Design Love In, with Marcus Buckingham

Design Love In, with Marcus Buckingham

From Thinkers & Ideas by BCG Henderson Institute

April 14, 2026 · 36 min

About this episode

Marcus Buckingham discusses how love can be deliberately designed into business to drive loyalty and productivity.

In Design Love In: How to Unleash the Most Powerful Force in Business , Marcus Buckingham argues that love—not engagement, satisfaction, or motivation—is the only feeling that reliably changes the behavior of employees and customers, and that it can be deliberately designed into business. Buckingham is one of the world’s foremost researchers on human performance. He is a former senior vice president at Gallup turned New York Times–best-selling author, having written First, Break All the Rules . In his new book, he draws on decades of research to show that the relationship between experiences and outcomes is not linear—only experiences so positive that people describe them as “love” actually drive loyalty, productivity, and advocacy. In his conversation with Adam Job, senior director at the BCG Henderson Institute, he discusses why love is categorically different from engagement, the five feelings that make up a loving experience, three disciplines leaders can use to design love into their organizations, and why common practices like outsourcing and large spans of control are fundamentally unloving. Key topics discussed: 01:16 | Why love is categorically different from engagement…

People in this episode

Host: Adam Job

Guest: Marcus Buckingham

Topics covered

  • business
  • management
  • human performance
  • employee engagement
  • organizational design

Keywords

  • Design Love In
  • human performance
  • employee behavior
  • positive experiences
  • organizational love
  • leadership disciplines
  • loyalty
  • productivity
  • advocacy

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Design Love In, First, Break All the Rules

Books & works: Design Love In, Design Love In: How to Unleash the Most Powerful Force in Business, Break All the Rules

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