Today we’re talking to Dan Cable, a Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School and whose research and teaching focuses on employee engagement, change, organizational culture, leadership mindset, and the linkage between brands and employee behaviors. An award-winning researcher, Dan has published more than 50 articles in scientific journals, been extensively featured in business publications around the world, and the author of several books, the latest being ‘Alive at Work’. Dan’s clients include Deloitte, McDonald’s, Twitter, and many more.

In this episode, we explore how workplaces can harness people’s neurological seeking system to help them bring their best selves to work each day and why self-expression, serious play and purpose can help us to achieve what we’re truly capable of doing while looking after our wellbeing.

Connect with Dan:

Website:  dan-cable.com

You’ll Learn:

• [02:33] - Dan explains why researchers continue to find why many employees still feel like they can’t really be their best selves at work each day, even after almost 20 years of positive psychology research and applications in workplaces.
• [05:25] - Dan shares why finding ways to harness our brains seeking systems is one of the keys to helping people bring their best selves to work each day.
• [10:24] - Dan outlines how we can help leaders better understand the impact of fear on people’s behaviors and their ability to bring their best selves to work.
• [14:44] - Dan explains the importance of encouraging playfulness in workplaces in order to trigger our seeking systems and bring our best selves to work.
• [17:51] - Dan shares his tips on how to help leaders and teams leverage storytelling to make their work more purposeful.
• [20:31] - Dan shares his evidence-based interventions for helping people to bring their best selves to work more often.
• [23:14] - Dan offers some important cautions about helping people to bring their best selves to work in a way that is good for them and good for others.
• [27:41] - Dan completes the lightning round.

Your Resources:

• MPPW Podcast on Facebook
• Redirect by Timonthy D. Wilson
• Give & Take by Adam Grant

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for joining me again this week.  If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.

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Until next time, take care!  Thank you Dan!