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

One of the giants in the self-development world, Leo Babauta. His blog Zen Habits is read by over 150,000 people, and with good reason. It’s practical, wise and committed to helping people create a better life for themselves through simple productivity. He’s also the author of The Power of Less, a best-selling book which helps declutter your life on every possible level.

I’m thrilled to say Leo has  contributed a piece to my new book,  Do More Great Work.

In this interview Leo and I talk about:

• How he balanced two jobs (and a family with six children) to launch Zen Habits
• Leo’s core planning tool – and it’s about having fun
• Why starting small is the most powerful way for getting big
• The secret to leaving behind a bad habit and taking up a more positive, new one.

You can follow Leo on Twitter at @zen_habits and read his work on his blog.

Listen to my interview with Leo Babauta

Those who like Hugh MacLeod’s cartoons and writing like them a lot, and I’m one of those people. His cartoons are wise, abrasive and often cut to the heart of what it means to do Great Work, to find your own path and to stay human in the corporate world – or as he puts it in this interview, “figure out what’s really going on.” In fact, he often refers to this cartoons as ‘cubicle bombs’ – little explosions that disrupt Business As Usual. I’ve got this one hanging up in my house:

In our interview, we spend a good deal of the time exploring some of the 40 strategies for creativity he outlines in his book ‘Ignore Everybody‘ including:

• What it really means to ’sing in your own voice’ (and how Hugh found his)
• How Hugh manages to stay creative and fresh – and the answer is surprisingly undramatic
• What, when it comes down to it, Hugh thinks is the secret to his and others’ success

You can follow Hugh on Twitter at @gapingvoid and see his cartoons and art at his blog, www.gapingvoid.com

Listen to my interview with Hugh MacLeod here

Here’s a confession.  I want to be able to think like Merlin Mann.

He’s really smart on the topic of productivity, and in fact some part of his success comes from 43Folders.com which is a reference to David Allen’s Getting Things Done system.  But his work is not just about productivity.  It’s about creativity and purpose and striving to stay human and sane in a busy and distracting world and doing work that matters, doing Great Work. And he does all of this in funny, provocative, iconoclastic way.

In fact, writing this introduction and listening to the interview again has already provoked me to shift some of my own commitments in an effort to, as he puts it, “identify and destroy small return bullshit.  Shut off anything that’s noisier than it is useful.”  Great stuff indeed, and this is a wise and funny interview.

In our conversation we talk about:

• How the present is a “remedial course for the future” – and the pros and cons of those ‘creation myth’ stories of where people find clues for their Great Work
• The importance of an open heart and just where that might lead you
• The connection between productivity and creativity
• The two levels of prioritization (and how freeing it is to know that)
• And quite a bit more

You can follow Merlin on Twitter at http://twitter.com/hotdogsladies

The interviews are all between 25 and 30 minutes long.
You can either download them here as mp3s, or go to iTunes, type in “Great Work Interviews” and you’ll see them all there.

Listen to my interview with Merlin Mann

Many people listening to this interview will have seen one of the short internet movies I’ve created – The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun, The 5.75 Questions You’ve Been Avoiding, The Great Work Movie.  Today’s interview is with the guy who planted the “make movies” seed, Scott Stratten.  I’ve been watching Scott’s work for close to ten years, and have counted him as a friend – he’s a Torontonian too.

He’s done a number of remarkable things. First, he’s created over 60 internet movies that have been seen more than 60 million times, including his own movie that started the whole thing, Time.  His work brings together insights on human motivation and what he calls ‘unmarketing’ – how to sell yourself and perhaps your products in a way that is authentic and doesn’t follow the herd. As an example of that, since we did this interview, Scott’s become a colossus in the world of Twitter, where as @unmarketing he is the most influential Canadian twitter there is.

In our conversation we talk about:

• The conversation with his company president that got the whole thing rolling
• Why you can never let someone else define your own Great Work
• Scott’s way of defining the difference between leading and managing
• What happens when you pull back the curtain to see the ‘Wizard of Oz’ – and the simple three part formula Scott uses to sustain his Great Work

Listen to my Interview with Scott Stratten

The interviews are all between 25 and 30 minutes long.
You can either download them here as mp3s, or go to iTunes, type in “Great Work Interviews” and you’ll see them all there.