Curious Minds at Work

Most of us believe we can make a difference in the world. That we can have an impact. What holds us back from acting on those beliefs are often the doubts. Doubts about our skills, our credentials, even our roles at work.

Alex Budak studied the research and interviewed the changemakers, and he argues we can all be changemakers, no matter our resumes. That’s what led him to write his book, Becoming a Changemaker: An Actionable, Inclusive Guide to Leading Positive Change at Any Level.

I was inspired by Alex’s book and our conversation. I walked away with a changemaker playbook on the mindset, leadership qualities, and behaviors to make it happen.

Episode Links

Finding Leadership Treasures in World Cup Trash

Stop Waiting for Permission

Be the Light

Interview with Sheena Iyengar

The Team

Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here.

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This year, we witnessed a solar eclipse. Walking the streets of my neighborhood that day, looking through my solar eclipse glasses and sharing them with others, I felt a profound sense of awe.

And I saw that awe, that wonder, reflected in the faces of the people around me. For one or two hours, we were part of something bigger than ourselves. And that experience took us out of ourselves. It softened and connected us.

Experiences like that are what made me want to read Dacher Keltner’s latest book, Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life. In this conversation, we talk about what awe is, how it works, and why it matters. We also talk about how to build more awe into our lives.

Episode Links

Here’s Why You Need to Be Cultivating Awe in Your Life

An Awe Walk

Strengthen Your Leadership with the Science of Awe

Interview with Norman Farb author of Better in Every Sense

The Team

Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here.

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Social connections are one of the keys to a happy and healthy life, yet few of us learn how to build them.

If we’re lucky, we have family and friends who model them. But even then, our biology equips us with cognitive biases that can get in the way.

Fortunately, award-winning science writer David Robson has studied the research. He shares what he’s learned in his latest book, The Laws of Connection: The Scientific Secrets of Building a Strong Social Network.

In this conversation, he talks about the biases we hold and how we can overcome them. It’s a terrific resource for rethinking your approach to social connection.

Episode Links

How Learning about the Science of Shyness Helped Me

The Big Idea: Why You Shouldn’t Be Afraid of Being a Mess

Interview with Marissa King on Social Networks and Social Chemistry

The Team

Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here.

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There are many good reasons to look to others. For example, you might need expert advice or feedback to improve your performance. But there’s one reason not to, and, that is, to determine your self-worth.

When you look to someone else to define you or tell you how to live your life, you lose a lot. And if you find it hard to believe you’d ever let someone else influence you in those ways, you’d be surprised.

Michael Gervais is a high-performance psychologist who’s worked with elite athletes, artists, and leaders. Through his work, he’s learned that one of the biggest obstacles standing in their way is fear of other people’s opinions. And he’s seen just how crippling those fears can be. That’s why he’s written the book, The First Rule of Mastery: Stop Worrying about What People Think of You.

In talking to Michael, I learned how our biology sets us up to place a lot of weight on other people’s opinions. I also learned how social media is designed to reinforce that fear. Fortunately, Michael shared insights on what to do. I walked away feeling empowered.

Episode Links

Stop Basing Your Self-Worth on Other People’s Opinions

Free Your People from the Need for Social Approval

Build a Great Team on a Relationship-Based Culture, Not the Myth of Family

Interview with Jonathan Rhodes on Getting the Life You Want

The Team

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We’re surrounded by people with knowledge. The manager who can provide expert feedback or the colleague who has important information. These kinds of insights can help us achieve our goals.

Yet as much as we need that knowledge, we often don’t act in ways that invite it.

It’s when the project runs behind or we can’t make our numbers that we realize, often too late, that asking sooner could have made all the difference.

These are the results Jeff Wetzler can help us avoid. His book, Ask: Tap into the Hidden Wisdom of People around You for Unexpected Breakthroughs in Leadership and Life, is a call to arms for regularly making asks that elicit the insights we need. His strategies are important for individuals, teams, and organizations.

Episode Links

How to Get the Honest Input You Need from Your Employees

What Happens When You’re Blindsided at Work?

Why We Don’t Raise Tough Issues and How to Get Better at It

Interview with Anh Dao Pham on How to Succeed as a Project Leader

The Team

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We all want to be happy. In fact, it’s our desire for happiness that drives most of our decisions, like our friendships, our activities, even our purchases.

Yet, over time, we find that the things that made us so happy at the start – that new car or delicious meal – end up losing their luster.

I was curious about why this happens and what, if anything, we can do about it. That’s why I wanted to talk to Tali Sharot, cognitive neuroscientist, professor at University College London and MIT, and director of the Affective Brain Lab. In her latest book, Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There, she explains why the things that once made us happy no longer do. She also shares what we can do about it.

Episode Links

The Big Idea: This Simple Behavioural Trick Can Help You Get More out of Life

Your Life is Better Than You Think

Why People Fail to Notice Horrors around Them

David Robson on How Our Expectations Shape Us (Interview)

The Team

Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here.

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We crave meaning and purpose, yet obtaining them can feel beyond our control, like they're merely products of luck and circumstance. Fortunately, researchers who’ve studied the power of ritual have found they’re more in our control than we think.

In this interview, I talk to one of these researchers, psychologist Michael Norton. He shares how rituals, especially ones we create, can provide the meaning and purpose we crave. And, unlike habits, rituals operate on an emotional level that deepens the experience.

In his book, The Ritual Effect: From Habit to Ritual, Harness the Surprising Power of Everyday Actions, Norton shares what rituals are, why they matter, and how they can help bolster us throughout our lives.

Episode Links

The Calming Power of Rituals

Forget Habits in the New Year. Find Joy in Rituals with Others

Breaking up Can Be Easier if You Have a Ritual

Interview with Eduardo Briceno on The Performance Paradox

The Team

Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here.

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At some point, we all get stuck. Maybe it’s in a job or career. Maybe it’s a relationship or business venture.

Though it’s something we all experience, when it happens, we can feel alone and out of our depth. Emotions may overwhelm us. Mental traps lure is in. In no time at all, we can’t see a way out.

Award-winning professor, researcher, and author, Adam Alter, has spent decades studying how successful people get unstuck. In his latest book, Anatomy of a Breakthrough: How to Get Unstuck When It Matters Most, he shares what we can do to move forward. Adam’s recommendations can help us with what might be the most important times in our lives.

Episode Links

Life is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age by Bruce Feiler

How the ‘Creative-Cliff Illusion’ Limits Our Ideas by David Robson

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Team

Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here.

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When we’re feeling stuck, it’s tempting to believe more thinking is the answer. We stew and we ponder, and then we double down on solutions we’ve tried before. It’s no wonder we start to feel like we just can’t figure it out.

But what would happen if we put thinking aside and tried something else? Author and researcher, Norman Farb, has learned that there’s an entire canvas of sensory experience we can access any time we want. And by tapping into our senses, we may find ways to feel better. It’s what Norm writes about in his book, Better in Every Sense: How the New Science of Sensation Can Help You Reclaim Your life.

By the time I reached the last page of this book, I felt like I’d been let in on an incredible set of tools for enriching my life.

Episode Links

How Your 5 Senses Can Help You Stop Worrying

Feeling Sensations, Including Ones Connected to Sadness, May Be Key to Depression Recovery

Attending to the Present: Mindfulness Meditation Reveals Distinct Neural Modes of Self-Reference

Interview with Britt Frank on The Science of Stuck

The Team

Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here.

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When we think of geeks, we tend to think of the people who built the tech we use – from our smartphones to search engines to AI.  

But if we just focus on the tech, we’re missing out on a lot. We’re overlooking how these same geeks reinvented corporate culture using a repeatable set of norms that ensure sustainable innovation.

Andrew McAfee is a principal research scientist at the MIT Sloan School of Management and cofounder and codirector of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy. He’s been studying innovative companies for decades, and he’s taken what he’s learned and written about it in his latest book, The Geek Way: The Radical Mindset that Drives Extraordinary Results.

I’m convinced what Andrew’s learned about the geek way – and its four key norms – is a roadmap for where today’s – and tomorrow’s - companies are headed.

Episode Links

The Geek Way

New Book Explains the ‘Geek Way’ to Manage a Company

Forward Thinking on How Geeks are Changing the World

Interview with Roger Martin

The Team

Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here.

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