Transformations happen with less work and more play?

Here are the key themes that emerged from our conversation:

Give your people more space and time to experiment

The way company culture has evolved we feel that work is "pre-scripted" around tasks that need to get done. We also know we are being evaluated on results. But leaders need to move towards a culture that allows space for experimentation, play, and social bonding, so that employees can unleash their creative skills. In fact, you're more likely to deliver better results if you do.

“[Managers] wake up and say ‘how will I get what I promised to the customer, how do I ensure that the regulators are not unhappy with us?’. That thinking often yields work practices that feel confined and straight-jacked. It’s about making enough spaces where people can learn rather than creating procedures that they have to follow.”

Leaders must learn to show emotions

Leaders are often driven by hard measures like productivity and removing waste from the system. But they need to listen to their people, show curiosity and encourage emotional inspiration - even give a deeper sense of who they are as a person. 

This could be a golden age for human emotions, hoping that what used to work at companies - a sort of “threat system” made up of an emphasis on people being reliable, on predictability and control - is replaced by an environment of “curiosity, enthusiasm and zest”.

“Leaders today need to be able to adapt, listen and learn. Leaders will need to get good at ‘emotions projection’.”

Check out the full podcast here