Heads of workplace: what's the "culture touchpoint" you're most proud of ? .... and the one you still haven't cracked?

The next frontier of employee experience is intentional design which builds belonging. So what actually builds it?

For years we told ourselves that culture lived in a building. That collaboration happened in a conference room. That connection was a by-product of proximity.

An organisation can have a stunning culture anchor, say a world-class headquarters that beautifully expresses its values. However without adequate culture touchpoints across remote, hybrid and third-spaces it may still fail because the culture travels with the person, not just the postcode.

The most sophisticated workplace strategies therefore need to address both, deliberately designing anchors and engineering touchpoints.

Today many employees make choices about where to work based on the task at hand, with deep focus work pulling them home.

For many the key problem remains that the their global real estate portfolios were designed when the office was the only option on the table i.e. built for presence rather than today's human-centric purpose.

What I find fascinating is how organisations are starting to invest in the moments that matter ... spontaneous connection in a corridor, a mentorship conversation that wasn't scheduled, a celebration ritual that makes someone feel genuinely seen, a sensory environment that signals "this place was designed with you in mind."

These are your cultural touchpoints and they need to exist across all work environments (the corporate office, the home office, hybrid arrangements, and also the coffee shop, the co-working hub, the airport lounge ('third spaces').

Culture doesn't live in one building anymore. Collaboration doesn't happen in one time zone. And human connectivity .. are you leaving that to chance ? .. or it now part of your strategic intent?

The hardest challenge and one I don't think we talk about enough is culture equity.

It's relatively straightforward to invest in a world-class flagship HQ. It's far harder to ensure that the employee in your Warsaw hub, your Singapore satellite, or your fully remote support team in three different time zones feels the same cultural gravity as someone sitting in your London headquarters.

Investment, density and organisational history are also unevenly distributed across the global portfolio ... so how to ensure your culture does not follow this unevenness?

Here's what I'd love to hear from this community: Have you successfully piloted something, a programme, a ritual, a physical or digital intervention that created genuine cultural connection across more than one environment? What worked? What surprised you? And where are you still improvising?

The floor is yours.