Curious Minds at Work

By Gayle AllenBusiness Science Social Sciences Arts Books Management

Curious Minds at Work episodes

April 11, 2016 CM 031: Farai Chideya on the New World of Work
Technology and globalization are reshaping work, but what can we do about it? What approaches should we take as organizations do more with fewer employees? How can we think about our careers as we hold more jobs over the course of our lives, often from different fields? What skills do we need and what mindsets should we hold?
Farai Chideya, author of The Episodic Career: How to Thrive at Work in the Age of Disruption, helps us answer these questions. Through her research, reporting, and work experience, she offers insights into what has changed and what we can do. Farai is a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York Universitys Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, an award-winning author, journalist, professor, and she frequently appears on public radio and cable television, speaking about race, politics, and culture.
In this episode, we talk about:
The most important step you can take before starting a job search
Counterintuitive ways to find local jobs and to use your social network
How a learning mindset can ensure greater career success
Why emotional resilience is the new superpower
The upside of an episodic career
Why a tech-informed mindset is a must-have no matter your job
Farai also shares her curiosity about American life and the American dream and how a changing world of work is influencing these things. She wonders how new technologies will change how we live.
Episode Links
@Farai
http://www.farai.com
The Episodic Career: How to Thrive at Work in the Age of Disruption by Farai Chideya
New York University Journalism Institute
Facebook
Google
Virtual reality
Artificial intelligence
Robotics
Automation
Data journalism
Farai and the FiveThirtyEight Blog
Decision tree
Rise of the Robots by Martin Ford
Encore.org
CRISPR
If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!
32 min
April 04, 2016 CM 030: Chris Guillebeau on Winning the Career Lottery
We each have work we were born to do, but it can take time and effort to find it. Becoming comfortable with the search is half the battle, because we need to try different kinds of jobs and work environments. With each experience we gain greater insight into the skills and knowledge we have to share, and we find our perfect blend of work, skills and meaning.
In his latest book, Born for This, Chris Guillebeau, bestselling author of The $100 Startup and The Happiness of Pursuit, shares his own experiences and the stories of the many people he has interviewed, to help us navigate this process and choose our own path. Chris is the creator and host of The World Domination Summit, and a successful entrepreneur, speaker, and blogger. After a 10-year personal quest, he has visited every country in the world.
In this episode, we talk about:
Why you see yourself as self-employed, even if you work for someone else
The joy-flow-money framework for evaluating creative opportunities
What it means to bet on yourself
The environments that support your best work
The skills you most need to learn (and they are not what you think they are)
Why giving up is actually a good thing
Strategies for hacking new products and services
Why curiosity is so important
Episode Links
@ChrisGuillebeau
ChrisGuillebeau
Born for This by Chris Guillebeau
The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau
The Happiness Pursuit by Chris Guillebeau
The World Domination Summit
Steve Jobs
Seth Godin
Facebook
Shenee Howard
Manifest Destiny
If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!
27 min
March 28, 2016 CM 029: Herminia Ibarra on Learning to Lead
We are taught to think before we act. But what happens when we need to act in order for that thinking to make sense?
Herminia Ibarra’s research suggests that is exactly the case when learning to lead. Based on decades of research, teaching, experience, and interviews, her latest book, Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader, outlines ways that we can assume larger leadership roles. Her work also confirms that, until we adjust to these new roles and responsibilities, we may feel fake or unlike ourselves. All of that is normal.
Herminia is a Professor of Leadership and Learning at INSEAD and the Founding Director of The Leadership Transition program.
In this episode, we talk about:
The small but crucial changes we can take on a daily basis to step up to leadership
Ways to redefine our jobs to make more strategic contributions
What it means to diversify our networks for learning
Ways to inject playfulness into how we see ourselves to ensure growth and change
Why it is natural to feel like a fake when we take on new roles and responsibilities
How to network within rather than outside of or on top of our jobs
The importance of taking action over spending time endlessly reflecting and thinking
Episode Links
@HerminiaIbarra
http://herminiaibarra.com
Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader by Herminia Ibarra
Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Rethinking Your Career by Herminia Ibarra
Outsight Principle
Mark Snyder
Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
Zelig
If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!
28 min
March 21, 2016 CM 028: Cal Newport on Deep Work
Should we expect distractions at work? Or are we unwittingly cooperating in our own ineffectiveness?
In this conversation, Cal Newport, bestselling author of Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, shares how deep work has become the superpower of the 21st century. Cal argues that today’s workplace is a minefield of distractions. With email, open floor plans, and instant messaging systems, we’re continually pulled away from meaningful, productive work. And the very tools our workplaces rely on to promote productivity are actually contributing to increased distraction and inefficiency.
Learning to take control of our own attention is not only the key to a meaningful life, but it is the key to economic viability in a distracted age.
Cal is Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University, as well as the bestselling author of five books. His ideas and writing are frequently featured in major publications, and he is author of the popular blog, Study Hacks.
In this episode, we talk about:
What makes deep work so valuable
How deep work makes life more meaningful
What deep work looks like and how little distraction it takes to ruin it
Why boredom is actually the key to doing deep work
Why relationships hold the key to deep work
Why we should be teaching young people to engage in deep work
The value of being lazy when it comes to deep work
Why you need a philosophy for doing deep work
Cal also shares his deep curiosity to rethink cognitive workflows in a post-industrial age.
Episode Links
@CalNewport
Calnewport.com
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
Georgetown University
MIT
Slack
Eric Barker
The Second Machine Age by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson
Madmen
Adam Grant
Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Sophie LeRoy and attention residue
Jack Dorsey
Square
Twitter
Industrial Revolution
Henry Ford
Scientific management
Assembly lines
Knowledge worker
Wilhelm Hofmann
Roy Baumeister
How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett
Downton Abbey
The Collaboration Curse in The Economist
If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!
42 min
March 14, 2016 CM 027: Bee Wilson on How We Learn to Eat
Why do we love certain foods? What role do families and memories play in our tastes? How can we help our children to eat well and wisely? While we may think our food preferences are innate, most are learned when we are young. And that also means we can change our preferences if we choose.
In her bestselling book First Bite: How We Learn to Eat, Bee Wilson helps us rethink everything we thought we knew about eating. Bee is the author of four books, a writer for The Guardian & the London Review of Books, and the BBC Radio Food Writer of the Year.
In this episode, we talk about:
how our food likes and dislikes are less about biology and more about learned habits
whether children know instinctively how to eat healthy foods
how our home environment shapes our preferences
why children reject new foods and how to get them to eat a wide variety
the fascinating role of schools in influencing our eating habits
how to change the types of foods that we like
the role that gender plays in the formation of eating habits
choices Japan made to change its eating patterns
how we often overlook the single biggest influence on our eating habits
Bee also speculates on how our healthcare systems could improve our health and save billions of dollars by teaching how to eat.
Episode Links
@KitchenBee
Bee Wilson
Consider the Fork
First Bite: How We Learn to Eat
Clara Davis
Supertasters
Food neophobia
Lucy Cook
Tiny Tastes
Keith Williams and Tiny Tastes
Karl Duncker
Julie Mennella
Bulimia
Anorexia
Eating in Post-War Japan
If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. As always, thanks for listening!
38 min
March 07, 2016 CM 026: Dan Gardner on Predicting the Future
How can you better forecast the future? What are the characteristics and habits of mind of those who are the best in the world at doing it? And why are those people rarely the forecasters featured in the national and international media?
In their bestselling book Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction, Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner have shared their research on the elite few who correctly predict events that have not yet happened. Dan is an award-winning journalist, an editor, and the author of two other books, Risk and Future Babble. He recently joined the Canadian Prime Minister’s office as a senior advisor.
In this episode, we talk about:
what separates superforecasters from others making predictions
the limits of even the best forecasters
the two types of forecasters -- Hedgehogs and Foxes -- and which one is better
how the intelligence community learned surprising things about their predictions
the most common mistakes of amateur forecasters
why the best forecasters are not smarter and don’t have more access to information
the role of intellectual humility in forecasting
how to learn to be a superforecaster
Dan also shares the things he’s most curious about working on next.
Episode Links
@dgardner
@ptetlock
Philip Tetlock
Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction
The Good Judgement Project
The Fox and the Hedgehog
George Soros
IARPA
Groupthink
John F. Kennedy
Bay of Pigs
Cuban Missile Crisis
Daniel Kahneman
Thinking Fast and Slow
Paul Slovic
If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!
36 min
February 29, 2016 CM 025: Sydney Finkelstein on Leaders Who Move the World
If you are going to have a boss (or be a boss), make it a Superboss. Why? Because a Superboss leads individuals, teams, and organizations in ways that move the world.
Sydney Finkelstein, bestselling author of Super Bosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, shares these insights in our interview. Sydney is Professor of Management and Faculty Director of the Tuck Executive Program at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth where he specializes in business leadership and strategy.
In this episode, we talk about:
why working for a Superboss may be the best thing you ever do for your career
what sets Superbosses apart when it comes to hiring
why Superbosses dismiss textbook approaches to leadership
how Superbosses leverage collaboration and competition in teams
how losing incredible talent only strengthens Superbosses and their organizations
what you can do right now to become a Superboss
how Superbosses pursue deep passions outside of work
Sydney shares incredible stories from his research and captures how Superbosses often act in fascinating and counterintuitive ways.
Episode Links
@sydfinkelstein
Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent by Sydney Finkelstein
NFL, Bill Walsh, 49ers
Lorne Michaels and SNL, Tina Fey, Jimmy Fallon, Mike Myers
Norman Brinker and Chilis, Steak and Ale
Jon Stewart
Ralph Lauren
Larry Ellison
Marc Benioff and Salesforce.com
Julian Robertson
Jay Chiat
Bill Sanders
George Lucas and Skywalker Ranch, Industrial Light and Magic
Pixar
Alice Waters and Chez Panisse
Chase Coleman, III
General Electic (GE)
Harvard Business Review and Why Chief Human Resource Officers Make Great CEOs
Network effect
Thomas Frist and HCA
If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!
49 min
February 22, 2016 CM 024: Adam Grant on Being Original
Abraham Lincoln, Lucy Stone, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Steve Jobs: What set them apart and helped them achieve such world-altering success? In his latest book, Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World, Adam Grant shares the research on the mindsets, behaviors, and emotional resilience that lead to incredible breakthroughs in innovation and creativity. He also explains how we can apply these findings to our own lives.
Adam Grant is the youngest tenured, highest-rated professor of management and psychology at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a contributing writer for the New York Times, and he’s consulted with organizations like Google, the United Nations, and the U.S. Army. He is also the bestselling author of Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success.
In this episode, we talk about:
why Originals rarely accept the status quo
breadth versus depth -- which one drives innovation and creativity?
the role of risk in the mindset of Originals
what Originals do differently when faced with the same fears as everyone else
why we are the worst judges of our own ideas and who can help us
the importance of status over power in rallying others around our ideas
why enemies can become our biggest advocates
what really causes groupthink and prevents innovation
the power of getting pulled into leadership roles
role models versus mentors and how it can be easier to find them
why we need to rethink optimism, happiness, and contentment for achievement and innovation
why your first 15 ideas are less original than your next 20
Adam also shares how he uses these ideas in his classroom.
Episode Links
@AdamMGrant
Adam Grant website
Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant
vuja de
Albert Einstein
Tiger Mom
Galileo Galilei
Dean Simonton
Segway
Steve Jobs
Jerry Seinfeld and Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee
Frenemies
Basecamp
David Heinemeier Hansson
Abraham Lincoln
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Michelangelo
Irving Janis and Groupthink
Devils advocates and Charlan Nemeth at University of California, Berkeley
Mark Cuban and Shark Tank and Mavericks
Elon Musk
Peter Thiel
Lord of the Rings
Sheryl Sandberg
Jeff Bezos
A Wrinkle in Time
Mark Zuckerberg
Enders Game
Disney
Michael Eisner
The Lion King
King Lear
Hamlet
Bambi
Uber
TED Talk
If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!
37 min
February 15, 2016 CM 023: Donald Sull on Making Smarter Decisions
Every day we have problems to solve and decisions to make. Too often, the steps we take to address them result in more complexity, rather than less. That is where simple rules come in.
Donald Sull, bestselling author of Simple Rules: How to Thrive in a Complex World offers a six-step framework for better decision-making that has been tested with individuals and with organizations. An expert in global strategy, Don is a senior lecturer at MIT and a former professor at Harvard University and the London Business School. Using vivid examples and powerful stories, Don helps us see the creative impact of developing and applying simple rules.
In this episode, we talk about:
ways simple rules support strategy and encourage innovation
the ways simple rules beat out one-size-fits-all rules
the six-part framework to make simple rules of your own
why we need to involve the users of the rules in the creation process
how feedback only makes rules better over time
how simple rules can support personal and organizational agency and ownership
Episode Links
@simple_rules
donsull.com
Simple Rules: How to Thrive in a Complex World by Donald Sull and Kathleen Eisenhardt
Oakland As
Billy Beane
The Gates Foundation
Why the French Do Not Get Fat
Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think by Brian Wansink
Collin Payne
Pierre Chandon
Murmuration
Craig Reynolds
Orcs
Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
Zipcar and Robin Chase
Votorantim
Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger
Young Presidents Organization
Elmore Leonard
Tina Fey and 30 Rock
If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!
35 min
February 08, 2016 CM 022: Miki Agrawal on Pursuing Your Passion
What does it take to pursue your dream? For Miki Agrawal, it took a catastrophic event that had a direct impact on her work and her life. It woke her up to three goals she had always wanted to achieve. And it led her to become the serial entrepreneur she is today.
Along the way, Miki has been upending industries and winning all kinds of awards, including the Tribeca Film Festival 2013 Disruptive Innovation Award and Forbes 2013 Top 20 Millenials on a Mission. Just this past year, she received the 2015 World Technology Summit Social Entrepreneurship award for her company, THINX, a stain-resistant line of sustainable underwear for women.
In this episode, we talk about:
the event that prompted Miki to rethink her life
the wish list that led her to entrepreneurship
the secret to asking others to participate in your dreams
how freelance work primed her for working for herself
how passion and ignorance go a long way in risk taking
the role trial and error play in building a new product
Miki shares the ways she is disrupting an industry and prioritizing social responsibility. She also talks about her passion for rethinking culture and confronting cultural taboos.
Episode Links
Do Cool Sh*t
WILD
Tao Restaurant and Rich Wolf
Alex Koren
Toms
Warby Parker
AFRIPads
Tushy
If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!
27 min

About Curious Minds at Work

From the publisher's feed

Want to get better at work? At managing others? Managing yourself? Gayle Allen interviews experts who take your performance to the next level. Each episode features a book with insights to help you…