This week, Tim and Tom are joined by RB regular and DEX Hub editor Sean Malvey to unpack Nexthink’s first Workplace Productivity Report, “Cracking the DEX Equation.” Drawing on data from nine million endpoints, the report quantifies the real productivity impact of digital employee experience — revealing where enterprises lose nearly half a million hours a year to poor DEX, and how small score gains deliver measurable ROI.

In addition, the team acknowledge the various huge milestones in the air, from the show's approaching 200th episode, to Nexthink's new $3bn dollar valuation and investment. 

Download The First Annual Workplace Productivity Report here - https://nexthink.com/resource/cracking-the-dex-equation-or-the-first-annual-workplace-productivity-report 

Tim and Tom host another special live edition of The DEX Show, this time from the Omni Boston Hotel, recorded during last week’s Experience Boston. Joined by Christina Lahr (Bayer), James Krick (Campbell’s), and Ryan Way (Warburg Pincus), the hosts dig into more real-world stories of data-led IT excellence, once again in-person.

In between, listeners can learn a few unexpected facts about Tim — has he ever been in a fist fight, starred in a play, or been thrown out of a bar? Listen now to find out...

Download The First Annual Workplace Productivity Report here 

Head of Nexthink's Digital Community and User Groups Jon Leighton rejoins Reality Bytes with Tom, Sean, and Dina to explore how community remains the beating heart of Digital Employee Experience (DEX).

Fresh from Experience London and heading into Experience Boston, Jon shares how Nexthink’s Ambassador Program, user groups, and learning initiatives empower practitioners to grow, collaborate, and lead change. From storytelling and communication to real-world impact and career development, this episode celebrates the people and connections driving DEX forward.

Learn more about becoming a Nexthink Ambassadors here: https://nexthink.com/nexthink-ambassador 

Take a DEX Management Certification here: https://dex.nexthink.com/dex-management-certification/

Get the latest edition of the Gartner Magic Quadrant here (https://nexthink.com/gartner-magic-quadrant-dex)  

Learn more about AI Drive here and Nexthink Adopt here

Tim and Tom are back with another special DEX Show Live!—recorded last week at Nexthink Experience London at the Intercontinental by the iconic O2. Day 1 of the world's biggest DEX event saw over a thousand IT pros gather for two days of innovation, insight, and energy. In this lively episode, the hosts are joined by Guillaume Charles, Senior Director of Product Management (Diagnostics) at Nexthink, and Gabriela Moraes from Electrolux to explore the state of digital and AI adoption in the enterprise. Plus, the audience gets involved in a hilarious round of AI Confessions—revealing just how far they’ve already let AI into their work (and personal) lives.

Book your tickets for Nexthink Experience Boston here: https://nexthink.com/experience

Get the latest edition of the Gartner Magic Quadrant here (https://nexthink.com/gartner-magic-quadrant-dex)  

Learn more about AI Drive here and Nexthink Adopt here

The Reality Bytes team is back together again! Tim, Tom, Megan, Dina and Sean swap stories of how AI has reshaped their personal and professional lives and habits over the past year—from eerie chatbot encounters and creative breakthroughs to frustrations with hallucinations and the hunt for the true “human fingerprint.” 

Learn more about AI Drive here

Book your tickets for Nexthink Experience here: https://nexthink.com/experience

Get the latest edition of the Gartner Magic Quadrant here (https://nexthink.com/gartner-magic-quadrant-dex)  

In this very special episode of The DEX Show, we welcome back one of the world’s most influential voices on digital transformation and the future of AI leadership: Charlene Li.

Charlene is a bestselling author and trailblazing thinker who has helped leaders navigate disruption for over two decades. She returns to the show for an unmissable conversation on the realities of AI Transformation—and what it means for organizations, leaders, and employees at every level.

Part of our AI Transformation Series marking the launch of AI Drive, this conversation goes well beyond hype.

Learn more about AI Drive here

Book your tickets for Nexthink Experience (Boston or London) here: https://nexthink.com/experience

Get the latest edition of the Gartner Magic Quadrant here (https://nexthink.com/gartner-magic-quadrant-dex)  

In this special Reality Bytes, the team sits down with Matt Rose, Product Marketing Manager at Nexthink, to talk about the just-announced AI Drive. Matt breaks down how AI Drive helps organizations finally make sense of their scattered AI landscape—bringing visibility, usage insights, guidance, and measurable impact into one place inside the Nexthink Infinity platform. He also shares early customer feedback, the future roadmap, and why AI adoption has become a critical competitive differentiator.

If you’ve wondered how to move beyond AI experimentation to true business value, this is an episode you need to hear.

Book your tickets for Nexthink Experience (Boston or London) here: https://nexthink.com/experience

Get the latest edition of the Gartner Magic Quadrant here (https://nexthink.com/gartner-magic-quadrant-dex)  

In this episode Tim and Tom sit down with Sean Thomas, Managing Director of EUEM Business at Edge Consulting, to explore how happiness, health, and IT success are all connected.

They dive into the parallels between personal health and IT health, the evolution of proactive and preventative IT, and how organizations can better operationalize digital employee experience (DEX). From vendor partnerships and process investments to the role of AI in shaping the next generation of IT management, Sean offers valuable insights for leaders navigating today’s complex digital workplace.

Get the latest edition of the Gartner Magic Quadrant here (https://nexthink.com/gartner-magic-quadrant-dex)

Book your tickets for Nexthink Experience (Boston or London) here: https://nexthink.com/experience

Check out EDGE here: https://edge-solutions.com/

Reality Bytes is back! In this episode, Tim, Tom, Megan, and Sean dive deep into DEXOps—the practice of operationalizing Digital Employee Experience. Building on insights from the show's recent webinar series, the team explores how IT leaders can shift from reactive firefighting to a proactive, structured approach that drives measurable business value. They cover the key pillars of DEXOps—from people development and process rigor to technology selection, communication strategies, and leadership alignment. You’ll hear why DEXOps isn’t a side project or “hobby,” but a mission-critical discipline, as essential as security or uptime. Whether you’re a lean IT team looking for efficiencies or a mature organization ready to scale, this conversation breaks down the theory and practice behind making DEX real in day-to-day operations. Plus, get a preview of upcoming webinars and certifications to help you build your own DEXOps journey.

Check out episode 1 of the DEXOps webinar series on demand here 

Check out episode 2 of the DEXOps webinar series on demand here

Register for episode 3 LIVE here

Get the latest edition of the Gartner Magic Quadrant here (https://nexthink.com/gartner-magic-quadrant-dex)

Book your tickets for Nexthink Experience (Boston or London) here: https://nexthink.com/experience

Tim and Tom are joined by Ben Eubanks, Chief Research Officer at Lighthouse Research & Advisory, bestselling author of Artificial Intelligence for HR, and a leading thinker on the intersection of people, technology, and the future of work. Together they explore how AI is reshaping HR — not only in how the function operates day-to-day, but also in how it redefines HR’s outward-facing strategic role in organizations.

Learning more about Ben’s research and insights here: lhra.io

Read Nexthink's study on AI, HR, and IT here: https://nexthink.com/resource/its-new-mandate-the-science-of-productivity-part-2

Read about AI's impact on creativity here: https://techxplore.com/news/2024-10-explores-impact-llms-human-creativity.html

Book your ticket for Nexthink Experience Boston or London here: https://experience.nexthink.com/london

Back again for the last installment of this story! Here's the season finale of Tim Flower's brand new IT mystery series, Parallel. 

Knowledge is power—until you forget.

In the midst of troubleshooting performance and productivity issues, the team at Zentech found yet another problem – Employees struggling with constant change and not able to leverage the apps they need to get their job done. Across industries, employees are struggling with the relentless pace of technology changes, especially with AI. And I’ve seen it as I travel the world talking with executives and tech leaders – they’re all concerned not only with IT’s ability to transform quickly, without breakage, but also with their employee’s ability to keep up with the pace and volume of change. Training sessions forgotten, new systems replacing old ones overnight, and IT teams overwhelmed with employees who simply can’t keep up.  At Zentech, the story is no different.

Join us as we investigate the unseen breakdown of knowledge retention and the chaos it leaves behind - in Episode 5 - The Forgotten.

Starring the Reality Bytes crew: Tim Flower, Tom McGrath, Meghan Brake, Oriana Ott, Sean Malvey, and Kathryn Shea.

In this episode, Tom speaks with Tania Benade-Meyer, founder of Unstructured, about the power of unstructured data, the shift from SLAs to XLAs, and what it takes to be an “enlightened leader” in 2025.

From Starbucks’ gluten-free perception problem to Gen Z’s naturally inclusive leadership style, Tania shares research-driven insights into how perception, trust, and consistent action are reshaping the modern workplace—and driving better Digital Employee Experience (DEX). Along the way, you’ll get a masterclass in what great 21st-century leadership looks like: how social listening can predict human behavior, why XLAs reveal more than traditional metrics, and the tell-tale signs of harmful leadership—where words and actions don’t align.

Connect with Tania Benade-Meyer: LinkedIn | Unstructured.co

Get the latest edition of the Gartner Magic Quadrant here (https://nexthink.com/gartner-magic-quadrant-dex)

Book your tickets for Nexthink Experience (Boston or London) here: https://nexthink.com/experience

Back AGAIN by popular demand! Here's episode 4 of Tim Flower's brand new IT mystery series, Parallel. 

Stay up to date with ALL new episodes of Parallel, as they're released, right here (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/parallel--6616391)

The team at Zentech has been hard at work investigating a murder. This time it's actually time that's the victim, and everyone is a suspect - especially the VDI team. "The Foundation" makes another appearance, and the team gets closer to uncovering the source of many of their recurring IT issues, with the help of an AI assistant and a very persistent DEX team.

Join us for episode 4, The Virtual Murder.

Starring the Reality Bytes crew: Tim Flower, Tom McGrath, Meghan Brake, Oriana Ott, Sean Malvey, and Kathryn Shea.

Tom and Tim are joined by the brilliant Mrinal Rai—Executive Client Advisor at Pomeroy, longtime industry analyst, and award-winning graphic novelist.

Together, they explore the future of Digital Employee Experience (DEX) through the lenses of creativity, AI innovation, and enterprise transformation. Mrinal shares his journey from analyst to advisor, his artistic inspirations, and his unique perspective on how empathy and digital adoption platforms (DAPs) are critical to achieving real business outcomes.

Get the latest edition of the Gartner Magic Quadrant here (https://nexthink.com/gartner-magic-quadrant-dex)

Book your tickets for Nexthink Experience (Boston or London) here: https://nexthink.com/experience

Download Part 1, 'Transformation: Driving Adoption, Productivity, and Change in the AI Era',  free of charge right here 

Download Part 2, ‘The Experience Silo: HR, IT, and the Digital Workplace’ here

Back by popular demand once again! Here's episode 3 of Tim Flower's brand new IT mystery series, Parallel. 

Stay up to date with ALL new episodes of Parallel, as they're released, right here (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/parallel--6616391)

In episode 2, we uncovered an invisible hand—a saboteur leaving undocumented changes and phantom scripts, wreaking havoc at Zentech. This week we’re shifting our focus to tell the story of something much quieter. Something… insidious even. It’s not a rogue script. It’s not a disgruntled ex-employee. It’s something much harder to pin down: Complacency. When people stop fighting back against the problems that plague them… what happens? For Zentech, it turned into a storm of security risks, failed patches, and crashing systems. And the trail led to a surprising culprit: the reboot button.

Parallel is a fictional journey inspired by the popular murder mystery series Serial, which investigates the very real murder of a high school teenager who went missing after school one day. Parallel investigates the mystery of murdered enterprise productivity, now missing at the high tech firm.

Hosted by Tim Flower, a 35-year career technologist who has spent the last 10 years helping IT teams understand how productivity is stolen, both from IT, and from the employees IT supports. It’s been a journey of seeing workdays gone wrong, systems gone haywire, and the lengths IT will go to for answers.

This mission started out to answer one simple question: What’s been killing productivity at Zentech? Or, to get more technical about it, where do employees lose 24 minutes every day of their working lives? And what mysteries lie in the darkness of a complex enterprise, waiting to be discovered and eliminated.

Starring the Reality Bytes crew: Tim Flower, Tom McGrath, Meghan Brake, Oriana Ott, Sean Malvey, and Kathryn Shea.

While The DEX Show often explores digital transformation and employee experience through a technical or strategic lens, today’s interview takes a more human turn — spotlighting the formative experiences that shaped one of the UK legal sector’s most passionate champions of service excellence, Midge Renganathan, Head of IT Service Delivery at leading law firm RPC.

Midge delivers a moving, candid account of growing up, finding belonging, and discovering a unique talent for customer service and people leadership.

Book your tickets for Nexthink Experience (Boston or London) here: https://nexthink.com/experience

Download Part 1, 'Transformation: Driving Adoption, Productivity, and Change in the AI Era',  free of charge right here 

Download Part 2, ‘The Experience Silo: HR, IT, and the Digital Workplace’ here

Get the latest edition of the Gartner Magic Quadrant here (https://nexthink.com/gartner-magic-quadrant-dex)

Chris Sibold rejoins Reality Bytes to talk about what can only be described as a whiplash year for federal IT. Just eight months after his last visit, Chris dives into the incredible transformation sweeping across U.S. federal agencies—driven by budget slashes, workforce reductions, and a new digital imperative.

Chris explains how government IT is now undergoing another 10 years of change—compressed into just a few quarters. From rising expectations around efficiency to existential questions around operational survival, this episode offers insights from inside the storm.

Download Nexthink's exclusive report, 'The Cost of Doing Nothing: Why Public Sector (PS) Productivity Lags Behind Other Industries' here

Read more about Nexthink's FedRAMP progress here 

Download a free copy of the brand new Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for DEX Tools here (or head to Nexthink.com)

Register for Nexthink Experience 2025 here

In this episode, solo Tom welcomes Mike McGarvey, Global VP and Digital Workplace CTO at Atos. Mike shares insights into the creation and evolution of the Experience Operations Center (XOC)—a real-time, proactive extension of traditional IT operations built on Nexthink Infinity.

From Atos’ decade-long partnership with Nexthink to the shift toward DEX-driven business outcomes, Mike explains how the XOC is reshaping digital workplace strategy. Discover why now is the time for a new operational layer focused on employee experience, how the end of the IT incident is coming into view, and what the future holds for roles, skills, and workplace observability.

Book your tickets for Nexthink Experience (Boston or London) here: https://nexthink.com/experience

Learn more about the XOC here

Download Part 1, 'Transformation: Driving Adoption, Productivity, and Change in the AI Era',  free of charge right here 

Download Part 2, ‘The Experience Silo: HR, IT, and the Digital Workplace’ here

Get the latest edition of the Gartner Magic Quadrant here (https://nexthink.com/gartner-magic-quadrant-dex)

The crew reunites to unpack the second part of Nexthink’s landmark research series, The Science of Productivity. Titled 'The Experience Silo: HR, IT, and the Digital Workplace', the latest installment explores the growing overlap between HR and IT, revealing that 64% of IT leaders foresee a formal merger within five years.

Tom McGrath is joined by Sean Malvey (report author as well as RB regular), Tim Flower, and Oriana Ott to discuss what’s driving this trend, what’s standing in its way, and what a future Chief Employee Experience Officer role might look like. 

Download Part 1, 'Transformation: Driving Adoption, Productivity, and Change in the AI Era',  free of charge right here 

Download Part 2, ‘The Experience Silo: HR, IT, and the Digital Workplace’ here

Get the latest edition of the Gartner Magic Quadrant here (https://nexthink.com/gartner-magic-quadrant-dex)

Stay up to date with ALL NEW EPISODES of Parallel, as they're released, right here (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/parallel--6616391)

What if the real barrier to transformation isn’t technology—but fear? Silicon Valley veteran, strategist, and author John Hagel joins Tom to challenge the myths of digital transformation, argue for the power of scalable learning over efficiency, and explore why unlocking human passion may be the only sustainable way forward.

From leadership mindsets to the future of education, John’s insights reframe the role of institutions in a world of accelerating change.

A real must-listen episode! 

Read John's fantastic blog here (https://www.johnhagel.com/)

Download a free copy of the brand new Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for DEX Tools here (or head to Nexthink.com)

Register for Nexthink Experience 2025 here

Download part 1, 'Transformation: Driving Adoption, Productivity, and Change in the AI Era',  free of charge right here 

For more amazing DEX content, including podcasts, articles and exclusive research, head over to the DEX Hub (dex.nexthink.com).

To hear more interviews like this one, subscribe to the Digital Employee Experience Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform