Stanford GSB Guest Lecture
at Bob Sutton's Organizational Change class
In Winter 2020, I had the opportunity to lead a session on designing meaningful workplace interactions in Bob Sutton’s Leading Organizational Change class at Stanford GSB. The session focused on how leaders can use thoughtful design to improve communication, collaboration, and engagement—whether in-person or virtual.
Our students worked alongside Stanford’s Vice President for Human Resources and her team to prototype new approaches to strengthening workplace culture. One group tackled the challenge of virtual meetings, designing a structured "flight-safety demonstration" to set norms, encourage engagement, and ensure all voices were heard on Zoom calls. Another group explored alternative ways to foster connection and collaboration across distributed teams.
At the time, we couldn’t have predicted just how relevant these experiments in virtual work would become. Just days after our session, Stanford transitioned to fully remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, putting our students' ideas into immediate practice. What started as a design exercise turned into a real-world playbook for adapting organizational culture in a time of uncertainty.
Bob Sutton later reflected on the session in a LinkedIn post, using it as part of his own ritual to bring closure to the class. The experience reinforced a key lesson: well-designed interactions—whether in leadership, meetings, or workplace culture—can create continuity, foster resilience, and help organizations navigate change with intention.