How I Work

Latest Episodes:

My Favourite Tip: Nir Eyal on putting every single activity he does in his calendar Feb 26, 2020

Show notes

My favourite tip from my chat with Nir Eyal was about why and how he puts every single activity he does in his calendar.

You can find the full interview here.

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a short monthly newsletter that contains three cool things that I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My Favourite Tip: Why Adam Alter doesn’t set goals, and what he does instead Feb 24, 2020

Show notes

My favourite tip from my chat with NYU Marketing Professor Adam Alter was on why he doesn't believe in goal setting - and what he does instead.

You can find the full interview here.

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stanford behaviour change expert, BJ Fogg, on how he decides which habits to form in his own life and how he makes them stick. Feb 19, 2020

Show notes

My favourite tip from my chat with Stanford behaviour change expert BJ Fogg was on making habits stick.

You can find the full interview here.

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Experiment 2: Failure Resume Feb 17, 2020

Show notes

I am running a year-long experiment called My Year of Better. It’s my attempt to test out some science-backed strategies in my own life to become happier, more productive, more creative, and less stressed. If you would like to partake in the fun, join my pack of 1000+ lab rats at: https://amantha.substack.com/

On today’s show, I describe Experiment 2: Failure Resume, which has been shown to be a very effective strategy to boost resilience. If you are playing along at home, complete the pre-experiment survey here.

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Columbia Professor Rita McGrath on having a personal board of directors Feb 12, 2020

Show notes

My guest today is Rita McGrath. Rita is a world-renowned professor at Columbia Business School, where she directs the popular Leading Strategic Growth and Change program. She is widely recognized as a premier expert on leading innovation and growth during times of uncertainty. She has received the #1 achievement award for strategy from the prestigious Thinkers50 and has been consistently named one of the world’s top ten management thinkers in its bi-annual ranking.

Rita is the author of the best-selling The End of Competitive Advantage and her new book is Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen.

Rita has been rated one of the 25 smartest women to follow on Twitter by Fast Company and was voted HR Magazine’s “Most Influential International Thinker.”

I’ve followed Rita’s work for several years and got connected with her personally after one of my team mates was lucky enough to be taught by her at Columbia.

In this chat, we cover:

* How she prioritises what projects she decides to work on

* How Rita minimises decisions

* How Rita gets the most out of her assistant

* Where her book ideas come from

* How to make something interesting

* Rita’s approach to deciding what to read and maximising the impact of what she does read

* Having a personal board of directors

* On how failure can lead to a better future

* How she arrived at the title for her latest book

* Rita’s approach to doing Deep Work

* How Rita’s approach to writing has changed over the last year

* Rita’s go-to sources for information

Find out more about Rita at https://www.ritamcgrath.com/, follow Rita on Twitter, and get your copy of Seeing Around Corners.

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Experiment 1: Worry Time Feb 10, 2020

Show notes

I am running a year-long experiment called My Year of Better. It’s my attempt to test out some science-backed strategies in my own life to become happier, more productive, more creative, and less stressed. If you would like to play along at home, join my pack of 1000+ lab rats at: https://amantha.substack.com/

On today’s show, I describe Experiment 1: Worry Time, which has been shown to be a very effective strategy to significantly reduce stress.

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Amazon executive Paul Migliorini on banning PowerPoint decks, using frugality to drive innovation, and trying to always say yes. Feb 05, 2020

Show notes

My guest today is Paul Migliorini. Paul leads the Amazon Web Services business across Australia and New Zealand - a role that he has been in for the last four years. Prior to joining AWS Paul held leadership roles in Asia and Australia with BT, Motorola, Regus and Ernst & Young, most recently as the CEO for Regus ANZ and Regional Managing Director for South Asia at BT.

I was keen to speak to Paul because I have heard a lot of things about Amazon’s culture and ways of working that fascinated me. And there is nothing better than being able to get an insider’s perspective on how it all works.

So if you have ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes of one of the world’s fastest growing and most powerful companies, I think you’ll love my chat with Paul.

We cover:

How Paul has dramatically changed his mobile phone behaviour
Amazon’s 14 key leadership principles
How being frugal leads to innovative
The importance of “two pizza teams"
Why leaders at Amazon do more coaching rather than managing
Why input measures matter more than output measures
The two types of decisions that can be made at Amazon and how this impacts decision-making speed
The importance of disagreeing and committing to decisions
How strong opinions are encouraged at Amazon
How Amazon identifies people who will fit with the culture during the recruitment process
The 50% test that Amazon use in their recruitment process
Why Powerpoint is banned at Amazon
The critical role of long form narratives at Amazon
Why the first 15-20 minutes of meetings at Amazon are spent reading
Why Amazon create fictitious press releases for products that don’t exist
Amazon’s working backwards process
Why Paul sees it as his job to say yes to as many requests as possible.

Learn more about Amazon's Summit, check out career opportunities at Amazonand connect with Paul on Linkedin.

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

2020 is my year of better. And I’d love you to join me. Feb 03, 2020

Show notes

Today's mini-episode describes a brand new project I am launching - My Year of Better. I'd love you to be a part of it.

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

BEST OF: Daniel Pink on coming up with great titles for projects, how he structures his working days, and why he doesn’t believe in willpower. Jan 29, 2020

Show notes

**BEST OF 2019**

My guest today is Dan Pink. Dan is the author of six bestselling books, including Drive, A Whole New Mind, and his latest book "When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing", which has spent four months on the New York Times bestseller list. You might also be familiar with Dan through his TED talk about the surprising science of motivation, which has been viewed over 20 million times.

I am a big Dan Pink fan so I was very excited to be able to chat with him. I think he has such a knack for dissecting complex science and finding a way to make it not just accessible, but memorable and impactful for his readers.

We cover a bunch of things during this chat, including:

How Dan works out whether an idea is great or whether it stinks
How the idea behind his latest book "When" came to be
The importance of the structure of a book, and Dan’s approach to mapping out a book’s structure
Dan’s process for coming up with the title for a book or project
How he came up with the title for Adam Grant’s bestselling book Give and Take
Why Dan structures his work day into three distinct sections
Why Dan isn’t a big believer in willpower
How Dan constructs his working environment to make it easy to stay off digital distractions
Dan’s approach to radically reducing the amount of emails he receives
How Dan decides what to say yes to and what to say no to
Dan’s approach for saying no politely
Dan’s process for translating a book into a keynote speech
Why Dan asks his wife to read his books out loud to him during the editing process

Find out more about Dan at danpink.com and subscribe to his newsletter right here. And you can check out his latest book When here.

For comprehensive show notes on this episode, go to: https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

BEST OF: Marcus Buckingham on the four questions he asks himself every week Jan 22, 2020

Show notes

**BEST OF 2019**

My guest today is Marcus Buckingham. Marcus is the author of a stack of best-selling books, including First, Break All the Rules, Now, Discover Your Strengths, The One Thing You Need to Know, and Stand Out, to name a few. His latest book, Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World (Harvard Business Publishing, 2019) takes an in-depth look at the lies that pervade our workplaces and the core truths that will help us change it for the better.

Marcus has appeared on “Larry King Live,” “The Today Show” and “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and now leads People + Performance research at the ADP Research Institute and remains CEO The Marcus Buckingham Company (TMBC).

I was keen to get Marcus on the show as he is someone who challenges the status quo of how organisations operate, and I was keen to see how he had applied his advice in his own life.

In our chat, we cover:

The four questions Marcus asks himself every week
Why "do what you love" is bad advice
Why “work-life balance” is an unhelpful concept
How Marcus has reduced the amount of work he loathes and increased the amount of work he loves
How Marcus reframed how he thinks about networking and mingling to find it more enjoyable
How Marcus made firing people a less awful task
Marcus’s process for creating great keynote presentations
How Marcus thinks about the opening of his speeches
Why the annual planning process organisations use is broken - and how to fix it
Why Marcus thinks about work as a collection of projects

Find out more about Marcus via his website, get your hands on his most recent book Nine Lies About Work, and sign up to the Freethinking Leader Coalition.

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected