Today’s discussion should land you right in the sweetspot of thinking about AI for your own job by taking a step back, by asking yourself how you can connect with AI and why you should.

Today’s guest Professor Costas Andriopoulos explain curiosity is the engine of creativity. And by striving to be curious our minds will surprise us with the creativity that results.

There was a wonderful piece of work five years ago by Francesco Gino from Harvard Business School that looked into curiosity.

It found that of more than 3,000 employees from a wide range of firms and industries, only about 24% reported feeling curious in their jobs on a regular basis, and about 70% said they face barriers to asking more questions at work. 

In a study of 120 employees it was found that natural curiosity was associated with better job performance, as evaluated by their direct bosses.

In the survey of more than 3,000 employees mentioned earlier, 92% credited curious people with bringing new ideas into teams and organizations and viewed curiosity as a catalyst for job satisfaction, motivation, innovation, and high performance.

Professor Costas Andriopoulous is a Professor of Management and Associate Dean for Entrepreneurship at Bayes Business School, City of London University.

Links for today:

Professor Costas' book: Purposeful Curiosity: How asking the right questions will change your life

Promptbase - is a marketplace for AI prompts (you’ll get the best value from it if you sign up for a paid subscription on Midjourney). Here’s my own experiments

If you’re interested in generative AI for business then the posts by Ethan Mollick are essential to follow (‘Come up with names for a pasta restaurant Now read the Igor Naming Guide on how to name companies, give me better suggestions. Check those names for trademark violations. Make up unique names that won't violate trademark, explain them’) 

I find that having inspiration can prompt your own imagination and this gallery can give you ideas.

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Ellen Scott is the deputy digital editor of Stylist and someone who has achieved recognition for having a sharp eye when it comes to observing the changing face of work.

Ellen was one of the first voices to pick up on the TikTok trend of Quiet Quitting, she's written about 'the ambi-work' movement and continues to give voice to the challenges facing Gen Z and Millennial workers. We talk about whether is as fair a deal today as it always was, and what firms could do to improve things.

You can read some of her past articles here

You'll find Joel Golby's final London Rental Property of the Week linked here.

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Are there forces at work that might impact the way work feels? Could we use those forces to make work better?

This discussion with Robin Dunbar and Tracey Camilleri took me to places I hadn't expected to go. That hormones, our brains and time would play a part in the relationships we forge at work isn't something that you would expect to find in a company's culture document, but as you'll hear today they forge a vital component of better team work.

Hormones are triggered by emotional interactions with other humans. Uniquely they only tend to work face-to-face. Hormones can help us build affinity with others in a powerful way that is often overlooked.

Brain-size impacts the connections we have with those people. At the core of human experience is our closest one (or two) relationships. There’s a small circle of 4 or 5 people who sit at the heart of our lives, and up to 15 who make up the majority of our time.

And that time is critical for the strength of those connections. We spent 40% of our time with our 5 closest relationships, and 60% with the top 15. By spending time we can become close friends with people in our lives.

The Social Brain by Tracey Camilleri, Samantha Rockey and Robin Dunbar is out now.

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Today’s episode is a discussion with Amy Gallo. During the pandemic I had a wonderful discussion about work and where it was going and I was delighted to have another conversation with her two years on. 

Amy is the author of Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone (Even Difficult People) and The HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict. She also co-hosts the Women at Work podcast, and is a contributing editor at Harvard Business Review, where she writes about workplace dynamics.

Articles mentioned:

The Harvard study of human life & wellbeing: The secret to happiness? Here’s some advice from the longest-running study on happiness

Stop Telling Women They Have Imposter Syndrome  

The myth of bringing your full, authentic self to work  

Amy wrote a wonderful article on psychological safety this week.

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Jeremy shares his: free bonus chapter

Jeremy Utley leads some of the most popular courses on creativity and innovation at the d.school of Stanford University. I was delighted to see that he was making his teaching of such popular courses available to a wider audience and chased him for an interview. This is one of his first interviews to talk about his brand new book Ideaflow.

In it he discusses the way to have good ideas, and why most of us aren't willing to do what is required. I loved this discussion. Buy Ideaflow here - and find out more about Jeremy and his co-author, Perry Klebahn, here.

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Sign up to hear more about Radix Big Tent

Rory Sutherland is one of the most respected brains in the advertising industry, a man whose early endorsement of behavioural economics helped popularise the nascent science. He's also a regular writer for The Spectator and Vice Chief of Ogilvy Group. Rory joins me to interview to talk about my new book, Fortitude, which has become a Sunday Times Bestseller and tackles the myth of resilience.

The event was hosted by a brilliant organisation called Radix Big Tent. Radix Big Trent gives a platform for non-partisan conversations about big policy issues, giving a voice to people and places. It provokes and promotes new conversations about the regeneration and renewal of our society in a non-partisan way, inspiring practical actions which demonstrate the value of political intervention and delivering real change in left behind areas.

It convenes Summits, Festivals, physical and online events around the country that engage local leaders and ordinary people, bringing them into contact with national policy makers and influencers.

If you would like to hear more please sign up on radixuk.org

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Lots of discussion right now about firms trying to kick start their workplace culture.

I wanted to explore conversations with leaders who were leading experiments in how to make things feel different.

In what prove to be a pair of candid conversations I talk to two firms who are asking the question if workplaces can be more motivated by trying to vary the ingredients. John Sill tells us how his firm foundation.com/">The Foundation are trying out Wednesday plus one, then John Readman tells us how Modo25 have become the latest firm to try the four-day week - with some learnings along the way.

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Come along to one of my free events in September

We all tell stories all of the time, but what makes a magical, memorable story? What pitfalls should we avoid? This was an issue that I was thinking about. Presentations are stories, and we deliver presentations every day.

In my own investigation I found real value in the book by the storytelling organisation The Moth. I was beyond excited when I saw they were releasing a UK edition of the book. One of the authors Kate Tellers joins me to discuss The Moth's approach to making memorable stories. Kate is a senior director at The Moth, helping people transform into storytellers. But she explains something even more valuable, of how The Moth run workshops that allow colleagues to better connect with each other by sharing their stories with each other. 

How to Tell a Story: The Essential Guide to Memorable Storytelling from The Moth

Carolyn Martin's story about becoming a Catholic Sister (such a beautiful story)

Josh Broder's story about being an extra in a huge film (this is incredible)

Kate's own Moth stories are here

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Professor Sophie Scott is the UK's most recognisable neuroscientist, famed for her passion and her ability to excite interest in a complex field. Her new book, The Brain - Ten Things You Should Know is out now and I got in touch to discuss what any of us can learn about the brain. It's a wonderful discussion that included one detail that stopped me in my tracks.

Listen to Professor Sophie Scott on our previous episode about laughter

Royal Institution Christmas Lecture

Why we laugh

Cover image by Hugging Face AI

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Lots of my favourite podcasts have gone on summer break, so I wanted to keep putting some episodes out.

But maybe you don't want something that is too work related in the midst of the summer, so this is an episode that is more psychology and life than workplace culture. It's a lovely discussion with Max Dickins author of 'Billy No Mates'.

I got so much from the book - and from the discussion. Max reflects on the geezerish persona he adopts with workmen in his house and wonders if it's a performance and if it is a performance is it by him, or the workman or both of them. He considers how for many men adult life becomes a process of refusing to demonstrate - and then refusing to experience - joy. As someone asked of him, 'what happened to these men'?

The article that the episode is titled after is here - we discuss it in the show: “Men have no friends and women carry the burden”

Max's book is available now.

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