Our guest for this episode is Michael Pattinson, a 'tech enabler' formerly of Network Rail and PwC, who recently decided to go it alone in his new venture The One Hour Sprint Company. In this lively conversation we try to unpick what it takes to make a drastic career move, explore the power of meetings as key tool to change organisations, and amble past many related observations in the process.
Worthwhile references as well further reading on the topics touched upon:
- Michael Pattinson: / michael-pattinson-8713464
- Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable About Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business, by Patrick Lencioni, published by Jossey-Bass, 2004
- Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career, by Herminia Ibarra, published by Harvard Business Review Press; Revised edition, 2023
- Find your Why: A practical guide for discovering purpose for you and your team, by Simon Sinek, published by Penguin Audio, 2017

At the occasion of Mental Health Awareness Week our punks explore what role our working environment plays when it comes to our mental health. Despite billions spent on measures to reduce work related stress, employees report higher than ever rates of burnout and are leaving the workplace altogether en-masse. And this concerns younger generations as well as older.
Is there something fundamentally wrong with how companies lead, manage and organise work? And what role do new technologies play in all this?
Join us for this episode and share your thoughts in the comments. Here are some references to points raised by our punks:
- The annual spend by businesses on mental health and wellbeing: https://www.reportlinker.com/p0589592...
- 'How burnout became the new normal', HBR: https://hbr.org/2024/04/how-burnout-b...
- The UK government is seeking to reduce benefits to people with mental health issues: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/...

Inspiration for this month's episode has been Boeing's slow but steady slip from great engineering firm to hesitant choice for your next holiday flight. How the actions and words of a few people at the top drive the behaviours and decisions throughout the organisation. With real impact for customers and workers alike. Can organisations on a cultural decline be turned around? Do we as individuals also need to have a good look in the mirror? Join us for this episode for a few spiky views.
As always we quote some people much smarter than us. Here are the references from this episode:
- 'Ultra-Processed People - Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food … and Why Can’t We Stop?', by Chris van Tulleken (https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/45130...)
- '1,500 UK businesses have become B Corp certified, an increase of 50% in less than a year': https://bcorporation.uk/
- 'Quality Is Free', by Philip B. Crosby (McGraw-Hill Books, 1979)
- 'Humankind - A hopeful history', by Rutger Bregman, Bloomsbury Publishing - 'School for Moral Ambition': / moralambition