Graham Allcott on Kind, Psychological Safety & the Quiet Power of Kindness | Pharma Prescribed

Graham Allcott — bestselling author of How to Be a Productivity Ninja and Kind: The Quiet Power of Kindness at Work — joins Adam Walker for a conversation about why the ruthless-boss archetype is scientifically wrong. Graham founded Think Productive, now operating across the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands. His latest book won the 2025 Leadership Book of the Year from the Institute of Leadership and a Business Book Award. His argument is simple and evidence-backed: kindness builds trust, trust builds psychological safety, and psychologically safe teams outperform everyone else. Adam and Graham first met at the Sussex University Kindness Conference. This is the conversation that followed. 🎧 LISTEN ON YOUR PREFERRED APP Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/episode/04glB17p7bBWVmLjlwIO7z?si=WfiLpCsPQuatGlGcV2_NQQ Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/graham-allcott-on-kind-psychological-safety-the-quiet/id1829715970?i=1000778402287 Amazon Music → https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1a43eb87-b83e-441d-9a87-321263e3f821/episodes/dd83fbdb-4053-468f-8486-9e346073b5f6/adam-walker%E2%80%99s-pharma-prescribed-podcast-graham-allcott-on-kind-psychological-safety-the-quiet-power-of-kindness-pharma-prescribed  Podbean → https://pharmaprescribed.podbean.com/ Youtube → https://youtu.be/1i1_TIZRBmI  📖 WHAT WE COVER - Why we got the success archetype wrong — Mr Burns, Dragon's Den and the myth of the ruthless leader - "Trust and kindness are our rocket fuel" — the company value that became a book - How trust eliminates due diligence — and the Apple purchase analogy - Why organisations without shareholders find kindness easier: Timpson, Richer Sounds, Reed - James Timpson: "The easiest way to make the numbers go up is to flog everybody" - Why charities are often the least kind places to work - The biggest source of accidental unkindness is busyness - The kindness window: why the opportunity closes the moment you notice it - Slowness isn't about speed, it's about savouring - Erling Kagge, the South Pole and the apple that connected him to the tree - How Seth Godin blurbed the book — and the watermark that nearly stopped it - Kindness starts with you: abundance versus scarcity - DJing jazz, funk and soul at Brighton Sundae ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 Introduction & podcast mission 1:00 Meet Graham Allcott 1:30 The mission: thinking differently about work 2:00 Why the success archetype is scientifically wrong 3:00 Meeting at the Sussex Kindness Conference 4:00 The bridge between productivity and kindness 4:30 "Trust and kindness are our rocket fuel" 5:00 Culture without a water cooler 6:00 Psychological safety and what the research shows 8:00 Trust eliminates due diligence — the Apple analogy 9:00 What happens when trust is lost 10:00 Scandinavian workplaces, hygge and Copenhagen 12:00 The shareholder problem — family businesses do it better 13:00 James Timpson on flogging everybody 15:00 Common threads across kinder organisations 17:00 Kindness to customers, not just employees 18:30 The charity sector reality check 21:00 Attention, meetings and How to Fix Meetings 22:00 Nancy Kline's Time to Think 23:00 Podcasting and the attention economy 25:00 Busyness and kindness — do they mix? 27:00 The kindness window and the London Tube seat 28:00 Item four — the praise you never gave 29:00 Busyness as a badge of honour 30:00 Adam's back surgery and rebuilding slowly 32:00 Carl Honoré and the slow movement 33:00 Slowness is savouring, not speed 34:00 Erling Kagge, the South Pole and the apple 36:00 Seth Godin and Beyond Busy 38:00 The advice that named the book 39:00 The watermark that nearly stopped the blurb 40:00 "Blurbs help the author walk taller" 42:00 Kindness starts with you 44:00 Abundance versus scarcity 45:00 "There is enough. I am enough." 46:00 Rev Up for the Week 47:00 Quick-fire: book the ticket 47:45 DJing at Brighton Sundae 48:30 Golden rule: stay curious 👤 ABOUT GRAHAM ALLCOTT Author, speaker and entrepreneur. Founder of Think Productive. Author of How to Be a Productivity Ninja and Kind: The Quiet Power of Kindness at Work — 2025 Leadership Book of the Year. Resident DJ at Brighton Sundae. 🌐 https://www.grahamallcott.com 📧 Rev Up for the Week — free Sunday newsletter 🎧 brightonsundae.com 🎙️ ABOUT PHARMA PRESCRIBED Long-form conversations with leaders in clinical research, digital health and mental wellbeing, hosted by Adam Walker. 🌐 https://pharmaprescribed.com 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamwalkerbiometrics #GrahamAllcott #Kind #KindnessAtWork #ThinkProductive #Pr