Eat Sleep Work Repeat

What's stopping you from you doing your best work ever? That's the question that Aaron Dignan (working at his culture consultancy, The Ready) asks the companies he meets.  Often the biggest barrier to us doing our best work is often our own attitude and mindset - and Dignan takes us step by step into his process. Aaron's book Brave New Work, is out now. Also mentioned in this episode: Johann Hari's TED Talk  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Recorded at the Good Day at Work event in Manchester, hosted by Robertson Cooper. During the last World Cup, as we gradually started believing in the prospects of a team whose members had surprised us with their humour, work-rate and calm demeanour there was a wonderful newspaper article that garnered lots of attention about the secrets of their transformation. The piece introduced us to one of the people responsible for overhauling the mindset of the England squad. Previously players for the national team had always worn the heavy expectations upon them like a stiff and weighty leather overcoat. In the recent past those called up (like Raheem Sterling) have commented that the pressure created by fan aggression has stiffled players’ ability to express themselves creatively. The nation was collectively astonished to see a very different England mentality this time round. And, as The Guardian article showed, Dr Pippa Grange was one of the people responsible. It was a great honour to interview Pippa at the Good Day at Work event in Manchester in September 2019. The event was fully sold out, such was the interest in the outstanding line up of speakers. Pippa spoke of: - the importance of cultural moments - the very first thing she does to build a winning culture - what it’s like to be in that room before a huge game - the realities of being a woman in the man’s world of sport - the single thing that is way more important than positivity - how a big (stressful) adventure can lead to wellness The conversation was outstanding. Pippa is outgoing from the FA as I write this – I can’t wait to see what she does next.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today’s episode is about Uber. Its based on a brilliant book that stacks of people have found themselves tearing through in one sitting over the last couple of weeks, It’s a book called Superpumped by Mike Isaac. If you’ve heard Mike talking about the book, this chat will be different because we’re just going to focus on the culture of Uber. The question for me was ‘would Uber ever have been as successful if their culture wasn’t so psychopathic and secondly could someone else adapt Uber’s culture a little to be slightly less blatant in their evilness and get away with it.  On today’s episode. A brilliant discussion with Mike Isaac about the culture at Uber. I’m not supporting anything at all they did but there are certainly aspects of that you can’t help but think are brilliant. Travis Kalanick took people whose previous job had been running coffee stores and gave them whole cities to run. Giving people autonomy produced incredible, incredible results. The question then becomes - could you have got rid of the bad consequences by managing it better. And that is the question. Mike Isaac is a New York Times writer and the author of the brand new best selling Superpumped.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

If you're interested in workplace culture you might like my newsletter makeworkbetter.substack.comMarcus Buckingham is a research who has specialised in debunking some of the lies that pervade our jobs. His discoveries are eye-popping. Company culture can't be measured, 'OKRs' (goals) never work and much more. It's a compelling and entertaining listen. Get in touch to tell Bruce what you thought - or leave us a review at Apple podcasts. Eat Sleep Work Repeat is part of #PODSTRIKE. Buy 9 Lies About Work  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this week's pod, David Gasca and Steven Rogelberg explain how you can fix your meetings to make work less miserable. Firstly David Gasca outlines the Silent Meeting Manifesto. In the world of work we're surrounded with very little scrutiny of the norms of meetings and emails, in that context David's work helps reinvent one of the immovable pillars of work. Download the Amazon Kindle version here. Try a silent meeting and tell us how you get on. Then we spend time with the meeting doctor, Steven Rogelberg (author of The Surprising Science of Meetings). He tells us about 'Magic Time' and more. Our sponsor is Perkbox - the best platform to manage employee benefits.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In 2007 as Barcelona were looking to replace their manager they were faced with a difficult challenge. They decided if they were to move on with a strong sense of sustainable success they needed to think about the culture they wanted to build. They drew up a list of criteria for how they wanted to choose the manager. Interestingly most of the list didn't mention football. Damian Hughes, Professor of Organisational Psychology at Alliance Manchester Business School goes on to explain the Barcelona approach to the challenges they faced. Professor Hughes gives a 5 state model of culture. That was the work of James Baron and Michael Hannan at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Buy The Barcelona Way  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

How did Jurgen Klopp build a culture that has caught the attention of everyone in sport. Including interviews with Klopp, Liverpool players and leading management psychologists we discover the 4 secrets of Klopp's culture at Liverpool (data, a simple plan, inclusivity, psychological safety). You’ll find episodes, transcripts and other good stuff on the website EatSleepWorkRepeat.com. Best articles to read more: BEST READ: New York Times on Liverpool and data Melissa Reddy interview A look at Klopp How to improve engagement Data and Liverpool WATCH: How Jürgen Klopp made Liverpool BELIEVE again    See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In 2015 Anita Williams Woolley and colleagues published some groundbreaking work understanding the 'collective intelligence' of teams. They asked 'can we judge the cognitive power of a certain group of people?' The answer was that yes, they could and also there were certain things that helped predict this collective intelligence. Professor Woolley explains the part that gender plays in this team intelligence and then gives you a test that you can take to help predict collective intelligence in your own teams. Anita's work is fascinating and immensely thought provoking. Is it time to change your team? You can take the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test here.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A lot of people have asked me if I’m going to do an episode on the importance of play. One of the challenges of the word play is that its such a broad word and its associations aren’t always helpful when it comes to bringing everyone with us but today's guest I think shows what an incredible thing it can be. Heidi Edmundson is an emergency medicine consultant in the Emergency Department at the Whittington Hospital. She wrote this article in the Guardian in January: I introduced fun to the lives of A&E staff. The laughter was infectious We explore themes of how you turn individuals into a team? This inspirational senior doctor recognised that exercises her team did on their downtime seemed to energise and inspire them - and made them more connected. I think you’ll end up wanting to read more of the theatrical exercises that Heidi used to help forge a tightly bonded team? Here is a full guide to Forum Theatre and its games. This goes deep - can playing games with each other be a simple way to remind ourselves of each other’s humanity where that empathy seems to be a super power that helps us do a better job? I loved this discussion so much - you can keep up with Heidi here on her Twitter.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

James Bloodworth lived undercover working in Amazon warehouses, care homes and clocked up hours as an Uber driver to see the realities of modern work for millions of Brits. It makes for a fascinating glimpse at the lives of people who often get ignored from the privilege of the open plan. James' compelling book Hired is out now.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week I talk to Josh Krichefski (CEO, Mediacom UK) and Liz Fosslien (co-author of No Hard Feelings: Emotions at Work and How They Help Us Succeed). Josh explains how they put mental health on the agenda on his firm by starting an honest, open discussion on it. Then we talk to Liz who gives us a users' guide to emotions at work. What can we do to make work a most empathetic way. The Seligman model we discuss is the '3Ps'. Personalisation, Pervasiveness and Permanence.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What if the way we've created work was built around the things that men prefer. Sue Unerman makes the compelling case that the workplace has evolved to serve male skills - and that this isn't good for the workplace and it isn't good for workers. Sue Unerman is the Chief Transformation Officer at Mediacom, and also the author of two widely acclaimed books. We discussed her book (written with Kathryn Jacob) The Glass Wall Follow Sue on Twitter.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jim Collins is one of the most respected business writers in the world. With his books Good to Great and Made to Last he became the observer of great companies and what made them special. He's just published a new book which is a supplement to Good to Great (pssssst, read GTG first).  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Dave Trott is a creative director, copywriter, and author. A colossus of advertising who has been awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by D&AD. I chatted to him at the IAB Leadership Summit in St Albans. It's not a talk about work culture as such - just a fascinating chat with someone whose job it was to be creative for a living. Dave's latest book Creative Blindness is a riot of colourful stories and lively lessons. Follow Dave on Twitter.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today we’re chatting to the MD of the innovations company IDEO, Sue Siddall to hear how they bring the power of telling stories to life in their organisation. In addition we’ve got a legend of workplace study today. William Kahn was responsible for creating two of the big concepts of positive workplaces. He coined the concepts of both psychological safety and employee engagement. William Kahn is Professor of Organisational Behavior at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. He received his BA in Psychology from Clark University and his doctorate in Psychology from Yale University. Sue Siddall tells us about 'Story Night' at IDEO. Sue is the UK MD of IDEO - a company who often provide inspiration to other organisations when they are thinking of fixing their culture. If you like this, sign up for the New Work Now mailer here.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.