Polly Labarre is an author, thinker, collaborator, and journalist. I first met her through Pip as she was working on her book Mavericks at Work, which is a fascinating look into the most original minds in business. You may know her as a co-Founder of Fast Company. Any of you who enjoyed our very first Sundance Gathering know her as the first to utter "you are the program", an ethos of creativity and contribution that is inherent in almost all of our work at Coburn Ventures.

Polly's special ability lies in examining what’s happening at the edges of organizations and culture to see what might be an indication of future change in business and management. We dive into what it means to have a company that understands how to bring out the best in their employees, how institutions frame our work experience, in sometimes limited and very outdated ways. Polly has this great phrase about building organizations where systems and structure "go with the grain of humanity". Imagine that.

We will get into edge cases that take us to real-life examples from China to Sweden and back again. I hope you enjoy it.

#39: Polly Labarre on The Future of Work