Today's conversation is with Professor Benjamin Laker, someone I've long admired for his cutting edge work on the evolution of culture. His article on Meeting Free Days is probably the piece of research I've shared the most in the last 5 years.

Laker is Professor of Leadership at Henley Business School, which is part of the University of Reading. As well as writing multiple bestselling books on work like Too Proud to Lead and Job Crafting, he's also published dozens of articles in HBR and MIT Sloan Management Review. He's worked with government helping to develop policy on work and it's evolution.

I could have chatted to Benjamin about dozens of things but I specifically wanted to dive into a sensational piece he wrote in Harvard Business Review at the end of last year about changing culture inside of organisations.

Full transcript on the website

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Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.

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Daniel Coyle returns to reflect on what has changed since we last spoke. He's moved attention to an examination of what contributes to us getting a fulfilling experience from work - and life.

We talk attention, community and the way that great teams demonstrate 'group flow'. We also delve into some research by Nick Epley that I've covered on the newsletter, that suggests we're terrible at predicting what will make us happy.

If you like this check out the previous episodes with Daniel:

Dan Coyle can fix your broken culture

The Culture Code

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Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm joined by Daniel Zhao, chief economist of Glassdoor, who talks me through their new rankings of the best places to work in 2026.

It's an intriguing list, is a car wash really better than some of the most famous tech brands in the world?

The ranking allows us to explore what we want in a job: culture, connection, progression and autonomy.

Bad culture is 7 times more powerful driving quitting than salary: hear Charlie and Donald Sull talk about Glassdoor data

Glassdoor: Top US places to work

Glassdoor: Top UK places to work

Full transcript on the website

Sign up to the Make Work Better newsletter or check out the best ever episodes at the website.

Eat Sleep Work Repeat is made and hosted by Bruce Daisley.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.