Curious Minds at Work

Are you prepared to live to 100? Research shows that it is becoming the norm, but that few of us are planning for it. Many are surprised to learn that it not only requires rethinking saving and retirement, but also education, jobs, and relationships. To guide us, London Business School Professor and future of work expert, Lynda Gratton, has written The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity. In addition to her many books, Lynda writes for Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, and Forbes. She points out the possibilities, as well as the challenges, associated with living longer lives. Lynda also encourages us to plan for what lies ahead, so that we can take full advantage of this opportunity. In this interview, we talk about: What learning will look like as we continue working into our 70s and 80s Why working well with robots will decrease our odds of obsolescence How generational markers, such as millennials, limit how we think about work and life Why we will become age agnostic as people of all ages learn and work together Are you building, maintaining, or depleting current skills? The secret to increasing our adaptability and willingness to change Three new life stages that are upending how we think about life and work Are you spending your free time in recreation or re-creation, and why it matters? The important role experimentation will play in our lives as we live longer How marriage and friendships will change as we live longer lives Why juvenescence holds the key to navigating a longer life Why we should be worried about wealth disparity Why living longer will push organizations to rethink work policies and expectations Why individuals and families - not most organizations - will guide us in innovating Episode Links @lyndagratton www.100yearlife.com 100 Year Life Diagnostic London Business School World Economic Forum Andrew Scott Future of Work Consortium The Shift: The Future of Work is Already Here by Lynda Gratton Stretch by Karie Willyerd and Barbara Mistick If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

More than 99 percent of our decisions are shaped by others. From the clothing we buy to the cars we drive to the political candidates we vote for, our choices are the results of the invisible influence of those around us. And once we recognize that, we start to see our behavior -- and the behavior of others -- in a whole new way. Jonah Berger, marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, has spent 15 years studying the ways that influence impacts our lives. He wrote about it in his bestselling book, Contagious: Why Things Catch On, and, now, in his latest book, Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior. In this fascinating and compelling interview, he shares insights on: Two reasons why we often overlook the power of influence What animals can teach us about learned behaviors When peers can improve our performance and when they can work against it A common trait among most elite athletes The power of the Goldilocks Effect when it comes to designing products and services What cockroaches can teach us about performance and peers The secret to changing behavior The power of proximal peers in motivating ourselves and others Episode Links @j1berger www.jonahberger.com Contagious: Why Things Catch on By Jonah Berger Livestrong Monkeys Adept at Picking up Social Cues The Goldilocks Effect Segway The Horsey Horseless Robert Zajonc and Social Facilitation Dan Yates and Opower If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Want to hire, evaluate, and collaborate more effectively? The same design principles that are changing how we think about products and services can improve our talent management. Iris Bohnet, author of What Works and Professor of Behavioral Economics at Harvard University, tells us how. In this interview, Bohnet shares fast and inexpensive ways we can de-bias our organizations. She pinpoints how simple improvements can provide big gains for managers and employees. In our conversation, we talk about: How behavioral design can help us hire and retain the best talent Why interviews are a poor predictor of future performance How work sample tests ensure better hiring How blind employee screening widens opportunities for job candidates What we can learn from how orchestras hire musicians Why we need to stop holding group interviews The challenges of employee self-evaluation Why we need gender-neutral language in job descriptions Why diverse groups are more effective and less enjoyable What critical mass does for groups and organizations How tokenism can overshadow expertise The important role political correctness plays in resetting norms How acting differently - or watching others act differently - can change behavior Episode Links Iris Bohnet Heidi Roizen Competence but disliked dilemma Implicit association bias Hannah Riley Bowles Work Rules by Laszlo Bock @ThereseHuston How Women Decide by Therese Huston If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

What if our distractions are robbing us of our individuality? Philosopher-machinist Michael B. Crawford noticed just how much attention we give up -- often against our will -- to all the distractions strategically placed in front of us, from commercials on ATM screens to blaring airport televisions. He has written a guidebook to identifying the sources of lost attention, and he makes suggestions for how to get it back. Matthew is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. He is also a fabricator of components for custom motorcycles. His first book, Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work, prompted a rethinking of education and labor policies in the U.S. and Europe, leading the London Sunday Times to call him “one of the most influential thinkers of our time.” His latest book, The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction gets at the heart of what it means to be human. In this conversation, we talk about: Silence as a resource as important as air, food, and water The high price we are increasingly forced to pay to avoid distractions All the ways distractive tech makes us more alike The connection between deep work and independent thinking The overlooked intellectual side of hard labor How personalizing experiences can make them unreal How reclaiming the real requires submitting to something or someone else Why doing and taking action results in knowing The Maker Movement as an attempt to reconnect with what makes us human How machine-based design can lead to addiction, compulsion, and loss of control The fact that most schooling is disconnected from real-world learning Why trust lies at the heart of deep learning How traditions of learning offer opportunities for deep connections Episode Links Matthew B. Crawford Reclaimed Fabrication Cal Newport Deep Work by Cal Newport Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew B. Crawford Addiction by Design by Natasha Dow Schull Aristotle Descartes Michael Polanyi If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Do you fear becoming obsolete? Liz Wiseman offers a solution. Rather than run from challenging roles, seek them out. In fact, in a world where 85 percent of your knowledge could be irrelevant in as little as 5 years, this strategy may be the key to maintaining and advancing a successful career. Liz is the bestselling author of Rookie Smarts: Why Learning Beats Knowing in the New Game of Work. She helps us see how taking on a new challenge, especially when it feels like a stretch, gives us the best chance of staying relevant in an ever-changing world. She also points out the immense value of rookies for our organizations, particularly in leadership and mentoring roles traditionally reserved for more experienced workers. A frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review, Fortune, the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Inc. and Time, Liz has been named one of the top 10 leadership thinkers in the world, and her firm has worked with organizations like Apple, Disney, eBay and Google. In this conversation, we talk about: Why what we know is less important than how fast we can learn Why we should take jobs that we are not qualified for How experience may get in the way of what we most need to learn How experience can actually decrease our relevance and performance over time How choosing jobs that involve inquiry and discovery will keep us relevant Why one of the most valuable aspects of learning something new is the struggle involved Why rookies bring in 5 times the expertise of experts Why we need to watch out for mediocre thinking to stay relevant The link between surfing with the rookies and testing your assumptions What effective reverse mentoring looks like Why the word leadership may not mean what you think Anti-perfectionism and the power of keeping things small Liz is curious about what distinguishes between a rookie and a novice with rookie smarts. She wonders why some people persist while others give up. She is equally curious about why so many senior leaders look and feel so broken and what we can do about it. Episode Links @LizWiseman The Wiseman Group Oracle and Oracle University and Larry Ellison Fortran Growth Mindset and Carol Dweck Stretch by Karie Willyerd Herminia Ibarra and Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader Bob Hurley of Hurley International Wayne Bartholomew C K Prahalad of the University of Michigan Pareto Principle If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

When it comes to risk, confidence, and stress, who handles them better, men or women? Believe it or not, just asking this question shows we have a lot to learn. Turns out it is not about better, but about different. And while conventional wisdom often has us thinking women are indecisive, risk averse, and fragile, those perceptions are far from what research reveals. In her groundbreaking book, How Women Decide: What Is True, What Is Not, and What Strategies Spark the Best choices, Therese Huston, founding Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning at Seattle University, clues us in. Armed with a doctorate in cognitive psychology from Carnegie Mellon, she is a contributing writer for The New York Times and Harvard Business Review. Therese pinpoints what the research reveals around perceptions of women. Perhaps even more importantly, she discusses several research-based strategies for overcoming these misperceptions. In this conversation, we talk about: How we misunderstand female decision making The mistake parents make when dealing with daughters on the playground The bias in the term risk averse and the term that should replace it Two traits that make the top 10 list for men but not for women Who pays a higher price for failure The risks women take when they speak up A dating app with unique features for women Confidence as a dial we need to turn up or down, depending on the situation Which gender has the more appropriate level of confidence Two things women can do to overcome negative perceptions of self-promotion How men and women differ when under pressure to make a crucial decision Strategies to avoid being nervous before an important event Why failure trumps regret Episode Links @ThereseHuston Daniel Kahneman The Honest Truth about Dishonesty by Dan Ariely Chip and Dan Heath Pew Research Center 2015 Study on What Makes a Good Leader Barbara Morrongiello What Women and Men Should Be by Deborah Prentice and Erica Carranza Victoria Brescoll We Are Way Harder on Women Who Make Bad Calls by Therese Huston The Center for Advanced Hindsight Siren dating app and CEO Susie Lee OkCupid Linda Babcock If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

If you are searching for your natural talents, think again. Award-winning psychologist, Anders Ericsson, is reshaping our conception of innate ability versus learned skills. Anders has spent decades unearthing the secrets of expertise, and his research shows that the experts sitting at the top of most fields do not have more innate ability than their peers, they have more time spent in guided practice. Anders shares his fascinating findings in his book, Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise. Along the way, he corrects our misconceptions around 10,000 hours of practice, and helps us see how we can master just about any skill at any age. He also points out how important it will be to understand high performance as we change jobs and careers with increasing frequency. In this conversation, we talk about: The myth of the prodigy or naturally talented performer Choosing a goal and pursuing it rather than waiting to find a particular gift or talent The advantages for children when parents enjoy the skill they are teaching How gaining expertise in one area helps us gain expertise in other areas What high performers do that is different from the rest of us Differences in our brains as we shift from amateur to expert The difference between what experts and novices do with information How hard it is to get good by yourself and why nothing beats an expert teacher Anders plans to spend more time learning about the kind of concentration involved in deliberate practice. He hopes to develop ways for us to find the time and energy to engage in the kinds of training and to develop the kinds of habits needed to perform at the highest level. Episode Links Improvement in Memory Span by Pauline Martine and Samuel Fernberger (1929) William G. Chase The Knowledge London cab drivers test Alexander Alekhine Mental representations Top Gun Project Guitar Zero by Gary Marcus If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

We like to think that cheating is limited to criminals and other wrongdoers. But what if it were true that the majority of people cheated most of the time? That is exactly what has been revealed in the extensive research of Dan Ariely, Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University. Dan has found that not only do most people cheat, but that it is true even of the service providers that we trust the most, such as our accountants and our doctors. Even more surprising, traditional deterrents, such as harsher punishments, do not have any effect. His work has profound implications for our work, our families and our society. Founder and Director of the Center for Advanced Hindsight, Ariely is the author of the bestselling books, Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality, Irrationally Yours, and the book we discuss in this interview, The Honest Truth about Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone -- Especially Ourselves. In this conversation, we talk about: How dishonesty is a lot more common than we think How most punishments do very little to eliminate dishonesty Why conflicts of interest, like team or company loyalty, make it harder to be honest The role creativity plays in dishonesty Why it is so important to get a second medical opinion The reason the slippery slope of dishonesty is so frightening How a good cause - a charity or a loved one - can cause us to cheat even more The important role simple rules can play in keeping us honest Dan also shares his theory on what may actually have caused the Volkswagen emission crisis, and he talks about the topic of his most recent work - hate. Episode Links @danariely danariely.com Mensa Enron Gary Becker and Simple Model of Rational Crime (SMORC) Cost-benefit analysis Mortgage-backed security Prada Harpers Bazaar Signaling Coach Donald Sull and Simple Rules: How to Thrive in a Complex World The Dishonesty Project documentary Joseph M. Papp cyclist Volkswagen Yael Melamede of Salty Features Pilates If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

Steve Case, co-founder of America Online, believes that Internet companies have grown in three successive waves. Tech entrepreneurs spent the first wave getting us on the Internet. They spent the second wave connecting us to the apps and platforms they built on top of it. Now, in the third wave, innovative partnerships and policies will help entrepreneurs rethink large parts of our daily life, such as healthcare, food, and education. That is the argument Steve makes in his award-winning and bestselling book, The Third Wave: An Entrepreneurs Vision of the Future. Steve was the co-founder of America Online, the first Internet company to IPO, and Chair, Founder, and CEO of Revolution, a DC-based investment firm. In this interview he talks about the challenges early tech entrepreneurs like him faced, and he paints a picture of the challenges and opportunities to come. He also talks about the power of entrepreneurship to support ongoing innovation in the kinds of sectors that impact the lives of millions of people around the world. In this conversation, we also talk about: How Steve got his start as a tech entrepreneur Key differences between entrepreneurship today versus decades ago The story behind AOL Lessons learned from the TimeWarner acquisition Why entrepreneurs need vision and thoughtful execution to succeed Key factors and skills that will set Third Wave entrepreneurs apart Possibilities for healthcare, education, and food industry disruption The important role government will play in the Third Wave What Steve means by the Rise of the Rest for Third Wave entrepreneurship Why Steve gets so excited about food entrepreneurship The power of impact investing for companies, employees, and investors Why he chose to write a book about the future instead of the past Steve plans to spend the next 10-15 years of his life making the ideas of the Third Wave a reality. He believes his book offers a framework and that it is up to leaders like him to support the kinds of diverse people and companies who will put that framework into action. Episode Links @SteveCase The Third Wave: An Entrepreneurs Vision of the Future by Steve Case The Third Wave: The Classic Study of Tomorrow by Alvin Toffler Agricultural Revolution Industrial Revolution P&G Pepsico Atari Modem AppleLink Apple IBM Sears RadioShack White Label product Time Warner Microsoft Thomas Edison The Creators Code by Amy Wilkinson Khan Academy MOOCs Snapchat Drones Driverless cars Total addressable market (TAM) Revolution Foods Sweetgreen Impact investing BlackRock Bain & Company If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!

While bitcoin and blockchain may sound like something from science fiction, they have become powerful tools to help us rethink banking and finance. What began as a cypherpunk vision has become a viable model of currency and exchange for everyone with access to a Smartphone, from the unbanked in Afghanistan to the urban hipster in New York City. Eager to learn more about where bitcoin and blockchain technology has come from and where it is headed, co-authors Michael J. Casey and Paul Vigna researched and wrote the bestselling book, The Age of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and the Blockchain are Challenging the Global Economic Order. In this interview, Michael J. Casey, Senior Advisor to the Digital Currency Initiative at the Media Lab at MIT and former global finance columnist for The Wall Street Journal, shares what they learned and why we should care. In this episode, we talk about: Connections to science fiction, cryptography, and cypherpunks The blockchain and bitcoin origin story What it means to decentralize the banking system The mystery of Satoshi Nakamoto Trust and the huge role it plays in launching a new currency How it all started when someone bought a pizza What bitcoin and blockchain mean for us as customers and as business owners How blockchain and bitcoin can upend industries from medicine to music What this tech means for the poor and unbanked How mobile tech, bitcoin, and blockchain are empowering millions Ways Wall Street is already co-opting ledger tech for its own purposes How this tech will govern the economy of the future Episode Links @mikejcasey http://www.michaeljcasey.com/ Satoshi Nakamoto Cypherpunk Cryptography Michel Foucault Hyperinflation Deflation Casa de cambio Laszlo Ripple Ethereum MIT Internet of Things Micropayment www.dougrushkoff.com Oliver Luckett The Audience If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!