Ollie on Work

Today's episode is a Future Work/Life special. I recall two newsletters in which I discuss technological disruption and the lessons we can learn from Spotify and the music business, as well as imposter syndrome and why it isn't incompatible with the vision and drive required by successful entrepreneurs.LINKS:Future Work/Life #40 - Lessons of technological disruption from Spotify and the music industryFuture Work/Life #41 - Turning imposter syndrome into a positiveFuture Work/Life #33 - Strange dreams and creative things Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's episode is a Future Work/Life special. I recall two newsletters in which I discuss the problems with NPS (net promoter score) and the benefits of illeism (the act of referring to yourself in the third person).LINKS:Future Work/Life #38 - (Not Proving Strictly) UsefulFuture Work/Life #39 - "Ollie, this newsletter is the best thing you've ever written" Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today's episode, we're looking into the future to explore how technology will create new opportunities to monetise our expertise and what effects that will have on our understanding of jobs and careers.My guest is Dror Poleg, a writer and all-around purveyor of interesting ideas. I discovered Dror's blog at the beginning of the year, and since then, he's helped join the dots for me between a wide variety of subjects, all of which relate to the future of work, cities, and human communities.In the show, we discuss how cities will have to respond to the growth of remote and distributed work, and more broadly, how decentralisation impacts how we hire and are hired. We also explore how developments in machine learning, blockchain, and crypto will create both opportunities and the risk of further divergence between those who have the most in-demand skills and experience, and those who don't - what Dror calls 'Winner Takes Most'.If you enjoy this episode, make sure you check Dror's blog, subscribe to this podcast, and read my newsletter, Future Work/Life.LINKS:Dror's websiteDror's article on The Ponzi CareerDror's article on The Token SocietyDror's article on NFTs and The Future of WorkFuture Work/Life newsletter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today's episode, we talk about culture - what does it mean, how do we define and develop it within organisations, and how is this likely to change as the way we work continues to evolve?My guest is ideally placed to advise on this subject as she's spent almost two decades working within some iconic companies, which have achieved tremendous success and significant growth. At the same time, she's also seen how some get it wrong.For over fifteen years, Melissa Daimler led learning and development at Adobe and Twitter before moving to WeWork for a year to head up their talent team. She's now a consultant and advisor to various businesses, large and small, and a thought-leader on all things HR, learning and, of course, culture.We had a great chat about the connection between culture and strategy, the role of managers as coaches, the importance of a shared culture across an organisation (however large), and why it's critical to treat culture as something you do, not something you have.For more on subjects like this, please make sure you subscribe to the podcast and my newsletter, Future Work/Life.LINKS:Daimler Partners - website for Melissa's consultancyMelissa's LinkedIn profileFuture Work/Life newsletter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Robert Glazer is the founder and CEO of Acceleration Partners, a global marketing agency that has won numerous accolades for its company culture. He leads a fully remote team of over 200 people and has now written a book called How To Thrive In The Virtual Workplace.He's also the host of one of my favourite leadership podcasts, Elevate, and wrote a book of the same name.We discuss some practical advice for building positive habits, including writing weekly newsletters and books. We also cover learning, flexible work, managing your time and avoiding distractions, as well as what it takes to lead a remote team successfully.If you enjoy our conversation, please subscribe to the podcast, rate it, and check out my newsletter, Future Work/Life, for more on topics like this.LINKS:Bob's websiteElevate podcast episode with Philip McKernanElevate podcast episode with Stew FriedmanFuture Work/Life newsletter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today's episode, I'm delighted to bring you an interview that I've been trying to set up since before this podcast first launched last year.Through listening to his podcast and reading his newsletter, I've learnt a huge amount about emerging technology and its impact on the world. Along the way, he's introduced me to some of the world's leading thinkers on all manner of subjects like artificial intelligence and automation, genomics and biotech. Since many of the topics are complex and can appear intimidating to the layperson, it takes a skilled presenter to make the shows accessible, and that's exactly what Azeem Azhar achieves.Azeem is the creator of Exponential View, Britain's leading platform for in-depth tech analysis. 200,000 people read his weekly newsletter, and his podcast, produced with Harvard Business Review, has featured guests including Yuval Noah Harari, Rebecca Henderson, Reid Hoffman and Tony Blair. The founder of a number of successful tech companies, Azhar is a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Futures Council, sits on the board of the Ada Lovelace Foundation, and is a contributor to publications including the Financial Times, Prospect and the MIT Technology Review.We discuss the effect of automation and AI on the future of work, the impact of Big Tech's power and what we should do about it, decentralised organisations, and the risks presented by the growth of poor quality personal data.I really enjoyed this fascinating conversation, and it was a great taster for what you can hear if you listen to Azeem's show or read his upcoming book, Exponential. I'm sure you'll find it as interesting as I did.LINKS:Exponential View newsletter Exponential View podcast episode with Satalia CEO, Daniel HulmeExponential view podcast episode with Rebecca HendersonFuture Work/Life newsletter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today's episode, we discuss diversity, equity and inclusion with Tamika Curry Smith. Tamika has had a long career in diversity roles going back to 2002 at Deloitte. Over the last five years, she's been Head of Diversity & Inclusion for Mercedes-Benz in the US and Vice President of Global Diversity & Inclusion at Nike. She now advises early-stage startups and is the president of the TCS Group, which provides HR and DE&I services to a wide variety of clients across various industries. In this episode, you'll hear us talk about some practical tips for companies that want to put DE&I at the heart of their strategy, including the importance of clearly aligned internal and external comms. We'll cover why the fear of doing the wrong thing can sometimes inhibit people from starting the process and explore the idea that progress doesn't necessarily mean perfection.LINKS:Tamika's LinkedIn profileFuture Work/Life newsletter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we have another fantastic guest. Glenn Elliott is the founder of Reward Gateway, a SaaS HR tech business, which two weeks ago sold for the third time, taking the total value of its acquisitions to well over half a billion dollars. Reward Gateway's platform enables companies used to better communicate with, reward and survey their employees and Glenn's experience there led him to write the book Build It : A Rebel Playbook for Employee Engagement in which he shared everything he’d learned about people and how to get the best out of them.He's now Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Tenzing Private Equity and his job to help their portfolio companies to grow through advising founders and mentoring Tenzings' team.You'll hear us talk about what Glenn's learnt from his experience scaling a tech company, how a decade of flexible work contributed towards their growth, why the notion of permanent employees is a fallacy and how even after the success he's achieved he still suffers from imposter syndrome.LINKS:Glenn's websiteReward GatewayTenzingReid Hoffman's HBR articleFuture Work/Life newsletter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to series four of Take My Advice (I'm Not Using). Today's guest is Will Page, the former Chief Economist of Spotify and PRS for Music where he pioneered 'Rockonomics'. At PRS he published work on Radiohead's In Rainbows and saving BBC 6Music. At Spotify, he helped redefine catalogue and articulated the global value of music copyright.In this episode, we discuss how Will's determination to work in the music business led to him becoming the industry's first Chief Economist. We also explore the concept of 'builder's and 'farmers' in tech businesses, as Will explains how Spotify founder and CEO, Daniel Ek, successfully bridges the gap between both.There's also a conversation about the danger of NPS (Net Promoter Score), the rising importance of consumption over transaction data, NFTs (non-fungible tokens), and how data has impacted the creative process in music.LINKS:Will Page's new book, Tarzan EconomicsNPSistheworst.comWill's LSE articleFuture Work/Life newsletterFuture Work/Life websitePodcast episode with Christopher Lochhead on Category Design and 'niching down'Podcast episode with Ben Legg on Portfolio Careers Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the last of three episodes in which I recall the most recent Future Work/Life newsletters. Today I discuss the risk of burnout and consider whether your business model could be a threat to wellbeing.LINKS:Future Work/Life #36: Burnout and why wellbeing can't be workloadFuture Work/Life #37: Could your business model be a threat to wellbeing? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.