Why is having the ability to look in our everyday lives important when trying understanding how we behave and make sense of the world around us? In this first episode of series 4 I am going to explore how Looking and observing provides us with rich cultural narratives that interweave into each other to produce tapestries of human behaviour.  To unpack the benefit and power of looking I discuss with my guest Christian Madsbjerg his new book ‘Look’ – How to Pay attention in a distracted world. For the past 15 year Christian has lived in New York. He is an author, entrepreneur and academi ..read more

Hi I am Dr John Curran your host of the Decoding Culture Podcast and welcome to series 4. For those that are first time subscribers, the podcast focuses on the ways in which everyday culture and psychology shape who we are as human beings and social groups. As an organisational consultant, anthropologist and executive and team coach, I am fascinated by organisational culture and team dynamics - so these topics will seep into many of my conversations. I have been talking to some really interesting people for this series. Before I run through who these are, I want good to give you a quick news ..read more

So……this episode is part 2 of my conversation with Professor Les Back. Les is a leading sociologist and thinker at Goldsmiths University in London.  He’s written many books and in part 1 we discussed his book The Art of Listening and how having the ability to listen sociologically opens up new ways of getting closer to understanding society.  Part 2 develops this further where Les and I discuss we need to walk….and walk sociologically? To quote Les from the recording: “To study society you need to get your boots dirty and move”. This is a powerful quote….and is relevant to not jus ..read more

As a coach one of the central tools you have is to listen. Some call this active listening. Listening is not easy and something one has to practice because fundamentally you are listening to not just what is being said and what is not being said. Listening is therefore a holistic endeavour that is more an art than a technique. As an anthropologist I am also taught to listen to silence. Or as the anthropologist and FT journalist, Gillian Tett describes – listening to social silence. But why is the ability to listen so important to understanding everyday culture and society?  To help me un ..read more

I am also the CEO of JC & Associates which is a consultancy that helps businesses develop better working cultures and relationships with their stakeholders.    I have been working as a business anthropologists for over 20 years. By business anthropologist, I mean that I use my anthropological training to advise businesses on how to improve their organisational cultures, or think about how they connect with their consumers, or begin to design future strategies that take into account the most complex and often messy concept that they are constantly faced with, culture.    ..read more

I have been working as a business anthropologists for over 20 years. By business anthropologist, I mean that I use my anthropological training to advise businesses on how to improve their organisational cultures, or think about how they connect with their consumers, or begin to design future strategies that take into account the most complex and often messy concept that they are constantly faced with, culture.    There is no doubt that once leaders or teams embrace the subtle ways in which culture works, they can feel liberated and empowered to move forward in a positive way. However ..read more

My name is John Curran and I am your host. I am a business anthropologist, executive coach, systemic team coach, facilitator and trainer.    I am also the CEO of JC & Associates which is a consultancy that helps businesses develop better working cultures and relationships with their stakeholders.    This episode is the second part of my interview with Professor Mark de Rond, who is Professor of Organisational Ethnography at Cambridge Judge Busines School, Cambridge University.    Here, Mark and I explore the role that conflict plays in organisations and teams ..read more

Over 20 years ago I spend 2 years carrying out an ethnographic study of a psychiatric hospital in London. This was for my PhD in Social Anthropology. To gain ethical approval for my research, I became a member of staff and worked as a nursing assistant. By working the shifts I was able to get a feel of the daily rhythm of the hospital and how the often laten aspects of everyday culture shaped behaviour and perceptions around team work, care, policy and power. I was also able to experience and understand some of the key elements that made nursing and medical teams form in different environments ..read more

I enjoy good food. I am lucky, I have eaten in some great restaurants and cities around the world. Trying to replicate the most simplest of recipes at home is an ordeal and usually ends in failure. To off-set these failures I tend to indulge in many hours watching food programmes on Netflix and wishing that I had the ability to cook like many of the chefs.   One thing that always enters my mind is the systems that are put in place to make a kitchen function and produce quality. How do teams work, how do they learn and what does leadership look like? And how does team culture influence and ..read more

Does the mind shape who we are, how we think, the decisions we make, the moral paths we take? Well that is what western thought has led us to believe after all. But what about the body? Is it simply a shadow to the greatness of the mind or can we be learning more about human behaviour, culture and society by giving the body equal importance?   To unravel this I spoke to the world renowned business anthropologist Dr Simon Roberts about his new book The Power of Not Thinking: How Our Bodies Learn and Why We Should Trust Them and how the concept of embodied knowledge is essential in understa ..read more