Season 3 - Episode 3: Do you have a best friend at work?

Yes it’s been a while but we’re back. For how long? Who knows!

We provide a bit of an explanation of our podcast recording tardiness before jumping in to the topic of friendships at work.

Inspired by Max Dickins’ spectacular book Billy No-Mates, we build the case for organizations taking a more specific role in building friendships at work.

You’ll find more on this topic in Mark’s recent blog that you can read at your leisure here.

A few more resources to share:

📝 The Gallup Q12 survey link

👋 The Strype and Doordash layoff announcements

🎙 The podcast Quiet Part Loud that Kristen referred to

If you enjoy The Spin, we’d be humbled by a review on your podcast platform of choice or a recommendation to a friend. 

Season 3

Episode 2: What is Web 3.0?

In the latest episode of The Spin, Mark and Kristen (well mainly Kristen) put their spin on Web 3.0. For the avoidance of doubt, it’s correctly referred to as “web three point O” – Mark apologizes for his apparent inability to get this in his head during the pod!

This episode took us in to the lane we wanted to create with The Spin based on our philosophy that the world is changing at a crazy rate. It can be exciting but scary all at the same time. This is our spin on a variety of subjects to make sure you’re ready to embrace that world today and in the future.

We talk through the evolution of the web from Web 1.0 (think Craigslist), through Web 2.0 (think Uber and Airbnb) to the emerging Web 3.0. We explore some of the background to this evolution and the opportunities it creates for a decentralized world where the user community has more power than the big tech companies.

This topic is important to our listeners as it represents the next evolution of the internet that will create continued disruption that we should be aware of.

Some additional resources and our High Lo:

🧠 Braintrust – the company Kristen used as a case study of how Web 3.0 is disrupting the talent market.

🗞 Not Boring – a newsletter where you can also keep ahead of what’s going in the world to impress your friends and family.

🧐 The Stoics

If you enjoy The Spin, we’d be humbled by a review on your podcast platform of choice or a recommendation to a friend. 

Season 3

Episode 1: The Future of Career Progression

Welcome to a new year and a new season of The Spin. In this episode, Mark and Kristen explore career progression and specifically Squiggly Careers.

As we come through the pandemic, now is a great time to reflect on whether you are getting what you want from your career and, if possible, to take control. In Season 2 of Episode 5, we talked about how to futureproof your career and this included reference to Squiggly Careers. A squiggly career represents the future of the career ladder where we can play to our strengths and explore limitless future possibilities.

The topic of careers appears to be top of mind for people. Research from global recruitment firm Adecco identified that 42% don’t feel confident they have the skills required for the future and only 30% feel their managers are equipped to help putting lots of responsibility on individuals to manage their own careers.

Take a listen for our recommendations for companies and individuals.

High low end of the show

• If you’re IG feed is in need of some RV adventures, we will not judge! Feel free to follow @RamsayRV.
• Alternatively, if you’d like to understand more about why Kristen is obsessed with Yellowstone, take a look.

If you enjoy The Spin, we’d be humbled by a review on your podcast platform of choice or a recommendation to a friend. You might even win a prize!

Season 2

Episode 8: Generation Nation – What do millennials know anyway?

Another opportunity to be face to face with Kristen proudly wearing a half grown moustache – more on that below – for an episode of The Spin talking about generations. 

Inspired by an October NYT article, we explored the five different generations in the workplace including:

1. Traditionalists or Silent Generation - 1945 and before
2. Baby Boomers - 1946-1964
3. Generation X - 1965-1976
4. Millennials or Gen Y - 1977-1995
5. Generation Z or iGen or Centennials - 1996-now

With Mark being a proud Gen X (or is that an Z?) and Kristen just getting in there as a millennial, we shared our experiences that have informed (or misinformed) the generational labels.

We also shared some take aways for organizations:

• Ensure you can use the labels to inform an attraction strategy
• If you’re leading a team find the commonalities rather than extenuating the differences
• Encourage team members to treat everyone as individuals
• Consider having an impact statement

And for individuals we encouraged building awareness and challenging assumptions of others.

High low end of the show

• If you’d like to sponsor Kristen’s tach, here is a link
• If you’d like to read Mark’s ramblings about COP26 and the environment, read this.

If you enjoyed this episode, we’d be very excited if you took the time to do a review on your favourite podcast platform or share it with a friend.

Season 2

Episode 7: The Great Resignation

It was fantastic to be face to face for this episode of The Spin where Kristen and Mark chat about “The Great Resignation”. 

On the back of the pandemic, there is a lot of pent-up demand so learn more about the reasons why so many people are resigning and what organizations and individuals need to think about. Some sectors have been particularly impacted including retail and hospitality and we make the argument that it’s time for these employers to think differently about their proposition.

If you’re an individual thinking about a new role, it’s important to pause and think about whether this is the right time. With so much change can you make an informed decision that this is the right move for you?

High low end of the show

• If you’re also worried about the environment, take a read of the IPCC report
• If you’d like to watch Val on Prime, here is a trailer

If you enjoyed this episode, we’d be super excited if you took the time to do a review on your favourite podcast platform or share it with a friend.

Season 2

Episode 6: We all want to go hybrid

In this edition of The Spin we explore hybrid work – the popular choice as people start to plan a return to the office.

Hybrid work is one of those new terms (like “social distancing”) that we didn’t use 18 months ago but is now a common part of our vernacular. In a recent study from Microsoft, it was reported that 70% of workers want flexible work and 67% want more in-person time with colleagues so hybrid work (the flexibility to spend time in the office and at home) seems to be the perfect compromise.

There are a number of important considerations to make sure hybrid works effectively that we review in addition to offering some helpful tips.

You’ll find some helpful resources here:

• Pros and cons of different hybrid work models - Range
• Hybrid work: a guide for business leaders - Microsoft
• The joys of hybrid work. Then things we have learned. – Josh Bersin

High low end of the show

A musical theme here:

• Take a listen to Kristen’s band Cheat Notes
• Get angry and introduce yourself to Rage Against the Machine if you haven’t already

If you enjoy The Spin, we’d be humbled by a review on your podcast platform of choice or a recommendation to a friend. You might even win a prize!

It’s Episode 5 of The Spin and Kristen and Mark are exploring how we ensure our careers stay relevant in a world of disruption.

Inspired by the writing of Kevin Roose including the NYT article (subscription required) that Kristen shared with Mark and the book Futureproof, we are reminded that 70% of people in US are scared of robots taking over their jobs. 

These aren’t Terminator type robots, but robotic process automation (RPA) that take away repetitive tasks. McKinsey project 45 million jobs lost to automation by 2030 so who is responsible for ensuring we stay “futureproof” – us as individuals or the organizations we work for (if we work for organizations?).

Top tips

• Lifelong learning strategy – Mercer research 63% of people trust their companies to teach them the skills they require
• Squiggly career path – TedX video here
• Job crafting
• Lessons from the book Futureproof - Be surprising, social, and scarce, resist machine drift, leave handprints, demote your devices
• Differentiate yourself

High low end of the show

A couple of things to share here:

• QAnon – Into the Storm – watch it here
• My So Called Life – for a technology free world

If you enjoy The Spin, we’d be humbled by a review on your podcast platform of choice or a recommendation to a friend. You might even win a prize!

Season 2

Episode 4: All About Culture

In this episode we were excited to be joined by Hilton Barbour to chat about all things culture.

Hilton is a marketer by training who explores the intersection of strategy and culture. As his website explains, if strategy is the engine culture is the fuel.

We talk through what we mean by culture, how it can impact an organization and share our perspectives on why it’s important.

Hilton provides a couple of definitions of culture, but the one that really resonated was “it’s what happens at the edges of your organization on your worst day” – and let’s admit we’ve had a few bad days recently with this darn pandemic! Also, Kristen would have mentioned an old Netflix culture presentation you can find here if interested!

We hope you enjoy it.

The big Spin giveaway

Ok big is a relative term! We want to get our listeners engaged so if you tag us in a social media post or do a review, you will be entered into a draw to win a book – No Rules Rules by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer that talks about the Netflix culture. Good luck!

High low end of the show

We covered a lot of ground in this week’s high low …

Here is the link to White Fragility and Conscious Leadership. And here is the link to the course Kristen is doing.

Until next time!

If you enjoy The Spin, we’d be humbled by a review on your podcast platform of choice or a recommendation to a friend. You might even win a prize!