Changing Academic Life

What if a corporatisation approach could actually make academic life better? Looking across the episodes so far this year I see three themes: shifting from “I” to “we” by treating research as a team sport; developing a new kind of leadership focused on enabling others through self-awareness, humility, authenticity, kindness, and clear roles; and adopting new ways of working that reduce bureaucratic hierarchies. These point to new ways of working. Drawing on Masud Husain’s 2025 editorial on corporatization and “bullshit jobs”, and Jayne Price’s discussion of holacracy and Corporate Rebels, and I remind us, as if we need reminding, of how our current arbitrary and onerous bureaucratic processes take us away from our core work. I then explore what we could learn from holocratic approaches that move from bureaucracy and control to trust and self organised teams, as captured in Corporate Rebels’ eight trends (purpose over metrics, networks of teams, supportive leadership, adaptation, freedom with accountable trust, distributed decisions, transparency, and talents/mastery). I invite us to experiment with being academic rebels exploring new ways of working and new forms of leadership. There might actually be new forms of corporatisation that could be useful for our sector.
00:29 Reflecting on Conversations so Far in 2026
02:08 Theme 1: Mindset shift from I to We
02:55 Theme 2: Critical Role of Leadership
05:09 Theme 3: Needing New Ways of Working
07:19 The Rise of Corporatisation and 'Bullshit Jobs' in the Academic Sector
10:17 Learning from New Approaches in the Corporate Sector?
13:31 Exploring the Arbitrariness and Impact of Bureaucracy and Heirarchies
14:13 Example: Different Approaches to Bureaucracy around Teaching
16:39 Example: Different Approaches to Booking Holidays
17:48 Example: Booking Work Related Travel
20:05 Example: Bureaucracy and Control of Funding Bodies
22:39 Example: Bureaucracy, Micromanagement in Professional Organizations
25:15 Better Ways from Holocracy and Coporate Rebels?
29:33 Requires New Forms of Leadership
34:09 Eight Trends in This New Coporate Way
39:16 What Can You Imagine for Your Situation?
Related Links:
Sarah McLusky on diverse careers, purposeful events and effective communication (CAL135, S8E1)
Jayne Price on making work work better (CAL137, S8E2)
Jen Heemstra on Accidental Leadership (CAL 138, S8E3)
Strengths as Superpowers - Replay (CAL123, S6 E17)
Masud Husain, On the responsibilities of intellectuals and the rise of bullshit jobs in universities, Brain, Volume 148, Issue 3, March 2025, Pages 687–688.
Brian Robertson, Holocracy
Corporate Rebels
Diederick Janse & Marco Bogers, Getting Started With Holacracy: Upgrading Your Team's Productivity, 2020, AbeBooks

Prof. Jen Heemstra from Washington University in St. Louis in the US shares her journey from a research-focused bimolecular engineer to accidental leader and now author of the insightful book 'Lab Work to Leadership.' Jen speaks about the challenges faced by academics moving into leadership, recognisning that we are often untrained and unprepared for these roles. She shares insights from her book focusing on self-leadership, leading others, and coaching future leaders. Jen talks about the importance of building trust, creating a positive lab culture, giving and seeking feedback, and the significance of modeling behavior for emerging leaders. Jen also reflects on her personal experiences, including her struggles to get tenure and maintaining a work-life balance.
00:29 Introduction and Welcome
03:09 The Birth of 'Lab Work to Leadership'
05:43 Navigating Academic Challenges
08:29 The Worst Day: Tenure Rejection
12:14 People Showing Up and Getting Tenure
15:49 Embracing Leadership in Academia That We Are Not Trained For
21:26 Building a Collaborative Lab Culture
30:35 The Importance of Self-Leadership and Self-Awareness
33:27 The Role of Coaches and Mentors
35:02 The Importance of Feedback
37:01 Challenges in Giving and Receiving Feedback
38:46 Understanding Individual Needs in a Lab Environment
43:59 Building Trust and Psychological Safety
49:37 Coaching Future Leaders
56:50 Balancing Professional and Personal Life
58:11 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
58:56 Outro
Related Links:
About Jen:
Heemstra Lab at Washington Univ in St. Louis
Jen’s webpage and LinkedIn Profile
Book:
Jen Heemstra, Labwork to leadership: a concise guide to thriving in the science job you weren’t trained for, 2025, Harvard University Press
People:
Troy Champ
Resources:
Edwin Catmull and Amy Wallace, Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration, 2014, Penguin.
Liz Wiseman and Greg McKeown, Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, 2010, Harper Collins.
Birkman Personality Inventory

Jayne Price is all about making work work better. She is the Transformation Director and Head of Continuous Improvement at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). Jayne discusses her journey to her current role in UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and the strategies she employs to foster human-centered, purpose-led change in the organization. She emphasizes the importance of leadership that is grounded in trust, accountability, and psychological safety, and the role of experimental and agile approaches in driving systemic transformation. Jayne also shares practical examples, including the implementation of Holacracy and continuous improvement initiatives. The conversation highlights the challenges and successes in transforming our traditionally bureaucratic research culture into a more effective and innovative environment. Jayne offers valuable insights for leaders at all levels and showcases the value of empowering teams to do their best work.
00:29 Introduction to the Episode
03:41 Introducing Jayne and her Career Journey
06:52 Understanding Project versus Program Management
07:59 From Change to Transformation
12:14 Implementing Experiments and Measuring Change
14:10 Challenges in the Academic and Research Sector
19:54 Innovative Approaches to Leadership and Management
27:21 Designing Alternative Promotion Routes
29:21 Challenges to Identity and Developing Leaders
35:50 Moving from 'I' to 'We' as a Leader
37:53 The Mindset to Move to 'We'
40:13 Humility, Vulnerability and Authenticity in Leadership
43:26 Shadow Sides, Blind Spots and Experimenting with Different Approaches
47:31 Starting to See the Benefits
50:53 Creating Workplaces For People to Flourish
53:04 The Holacracy Experiment - Creating Clarity
55:42 Doing Meetings Differently
59:22 Empowerment and Autonomy with Accountability
01:01:47 Corporate Rebels and Other Inspirational Resources
01:06:31 The Critical Importance of Leadership Buy-In
01:08:01 Everyone Can Choose Leadership Behaviours at Any Level
01:09:51 Encouragement for Change Agents
01:11:39 Outro
About Jayne:
Jayne Price https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayne-price71/
UKRI https://www.ukri.org
STFC https://www.ukri.org/councils/stfc/
Related links:
Cynefin framework for making sense of complexity
Corporate Rebels
Diederick Janse and Marc-Peter Pijper from Corporate Rebels supported the Holocracy Trials
GlassFrog: “the cutting-edge self-management platform that empowers teams with clarity and autonomy”
Tuff Leadership Training
Books:
Aaron Dignan, Brave New Work, Portfolio, 2019
Daniel Pink, Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us, Riverhead Books, 2011
Joost Minnaar and Pim de Morree, Corporate Rebels: Make Work More Fun, 2020
Jon Alexander, Citizens: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us, Simon and Schuster, 2023
Diederick Janse & Marco Bogers, Getting Started With Holacracy: Upgrading Your Team's Productivity, 2020, AbeBooks
Robin Sharma, The Leader Who Had No Title, Free Press, 2010.
Harvard Business Review
Related CAL Podcasts:
Fostering psychological safety in research environments 30 Oct 24
Elizabeth Churchill on creating culture, leading teams, loving challenges - she talks about Cynefin Framework ~6:30 mins

Dr. Sarah McLusky, is an advocate and role model for research-adjacent careers. As an advocate Sarah hosts the 'Research Adjacent' podcast, which showcases career opportunities beyond traditional academic and industry roles. She talks about why started the podcast and also talks about her four main categories of research adjacent roles, emphasising the importance of recognising the many contributors to successful research. As a role model, Sarah shares her own experiences moving into a research adjacent role post-PhD, now working as a freelancer who supports research organisations through events and communications. Some of her key insights are around how to prepare participants for meaningful engagement at events and the value of effective research communication. She encourages us to rethink career possibilities and the significance of culture in research environments.
00:29 Intro to the Episode
02:49 Introducing Sarah McLusky
04:33 The Concept of Research Adjacent
08:00 Research As a Team Sport
12:02 Career Paths Beyond Academia
20:10 Four Main Categories of Research Adjacent Roles
24:22 Sarah McLusky's Journey to a Research Adjacent Role
29:36 Balancing Passion and Pragmatism
33:17 Navigating Freelance Work
34:51 The Importance of Gathering with Purpose
45:54 Supporting the Communication of Great Research
48:49 Final Thoughts and Resources
51:25 Outro
Related Links:
About Sarah and her work
Website https://sarahmclusky.com/
Newsletter https://sarahmclusky.com/gathering-with-purpose
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahmclusky/
Research Adjacent Podcast
https://researchadjacent.com/podcast/
https://pod.link/1663857550

For this last episode of the year I revisit the Long Play (LP) template, inspired by vinyl records, as a way to intentionally reflect on and celebrate this past year and to be more intentional about how we move into our new year. The Ps of the template are personal, people, play, and projects and we use the Ls to reflect across there: what did you land, love, labor on, and learn this past year review, and what do you want to look forward to, let go, let grow, and let be for the next year. You can download a template to create your own personalised reflections and plans, individually or within groups, to help you shape your good academic life.
Overview:
00:29 Setting up the LP
03:34 LP Replay
05:05 Introducing the LP Table Template
08:59 Taking Time to Savour and Celebrate
12:06 Looking forward to the 2026 LP
16:12 Wrapping Up and Summary
19:09 Final Pointers
19:49 Outro
You can download your LP template here. Feel free to tailor it to what works best for you! And I'd love to hear back how you used it and evolved it.