
249 episodes

Being Human Richard Atherton
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- Business
Being Human is for people who want go deep on what it means to be a human making a difference.
We’ll discover how to be better humans at work and in life.
We’ll explore leadership, relationships and how to make changes in ourselves and our environments. Nothing will be off limits. Welcome.
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#249 Why Managers Matter - with Peter G. Klein
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This week I speak with Peter G. Klein, economist and co-author of Why Managers Matter: The Perils of the Bossless Company.Having been a veritable fanboy of super flat organisations since the start of my business career, this week we hear from the other side of the argument. We talk:
Myths and reality of 'bossless' organisations
Do flat organisations perform better?
Are people really better off without bosses?
Management for knowledge workers
Humanising bureaucracies
Links:Why Managers Matter - The BookPeter's Website -
#248 Sawdust on the Factory Floor - with Melissa Swift
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This week I speak with Melissa Swift, author of the book Work Here Now: Think Like a Human and Build a Powerhouse Workplace.Sawdust on the factory floor is the metaphor Melissa uses to describe the modern workplace. Just as un-cleared sawdust was a safety hazard in 1800s factories, our accelerated work regimes imperil workers today. As Transformation Leader at HR-focussed consultancy Mercer, Melissa has developed a suite of strategies to build thriving workplaces. We talk:
Intensification of work
Perils of modern tech
Trauma awareness
How we recover
Rituals to rehumanise work
Links:Work Here Now - The BookMelissa's LinkedInMelissa's Twitter -
#247 Handling Work Conflict - with Liz Kislik
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This week I speak with Liz Kislik, a management consultant, executive coach, and prolific Harvard Business Review and Forbes contributor.During her time consulting businesses of all types and sizes for over 30 years, Liz has developed a wealth of experience in dealing with workplace conflict. We usually think of conflict as something that happens between people, but people are just the part of the story that’s easiest to see.We talk:
The key elements of conflict
Where to start with addressing conflict
Zooming out
The issue with "I statements"
Building relationships at work
Links:Liz's Website -
#246 Developing Trauma Awareness - with Richard Atherton
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This week I go solo to share my perspective on the topic of trauma awareness in the workplace.Taking hints from the work of Dr Ingeborg Bosch and Daniela Seiff, both previous guests on the show, I talk:
Defining trauma
Why awareness is important
How we defend against trauma
Signs that people are triggered
Links:Dr. Ingeborg Bosch's EpisodeDaniela Seiff's Episode -
#245 The Mindful Leader - with Reiner Kraft, PhD
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This week I speak with human potential coach and technology leader Reiner Kraft, Phd.While working as the director of engineering at Yahoo, he started to notice a decrease in his performance, and early signs of burnout, ultimately culminating in getting hospitalised for an anxiety episode. He realised he needed to change. So began a journey of mindfulness and meditation. Reiner is a prolific innovator with 120 patents to his name. He is now employing these talents in his data-driven & scientific approach to mindful leadership and stress resilience. We talk:
Measuring the empty mind
The first steps to mindfulness
Improving IQ
Debugging reactive patterns
Applying the 10X approach
Links:The Mindful Leader -
#244 Lessons In Electing Corporate Leaders - with Hermann Arnold
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This week I speak with serial founding entrepreneur, start-up investor and democracy reformer Hermann Arnold.
In 2001, Hermann decided to ‘build a company to fix the traditional way of working’, developing HR software and naming the company Umantis. He chose to run that company on a democratic basis, having the staff vote for major direction decisions, striking a balance between two worlds: hierarchy and agility.
We talk:
Mining the corporate shadow
Removing internal middlemen
Electing leaders
Letting anyone make any decision
A Henry Ford of self-management?
Links:Umantis42hacks - Hermann's climate change hacking project