Check out our latest episode of Work Punks, in which your trusted Punks have turned into Agony Uncles. We are responding to a query that begins "Help, I'm butting heads with my finance manager!" with our usual mix of irreverence, spikiness and wisdom, drawing upon our personal experience (boy, have we been there!) and knowledge.

Our guest for this episode is Natasha Bye, also known as the Strategy Doctor, who has made a name for herself by bringing comedy into the boardroom. So what is the link between strategy and comedy? Do you get better conversations by wrapping it into a joke? How many people does it take to fix a lightbulb in your organisation? This and more will be topic of conversation in this month's Work Punks episode.

Some useful references:
- On Natasha Bye: https://strategydoctor.co.uk/
- "The future doesn't just happen; the future results from the conversations we have today" - We think this is Ralph Stacey. But we can't find it anywhere. Please help us locate the source.

Our Punks try to get behind the root causes of why working practices seem to be broken in so many companies. Is short-termism behind it all, and if so, what is causing this behaviour in the first place? Are there examples that buck that trend and what can we learn from them? Join us for this episode and share your experiences of broken or trend-bucking organisations in the comments. As always, here are some links for further contemplation:
- Bill Anderson - the former CEO of Roche Pharmaceuticals and currently heading the working revoluation at Bayer - on how to reduce bureaucracy: https://www.garyhamel.com/video/busti...
- Clay Christensen’s view on the impact of financialisation on innovation: https://www.forbes.com/sites/steveden...

Our guest for this episode is Michael Pattinson, a 'tech enabler' formerly of Network Rail and PwC, who recently decided to go it alone in his new venture The One Hour Sprint Company. In this lively conversation we try to unpick what it takes to make a drastic career move, explore the power of meetings as key tool to change organisations, and amble past many related observations in the process.
Worthwhile references as well further reading on the topics touched upon:
- Michael Pattinson: / michael-pattinson-8713464
- Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable About Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business, by Patrick Lencioni, published by Jossey-Bass, 2004
- Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career, by Herminia Ibarra, published by Harvard Business Review Press; Revised edition, 2023
- Find your Why: A practical guide for discovering purpose for you and your team, by Simon Sinek, published by Penguin Audio, 2017

At the occasion of Mental Health Awareness Week our punks explore what role our working environment plays when it comes to our mental health. Despite billions spent on measures to reduce work related stress, employees report higher than ever rates of burnout and are leaving the workplace altogether en-masse. And this concerns younger generations as well as older.
Is there something fundamentally wrong with how companies lead, manage and organise work? And what role do new technologies play in all this?
Join us for this episode and share your thoughts in the comments. Here are some references to points raised by our punks:
- The annual spend by businesses on mental health and wellbeing: https://www.reportlinker.com/p0589592...
- 'How burnout became the new normal', HBR: https://hbr.org/2024/04/how-burnout-b...
- The UK government is seeking to reduce benefits to people with mental health issues: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/...

Inspiration for this month's episode has been Boeing's slow but steady slip from great engineering firm to hesitant choice for your next holiday flight. How the actions and words of a few people at the top drive the behaviours and decisions throughout the organisation. With real impact for customers and workers alike. Can organisations on a cultural decline be turned around? Do we as individuals also need to have a good look in the mirror? Join us for this episode for a few spiky views.
As always we quote some people much smarter than us. Here are the references from this episode:
- 'Ultra-Processed People - Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food … and Why Can’t We Stop?', by Chris van Tulleken (https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/45130...)
- '1,500 UK businesses have become B Corp certified, an increase of 50% in less than a year': https://bcorporation.uk/
- 'Quality Is Free', by Philip B. Crosby (McGraw-Hill Books, 1979)
- 'Humankind - A hopeful history', by Rutger Bregman, Bloomsbury Publishing - 'School for Moral Ambition': / moralambition

Our guest in this episode is Rebecca Cullum, who earned her stripes in leadership development in the IT and mobile phone sectors. Now operating independently, Rebecca supports leaders and their teams in establishing the culture, behaviours and mindsets that are required for 2024 and beyond. No surprises that these include being open to flexible working practices, encouraging learning and experimentation and accepting that what worked in the past may not work in the future.

Some of the references from this episode:
- Professor Saras Saraswarthy explains ‘Effectuation’, how serial entrepreneurs approach new ventures, including the principle of ‘Affordable Loss’: https://effectuation.org/hubfs/Video%...
- W.L Gore - the story of the organisation and the Four Guiding Principles, including the Waterline principle: We are all shareholders, and we will consult with the appropriate Associates before taking an action "below the waterline" that could cause serious damage to the long-term success or reputation of our enterprise.
- Manual Of Me: Explore and explain how you can work better together: https://www.manualof.me/

Our special guest on this episode is Henry Stewart, who not only named his company 'Happy', he helps other companies become happy too.

It took a Damascene epiphany for Henry to change from self-confessed micro-manager into a CEO who makes no decisions. Since then, Henry has transformed his company into one that not only practices what it preaches, it positively ploughs the furrow by experimenting with new ways of working and challenging accepted wisdom when it comes to creating effective, productive and most of all happy workplaces.
Henry and Happy are well-known for their programmes for leaders and organisations that want to create more joy at work. In this Punks episode we quiz him on his methods, his inspiration, his successes and his 'failures'.

Some of the references from this episode:
- Happy: https://www.happy.co.uk
- Semler, Ricardo. 2001. Maverick. London, England: Random House Business Books.
- Wiseman, L., & McKeown, G. (2010). Multipliers: How the best leaders make everyone smarter. HarperBusiness.
- Laloux, F. (2014). Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness. Brussels: Nelson Parker.
- MLA. Marquet, L. David. Turn the Ship Around! Portfolio Penguin, 2015.
- Stewart, H. The Happy Manifesto. Kogan Page, 2012
- Reed Hastings CEO Netflix Quote "At most companies, the boss is there to approve or block the decisions of employees. This is a surefire way to limit innovation and slow down growth. When the boss steps out of the role of 'decision approver,' the entire business speeds up and innovation increases." Taken from No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention By Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer
- Creating Joy at Work: 501 ideas for creating a happy, productive workplace Paperback – 25 Jun. 2023. Henry Stewart (Author) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Creating-Joy...
- The “Happy MBA” https://www.happy.co.uk/apprenticeshi...
- The Productivity Bltz https://www.happy.co.uk/leadership-an...