The Gartner Talent Angle

Voices from Walmart, The Rockefeller Foundation, and The White House discuss innovations to harness untapped talent on the latest episode of The CEB Talent Angle. In this episode, we dive into how employers like Walmart are working to find more successful matches for entry-level positions from the youth talent pool by encouraging data-driven employment strategies that can both unlock additional business value and expand employment opportunities for disadvantaged young workers.

We asked 10 podcast guests, "if you had one message for executives, what would it be?"  Listen to the most important ideas on team leadership from Gen. Stan McChrystal, Shawn Achor, Roselinde Torres, Susan Cain, Susan David, Microsoft, Netflix, Zappos, Dan Frawley, Bill Von Hipple Here are the podcasts they're taken from: Emotional Agility and Leadership: Susan David - View in iTunes How Microsoft "Screens-In" Culture Change: Kathleen Hogan - Powering Microsoft Through Culture - View in iTunes The Future of HR Tech: Dan Frawley - Technology is Rapidly Changing Talent Management - View in iTunes Adam Grant: Originals - How Innovators Achieve Success - Grooming Unpopularity to Success - View in iTunes Shawn Achor: Positive Thinking and Performance - Explore the link between happiness and high performance - View in iTunes How Netflix Wins with Culture Over Rules: Barbie Graver, NetFlix - Choosing Freedom and Responsibility over Policy and Process - View in iTunes Susan Cain: The Power of Introverts - Introverts may be the next big trend in business - View in iTunes Why Zappos Broke HR: Hollie Delaney, Zappos - Scaling a Culture - View in iTunes Gen. Stanley McChrystal: Changing the Way We Lead - Creating an adaptable, but aligned organization - View in iTunes

Evolutionary psychologist Bill Von Hippel shares a fascinating look at why our tribal past dictates our present day success.   He explores how to use social situations to achieve innovation and why some of us struggle in social situations, while others make even the most awkward encounters flow seamlessly. Bill von Hippel is Professor of Psychology at the University of Queensland, Australia. He serves on the editorial board of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Social Psychological and Personality Science, Social Cognition, and is an associate editor Psychological Science.  

Do emotions belong in organizations? In a cultural dialogue focused on happiness and productivity, Dr. Susan David looks at the reality of avoiding emotions in our every day life, and how people who engage in high levels of fake emotions have lower engagement, higher burnout, and lower levels of effectiveness. An award-winning Psychologist on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and co-founder and co-director of the Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital, Dr. Susan David talks with us about her new book, Emotional Agility. We will look at how we can recognize and harness people’s emotions effectively, and how we can use our feelings as both compasses and engines to a more fulfilling life.

Dr. Andy Walshe has possibly the coolest job in the world.  He helps Red Bull's extreme athletes skydive from 25 miles up in space, surf 90 foot waves and concentrate for hours of racing at 200 mph.  And he's come to some eye opening conclusions, among them self-compassion is crucial to elite performance and that business executives need frighteningly similar instruction as elite athletes. He gains that unique 5-mile high perspective by working with hundreds of international athletes,  supervising a team of industry-leading sports scientists, nutritionists, biomechanics experts and sports psychologists; and from all of this he develops models for elite sports performance.  As performance manager for Red Bull Stratos, Andy and his team help Felix Baumgartner execute a performance plan by encompassing both physical and psychological readiness, and provide high performance direction and support for the entire mission team. Andy's professional interests are focused on delivering pragmatic solutions to explore all kinds of human potential; he is a consultant for business, sports and military organizations worldwide. With a Ph.D. in Applied Biomechanics (the science of movement) and applied coaching expertise in performance training, the Australian native designed a highly successful performance program for the U.S. Olympic ski and snowboard teams, guiding their athletes to victories on the world stage.

Mark believes that finding something important and meaningful in your life is the most productive use of your time and energy and that living a good life is about giving a $%@ only about the things that align with your personal values. Every life has problems associated with it and finding meaning in your life will help you sustain the effort needed to overcome the problems you face. 

Jonah Berger is on to us.  We're social creatures that, almost robotically, respond to cues and narratives.  His work on Contagious and Invisible Influence gets to the heart of why some ideas and products go viral and others don't and how to uncover hidden "influence hacks" that shape culture and drive behavior.     

Derek Van Bever, Senior Lecturer and Director of the Forum for Growth and Innovation at Harvard Business School, talks with CEB about how to better inform decisions about business model innovation and what it can mean for talent. Many attempts at business model innovation fail. Derek Van Bever argues that executives need to understand how business models develop through predictable stages over time — and then apply that understanding to key decisions.

As the Chief People Officer at Microsoft, Kathleen Hogan is responsible for the company's cultural transformation.  She joins us to talk about how Microsoft is using a technique called "Screening In" to drive cultural change through diversity.   Hogan is new to the HR function, but not to talent management. Previously she was vice president of Microsoft Services, a team dedicated to helping businesses and consumers maximize the value of their investment in Microsoft technologies. Hogan has also served as corporate vice president of Customer Service and Support, responsible for the strategy and delivery of consumer and commercial technical support and customer service for Microsoft products and services.  

Daniel Kahneman's ground-breaking research into decision making and judgment has challenged fundamental beliefs about human nature. In study after study,together with Amos Tversky, he showed that when it comes to making decisions, humans are predisposed to irrationality. Their surprising findings have had profound implications for everything from behavioral economics and politics, to advanced medicine and sports. Their work, and its impact, is hardly obscure. Mr. Kahneman won the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics (Mr. Tversky died in 1996.)