Ollie on Work

Today's guest, Geoff McDonald, worked at Unilever for 25 years and, at the end of his time there, contributed to the company's transformation from an ailing business into a thriving global organisation with purpose at its heart. He now works with businesses that believe that purpose can give them a strategic advantage by creating a company that the best people want to work for. He's also a passion...

Today I speak to Naomi Shragai, author of The Man Who Mistook His Job for His Life: How to Thrive at Work by Leaving Your Emotional Baggage Behind.   Naomi is a consultant, a coach, and uniquely a business psychotherapist. Her book focuses on the unconscious motivations behind our behaviours and decisions in the workplace and is based on 30 years of experience working with organisations and e...

Today I welcome Danny Fortson to the show. Danny is the West Coast correspondent for the Sunday Times and the host of Danny in the Valley. Anyone who reads my newsletter will know that I'm a regular listener to his podcast, on which he consistently invites fascinating founders of some established and emerging tech businesses that are attempting to solve some of the world's most exciting and import...

If the quality of a podcast directly correlates with the practical value that you get from it, then I think today's episode might be the best one I've released so far.  My guest is Marc Effron, the author of Eight Steps to High Performance: Focus On What You Can Change (Ignore the Rest). We had a fantastic conversation in which we discussed the importance of big goals., what changes managers...

You may have noticed something different about the podcast. That's right; I've decided to change the name of the show! Take My Advice (I'm Not Using It) has served me well over the past year, but since the business and the newsletter share the same name, leaving the podcast out didn't seem fair.  In today's episode, I talk to Elizabeth Ogabi, the author of Side Hustle in Progress: A Practical...

I'm back a little later than planned after what's been a very busy few months. Future Work/Life is now a business - I'll be leaning on the many insights developed from the newsletter and this podcast to help clients design the future of work. As of last week, I'm also writing a book, which will be on the shelves in Autumn 2022. It's called Work/Life Flywheel: Find flow and propel your career to th...

Today's episode is a Future Work/Life special. I recall two newsletters in which I discuss diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as AI, decision making and the future of jobs. LINKS: Future Work/Life #42 - DE&I and why progress doesn't mean perfection Future Work/Life #43 - AI, decision-making, and the future of jobs Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's episode is a Future Work/Life special. I recall two newsletters in which I discuss technological disruption and the lessons we can learn from Spotify and the music business, as well as imposter syndrome and why it isn't incompatible with the vision and drive required by successful entrepreneurs. LINKS: Future Work/Life #40 - Lessons of technological disruption from Spotify and the music in...

Today's episode is a Future Work/Life special. I recall two newsletters in which I discuss the problems with NPS (net promoter score) and the benefits of illeism (the act of referring to yourself in the third person). LINKS: Future Work/Life #38 - (Not Proving Strictly) Useful Future Work/Life #39 - "Ollie, this newsletter is the best thing you've ever written" Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priva...

In today's episode, we're looking into the future to explore how technology will create new opportunities to monetise our expertise and what effects that will have on our understanding of jobs and careers. My guest is Dror Poleg, a writer and all-around purveyor of interesting ideas. I discovered Dror's blog at the beginning of the year, and since then, he's helped join the dots for me between a w...

In today's episode, we talk about culture - what does it mean, how do we define and develop it within organisations, and how is this likely to change as the way we work continues to evolve? My guest is ideally placed to advise on this subject as she's spent almost two decades working within some iconic companies, which have achieved tremendous success and significant growth. At the same time, she'...

Robert Glazer is the founder and CEO of Acceleration Partners, a global marketing agency that has won numerous accolades for its company culture. He leads a fully remote team of over 200 people and has now written a book called  How To Thrive In The Virtual Workplace. He's also the host of one of my favourite leadership podcasts,  Elevate,  and wrote a book of the same name. We disc...

In today's episode, I'm delighted to bring you an interview that I've been trying to set up since before this podcast first launched last year. Through listening to his podcast and reading his newsletter, I've learnt a huge amount about emerging technology and its impact on the world. Along the way, he's introduced me to some of the world's leading thinkers on all manner of subjects like artificia...

In today's episode, we discuss diversity, equity and inclusion with Tamika Curry Smith.  Tamika has had a long career in diversity roles going back to 2002 at Deloitte. Over the last five years, she's been Head of Diversity & Inclusion for Mercedes-Benz in the US and Vice President of Global Diversity & Inclusion at Nike. She now advises early-stage startups and is the president of th...

This week we have another fantastic guest. Glenn Elliott is the founder of Reward Gateway, a SaaS HR tech business, which two weeks ago sold for the third time, taking the total value of its acquisitions to well over half a billion dollars.  Reward Gateway's platform enables companies used to better communicate with, reward and survey their employees and Glenn's experience there led him to wr...

Welcome to series four of Take My Advice (I'm Not Using). Today's guest is Will Page, the former Chief Economist of Spotify and PRS for Music where he pioneered 'Rockonomics'. At PRS he published work on Radiohead's  In Rainbows  and saving BBC 6Music. At Spotify, he helped redefine catalogue and articulated the global value of music copyright. In this episode, we discuss how Will's dete...

This is the last of three episodes in which I recall the most recent Future Work/Life newsletters. Today I discuss the risk of burnout and consider whether your business model could be a threat to wellbeing. LINKS: Future Work/Life #36: Burnout and why wellbeing can't be workload Future Work/Life #37: Could your business model be a threat to wellbeing? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for mo...

To mark the end of the series and based on the success of January's podstorm, over the next three weeks I'm sharing the most recent Future Work/Life newsletters. In today's episode I discuss how we should approach returning to the office, and the importance of pacing in work and life. LINKS: Future Work/Life #34: The future of the office looks like market day in Abergavenny Future Work/Life #35: T...

To mark the end of the series and based on the success of January's podstorm, over the next three weeks I'll be sharing the most recent Future Work/Life newsletters. In today's episode I discuss innovation, creativity, and sleep. LINKS: Future Work/Life #32: When I grow up, I want to be an inventor Future Work/Life #33: Strange dreams and creative things Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for...

In this episode, I talk to Christine Armstrong, the founder of Armstrong & Partners and a researcher, consultant and writer, about the future of work. I became aware of Christine's work through her fantastic vlogs, which she publishes every week on LinkedIn. They cover all matter subjects related to work and life, including the perils of Zoom, the pain of homeschooling, and the problem of assu...

I've been looking forward to bringing you today's episode for a while now. My guest is Jennifer Moss, a happiness expert - yes, that is a job - and a thought leader on one of the biggest challenges affecting the workplace right now - burnout. I've had my own struggles with burnout over the years - for a good while before I'd even heard the expression. It's not just a historical thing for me either...

In this week's show, I'm joined by two guests to discuss coaching and leadership.  The world of work has obviously changed hugely over the past year and has been marked by most knowledge workers working remotely. With that, our approach to leadership and organisations and people has had to adapt and evolve, which means that the nature of executive coaching has too. My first guest today has an...

Just before Christmas last year, a friend of mine recommended a book called Endure: Mind, Body and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance , written by today's guest, Alex Hutchinson. The book is about the limits of human performance, and it begins by focusing on the record attempt by Eliud Kipchoge, supported by Nike, to beat the two-hour barrier for the marathon. Now, for me,...

In today's episode, I speak to the vice-chairman of Ogilvy UK, Rory Sutherland. If you’re aware of Rory, you'll know that the next hour is going to be an entertaining listen. If you don't, he is one of the foremost thinkers in UK advertising and there are very few areas in which he doesn't have some interesting ideas and opinions. We cover a wide range of topics, including the future of work, netw...

In today's episode, I talk about FLEX with the author of a book by that name, Annie Auerbach. Annie is the co-founder of the cultural insights agency, Starling, and originally wrote Flex: Reinventing Work for a Smarter, Happier Life in 2019. The book is a fantastic guide to the value of being intentional with the idea of FLEX in your life - whether at work, at home, with your body and looking forw...