12 Geniuses Podcast

Failure is rarely celebrated and when we fail it can be difficult to forgive ourselves and move forward. Competitive gymnastics is founded on the pursuit of perfection. For 4-Time National Champion and USA Hall of Fame Gymnast Lisa Carmen Wang, that pursuit of perfection is not something that ended when her competitive athletic career ended. She has carried it over into her business career as well. In this interview, Lisa describes the drive and discipline that helped her become a world-class gymnast and how her experiences as an athlete helped her succeed once her career as a gymnast ended. Lisa also talks about the sacrifices she has made to perform at her highest levels, her approach to risk taking, how she overcame the disappointment of narrowly missing the 2008 Olympic Team, her struggle to separate her personal identity with her “entrepreneurial obsession,” and how she is working to empower others to succeed in business and life. Lisa Carmen Wang is the Founder of the Bad Bitch Empire and author of The Bad Bitch Business Bible. She is a 4-Time National Champion and USA Hall of Fame Gymnast, an ex-Wall Street hedge funder turned serial entrepreneur, angel investor, executive coach, and global speaker. A graduate of Yale University, Lisa’s mission is to empower women to build unapologetic worth and wealth to invest together in the next wave of female-led businesses.

We have all been in situations where we felt left out. We might have even been the ones to make other people feel left on the outs. In a variety of ways, we have all been told, “you don’t belong here.” Most leaders think of belonging as yet another social concept that doesn’t embolden the vision, direction, and responsibility of the C-suite, but this point of view is too dangerous to ignore. Organizations that create a strong sense of belonging for all employees have a far greater chance of experiencing financial success while providing an environment where employees can flourish. In this interview, Brad Deutser - entrepreneur and author of the new book “Belonging Rules” - shares his definition of belonging, the five crucial actions leaders must take to create the space necessary for belonging, the business case for creating belonging, and how these rules can be used outside of work to address our political division, fight gang recruitment, and help marginalized children in our schools. Brad also dives deep into one of the belonging rules specifically - “Listen Without Labels.” In one example, he talks about how the terms “Democrat” and “Republican” associated with political leaders in the news cause viewers and readers to dismiss the content of the message, while instead focusing on whether or not they agree with the leader based on party affiliation. Brad Deutser is the visionary leader behind Deutser and Deutser Clarity Institute (Houston, New York, Bermuda and Arizona). He is a trusted counselor, executive coach and leadership guru for CEOs, Board Chairs, and top corporate management. His unique insights and original approach to affecting a human approach to sustainable organizational change have impacted top businesses, leading universities, professional sports franchises, and cause-based organizations. He is an expert in creating spaces and leadership capacity for belonging and inclusion. Brad is recognized for his ability to navigate complex, contentious, ambiguous business and people challenges, both inside and outside organizations. He is sought after as an authority and innovative thinker on matters of organizational change, belonging, DEI, and complexity in leadership. He is the bestselling author of Leading Clarity: The Breakthrough Strategy to Unleash People, Profit, and Performance.

The United States Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has called loneliness an epidemic. Loneliness is connected to numerous health challenges including heart disease, stroke, depression, and anxiety. According to a Cigna survey in 2020, 61% of American adults reported feeling lonely at some point in their lives, and 36% said they felt lonely on a regular basis. Harvard researchers found that during the pandemic, 61% of Americans ages 18 through 25 self-reported being lonely frequently, almost all of the time, or all of the time, compared to 24% of Americans ages 55 through 65.In this interview, consultant, author, and Harvard University Fellow Talia Fox discusses the extent of the loneliness problem around the world and shares her insights into how people can address loneliness and create powerful, conscious connections. Based on the research she did for her book “The Power of Conscious Connections,” Talia shares how people can conquer their loneliness by becoming more effective listeners and observers, having a clear understanding of their values and the values of others, and working to engage in a deeper, more meaningful way, even with people who may have a different system of beliefs. Finally, Talia shares how people can hone the habits necessary to create conscious connections at work and in daily life so they can live healthier, happier, more fulfilled lives. Talia Fox is the CEO of KUSI Global, Inc. She holds an M.Ed. in counseling psychology from Howard University and she is a Harvard University Fellow. Talia is often referred to as the Jedi of Inspiration by her clients. With over two decades of experience in transforming thousands of executives from all sectors, she has become a visionary for leadership and legacy building. Her extensive background in psychology and education has given her the tools she needs to assist leaders in developing successful strategies for complex missions, ranging from defense systems to healthcare initiatives. As CEO of KUSI Global, Inc., Talia helps organizations like the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Harvard University, Transunion, the National Institutes of Health, Howard University, and the U.S. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs maximize human potential by leveraging strategic intelligence and helps individuals and organizations foster connected cultures and promote conscious equity.

In this interview about failure and growth, author and Professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School Dr. Amy Edmondson upends our understanding of failure and shares how we can more effectively make it work for us. Based on the research from her book “Right Kind of Wrong,” Dr. Edmondson provides the framework to think, discuss, and practice failure wisely. Outlining the three archetypes of failure - basic, complex, and intelligent - she describes how to minimize unproductive failure while maximizing what we gain from missteps at all levels.Dr. Edmondson goes on to talk about her pioneering work in the space of psychological safety. She demystifies failure by distinguishing between good failure from which we can learn and the bad failure that should have been prevented. Dr. Edmondson makes it clear that when organizations provide a safe environment for failure during the process of experimentation, both knowledge and innovation are gained. She finishes the interview by giving advice for how leaders, teachers, and even parents can use failure as a learning tool. Dr. Amy Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, a chair established to support the study of human interactions that lead to the creation of successful enterprises that contribute to the betterment of society. She has been recognized by the biannual Thinkers50 global ranking of management thinkers since 2011, and most recently was ranked #1 in 2021; she also received that organization’s Breakthrough Idea Award in 2019, and Talent Award in 2017.  She studies teaming, psychological safety, and organizational learning, and her articles have been published in numerous academic and management outlets, including Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Harvard Business Review and California Management Review. Her 2019 book, The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation and Growth (Wiley), has been translated into 15 languages. Dr. Edmondson’s latest book, Right Kind of Wrong (Atria), builds on her prior work on psychological safety and teaming to provide a framework for thinking about, discussing, and practicing the science of failing well. First published in the US and the UK in September, 2023, the book is due to be translated into 15 additional languages. 

In this interview about growth and development, author and growth mindset expert Eduardo Briceño shares how leaders, teams, and organizations can create a culture of growth, where experimentation and feedback are encouraged, and learning is integrated into the everyday. Integrating learning and performance is the central idea behind Eduardo’s book “The Performance Paradox.”Eduardo shares why people in any profession should embrace the “Learning Zone” - a space where they can be deliberate about improvement - rather than constantly focusing on minimizing mistakes and peak performance. He talks about how leaders and coaches should create psychological safety so members of a team can experiment, and even fail, without negative repercussions. He makes the case that people should approach their work with two goals in mind - getting things done and improving. They can do that by proactively soliciting feedback, performing trial and error activities, and reflecting on mistakes. Eduardo gives advice for how leaders should handle mistakes and how they can best model being a learner. He shares how companies like Microsoft, General Mills, Skratch Labs, New York Life, and Bridgewater Associates have benefited from welcoming the “Learning Zone” and how CEOs like Satya Nadella and Ray Dalio have openly celebrated their own mistakes and learned from the feedback they received after those mistakes. Eduardo Briceño is a global keynote speaker, facilitator, and guide supporting leaders cultivating growth mindset cultures. He is a Pahara-Aspen Fellow, a member of the Aspen Institute's Global Leadership Network, and an inductee in the Happiness Hall of Fame. For over a decade he was the CEO of Mindset Works, which he cofounded in 2007 with Stanford professor Carol Dweck, Lisa Blackwell, and others. Earlier, he served as a technology investor with Credit Suisse's venture capital arm the Sprout Group. Eduardo grew up in Caracas, Venezuela. He holds bachelor's degrees in economics and engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as an MBA and M.A. in education from Stanford University. He was shortlisted for the Thinkers50 Breakthrough Idea Award in 2023.

In this interview about leadership development, author and executive coach Hortense le Gentil describes how leaders can unlock their power by learning to lead with empathy, authenticity, and humanity. Hortense describes how many leaders are held back by mindtraps - “old beliefs and expectations that no longer serve us” - like imposter syndrome, fixed mindsets, emotional stereotypes, familial expectations, etc.Hortense shares how leaders can overcome these mindtraps by becoming aware of them, having a desire to change them, and the courage to directly face the obstacles holding the leader back. She finishes the conversation by describing how leaders can build and anchor new perspectives and new practices that will unlock more empathetic and effective leadership capabilities. Hortense le Gentil is a world-renowned executive leadership coach, speaker and author. She guides CEOs and senior executives on their journey from hero leaders to human leaders. She is the author of the book Aligned: Connecting Your True Self with the Leader You’re Meant to Be, which was published in 2019 and “The Unlocked Leader: Dare to Free your Own Voice, Lead With Empathy and Shine Your Light in the World,” released in 2023.

In this interview about grit and determination, author and former professional basketball player Dan Grunfeld tells the harrowing story of how his grandmother escaped the Holocaust during World War II. Dan goes on to describe the challenges his grandmother, grandfather, uncle, and father faced as they moved to the United States to begin a new life for themselves after the war. Unable to speak English, Dan’s father, Ernie Grunfeld, used the resilience he inherited from his parents to turn himself into a high school basketball phenom who went on to become a collegiate All-American, Olympic Gold Medal winner for Team USA in 1976, and an NBA player and executive.Dan describes his personal duty to honor his grandmother, father, and their family legacy by honing his skills, body, and mind so he could be the best athlete and person he can be. He wraps up the conversation by describing his own path to becoming a standout college basketball player and his unrelenting willingness to overcome a brutal knee injury that nearly ended his chances at a professional basketball career. Dan Grunfeld is a former professional basketball player, an accomplished writer, and a proud graduate of Stanford University. An Academic All-American and All-Conference basketball selection at Stanford, Dan played professionally for eight seasons in top leagues around the world, including in Germany, Spain, and Israel. Dan is the author of the critically acclaimed book, By the Grace of the Game, and his writing has been published more than 40 times in media outlets such as Sports Illustrated, The Jerusalem Post, and NBC News. Dan earned his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2017 and lives with his wife and sons in Northern Virginia, where he works in venture capital.

For the Summer of 2023, a dozen futurists talk about what life will be like for humans in 30 to 50 years. Each guest is asked to paint a picture of the changes that we will experience between now and 2053 or 2073. Then they are asked what mistakes we are making today that the people of 2073 will look back at in disbelief. The goal of these episodes is to spark the imagination of listeners about the future we have the ability to create.In this episode, our usual host of the show Don MacPherson is interviewed by futurist Rebecca Ryan. Don paints a picture of what life might be like in 2073 with a focus on aging and the development of space tourism and a space economy. He talks about how new technologies and a move to treat aging as a disease could radically change the way we age and enable life expectancy to 90 or even 100 years with outliers reaching 120 years and beyond. Don compares the current stage of space exploration and development to the early years of flight and shares his belief that humanity’s desire to explore will push us to colonize Mars and visit other planets as our capabilities improve. Don and Rebecca finish the interview with a discussion about what the humans of 2073 will be surprised that we were doing in 2023. Don MacPherson is CEO of 12 Geniuses and host of the 12 Geniuses podcast - a show for curious and voracious learners. Don interviews exceptional people about trends and technologies changing the way we live and work. A five-time entrepreneur, Don has spent 25 years studying the employee experience, the attributes of great leadership, and how healthy organizational cultures are created and sustained. An avid traveler and volunteer, Don has visited 75 countries and been a mentor of young people for 30 years.

For the Summer of 2023, a dozen futurists talk about what life will be like for humans in 30 to 50 years. Each guest is asked to paint a picture of the changes that we will experience between now and 2053 or 2073. Then they are asked what mistakes we are making today that the people of 2073 will look back at in disbelief. The goal of these episodes is to spark the imagination of listeners about the future we have the ability to create.In this episode, futurist Jacob Morgan paints a picture of life in 2053 with a focus on where technology meets the workplace. He describes a world where everyone has advanced AI personal assistants, mountains of data to help them optimize performance at work and at home, and how the metaverse might develop over the next three decades. Jacob also shares his thoughts on the future of leadership and his predictions on what workplace technologies will soon become obsolete.  Jacob Morgan is a trained futurist and one of the world’s leading authorities on leadership, the future of work, and employee experience, He speaks in front of tens of thousands of people each year and his content is seen over a million times a year. Jacob is the best-selling author of five books: Leading With Vulnerability (Wiley 2024), The Future Leader (Wiley 2020) The Employee Experience Advantage (Wiley, 2017), The Future of Work (Wiley, 2014), and The Collaborative Organization (McGraw Hill, 2012). He speaks at over 50 conferences a year including TED Academy which is one of the largest TED events in the world. In addition, Jacob provides advisory and thought leadership services to various organizations around the world.

For the Summer of 2023, a dozen futurists talk about what life will be like for humans in 30 to 50 years. Each guest is asked to paint a picture of the changes that we will experience between now and 2053 or 2073. Then they are asked what mistakes we are making today that the people of 2073 will look back at in disbelief. The goal of these episodes is to spark the imagination of listeners about the future we have the ability to create.In this episode, futurist Sohail Inayatullah paints a picture of life in 2073. He describes a peer-to-peer economy moving at lightning speeds that will lead to incredible abundance. He talks about nation states giving way to bio-regions and cultural regions. He shares examples of how leaders in Abu Dhabi and New Zealand are thinking about and designing their futures. Sohail finishes the conversation with his thoughts on what we are doing today that the humans of 2073 will look back at in disbelief.Dr. Sohail Inayatullah, a political scientist, is Professor at Tamkang University, Taipei (Graduate Institute of Futures Studies), Visiting Academic/Research Associate at Queensland University of Technology (Centre for Social Change Research); Adjunct Professor at the University of the Sunshine Coast (Faculty of Social Sciences and the Arts); and, Associate, Transcend Peace University. Dr. Inayatullah is a Fellow of the World Futures Studies Federation and the World Academy of Art and Science. He is on the International Advisory Council of the World Future Society, and on the Professional Board of the Futures Foundation, Sydney. In 1999, he held the UNESCO Chair at the Centre for European Studies, University of Trier, Trier, Germany and the Tamkang Chair in Futures Studies at Tamkang University, Taipei, Taiwan. From 1981 to 1991, he was senior policy analyst and planner with the Hawaii Judiciary, where he coordinated the Court’s Foresight Program.