HBR IdeaCast The Case for Designing Work Around Circadian Rhythms
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Apr 7, 2026 
Stefan Volk, a management professor at the University of Sydney Business School, explores how chronotypes shape energy, focus, and teamwork. He digs into why one-size-fits-all schedules create errors and burnout. Expect talk on flex time versus flex place, mapping team rhythms, protecting peak hours, and coordinating collaboration when people perform best.
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Your Trough Hurts Both Thinking And Temper
- Performance drops at circadian troughs because people think slower, learn less well, and struggle more with difficult tasks.
- Stefan Volk says troughs also reduce self-control, making leaders and teammates more impatient, irritable, and emotionally unstable.
Chronotype Blindness Makes Leaders Misjudge People
- Leaders who assume others work best when they do misread silence, irritability, and lower output as attitude or weak performance.
- Stefan Volk uses a surgical team example to show that scheduling everyone at their worst time raises error risk and team friction.
Trying To Become A Morning Person Backfires
- You cannot reliably train yourself into a new chronotype because circadian rhythms shift very slowly and deeply across the body.
- Stefan Volk says evening types who force early rising usually just lose sleep, bringing performance, mood, and health costs.