Rather than trying to "fix" people or show them rungs on a ladder, social mobility comes from recognising individuals, giving them psychological safety, and allowing them to fulfil their own potential.

Diverse workplaces thrive not because of tokenistic inclusion efforts, but because different voices at the table lead to better outcomes and more successful organisations.

Dan and Pia are joined by Arad Reisberg, Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor at Brunel University of London, campaigner for social justice and social mobility, and co-founder of the Social Mobility Leaders Forum.

Three reasons to listen

• Reframe your understanding of social mobility as social justice, focusing on creating opportunities for people to fulfil their potential rather than just climbing career ladders
• Create an environment where people feel comfortable being their authentic selves by asking powerful questions and actively listening
• Build more diverse, successful teams by recognising that different voices at the table lead to better outcomes, challenging conventional thinking about "hiring for fit"

Episode highlights

• [00:09:32] What is social mobility?
• [00:15:24] How social mobility helps business
• [00:18:59] How to implement social mobility in your organisation
• [00:26:31] Arad's media recommendation
• [00:29:43] Takeaways from Dan and Pia

Links

• Connect with Arad via LinkedIn
• Arad’s media recommendations: the Inward trilogy by Yung Pueblo:
  1. Inward
  2. Clarity & Connection
  3. The Way Forward
• Track and improve your team performance with Squadify
• Leave us a voice note

Restaurant franchises can be powerful environments for leadership development, especially for young people. When managed with intentionality, these seemingly entry-level jobs can provide significant opportunities for personal growth, skill development, and career advancement.

Melissa Nuttall, along with her partner, is the franchisee of a quick service restaurant in New Zealand. In this conversation with Pia and Dan, she lays out how good customer service and continuous training create positive work cycles that benefit both employees and customers.

Three reasons to listen

• Achieve broader business goals while reducing cognitive load on staff
• Develop young team members into capable leaders through progressive responsibility
• Create safe spaces for growth regardless of employees’ long-term career plans

Episode highlights

• [00:08:38] Helping the next generation of leaders
• [00:14:21] Turning a culture around
• [00:18:23] Creating a stable launchpad for new careers
• [00:24:38] Leading with kindness and humility
• [00:27:58] Be mindful of your leadership shadow
• [00:29:20] Mel's media recommendation
• [00:30:11] Takeaways from Pia and Dan

Links

• Connect with Melissa via LinkedIn
• Track and improve your team performance with Squadify
• Leave us a voice note

While many teams focus on building trust to improve performance, it's actually clarity that needs to be addressed first.

Research shows that teams need clear roles, goals and processes before they can effectively build trust and collaborate. This represents a significant shift from traditional thinking about team development, and the data shows that improving clarity drives up trust results, whilst working directly on trust doesn't impact clarity scores.

In this episode, Squadify’s Chief Data Officer, Juliet Owen re-joins Dan and Pia to discuss the role clarity plays in driving team performance.

This episode will help you

• Build team trust by first establishing clarity around roles, goals and processes rather than focusing directly on trust-building exercises
• Create effective one-page team documents that capture why the team exists, their collective goals, and non-negotiable behaviours
• Drive better team performance by shifting from individual KPIs to collective team goals that encourage collaboration rather than competition

Episode highlights

• [00:09:34] How teams are coping with change today
• [00:15:30] What we mean by trust
• [00:20:03] The trust gap
• [00:26:29] Case studies on building trust
• [00:33:12] What can you do?
• [00:34:59] Pia and Juliet's media recommendations
• [00:37:24] Takeaways from Pia and Dan

Links

• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, by Patrick Lencioni
• You Can’t Ask That – Pia’s mdia recommendation
• The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley
• Connect with Juliet via LinkedIn
• Track and improve your team performance with Squadify
• Leave us a voice note