Truth, Lies and Work

How you deliver news to your team has a huge impact on how they react. Whether it's bad news and you want to allay fears, or good news and you want everyone to be excited - the very best way to do this is with a story.

In this episode, professional storyteller and Moth host Corey Rosen explains why the way you deliver information matters more than the information itself, and how a single story once saved a company from the inside out. Corey should know: his career started at Industrial Light & Magic, where he accidentally erased Harrison Ford's ear from a Star Wars film, before he went on to work on Jurassic Park, the Star Wars prequels, and Jim Henson Productions.

Corey shares the moment his old boss, legendary stop-motion animator Phil Tippett, called an all-hands meeting everyone assumed meant layoffs, and instead told a story that changed the entire mood of the room. Al and Leanne dig into why bullet points make people forget, why stories make people remember, and exactly when a leader should reach for a story instead of just giving the answer.

Key Takeaways:

How You Deliver News Matters: The same information can create fear or buy-in depending on whether it's delivered as data or as a story.

Lead Change With the Why: Before rolling out something new, start with the story behind the decision, not the announcement itself, so people come with you instead of resisting.

Know When to Skip the Story: If someone just wants a status update, give them the status update. Save story for moments that need real understanding or buy-in.

Facts Fade, Stories Stick: Information delivered as a story activates more of the brain and is far more likely to be remembered and repeated.

Connect with Corey Rosen:
– Website: https://www.yourstorywelltold.com
– Book: A Story for Everything

Connect with Al & Leanne
– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/truthlieswork
– Al Elliott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thisisalelliott
– Leanne Elliott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meetleanne
– Email: hello@truthliesandwork.com
– Book a call: https://savvycal.com/meetleanne/chat

Mental health support UK & ROI — Samaritans Call 116 123 or visit https://www.samaritans.org UK — Mind Call 0300 123 3393 or visit https://www.mind.org.uk US — Suicide & Crisis Lifeline Call or text 988 or visit https://988lifeline.org Australia — Lifeline Call 13 11 14 or visit https://www.lifeline.org.au Global helplines: https://findahelpline.com

Welcome back to Truth, Lies & Work, the award-winning workplace podcast where behavioural science meets workplace culture. This week on This Week in Work, we explore AI for mental health, annual leave trends, and progressive workplace policies, plus dive into sleep research and take on your workplace surgery questions.

🔥 Stories covered

AI for Overthinkers

Psychologists in Berlin have launched Mindflex, a psychological AI designed around Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to support the 73% of young adults who overthink. Is an AI companion reaching out to check on you a breakthrough or a threat to real human connection?

Source: https://www.einpresswire.com/article/939689893/berlin-psychologists-launch-mindflex-a-psychological-ai-for-the-73-percent-of-young-adults-who-overthink

The "Holiday Hoarding" Crisis

With half of UK workers failing to use their full holiday entitlement due to job insecurity and workload pressure, holiday hoarding is driving massive year-end burnout. We explore why leaders need to evaluate performance based on output rather than hours logged.

Source: https://www.fastcompany.com/91589261/holiday-hoarding-is-a-workplace-crisis

Gail’s Menopause Action Plan

Ahead of upcoming UK employment legislation, Gail’s Bakery is breaking workplace taboos by introducing menopause action plans and 24/7 digital GP access for employees across its 200 locations.

Source: https://www.thetimes.com/business/companies-markets/article/gails-menopause-plan-djlnj706k

🧠 Truth or Lie: Can You Bank Sleep?

Can you deposit extra hours of sleep before a hectic week or long trip and withdraw them when you need them? Leanne breaks down the science—from 2009 US Army studies to new research challenging the piggy bank model.

Sleep research sources:

https://sleepdebtcalc.com/blog/can-you-bank-sleep-before-a-busy-week

https://sleepdebtcalc.com/blog/weekend-sleep-catchup

Klerman, E. B., Banks, S., & Roenneberg, T. (2025). Con: sleep is a credit card, not a piggy bank. SLEEPJ, 48(12), zsaf251.

Thompson, M. A., Jones, C. B., & Thornburg, C. J. (2017). Sleep banking. Mil Rev, 97(1), 91-97.

💬 Workplace Surgery

This week we answer three listener questions:

"I manage a fully remote team and I’m struggling with something I never really had in an office. I can see whether work gets delivered, but I can’t easily tell who’s overloaded, who’s coasting, or who might quietly be struggling. How do you get proper visibility of a remote team without turning into a micromanager?"

"I run a growing business and I’ve started noticing signs that some people are stretched. How do you work out whether burnout is an individual issue or a business design problem?"

"A guy on my team has been blocking out a couple of hours every afternoon with fake meetings because whenever he puts 'focus time' in his calendar, people book over it. My manager has now asked me which client he keeps meeting with. Do I tell my manager what’s going on?"

📬 Connect with Al & Leanne

– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/truthlieswork

– Al Elliott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thisisalelliott

– Leanne Elliott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meetleanne

– Email: hello@truthliesandwork.com

– Book a call: https://savvycal.com/meetleanne/chat

Mental health support

UK & ROI — Samaritans Call 116 123 or visit https://www.samaritans.org

UK — Mind Call 0300 123 3393 or visit https://www.mind.org.uk

US — Suicide & Crisis Lifeline Call or text 988 or visit https://988lifeline.org

Australia — Lifeline Call 13 11 14 or visit https://www.lifeline.org.au

Global helplines

https://findahelpline.com

Can you really go through the rest of your life without ever getting into another fight or argument?

n this episode, trial lawyer turned professional peacemaker Doug Noll explains how "affect labeling" and nervous system leadership can de-escalate even the most explosive conflict - from maximum-security prisons to corporate boardrooms.

Doug shares the fascinating neuroscience behind why conventional active listening fails, how to calm a dysregulated brain in 90 seconds, and why empathy is a critical leadership capability rather than a "soft skill."

Key Takeaways:

Nervous System Leadership: Conflicts worsen when leaders fail to realize they are managing dysregulated threat responses rather than rational actors.

The 90-Second Rule: Naming someone's underlying emotions directly ("You are angry," "You feel disrespected") activates the prefrontal cortex and calms negative emotional centers in under 90 seconds.

Avoid "I" Statements & Questions: Asking questions or using "I" statements forces an escalated person to use their prefrontal cortex, which is temporarily offline, leading to further frustration.

The Three Core Questions: Every nervous system constantly asks: Am I safe? Can I trust you? Do I matter to you?

Connect with Doug Noll:
– Website: https://dougnoll.com
– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougnoll
– Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dougnoll
– X (Twitter): https://x.com/dougnoll
– TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dougnoll
– YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DouglasENoll

Connect with Al & Leanne
– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/truthlieswork
– Al Elliott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thisisalelliott
– Leanne Elliott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meetleanne
– Email: hello@truthliesandwork.com
– Book a call: https://savvycal.com/meetleanne/chat

Mental health support
UK & ROI — Samaritans Call 116 123 or visit https://www.samaritans.org
UK — Mind Call 0300 123 3393 or visit https://www.mind.org.uk
US — Suicide & Crisis Lifeline Call or text 988 or visit https://988lifeline.org
Australia — Lifeline Call 13 11 14 or visit https://www.lifeline.org.au
Global helplines: https://findahelpline.com

Welcome back to Truth, Lies & Work, the award-winning workplace podcast where behavioural science meets workplace culture, brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals.

Every New Year's Eve, hosts Al and Leanne make bold, confident predictions about what the next year of work will look like. Some are rooted in occupational psychology, some in business experience, and some... are just Al getting carried away.

In this special Summer Sessions episode, we dig through four years of predictions from 2023 through 2026 for a brutally honest, self-deprecating review of our past calls. From the rapid rise of AI agents and skills-based hiring to the over-hyped promises of AI burnout prediction and corporate transparency, find out who actually holds the ultimate workplace crystal ball.

🔥 What We Covered

2023 Predictions: Skills-based hiring vs. degree requirements, ChatGPT as a personal workplace coach, and the permanent shift to hybrid working.

2024 Predictions: Employee retention strategies, corporate transparency fails, and why AI missed the mark on predicting workplace burnout.

2025 Predictions: Why empathy became the defining AI-era leadership skill, the explosion of autonomous AI agents, and personalized financial wellbeing.

2026 Halfway Progress Report: Are human-centric skills becoming more valuable? Is AI fading into invisible infrastructure? And how are we measuring outcome-based productivity?

💡 Key Takeaways

Skills Over Degrees: Leanne accurately called the shift to competency-based, skills-first hiring as employers moved away from rigid qualification requirements.

AI as a Thinking Partner: Employees routinely use generative AI as a personal sounding board for difficult workplace conversations and leadership prep.

The Burnout Miss: AI was heavily leveraged for workplace productivity, meeting summaries, and administrative tasks—not for predicting employee burnout or monitoring mental health.

Agentic AI Arrives: Workflows shifted rapidly from basic AI prompt-writing to autonomous AI agents acting as digital colleagues.

Human Skills Matter Most: As routine tasks automate, empathy, judgment, ethics, and emotional intelligence have become the ultimate leadership differentiators.

📬 Connect with Al & Leanne
– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/truthlieswork
– Al Elliott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thisisalelliott
– Leanne Elliott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meetleanne
– Email: hello@truthliesandwork.com
– Book a call: https://savvycal.com/meetleanne/chat

Mental health support
UK & ROI — Samaritans Call 116 123 or visit https://www.samaritans.org
UK — Mind Call 0300 123 3393 or visit https://www.mind.org.uk
US — Suicide & Crisis Lifeline Call or text 988 or visit https://988lifeline.org
Australia — Lifeline Call 13 11 14 or visit https://www.lifeline.org.au
Global helplines
https://findahelpline.com

This week, we are taking a short break from our usual format for a Summer Sessions feed drop. We are sharing a special episode from Unbehaved, where host Meghan French Dunbar turns the tables and interviews us!

We dive deep into how we met during an overnight shift volunteering at the Samaritans, the real story behind building the UK's number one management podcast, and how to stop making decisions based on what other people think. We also discuss why we decided to leave traditional career paths behind to become digital nomads, how we navigate working together as a married couple, and our take on the latest workplace trends like AI fears and shifting DEI dynamics.

Check out Unbehaved:

Find Unbehaved on your favorite podcast app or visit https://www.meghanfrenchdunbar.com/podcast

Connect with Meghan French Dunbar on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghanfrenchdunbar/

Content Warning:

This episode opens with a discussion about a call regarding a suicide in progress from our time volunteering at the Samaritans. If you prefer to skip this section, fast-forward to around the six-minute mark.

📬 Connect with Al & Leanne

– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/truthlieswork

– Al Elliott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thisisalelliott

– Leanne Elliott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meetleanne

– Email: hello@truthliesandwork.com

– Book a call: https://savvycal.com/meetleanne/chat

Mental health support

UK & ROI — Samaritans Call 116 123 or visit https://www.samaritans.org

UK — Mind Call 0300 123 3393 or visit https://www.mind.org.uk

US — Suicide & Crisis Lifeline Call or text 988 or visit https://988lifeline.org

Australia — Lifeline Call 13 11 14 or visit https://www.lifeline.org.au

Global helplines

https://findahelpline.com

🎧 Truth, Lies & Work is part of the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals.