Eat Sleep Work Repeat

Firstly a conversation with David D'Souza the membership director of CIPD (incidentally is a fantastic Twitter follow). David talks about the choices available to firms right now: - do we want to be famous for the new culture that we've created? - or our actions going to be defined by reactive actions to bosses' whims? If you want to follow the Twitter list I mention you'll find it here. If you're interested in workplace culture you might like my newsletter makeworkbetter.substack.com  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I'm so excited about what is in the next few episodes. This is a short series of episodes about what we're about to lose with the end of office culture, and how we can build something new. If you like this please do share it. Today's episode has two great interviews. Later I’m going to hear from the frontline how firms are changing their use of technology by chatting to Adrienne Gormley, Head of EMEA at Dropbox. The first conversation is with Dr Emma Cohen, Associate Professor in Cognitive Anthropology at Oxford University. It went to see Dr Cohen before the lockdown and chatted to her in her office. Emma is going to teach you about the impact of working with other people. You're going to learn about how this impacts exercise and then about the self-other overlap. Over the next few episodes we're going to look at this more because understanding this is the secret of building new work.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Subscribe to the Make Work Better mailout Subscribe to Your Table's Ready Podcast Varied episode today, firstly for Mental Health Awareness week, two members of West Midlands Fire Service talk about stress at work and when it's ok to say you're not ok. Then later in the show a brief discussion with April Vellacott and Jez Groom who give us a brief glimpse of how to use behavioural hacks to improve work. Buy their book Ripple here.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

If you're interested in workplace culture you might like my newsletter makeworkbetter.substack.com I've been chasing this conversation for over 2 years and I'm delighted today to talk to the world’s most sought after culture doctor: Frances Frei is the Red Adair of work culture problems. If something goes wrong at WeWork, Uber or Riot Games there’s one name you call… You’ll be thrilled to hear the brilliant, thoughtful interview Frances gives. She’s very clear answering: - could Uber have kept Travis Kalanick and solved their problems? - what’s horrifically wrong with 360 appraisals? - what is the first action she takes when she goes into a firm - can anyone be the agent for change in culture? - her feeling on the importance of purpose Frances and her wife are the authors of a brand new book called Unleashed which recounts their experience at Uber, WeWork and more.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

If you're interested in workplace culture you might like my newsletter makeworkbetter.substack.com Recorded live at Vidcon 2020 As we sit in a strange period of work, a slight distraction from the normal cycle with a discussion with two digital creators. Arron Crascall has almost certainly appeared in your feed on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. He started using Vine when he was working at William Hill bookmakers and his content started to develop a bigger and bigger audience when he started using strangers as participants in his clips. Clip 1, clip 2. Elle Mills has been described as the John Hughes for the YouTube generation and as 'the celebrity every YouTuber wants to be'. She creates fully rendered films that are appointment to view content. She's also been incredibly candid about the toll that creating has had on her. Here's when she turned her mum's house into a frat house , when she lived without the internet, her coming out video was a break-out smash, a slumber party with her brother and all his exes. Tickets for Arron's live tour are on sale now.    See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

If you're interested in workplace culture you might like my newsletter makeworkbetter.substack.com This episode is about the power of diverse thinking. Our guest is the thinker, writer, commentator Matthew Syed. Matthew represented Great Britain in table tennis at the Barcelona and Sydney Olympics. He’s since gone on to the one of the biggest, most successful business writers in the UK with his books like Bounce in 2010, Black Box Thinking in 2015, a kid’s book You Are Awesome in 2018 and Rebel Ideas: The Power of Diverse Thinking in 2019. Rebel Ideas has just come out in paperback this week. If you enjoyed this episode please do share it on social media and get in touch via the website, I’d love to hear from you.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

"Purpose is something that can be found but cannot be given" For this episode I talk with London Business School professor Dan Cable about what work is going to look like in the future as we contemplate the fall out of coronavirus and homeworking. Clearly a lot of firms aren't going to make it through this completely unprecedented situation and to some extent maybe these discussions might seem like first world problems. The intention is to help us understand how we can use this moment to make work better - never waste a good crisis - as we say in the show. You can talk about this episode - and more - on our new forum. Follow Dan on Twitter. Dr Laurie Santos' happiness course and podcast. Dan's book Alive at Work is a firm listener favourite. Find Dan here in gif form. Listen to Dan's podcast here READ: Dan talked about a paper saying bosses think less of workers they don't see.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

You can talk about this episode - and more - on our new forum. Well what a strange time we’re living through. I don’t what I can say that hasn’t already been said. So to some extent this episode is a distraction - something interesting to listen to from a profession that is always in our highest regard in times like this but too easily forgotten in easy times. Christie Watson is a trained nurse who spent 20 years working in hospitals across London.  She’s an Incredible testament to never allowing your creative spark to die. She explains to me how she wrote her first book - an award winning novel while studying a course in creative writing and working as a nurse - and also being a single mother.  The novel won the immensely prestigious Costa Book Award (a prize she didn’t know she was nominated for). Brilliantly she had to Google the prize when she got called to say she’d won it. Her book The Language of Kindness: A Nurse's Story is a remarkable tale of a job right in the heart of anxious families while retaining professional distance. I was interested what the job of nurse was like. We talk about privilege - mainly mine that I found her book so eyeopening about areas that i was oblivious to. It’s a beautiful account that has become a best seller because of the sympathy that runs through it. In one episode chrissie washes the hair of a recently deceased patient so that the smell of the burning that killed them won’t pollute the family’s last moment Christie's book A Language of Kindness.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Join tens of thousands of listeners by signing up for the newsletter now. Second episode on the 4 day week. We go deep with someone who made the 4 day leap, Andrew Barnes' firm Perpetual Guardian made the shift to 4 days. He explains why some workers never told their partners, why others felt it transformed their experience of work and he gives the clear way to make a 4 day experiment work at your work. If you're interested in going shorter one of the best ways seems to be to try a summer experiment - maybe from May to September - so now is a good time to start the preparation. If you try it please get in touch to share your experience! Read the PDF of these episodes.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

First of two new episodes on one theme. Until coronavirus swept the world the discussion of 2020 was about the future of work being based on working less to achieve more. There are two episodes on this today. Firstly former guest Alex Soojung Kim Pang talks about the research celebrating the benefits of working shorter (his book on the same subject came out this week). He spent the last 3 years going into firms that are using shorter working to build retention, productivity and creativity. He gives a clear roadmap of why you should consider working shorter, what the pitfalls are and what you could see as the benefit. The next episode looks at a case study of a company that went 4 days to improve productivity. What did they do and how did it work out? Download the PDF of this episode.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When the biggest company in the world slipped from its throne how did a new CEO try to rescue it using culture. What did Satya Nadella do? How did it succeed, how did it fail? What can any of us do to change our company culture? Download the PDF of the episode's lessons. This episode draws on the outstanding paper by Herminia Ibarra, Aneeta Rattan and Anna Johnston from London Business School. Here's the famous cartoon about Microsoft (vs other tech firms of the time)  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

"We used to think 'the medium is the message', now we know that the messenger is the message". Stephen Martin was the co-writer of one of my favourite books, Yes! so I was thrilled when I saw he had a new book, Messengers. He agreed to come on and talk about both books. How important are superficial aspects like appearance in our credibility. What is the one thing that we should do to make people like us more? We discuss decision architecture, how any of us can influence others and the constituent parts of the choices that we all make. Stephen - and his co-author, Joseph Marks are two of the most fascinating experts to help us interpret the complexities of trust and how we can foster a warmth in our own communication.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Here he is, the philosopher king. Alain de Botton is the man that wrote philosophy books that sold like airport thrillers. He's sold millions of books reflecting on life, work and happiness. We share a wonderful discussion about what role work can fulfil in our lives, where education is going wrong and how we can use psychology to help diagnose the challenges of our problem colleagues. Alain's two new books from The School of Life are How to Get on With Your Colleagues and How to Think More Effectively You can follow him on Twitter. School of Life has over 5m subscribers on YouTube.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Join tens of thousands of listeners by signing up for the newsletter now. Sarah Ellis and Helen Tupper are the creators of the Squiggly Careers podcast - and the authors of a brand new book, The Squiggly Career. If you're wondering what to do with your life Sarah and Helen might be the best person to help you find the right answers for you. This episode answers questions about what we should expect from our jobs - and the where happiness at work lives. Helen mentioned the values episode of their podcast and you'll find it here.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hot topic right now. Annie Auerbach talks about her way of working flexibly and explains how all of us could be living a life we love. Annie is the author of Flex.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.