Smart People Podcast

Robert Richman - Have you ever noticed that many of the most admired companies these days tend to have one common thread, and it's not just a great product? They have one thing that everyone seems to be talking about, despite what industry they are in, where they are located, or what they do. That one thing is culture. Culture has become a buzzword that gets thrown around in every coffee shop in Silicon Valley. Every CEO dreams of building a culture like Zappos, or Apple - where the employees seem to literally LOVE their job. But what exactly does it mean? And how does a company build a truly incredible, profitable, and unifying culture? Additionally, how do you as an individual figure out which organizational cultures are better for you? We answer these questions and many more this week when we speak with speaker, author, and culture architect, Robert Richman.   Robert is the author of the upcoming book, The Culture Blueprint: A Guide to Building the High-Performance Workplace. Robert was the co-creator of Zappos Insights, an innovative program focused on educating companies on the secrets behind Zappos’ amazing employee culture. Robert built Zappos Insights from a small website to a thriving multi-million dollar business teaching over 25,000 students per year. Through his work, Robert has been responsible for improving the employee culture at hundreds of companies like Procter & Gamble, Whole Foods and Amazon.  As one of the world’s authorities on employee culture, Robert is a sought after keynote speaker at conferences around the world and has been hired to teach culture in person at companies like Google, Toyota, and Eli Lilly. He has pioneered a number of innovative techniques to build culture, such as bringing improv comedy to the workplace. "To build a strong culture you have to first ask yourself, 'What is most important to us above everything else?'" - Robert Richman Quotes from Robert: What we learn in this episode: How did Zappos build one of the most incredible corporate cultures in the world? As an employee, how do you find cultures that align with your values? What works and what doesn't work when building culture in an organization? How do you create alignment in an organization without setting in place too many rules? Resources: The Culture Blueprint: A Guide to Building the High-Performance Workplace - Pre Order Today! http://www.robertrichman.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephen Law - From Postman to PhD. The beauty and curse of the human mind is that if we want to believe something bad enough, we can convince ourselves that it's true.  And even worse, we will convince others that it's true.  In order to support these fabricated beliefs we will form "intellectual black holes", which are belief systems that we support through a variety of illogical and unsupported mechanisms.  These black holes become the basis for many cultists, conspiracy theorists, alternative medicine promoters, and more. To safeguard us from these tricksters we must be able to recognize that these belief systems exist and to identify them when they are presented to us.  In order to help you in that cause, this week we interview Dr. Stephen Law, author of the book, Believing Bullshit: How Not to Get Sucked into an Intellectual Black Hole. Dr. Law is the Provost of the Centre for Inquiry, UK, a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of London, and Editor of the philosophical journal, "Think". "Intellectual black holes are belief systems put together in such a way that they turn people into intellectual prisoners.  They shut down your ability to think clearly and rigorously." - Stephen Law Quotes from Stephen:  What we learn in this episode: What's it like to go from a mailman to a PhD/professor/author? Why do philosophy students tend to perform the best on standardized tests? What is an intellectual black hole? What are the warning signs that you are being "sucked in" to an intellectual black hole? Resources: Believing Bullshit: How Not to Get Sucked into an Intellectual Black Hole www.stephenlaw.org https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvkbiElAOqU -- This episode is brought to you by: Igloo: Go to igloosoftware.com/smartpeople to use Igloo for free with up to 10 of your favorite coworkers or customers! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ed Hess - Learn or Die. That is the message this week! In order to stay competitive in today's fast paced environment, you must continue to learn and grow.  Those that refuse to do so will find that their jobs and skills have been replaced by a cheaper and more efficient technology. So how do you become a better and faster learner? How do you stay ahead of the curve? These are the questions we discuss this week as we talk with author and professor, Edward Hess. Ed is the author of the brand new best selling book, Learn or Die: Using Science to Build a Leading-Edge Learning Organization.  In this interview, Ed uses his 25 years of research in the fields of behavioral economics, neuroscience and psychology to reveal advances in our understanding of the individual human learner and type of work environment that best enables those capabilities. We talk with Ed about the recent developments in the understanding of how people learn, the role of emotions in the learning process, and the environmental factors that can affect our ability to learn. Edward Hess is a professor of business administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and the author of 11 books, including Smart Growth: Building an Enduring Business by Managing the Risks of Growth and The Physics of Business Growth: Mindsets, System and Processes. "I firmly believe that in most businesses, learning is the only sustainable competitive advantage." - Ed Hess Quotes from Ed: What we learn in this episode: How can you become a better learner? How can organizations foster a learning environment? Why are humans lazy thinkers? The average tenure of a CEO today is 4.6 years! Resources: Learn or Die: Using Science to Build a Leading-Edge Learning Organization Videos: Ed Hess presents chapters from his book Darden Ideas to Action -- This episode is brought to you by: Squarespace: Squarespace, the all-­in-­one platform that makes it fast and easy to create your own professional website, portfolio, and online store. For a free trial and 10% off your first purchase, go to squarespace.com/smartpeople and use promo code expert.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For SPP listeners only, the first 100 people to purchase a book via www.leadtosucceed.me will receive a signed copy of "Lead to Succeed". Order now and thank us later :) Chris Roebuck  - Everyone, everywhere is under pressure to work harder.  Many of us work to survive and get paid.  Bored and trapped, performance is low, family relationships suffer and organizational performance deteriorates.  To deliver real success, people must be inspired to be their best.  Whether you're an individual leader, a boss, a manager, an HR professional or a CEO, you must know how to transform both your own and your employees' performances.  So I guess it's a good thing that this week we are interviewing the guy who wrote the book (literally) on leadership. Chris Roebuck is the author of the new bestselling book, Lead to Succeed: The Only Leadership Book You Need. Based on over 30 years of being a leader and developing, assessing and coaching leaders around the world, Chris explains the tried and true basics of leadership and describes them in engaging, useful details. His book has been described as a “breakthrough” in thinking about leadership. Chris takes a view of leadership that can help you or other leaders be effective, ethical, entrepreneurial and engaging. The principle is simple – just two steps – one, maximize the effort your people give, then focus that on what really matters for the organization. In this episode, Chris lays out the first step – maximizing the effort of people – Mach 1 leadership as he calls it. Chris is a visiting Professor of Transformational Leadership at Cass Business School in London and advises major global organizations on improving performance through their people. The UK National Health Service, top legal firms, global investment banks, SMEs and even the Red Cross in Myanmar and Chinese Space Program have all relied on his expertise. He has held senior leadership roles at UBS, HSBC, KPMG & London Underground and has served in the British Army. While Chris was the Global Head of Leadership at UBS the bank won the title Best Company for Leaders in Europe and the story of the organizational success is now a Harvard Business School case study. "Leadership is about making a difference and transforming lives, nothing less. Sadly too few leaders even think that, let alone do it.” - Chris Roebuck Quotes from Chris: What we learn in this episode: What's going on currently in organizations? What is the "new world of work"? What do we all truly want from our boss? How can you maximize the effort your employees want to give you? What is leadership at its most basic level? Resources: To learn more about Chris ideas, blogs, media interviews: www.chrisroebuck.net To learn more about the book and the 2nd step (focus onto what matters - Mach 2): www.leadtosucceed.me To follow Chris on Twitter : @Chris__Roebuck To join the Lead To Succeed Online Community:  http://linkd.in/1sOnSHZ -- This episode is brought to you by: Igloo: Go to igloosoftware.com/smartpeople to use Igloo for free with up to 10 of your favorite coworkers or customers! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alan de Queiroz  - Have you ever wondered how the same species of monkey (or tree, or snake for that matter) ends up located on different countries around the world? Keep in mind, they obviously can't just swim across the ocean, and they were there far before humans, so we didn't bring them.  Sure, continental drift explains it in some instances, but definitely not all of them.  So how did it happen? The answer will most certainly surprise you! This week, evolutionary biologist Alan de Queiroz tells us what the research says on this topic as we discuss his book, The Monkey's Voyage: How Improbable Journeys Shaped the History of Life. Alan de Queiroz is an evolutionary biologist and adjunct faculty at the University of Nevada, Reno. He has written widely-cited research articles on topics ranging from biogeography to the evolution of behavior to the origins of parasites. For more on the Alan and his work, visit his Facebook page and blog. "Most people understand that evolution is very random, it's caused by chance events." - Alan de Queiroz Quotes from Alan: What we learn in this episode: What is biogeography? Why are there no monkeys in Europe? How do mammals that can't swim come to be found on islands? Resources: The Monkey's Voyage: How Improbable Journeys Shaped the History of Life monkeysvoyage.wordpress.com/ -- This episode is brought to you by: 99Designs: Go to 99designs.com/SMART to get a $99 Power Pack of services for FREE today! Personal Capital: With Personal Capital, you’ll finally be able to see all your accounts in one place and get a clear view of everything you own. To sign up for free go to personalcapital.com/smartpeople. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Savannah Ellis - If men and women are meant to pair up for a lifetime of eternal happiness with the primary goal of continuing the growth of our species, why is it so damn hard? The communication differences between men and women is so apparent, that we often joke that the two sexes are from opposite planets. Much has been said about these differences, but little has been agreed upon.  So let's do our best to learn how to make nice with the opposite sex in order to have long, healthy, romantic relationships.  As an added bonus, Chris was recently married, so we figured it was our duty to get him some good advice. This week we speak with Savannah Ellis, COO of The Relationship Society, CEO and Founder of the Infidelity Coaching Program, and author of the book, I Cheated: Affair Recovery Advice For When You Have Been Unfaithful. Savannah has coached thousands of couples and individuals from Sydney, Australia to Las Vegas, Nevada to help them achieve their relationship and personal goals. Her passion is to help people be authentic to themselves and others. Savannah holds Psychology degrees from Monash University, Australia: Bachelor Behavioral Science (BBSc), and post graduate degrees in Clinical Psychology. "The three most important factors in a relationship are chemistry, personality, and life goals/values." - Savannah Ellis Quotes from Savannah: What we learn in this episode: How do couples learn to communicate better? How do you move on from heartbreak? What are the main differences between the way men and women communicate? Do men always want sex? Resources: I Cheated: Affair Recovery Advice For When You Have Been Unfaithful http://savannahellis.net/ http://relationshipsociety.com/ Youtube - It's Not About the Nail Twitter @infidelityguru -- This episode is brought to you by: 99Designs: Go to 99designs.com/SMART to get a $99 Power Pack of services for FREE today! Personal Capital: With Personal Capital, you’ll finally be able to see all your accounts in one place and get a clear view of everything you own. To sign up for free go to personalcapital.com/smartpeople. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Collis Ta'eed - Our guest this week was recently named one of the Top 10 Richest Bloggers in the World! However, that can be slightly misleading because his company is far from a blog (in fact, just insinuating that he is in the same genre as Perez Hilton makes my skin crawl).  Not only is he an extremely successful on-line business mogul, but his entire blog and business is built around educating the world on-line.  In fact, the company motto is, "Helping people learn and earn online." In this episode we discuss what it takes to be an entrepreneur, how you create one of the largest web based businesses in the world, and why on-line education IS the future. Collis Ta'eed is the CEO of Envato, a company that creates websites that help people from all over the world change the way they earn and learn online. Envato is empowering people with tools and services to develop new skills and make a living. They do this in the creative space with marketplaces and education platforms and materials that help people get creative! "As long as the scale of your ambition is realistic, there is usually space for niche businesses." - Collis Ta'eed Quotes from Collis: What we learn in this episode: How do you become one of the top ten richest bloggers on the planet? What is it like to start an internet business from scratch? What are the keys to making money on-line? What are the best traits for an entrepreneur? Resources: Top 10 Riches Bloggers in the World Tuts Plus Envato Wikipedia - Collis/Envato Twitter @Collis -- This episode is brought to you by: 99Designs: Go to 99designs.com/SMART to get a $99 Power Pack of services for FREE today! Squarespace: Squarespace, the all-­in-­one platform that makes it fast and easy to create your own professional website, portfolio, and online store. For a free trial and 10% off your first purchase, go to squarespace.com/smartpeople and use promo code expert.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jared Dean - Have you ever wondered how your Netflix account knows exactly what movies to recommend? Or how Amazon can keep you continually buying random things you never thought you needed? Or how those Facebook ads are always eerily targeted directly at you? Well the answer is simple, Big Data.  Ok - maybe it's not simple, but it is something we can understand and even harness to make a difference in our lives and in our organizations or industries. This week we speak with Jared Dean, author of the new book, Big Data, Data Mining, and Machine Learning. This book was recently ranked the #1 "Big Data Read of the Summer" by The Hive. Jared Dean is a Senior Director of Research and Development at SAS. He is responsible for the development of SAS' worldwide data mining solutions. This includes customer engagements, new feature development, technical support, sales support, and product integration. Prior to joining SAS, Dean worked as a mathematical statistician for the US Census Bureau. He holds an MS degree in computational statistics from George Mason University. "Innovation is largely incremental.  Most of the time we are making small steps forward, not giant leaps.  " - Jared Dean Quotes from Jared: What we learn in this episode: Can you accurately predict the NFL by using Big Data? How do outliers play a key role in data analysis? Is there a difference between an algorithm and an equation? How do the self driving cars from Google use Big Data to operate? Resources: Big Data, Data Mining, and Machine Learning http://support.sas.com/publishing/authors/dean.html Twitter @JaredLDean -- This episode is brought to you by: 99Designs: Go to 99designs.com/SMART to get a $99 Power Pack of services for FREE today! ting: mobile that makes sense. For $25 off your first device or a $25 credit, use smartpeople.ting.com and save money on your cell phone bill today! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Josh Shenk - Want to be great? Then don't go at it alone. Throughout history teams of exactly 2 people have made the biggest impact - think Lennon and McCartney, Wozniak and Jobs, Orville and Wilbur Wright...the list goes on and on. But why? This week we crush the myth of the "lone genius" and learn how the best creations of all time came from people who worked in pairs. Josh Shenk, author of Powers of Two: Finding the Essence of Innovation in Creative Pairs, tells us not only why 2 is the magic number, but also how you can find your creative pair and start making history. Josh is a curator, essayist, and author. His magazine pieces include cover stories in Harper’s, Time, and The Atlantic, where his essay "What Makes Us Happy?" was the most read article in the history of that magazine’s website. His work has also appeared in Slate, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. His first book, Lincoln’s Melancholy, was named one of the best books of 2005 byThe New York Times, The Washington Post,and The Atlanta-Journal Constitution.. He is a curator, storyteller and advisor to The Moth; vice-chair emeritus of the board of directors, he currently serves on the general council. He is also a past director of the Rose O'Neill Literary House at Washington College, where he curated programs and festivals and directed a small literary press. Shenk consults to the Erikson Institute for Education and Research at the Austen Riggs Center, where he directs the Erikson Prize for Mental Health Media and Arts in Mind, a conversation series on the creative arts and psychology, co-hosted by the New School in New York City. "Creativity is not about being comfortable. It's about moving from where you are to something bigger.  It's all about the encounter of disparate things." - Josh Shenk Quotes from Josh: What we learn in this episode: What characteristics make two people compatible? Why is tension good for partners creative abilities? How does conversation play a key role in creativity? Why is a pair better than a trio? Resources: Powers of Two: Finding the Essence of Innovation in Creative Pairs www.shenk.net Twitter @joshuawolfshenk -- This episode is brought to you by: 99Designs: Go to 99designs.com/SMART to get a $99 Power Pack of services for FREE today! ting: mobile that makes sense. For $25 off your first device or a $25 credit, use smartpeople.ting.com and save money on your cell phone bill today! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Karan Girotra - Any system that we use to accomplish a task can be made better with some simple improvements. If you're talking about the system you use to brush your teeth, this might not be a big deal. But what about the way in which a company builds a product, or the way a doctor analyzes a patient? These systems can have enormous effects on society, and it is imperative that we understand how to innovate on these systems to continually create a better society. This week we speak with Karan Girotra who is a Professor of Technology and Operations Management at INSEAD and author of the new book, The Risk-Driven Business Model: Four Questions That Will Define Your Company. Karan earned a doctorate from the Wharton School for his examination of innovation processes and the early stage startups. He took some time off from his doctoral work to help start up TerraPass, a profitable firm that has helped individuals and businesses reduce over a billion pounds of carbon dioxide. At INSEAD, Karan researches and teaches issues related to business model innovation. His research has appeared in top academic journals and has been featured by the Financial Times, Businessweek, the Sloan Management Review and the Harvard Business Review. "Too often, students are narrowly focused on their immediate career goal and they underestimate the power of each one of us.  One you start believing you can make great change, once you give it some conscious effort, most of us can accomplish far more than we can imagine." - Karan Girotra Quotes from Karan: What we learn in this episode: We blend innovation and education to see what is going on and what may be next. How can one individual actually change the world? What is business model innovation and why is it perhaps more important than product innovation? What are the two main ways you can innovate your creative process? Many of the problems we see in business today is due to a misalignment between the producer and the consumer. Resources: The Risk-Driven Business Model: Four Questions That Will Define Your Company http://renaissanceinnovator.com/ Karan in the Harvard Business Review www.girotra.com Twitter @girotrak -- This episode is brought to you by: 99Designs: Go to 99designs.com/SMART to get a $99 Power Pack of services for FREE today! Personal Capital: With Personal Capital, you’ll finally be able to see all your accounts in one place and get a clear view of everything you own. To sign up for free go to personalcapital.com/smartpeople.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices