Stay ConnectedMAKE WORK BETTER. Eat Sleep Work Repeat is the best podcast about workplace culture – it’s been listened to millions of times.
Bruce Daisley brings a curious mind to discussions about our jobs and the role they play in our lives.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Copyright: © Bruce Daisley
Eat Sleep Work Repeat is hosted by Bruce Daisley, Ellen C Scott and Matthew Cook. Sign up to the newsletter
This week we go deep on the latest news about work.
We discuss:
Sign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever episodes at the website.
Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
What Ange Postecoglou changed at Spurs in his first 100 days: ‘The mood has been transformed’
Charlie writes about the oratory of Ange Postecoglou
Last week I read something wonderful about the culture of Tottenham Hotspur, I contacted the writer and it felt like it was worth putting out quickly. We’ve got a couple of podcast recorded with Matt and Ellen so we’ll be back for a fuller episode next week.
Ange Postecoglou has been the manager of Spurs, Tottenham Hotspur, for around a hundred days. In that time he’s started something of a transformation. And I can tell that because the Spurs fans I know how have started smiling. Spurs have started the season well, currently sitting 2nd in the Premier League. But more than that the players seem to be happy and are playing exciting football.
There was a brilliant article by Charlie Ecceshare from The Athletic looking into the culture of the club under Ange, the article talked about how the mood of the club has been transformed.
For anyone interested in the impact that cultural change can create it was a fascinating read, full of specifics and clear actions.
Aren’t all of us looking to change the mood of our jobs? I got in touch with Charlie and we talked about Postecoglou, culture and the impact that culture has on results.
In the show note you’ll find links to Charlie’s articles, YouTube clips of some team talks we discuss and some other things that you might find of interest, like an interview with Gary Lineker.
Fabulous interview with Gary Lineker
Thank you to Charlie, all of the articles mentioned are in the show notes. What a fabulous discussion. I’m grateful for him taking the time to chat to me. If you’re interested in workplace culture you can sign up to the newsletter in the show notes - and also check out previous episodes on Liverpool FC, Barcelona and the All Blacks.
Further listening:
Sign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever episodes at the website.
Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Eat Sleep Work Repeat is hosted by Bruce Daisley, Ellen C Scott and Matthew Cook. Ellen is away this week - we were working hard to squeeze an elite guest in.
Amy Edmondson is the most renowned organisational psychologist in the world. In other words she's looked to more than anyone else for the answers of how to fix work.
In this in depth discussion she talks us through what she understands by psychological safety, how any of us can create it and what she believes the best team structure is to achieve it.
We're also joined by Octavius Black, founder of Mind Gym, who provide behavioural science based interventions for lots of the biggest companies in the world.
Amy's new book is The Right Kind of Wrong
Sign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever episodes at the website.
Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sign up for the Make Work Better newsletter
This episode explores the concept of fun and its importance in adult life, challenging the misperception that fun is frivolous.
What is fun? Catherine Price suggests that it is the confluence of playfulness, connection, and flow.
The discussion also addresses the impact of social media on fake fun and the role of playfulness in work and productivity. The conversation explores the importance of fun in the workplace and the impact it has on productivity, connection, and overall well-being. It delves into the challenges of creating a fun work environment, the role of playfulness in building connections, and the significance of in-person interactions. The discussion also highlights the value of fun in education and its potential to bridge social and cultural divides.
Takeaways
Chapters
00:00
The Essence of Fun: Playfulness, Connection, and Flow
08:27
The Impact of Fake Fun: Social Media and Technology Addiction
15:27
The Role of Playfulness in Work and Productivity
31:20
Focusing on Inputs and Creating a Fun Work Environment
34:22
The Role of Playfulness in Building Connections
39:02
Fun as a Tool for Bridging Social Divides
Catherine Price is a science and health writer who has written a couple of sensationally timely books.
Firstly How to Break Up With Your Phone
Secondly, and today’s discussion focusses on this, The Power of Fun
I was put on to it by Elle Hunt’s Power of Fun article in The Guardian
Memorise it: fun is playful connected flow
Sign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever episodes at the website.
Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sign up for the Make Work Better newsletter
Eat Sleep Work Repeat is hosted by Bruce Daisley, Ellen C Scott and Matthew Cook.
Ellen wrote about her learnings about being a manager
Despite government threats of legal action Cambridgeshire council are continuing their evidence-led trial of the 4-day week. “Nine in ten councils are struggling with job recruitment and retention and a four-day working week could be the answer”
Ellen mentions this article on Stylist about boundaries (registration required)
Half of the employees of Grindr were fired after the firm issued a RTO order. This included 100% of the firm’s trans employees. As Matt points out in the show trans employees are subject to the legislative whims of different states in the US and understandably try to locate in safe places.
We talk about the World Values Survey report "What the world thinks about work"
Libby Sander is an internationally renowned expert on work and the workplace, the MBA Director and Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Bond University. She is a leading thinker on understanding the future of work, and how we can reimagine it to live more meaningful and creative lives.
Sign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever episodes at the website.
Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
I’m joined again by new cohosts Ellen C Scott and Matthew Cook.
Owen Eastwood is the most in-demand team performance coach in the world
He's earned that reputation by delivering break-through results with a diverse range of teams from Gareth Southgate’s England team and the England women’s team, to the senior leadership team of NATO. His former clients represent an elite range of teams who have gone on to achieve incredible victories. We wanted to understand how he did it.
What does he say? What does he ask?
Eastwood’s approach is consistent. By zooming out and pointing our fleeting contribution to legacy he urges teams to think about their ‘Us’ story. For me this suggests that what he’s actually doing is emphasising a powerful shared identity. In my mind I would see this as activating a visceral bond of community, he chooses to label it as ‘belonging’. That distinction ends up feeling semantic when presented with what his approach achieves.
This week on the podcast I’m joined by new co-hosts Ellen Scott and Matthew Cook as we talk to Owen and debate purpose, identity and belonging.
It’s a truly brilliant listen.
Follow Owen on LinkedIn
Joe Lycett’s remarkable special - the last 20 minutes of this are astonishing viewing
Ellen on thinking about leaving work on time
Sign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever episodes at the website.
Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A few months ago I put out a call asking for other voices to get involved in the podcast and I’m delighted today to add Ellen C Scott and Matthew Cook to Eat Sleep Work Repeat.
You may have read Ellen’s brilliant writing in The Stylist where she is the Deputy Digital Editor and previously in Metro. She writes and edits pieces on work, mental health, relationships, and more. Here’s her own Substack on work. She is also working on fiction and is represented by The Soho Agency.
Matt/Matthew is the founder of theSHIFT, an award-winning learning consultancy that specialises in cultural change inside organisations. He’s basically a people enthusiast who has turned it into his job.
I’ll be honest I love talking about work but I was worried that my own perspective might be a bit limiting. First and foremost I ended up as a boss and whether you intend it to or not that skews your perspective. Ellen and Matthew are here to help give a broader view. We loved recording the first episode and hopefully great things are to come.
You’ll find more on work at the ESWR website and the Make Work Better newsletter.
Today’s links:
The rise of Millennial Momagers
McKinsey claims to have cracked the formula for hybrid working
‘Sorry but productivity is lower at home’ - the article and the discussion of it is covered here
Hybrid workers are spending fully half of their work time in meetings
The benefit of ‘collective effervescence’ (there’s loads about this in Fortitude, p168)
Erin Meyer on the cultural differences of giving feedback
Sign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever episodes at the website.
Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sorry for duplicate - the previous version had no intro!
If you liked this I actually shared a lot of the data on the newsletter a couple of weeks ago - read that here.
Today's episode is an in depth exploration of the latest Gallup Global Workplace Report, Anna Sawyer, a Principal at Gallup takes us through the findings - and the implications for all leaders.
Get your hands on Gallup’s ‘State of the Global Workplace Report’
I loved the Gallup report on employee burnout (and I cited the results in the show)
We talk a little about the Gallup Q12 criteria that help them form their results, people are asked:
Friendship is ‘the privilege of having been seen by someone and the equal privilege of having been granted the sight of the essence of another’ - David Whyte
Read the meta-analysis (I *think* only 2020 is released at the moment)
Findings: Median percent differences between top-quartile and bottom-quartile units were:
• 10% in customer loyalty/engagement
• 23% in profitability
• 18% in productivity (sales)
• 14% in productivity (production records and evaluations)
• 18% in turnover for high-turnover organisations (those with more than 40% annualised turnover)
• 43% in turnover for low-turnover organisations (those with 40% or lower annualised turnover)
• 64% in safety incidents (accidents)
• 81% in absenteeism
• 28% in shrinkage (theft)
• 58% in patient safety incidents (mortality and falls)
• 41% in quality (defects)
• 66% in wellbeing (net thriving employees)
• 13% in organisational citizenship (participation)
View the Science Behind the Questions
Sign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever episodes at the website.
Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
If you liked this I actually shared a lot of the data on the newsletter a couple of weeks ago - read that here.
Today's episode is an in depth exploration of the latest Gallup Global Workplace Report, Anna Sawyer, a Principal at Gallup takes us through the findings - and the implications for all leaders.
Get your hands on Gallup’s ‘State of the Global Workplace Report’
I loved the Gallup report on employee burnout (and I cited the results in the show)
We talk a little about the Gallup Q12 criteria that help them form their results, people are asked:
Friendship is ‘the privilege of having been seen by someone and the equal privilege of having been granted the sight of the essence of another’ - David Whyte
Read the meta-analysis (I *think* only 2020 is released at the moment)
Findings: Median percent differences between top-quartile and bottom-quartile units were:
• 10% in customer loyalty/engagement
• 23% in profitability
• 18% in productivity (sales)
• 14% in productivity (production records and evaluations)
• 18% in turnover for high-turnover organisations (those with more than 40% annualised turnover)
• 43% in turnover for low-turnover organisations (those with 40% or lower annualised turnover)
• 64% in safety incidents (accidents)
• 81% in absenteeism
• 28% in shrinkage (theft)
• 58% in patient safety incidents (mortality and falls)
• 41% in quality (defects)
• 66% in wellbeing (net thriving employees)
• 13% in organisational citizenship (participation)
View the Science Behind the Questions
Sign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever episodes at the website.
Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Alex's book: Work less, do more
Make Work Better newsletter covered the 4 day week trials
For today’s episode I went to meet Alex Soujung Kim Pang. Alex has written a lot about our relationship with work, first in his book Rest and now in his book WORK LESS, DO MORE which is a refreshed version of Shorter.
When we first spoke the evidence for shorter working was a series of quirky stories of pioneering firms, frequently led by maverick bosses. In the last three years the landscape for shorter working (encompassing all manner of adaptations like four day weeks, compressed hours, 9 day fortnights and more) has transformed. Alex himself has played a role for 4 Day Week Global helping to design the mechanics of programs for test firms.
Sign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever episodes at the website.
Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
