Are we making our own decisions or are machine learning algorithms making them for us? Kartik Hosanagar, author of the book, A Human’s Guide to Machine Intelligence: How Algorithms are Shaping Our Lives and How We Can Stay in Control, explains that algorithms are merely a set of steps for making decisions. Yet he points out that artificial intelligence has become so pervasive in our lives that we’re often unaware of just how many decisions machines are making on our behalf: “The algorithms [are] driving 70-80% of the choices that people [make]…[But] if we asked people how much of your choices are driven by algorithms, they might say maybe 10-20%. We think we are…choosing…but in reality, they are curating our world for us.” In this interview, we talk about what companies should be asked to reveal about their algorithms. We also discuss why we need to educate ourselves about how they work. We also discuss some of the unexpected research findings that arise when machines learn from each other, rather than humans. For example, in one study, a surprising thing happened as machines were learning how to negotiate: Karthik explains that “…the bots were negotiating with each other using words and sentences that made almost no sense to the researchers. The bots had figured out a secret code to communicate with each other that was allowing them to communicate more efficiently.” Kartik Hosanagar is Professor of Technology and Digital Business and Professor of Marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. His writing has appeared in Wired, Forbes, and the Harvard Business Review. Episode Links @KHosanagar Irresistible by Adam Alter Reporter Carole Cadwalladr’s The Guardian article on Google search bias regarding Jews A more recent article on Google search algorithm bias Kevin Gibbs and the Google autocomplete origin story Code of Hammurabi Jennifer Logg and her work on algorithmic and human judgment Berkeley Dietvost, Joe Simmons and Cade Massey’s paper on our how humans avoid algorithms after they make errors Rene Kizilcec’s paper on the effects of transparency on trust when it comes to algorithms James Barrat You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. If you enjoy the podcast, there are three simple things you can do to support our work. First, subscribe. That way you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member. You'll always have someone to talk to about the interview. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe. You’ll be helping others find their next podcast. A Short List of Places Where You Can Find Curious Minds Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

How can we change boring, unproductive meetings into gatherings no one would want to miss? Many of us dread meetings, even when we’re the ones leading them! But there are steps we can take to make them great – steps Steven Rogelberg, author of the book, The Surprising Science of Meetings: How You Can Lead Your Team to Peak Performance,has been studying for over two decades. Though some argue we should get rid of meetings, Steven sees them as essential: “The elimination of meetings is a false goal. Without meetings, employee voice is quieted. Your ability to coordinate, communicate and truly engage in consensus decision making – they’re all compromised without meetings. . . the true goal is to eliminate bad meetings.” In this interview, Steven shares simple approaches we can take to make meetings great. He offers tips on how to structure meetings to achieve our goals, how to determine who needs to attend, and how to manage meeting energy. For example, he recommends shifting our next meeting agenda from a list of topics to a set of questions. By doing this, he explains, “Now you are actually very clear. You will be done with this meeting when these questions are answered.” Steven is an award-winning Professor of Organizational Science, Management, and Psychology at the University of North Carolina. His work has been profiled by the Los Angeles Times, Harvard Business Review, and the Wall Street Journal, and he’s worked with organizations such as IBM, TIAA and Procter & Gamble. Episode Links @stevenrogelberg Meeting recovery syndrome The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker Parkinson’s Law Klaxoon Steven’s book was listed as the #1 leadership book to watch in 2019 in the Washington Post and the #1 business book everyone will be reading in Business Insider You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. If you enjoy the podcast, there are three ways you can support the work we do. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member, so you’ll always have someone to talk to about it. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe, so you can help listeners find their next podcast. Look for the Curious Minds podcast on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

What if the secret to getting unstuck isn’t the right answer, but the right question? Hal Gregersen, author of the book, Questions are the Answer: A Breakthrough Approach to Your Most Vexing Problems at Work and in Life, came to this conclusion after interviewing over 200 high-impact leaders. Through these conversations, he learned they were asking a different kind of question, one he calls catalytic. In this interview, he explains that these kinds of questions “…challenge an assumption that is fundamentally false in a way that provides me and perhaps others around me energy and motivation to do something about it.” Along the way, Hal’s found that these kinds of questions can help us get unstuck in all aspects of our lives. For example, Hal shares the story of a leader lamenting the distance he feels in his relationship with a teenage daughter. After spending just four minutes on a catalytic questioning activity called a “question burst,” this same leader made a starting realization: “At the beginning of the conversation…I was so focused on how to not lose her…But I was asking the wrong question. I really need to figure out how to help her grow and flourish…[to] let her find her.” Hal is the Executive Director of the MIT Leadership Center and a senior lecturer in leadership and innovation at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He’s authored or co-authored ten books, including the bestseller, The Innovator’s DNA with Clay Christensen and Jeff Dyer. Episode Links Andreas Heinecke and Dialogue in the Dark Using Catalytic Questioning to Solve Significant Problems by Hal Gregersen Sociologist Amitai Etzioni Debby Sterling and Goldieblox More information on question bursts in this HBR article by Hal The Fearless Organization by Amy Edmondson Video clip of Ed Catmull explaining Pixar’s Brain Trust Creative Clarity by Jon Kolko Lior Div and Cybereason Video clip of Jeff Wilke Walt Bettinger Marc Benioff Bea Perez Room 13 If you enjoy the podcast, here are three ways you can support the work we do. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member, so you’ll always have someone to talk to about it. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe, so you can help listeners find their next podcast. You can learn more about Curious Minds Host and Creator, Gayle Allen @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net.

What if instead of improving our lives, our technology is actually making them less meaningful? Many of us live in a hyperconnected world. Hourly, we’re responding to messages, writing emails, browsing social media, and combing the Internet. By the end of the day, we’re left wondering why we feel so unproductive and exhausted. These are feelings that Cal Newport, author of Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World, associates with the addictive nature of our devices. Cal believes our tech addictions have set us on a path for lives that feel less meaningful and less in our control. In this interview, he argues that, “It’s this sense of losing autonomy. That you signed up for these things…then you look up years later and see that you’re using them more than is useful…feeling like it’s manipulating the way that you feel and what you believe.” But rather than providing simplistic solutions, Cal describes a robust philosophy he calls digital minimalism. He explains how it challenges us to ask bigger questions like, “Do I like my life? Am I living a life worth living? Do I feel meaning and satisfaction? Do I feel a sense of authentic engagement?” Cal Newport is Associate Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University. He writes the Study Hacks Blog and is the author of five other books, including: So Good They Can’t Ignore You, and Deep Work. Episode Links Steve Jobs announcing the first iPhone in 2007 Adam Alter Tim Wu Leah Pearlman on the perils of Facebook’s “like” button Tristan Harris Sean Parker Digital minimalism defined Matthew B. Crawford Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig All Things Shining by Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly The Attention Merchants by Tim Wu Curious Minds interview with Tim Wu Lead Yourself First by Raymond M. Kethledge, Michael s. Erwin, and Jim Collins Reader, Come Home by Maryanne Wolf The Shallows by Nicholas Carr Crossfit Benjamin Franklin’s and the Junto for structured social gatherings Generation Z Tim Berners-Lee The Slow Media Manifesto If you enjoy the podcast, here are three ways you can support the work we do. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member, so you’ll always have someone to talk to about it. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe, so you can help listeners find their next podcast.

Which emotions should we bring to work and which ones should we leave at home? When it comes to most workplaces, it’s a difficult question to answer. That’s what drove Liz Fosslien and her co-author, Mollie West Duffy, to write their book, No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work. It’s a compelling guide for validating and managing our feelings in the workplace. In this interview, Liz challenges the myth that emotions and work don’t mix: “This traditional notion that you can check your feelings at the door when you come into a job is biologically impossible.” She also shares advice on how we can handle our feelings, for example: “…when you are making a choice, write down everything that you’re feeling and really look at each feeling and say, is this because of something that I’m thinking about in this choice, or am I just feeling all of these irrelevant things…” Liz is a strategy and design consultant who’s worked with organizations like Salesforce, Ernst & Young, and the Stanford d.School. Her work has been featured in The Economist, Life Hacker, the Freakonomics blog, and on NPR. Episode Links @fosslien @molliewest Martin Seligman Emotional Agility by Susan David Curious Minds interview with Susan David Steven Pinker Emotional contagion If you enjoy the podcast, here are three ways you can support the work we do. First, subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode. Second, tell a friend or family member, so you’ll always have someone to talk to about it. Third, rate and review the podcast wherever you subscribe, so you can help listeners find their next podcast.

How can we reclaim our attention in a world that’s increasingly filled with digital distractions? Chris Bailey, author of the book, Hyperfocus: How to be More Productive in a World of Distraction, has some answers. He is a productivity expert whose work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and Fast Company. His first book was The Productivity Project: Accomplishing More by Managing Your Time, Attention, and Energy. In this interview, he shares ways we can increase our productivity. These include: multitasking strategically, meditating consistently, and creating a distraction-free environment. Episode Links @Chris_Bailey Deep Work by Cal Newport – Episode 28 interview on Curious Minds Gloria Mark Mary Czerwinski Parkinson’s law Shawn Achor

Which work environments are the most effective at leveraging their people’s talents, skills and abilities? Amy Edmondson, award-winning Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School and author of the book, The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation and Growth, has spent her career trying to answer that question. What she’s learned is that organizations that prioritize psychological safety do it best. Amy has written three other books, as well as over 70 articles and case studies, on leadership, teams, innovation, and organizational learning. Her findings have been corroborated by a number of studies, including Google’s recent multi-year research on its teams. In their quest to uncover which traits accounted for the highest-performing teams, Google learned that, among five important traits, psychological safety was the single most important. As Amy explains in this interview: “Psychological safety isn’t a nice to have, it’s must have for excellence. Only in psychologically safe environments are we going to be able to energetically, and openly, and candidly work well together to get the job done.” Episode Links @AmyCEdmondson Amy’s HBS faculty profile Psychological safety Edgar Schein Warren Bennis William Kahn What Google Learned from Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team by Charles Duhigg Volkswagen emissions scandal Curious Minds interview with Jason Fried of Basecamp Inside the Pixar Brain Trust The Leader’s Toolkit Julianne Morath

What can older workers contribute to fast-growing companies populated by digital natives? A lot. Chip Conley, author of the book, Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder, believes that older workers provide emotional intelligence, discerning judgment and humble wisdom. But to do this, they need to let go of past identities and adopt a learning mindset. In short, they need to become interns while embracing their positions as mentors. Chip was the founder and CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, a boutique hotel firm he ran for over 24 years. Most recently, he spent 5 years as Head of Hospitality and Strategy at Airbnb, helping to make it the world’s largest hospitality brand. He’s also author of the NYTimes bestseller, Emotional Equations. Episode Links @ChipConley http://www.chipconley.com/ Ageism Digital intelligence Joie de Vivre Hotels Rumi’s poem, Raw, Well-Cooked and Burnt Appreciative inquiry The Difference by Scott Page The Element of Lavishness: Letters of William Maxwell and Sylvia Townsend Warner Liminal Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl James Baldwin Emotional intelligence

By reading on our devices, we’re losing abilities it took us thousands of years to develop. That’s because reading from a screen – a computer, a tablet, a phone – lends itself to skimming. This lack of deep reading alters brain development and erodes essential skills, like critical thinking and empathy, according to literacy expert, Maryanne Wolf. Author of the book, Reader Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World, Maryanne is the Director of the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners and Social Justice at UCLA and past professor of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts University. She is Co-Founder of Curious Learning, a global literacy project, and she works with the Dyslexia Center at the UCSF School of Medicine. Maryanne is not opposed to digital reading. Instead, she’s on a mission to help us develop what she calls a "bi-literate brain," that is, a brain suited for digital and analog reading, and she explains how we can teach young people to gain these important skills. Episode Links @MaryanneWolf_ NataliePhillips Ziming Liu Barbara Oakley’s interview on Curious Minds on Learning How to Learn The Lost Art of Reading by David Ulin Internet of Stings by Jennifer Howard Sam Wineberg Marilynne Summers Ann Mangan Susan B. Neuman If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. Your ratings help others find their next podcast. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. And thank you for listening and sharing! You can learn more about Curious Minds' Host and Creator, Gayle Allen @CuriousGayle and www.gayleallen.net. You can find the Curious Minds podcast on: Spotify iTunes Tunein Stitcher Google Play Overcast

Disastrous events take place all the time, but could many be prevented? For example, could discount retailer, Target, have spared thousands of people their jobs rather than close 58 of its Canadian stores? Could the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe have been avoided? Chris Clearfield, co-author with Andras Tilcsik of the book, Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It, sees a paradox at work in these events, that is, increasingly complex systems resulting in greater vulnerability. As he walks us through similar meltdowns that have taken place across organizations like, Enron and Three Mile Island, as well as events like the Oscars, he shares steps we can take to anticipate, and even avoid, these disasters. A former derivatives trader, Chris worked in New York, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. He’s written about catastrophic failure, technology, and finance for The Guardian, Forbes, and the Harvard Kennedy School Review. In this interview Chris answers questions like: Why do meltdowns increase as systems grow more complicated? What advantages do diverse groups have when it comes to avoiding failures? What are the two biggest factors that contribute to most large-scale disasters? How does “tight coupling” contribute to meltdowns? What led to Starbuck’s infamous social media meltdown? How did snafus in UK post offices result in post masters spending time in jail? How has the Internet of things (IoT) increased the chance of meltdowns? In what ways have companies like Enron used complexity to their advantage? Why did Airbus 330 pilots trade sleek design for the more workmanlike Boeing 737? How can premortems help us anticipate and avoid failures in our work? What does the Flint water disaster have to teach us about our cognitive biases? Why is it so important for us to pay attention to small problems as they arise? Which is more important for preventing meltdowns, people who speak up or leaders who listen? How can families take advantage of agile work practices to up their game? What do flight crews have to teach us about workplace communication? Links to Episode Topics @ChrisClearfield Charles Perrow Three Mile Island accident Whiplash by Joi Ito and interview link on Curious Minds SPIES decision-making method Superforcasting by Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner Performing a Project Premortem by Gary Klein Daniel Kahneman Flint Water Crisis Marlys Christianson Agile Practices for Families If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings help others find their next podcast. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. And thank you for listening and sharing!