In this episode of Work’s Not Working… Let’s Fix It! Siân Harrington sits down with Lord Mark Price – former managing director of Waitrose, deputy chair of the John Lewis Partnership, and now author of Happy Economics – to ask a surprisingly radical question: What if the biggest untapped performance lever in business... is happiness?

In a world obsessed with efficiency, dashboards and productivity hacks, Mark argues that we’ve forgotten a simple truth: people do their best work when they feel good. And yet, too many companies still treat happiness like a perk, not a performance metric.

Drawing on over 40 years in business and a global dataset of over one million employees, Mark shares why the smartest organisations are putting happiness on the balance sheet – and what happens when they do.

Whether you’re a numbers-driven CEO, a disillusioned manager or an HR leader trying to make the case for culture, this episode offers sharp insights, real-world proof and a powerful reminder that everything in your P&L starts with your people.

Key Takeaways:

Workplace happiness isn’t fluffy. It’s measurable, scalable and commercially essential. Mark explains how companies can use data to drive both wellbeing and performance.
The UK is bottom of the G20 for both productivity and workplace happiness. That’s not a coincidence but a warning.
“The answer’s not in the spreadsheet, it’s in your people.” Why obsessing over numbers while ignoring morale is costing companies more than they realise.
Recognition, information, empowerment. The six science-backed drivers of workplace happiness and why most leaders are focusing on the wrong one.
Middle management isn't the enemy. Why ripping out human connection in the name of tech is a fast track to disengagement.
Gen Z isn’t entitled but reacting to a system that no longer serves them. And their refusal to tolerate bad management might just be a wake-up call for the rest of us.

Mark reminds us that building a happy workforce isn’t soft. It’s smart. It’s strategic. And it might just be the future of business.

Interested in insights about people leadership, HR and the future of work?
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218: The Enshittification of the Internet (with Cory Doctorow)

Offline with Jon Favreau

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