“It sounds great, we really need a good podcast about nature”, said an environmental NGO leader when ran my early ideas about Thrivable Scotland past him.

But while ‘nature’ is fundamental to a Scotland where everyone can thrive, the podcast will cover a much broader range of topics. That’s because these other aspects of thriving are important, not only to ‘engage’ people in the change that’s needed, but also because everyone should be able to thrive.

I think we can actually go further. There’s a virtuous circle we can build: when people reflect deeply on what they need to thrive, they recognise that nature isn’t just necessary, they want to do what they can to help. And the more they are able to thrive in all areas of their life, the more they are able to act on their desire to make a difference.

This is beautifully illustrated in a book I read recently: The Work We Need by Hillary Cottam. I’ll let Hillary speak for herself. Here’s the preface:

None of us can live well without good work. Good work is at the heart of good lives, strong communities and nations that have a shared dignity and sense of destiny. And yet work too often fails to engage our hearts and minds; it gobbles up scarce resources; it takes the time we need to live well and to take care of one another; and, most egregiously, for many millions it fails to provide a basic income. Something has gone wrong - something that traditional economics is powerless to fix.

But we live in revolutionary times. Technology, an ecological crisis and the challenges of deep injustice are upending our world. These forces are changing how we work. They are also prompting us to ask big questions about how we want to live. Could this be a moment to rethink how we work and therefore how we live?

Perhaps such a question sounds idealistic, almost absurd, when so many of us are struggling. But history tells us that it is in the dark times, in the moments of upheaval, that we can - if we are ready - think again.

Five years ago, I set out on a journey seeking the insights of everyday experts: those of us who work. I travelled across Britain and the United States, spending time with people of all ages and from all walks of life; those working long hours for immiserating wages and those whose work offers good pay and interesting prospects. I also spent time with business leaders, academic experts and policymakers.

I asked a simple question: How could we redesign our working lives?

What I have heard in response are rich stories about possible futures. I have heard imaginings which are widely shared and largely hidden. I have learnt that we are exhausted by tips for work-life balance, conversations about whether we should return to the office, or whether the magical promises made about Al will be good or bad for workers. We are yearning for a collective redesign of the values and assumptions that underpin work.

This is a book about ideas that are within our grasp: they are 'do-able', would be good for us, for business, for the natural world and the places where we live. This is a book about hope.

It's also a warning. Silenced or unheard, these ideas can and do wither. Or - as is increasingly happening - they find alternative and sometimes violent outlets: a desire to burn the house down, to make any change, no matter how potentially destructive, in order to break open the social and economic systems that stifle us.

Our challenges are tangled and real, but so are our imaginative answers. This book shows how we can listen and design anew.

This is probably my book of the decade, and there are so many ideas and insights I’d like to share. But I’ll just summarise the principles of the good working life that Cottam identifies:

• The basics: decent pay, predictable working hours, safe working conditions and freedom from surveillance.

• Meaning: work must offer a sense of purpose, because ‘work with meaning gives us our place in the world’.

• Time: not just manageable working hours, but also the opportunity to reshape the place of work within our days.

• Care: for our work to contribute to the wellbeing of people and planet, and to give us the freedom, outside of work, for our caring responsibilities.

• Play: “Not simply time off work, but the space to live some hours in another dimension, according to different rules and values.”

• Place: work needs to be available where people are, and connected with the local economy.

Nothing we haven’t already read in the Guardian perhaps? Maybe.

But these principles emerged from deep conversations with Uber Eats gig workers, with manual workers in local authorities, shift workers in assembly plants and others – people whose voices are rarely heard.

We all need a working life that matches up to these principles. It will help us thrive, and more of us will be doing work that helps other people and the rest of nature to thrive.

[BTW: When you buy The Work We Need by Hillary Cottam via the Thrivable Scotland Bookshop you support our work and independent booksellers.]

It’s perhaps not a coincidence that I was introduced to Hillary Cottam’s work by Anthony Morrow. I interviewed Anthony recently for the Thrivable Scotland podcast, about his work to humanise the housing sector. He told me:

It wasn't that people were skeptical, it's just that if you're part of this system, you get wrapped up in it. Once we started talking about it, I found allies, people who wanted to do something different.

👉 In the spirit of exploring “what’s working” – where are you seeing these principles for good working lives being put into practice?