Elevate The Room is a new SCSI podcast series for professionals working in and leading teams across the property, land and construction sectors. Developed as part of the SCSI’s wider work on workplace culture, the series translates the findings of the SCSI Workplace Culture Benchmark Report into practical, manager-focused conversations. The podcast explores the challenges that arise when leading people, balancing performance and navigating workplace relationships, drawing on industry experience, real-world scenarios and candid discussions with professionals from across the sector. Each episode is designed to provide practical insights and actionable ideas that listeners can apply within their own teams and organisations.
Episode 1: Speaking Up - Feedback & Psychological Safety
Guests: Liane O’Leary & Bernadette Morrissey, MSCSI MRICs
Overview:
Culture problems rarely arrive all at once. More often, they begin with a missed conversation, an unspoken concern or feedback that is delayed until it’s too late.
In this episode, Liane O’Leary, HR Manager at Colliers, and Bernadette Morrissey MSCSI MRICS, Capital Works Project Manager at SETU, join Patrick King, SCSI Director of Membership & Public Affairs to explore how managers can create environments where people feel comfortable speaking up. Together, they discuss feedback, psychological safety and the consequences of allowing small issues to go unaddressed, before sharing practical approaches to addressing concerns early and building trust within teams.
Drawing on real workplace scenarios and management experiences, the conversation examines how small silences can grow into larger team and performance challenges, and what managers can do to prevent them.
Episode 2: Building a team: What does a manager need to do to turn a group of people into a team?
Guests: Malepeli Malataliana & David McDonagh
Overview:
Building a team sounds straightforward. Bringing people together is easy. Creating trust, clarity and shared purpose is much harder.
In this episode, Malepeli Malataliana and David McDonagh join Patrick King, SCSI Director of Membership & Public Affairs, to explore what managers need to do to turn a group of people into a team. Together, they discuss trust, communication, accountability and the challenges that can arise when assimilating into an established team, building a team from the ground up and creating a culture where people can work together effectively.
Drawing on real workplace experiences and management challenges, the conversation examines how teams are shaped by the decisions made in their earliest days, and what managers can do to create the conditions for people to work together successfully.
Episode 3: Mind The Communication Gap
Guests: Lily Ellis & Padraig McKeon
Overview:
The third episode of Elevate The Room explores a challenge familiar to many managers: despite having more ways to communicate than ever, communication often feels harder than ever.
Messages are read but not actioned. Everyone is copied on updates but not sure why. Plans are shared, but responsibilities remain unclear. As communication channels continue to multiply, so too does the challenge of ensuring that the right information reaches the right people in the right way.
In this episode, Lily Ellis, Director of Workplace Experience at NetApp, and Padraig McKeon, Communication, Reputation and Crisis Management Advisor at McKeon Ireland, join host Patrick King of the SCSI to explore how managers can create a culture of effective communication. Together, they discuss how communication should be designed around purpose, audience and impact.
“Are we communicating better in today’s workplaces, or just communicating more?”
Drawing on workplace experiences and management challenges, the guests discuss how managers can communicate with greater clarity, navigate different communication styles and expectations, and create environments where people understand not only the message being shared, but the action required as a result.
Episode 4: Mind From Insight to Habit
Guests: Paul Mitchell & Sandra Healy
Overview:
The fourth episode of Elevate The Room explores a challenge that can exist within any organisation: two people can work under the same policies and values, yet have completely different experiences depending on who manages them.
For most people, workplace culture is experienced through the everyday actions of their manager. Do they listen? Do they follow through? Do they create clarity? When those experiences vary significantly between teams, belonging can become inconsistent too.
Paul Mitchell, Co-Founder of Mitchell McDermott, and Sandra Healy, Founder of Kintris (Formerly Inclusio) , join host Patrick King of the SCSI to explore why two managers in the same organisation can create completely different experiences for their people, and what can be done about it.
Bringing together lived leadership experience and evidence from the SCSI Workplace Culture Benchmark Report, the guests discuss management styles, belonging and team dynamics, and how organisations can create greater consistency without expecting every manager to lead in exactly the same way. Together, they explore the practical habits managers can adopt to create a stronger sense of belonging across their teams.