Squiggly Careers

Do you find yourself constantly checking your phone or email instead of focusing on your most important work? In this squiggly shortcut, Helen shares practical ways to beat distraction and reclaim your attention.

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Not all problems are created equal, and trying to solve them all the same way is likely to result in frustration.

In this episode, Helen and Sarah explore how to identify whether you are facing a tame, critical, or wicked problem and the specific approach needed to make progress on each.

Drawing on the work of Keith Grint, they explore what it means to develop this skill, and what your default response to it reveals about you.

🎯 What You'll Learn

– Identify the three distinct types of problems you encounter at work

– Apply the right process to clear up recurring tame problems

– Manage high-stakes critical problems without losing control

– Reframe wicked problems to move from stuck to progress

– Use 'What if' and 'What would' questions to unlock new perspectives

– Prioritize actions to stop overthinking complex challenges

For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: [email protected]

Need some more squiggly career support?

1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/

2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/

3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers Newsletter, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/squigglynewsletter_pod

4. Order our new book Learn Like a Lobster: https://www.amazingif.com/books/

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Want to achieve your biggest career goals this year? The answer might lie in planning exactly how you could fail first.

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Do you often feel like you are just waiting for your turn to speak, rather than truly listening and learning? In this episode, we explore the power of oracy and how it can change the way you think and work.

Drawing on the work of Voice 21, Barbara Oakley, and research from More in Common, they explore what it means to develop this skill.

🎯 What You'll Learn

– Define oracy as the essential skill of speaking and listening well to build better conclusions.

– Discover why talking out loud helps you spot gaps in your reasoning and critical thinking.

– Identify the difference between a standard 121 and an oracy-first approach to problem-solving.

– Learn how to facilitate meetings that ensure equal contribution and stop interruptions.

– Practice using oracy in team settings to move away from directive leadership.

– Apply oracy techniques to your squiggly career story to articulate your value more effectively.

For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: [email protected]

Need some more squiggly career support?

1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/

2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/

3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers Newsletter, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/squigglynewsletter_pod

4. Order our new book Learn Like a Lobster: https://www.amazingif.com/books/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is your current way of working holding you back from your next career milestone? Sometimes, the very habits that helped you succeed in the past can become obstacles to your future progress.

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Ever wondered what sets high-performing 'super teams' apart from those that are stalling? It's not just about talent, but a shared belief in your collective ability to learn, adapt, and succeed together.

In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from a feeling and dive deep into one of the most relevant topics in work and careers right now.

Drawing on the latest research into high-performing team dynamics and Helen and Sarah's own team-building frameworks, they explore how every team member can influence performance, and what your default response to collaboration reveals about you.

🎯 What You'll Learn

– Understand the critical difference between a super team and a stalling team

– Learn why collective belief is one of the strongest predictors of real-world performance

– Design simple, low-risk experiments to build on what your team already does well

– Make curiosity contagious by identifying and filling your collective knowledge gaps

– Bring the outside in to swap ideas and accelerate your team's adaptation in an AI-driven world

– Ask uncomfortable questions to uncover and remove the barriers getting in the way of progress

For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: [email protected]

Need some more squiggly career support?

1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/

2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/

3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers Newsletter, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/squigglynewsletter_pod

4. Order our new book Learn Like a Lobster: https://www.amazingif.com/books/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you a conversational narcissist? In this Squiggly Shortcut, Sarah introduces a deceptively simple idea from Celeste Headlee that will change how you listen, and make you notice everyone else's conversations differently too.

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Uncertainty isn't going anywhere. So what if the goal wasn't to get rid of it, but to get better at holding it?

In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from a feeling and dive deep into one of the most relevant topics in work and careers right now.

Drawing on Margaret Heffernan's Embracing Uncertainty, Sam Conniff and Katherine Templar-Lewis's Uncertainty Toolkit, and a brilliant HBR article, they explore what it really means to develop the capacity to hold uncertainty, and what your default response to it reveals about you.

🎯 What You'll Learn

– Why the goal isn't uncertainty to certainty, but uncertainty to the capacity to hold

– How to find your own uncertainty tolerance score (with an AI prompt on the podsheet to help)

– Why leaders feel more pressure than most to appear decisive, and what the research says about that

– How to use a simple matrix to plot your uncertainty by impact and duration, and respond differently depending on which quadrant you're in

– Why patience might be the most underrated skill in uncertain times, and how Helen and Sarah both score themselves on it

– What it means to reframe uncertainty as opportunity rather than threat

For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: [email protected]

Need some more squiggly career support?

1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/

2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/

3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers Newsletter, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/squigglynewsletter_pod

4. Order our new book Learn Like a Lobster: https://www.amazingif.com/books/

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Your career doesn't need a bigger network, it needs a better one. In this Squiggly Shortcut, Helen shares the four roles that matter most for your career community, and why focusing on just these four makes building your career relationships feel a lot more doable.

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How close are you to yourself, your team and the people you serve? In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from the concept of zero distance, a philosophy championed by brands like e.l.f. Beauty, and turn it into one of the most honest and practical self-reflection exercises they've done on the podcast.

Using Post-it® Notes and a simple scale, they plot themselves live on six different dimensions of distance, from how well they know their own strengths and feelings, to how much feedback they really get from their team, to how close they are to the people they're there to help.

This episode is brought to you in partnership with the Post-it® Brand. If today's episode sparked an idea, stick it down - find out where to buy Post-it® products at go.3M.com/squiggly

🎯 What You'll Learn

– What zero distance means and why brands like e.l.f. Beauty have made it their entire philosophy

– How to use the zero distance framework across three areas: distance from yourself, your team and your customers

– Why knowing your strengths isn't enough if you're not spending time on them

– What Helen's "I'm fine, it's fine" taxi moment reveals about emotional distance at work

– How to make feedback unmissable rather than occasional, and why rhythm matters more than quantity

– What zero distance from your customers or learners actually looks like in practice (including a story about a credit card in a glass of orange juice)

For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: [email protected]

Need some more squiggly career support?

1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/

2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/

3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers Newsletter, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/squigglynewsletter_pod

4. Order our new book Learn Like a Lobster: https://www.amazingif.com/books/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices