The Answer's Not in a Spreadsheet. It's in Workplace Happiness - Lord Mark Price

Work's Not Working... Let's Fix It!

In this episode of Work’s Not Working… Let’s Fix It! Siân Harrington sits down with Lord Mark Price – former managing director of Waitrose, deputy chair of the John Lewis Partnership, and now author of Happy Economics – to ask a surprisingly radical question: What if the biggest untapped performance lever in business... is happiness?

In a world obsessed with efficiency, dashboards and productivity hacks, Mark argues that we’ve forgotten a simple truth: people do their best work when they feel good. And yet, too many companies still treat happiness like a perk, not a performance metric.

Drawing on over 40 years in business and a global dataset of over one million employees, Mark shares why the smartest organisations are putting happiness on the balance sheet – and what happens when they do.

Whether you’re a numbers-driven CEO, a disillusioned manager or an HR leader trying to make the case for culture, this episode offers sharp insights, real-world proof and a powerful reminder that everything in your P&L starts with your people.

Key Takeaways:

• Workplace happiness isn’t fluffy. It’s measurable, scalable and commercially essential. Mark explains how companies can use data to drive both wellbeing and performance.
• The UK is bottom of the G20 for both productivity and workplace happiness. That’s not a coincidence but a warning.
• “The answer’s not in the spreadsheet, it’s in your people.” Why obsessing over numbers while ignoring morale is costing companies more than they realise.
• Recognition, information, empowerment. The six science-backed drivers of workplace happiness and why most leaders are focusing on the wrong one.
• Middle management isn't the enemy. Why ripping out human connection in the name of tech is a fast track to disengagement.
• Gen Z isn’t entitled but reacting to a system that no longer serves them. And their refusal to tolerate bad management might just be a wake-up call for the rest of us.

Mark reminds us that building a happy workforce isn’t soft. It’s smart. It’s strategic. And it might just be the future of business.

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Chapters

1. The P&L Problem: It’s All About People (00:00:00)

2. Welcome & Big Question: Why Aren’t We Investing in Happiness? (00:00:40)

3. What’s Broken at Work? (00:02:36)

4. Happy Economics: A Real Fix for Productivity (00:04:12)

5. Learning Happiness: From Shop Floor to Boardroom (00:07:15)

6. Happiness as a Business Metric (00:11:38)

7. Proving the Business Case (00:16:23)

8. The 6 Drivers of Happiness (00:21:45)

9. AI vs Human Connection (00:30:28)

10. Is Gen Z Really So Different? (00:36:50)

11. Myths That Drive Me Mad (00:42:10)

12. Three Things Leaders Can Do Today (00:47:07)

13. Find Out Where You Rank (00:49:00)