offices for extra meetings and brainstorming sessions, [as well as adding stress for those] waiting for vendors to show up within working hours,” says CEO Varit ‘Top’ Taifayongvichit.
“Some advantages to hybrid working include increased productivity and employee satisfaction, more opportunities for continuous learning, improved collaboration and work relationships, and better outcomes for employees’ mental health. In sum, hybrid ways of working are likely to be the answers to MHG and its organisations as a growing start-up.”
MHG knew they couldn’t achieve this in a traditional office environment. “Traditional offices require longer-term commitments and allocation of costs at the beginning of renovations, continuous renovations are also needed to keep the company in ‘modern’ looks; monthly maintenance costs or overhead costs are also needed to keep up the space,” says Taifayongvichit.
The Great Room Bangkok, Gaysorn Tower
Instead, he and his team decided to shift their staff to a co-working space. They looked to premium co-workspace provider The Great Room to support them in creating a set-up that would foster engagement and satisfaction. The healthcare organisation now has 33 desks at The Great Room Bangkok.
For MHG, the benefits have been manifold. The team now works in a dynamic and creative environment, says Taifayongvichit. At The Great Room, there’s a built-in focus on community, with opportunities to interact with other members at events, and also in the communal spaces over coffee or drinks. This was important for the organisation, says MHG’s CEO.
The Great Room “creates pain-free solutions of spaces for workshops and meetings. Moreover, helpful and friendly staff members from the Great Room make us feel like we’re not just tenants and landlords, but like friends and family. Services are excellent and superb,” he says. Having flexible workspace solutions on tap is also helpful, he says; as is the ability to get extra desks, meeting rooms and event space on demand. “Office management and admin is taken care of,” he adds. In short, “co-working space promotes the wellbeing of the company and also mental health of our members,” says Taifayongvichit. As a pioneer in the holistic healthcare space, he should know.
Make workplace wellness part of the programme at The Great Room
In 2022 and beyond, it’s going to be vital for many businesses to build wellness into what they offer their people – and this means providing talent with flexibility, opportunities to connect, and an environment that naturally supports their creativity and mental wellbeing. At The Great Room, these are all elements that underpin our very reason for being.
The Great Room Bangkok, Gaysorn Tower
Supporting the mental and physical health of its members, The Great Room hosts events, workshops and talks focused on wellness and human connection. On the calendar you’ll find events such as sound baths, fitness classes with The Great Room’s partners, morning yoga sessions, tastings and more. And at The Great Room Afro-Asia, wellness is regarded as such a priority that there’s even a dedicated Wellness Room, and a Sky Garden where members can connect with nature in the heart of the city.
Get customised support for your business at The Great Room
The Great Room has seven locations across Asia’s gateway cities. All are located in prime neighbourhoods, with a range of flexible options available for businesses keen to grow but struggling to figure out how to do so. The Great Room’s expert staff are also on hand to provide advice on how to customise your workspace to suit your business needs.
Find out how we can help your business adapt to the flexible future of work. Select the city below for more details.
At The Great Room, hybrid working has always been in our DNA—and we’ve continued to build products around this model to empower businesses to work smarter, not harder.
Because the world of work doesn’t simply evolve around a desk, The Great Room’s mobile app seamlessly integrates work, meetings, events and community all at your fingertips.
The Great Room Afro-Asia, Singapore
A Workspace That Moves With You
Imagine you’ve got a client coming to meet you but you’re stuck on your commute, or you’re just running late because life happens. Perhaps you need a quick breakout room for you and a few others on your team to iron out a few last-minute items on a project. The Great Room’s mobile app lets you book meeting rooms on the road instantly, and filter options by time, seats and amenities (think screens, phones, whiteboards) that might optimise your meeting. If you’re really organised, members can book a room up to one week in advance.
It’s All Work, It’s All Play
The Great Room was born to change the way people work, meet and socialise. That’s why we say it’s all work, it’s all play, and that’s why we’ve made it even easier to stay up-to-date with the next Monday Breakfast Club theme, midweek boost treats and view the full list of upcoming events and RSVP all on one platform—for all APAC locations. Not only will you be right on the pulse of The Great Room happenings, but exclusive member privileges of partner discounts and preferential rates are all accessible on the app. Treat yourself whilst you’re at it.
One Tool, All Access
The modern workforce demands flexibility that combines remote and in-office work, allowing painless access to over 160 international locations, across Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong, US and Europe. Simply present your membership profile on your app to any of our global locations to start working.
Industrious, New York and Arizona Welkin & Meraki by Industrious, Brussels and Paris
Building Better Connections
Nothing’s worse than having your productivity disrupted over inconvenient little niggly things. Get push notifications on what’s happening around the centre with community updates and announcements so you can always plan ahead.
To enable members to stay connected whether in the office or on-the-go is key for flexibility at work. The Great Room’s mobile app will provide all the functionality and autonomy you crave, as well as allow you to centralise all your work and play activities on one platform. Free to download on the Apple iOS Store and Google Play Store.
For founders trying to focus on the bigger picture, coworking offers fully customisable, hybrid solutions that take care of all the details, so you can focus on what matters.
The last year and a half has been a rollercoaster ride of changes: companies were thrust into remote working, pivoting to operating online almost overnight. Since then, it’s been a push-me-pull-you scenario amid ever-changing distancing and numbers regulations. The constant shift, and the trajectory it ignited for the work-from-anywhere approach, have powered changes that were beginning to happen already, albeit slowly.
Businesses need to adapt their technology, and their people
As Kevin Sneader and Shubham Singhal point out in McKinsey Global Institute’s piece, “The next normal arrives: Trends that will define 2021 – and beyond”, the combination of Covid-19 and advances in digitisation and automation have been a potent one. They quote Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who said in April 2020, “We’ve seen two years’ worth of digital change in two months.”
We’re not on the other side of this yet — what changes, then, are yet to come? While this is anyone’s guess, the consensus is that businesses need to be ready for change, and they need to be positioned for adaption.
The role of the office plays a significant role here. It looks like hybrid strategies that offer a mix of remote and in-office work are the way forward. As Sneader and Singhal argue, businesses also need to adapt their workforce “to the requirements of automation, digitisation, and other technologies.”
Coworking offers change-ready solutions
Organisations need solutions that reduce the burden: solutions that can adapt to them rather than the other way around. In particular, they need office solutions that are primed for change. This is the benefit of a coworking environment like The Great Room. Offering a mix of hot desking, fixed private offices and meeting space, The Great Room delivers flexibility: you choose the combination you need, and you can sign on for as long or as short a time as you want.
When compared with the rigidity of long-term office leases and fixed floorplates, coworking is a dream. With coworking, you’re no longer paying for empty desks and excess square footage you don’t need because half your staff are working remotely three days a week. At The Great Room, for example, there’s an in-house app that allows team members to book their desks in the office. This takes the load off office managers, and it reduces the risk of team members coming all the way to the office, only to find it’s at full capacity.
How coworking provides uncompromising solutions in real-life scenarios
Let’s look at a real-life example. AZOTELS Hospitality, a high-end hotel group founded by Adrian Zecha, needed a mix of privacy and connection in a vibrant work environment.
The Great Room in Bangkok was able to offer them a hybrid solution that matched their needs perfectly, setting them up with a private office, which supports confidentiality when they need it, as well as space in which to focus.
AZOTELS Hospitality also has hot desks, giving the team space to work in dynamic surroundings when they want to. “The Great Room delivered a turnkey solution that gave our hotel company the ability to scale without the initial overheads costs associated with a more traditional office set-up,” says Leanne Reddie, Commercial Sales & Marketing Director at AZOTELS Hospitality.
Plus, as their team grows, depending on the team’s needs, they can simply add more hot desks into the mix or move to a larger private office. In addition, the hospitality-driven nature of this coworking environment speaks to the AZOTELS Hospitality brand, making The Great Room the perfect partner. Says Reddie, “With the evolution of the working environment in this post pandemic era, The Great Room represents the office of the future.
Coworking provides on-brand settings and on-time support
In this way, The Great Room was able to quickly cater to AZOTELS Hospitality’s needs for a workspace in the right location, and one that felt on-brand. Indeed, this is one of the (many) perks of The Great Room: it’s luxurious enough to represent the quality of your brand to clients and stakeholders.
With facilities such as the ‘great room’ itself – that ultra-comfortable, stylish community space – premium in-house events, the barista-level coffee, as well as wellbeing spaces and outdoor areas at locations such as Afro-Asia, there’s a strong foundation from which to reinforce your brand and build corporate culture, as well as bolster employee engagement. All without management, marketing or HR having to lift a finger.
Support is another key benefit of coworking spaces. Premium coworking environments like The Great Room have expert, in-house support staff that are ready to handle any issues that come up – from helping with VC technology and booking meeting rooms and event spaces to adding extra desks when companies suddenly find unexpectedly high numbers of staff coming into the office.
For many organisations, it’s a weight off their shoulders to have someone else take care of the fit-out and all the admin associated with workspace. And, in the grand scheme of things, in a working world that’s constantly in flux, it’s details like these that make all the difference.
A Workspace That Moves With You
The Great Room by Industrious is coworking inspired by hospitality, with 150+ international locations across APAC, US and Europe where members have access to all workspaces in our global network.
With the traditional idea of ‘the office’ rapidly evolving, outdated inflexible office spaces no longer best serve the needs of forward-thinking teams. Find out how Law Firm THAT.LEGAL has made a break with conventional legal offices by shifting to The Great Room and the surprising benefits they’ve discovered in the process.
For law firm That.Legal, leaving the safety of a corporate office for co-working space at The Great Room was a major shift.
Driven by client confidentiality requirements and old-school internal hierarchies, “Law firms typically choose traditional office spaces,” says Mark Teng, Executive Director of That.Legal LLC.
The legal office model is one that dates back a century. Featuring private offices for directors and senior lawyers, it’s based on the belief that private rooms equal success and status, and that legal work is alone work.
For That.Legal, the impetus to make the change to a luxury shared workspace came as the effects of the pandemic on how they worked began to take shape. “The pandemic changed the way we work,” says Teng.
That.Legal specialises in intellectual property law – not only as a protective measure, but also as a way of helping organisations optimise their intangible assets for commercial gain.
Like a lot of businesses in Asia, they were obliged to work remotely. “The laws didn’t allow us to be at work at all for about 2.5 months,” says Teng.
Luckily, That.Legal is tech-savvy, so they were able to “shut down and set up in our homes within 48 hours,” he says. “Initially our productivity dropped to 80% of what they were pre-COVID, because we were building new habits, but soon after, it increased to 120% … due to savings in commuting time.”
Even in Phases 2 and 3, when not everyone could be in the office at the same time, the rent on their corporate office remained the same. “In 2020, the losses in underutilisation outweighed the financial assistance we were entitled to,” says Teng. “I’m sure we’re not alone in this.
Fortunately, That.Legal’s office lease expired in February this year, giving them the ideal opportunity to reimagine their real estate. Did they still need to subscribe to that conventional office layout, they asked themselves? Or could they fulfill client confidentiality and convey a sense of luxury in a shared working environment?
They decided to find out, moving into a private office space at The Great Room at One George Street that complies with the confidentiality requirements.
Making the change and discovering asset efficiency
Mark Teng, Executive Director – That.Legal LLC
“If COVID taught us anything, it’s that we can adapt,” says Teng.
It turns out adaptation brings with it benefits—some of them unexpected.
Under the traditional, private-office model, if a director doesn’t come in, their office remains empty. This leads to inactive space and spatial inefficiencies. Not so in a co-working space.
The Great Room doesn’t require the same long-term contractual commitment that a traditional office requires. This gives us the flexibility to reconfigure our real estate requirements as the team constitution changes. Expanding the number of desks we have is easy,” says Teng.
Shared workspace and community benefits that prime teams for performance and productivity
That.Legal’s new private office at The Great Room also brings the team together in one space, “breaking down the barriers across ranks and democratising our real estate. Breaking down the physical barriers also dissolves mental barriers,” he says.
As well as bringing the team together physically and demonstrating the collaborative nature of much legal work, The Great Room move has resulted in rental savings of 40%. That.Legal plans to reallocate these savings to human capital, including expanding their team from six to nine people.
The Great Room has seven locations across Asia’s gateway cities situated in prime neighbourhoods, with workspace solutions to fit all sizes and customisations.
Find out how we can help your business adapt to the flexible future of work. Select the city below for more details.
Working out of The Great Room is sure to help with talent acquisition and retention too. Along with comfortable, design-centric workrooms and chic central meeting spaces, the luxuriously appointed offices in The Great Room all deliver community benefits – from the hospitality mindset of staff to the thoughtful food and beverage touches.
There’s the Monday Breakfast Club, with power grub like scrambled eggs, bagels, local delights and gourmet coffee. On Mondays, there’s the Turndown Cart, serving hot chocolate and cookies to perk staff up at the end of the day. And then there are monthly (virtual) networking nights, engaging team-building and learning sessions, such as Great Thirstdays and the Spend the Night with… series (a fireside chat with influencers and changemakers).
Teng also points out that even legal staff need an inspiring space to work in—something that The Great Room perfectly caters to. “Quite contrary to popular belief, lawyering is creative work. Just as inspiration is a necessity for art, legal professionals also need to find a way to enter and achieve a state of flow in our work.
“It’s not just about the hours of hard work we put in every day. The productivity gains from being in a state of flow are what’s necessary for us to do great work.”
With panoramic city views, landmark buildings and perfect sunset moments, That.Legal’s new home at The Great Room “helps to inspire creative legal solutions for our clients,” says Teng. “We’re happy coming to work.”
How coworking can complement your company’s talent-growth strategies
The COVID-19 pandemic is unchartered waters for the global economy. It’s a period that calls for all hands on deck—a crucial time for businesses to focus on its people. Of all the fires to be putting out during this critical era, staff attrition shouldn’t be one of them.
Staff retention efforts go beyond engaging your team with stimulating work and enabling career progression plans that allow employees to grow with the company. It’s the soft touches that are just as critical in boosting morale, promoting a sense of well-being, and ultimately, encouraging your superstar workers to thrive during volatile times.
The Great Room Centennial Tower, Singapore
Community War Chest
Hiring right is the first step to any organisation’s talent strategy, but also the most difficult to achieve. Some might say it takes various serendipitous opportunities to recruit the best talent, but there are things you can do to push the needle in the right direction. Putting yourself in the right place, with the like-minded people who can strengthen your work tribe is certainly one way.
One of our members interviewed several candidates to fill a top associate position, but in vain. He then connected with a team member at a recruitment company within The Great Room community. The recruiters presented him with just one candidate, resulting in the perfect person for the job. Each of The Great Room’s coworking space is a natural ecosystem that attracts a diverse, yet like-minded pool of professionals across different industries. It is a community to grow roots and thrive in.
Toughing it, Not Roughing it
It might seem like a natural move to cut expenditures during trying times, but there are ways to do so without negatively impacting staff morale. Moving out from the Central Business District (CBD) to an industrial area in the suburbs might look like substantial savings on paper, however, the disruption it would bring to your team’s daily routine alone could become a push factor; a brain drain that might cost the company even more than it saves.
Transitioning from a leased unit to a coworking venue in a Grade A office with floor to ceiling windows boasting 360 city views, wide or column-free layouts located in a prime CBD spot would make staff feel differently about coming to work. Luxuriously furnished and designed to maximise productivity, our premium coworking destinations in Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok might be your best HR ally. It’s a space that your team will be proud to work in, and one that delivers an impeccable first impression for those all-important meetings, be it with a client or new talent you’ve got your antenna out for.
Monday Breakfast Club in The Great Room One Taikoo Place, Hong Kong
It’s All in the Detail
If a full HR team with the bandwidth to take care of staff welfare sounds like a luxury to you, it’s on the house at The Great Room. Grounded on the ethos of #itsallworkitsallplay, and with the driving force of hospitality fueling service excellence, every touchpoint is humancentric. Mondays start right with complimentary Monday Breakfast Club; a spread of power grub like scrambled eggs, everything bagels and local delights.
But more than that, it sets the stage for connections to be made and conversations to flow. The week closes on an effervescent note, with a Turndown Cart of refreshing nightcaps to ease everyone into the week. From convivial monthly networking nights, engaging team bonding activities to illuminating business learning sessions, The Great Room’s team has it all planned out to reward staff, help recharge, and inspire reimagination of greater things. Not merely a space to get work done, coworking offers employees a community, flexible work options and be at the core of activity and innovation; a purposeful space and mindset for peak levels of productivity.
Wellness is the key to unlocking your best self both at work and at play. We help you – and your team – achieve optimal wellbeing and operate at peak level.
Endorphin-releasing breathing exercises. Chakra- balancing practices. Qi-circulation improving massages. While these can seem esoteric to some, taking care of wellness – from physical, mental to emotional and spiritual – is all part and parcel of ensuring that you perform your best. For we are not cold machinery, but flesh and blood with complex sensation and emotion.
The Great Roomies Go Rhythm Cycling, in collaboration with Absolute You, Bangkok
Here at The Great Room, we understand the human condition. Committed to improving workplace wellness for our staff and members, we offer a holistic suite of events and initiatives – from wellness workshops to rhythm cycling sessions through Great Roomies Go, our signature events where we take you out of the workspace and into another. Our goal: to help you and your team set strong foundations to a great wellness journey.
A peace of mind
“High stress impairs our attention, decision-making, working memory, and multitasking abilities – all of which we need to be productive in life and to have more balance,” observes Brenda Wang, co-founder and CEO at Bird Meditation – our session partner for Hong Kong Great Roomies Go. Yet with chaotic work schedules and pressures to “staying ahead of the game”, timeout has become an after-thought. But does always being in a high tension state of business make you a better worker? “We’ve convinced ourselves that there is so much to do in so little time. Operating in this way unmanaged can leave us stressed, disengaged and as a result, less productive,” warns psychotherapist Astrid Merkt at Balance Health, speaker at our digital wellness workshop on Mental Resilience.
As part of The Great Room Hong Kong’s Corporate Wellness Day initiative, Astrid shared the power of breathwork – the practice of consciously controlling one’s breathing to therapeutic effect on the mind and body. Other alternative therapies – such as meditation, a practice to actively train and strengthen our minds for focus and clarity has also been proven to effectively manage stress and in-turn boost productivity – are also useful tools for maintaining one’s mental health.
Community wellness session in The Great Room One Taikoo Place
Astrid highlights that such techniques serve as preventative and prescriptive strategies to develop resilience, the ability to bounce back from adversity/trauma – something especially important in times of great turbulence. Through learning how to “gain control of our internal environment”, Astrid proposes that we will be able to better cope and respond to changes in our external environment. “We become able to adapt to psychological and physiological stressors while being able to maintain well-being. This enables us to be in a better state emotionally, and thus also have a positive impact on our interpersonal relationships at work and at home. When we learn to design a lifestyle that can handle stress, we thrive in performance and productivity!”
Co-working, co-workout
We all know the science behind why a good workout really goes well beyond physical benefit, but sometimes – especially when it’s just one wave after another at work – you just need that nudge to get back into a good exercise rhythm.
Sweat & Chat in collaboration with Lululemon & Rebelhouse
Being in a community that shares your wellness priorities is critical – and we actively build that support system for you at The Great Room. Partnerships and special events that allow our members to build bonds over brawn-building are purpose-designed to build an active work tribe. Over Sweat & Chat with Lululemon & Rebelhouse for our Singapore members, a round of invigorating morning yoga was followed by a stimulating breakfast discussion on the role of businesses in creating community impact. The Great Roomies Go Boxing saw our members sweating it out together with a boxing and HIIT session led by Uppercut Boxing. Be it a calming and toning session of core strength exercises or a high-intensity, adrenalin-pumping workout you seek, we’ve got you covered.
Food for thought
We always knew that food would impact the way we work – thus our carefully curated Monday Breakfast Club spreads, and yes, we love feeding our members hot chocolate and cookies just like your favourite aunt would. Yet more than a source of comfort, food is nutrition, and according to Adelyn Khoo, the senior dietitian of CircleDNA – The Great Room’s wellness partner, which conducts comprehensive DNA testing that covers over 500 aspects of an individual’s health – eating right can help boost your focus, memory and help to manage stress better.
Fresh Food Market in The Great Room One Taikoo Place
What’s right could be dictated by more than common conventions on healthy eating. “Every individual’s need is unique, based on his/her environment, lifestyle, goals, dietary habits, and their current health data,” says Adelyn. “Understanding your DNA is only part of the puzzle – research has shown that your genetics contribute to 30% of your overall health outcome, while the remaining 70% is from our lifestyle and the environment. This means that understanding your genes can significantly improve and help you control your health risks.”
Knowing your body’s specific needs takes the guess work out of creating a diet for yourself – so you know exactly how to eat well, to live, work and play well.
The Great Room invites communications strategist Tan Shou Chen and voice and presentation coach Petrina Kow to share insights on nailing those virtual meetings.
Video-conferences and meetings seemed like the perfect solution in the age of social distancing. But are they? Slow servers and poor internet connection can easily kill the momentum of a discussion; a whirring fan in the background of one attendee becomes a distraction for everybody; and let’s not even start on “Zoom fatigue”, which has become a trending topic. This isn’t to say that we cannot interact and engage as effectively virtually though – we simply need to work the medium to our advantage. Over a series of three Webinars, communications strategist Tan Shou Chen and voice and presentation coach Petrina Kow showed The Great Room’s co-working members exactly how to do that.
Here are some of their insights:
Know the medium
Do you find yourself speaking louder when faced with a larger Zoom room group? That’s because our brains are wired to tell us to do so in group settings. Yet, there is absolutely no need to do so in virtual meetings , regardless of the number of attendees. “You don’t have to do a stadium emcee shout out – because your audience is alone,” says Petrina, illustrating one of the many ways virtual meetings are different from conventional ones. “Whether there are three attendees or 25, the message is still being delivered to the attendees as solo individuals.” Being aware of the differences such as this is critical, for only then can you adapt and adjust to its quirks – and work it to your advantage.
Minimise distractions
“Unlike physical meetings where the environment is controlled and purpose-built, virtual meeting rooms are mediated by technology, and has a lot more distractions,” highlights Shou Chen. “For example, whenever a participant in a Zoom call says something – and it could just be an unconscious ‘OK’ – everybody else is cut off.” While distractions from other meeting participants are not within your control, you certainly can help yourself still: “But don’t let technology sabotage you: invest in better equipment, have somebody give you feedback so you know how you sound, or if you tech is not working,” shares Shou Chen.
Structure for success
Given that the interruptions in virtual meetings are a lot more pronounced, having a clear agenda and meeting plan becomes especially important. This helps everybody to focus, and also allows the host to think about how to leverage on the tech tools to make the session more effective. “For example, at a presentation-heavy Zoom session, the host could mute all participates during the first part; and then unmute-all when proceeding to the discussion after the presentation,” illustrates Shou Chen.
Ways of seeing
“Use the right medium for your goal. If you don’t need to do a video call – don’t,” says Shou Chen. So, if the objective is just to download information to a group, hold a webinar. And let’s not forget the good old phone call either – in fact, Shou Chen facilitated this interview over a three-way call. Petrina also highlights that appearing in front of a camera can be a source of anxiety for some. “While seeing somebody on the screen gives that extra warmth to the interaction, there are many reasons why some people might not want to turn on their camera. If possible, give people options about what they are comfortable with,” she says.
More than ever, virtual meetings have also made us more aware of how we look and sound – and some of us might not be exactly happy with what we see and hear. “Some people literally cringe when they hear themselves, but you have to be kind to yourself and not judge yourself,” says Petrina. “Rather than get more self-conscious about how you look or sound, be more concerned about how you feel when you are presenting. Your emotions feed your voice, so you should be feeling good while making a presentation, rather than be in a state of heightened stress.”
Be authentic. Be human.
“The camera does not lie. In fact, it enhances the truth,” says Shou Chen, illustrating the heightened need for authentic communication in virtual meetings. This is an impetus to hone your charisma – not just as a presenter, but also as a person.
“A crying child might be seen as an interruption because of the boundaries we used to draw between work and our private life. But with people working from home, that line is blurred. While it is the employee’s responsibility to commit to their work in this new setting, that an employee can’t even take two minutes out from a meeting to settle a domestic issue says something about a company’s culture,” says Shou Chen. “If you are in a position of leadership and you are positive with how you deal with the distractions, it sends a strong message across,” echoes Petrina.
Just as the human approach guides the design of every of The Great Room’s venues, it takes a human touch to transform meetings over digital platforms into meaningful sessions that connect both hearts and minds.
Work-from-home might be the order of the day, but it is far from over for workspaces.
Confession: we love working from home too. We can wake up to a session of morning yoga or even an F45 set, sit down to a proper breakfast with our family, change into comfortable house clothes, and commence work. And it is only 8.30am.
Here’s the thing though: while work commute might be a bane, offices are a boon. Not even taking into account the professional resources (or air-conditioning, for that matter) offered, offices offer a whole lot more than we realise.
A ritual to wake the work-warrior
Precious time is indeed saved when we can be at work just by flipping open our laptops – but are you really working as efficiently and effectively as you normally are? We all play so many roles in our lives outside of work that it is sometimes hard to snap into work mode fully. Like how Clark Kent needs to go into a telephone booth to transform into Superman, the routine of putting together a spiffy outfit, organising our work kit, or even making our way to the office, is something that helps many to focus our thoughts and switch into work-warrior mode. Furthermore, the familiarity of this process is a rock for those seeking a sense of stability in times of uncertainty.
The Great Room, Gaysorn Tower
An environment optimised for productivity
As we always say at The Great Room – it’s all work, it’s all play. We love that working from home is getting more people to understand that achieving work-life balance isn’t about choosing between one or the other, but having and managing both in harmony. However, not all homes are made equal (and offices, for that matter); and when you need to hunker down for an intensive session, being in an environment purpose-built for productivity makes all the difference. From lighting, acoustics to aesthetics, a thoughtfully-designed workspace sets the stage for you to give your best performance. Situated in prime locations, our premium co-working destinations in Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok also offer superb accessibility – so you and your team can shorten your work commute and maximise the precious hours in a day.
Culture club
In the words of The New York Times columnist Jennifer Senior, the office is “a physical manifestation of a corporate ethos”. But it’s called “work culture” for a reason: and beyond being a business, a company is really a collective of people who share the same ethics, purpose, world view – and sometimes the same taste in other things in life, even. Within this space, we don’t just work together – we also learn from and influence each other.
The Great Room founder Jaelle Ang proposes that offices and co-working spaces will become the modern agora. “When things are changing faster than we can figure it all out, then learning and application must be the most valuable skills to have. In the offices of today, especially in the best of co-working spaces, you see a plethora of painstakingly curated events covering learning, motivation and well-being. We can certainly conduct these sessions virtually, but when everyone has spent the day on Zoom calls, it is inevitable that we will be less receptive to doing another learning or social session facing the screen. Sharing a laugh with a roomful of like-minded attendees, with a drink in hand, is a much more appealing proposition.”
Social studies
Yet more important than anything else, perhaps, is the social aspect of going into an office. You might not think much of casual banter with your colleagues, but a casual collision and a serendipitous chat can often bring about an exponential burst of ideas. “Offices house relationships with trust and rapport; and valuable communities with friction of ideas and are designed for spontaneous engagement, deep collaboration and productivity,” says Jaelle. “Companies and teams will still see the need for physical space to collaborate, benefit from technology, see colleagues and clients, and build routine and culture in a local environment.”
The need for in-person interaction goes beyond our natural instinct as social creatures: “The social capital accumulated prior is the reason why we have been able to cope with working from home with some resemblance of productivity,” says Jaelle. “We can draw from this reserve for problem-solving, ideation, or peer inspiration perhaps for a couple of months. However, we will need to top up this capital soon – through face-to-face interaction, in a physical space .”
