Being Human

#250 Bragging Rights - with Lisa Bragg

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This week I speak with Lisa Bragg, author of the upcoming book Bragging Rights: How to Talk About Your Work Using Purposeful Self-Promotion. Personally, I have had blocks around self-promotion, and it's something I still work on. However, it's a skill more and more of us will need as jobs become more abstract and people choose to follow more independent career paths.We talk:
Why we need to brag
Pride vs bragging
Where to start in telling people who you are
Just get it out there
Getting teams to shine
Links:Lisa's Website

#249 Why Managers Matter - with Peter G. Klein

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This week I speak with Peter G. Klein, economist and co-author of Why Managers Matter: The Perils of the Bossless Company.Having been a veritable fanboy of super flat organisations since the start of my business career, this week we hear from the other side of the argument. We talk:
Myths and reality of 'bossless' organisations
Do flat organisations perform better?
Are people really better off without bosses?
Management for knowledge workers
Humanising bureaucracies
Links:Why Managers Matter - The BookPeter's Website

#248 Sawdust on the Factory Floor - with Melissa Swift

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This week I speak with Melissa Swift, author of the book Work Here Now: Think Like a Human and Build a Powerhouse Workplace.Sawdust on the factory floor is the metaphor Melissa uses to describe the modern workplace. Just as un-cleared sawdust was a safety hazard in 1800s factories, our accelerated work regimes imperil workers today. As Transformation Leader at HR-focussed consultancy Mercer, Melissa has developed a suite of strategies to build thriving workplaces. We talk:
Intensification of work
Perils of modern tech
Trauma awareness 
How we recover
Rituals to rehumanise work
Links:Work Here Now - The BookMelissa's LinkedInMelissa's Twitter

#247 Handling Work Conflict - with Liz Kislik

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This week I speak with Liz Kislik, a management consultant, executive coach, and prolific Harvard Business Review and Forbes contributor.During her time consulting businesses of all types and sizes for over 30 years, Liz has developed a wealth of experience in dealing with workplace conflict. We usually think of conflict as something that happens between people, but people are just the part of the story that’s easiest to see.We talk:
The key elements of conflict
Where to start with addressing conflict
Zooming out
The issue with "I statements"
Building relationships at work
Links:Liz's Website

#246 Developing Trauma Awareness - with Richard Atherton

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This week I go solo to share my perspective on the topic of trauma awareness in the workplace.Taking hints from the work of Dr Ingeborg Bosch and Daniela Seiff, both previous guests on the show, I talk:
Defining trauma
Why awareness is important
How we defend against trauma
Signs that people are triggered
Links:Dr. Ingeborg Bosch's EpisodeDaniela Seiff's Episode

#245 The Mindful Leader - with Reiner Kraft, PhD

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This week I speak with human potential coach and technology leader Reiner Kraft, Phd.While working as the director of engineering at Yahoo, he started to notice a decrease in his performance, and early signs of burnout, ultimately culminating in getting hospitalised for an anxiety episode. He realised he needed to change. So began a journey of mindfulness and meditation. Reiner is a prolific innovator with 120 patents to his name. He is now employing these talents in his data-driven & scientific approach to mindful leadership and stress resilience. We talk:
Measuring the empty mind
The first steps to mindfulness
Improving IQ
Debugging reactive patterns
Applying the 10X approach
Links:The Mindful Leader

#244 Lessons In Electing Corporate Leaders - with Hermann Arnold

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This week I speak with serial founding entrepreneur, start-up investor and democracy reformer Hermann Arnold.
In 2001, Hermann decided to ‘build a company to fix the traditional way of working’, developing HR software and naming the company Umantis. He chose to run that company on a democratic basis, having the staff vote for major direction decisions, striking a balance between two worlds: hierarchy and agility.
We talk:
Mining the corporate shadow 
Removing internal middlemen
Electing leaders
Letting anyone make any decision
A Henry Ford of self-management?
Links:Umantis42hacks - Hermann's climate change hacking project

#243 Bridging The Tech-Business Divide - with Nik Silver

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This week I speak with blogger and former Head of Technology at The Guardian Nik Silver.
Nik has spent his career navigating the boundary between Tech teams and The Business. He shares his wisdom on how we can bridge the gap and his approach to leading interventions where communication has broken down.We talk:
Start with a problem statement
Listening with Clean Language
The power of verbatim quotes
Connecting coders to users
Will AI replace programmers? 
Enjoy!Links:Nik's Blog

#242 Tao Healing - with Paul Fletcher

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This week I swing way out with teacher and healer Paul Fletcher.
According to Paul, all challenges in life are due to negative information energy and matter that gets stored in your vibrational field (soul), while all success is due to a positive build-up. The secret everyone is looking for is to understand where and how the harmful accumulation occurs and how to remove it and maximize the positive. We talk:
Tao forgiveness practices
Acknowledging the soul
Soul Marketing
The 21-day gratitude practice
Distinguishing heart and soul 
Links:Paul's Website

#241 Beyond Empowerment - with Doug Kirkpatrick

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I've got a great one for you this week. I speak with Doug Kirkpatrick, organizational change consultant, TEDx speaker, executive coach, and author.
Doug began his career in the manufacturing sector, ultimately becoming one of the founding employees of The Morning Star Company, a world leader in the food industry that has become famous for its entirely self-managing workforce - that's right, a major blue-collar operation with no formal bosses. He now shares his extraordinary experience at Morning Star with other businesses around the world.
We talk:
The two principles underpinning self-management
How to get started in any organisation
How self-management turbocharges innovation
'Adulting' company culture
Self-management as leadership training
Links:Doug's WebsiteBeyond Empowerment - The Book