Humans At Work

“And so how do we navigate this complex reality, which is that we're constantly masked because we need to be, because if you take all of that off and you reveal all the inner workings, it would be complete chaos. But at the same time, what tends to happen as humans is the mask, the presentation, we start to get caught up in the idea that the presentation is everything that we are. And that gets ve...

  “So, we need leaders who are jazz band leaders, where you agree on the key and get the drummer to set the tempo. And then actually it's up to the whole group to kind of be alive and paying attention to each other and having real honest conversations about what's going on. It's those tiny little glances between people when you're playing in a band that, of these little signals that you have...

  “…find that new and better version that better suits and deals with the problem at hand, whether that's one for you and or your client, and then go out and sell that. Now we've made a new and smarter version, oh and by the way, it's actually also better for the world, but it's not the other way around. Don't lead with green, lead with better, and then sprinkle green on top. That's what's go...

“News and information in general has never been more important. When we're looking at how we inform the decisions that we make in our lives and what we care about.  Just using the US as an example, whether it's related to what's happening in our Supreme Court and the cases that they're selecting, what's happening in our local governments, and our state governments, and our federal government?...

  “As I look at how the world operates, that global community, even now we need even more attention and detail to being respectful, to broadening our perspectives on things and to reaching out and helping people. Rather than having our measure as individual success, have our measure as collective or community success cos then everyone gets to have some value.”   This episode of the human...

  “How are we gonna lock arms with trust and love and care and move into this unknown, unshaped, unformed future and start putting some shape and form to it, born from love? Not fear, power over, scarcity, all that kind of stuff. That’s what I’m hoping, this book becomes an instrument in that way to bring forward those kinds of caring conversations. This episode of the humans at work podcast...

“…so what we want to do is really unleash the potential of humans to really connect and help. It’s a bit of what we do in Africa – it’s unleashing the potential, the entrepreneurial potential to actually drive solutions, and what we’re giving is this tool that even any random individual can be a solution to local problems.”   This episode of the humans at work podcast features a conversation...

“The present is already really messy.  What I’ve learnt is that the future will be really messy, too, and that there won’t be a single answer to everything.  Coming back to foresight then, I think good organisations should really do the work of imagining multiple futures and there’s some really well-designed scenario methodologies out there for working out which kinds of futures you migh...

And those of us who are 45 and up who are in that category of leaders at the moment, if you like, what if we’d all been through an education system which taught us to be ethically informed about what our actions were doing, not just on our doorstep but in other parts of the world?  Or about the climate or about how the economic system favours some people and definitely not the majority of peo...

This episode of the humans at work podcast features a Postscript Moment – a special follow-up conversation with one of our previous podcast guests.  For those of you who can remember letter-writing, after you’d signed off your letter, you could write P.S. and add in one last story or commentary that you knew would appeal to your letter recipient!  You wouldn’t have much space left on the...

“Kindness can look different to different people as well. Kindness for me is very specific around boundary setting; by setting clear and not rigid but I’m very strict with my boundaries around my time, my emotional energy, my energy levels, my mental bandwidth around what I will and won’t take on and what I will and won’t keep."   This episode of the humans at work podcast features conversati...

“One of those examples is, we talk about articulating strategy, because strategic thinking is no good if it just stays in your head.  So, we talk about articulating strategy and how you can get clear on that in your head, in order to communicate it and articulate it. That’s not just how do you write a strategy document, that’s how do you have day to-day conversations where you’re being clear...

“I think that’s where we need to use our power as global citizens and keep putting that pressure on Governments and corporates. I believe that corporates are driven by profit and Governments are driven by votes. That’s what they want, so it’s us that we can actually force them to change. If we start putting pressure and being loud about what we want, ultimately, when we build this critical mass of...

“That led me to believe that, no, there has to be a better way for us to do marketing because marketing has the power to change behaviour. Marketing is really important in society.  And instead of perpetuating stereotypes, instead of promoting scarcity tactics or fear-based marketing strategies, there is a way to use marketing for change, for positive change.”   This episode of the human...

“For me, strategy is a company’s or an organisation’s unique way of sustainable value creation.  In my approach, in the very definition of strategy, there is this word “sustainable” and the way I mean this is not just planet proof but also sustainable from a commercial perspective, from a strategic point of view. If that’s the core, if sustainable value creation is your core and not competiti...

“That was probably the most formative 18 months, the best education I could’ve got was those 18 months in terms of what it took to launch a business. But crucially understanding that it is okay to fail if you fail for the right reasons. If your morals and values are in the right place, it is absolutely fine to test something out and fail.”     This episode of the humans at work podcast f...

“I think it’s not just up to one person, everyone needs to know about this, realise what’s really going on.  You know, you don’t need to be a scientist to be in. Even in Fiji, ask any local people in any village, they’ll tell you.  Climate change is real. ” “The question is what’s more important – the environment or the economics?  We can live without the economics but the environme...

“So, hearing a company purpose and talking about this, that might sound great, but that may not be what I need to access and understand consciously before I can really give myself to this organisation. All of these different purposes, even in a great organisation, don’t mean we all share the same thing. That’s the, I think, the hard part with working with purpose and helping teams acknowledge it,...

This episode of the humans at work podcast features a Postscript Moment – a special follow-up conversation with one of our previous podcast guests.  For those of you who can remember letter-writing, after you’d signed off your letter, you could write P.S. and add in one last story or commentary that you knew would appeal to your letter recipient!  You wouldn’t have much space left on the...

This episode of the humans at work podcast features a Postscript Moment – a special follow-up conversation with one of our previous podcast guests.  For those of you who can remember letter-writing, after you’d signed off your letter, you could write P.S. and add in one last story or commentary that you knew would appeal to your letter recipient!  You wouldn’t have much space left on the...

“When he was in prison, and prison was both a physical thing but also a metaphorical thing, because imprisoning you on Robben Island, they were not only trying to physically isolate you but also mentally imprison your mind.  Mr Mandela knew this so he would always say to these fellow prisoners, “Never, ever give the upper hand to your jailers.  Never.  …This is central to his abilit...

“We need new ideas, new data, new passion, we need new adrenalin.  How can we create it?  Through conversations like this, and then create the connections, connect the dots…and that will help us build a human connection between us, and also break down the divisions of nations, races, cultures, our languages, to a point where we see the one-ness of our humanity.”   This episode featu...

“There was not even a second thought that the fact that I had to go back to South Africa because history was happening and couldn’t miss out on that.”  The first chance to vote as an equal citizen, why would you not want to go back?"   This episode of the humans at work podcast features a conversation with Enver Samuel, international award-winning producer and director, and head of his o...

"I tried to be someone that wasn’t me and then at one point I just got tired of it and just accepted the fact that I’m a giant nerd and I should just enjoy the things I enjoy."   This episode of the humans at work podcast features a conversation with Vince Warnock, prolific host of the Challenging the Insights podcast, author, and award-winning Business and Marketing Coach and strategist. &nb...

"It’s one thing when an HR person says, “We need to humanise the workforce,” or, “Let’s talk about being human centric.”  It’s another thing when the top five platform businesses in the world are saying, “We’re gonna humanise our offerings.”   This episode of the humans at work podcast features a conversation with Jeff Mike, Head of Insights and Impact at FlexTrack, a global company prov...