Curious Minds at Work

By Gayle AllenBusiness Science Social Sciences Arts Books Management

Curious Minds at Work episodes

February 01, 2016 CM 021: Jocelyn Glei on Creativity, Happiness and Meaningful Work
We all want to do meaningful work that gives our lives purpose and lets us be creative. And yet, the very tools that help us stay organized and connected can cause the kind of distractions that erode time spent on meaningful work.
Jocelyn Glei, bestselling author and editor of Manage Your Day-to-Day, Founding Editor-in-Chief and Director of Behance’s 99U and the 99U Conference, talks about this and more in this episode. And she helps us rethink what we know about creativity, meaningful work, and happiness.
In this episode, we talk about:
why creative work is so important
how being busy can distract us from doing work that matters
the creative rituals and routines that result in more meaningful work
why we need to redesign and manage our relationship with technology
the positive roles of productive procrastination and anxiety in creative, meaningful work
short-term happiness versus long-term purpose and meaning
Jocelyn also gives us a glimpse into her upcoming book on the distractions of email. She is the author of two additional books, Make Your Mark and Maximize Your Potential.
Episode Links
@JKGlei
Brene Brown
Jonathan Adler
Zine
MIT Press
The Acceleration of Addictiveness by Paul Graham
Hooked by Nir Eyal
The Achievement Habit by Bernie Roth
Out of Sheer Rage by Geoff Dyer
Miranda July
Evernote
Scrum
The Gift by Lewis Hyde
The Concept of Anxiety by Soren Kierkegaard
Seth Godin
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!
30 min
January 25, 2016 CM 020: Martin Ford on Artificial Intelligence, Automation and the Future of Work
Artificial intelligence, robotics, and automation technologies are fulfilling (and surpassing) predictions from the most creative science fiction. While the possibilities are exciting, these changes force us to ask what this means for the future of work. What jobs will they replace? Which industries will they decimate? What impact will they have on how we live and work in what many are calling a post-industrial age?
Martin Ford explores these questions and more, in his bestselling book, Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future. Named 2015 Business Book of the Year by the Financial Times and McKinsey, his book is helping to drive a much-needed conversation around the dark side of innovative technologies. As a software company founder who has worked in the industry for over 30 years, Martin saw how automation was eliminating more and more jobs. This led him to research the impact of cutting-edge technologies on labor, wages, and productivity.
In this episode you will learn:
why this time is different when it comes to the impact of automation on jobs
the important role education will play in how we respond and adapt
why we need to rethink income and healthcare policies to ensure a healthy economy
the pressing need to raise awareness around this issue and to incentivize solutions
Episode Links
@MFordFuture
Luddite
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Triple Revolution
Machine learning
Deep Learning
Artificial intelligence
The Three Breakthroughs That Have Finally Unleashed Artificial Intelligence on the World by Kevin Kelly
Everlaw
Long tail distribution
Ray Kurzweil
Basic or guaranteed income
Single-payer healthcare
X Prize
Peter Diamandis
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!
40 min
January 18, 2016 CM 019: Gillian Tett on Breaking Down Silos
When we operate in silos, we narrow our perspective in ways that can limit, and even destroy, innovation. So where have we seen silos before and what can we learn from them?
In this fascinating conversation with Gillian Tett, award-winning journalist and U.S. Managing Editor of the Financial Times, she explains how silos reversed decades of innovation at Sony, limited innovation in a world-class hospital, and played a key role in the 2007 global financial crisis. Drawing on insights from her bestselling book, The Silo Effect: The Peril of Expertise and the Promise of Breaking Down Barriers, she helps us see the patterns that create these tendencies, and the simple steps we can take to avoid or overcome them.
In this episode you will learn:
what makes smart people do apparently stupid things
how rewards and incentives can reinforce a silo mentality
why success can lead to silo perspectives
steps we can take to overcome mental and organizational silos
the value of an insider-outsider perspective
Also in this interview, Gillian encourages us to recognize how the silos begin erected in the information technology industry have begun to mirror those that led to the 2007 global financial crisis.
She is the other of two other bestselling books, Saving the Sun and Fools Gold.
Episode Links
@GillianTett
Octopus Pots
British Press Awards
Cleveland Clinic
Pierre Bourdieu
Mental Maps

Securitizations
Sir Paul Tucker
Paul McCulley
PIMCO
Shadow banking
Zoltan Poszar
Nicolaus Copernicus
Cultural anthropology
Brett Goldstein
Open Table
Toby Cosgrove
Robin Dunbar
It is Complicated by danah boyd
Liquidated by Karen Ho
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!
34 min
January 11, 2016 CM 018: Jeff Speck on Designing Cities that Fuel Innovation
Why do most people want to live in walkable cities and towns? What's the impact on innovation and well-being?
Jeff Speck, city planner, urban designer, TED Talk speaker, and bestselling author of Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time, offers fascinating and fact-filled responses to these questions. Along the way, he tells us the changes needed to make cities the thriving places that most people want.
In this episode you will learn:
what is a walkable city
how walkable cities drive innovation by attracting talent
what makes cities safer than suburbs
how more traffic signals actually make cities less safe
why the most popular solutions to congestion actually increase it
what the cheapest solution is for making a city more walkable
how great urban design trumps weather every time
Jeff also shares a fascinating insight regarding a possible downside of self-driving cars.
Episode Links
@JeffSpeckAICP
The Walkable City TED Talk by Jeff Speck
Externalities
Millenials Seek Walkable Cities
Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam
Single Family Housing
Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett
Induced demand and traffic
Free Good
Donald Shoup
Prospect-refuge Theory and Jay Appleton
Charrettes for Design
Andres Duany
Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk
Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design by Charles Montgomery
Inclusionary zoning
Granny flats
Wyandanch, New York
Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck
Jarrett Walker - Human Transit
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!
45 min
January 04, 2016 CM 017: Jonah Berger on Why Things Catch On
Why do certain products, services, or stories go viral? How can we make our own work contagious?
These are questions Wharton Professor, Jonah Berger, answers in his bestselling book, Contagious: Why Things Catch On. In this fascinating interview, he explains his six-part framework and discusses the behaviors that drive us to make certain ideas, products, and services contagious.
In this episode you will learn:
how to apply these techniques to your own work
what made the video for a seemingly humdrum product - a blender - go viral
which emotions drive us to share and which ones do not
what makes us spread the word for free
why you might suffer from the curse of knowledge and how you can avoid it
the critical difference between social media and word of mouth
Jonah also gives us a peek into his upcoming book on all the ways social influence drives our behavior. Fascinating stuff!
Episode Links
Beta testing
Social psychology
STEPPS Framework
Hooked: How to Build Habit-forming Products
Geico ad for Hump Day
Curse of knowledge
Trojan Horse
Social influence
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!
33 min
December 28, 2015 CM 016: Michelle Segar on Rethinking Exercise and Motivation
If you are one of the millions of people who struggle to stick with an exercise program, Michelle Segar has a secret for you: It is not your fault; it is a faulty system.
After years of studying the science of motivation, Michelle Segar, Ph.D., Director of SHARP -- the Sport, Health, and Activity research and policy center at the University of Michigan -- has created a framework for rethinking exercise, one that replaces a prescriptive mindset with one more aligned with human behavior and emotion. Filled with practical tips and strategies, Michelle’s bestselling book, No Sweat: How the Simple Science of Motivation Can Bring You a Lifetime of Fitness, is informed by years of putting these findings into practice with people just like you.
In this episode you will learn:
how to short-circuit the vicious cycle of failure
why fitness apps are not enough
why willpower is not the answer
the science of decision making and reward
the power of self-determination theory - initiating behavior because you should versus because you find it meaningful
the more moderate recommendations for physical activity - which are known by less than 1 percent of physical activity professionals
Episode Links
Paulo Freire
Dan Ariely
Behavioral economics
Reward Substitution
Self-determination theory
No Sweat Resolutions Quiz
2015 USA Best Book Awards
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
December 21, 2015 CM 015: Warren Berger on Questions that Prompt Innovation
What if the secret to successful innovation lies in asking ambitious questions, the kinds most of us rarely ask? That is exactly what Warren Berger learned in speaking with some of the most recognized, global leaders in innovation. He discovered that they not only ask different kinds of questions, but they apply those questions to problems unsolved and unseen. Along the way, they change the world.
He shares these insights, and more, in his bestselling book, A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas. Most importantly, he helps us learn how we, too, can ask these kinds of questions and get started on our own innovative paths.
In this episode you will learn:
why curiosity is a killer app for success in work, life, and leadership
the difference between ordinary and game changing questions
the power of problem finding
tips for helping us question our assumptions
a framework to support innovative inquiry
the connection between making, design thinking and powerful inquiry
how important it is to create a culture of questioning
Warren will share insights from his work with leaders in all kinds of organizations, including schools, and he will talk about his goals for future projects.
Episode Links
Wired Magazine
Why Curious People are Destined for the C-Suite
The Right Question Institute
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!
23 min
December 14, 2015 CM 014: Alvin Roth on the Secrets of Market Design
Nobel-prize-winning economist Alvin Roth explores the markets that shape our lives, particularly our work, our health care and our schools. He also explains how key technologies enable companies like Uber, Airbnb, and Google to thrive. His insights extend beyond products, services, and features to include how successful companies attract and hire the most talented employees.
Alvin Roth is a Stanford University Professor, and bestselling author of Who Gets What - and Why: The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design. In this episode you will learn:
how one phone call and a pivotal decision ultimately led to a Nobel Prize
the important differences between markets
the role of markets when it comes to marriage, loans, and more
the role of social support in markets
the ways the Internet and mobile technology shape market possibilities
the three key factors that influence the success of companies like Airbnb and Uber
the ways Smartphones are influencing markets
how labor market findings influenced the market designs of today
what game theory can teach us about getting into college and getting a job
how market designers are applying their skills to the growing global refugee crisis
Alvin also shares what got him interested in the economics of market design and the potential this new field holds for helping us rethink what markets are and can do.
Episode Links
Bob Beran
National Resident Matching Program
Operations research
Roth-Peranson Algorithm
Elliott Peranson
United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS)
School Choice Programs
Black Market
Repugnant Markets
Lloyd Shapley
David Gale
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences
1962 paper of Lloyd Shapley and David Gale
Stable Matching (or Marriage) Problem (SMP)
Game Theory
Parag A. Pathak
Atila Abdulkadiroglu
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!
32 min
December 07, 2015 CM 013: Jamie Holmes on the Surprising Benefits of Uncertainty
No one likes uncertainty, yet our success may depend on it. In the bestseller, Nonsense: The Power of Not Knowing, Jamie Holmes argues that uncertainty and ambiguity are invaluable mindsets in an increasingly complex world. In fact, he wants us to rethink our desire for order and closure, so that we can be better leaders, decision makers, and innovators.
A recent Future Tense Fellow at New America, Jamie has written for the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Philadelphia Inquirer, CNN, the Huffington Post, POLITICO, the Christian Science Monitor, the New Republic, the Atlantic, Slate, Foreign Policy, and the Daily Beast.
In this episode you will learn:
the reasons why a high tolerance for uncertainty is so valuable right now
the ways we can use uncertainty to avoid bad decisions
how our need for closure and order drives so much of what we do
the value of uncertainty for innovation and creativity
strategies for guarding against negative behaviors associated with certainty
when (and how) to hire employees who thrive on uncertainty
the kinds of leaders we prefer versus need in times of uncertainty
how successful, innovative companies incorporate uncertainty into their business models
what this means for educators and learners
the real-world disorder and chaos associated with innovation, discovery, and creativity
concrete strategies to help students get more comfortable with uncertainty
what a renowned golf instructor can teach us about feedback
the power of travel and bilingualism for building this capacity
the power of reading fiction for helping us strengthen our tolerance for uncertainty
Jamie also shares how uncertainty, ambiguity and not knowing make us better leaders and expand our capacity for innovation and creativity.
Episode Links
Jerome Bruner
Leo Postman
Travis Proulx
Jordan Peterson
Arie Kruglanski
Need for Closure scale
Stalling for Time by Gary Noesner
Ambiguity Intolerance
Zara
Inditex
Amancio Ortega
Jim Lang
Assumption College
Brilliant Blunders by Mario Livio
Bob Christina
Dean Simonton
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!
41 min
November 30, 2015 CM 012: Thiel Fellow Madison Maxey on Making and Design
At 16, Madison Maxey was the youngest to intern at Tommy Hilfiger. Shortly after that, she founded her company, The Crated, a product innovation studio focused on second-generation wearable technology. Then, she went to college, like she was supposed to do.
But for Maddy, there was a disconnect between the feelings that she received from her work and sitting in college classes.So after one semester of college, she dropped out to accept a Thiel Fellowship. Since then her work has been featured in Wired, Fast Company, and New York Magazine, and she has provided wearable tech insights to the likes of the White House and Google. She has been named a founder to watch by Women 2.0 and is an Entrepreneur in Residence at General Assembly and an Artist in Residence at Autodesk.
This week, in a special edition of Curious Minds, I share interviews with four young people, ages 18-22, each of whom decided either to drop out or never attend college, in order to pursue work that mattered to them. Each is either a current or past recipient of a Thiel Fellowship, a program founded in 2011 by Peter Thiel to encourage young people to sidestep college and a traditional life path, in order to chart their own course as entrepreneurs.
In this episode you will hear Madison talk about:
innovations in wearable technology
what motivated her to learn programming
why she dropped out of college after one semester
her eagerness to be a Thiel Fellow
her passion for costume design and design optimization
what her parents thought about her decision to drop out of college
her policy of You Do You
the importance of finding your tribe
how communication skills inform her work
her work in relation to the Maker Movement
how uncertainty is a natural part of innovation
why young people should be working on projects right now
how she had to learn the skills of time management
her curiosity about teamwork, collaboration, and community in relation to a goal
Episode Links
Digital Fabrication
Textile Circuits
General Assembly
Autodesk
Computational Design
3D CNC Machine
Workflows
Arduino
Enabling Technologies
Nathan Wolfe TEDTalk
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…