The Tightrope With Dan Smolen

On What’s Your Work Fit?, Dan Smolen, Mark Gilbreath, and Fran Saele are joined by workplace strategists and authors Sara Escobar and Corinne Murray to unpack their influential book, WORK Then PLACE: Navigating Modern Work & Where It Happens. At a time when organizations are wrestling with return-to-office mandates, AI disruption, and shifting employee expectations, this conversation challenges a deeply ingrained assumption: Should we design the workplace first—or the work itself? Sara and Corinne argue convincingly that work must come first—and that everything else, including place, should follow. Key Themes & Insights 1. Work Then Place—Not the Other Way Around Many organizations still default to designing offices first and forcing work into them. The authors advocate for a flipped model: Define the what and why of work Understand how work actually happens Then design places (physical, digital, experiential) to support it “If you build it, they will come” no longer applies in modern work. 2.