People Soup - Behavioural Science For A More Meaningful Way To Work

Episode 13 I'm in conversation with my very first guest - friend and fellow organisational psychologist, Maddy Scott. We're both students and practitioners of ACT. ACT is the acronym for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy which we use in our work in organisations and in coaching. Here we talk about what first caught our attention about ACT, how we got hooked and what we'd recommend in terms of resources for those who'd like to find out more. I'm pretty pleased with how this has turned out so let me know what you think.

Episode 12 Here I present some of my own research based on interviews with senior public sector leaders. In my research I explored the ways in which they fulfilled their leadership roles and experienced organisational politics - all through the lens of psychological flexibility. Psychological flexibility is something that Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) aims to strengthen. It's made up of six processes. In this podcast I represent those processes with the triflex. Listen on and see if you can spot the processes - be present; do what matters and open up - in your own workplace behaviour!

Episode 11 It's a bit different this week - I've had a few requests for a mindfulness practice recording so hear it is - a mindfulness meditation of the body and breath. There's a brief introduction then we're straight in to the exercise. Give it a go and let me know how you get on!

Episode 10 In this episode I use behavioural science to explore the decline in my sketching and cartooning activity and give some top tips on how to apply the same techniques to work and life in general. I commit to publishing a sketch or cartoon every day for the next 30 days on instagram and twitter - so you can follow my progress. The key questions I recommend to use to explore something that you've stopped doing at work that matters to you are as follows: 1. What's important to me about X or Y? Why does it matter to me? 2. What's my mind saying about X or Y? Episode Notes The song by David Gates is called 'If'. You can check out the work of the brilliant Christoph Neimann on instagram here - https://www.instagram.com/abstractsunday/ And the book by Tom Gallwey is called - The Inner Game of Tennis.

Episode 9 Here Ross describes three of the key features of our cave dweller minds and explores how they can generate content that is not always helpful. He also gives some tips on how to take the content that our minds produce a bit less seriously.

Episode 8 Here Ross aims to strengthen the case for developing the skill of present moment awareness or mindfulness. He does so by revealing the two gears of the mind - the thinking gear and the sensing gear. Hear how we can get stuck and exhausted in the thinking gear and simple ways to access the sensing gear.

Episode 7 Do you have a relationship in the workplace that could be improved? In this episode Ross presents real life examples and techniques from psychology to allow you to have a go at changing your behaviour in a tricky workplace relationship.

Episode 6 Are you 'always on'? Ross talks about work recovery and draws upon research by Professor Sabine Sonnentag. He shares 4 top ingredients for effective recovery activities and also recommends that you consider what your personal values are in relation to your leisure time to provide motivation and direction.

Episode 5 Ross talks about the idea of exploring and reconnecting with what's important to us at work. He shares what matters to him as his career evolves and how he is using these qualities as a guide for his behaviour - recounting his nervousness about phoning a bookstore in Berlin! He finishes with a couple of practical questions and recommendations for how to consider your own values at work.

Episode 4 In this episode Ross illustrates the way our stories can limit our behavioural repertoire and provides a tip on how to change our relationship with our own stories. He also provides a recommendation for expanding the range of options from the behavioural menu. The character of Cruella de Choice is also introduced.

Episode 3Ross introduces a leadership lesson from pop that includes some top tips on modelling. He also updates on the evolution of the People Soup Podcast and the philosophy behind the name.

Episode 2Here I reflect on how our thoughts can influence our behaviour - and perhaps stop us doing things that are important to us.

Episode 1We can spend a lot of time on autopilot - research by 2 Harvard University Psychologist found that we can spend about 47% of our waking hours thinking about something other than what we’re doing, and this mind-wandering typically makes us unhappy (Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2010)“A human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind,” Killingsworth and Gilbert write. “The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost.”