In this podcast series, Élodie Maillot examines the meaning of serendipity. The concept may sound complex, but it’s actually straightforward: it describes the magic of being in the right place at the right time. And for businesses, serendipity can open new horizons of creativity. What’s the best way to ensure luck works in your favour?
Podcast - 1 season
Season 1
5 episodes
Prologue
In this introductory episode, Maillot meets with "serendipitologists" to help define the concept and better understand how it works. But as you’ll soon find out, serendipity is the kind of life philosophy that only works when you learn to let go of control.
S1 • 1 • 19mn
Watch The Unknown
Serendipity is at odds with the pursuit of immediate success. That’s because the magic only happens through trial and error and the appearance of inefficiency. Somewhere between letting go and never giving up, the concept has been taken up by some of the world’s most successful companies and organisations.
S1 • 2 • 24mn
Beyond The Water Cooler Effect
The "water cooler effect" is when chance meetings at work generate incredible ideas. From Silicon Valley to coworking spaces, today’s businesses have reinvented the traditional office to foster serendipity and stimulate creativity. This episode gives new meaning to the “open space” concept.
S1 • 3 • 25mn
Embrace uncertainty
Serendipity is also about finding beauty in accidents and happenstance. But how can we adopt this mindset in an age of algorithms and AI, optimization and predictability? What synergies exist between humans and machines to ensure that serendipity has a future in our lives?
S1 • 4 • 24mn
Happy accidents
Getting out of your comfort zone takes guts. It involves embracing the unknown and coming to terms with some of your most personal mishaps. It also requires incredible flexibility, transforming weaknesses into strengths as a way to "find the light in our night", as Victor Hugo said, reconnect with poetry and work differently.
S1 • 5 • 25mn
