Transforming Organizations Through Change Agents with Dr. Britta Bibel

When many individuals embark on these habit building, living a better life, that builds also the culture of an organization and in the end this is what we see today. What I have seen many times that companies that invest in it for a year or two or three, they have this competitive advantage that they cannot buy or a competitor cannot buy. You have to invest the time and the effort in it.

Hey there friends. Welcome to Happiness Squad. This is the podcast dedicated to helping you unlock your full potential by mastering the art and science of happiness. We bring on the best leading experts on these topics to help you unlock your true potential and live with more joy, health, love and meaning in your life. Your host is no other than the star combo of Ashish Kothari and Anil Ramjiani who are both on a mission to provide you with an unfair advantage to be the masters of your experience and leaders in your industry. Get ready to be moved, challenged and enlightened on this podcast. It may change your life. Thanks for being here and joining the Squad.

Hey Happiness Squad. It's great to have you friends with.

Ashish and I as we host guests.

Or industry leaders helping individuals and organizations unlock their inner happiness and flourishing. Are you seeking to become a change agent? Unlock both the flourishing within yourself and of your organization. Our next guest explains how you can achieve this with proven results. Meet Dr. Britta Bibble, a relentless human change maker, a Certified High Performance Coach, lifelong dancer and a mentor who's on a mission to make transformation truly possible and accepted as a productive and sustained way of being radically human. With over 25 years of experience as a transformational leader and Executive coach, she has held key positions as Global Head of Culture, Transformation Head of Sustainability, Global Head of Compliance and Ethics, as well as Business Excellence in multinational companies like GE and Oerlikon, as well as in Management Consulting. She facilitates large scale organizational transformations as well, helping individual leaders grow to their full potential. We're lucky and fortunate to have her with us to share examples of these results. During this incredible episode, Ashish, Britta and I will delve into a journey that led Britta on her mission alongside specific examples of how her work with companies and individual can unlock change and flourishing. The results you'll hear will speak for themselves. Although flourishing is a topic discussed, we are at a tipping point where you'll hear how this can either be your edge or by getting a start on this now or find yourself playing catch.

Up in the few years.

Stay tuned for tips that can have a profound impact on your leadership style, organizational culture, flourishing and overall performance. So Join Ashish and I as we welcome Britta to the happiness squad.

Hey, Ashish.

Hi, Britta.

It's a pleasure to be with the two of you.

Brittany Ridda.

You know, we are both on this side of the ocean and one of our favorite questions that we love to ask our guests as we start up is what is happiness to you? And maybe share with us how has your definition changed for you since your younger years?

Thank you. So first of all, thank you for having me, Ashish and Anil, it's a huge pleasure to be here with you. So yeah, to your question, what is happiness? For me, I think today it's really about feeling congruent. And I mean by that, when what I do, what I say, what I think and what I feel is in complete alignment. And I also often feel just happy when I had a real good night of sleep. That makes me happy as well. And I guess in my younger years it was more related to achievements, having that big career and, you know, earning a ton of money. That was in those years what happiness was about for me.

Yeah, so many. Right? We hear this all the time on this podcast in our own lived experience. This notion of if then, you know, if I get this, then I get that. Professor Srikumar Rao was on our podcast and he talked about that mindset that is behind so much of the suffering. And I love what you added, Britta, what you opened with, which was I congruence. Right. What we are thinking, what we are feeling. Really? Really. I mean, that's so, so, so important. Because when we are incongruent, that stays with us. That creates a tension from within. Right. That will never let you sleep. Because even if nobody else knows, you know.

Yes. And often if we don't know, the others know by our posture.

No, it's beautiful. Thank you. So listen, my friend, you and I got connected over the summer and the moment I met you and we had it. I remember we got on FaceTime together and we were like two little children. Like we were gigging. Oh my God, how do we play together? It was so funny. Do you remember? I had just given a talk and then we were like, ah, half an hour is over. It was so dancing. Let's go dancing. Exactly. And you know, you're just filled with life and your mission, you know, to make collaboration engaging, joyful, playful, both at an individual level and the work you're doing at organization level. I mean, it was so clear, you know, you live, you live your work, Britta. Right. Even to right now when you came on Like I actually felt so much joy just seeing you. My question for you, were you always this way or what was a tipping point in your life that set you on this journey to the work you're doing, but who you became?

Yeah, yeah, I love that question. So have I always been like that? I think as a child I was a very joyful child and a very. I was interested in everything. I was always interested in movement. Obviously, I think we come to the dancing part a bit later, but I guess then I had a very busy corporate career for almost 25 years. And in the meantime I met my husband. We had two beautiful children. My daughter is 19, my son is 15 now. And we have always been working full time, both of us. So during these busy years, I was at some point also after having my second child, I was at the end of the rope and I needed some inspiration. So I decided I to enroll in a master program. It was a master in sustainability and responsibility at Ash Ridge University as Ridge Business School, which is Halt Business School now. It was a two year executive program at Ashridge in Herefordshire, which is just outside London. Beautiful campus, you know, an old monastery. It's already magic when you are only in that place. So during this two year program, I was there at Auschwitz and in other places as well for eight times one week. So one full week on this beautiful campus. And it was a kind of safe space for me where I could escape this madness of corporate career and family business and so on. And this program was so deeply transformational. It was a very transformational experience for me because the program itself busted a lot of mindsets that I had held unconsciously, basically. And it created those safe spaces for me where I could really immerse into these deeper questions. And I remember specifically because you asked the tipping point. And as I think there were many, but there was this one that I would like to share where my then supervisor, Dr. Chris Seeley, who sadly passed away when the program was almost finished, she had reviewed the papers that we were to write in between those weeks. And I had written something about team building. And I had written that it's important to nurture the team in the difficult phases and so on. And she had a way of asking questions. And this time in this paper she asked me, britta, how do you nurture yourself? And I remember that I had been sitting with this question for weeks without an answer. And so to cut a long story short, this question and the whole program made me start my holistic journey that I am on today. And to answer Your question? I think I learned over the years that I needed to start with myself if I want to nurture others, I need to transform myself if I want to invite and instill others on their own journey.

You know Britta, the question that begs us is how do you nurture yourself? So what are some things you do? We go off script. How do you nurture yourself?

So I am a passionate dancer and dancing for me is a lot. It's a philosophy, it's a relaxing exercise, it's connection, it's meeting friends. But that's not the only thing I do. How I nurture myself is also getting enough sleep, getting enough rest, saying no. Where in former times I would have said yes. And I think it's also role modeling that to my children because they have seen me for many years going beyond my limits and I have seen a big change in them after I have come more to understand how I have to nurture myself in order to be there for others.

You know Britta, I am getting so many inspirations. It's funny, you know, inspirations drop at at such different times but this conversation already. So I'm going to share two and I'm going to pass it to Anil which is you know, the first inspiration when you said for me I also my journey towards what I'm doing from a consultant trying to save companies dollars through negotiating literally splitting the pie versus the work that I'm doing which is growing the pie came in a monastery, a week long retreat in Portugal, in Panalonga. You know, every one of the big moments kind of, you know, next pivots, big insights have come when I've stopped from the busyness in life and just when I heard that from you like I did the Vipassana for 10 days and most of the Rewire program which is all around building habits around so many of these things that you're saying that you're doing right. We think about them but we don't. That's the Rewire program.

It's common knowledge, but not. Or common sense, but not common practice.

Exactly right. So that came in a Vipassana 10 day retreat. So my first inspiration that I got from the earth had this really strong calling to say hey, stop bullshitting yourself. Next year book a week, every quarter someplace right, someplace spiritual to just be. Even if it's three days or four days or whatever it is, but book it where you're not doing anything but you're just being because otherwise we cut ourselves from that source. Source of inspiration, introspection.

I Also think it's necessary and very. Yeah, very important to do this on a regular basis. Also while you are at work, while you are in the middle of busy times, that you take this deep breath, that you take this 10 minutes to close your eyes after, you know, staring into your screen for hours. And that is like this habit of renewal during every day.

Renewal during the day. Yeah. Another one of our Rewire micro practices, mini breaks, Right. Which is how do we take mini breaks? But I think this, there is this powerful notion of like really step, you know, breaking away. And it's not, you know, because even in the vacations that we take, we are so busy doing running. Let's go around with the kids, let's go here, let's check out this thing. Let's overfill. I'm a culprit of that myself. But this notion of just stopping, right. You don't have to do anything. You wake up, you read, you meditate, Just nurturing yourself, giving yourself the break for inspiration is so important.

When.

But I'll tell you the another one that I just, you know, it's crazy I'm being called to in this conversation. Lizzie and I, just before the pandemic started, Britta said, hey, you know what? 2020, like, God, 2020, right? Do we wanna go back to 2020? We were like, you know, we should start doing dance lessons together. Right? And when we never did it. Yeah, no, it's wow. But it's been two years, right? We never did it because the pandemic hit and then other things happened. The other things happened. So I'm going to talk to her. It's her birthday on Sunday on November 5th. So I think this weekend, right after this podcast, I'm going to go sign us up for some dance classes together.

Lovely, lovely.

So I think that's something I need to do right after this podcast because otherwise, you know what, it'll be another three years and we'll be talking on a podcast and I'll be, you know, six years ago. But anyway, over to you, Neil.

No. So just for the folks to know, this podcast is obviously going to be posted in the next few weeks. We will post how it went for Ashish and Lizzie, what her birthday was like and what those dance classes did. So I'm making a note of that right now. Ashish, that's beautiful. You know, just listening to both of you, just one thought. Well, a couple thoughts come to mind. But what I want to share is I love this idea of this habit of renewal, whether it's Newing yourself during your day through a mini break. Whether it's Ashish, like you said, taking retreat, whether it's nurturing yourself. But I also love, it's like this renewal of even ashes, your relationship with Lizzie and how you're investing time in that. And I think it's just really important how we do take the time. You know, my wife Anika said to me the other day, she's like, I really need a holiday. And I'm like, well we're not going anywhere for the next six weeks, eight weeks. So we have to find a way to have that holiday at home, you know, in the short term. So I think it's a real beautiful invitation to this to our listeners. Find a way to cultivate and nurture yourself. Don't just talk the talk, walk the walk, take that pause, unlock what you embody and really bring it to the surface. And I think that's something that we can all truly benefit from. So I love how you both shared that. Moving to the next point, you know, so I think Britta, we both know, Ashish and I, that you are doing some amazing work with some high performance companies and truly unlocking their flourishing. And your experience has canvassed so many industries, you know, manufacturing, automotive, financial services, consulting amongst just a few. And I'm sure you've observed multiple high performance companies that invest in flourishing. Ashish, you actually mentioned the other day flourishing is something that people probably don't talk about, don't fully understand. Almost like how we thought the world was flat 200 years ago. Could you share, Britta, with us one or two practices that stood out to you where you noticed that you truly saw a fostering of a culture of well being and it's linked to high performance in those companies that you worked with.

Yeah, excellent question really. So I would say first that very few companies, especially if you few years ago but also still today would say we invest in flourishing. I guess the starting point is always performance because that is what each and every company has to do, right? Improve performance. But I think the big differentiator is how companies define performance and how they believe they will get there. So let's not talk about the latest scandals we can all observe in banking and consulting industry where performance has a very narrow and one sided profit maximized definition at seemingly all cost. And I think that in order to come to such a narrow definition of performance you need to suppress a lot of your innate human responses. And here's the thing, in many corporations we are socialized to suppress our senses, our Gut feelings, our human reactions that would all point us towards being able to detect and prevent wrongdoing. So what do high performing, and I mean long term, sustainably high performing companies do differently? So first of all, they have a robust feedback culture and this includes that people, managers, they know how to give constructive, future oriented and developmental feedback and feedback that people feel safe to speak up to also. And the other side has learned to listen up to, to use the words of Megan Wrights of Ash Ridge University. Actually she has written many books about speaking truth to power, which I would recommend dearly. So she talks about not only speaking up, but also the others need to listen up. And this creates regularly those productive tensions when both sides are able to listen to speak and to dialogue with each other. And these productive tensions often inconvenient those spaces in which solutions have to be co created and those often have the potential to increase flourishing in my view. The second one I would mention is alignment. And here I mean how companies manage to create a compelling and motivating purpose that unites the entire workforce and then align it with their goals and their actions. So the key thing here is not to have just a statement which then you know, is never used, or it is about creating and naming this reason why we are here, why we do what we do. And I love for example, Apple's Think Different. It's so easy and yet so powerful because if people have that on the back of their minds every day, it propels their thinking and it propels their acting. I also love Lego. Lego has created a North Star which says inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow. And I think this also gives so much room for people to fill this with their own meaning. And so once this purpose is created, then setting clear and a few targets is key. Targets that are then broken down and operationalized to very tangible and measurable strategies, strategies, initiatives and projects. And probably this sounds so easy and no brainery, but very, very few get this one right. I've seen it so many times. Too much is the biggest challenge and not clear enough meaning, not translated enough into what it means for my workforce. Also in terms of collaboration. So the art is to formulate targets high level enough and then break them down to that so that individuals can measure and see how they contribute, but so that they also see that they do not operate in a vacuum. Like as long as I achieve my targets, I'm fine, Right?

Right.

But that they can do it all.

Together, you know Britta, it's so interesting for me, this is the analogy that anil was referring to. I was giving a talk the other day and I literally said, I asked the question, how many people in the room believe? And even this question, friends, if you're listening to the podcast, how many of you believe Earth is flat? Right? It's literally a question that you feel like laughing now, right? But 1% of Americans still believe Earth is flat. There are flat Earth conventions, but, you know, in the 1300s and 1500s, almost 50% of the world would fight a war over Earth is flat or Earth is round. Science proved otherwise, right? If I asked you as listeners, do you believe global warming is real? There might be 10% of you who say, no, it's not. It's just, it's not real. Forget about whether our role as humanity in creating it or not. There is, you know, you can debate that all day long. That's still 50 50, by the way. But at least 10% believe that global warming is not real. 90% believe it. That number before Al Gore came out with his documentary and kind of really brought so much into the limelight, you know, it was 50 50. So my question is, and you highlighted this, do you create maximum value through profit maximization? Or put another way, do you believe investing in your work or well being, well being at work, both individually and as a system, drives higher profitability? Do you believe it?

You ask me.

Yeah. Like there's this question, right? Like, do you believe it? You believe it? I believe it. A lot of people in the room say, of course we believe it. And I'm like, okay, so let me ask you a question. If you believe it, do you act that way? Because actions don't suggest, they're like, what are you talking about? Our well being spend has gone up. We're spending so much on well being. I'm like, exactly. And what happens? Right? But think about it this way. Bringing in another podcast guest we had. Most well being investments are considered splitting the pie. Investments, which means they sit in employee benefits. When profitability goes down, or if I feel I'm not going to hit my target, I cut. Where can I cut? And I cut those investments. It's also something that you do outside of work, right? It's splitting the pie. Hey, I made this much money, this much I'm going to give to my people. This much I'm going to give in esg to other groups, causes, I believe this much I'm going to give, et cetera. If you believed, if you really, really believed that investing in people leads to profit maximization, which Professor Jan Emanuel in His recent Oxford report highlighted those who have work well being. High work wellbeing scores have higher return on assets, higher profitability, higher shareholder growth. Professor Alex Edmonds actually took that even further and highlighted that look, it is actually causation. So higher employee Satisfact leads to 2 to 3 and a half percent incremental shareholder returns over 10 years. So he literally proved causation in a peer reviewed journal. If you believe that you would not make well being be the vestiges of employee benefit, but you would make that every person's responsibility, every leader. It would be weaven into how we work, why we work, and that's not where we are. But my invitation, dear friends, dear listeners, is the following. Just like 99% of us believe Earth is round, just like 90% of us believe at this point that climate change is real. In the next 50 years, with the increasing evidence around this, with the next generation of kids who are growing up, who will demand this and from governments who will regulate this, we will in 50 years be in a place where 99% of us fundamentally are living this way. So you will get there either because you choose to or because you were forced to. The opportunity is the following. Do you want to lead the way? Do you want to be science led and truly lead the way? Because if you do, and this only works over a five year horizon, doesn't work in six months, 12 months, 18 months. But if you do, you have the opportunity to make flourishing happiness work, well being, truly be your competitive edge. You can get 20% higher profits, 20% higher productivity, more creativity, 65% lower attrition and 2x higher stock market returns. You can have it and it'll be hard for people to replicate it. But the window is the next five to 10 years, because after that a lot of your competitors will be doing that too. And then you have to find the next thing.

Absolutely. I cannot agree more and I saw this very often, because when many individuals embark on these habit building, living a better life, that builds also the culture of an organization. And in the end this is what we see today. What I have seen many times, that companies that invest in it for a year or two or three, they have this competitive advantage that they cannot buy or a competitor cannot buy somewhere tomorrow. You have to invest the time and the effort in it and ideally make it an integrated effort, as you say that it gets embedded in everything you do, how you think, how you operate. And I would basically say the very same thing with sustainability is the same thing. If you live yourself Sustainably with yourself, with your health, then your company will be too.

I wholeheartedly agree with this. I think the, you know what we say, Britta, is we want to make happiness your competitive edge. And this is something Ashish, we were chatting about with another colleague, right. At some point, if everyone's doing it, you'll have to find your next edge. So now's the time to leverage the inner flourishing, to unlock creativity, to unlock your antifragility, to unlock your satisfaction. Better health, better success. And I think when you talk about companies who actually bring this to life, you think about, like you said, Apple think different. How we can actually take targets and really break them down into a way where it's tangible. Ashish, what you just discussed, how do companies, how do leaders, how do mid managers really break this down and almost say to ourselves, is this really effective? Is this really driving the well being we expect? Is this growing or is this splitting? You know, I was chatting with a colleague the other day saying, oh, you know, what we offer is really good in terms of well being. And I just asked the question back. I'm like, yeah, but are these the benefits and well being that our peers, our employees are asking for? It's great to have a great gym, to have access to mind space, to headspace, to time off, but is this really what people need? And it goes back to what we talked about earlier. Is this really giving them the opportunity to really cultivate their health? You know, so companies can talk the talk, Are they truly walking the walk? And I think you've shared a few of those. So what I'd like to ask Alberta is could you maybe share an example of a company that you've worked with or a client that you've worked with that really successfully integrated, like you mentioned, these two practices into their culture and what you saw as a result of their performance?

Foreign.

S We hope you're enjoying the tips discussed in this episode. If you're on the career treadmill, seeking the next promotion, experiencing stress and anxiety, or reach the top of your career and wondering if the sacrifices to get there were worth it, Ashish and I have been there and we're ready to support you. The happiness squad rewire program is designed to integrate the nine hardwired for happiness practices into your day within five minutes form proven habits to experience more success, resilience, satisfaction and creativity. You won't be alone in your journey. Check out the rewire link in the show notes. Make happiness your competitive edge to achieve your goals. Now back to the episode.

Yes, yes, So I would, I would truly like to mention General Electric, which I worked for, and how they have a very strong operating rhythm and it's this tact throughout the year that everyone is dancing to accordingly. So they have defined sessions every year and the whole entire company is run within this rhythm. They start with the operating plan, then session one, session two, which is like about the personal development. It's about the three to five year planning cycle. And I'm mentioning this because I see here also an opportunity to widen that rhythm to other things. So it forces an alignment in what you focus on jointly and it creates at the same time defined slots and spaces in the year, for example, the personal development plans. So people know when that will be discussed and they can prepare for it. When they will bring up that discussion with their managers. It then kind of reduces the waste of trying to get something through when there's actually no focus on it. At Oerlikon, the company I worked for, we implemented the full transformation program. And to make that sustainable, we trained many facilitators and ambassadors, how we call them internally. So these people help on a daily basis to role model the behaviors we want to see. For example, they help discussions and meetings to stay what we call above the line. So that means they keep the player mindset. They do not participate in toxic blaming, they do not participate in gossiping or victim behavior. But they demonstrate with the right questions, with the right behavior, how else you can do it. And they would often initiate better cross functional communication and collaboration. And also, and I think that is that ties back to your question, how it links to performance. They often made a career step themselves because they simply adopted constructive behavioral styles that are proven to make people, people more successful in the long run. So this is part of how these ambassadors first more got into this role to serve the company, to serve this new initiative. But at the same time, by adopting all these habits, adopting all these positive and constructive styles, they become better managers themselves. And I thought at that time, and I pushed this really also in companies I work with today, that this is a formidable on the job development program for leaders or for future leaders because they practice, they do this, they exhibit things and it's good for themselves personally, they can take this with them even when they leave the company. So these were two things that I saw that really worked well and are.

Really tied to performance and really think about transformation. Dear friend, so I was in a conversation yesterday with a pharmaceutical company and I really want you to think about a transformation is we change and we can't go back versus a change program that there's so many change programs. We roll but nothing changes. Only thing that changes is the version of the change program. Right. People don't change. Things don't change. We just change the change program. We just change the next thing, the next thing. But transformation takes time but really changes you. And through the yous changes we, we become something else. We can't go back and if we have to do it again. You know, Britta, as I know because we talked about this earlier, that change, that transformation is. Where are the change agents from hr? Don't ask the question. You are the change agent. Every leader needs to be the change agent, the transformation agent. We have to find people who can be inspiring. They might not be the boss, they might be, you know, the low person in the organization, but somebody that people turn to who can be that inspiring beacon. I am different. And only in those contexts can we really create this and can we live it so that we flourish because of the way we work, why we work and how we work regardless of economic pressures that once we change and weave it into our processes, it's not going to affect and lower our well being versus current places where it does. And also if we do it together, we create that accountability, we create that inspiration, we create that support. So, so, so important. My friends, think about transformation. This is not a program that we offer to our employees in a split the pie mentality. It is something we lead from the front as leaders to operate differently.

Yeah, I love that picture. Split the pie mentality. Yes.

So Britta, I want to switch a bit from companies and cultures out there. You know, Gandhi said be the change you want to see in the world. So I want to talk about how your whole research was around how individuals become agents of change and flourishing. So talk to us a little bit about that research and that characteristics and qualities, right. Of what we can really build in ourselves that we can engender, we can become so that we can catalyze the transformations out there. We can talk out there all day. We want but it's the person here that starts us. So tell us what you found in your research.

Yes, yes. Beautiful. So I found everyone can be and become a change agent. So characteristics and quality. So first of all, an agent has a very clear purpose. They have spent some time understanding who they want to be and how they want to be of great service in the world. So this can go from I want to build the most ethical company in the world to I want to be the best mom to show my children how to live a meaningful life. The key thing is they are very clear about that. And it also helps tremendously to stay away from politics and, you know, all this gossiping because they are just so focused on the thing itself, on their calling if you want, and they don't get distracted from what's not important. So with this clarity, what these people have or what they seek to constantly develop is self awareness and self mastery. It's like a self regulation process that helps them to catch themselves when they get off track, when they do things they do not espouse. And this mostly entails that they have created a support system around them which helps them and cheer them on, be it their bosses who give them constructive feedback, friends and family who are honest, loving and supportive. And they live this what I call holistic high performance every day by holding themselves accountable, balancing out their drive, their physical and psychological needs. So it's really about what I feel inside, what I have inside. And I always call it changing from within. This is like building the habits, becoming aware of what I sense, learning how to translate what I sense into something that can be used in the situation at hand and can be translated so that other people can hear it. So that's really the essence.

I would say I'm inspired by that. I truly am. In fact, you know, anytime I hear the word change agent, I get excited because you know that that individual or individuals are truly looking to change not only themselves, but the people around them and ideally then the organization around that. And you know, this is Ashish. I had a conversation the other day with a colleague of mine and Rita, if you don't mind this, your answer helps me reflect on it. You know, we think of the nine practices hardwired for happiness practices and you almost mentioned several of them in that one answer and I just would love to highlight them because it was literally the conversation I had with him. You know, we talked about self awareness, right? I mean to cultivate that, to understand your language, your emotion, your body, and how you present yourself as your own unique observer, you know, will drive certain actions and results that you will realize. And Ashish, this is something that through the new Field Network, I've actually been embracing those two models more and more. The Bell model and the OR model. And so how we cultivate awareness, how we give ourselves space, more than just patience, like waiting for something to happen and being patient about it. No, create the space and then create the opportunity. Cultivate your awareness and then be the change you want to see. As you said, earlier, you know, which is really important for number two, intention. You know, if you're living with intention, everything you're doing is suddenly far more meaningful, far more powerful. And when people see you embodying that around you, whether it's the lowest person on the totem pole, a mid manager or a senior leader, you can spark change, you know, and you, you've got to stay true to that and not let go. You know, holistic well being is the third. The more healthy are. I love how you said Britta sleep. You said it several times. And you know, I think we sometimes underestimate the importance of sleep. Ashish colleague of mine, I actually shared our well being podcast on hey man, stop drinking coffee after 12. Good news. Since then he's stopped drinking his post five o' clock coffees. He's at mornings and noons now. But the importance of just being out, being able to move, being in nature. And I want to also highlight in the fourth one, which is community. I mean, just as you said, a change agent can only do so much on their own, but if they have the support of the people around them at work, at home, suddenly they feel more energized. They feel that they can make a bigger change. And so I just love this. So my invitation to our listeners is, you know, you, I am sure would love to be that change agent in order for you to unlock that, as Britta mentioned, these are certain things you can learn. You can form habits that actually allow you and enable you to bring that change to life in your organization. And I, I mean, Britta, I'll just pause there. I mean it's something that I'm sure you've experienced when you've dealt with individuals that you've worked with and maybe they've applied the ideas and insights that you've seen from your research. Maybe you can share more about that as well.

Yes. So basically all my fellow students in both my doctoral and my master studies, they have emerged with somehow changing the way they work. So they changed the way they work either where they are or in a new place, endeavor or cause. And so many of these were really gradual changes where a seed was sown and, and then over the years afterwards, they have often radically changed the way they live and work. One great example who comes to mind immediately is somebody from the sustainability program. His name is Jon Alexander. He was very successful in advertising in his early years and through his own transformation process. Through the studies he came to the conclusion that we need to redefine us as consumers into us as Citizens. So he wrote the book why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us. I highly recommend that one. He founded the Citizenship Project, which is running in many communities all over the world. And he, for me, is just one big example of how the work with self has ripple effect on everything else we do. Many others have created interest or support groups, either at work or in their communities, where, for example, they come together as a group of women or men, and they discuss their causes, their issues, their struggles, and how they can support each other to move forward. And so, again, here it is about creating the space first. And then these groups are a vertical breeding ground of amazing initiatives from things like organizing CSR community events to clean the environment, which we did in our company. Also in my company, we installed free mobile doctor access for poor families that were living around the surroundings of our factories in India. So that was one of many initiatives we created in India. Many of my coaching clients have found their strength and determination to make bold career moves either into other companies within their current company or creating their passion project on the side, growing them until they could make a living out of them.

You know, Britta, on this notion of change agents, right, there's a couple of elements, friends, that are so powerful. Look, I don't know about you, but one of the things that motivated me to start Happiness Squad about a year and two months ago, of course, was the level of stress and anxiety that I was seeing out there, the level of disengagement, disillusionment, loss in meaning. But the other thing that I was seeing was I think we were becoming more hopeless. That hopelessness was starting to creep in. And actually, even with kids, and I could see it even with my own son, where when we talked about climate change, when we talked about sustainability, we talked about so many things, it was just like, well, what can I do? That's kind of how it is. And what is powerful in your work, Prita, which I really find inspiring, is that because it has echoes of all the amazing work of other really great thinkers. Thinkers like Marty Seligman, right, who coined the term learned optimism versus learned helplessness. Because if you're helpless, if you feel you can't do anything, then you don't want to even get up and do anything, right? But we all matter. Another podcast guest, he coined this term. He said, my mission is to help everybody. Love dog poop. Barry Shore. Love dog poop. Like, I want you to love dog poop. And I was like, what is dog poop, Barry? And he's like, dog poop. Is doing of good power of one person. Every person matters. The good you do can change the world and somebody else on the other complete side. 90 now, Jane Goodall and her work with roots and shoots, which fundamentally is about helping kids form identities that they matter. No change is small enough. And collectively, you know, we can all take change. That's kind of your work is don't be the victim. If you are alive, if you are breathing, you have the ability to respond. So choose it wisely. And even if it is the smallest thing that'll make a difference, remember, a little flutter of a butterfly on the other side of the ocean can unleash a massive storm. Right. So don't feel that you don't matter. You matter.

Yes. Yes. I love that.

The modern day butterfly effect. I love that too. Nicely said, by the way. And this is one that Barry will always say. And I, it's like, he's like, go mad. And I'm like, what are you talking about? He's like, go make a difference. And it's powerful.

So just keeping an eye on time. Britta, we have one question for you because I think if we didn't talk about this, it would be just a shame. And then I'm going to pass it anil to the last two questions for you, my friend. The question I have for you is link all of this organizational flourishing agents of change to dancing as a way to make that agent come alive. Talk about the power of dancing and somatic practices and how they play such a big role.

Yeah.

So very simply put, and I think we have touched upon it before, but our mind and body are one. They are not just connected, but they are one. Therefore not living in a fully embodied and fleshed way with taking care of movement, diet, spirituality. We talked about it is like cutting our performance in half from the outset. So that's my starting point. So for me, dancing was my avenue back to connecting with my body. After a period of drain and overwork, having two kids, you know, being a full time working mom and so on, it was about finding the trust in my body again and in the signs I would get from my body. So yeah, that's the connection. But maybe some practical tips that I would share that really everyone can do out of my dance practice. And it's not ashish, I think you are super advanced to go and take dance lessons, but you could also just. And I start again with sleeping an hour more than you do. So go to seven to eight hours every day. Do at least once a day what I call Body check in. It's a 10 minute practice where you close your eyes and you basically scan your body for some tensions, for things where you probably feel unwell or probably areas that are numb or areas that hurt. And then if possible, stretch it out, shake it out or breathe. And of course, if it's something, you know, harder or something which is sitting there for longer, you might need different practices like getting massages or even, you know, getting significantly your stress level down. And then also last but not least, stretching every day, something that everyone can do, especially in the morning. Start with 10, 15 minutes, stretch yourself out. And so these are also basic practices that I do with teams. And you won't believe how much the mind opens, if the body is open. So just some stretching and walking can bring about a whole new way of dealing with problems.

I'm going to add one more Britta. And a call out to Carolyn Coughlin and Sheila. Two weeks ago I was at Mobius NPI and we were dealing with the topic of complexity. Except we weren't dealing with the topic of complexity. We were dancing with complexity. We danced our way through something that is a very cerebral, you know, and a body felt concept. So dancing with complexity. And so my friend, my one tip that I would add for you is even if it is for five minutes, play your favorite song and dance every day, right? Like just dance. I think it has this power. My son yesterday was doing some social science study and we had told him not to put his headphones. So he was blaring some music and I was just dancing as a way to distract him and you know, he was laughing and to me I was like filled with joy. I'm sure he was finding me super annoying and embarrassing but you know, for me I was having a, I was enjoying it. Then we had a nice fire afterwards outside and we sat. But anyway, dance. My dear friends, it's unbelievable how much we spend our day sitting. You know, we are in these tight boxes and we want to be creative. Just dance. Just dance. Even if nobody's watching. Dance with your family if you have one, if you don't have dance with yourself. But just dance. Let's move our body. Let the music move you. Let the music move you.

Yes, your body will do the rest.

Yes.

Oh yes it will. You know, there's, I mentioned earlier, language, emotion, body, and some of the work that's been done around when you feel down, when you feel upset, when you don't feel very creative, just close your eyes and just feel your body and exactly as, as Said as Britt has mentioned, stand up, stretch, dance, do a big jig. Great. Sit back down. Re observe. I guarantee it. If you don't feel a little bit more creative than you were a few minutes prior, would love to know and we will challenge you to keep moving. So what I'd love to do, Britta, is on that note, I'd like to shoot now to our rapid fire which is just a beautiful way for our art, our audience to get to know you a bit better. So on the back of the last question, when you dance, what's your favorite song to dance to?

Oh, I have many but if I have to say one, I would pick Magico from Mika Mendes.

Yes. All right, cool. So for folks that have been listening to us, we're actually going to be creating a playlist at the end of the year of our guests favorite songs and we're going to be putting it out there on Spotify. So wait for it. It's coming. Britta, the second question, what's your favorite activity aside from dancing when you want to re energize your body, your mind.

Your soul, Walking outside, taking lots of fresh air in.

Yes. For those that don't know, Britta lives in beautiful Zurich. So whether it's a walk on the lake, I'm sure or around town, you've gotten just surrounded by natural beauty. What is your favorite book?

Oh my gosh, I don't have one favorite one I've very much enjoyed lately belonging to from Toco paterna and currently I'm reading the charge from Brandon Bouchard.

Love it. So we're going to include this plus the book you mentioned earlier. Citizens into the show notes in case folks are looking for a recommendation for a book. You've now got three on the back of this in my final question and it's a bit biased but Britta, of the nine hardwired for happiness practices, which would you say is your favorite?

I would pick 1 and 2. Self awareness and define your purpose.

Yes. Well, this is actually the month of November is our theme is define your purpose. So we look forward to sharing more with you, Britta and our audience. And I just again want to say thank you so much, Britta. The joy, the dance, the ideas, knowing it's Lizzie's birthday on Sunday. I've just taken so much from this session from each of you. I just want to say a heartfelt thank you to you both.

Thank you. Me too. Thank you to the two of you.

Thank you my dear friend and so much more to come. So much more to come with us together dancing, hopefully in person, but if not, at least virtually. Take care.

Bye. Take care.

Bye.

Bye.

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