Habits Matter

Welcome to another episode of  Habits Matter , the podcast that’s nearly as old as Harappa! We’re delighted to host  Sumedha Bakhshi , one of the country’s leading practitioners and diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) experts who’s currently leading talent management and organizational development at @Amazon.   In this candid chat, she’s talks about the cautious optimism she feels over DE&a...

Welcome to a brand-new season of Habits Matter. We’re back with our hugely popular podcast that explores the human side of how things really work at work — stories, goof-ups and triumphs. And we’ve lined up a roster of entertaining guests, people who’ve sifted the good habits from the bad, and are now telling it like it is.   This season we’re all about learning and development — ready to dive int...

Work often demands that we focus on the details. But when we focus too well, we risk losing sight of the big picture. In this episode, we explain big-picture thinking in less abstract terms, explore a nifty tool to practice it, and find out how a campaign from your favorite fast-food chain knocked it out of the park—all because the folks behind it dared to think big. Meet Papiya Banerjee, Co-found...

Shapeshifters don’t just exist in folklore and fiction. They’re all around us in the world of work. These are people who adapt with exceptional agility, excelling at multiple careers, or breaking new ground with their entrepreneurial intelligence. We find out how they do it, and why their habits are relevant for a future of work that will see big disruptions from climate change, AI, and uncertain...

Receiving feedback sucks...until it doesn’t. Inside, we uncover the power of positive feedback, break down fair feedback into its primary principles, and find out if your boss has been dropping truth bombs—or just bombs. Meet Ruchira Chaudhary, Leadership Coach and Author, “Coaching: The Secret Code to Uncommon Leadership”; Neeraj Sharma, Director, Product, Harappa; and Dhruv Mehra, Associate Dire...

Comms leaders deconstruct the art of presenting and share trade secrets on building influence with the people who really matter. And a strategy friend shares lessons from the ad world on making a good pitch. Meet Papri Dev, Senior Director, APAC Communications at Tinder; Mark Pollard, host of the Sweathead podcast, and strategy consultant for The Economist, Twitter, Euronews, Facebook; and Aniha B...

Talent experts tell us what it takes to ace the interview. Inside: resume hacks, behavioral and case interviews, and words not to use in an interview. Meet Eklavya Sinha, a Talent Strategist at Accenture who has custodianship of more than 70,000 professionals, and Mac Prichard, Career Expert and President, Prichard Communications. Mac also hosts a popular podcast, “Find Your Dream Job”. This is Se...

In Season 5 of Habits Matter, we’re going behind the scenes of common work problems and asking questions like: how do you make a pitch to remember? Find your dream job? Or decode feedback? Habits Matter is a podcast about how things work at work. We’re bringing you stories, goof-ups and triumphs from a roster of entertaining guests—smart professionals and inspiring leaders who’ve been there, done...

A rebel in her own right, Francesca Gino has spent years studying fellow rule-breakers in multiple organizations , from a high-end boutique in Milan and a Michelin-star restaurant to a famous animation studio. In this episode, we find out more about rebels, their tendency to ask difficult questions and how that can be a force for good, at work and in life. Francesca Gino is a professor at Harvard...

This International Women’s Day, we speak to Vasanthi Srinivasan, a professor at IIM Bangalore known for her pioneering research on women in the workplace.  Tune in for a sociohistorical deep dive into women’s integration in the Indian workforce. We explore its accidental origins, women’s glaring absence from the boardroom, and the unfair price of ambition. Through Season 4, meet five trailblazing...

Let’s talk about you. Inside, multiple methods of self-reflection, including feedback; if millennials are more prone to the tyranny of the shoulds; and how self-belief impacts our potential.  Meet Leena Chatterjee, who’s a much-loved professor at IIM Calcutta. She’s taught courses in organizational behavior, human psychology and interpersonal dynamics.  Through Season 4, meet five trailblazing wom...

Inside: a look at the science of negotiation, power, and influence with Nazli Bhatia, who's a Senior Research Fellow at the Wharton School. How do we settle differences without going to war? What are the mysterious forces that change the game? And do power dynamics really shift when we’re all just boxes on a Zoom call? Nazli’s main area of expertise is negotiations: the strategies that influe...

A ‘gray rhino’ is a highly probable, high-impact threat that we ignore—even though it’s staring us in the face. How and why does this happen? Find out from Global Strategist, Author and Commentator Michele Wucker. Michele specializes in the world economy, crisis anticipation and immigration. In 2016, she authored the concept of gray rhino events. Since then, the idea has shaped decision-making and...

As 2020 draws to a close, things take an unexpected turn—one final time. Join us for our Christmas Special as we look back on a strange time and prepare to say goodbye to the year. But wait, where's our host?   Follow Habits Matter on Instagram.

The last episode of Season 3 is here. This time, find out everything you need to know about the lies our brains tell us—and how to fight them. Ahead: cognitive biases. Meet Pavan Mamidi, Director of the Centre for Social and Behavior Change at Ashoka and former professor, IIM-Ahmedabad; and Neela Saldanha, Behavior Scientist and Former Senior Director – Insights, PepsiCo. This episode was hosted r...

Crisis impairs our ability to solve problems. Join us as we talk about decision-making in crisis with leaders who’ve been there, done that. Find out how to think and act when the going gets tough, and stay till the end for lessons in decision-making from 2020. Meet Rahul Chandra, one of India’s earliest tech VCs and author, "The Moonshot Game”, a book that captures the behind-the-scenes of hi...

There’s no silver bullet for complex problems. Unlike a broken arm or bad wi-fi, big problems are solved with changes in attitudes, behaviors and habits. This is no joke. Inside: technical and adaptive problems, the ugly side of fast fashion, and how we went from four seasons to 52. Meet slow fashion spokespeople Divya Saini, Founder, Bodements and Karishma Sehgel, Founder, The Baksa Project. This...

The ultimate test of any solution is if it can get buy-in from the people. Inside: the importance of effective messaging, the power of our will, and an answer to why people still aren't wearing masks. Meet Neela Saldanha, Independent Consultant and Former Senior Director – Insights, PepsiCo; and Samuel Salzer, Behavioral Strategist. This episode was hosted remotely by Harappa Founder & CE...

Season 3 is here. In this conversation, find out what leads groups to dangerous decisions, why echo chambers have taken over social media, and how teams can avert bad decisions before it’s too late. Meet Lubna Khan, a cognitive behavioral psychologist and brand strategy consultant; and Anshuma Kshetrapal, co-founder, The Arts Therapists Co-Lab. This episode was hosted remotely by Harappa Founder &...

Find out what’s in store for the future of the office. How will office design change? Will cubicles make a comeback? What’s the real loss to mourn when you can’t go to work for work? Meet Priyamwada Singh, Architect-Founder, Commonground Practice; Aparna Piramal Raje, Author, Working Out of the Box: 40 Stories of Leading CEOs and Columnist, HT MINT; and Ali Fenwick, Professor of Organizational Beh...

Explore the meteoric rise and fall of organizations; the crash of Nokia, the magic of Lego; and the good habits that make great organizations. Meet Anustup Nayak, Director, Classroom Instruction & Practice at Central Square Foundation and Ali Fenwick, Professor of Organizational Behavior, HBR contributor, and Founder at Lead TCM&L, a behavioral insights consultancy based in the Netherlands...

Inside: the good habits that nurture great ideas, Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, and what can we learn from people who’ve dedicated their lives to creativity? Meet Gowri Ishwaran, 2004 Padma Shri recipient, internationally recognized educationist, and Founder, Sanskriti School; author-photographer and anchor of Savoy (Winner, Best Documentary at the 2020 Dadasaheb Phalke Awards...

In Episode 2, Season 2, the psychology of loneliness; is one man’s loneliness another man’s solitude; and what can we learn about isolation from the masters of it? Meet His Eminence the 8th, Palga Rinpoche, Buddhist leader, teacher and philosopher; Aditi Kaul, Arts-Based Therapist and Psychologist at Fortis Healthcare; and Nandani Bhanot, student of Development Studies, SBI Youth for India Fellow...

Inside: the science of trust, how to build trust online, the importance of vulnerability, and what’s the one thing that makes people throw logic out of the window and...just trust? Meet Gowri Ishwaran, Padma Shri recipient, internationally recognized educationist, and Founder, Sanskriti School; Ravishankar Iyer, Founder, Story Rules, formerly Larsen & Toubro; and Deepak Jayaraman, Executive Co...

In Episode 5, our guests recount their experiences of the Iranian Revolution, the 2008 global financial crisis, 9/11 and personal tragedies. We find out: how do you define risk? Does surprise overturn our belief system? How can we cope with unexpected events? And is it possible to prepare for the next black swan? Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/habits.matter/