Eat Sleep Work Repeat - better workplace culture

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 momentsthe very first thing she does to build a winning culturewhat it’s like to be in that room before a huge gamethe realities of being a woman in the man’s world of sportthe single thing that is way more important than positivityhow a big (stressful) adventure can lead to wellnessThe conversation was outstanding. Pippa is outgoing from the FA as I write this – I can’t wait to see what she does next.Sign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever episodes at the website.Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more 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.Sign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever episodes at the website.Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more 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 WorkSign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever episodes at the website.Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more 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.Sign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever episodes at the website.Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Damien Hughes, a Professor of Organisational Psychology, dives into the remarkable cultural rebuild of FC Barcelona. He discusses the importance of a commitment culture, highlighting how values like humility and teamwork were critical during their transformation. Hughes explains the five-model of culture, and how Guardiola’s strategic hiring moved Barcelona from autocracy to commitment. He emphasizes peer accountability over top-down control and shares how stories and behaviors are vital in reinforcing culture, providing invaluable lessons applicable beyond sports.

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 dataMelissa Reddy interviewA look at KloppHow to improve engagementData and LiverpoolWATCH: How Jürgen Klopp made Liverpool BELIEVE again Sign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever episodes at the website.Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more 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.Sign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever episodes at the website.Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more 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 infectiousWe 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.Sign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever episodes at the website.Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more 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.Sign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever episodes at the website.Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more 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.Sign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever episodes at the website.Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.