Make It Thrive: The Company Culture Podcast

It's the final episode of Season 11. In this wrap-up session I share a few culture news snippets that are getting me hot under the collar, and I share some of the key learnings from the season.

Discover more about Lizzie; 

Email - lizzie@libertymind.co.uk

In this episode I’m joined by Brendan Martin leader of Buurtzorg UK&IE. As the global icon of self-management, and progressive approaches to healthcare, Buurtzorg has seen phenomenal success in The Netherlands. But can that success be replicated in the UK? In this conversation Brendan shares the challenges of bringing Buurtzorg into the UK market, and the success stories of how this common sense approach to giving people trust and freedom creates a greater impact for all. 

Discover more about Buurtzorg UK&IE; 

Semco Style Institute is grounded in the pioneering approach to democratic management from the Brazilian entrepreneur Ricardo Semler. Ricardo and Semco gained international recognition for their groundbreaking approach to management, and they're now spreading this way of working through Semco Style Institute, helping companies all over the world. Today I'm joined by Daphne and Christiaan from the global team to share how they're living the Semco Style philosophy.

Discover more about Semco;

In this episode I’m joined by Kirsten Buck, Chief Futures Officer at PTHR. PTHR is a connected, collaborative enterprise of conscious business activists. With audacious dreams framed by their mission: Better business for a better world. PTHR is a self-managed enterprise, and today Kirsten shares the practices and the ways of operating that shape how they work together at PTHR. 

Discover more about PTHR;

In this episode I’m joined Maria-Jose from Kubadili where self-management isn’t just something they’ve implemented, but something they continuously practice and share with their own partners. Maria-Jose shares how self-management became an organic next step after their adoption of Agile methodologies, and the mindset they take for continuous experimentation. 

Discover more about Kubadili; 

In this episode I'm joined by Tom Haczewski, the founder of The User Story. Tom has a unique approach to how he is building his business, because it starts with an ethos around human sustainability. In this conversation we chat about the outdated mindset of growth for growths sake, and how with a vision in mind The User Story is about intentional choices about how we work.

Find more about Tom and The User Story;

In this episode I’m joined by Founder and CEO of Indigo Volunteers Holly Penalver. Without realising it, Holly created a self-managed charity, and in this session we share how her common sense and trust approach led the charity to work in this progressive way. Holly takes us inside the inner workings of how Indigo works as a self-managed charity, with all the highs and challenges of the journey. 

Find more about Indigo Volunteers;

In this episode I'm joined by Dr. Philippa Kindon and Ruth Waterfield to discuss what's it like at Mayden, a UK tech company who is self-managing. Philippa and Ruth share the highs and lows of what it's like to work at Mayden, and how self-management comes to life in their organisation.

Find more about Mayden’s way working; 

Season 11 has arrived and this season I'm putting the spotlight on progressive companies who are doing things differently. I share why I wanted to get under the bonnet of those doing culture in a truly different way. I also answer some of your questions, and share an update on my latest culture projects.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

On this week’s episode I’m joined by Co-founders of Happy Hq, and the hosts of the culture shock podcast Janine Jacobs and Louisa Mordaunt. Today we’re talking all about co-creation of culture, and what gets in the way of businesses embracing a more people-focussed workplace, and how we can go about creating workplaces where people can participate in shaping work. Something I love about Janine and Louisa’s approach is the fact they’ve tried and tested everything they do, which means they truly know how to help companies make those shifts.

Discover more about Happy HQ;

In episode we’re talking about company offsets. To help us think differently about offsites I’m joined by Sophie Bailey and Sally Page from WorkTripp. If you haven’t discovered WorkTripp yet, it’s a marketplace to find memorable venues, inspirational speakers, meaningful experiences and curated specialists to help you achieve your offsite goals. Together Sophie and Sally are the dream team behind WorkTripp who have a background in tech and B2B community building. I know that what they share will inspire you to make your next offsite epic.

Discover more about WorkTripp;

Website: https://worktripp.com/

LinkedIn: 

Today I’m joined by futurist Esemee Wilcox. Esmee was one of 8 global futurists given the Emerging Fellow award by the Association for Professional Futurists in 2019, and is committed to making Futures work accessible to people for global and local challenges. Esemee makes futures work practical so in today’s conversation we’re going to give you something to take-away and put into action. If working on future challenges in your organisation feels overwhelming, this session will really help you to explore the future in a relevant and practical way. 

Discover more about Esmee;

On today’s episode I’m joined by Mark Eddleston, New Ways of Working nerd, consultant, facilitator and trainer.  Mark has been on my list to have on the podcast for a while now as I’m a big fan of his playbook, and for the way he constantly asks the big questions about new ways of working. 

For years Mark has been practising progressive ways of working and first came across new ways of working in New Zealand in 2015 after spending a frustrating decade in traditional workplaces. It was the first time he found consistent fulfilment in work. This beautiful and challenging experience was with a law firm and community organisation that features on the distinguished Corporate Rebels ‘bucket list’.  As Mark says, “once you taste this way of working, it’s impossible to go back.” Mark has been a team member in three organisations that embraced progressive ways of working and has supported many more on their journey’s. Today mark and I are going to chat about patterns found in progressive organisations, complexity, and the inspiration for his playbook. 

Today I’m joined by Lizzie Penny and Alex Hirst, co-authors of Workstyle: A Revolution for Wellbeing, Productivity and SocietyLizzie Penny and Alex Hirst are friends, entrepreneurs, and changemakers. They have been leading the Workstyle Revolution for a decade, co-founding a social enterprise, Hoxby, in 2014 to prove the concept. They have helped thousands of workstylers around the world to set, project and respect their own workstyles, and are conducting pioneering research into the link between autonomy, productivity and wellbeing. In this episode we explore Workstyle and how it can be adopted by teams and individuals.

Discover more about Workstyle;

In this episode I’m joined by Perry Tims to chat about progressive work communities. Perry has over 30 years of experience in business change and performance with the last 20 being in HR/Organisation Development. He ranked Number 1 in HR's Most Influential Thinkers 2022 (his 5th inclusion in that list), is a 4x Guest Professor, a 2x author and 2x TEDx speaker.

Perry founded People and Transformational HR 10 years ago and the venture is now a Certified BCorporation, a Certified Freedom-Centred WorldBlu listed organisation, a Gold Standard 4-day Working Week, a Living Wage employer and a Climate Positive enterprise.

The work Perry has done in transformation really has no limits, and I’ve had the privilege of working alongside Perry in many aspects when it comes to changing the world of work. In today’s conversation we wanted to talk about communities, and how being part of these has not only changed our lives, but gives us all an opportunity for greater impact.

Find more about Perry;

In this episode I’m joined by Samantha Clarke, happiness consultant, global change maker, TEDX Speaker and Author of Love or Leave It: How to be happy at work. Together we talk about the importance of self-leadership in all of us, what companies are still getting wrong when it comes to company culture, and the exploration of neuroaesthetics.

Find more about Samantha;

Season 10 is finally here! In this intro session I share the theme for the season, and some general ponderings from a culture coach. I share my recent experience with moving further into wholeness, challenges I'm seeing dominate conversations, and an evolution in the making. 

Discover more about Lizzie;

In this week's episode I wrap up season 9 and share thoughts and ponderings on the topics that have been covered for our sessions of Workplace Liberation. 

What will you pledge to liberate at work?

Discover more about Lizzie;

Today I will speaking about menstruation and menopause in the workplace with Sophie Jane Hardy, the communications director of Red School, the founder of Your Cyclical Business and host of Red School's Menstruality Podcast.

You may think this topic isn’t for the workplace, but businesses who fully harness our full humanness and have started to adopt period policies in their company cultures, and this year in 2022 Spain became the first European country to allow workers to take menstrual leave.

In today’s chat Sophie and I will be discussing how menstruation and menopause impact women in the workplace, but also how as individuals we can embrace this most natural and powerful cycle to improve our lives.

Find more about Sophie Jane Hardy;

In this episode I chat with Barry McNeil and Mark Green about Semco Style launching in the UK. We talk about what drew us all into adopting Semco Style as a self-management practice, and what we’ve all learned from becoming Semco Style Experts. Plus there’s a special discount code available for the first 50 listeners.

Discover more about Semco Style here; 

In today’s episode I’m joined by Toni Finnimore,

Founder of the UK’s first subscription based volunteer community.

Toni is a positivity powerhouse whose mission is to change the charitable giving model in the Uk.

As a Social impact lead, community builder and a lover of all thing's kindness and connection, I know that today Tonni will seriously transform the way you think about the traditional CSR model in your organisation.

This season is sponsored by Breathe Culture Pledge;

In this episode I’m joined by Colin Newlyn from Decrapify Work. Colin is a variously described as a sage, critical friend, optimistic realist, independent thinker, coach, mentor and pirate. He writes, blogs and speaks regularly on leadership, teams, the future of work and the insanity of the organisations. He helps people start mutinies, break rules and make good trouble. Together we talk about what needs to be done to ‘Decrapify Work’.

In this episode I’m joined Joe Glover, the Founder of The Marketing Meetup - a community of 35,000+ marketers learning, meeting, and grow in confidence together - most importantly, doing it all with kindness.

Joe has spoken on big and little stages across the world, having been on his own journey that has taken him from shy introvert to… shy introvert. Joe is determined to help people like him that didn't feel events were for him, and marketers who are as interested by impact as they are profit.

In this episode we talk about the power of authenticity in building culture and community.

This season is sponsored by Breathe Culture Pledge;

In this episode I’m joined by Sophie Bryan, Founder & Chief Workplace Culture Specialist at Ordinarily Different. Sophie is also internationally recognised for her TEDx talk and recently launched her own podcast Rebel Work. Sophie has over 20 years of award winning experience in HR & Culture Change, working with organisations globally, and has worked with David Mitchell on a BBC Radio 4 series.

Together we pull apart the current challenges of the workplace and share our thoughts as culture coaches.

This season is sponsored by Breathe Culture Pledge;

In this episode I’m joined by Rob Baker where we dive into the world of job crafting.

Rob is a specialist in bringing positive psychology to life within organisations. He is the founder and Chief Positive Deviant of Tailored Thinking, a pioneering evidence-based positive psychology, wellbeing and HR consultancy who were named the UK’s HR Consultancy of the Year 2020 by the CIPD.

Rob is a TEDX speaker, author of Personalization at Work and Chartered Fellow of the CIPD and the Australian HR Institute. He is world-leading when it comes to enabling and encouraging job crafting and personalised people experience and his work, ideas and research has been presented at academic and professional conferences around the globe.

This season is sponsored by Breathe Culture Pledge;

In this episode I’m joined by Lisa Gill, self-management coach, Tuff Leadership Trainer, author, and host of the Leadermorphosis podcast.

In this session we talk about the ways we can reimagine work, and some of the core skills we can build on a personal level that can shift the way we work. 

It was a real honour for Lisa to join me on this podcast, I’ve been listening to her podcast Leadermorphosis for quite some time now, and I had the privilege of being trained by her last year through Tuff, so I know she’s going to bring so much wisdom to today’s conversation.

You can find more about Lisa here;

In this episode I'm joined by Barry McNeil, the Managing Director of Work Extraordinary. Barry is a questioner; a challenger of the status quo; a disruptor of conventional thinking; a changemaker. Which is no surprise as to why we get on so well. He works with leadership and functional teams to explore why things happen the way they do, helping to surface the tensions in the underlying assumptions and rules that dominate how teams and organisations work. He believes that organisations can deliver outstanding impact and results to society if only we could unleash the creativity within their people and enable them to thrive at work. In this episode Barry and I talk about what inspired his journey into new ways of working, and how you can shift your own company to a more agile way of working.

Discover more about Barry's work here;

In this episode I chat to Alex Barker from the Be More Pirate movement. Alex is an author, facilitator, speaker, and coach who works across the private and public sector supporting people and organisations to rewrite their rules. In this session we discuss our workplace conditioning, and how to become a professional rule-breaker.

You can find Alex here;

In this episode I’m joined by Timm Urschinger, Co-Founder of Live Sciences, a self-managing company, and a Co-Creator of Teal Around the world. The largest global gathering of self-management ambassadors, and one of my personal favourite conferences to attend every year. Timm and I are deep diving into self-management and looking at the areas we need to work on if this style of working is going to grow.

You can find more about Timm’s work here;

In this episode I chat to Chantal Wilson, director of The Pioneers, and proud member of a tech startup still in stealth mode. Chantal has a genuine care for people and has been working in people teams for 18 years. We discuss how people can innovate and experiment to improve company cultures, and how tech can help, rather than hinder us in our endeavour to embrace change.

Connect with Chantal here; 

In this week’s episode I speak with Dr Tessa Lynn, Researcher, Tutor and Community Coach, about harnessing the power of research to inform change.

Together we discuss the growing need for a world with more researchers, and how adopting the key skills of research can empower people in any company or organisation to create meaningful impact.

The podcast is back for another season so as I always I thought I'd give you an idea of what to expect from our conversations coming up over the next few weeks. I'm also sharing some the trends I'm seeing in company culture, and giving my own reflections on how things have evolved in the workplace over the past two years. 

To discover more about my culture work, visit Liberty Mind. 

In this week's episode I'm joined by freelance journalist, speaker and podcaster, Suzy Bashford. During this watercooler conversation we talk about what stifles creativity in company culture, and how major life events have shaped our life and work. Suzy is a writer, speaker, and podcaster living a big juicy creative life in the Cairngorms. If you don’t follow Suzy already on LinkedIn , it’s a must. Suzy is one of my favourite people to follow as she’s always posting about her adventures, and sharing thought-provoking conversation starters. Just a heads-up. This podcast does include explicit language, and content around mental health that may trigger you. For support I’ve added some helplines in the show notes should you need to speak to someone about anything we’ve covered today. 

You can find more about Suzy on; 

Linkedin - Suzy Bashford 

Instagram @bigjuicycreative 

You can find more about Lizzie on; 

In this episode I speak with The Culture Guy, Benjamin Drury about companies really living their values. We dive into how values shape decision-making, and ultimately build your culture. And where companies often get this part wrong.  As Ben says, true values take courage. 

Find out more about Ben's work here; 

In this episode I’m joined by Kelly Jackson, Chief People Officer at Luno. For this water cooler conversation we get deep on the companies who too often use their culture for PR, and use social injustice as a chance to promote their brand.  

You can find more about Kelly and Luno here; 

In this week’s episode of Watercooler Conversations I speak to Rupert Dean, CEO of X+Why. We speak openly about flexible working and inflexible working, and the resistance to change post pandemic. As well as some of the frustrations we have around the outdated mindsets to office working. 

You can find more about XandWhy at; 

An intro into what you can expect from season sevens watercooler conversations. Get ready for deep conversations and telling it like it is. 

With so many possible disruptions to our future in this episode we delve into the topic of future planning with Debbie Seunarayan, founder of Gallus Consulting and author of Shapeshifter. In this episode we explore why so many businesses have been resistant to thinking about the future, and how a future mindset can not only help us adapt in an unpredictable world, but make us stronger in the present. 

Discover Debbie at;

So far in this season, we’ve discussed how outward changes will impact the future of work. But what if in order for us to thrive in the future we need to change not just our mindset, but the very foundation that our businesses are built upon. In today’s episode, I’m talking about one of the biggest structures we all fall into without questioning it; hierarchy. 

On this episode, I interview Robin Roth, Story Teller at TraidCraft about the self-management system of Holacracy, how they’ve been operating with it for two years, and why ditching the hierarchy may be the best thing any business can do. 

Discover More About TraidCraft;

On this week’s episode I talk to Peter Scott about artificial intelligence and it’s impact on our workplaces.  Peter Scott helps people understand what artificial intelligence is and how it will affect them. He’s written a book, given TEDx talks, and given evidence before an All-Party Parliamentary Group in the House of Lords. He’s got a master’s degree in Computer Science from Cambridge University and for over 30 years has worked for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s to support NASA’s exploration of space. In this interview we talk about how the AI revolution could dehumanise or rehumanise our workplaces. 

Today’s episode was mainly inspired by David Attenborough’s recent documentary on Netflix - A Life on Our Planet.  For me personally, it was both harrowing and motivating; making me really want to understand what it is we can each do as individuals and businesses.
To help us on that journey, and what it means for the future, today I’m talking to Jake Fiennes Director of Holkham Nature Reserve & General Manager-Conservation Holkham Estate. Jake has been featured across the media for his passion and work in the conservation of the environment, and in this episode I’m talking to Jake about where our heads need to be at when it comes to future-proofing for the world we have created, and the changes that are yet to happen. 

Pre-COVID only 5% of the UK workforce worked remotely. Plus one in three flexible working requests were denied. Post-covid, it seems that now more businesses are waking up to the benefits of changing how we work. In this episode, I speak to Simon Chaplin from Greenstones Accountants about one of the most extreme forms of flexible working. Results only work environment. Together we dive into how this system has worked for Simon's business for 10 years and enabled him to create the company culture he really wanted. We talk about the benefits to the ROWE system, how the team got on board with it, and some of the initial issues that came up when adopting ROWE.

Connect with Simon at Greenstones;

An introduction to season six and why now is the best time to be thinking about what the next big impact could be on our businesses and our company cultures. In this first episode I reveal what season six is all about, the future, and why we need to look at emerging trends in order to remain agile and resilient. I delve into the shifts we've seen since COVID and how this disruption is the wake-up call we need in order to change for the better. 

Don't forget to subscribe. 

On this week's episode I’m joined by Rebecca Lewis Smith who is co-founder and managing director of Fountain, an award-winning digital marketing agency. Her passion is for building an exceptional culture within the agency – looking beyond the traditional. 

In this podcast we discuss how Rebecca has begun to implement an internal coaching culture, and the benefits it has brought the team and business during the covid-19 pandemic. 

Rebecca Hosts a podcast on culture;

What if you changed your entire business and based it on a philosophy? 

Today I’m speaking to Emily West, the Business Development Manager at Flocc; a creative marketing agency based in Cambridge and Norwich. Three years ago Flocc successfully adopted the Scandinavian concept of “Lagom” within the workplace.  Meaning “not too much, not too little, just the right amount.” 

In this episode we discuss the practical elements of how they went about creating a six hour day, and bringing the 'lagom' philosophy into their company culture. 

Workplace wellbeing has been at the top of the agenda since the outbreak of covid-19. I think we can all agree it has been challenging for all of us in one way or another.  For businesses who’s teams have been dispersed the emphasis on wellbeing has increased.  In this week's episode I'm talking to Nic Marks, the  CEO & Founder of Friday Pulse, the employee engagement survey that helps businesses quite literally keep their finger on the pulse when it comes to how their team is feeling. Today we’ll be delving into how a data led approach can help us learn more about employee happiness. 

Today we take the diversity angle a step further as we talk to Rachel-Morgan Trimmer a Neurodiversity Coach and Consultant who supports businesses in understanding neurodiversity and enabling them to build a more neurodiverse workforce.  Whether you’re completely new to the neurodiverse topic, or are aware of what it means, this episode is about enlightening more organisations to understand why it’s essential to start embracing the full spectrum of a neurodiverse workforce.

In this episode I’m joined by Kirsty Hulse an organisational thought leader. Having built large global companies through innovative processes Kirsty is an expert in empowering winning teams, increasing creativity and innovation, developing professional confidence and resilience and powerful communication.  Kirsty is the Founder of Roar Training and has incredible reputation for helping people to excel their confidence. If you haven’t discovered her yet, I’ve popped all of Kirstys links in the show notes, but I highly recommend you give her a follow. In this episode I ask Kirsty about how we can develop a culture for personal growth, so all of us can thrive in the workplace.