Today’s Guest:

Today we’re talking to Rob Baker, who’s a specialist at bringing positive psychology to workplaces, and strives to be a force for good in the world of work. A graduate of the Masters of Applied Positive Psychology programme at Melbourne University, Rob is the founder and chief positive deviant of a leading evidence-based positive psychology, well-being, and HR consultancy called Tailored Thinking. His ideas and research on how people can personalize work and bring their whole and best selves to the workplace have been presented at academic and professional conferences around the world.

In this episode, we discuss how job crafting and in particular micro-crafting (small changes to what you do each day) can help you to align your work with your strengths, interests and passions to help you balance the demands of your job and feel more engaged, satisfied and effective at work.

Connect with Rob:

Website:  tailoredthinking.co.uk/

GET YOUR FREE MAKING IT WORK CHEATSHEET

You’ll Learn:

• [02:15] – Rob explains what job crafting is and how it might help us at work.
• [03:30] – Rob explains what researchers are finding out about the potential benefits of job crafting for employees and for workplaces.
• [05:45] – Rob explains why we need more flexible approaches to job descriptions as many jobs continue to become more complex and unpredictable.
• [06:38] – Rob shares practical examples of how people can engage in task crafting, relational crafting and purpose crafting at work.
• [10:35] – Rob offers simple steps for micro crafting your job.
• [14:15] – Rob explores how on-the-spot job crafting may benefit people as they go about their jobs.
• [16:09] – Rob explains how leaders can help their people to job craft.
• [18:11] – Rob offers some cautions on when job crafting is likely to be less effective in workplaces.
• [21:07] – Rob completes the lightning round.

Your Resources:

• MPPW Podcast on Facebook
• Alive at Work by Daniel Cable
• Job Crafting – Amy Wrzesniewski
• Eat Sleep Work Repeat Podcast

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for joining me again this week.  If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.

Please leave an honest review for the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them.  And don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It’s free!

You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing.

Until next time, take care!  Thank you Rob!