Wow @ Work Stephen Dargan

Ethical marketing is a vital ingredient to a workplace where everyone feels good about themselves. The alignment of values, purpose, and how the organisation treats its suppliers and customers can be a big contributor to workplace happiness.


Simon Batchelar is the author of Reframing Marketing, and has been a marketing mentor for the past 20 years. Simon has a unique perspective on ethical marketing, and believes that marketing should align with the values of the company. This means it’s not good enough simply to talk the talk – organisations must put into practice the values they espouse.


Links


Reframing Marketing – Simon’s book
Scientific Advertising, by Claude C Hopkins
The Century of the Self – Adam Curtis documentary
Sustainable Marketing: How to Drive Profits with Purpose, by Michelle Carvill, Gemma Butler, and Geraint Evans
Can Marketing Save the Planet?
The Ethical Move

When SEO agency Reddico made employee wellbeing a key requirement, it accelerated their approval as a B Corp. Reddico's approach to unlimited holidays and self-managed teams shows that implementing these policies as part of a larger strategy can lead to positive results, like decreased sickness rates and increased trust within the team.


In his conversation with Stephen, Reddico’s Head of Culture Luke Kyte advises us not to copy what other companies are doing wholesale, but to adapt and build upon ideas to create something unique that works for each organisation.


Links


Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage in Human Consciousness, by Frederic Laloux
The Happy Manifesto: Make Your Organisation a Great Workplace - Now! by Henry Stewart
Maverick!: The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace, by Ricardo Semler
From software to sustainable fashion – a story of purpose and impact – Wow@Work with Apurva Kothari

Since 1995, over 300,000 Indian farmers have taken their own lives. When software engineer Apurva Kothari read about this, he was compelled to leave his dream job and return to India to do something about it.


Apurva is a software engineer who fulfilled the dream of many young boys by working as a software consultant in San Francisco, New York, and eventually Sydney. However, while in New York, Apu read an article about the cotton crisis in Indian farming, and learned that 300,000 farmers from India had taken their own lives, with these deaths linked to GM farming in the country.


This tragedy prompted Apu to leave software engineering behind and create a sustainable clothing company called No Nasties in 2011. No Nasties uses only organic cotton and other sustainable materials, closely monitors and informs the consumer about the carbon footprint of their products, and even has a returns policy for used clothing.


Through his chat with Stephen, you'll gain a greater understanding of the unsustainable nature of our current consumerism model and learn how to purchase clothing in a more ethical way.



Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.


– Mahatma Gandhi



Links


Connect with Apurva on LinkedIn
No Nasties – Sustainable clothing made in India
The story behind Monsanto’s malicious monopolies in India

What if work didn’t have to be miserable? What if the memes people shared to help them get through the week weren’t needed? Beth Stallwood began asking these questions through her work as a coach, and during lockdown started putting her ideas down on paper.


Beth is a coach, facilitator, speaker, consultant, and author who has spent 20 years developing her approach to helping individuals and organisations with their people challenges. Her book on finding joy in work is a practical guide to creating a balance between work and life. She believes that work is a part of life and not the other way around, and that boundaries between work and leisure have been disappearing for the past 20 years.


The book provides a step-by-step process to help readers identify areas of their work life that can be improved and create a plan for achieving balance and joy. She emphasises that work should not be a source of stress, but rather a source of satisfaction and fulfilment.


Beth’s five tips for creating work joy


Take control and take action. You're accountable for your job satisfaction. It's your responsibility, not your boss's, organisation's, or colleagues'.
Choose your workmates wisely. When job hunting, interview bosses too. Get an idea of the boss-employee relationship.
Understand what brings you joy. Your brain will unconsciously seek out joy, so take the time to figure out what sparks it and what brings gloom.
Engage your squad. Turn to your network and rely on them for help, challenge, and motivation. Understand who they are and use them to your advantage.
Define boundaries and communicate to others. Hold some firm, flexibly adjust others. Eg: if you don't want to work after 6 PM, let people know. Open conversation can follow.


Links


Connect with Beth on LinkedIn
WorkJoy: A Toolkit for a Better Working Life – Beth’s book
The Bournville Story (Cadbury factory and housing for workers)
“Computer says no” – Little Britain
Alive at Work: The Neuroscience of Helping Your People Love What They Do, by Daniel M Cable
B******t Jobs: The Rise of Pointless Work, and What We Can Do About it, by David Graeber (ABeth’s website
Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workshop, by Ricardo Semler
The Long Win: The Search for a Better Way to Succeed, by Cath Bishop
Download Beth’s WorkJoy worksheet
WorkJoy Jam – Beth’s podcast

When his wife left him and the business they’d built, Ray Martin found himself feeling like a character in a play, with no script and no idea what to say next. Returning from a trip to Australia presented the possibility that he could rewrite that character, and change the story entirely.


Ray is an entrepreneur and award-winning business leader. Inspired by Bronnie Ware, author of The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, he left England to answer the question “How do I live true to myself from this moment onwards?”His nomadic adventure went global, from London to Chiang Mai, New York, the Himalayas and beyond, and unexpectedly lasted fourteen years.


Ray joins Stephen to discuss his new book, ***************Life Without a Tie***************, and share some of the incredible stories and insight he picked up along the way.


Links


Connect with Ray on LinkedIn
Life Without a Tie – Ray’s book
Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing, by Bronnie Ware
Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life, by Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus
Stuffocation: Living More with Less, by James Wallman
\Undefended Love: The Way That You Felt About Yourself When You First Fell in Love is the Way You Can Feel All the Time, by Jett Psaris and Marlena Lyons
You Can Change Your Life: With the Hoffman Process, by Tim Laurence

People transitioning from working five days to working four are getting the same amount of work done. Joe O'Connor from the Work Time Reduction Center of Excellence discovered this when speaking with women who’d come back from maternity leave, who were being given the same amount of responsibility but for four fifths the pay.


In his discussion with Stephen, Joe posits that organisations will need to compete for new talent on quality-of-life. And at the forefront of that is reducing – not simply compressing – the amount of time we spend working.


In his work with 4 Day Global, Joe discovered that 80% output was already in place, but that it was “buried under the rubble of wasteful practices”. Digging through that rubble means putting in place ways to signpost when team members are in deep work, and focusing on the drivers of results rather than the mere amount of effort.


Links


Follow Joe on LinkedIn
Follow the Work Time Reduction Center of Excellence on LinkedIn
Follow them on Twitter
Press release on the Center opening
Work Time Reduction Assessment
Joe’s announcement post on LinkedIn