Work's Not Working... Let's Fix It!

In this episode of Work's Not Working... Let's Fix It, Siân Harrington chats to celebrated comedian and communications expert Neil Mullarkey about why we need to improve communication in the workplace and the potential of improvisation as a tool for doing so.Neil recounts his journey from teaming up with Mike Myers in the 1980s and co-founding the Comedy Store Players to exploring how improvisation can enhance workplace collaboration. Delving into the business realm, he emphasizes how crucial 'soft skills' like listening and adaptability have become, especially with research highlighting the lack of communication skills in modern work environments. In fact, poor communication has been estimated to cost businesses dearly in terms of productivity. Key takeaways:Modern communication platforms (eg emails, WhatsApp, Teams) have increased, leading to confusion and overwhelmPandemic lockdown revealed an abundance of formal communication but a lack of informal communication, affecting rapport-buildingThe importance of oracy: the ability to express oneself fluently in speech.Key improv skills: the philosophy of 'Yes, and,' where one listens, accepts and then adds to the conversation.From LAGER to LASER: tools to approach improvisationTips for improving virtual collaborationIn a fast-changing world, predictability is a myth; leaders should be prepared for uncertaintyHow to bridge the gap between structured strategy and spontaneous adaptability How leaders can develop an 'In the Moment' mindset Humour's role in work todaySiân and Neil do some live improv!If you want to cultivate environments where effective communication fosters productivity, creativity and confidence  - or you want to build these skills - then this episode is for you.About Neil MullarkeyNeil is a communication expert based in London, UK. He has delivered hundreds of keynotes and workshops to various organizations across the world in 25 countries and counting including Microsoft, KPMG, WPP, Saatchi & Saatchi, Vodafone, EY, Google, Deloitte and GSK. He is a guest speaker at London Business School, London Business Forum and Bayes Business School.He is also a prominent comedian. He performs weekly with the Comedy Store Players, Europe’s top improv troupe which he co-founded in 1985 and often appears on TV and radio shows such as QI and The Pentaverate.  He has also appeared in two Austin Powers movies. He is author of In the Moment: Build your confidence, communiInterested in insights about people leadership, HR and the future of work? Seize and shape the future of work with The People Space, a leading digital HR magazine for forward-thinking leaders. We empower you to put people at the heart of work, navigating the evolving intersection of technology, business and human insight. Join us in building a future where people and machines collaborate for a more human-centric workplace Sign up for our free fortnightly newsletter on the future of work, human-centric organisations and people-first leadership Follow Siân on LinkedIn Are you an HR professional seeking to raise your profile or thinking of becoming an independent consultant? I can help! HR vendor or consultant? Check out how I can help you reach senior HR leaders Follow The People Space on Facebook

In this episode, Siân Harrington interviews Catherine Garrod, author of Conscious Inclusion: How to ‘do’ EDI one decision at time  who helped entertainment company Sky become the Most Inclusive Employer in the UK, about why, despite billions of dollars of investment, little progress has been made in the area of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in organizations.We discuss the importance of inclusion in the workplace, the challenges  organizations face in creating more inclusive cultures and the practical steps they can take to make progress.  We also talk about the traps that organizations can fall into when trying to create more inclusive cultures and how to avoid these traps to make real progress towards inclusion.Key takeaways:Inclusion is not about ticking boxes or meeting quotas. It's about creating a workplace where everyone feels valued, heard and involvedThere are three main traps that organizations can fall into when trying to create more inclusive cultures: fear, accountability and the illusion of inclusionThe first step to creating a more inclusive culture is to start with inclusion, not diversityCreate a clear plan for inclusion and track progress regularlyIdentify the good things that you're already doing and the gaps that need to be filledBe aware of the challenges of flexible working and the evolution of technology and how to ensure that these changes are inclusive for everyone.If you're interested in learning more about how to make your organization more inclusive, then this episode is for you. About Catherine GarrodCatherine  is the founder of Compelling Culture and author of Conscious Inclusion: How to ‘do’ EDI one decision at time. She led Sky to become the Most Inclusive Employer in the UK, with 80% of teams increasing their diversity. Now as a consultant, she combines the power of listening, employee engagement, diversity and inclusion, to make the complex simple. And collaborateInterested in insights about people leadership, HR and the future of work? Seize and shape the future of work with The People Space, a leading digital HR magazine for forward-thinking leaders. We empower you to put people at the heart of work, navigating the evolving intersection of technology, business and human insight. Join us in building a future where people and machines collaborate for a more human-centric workplace Sign up for our free fortnightly newsletter on the future of work, human-centric organisations and people-first leadership Follow Siân on LinkedIn Are you an HR professional seeking to raise your profile or thinking of becoming an independent consultant? I can help! HR vendor or consultant? Check out how I can help you reach senior HR leaders Follow The People Space on Facebook

In this podcast, Siân Harrington interviews Daniel Strode about the connection between culture, innovation and a growth mindset, emphasising the importance of psychological safety in fostering a growth mindset within organisations. Dan argues that culture is the primary factor driving innovation, regardless of business size or type. He highlights the rapid pace of technological advancements in the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the need for companies to innovate daily to stay relevant and competitive.Daniel discusses eight consistent principles for creating a culture of innovation:Rethinking business modelsFostering creativity with constraintsEmbracing a growth mindsetLeveraging the wisdom of crowdsEmbracing technologyHire wellPutting your people firstEnsuring leadership participation in culture. He stresses the significance of culture in shaping behaviour and mindset, defining it as "the way we do things around here when no one is looking" and emphasising the importance of caring for all stakeholders.Dan discusses the impact of a growth mindset on individuals and organisations, highlighting the importance of taking risks, learning from failure and embracing change. He offers advice to overcome the challenges of creating a culture of psychological safety, where employees feel safe to take risks, share ideas and engage in open dialogue. He concludes by encouraging individuals to try new things and embrace new experiences as a way to develop a growth mindset. He advises organisations to implement structured feedback models, create safe spaces for open debate and learn from successful leaders to improve psychological safety and foster a culture of growth and innovation.About Daniel StrodeDaniel Strode is head of culture for Banco Santander – a 200,000 strong global bank – where he leads the global effort to implement a strong common culture across the whole workforce. For the past five years his culture work sees him cross 32 different countries globally, implementing “The Santander Way” and embedding the culture across a range of activities. Dan is also an academic, teaching at universities and business schools around the world including Madrid’s IE Business School in Spain, and Bologna Business School in Italy. His main topics of teaching focus on how to create cultures where innovation can thrive, how to lead in the digital era, and, how to give and receive world class feedback.  In 2023 he released The Culture AdvantageInterested in insights about people leadership, HR and the future of work? Seize and shape the future of work with The People Space, a leading digital HR magazine for forward-thinking leaders. We empower you to put people at the heart of work, navigating the evolving intersection of technology, business and human insight. Join us in building a future where people and machines collaborate for a more human-centric workplace Sign up for our free fortnightly newsletter on the future of work, human-centric organisations and people-first leadership Follow Siân on LinkedIn Are you an HR professional seeking to raise your profile or thinking of becoming an independent consultant? I can help! HR vendor or consultant? Check out how I can help you reach senior HR leaders Follow The People Space on Facebook

Productivity growth has slowed down in many economies since the global financial crisis of 2008. Despite advances in technology and investment in workforce training and development, productivity growth has remained low, puzzling economists and policymakers. Wages are stagnant or declining. Traditionally technology has been the primary driver of productivity gain – and today technology is advancing at an exponential rate. So why aren’t we seeing the growth we would expect? Is it that too often technology in the workplace today is a distraction? Are there just too many tools? And what about the dark side of tech, such as employee surveillance? What is its impact on productivity? In this episode international people operations partner Natasha Wallace discusses:  • Why it is so hard to solve the productivity puzzle • What makes a highly productive organisation? • New research which identifies the most important differences between high and low productivity organisations • Are new ways of working helping or hindering productivity? • Employee monitoring - a necessary evil or productivity shackle? • Using technology to improve productivity • The importance of a strong and inclusive culture • Natasha's personal productivity tipNatasha Wallace  is the international people partner at ClickUp, an all-in-one workplace productivity platform that flexes to the way that people want to work. She joined the ClickUp team to do what she does best – making sure people feel valued and supported in their roles and driving business initiatives. As a seasoned professional with over eight years of experience working with global technology companies, Natasha has spent time honing her skills in many areas of HR including employee development, performance management, organisational design and wellbeing at work. With an LLB Law degree specialising in employment and discrimination law, and a post-grad certificate in international law, Natasha decided to bring her legal know-how to the world of HR, where she could use her expertise to help companies build a people-focused strategy. She says she likes to help scale regions in hypergrowth businesses.ClickUp is currently valued at $4 billion and has some 8 million users across 1.6 million teams. Natasha is part of the EMEA team, which has around 200 people and serves nearly 600,000 teams. Interested in insights about people leadership, HR and the future of work? Seize and shape the future of work with The People Space, a leading digital HR magazine for forward-thinking leaders. We empower you to put people at the heart of work, navigating the evolving intersection of technology, business and human insight. Join us in building a future where people and machines collaborate for a more human-centric workplace Sign up for our free fortnightly newsletter on the future of work, human-centric organisations and people-first leadership Follow Siân on LinkedIn Are you an HR professional seeking to raise your profile or thinking of becoming an independent consultant? I can help! HR vendor or consultant? Check out how I can help you reach senior HR leaders Follow The People Space on Facebook

Companies today are failing at a record pace. In 1958 the average age of a company on the S&P500 stock index was 61. Today it is 18. It is predicted that within the next five years three-quarters of S&P500 companies will have disappeared.Artificial intelligence and automation is everywhere. But, rather than automating us out of work, these technologies are taking the more repetitive bits away from our jobs. The result is that more and more jobs are becoming hybrid – they combine skillsets that never used to be included in the same job.  To keep up with the pace of automation we need to keep upskilling. Meanwhile, while we may be hearing about large scale layoffs in some companies, many organisations are struggling to fill roles. Global future-of-work thought leader Josh Bersin discusses:• Why we should be talking about work, not jobs• Why humans are the only appreciating assets in a business so just cutting staff is a false economy• How companies are tearing up the traditional job descriptions and entry paths to work, such as degrees, and what they are doing instead• What do we as workers need to do to keep our skills up to date?• Where human resources fits into this debateJosh Bersin founded corporate learning, talent management and HR research and advisory company Bersin & Associates in 2001, selling it to Deloitte in 2012. On retiring from Deloitte in 2018 he went on to launch the Josh Bersin Academy for HR and learning and professionals. In 2020 he brought together a team of analysts and advisors to form The Josh Bersin Company, which undertakes research and advises companies in areas such as HR technology, employee experience and diversity equity and inclusion. Josh is a prolific blogger with more than 860,000 followers on LinkedIn and frequently appears in top business publications. He recently published a book Irresistible: The Seven Secrets of the World’s Most Enduring Employee-Focused Organizations which is based on thousands of interviews with innovative leaders at the world’s best-run organizations, revealing the secrets of success of more than 5,000 companies he and his team have been researching.Interested in insights about people leadership, HR and the future of work? Seize and shape the future of work with The People Space, a leading digital HR magazine for forward-thinking leaders. We empower you to put people at the heart of work, navigating the evolving intersection of technology, business and human insight. Join us in building a future where people and machines collaborate for a more human-centric workplace Sign up for our free fortnightly newsletter on the future of work, human-centric organisations and people-first leadership Follow Siân on LinkedIn Are you an HR professional seeking to raise your profile or thinking of becoming an independent consultant? I can help! HR vendor or consultant? Check out how I can help you reach senior HR leaders Follow The People Space on Facebook

The pandemic gave many of us a time to reflect on what we wanted from life and where our values lay. So it’s perhaps no surprise organizations were suddenly faced with what became known as The Great Resignation in 2021. This was the trend in which employees voluntarily resigned from their jobs in what appeared to be a mass exodus as they rethought their work conditions, careers and long-term career goals. One of the reasons cited for the Great Resignation has been the lack of career advancement opportunities. We’re not getting enough opportunity to grow in work. But is this the fault of organisations or ourselves? Top #10 Business Thinker Whitney Johnson reveals the forces that are stopping us from growing, the six stages of growth – including Explorer and Collector - and how we can use this to chart our growth. Whitney Johnson is the CEO of Disruption Advisors, a tech-enabled talent development company. She was named a 2021 Top #10 Business Thinker by Thinkers50, and is a globally recognized thought-leader, keynote speaker, executive coach, and consultant. A LinkedIn Top Voice since 2019 with 1.8 million followers, Whitney has a passion for personal disruption, helping individuals transform their lives, careers, teams, and companies. Her LinkedIn Learning course Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship has been viewed more than 1 million times. Interested in insights about people leadership, HR and the future of work? Seize and shape the future of work with The People Space, a leading digital HR magazine for forward-thinking leaders. We empower you to put people at the heart of work, navigating the evolving intersection of technology, business and human insight. Join us in building a future where people and machines collaborate for a more human-centric workplace Sign up for our free fortnightly newsletter on the future of work, human-centric organisations and people-first leadership Follow Siân on LinkedIn Are you an HR professional seeking to raise your profile or thinking of becoming an independent consultant? I can help! HR vendor or consultant? Check out how I can help you reach senior HR leaders Follow The People Space on Facebook

Everything we are taught about leadership today is wrong, says Rama Gheerawo. Traditional models of leadership are broken and outdated. We need more creative leadership – leadership that speaks the language of business but also the language of humanity. That is more empathetic, expansive and communal rather than outdated frameworks driven by the tired rhetoric of management and business run on the whole by men.  In this episode we discuss how we can fix leadership.Rama is an international and inspirational figure within design and was named a 2018 Creative Leader by Creative Review alongside Paul Smith and Björk. Now Director of the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, he uses design to address issues around age, ability, gender and race. He sits on a number of advisory boards and committees for awards, universities and organisations such as the UK Design Council, The International Association for Universal Design, the Design Management Institute, The Bhavan Institute for Indian Culture and the RSA Decolonising Design Initiative. Interested in insights about people leadership, HR and the future of work? Seize and shape the future of work with The People Space, a leading digital HR magazine for forward-thinking leaders. We empower you to put people at the heart of work, navigating the evolving intersection of technology, business and human insight. Join us in building a future where people and machines collaborate for a more human-centric workplace Sign up for our free fortnightly newsletter on the future of work, human-centric organisations and people-first leadership Follow Siân on LinkedIn Are you an HR professional seeking to raise your profile or thinking of becoming an independent consultant? I can help! HR vendor or consultant? Check out how I can help you reach senior HR leaders Follow The People Space on Facebook

We have designed love out of the workplace, to the detriment of us and our organisations. We're not building work that helps each of us to thrive. To love our work. So how much of our day should we spend doing things we love? Why does this enable us to become more creative, innovative, collaborative and resilient? Plus what are the 'seven devils' we need to watch out for? Marcus Buckingham is the author of two of the best-selling business books of all time, has two of Harvard Business Review’s most circulated, industry-changing cover articles, and is the author of nine books including Love + Work. He talks to award-winning business journalist Sian Harrington.Interested in insights about people leadership, HR and the future of work? Seize and shape the future of work with The People Space, a leading digital HR magazine for forward-thinking leaders. We empower you to put people at the heart of work, navigating the evolving intersection of technology, business and human insight. Join us in building a future where people and machines collaborate for a more human-centric workplace Sign up for our free fortnightly newsletter on the future of work, human-centric organisations and people-first leadership Follow Siân on LinkedIn Are you an HR professional seeking to raise your profile or thinking of becoming an independent consultant? I can help! HR vendor or consultant? Check out how I can help you reach senior HR leaders Follow The People Space on Facebook