Work Unplugged

Organisations work hard to create inclusive environments, where people feel they can express and be themselves. Trust is more important now with so many people working from home, yet managers still walk a tightrope with trust. Then we have all the work organisations do on Values - identifying the right ones, making sure people understand them, and then articulating the behaviours that truly express them for the organisation. Despite all this work, why do scandals such as the Dr who sexually harassed his junior colleagues, or the McDonald's managers who abused their employees, some as young as 17 years old still occur? Remember Starbucks closing all 8000 stores across the U.S. to undertake racial bias training? Something is missing. Join Amrit in this week's podcast to explore what more organisations can do to create safe, trusting and aligned cultures that allow everyone to understand the identity of an organisation and how it operates.

Why do people continue to work in toxic environments? Rational, bright and sane individuals endure the daily grind of subjecting themselves to toxic environments, but why? Many people have heard of the 996 culture in tech - 9 am to 9pm, six days a week. These people are celebrated, and we're told they love working the hours, as they love being in states of 'flow'. When you ask those people who hate their work, some will tell you that it's great. They can't seem to face into the fact that their workplace might be toxic, leading to cognitive dissonance. Do they talk themselves out of how bad it really is? Sometimes, we all need to face into the painful truth, that this is not the place for us, and we need to get out.Join Amrit as he explores why people stay, why they continue to publicly endorse their organisation, despite all they experience. The Painful Truth - Is Your Workplace Toxic?, this week's podcast.

This year proves to be anther challenging year. Our teams are expected to do more with less. Geopolitical tensions mean the old maps we relied on to navigate this complex world, have been torn up, leaving us trying to understand where we go from here. We desperately want to drive greater innovation and creativity but cannot seem to get off first base. Could we be unintentionally be holding ourselves back? Rather than looking externally for a magic solution, could the answer to greater performance and productivity be right under own noses? Join Amrit for this week's podcast where we explore how we might be holding our own performance back. Are you self-sabotaging your organisation's growth?

As many of you will have seen, we've been going through our back catalogue of guests, from our previous podcast series. Since then, we've rebranded, and some of our listeners, may never have heard the amazing guests we've had on our podcast.This week, we've decided to save the best. This podcast was the most listened to podcast of all the 100+ episodes we recorded. It has consistently been downloaded hundred of times since. David Hynam at the time of recording this podcast was in charge of Bupa Care Services. He has since gone on to become the Chief Executive at LV=. The reason we wanted to share this with you, is because he talks about Authentic Leadership, but doesn't just talk about it, he exemplifies it each and every day and has consistently done so.It was an absolute pleasure to record this podcast with David, and it's our pleasure to bring this back to our new audience! Enjoy

L. David Marquet, a US Navy submarine captain, takes command of the USS Santa Fe, the worst-performing sub in the fleet. He’s trained for a different submarine class, so he doesn’t know this sub well. Early on, he gives an order that literally cannot be carried out (because that control doesn’t exist on this type of sub). The officer repeats the order anyway. Marquet realises the problem isn’t “bad people” but a leader–follower culture where everyone is trained to obey, not think. His experience led to his book 'Turn the Ship Around'. This episode is from our back-catalogue of our previous podcast series, where David joined Amrit to share his fascinating story. Here it is for our new audience on this podcast. Enjoy1

Back in the middle of lockdown, we had the opportunity to interview Paul Zak, one of the most cited scientists in the world. If you've ever undertaken any leadership development with ourselves, then you will have heard us speaking of the amazing research by Paul Zak and his team into Oxytocin and trust. Trust is, and will always be the foundation of an engaging workplace, and the critical ingredient for stronger relationships. So, since this podcast was first recorded when we were called 'The Engagement Coach', we thought it would be a great idea to bring this to our new audience. The Neuroscience of Trust - this week's podcast with Paul Zak!

How many regular meetings are held across your organisation that are a complete waste of time? What routines are expected of most people but they are a complete nonsense, but everyone does them anyway? There are many practices that go on across organisations that add little value, and in fact probably do more harm, but no one calls them out. Self-silencing has an impact on the organisation, where people don't feel they can call out the 'emperor has no clothes on', but also on the individuals, who cannot express their true feelings.What makes people go quiet? Some might question why bother to say anything, as they don't think anyone is listening anyway. Join Amrit for this week's podcast as we explore The Cost of Silence.

When was the last time you heard someone described their workplace as 'happy'? Some people might even question whether we want happiness in the workplace, as they might see happiness as representing frivolity, poor productivity and poor performance. Others might argue that when people are happy, they might do their best work. Happiness could also be labelled as being 'satisfied', and when people are satisfied, are they likely to have the motivation to do more?Happiness it seems is complex. There is no doubt though, that the pursuit of happiness, is what every human being is after. Join Amrit as he explores what role happiness has in the modern workplace, and how we might achieve it. The Pursuit of a Happier Workplace - this week's podcast.

How comfortable are you in developing meaningful relationships at work? Do you see people with the gift of charisma and charm, work their magic with people around them, only to reinforce the point that you struggle to connect with people? Building connections with people isn't always easy, especially in new environments, where you're meeting people for the first time. But there are steps you can follow that will help those you interact with, feel good, and walk away delighted they interacted with you. Join Amrit in this week's podcast where he explores how small, simple acts, can create strong bonds, to build meaningful relationships.

Who are the drivers of innovation across your organisation? Is it your leadership team? Maybe it's your board of Directors? What if you're focusing in the wrong area? Across our organisations, we have so many talented people, who work tirelessly to drive the best performance. Many of them are probably unknown to senior leaders. Nameless and faceless, they continue to do their best. What if one of them has the answer to the successful future of your organisation?Often we listen to those who have the loudest voices. But the quietest voices may be the ones you really need to lean in to, because they may hold the key. Join Amrit in this week's podcast as he explores who are the Hidden Gems of Innovation across your organisation.

How much AI do you use in your life currently? You may be surprised at how much AI is already pervading our lives. The impact? Well, it's definitely making us more productive. But there is another side effect that we didn't see coming. AI was meant to remove the noise allowing us to focus on the things that really mattered so we could solve complex problems. With recent research article pointing to a very different outcome, do we need to rethink how we use AI? Join Amrit for this week's episode of 'Work Unplugged', focusing on The AI Brain Drain - Are We Losing Our Edge When the Machines Take Over?

How many of us really need 'managing' at work? Whilst some managers are amazing, others can make work a difficult place to be. What role does the manager play in the current climate, where long-term strategies seem non-existent, resulting in senior leaders getting more involved in tactical planning. Quite often managers become regulated to being compliance officers, ensuring tasks are complete, and results are achieved.What if there was a better way? What if Managers became Facilitators? What impact could that have on learning, productivity and communication across the organisation? Join Amrit in this this week's podcast of 'Work Unplugged' - From Managers to Mobilisers - Reimaging Leadership for a Supportive Workplace.

With so much attention on creating better organisational cultures, are we all missing the reality, that some toxic organisations are successful? Is it really critical to have a great workplace culture as a prerequisite to be successful? Join Amrit in this week's podcast as he explores this topic. He uses Amazon as a case study to understand what's driven their performance, and what impact their culture is having on them. Do toxic cultures have better performance? Join us to find out!

How often do leaders across your organisation accept dissenting views? Are we after original thoughts and thinking, or would we prefer compliance? Outliers, mavericks and those on the fringes of thought, are often frowned upon, and even dismissed. We lean towards convention rather than fringe. But what if the very people you hesitate to embrace, could bring the rebel advantage to your organisation? What if they are the key to unlock your organisations potential?How welcoming are we to differing views? Are you someone who thinks differently to others, and how does it feel trying to maintain your views, when everyone else is so, well, conventional? Join Amrit for this week's podcast as he explores The Outlier Advantage.

It seems more and more organisations are under increasing pressures to achieve seemingly unachievable targets and results. Words such as 'relentless' being used to describe work, tells you how people feel. How can anyone feel joy under such pressures? And without moments of joy, how can employees ever experience happiness in the workplace?CEOs and senior leaders need to drive results, but is there a fine balance to be achieved here, or will employees always complain about higher budgets, whilst seemingly efficient ways of working drives ever decreasing resources?Joy is important, and so is the consequence of the lack of it. Join Amrit in this week's podcast as he explores how we achieve it whilst driving the results we need.

Every organisation says it listens to its employees. Every organisation says improving engagement is important. Yet, if it's so important, then why aren't we seeing improvements in performance and productivity - why isn't it happening? Is engagement the best measure? What would happen if people began to feel a real sense of ownership to the organisations they work with. Ownership seems a more stable measure than engagement - let's face it, we're less likely to feel transient ownership unlike engagement!Join Amrit for this week's podcast topic where we explore how we move from a transactional approach to work where people are just 'clocking-in', to one where they are fully bought in.

It might seem that politics is an inextricable part of the world of work, such is the prevalence of it., across so many organisations, in almost every sector. Politics undermines the very structures set up across organisations, leaving individuals to drive personal agendas for personal gains. We cannot stop human nature from yearning for more, but we can stop that behaviour from become a cancer, slowly killing our organisations from within. Hard working, dedicated and committed employees can quickly become demoralised leading to a drain in talent. so addressing politics is a critical component to improve the world of work for individuals and organisations to thrive.Join Amrit as he explores how we can stop politics killing our organisational cultures in this week's podcast.

How many development programmes lead to change across your organisation? Whilst many programmes are looking to develop the skills, knowledge and behaviours across a specific level, one question that gets raised consistently by those being developed: "Have our managers been through this?". There seems to be a view that once leaders achieve a certain level/ status, they don't need to experience the same programme their teams are being put on, leading to a skills gap between managers and their teams. And then there's other gap - the gap between what people on development programmes are learning, versus how and what the organisation is implementing in terms of tasks/ activities. How are these people ever meant to implement their learnings when the organisation is almost contradicting everything being learned in real time?Then learning providers are being pressured to demonstrate return on investment...sounds like a real mess. Join Amrit as he explores how organisations can make the most of development opportunities and empowering emerging leaders to reverse elevate those above them. The podcast this week: Reverse Elevation.

How many people are disengaged across your organisation? Engagement surveys often provide a break down of those who are engaged and disengaged. The focus inevitably goes to those in the middle - those in the 'neutral zone' who have responded with 'I neither agree nor disagree', because they are seen as being the easiest to move to across to the positive side. What then do we do with those who are disengaged? Typically, organisations write them off, seen as internal saboteurs, who have no positive intention for their organisations. Rather than writing them off, how can we re-engage the disengaged? Imagine how we can make real improvements across our organisations, if we were to address the issues making people disengaged. And do we not have a responsibility to those who are disengaged? Afterall, where did they come from? Who made them disengaged?Join us this week as we explore how we go about Re-engaging the Disengaged in this week's episode of 'Work Unplugged'

Yes, 'Potentialising' is not a verb but it seems like this should be a word to describe the actions of developing the potential within others! With talent being such an important concern for many organisations, one has to question whether we're making the most of the talent currently within our organisations.With so many people having non-linear career paths, it just goes to show the transferable skills many of us have to apply to many different roles. How much focus are leaders and managers bringing to not just identifying potential in those in their teams, but in developing the potential? That's what this week's podcast explores - developing potential in others so we can begin to maximise the performance and productivity of our teams and our organisations.