Working on Wellbeing

CONTENT WARNING:  Before you listen to this episode, please be aware that parts of this conversation cover the topics of grief and bereavement. If you would prefer not to listen to a conversation of this nature, please turn off this episode and look after yourself. Help and support is available from the links below. BBC Action Line | Mind | Samaritans   *** In this special bonus episode, recorded during the excitement of this year’s World Happiness Summit in London, host Sarah Cunningham is joined by CEO of WOHASU, Founder of the World Happiness Summit, and newly published author, Karen Guggenheim. After the sudden death of her husband in 2013, Karen made the inspiring decision to choose happiness, and began her journey to overcome trauma and positively transform her life. She studied happiness science from the world-leading experts, and decided her personal path to a state of happiness and wellbeing would be through meaning and purpose. Then she went one step further and decided to help others positively transform their lives... And that is how the World Happiness Summit was created, with the first Summit taking place in Miami in 2017. The annual Summit brings together world-leading wellbeing experts to share their insights with the audience, spreading the science of happiness globally. Now, listen to Karen share a behind the scenes peek from the World Happiness Summit in London, and share her personal story. Karen also reflects on the launch of her recent book: Cultivating Happiness – a practical and accessible guide to overcoming trauma and positively transforming your life.   *** We are all Working on our Wellbeing daily, but not everyone has access to the latest cutting-edge research into the science of wellbeing … until now. From our home at the World Wellbeing Movement, within the University of Oxford, we have created the Working on Wellbeing podcast so that you can be a fly on the wall during our conversations with the world’s leading wellbeing experts.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.  

Welcome to the final episode of our second podcast series, for which we are thrilled to welcome Dimitra Manis, the Chief Purpose Officer of S&P Global. Dimitra’s work advances workplace wellbeing both internally at S&P Global, and across the globe. In this episode, Dimitra shares how S&P’s people and purpose first culture drives their business success, and how her uniquely titled job role guides this approach.  As the Chief Purpose Officer at S&P Global, Dimitra’s responsibilities span diverse domains, from steering marketing strategies and corporate responsibility, to fostering diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.  Listen as host Sarah Cunningham delves into the relationship between purpose-driven leadership and organisational success with Dimitra, and gain firsthand knowledge of the power that prioritising purpose can have for your business. You will also gain insight into how Dimitra maintains her own wellbeing in a demanding, multifaceted role – as she reminds us that sometimes the best thing for our wellbeing is to simply relax on the couch!   ***  We are all Working on our Wellbeing daily, but not everyone has access to the latest cutting-edge research into the science of wellbeing … until now. From our home at the World Wellbeing Movement, within the University of Oxford, we have created the Working on Wellbeing podcast so that you can be a fly on the wall during our conversations with the world’s leading wellbeing experts. 

CONTENT WARNING:   Before you listen to this episode, you should know that it covers some important but upsetting themes of suicide and pregnancy loss. If you, or someone you know, has been affected by the topics raised in this conversation, help and support is available from the links below. And, if you feel like the topics mentioned are something you can’t listen to right now, please skip this episode and look after yourself. Samaritans | BBC Action Line | Mind  ***Are we rewarding our high performers for burning out? Today’s guest, Rachel Fellowes, asked this question and sparked a new way of working at Aon, where she works as their first Chief Wellbeing Officer. Rachel’s innovative work focuses on the idea of human sustainability, and sustainable performance. Aon now uses their Human Sustainability Index (HSI) tool to measure wellbeing, resilience and sustainability at individual, team and organisational levels.  In this episode, Rachel reveals why she believes measuring these elements are crucial to driving better data-informed decisions, and discusses learnings from the data so far – revealing that wellbeing is vital to business success. Rachel also discusses why she advocates for more C-Suite level Wellbeing oriented roles, particularly more Chief Wellbeing Officers, to drive real change. Hear about this and much more in today’s episode of the Working on Wellbeing podcast, hosted by Sarah Cunningham.  ***    We are all Working on our Wellbeing daily, but not everyone has access to the latest cutting-edge research into the science of wellbeing … until now. From our home at the World Wellbeing Movement, within the University of Oxford, we have created the Working on Wellbeing podcast so that you can be a fly on the wall during our conversations with the world’s leading wellbeing experts. 

CONTENT WARNING:   Before you listen to this episode, please be aware that segments of the discussion include personal stories about mental health challenges and breast cancer. If you would prefer not to listen to a conversation of this nature, please turn off this episode and look after yourself. Help and support is available from the links below.   Macmillan Support Line | Mind *** Our guest this week is Tracey Crouch, a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom. She is the current Conservative MP for Chatham and Aylesford.  In today’s episode, host Sarah Cunningham hits the road to meet Tracey in her constituency office. They discuss Tracey’s career highlights, how she works on her own wellbeing, and her hopes for a government that truly prioritises wellbeing.  Tracey was appointed as the world’s first Minister for Loneliness in January 2018, an expansion to her position as Minister for Sport and Civil Society. As Minister for Loneliness, Tracey researched and created a strategy to tackle loneliness. The findings contributed to a shift in perceptions of loneliness both within government and amongst the UK general public.  Please note: since recording, Tracey has announced that she will not be standing as an MP candidate at the next general election in the UK, taking place later this year. She continues to be a full-time member of Parliament until then.  ***    We are all Working on our Wellbeing daily, but not everyone has access to the latest cutting-edge research into the science of wellbeing … until now. From our home at the World Wellbeing Movement, within the University of Oxford, we have created the Working on Wellbeing podcast so that you can be a fly on the wall during our conversations with the world’s leading wellbeing experts. 

What makes us happy?  Today’s guest, Prof Robert Waldinger, is the current Director of a study that set out to answer this exact question.   That study is the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which has followed the same individuals for over 80 years in an attempt to find out what keeps people healthy and happy. Beginning in 1938, this is one of the longest ever running studies of adulthood and has produced remarkable data.   Robert is also co-author of ‘The Good Life’, which is a best-selling book informed by the study, and full of research-based insights and practical tips to improve our lives.  In this episode, Robert and host Sarah Cunningham discuss the fascinating findings and real-world applications of Robert’s and his predecessors’ work, including the importance of social connection, and building your social fitness.  ***  We are all Working on our Wellbeing daily, but not everyone has access to the latest cutting-edge research into the science of wellbeing … until now. From our home at the World Wellbeing Movement, within the University of Oxford, we have created the Working on Wellbeing podcast so that you can be a fly on the wall during our conversations with the world’s leading wellbeing experts.   

CONTENT WARNING:   Before you listen to this episode, please be aware that the first part of this conversation covers the topic of grief and bereavement. If you would prefer not to listen to a conversation of this nature, please either skip forward to 07:45 or turn off this episode and look after yourself. Help and support is available from the links below.   BBC Action Line | Mind | Samaritans   ***Our guest this week is Kim Leadbeater, a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom. She is the current Labour MP for Batley and Spen.  Kim hasn’t taken the traditional route into politics, and her background in Sport Health, and Wellbeing science equips her with unique tools to advocate for a wellbeing-first approach to politics. Last year, she launched the ‘Healthy Britain’ report, outlining her recommendations for a new approach to health and wellbeing policy.  Kim’s work focuses on finding ways to embed wellbeing into the heart of all government decisions and policy, by taking a cross-departmental approach. She advocates for putting measures in place to treat root causes and prevent people from becoming ill, rather than ‘patching people up’ once they are struggling. Kim discusses her recommendations with host Sarah Cunningham, which range from encouraging grass-roots sports amongst children to designing housing and transport systems that facilitate social connection. ***We are all Working on our Wellbeing daily, but not everyone has access to the latest cutting-edge research into the science of wellbeing … until now. From our home at the World Wellbeing Movement, within the University of Oxford, we have created the Working on Wellbeing podcast so that you can be a fly on the wall during our conversations with the world’s leading wellbeing experts.

When we think about a country’s government, many of us are likely to conjure up images in our mind of our country’s Prime Minister, Taoiseach, or President ... or perhaps a senior Minister who is in the public eye a lot. But we shouldn’t overlook the large number of people who play an integral role in supporting these figureheads. In the UK, more than half a million people work for the British Civil Service which, between 2005 and 2011, was led by today’s guest, Lord Gus O’Donnell.  Lord O’Donnell is a proud wellbeing public policy advocate, and a valued member of the World Wellbeing Movement’s Board of Trustees. In this episode, he talks host Sarah Cunningham through his journey into wellbeing economics, and his hopes for a wellbeing policy agenda that helps society move ‘beyond GDP’. Gus advocates for a government that prioritises the wellbeing of its people as the measure of success.   ***We are all Working on our Wellbeing daily, but not everyone has access to the latest cutting-edge research into the science of wellbeing … until now. From our home at the World Wellbeing Movement, within the University of Oxford, we have created the Working on Wellbeing podcast so that you can be a fly on the wall during our conversations with the world’s leading wellbeing experts.

In this week’s episode, host Sarah Cunningham chats to guest Dr Diana Han, Unilever’s Chief Health & Wellbeing Officer. Diana helps lead a global team of well over 100,000 employees, all with their own unique wellbeing needs.    She explains how she works to prioritise employee wellbeing at such a large scale and, importantly, reflects on the methods she has developed to do the same for herself. Diana also discusses her impressive career history and shares some fantastic strategies for promoting wellbeing at scale that she has learnt along the way! ***   We are all Working on our Wellbeing daily, but not everyone has access to the latest cutting-edge research into the science of wellbeing … until now. From our home at the World Wellbeing Movement, within the University of Oxford, we have created the Working on Wellbeing podcast so that you can be a fly on the wall during our conversations with the world’s leading wellbeing experts. 

Our inner voice is a powerful tool, but it can be detrimental to our wellbeing when we find ourselves stuck in negative loops of thought.Today’s guest is one of the world’s leading experts on controlling the conscious mind. Psychologist and neuroscientist Prof Ethan Kross has dubbed these negative thought loops as ‘Chatter’, and his research suggests that getting lost in Chatter is one of the big issues faced by the human species today.In this episode, Ethan explains the shocking emotional and physical damage that Chatter can cause. Fortunately, he draws on his award-winning research and best-selling book, aptly named Chatter, to offer life-changing tools that allow us to harness our inner critic – and transform it into our inner coach.  ***   We are all Working on our Wellbeing daily, but not everyone has access to the latest cutting-edge research into the science of wellbeing … until now. From our home at the World Wellbeing Movement, within the University of Oxford, we have created the Working on Wellbeing podcast so that you can be a fly on the wall during our conversations with the world’s leading wellbeing experts.