Disrupt Yourself Podcast with Whitney Johnson

We've covered bias in previous episodes, but this week we tackle it head-on — specifically, how our language choices affect people, and the difference between bias, prejudice, and bullying. Kim Scott is a coach to some of Silicon Valley's most influential CEOs, and known for her groundbreaking book Radical Candor, about the complexity of giving critical feedback, even when it's hard. Trier Bryant is the CEO of Just Work, a consultancy specializing in identifying harmful bias and injustice in the workplace, and providing the tools to overcome it. Together, they help employees and managers develop a shared vocabulary so everyone feels safe to say, "that word/phrase is not OK." It's a crucial, but often missing step on the path toward true diversity, equity, and inclusion. It's harder than it seems, but making the effort to own your language — even during this very interview — is a great first step. Kim, Trier, and Whitney go deep on how caring for others can go hand-in-hand with challenging them directly, and why casual word choices take a heavy toll on marginalized people over time.

Hybrid offices. Work-from-home. Unlimited vacation. Parental and sick leave. Diversity, equity, and inclusion. The scrutiny of company culture has intensified during the pandemic as millions ask: Is there a better way to work? Johnny C. Taylor set out to write a book about this in March 2020 when we all expected a 2-3 week "pause" in normalcy. Two years of pandemic later, the thesis of his book transformed. RESET: A Leader’s Guide to Work in an Age of Upheaval is Johnny's analysis of a radical post-COVID re-think. But he's not just an observer. Johnny is a lawyer, longtime HR pro, and currently the CEO of the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), an organization that educates and advises HR professionals. And while HR was previously viewed as the team to nag about payroll and benefits, Johnny says they've become the "emotional first responders" in a time of unprecedented uncertainty. Johnny explains what workers want and expect from companies in 2022, the power of the perfect CHRO + CEO partnership, and why Diversity & Inclusion efforts require more than passionate good intentions. He also shares how firing one employee long ago changed his life forever.

If you feel like the world is "speeding up" technologically and culturally, you're not alone. "Future shock" is real. We are faced with daily decisions that our grandparents could never conceive. This makes planning your life, career, and family rather hard. Amy Webb is a quantitative futurist, who uses data to imagine the unimaginable. She doesn't predict the future, but plans for every possible outcome so companies can be better prepared. One area she's been particularly fascinated with is synthetic biology. It's the merging of computer science and genetics. Imagine a world where we can program cells like tiny computers to cure diseases, grow corn in a city warehouse, and manufacture real meat without ever killing animal. It's already happening, and the benefits are huge. But when people hear about modifying DNA and growing chicken cells in a bio-reactor, they bristle. The "newness" of this science, filtered through politics, media and social media, often disrupts honest discourse about it. In her new book, The Genesis Machine: Our Quest to Rewrite Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology, Amy explains that healthy skepticism of new things is good, so long as it's tempered with a good faith discussion of the data.

Navigating conflict is part of everything: Family, relationships, business. Productive disagreement can lead to innovation, compromise, and inclusion. But investigative journalist Amanda Ripley has spent much of her career studying what she calls "high conflict." This is where disagreements get so entrenched that they become identities, and a cycle of blame. People are quickly sucked into a tribal mentality: "It's Us verses Them." This is what has become of our politics, our online discourse, and actual warfare, as we've sadly seen in recent weeks. But there's hope. After covering disasters, warzones, and local politics for years, Amanda has identified specific signals that turn good conflict into high conflict. And there are tactics we can use to break the cycles of tribalism. Through this lens, Amanda and Whitney discuss ways to address intractable conflict at any scale: Marriages, co-workers, neighborhoods, government, and even the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

When we think of high-performance jobs like pro athletes and the military, practice is 90% of the work. An NFL quarterback trains a lot longer than the handful of games he plays, and benefits from a team of coaches. Yet in the professional world, we are thrown into the deep end, often learning on the job. This has its benefits, but also creates uncertainty, stress, and burnout. With mental health in sharp focus recently, so too has professional coaching become more important. But not everyone has access to it. That's the problem Alexi Robichaux has been trying to solve as the co-founder and CEO of BetterUp. It's an online platform that connects thousands of people to coaches to maximize their potential. But figuring out what the world wanted from a company like this was a confusing, bumpy ride. "There is no hack," Alexi says, when re-framing leadership coaching as a well-being practice, rather than a corporate band-aide. Alexi shares the "gentle intervention" he received from a colleague that lead him to re-think his career and start the business, and why the world wasn't ready for an online coaching network...until now.

We never stop learning on this show, but this week's topic is about the formal structures of education we all grew up in: school. It comes in many flavors these days, but in a world of rapid technological and social acceleration, many teachers, parents, and students wonder if the current model is still working. Dr. Ulcca Joshi Hansen is a teacher, author, researcher, and the Chief Program Officer at Grantmakers for Education. Her new book is called "The Future of Smart," and it looks at history, psychology, and our current technological moment and asks: “What if school was more dynamic, more inclusive, and more empowering for all kids?” We all want this. But getting there isn't a 3-5 year tweak to the curriculum. Dr. Hansen argues it's a generational project that could take 20 years — but there's no better time to start than right now. Dr. Hansen and Whitney discuss the history of modern education, and how a holistic, mastery-based approach might better prepare students for a world of rapid change.

You're in the sweet spot. You've mastered your role. Everything is going right. And then: You're laid off. The market shifts. A company goes under. These are always looming threats, but they came into sharp focus during the pandemic. Matthew Swaney has been an airline pilot for more than 35 years. When travel patterns shifted at the height of COVID, he was let go from his job with limited prospects for a new one. Re-inventing yourself early in your career is one thing. But Swaney built a lifetime of experience around flying, only to have it taken away so close to retirement. As a regular listener of "Disrupt Yourself," he reached out to Whitney for advice. The result is this candid conversation about grieving the loss of your identity, and the fear of jumping to a completely unknown S Curve in uncertain times.

Sometimes, we're racing forward at 35 mph. Everything is going right. Momentum has kicked in. We're flying past the competition And then: WHAM. This week's guest knows this figuratively, and literally. Apolo Ohno is a world champion speed skater and Olympian with 8 medals, two of them gold. Even as one of the world's greatest athletes, he's hit his share of walls — sometimes on the ice, and sometimes in business, personal relationships, and in his challenging transition away from sport. As part of the recent "Begin, Grow, Pivot & Learn" event, Whitney had a chance to interview Ohno about his life after the Olympics (a time he calls "The Great Divorce"), which taught him to stop saying "no" to new experiences and explore strengths and weaknesses he never knew he had. Ohno also shares insights from his new book, "Hard Pivot," which is available everywhere on February 22.

Jumping to a new S Curve is hardest when your identity hangs in the balance. This happens often with professional athletes and members of the military who have trained their entire life for one job ... until it's gone. Our guest this week is Angela Ruggiero, one of the greatest ice hockey players in the world. She has represented the U.S. at four Olympic games, brought home multiple medals (including the gold), and served on the International Olympic Committee. But one of the greatest challenges of her life was reinventing herself after all that came to an end. A lot of soul-searching and more hard work resulted in the Sports Innovation Lab, a market research firm devoted to understanding 21st century fandom. Angela shares the hard lessons about teamwork she learned on the ice, the time she gave herself permission to walk away from hockey (and eventually return), why CEOs must get used to hearing "no," and the advice her father gave her as a young player that informs every decision she makes to this day.

Finding the gift that makes each of us special is apparent to some, and a long, difficult journey for others. Waking up every day and choosing growth as our default setting goes a long way toward this self-actualization. So says Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman, a cognitive scientist who has written several books on the subject of human potential, and hosts the Psychology Podcast, which has received more than 20 million downloads. And even when you do self-actualize, you'll likely need to jump to new S Curves later in life. After all, Scott was an opera singer and American Idol contestant before he found his true instruments: writing and listening. Whitney talks with Scott about his popular sailboat metaphor for emotional wellbeing, why exploring your own mind is just as important as exploring the world, and the importance of letting go of shame from the past.