Episode 15 - Samantha & Kevin George

Emotional intelligence, masculinity and football

In this episode I wanted to take a slight detour from the world of office work to looking at the importance of emotional intelligence in other worlds of work. Who better to have as a guest than Kevin George, together we take a look at how emotional intelligence in schools, prisons and sports teams to help young men. Kevin has a fascinating journey from professional footballer and then qualifying as an NLP practitioner. He talks about his hopes for education, how to encourage more emotional intelligence amongst men and his textured approach to how we can self manage ourselves for increased happiness.

In this episode you will learn:

2.26 How did Kevin fall into his line of work?

4.08 The ethos of a professional footballer

10.31 The issues around emotional literacy with men and boys

17.08 How Kevin trains people to be more resilient

19.48 How can parents and teachers help with emotional literacy?

21.11 Educating people to connect with themselves

34.49 How does Kevin stay happy and replenish what he gives out 

37.13 Tips for finding happiness in your life

42.43 Kevin's new book and what he wants to achieve

Enjoyed listening to Kevin George? Fab! Find out more about him here:

Website:  www.kevin-george.com

Twitter and Instagram: @_KevinGeorge

Episode 14 - Samantha & Nancy Hey

Creating wellbeing initiatives from real data and research 

I had the pleasure of meeting Nancy Hey at an Action for Happiness event and we just clicked over research, data, Bhutan and happiness. 

Nancy Hey is the Director of the What Works Centre for Wellbeing. The centre aims to understand what government/communities/businesses/individuals can do to improve wellbeing. Nancy has had careers in law, coaching and development and is a policy professional and finally found her niche using data and research to support wellbeing initiatives. Together we discuss what it takes for an individual to thrive, how to implement proper wellbeing initiatives in a workplace and how we can combat job loss in the face of automation.

In this episode you will learn:

1.47 What drove Nancy to open up the What Works centre?

3.56 What does it take to make an individual thrive? 

12.27 First steps for a company to implement a wellbeing strategy

15.51 Technology shaping wellbeing in and out of the workplace 

21.40 What does Nancy do for personal wellbeing?

24.03 Nancy's views on wearables surrounding data and privacy

26.56 Advice for small companies implementing social wellbeing

29.33 Items that we should all be paying more attention to in the wellbeing field

Enjoyed listening to Nancy Hey? Fab! Find out more about him here:

- visiting his site: www.whatworkswellbeing.org

- on twitter: @Work_Life_You or @WhatWorksWB 

Episode 13 Samantha & Your questions

How do I successfully implement a happiness strategy?

In my newsletters I often include sme of the top questions I’m asked that month by clients. However one lovely reader pointed out recently that they would love to know the answers to some of the questions posed as they are struggling with similar. So it will be business as usual with interviews with myself and one other but randomly sprinkled with some Q&A sessions with yours truly!

So first question is...

I’m not sure I know the best ways to keep our employees engaged and I think it’s time to think about a happiness strategy. My founders are not very aware of happiness consultancy – I’m not sure whether they will buy into the idea,  I need to show them how this is going to help the the company in the long run and I guess the bottom line. I believe we can afford more nights out and other perks but it all seems like costs I’m not sure we can wholly afford right now..

Can you help?

Listen to the answers here:

0.40 The listener question - how to implement a happiness strategy

2.47 4 steps to create an effective strategy

3.07 Consult the team and collect data

3.55 What is the data telling you?

4.25 Are these problems that can be solved by a free lunch or gym pass?

5.25 Keep employees at the heart of the business

6.00 Align your happiness strategy with your business culture and values

8.12 4 key cornerstones for happiness

9.38 Other important decisions to make

10.25 Educating, implementing and communicating

11.43 Measuring the outcomes of these changes

Episode 12 - Samantha & Chris Flack

Finding a tech life balance with Chris Flack 

In this episode I talk to Chris Flack, founder of Unplug, about his journey to find a balance between life and technology. Unplug works with behavioural change experts to help people engage effectively with technology. He emphasizes that this isn’t about removing tech completely, but finding a balance and creating effective boundaries.

Find out more about the key apps that keep Chris grounded, how to integrate meditation into your daily life and how tech affects children.

In this episode you will learn:

Chris' journey from tech founder to Unplug 2.03

How to we have better conversations about tech overload 3.52

Tips and tools for tech balance in the workplace 6.08

Apps to track tech use 7.37

The mindset for approaching meditation and sticking with it 14.35

Focusing on technology emotional intelligence with clients 20.33

Are emotional and tech issues generational? 22.02

Retreats to look more deeply into tech balance 25.50

Working with children 26.47

Different approach to tech in Generation Z 28.40

How does Chris stay happy 31.04

Enjoyed listening to Chris Flack? Fab! Find out more about him here:

- visiting his site: http://www.unplug.ie

- on twitter: @UnPlugHQ or @suitedyogi

Episode 10 & 11 - Samantha & Dr Rick Hanson

How do you hardwire your brain for long lasting happiness? 

Rick Hanson, Ph.D., is a psychologist, Senior Fellow of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, and New York Times best-selling author. His books include Hardwiring Happiness, Buddha’s Brain and Just One Thing. 

Rick teaches effective, quick, and authentic ways to literally change your brain, making it easier to find calm, happiness, strength, contentment, and confidence.

Part one of the interview discusses key thoughts around mindfulness and how to hardwire our happiness in a distracted society.

Part two of the interview teaches us how to cultivate our own Budda Brain and how to enact this state of being in the 'workplace'.

In Part 1 you will learn:

1.44 The best route to smart cities and happy citizens  

6.41 How to make happiness stick after great experiences

13.44 What in the brain drives emotional learning

17.51 How to counter bad tech habits in the workplace

21.56 Practical takeaways for enhancing your day

In Part 2 you will learn:

1.45 What is a Buddha brain and how can we create one?

3.20 What keeps us stick in our old ways of being?

11.12 How do we find our tribes to support our development?

13.57 How can leaders build a learning and supportive organisation for employee development?

19.21 What does Rick do to stay happy?

Enjoyed listening to Dr Rick Hanson? Fab! Find out more about him here:

- visiting his site: https://www.rickhanson.net

- grab his books: https://www.rickhanson.net/books

Episode 9 - Samantha & Dasho Karma Ura

Gross National Happiness –  how to develop with values

Dasho Karma Ura is the President of Centre for Bhutan Studies. The CBS has been at the forefront in promoting and deepening national and global understanding of Bhutan's home-grown development philosophy of Gross National Happiness. Dasho Karma Ura earned his undergraduate degree at Oxford University and his Masters in Philosophy of Economics from the University of Edinburgh.  He holds numerous international positions, including Associate Editor of International Journal of Asian Business and Information Management; Executive Committee Member of the School of Well-being, Chulalongkorn University, and San Nagarprada Foundation, Thailand; Member of the Chief Economist’s Advisory Panel, South Asia Region, World Bank. I had the honour of meeting Dasho at the World Government Summit where he discussed in detail Bhutan's road to happiness, the ups and the downs and his desire for a happier world.

In today's episode you will learn:

The progress of happiness in Bhutan 2.35

How they measure progress 4.04

What London learn from Bhutan 7.05

The joy of slowness 15.45

The recipe for happiness in a metropolis 18.55

Understanding our emotive side in world of increasing technology 26.28

What makes Dasho unhappy 30.15

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Enjoyed listening to Dasho? Fab! Find out more about him and The Centre for Bhutan Studies here:

- visiting his site: http://www.gnhcentrebhutan.org

- follow him on Twitter: @GNHCentreBhutan

Episode 8 - Samantha & Dr Aisha Bin Bishr

Can a smart technologically driven city be a happy one?

Dr Aisha Bin Bishr, Director General of the Smart Dubai Office, has been the driver of the Happiness Agenda to make Dubai the happiest city in the world. Their belief is that the best way to do this is with technology.

In this episode you will learn:

How the government and private sector can work together to build citizen happiness 1.28

The academic involvement into city-wide happiness development 2.47

The real time results from the technological happiness approach 4.28

How the technology helps to Influence government policies 6.05

Other cities with happiness to emulate 9.10

Dr Aisha's wishes for changes to the system 14.13

Tips for developing smart city agendas 15.51

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Enjoyed listening to Dr Aisha? Fab! Find out more about her and the Happiness Meter here:

Check out the website: http://www.smartdubai.ae

Episode 7 - Samantha & Ryan Patel and Shawn Anchor

Happiness and Business, can the two work together?

In this episode I present two separate interviews from the World Government Summit day on happiness.

In the first conversation I talk to Ryan Patel about happiness across different countries and how different governments work to help the happiness of their citizens.

Ryan Patel, a global business executive, serves on several Advisory Boards and Boards of Directors across different sectors from social responsibility to technology. An expert in scaling businesses, he has worked for startups to publicly traded companies; his deep knowledge in global economies, innovation, strategy, start up culture and consumer trends has made him an expert and thought leader in scaling businesses worldwide. 

In the second conversation Samantha talks to Shawn Achor. Shawn Achor is an American happiness researcher, author, and speaker known for his advocacy of positive psychology. He authored The Happiness Advantage and founded GoodThink, Inc.  His research on mindset made the cover of Harvard Business Review and his TED talk is one of the most popular of all time with over 13 million views. We talk about how businesses can lead the government on happiness projects and why thinking about happiness needs to start in schools.

In this episode you will learn:

Ryan Patel

How to scale for happiness 2.07

The pitfalls of getting carried away with the concept of happiness 3.33

Private and public sectors coming together for happiness 4.56

The attributes for happiness templates 7.25

The importance of focusing on ROI for start-ups to encourage investment in happiness 10.27

Technology impacting perceptions of happiness 15.44

One thing to increase happiness in start-ups 18.23

Shawn Achor

The barriers that companies face to happiness 22.31

The happiness programme at Google 25.20

The importance of 'positive education' in schools 26.30

Technology shaping emotional wellbeing 30.23

What makes Shawn happy 31.55

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Enjoyed listening to Ryan and Shawn? Fab! Find out more about them here:

Ryan

- follow him on Twitter and Linked In: @RyanPatelGlobal / linkedin.com/in/patelryan

Shawn

- visiting his site: http://goodthinkinc.com/speaking/shawn-achor/   / http://www.shawnachor.com

 - follow him on twitter: @shawnachor

 - buy the books: http://www.shawnachor.com/the-books/