Gerrie Hawes on the HOPE Framework: How Behaviour, Not Strategy, Actually Changes Organisations | Pharma Prescribed
Gerrie Hawes is a corporate behavioural psychologist who works in boardrooms and on stages, helping leaders turn strategy into behaviour people actually adopt. She's worked behind the scenes with most of the pharmaceutical companies you could name — a self-described "hidden person," which makes her a fitting guest for a podcast about hidden voices.
She opens with a story that reframes the whole conversation. Coaching a global IT leader on her opening speech, Gerrie asked her a question no one asks an IT director: "Why do you work here — you could work anywhere?" The leader paused, reached into her handbag, and produced a family photograph. Lung cancer. "They're dead, and they're dead." She'd chosen that company because it was at the leading edge of the treatment. That, Gerrie told her, is what you tell your team — not the strategy, the why beneath it.
From there Gerrie unpacks her HOPE framework — Happiness, Optimism, Playfulness, Empathy — a practitioner's model for the human dynamics that strategy decks miss. She explains why she hunts for a specific kind of laughter in the room (the edge between the learning zone and the panic zone), why happiness starts with the self but can't end there, and why empathetic leadership means understanding what drives other people, not assuming they're driven by what drives you.
She's also clear-eyed on AI: the more it can do, the more the durable human advantage becomes the things it can't — playfulness, genuine empathy, reading the space between people. Plus boundaries, burnout, toxic cultures, upward empathy, and the quiet power of listening and introversion.
A thoughtful, practical conversation about the behaviours that actually move organisations — long after the away-day is over.
🎧 LISTEN TO THE AUDIO
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7Ks5oLfSDf0u9F1I8GUjti
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Full transcript and episode notes: https://pharmaprescribed.com/episodes
🔗 RELATED EPISODE
If Gerrie's take on empathy and safe spaces resonated, hear productivity author Graham Allcott (Think Productive) on KIND, psychological safety and the quiet power of kindness at work:
▶️ YouTube: https://youtu.be/1i1_TIZRBmI
🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/04glB17p7bBWVmLjlwIO7z
🍎 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/graham-allcott-on-kind-psychological-safety-the-quiet/id1829715970?i=1000778402287
⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
0:35 Meet Gerrie Hawes
4:00 Purpose and anti-purpose
6:00 Inside boardroom culture
18:00 Extreme role modelling
20:00 The HOPE framework explained
24:00 HOPE vs the AI advantage
28:00 Happiness as a value
30:00 Boundaries build respect
33:00 When work turns toxic
34:00 Objectives and upward empathy
37:00 Playfulness vs burnout
40:00 Safe spaces for honesty
45:00 Listening and introversion
47:00 Quickfire round
👤 ABOUT GERRIE HAWES
Corporate behavioural psychologist specialising in change leadership and culture across pharma, consulting and global organisations. She helps senior teams turn strategy into adopted behaviour, and coaches speakers one-to-one on confidence, clarity and reading a room. Creator of the HOPE framework (Happiness, Optimism, Playfulness, Empathy). UK-based, working across global time zones.
💼 Search "Gerrie Hawes" on LinkedIn
🎙️ ABOUT PHARMA PRESCRIBED
Pharma Prescribed is the podcast where leaders, innovators and hidden voices in healthcare open up. No soundbites, no spin. Just raw insight, one prescription at a time. Hosted by biometrics consultant Adam Walker.
🌐 https://pharmaprescribed.com
▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@pharmaprescribedpodcast
💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamwalkerbiometrics
🏢 https://uk.linkedin.com/company/pharma-prescribed-podcast
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