Fixable

You might think the biggest, most prestigious job is always the right career move. Patty Stonesifer — founding CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and an early Amazon board member — says that’s exactly the wrong way to decide what to do next. So what should guide your career? In this special episode from WorkLife with Molly Graham, Patty shares the nine-word personal mission statement she’s used for decades to filter opportunities, turn down what doesn’t fit, and speak up for what matters. Patty shares how you can write your own, and even coaches Molly through creating hers in real time.

WorkLife is a podcast from TED where host and company builder Molly Graham and her expert guests talk through the messy feelings we all experience at work. Ambition and failure, joy and burnout, confidence and self-doubt — this show digs into it all to help you build a career without losing yourself. Listen now: https://link.mgln.ai/kEuQow

For the full text transcript, visit ted.com/podcasts/fixable-transcripts

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When people don’t feel safe speaking up at work, fear spreads, trust falls apart, and good people head for the exits. That’s the story emerging from Unwell Networks, the media company led by Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper and her husband, Matt Kaplan, where reports describe an alleged pattern of intimidation and retaliation inside the company. In this Unsolicited Advice segment, Anne and Frances unpack what appears to have gone wrong at Unwell Networks and break down the concept of psychological safety: why it matters so much to high-performing teams, how leaders can unknowingly undermine it, and what it takes to build a workplace where people feel safe enough to ask questions, admit mistakes, and disagree without being afraid of what will happen next.

Connect with the team

• Follow Anne on Instagram and LinkedIn 
• Follow Frances on Instagram and LinkedIn
• Watch Fixable videos on youtube.com/@TEDAudioCollective
• Visit Anne and Frances’ website
• Have a question you want Anne and Frances to solve? Email the team at [email protected] or leave a voicemail at 234-349-2253
• Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

For the full text transcript, visit ted.com/podcasts/fixable-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can’t avoid stress altogether, but you can choose the kind that helps instead of harms. In this Quick Fixes episode, Anne and Frances are joined once more by Master Fixer Kelly McGonigal to tackle three listener questions in under 30 minutes. One listener asks how to spot the early signs of burnout, another worries about adding the stress of a new job to their already stressful home life, and a final Fixer wants help breaking a compulsive email-checking habit.

Featured guest

• Follow Kelly McGonigal on Instagram and at https://www.kellymcgonigal.com
• Buy Kelly's book Joy Is a Risk Worth Taking

Connect with the team

• Follow Anne on Instagram and LinkedIn 
• Follow Frances on Instagram and LinkedIn
• Watch Fixable videos on youtube.com/@TEDAudioCollective
• Visit Anne and Frances’ website
• Have a question you want Anne and Frances to solve? Email the team at [email protected] or leave a voicemail at 234-349-2253
• Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

For the full text transcript, visit ted.com/podcasts/fixable-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We all deal with stress in our lives, and it’s tempting to try to avoid it altogether. But the people who face stress head-on often handle it most skillfully. In this episode, Anne and Frances are joined by Kelly McGonigal, a health psychologist and lecturer at Stanford University who studies different ways people respond to stress. Together, they unpack practical strategies to strengthen your stress response, examine the choices and attitudes of people who thrive under pressure, and explore the benefits of a “challenge” mindset for you and your team. Kelly also shares nine simple strategies for finding courage in high-stress moments, and makes the case that joy is a risk worth taking.

Featured guest

• Follow Kelly McGonigal on Instagram and at https://www.kellymcgonigal.com
• Buy Kelly's book Joy Is a Risk Worth Taking

Connect with the team

• Follow Anne on Instagram and LinkedIn 
• Follow Frances on Instagram and LinkedIn
• Watch Fixable videos on youtube.com/@TEDAudioCollective
• Visit Anne and Frances’ website
• Have a question you want Anne and Frances to solve? Email the team at [email protected] or leave a voicemail at 234-349-2253
• Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

For the full text transcript, visit ted.com/podcasts/fixable-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do you feel like work is taking over your life? Guy Winch is a psychologist and author of the book Mind Over Grind: How to Break Free When Work Hijacks Your Life. In this episode, Anne sits down with Guy at the annual TED conference in Vancouver to discuss the insidious ways work can follow you home and how to set boundaries to avoid burnout. They dig into the harmful effects of after-hours rumination, share practical rituals to help you separate work from the rest of your life, and offer tips on how to take a truly restorative vacation. 

Featured guest

• Follow Guy Winch on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at https://www.guywinch.com/
• Buy Guy's book Mind Over Grind

Connect with the team

• Follow Anne on Instagram and LinkedIn 
• Follow Frances on Instagram and LinkedIn
• Watch Fixable videos on youtube.com/@TEDAudioCollective
• Visit Anne and Frances’ website
• Have a question you want Anne and Frances to solve? Email the team at [email protected] or leave a voicemail at 234-349-2253
• Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

For the full text transcript, visit ted.com/podcasts/fixable-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Southwest has long been a beloved, low-cost airline with free checked bags, minimal fees, and one class of seating that made flying feel simple and fair. But recent reversals of those policies, in favor of the bottom line, have left both customers and employees feeling betrayed. In this Unsolicited Advice segment, Anne and Frances take a closer look at what Southwest got so right in the beginning, the decisions that led to this moment, and what CEO Bob Jordan could still do to turn the plane around.

Connect with the team

• Follow Anne on Instagram and LinkedIn 
• Follow Frances on Instagram and LinkedIn
• Watch Fixable videos on youtube.com/@TEDAudioCollective
• Visit Anne and Frances’ website
• Have a question you want Anne and Frances to solve? Email the team at [email protected] or leave a voicemail at 234-349-2253
• Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

For the full text transcript, visit ted.com/podcasts/fixable-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When it comes to many jobs—think food service and frontline retail—conditions can be miserable and demoralizing. But it doesn’t have to be that way. In this episode, Anne and Frances call in MIT professor Zeynep Ton, author of The Good Job Strategy and founder of The Good Jobs Institute, to investigate the systems that make jobs bad and reveal what it takes to make them better for everyone. Zeynep breaks down the four elements of her “good job strategy,” and together they look at companies that have made these changes and are outperforming because of it. 

Featured guest

• Follow Zeynep Ton on LinkedIn and at https://www.zeynepton.com/

Connect with the team

• Follow Anne on Instagram and LinkedIn 
• Follow Frances on Instagram and LinkedIn
• Watch Fixable videos on youtube.com/@TEDAudioCollective
• Visit Anne and Frances’ website
• Have a question you want Anne and Frances to solve? Email the team at [email protected] or leave a voicemail at 234-349-2253
• Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

Chapters

• WHAT IS A GOOD JOB AND WHAT ARE THE STAKES
• COMPANY EXAMPLES THAT USE THE GOOD JOB STRATEGY 
• DOING IT SMALL SCALE WITH MOE’S ORIGINAL BBQ
• FOUR OPERATIONAL CHOICES THAT LEAD TO GOOD JOB OUTCOMES
• 1- FOCUS AND SIMPLIFY 
• 2 - STANDARDIZATION & EMPOWERMENT
• 3 - CROSSTRAINING
• 4 - OPERATE WITH SLACK
• HOW TO APPLY THESE CHANGES TO YOUR SMALL TEAM

For the full text transcript, visit ted.com/podcasts/fixable-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What gets in the way of good communication? In this special Quick Fixes episode, Anne and Frances are joined by Matt Abrahams, Stanford lecturer and bestselling author of Think Faster, Talk Smarter, to answer questions from listeners about how to communicate effectively. One listener struggles giving feedback to their elders, and another has a hard time speaking from the heart. A third listener finds themself getting defensive when asked questions, and the last caller wants to learn to speak like a leader without using empty jargon.

Featured guest

• Follow Matt Abrahams on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at https://mattabrahams.com/

Connect with the team

• Follow Anne on Instagram and LinkedIn 
• Follow Frances on Instagram and LinkedIn
• Watch Fixable videos on youtube.com/@TEDAudioCollective
• Visit Anne and Frances’ website
• Have a question you want Anne and Frances to solve? Email the team at [email protected] or leave a voicemail at 234-349-2253
• Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

For the full text transcript, visit ted.com/podcasts/fixable-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When you mess up, a sincere apology can make all the difference. But making things right takes more than a simple “I’m sorry.” In this episode, Adam takes us from the pre-kindergarten classroom to Formula One’s race track to investigate what it takes to make amends, right wrongs, and repair relationships. 

Guests: pre-K teacher Kath Konecky; management professor Beth Polin; Formula One executive Mark Gallagher.

For the full text transcript, visit ted.com/podcasts/fixable-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Communication is a performance, and if you want to land it, you need to approach it like a performer. In the second part of this essential Toolkit segment, Anne and Frances break down their “deeply/simply” communication framework, share practical advice on how to take control of your presence as a speaker, and make a persuasive case for practicing in low-stakes environments. Frances also shares a surprising piece of style advice.

Connect with the team

• Follow Anne on Instagram and LinkedIn 
• Follow Frances on Instagram and LinkedIn
• Watch Fixable videos on youtube.com/@TEDAudioCollective
• Visit Anne and Frances’ website
• Have a question you want Anne and Frances to solve? Email the team at [email protected] or leave a voicemail at 234-349-2253
• Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

For the full text transcript, visit ted.com/podcasts/fixable-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.