Work Unplugged

In this episode, Amrit and Ali from the &Evolve team delve into the science behind ‘difficult’ conversations at work and why they can feel so challenging in the moment. We explore how our innate threat responses (fight, flight, freeze, or fawn) can become activated, often hijacking our thinking and behaviour just when we need to be at our best. With this understanding, we discuss how to prepar...

Organisations work hard to create inclusive environments, where people feel they can express and be themselves. Trust is more important now with so many people working from home, yet managers still walk a tightrope with trust. Then we have all the work organisations do on Values - identifying the right ones, making sure people understand them, and then articulating the behaviours that truly expres...

Why do people continue to work in toxic environments? Rational, bright and sane individuals endure the daily grind of subjecting themselves to toxic environments, but why? Many people have heard of the 996 culture in tech - 9 am to 9pm, six days a week. These people are celebrated, and we're told they love working the hours, as they love being in states of 'flow'. When you ask those people who hat...

This year proves to be anther challenging year. Our teams are expected to do more with less. Geopolitical tensions mean the old maps we relied on to navigate this complex world, have been torn up, leaving us trying to understand where we go from here. We desperately want to drive greater innovation and creativity but cannot seem to get off first base. Could we be unintentionally be holding ourselv...

As many of you will have seen, we've been going through our back catalogue of guests, from our previous podcast series. Since then, we've rebranded, and some of our listeners, may never have heard the amazing guests we've had on our podcast. This week, we've decided to save the best. This podcast was the most listened to podcast of all the 100+ episodes we recorded. It has consistently been downlo...

L. David Marquet, a US Navy submarine captain, takes command of the USS Santa Fe , the worst-performing sub in the fleet. He’s trained for a different submarine class, so he doesn’t know this sub well. Early on, he gives an order that literally cannot be carried out (because that control doesn’t exist on this type of sub). The officer repeats the order anyway. Marquet realises the problem isn’t “b...

Back in the middle of lockdown, we had the opportunity to interview Paul Zak, one of the most cited scientists in the world. If you've ever undertaken any leadership development with ourselves, then you will have heard us speaking of the amazing research by Paul Zak and his team into Oxytocin and trust. Trust is, and will always be the foundation of an engaging workplace, and the critical ingredie...

How many regular meetings are held across your organisation that are a complete waste of time? What routines are expected of most people but they are a complete nonsense, but everyone does them anyway? There are many practices that go on across organisations that add little value, and in fact probably do more harm, but no one calls them out. Self-silencing has an impact on the organisation, where...

When was the last time you heard someone described their workplace as 'happy'? Some people might even question whether we want happiness in the workplace, as they might see happiness as representing frivolity, poor productivity and poor performance. Others might argue that when people are happy, they might do their best work. Happiness could also be labelled as being 'satisfied', and when people a...

How comfortable are you in developing meaningful relationships at work? Do you see people with the gift of charisma and charm, work their magic with people around them, only to reinforce the point that you struggle to connect with people? Building connections with people isn't always easy, especially in new environments, where you're meeting people for the first time. But there are steps you can f...

Who are the drivers of innovation across your organisation? Is it your leadership team? Maybe it's your board of Directors? What if you're focusing in the wrong area? Across our organisations, we have so many talented people, who work tirelessly to drive the best performance. Many of them are probably unknown to senior leaders. Nameless and faceless, they continue to do their best. What if one of...

How much AI do you use in your life currently? You may be surprised at how much AI is already pervading our lives. The impact? Well, it's definitely making us more productive. But there is another side effect that we didn't see coming. AI was meant to remove the noise allowing us to focus on the things that really mattered so we could solve complex problems. With recent research article pointing t...

How many of us really need 'managing' at work? Whilst some managers are amazing, others can make work a difficult place to be. What role does the manager play in the current climate, where long-term strategies seem non-existent, resulting in senior leaders getting more involved in tactical planning. Quite often managers become regulated to being compliance officers, ensuring tasks are complete, an...

With so much attention on creating better organisational cultures, are we all missing the reality, that some toxic organisations are successful? Is it really critical to have a great workplace culture as a prerequisite to be successful? Join Amrit in this week's podcast as he explores this topic. He uses Amazon as a case study to understand what's driven their performance, and what impact their cu...

How often do leaders across your organisation accept dissenting views? Are we after original thoughts and thinking, or would we prefer compliance? Outliers, mavericks and those on the fringes of thought, are often frowned upon, and even dismissed. We lean towards convention rather than fringe. But what if the very people you hesitate to embrace, could bring the rebel advantage to your organisation...

It seems more and more organisations are under increasing pressures to achieve seemingly unachievable targets and results. Words such as 'relentless' being used to describe work, tells you how people feel. How can anyone feel joy under such pressures? And without moments of joy, how can employees ever experience happiness in the workplace? CEOs and senior leaders need to drive results, but is ther...

Every organisation says it listens to its employees. Every organisation says improving engagement is important. Yet, if it's so important, then why aren't we seeing improvements in performance and productivity - why isn't it happening? Is engagement the best measure? What would happen if people began to feel a real sense of ownership to the organisations they work with. Ownership seems a more stab...

It might seem that politics is an inextricable part of the world of work, such is the prevalence of it., across so many organisations, in almost every sector. Politics undermines the very structures set up across organisations, leaving individuals to drive personal agendas for personal gains. We cannot stop human nature from yearning for more, but we can stop that behaviour from become a cancer, s...

How many development programmes lead to change across your organisation? Whilst many programmes are looking to develop the skills, knowledge and behaviours across a specific level, one question that gets raised consistently by those being developed: "Have our managers been through this?". There seems to be a view that once leaders achieve a certain level/ status, they don't need to experience the...

How many people are disengaged across your organisation? Engagement surveys often provide a break down of those who are engaged and disengaged. The focus inevitably goes to those in the middle - those in the 'neutral zone' who have responded with 'I neither agree nor disagree', because they are seen as being the easiest to move to across to the positive side. What then do we do with those who are...

Yes, 'Potentialising' is not a verb but it seems like this should be a word to describe the actions of developing the potential within others! With talent being such an important concern for many organisations, one has to question whether we're making the most of the talent currently within our organisations. With so many people having non-linear career paths, it just goes to show the transferable...

As a former Pharmacist, I've always been fascinated with how many new drugs are being developed from nature - herbs and plants, many benefits of which were known about anecdotally by people, but science is now catching up. There seems to be this 'forgotten wisdom' that humanity has which is now being rediscovered. How much 'forgotten wisdom' is present across our organisations that could add so mu...

When senior leaders think of AI, it's possible their immediate thoughts are driving efficiencies by embracing AI and reducing head-count. After all, it's all we seem to hear - 'AI is after your jobs!'. But is this the only way? How much AI are senior leaders across organisations embracing? How much AI adoption is going on amongst employees outside of work. to improve their efficiencies at work? AI...

The world is literally changing in front of our eyes, with everything we knew of our geopolitical landscape being turned on its head. Organisations are rightly focused on developing strategies to navigate this increasingly uncertain world. We know organisations need to change to the changing environment. But how much do we as employees consider the need for change? How much have you changed the wa...

Why do some people behave differently when they get into positions of power? Is power only governed by those in authority, or can anyone in any position have power? And then how do we use that power? Is it used for the greater good, or to propel individual ambitions? These are the questions we explore in our new podcast 'Work Unplugged' from the &Evolve team!