People Soup

Episode 9 Here Ross describes three of the key features of our cave dweller minds and explores how they can generate content that is not always helpful. He also gives some tips on how to take the content that our minds produce a bit less seriously.

Episode 8 Here Ross aims to strengthen the case for developing the skill of present moment awareness or mindfulness. He does so by revealing the two gears of the mind - the thinking gear and the sensing gear. Hear how we can get stuck and exhausted in the thinking gear and simple ways to access the sensing gear.

Episode 7 Do you have a relationship in the workplace that could be improved? In this episode Ross presents real life examples and techniques from psychology to allow you to have a go at changing your behaviour in a tricky workplace relationship.

Episode 6 Are you 'always on'? Ross talks about work recovery and draws upon research by Professor Sabine Sonnentag. He shares 4 top ingredients for effective recovery activities and also recommends that you consider what your personal values are in relation to your leisure time to provide motivation and direction.

Episode 5 Ross talks about the idea of exploring and reconnecting with what's important to us at work. He shares what matters to him as his career evolves and how he is using these qualities as a guide for his behaviour - recounting his nervousness about phoning a bookstore in Berlin! He finishes with a couple of practical questions and recommendations for how to consider your own values at work.

Episode 4 In this episode Ross illustrates the way our stories can limit our behavioural repertoire and provides a tip on how to change our relationship with our own stories. He also provides a recommendation for expanding the range of options from the behavioural menu. The character of Cruella de Choice is also introduced.

Episode 3Ross introduces a leadership lesson from pop that includes some top tips on modelling. He also updates on the evolution of the People Soup Podcast and the philosophy behind the name.

Episode 2Here I reflect on how our thoughts can influence our behaviour - and perhaps stop us doing things that are important to us.

Episode 1We can spend a lot of time on autopilot - research by 2 Harvard University Psychologist found that we can spend about 47% of our waking hours thinking about something other than what we’re doing, and this mind-wandering typically makes us unhappy (Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2010)“A human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind,” Killingsworth and Gilbert write. “The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost.”