Free extract of The Joy of Work

This episode today is magnificent – you’re really going to be stimulated and challenged by it.Today’s episode is with someone I contacted 2 years ago to discuss his previous book. Cal Newport’s Deep Work was a simple avocation of the process of using uninterrupted concentration to get things done. He’s now back with a new book about taking the same principles beyond work into life. It's a guide for achieving happiness by being more intentional in how you use technology. Some might call it a manual. What fol...

This is a podcast about making work better. You can find all of the previous episodes on the website.Here we go, two little things today to make you feel more brainy. It’s Blue Monday in the UK today - the day when we’re told it’s the most miserable day of the year - when we hate our job. By listening to these experts you’ll have some guidelines how you can make work better. They give solutions but I think once you listen to the data you’ll work out what to do yourselves.Firstly something that might not see...

If you're looking to get a job sometime in the next decade - and that includes almost all of us - there's a very high probability that you're going to be exposed to a psychometric test. As they become enhanced by AI and made more scaleable via apps these tests are going to go everywhere. So what are the implications for what work is going to look at.This episode I'm looking into the evolving nature of recruiting and how its changing to accommodate the latest science and also innovations in technology. First...

Buy The Joy of WorkFollow Rob BrinerSign up for Eat Sleep UpdatesRob Briner is an professor of organisational behaviour at London Queen Mary’s University - he's rated the top HR thinker in the UK. This is a brilliant chat. Very much essential listening for anyone interested in HR but also worth listening for those of us who sit thinking ‘what do HR actually do?’ or what should we do to improve things round here.We talk about ‘evidence based management’ - which you can find out more about here: The Centre fo...

Pre-order The Joy of WorkFollow Stevyn ColganSign up for Eat Sleep UpdatesFollowing up the discussion with Andy Rhodes this week it's a second episode about the police. My original plan was to edit both of them to get one episode about the profession but both were too good to chop up. So I want to flag that It's kind of about work culture but also kind of just a brilliant chat with a fascinating person. Consider it as a box set with the other police episode. When it gets into its flow it covers dog shows, w...

Pre-order The Joy of WorkFollow Andy RhodesSign up for Eat Sleep UpdatesThis is the first of two episodes on the police this week. One on dealing with stress in 'blue light' professions, one on how to be creative in stressful environments.Andy Rhodes is the Chief Constable of Lancashire - and has responsibility for the wellbeing initiative in the UK police force. He talks through the challenges of policing under pressure. What do you do to stop police profiling people they encounter? The answer starts with ...

Pre-order The Joy of WorkFollow AdamSign up for Eat Sleep UpdatesWe’re talking work culture in different ways for the next few episodes. The next two episodes after this are in the police force. But today’s guest is the best selling author of the year - Adam Kay. This is Going to Hurt : Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor has sold over a million copies. It’s also won the readers’ choice book of the year this year. So there’s a chance you’ve read it and if so you will love the discussion with Adam Kay because ...

How can painting the walls of a company change their culture? We explore with Jez Groom today's guest.An episode this week on behavioural science. It was prompted a little by discussions with Seth Godin and others. It was thinking can you change the culture in organisations by the way you engineer choices available to people - and I’m speaking to a behavioural scientist about these things.First a bit of background - we discuss a reading list in the show and I’ve included it in the show notes but it’s worth ...

(sound fixed) Seth Godin has been one of the world's freshest thinkers since before the internet was on solid food.After a first career packaging books, he then rose to his own fame creating permission marketing.His blog is many people's favourite stop on the web bus route picking up a million passengers every day.We use his latest book This is Marketing as the model to bring to reinventing your workplace culture. What's the way to use his influence strategies to improve your job?The chat is brilliant and g...

Contact the show [email protected] week's episode features the iconic Teresa Amabile - she's a professor at Harvard Business School. Originally educated and employed as a chemist, Teresa received her Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University.If you're interested in her work this YouTube clip is a great start point.Before the chat with Professor Amabile we talk through the news in work culture this week. Here's the explosive article on Netflix:WSJ on NetflixWSJ on Google's walkoutsYou can ...

Dan Cable is the author of the life affirming and brilliant Alive at Work - one of the most inspiring visions of what work could look like. The discussion covers big themes of purpose and motivation but brings simple practical tips. What are the simple things that any of us could do to our induction processes at work? How could we encourage our teams to bring their selves to work.I mention two articles. One by Sarah O'Connor in the FT and this one by Josh Hall about compulsory wellness.You can get in touch ...

Today’s guest is regarded as one of the most influential management thinkers in the world largely because he considers themes and human behaviours that others avoid discussing. Jeffrey Pfeffer is Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He’s author of books like Management BS, Power and most recently Dying for a Paycheck and it’s the last two books that we mainly discuss in today’s chat.Read Dying for a Paycheck and PowerJeffrey mentions this New York Time...

Read more on the Good Jobs StrategyPre-order the Joy of WorkIf you like this the easiest way to get it is to subscribe on Apple podcasts - give us a rating while you’re there.Zeynep Ton is a Professor of Operations Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.She studies the retail sector and the way that some firms have invested in paying more and doing more for their workers. She studied firms like QuikTrip, Trader Joes, Mercador in Spain - she found that firms that treat their workers better achieve ...

Professor Adam Grant is the most important business writer in the world - a man who says his study is focussing on how to make work suck less.Adam is author of books like Give and Take, Option B, Originals, he's also the host of a chart topping podcast on work culture called Work Life with TED.Adam Grant has been Wharton’s top-rated professor for seven straight years - his books have told over a million copies .Give and Take examines why helping others drives our success. Originals explores how individuals ...

Around 12 months ago myself and Sue Todd created the new work manifesto. It was an attempt to start the debate about simple things that we can change. You can find it on the podcast website eatsleepworkrepeat.fm.It's had a briliant response, research companies have asked to help validate it, different professions like doctors and police have been in touch asking if they can adapt it for their working. Lots of companies have told me they've been trying it out with their teams.One person contacted me and offe...

Two practical case studies this week. Businesses who have pulled back the curtain to show how they brought Purpose and Autonomy to life. Brilliant examples of companies trying new things and having success from them.Rachel Bremer is the Communications Director at ASOS. She talks about how they re-energised 4000 young, ambitious employees to keep the business on an incredible growth path.Laurie Young is the Development Director of Thoughtbot. He explains that they made one change that allowed them to get 5 d...

I've wanted to do an episode on mental health for months. But to be honest I've felt really conscious of messing it up. I ended up chatting to the best journalist who writes about it and she suggested that we talk about it.Emily Reynolds is one of the sharpest writers in the UK, writing for publications like Vice, Wired, The Guardian, Stylist. Incidentally she also writes about mental health. Her book 'A Beginner's Guide to Losing Your Mind' is a very readable take on the realities of all sorts of mental he...

Lots of listeners have been hitting up my LinkedIn saying how can we make work better if we don't have a full-time permanent job. Emma Gannon might have the answer to their needs.Emma is a podcaster, writer, broadcaster, blogger... in fact she's the perfect example of the freelance, multi-hyphenate lives that more of us are living in 2018.A She describes how we can build careers out of freelance living and side hustles. How sometimes we can inspire ourselves and our own creativity with the things we do when...

Quite a brainy episode today. Dr Richard Claydon is a someone who likes to question why we claim things - he's a natural challenger. He describes himself as a Transdisciplinary Behavioural Scientist and Ironist. He writes some interesting (if a bit too long) things on Linked In that a few people sent to me. We had a brilliant chat for well over an hour but i've tried to edit it into something enlightening and digestible. Richard says something that I've been thinking a lot. We shouldn't be worrying about co...

James Doty is a neuroscientist who has spent his career trying to demystify the power of the brain. He's a Clinical Professor of neurosurgery at Stanford University and founder and director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education.If you watch his TED Talk you're going to fall in love with James, a gentle thoughtful guy. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon's Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart.  See...

Sir Cary Cooper is a psychologist - 50th Anniversary Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health at the Manchester Business School, University of Manchester. He founded Robertson Cooper - a business which is collection of psychologists and wellbeing experts intent on helping people have a good day at work. Everyone I've met there is just brilliantly inspiring too - which I guess shows good people hire good peoplehe's a brilliant follow on Twitter too @ProfCaryCooper  See acast.com/privacy for privacy...

Sam Conniff Allende has spent his career building a youth marketing agency. Now he's concluded that the way to inspire younger workers is to channel the energy of the Golden Age of Piracy. In a fun discussion of pirates old and new Sam explains how the world would be a better place if we all tried to be a bit more pirate.Sam's book Be More Pirate is published on 3rd May 2018. You can follow him on Twitter @SamConniff and @BeMorePirate  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information....

Dr Amanda Goodall is a Senior Lecturer in Management at Cass Business school. I don't normally do stuff on leaders. There's enough leader lit out there. So I actually came upon Dr Amanda Goodall's work when I was looking at something else. I encountered her work when I was reading about the effect of our bosses on us. Bad bosses are the worst thing at work. Amanda's research says we'll ask twice as much money to work someone who we can't stand. It's way more important than anything else. When someone resign...

Who's Elvis round here? There was a time when answering that question would have earned you a nice cheque from the National Enquirer.The second part of a spotlight on Thought Leaders - the gurus who are challenging the status quo.Chris Barez-Brown is a best selling author, speaker and culture change consultant. …….He says: "We train businesses to manage change"As he describes, Chris provides immerse experiences to improve the culture of leadership teams. These things don't come cheaply - one company told me...

Two episodes here listening to some of the people who are challenging, provoking and questioning the status quo.Tom Goodwin Exec VP at the media agency Zenith in New York. He's the head of innovation down there. But on the web is where Tom is a player. He is Linked In's number 1 influencer in the marketing field. That accolade will set you back 560,000 followers. How did he end up there? Well Tom wrote a tweet (or series of tweets) that developed a life of their own. https://techcrunch.com/2015/03/03/in-the...