Conversations About Collaboration

Author and UX expert Tamara Adlin joins me for a rocking chat. We talk about personas, collaboration, shiny new things, the four stages of competence, and the classic Pink Floyd album Dark Side of the Moon.

Kevin Roose of The New York Times pops by for a chat about his new book Futureproof: 9 Rules for Humans in the Age of Automation. We talk about Best Buy, Amazon, Google's scary-accurate AI tool, remote work, and ways to retain our humanity when machines rule the world.

Brian Elliott, Executive Leader of the Future Forum, joins me for a fascinating discussion on the dimensions of collaboration. We talk about flexibility, inclusivity, and connection. Oh, and his dog Yuki.

Natalie Angelillo of OfferUp joins me for a rollicking discussion on how her company has handled the WFH environment. We discuss the adoption of Slack at her company and how it evolved over time. She also gives me her insights on the future of the office. Oh, and we talk about donuts.

Firebrand Toni Cowan-Brown pops by for a lively chat about a host of different topics, including remote meetings, workplace etiquette in the WFH world, Zoom, Slack, Formula One racing, Clubhouse, Reimagining Collaboration, and more. Hell, it's probably easier if I list what we didn't discuss in this action-packed episode.

Yeah, I’m providing an extra goodie this week. The audiobook version of Reimagining Collaboration is out now. (As of this moment, it's live on Apple Books. Expect it to drop on the other sites soon.) For now, enjoy the dulcet tones of rock star Gary Bennett in this one-chapter excerpt. The dude makes me seem pretty freakin’ smart.

Bill Carr is the co-author of Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon. He joins me to talk about collaboration at the e-commerce behemoth. We discuss how the company gets so much done and succeeds where so many others fail.

Distributed-teams expert, author, and fellow member of the bald brotherhood John O'Duinn pops in for a lively discussion. We talk about his book Distributed Teams: The Art and Practice of Working Together While Physically Apart. We also cover Vermont’s Remote Worker Program. (Yeah, that's a thing.)

Author, Emmy winner, and overall smart cookie Karin Reed pops by to chat about her new book Suddenly Virtual: Making Remote Meetings Work. We talk about the research behind remote meetings, emotional labor, and surface acting. Don't know what the last two concepts are? Neither did I until she taught me a thing or six.

Brian Kropp of Gartner Research joins me to talk about his impressive body of work. We discuss employee incentives, flexibility, whether collaboration is a goal or just a means to an end, and the future of work. It's a rocking conversation and I had a blast.