Kevin Carroll has an amazingly cool background. Raised by his grandparents in Philadelphia, his first job really was with the U.S. Air Force where he served as a language interpreter and translator. And in those ten years he became fluent in Croatian and Czech and Russian and German. But while being fantastic at languages, he was also an athlete and soon an athletic trainer. Leaving the Air Force, he worked his way up to be the head athletic trainer for the Philadelpha 76ers. So he’s already cool. But then he was tapped on the shoulder by Nike. He spent a number of years at Nike helping to deepen their understanding of athletic performance and team dynamics and interpersonal connection, basically helping Nike become one of the forces it is today.

And then things shifted again, and he put his experience and wisdom into a terrific series of books, starting with the Rules of the Red Rubber Ball. In this interview we talk about:

• How it was a ball that saved and changed Kevin’s life.
• Why ‘encouragers’ are so crucial to sustaining success
• The role of curiosity and play in connecting with your great purpose and Great Work
• The role of “lonely work” is setting up for success.

You can follow Kevin on Twitter at @KCKatalyst and find him on the web at www.Kevincarrollkatalyst.com.

Listen to my interview with Kevin Carroll

Jason Fried’s new book Rework comes out today, and I’m delighted that we managed to talk just a week ago in the lead up to its launch. Now here’s a quote to kick us off. It’s from Seth Godin, and he says (and I’m paraphrasing), “Make everything a project – and run it through 37Signals’ Basecamp.” Jason is the one of the founders of 37Signals. They design useful software to help people work better – connect with people, run projects, managing stuff. (I know, because I use it!)

And what’s cool is they haven’t done it by practising business as usual, but by practising business as unusual. In this interview Jason shares some of his successful and counter-intutive approaches to how to get stuff done. We talk about:

• The evolution of 37Signals – and why where you start is not where you finish
• The value of introducing “done enough” as a measure of success
• The problem with meetings – and what to do about it
• Why planning is highly overrated
• And a bunch more…

You can pick up the new book on Amazon , follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonFried, and learn more about 37 Signals’ products at their website.

Listen to my interview with Jason Fried

(And by the way, Jason’s surname is pronounced “Freed” – Apologies to Jason, and please ignore my mistake at the start of the interview!)

Professor Isaac Getz is the professor of Idea, Initiative and Innovation Management at the EACP Europe Business School and author of a new book that gets right to the very heart of what it takes to do Great Work in an organization: Freedom Inc.

It’s a terrific book and follows on nicely from the previous interview with Bob Cialdini. The book tells the stories of organizations that are approaching work by thinking about how to work differently and succeeding because of this approach. The subtitle says it all: Free Your Employees and Let Them Lead Your Business to High Productivity, Profits and Growth. Isaac incorporates his own background of innovation but looks at a bigger picture of how work is evolving, and that’s what we talk about in this interview. We discuss:

• How the style of “liberating leaders” is the starting point for any Freedom Inc.
• The importance of people feeling intrinsically equal – and what that actually means
• The impact of a lessening of control from the top – and the impact that has on agility and ability to serve your customers

You can learn more about Professor Isaac Getz and his book at freedomincbook.com.

Listen to my interview with Professor Getz

I’m totally thrilled to have my manifesto published by the ChangeThis team. They do an awesomely good job at producing powerful content, and it’s been a long time dream of mine to have something published by them.

In my manifesto, I offer up 7 counter-intuitive ways to stop the busywork.

Download the manifesto here: http://changethis.com/manifesto/show/68.03.GreatWork

I’m in good company this month – The ReWork manifesto by Jason Fried is fantastic, and in fact I interviewed him today in preparation for his book of the same name coming out next week. Watch for that interview soon as part of the Great Work Interview series.

Bob Cialdini is not just a man of influence, he is THE man of influence. His first book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, is a classic and is destined to remain a perpetual bestseller. And here’s why. As our world gets increasingly networked and matrixed, traditional lines of control and power are loosening and vanishing. Soon, influence is all you’ll have to get things done.

So it pays to understand how it works. And this interview will help. Amongst other things, Bob and I talk about:

• How a study in self-defence planted the seeds for his own Great Work
• What he learned by putting his principles of persuasion into action and giving them a ‘real world’ test.
• The least used of the six core ways to influence people – and how you can use this on everything from menus to career progression.

Bob is Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University. You can learn more about him and his company Influence at Work at www.InfluenceAtWork.com

Listen to my interview with Robert Cialdini