Squiggly Careers

Do you often feel like you are just waiting for your turn to speak, rather than truly listening and learning? In this episode, we explore the power of oracy and how it can change the way you think and work.

Drawing on the work of Voice 21, Barbara Oakley, and research from More in Common, they explore what it means to develop this skill.

🎯 What You'll Learn

– Define oracy as the essential skill of speaking and listening well to build better conclusions.

– Discover why talking out loud helps you spot gaps in your reasoning and critical thinking.

– Identify the difference between a standard 121 and an oracy-first approach to problem-solving.

– Learn how to facilitate meetings that ensure equal contribution and stop interruptions.

– Practice using oracy in team settings to move away from directive leadership.

– Apply oracy techniques to your squiggly career story to articulate your value more effectively.

For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com

Need some more squiggly career support?

1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/

2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/

3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers Newsletter, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/squigglynewsletter_pod

4. Order our new book Learn Like a Lobster: https://www.amazingif.com/books/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Is your current way of working holding you back from your next career milestone? Sometimes, the very habits that helped you succeed in the past can become obstacles to your future progress.

Drawing on Marshall Goldsmith’s concept of 'What Got You Here Won't Get You There', Helen explores what it means to develop this skill, and what your default response to it reveals about you.

🎯 What You'll Learn
– Shift from giving all the answers to asking powerful questions
– Implement the 'Now vs. Not For Now' list to prioritize effectively
– Replace automatic 'niceness' with a strategic 'if-then' negotiation approach
– Discover how to move from a 'getting things done' mentality to doing the right things
– Learn how to manage your energy by saying no to unsustainable workloads
– Develop the confidence to negotiate your time and resources for better impact

For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com

Need some more squiggly career support?
1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/
2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/
3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers Newsletter, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/squigglynewsletter_pod
4. Order our new book Learn Like a Lobster: https://www.amazingif.com/books/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ever wondered what sets high-performing 'super teams' apart from those that are stalling? It's not just about talent, but a shared belief in your collective ability to learn, adapt, and succeed together.

In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from a feeling and dive deep into one of the most relevant topics in work and careers right now.

Drawing on the latest research into high-performing team dynamics and Helen and Sarah's own team-building frameworks, they explore how every team member can influence performance, and what your default response to collaboration reveals about you.

🎯 What You'll Learn

– Understand the critical difference between a super team and a stalling team

– Learn why collective belief is one of the strongest predictors of real-world performance

– Design simple, low-risk experiments to build on what your team already does well

– Make curiosity contagious by identifying and filling your collective knowledge gaps

– Bring the outside in to swap ideas and accelerate your team's adaptation in an AI-driven world

– Ask uncomfortable questions to uncover and remove the barriers getting in the way of progress

For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com

Need some more squiggly career support?

1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/

2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/

3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers Newsletter, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/squigglynewsletter_pod

4. Order our new book Learn Like a Lobster: https://www.amazingif.com/books/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Are you a conversational narcissist? In this Squiggly Shortcut, Sarah introduces a deceptively simple idea from Celeste Headlee that will change how you listen, and make you notice everyone else's conversations differently too.

🎯 What You'll Learn
– What a shift response is, why we all do it, and why it matters more than you might think
– What a support response sounds like in practice, and how it changes the dynamic of a conversation
– Why assuming your experience is the same as someone else's can get in the way of really listening
– How to notice your own patterns over the next week, and what to do with that awareness

📚 Resources Mentioned
Episode 207: Celeste Headlee on the Squiggly Careers podcast: xx

For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com
Need some more squiggly career support?

1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/
2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/
3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers Newsletter, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/squigglynewsletter_pod
4. Order our new book Learn Like a Lobster: https://www.amazingif.com/books/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uncertainty isn't going anywhere. So what if the goal wasn't to get rid of it, but to get better at holding it?

In this episode, Helen and Sarah borrow brilliance from a feeling and dive deep into one of the most relevant topics in work and careers right now.

Drawing on Margaret Heffernan's Embracing Uncertainty, Sam Conniff and Katherine Templar-Lewis's Uncertainty Toolkit, and a brilliant HBR article, they explore what it really means to develop the capacity to hold uncertainty, and what your default response to it reveals about you.

🎯 What You'll Learn

– Why the goal isn't uncertainty to certainty, but uncertainty to the capacity to hold

– How to find your own uncertainty tolerance score (with an AI prompt on the podsheet to help)

– Why leaders feel more pressure than most to appear decisive, and what the research says about that

– How to use a simple matrix to plot your uncertainty by impact and duration, and respond differently depending on which quadrant you're in

– Why patience might be the most underrated skill in uncertain times, and how Helen and Sarah both score themselves on it

– What it means to reframe uncertainty as opportunity rather than threat

For questions about Squiggly Careers or to share feedback, please email: helenandsarah@squigglycareers.com

Need some more squiggly career support?

1. Download our free career tools: https://www.amazingif.com/toolkit/

2. Sign up for our Skills Sprints: https://www.amazingif.com/squigglysprints/

3. Sign up for our Squiggly Careers Newsletter, a weekly summary of the latest squiggly career tools: https://bit.ly/squigglynewsletter_pod

4. Order our new book Learn Like a Lobster: https://www.amazingif.com/books/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices