Kate Murphy is the author a new book called Why We Click . It combines the very latest research into interpersonal synchrony - how we form bonds with others. It's an intriguing read - at times compelling, at times challenging. I chatted to her to understand 'the bad apple effect' and her take on whether we need face-to-face communication at all costs. There's a full transcript on the website. Sign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever episodes at the website . Eat Slee...
May 07, 2026•47 min•Season 12Ep. 229
Dr Gillian Sandstrom is a researcher whose work explores her fascination with our conversations with other people - whether colleagues, friends or strangers. She’s just published a fabulous new book ‘Once Upon A Stranger’ . Her work says that we often have a ‘liking gap’ when we talk to people - we think they like us less than we like them - even if they are work colleagues. It turns out not to be true - our co-workers like us more than we realise. It's a brilliant discussion - and potentially a...
Apr 16, 2026•47 min•Season 12Ep. 228
A return interview with Dr Pippa Grange, a performance ("regenerative") psychologist who has worked with the England men's football team and who has earned the admiration of Brene Brown. I'm always excited to hear from the likes of Pippa, elite practioners who have earned the respect of the most respected high performers in the world. Pippa has a new book out, Life Reclaimed , which is a reflection on burnout, the need for overperformance and how to achieve balance in life. It's partly informed ...
Apr 02, 2026•40 min•Season 12Ep. 227
I saw a post by Professor Rob Briner about the enigma of psychological safety , and in the replies it was discussed that in fact PS isn't so much an enigma, there's evidence that it is the output of group identity. It felt important to talk to Katrien Fransen about her work exploring this. This conversation (and the papers that led into it) were real penny drop moments for me. There's a full transcript on the website. Check out more: We spend a lot of time talking about Katrien’s paper: The impa...
Mar 14, 2026•55 min•Season 12Ep. 226
Today's conversation is with Professor Benjamin Laker , someone I've long admired for his cutting edge work on the evolution of culture. His article on Meeting Free Days is probably the piece of research I've shared the most in the last 5 years. Laker is Professor of Leadership at Henley Business School, which is part of the University of Reading. As well as writing multiple bestselling books on work like Too Proud to Lead and Job Crafting , he's also published dozens of articles in HBR and MIT ...
Feb 26, 2026•47 min•Season 12Ep. 225
Daniel Coyle returns to reflect on what has changed since we last spoke. He's moved attention to an examination of what contributes to us getting a fulfilling experience from work - and life. We talk attention, community and the way that great teams demonstrate 'group flow'. We also delve into some research by Nick Epley that I've covered on the newsletter, that suggests we're terrible at predicting what will make us happy. If you like this check out the previous episodes with Daniel: Dan Coyle ...
Feb 03, 2026•39 min•Season 12Ep. 224
I'm joined by Daniel Zhao, chief economist of Glassdoor, who talks me through their new rankings of the best places to work in 2026. It's an intriguing list, is a car wash really better than some of the most famous tech brands in the world? The ranking allows us to explore what we want in a job: culture, connection, progression and autonomy. Bad culture is 7 times more powerful driving quitting than salary: hear Charlie and Donald Sull talk about Glassdoor data Glassdoor: Top US places to work G...
Jan 27, 2026•22 min•Season 12Ep. 223
Kevin Green is the Chief People Officer for First Group. He's set about reinventing the culture of the organisation from the ground up. I heard Kevin speak at an event last year was completely bowled over by the way he talked about culture and the way he was trying to build it. I think you'll love this discussion. There's a full transcript on the website. Also mentioned: Waitrose culture episode with Lord Mark Price Sign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever episodes a...
Jan 23, 2026•32 min•Season 12Ep. 222
Dr Karen Bridbord is the author of a new book, The Relationship-Driven Leader that invites us to bring a psychologist's lens to our job and the relationships with those around us. Her perspective is to use psychology to understand the person in front of you to interpret the world through their eyes. If you’ve got a controlling boss or someone who behaves in a way that impacts your life she helps you unpick what’s going in their head. The Relationship-Driven Leader: Strengthening Connections to E...
Dec 01, 2025•43 min•Season 12Ep. 221
Gen Z have been shaped by recessions, the pandemic, geopolitical instability, not to mention financial insecurity and world changing technology. That's the finding of the Edelman Gen Z Lab as told to me by the leader of the project Jackie Cooper. Most powerfully she explains that Gen Z's have a ' visceral need for safety' - that's financial, social, cultural and even physical. They respond to fear by asking questions and wanting to be heard , which older generations often misread as entitlement ...
Nov 25, 2025•39 min•Season 12Ep. 220
Most company training is a waste of time that turns firms into bureaucratic sludge holes. That’s roughly the conclusion of today’s episode which is a conversation with Andre Spicer and Mats Alvesson They have a new book out The Art of Less . Andre has been a guest a few times before - way back in 2018. This podcast is old. In 2018 this podcast was ahead of Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO at the top of the podcast charts. ( Andre talking about open plan offices ) The idea that much of what compa...
Nov 11, 2025•42 min•Season 12Ep. 219
Jeremy Holt is a psychologist and leadership coach who has spent more than 20 years helping teams get better. Read his research about better team results. This episode is the third part of a series about the power of identity in teams. Listen to the other Eat Sleep Work Repeat episodes about identity. Jeremy posting about identity Watch the Lebron documentary More Than a Game Jeremy's book For the Love of the Game Sign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever episodes at ...
Nov 02, 2025•45 min•Season 12Ep. 218
This is the second part of an interview with Professor Alex Haslam, the world's leading voice on the study of social identity. You can hear the first part of this interview on the website. In this discussion we talk how social identity can help us understand leadership. Alex talks about the CARE model of leadership. C - Create the group A - Advance the group (sometimes over themselves) R - Represent the group E - Embed the group identity in everyday life for the group If you're interested in exp...
Oct 27, 2025•52 min•Season 12Ep. 217
“ Why are we so fixated on the individual self? I think it was a big con. The individual self is a relatively modern invention. The idea that human psychology is about the individual self was really an analytical fiction that was devised in the 20th century.” This is the first part of a wide-ranging discussion with Professor Alex Haslam. He talks us why our group identities are so essential to us and define who we are as adults. He quotes his mentor John Turner who said, 'Social identity is what...
Oct 21, 2025•43 min•Season 12Ep. 216
Simon Gilbody talks loneliness at work The Loneliness of the American Worker - Wall Street Journal Make Work Better on loneliness More on solving loneliness Loneliness in teams Derek Thompson on elective isolation Professor Simon Gilbody is a psychiatrist and clinical epidemiologist at the University of York. His work specialises in 'taking a population approach to mental health', trying to understand the aspects of modern life that contribute to how we feel. I was impressed by a talk that Simon...
Oct 14, 2025•46 min•Season 12Ep. 215
This sponsored episode is brought to you by Deliveroo for Work Spencer Walker is the global director of Deliveroo for Work. The podcast has returned several times to the idea of food as a cultural trigger, something that catalyses connection and allows cohesion. We explore that idea further this week with Spencer Walker who runs Deliveroo For Work the workplace service provided by the delivery firm. The Deliveroo Feeding Employee Engagement Report I mention a book by Robin Dunbar and Samantha Ro...
Oct 09, 2025•35 min•Season 12Ep. 214
Delighted to post this small conversation with Nick Shackleton-Jones. Nick posts brilliantly witty rants on TikTok that are just the best things I hear about work and the futility of bureaucracy. TikTok is a fame machine and if creators drop a banger they can end up reaching a vast audience. Nick has posted some content about work, neurodiversity and philosophy that has had millions of views. It was his take on why middle aged men wanted to return to the office that I put in the newsletter last ...
Sep 26, 2025•23 min•Season 12Ep. 213
If we shifted our focus from the individual to the collective how different would our results at work be? I'm joined by Colin Fisher who explains that great teams are the most important contributors to great outcomes at work. The problem is that for many of our teams they are equal to less than the sum of the parts. Groups get bigger and bigger and stop being effective. Managers avoid having discussions about trimming teams down - and it leads to failure. Colin's new book The Collective Edge bre...
Sep 21, 2025•40 min•Season 12Ep. 212
It’s been a while since I revisited a conversation on offices and how our physical workspaces are evolving. Disruption has made the property business hugely raise their games. With 20-25% of Gen Z workers self reporting having issues of neurodivergency the office is trying to prove that it's still the centre of great workplace cultures. I chatted to Susan Carruth , a partner a 3XN, an architecture firm who is pioneering thinking about the needs of occupants and Mike Wiseman Head of Campuses at B...
Sep 12, 2025•33 min•Season 12Ep. 211
Last month the FInancial Times published an article by John Burn Murdoch in the form of an analysis of personality data, specifically looking at what are styled the Big Five personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Typically these five factors are regarded as a statistically reliable way to measure personality. Unlike approaches like Myers Briggs these factors prove consistent over time and psychologists took a view that much of the variance ...
Sep 05, 2025•24 min•Season 12Ep. 210
Sign up for the newsletter A couple of years ago, I was surrounded with so many happy Spurs fans that I bought into the euphoric buzz they were giving off. Ange Postecoglou had brought the smile back to Tottenham supporters. I chatted to Charlie Eccleshare from The Athletic about the cultural reinvention that the Australian manager that enacted. Reader, the Big Ange story didn't end well as a result a lot of fans of other clubs regularly message me asking about the episode, or my opinion of Post...
Aug 11, 2025•42 min•Season 12Ep. 209
I’m often asked asked which company cultures I admire, especially as I tend to be critical of the culture inside tech firms. It’s easy to have good vibes in small firms but organisations who manage to deliver good culture at scale are the ones I’m most interested in. I often call out Nando’s or Octopus Energy. I was delighted to get the chance to talk to the CEO of Octopus Energy Group, Greg Jackson. I’ve often reflected that the best cultures seem to be codified and made explicit, but Octopus’s...
Jul 30, 2025•36 min•Season 12Ep. 208
T his is the second episode this month about AI and the implications for our jobs. Two weeks ago I went along to a huge event run by Workday down in North Greenwich. Workday, their partners and their customers took to the stage to talk about applications of AI that are coming to their platform. As part of the event I was able to run a discussion with a couple of voices from the company who are helping businesses navigate the challenges that AI presents to us. Sign up for the newsletter More abou...
Jun 06, 2025•42 min•Season 12Ep. 207
Sign up to the newsletter First of two episodes going deep on how AI is going to impact work - and therefore workplace culture and dynamics. This week is with Alexia Cambon from Microsoft. Alexia is Head of Research on Copilot & Future of Work. Last month her team released the Work Trend Index Annual Report. It’s one of the most important pieces of insight into how our jobs will change. Their previous reports have been interesting going deep into how people are experimenting with AI but this...
May 26, 2025•34 min•Season 12Ep. 206
"There's this concept called inbox zero, where everyone tries to get to their inbox down to zero. But I would suggest that a more noble pursuit is that of calendar zero". I chatted to Howard Lerman this week. I was blown away by this discussion - it captured exactly what is wrong about current work, and why back-to-back meetings are going to lead to many organisations missing the opportunity of this vital moment. This is an essential listen - about where work is imminently going and how Howard's...
Apr 28, 2025•34 min•Season 12Ep. 205
When Zach Mercurio’s new book, The Power of Mattering , arrived on my desk I devoured it. It’s the most essential book about workplace culture that I’ve read in a couple of years. Read a full transcript and notes on the website. Read more : Wall Street Journal: The Power of Mattering at Work Order the book: The Power of Mattering Sign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever episodes at the website . Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley . Hosted on Ac...
Apr 13, 2025•48 min•Season 12Ep. 204
The next two podcasts I see as a piece with each other, today is about meaning the next one is about mattering. Collectively I feel they present serious substance about the foundations of good culture. Read Meaningful Work Read the latest newsletter There’s some overlap - the authors today,Tamara Myles and Wes Adams, have done research with next week’s guest Zach Mercurio. One of today’s guests Tamara Myles said one of the most powerful questions you can ask to measure engagement at work is to a...
Apr 06, 2025•32 min•Season 12Ep. 203
Sign up for the newsletter Someone posted on LinkedIn that the podcast had died. Or I had died. But he is risen! I'm back with a great discussion, powerful in its simplicity. Psychologists Dr. Patricia Grabarek and Dr. Katina Sawyer have created a guidebook for anyone who wants to make things better for their teams. In it they suggest that managers need to set the tone for our colleagues. Yes, of course I hear you say but it's so often something that the hectic buzz of work distracts us from. As...
Mar 21, 2025•32 min•Season 12Ep. 202
Join 100,000 other workplace culture enthusiasts by signing up for the Make Work Better newsletter Interested in how skills could enhance your business? Check out the short film I made with the Department for Education. Get in touch with Bruce What do your typos say about you? What's the right medium to build connection with your colleagues? How did Shopify and Netflix reinvent their communication? How can any of us navigate a bulging calendar and overloaded inbox? Professor Andrew Brodsky gives...
Jan 23, 2025•35 min•Season 12Ep. 201
Interested in how skills could enhance your business? Check out the short film I made with the Department for Education. Sign up for the newsletter Today's episode is an Avengers Assembled of podcasts about work. I join host Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis from the Squiggly Careers podcast, as well as Isabel Berwick from the FT's Working It and Jimmy McCloughlin from Jimmy's Jobs. We talk AI, asking payrises, RTO and much more. Sign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever e...
Jan 08, 2025•40 min•Season 12Ep. 200
