Eat Sleep Work Repeat - better workplace culture

Daniel Coyle returns to reflect on what has changed since we last spoke. He's moved attention to an examination of what contributes to us getting a fulfilling experience from work - and life.

We talk attention, community and the way that great teams demonstrate 'group flow'. We also delve into some research by Nick Epley that I've covered on the newsletter, that suggests we're terrible at predicting what will make us happy.

If you like this check out the previous episodes with Daniel:

Dan Coyle can fix your broken culture

The Culture Code

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Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm joined by Daniel Zhao, chief economist of Glassdoor, who talks me through their new rankings of the best places to work in 2026.

It's an intriguing list, is a car wash really better than some of the most famous tech brands in the world?

The ranking allows us to explore what we want in a job: culture, connection, progression and autonomy.

Bad culture is 7 times more powerful driving quitting than salary: hear Charlie and Donald Sull talk about Glassdoor data

Glassdoor: Top US places to work

Glassdoor: Top UK places to work

Full transcript on the website

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Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kevin Green is the Chief People Officer for First Group.

He's set about reinventing the culture of the organisation from the ground up.

I heard Kevin speak at an event last year was completely bowled over by the way he talked about culture and the way he was trying to build it. I think you'll love this discussion. There's a full transcript on the website.

Also mentioned: Waitrose culture episode with Lord Mark Price

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Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr Karen Bridbord is the author of a new book, The Relationship-Driven Leader that invites us to bring a psychologist's lens to our job and the relationships with those around us.

Her perspective is to use psychology to understand the person in front of you to interpret the world through their eyes. If you’ve got a controlling boss or someone who behaves in a way that impacts your life she helps you unpick what’s going in their head. 

The Relationship-Driven Leader: Strengthening Connections to Enhance Productivity and Wellness at Work 

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Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gen Z have been shaped by recessions, the pandemic, geopolitical instability, not to mention financial insecurity and world changing technology.

That's the finding of the Edelman Gen Z Lab as told to me by the leader of the project Jackie Cooper. Most powerfully she explains that Gen Z's have a 'visceral need for safety' - that's financial, social, cultural and even physical.

They respond to fear by asking questions and wanting to be heard, which older generations often misread as entitlement or disrespect for hierarchy.

Politically, Gen Z is fragmented. Younger Gen Zs, especially boys/young men, are leaning more conservative and drawn to strong-man archetypes; older Gen Zs, shaped by Obama / BLM, are more idealistic about progressive politics. Algorithms and “TikTok-isation” amplify those splits.

I was blown away to see Jackie Cooper from Edelman talk about the research that the company has done to understand the new generation of workers entering the workplace - I think you'll love this discussion.

You can read the report here

Full transcript on the website.

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Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Most company training is a waste of time that turns firms into bureaucratic sludge holes. That’s roughly the conclusion of today’s episode which is a conversation with Andre Spicer and Mats Alvesson

They have a new book out The Art of Less. Andre has been a guest a few times before - way back in 2018. This podcast is old. In 2018 this podcast was ahead of Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO at the top of the podcast charts. (Andre talking about open plan offices)

The idea that much of what companies do is related to their self identity, what the company aspires to be in the world - with the end result that it doesn’t achieve these things.

Things we discuss:

• 'The Death of the Corporate Job'
• how 'initiative-itis' is dragging down organisations
• how training is corporate sludge that doesn't achieve its goals
• corporate culture as an act of 'grandiosity'

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Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jeremy Holt is a psychologist and leadership coach who has spent more than 20 years helping teams get better. Read his research about better team results.

This episode is the third part of a series about the power of identity in teams. Listen to the other Eat Sleep Work Repeat episodes about identity.

Jeremy posting about identity

Watch the Lebron documentary More Than a Game

Jeremy's book For the Love of the Game

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Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the second part of an interview with Professor Alex Haslam, the world's leading voice on the study of social identity.

You can hear the first part of this interview on the website.

In this discussion we talk how social identity can help us understand leadership.

Alex talks about the CARE model of leadership.

C - Create the group

A - Advance the group (sometimes over themselves)

R - Represent the group

E - Embed the group identity in everyday life for the group

If you're interested in exploring Alex's recent contributions to discussions on leadership and culture these papers are a great place to start:

• Zombie Leadership
• Human Me-sources or Human We-sources - exploring leader narcissism

Alex Haslam is Professor of Social and Organisational Psychology at the University of Queensland. He is one of the world’s leading researchers on group dynamics, leadership, and identity. Over the past three decades, Alex has helped reshape our understanding of how people think, feel, and behave as members of groups, and why social identity is central to motivation, resilience, and effective teamwork.

Sign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever episodes at the website.

Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Why are we so fixated on the individual self? I think it was a big con. The individual self is a relatively modern invention. The idea that human psychology is about the individual self was really an analytical fiction that was devised in the 20th century.”

This is the first part of a wide-ranging discussion with Professor Alex Haslam. He talks us why our group identities are so essential to us and define who we are as adults. He quotes his mentor John Turner who said, 'Social identity is what makes group behaviour possible'. By the time you've finished with this episode I'm sure you'll agree.

Check out an utterly brilliant talk by Alex - consider this the best training you could send yourself on.

Alex mentions his partner Cath Haslam, who is also a psychologist.

Full transcript and notes are on the website - along with an Identity playlist of episodes.

Alex Haslam is Professor of Social and Organisational Psychology at the University of Queensland. He is one of the world’s leading researchers on group dynamics, leadership, and identity. Over the past three decades, Alex has helped reshape our understanding of how people think, feel, and behave as members of groups, and why social identity is central to motivation, resilience, and effective teamwork.

Alex is co-author of The New Psychology of Leadership and The New Psychology of Sport and Exercise, and his work has been applied widely—from health and education to business, politics, and the military. With over 300 research articles and multiple international awards to his name, Alex is recognised as a pioneer of social identity theory in practice, showing how a sense of “us” can unlock extraordinary human potential.

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Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Simon Gilbody talks loneliness at work

• The Loneliness of the American Worker - Wall Street Journal
• Make Work Better on loneliness
• More on solving loneliness
• Loneliness in teams
• Derek Thompson on elective isolation

Professor Simon Gilbody is a psychiatrist and clinical epidemiologist at the University of York. His work specialises in 'taking a population approach to mental health', trying to understand the aspects of modern life that contribute to how we feel.

I was impressed by a talk that Simon did with the Financial Times on the topic of workplace loneliness.

In our discussion Simon reflects on the toll of loneliness, how workplace loneliness can leave us with invasive thoughts, and what to do about it.

Some links we discuss:

Dr Lucy Foulkes - I really enjoy her TikToks, I think I gave a shout out to her book on adolescents a few weeks ago.

Red Cross Report on Loneliness

Thank you to Mary Howarth at University of York for helping to arrange the discussion.

Transcript on the website

Sign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever episodes at the website.

Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.