The Spin

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 @RamsayRVtake 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: Traditionalists or Silent Generation - 1945 and beforeBaby Boomers - 1946-1964Generation X - 1965-1976Millennials or Gen Y - 1977-1995Generation Z or iGen or Centennials - 1996-nowWith 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 strategyIf you’re leading a team find the commonalities rather than extenuating the differencesEncourage team members to treat everyone as individualsConsider having an impact statementAnd 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 linkIf 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 reportIf 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: RangeMicrosoftJosh BersinHigh low end of the show A musical theme here: Cheat NotesRage Against the Machine 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 requireSquiggly career path – TedX video hereJob craftingLessons from the book Futureproof - Be surprising, social, and scarce, resist machine drift, leave handprints, demote your devicesDifferentiate yourselfHigh low end of the show A couple of things to share here: QAnon – Into the Storm – watch it hereMy 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!

Season 2 - Episode 3: End of year reflections Introduction 2020 – the year none of us will ever forget no matter how hard we try! Spend some time with Kristen and Mark as they look for the silver linings in what was a challenging year for everyone in addition to looking ahead to what 2021 might offer us. This all happened in one year – crazy! It’s also been 12 months since the first episode of The Spin so humour us with a bit of a nostalgic look back on the “Year of Kristen” and an unfocused year of focus for Mark. High, low, end of the show Kristen mentioned one of his favourite podcasts Acquired – take a listen. Mark talked about his library of books and to date he has read: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.

Season 2 Episode 2: Embracing Accountability Welcome to Season 2 Episode 2 of The Spin – it’s been a while, but life’s busy so we give ourselves a pass! What does the word discipline mean for you? Join us as we explore the different connotations of this word with our guest Michael Clark. For some people (like Kristen) it means self-discipline and keeping to habits. You may want to have a quick history lesson and learn more about Marcus Aurelius. In an organizational context, we refer to the work of Patrick Lencioni and Michael’s frameworks are beautiful articulated in this splendid paper. High, low, end of the show Mark’s tale of woe doesn’t make it to the show notes. Mr Butcher refers to Halt and Catch Fire and you may also want to support him doing his thing with his facial hair for a great cause! 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.

Introduction Welcome to Season 2 of The Spin. We learnt a lot in Season 1 and had a lot of fun along the way, so we’re excited to get to Season 2 where we’ll introduce some new features alongside the tried and tested! One particular new feature will be more audience participation including welcoming friends of The Spin to the show. In our first episode we met with Meghan Gardner – ex-colleague of Mark’s and colleague of Kristen’s … plus a friend (once Mark painted Meghan into that corner!). In this episode Meghan shares her perspective on how good leaders maintain a deliberate balance between their intent and the impact. Balancing intent and impact We like to think people have good intentions and in the majority of cases they do, but if you don’t consider the impact on your actions, how can you be confident your intentions landed in the right way? Intent is the input but could be influenced by our own assumptions. Impact is the output - how something was received by the other person. As we discuss in the pod, being conscious of both will help ensure you are in balance and we agree with Meghan … that is what makes a good leader (and a good person!). Take aways A few tips or take aways … well 3 to be precise! Be conscious of your intent Put yourself in other people’s shoes Make sure you find a balance High, low, end of the show We both had sad news to share in our lows plus the usual diversity to our end of the shows … and no Mark still hasn’t seen ET! 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.

Episode 10: Season one recap We started The Spin in January 2020 and here we are in July at the end of our first season. How time flies when you’re having fun! Take a listen of this short episode where we talk about season one including what went well and what we want to improve for the next season. This was our own little example of having a growth mindset (check-out episode 2!). We’d love to hear from our listeners (send me an email Mum and Dad!) about anything you want us to cover in season two. We’ve got some ideas of our own, including friends of The Spin and more social connection with the audience, and it would be great to hear your ideas. You can drop Kristen or Mark a note on LinkedIn, or DM us on Twitter. See you soon for season two. 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.

Episode 9: The New Normal Introduction As we start to open back up in Ontario and across the globe, in Episode 9 of The Spin we talk about the considerations for individuals and organizations. Many have spoken about the silver lining that comes from the pandemic and the opportunity it presents to reimagine the next normal when it comes to work. We talk through some of the elements. We also share some of our reactions to the tragic murder of George Floyd and the actions we’re personally taking. Enjoy. Opening Up Considerations The organizational considerations are far reaching. Organizations are thinking through how they safely get their people back to work and introducing new protocols. Recognizing the complexity, where it’s an option many companies are sticking with the remote working arrangement (or distributed teams) and giving people the choice about whether they return to the office. It’s worth noting that only about 40% of people working have the option to work remotely. Here is a link to Tesla’s return to work protocol if you fancy a read. As individuals we all need to make our own decisions about our risk tolerance. We talked through the importance of taking more a ‘heart’ response and taking into consideration individual’s circumstances when thinking through how to best open up the office. Reimagining Work Many organizations are adapting to the new normal and some are using the ‘perfect storm’ to reimagine work. This reimagined workplace includes the opportunity to be much more aligned to new societal values, being more purpose driven and thinking differently about how work gets done. Lots to talk about in future episodes! Hi lo end of the show linkherelinkTake aways Mount NemoKeep being kindUntil 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.

It was Mark’s turn to do some research around how to build relationships. We decided to focus our time on John Maxwell’s four levels of relationship. We started with a definition that we liked. Interpersonal relationship refers to a strong association between individuals sharing common interests and goals. A sense of trust, loyalty and commitment is essential in a relationship. Individuals need to trust and respect their partners to avoid misunderstandings and conflicts in relationship. Why is it important to be able to build relationships? Well it makes you happy as we know, but it’s also an important human skill that helps differentiate us from technology. Well so we thought, until Mr B told us that robot influencers that are way more attractive than us (well Mark anyways!) are getting better at building relationships. Who knew!? Well Kristen apparently. Here is a link to Miquela (straight from Kristen’s IG account) and a story that tells you more about the whole crazy phenomenon! No judgement from us if you follow the links and the robots … The four levels of relationships These insights from John Maxwell provide a great model for the levels of relationships. You can go from casual encounter in Starbucks to a long last relationships built on trust and mutual respect. Just look at Kristen and Mark – although we didn’t meet in Starbucks. Surface Relationships Structured Relationships - when a relationship is ready to go to another level, it is usually because it has been structure to do so. Secure Relationships - when a structured relationship becomes healthy and enjoyable, the relationship then moves to a new level. Solid Relationships Take aways Hi lo end of the show this wacky podcast of Spikeball –

Episode 7?! Wow that came around quickly. In our latest episode we took the opportunity to revisit the original purpose of The Spin and pivoted slightly the format very slightly. See if you notice! From the confines of his mobile studio (aka his car in his garage), Kristen answered the question ‘What makes you happy?’. We hope you enjoy the pod! The Spin Do you remember what The Spin is all about? Well we think the world is changing at a crazy rate. It can be exciting but scary all at the same time. We want to give you our spin on a variety of subjects to make sure you’re ready to embrace that world today and in the future. With that in mind we’re shifting the format very slightly. In each episode one of us will explore a topic and bring that to the virtual table. Kristen drew the short straw so he’s up first! The happy research Laurie Santos – Professor at Yale and her podcast The Happiness LabDaniel Kahneman – a psychologist and economist notable for his work on the psychology of judgment, decision-making and behavioral economicsThe Harvard study of Adult development, Robert Waldinger Definition of happiness So how do we define happiness? Wikipedia defines it as: A feeling of pleasure and positivity. When someone feels good, proud, excited, relieved or satisfied about something, that person is said to be "happy". Happiness is usually thought of as the opposite of sadness. Danny’s research The idea of ‘happiness’ involves 2 key points: He also concluded that making more than $75,000 per year doesn't make you significantly happier on any given day. So money don’t buy you happiness! The 80 year old study The biggest influence on this episode is rooted in this research. It’s a 79 year old study following two groups of participants - Harvard sophomores and Boston’s poorest kids with disadvantaged backgrounds. It addresses the compelling question what keeps people happy and healthy? Robert Waldinger who leads the research concludes: Top tips Hi lo end of the show Take a look at Kristen’s course on financial markets so he can talk to you about stocksAlternatively watch Waco on NetflixUntil next time!

Episode 6: COVID-19 – COVID19 and What we are noticing (personally and professionally) Introduction The COVID-19 crisis is a health crisis that our generation has never experienced. For this episode, Kristen and Mark were obviously practicing social distancing. Kristen was in his car in the garage and Mark was at home - the wonders of modern technology! We framed our COVID-19 conversation around what we’re noticing. What we’re noticing about our own reaction and what we’re noticing of others. We also introduced a new segment to the show and had some timely news on the podcast – 500 downloads, 14 countries and 80 cities with 128 regular listeners. Woohoo! Thank you everyone. ☺ What’s going on for us? We’re finding a new routine but acknowledged our respective emotions are fluctuating. Kristen shared how he was finding the upside and focusing on making progress with his personal goals. On the other hand Mark is making less progress learning to play chess! What about work? We shared our experiences at work. Kristen had some great tips for working from home including the importance of showering and getting dressed (thank god!). Mark acknowledged it wasn’t a typical set of circumstances and projected that distributed working would become more of a discussion moving forward. What about how our leaders and how organizations are responding? Everyone needs to change their title to Chief Empathy Officer right now. Organizations need to be very conscious of how they respond to this situation and take the opportunity to reassess how they are doing things through a reset. What was our Spin on COVID-19? Until next time!

The Spin - Episode 5: Wellbeing Introduction When we initially recorded this episode, COVID-19 was in the news more than it was in our lives. A lot changed in a week and the topic of wellbeing feels even more relevant now. So in this episode of The Spin listen to Kristen and Mark chat about wellbeing. They provide some context around different components of wellbeing and talk about physical and mental wellbeing. What are the different elements of wellbeing? Well there are a lot - spiritual, relationship, intellectual, social, physical, mental and financial wellbeing. What do you need to think about when it comes to physical wellbeing? linkWhat tips does Kristen have when it comes to physical health? What about mental wellbeing? Canadian Mental Health AssociationBell Lets TalkGallupWhat resources are there to help with mental health? Crisis Services CanadaCanadian Mental Health AssociationThe Centre for Addiction and Mental HealthWorld Health OrganizationAction for HappinessHow to stay fit during COVID19?Where can I find out about the Canadian Mental Health Association? What is this ADKAR thing? And how many times is Mark going to mention it …Here you go! Go and indulge yourself. What was our Spin on wellbeing? Until next time!

Episode 4: Career Longevity Introduction In this episode of The Spin, Kristen and Mark explore the topic of career longevity. They talk about why it is important, what the implications are for people and what you can do to stay relevant for a long term career. Why is career longevity a thing? We identified a few reasons why career longevity is important: 100 Year Lifehandy calculatortop 15 emerging rolesSo how do we give ourselves the best chance at maximum career longevity? There are lots of things to think about, but in our mind the following 3 are the most important: We spent a fair bit of time chatting about each. Personal and professional development “Investing in yourself is the best investment you will ever make. It will not only improve your life, it will improve the lives of all those around you.” Robin Sharma There are lots of options for you to develop different skills. Kristen talked through a few including: Free online coursesDon’t forget to think about your learning style and, yes you guessed it, have a plan and WRITE IT DOWN! (Kristen nods off!). Personal brand Your personal brand is how you promote yourself. It is the unique combination of skills, experience, and personality that you want the world to see you. It is the telling of your story, and how it reflects your conduct, behavior, spoken and unspoken words, and attitudes. So what can you do to promote your brand? A strong professional network Until next time!

In this episode Mark and Kristen discuss the idea of finding your purpose while referencing Dan Pontefract's book the Purpose effect and explore how personal, organizational and role purpose can align to support your overall happiness.

Mark and Kristen discuss what a Growth Mindset is. We talk about some real world examples and provide some tips to tap into your own personal Growth Mindset.