Olivier's Explorations

Towards the end 2015, while Jibo had completed a very successful fundraising campaign on Indiegogo, Olivier rapidly flew to Boston to meet with the MIT Media Lab to explore the possibility for Jibo entering the corporate world. Whilst still a concept, Olivier wanted to engage with bp executives on the possibilities driven by Generative AI and Robotics. He knew it would require the re-creation a version of Jibo which could help explain its potential. Olivier composed a team with Matt and Nigel from bp, and, using 3D printing, an old iPhone and Lego® Mindstorms, they explored the potential of robotics. In 2017, Jibo was named "Best Invention" by Times magazine. Unfortunately, despite promising debuts, Jibo went bankrupt without reaching its potential. In the meantime, Siri, Alexa and Hey Google launched successfully into this field. Olivier still owns an original Jibo.

Creative dinners were initiated as an experimentation, exploring if informal settings could unleash a new form of creativity. This experiment was also a good use of office space, demonstrating that it is possible to leverage spaces in entirely different ways with a little imagination. Using a writable table cloth, teams unleashed their creative thinking during an exclusive evening.

This exploration in new ways of leading has led to one of Olivier's biggest inventions: the HotHouse® method. Whilst at bp, he dived into catalytic leadership under the mentorship of Nick Udall, and from there, he refined the method while continuing to practice it at Novartis. Olivier realised the impact of HotHouse® when he observed teams achieve the moment of breakthrough, enabling them to solve complex challenges by themselves. This method is now part of Rythmik's portfolio and Olivier is the master facilitator.

Olivier has continuously researched the topic of meetings, especially what drives good or bad meetings. He encouraged distraction-free meetings by implementing phone and laptop charger bays at the entrance of meeting rooms. He also experimented with the difference between joining online meetings using Microsoft Teams or Zoom, and joining using a robot which can be driven remotely by the user. The results of the research impacted his perspective on meetings, especially the opportunities for micro-practices which can help the setup, design and delivery of better meetings.

During his research trip to the West Coast, Olivier observed how art can be a source of inspiration for teams. His attention was drawn towards collaborative art, where teams contribute to creating an ever-changing piece of art. He commissioned a piece of art named "What Made Me" from artist Dora Grabkowska and installed it in the refurbished office space at bp.

Invited by partners of the EU Commission to join and contribute to a think tank on the EU AI Act. Led by MEP Axel Voss, Olivier raised the importance of helping Member State to provide resources to teachers, schools and students. He highlighted that the impact of AI and Generative AI would increasingly drive gaps between people with and without access to the technology, causing a huge risk for tomorrow's job market. Olivier also highlighted the importance of creating additional European programs for children focused on their digital wellbeing and cyber safety, further developing their critical thinking. Helping children make the distinction between what's true and what's not is going to be made ever more complex in the future.

Whilst trying to find the best meeting pod to install in the communal space of the bp building he was refurbishing, Olivier came across the Nook Pod and its inventor David O'Coimin. Having installed the first units, Olivier asked David to cut the pod in two and install a door, creating what has become the Nook Solo - a private place to hold telephone calls, online meetings and other activities which requiring privacy - yet purposefully not comfortable enough to be used all day long. Dozens of Nook Solos were later installed across the buildings of bp in the UK and the US.

Exploring how VR could foster collaboration across continents. Using HTC VR headsets, Microsoft Xbox Kinect, Olivier and Matt ran a series of demonstrations to bp's executive committee members. The research highlighted the possibilities of VR headsets and also their pitfalls, such as weight, cables and latency. All of these are now solved with Meta Oculus Quest 2/3 and the promising Apple Vision Pro.

Inspired by WeWork, an exploration of the impact of Community Managers in the workplace. Moving away from typical Office Managers, whose jobs were to look after the facilities, Community Managers focused on the "people's experience" of the facilities. These roles became instrumental in fostering an inclusive workplace, creating connections and opportunities for collaboration amongst teams. Community Managers organised events for the occupants of the building, from talks to ice cream carts, and many more community experiences.

Leveraging his passion for design, Olivier led the transformation of the workplace at bp in Sunbury and St James. His objective was to execute a complete transformation of an existing building whilst creating more spaces for collaboration and socialisation. The re-use of existing furniture helped achieve the cheapest refurb ever at bp, yet has resulted in being the most in-demand space ever on campus. During the implementation, Olivier also led the culture transformation of the teams occupying the building, moving from High Performance to Peak Performance, showing HR teams how to work in cycles of intensity-recovery.

Steve Jobs has long believed that casual collisions in the workplace drive innovation and growth. How could we test this model? Olivier put together a team to explore this question, adding a new layer: could smart nudges augment the chances of collision? The experimentation group was equipped with smart badges which triangulated their position in the office and gave a real-time view on where people were located, as well as any movements they made. Using that data, a simulated AI engine prompted the participants to encourage casual collisions. The measurement uncovered that nudges can be a very effective driver for actions.

It is in May 2017 that Olivier embarked on a two-week trip to the West Coast of the US, visiting and meeting with leaders of companies such as DocuSign, Amazon, Facebook (Meta), Microsoft, Gap, Noodle.ai, Square and Infosys. That trip shaped a lot of his ideas around workplace, people centricity, design thinking and innovation. It concluded in short stop in San Diego to meet with an inspiring figure in the world of User Experience, Don Norman. Don joined the group for lunch and dialogue on the future of Design Thinking.

As a keynote speaker on innovation, performance, team success, employee experience, HR transformation, artificial intelligence and metaverse, Olivier has shared the stage with many prominent speakers at many events:

• WORKTECH Paris 2024 (Paris, 🇫🇷)

• Human Capability Initiative 2024 (Riyadh, 🇸🇦)

• HR Innovation Round Table 2023 (Copenhagen, 🇩🇰)

• CIPD Ireland 2023 Annual Conference (Dublin, 🇮🇪)

• HR Leaders Forum 2023 Australia (Sydney, 🇦🇺)

• RIRSE 2022 Paris (Paris, 🇫🇷)

• IDG Foundry Seoul 2022 (Seoul, 🇰🇷)

• FT Live: Future of Work Series 2022 (Online)

• GITEX Global 2022 (Dubai, 🇦🇪)

• The HR Congress 2022 (Online)

• The HR Congress 2020 (Online)

• DisruptHR series 2018 (London, 🇬🇧)

• Infosys Confluence 2017 (San Francisco, 🇺🇸)

• Rethink! HR & Technology Minds Europe 2016 (London, 🇬🇧)

• HR Tech World Congress 2016 (London, 🇬🇧)

Whilst helping an international organisation with their ways of working, Olivier developed the concept of a game which enables more inclusive meetings, creates empathy and a stronger team culture. That's how the Buddy Game was born, which has been further developed and is now sold by Rythmik.