What's it actually like to be a teacher these days? There’s a worldwide shortage of teachers at the moment, so what’s going on in the classroom and school yards? In this episode we meet a bunch of teachers and former teachers and hear first hand about the new pressures, and what’s driving them out of the profession. What needs to change about the working lives of teachers?

Have you heard of the Dunbar number? 

It’s the number of social connections one person can maintain at any one time. 

It turns out that this also plays out at work. 

How is Robin Dunbar’s  research relevant for your workplace?

What are the optimum numbers for teams and factories? 

How important are social connections and friendships at work, and how do these affect our productivity?

Guest:

Robin Dunbar is professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of Oxford. He wrote Friends: Understanding the Power of Our Most Important Relationships and his new book, The Social Brain: The Psychology of Successful Groups, comes out next year.

Mindfulness … being mindful,  meditating, you know it’s good for you, but it just never feels like there’s enough time.

Using meditation to create mindfulness is an ancient practice, and the science backing it has been piling in for years now.

But how can we be motivated to make meditation part of our essential routine? How will it actually help our working lives? 

What’s your relationship with feedback? Maybe you’ve thought you could learn how to be better at giving it…but how about switching it round and considering how you receive it? Turns out, if we hone our skills at receiving we also get better at giving feedback.

What happens when the career you chose at 18 just isn't you anymore?

Have you ever sat at work thinking “Houston we have a problem, common sense has left the room!”? Brand and culture transformation expert Martin Lindstrom, walks us through how to bring common sense back into our workplaces by establishing what he calls a “ministry of common sense”. 

Martin has advised multinationals including Pepsi, Google, Burger King and Swiss Air but he started this movement in what traditionally has been a bastion of bureaucracy, banks.

Does your inbox make you miserable? Cal Newport walks us through why our relationship with email is dysfunctional and what a world without email looks like. Cal's book: A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in the Age of Overload

Producer: Maria Tickle

What if ADHD wasn't seen as a deficit or a disorder? What if it's actually harnessed as a superpower? We show how, given the right support and understanding, workplaces have the ability to turn ADHD into an asset and create environments where everyone thrives.

We speak with proud Torres Strait Islander woman (Kubin; Moa Island descendant) Carla McGrath and proud Yorta Yorta man Ian Hamm about what First Nations perspectives bring to governance and management.

Emotions at work - do you repress or ruminate? Both could be dangerous for your career. Harvard Medical School psychologist Dr Susan David is one of the world's leading management thinkers. Her Ted talk has been viewed more than five million times and her book Emotional Agility is a bestseller.

Susan discusses the benefits of bringing our whole selves to work; emotions as data not directives (we shouldn't let them boss us around) and why emotional agility is important for teamwork and creativity.