Love where you work

“The culture of a place is not simply down to the bosses. It's the responsibility of everyone.”

Bruce Daisley is on a mission to change the world of work and uses his book, The Joy of Work, to outline 30 steps to make people not only happier but more productive in the workplace. During AKQA Insight, the European vice president for Twitter, shared some of his findings and took questions at the AKQA studio in London.

Bruce, who presents the business podcast Eat Sleep Work Repeat, said many common workplace practices today are preventing people from being at their most creative. He explained workplace culture is the responsibility of all the people working in it, with everyone able to play a part in making it more welcoming and rewarding.

A number one Sunday Times business bestseller, Bruce talks about the importance of being able to speak our minds and recharge our batteries, of the day to day benefits of laughter and how daydreaming can help us create our best work. Explaining all-pervading workplace trends such as constant connectivity is having the opposite effect of what was intended - or people imagined - by disrupting everyday decision-making and limiting our ability to think creatively.

Bruce stresses the value of “depth time" - moments in the day or the week which we genuinely have to ourselves — whether that’s wearing headphones, logging out of our email, going for a walk (and maybe having a meeting while we do it) or taking a proper lunch break.

“Constant busyness doesn’t equate with achieving more," he writes. “A moment’s peace and quiet will reduce your stress levels and boost your creativity."

Along with advice such as getting a good night’s sleep and focusing on one task at a time come tips such as moving the kettle to increase the flow of ideas and replacing Powerpoint presentations with silent read-throughs (“at one level, this sounds horrific... but there is a compelling practical case”).

Talking to AKQA, clients and invited guests, Bruce said: “The strange thing about workplace psychology is that there's no shortage of experts who have spent their careers studying how we work and the dynamics of teams and company culture.

“But very little of it actually reaches anyone who has a job. There’s no bridge that brings it across." His book is intended to put that right.