ET10 Interview with Eric Barends, Managing Director, Centre for Evidence-based Management

In this episode we interview Eric Barends, MD and founder of the Centre for Evidence-based Management (CEBMa) and explore his journey into evidence-based management and the evolution of the organisation. CEBMa (www.cebma.org) started as a network of like-minded people from all over the world who shared a passion and interest in the evidence-based practice in organisations. Since its inception 6 years ago, the organisation has grown its presence significantly including a fantastic website of tools, resources and guides for practitioners as well as teaching  and supporting individuals and organisations to make better decisions.  Eric shares his personal journey into evidence-based management. Driven by a frustration about the way decisions were being made in his organisation, he looked to evidence-based medicine for guidance on how to apply a more systematic and rigorous approach to making better decisions. As a practitioner he talks about his experiences of using an evidence-based approach to reduce uncertainty when addressing and tackling people challenges.  Richard and Pilar move on to talk about recent articles and reports about the fact that  IBM, pioneers of remote working, have now decided that workers in one department must work from one of six locations. Pilar references some research, used to 'sell' the benefits of working in an office which was conducted in the 1980s and 90s and questions its relevance, given the changing nature of work and how technology enables us to work remotely. What do you think? What problem is IBM trying to address and does this mean remote working isn't working? https://qz.com/924167/ibm-remote-work-pioneer-is-calling-thousands-of-employees-back-to-the-office/ (Great comments in this other article https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-small-business/wp/2017/03/24/ibm-is-ordering-its-work-from-home-employees-to-stop-working-from-home/?utm_term=.5c29536c3a80#comments)