Innovative Work Models for the Future with Patrick Cowden

**SPEAKER_2** (0:03)
The Bliss Business Podcast, the show about empathy, connection, and consciousness in business. Today's episode is brought to you by Zero Company, your paid search, social media, and programmatic ad experts.

**Stephen Sakach** (0:17)
Welcome back to the show, everyone. I'm Stephen Sakach here with my co-host, Mike Liwski, and our special guest today. First, a little stat here. According to Deloitte report, 74% of employees say they have more flexibility and meaning in how they work. Yet many organizations still rely on outdated structures to prioritize control over creativity. And as new technologies redefine the boundaries of work, companies are being challenged to reimagine connection, collaboration, and what trust can look like. And today, we're exploring how leaders can design work models that empower people and create cultures where both business and humanity can thrive, and also a technology that helps bring some of this together. Mike, introduce our guest today.

**Mike Liwski** (1:09)
Oh, I am absolutely delighted for this opportunity, Stephen. So yes, our guest today is another than Patrick Cowden. He is the CRO. And I want to make clear that he's that doesn't stand for Chief Revenue Officer. He is the Chief Relational Officer and architect of Warm Space. It's a company that's dedicated to restoring human connection in the workplace, which we know our world needs a lot more of. Patrick as well as a leadership expert, he's an author, a global speaker, who spent over 25 years helping organizations bridge the gap between performance and purpose, which we know we love to talk about on the show. He's a former executive at Dell, Hitachi, and Deutsche Bank.
Then Patrick as well has built a global reputation for transforming how teams work and they connect. Through his organization Warm Space, he helps companies design environments where people feel seen, valued, and deeply engaged. Patrick, we are so delighted to have you on our show today. Welcome to our show.

**Patrick Cowden** (2:17)
Yeah, glad to be here. Thank you, Mike. Thank you, Stephen.
It's always good to be in the room with allies. This foundation that you guys speak of, you live it with your own teams, you bring it into the world in everything that you do. It is a foundation that's important, not just to us, but our kids and grandkids, our neighbors, our moms and dads, anyone we would value in life, which should be everyone, by the way. We wish them to be seen and valued. We wish them to be appreciated for their contributions, regardless how small or how big they may be. So it's just really a pleasure and honor to be in a place where bliss actually matters, where we matter. And glad to be here. Thank you.

**Stephen Sakach** (3:03)
Thank you, Patrick. I want to make sure we talk about warm space up front here because this is one of those rare bliss technologies out there, I'd say. A group from our staff got to experience it and had a great time. And for our audience, can you describe warm space to them?

**Patrick Cowden** (3:23)
Yeah. Well, yeah. Thank you, Stephen. It's, you know, we've architected a way to do all the things we just said. You know, we've architected a way to do all these great books you read about, you know, where purpose and connection and trust and, you know, really the best of the best kind of comes together in a manner that's befitting for everyone, regardless of who they are and where they're from. And it's really, really hard to do. It's probably the hardest thing to do in organizations, you know, strategies and structures and technologies and process. You know, there's so much stuff that's, it's hard work, but we do it. We do it every day all the time. But true connection, trust, that deep feeling that I'm good.
Really, it's the hardest thing to establish. In the midst of all the transactional reality of everything moving faster all the time. So I knew two decades ago, that was going to be really hard. I was running Dell, the largest market in the world outside the US for Michael Dell. And we're squeezing the machine, we're squeezing humanity out. And I said, you know what, it's going to be really hard for us to get it back in. And for us middle managers, you know, if we're not owned the company, it's really, really hard. So Warmspace has become a container and a vehicle that can carry that into business processes, into daily routines, into operational realities. It works on screen like here for about the 26% of people that work on a screen, but it also works for the 74% in the world that don't at schools, teachers, factory workers, and hospitals, doctors, nurses, on the streets, construction workers, people that where we could insert that type of tiny process into the work process, at the front of a shift, at the end of a shift. So the intent was to build something we could put in anyone's hands where you just push a button and it turns your team on, and establishes that baseline that you need to go do the toughest of things, the hardest of things together, united together. Warmspace kind of represents an architecture, we call it relational intelligence, it's going to put AI in its place, serving us, not the other way around. It beats the pants off AI without even trying hard. So it's really cool, but it was meant for managers, like for us, because it's really hard to teach yourself this stuff, it's really hard to find a way to actually institute it or get it into your business or your company. So we're hoping that that very tiny insertion protocol that gets it right at the front of a meeting, back of a meeting easily will help make a difference. So that's the best way to summarize it. Thank you.