What do we do when life or work throws us a curveball? In her new book, productivity expert Grace Marshall explores ways we can reframe struggle as the place where the magic happens. Grace is an author, keynote speaker, and a Productivity Ninja with the Think Productive team. In her conversation with Stephen, she uncovers ways we can hold plans and expectations less tightly, and how we can find joy in our work when we push ourselves a little out of our comfort zone. Links Connect with Grace on LinkedIn Grace’s website Struggle: The surprising truth, beauty and opportunity hidden in life's shittier moments – Grace’s latest book How to be Really Productive: Achieving clarity and getting results in a world where work never ends – Grace’s 2015 book 21 Ways to Manage the Stuff that Sucks Up Your Time – Grace’s book from 2012 How to be a Productivity Ninja: Worry less, achieve more and love what you do, by Graham Allcott Big Magic: How to live a creative life and let go of your fear, by Elizabeth Gilbert How to make stress your friend – Kelly McGonigal’s TED talk Stefan Sagmeister Keith Jarrett – The Köln Concert

We are all prototypes, with a lifetime of learning ahead of us. That’s the insight that led Wouter Smeets to cofound Prototype You, an organisation that runs workshops to help people work towards their ideal work experience. For Wouter, the office is just another tool, and moving a mouse or typing at a keyboard are not signs of productivity. And conversely, sometimes working less is the better way to achieve good, sustainable work. Wouter is a Dutch entrepreneur, innovator and ideas guy that loves to hang out on the beach. By reinventing why and how we work, he helps move the needle towards a society that optimises wellbeing over wealth. As co-founder of Prototype You, he helps organisations create a positive impact on employee wellbeing, happiness and productivity through programs where employees experiment towards work-life harmony. Links Connect with Wouter on LinkedIn Prototype You Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman, by Yvon Chouinard Happy Startup Summercamp The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups, by Daniel Coyle The Fearless Organization - Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth, by Amy Edmondson David Bowie on why you should never play to the gallery Four Thousand Weeks, by Oliver Burkeman

A third of all carbon emissions are created by the food system – in production, packing, distribution, and consumption. Ruth Anslow spent 15 years in the corporate sector and formed the HISBE supermarket brand to try and change that. Ruth is a social entrepreneur and a keen advocate of doing business for social benefit, beyond just making profit. In 2010 she decided to take on supermarkets and cofounded HISBE Food with her sister, Amy. HISBE is a supermarket chain with a difference, built on a social enterprise business model and designed to support a sustainable future for food and farming. Alongside running HISBE, Ruth cofounded The Good Business Club, to connect entrepreneurs who are starting, running and growing a “business for good” with the support and resources they need. Links Connect with Ruth on LinkedIn HISBE The Good Business Club Katie Paterson Living Wage Foundation Lizi’s granloa Ethical Consumer organisation If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito

Aoife O’Brien is the founder of Happier at Work, a business with the mission to support organisations in retaining top talent. She is passionate about fit and specifically how creating the right environment can help individuals to reach their full potential and support organisations to thrive. She partners with HR and business leaders to focus on four pillars: engagement and belonging; leadership equity; performance and productivity; and the future of work. She is a self-professed data nerd, with a 20+ year career in market research in the fast-moving consumer goods industry working with clients like Coca Cola, Unilever and Heinz to solve marketing problems using data analytics. Aoife has been featured by several national media platforms and public speaking events talking about imposter syndrome, fit, employee engagement, productivity, and remote working. Her podcast, Happier at Work, features a combination of interview-based episodes as well as solo podcasting, and has 50,000 listens in more than 50 countries. She has lived and worked in Dublin, London, Perth, and Sydney and has a MSc in Work and Organisational Behaviour, a Diploma in Executive and Life Coaching and a Certificate in Career Coaching. Links Connect with Aoife on LinkedIn Happier at Work ImposterSyndrome.ie Follow @happieratwork.ie on Instagram Follow @happieratworkHQ on Twitter

Sarah Metcalfe is passionate about happiness in the workplace, and she knows the positive impact this has on the customer experience. Through continuing to innovate and improve the customer journey, Sarah joined Sure Petcare in 2010, taking responsibility for the company’s customer service and guiding it through an extraordinary period of expansion and growth. She now leads a talented multilingual team who deliver outstanding customer service and happiness to all Sure Petcare customers around the world. Sarah left Sure Petcare with a Net Promoter Score of 90+ in over 20 countries. Sarah now runs her own consulting company, Happy Coffee Consulting to help companies create great customer service and happy workplaces. She is now a partner with Woohoo Ltd and runs the Woohoo Academy, creating Chief Happiness Officers within organisations worldwide and spreading the word that the future workplaces are those that put their people at the heart of what they do. Sarah is also the founder of the International Week of Happiness at Work summit which takes place each September – an international online summit with Keynote speakers at the forefront of workplace happiness sharing their insights. Links Happy Coffee Consulting International Week of Happiness at Work Humankind, by Rutger Bregman Maverick, by Ricardo Semler The Culture Code, by Daniel Coyle

Elena Kerrigan is the MD of Think Productive, a UK-based global company that enables organisations to reimagine how they work with productivity tools. They have helped companies as diverse as Aston Martin, American Express, Audi, Boots, GSK, Sainsbury’s and Volkswagen. Through their courses and workshops they help organisations reclaim time from distractions, unproductive meetings and getting emails under control. This has allowed Think Productive to not only talk the talk the talk but also walk the walk. Since 2011 they have worked a four-day week: paid for five days but only working four days. Elena shares how they have done just that and the benefits they have experienced. Think Productive are presently advising other UK companies who are trialling the four-day working week in 2022. Links Think Productive 4 Day Week

Stephen and Liliana are joined by author, conference organiser, and remote work expert Liam Martin. Liam is the CMO of time tracking and productivity platform and also co-organizer of the Running Remote conference, and author of Running Remote: Master the Lessons from the World’s Most Successful Remote-Work Pioneers. He has spent 20 years working remotely before we all entered a forced world of work we never thought possible. In his conversation with Stephen and Liliana, he examines the impact 20th century ideas of work have on 21st century work environments, using Tesla as an example. He also unpacks the concept of asynchronous management: where platforms do the role of reporting across an organisation, rather than relying on layers of management. Links Time Doctor Running Remote conference Running Remote: the book ReWork: Change the Way You Work Forever Better Help Juno

Joining Stephen is Henry Stewart, Chief Happiness Officer at London-based training company Happy Ltd. Henry is the author of the Happy Manifesto, a book that helps organisations become great places to work. An international keynote speaker, Henry advises others like Stephen on how they can transform the world of work for the better. Links The Happy. Manifesto happy.co.uk The Customer Comes Second: Put Your People First and Watch 'em Kick Butt Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention Bullshit Jobs: A Theory To learn more about breathwork, visit BreatheNow Hub, and to learn how to create happier workplaces, visit wakeup.ie.

Laurence and Carlos from the Happy Startup School do business differently, and want to help others think differently about the work they do. After running a design agency, their approach to business – integrating ease and play – became their focus, and the Happy Startup School was born. In this conversation with Liliana and Stephen, the founders of this purpose-led business school unpack what brought them from founding Spook Studio to running a thriving community of entrepreneurs, how they're transforming people's approaches to business, and providing more opportunities to escape Zoom fatigue. Links The Happy Startup School The Second Mountain, by David Brooks Vision Tribe Summercamp Stop closing the deal and get to the truth, with Tad Hargrave The 100-Year Life, by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott To learn more about breathwork, visit BreatheNow Hub, and to learn how to create happier workplaces, visit wakeup.ie.

Advancements in technology, productivity, knowledge-work and leadership have yet to address the problems of work-life balance and burnout facing people in modern workplaces. This week, Liliana and Stephen dig into the ways in which shrinking the working week can expand our potential to be productive, healthier and happier. Links Work-Life Balance Is a Cycle, Not an Achievement Parkinson's law Happy Workplaces conference Maverick!: The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace, by Ricardo Semler The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing, by Bronnie Ware To learn more about breathwork, visit BreatheNow Hub, and to learn how to create happier workplaces, visit wakeup.ie.