Books and podcasts to inform and inspire

Help is at hand with timely resources for HR practitioners. These two books and two podcasts provide valuable guidance.

Gillan Brookes (2023) Flexperts: Getting the best from flex in a world that’s ever changing. Published by Gillian Brookes.

Written by New Zealander Gillian Brookes, a flexible work specialist with a background in HR and wellbeing economics in the United Kingdom and New Zealand, this is a valuable resource and toolkit to help you implement flexible working.

This book questions your reasons for going ‘flex’ and suggests ways of measuring whether you’re achieving its strategic intent. Gillian discusses the main challenges with flex and asks what the number one challenge is with flexible working to find out what’s getting in the way of flex being the best it can be in the workplace.

Gillian offers case studies and research on the different scenarios she has encountered. There’s also an indexed toolkit, a quick reference guide and the option to download additional tools and resources to help with different scenarios or situations that might arise on your flex journey.

Is this book for everyone? If you’re a leader of people – yes, absolutely! Workplaces have to consider hybrid models of working as they never have before to both retain and attract talent. This book is an excellent hands-on resource that will give you everything you need to know to set up a thriving flexible working environment in your organisation.

Lauren Parsons (2023) Thriving Leaders, Thriving Teams. Published by Live Well Publishing.

Lauren Parsons, an awardwinning wellbeing specialist and another Kiwi, brings a fresh approach to leadership in this book. Split into three parts, it focuses on understanding how you thrive personally, why wellbeing matters and how to cultivate a thriving team.

Combining practical advice and resources that can be downloaded, Lauren integrates personal wellbeing into the discussion of leadership and recognises that a true leader’s success is not just determined by what they achieve. She incorporates easy-tounderstand models, practical tips and techniques you can implement immediately. She also offers case studies and anecdotes using a storytelling approach that makes the book both easy to read and enjoyable.

Exploring the dynamics of team building and the importance of complete communication, Lauren likens building a thriving team to ‘leading like a master gardener’. An important strength of this book is her ability to break down leadership strategies into easy-to-understand steps. Further, plenty of practical exercises and reflection questions are included at the end of each chapter to really encourage the reader to engage with the concepts she presents.

PODCAST: Magic Lessons with Elizabeth Gilbert and Brené Brown.

“The only unique contribution we will make in this world is born out of creativity.” – Brené Brown

If you’ve ever thought that you don’t have a creative bone in your body, this podcast is for you. Elizabeth Gilbert, renowned for her Eat, Pray, Love book (and subsequent movie), discusses the power (and magic) of creativity with Brené Brown, well-known researcher on vulnerability. Brené says in her research she found there is no such thing as noncreative people – just people who use their creativity.

They discuss the fear of putting yourself out there – putting your work out there for all the world to see and the fear of failure. This is where creativity ties in with Brené’s research on vulnerability. The podcast shares insights about creativity, the fear of failure and what you can gain by being the creative individual you were always meant to be. Instead of asking the question, what would you do if you couldn’t fail? How about thinking of it from the perspective of what’s worth doing even if you do fail? It’s about being you and bringing all you offer into the world.

PODCAST: Performance Intelligence with Andrew May

If you’re interested in a variety of perspectives on performance, Andy May has a podcast that will interest you. Andy explores human performance with a wide group of subject matter experts across physical and psychological wellbeing, performance psychology in both sport and business, along with entertainment, the performing arts, leadership and science.

The podcast suits all types of listening time available. There are bite-size podcasts or longer ones up to one hour, depending on your listening availability. Performance is discussed from the perspective of emotional intelligence and the role of mindset in high performance. There’s an interesting ‘bite’ on high performance in the All Blacks, for example.

The podcast series incorporates real-life examples and personal anecdotes from contributors throughout, which makes the content relatable and gives the listener a broad understanding of the intelligence behind performance.

Lynne Allison is an industrial and organisational psychologist and a commercially focused HR practitioner with a diverse background across government, financial/insurance and health IT. She focuses on best practice people management and strategy, and business transformation through the lens of both industrial/organisational psychology and a Lean Six Sigma approach. She is a creative and passionate out-of-the-box thinker committed to driving business performance by bringing others along on the journey and a continuous improvement approach that puts people at the centre.