Here’s a little taste of what’s to come.

https://www.grahamallcott.com/orderkind

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In this episode, we talk about how to get luckier in your career and about biases, curiosity, productivity and much more.

✔ Links:

Buy ‘Connect the dots: The art and science of creating good luck’:

https://www.amazon.com/Connect-Dots-Science-Creating-Good-ebook/dp/B09QBWSPLR

Follow Christian on social media:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianwbusch/

https://twitter.com/ChrisLSE

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We talk about our relationship with our team, the parallels between decluttering and productivity, why it's important to get clarity in everything we do and much more.

✔ Links:

Buy The Secret Life of Clutter:

https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Life-Clutter-Getting-letting-ebook/dp/B09JC47ZTM

Buy The Home Declutter Kit:

https://www.amazon.com/Home-Declutter-Kit-Mindful-Method/dp/1527206092

Follow Helen on social media:

https://www.helensanderson.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/helensandersonatministryofcalm/

https://twitter.com/CalmFromClutter

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In this episode, we talk about some of the marketing campaigns that took Nike to another level, the importance of emotion and empathy in business and why diversity increases productivity. Greg also talks about his experience of finding his birth parents last year and settles the debate whether Nike is pronounced "Nike" or "Nikey".

Enjoy!

Special thanks to Penguin Random House UK.

✔ Links:

Buy ‘Emotion By Design: Creative Leadership Lessons from a Life at Nike’:

https://www.amazon.com/Emotion-Design-Creative-Leadership-Lessons/dp/1538705591

Follow Greg:

https://www.themodernarena.com/

https://www.instagram.com/ghoff70/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-hoffman-1b196a25

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Oliver and I get geeky around learning how to develop your willpower and productivity to design a lifestyle to get you beyond busy, how to change your relationship with the news and lots more.

✔ Links:

Buy The Way of the Intelligent Rebel:

https://www.amazon.com/Way-Intelligent-Rebel-Yourself-Anything/dp/1788175174

Watch Olivier Roland on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/c/OlivierRolandEnglish

Follow Olivier Roland on social media:

https://www.instagram.com/olivier_roland

https://twitter.com/olivierrolanden

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So in this episode, I talk to Monica about what it's been like to suddenly find herself in the centre of attention. We talk about her book “Full Out” as well as family humility and more. There are loads in this episode that I think will help you instil a winning mentality in whatever it is that you're doing. Enjoy!

Special thanks to Little, Brown Book Group.

✔ Links:

Buy Full Out: Lessons in Life and Leadership from America's Favorite Coach:

https://www.amazon.com/Full-Out-Leadership-Americas-Favorite/dp/198216591X

Watch Cheer on Netflix:

https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81039393?s=a&trkid=13747225&t=cp&vlang=en&clip=81566211

Follow Monica on social media:

https://www.instagram.com/monicaaldama

https://twitter.com/monicaaldama

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Our Show Sponsors: Think Productive - Time Management Training:

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In this episode, Dave explains why it's so important for kids in care to receive these bags. We talk about kindness, leadership, and meeting Richard Branson.

Listen to the full episode to know more!

✔ Links:

Madlug:

https://www.madlug.com/

https://www.madlugyourbusiness.com/

Dave Linton on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-linton/

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In this episode we talk about how to be calm, self-kindness and why being a busy parent isn't actually something to be proud of.

Sarah mentions seven principles of being a calm parent in her book. I asked her about the first one, which is everybody can be a calm parent or a calmer parent:

The number of parents I meet who believe that you're calm or you're not, they kind of view calmness as a fixed trait. So they'll look and think, "well, other people are calm". I'm not calm. It's kind of not worth me trying. So they're very much in the fixed mindset that calmness is something you have or you don't have. And if they don't have it, then it's not really worth trying. You know, that's not how they were born.

But I really and truly don't believe that's true. I believe that everybody can be calmer. There are obviously things that get in our way. So what's happening in their life at the moment, depending on the sort of certain amounts of privilege you have and whatever, we can't all be like zen-calm gurus, but we can definitely improve on where we are at the moment.

✔ Links:

Sarah Ockwell-Smith on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/sarahockwellsmith/

Sarah Ockwell-Smith on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/TheBabyExpert

Sarah Ockwell-Smith:

https://sarahockwell-smith.com/

Sarah Ockwell-Smith’s books:

https://www.amazon.com/Sarah-Ockwell-Smith/e/B007L3YENI%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

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Edited by Pavel Novikov:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavelnovikovf/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we talk about mental health, shared parental leave and taking paternity leave more seriously. We talk about the trap of busyness and why you're better off with a bronze medal than a silver one and much more. Matt's book 'Man Down' is entertaining and thoughtful just as you'll find Matt.

Special thanks to Little, Brown Book Group.

✔ Links:

Matt Rudd at The Sunday Times:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/profile/matt-rudd?page=1

Matt Rudd on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/MattRudd

Buy 'Man Down':

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Matt-Rudd/e/B003VN5B20%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

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Her new book ‘Why Design Matters' taps into the brains of Tim Ferris, Brené Brown, Esther Perel and Malcolm Gladwell amongst many others and explores what it means to be creative and innovative in work and in life. In this episode, we talk about her pioneering work, who owns your logos, how to deal with internet pylons and much more.

✔ Links: 

Debbie Millman:

https://www.debbiemillman.com/

Debbie Millman on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/debbiemillman/

Buy the book "Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World's Most Creative People":

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Why-Design-Matters-Conversations-Creative/dp/0062872966

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We discussed if people want to have a sense of purpose individually and also corporately:

I think it's very clear that we're facing a meaning crisis in the world today. I mean you look at the data on great resignations or great reshuffle or whatever you want to call it. You look at mental health demands being placed on the mental health care system which is flooded. 

You know, I think people are going through a deep period of introspection. There's a lot of, kind of, all of us have been touched by death, illness and a whole range of things. And so I think rightfully people are interrogating themselves about what's my life purpose. And also what is my work purpose? How do I get more purpose out of my work? And when you ask those questions, I think it forces you to think hard about what am I doing and why am I doing it?

Listen to the full episode to know more!

✔ Links:

Ranjay Gulati:

https://ranjaygulati.com/

Buy Deep Purpose:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0063088916/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_H4JG9PKJ0HBMTYM1JYK3

Ranjay Gulati on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ranjay-gulati

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In this episode, we talk about how boredom helps you to be creative, the questions to ask instead of making small talk, how design can help you reframe your problems, ways to develop empathy and much more. It's a book chock-full of takeaways and the conversation is too. 

In the book, there are a whole set of practices and assignments that we teach all the time. And there's a set of those that are about really cultivating your ability to notice in new ways and to spot opportunities that are kind of hiding in plain sight.

One of my favourite ones is called the derive. And the derive is like, if you are stuck on a problem or you just feel like you're lacking curiosity, the derive is just a fantastic approach. It involves taking 30 minutes, maybe an hour and taking a walk in a familiar neighbourhood or part of the place, the city that you live in.

And, instead of planning your route in advance, you let your route be dictated by what you notice along the way. So you get a wide range of observations and ahas and just something as simple as a 30 or 60-minute investment in that ability to shift what your brain is taking in and what your brain is filtering out can lead to all kinds of other benefits.

✔ Links: 

Link to image discussed in the episode:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CZeIUWcIaBb/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Sarah Stein Greenberg on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/steingreenberg/

Sarah Stein Greenberg on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahsteingreenberg/ 

Stanford d.school Books:

https://dschool.stanford.edu/books-plp

Buy ‘Creative Acts For Curious People’:

https://www.amazon.com/Sarah-Stein-Greenberg/e/B09455W266?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_5&sr=8-5

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In this episode, James talks openly about his personal experiences. We also cover some of the myths of mental health: how to manage boundaries, how to question some of the conventional narratives on mental health and more. 

I asked James what the motivation was to be very open about his own mental health:

 Well, I didn't for so long. I definitely didn't grow up being open about how I felt or articulating my emotions. 

I suppose for me now I've experienced the power and the transformational change of taking the time to become aware of how I'm feeling, articulate it and share it with others… 

…and I've seen the benefit of that. It's changed the course of my life and taken my life in directions that I would never have expected. I would never have expected to have written a book on mental health! That was never on my radar. 

James explained why some people find it so hard to share their emotions with others:

The reason we don't open up is because we don't feel safe or we don't feel comfortable. Often that is through the fear of judgment or fear of dismissal. And when I say dismissal, I don't just mean being dismissed from your job. That's one way. I mean just dismissal. You know, you are saying something that’s really important for you to someone and it just goes completely over their head.

I really enjoyed this important conversation about mental health at work and would like to say a special thanks to Penguin Business for connecting me with James.

✔ Links: 

James Routledge:

https://jamesroutledge.co/

James Routledge on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/jd_routledge

Mental Health at Work:

https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/146158/james-routledge.html

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Edited by Pavel Novikov:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavelnovikovf/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we talk about different ways to think about risk, how he led an information-sharing revolution in the American Secret Service. He also tells us about a recent phone call to patch up his differences with Joe Biden and what it was like to get sacked, but in a kind way, by Barack Obama. I could have listened to Stan talk all day.

✔ Links: 

Stan McChrystal on TED:

https://www.ted.com/speakers/stanley_mcchrystal

Stan McChrystal on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/stanmcchrystal

McChrystal Group:

https://www.mcchrystalgroup.com/

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In this episode, we talk about authenticity, overcoming fear, how to measure your success and much more.

Sarah spoke about how she learnt to deal with putting yourself out there:

Detachment is something that I'm still learning about. I think the issue is around expectations. If you've got to manage your expectations and do it for the love of it, which is what I, you know, truly do it for the love of it. 

But you know, there's these sort of rags to riches stories about Edinburgh and it’s trying so hard not to take it personally when someone says something about your work, it's what we always do as human beings. We ignore all the positives and we just focus on those negatives. 

We need to sort of balance that out or just detach from it and it's not making it mean anything about us. It's still hard to detach you from the work you do and that's why people, certainly I've seen in the corporate world before, getting your identity mixed up with what you do. It is dangerous because we need to keep those two things separate as much as possible.

✔ Links: 

Sarah Archer:

https://www.sarah-archer.co.uk/home28404204

Sarah Archer on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/SarahArcher15

Sarah Archer on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/SarahArcherSpeak/

The Speaking Club Podcast:

https://thespeakingclub.com/

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http://www.thinkproductive.com​​

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In this episode, we talk about her making the move to work in China. She tells us the story of opening up her spare room to strangers, and why social legacy and living an intentional life really matter. She also shares stories about the kind leaders who've inspired her along the way and what makes her tick. And honestly, I could listen to her all day. It was such a treat to do this one.

And, of course, we talk about what the spare room actually is:

First of all, it's a euphemism. It's a euphemism for the thing that we each have to offer, you know, not everybody would love to open their spare room up and invite vulnerable young children, bring babies in and take care of them for the long term. For us, that's become an offer. 

It started off when I was single later, my husband and I, as a young couple brought in young people. And now with my 13-year-old daughter, we have our 17th kid in our spare room right now over the last 22 years.  

✔ Links: 

Social Legacy:

https://social-legacy.com/

Emily Chang on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/thespareroom_emilychang/

Emily on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/thespareroombook

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In this episode, we talk about his journey creating Cycling Without Age and growing it to become a truly global organization. We also talk about the importance of intergenerational conversations, his experiments in slowness, why kindness is good for business and how his dad inspired his playful spirit. I think you're gonna love this one.

Ole starts by telling us how Cycling Without Age was created:

So I come out of a family with a dad who suffered from MS. He was very quick in a wheelchair. Actually, I know firsthand how lack of mobility can cause social isolation, loneliness and depression. 

There was one particular guy who just caught my attention and spurred me into action and that was a man who later really changed my life. I offered bike rides to him. It just brought me an amazing insight into a different generation. It gave me a lot of joy to be able to take this man back on a bike and get him back into his neighbourhood and meet his old friends, see the old places and listen to stories and so on. I felt it was a really wonderful two-way thing where I was able to offer my companionship and he was able to offer me a lot of stories and a lot of insights and wisdom from his age. 

And then continued on from that with the city of Copenhagen getting involved and sponsoring some wonderful three-wheel bikes with a double seat in front. Then it just grew from there, it grew to all the care homes and activity centres in Copenhagen and beyond, and has since spread to most corners of the world as well.

✔ Links: 

Cycling Without Age:

https://cyclingwithoutage.org/

Ole Kassow on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/olekassow/

Ole Kassow on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/OleKassow

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So in this episode, we talk about how to be happy. Nic talks about his mentor, a Chilean economist who changed his life, his five ways to wellbeing and much more. 

Nic starts off by explaining what Friday Pulse is for:

And so I'm a statistician by trade. So I'm looking to create a measure that is useful for organisations and basically, our measure is happy weeks, which is “have people had a good week?”. That builds up into a metric for an organisation that allows them to track how every team, how the whole organisation is and it's very, very responsive. I mean, most organizations don't have a responsive people metric. Most of their people metrics are quite lagging. So they would obviously look at things like retention and things like that, they might look at engagement and tend to do that in a once a year survey, maybe once a quarter. I want to create something very at the moment...

...So by measuring it weekly, you start to get into that it's very fluid and that's what I really like about it. And, we create useful data for team leaders and organizations to understand their happiness and their organization.

✔ Links: 

Nic Marks:

https://nicmarks.org/

Nic Marks on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/iamnicmarks

Nic Marks on TED Talk:

https://www.ted.com/talks/nic_marks_the_happy_planet_index

Friday Pulse:

https://fridaypulse.com/?__cf_chl_captcha_tk__=pmd_dtjkDJiY_9ZitGC0Z7d4mEl0paXU.DmSXB.ozjsQWD4-1634373516-0-gqNtZGzNAyWjcnBszQpR

Happy Planet Index:

http://happyplanetindex.org/

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In this episode, we talk about race and how to encourage black entrepreneurs. The journey from starting and growing, to sell a business. And I think you're going to really learn a lot from Denise's outlook and energy. So let's get straight into it. 

Denise explains to us why is the Black Founders Hub: 

I am a black founder. My goal is to help support others in business and to find ways of creating success. So that's kind of why because instead of us all being on our own, if we come together as a collective, we know that peer networking works.

There's something called the old boys club. That was the thing for a reason. So I just want to create that for black founders. That safe space. That space to be yourself and that space to connect and to do business. The key thing with that, what we're doing, it's for business at a higher level.

And I ask Dennise “What is kindness in leadership and why it is important?”:

Firstly, kindness to oneself. I think great leaders who ever learned or who practice the art of being kind to themselves, have the ability to be kind to others. 

If you are running yourself to the ground, if you are not saying very nice things to yourself, if you're being your own worst enemy, it's hard actually to offer kindness to others truly because it will come from a not good place. So there's that basic skill of listening which I think is truly kind, truly.

✔ Links: 

Black Founders Hub: 

https://www.blackfoundershub.com/

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Edited by Pavel Novikov:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavelnovikovf/

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It really is a must-read for all of us right now. If we want to keep pace with the rapid changes happening right now and perhaps even more importantly, with what's to come. So in this episode, we talk about exponential technologies and it's not all about AI. Azeem talks us through what he calls the exponential gap.

We also talk about the future of work, adapting to shifts in power, and whether he's optimistic or pessimistic for the future. 

We talked about what is the world of startup right now:

Startups are super, super hard and the reason it's challenging is that no one knows the answer because you're building something that hasn't been built before. So not only do you not know what you need to build, you don't know how to build it.

And also you have to bring a bunch of people on that journey with you and you have to motivate them. You have market challenges, you have technical problems and you have people problems. And at the same time, you've got to hit milestones given the funding that you have available. It's really intense.

And the other thing that you know is that you're not special. 

That the fact that you have figured out that this technology could meet this market need and create a new product means that a thousand other people have figured that out too.

Azeem explains why it is so hard to get what is the exponential gap:

So obviously these things are changing so quickly. And they're driven by the technology and by entrepreneurs and scientists who are able to take advantage of it. But the rest of us live in a world that is much more linear, that changes much more slowly and we don't necessarily understand that there are exponential processes, and we don't necessarily understand what the impact of those processes are. 

And one question is, why don't we understand it? And you know, I'm a bit laissez about this, I can explain it in over 20 cases or so, but that is we're really bad at maths. We don't see exponential processes in the real world. Our child goes from one to two to three to four every year. They don't go from one year old, two years old to four years old, to eight years old, to 16 years old. We see linear processes, we experience linear processes. 

And so there are probably evolutionary reasons why it's not in our makeup to naturally understand these very, very fast changes. We don't see how quickly things are all shifting.

And, we found out if there is anything that Azeem do that has the biggest impact on his own work and his own experience:

All the things that I do, they're all connected to the main thing that I do that has the impact. I think we are going through a transition to the exponential age. I think it's gonna need new ideas, new institutions and new businesses. And, what I do in my work with my newsletters and my podcast is I use those to learn and to share my learnings. And then, I work with entrepreneurs by investing in them to help them build those businesses as part of the transition.

So it all hangs together in my head, even if it doesn't necessarily look, you know, maybe it looks a bit disaggregated, it's diffuse from the outside, but they are all meant to sit together and be part of this change that we all kind of privileged to be part of.

✔ Links: 

Exponential book: 

https://www.exponential-book.com/

Follow Azeem on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/azeem

Azeem’s Podcast: 

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/exponential-view-with-azeem-azhar/id1172218725

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Edited by Pavel Novikov:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavelnovikovf/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We talked about the Zeigarnik effect, how to think about money and also what it was like to leave the Lehman Brothers just before it collapsed in the 2008 crash plus much more.

Daisy talked about how to set up a dialogue between a manager and a working parent:

 (What do you think organizations can do to support managers to change those practices and to, and to really make it more of an embedded cultural response?) 

"So one thing I always advise managers to do and listen, most of the managers who I talk to are supportive there. They may not want to spend all of their time coaching working parents because they're busy or they've got their own kids at home.

And they feel a little bit overwhelmed themselves. So, sometimes they don't want to cross the line or get into the support and counselling business and I understand that, but the one really powerful thing that managers can do. It's small but it really works is to ask the people on their teams, open-ended questions to signal support, to signal the fact that the door is open, that this conversation has permission that you don't have to hide what you have going on as a working parent.

And as soon as you ask that, then. You're relating in a more human way. You're not making any promises. You're not telling somebody you can work at home five days a week, but what you are doing is putting yourself into a sort of a peer to peer conversation in which some problem solving can begin to happen."

We also touched on the topic of productivity and guilt for lack of it:

(I think, you know, that's also true of people's general sorts of guilt around how productive they've been, right?) 

"What I also see a lot of people do, and this is kind of to the productivity point is they compare themselves to other parents, particularly to their own parents or to pass mentors kind of, you know, early-career role models.

And they say, well, they were able to do it. We are in a different productivity era, than our parents were, right? They, your mom or dad, may have worked full time. But he or she wasn't doing that with an iPhone in their pocket, that they had to remain glued to all the time, even while on holiday.

So the pressures are different. And now it's time to pivot and to learn some of the compensatory skills that allow us to kind of manage and live the lives that we want today with the current set of circumstances, the current environment that we have."

And we talked about the best way to interact with your children:

(​​The importance of blank space and, and sort of being able to create space for play and like play really comes from being spontaneous and having, and, and just having a few bits of art materials or dressing up stuff around you, but it's actually just about almost being bored or just having to muse yourself as a kid as well.)

"Well, one way is to kind of unschedule it and to do instead of to try to talk. So, you know, to just get down on the ground with your kid and start playing Legos, or to take, you know, a ball into the backyard and start kicking it around. And to have that be the connective time with your kid, that you don't have to be doing something that's outcome-oriented or asking your child, how was your day.

Because that's a very adult thing to do. Your child just wants to feel like they're not performing for you. They're just got your attention. They don't have to be stressed or answering questions. I think she was five when my daughter said, I used to come home and say, how was your day? What happened at school? Whatever. And she said, first hugs, then play, then talk. Which were great advice and good coaching for me."

🎙 About Beyond Busy: 

Beyond Busy is a podcast by Graham Allcott of Think Productive, author of “How to be a Productivity Ninja”. In this show, he interviews people from all walks of life about productivity, work/life balance, happiness and success. 

http://www.getbeyondbusy.com​​ 

✔ Links: 

Workparent:

https://www.workparent.com/ 

Follow Daisy Dowling:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/daisy-dowling-5b3368/

Subscribe to Graham's Newsletter: 

https://www.grahamallcott.com/sign-up​ 

Buy “Workparent: The Complete Guide to Succeeding on the Job, Staying True to Yourself, and Raising Happy Kids”: 

https://www.amazon.com/Workparent-Complete-Succeeding-Staying-Yourself/dp/1633698394/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= 

Our Show Sponsors: Think Productive - Time Management Training:

http://www.thinkproductive.com​​

Useful links:

https://www.grahamallcott.com/links

Edited by Pavel Novikov:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavelnovikovf/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we talk about resilience being on you, how to create uplifts in your mood, and many other practical ways to deal with stress and be happier in your thinking. Samantha kindly shares her background, her education, and the way she came to positive psychology.

She also said what was the reason to turn to positive psychology:

"It was about 10 years ago, I was seeing a patient who had this. Maybe she didn't qualify for a full sort of diagnosis of depression, but she wasn't, she wasn't thriving. She wasn't feeling great. She was having issues with her husband. She had three kids. She was exhausted at home. And we were trying to minimize the conflict with our spouse.

We were trying to help her have less issues with her mother-in-law and her kids. And one day she came into my office. I'd been seeing her for about six weeks. You know what, sometimes I just dread coming here. All we do is talk about what's wrong in my life. And even sometimes I'm having a good day and I have to think, what can I complain about?

And it makes me feel worse and you know what I'm done. And it was this weird sort of wake up call to me that I had been. So laser-focused on everything. That is, you know, on her symptoms, on her issues, on her problems, on her chief complaint, in everything sort of radiated out from, from that, that I wasn't focusing at all.

And I actually hadn't been trained to focus on what actually sort of promotes well being even. Could I help her with some of these issues, find strength within her stress and find sort of meaning within the madness of her everyday life. And that got me to go. Back to school and I, and to study applied positive psychology.

That was the opposite of everything. One learns in medical school, in residency, in psychiatry, and it's really the study of, of health and wellbeing. And what are the factors that promote that and, and trying to now, I really, my, I think of myself as a positive psychiatrist and that I really try to.

Ameliorates symptoms, but also how can I sort of promote wellbeing and they're not mutually exclusive and the idea of wellbeing being icing on the cake. Oh, let's just get somebody to feel a little bit better. And then you can talk about that other stuff. And I think you can, they can really go hand in hand."

We also got an interesting insight on vitality:

"I think of vitality is this sense of this feeling of a liveliness and energy that, you know, sort of tells you that you are ready for anything. And it's the opposite of feeling sort of depleted or down. And I think people often think that happiness is the opposite of depression, but it's actually vitality and it's what we need to counter the hassles.

And it's something that then I think gives rise to little, our resilience, the idea of having resilience on a daily basis, not the big, our resilience, the are you know, the response. You know, big sort of bad stuff that can happen, but vitality is what fuels that everyday resilience. And it's, I think it's, it's really maybe undermining even our ability to feel strong.

And, and they're just little things we can do in our daily lives, like connecting and contributing something and challenging ourselves that are really the wellspring of vitality. And it's not in your head again, it's actually in your everyday actions."

The full conversation is available on the Beyond Busy YouTube channel. If you prefer listening, you can find the audio version of the episode on Podtail. Graham Allcott is the founder of the time-management training company Think Productive.

Brought to you by Graham Allcott of Beyond Busy.

✔ Links: 

Positive Prescription:

https://positiveprescription.com/

Follow Dr Samantha Boardman: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sambmd

6 Weeks to Ninja:

https://www.grahamallcott.com/6weeks

Productivity Masterclass:

https://thinkproductive.co.uk/workshops/productivity-masterclass/

Subscribe to Graham's Newsletter: 

https://www.grahamallcott.com/sign-up​​

Buy “How to be a Productivity Ninja”: 

http://amazon.co.uk/dp/1785784617​​ 

Our Show Sponsors: Think Productive - Time Management Training:

http://www.thinkproductive.com​​

Useful links:

https://www.grahamallcott.com/links

Edited by Pavel Novikov:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavelnovikovf/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The conversation starts off with Ndidi's current plans and the mission of UK Youth:

'So UK Youth is a leading charity with a vision that all young people are equipped to thrive and empower to contribute to every stage of their lives. We are an open network organization. We have about 7,000 youth organizations and national partners in our network. Based on our new strategy, we are very much focused on unlocking youth work as a catalyst of change that we believe is needed now more than ever.

Fundamentally, we are a bit of a hybrid organization. So, we're an infrastructure body for the youth sector. We are a direct and program delivery organization as well. And, we're a campaign for social change. So collectively our work is to kind of build a movement of like-minded people who are determined to create a society that understands champions and delivers effective youth work for.'

Ndidi also reflects on the problem of youth homelessness:

'Well, if it's not school and it's not home, where do young people go? Because there's a question there about when home isn't a place you can go. What happens there? And when they're there, you know, there are issues with home. When you think about how young people end up homeless, there are so many different things that tend to happen for young people before that can happen.

And having that safe place to go is such an obvious thing. But I think the sad reality is as a society we can't answer if they can go to a youth club. They can go to a youth provision because we know that the majority of young people. Don't have access to that. I think now most people can understand and accept that young people are one of them, if not the hardest hit demographic coming out of COVID, whether it's from the economic perspective, in terms of job prospects, whether it's from academic learning, whether it's from issues around online safety.'

Then she shares what is like being a CEO as a black woman:

'I would love to think about it: well, you're hired to be a CEO and that's what you are. But the reality is that I am a black woman CEO, and actually each of those things comes with its own thing. And then you compound them together. And again, I've experienced the gender dynamic. I've experienced that through my own leadership journey where you are invited to speak on things because you are a woman. You're invited to feed into issues and topics because you're a woman. I've been invited to speak on issues on the race for many, many years.

Right. So it's not, it's never really been something I've been able to decouple. As a teacher, students would come to you because they could identify with you in certain things you've got speak on issues from a place of connection, whether that's a locality based on like London. What it is to work, grow up in particular environments all the way through to, you know, being African, being black, being female. So I think we all draw on all or aspects of who we are. I've never experienced a way where I just get to be the thing I am, as opposed to all of those things together. But yeah, I think again, the CEO level, I wasn't expecting it.

I, again, feel very naive walking into it. When my appointment was announced, I just cannot explain to you the reaction and the responses that I got, the messages, the people kind of reaching out like, oh my God, celebrating the appointment more than celebrating me. If that makes sense. It was like, oh my God, you know, a black woman is leading youth charities, you know, an organization and the third sector.

And this was all before everything that's happened. So I didn't even know all the issues the charity sector had when it came to be. So, you can almost understand that now, but at the time I was really taken aback.'

The full conversation is also available on Beyond Busy YouTube channel. Graham Allcott is the founder of the time-management training company Think Productive.

Brought to you by Graham Allcott of Beyond Busy.

✔ Links: 

Subscribe to Graham's Newsletter: 

https://www.grahamallcott.com/sign-up​​

Buy “How to be a Productivity Ninja”: 

http://amazon.co.uk/dp/1785784617​​ 

Our Show Sponsors: Think Productive - Time Management Training:

http://www.thinkproductive.com​​

Useful links:

https://www.grahamallcott.com/links

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We caught her in a quite interesting moment in her life - she just sold her business JC Social Media. In this episode, we talk about this and her experience of leading the team through the pandemic. She also tells us why she's determined not to make plans just yet, how to get mentored by your heroes, and much more. 

The conversation starts off with Jodie sharing the big news including releasing two new books.

Then they move the conversation to her first new book - ‘Instagram Rules'. Jodie kindly shares her story of writing this book and finding a publisher:

‘The story of how the book came about is actually quite indicative of how people can use Instagram right now. And that's the 'Instagram rules' that came about from an email in my inbox, from a publisher who I didn't know who said: 'I've got this book in mind. I've seen some of your writing on Instagram. Do you want to write it?

And I was just like: Sure! And so I think that was my first ever published book with an actual publisher. Because all the rest have been self-published. You don't need to ask permission and you don't need to just bang down the doors of publishers or anyone who you want to give you a chance. You can just create your own chances and Instagram itself lets you do that.

Just writing and producing and creating means that you can create your own presence, your own brand, your own audience. And then it means that those people that you thought were really hard to find and really hard to get in front of like publishers, agents, whoever else they come looking for you.'

She also shared her thoughts on online holy-wars:

‘I think being right does not matter. I think what's so much more important and what's so much harder to get right is knowing when to let it go and being able to let it go and being able to just be like and just go fine, someone else who can deal with that. That's not my battle. Cause you could, if you want to pick a fight with someone on the internet, you could do it every single minute of every day.

But what would your energy look like after you'd done that? It would be horrendous. I don't think the solution to anything is boom and bust. I think there are ways of having a healthy relationship with social media and perhaps the reason why I think that is because I ran a social media agency for so long that I had to find that healthy relationship with social media, because otherwise. I wouldn't have had a company.

So there's a way of taking the best bits without the worst bits. I'm sure of it. And one day I will convince you of that and we'll find an amazing balance where you can just be happy online.'

Later on, Jodie shared why it's better to focus on the present moment and experience, and not the plans for the future:

‘I have been the judge for a lot of different awards. And when you read applications, sometimes you have to almost strike through everything that hasn't happened yet. And so you have to be able to see past what we're going to do there. So we have plans to do this, or I have projections to do this. And it's not like you are discrediting anyone else's really exciting plans for their future. It's just that it has not happened yet. And what we want to focus on right now for you winning this award is what has happened.

So I find myself mentally doing it when I'm reading through them. And I think that it's really easy to get lost in some potential. And then, you know, if someone said, oh, you could get this million-pound valuation and you could get this funding and you could win this award and you could do all this stuff, but it's like, what have you actually done? And I think that always bringing yourself back to what can I achieve right now?

Or what can I focus on right now? I think it helps you stay in the present. And it also helps you focus on what you put in rather than what you may or may not get out of it in the future.'

The full conversation is also available on the Beyond Busy YouTube channel. Graham Allcott is the founder of the time-management training company Think Productive.

Brought to you by Graham Allcott of Beyond Busy.

✔ Links: 

Subscribe to Graham's Newsletter: 

https://www.grahamallcott.com/sign-up​​

Buy “How to be a Productivity Ninja”: 

http://amazon.co.uk/dp/1785784617​​ 

Our Show Sponsors: Think Productive - Time Management Training:

http://www.thinkproductive.com​​

Useful links:

https://www.grahamallcott.com/links

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cal is the author of ‘Deep Work' and ‘Digital Minimalism' and this is his second time on Beyond Busy. Last time we discussed the evolution of knowledge work, how social media compulsion has shifted in recent years and lots of other things. In this episode, we talk about his new book ‘A World Without Email' and why it is so hard to make time and space for deep work. Cal also shares his own strategies on how to beat it. 

The conversation starts off with Cal and Graham talking about how they've dealt with the pandemic and how we finally got used to the new normality. Although, Cal tells us he is lucky enough to have some not-online-guests in his studio in Washington DC to record podcasts soon. 

Then they move to Cal's new book ‘A World Without Email'. Cal shares that he actually paired his other workpiece ‘Deep Work' with ‘A World Without Email' so they work as a tandem. He also talks more about the main idea of the book: The Hyperactive Hive Mind.  

'The hyperactive hive mind workflow was enabled by email. So, you need email for the hyperactive hive mind workflow to be possible, but it's not equivalent to email, and it's not a necessary consequence of having that technology. So, what is it? Well, it's a mode of collaboration and office work, where you say we will primarily work things out with unscheduled back and forth ad hoc low-friction digital messages. 

That's a very distinctive mode of collaboration. It emerged following email spread there haven't since been additional tools that implement the hyperactive hive mind even slicker. But it's that way of working that I think has a lot of problems that we underestimated and it's the villain of my book. And it's an important distinction because again, email is a tool I'm not super interested in, right? I mean, I think it's useful. It replaced a fax machine. It replaced voicemails, but the hyperactive hive mind that it helped enable. That's a real problem.' 

Cal also shared his personal productivity tips in Trello: 

'I use a different board for every role that I have so I break up my professional life into different roles. There's a role as a researcher. There's a role as a teaching professor. There's a role as a writer because when I'm looking at one context, they only want to be thinking about that context. I have cards for all the different things.  

I need to do obligations for those different roles. And they're categorized on different columns that keep track of what their status is so I can look at this thing each week and figure out what's going on. What should I be working on? Where can I put the information? This is a key one. Oh, here's a nugget of information related to a project that I haven't started yet, but I want to work on soon for my writing. 

Now I know what to do with it. I go to that board. I go to that card. I put it on there. Another key innovation of these boards is waiting to hear back from the column. So, okay. I'm waiting to hear back from this person about this. I'm waiting to hear back from my web developer about this. You have a post in the ground for each of these here. 

It's here. I'll see it. I don't have to remember it. You know, when I'm looking at this board. I'm waiting to hear back, look at that card and waiting to hear back from this person about this. I never heard back. It's been three weeks now. I know to actually ping them or to nudge them to see what's going on.

All of this makes a huge difference. We're used to this idea that, well, it's all just kind of in an inbox and Slack and we just kind of go after it and figure it out. But it is cognitively so much superior to segregate these things into their own isolated context and deal with each thing when you deal with it.'

The full conversation is also available on the Beyond Busy YouTube channel. 

Graham Allcott is the founder of the time-management training company Think Productive.

✔ Links:

Buy Cal's books: https://www.amazon.com/Cal-Newport/

Follow Cal Newport: https://www.calnewport.com/

Subscribe to Graham's Newsletter: https://www.grahamallcott.com/sign-up​​

Buy “How to be a Productivity Ninja”: http://amazon.co.uk/dp/1785784617​​

Our Show Sponsors: Think Productive - Time Management Training: http://www.thinkproductive.com​​

Useful links: https://www.grahamallcott.com/links

Edited by Pavel Novikov: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavelnovikovf/ 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Phoebe is the national president of JCI (Junior Chamber International). She's also the founder of North West Charity Awards and she also has a day job! Phoebe is a Global Digital Events Manager at Atos Medical.

The conversation starts with Phoebe's background experience and JCI.

'JCI – Junior Chamber International. We're a global nonprofit membership organization for young people, 18 to 40. And we have approximately 200,000 members across the world. JCI's mission is to provide development opportunities that empower young people to create positive change.'

Graham then shares that he was involved in student volunteering.

That leads the conversation on to empowering leaders: why it is important to learn by doing:

'I think for me, from my experience with JCI, the learning by doing part in leadership, that's been absolutely amazing. And just given me a lot of different ways to try new roles without being like in a paid job, but you're actually doing these things. I think that's really important.'

They also talk about such topics as post-COVID interaction, handling two jobs at the same time, dealing with burnouts, the importance of pep talks, and others.

The full conversation is available on Graham Allcott's YouTube channel.

Graham Allcott is the founder of the time-management training company Think Productive

 ✔ Links: 

Subscribe to Graham's Newsletter: 

https://www.grahamallcott.com/sign-up​​

Buy “How to be a Productivity Ninja”: 

http://amazon.co.uk/dp/1785784617​​ 

Our Show Sponsors: Think Productive - Time Management Training:

http://www.thinkproductive.com​​

Useful links:

https://www.grahamallcott.com/links

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Perry is the CEO of Restless Development, an international development charity that puts young people at the heart of change. His passion is helping other leaders to create change in this world.

Over the years, he has led teams in more than 20 countries across 5 continents, and interviewed thousands of people for jobs, developed hundreds of senior leaders, and supported tens of thousands of diverse leaders to unleash change. He had led organisations from small grassroots outfits to complex, global organisations. The conversation starts off with Perry’s explanation of his work:

'We are all about young leaders. What we do is we work with young leaders around the World to tackle problems that they think are most important. Like getting a job or taking care of the families. We work with young people to kinda make changes happen.'

Graham also shares that his career had a lot of enabling young people into work.

They discuss the difficulty of it as some seniors take youngsters less seriously than they should.

Perry also tells his journey of becoming a CEO. Interestingly, he came into this field by the love of the Spanish language! They also discuss such important topics as empathetic leadership and productivity.

The full conversation is available on the Beyond Busy YouTube channel.

If you prefer listening, you can find the audio version of the episode on Podtail.

Graham Allcott is the founder of the time-management training company Think Productive.

✔ Links: 

Subscribe to Graham's Newsletter: 

https://www.grahamallcott.com/sign-up​​

Buy “How to be a Productivity Ninja”: 

http://amazon.co.uk/dp/1785784617​​ 

Our Show Sponsors: Think Productive - Time Management Training:

http://www.thinkproductive.com​​

Useful links:

https://www.grahamallcott.com/links

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cyril is a co-author of the book called ‘Alien Thinking: The Unconventional Path to Breakthrough Ideas’. He is also a professor of Strategy and Innovation at the IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Cyril has worked with a lot of big companies, e.g. UEFA, which welcomes the European Cup 2020 this year in 10 different countries.

In this episode, we talk about productivity, how we can use our imagination in the working process and much more.

The conversation starts with Cyril’s background experience and his interesting job title which is Professor of Strategy and Innovation.

'If you would ask me when I was a kid what I’d like to do when I grow up, becoming a professor would be the last thing but somehow it was my destiny.'

Cyril tells his fancy story of how he loved being a professor during his civil service time. Then the conversation moves to Cyril’s workday, how it usually looks like and how it looks now during the COVID-19 times.

Also, Graham is interested in Cyril’s experience in facilitating the meeting with 650 leaders from different companies.

'I had a lot of nightmares visualising it. How am I going to essentially mobilize a group of 650 people coming from different organisations and cultures?'

Graham then introduces Cyril’s book ‘Alien Thinking’ and tries to figure out what Alien Thinking is to Cyril.

The full fascinating conversation is also available on Graham Allcott's YouTube channel.

Graham is the founder of the time-management training company Think Productive.

✔ Links: 

Subscribe to Graham's Newsletter: 

https://www.grahamallcott.com/sign-up​​

Buy “How to be a Productivity Ninja”: 

http://amazon.co.uk/dp/1785784617​​ 

Our Show Sponsors: Think Productive - Time Management Training:

http://www.thinkproductive.com​​

Useful links:

https://www.grahamallcott.com/links

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr Robert Livingston is a social psychologist, based at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is one of the World's leading experts on science underlying bias and racism.

In this episode, Graham talks with Robert about biases, what we can learn from the #blm movement, and what YOU can do in your workplace. In the first part, the guest talks about the reason he wrote a book.

'My book is a tool so it's neither a thesis nor a testimonial. I wanted to write a book that would help move the needle on racial equity. So the purpose of my book was to provide a tool for managers, leaders, organisations that are interested in increasing the level of diversity, equity, and inclusion.'

Robert tells us about his experience and his press model. Also, Robert explains why black people are really tired of educating white people on interacting with them.

'It isn't their job to educate white people on racism. In many ways, it's my job. This is why I wrote this book. Read the book!'

He also explains how to learn not to hurt the black people community:

'It's a skill that you can learn. There are books out there that will tell what the right thing is and what the wrong thing is. Do you care enough to spend one day reading this? The simple answer may be that they don't care.'

Dr Robert Livingston talks about the problem of different values as well. Interestingly, Robert used very extraordinary metaphors for this one.

'The other layer to this is people have different values and some people don't want equality - they want power, they want to dominate. So, if you come to a shark and tell them about the four cookies and the zero cookies. They're gonna be great! That's the way it's supposed to be. Because they operate on the model of greed. They are not trying to strive for two cookie allocation for everyone. That seems like communism for them and what they want is the Game of Thrones.'

The full conversation is also available on Graham Allcott's YouTube channel.

Graham Allcott is the founder of the time-management training company Think Productive.

✔ Links: 

Subscribe to Graham's Newsletter: 

https://www.grahamallcott.com/sign-up​​

Buy “How to be a Productivity Ninja”: 

http://amazon.co.uk/dp/1785784617​​ 

Our Show Sponsors: Think Productive - Time Management Training:

http://www.thinkproductive.com​​

Useful links:

https://www.grahamallcott.com/links

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lauren is a serial entrepreneur with a background in service design and she is the CEO and founder of Upfront. An organization that’s helping women to tackle issues about confidence. She is one of the most interesting and articulate speakers on subjects of gender, race and diversity.

In this episode we talk about empathy, curiosity, and what it meant to her to be awarded an OBE.

The episode starts with the description of Lauren’s main activity right now - Upfront. She explains the mission of the company and how the organization can help.

‘UpFront is an organization on a mission to change confidence - not women. We were founded in 2017, we work with women all over the World to change their relationships with confidence. And we do that in three ways: one is through bonds. We have a six-week online course, the fourth bond starts in a couple of weeks.

We also have membership space which is the global community bond for women who are really intentionally looking to build new muscles of confidence, visibility, and advocacy. And content! We run newsletters, we do keynotes, we talk on podcasts to smart people like you. That’s UpFront’

She shares a nice goal of having worked with 1m women by 2023. Which is very possible due to the high demand.

If you want to join, press here!

In the episode, Lauren also tells about her opinion on the positive future of work:

‘I think it looks feminist in its values, practices and behaviour. It looks intersectional, genuinely diverse, inclusive, and fair. Universal basic income, healthcare. There’s also a bunch of useful staff for the planet: vegan, sustainable.’

Lauren also tells about her past experiences to better understand her path. Graham recalls the first meeting with Lauren where he first admired her:

‘You were pitching for a project around leadership. I was such a fan of your approach to design thinking and serving design.’

There are also some useful tips from Lauren on productivity & work/life balance:

‘I don’t work weekends, I usually don’t work evenings, I don’t have email nor notifications on my phone. And I really don’t do stuff that I don’t wanna do anymore.’

The full conversation is available on the Beyond Busy YouTube channel.

If you prefer listening, you can find the audio version of the episode on Podtail.

Graham Allcott is the founder of the time-management training company Think Productive.

✔ Links: 

Find out more about UpFront:

https://www.weareupfront.com

Subscribe to Graham's Newsletter: 

https://www.grahamallcott.com/sign-up​​

Buy “How to be a Productivity Ninja”: 

http://amazon.co.uk/dp/1785784617​​ 

Our Show Sponsors: Think Productive - Time Management Training:

http://www.thinkproductive.com​​

Useful links:

https://www.grahamallcott.com/links

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pobble is an Edtech startup platform for teachers and students to improve speed, confidence, and enjoyment in writing. The platform won the Bett award for the Best Classroom Aid for Learning, Teaching and Assessment and the GESS award for Best Paid ICT Product.

Graham and Jon start off by talking about how Jon’s decision to move to Cornwall from London helped his work with Pobble within the startup tech scene.

'A lot of education startups aren't actually in London because it’s expensive to grow a star top talent. It’s very expensive because you're competing with companies like Google and Amazon. When we arrived in Cornwall, I didn't really expect any sort of ecosystem at all for anything. What I found is that there are a lot of socially-focused entrepreneurs.'

'If you can show children real examples of other children's writing, it becomes motivating for them. If you've got a load of people that are publishing their writing online, those examples can then be used as a means for planning lessons so that you can show children what good writing looks like. It doesn't matter what culture you go to whether China, Australia, or the Middle East. Everyone has the same struggle about engaging children in writing.'

Jon talks about how having famous authors critiquing the children’s work helps make a huge difference for Pobble.

'Authors have engaged in Pobble and as a result, the schools had these wonderful experiences and children have gone from being reluctant writers to being excited and engaged. I think we've got a lot more of a kind of stable ecosystem. We don't rely on the authors. Still, they jump in, which is wonderful, but now, it's a lot more about that peer to peer feedback.'

Then, Graham asks Jon why education hasn’t been more disrupted or advanced by technology.

Jon shares how he introduces Pobble to schools prior to the pandemic.

'Prior to the pandemic, it was really hard to basically make progress. When we first started, schools were had absolutely no experience of buying software. In order to sell people, what we would do is we would run writing workshops and we would sell those to schools. During the workshops, we would introduce Pobble, as a concept.

We’ve just gone from a situation where tech was just so far from being the present thing in schools. There were some schools that were quite tech savvy. But now, every school is trying to kind of make that transformation of being a little bit more tech enabled. That's obviously really positive for the industry.'

Graham and Jon discuss Slack, the team management platform which Jon and his team uses for easy communication.

'Slack is like everything. It's like far better than email. Slack has been absolutely key and I think Slack and Google Hangouts or Google have been central to Pobble for the last two years. We do all of our communication through Slack and we very rarely email one another.'

Jon shares a book called Remote which he and his team use to know how to work remotely and how to tackle remote working.

'Pobble’s mission is all about inspiring children and the future and help people express themselves and be creative. A lot of us are parents so there's a real sense of camaraderie within the team.'

One thing that Jon finds really hard is not being in control. For him, having real control over what his team do and the choices that they make, even if that means that they have to be a little less ambitious as to how quickly they grow, they won’t need a huge team.

'The biggest challenge for us is that we need to be basically at cash free breakeven. If we're at cash free breakeven, we are in control of our destiny, because we don't need to go and raise more money. The second thing is getting to cash flow breakeven. You don't need to rely on having to raise more money because that’s when you give away control. When you're desperate you have to raise more money. By learning how to do it myself, I was able to identify what is the most scalable, cost-effective way to drive this process forward. Rather than hiring an expensive other person to design a process that may not even work anyway.

We always now have this philosophy where if we haven't done this thing ourselves, as founders, we don't hire someone else to do it. We have to have done it ourselves in order to understand how to get the help we need in order to do that. No one comes into a business and can immediately deliver things.'

Finally, Jon discusses the importance of being in a classroom. His 6-year-old daughter joins in with the chat and shares her experience in learning from home and learning in school.

'Unfortunately, you're going to have a generation who lost a lot of education. In those children, you're going to have the ones that were able to be educated at home, and had very engaged parents or even had the ability or the time and the ability to help do homeschooling. Having children in school is important unless you're done obviously. Lots of homeschoolers do a great job but they’re planning for that and they're set up to do that. But if you're not, I think that's a really tricky thing for any parent to figure out.'

The full conversation is available on the Beyond Busy YouTube channel.

Graham Allcott is the founder of the time-management training company Think Productive.

✔ Links: 

Find out more about Pobble:

https://my.pobble.com

Subscribe to Graham's Newsletter: 

https://www.grahamallcott.com/sign-up​​

Buy “How to be a Productivity Ninja”: 

http://amazon.co.uk/dp/1785784617​​ 

Our Show Sponsors: Think Productive - Time Management Training:

http://www.thinkproductive.com​​

Useful links:

https://www.grahamallcott.com/links

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Panos Panay is the Senior Vice President, Global Strategy & Innovation at Berklee College of Music. He is credited for spotting and capitalizing early on three emerging trends in the music business: the shift to online marketing; the emergence of an “artistic middle class”; and the shift to a consumer/brand-funded music business. He was awarded the Fast Company's "Fast 50" honor, Boston Business Journal's "40 under 40" and BosInno "50 on Fire" Award for excellence in education.

In June 2016, Panay co-founded the non-profit Open Music Initiative in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab and individuals including inventor Dan Harple and IDEO partner Michael Hendrix.

Michael Hendrix is a Partner and the Global Design Director of IDEO, based in the Cambridge, MA studio where he practices brand strategy, creative direction, and graphic design. He has been a recognised advocate and practitioner of design thinking since co-founding Tricycle Inc., a sustainable design firm in 2002 which was purchased by Shaw Industries in 2017.

Hendrix also teaches entrepreneurship at the Berklee College of Music.

The episode starts off by talking about the background of the guests.

It is interesting that all the guests and Graham are in different time zones which really proves how music can spread inspiration worldwide. They also talk about the non-profit Open Music Initiative which the guests co-found together.

'The objective is to create a shared open way of identifying rights-owners across the digital supply chain of music without going into a heck of a lot of details.'

Then Graham confesses his love for music. He is surprised by how many musicians in their book became entrepreneurs using their creativity in other businesses too. He questions if there is a natural link between writing hit songs and being a successful entrepreneur.

'It's a mindset that's already there that needs to be developed. We believe that the mindset can be unlocked really at anybody. Musicians are just the ideal situation to accelerate the development of the skills.'

Of course, they are a lot of inspirational stories from the book and the guests' experience:

'I had interviewed Pharrell Williams. He literally opened his speech by saying "Music is a skeleton key that opens everything up". I liked that! The way that a musician thinks often unlocks imaginations and creativity in the way it can be expressed not just in a musical performance or a song.'

Graham Allcott is the founder of the time-management training company.

This episode was produced by Pavel Novikov and the podcast is hosted on Podiant.

The full conversation is available on the Beyond Busy YouTube channel. 

✔ Links: 

Get the book 'Two Beats Ahead':

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1541730585

Subscribe to Graham's Newsletter: 

https://www.grahamallcott.com/sign-up​​

Buy “How to be a Productivity Ninja”: 

http://amazon.co.uk/dp/1785784617​​ 

Our Show Sponsors: Think Productive - Time Management Training:

http://www.thinkproductive.com​​

Useful links:

https://www.grahamallcott.com/links 

Edited by Pavel Novikov:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavelnoviko

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Graham and Julie start off the conversation by talking about how they met through Sussex Lions, the Aston Villa fanclub in Sussex.

Graham then asks Julie how she would summarise her very diverse background.

'It is the common thread, through all the different types of roles and sectors. It’s about driving and securing change, but doing that in a way that’s got kindness and compassion at its heart. So it’s about cultures. It’s about creating environments that allow people to excel.'

Julie then talks about her experiences as Head of Transport Integration for the London 2012 Olympics.

'So I always say to people, it’s probably the thing I’ll be most proud of, because what a great showcase for the country. There was something optimistic and happy about that time, maybe there’s with rose-tinted glasses with the decade that’s come since then, but I never want to work like that again, in my life, because it was so utterly and relentlessly demanding.'

The conversation then leads on to Julie’s time in central government and she talks about resisting the urge to slap a certain politician she had to have weekly meetings with as being up there as one of her biggest development challenges.

Graham and Julie then talk about how to deal with disagreements and the importance of productive tension and how to create that.

'So it’s kind of creating a permission environment but you have to contract around that, and you have to be overt about it. Because, otherwise people bring in their own preferences, their own motivations, their own kinds of things, and you don’t have a common goal to focus around.'

Julie talks about her book “Own Your Day”, co-written with Diana Marsland, for people managing in the middle of organisations. She explains how Diana approached her with the idea of the book. And how she was convinced that the powerhouse in organisations was stuck between strategy and delivery, the demands from the top as well as trying to manage their teams, and how could we do stuff that liberates these people because that’s where the potential in organisations were.

Julie and Graham then finish the podcast talking about the culture in different organisations, hierarchy, networking and the importance of creating a culture of feedback in teams.

The full conversation is available on the Beyond Busy YouTube channel. 

Graham Allcott is the founder of the time-management training company Think Productive.

✔ Links: 

Subscribe to Graham's Newsletter: 

https://www.grahamallcott.com/sign-up​​

Buy “How to be a Productivity Ninja”: 

http://amazon.co.uk/dp/1785784617​​ 

Our Show Sponsors: Think Productive - Time Management Training:

http://www.thinkproductive.com​​

Useful links:

https://www.grahamallcott.com/links

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hayley is a mum, a coach, and she also has a background as a leader in the charity sector, where she gained a lot of experience with meetings - both good and bad.

Graham and Hayley start off by talking about how Hayley got into the whole productivity business which led her to join Think Productive as a Productivity Ninja, and how she helps people change their work habits for the better.

'If somebody said to me "You need to do some work on how you organise yourself and your productivity" I might have said something quite rude to them about that.'

They then go on to chat about meetings: what's broken about meetings and how that affects people and businesses.

'I speak to so many of our clients who will say: "Oh, yeah, I've just got back to back meetings. I've got too many meetings. I can't get the work done because I'm in meetings all day." And then you look at people's calendars and they are in meetings all day - they're back to back! And, particularly people who are more senior in organisations will say: "Well, I spend all day in meetings, and I have to work in the evenings and at the weekends to get the work done". That's not sustainable. As we all know the Zoom meetings have taken over this past year.'

Hayley and Graham talk about the benefits of online meetings but also the disadvantages. That then leads them on discussing different ways to fix the broken meetings and they share some great tips on how to make meetings take up less of your time and become more productive for everyone.

'Very often, I think meetings don't need long pages of notes with who said what and other kinds of detail of the conversations. Sometimes they just need the action points. It will depend on the meeting. You know, if it's a board-level meeting, you probably want more detail than that. But, if it's a team meeting or project meeting, maybe the actions points are enough and somebody doesn't need to spend their effort and attention on typing up exactly who said what because you've captured the actions - all the things that matter.'

Graham Allcott is the founder of the time-management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is hosted on Podiant.

The full conversation is available on the Beyond Busy YouTube channel. 

✔ Links: 

Buy the book How To Fix Meetings:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fixing-Meetings-Productivity-Ninja-Guide/dp/1785784757

Subscribe to Graham's Newsletter: 

https://www.grahamallcott.com/sign-up​​

Buy “How to be a Productivity Ninja”: 

http://amazon.co.uk/dp/1785784617​​ 

Our Show Sponsors: Think Productive - Time Management Training:

http://www.thinkproductive.com​​

Useful links:

https://www.grahamallcott.com/links

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Graham and Jackie start the podcast by talking about why the public was so fascinated by the online video that made Jackie famous.

'My take on it is that I think there’s something inherent in us that makes us want to see fairness. I think if you think about all the injustices you've seen, somebody cutting in front of you in traffic, We’re not talking about huge world-changing things here. You know, where you didn’t get the pay rise at work, where somebody was rude and they got away with it, all those things, and we put up with them all the time. And at that moment, I think what you saw was justice. I think that’s my take on it... Either that or I’ve just become the nation’s favourite grandmother.'

Jackie tells Graham that she finds this a wonderful opportunity to shed more light on council meetings.

'I kind of feel I’m supposed to say it’s been surreal or confusing or confusing or frightening or out of control or whatever, but it hasn’t really felt like that. I mean, it has just felt like a real opportunity that has to be just grabbed. I mean, we’ve been trying to get local councils noticed in some meaningful way, all of my career in local government and that’s 25 years. So somebody comes along and knocks on your door and says to you: "Tell me about local councils - What's all this about?" What do you say? No, sorry, I’m busy.'

Jackie then shares how important it is for the youth to take an interest in local government.

'How does the council know you’re interested? How does the council know what you’ve got to offer? Over the years, we’ve tried several initiatives across the country to encourage young people to get involved. So we have the Youth Parliament, a lot of councils created youth councils, and all that happened was that we ended up with youth councils that looked like Mini-Me’s. Now, that’s not all of them. I’m sure some of them were extremely representative, but some that I know were kind of like older people in young clothes. So engaging with young people is difficult and, actually, some of it needs to come from the young people.'

Graham asks Jackie what she thinks makes a good meeting.

'For me meetings are about decisions. My frustration with some council meetings is they’re often viewed as an opportunity for an exchange of information. And I guess that there has to be some information sharing, of course, because you need something on which to base your decision. And you need some information sharing because it’s kind of like a glue that puts us together that forms a relationship. But after that, it’s kind of like, you know, why are we here? This is not a social event, let’s get these decisions taken so we can move forward so that decisions of the council can happen without taking four years to come to fruition. Because it’s that lack of decision making that takes those issues four years to be resolved. They don’t need to be.'

Jackie then ends the podcast by sharing a productivity hack to help with ‘overwhelm’.

'My head is very busy and I can feel overload. And when I feel that, when I feel that I’m no longer really able to capture what it is that I’m thinking about. That’s when I start to write it. Because I get overwhelmed and I don’t find that a comfortable place to be at all It feels out of control.'

The full conversation is available on the Beyond Busy YouTube channel. 

Graham Allcott is the founder of the time-management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced by Rizelle Paredes and is hosted on Podiant.

✔ Links: 

Subscribe to Graham's Newsletter: 

https://www.grahamallcott.com/sign-up​​

Buy “How to be a Productivity Ninja”: 

http://amazon.co.uk/dp/1785784617​​ 

Our Show Sponsors: Think Productive - Time Management Training:

http://www.thinkproductive.com​​

Useful links:

https://www.grahamallcott.com/links

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Graham, David and Carole start the podcast by talking about the legendary 'Touchy-Feely' program in the Stanford Graduate School of Business course Interpersonal Dynamics.

David: 'What they discover in this course, almost inevitably, is that the more they are themselves: the more interesting they are, the more attractive there. We frequently have students halfway through the course say to another one: "I thought in finance, you were really obnoxious, but now that I see you and I see that you’re human, I like you." So where this translates is that they not only learned that they can be themselves but they learn how to be themselves, they take this elsewhere.'

Carole: 'People do business with people. They don't do business with ideas, or machines or money. So, that's why this course has become so legendary.'

Graham then asks about the hallmarks of exceptional relationships.

Carole: 'Relationships exist on a continuum. You can have a functional relationship, a perfectly functional relationship and not have it be exceptional. You can have dysfunctional relationships at the very other end. But an exceptional relationship is one where we both can be ourselves and neither one of us is afraid of what the other one will do, with whatever we share with each other. That's one of the hallmarks. Another hallmark is that we can have productive conflict, and in fact, we see conflict as an opportunity to deepen our relationships.'

David: 'For this high trust, the essence of what you say is what you mean, that I don't have to second guess you.'

Carole and David share how important rebuilding relationships is after disagreements.

David: 'A key part of what we’re talking about is that you don’t have to do things perfectly. I mean, we’ve done things that have screwed up a lot with each other, each of us, with our spouse, with our friends and so on. But you can recover. If you wholeheartedly recover, and not just say: "Well, let’s agree to disagree" that doesn’t do anything, the relationship gets even stronger.'

They also share their tips on how to de-escalate conflicts.

Carole: 'Sometimes you have to take a breath and say: "You know what, I think we’re both a little too spun up right now. Let's take 10 minutes or 20 minutes and, you know, take a breath. But let’s commit to coming back". That’s the key.'

David: 'It's a matter of sticking in there, being persistent, being exploratory, catching yourself and helping the other person to catch themselves. None of this is easy peasy.'

Graham finishes the podcast by asking David and Carole if there is a downside to being experts at building relationships.

Carole: 'I'm just as flawed as any other human being. We talk in the book about how it does take two to tango.'

David: 'I find meaningful relationships, where people talk about what's important to them, so rewarding that I don't have patience for the superficial cocktail party stuff. I'm bored by that. I'd rather be by myself. Or I'd rather try to take that conversation and drive it deeper. So when I'm at a cocktail party, rather than going around and see how many people I can meet, I find somebody who looks a little interesting and then I ask things about them, because I want to find out about them so I’m able to build the sort of relationship, even if it’s temporary, that’s more meaningful.'

Graham Allcott is the founder of time-management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced by Rizelle Paredes and is hosted on Podiant.

✔ Links: 

Buy David and Caroles's book:

https://www.amazon.com/Connect-Building-Exceptional-Relationships-Colleagues/dp/0593237099 

Subscribe to Graham's Newsletter: 

https://www.grahamallcott.com/sign-up​​

Buy “How to be a Productivity Ninja”: 

http://amazon.co.uk/dp/1785784617​​ 

Our Show Sponsors: Think Productive - Time Management Training:

http://www.thinkproductive.com​​

Useful links:

https://www.grahamallcott.com/links

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Graham and Tim open the conversation with an insight into the productivity paradox.

'What we're seeing now, and this is what I found in my research, is that the technology in the past 10 years has been overwhelming people and organisations have not been very good at aligning people to that technology, and investing in them to align to that technology. We're really only getting back to where we were, you know, say early 2000s, in terms of levels of investment in that space.'

Tim explains that there is more to the meaning of productivity and how we measure them in these modern times.

'There's a small number, and growing number, of companies that are realising that, you know, people are much more complex, and that if you can engage them in what it is you do, get them to buy into your purpose and mission as an organization, you suddenly get a different kind of workforce. There are ones that show up, not only to produce what you ask them to do but they produce more and they enjoy doing it.'

Tim also talks about the difference in the progress of technology at home and at work.

'I think we're gonna have to see organisations change their policies, change their offices, and change their thinking to do that. Technology is going to be that that kind of facilitator of these things to keep people productive. So we're Jetsons at home but we're not Jetsons work yet and we have to fix that.'

Graham asks Tim about his observations on how people work and how they are managed in different cultures.

'The first thing that you have to recognise is you need to show the person you understand that for them is inappropriate. Then, I think the second thing is then behaving in a way that you build trust with that person, to show that you do get it and that you can be reasonable and respectful.'

Graham and Tim finish the podcast talking about pro-tirement and what it means to pro-tire.

'The UK Chief Medical Officer a couple years ago, and this is in the book as well, did a study on men who do some sort of gainful employment till about 70 and it shows the vast majority of them will live to 90, as long as you didn't have any underlying and it's really good for you, apparently, to keep doing things.'

Graham Allcott is the founder of time-management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced by Rizelle Paredes and is hosted on Podiant.

✔ Links: 

Buy Tim's book:

https://www.amazon.com/Solving-Productivity-Puzzle-Individual-Performance/dp/1789664764

Subscribe to Graham's Newsletter: 

https://www.grahamallcott.com/sign-up​​

Buy “How to be a Productivity Ninja”: 

http://amazon.co.uk/dp/1785784617​​ 

Our Show Sponsors: Think Productive - Time Management Training:

http://www.thinkproductive.com​​

Useful links:

https://www.grahamallcott.com/links

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Graham and Chris start the podcast by talking about how he became viral on social media.

'I started this thing called “60 second sermons” and then the 60 second sermons just hit a note with many people and suddenly it had its own growth and momentum.'

Chris also talks about how ego is a struggle for many people.

'I think CS Lewis said something like, "To be humble is not to think less of yourself, but to think of yourself less". And the idea to be confident and at peace with who you are, no matter what the situation, I think that’s a really powerful thing, a unique thing and something that I gravitate as a person towards. People who hold that and it’s rare in this world. We either overcompensate or we undersell ourselves, we’re insecure or arrogant, and all those things feed into each other. But, if you can hold a level of humility, I think humility is the mother of all other gifts... And ego and pride are the opposite of that.'

Chris also shares why he chose social media as the platform for his 60-second sermons.

'And where young people are is that they are online. So, I want to go there and say “Hey guys” and point away from myself as much as I can and say, you know, "You are beautiful. You are loved. You are precious. God is good, and He loves you and He’s for you".'

On sharing his skills and talents as part of his duty, Chris has this to say:

'Duty is a hard word, isn’t it? I think it’s my right and my privilege and based on my faith and understanding of who the character of God is, I want to lean into the gifts that I’ve been given and trust in them. I want to do that.'

Graham then asks about how Chris views work-life balance.

'There is also a place to remember that you’re human and you’re more than your work.'

On dealing with difficult people, Chris shares this tip:

'I try to remember the core - the deepest them, is love. The deepest them is good. And they’ve just either forgotten it along the way, or it has been beaten out of them in some way. So, I try to keep a soft heart. Just try have the acknowledgement that the first layer is often superficial from people, so they’re going to be angry, defensive, or whatever.'

Graham and Chris finish the podcast talking about the playlist that comes with the book.

'We’re more than just our thinking-brain. We’re feeling in our body, it is important to the way we understand everything as well. So, music for me is a powerful embodiment of understanding in a way and sometimes music and art speak to me powerfully. That makes sense that words don’t articulate well. I love music. I love film, I love listening to things and allowing it to speak to me. And so I thought, well, if I’m writing a book about self-help and stuff like that, why not put in music as well?'

You can follow Chris on Korean Englishman, Jolly and on Instagram. You can get the book “The OMG Effect” on Amazon.

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced and edited by Rizelle Marie Paredes and is hosted on Podiant.

✔ Links: 

Subscribe to Graham's Newsletter: 

https://www.grahamallcott.com/sign-up​​

Buy “How to be a Productivity Ninja”: 

http://amazon.co.uk/dp/1785784617​​ 

Our Show Sponsors: Think Productive - Time Management Training:

http://www.thinkproductive.com​​

Useful links:

https://www.grahamallcott.com/links

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Graham and James start the podcast by giving a bit of a background on what the company, REED, is all about and what the company focus is. James then shares a brilliant strategy that he believes helped their business grow:

'Our strategy is to build it organically. So like a tree from the ground up. I say to people, the only two ways you can grow a business organically is: One - is through service, good service, so people come back. The other is through ideas, good ideas, so you can get a new service. That’s our focus.'

James then shares a great chapter in his book called "The Fateful 15".

'We call them the fateful 15. In fact, there are 15 questions. The first one is: Tell me about yourself. If you prepare those 15 in the book, you’re pretty well placed for any interview because most of the other questions are sort of variants of those 15. And I think that’s quite a helpful way of thinking about it because an interview can be a pretty daunting prospect.'

Graham then asks James to talk about failing and what that had taught him.

'I remember my father saying something to me years ago. He said, “You know, being an entrepreneur or being in business is different than going to the casino. If you put money on red on the roulette wheel and it comes up in the casino. It only comes out once. But if you have a good idea and you get it up and running, it keeps coming around.” So I hold on to that thought because it suggests that you should keep trying.'

James then shares his different work experiences and what he learned from them.

'If you’re early in your career, find a boss that you can learn from. Yeah, that’s something that is hugely valuable.'

Graham and James then talk about getting projects done and how important the people behind the project are.

'Finding the right people and then letting them get on with it is key to getting things done because you have to move on to the next thing. I mean, if you have to do it yourself, you will not get as much done as when you can find someone good to help you, or several people, and then move on to the next problem or challenge or opportunity. So it’s all about people in the end.'

Graham and James then finish by talking about unhappiness at work and the importance of having a clear purpose and objective at work.

'I think if you’re unhappy in your work, look to change because you don’t have to be unhappy at work. And, I think it’s possible for everyone to be happy in some form of work or other. I think that’s really important, and I guess often overlooked.'

Find out more about James Reed on his website or if you have any questions for him, send him an e-mail.

You can grab his book: “Why You?: 101 Interview Questions You’ll Never Fear Again” on Amazon.

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced and edited by Rizelle Paredes and is hosted on Podiant.

✔ Links: 

Subscribe to Graham's Newsletter: 

https://www.grahamallcott.com/sign-up​​

Buy “How to be a Productivity Ninja”: 

http://amazon.co.uk/dp/1785784617​​ 

Our Show Sponsors: Think Productive - Time Management Training:

http://www.thinkproductive.com​​

Useful links:

https://www.grahamallcott.com/links

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Graham welcomes Grace and asks her about where she got her inspiration for her newest book "Struggle".

'Sometimes, the fact that we're struggling with something doesn't mean that we're in the wrong place. Sometimes it means we're absolutely in the right place. And so, I felt like there was this thing around struggle that we weren't talking about in productivity, but generally, in the world as well. I just wanted to have a different conversation about struggle.'

Grace talks about different kinds of struggle and the shame we feel when we talk about it.

'Sometimes the most dignity you can give somebody is to allow them to speak into your world, to allow them to help you.'

Graham and Grace then cover the topic of crisis management when it comes to work. They talk about their experiences when the lockdowns were fairly new and the challenges their team at Think Productive faced.

'We expect to feel tired or stressed or whatever, in the moment. But actually, sometimes it's not until afterwards that it catches up with us. I think, yes, we can absolutely respond to crisis but if that's ongoing, and we don't have time where we can collapse then actually that's not sustainable. That's when we get to burnout.'

Grace also discusses the importance of rest and why high achieving people are scared of it.

'I think you there's the reason why it's terrifying to rest is because it catches up with you. And when you rest is when everything catches up with you. It's when you can actually start to kind of process what's been going on rather than just react to it. There's also a lot of trust involved in rest, because you're stepping away and you're releasing, I guess some people say, the illusion of control, but like you're releasing control.'

Grace then also tells us about the 'three sh!ts' mentioned in her book and why it's important to recognize things that make life beautiful in these 'sh!tty' moments.

'It’s recognizing that actually, if you know that there is treasure to be found, then when you’re waiting in sh!t, yes, it is still sh!tty, but it’s not just sh!t. There will be light in the middle of that.'

Grace's book 'Struggle' is available on Amazon.

You can listen to Grace's first guesting on Beyond Busy here.

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced by Rizelle Paredes and is hosted by Podiant.

✔ Links: 

Subscribe to Graham's Newsletter: 

https://www.grahamallcott.com/sign-up​​

Buy “How to be a Productivity Ninja”: 

http://amazon.co.uk/dp/1785784617​​ 

Our Show Sponsors: Think Productive - Time Management Training:

http://www.thinkproductive.com​​

Useful links:

https://www.grahamallcott.com/links

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Graham and Sarah first talk about her 20 years of freelancing and what her freelancing journey has been like.

'I wanted to achieve that perfect sort of idyllic balance that we all think about when we think about going freelance, the flexibility and the freedom to kind of do the things you love, and also to get paid good money for doing the work that you enjoy. Working from home and maintaining a balance between running a freelance business and being a mom can be a challenge.'

Sarah covers the important topic of setting healthy boundaries and switching off.

'Anne Lamott said "almost everything will work again if you reboot it, including if you reset it, turn it off and on again", you know, that kind of concept. And it’s so true because we rarely think to do that with our brains. And we need to build in time to do the other things, the flow of activities that the things that you do - you lose track of time and you’re completely focused and mindful in the activity that you’re working on.'

Graham and Sarah also talk about how helpful the productivity hack called the “Pomodoro” technique is.

'I recommend every time you get your five-minute breaks, make sure you get up and away from your desk, have a bit of a shakeout.'

Sarah then talks about how curbing perfection can prevent procrastination.

'If you just actually realize that done is better than perfect. If you let the thing go, you know, when it’s good enough, it doesn’t have to be perfect and sometimes it’s just better to allow yourself the freedom to kind of put something out there that isn’t perfect.'

Sarah then ends the podcast by sharing her views about the importance of community over competition.

'That support that you can get from the people who do the same job as you can be just immense because they’ve been there and they’ve done it. And if they haven’t, and they’re new to the game, just think how much support you can give to them and you’re giving back to the community.'

You can find out more about Sarah on her website. Check out her book here: Survival Skills for Freelancers.

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced by Riz Paredes and is hosted by Podiant.

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Graham and Grace start the podcast by talking about issues on diversity and taking risks in career advancement.

'If you have skills, talents, and ability, even if they don’t match the role that you’re actually going for, a risk-loving person is much more likely to get it because they’ll be putting their hat in the ring much more often.'

Grace then discusses why diverse thinking is not confined to race or gender alone.

'Diversity is really only a pulse point for diversity of thinking. So, all the evidence that we have that says diversity is good in business comes from diverse thinking, and having people who have these different perspectives.'

Describing the book, Think Big, Grace breaks it down into how thinking big and acting small can help with achieving life goals.

'It’s about kind of reframing how we think about big achievements and demonstrating through behavioural science that it’s possible to have big achievements... if you’re a bit more patient with yourself and you commit to very, very small changes every week.'

Graham also asked about time auditing and how important it is to make time for other people and things in your life. Grace comes up with a great tip for those struggling in this area.

'If you’re somebody who says to yourself routinely, “I don’t have time to commit to small steps for my future.”, take a week and write everything that you actually did in the week and then look back and see whether things were actually productive, and what things you can actually cut out.'

Grace shares her battle with procrastination.

'With procrastination, just because you’re aware of it doesn’t mean that you will actually ever do anything about it. And not even that you’ll ever do anything about it, but it doesn’t mean that you’ll actually overcome it.'

Graham and Grace end the conversation by listing down valuable skills one can learn for the future.

'Definitely more tech and digital. But I really like soft skills. And the other reason why I like them is because, actually, they’ve been shown to be malleable across our lifetime. So, whereas it’s harder to teach people as they get older, digital skills, it’s very easy to teach them and to get them to improve on things like creativity, adaptability, and, curiosity.'

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced by Riz Paredes and is hosted by Podiant.

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Alex and Graham start out by discussing how Alex came to be the Chief Pirate and co-author of the book “How to Be More Pirate” with Sam Conniff Allende.

Alex mentions how being burnt out at work made her think about what she really wants to do with her life, and how using her background working in the RSA became a crucial part of building a community.

'I spent a bit of time really thinking about what I wanted to do, why I had ended up where I ended up, and what did I wasn’t really looking for out of my life and I basically just create some I just wrote some words. One of them was adventure. I then I broke it down a bit more and said like, I want a lack of routine. I want something more exciting. I want to connect with lots of different people, and I don’t know, a bit of serendipity, I think, and just be learning all the time.'

Alex tells us how pirates came to be and what a true pirate does is challenge how everyone else is thinking or acting a certain way.

'This is something I’ve learned through our community, that practicing challenge in the right way is really important. So you’re prepared, you’re confident, you’re not backing down, but you're understanding where the resistance is likely to be and take on board other people’s views.'

Graham invites Alex to share the Four Rules of Breaking the Tyranny of Emails.

'Break the tyranny of emails by thinking before an email: Can I have a conversation instead? Taking protected time away from email and spending it on focusing on the stuff that will make the biggest difference. Checking my tone, and my structuring my email in a way I’d be pleased to receive and if it’s bad news, I won’t deliver it by email. Four rules created to make e-mails better and quite simple.'

Alex sheds a bit more light on why the Pirate Code helps one think more creatively and how not being constrained by “rules” can be one of the best ways to face a challenging situation.

'That’s why I like people taking the ideas, and just making them their own and adapting and going “well this bit doesn’t work”. And for us, we need to do it this way. That’s why I say with the Pirate Code, like, there is no one way to do this. There’s no magic formula of principles that will make you right. It’s your culture, decide what works here based on the dynamics.'

Graham then asks Alex about “switching off”, how to create a healthy work-life balance and avoid burnout.

'It’s not just about the fact that I was productive at work. It’s about how I show up in every respect, and I need to protect that by limiting the stuff at work that drains me. So I think this is like a kind of reorientation; how we think about work.'

You may read all about the How to Be More Pirate movement here.

Listen to Sam Conniff Allende's Beyond Busy podcast interview here

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced by Riz Paredes and is hosted on Podiant.

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Nick starts by telling Graham how he got into the business of public speaking and the rise of TED talks and speakers.

'Everyone had their smartphones and people were watching the 17-minute speeches of TED speakers came to the realization that actually, thought leadership and people who can deliver an amazing experience, is the new rock and roll. It became quite a sexy thing to be discussing ideas and concepts from experience you’ve had listening to speakers.'

Anxiety and nerves have always been a challenge for new and experienced public speakers. One of the key elements to overcoming this, according to Nick, is creating a routine that takes you away from overthinking those nerves.

'What you have to do is embrace those nerves and not feed them - to not feed that feeling inside of you.'

Graham and Nick also talk about the “whys” of giving a speech and how important content is to deliver a speech that drives impact.

'I suppose my catchphrase is very much around its speaker understanding that they’re not the stars, the audience are the stars. And it’s that shift to understanding that the best speech - that kind of you could ever get, it’s not how you perceive the speech to be, it’s what people take when they leave that room.'

Nick ends the conversation with valuable tips on how to make a presentation with slides better, work-life balance and the highs and lows of the business of public speaking amid the pandemic.

Grab a copy of Nick Gold’s book "Speaking with Confidence" or get in touch with him by sending him an e-mail.

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced and edited by Riz Paredes and is hosted on Podiant.

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'I think that we are way happier when the work we do becomes our dream, not the other way around.'

Seth also talks about what being *on the hook* means and why it is important to commit to doing your best work at all times.

'This idea that our work pays forward, that it gives us a chance to make an impact as we'd like to have an impact made for us. I think that makes it a perfect circle.'

Focusing on being productive and writing, Seth does not believe that there is a special tactic that can unlock it.

'I find the strategy matters more than the tactic. And what's the difference? Strategy is something that doesn't change very often and that you can tell your competition about it and it won't make any difference.'

Curiosity is a big motivator for Seth. He outlines that skills are learned and that talent has nothing to do with how successful you can be.

'I don't believe in talent. I think almost nothing is innate. I've never met a six-month-old kid who could ride a bike or juggle or speak a sentence that was worth listening to. So somewhere along the way, we learn all these things. They're skills and being curious is definitely a skill. We end the conversation by talking about willpower and how developing this skill is essential to productivity.'

Don't forget to drop by Akimbo's Creative Worskhop.

Read more about what Seth is up to on his blog.

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced by Rizelle Marie Paredes and is hosted on Podiant.

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Therese's book is Let’s Talk: Make Effective Feedback Your Superpower.

Graham and Therese started by discussing music and sport, then transition into Therese’s experience of being given professional feedback in a less-than-professional setting.

'37% of managers dread giving feedback, but 67% of employees want more feedback.'

Centering on the US study cited in Therese’s book, she and Graham look at managers’ reluctance to give feedback, but also examine the benefits that regular feedback can bring and the emotional impact it can have.

'Appreciation, coaching, and evaluation.'

Taking three distinct viewpoints on management, Therese triangulates her approach to giving feedback, and then discusses ways to ask for feedback that is more specific and actionable.

'If you can say what was most important to the person, and how they felt about it, you’re on your way to becoming a really good listener.'

Therese outlines strategies for listening, identifying what’s most important to the person asking for feedback, and avoiding questions that can make people defensive.

'Do you want to promote the person who’s compassionate and helpful, or the person who’s a visionary game-changer?'

Drawing on Harvard research, Therese picks apart gender-biased language and its use in evolution, and the hiring and promotion of men vs women. She and Graham also discuss unconscious bias, and how identifying conscious biases doesn’t necessarily free us from them.

'Writing the book on productivity is like making a rod for your own back.'

Their conversation ends with the responsibilities of writing a book that sets an example and a meta discussion on receiving feedback on Therese’s book.

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced by Origin.

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'To be honest, it felt more like the majority of British media just hated our guts.'

After discussing working-from-home and audiobook recording, Cate talks openly about her time at the very beginning of BuzzFeed UK, before transitioning into founding the online women’s magazine BitchBuzz, which closed in 2013.

'This was not my fault, and all I can do now is be as honest and as supportive, and try to sort out what I can.'

Cate joined online women’s magazine The Pool, founded by Lauren Laverne and Sam Baker, which ran from 2015 to 2019. She discusses the difficult time she had as the magazine ran out of money, stopped paying freelancers and ultimately let go of its staff.

'So much of the problems at work are down to people’s individual mental health and lack of boundaries.'

In discussing her book, Cate talks about identifying herself by her job title, and forming strong relationships with the companies she works for. In her book and Dream Nation talk, Cate uncovers the less glamorous side of working for large organisations, including Google.

Speaking to Graham, she reveals her personal approach to happiness and success.

'How do we relate to other women, work with other women, and compete with other women in a healthy way and know that that’s a healthy thing to do?'

Graham and Cate tackle social media, and especially the effect comparison culture has on millennial women, and the personal pressures that are put on women in general.

'I cannot think about the “correct” way in which I am supposed to be managing this or going through some sort of corporate script or strategic negotiation mode.'

Drawing on her experiences working for a start-up called _DRIVETRIBE_ which was founded by Clarkson, Hammond and May as well as other moments from work, Cate gives her views on kindness at work, trust, empathy, and human connection.

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced by Radio Burrito.

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His conversation with Graham begins with travel hacks and preparedness.

'I got the job at Reuters because nobody else wanted to do it.'

Before the market crash in 2006, Tom worked as an energy broker and a funds manager before making a change in his 30s, moving to London and pursuing a new career in journalism, where he wrote about credit derivatives.

'Just because it feels intuitive doesn’t actually mean it’s true.'

Tom talks about his first book, which told “the inside story of BP”, and how a series of decisions would lead to a major oil spill. In Free Lunch Thinking, Tom “lifts the bonnet on economics”, examining cognitive bias and exposing the received wisdom many students of economics have taken for granted.

Tom recounts a telephone encounter he had with Donald Trump, after challenging the former US President’s claim to be a great businessperson. He and Graham then discuss Trump’s approach to truth.

'I had Donald Trump screaming down the phone at me, telling me that I was an idiot.'

Graham and Tom finish by talking about productivity, defining scope of work, and motivation.

'Productivity is about trying to break down a somewhat abstract idea or objective into clearly defined activities.'

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced by Origin.

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In this episode:

* Setting goals, with Ben and Jodie Cook

* Olympic ambition, with Heather Moyse

* Losing it all, with Gerald Ratner

* Money and negotiation, with Natalie Reynolds

* Family and reciprocity, with Abudu Sallam Waiswa

* Legacy, with Marie Forleo

* Making space, with Carl Honoré

* Enjoying the moment, with Jessica Fostekew

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

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In this episode:

* Boundaries, and the quest for acceptance, with Lorraine Pascale

* Achieving work-life balance, with Seyi Obakin

* Life hacks, with Katie Thistleton

* Learning from success, with Simon Woodroffe

* Criticism and writer’s block, with Grace Petrie

* Putting your heart and soul into the world, with Josie Long

* Toxic people, with Jonathan MacDonald

* Powerful acts of kindness, with Louai Al Roumani

* Leadership in turbulent times, with Tameika Isaac Devine

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

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In this episode:

* Minimalism and attention, with Cal Newport

* Storytelling, with Chester Osbourn

* Going solo at a young age, with Eman Ismail

* Navigating uncharted territories Erling Kagge

* Leadership and dividing up work, L David Marquet

* Speaking truth to power, with David McQueen

* The origins of F*ck Being Humble, with Stefanie Sword-Williams

* Investment and generosity, with Nick Jenkins

* Procrastination, with Rachel Parris

* Imposter syndrome, with Oliver Burkeman

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

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'War is 90% boredom, 10% action.'

Ben draws comparisons between the downtime in Afghanistan to the UK’s current lockdown, dispels the popular myth of warfare as being a constant stream of action, and explains how he used downtime as a way of processing the events of the 10%.

'Excellence, integrity, self-discipline, and humility.'

Ben describes the four values that are passed on to each Royal Marine, what they mean to him, and how they help him perform his duties the best he can.

'Inspiration, courage, enactment.'

After initially coming up with his ICE model fairly quickly during a PowerPoint presentation, Ben explains how he refined it, and how inspiration can help build courage during challenging times.

'We are England.'

Ben recounts his experience providing military training to the England football team, to help them realise the values they were being instilled with.

'Why do we need to leave it to the 31st December?'

Graham and Ben discuss goal-setting, new years’ resolutions, and finding out what motivates us.

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced by Origin.

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'There’s always too much to do.'

Oliver lays out one of the first core principles in his book, and states that we don’t have to be resigned to the fact we’ll never get everything done, but instead pivot to focusing on the things that are most essential.

'Choose enlargement over happiness.'

Oliver challenges the idea of happiness as a goal, instead choosing to ask the question of whether what we undertake enlarges or diminishes us.

'The solution to imposter syndrome is to see that you are one.'

Using the Covid pandemic as an example, Graham and Oliver discuss the idea that each of us is winging it, and that no-one really has the ultimate answer.

'You don’t start each morning in a kind of “productivity debt”.'

On the subject of productivity, Oliver renounces the idea that we're obligated to perform a certain number of tasks at a certain level of efficiency to reach an arbitrary productivity score by the end of the day, presenting instead the notion of accepting the consequences of what we do, or don't do each day.

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced by Origin.

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'I was making bad choices on a regular basis.'

Colette describes how her busy international career left no room for her to consider diet, and sapped her energy leaving her saying no to things she otherwise would have wanted to say yes to. This realisation led her to retrain as a nutritionist, leaving her former career behind.

'The title was broken.'

Graham describes how the previous incarnation of the book was difficult to position within the market, despite readers finding it to be a “hidden gem”.

'Choose how you want to feel.'

The first point in the book’s nine-point plan empowers us to make choices as to what we eat and drink.

'Eat the rainbow.'

By having a broader range of colours on our plate, we eat a broader range of nutrients, which is a factor that will improve our dietary health, so Colette describes how “each colour has different gifts to give us”.

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced by Origin.

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Graham opens with Sir David by talking about secrecy, and how information is revealed to the public after a long delay. They then discuss the gulf between film and TV depictions of intelligence gathering.

'You stay and make sure the job gets done.'

Sir David describes the attitude towards work-life balance, not only in intelligence work but also within civil service in general, which leads to a discussion on public service, and the importance of understanding what service really means.

'If you want to push change through, you’ve got to have a convincing story.'

Describing how GCHQ had to change and adapt to the digital revolution that started in the US, Sir David sets out his attitudes towards change, and how various government departments have previously resisted it.

'What do you need to know to make a sound decision?'

Sir David explains his SEES model through the prism of the current pandemic, which involves situational awareness, explanation, estimation, and strategic notice.

'In a crisis, sometimes you just have to act… Not acting has a very heavy price.'

During the early part of the Falklands campaign, Sir David sent a memo to the Ministry of Defence, encouraging the department to act now, and count the cost later. This leads into a discussion on modern counterterrorism strategy, which Sir David wrote and is still in use today.

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

The Kindness Happening Use the code `NINJA15` to get 15% off the ticket price for Graham and Christina’s Kindness Happening event.

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The episode features one of Think Productive’s free webinars on the productivity of kindness.

'Rejecting the “business baddy” narrative.'

Graham begins by talking about some of the leaders who’ve gained prominence in recent memory, and dispels the myth that you have to be ruthless and uncaring in order to succeed. He also discusses trust, and how building trust increases the likelihood of people wanting to work with you more than once.

'The seven traits of kind leaders.'

Chris and Graham layout their core values for successful, kind leadership:

* Clear vision and values

* Focus

* People first, work second, always

* Self-awareness

* Trust-building

* Being a cultural architect

* Humility

'Kind people stand for things, but value and respect other people in the process.'

Chris describes how being kind is about telling the truth for the benefit of the receiver, rather than being “nice” and avoiding conflict. She also defines the “dirty yes” as nodding your head in a meeting, and then using a backchannel to say no.

'That sucked, but I love you.'

Chris continues with the idea of constructive feedback, delivering constructive criticism with generosity, with the goal of ensuring the person’s intention matches their impact.

'Making space for what matters.'

Graham closes the main body of the webinar by talking about putting people first in all situations, and recognising that people always come before the task.

### Questions: Chris and Graham then take questions from participants in the webinar on:

* how to deal with “brutal feedback”

* the risk in trust and autonomy

* balancing client needs with team needs

* moving from niceness to kindness

* putting people first, when under pressure

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced by Origin.

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'If they can do that, so can I.'

Eleanor talks about how people’s apparent success in difficult times like redundancy can act as fuel, or can knock us sideways. She and Graham also explore the notion that redundancy offers the opportunity for people to think about what they’d like to do next, and that this thought is not a luxury.

'I’m not a different person than I was the day before I didn’t get the book.'

Eleanor shares her experiences as a newly-published author working with Penguin, crediting her book coach and now agent with securing her a deal.

'We live in this space thinking that everyone’s going to care, and it holds us back.'

After working in a corporate space, Eleanor wanted to try something a little different, so she discusses how she set up a market stall, selling beach towels, which gave her a unique insight into starting a new business after losing a job. She also discusses her challenges with imposter syndrome and dealing with others’ negative judgements.

'If you miss something, go and put it right.'

Graham and Eleanor talk about regrets, and the feeling of needing to escape, and how taking a break with a cup of tea can help alleviate some of that. They also cover discuss productivity, focusing on Eleanor’s analogue approach.

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced by Origin.

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How do you know someone is genuinely listening to you?

Max talks about the difference between active listening and listening to a scene partner in improv, then both he and Graham discuss their experiences in therapy, and how they can make sense of reactions they judge themselves harshly for.

Yes, and

Graham and Max run through improv’s first rule, which allows for scenes to develop organically through agreement and heightening, then Max explains how repeatedly hearing no prevents us from making more risky decisions. He and Graham then plan a party.

Sweep the scene.'

Max shares his views on productivity for creative people, including saving parts of his book that his editor has cut, drawing a line under an experience, a project or a single task and being able to start afresh.

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced by Origin.

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'I came to the conclusion that banking was broken.'

After working at traditional banks like RBS, Lloyds and the Bank of Switzerland, Anne found the industry to be too inward-focused, and largely untouched by consumer tech. Although Starling is a tech-forward company, Anne is quick to point out that customers still get 24/7 phone support, and describes how many struggle with money, and what she sees as Starling’s role in helping people better manage their finances.

'The only thing that was different was the colour of the carpets.'

After speaking with lots of banks following her work with AIB in Ireland, Anne started talking to tech firms instead, and came to the conclusion that if she started from scratch, she could build something with a new way of relating to customers.

'I do all my emails myself.'

Graham and Anne get geeky about productivity, and email management in particular, with Anne revealing her system for processing incoming email in seconds.

'I built a team and lost them.'

Anne candidly recounts how a member of her team resigned, raised money and formed his own competing bank. She also describes working with people with differing personalities, and how she has tried to soften the relationship between the two companies.

'There aren’t any books about starting a bank.'

Employees at Starling don’t put on presentations for each other, or take undue risks. Anne describes how the Lean Startup methodology worked in the early stages, but how that model is challenged when starting-up in a heavily-regulated industry.

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced by Origin.

✔ Links: 

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Useful links:

https://www.grahamallcott.com/links[Graham Allcott](http://www.grahamallcott.com/) is the founder of [time management training](http://thinkproductive.co.uk/ "Link: http://thinkproductive.co.uk/") company [Think Productive](http://thinkproductive.co.uk/). This podcast is produced by [Origin](https://origin.fm/).

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'You’re either going to work forty years until you die, or you’re going to be able to create your own wealth… so take a shot at the second thing.'

Midway through watching War Dogs and being frustrated at the lack of business acumen from one of the characters, Colin paused the film and wrote a business plan for a bed sheet company. Almost instantly he happened upon the name Sheets & Giggles, and bought sheetsgiggles.com straightaway. Three months later, he was laid off from his job, and three weeks after receiving this blow, he founded Sheets & Giggles.

'Spellable, sharable, memorable.'

Colin shares his rules for company branding, one of the most important of which is connoting or denoting what the company does.

'Your greatest weakness is your empathy for others.'

Colin recounts being told this at the hedge fund he was let go from in his early 20s, and how the toxic work environment he suffered informs the way he works with his own team now.

'People hire people who are like themselves.'

After describing his frustrations with the “arbitrariness of the American workday”, Colin sets out the way he recruits, by looking for people who share similar drives or methods of working, while being aware of the issue of hiring people that look like the founder.

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced by Origin.

✔ Links: 

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'We’re not just economic human beings.'

The discussion dives deep into the cognitive biases that shape how we frame world events like the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit.

'Don’t think that you’re going to get better at it on your own.'

Olivier describes one of the “Nine Traps” outlined in his book, The Confidence Trap, and how that can affect planning and productivity. He also recommends putting a system in place to overcome cognitive biases.

Graham and he also discuss group think, and the propensity for groups to converge on decisions too quickly, and Olivier offers advice on encoring healthy disagreement in meetings.

Dialogue, divergence and dynamics

Both fans of the Checklist Manifesto, Olivier discusses with Graham how checklists can be more intelligently deployed so they’re not simply rote lists of tasks that require no initiative. Olivier then outlines his three Ds of decision architecture, that encourage real dialogue, challenge some preconceived notions around diversity of thinking.

It’s OK to fail honourably

The discussion draws to a close with a discussion on humility, and Olivier’s take on work-life balance.

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced by Origin.

✔ Links: 

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Daniel turned a business that was contracting into a growing one, overseeing a new iteration of the product that has gained mass adoption, and focusing the offering around team-based productivity.

Repeatably excellent design

Daniel talks about being a “designer CEO”, his former job at Apple, joining Square and forming the investment company Blackletter Ventures.

'If you want a team with world-class performers…you need to have a high bar.'

Drawing on inspiration from the founder of Visa, Daniel shares his approach to leadership, setting high standards and managing laterally, rather than always from the top down.

'Give yourself the chance to compound.'

Both Graham and Daniel open up about suffering from work-related depression, and Daniel shares how he came to realise he was depressed and so could work to reduce overwhelm and take time to reflect.

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced by Origin.

✔ Links: 

Subscribe to Graham's Newsletter: 

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Graham and Ray begin by discussing the impact the pandemic has had on the City of London, and how the financial industry has dealt, and continues to deal, with the uncertainty that surrounds it.

'If I had to pick one factor which can really influence and enhance your sleep, it’s the concept of going to bed and rising at the same time, even at weekends.'

Working through his framework for productivity, Ray explains how rhythm and regularity in sleep, and getting the right amount of sleep can make us more productive. He also advocates for focusing on gut health, testing gut tolerance, and using that information to improve diet and possibly mood.

'Softer skills matter more than absolute levels of intelligence.'

Hard work and humility are two key traits that Ray values and looks for when recruiting. Graham and he discuss ways to assess these traits, focusing on the candidate as a person, rather than simply an applicant for a job.

'If happiness is out of reach, aim for contentment.'

After covering the mind and the body, Ray and Graham turn to the spirit, and focus on what happiness can achieve, rather than how to attain happiness through productivity or success.

'Shinrin-yoku is my top tip.'

In lieu of something to promote, Ray finishes by sharing a recent discovery, that he has found to be “an amazing experience”.

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced by Origin.

✔ Links: 

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Fred lays out the difference between management and strategic consulting, creating space for structured brainstorming, and solving complex problems.

'Being strategic is a skill, and you can learn it.'

There are four key ways of solving problems, which Fred has identified as the Expert Way, the Analytical Way, the Creative Way and the Strategic Way. He also outlines the Strategic Rollercoaster, which charts the interactivity between creative and analytical thinking.

'You have to be Tigger before you’re Eeyore.'

Graham and Fred discuss W Chan Kim’s successor to the golden rule: “treat others as they would like to be treated”, breaking complex problems down into threes, and the Happy Line.

'There are three different types of jobs: product, process, performance.'

Finally, Fred reveals how he’s able to read between 20 and 30 business books in a month, and shares his skepticism of the “productivity industrial complex”.

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced by Origin.

✔ Links: 

Subscribe to Graham's Newsletter: 

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Buy “How to be a Productivity Ninja”: 

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Our Show Sponsors: Think Productive - Time Management Training:

http://www.thinkproductive.com​​

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Together, they co-authored the book, Humour, Seriously.

'It’s a lot easier and more accessible than people think, to tap into their sense of humour.'

The two met when Jennifer asked Naomi to be a guest lecturer at Stanford, where Naomi had the students in hysterics.

The conversation kicks off in musical fashion, with Graham put on the spot and asked to sing an intro, and continues with a discussion on the importance of bringing levity into the workplace and preventing us from “dropping off the humour cliff” as we age.

Jennifer and Naomi bust the myth that you have to be funny from birth, and offer four options to help you find your humour style: Magnet, Sniper, Standup, or Sweetheart.

'Humour does not exist in a vacuum — it’s all about the context and relationship you have [with the audience].'

As well as discussing where humour can be considered appropriate or not, Jennifer and Naomi also offer their techniques for observational humour: finding unusual moments in life that can be made fun of.

There are also some handy tips for thoroughly inappropriate use of your email signature or post-scripts.

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced by Origin.

✔ Links: 

Subscribe to Graham's Newsletter: 

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NK formed his company, Jaipur Rugs, with a $200 loan from his dad, but was struck by the class system in India that drew strict divisions between his cast and the cast of his weavers. When he began to expand outside of Jaipur, he was advised against working with a Gujarati tribe.

'People can beat you, people can kill you. They are the tribal people, and they are not very welcoming to the outsider.'

Undaunted, NK sought advice from a friend and mentor, who encouraged him to work with the tribe, but with love, compassion and empathy to counteract the experiences of exploitation the tribe had faced in the past. NK ended up staying for nine years, training fifteen thousand Gujarati tribespeople in the art of rug-making.

'I’m a weaver, so you are going to study in America as the daughter of a weaver, and never forget this.'

In the intervening years, NK fathered three daughters. The idea that he didn’t have any sons was viewed as an “impurity” by members of his family, so NK went back to his mentor who advised him to redouble the care and attention he was already showing his girls, treating them with the same respect as he might a son.

'We sell the stories, we sell the experiences, and our carpet is free.'

NK saw his business from the beginning as having two important endpoints: that of the consumer and of the weaver, and that it was his mission to connect the two. In this way, the lives of the weavers who work part-time to produce a rug that can take up to six months to finish, are an inextricable part of the product.

The search for divine soul

After becoming dissatisfied with what he saw as unconscious behaviour and negativity, NK worked on reframing his thoughts and reflecting on his actions, which flowed into the business and resulted in the renaming of his HR department to “the search for divine soul”. He encouraged his team to focus on the inward qualities of job candidates, rather than the outward expression of clothing and presentation.

He offers his advice on increasing self-awareness, and developing practise along with furthering knowledge, gives us his take on meditation, and emphasises the importance of love as a driving factor in what we do.

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management training company Think Productive.

This podcast is produced by Origin.

✔ Links: 

Subscribe to Graham's Newsletter: 

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Our Show Sponsors: Think Productive - Time Management Training:

http://www.thinkproductive.com​​

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'I’ve learned to see the value in the way that I see connections that other people don’t see.'

Francis trained as an interfaith minister, helping to remind people of their intrinsic worth, and reframe what they see as failings or flaws in themselves, as an opportunity to become more whole, connected, aware and vibrant.

'Wisdom is cultivated within the span of a lifetime.'

Graham and Francis discuss theism in its many forms, how writings of today echo work that has been read for generations, and explore the inevitability of death.

Responsibility, presence and integrity are three tenets Francis has taken from his years of interfaith study. In this episode, he expands on these learnings, and how they apply to everyday work and life.

Graham Allcott is the founder of time management trainingcompany Think Productive.