Wow @ Work: Recent Episodes
Liliana Ashton & Stephen Dargan
The world of work is transforming, through remote working, the 4 day week, and employee autonomy Great organisations realise that happiness and health at work is a priority Liliana and Stephen bring you conversations with remarkable people and successful entrepreneurs living this reality and transforming the world of work into Wow at Work realities. They will also bring you simple but transformational breathwork practices which you can access while learning what successful organisations are doing that make them stand out from the rest.
Joining Stephen is Henry Stewart, Chief Happiness Officer at London-based training company Happy Ltd. Henry is the author of the Happy Manifesto, a book that helps organisations become great places to work. An international keynote speaker, Henry advises others like Stephen on how they can transform the world of work for the better. Links The Happy. Manifesto (https://www.happymanifesto.com) happy.co.uk (https://www.happy.co.uk/) The Customer Comes Second: Put Your People First and Watch 'em Kick Butt (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060526564/) Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0446670553/) No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1984877860/) Bullshit Jobs: A Theory (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1501143336/) To learn more about breathwork, visit BreatheNow Hub (https://www.breathenowhub.com/), and to learn how to create happier workplaces, visit wakeup.ie (http://wakeup.ie/).
Laurence and Carlos from the Happy Startup School do business differently, and want to help others think differently about the work they do. After running a design agency, their approach to business – integrating ease and play – became their focus, and the Happy Startup School was born. In this conversation with Liliana and Stephen, the founders of this purpose-led business school unpack what brought them from founding Spook Studio to running a thriving community of entrepreneurs, how they're transforming people's approaches to business, and providing more opportunities to escape Zoom fatigue. Links The Happy Startup School (https://www.thehappystartupschool.com) The Second Mountain, by David Brooks (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0141990902/) Vision Tribe (https://2020.happystartups.co/) Summercamp (https://www.happystartupsummer.camp/) Stop closing the deal and get to the truth, with Tad Hargrave (https://anchor.fm/happystartups/episodes/Stop-closing-the-deal-and-get-to-the-truth--with-Tad-Hargrave-e19cgff) The 100-Year Life (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1472947320/), by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott To learn more about breathwork, visit BreatheNow Hub (https://www.breathenowhub.com/), and to learn how to create happier workplaces, visit wakeup.ie (http://wakeup.ie/).
Advancements in technology, productivity, knowledge-work and leadership have yet to address the problems of work-life balance and burnout facing people in modern workplaces. This week, Liliana and Stephen dig into the ways in which shrinking the working week can expand our potential to be productive, healthier and happier. Links Work-Life Balance Is a Cycle, Not an Achievement (https://hbr.org/2021/01/work-life-balance-is-a-cycle-not-an-achievement) Parkinson's law (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law) Happy Workplaces conference (https://www.happyworkplacesireland.com) Maverick!: The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0712678867/), by Ricardo Semler The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788173422/), by Bronnie Ware To learn more about breathwork, visit BreatheNow Hub (https://www.breathenowhub.com/), and to learn how to create happier workplaces, visit wakeup.ie (http://wakeup.ie/).
This week, Stephen and Liliana talk mojo, and finding intrinsic motivation where it feels like none is available. Stephen shares his passion for the Frisbee, and Liliana describes her yoga practise and her love of rollerblading. The main topic for discussion is intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation: doing things because we're satisfied by the task rather than because we expect a reward. Drawing on evidence from past experiments, Stephen lays out three steps organisations can take to instil a greater sense of autonomy. Links The formation of learning sets (https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1949-03097-001) The intrinsic motivation of Richard Ryan and Edward Deci (https://www.apa.org/members/content/intrinsic-motivation) Alive at Work: The Neuroscience of Helping Your People Love What They Do (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Alive-Work-Neuroscience-Helping-People/dp/B07BSQBFYL/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Daniel+cable&qid=1632430721&sr=8-1), by Daniel Cable Bullshit Jobs (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bullshit-Jobs/dp/B07CTT2DT3/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=bullshit+jobs&qid=1632430792&s=audible&sr=1-1), by David Graeber When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing (https://www.amazon.co.uk/When-Scientific-Secrets-Perfect-Timing/dp/B0765D265D/), by Daniel Pink Putting a Face to a Name: The Art of Motivating Employees (https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/putting-a-face-to-a-name-the-art-of-motivating-employees/)
Liliana and Stephen are joined by Patrick McKeown (https://oxygenadvantage.com/patrick-mckeown-m-a-tcd/), author of Atomic Focus (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Atomic-Focus-Resilience-Breathing-Exercises-ebook/dp/B09D9ZL9HL/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Atomic+Focus&qid=1630599848&sr=8-1), The Oxygen Advantage (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Oxygen-Advantage-Scientifically-Breathing-Techniques/dp/0062349473/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=The+Oxygen+Advantage&qid=1630596307&sr=8-2) among several other titles, to discuss the ways poor breathing affects day-to-day living, and hampers our success. Patrick is an international breathing expert and author based in Galway, Ireland, working with members of the military, special forces, Olympic athletes and more. Success has three key ingredients: focus, concentration, and attention span, and Patrick argues that you can't enter a state of flow if your breathing is dysfunctional. So Patrick shares some techniques you can implement today to keep track of your breathing and your attention span, and advocates techniques covered in early episodes of Wow@Work. And if you want to learn any more about breathwork, visit BreatheNow Hub (https://www.breathenowhub.com), and to learn how to create happier workplaces, visit wakeup.ie (http://wakeup.ie/).
Liliana and Stephen are joined by behaviour designer and serial entrepreneur John Ellison (http://john-ellison.com). John he started his entrepreneurial journey when he dropped out of university at the age of 18 to start his first ecommerce business. Since then he's been working at Harvard's Intersection of Business, Design, and Technology, to help make a world a better place. He honed his craft as a UX designer at Brighton agency Clearleft (https://clearleft.com), and went on to lead a product team at civic tech startup Peak Democracy in Berkeley, California, where he experienced his first acquisition and ended up meeting Dr BJ Fogg (https://www.bjfogg.com) and becoming certified to teach behaviour design, the methodology used to create habit-forming startups like Instagram. In this interview, John shares his new project: Happy Habits (https://www.happyhabits.fun/), and his plans for turning his newsletter into a deck of cards with prompts to help build happier everyday habits. Along with Stephen and Liliana, he examines happiness in the workplace, and shares some of the methodologies successful companies are already employing to improve their employees' wellbeing.
Stephen discusses the Great Resignation, looking at a number of studies into how people feel about returning to work. Liliana leads Stephen into a test to discover his body oxygen level (which you're invited to follow along with), and discusses ambidexterity in organisations. Explore How breathwork can help your team (https://www.breathenowhub.com/) Building a happier workplace (https://wakeup.ie/) Links and resources The Great Resignation: How employers drove workers to quit (https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210629-the-great-resignation-how-employers-drove-workers-to-quit)
Stephen and Liliana introduce the Wow @ Work philosophy by talking about workplace happiness: what it is, and how organisations can go about achieving it, by creating a safe and trusting environment. They also discuss the science and benefits of breathwork, and how we've forgotten how to breathe more effectively as we've aged. Explore How breathwork can help your team (https://www.breathenowhub.com/) Building a happier workplace (https://wakeup.ie/) Links and resources Microsoft releases findings and considerations from one year of remote work in Work Trend Index (https://news.microsoft.com/2021/03/22/microsoft-releases-findings-and-considerations-from-one-year-of-remote-work-in-work-trend-index/) Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0241289122/)
Welcome to the WoW at Work Podcast, with Liliana Ashton and Stephen Dargan. We are here to help you navigate the science, research and practices that shape and enhance the happiness of the modern working environment. The world of work is transforming, we can already see evidence that remote working is here to stay. The 4 day week, greater employee trust and autonomy and employee engagement are at the forefront of what modern organisations are now embracing. Great organisations realise that making their people feel good is key. They see happiness and health at work as a priority rather than a nice to have. Subscribe to the podcast now, and join us for episode one, launching in July.