Your Brain at Work
Neuroleadership Institute
In organizations around the world, leaders are facing a deluge of urgent issues: a crisis in employee engagement, the need to make workforces more diverse, and the challenge of making workplaces feel human in an era of increasing dependence on technology and remote communication.
At the NeuroLeadership Institute, we believe brain science can help provide solutions. Join us on Your Brain At Work, the official podcast of the NeuroLeadership Institute — where top researchers and thought leaders share breakthroughs in brain science and industry leaders reveal the strategies behind their success.
By helping them understand how the brain works, we equip leaders with the tools to transform their organizations — building new habits and changing how people work, communicate, and make decisions. Combining research and practice, brain science and business leadership, Your Brain at Work explores how insights from the lab can provide solutions that work across industries and at any scale.
Season 1 guests include broadcast journalist Soledad O’Brien; Dean Carter, Director of Human Resources, Finance, Legal, Shared Services at Patagonia; Deb Bubb, Vice President of Learning and Inclusion at IBM; and FD Wilder, Senior Vice President of Go-To-Market Strategy and Innovation at Procter & Gamble.
Your Brain At Work. Helping make organizations more human.
At the NeuroLeadership Institute, we believe brain science can help provide solutions. Join us on Your Brain At Work, the official podcast of the NeuroLeadership Institute — where top researchers and thought leaders share breakthroughs in brain science and industry leaders reveal the strategies behind their success.
By helping them understand how the brain works, we equip leaders with the tools to transform their organizations — building new habits and changing how people work, communicate, and make decisions. Combining research and practice, brain science and business leadership, Your Brain at Work explores how insights from the lab can provide solutions that work across industries and at any scale.
Season 1 guests include broadcast journalist Soledad O’Brien; Dean Carter, Director of Human Resources, Finance, Legal, Shared Services at Patagonia; Deb Bubb, Vice President of Learning and Inclusion at IBM; and FD Wilder, Senior Vice President of Go-To-Market Strategy and Innovation at Procter & Gamble.
Your Brain At Work. Helping make organizations more human.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Sep 27, 2021 • 50min
Using Neuroscience to Navigate the Executive Order on DEIA
In this Season 6 Premiere of Your Brain at Work, our panel reviews the President’s recent Executive Order on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility that continues to drive positive change in the federal workspace and the organizations they impact.
We'll examine some of the key points within the order through the lens of neuroscience and identify potential pitfalls that can snag even the most well-meaning leaders in their efforts.
Dive deep with us on the challenges of mandating a path to equity, and learn how to avoid the traps and gain solid ground towards diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. While this session focuses on the public sector, the insights will be pertinent to DEIA efforts in the private sector as well.
Aug 23, 2021 • 48min
Continuous Performance Management in an Ambiguous World
Welcome to the Season 5 finale of Your Brain at Work Live. Performance management is a huge topic throughout work in general, but it’s faded somewhat recently due to COVID, hybrid approaches, and other concerns of leaders. We come back and revisit performance management as part of the talent ecosystem in this season finale, with David Rock, Marshall Bergmann, and Christy Pruitt-Haynes.
Aug 16, 2021 • 45min
New Frontiers For Leadership: Navigating The Hybrid World
Many companies were ready for a hybrid work model to start up this summer and fall. There were still big questions, but we were headed that way. Then a few variants emerged, and we entered into a larger vaccination discussion, and now some of these dates have been pushed back, often into January 2022 for some big brands. But -- this is good news for leaders! It gives you more time to navigate the landscape. In this podcast, three NLI experts talk about how to navigate the world of hybrid work, including how to account for your real estate position.
Aug 9, 2021 • 48min
Innovation and Mitigating Unconscious Bias
Unconscious bias is a huge driver of work outcomes. While we’ve known this for generations, only recently has it become a bigger discussion in management theory and the training space. In this episode of Your Brain at Work Live, our own Janet Stovall sits down with NYU’s inaugural senior vice president for global inclusion and strategic innovation, Dr. Lisa Coleman, and Dr. Natalie Byfield, a professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at St. John's University. The three discuss bias as an impediment to innovation, bias as a cultural concern, and ways of overcoming the inherent challenges of bias.
Aug 2, 2021 • 43min
De-Escalation: The Most Essential Management Skill of 2021
In Season 3 of Your Brain at Work Live, we debuted with an episode on de-escalation, featuring Joe Smarro of the Emmy-nominated HBO documentary “Ernie and Joe, Crisis Cops.” At this point in Season 5, as the world attempts to reopen and we’re constantly bombarded with images and videos of situations that need to be de-escalated -- think about airlines, as one starting place -- we wanted to revisit the topic. This time, we discuss the neuroscience of de-escalation, and day-to-day strategies for bringing down the boil on a situation, with in-house experts Dr. Joy VerPlanck (Senior Insight Strategist, NLI), Dr. David Rock (CEO & Co-Founder, NLI), and Brian Uridge (Deputy Director Division of Public Safety & Security, University of Michigan Medicine).
Jul 28, 2021 • 44min
How Global Organizations Move DE&I Forward -- with Elizabeth Nelson, Jennifer Amara, Michaela Simpson, and Paulette Gerkovich
In this episode of Your Brain at Work, senior Neuroleadership Institute researcher Michaela Simpson and NLI’s Director of DEI Practice Paulette Gerkovich are joined by two distinguished guests: Elizabeth Nelson, the director of diversity and inclusion at Thomson Reuters, and Jennifer Amara, the VP of Global Talent at Otis Worldwide. This knowledgeable foursome of women walks through what works -- and what doesn’t -- about current approaches to diversity, equity, and inclusion on a global scale.
Jul 15, 2021 • 52min
Can We Bridge The Gap?: The Neuroscience of Division and Polarization with Jonathan Haidt and Alison Taylor
In this episode of Your Brain at Work, Dr. David Rock, the CEO and Co-founder of the Neuroleadership Institute is joined by two esteemed guests: Jonathan Haidt, a professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business and co-author of the best-seller The Coddling of the American Mind, and Alison Taylor, the Executive Director of Ethical Systems. The three shed light on the core divisions in America, how those divisions seep into professional discourse, and most importantly, what we can do to bridge divides. When the trio gets into strategies for bridging the divides we have, it’s less about deleting Facebook from your phone and more about what decades of brain science and social science research have taught us about practicing empathy, seeing others, and listening to opposing viewpoints.
Jul 6, 2021 • 47min
Friends and Foes: The Neuroscience of In-Group and Out-Group with Harvard Professor Dr. Jason Mitchell
In this episode of Your Brain at Work, Dr. David Rock, the CEO and Co-founder of the NeuroLeadership Institute is joined by Dr. Jason Mitchell, a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. Together, they explore the concept of in-group and out-group, the effects it has on the brain and behavior, and what we can do about it to mitigate the negative effects and accentuate the positive. The two scientists unpack how we can leverage that knowledge to make interactions more positive and effective, and to make organizations more human.
Jun 29, 2021 • 45min
Juneteenth: Towards a New Perspective
The United States Congress has passed a bill declaring Juneteenth a federal holiday. The bill's passage marks the first time a new federal holiday has been established since Congress approved Martin Luther King Jr. day in 1983. More importantly, Juneteenth marks and commemorates emancipation of Black Americans. Now, organizations across the country are asking what they can and should do to mark the occasion. In this episode, an esteemed panel discusses Juneteenth from a historical perspective, how it resonates and moves communities today, and where the conversation is going in the future. They explore what meaningful ways can companies, leaders, and society-at-large deploy efforts and resources to create a more just, diverse, and equitable future.
Jun 22, 2021 • 49min
Why Your Culture Was Never Your Building
At the start of the pandemic, when many US companies were implementing remote work policies, many leaders feared that workplace culture would wither without in-person interactions. But, to the amazement and relief of many, that wasn’t necessarily true. Why? Because your culture was never your building—it’s something more. In this episode of Your Brain at Work, we unpack the science and explore the data at the intersections of culture and hybrid work. Our panel, including Lisa McGregor, the Global Lead of Workplace Space Strategies at Jacobs,
and Perri Mathews, the Manager of Culture Transformation and Change at Blue Cross & Blue Shield of North Carolina, shares how hybrid work settings can actually be a culture accelerator, if we follow the science.
