Eat Sleep Work Repeat - better workplace culture

Proper ding dong this week. I have a fabulously enjoyable back-and-forth with the brilliant Professor Rob Briner.

At one stage Rob says: ‘If you tell someone - whose favourite thing is organisational culture - and you tell them it’s not a very useful idea - they don’t like it.’ Well, I felt seen. To be fair I’d already acknowledged that I agreed on what he was saying that behaviours are more important than culture. Also I’m more than a culture fan, I promise.

But it’s a sign that it’s an outstanding discussion. Rob’s key point was that the idea of culture is vague and subjective. Rob says that culture is ‘a description. So if you want to change something, you don’t change the description of it, you change the cause of it.’ He says we should be specific about what we're trying to change, not just wave our arms and mouth 'culture'.

We discuss if an obsession with scale is the curse of modern business.
How to build effective organisations.
Why you should focus on being specific about culture.

It's worth checking out some of Rob's posts. For example: Does changing culture change behaviour?

Rob asked me to share the following bio:
Rob Briner is Professor of Organisational Psychology (Queen Mary University of London) and a Research Director at Corporate Research Forum (rob@crforum.co.uk). He has been promoting Evidence-Based Practice in Management, HRM and Work Psychology for almost three decades.

His recent research with Corporate Research Forum includes reports on Evidence-Based HR and how HR can more effectively drive organisational performance.

He also leads CRF’s Work Psychology Network which has produced reports summarizing the best available and most practical work psychology theory and evidence around a range of topics including motivation and performance, assessing potential and behaviour change in organisations.

He has also produced a series of short posts on LinkedIn where he explores various popular ideas about behaviour at work (e.g., learning styles, psychological safety, growth mindset, happy-productive worker) and asks about each: Is that really a thing? That question is answered through a combination of critical thinking and using reviews of scientific evidence.

There's a full transcript at the website.

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Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.
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Sarah O'Connor is a journalist for the Financial Times who specialises in writing about work and the evolution of our jobs. Over the last year or so that has meant a lot of reflection about AI job displacement.
In her new book, We Are Not Machines, Sarah reflects on how technological change is reshaping the workplace - and the invisible enshittification it often brings with it. Sarah has a strong message: firstly that we should have more belief in the unique strengths of human labour, and secondly that individual agency is the most important differentiator in our favour.
It's a brilliant conversation that gives a flavour of her book.
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Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.
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Kate Murphy is the author a new book called Why We Click. It combines the very latest research into interpersonal synchrony - how we form bonds with others.

It's an intriguing read - at times compelling, at times challenging.

I chatted to her to understand 'the bad apple effect' and her take on whether we need face-to-face communication at all costs.

There's a full transcript on the website.

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Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.
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Dr Gillian Sandstrom is a researcher whose work explores her fascination with our conversations with other people - whether colleagues, friends or strangers. She’s just published a fabulous new book ‘Once Upon A Stranger’.

Her work says that we often have a ‘liking gap’ when we talk to people - we think they like us less than we like them - even if they are work colleagues. It turns out not to be true - our co-workers like us more than we realise.

It's a brilliant discussion - and potentially a prompt for you to change how you live your life.

This week's newsletter is about talking to colleagues.
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Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.
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A return interview with Dr Pippa Grange, a performance ("regenerative") psychologist who has worked with the England men's football team and who has earned the admiration of Brene Brown.
I'm always excited to hear from the likes of Pippa, elite practioners who have earned the respect of the most respected high performers in the world.

Pippa has a new book out, Life Reclaimed, which is a reflection on burnout, the need for overperformance and how to achieve balance in life. It's partly informed by her work with some of the most talented people in the world and certainly bears the trace of her own experiences with burnout.

She also previews the BBC TV adaptation of Dear England featuring a character based on her.
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.