Eat Sleep Work Repeat - better workplace culture

If you're a user of social media, whether Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn you'll have seen the work of today's guest.Sign up for the free Winning Workplace Culture course here if you prefer Fortitude.Get the Make Work Better newsletter hereLiz Fosslien is half of Liz and Mollie whose perceptive dissections of contemporary anxieties have won hundreds of thousands of fans. Liz talks through her process of creating these atoms of insight and how the response from viewers inspired them to write a new book about how to cope with the major emotions in our lives.A lovely warm summer conversation. You can follow Liz and Mollie on social media - or buy their new book Big Feelings hereNorrie Norrie Norrie Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A wonderful discussion that I think has got immense to richness to it. I chat to the boss of St John's Ambulance Martin Houghton-Brown (Martin on Twitter). I was struck with the power of the lessons about connection and identity - we often find ourselves throwing these terms around casually but Martin's testimony brings it vividly to life.Find out more about St John's Ambulance - become a volunteerDonate to St John's AmbulanceParkrun research: volunteers see a bigger health uplift than the runnersPre-order Fortitude and get a workplace culture course for free (before 8th July 2022)The book is about resilience - how we get it wrong, and where it really lies. There are a lot of mistakes made about resilience and increasingly our teams are getting fed up hearing us talk about it. Fortitude explores where resilience really lives.The early reviews on the book are sensational.Steven Bartlett said:‘This is a truly refreshing, captivating and important book that shifted my perception on a topic I thought I knew! A must read.’Gary Lineker said:‘A book that confirms what I've always believed, that we can't be resilient on our own. In fact resilience is about all of us being stronger than any of us.’Oliver Burkeman said:‘An important and well-timed book. A fascinating and important pushback against the narrow, joy-eroding version of 'resilience' that would leave us to sink or swim alone, Fortitude is an indispensable guide to a more energising, human, and effective approach to working and thriving in a post-pandemic world’Noreena Hertz, author of The Lonely Century said: 'A thought provoking exploration of what it takes to get through tough times and a compelling endorsement of the power of others to hold us up’.Nadiya Hussain said:'A much needed book that unfolds the surprising secrets of resilience. Something I never knew i needed to read but I'm so glad I did, it’s opened up a whole angle of thinking'Alastair Campbell said:‘A fascinating analysis of resilience - what it is, what is isn’t and why, when we develop it together, it becomes something better and more important, fortitude. It seems that resilience is a team game.’Photo by Jorge De Jorge on Unsplash Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two things on the podcast today - at the end of the episode there is a discussion with former guest, Brian Elliott from Slack's Future Forum.Ahead of that I want to make an announcement about what I've been working on - with my new book Fortitude.Fortitude is an investigation into the elusive idea of resilience, a book that discovers that resilience is a area filled with mistakes, misdirection and over-promise. The book finds the true secrets of resilience.You can find out all of about the book here or you can receive my workplace culture course for free if you pre-order it now.The Future Forum book 'How the Future Works' is available now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“There are two kinds of companies: One is going to embrace work-from-anywhere, and the second is in denial — I feel those companies will lose their workforce. You have to make a choice, as a leader, what kind of company you want to lead” (source)The words of today's guest have stayed with me for the last few months. I'm so delighted to talk to Professor Raj Choudhury from Harvard Business School who will possibly wake you up from a self-created illusion. He'll explain:why WFA is inevitablethe role that top talent have in redefining work for everyonewhy 25% is a magic amount of timewhy WFA presents a win-win-win solution for usI was so looking forward to this and it doesn't disappoint.Read Professor Choudhury's HBR cover article.Here is the audio clip I mentioned. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you find yourself becoming interested in the magic of workplace culture one of the go to authors of the subject is today's guest, Dan Coyle.Dan's 2018 book The Culture Code allowed him to go deep with some of the most successful cultures in the world - in the arenas of business, sport and even the military. He's returning after the blazing success of the Culture Code with a book that gives more of the energy of that title but drawn into a workbook, The Culture Playbook - imagine something like a journal with prompts of what to write.He joined me for a discussion where we reflect on the challenges of the last 2 years and what any organisation should be thinking about as they set about creating a winning, forward-looking culture.If you like this sign up for the newsletter - Make Work Better - for a special announcement in 3 weeks Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're going deeper into the evidence today with two brilliant guests. Anne Raimondi is COO of Asana who were smart enough to have started a major piece of research into how work is evolving just before the world turned upside down. We're also joined by the most in demand brain in the world right now, Professor Nick Bloom. Nick is Professor WFH, an economist from Stanford University who has been researching remote working for over a decade.Along the way we talk about how the biggest innovations in remote working are yet to come - and are coming from mindblowing places. We talk the changing expectations of Gen Z workers, why Nick doesn't believe we should be giving up our office just yet. We hear where the sweetspot of hybrid working is right now and why a little less freedom and a little more co-ordination is the order of the day.I was desperately trying to get Nick on the podcast and to land Anne Raimondi at the same time is a wonderful stroke of luck.Asana's Anatomy of Work Report 2022 is available here. You can access Nick's work here.Make Work Better on Nick's work **SIGN UP FOR FREE**More from NickA brilliant listen.Some key findings from the Asana report:37% of workers say that they don’t have a clear start or finish time to their working day – rising to 53% for Gen Z employeesManagers spend the most time everyday on work coordination (62%)As an organisation grows so does work about work. Employees at medium and large companies spend 59% of their day on it. That’s 5% more time than small businesses Compared to one year ago:42% are spending more time on email 40% are spending more time on video calls 52% are multitasking more during virtual meetings 56% feel they need to respond immediately to notifications Despite nearly half of employees (47%) finding it easier to concentrate at home, 41% feel more isolated when working remotely   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Status is a fundamental need for humans.Such a fascinating discussion today. I recently read Will Storr's brilliant book The Status Game and was so taken with it I invited him on the podcast.He quotes Professor Brian Boyd when he says that we:‘naturally pursue status with ferocity: we all relentlessly, if unconsciously, try to raise our own standing by impressing peers, and naturally if unconsciously, evaluate others in terms of their standing’.In study after study it is found that our wellbeing depends on the degree that we feel respected by other people. One study found that the attainment off status of its loss was ‘the strongest predictor of long-term positive and negative feelings’ in subjects.I wanted to pick Will's brains to hear more of this - but also to understand how these mechanisms impact us at work. If you're interested in psychology or just a bit of people watching you'll love the reframing that this discussion provides for us. Along the way Will gives us the definitive take on why Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars.Sign up to the newsletter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is greatly enhanced by reading the newsletter that comes with it. In today’s podcast I talk to two guests who have slightly different perspectives on how to fix the culture of the Met Police.Dr Megan O’Neill is Associate Director at the Scottish Institute for Policing Research. She has extensively studied the police and has worked closely with them - most notably helping to revise a stop and search policy that was found to be failing. She explains the challenges of the job, and how we should think about getting buy in to reform.Simon Holdaway is Professor emeritus of Criminology at the University of Sheffield. He joined the police after he left school and was promoted to sergeant. His study about the police has explored the culture of the profession and how themes of race could be more effectively tackled. While the police (and the Met) might not feel adjacent to your business there are critical lessons about cultural change.Four lessons of what good culture requires:Space - good culture can't exist when there is no slack in the systemVoice - workers need to feel like they are heard (Megan says this is part of 'organisational justice') - this makes workers feel valuedValues - explaining what the organisation stands for,Middle management - behind any culture problem there's the need to purge the organisation of cultural misfits - getting the middle management right is the best way to make this take holdFurther information:Why drug policy is a racial issueIn the past I've done two episodes about the police here'We will march with everybody': Houston police chief tells protesters Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Caleb Parker is one of the most intelligent commentators on the future of our workplaces (Twitter, his website) and this conversation with him did not disappoint. Caleb is the founder of a flexible workplace offering, Bold, but also host of a truly brilliant commercial real estate podcast called The Work Bold Podcast. I found Caleb's podcast via Antony Slumbers Twitter feed and it's become part of my weekly routine as it normally drops in time for my Sunday run. (BTW Antony was a former guest who shared with us the perspective of the commercial real estate sector early in the pandemic. I found the dialogue with Antony so rich that I wanted to seek another update from the sector.The second half of the discussion is especially strong. I ask Caleb to give the stump pitch for the office and his answer is stunning. He also shares a stark warning that 'bad culture is a bigger threat to the office than the pandemic'.Caleb also shares with us the perspective of his most inspiring guest on his own podcast - who outlined what is a breathtaking approach to the future office.Here is the episode that he mentions with Michelle Schnieder. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last year I did a few episodes looking to see how firms were tackling the return to the office (the return to work - THE PLACE) but they were all small workplaces. Organisations that could make nimble actions, I wanted to see how a big firm handled these things. I contacted Tom Kegode, the lead for Work:Lab at Lloyds Banking Group. Lloyds employs 70000 people across hundreds of sites. It is logistically intense to make hybrid work for them.Tom is a brilliant bright leader intent on creating something sustainable and special in the bank. He is thinking of creating co-working in branches. He is leading best practice about different workstyles in an organisation that isn't mandating any rules. In classic egoless style Tom brought along his colleague Josh Reynolds who works in employee experience. You can find them both on Linked In here:Tom Kegode is the leader for Lloyds’ Work:Lab initiative.Josh Reynolds sits within colleague experience.Sign up for the newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.