How to Thrive

"The core human factors knowledge stands you in good stead whatever industry you work in. There is so much that we can learn from other industries, and we should."This week on the How to Thrive podcast, Claire and Helen are joined by Fran Ives, chartered human factors specialist, founder of Ergoscape, knowledge mobilisation fellow at Keele University, and current President of the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors. She also has the chain to prove it, and is terrified of losing it.Fran is one of a rare breed who decided at 18 to study ergonomics. What followed was a career that took her from automotive test tracks to nuclear power stations to NHS operating theatres, and eventually to leading the professional body for human factors in the UK.In this episode, Claire and Helen talk to Fran about what human factors and ergonomics actually are, why they transfer so powerfully across industries, and why she's fighting to stop people in different industries working in silos. She also talks about her fascinating work in knowledge mobilisation: the art of taking brilliant research off dusty shelves and making it actually land in the real world.More about Fran:Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors: ergonomics.org.ukFran's business: Ergoscape.co.ukFran's podcast (currently on pause): All Systems ErgoWith thanks to our sponsors:Lewis Silkin — a full service law firm that works closely with organisations to help protect and enhance what matters most. Thoughtful, commercial and deeply human. Find out more at lewissilkin.com.Lawyers on Demand — providing access to world-class flexible legal talent and innovative legal operations solutions for in-house legal teams around the world. Find out more at lawyersondemand.com.Springbird — a modern intellectual property firm supporting ambitious, fast-growing businesses with trademark and design protection that's transparent, commercially focused and free from unnecessary complexity. Find out more at springbirdip.com.How to Thrive events:Our events are a chance to come together with other Community Members to network and share learnings in a safe space. All of our events are focussed on HOW to thrive and deliver practical skills that you can incorporate into your work and home lives. Visit our website to find out more.Your How to Thrive hosts:Claire Sanders, former Corporate Lawyer, General Counsel and Co-Founder of Being Human Consulting.Helen Silver-MacMahon, Human Factors Specialist, Veterinary Nurse and Co-Founder of Being Human Consulting.Music Credit: Lo-Fi Hip Hop (Never Old Fashioned) by Alex Kizenkov Podcast Production: Anthony Zahra Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Organisations are operating at a time of unusually intense and overlapping change. But history provides us with an optimistic message about our ability to adapt."This week on the How to Thrive podcast, Claire and Helen are joined by Alessandro De Arcangelis, Senior Research and Policy Analyst at Lewis Silkin.Alessandro spent a decade in universities studying and teaching the history of political thought, before he eventually felt the pull of wanting his work to matter closer to where decisions are being made, and made the move into the corporate world via Lewis Silkin, where his research now focuses on the future of work.In this episode, Claire and Helen explore what history can teach us about the moment we're living through right now - the AI revolution, geopolitical instability, the collapse of the linear career, and why organisations are so dangerously obsessed with short-term thinking. Alessandro argues that disruption always looks catastrophic from the inside, that human adaptability has never yet failed us, and that the language we use about AI is often shaped more by tech companies' PR than by any neutral reading of the evidence.They also discuss what COVID took from the generation of junior professionals who missed out on osmotic learning, why universities are failing to prepare graduates for the world that actually awaits them, and why becoming comfortable with uncertainty might be the most important organisational skill of the next decade.With thanks to our sponsors for this episode:Lewis Silkin — a full service law firm that works closely with organisations to help protect and enhance what matters most. Thoughtful, commercial and deeply human. Find out more at lewissilkin.com.JHB & Partners: https://jhbandpartners.com/Many of the in-house lawyers who listen will recognise Josh Blake as an expert in legal resourcing. Last year he established JHB & Partners and continues to support in-house legal teams to build, scale and optimise their legal functions.With their extensive experience in resourcing and strategic insight, Josh and his team at JHB & Partners provide a real sense of calm and reassurance, which is exactly what you need whether you're hiring or looking for a role. You can find out lots more about Josh and his team at www.jhbandpartners.com. Get in touch and don't forget to mention the podcast when you do.How to Thrive events:Our events are a chance to come together with other Community Members to network and share learnings in a safe space. All of our events are focussed on HOW to thrive and deliver practical skills that you can incorporate into your work and home lives. Visit our website to find out more.Your How to Thrive hosts:Claire Sanders, former Corporate Lawyer, General Counsel and Co-Founder of Being Human Consulting.Helen Silver-MacMahon, Human Factors Specialist, Veterinary Nurse and Co-Founder of Being Human Consulting.Music Credit: Lo-Fi Hip Hop (Never Old Fashioned) by Alex Kizenkov Podcast Production: Anthony Zahra Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"You can't lead others until you know how to lead yourself."We're back. It's September, the leaves are turning, and Claire and Helen are settling back in for Season 4 of the How to Thrive podcast. No guest this week, just the two of us catching up on a busy summer and looking forward to the autumn and winter ahead.Helen has been to South Africa, picked up a RCVS Inspiration Award for her work bringing human factors into the veterinary profession. Claire has been to France, wrestled her Sharpies back from her daughter, shouted at new parents outside the school, and has been sitting with it ever since.In between the catching up, they dig into some genuinely meaty territory: why brilliant professionals so often make struggling leaders, what automaticity has to do with it, and why giving yourself five minutes in the bathroom during a board meeting might be the most effective leadership tool you have.With thanks to our sponsors:Lewis Silkin — a full service law firm that works closely with organisations to help protect and enhance what matters most. Thoughtful, commercial and deeply human. Find out more at lewissilkin.com.Lawyers on Demand — providing access to world-class flexible legal talent and innovative legal operations solutions for in-house legal teams around the world. Find out more at lawyersondemand.com.Springbird — a modern intellectual property firm supporting ambitious, fast-growing businesses with trademark and design protection that's transparent, commercially focused and free from unnecessary complexity. Find out more at springbirdip.com.How to Thrive events:Our events are a chance to come together with other Community Members to network and share learnings in a safe space. All of our events are focussed on HOW to thrive and deliver practical skills that you can incorporate into your work and home lives. Visit our website to find out more.Your How to Thrive hosts:Claire Sanders, former Corporate Lawyer, General Counsel and Co-Founder of Being Human Consulting.Helen Silver-MacMahon, Human Factors Specialist, Veterinary Nurse and Co-Founder of Being Human Consulting.Music Credit: Lo-Fi Hip Hop (Never Old Fashioned) by Alex Kizenkov Podcast Production: Anthony Zahra Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week's episode comes live from the balcony of a woodland lodge in the Chiltern Hills, fresh off the back of the very first residential Agile Leader retreat.Joined over the course of a day and a half by ten senior legal leaders, plus regular podcast guests Victoria Smith-Murphy and Sean Brooking, the retreat explored what it really means to lead with agility.In this episode, Claire and Helen reflect on the themes that surfacedd, the paradox of performance versus wellbeing, the consensus that human connection is craved more than ever in the age of AI, tand what it means to sit in the in-between. We also get a little visit from some deer!With thanks to our sponsors for this episode:JHB & Partners: https://jhbandpartners.com/Many of the in-house lawyers who listen will recognise Josh Blake as an expert in legal resourcing. Last year he established JHB & Partners and continues to support in-house legal teams to build, scale and optimise their legal functions.With their extensive experience in resourcing and strategic insight, Josh and his team at JHB & Partners provide a real sense of calm and reassurance, which is exactly what you need whether you're hiring or looking for a role. You can find out lots more about Josh and his team at www.jhbandpartners.com. Get in touch and don't forget to mention the podcast when you do.Summize: https://www.summize.com/Summize is an AI-powered contract lifecycle management platform, designed to break the cycle of forgotten obligations, scattered intake, and contract chaos.Meeting teams where they already work, embedding seamlessly into tools like Outlook, Teams, Slack, Salesforce, and HubSpot, Summize makes adoption simple. With self-serve contracting to reduce workload, seamless integrations to create structure, and powerful AI that supports and enhances legal expertise, Summize helps legal teams operate with confidence and clarity, freeing up that all-important capacity so that we humans can focus on the areas where we add unique value. Get in touch with them at www.summize.com - and mention the How to Thrive podcast.Your How to Thrive hosts:Claire Sanders, former Corporate Lawyer, General Council and Co-Founder of .Helen Silver-MacMahon, Human Factors Specialist, Veterinary Nurse and Co-Founder of Being Human Consulting.Music Credit: Lo-Fi Hip Hop (Never Old Fashioned) by Alex KizenkovPodcast Production: Anthony Zahra Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Get more comfortable with silence. There's an exercise in improv where you count from one to ten. It forces you to pause, process, form, and then speak."This week on the How to Thrive podcast, Claire and Helen are joined by Jess Rogers, a conversations and improv trainer, and founder of Tama Learning. Jess will already be familiar to those who joined us at How to Thrive Manchester, where she brought the house down with her session on improv for managing change. She'll be doing it all again in London in October.Her day job sits across a spectrum from classic learning and development, all the way through to performing and teaching pure improv with groups like Banana Hut Gang and Blanche Improv in London. Everything she does, she says, comes back to conversations.In this episode, Claire and Helen talk to Jess about what improv actually is, why “yes and…” is widely misunderstood, and how accepting someone else's reality before adding your own perspective can transform the way you show up.We also explore the surprising overlap between improv skills and the skills that underpin every high-performing team.It's also one of the most joyful conversations we've recorded! We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.More about Jess:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jess-rogers-she-her-86766ba2/Tama Learning: https://tamalearning.com/With thanks to our sponsors:Lewis Silkin — a full service law firm that works closely with organisations to help protect and enhance what matters most. Thoughtful, commercial and deeply human. Find out more at lewissilkin.com.Lawyers on Demand — providing access to world-class flexible legal talent and innovative legal operations solutions for in-house legal teams around the world. Find out more at lawyersondemand.com.Springbird — a modern intellectual property firm supporting ambitious, fast-growing businesses with trademark and design protection that's transparent, commercially focused and free from unnecessary complexity. Find out more at springbirdip.com.How to Thrive events:Our events are a chance to come together with other Community Members to network and share learnings in a safe space. All of our events are focussed on HOW to thrive and deliver practical skills that you can incorporate into your work and home lives. Visit our website to find out more.Your How to Thrive hosts:Claire Sanders, former Corporate Lawyer, General Counsel and Co-Founder of Being Human Consulting. Helen Silver-MacMahon, Human Factors Specialist, Veterinary Nurse and Co-Founder of Being Human Consulting.Music Credit: Lo-Fi Hip Hop (Never Old Fashioned) by Alex Kizenkov Podcast Production: Anthony Zahra Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.