Decoding Culture Intro to Series 4
Season 4, Mar 07, 06:30 AM
Hi I am Dr John Curran your host of the Decoding Culture Podcast and welcome to series 4. For those that are first time subscribers, the podcast focuses on the ways in which everyday culture and psychology shape who we are as human beings and social groups. As an organisational consultant, anthropologist and executive and team coach, I am fascinated by organisational culture and team dynamics - so these topics will seep into many of my conversations.
I have been talking to some really interesting people for this series. Before I run through who these are, I want good to give you a quick news update on what I have been up to since series 3…..which I am well aware feels like decades ago.
My big and recent news is that have been appointed Professor in Practice at University College London (UCL) anthropology department. The department is one of the most progressive anthropology departments and currently sits 4th best in the world. So it’s a real honour to be part of this. Specifically, I will support them in their new MSc called Anthropology and Professional Practice. This is a really innovative post-grad course that opens the world to students already working in their profession on how to incorporate anthropology into their work.
I am also co-Faculty Director, with Camilla Child at the Tavistock Institute for Human Relations on their world renowned Practice in Consultancy and Change programme for those aspiring to become consultants. The Tavistock basically invented modern day organisational development consultancy and many of the theories and approaches around group dynamics. What’s so cool about the underpinning theories and approaches of the Tavistock is that they bring together systems psychodynamics with other social sciences like anthropology as part of the consultant’s theoretical and practical tool kit when decoding team dynamics and organisational culture. This….is….essential when working with the complexities of work place culture.
Last summer I was part of a series of talks over a couple of months at the Science Museum in London for Lloyds Banking Group where I delivered a number of short seminars to many of their senior staff on group and team dynamics and how to manage them. It is really interesting to see how culture and group dynamics are universal topics that all leaders need to be able to understand and work with.
This also shows up in the many webinars I have delivered recently on workplace culture and conflict. I spoke about conflict in the Financial Times Working It newsletter where the FTs Isabel Berwick interviewed me. One key thing I said was that there was no culture if there was no conflict – conflict is something we need to see as communicating something to us and not something we have to smoother. On that note, I have just been a guest on The Financial Times Working It podcast with Isabel and the FT’s Miranda Green where we have been trying to get our head around the complexities of office politics. I will put a link to the Working It newsletter and podcast below.
I have been talking to some really interesting people for this series. Before I run through who these are, I want good to give you a quick news update on what I have been up to since series 3…..which I am well aware feels like decades ago.
My big and recent news is that have been appointed Professor in Practice at University College London (UCL) anthropology department. The department is one of the most progressive anthropology departments and currently sits 4th best in the world. So it’s a real honour to be part of this. Specifically, I will support them in their new MSc called Anthropology and Professional Practice. This is a really innovative post-grad course that opens the world to students already working in their profession on how to incorporate anthropology into their work.
I am also co-Faculty Director, with Camilla Child at the Tavistock Institute for Human Relations on their world renowned Practice in Consultancy and Change programme for those aspiring to become consultants. The Tavistock basically invented modern day organisational development consultancy and many of the theories and approaches around group dynamics. What’s so cool about the underpinning theories and approaches of the Tavistock is that they bring together systems psychodynamics with other social sciences like anthropology as part of the consultant’s theoretical and practical tool kit when decoding team dynamics and organisational culture. This….is….essential when working with the complexities of work place culture.
Last summer I was part of a series of talks over a couple of months at the Science Museum in London for Lloyds Banking Group where I delivered a number of short seminars to many of their senior staff on group and team dynamics and how to manage them. It is really interesting to see how culture and group dynamics are universal topics that all leaders need to be able to understand and work with.
This also shows up in the many webinars I have delivered recently on workplace culture and conflict. I spoke about conflict in the Financial Times Working It newsletter where the FTs Isabel Berwick interviewed me. One key thing I said was that there was no culture if there was no conflict – conflict is something we need to see as communicating something to us and not something we have to smoother. On that note, I have just been a guest on The Financial Times Working It podcast with Isabel and the FT’s Miranda Green where we have been trying to get our head around the complexities of office politics. I will put a link to the Working It newsletter and podcast below.
And…I have just had confirmation from Isabel that she will be a guest on this podcast where we will chat about her new book - The Future-Proof Career: Strategies for thriving at every stage. Can’t wait and Isabel has a fantastic bird’s-eye and worm’s eye understanding of work and work culture.
I have also been carrying out a number of consultancy projects within the National Health Service in the UK. This is an incredible privilege to be supporting senior leaders and teams in one of the most iconic institutions that is part of the UKs national identity. However, Covid-19, underpaid staff, the cost of living crisis, strikes and a lack of funding has understandably had a massive impact on how it is functioning. A focus on the development and training of managers and leaders to support their teams and departments will be one essential area that will demand investment and time.
Finally, I have become a ‘Play maker’ for the Palace for Life Foundation which is the charity associated with Crystal Palace Football club in the Premier League in England. The Palace for Life Foundation has been working with young people from South London for over 25 years and recently I had a great morning at the The Premier League HQ in London, where I facilitated a senior leadership action learning session on working with team dynamics.
So there’s my quick update and you can keep up to date with what I am doing via LinkedIn, my Decoding Culture Newsletter and Twitter. Links are in the show notes.
Ok, I have six really interesting guests for series 4
My first guest is Christian Madsbjerg where we discuss his brilliant new book ‘Look’ – How to Pay attention in a distracted world. The book interweaves different ways of looking and seeing – from art, philosophy and anthropology. But what is central is that once you are able to look at yourself, you can start looking at the world around you. There is a lovely quote from Christian - that everyday you can leave your house and see magic. What a great mindset to have as a means of starting your day. He explains this in a lovely way by describing watching chess players in Union Sq NY.
My second guest is Jeremy Myerson who is a leading international writer and researcher in design. His specialist areas include inclusive design, the future of work and healthy cities.
He is Professor Emeritus in the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the Royal College of Art and Director of WORKTECH Academy, a global knowledge network looking at the future of work and workplace. In this episode we talk through the future of the office and his book Unworking – The reinvention of the modern office that he co-wrote with Philip Ross. Jeremy is one of the go-to people around the future of work and hybrid working and he brings together his expertise in design and cultural trends to give some really rich views.
As mentioned earlier, I am really excited to be interviewing Isabel Berwick from the Financial Times and host of the FT’s Working It podcast and newsletter. Her link to her book will be in the show notes
I will also have Leslie Brissett as a guest. Leslie is a world authority on group dynamics and advises boards, leaders and organisations on this subject. He is fascinated by what makes us human. I first got to know Leslie while he was at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations and I found myself rapidly learning from him. Leslie is now Board Secretary at International Psychoanalytical Associations. We will find out more about his role in the podcast and also go deep into group dynamics and how it plays out at work.
I will also have Dr Melissa Fischer on the podcast. Melissa is like me, an anthropologist who is fascinated with work and organisational culture. She has written a lot about this and I can’t wait to hear her views on work, the office and culture from an anthropological point of view. We will be sharing stories for sure.
Finally we end with another anthropologist, Dr Magnus Course from the University of Edinburgh. I am lucky, Magnus has sent me through his book that will be published this September by the University of Pennsylvania Press. It is called Three Ways to Fail: Journeys through Mapuche Chile. It is all about how failure is culturally framed. What is brilliant about this book is that Magnus deals with a big question like failure through the ethnographic lens of the Mapuche people in Chile and how they frame failure as an intrinsic part of being human. Magnus shares with us his personal ethnographic experiences of failure and how he moved beyond it. This is such a relevant topic at the moment in work culture and we are hearing a lot around why teams need to fail, especially with the views Prof Amy Edmondson. But by Magnus bringing in an anthropological interpretation will really make you think and reflect.
So there you are, an outline of series four of the Decoding podcast. I will of course put relevant links in the show notes. Please do subscribe to the podcast and make lots of noise about it on social media and amongst friends and work colleagues.….if you like it of course. Lastly, if you want to support the podcast by making a small donation, then the donation link is in the show notes. Any amount helps towards the technical/editing cost and overall time taken to create each episode and series.
Bye for now.
Show Notes:
Donation
John:
Twitter
LinkedIn
JC & Associates
Decoding Culture Newsletter
Training Programme
TEDx
My second guest is Jeremy Myerson who is a leading international writer and researcher in design. His specialist areas include inclusive design, the future of work and healthy cities.
He is Professor Emeritus in the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the Royal College of Art and Director of WORKTECH Academy, a global knowledge network looking at the future of work and workplace. In this episode we talk through the future of the office and his book Unworking – The reinvention of the modern office that he co-wrote with Philip Ross. Jeremy is one of the go-to people around the future of work and hybrid working and he brings together his expertise in design and cultural trends to give some really rich views.
As mentioned earlier, I am really excited to be interviewing Isabel Berwick from the Financial Times and host of the FT’s Working It podcast and newsletter. Her link to her book will be in the show notes
I will also have Leslie Brissett as a guest. Leslie is a world authority on group dynamics and advises boards, leaders and organisations on this subject. He is fascinated by what makes us human. I first got to know Leslie while he was at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations and I found myself rapidly learning from him. Leslie is now Board Secretary at International Psychoanalytical Associations. We will find out more about his role in the podcast and also go deep into group dynamics and how it plays out at work.
I will also have Dr Melissa Fischer on the podcast. Melissa is like me, an anthropologist who is fascinated with work and organisational culture. She has written a lot about this and I can’t wait to hear her views on work, the office and culture from an anthropological point of view. We will be sharing stories for sure.
Finally we end with another anthropologist, Dr Magnus Course from the University of Edinburgh. I am lucky, Magnus has sent me through his book that will be published this September by the University of Pennsylvania Press. It is called Three Ways to Fail: Journeys through Mapuche Chile. It is all about how failure is culturally framed. What is brilliant about this book is that Magnus deals with a big question like failure through the ethnographic lens of the Mapuche people in Chile and how they frame failure as an intrinsic part of being human. Magnus shares with us his personal ethnographic experiences of failure and how he moved beyond it. This is such a relevant topic at the moment in work culture and we are hearing a lot around why teams need to fail, especially with the views Prof Amy Edmondson. But by Magnus bringing in an anthropological interpretation will really make you think and reflect.
So there you are, an outline of series four of the Decoding podcast. I will of course put relevant links in the show notes. Please do subscribe to the podcast and make lots of noise about it on social media and amongst friends and work colleagues.….if you like it of course. Lastly, if you want to support the podcast by making a small donation, then the donation link is in the show notes. Any amount helps towards the technical/editing cost and overall time taken to create each episode and series.
Bye for now.
Show Notes:
Donation
John:
JC & Associates
Decoding Culture Newsletter
Training Programme
TEDx