John Rizzo Founder, Joyous Work
But the inherited collaboration practices that now define our systems of work no longer help in a modern, connected world. John believes the next leap in productivity will be the prize for those who change how they collaborate – those who change their system of work to fit modern reality.
John’s deep understanding of systems of work comes from more than two decades of strategy, customer, marketing, and ventures leadership in major organisations, including ANZ bank and Bupa Asia Pacific, with start-up teams of three to multinational teams of hundreds. As Founder of Joyous Work, John is an advisor to leaders of organisations of all sizes, from Australia’s biggest brands to not-for-profits.
Before founding Joyous Work in 2024, John was Chief Customer & Strategy Officer for Bupa Asia Pacific. His education spans Monash University, London Business School, and MIT.
Session Why Work Feels Broken - And What Fixes It
Ask someone what they love about their work and the answer comes easily: impact, craft, doing something meaningful. Ask if they love their job and it gets complicated.
There’s a reason for that gap. It’s called sludge — reports nobody reads, pre-meetings for committee meetings, status updates, work about work. It now makes up 60% of the average knowledge worker’s day.
Work isn’t broken due to bad intentions, it is broken because of inherited systems nobody has questioned — annual planning cycles, rigid job descriptions, managers hired to assure rather than guide. These practices quietly choke the three engines that make work joyous and productive: shared clarity, allocation agility, and execution velocity.
Organisations that get all three firing deliver 30% more profit than peers and 50% less staff turnover. Iit’s the single greatest untapped productivity opportunity in the modern organisation.
John will show you what’s killing these engines in your workplace, and exactly what to do about it.
