Eat Sleep Work Repeat - better workplace culture

How can we use the power of psychotherapy to help us in our jobs? A brilliant discussion with psychotherapist Naomi Shragai where we talk about how her practice has increasingly brought workplace issues to her coach. We cover: how imposters' syndrome might not be a disaster for your career how to tell if your boss is a narcissist how to deal with boss who is a people pleaser If you're a people wat...

Today’s episode is one for those who have an appetite for psychology. It is by two authors of a brand new book that I was interested to check out because it covers some of the biggest themes that hybrid working is going to impact - the issue of group identity. I genuinely think this is one of the biggest things that companies need to be thinking about right now. As we discuss a lot of firms have t...

Join the discussion on the newsletter This is the first of two read-alongs in August. Stacks of listeners and newsletter subscribers are reading along on two culture books with us, today we’re talking about Legacy by James Kerr . In two weeks we’re talking about What You Do Is Who You Are by Ben Horowitz . Even you don’t read them the podcast here will cover the lessons of the books for anyone int...

Sign up for the free newsletter Does political discourse have a place in the workplace? What is going on Basecamp? A truly dazzling discussion with Megan Reitz , Professor of Leadership and Dialogue at Ashridge Executive Education – part of Hult International Business School. I got in touch with Megan when I saw her articles about Basecamp, Coinbase and political activism at work. Along the way we...

Amazon announced its earnings last week - and saw its share price hit a record high . Announcing that they’d surpassed 200 million Prime members was just one of the milestones that the company was able to celebrate in a blowout performance. The company’s sales - no doubt helped by a captive audience trapped at home in a pandemic - rose by 44%, a growth clip that would seem impossibly high for a 17...

This week I chat to Elizabeth Uviebinené , Financial Times columnist and the iconic author of Slay in Your Lane about her new book The Reset . With Slay (‘The Black Girl Bible’) she proved that she could sell huge amount of books to audiences who weren’t represented by mainstream books, but The Reset takes aim at work, society and a whole lot more… and it aimed at anyone! We have a fun and sparky...

Sign up for the newsletter Rutger Bregman’s Humankind was my favourite book of 2020 and it comes out in paperback next month. A brilliant read (that also works wonderfully as an audiobook) it will appeal to fans of Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens  or anyone who wants a provocative, thoughtful summer read. To mark the paperback release I spoke to him about universal basic income, the way that we'v...

Sign up for the newsletter Two discussions today about big stories in the news. Firstly I chat to senior features writer at The Economist about his brilliant special report on work. Callum wrote the special report on work in this week's Economist - you can find it here. Then I have a discussion with CEO and podcaster Dan Murray-Serter . Dan runs his own start-up, Heights . We talk about three arti...

Sign up for the newsletter Kim Scott is the straight talking author of the phenomenal hit Radical Candour . Now she's back with a huge new book that's set to be equally as impactful. She joined me with business partner Trier Bryant to discuss themes of diversity, workplace bias, bullying and harassment - and what any of us can do to stamp it out. Along the way we go into plenty of specific example...

Sign up for the newsletter What a guest today. I've tried to speak to Professor Robin Dunbar for 4 or 5 years. Robin has a new book out called Friends which is the sort of book you can lose yourself in on a holiday (if anyone lets you have one). I enjoyed it for surprising me and going beyond what I already knew. So reliant are human beings on our social collaboration that it has been suggested th...

A recording of a Twitter Spaces discussion with Scott Galloway. We talk remote working, why cities will never die, why working hard is Scott's top career advice. Along the way we talk about the power of touch, Goldman Sachs, missing humans and what will come next for work. The Twitter Spaces app also blings a lot too, sorry about that. I've edited about 200 of them out. Scott's book Post Corona is...

Buy A World Without Email I’ve talked a lot about Cal Newport’s provocations about abolishing email (and Zoom calls) [find them here and here ]. And in fact, I had someone last week astonished when I suggested we should try to limit video calls to eight hours a week. They thought I’d lost my mind. How would we get things done unless we were on video calls all day? This default to video and emails...

Pre-order Conflicted now - available from 18th Feb You can also read Ian's post on Paul McCartney that I mentioned on the show and follow him on Twitter here . What's the route to better decision making at work? What can any of us do to ensure we resolve our disputes in a more productive way. A brilliant discussion with Ian Leslie about his forthcoming new book, Conflicted. Sign up to the Make Wor...

The guest this episode is Dr Damian Scarf, he teaches at the University of Otago in New Zealand. I saw him do a short and impactful TED talk: Dr Damian Scarf's TEDx Talk . (Post script: sadly Dr Scarf passed away in 2025) Very much like Dr Jill Bolte Taylor who did that wonderful lecture about having a stroke, Damian uses his psychology to diagnose what went wrong with him when he was studying. He...

Sign for the newsletter What's going to happen with our workplaces. Today the theme is how, if we're not careful the way that we're using our workplaces is going redefine our work culture. At the start there is discussion about some of the themes in the most recent newsletter and then go on to chat to Nick LiVigne from Convene . Convene are a coworking/events business that allows you to adapt your...

Sign up for the Make Work Better newsletter There is no better guest to kick off 2021 than Amy Gallo . Amy Gallo is a contributing editor at Harvard Business Review writing about workplace dynamics and emotional intelligence . She is co-host of the wonderful Women at Work podcast She's is the author of the HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict and gave a hit TEDx talk on that subject in 2019 . On the...

Sign up for the Make Work Better newsletter. How the heck did we end up thinking that humour and serious work are in opposition to each other? Today's guests, Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas, run a tremendously successful course at Stanford Business School on how we can all use humour to be better (and happier) at our jobs. One of the people they have coming along to guest speaker at their cours...

Sign up for the newsletter Seth Godin has cracked the secret of how to make you more creative. And the good news is that everyone can do it. He was so dogged by his need to share this that he has turned it into a book, The Practice. We talk about the simple way to unlock creativity and ask why schools don't teach this. At the end Seth gives his recommendations of the best things you should be read...

Sign up for the newsletter There was an incredible response to the episode with Chris hayward last week. I know that Chris was really touched with the response. He’s not on Twitter but I know he was responding to some people on Linkedin last week.   Today’s episode is much lighter in tone but it’s fascinating rare opportunity to get a different perspective into another world. During the summe...

WARNING: INCLUDES THEMES OF SUICIDE AND DEPRESSION "I walked up and down Tottenham Court Road looking for a lorry to throw myself under" An episode going deep on mental health today. I chat to someone who has been brave enough to reveal their own breakdown and how they got to the verge of suicide. In a recent piece of research Deloitte surveyed 1000 UK employees, 55% say their colleagues are just...

Sign up for the newsletter Today's episode is for anyone who is curious about how human's tick. Work ultimately is a practice of the brain and how our brain processes and reacts to things is a fascination to me. I have a friend who is studying neuroscience and a couple of years ago at someone's wedding I was chatting to him and said 'who should I be reading?' and he said the best voice in the fiel...

What a truly wonderful conversation you're about to listen to today. Mo Gawdat is an expert on happiness and today's episode is a combination of philosophy and science - and it never fails to be stimulating to listen to every step of the way. This podcast used to be about happiness and work culture. And about 4 years I saw a captivating clip by Mo which went viral everywhere on the internet. I con...

"When I moved to New York City, I realised what it meant to be truly lonely for the first time. I had no consistent community — people who would wonder where I was if I didn’t show up. I was disconnected. At the time, I thought that I was the only one who felt this way… but I was VERY wrong. Turns out, loneliness is a huge issue in the United States. The average American only has one close friend,...

Sign up for the newsletter. We're at part 3 of our series about community at work. Today's guest is one of the most respected community thinkers in the world, Casper ter Kuile , Fellow at the Harvard Divinity School and author of The Power of Ritual . His book is a practical guide to the way that communities come to life, not only is it practical it's also brilliantly written. I found myself annot...

Today's episode is a further exploration of how firms will try to evolve their culture by hiring Community Managers. If you've not listened to last week's episode featuring Sarah Drinkwater pull up, back up and tuck in to that one first. Sarah said the person I should talk to is Abadesi Osunsade from Brandwatch - and so that's who we are talking to today. Abadesi's title is VP Global Community &am...