Ollie on Work

Today’s guest is Stephanie Nadi-Olson, founder of We Are Rosie. After a decade in advertising sales, working for companies like Microsoft and Yahoo, Stephanie recognised an industry ripe for disruption.When she returned to work following the birth of her first child, she experienced for herself the lack of options for people wanting or needing to work flexibly and independently. Her mission with We Are Rosie is to gather all of these people up, market them, and give them the career and life they want. Founded in 2017, the company preceded the changes wrought by Covid, and it’s fair to say that Stephanie and her team were perfectly positioned to provide the tools and the opportunities for thousands of people who decided it was the perfect time to switch to freelancing or going it alone. She’s won multiple awards for her work and is leading one of the fastest-growing organisations in marketing. We had a great conversation covering a range of topics, including:-   The challenges of scaling a business with a young family-   The importance of self-care for founders and leaders-   Why community is key to the growth of We Are Rosie-   Why flexibility is vital to the future of work-   The growth of freelance and fractional roles-   The skills required to manage and work remotely-   Moving from corporate to start-up life-   Why a 6-month runway makes sense when founding a company-   How a shared mission galvanises a distributed team of freelancers-   Why leaders sharing their ideas makes a difference to business growth-   How to take the first steps into going it alone as a solo or entrepreneurLINKS:We Are Rosie websiteStephanie's LinkedIn profileFuture Work/Life newsletterFuture Work/Life websiteWork/Life Flywheel: Harness the work revolution and reimagine your career without fear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today’s show, we consider a question that I’ve always been intrigued by: are some people luckier than others?My guest is Prof. Dr. Christian Busch, bestselling author of Connect the Dots: The Art & Science of Creating Good Luck. Christian is director of the CGA Global Economy Program at New York University (NYU), and also teaches at the London School of Economics (LSE). He’s also the co-founder of Sandbox Network, a global community of young innovators and Leaders on Purpose, an organisation convening leading CEOs. A busy man with loads of fascinating insights to share with us today.We discuss:-   The difference between blind luck and smart luck-   Whether it’s possible to cultivate serendipity in your life-   How techniques like the hook strategy make you luckier-   The benefits of a serendipity mindset to your career and life-   How to chuck serendipity bombs out into the world-   The value of changing your routine and habits-   How anticipating the unexpected makes people & businesses stronger-   Approaching life as a rational optimistIf you enjoy listening to the show, make sure you subscribe to the Future Work/Life newsletter and look me up on LinkedIn, as I’ll explore the themes we discuss in more detail over the coming weeks.LINKS:Christian's LinkedIn profileConnect the Dots: The Art & Science of Creating Good LuckFuture Work/Life newsletterFuture Work/Life website Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today's show, I speak to Tim Oldman, Founder and CEO of Leesman, the world leader in measuring and analysing employees' experiences in their places of work. Leesman helps organisations understand and measure how employees are supported in their workplaces, which has led them to build the world's largest independent benchmark of employee workplace experience - be that in their offices, their homes, or the spaces in between.Tim's also recently written a book, Why Workplace, which explores the trends Leesman sees emerging and how it relates to business growth. [It's also a really nicely designed product, by the way, which won't be a surprise to anyone who knows the company who really pay attention to aesthetics and experience.]I loved this conversation with Tim, in which we covered a whole host of topics, including:-   Why the starting point of workplace design is thinking about people, not the building-   Why employees' homes are a great place to work – for certain tasks-   How activity-based-working can help define how we create workspaces-   How roles may change in the future depending on proximity to an office-   How role complexity affects the time people spend in the office or remote-   What other benefits come from working in person with others beyond collaboration-   The importance of ‘why’ in the workplaces of the futureLINKS:Leesman websiteTim's LinkedIn profileWork/Life Flywheel: Harness the work revolution and reimagine your career without fearFuture Work/Life newsletterFuture Work/Life website Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today’s show, I welcome Lynda Gratton, London Business School professor and author of several books, including her most recent, Redesigning Work: How to Transform Your Organisation and Make Hybrid Work for Everyone.Lynda is one of the world’s most well-respected thought leaders on the future of work and has been named by Business Thinkers 50 as one of its’ top 15 business thinkers. She has a column for MIT Sloan and writes regularly for Harvard Business Review. Her ten books, including The 100-Year Life, have sold over a million copies globally. She serves as a Fellow of the World Economic Forum and is on the advisory board of several top global companies.In short, she knows what she’s talking about, and we had a fascinating conversation covering a range of topics related to the future of work, including:- How Covid shifted the dynamic from employers to employee driving change in the workplace- The importance of networks to our identity and careers- Why we need to take an ‘And/And’ rather ‘And/Or’ approach to work design- Synchronous and asynchronous communications- The skills required to thrive in the emerging world of work- Why it’s so important to nurture creativity in our work and in orgs- Why we’re now living multi-stage lives and what that means to our careers- The changing role of communities in our work/livesLINKS:Redesigning Work: How to Transform Your Organisation and Make Hybrid Work for EveryoneLynda's websiteLynda's LinkedIn profileWork/Life Flywheel: Harness the work revolution and reimagine your career without fearFuture Work/Life newsletterFuture Work/Life website Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest this week has had an exciting and unusual career journey.After studying finance at university, Kathrin Hamm went to work for an NGO in Afghanistan, which led her to pursue a PhD in international development. However, following four years of travelling the globe in her role as an Economist at the World Bank, she began developing sleep issues. Kathrin searched far and wide for a solution to her insomnia and eventually came across weighted medical blankets. Yes, they were ugly and hot, but they also helped her sleep consistently for the time in years. So, she did what any successful economist would do in her situation and quit her job to found a company creating and selling beautiful heavy blankets.3.5 years later, Kathrin's business, Bearaby, has won awards and is now stocked in retailers across the United States.I loved this chat with Kathrin. We talked about:- Her early career and how following her curiosity has created a series of exciting opportunities. - The ups and downs of entrepreneurship.- Why pivoting your career affects your sense of identity. - How to learn from failure.- Why purpose for Kathrin means constantly learning- The importance of taking time to rest and recover- How to channel creativity in your work- Why community is critical in your journey as an entrepreneur.Thanks as ever for listening. If you enjoy this episode, make sure you subscribe and please leave a review - it really helps other people discover the show.LINKS:Bearaby websiteKathrin's LinkedIn profileFuture Work/Life newsletterFuture Work/Life websiteMy book, Work/Life Flywheel: Harness the work revolution and reimagine your career without fear, will be published on 17th January 2023. Pre-order your copy, HERE. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week's guest is Andy Ayim. He's an angel investor and founder of the Angel Investing School, which teaches professionals from all backgrounds how to begin investing in startups. Its mission is to get women and people of colour onto the cap tables of the world's best performing startups.Andy grew up in Tottenham, which is just around the corner from me and after starting his career as a management consultant, he then moved to Silicon Valley in 2015 where he worked as a product manager in tech. When he returned to London he'd made the decision to follow his true purpose in life, which is reducing the barriers for founders from unexpected places and backgrounds to access funding and support.His contribution was recognised in 2020 with an MBE awarded to him by the Queen for services to diversity in the technology industry.Andy and I had never met before this recording, but he's a lovely and fascinating guy, and after about 10 minutes, I felt like we'd known each other for years!We discussed how having kids changes your perspective on work and life and the importance of networks and community in providing support and opportunities to founders.We also talked about how Andy helps the founders he works with access capital and build relationships with the people who can help on their journey. Plus, why he feels like this is his calling.We have a fascinating conversation about how Andy journals, collecting insights in what he calls his tracker every day to help him record significant events and emotions. This provides him with his 'external memory' and provides an amazing resource for new ideas as he spots connections between patterns of behaviour and thinking.I loved this chat with Andy, and I'm sure you will too.I'll put links to Andy's LinkedIn profile and the Angel Investment School in the show notes, along with links to the Future Work/Life newsletter and website.Just a reminder, my new book, Work/Life Flywheel is now available to pre-order so get your copy sorted early doors. It features my thoughts on the opportunities presented by changes at work and how we can take advantage of them - and Andy will, of course, be featuring.LINKS:Andy's LinkedIn profileAngel Investing SchoolFuture Work/Life newsletterFuture Work/Life website Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're often told we should have clear goals for ourselves. In fact, as we've heard from guests like Marc Effron and Grace Lordan in the past, there is a connection between effective goal-setting and high performance. The thing is, many of us still really struggle with this idea, so I wanted to explore it some more.And I figured if you want to dive deep into a subject, we may as well invite one of the world's leading experts onto the show. Today's guest is Emily Balcetis. She's an Associate Professor of Psychology at New York University, where she runs the Social Perception Action and Motivation research lab. Or SPAM for short. Emily and her team have pioneered the scientific investigation of behavioural science and motivation. Their work has uncovered previously unknown strategies that increase, sustain, and direct people's efforts to meet their goals.She also explores these ideas in her excellent book, Clearer, Closer, Better, and with us today on the Future Work/Life podcast.Our conversation starts by examining why materialising goals is crucial to achieving them before digging into the relative benefits of a narrow focus of attention and applying a wide bracket.Along the way, we discuss how to motivate ourselves to pursue big, long-term goals and why, although vision boards can help us discover purpose, used in isolation, they can actually be detrimental to our success.I love the way Emily reframes goal-setting – literally, as her work is all focused on the power of our vision. She gives some fantastic practical examples of visual tactics that can help us meet and exceed our goals, all of which help build a tool kit for success.LINKS:Emily's bookThe Social Perception Action and Motivation research labFuture Work/Life newsletterFuture Work/Life website Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, my guest is Tom Haak. Tom runs the HR Trend Institute, which he founded in 2014, and he spends much of his time analysing trends in organisational design, people and workplace culture.We had a really interesting discussion. You'll hear us talk about the increasing trend towards personalisation of work, why it's currently trailing behind the consumer industry and what we can do to change that in the future.We also discuss the pros and cons of coaching in the workplace and who the best people are to do it. Finally, we explore the increasing role of technology within businesses and HR in particular. LINKS:Tom's LinkedIn profileHR Trend InstituteFuture Work/Life newsletterFuture Work/Life website Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today's episode, you'll hear the incredible and inspiring story of the journalist and author, Laura Price.After making the switch from financial journalism to writing about food, she's now a freelance writer and her new novel, Single Bald Female is out in the UK on the 14th of April.Laura and I discussed how her cancer diagnosis in 2012 changed her perspective on life and work, inspiring her to go back to university to study a masters degree in magazine journalism. After initially working for The World's 50 Best Restaurants full-time, she made the decision to go it alone as a freelancer a few years ago. She explains how she's adapted to freelancing, including its various ups and downs and why she decided to dedicate so much time to writing her novel and now her new podcast, Life in Food.Thanks as ever for listening to the show. If you enjoy it please make sure you're subscribed and also check out my newsletter on Substack (link below). LINKS:Single Bald FemaleLife in FoodLaura's InstagramLaura's LinkedIn pageFuture Work/Life newsletterFuture Work/Life website Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s guest is Andrew, Associate Editor and Management Editor of the Financial Times. As well as writing the FT’s weekly column on management, Andrew is a previous winner of Business Commentator of the year and the Decade of Excellence award for sustained achievement in business and financial journalism. Most relevantly to you perhaps, he’s one of the writers I’ve referenced most in my weekly news digest in the Future Work/Life newsletter.We discussed hybrid work and the future of workplace culture, and as the role of managers changes, we explore what skills will be necessary for the future. We also dig into whether we should be aspiring for happiness in our work, and somehow I end up comparing one stage of the flow state cycle to the importance of resting meat—apologies to any vegetarians out there. Lastly, I pick Andrew’s brains about what makes a good business book.This is the final episode of this sixth series of the Future Work/Life podcast and what a great one it’s been. Thanks as ever for listening and a big thanks to Andrew for his time. I really enjoyed our chat and I’m sure you will too.I'll be back with Season 7 in April, so make sure you subscribe to receive all future episodes in your podcast player of choice.Thanks,OllieLINKS:Andrew's FT columnAndrew's TwitterFuture Work/Life newsletterFuture Work/Life website Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.