Why we wrote the Egiss Playbook

Over the years, I have stopped thinking of organisations we work with as customers.

They are partners.

Partners who share ambitions. Partners who set long-term goals. Partners who are willing to invest in getting things right, not just getting them done.

The Egiss Playbook was written for those partnerships.

Not as a marketing asset, and not as a set of instructions, but as an operational framework that reflects the experiences, learnings, and patterns we have seen across global workplace programmes over many years.

From fragmentation to a shared playing field

Throughout my career working with global organisations, one pattern has repeated itself.

Most challenges do not stem from a lack of technology or capability. They stem from fragmentation.

Experience is optimised in one place.

Cost is optimised in another.

Security, sustainability, procurement, and IT each pull in different directions.

When decisions are made in silos, the outcome may look good on paper in one dimension, but value erodes elsewhere. Hidden costs emerge. Employee trust weakens. Complexity increases.

This Playbook is a response to that fragmentation.

It is built around the idea that sustainable success in the workplace comes from finding the sweet spot - where experience, cost, security, and sustainability reinforce each other rather than compete.

That sweet spot looks different for every organisation. The Playbook does not prescribe a single answer. It provides a playing field.

A learning that did not start with American football

The Playbook uses American football as its narrative structure, but the thinking behind it did not start there.

It started in a learning session I once attended with Danish football coach Glen Riddersholm (soccer, in US terminology). He spoke about small, incremental changes rather than radical overhauls. About continuity over quick wins. And about teamwork and shared responsibility, rather than individual optimisation.

That perspective resonated strongly with what I have seen work in global workplace programmes. Sustainable progress rarely comes from big-bang transformations. It comes from disciplined, lifecycle-driven improvement, built over time, season after season.

At the same time, the structure of the Playbook is also influenced by a long-standing fascination with American football. Ever since watching Any Given Sunday, I have been drawn to how the sport combines tactics, preparation, roles, and team spirit into a single operating system. Add to that the leadership thinking often attributed to Vince Lombardi, and the parallels become clear.

Successful teams do not win because of a single play. They win because everyone understands the game plan, their role within it, and how today’s decisions affect the rest of the season.

For leaders, that is the real lesson: creating clarity, continuity, and shared responsibility is often more impactful than chasing the next big initiative.

Built from real experiences, not theory

This Playbook is not the work of a single author.

It is shaped by years of hands-on experience, by open dialogues with colleagues who challenge assumptions daily, and by customers who have allowed us to learn alongside them.

Some approaches worked. Others did not. Those learnings matter just as much.

What emerged was a lifecycle model that connects:

• employee experience and journeys

• strategic practices such as security, sustainability, and global standards

• operational execution across delivery, management, and end-of-life

The power is not in any single element, but in how they are woven together.

Who this Playbook is for

We wrote this for leaders and practitioners alike.

For those setting direction, and for those turning strategy into daily execution.

My hope is that it inspires a more holistic way of thinking about workplace models - one that recognises that success is not about maximising one variable, but about designing a solution that fits the organisation, its people, and its ambitions.

The Playbook is meant to be used, adapted, and challenged.

This is a starting point, not an endpoint

Just as the Playbook itself recommends, this is not a final version.

Workplace delivery evolves. Expectations change. Context shifts.

This first edition is a starting point, and we fully expect it to evolve through continued learning, dialogue, and shared experience with our partners.

If it helps set a common language, frame better conversations, and support more resilient workplace decisions, then it has achieved its purpose.

You can download the Egiss Playbook here: Download the Playbook

And if you have thoughts, perspectives, or experiences to share, I would genuinely welcome the dialogue.