How I Work

This episode looks at a simple word that will dramatically improve your day. Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes. Get in touch at [email protected] If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a short monthly newsletter that contains three cool things that I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In today's BEST OF episode, my guest is Paul Migliorini. Paul leads the Amazon Web Services business across Australia and New Zealand - a role that he has been in for the last four years. Prior to joining AWS Paul held leadership roles in Asia and Australia with BT, Motorola, Regus and Ernst & Young, most recently as the CEO for Regus ANZ and Regional Managing Director for South Asia at BT.

I was keen to speak to Paul because I have heard a lot of things about Amazon’s culture and ways of working that fascinated me. And there is nothing better than being able to get an insider’s perspective on how it all works.

So if you have ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes of one of the world’s fastest growing and most powerful companies, I think you’ll love my chat with Paul.

We cover:

• How Paul has dramatically changed his mobile phone behaviour
• Amazon’s 14 key leadership principles
• How being frugal leads to innovative
• The importance of “two pizza teams"
• Why leaders at Amazon do more coaching rather than managing
• Why input measures matter more than output measures
• The two types of decisions that can be made at Amazon and how this impacts decision-making speed
• The importance of disagreeing and committing to decisions
• How strong opinions are encouraged at Amazon
• How Amazon identifies people who will fit with the culture during the recruitment process
• The 50% test that Amazon use in their recruitment process
• Why Powerpoint is banned at Amazon
• The critical role of long form narratives at Amazon
• Why the first 15-20 minutes of meetings at Amazon are spent reading
• Why Amazon create fictitious press releases for products that don’t exist
• Amazon’s working backwards process
• Why Paul sees it as his job to say yes to as many requests as possible. 

Learn more about Amazon's Summit, check out career opportunities at Amazon and connect with Paul on Linkedin.

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a short monthly newsletter that contains three cool things that I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My favourite tip from my chat with Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner was on scheduling time for spontaneity.

You can find the full interview here.

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a short monthly newsletter that contains three cool things that I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My guest today is Kendra Banks, the Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand at SEEK. If you live in Australia, you have probably used SEEK at some point in your career, and for overseas listeners, SEEK is Australia's number one employment marketplace.

Kendra has had an amazing career and has worked in senior marketing roles at Coles where she was General Manager, Customer Insight & Coles Brand and also in London at Tesco. Kendra holds a Masters in European Politics at the College of Europe, where she was a Fulbright scholarship recipient. Prior to this, Kendra completed a Bachelor of Economics and Mathematics at Yale University.

We cover:

• What it was like moving from working from home once a month to every single day
• How Seek has changed the timing and length of regular meetings in the virtual world
• Tools that Kendra uses to see how her messages are landing in all-staff meetings
• On having retrospectives to optimise meetings
• Balancing virtual schooling three kids with trying to work
• Managing staff who are trying to juggle homeschooling with work
• Providing unlimited carer’s leave
• The importance of coming back to purpose to drive motivation
• How Kendra manages her own stress
• How Kendra has deliberately chosen to take the riskier path for her career
• Strategies Kendra uses to make good decisions
• How Kendra’s leadership team approach decision-making
• The best and worst career advice Kendra has received
• Kendra’s peer support group and the role they play in her life

Connect with Kendra at [email protected] and on Linkedin.

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a short monthly newsletter that contains three cool things that I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode looks at three simple strategies to kick your procrastination habit while working from home.

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a short monthly newsletter that contains three cool things that I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's guest is Michelle (Mish) Le Poidevin. Mish has been the CEO of leading behavioural science and innovation consultancy, Inventium (the consultancy I founded and still work in) since May 2019. Mish is passionate about creating the environment and structures for people to do their best work. She has led (and learnt from!) many of Inventium's pioneering people practices such as the move to a holocracy structure, unlimited annual leave, and most recently, the four day work week and the compilation of the Australian Financial Review Best Places to Work list. She has also led the strategic transformation of Inventium and the development of new digital business models. She holds an MBA specialising in innovation and technology from The University of New South Wales (AGSM) and has been successfully working remotely full-time since 2018.

This episode is like a behind-the-scenes look at how Inventium functions and the various experiments we have trialled over the years to make Inventium an awesome place to work.

We cover:

• Why Mish loves being a “remote” CEO
• How working remotely helps Mish think upstream
• Carving out time for creative and strategic thinking
• Inventium’s Four Day Week experiment
• How Mish has reduced the amount of Shallow Work in her life
• The benefits of having a Virtual Assistant
• Working to your chronotype
• How we managed staff redundancies via Zoom during COVID
• The importance of bringing back routines to work during a time of uncertainty
• Why we fired all our managers at Inventium
• Mish’s biggest learnings in running a holocracy
• Inventium’s secret weapon for recruitment
• How we use OKR’s for setting company and individual goals
• Why we deliberately link OKRs to pay rises
• How we can replace water cooler moments in the remote working world
• How the idea for the AFR Most Innovative Companies list came about
• Inventium’s latest project: the AFR BOSS Best Places to Work list.

Nominate your company for the AFR BOSS Best Places to Work list.

Connect with Mish on Linkedin.

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a short monthly newsletter that contains three cool things that I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My favourite tip from my chat with Four Day Week pioneer Andrew Barnes was on how to spend less time in meetings.

You can find the full interview here.

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a short monthly newsletter that contains three cool things that I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My guest today is Scott Sonenshein. Scott is a New York Times Best-Selling Author and Professor of Management at Rice University. I came across Scott’s work a few months ago when I read his second book, Joy at Work. Scott wrote Joy At Work with bestselling author and Netflix star Marie Kondo, whose cleaning methods I’ve used in my own home over the years. In Joy At Work, Scott and Marie offer stories, studies, and strategies to help you eliminate clutter and make space for work that really matters.

In this interview, we cover:

• Three questions to ask yourself to figure out if a meeting really matters
• How to dramatically reduce the number of meetings in your work life
• How to diplomatically extract yourself from meetings
• The one thing you need to ask for before every meeting
• How to decrease the number of low stakes decisions in your life
• How delegation can improve decision-making
• How to activate the subconscious part of your brain to make better decisions
• Scott’s daily problem solving ritual
• How Scott uses routines to boost creativity
• How Scott cleaned up all the digital clutter from his phone 
• Why it’s so hard to change your behaviour around email
• How to clean up your inbox
• How to make it easier to stick to “batch checking” emails
• Scott’s “spark joy” folder

Learn more about Scott right here. And grab your copy of Joy At Work.

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a short monthly newsletter that contains three cool things that I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My favourite tip from my chat with Glen Dolman was about his strategies for injecting creativity into a room full of writers.

You can find the full interview here.

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a short monthly newsletter that contains three cool things that I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In today's episode, I cover 10 science-backed strategies to boost mental health. And here is a link to Worry Time (as mentioned on the show).

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a short monthly newsletter that contains three cool things that I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.