Curious Minds at Work

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!

Many of us strongly identify as supporters of equality, diversity and inclusion. Yet Dolly Chugh’s research suggests that by holding on to this identity too tightly, we may not live up to our own expectations. Dolly is the author of the book, The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias, suggests An award-winning Professor of Social Psychology at NYU’s Stern School of Business, Dolly encourages us to aim for “good-ish” over good, that is, to view ourselves as works-in-progress, so that we can stay open to making mistakes and learning from them. Through stories of ordinary people doing just that, Dolly gives us the mindset, the language, and the actions we can take to become the people we want to be. In this interview we talk about: Why wanting to be seen as good people makes it harder for us to become better people The connection between seeing ourselves as “good-ish” and holding a growth mindset How learning from our mistakes involves listening more deeply and asking more questions What our social media contacts can reveal about how diverse and inclusive our networks actually are How our biases limit what we notice and what we process How the concept of headwinds and tailwinds can help us understand systemic bias Uncoupling diversity from inclusion How diversity focuses on numbers while inclusion asks whether those numbers count How small, inclusive acts add up How opportunities initiated by people in power can transform headwinds into tailwinds The 20/60/20 rule for deciding when and how to engage as an ally Why an audience of undecided listeners may be the reason to engage with people resistant to issues of diversity and inclusion How personal, humanizing stories of diversity and inclusion often change minds more effectively than cold, hard facts Links to Episode Topics http://www.dollychugh.com/ @DollyChugh Rick Klau Carol Dweck and fixed vs growth mindset Perrin Chiles and Adaptive Studios Story of revival of Project Greenlight in 2014 Brittany Turner Implicit Association Test MeToo Movement Max Bazerman Blindspot by Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald Debby Irving and headwinds and tailwinds Bootstrap narrative The myth of meritocracy African Americans and the G.I. Bill Susan Lucia Annunzio 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!

It can seem like we’re working harder, yet rarely getting to what matters most. John Zeratsky understands how we feel and wants to help. He’s the co-author with Jake Knapp of the book, Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day. Their book is an innovative way to look at our work, inspiring by years of productivity hacks that ultimately left them unfulfilled. John was a designer for tech companies like YouTube and Google before working at Google Ventures with close to 200 startups. There, he began experimenting with hundreds of teams, in order to help people accomplish their most important goals. What he discovered has been distilled to dozens of bite-sized tips and strategies readers can try out and build into their lives. John’s first book was the New York Times bestseller Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days. He’s also written for The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and Wired. In this interview we talk about: Why checking off items on a to-do list can make us feel productive yet unfulfilled Why we need to get off the “busy bandwagon” with meetings, email and chat How endless streams of content are bottomless “infinity pools” for our attention The direct connection between our tech’s default settings and attentional exhaustion How to keep the positive aspects of our tech and lose the not so good parts A four-part framework for making time for work we value How choosing a daily highlight can make all the difference on how we spend our time Why we should trade our to-do lists for might-do lists How to “bulldoze” our calendars to free up time for our daily highlights How making simple changes to our tech can help us create barriers to distraction Why dusting off our wristwatches may be the way to go Why quiet and boredom our invaluable for our work and our health Key ways we can design our environment so that the right decision is the easy decision Links to Episode Topics @jazer https://about.me/jazer Getting Things Done by David Allen Off the Clock by Laura Vanderkam and you can find her interview here on Curious Minds Curly Lambeau and Lambeau Field https://maketimebook.com/ 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!

Long hours, 24/7 access, and crushing goals have become the norm in many workplaces. Jason Fried, co-author of the book, It Doesn’t Have to be Crazy at Work, thinks we need to stop celebrating this approach and, instead, actively work to create calmer organizations. Jason is the Co-founder and CEO of Basecamp, an incredibly successful project management and team communication software company. He’s written three other books about work —  Getting Real, Remote, and the New York Times Bestseller, Rework. In this interview we talk about: Why it’s invaluable to think of your organization as a product How curbing our ambition can be good for us and our customers Why we should understand that “a company is just a collection of choices” Reasons why leadership needs to defend their employees’ time from distractions The important role office hours can play in helping people focus Why we should embrace JOMO over FOMO The negative aspect of encouraging employees to think of each other as family What a trust battery can do for our relationships with others at work Why we should think twice before taking on projects we believe to be low-hanging fruit Why strong writing skills can be invaluable, no matter a person’s role at work Why expecting new employees to “hit the ground running” is unfair and inefficient What job candidates gain when leaders eliminate salary negotiations The value in supporting employee learning in areas of interest outside of work What everyone gains when we slow down how we make decisions about new ideas How to make a decision when team members disagree How building reading time into the start of a meeting can make the rest of the meeting more productive Links to Episode Topics @jasonfried https://basecamp.com/ Background on concept of disagree and commit A New York Times article on JOMO Morten Hansen on his book, Great at Work, on Episode 102 of Curious Minds Tobi Lutke and Shopify Article on Jeff Bezos and reading memos at the start of meetings 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!