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AI transformation isn’t just a technology problem; it’s a management problem. Executives want faster adoption, employees are wondering what AI means for their jobs, and managers are stuck in the middle trying to turn all that uncertainty into something their teams can actually work with.
Matt Poepsel sits down with Joel Pipher, who leads AI transformation at The Predictive Index, to unpack what it takes to grow with AI without losing the human side of work. Drawing from his experience building AI programs inside large enterprises and startups, Joel breaks down why AI adoption needs a clear North Star, why experimentation has to become part of how teams work, and why managers can’t afford to sit on the sidelines.
Together, they explore what happens when managers start leading both people and AI agents, and why the leaders who learn to translate, experiment, and role-model the change will be the ones best equipped for what comes next.
What you'll learn:
Highlights:
(00:00) Meet Joel Pipher
(01:45) AI transformation puts managers in the middle
(02:42) Early lessons from AI transformation
(07:34) AI in a startup environment
(10:01) Why AI adoption needs a clear North Star
(13:29) The manager’s role as the translation layer
(15:13) Creating space for teams to experiment with AI
(17:07) How AI can help managers lead better
(18:07) Why managers need to role-model AI adoption
(21:48) Practical ways to build an experimentation culture
(26:15) What’s next for AI and managers
Resources:
Follow Joel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelpipher/
Learn more about The Predictive Index: https://www.predictiveindex.com/
Follow Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattpoepsel/
Subscribe to The Predictive Index on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePredictiveIndex
Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: shareyourgenius.com
Experience it for yourself at trypi.com/ltp .
Start with our free behavioral assessment. Go to trypi.com/ltp .
Travis Kalanick built Uber on a promise of democratic freedom, everyone gets to feel like a rockstar, not just people who can afford a limo. Denise Lee Yohn tells Matt Poepsel what came next: a tech-bro internal culture so far removed from that promise that customers eventually deleted the app in protest. "We're not going to believe what you say about yourself," she says. "We're actually going to act on what we know and experience about your brand."
That gap between the brand a company claims and the culture it actually runs on is the subject of this conversation. Denise, founder of Denise Lee Yohn, Inc. and author of Fusion: How Integrating Brand and Culture Powers the World's Greatest Companies, walks Matt through what she learned as Sony Electronics' first brand manager, why category values like integrity and teamwork are table stakes rather than differentiators, and why she treats customer experience and employee experience as manifestations of the same underlying culture rather than two separate budget lines. She also makes the case, using an analogy about parents who only listen to one of two kids, for why employee feedback deserves the same weight leaders give customer feedback.
You'll learn:
Highlights:
(00:00) Meet Denise Lee Yohn
(02:39) Why brand building needs to start inside a company
(06:01) When Uber's brand promise and internal culture didn't match
(08:02) Operationalizing values instead of just aspiring to them
(09:10) Category values versus core values
(13:18) Treating customer experience and employee experience as one system
(16:26) The parent who only listens to one of two kids
(17:15) Why employee expertise is a competitive advantage
(20:20) Everyone contributes to culture, not just leadership
(26:06) Reinforcing values through recognition in daily meetings
(28:53) Are you smarter than AI?
Resources:
Learn more about Denise Lee Yohn: https://deniseleeyohn.com
Follow Denise on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deniseleeyohn
Follow Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattpoepsel/
Subscribe to The Predictive Index on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePredictiveIndex
Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: shareyourgenius.com
Experience it for yourself at trypi.com/ltp .
Start with our free behavioral assessment. Go to trypi.com/ltp .
Most leadership models still treat change like a project: a start, an end, and a return to normal in between. Jackie Insinger, CEO and Founder of Spark Brilliance, argues that premise is exactly what's breaking down. There's no dry land left to land on, which means the old idea of "managing" change through to completion isn't just outdated; it's the thing quietly wearing leaders and teams down.
Matt Poepsel sits down with Jackie Insinger, CEO and Founder of Spark Brilliance, to unpack her new framework, the Four Drivers of Change: signal, safety, agency, and purpose. Jackie makes the case that a single leadership style can't hold up once things get this unpredictable; leaders need to read what a team actually needs moment to moment, the same instinct behind PI's behavioral data. She and Matt dig past the framework's language into what each driver actually looks like in practice: what a leader says in the first five minutes of a hard conversation, how they respond when someone brings them a mistake, and why purpose, the thing everyone's told to lead with, only works once trust, safety, and ownership are already in place.
What you'll learn:
Highlights:
(00:00) Meet Jackie Insinger
(03:24) The forces driving change all at once
(06:18) Why change management hasn't worked in 30 years
(08:08) Introducing the Four Drivers of Change
(15:28) Signal: the echo every leader sends
(19:06) Safety: building a culture where mistakes surface early
(22:02) Agency: the difference between compliance and commitment
(24:50) Purpose: why "start with why" comes last
(29:28) Building self-care into the change model
(33:25) Where to find Jackie's free leadership diagnostics
Resources:
Follow Jackie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackieinsinger/
Learn more about Spark Brilliance: https://www.sparkbrilliance.com
Follow Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattpoepsel/
Subscribe to The Predictive Index on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePredictiveIndex
Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: shareyourgenius.com
Experience it for yourself at trypi.com/ltp .
Start with our free behavioral assessment. Go to trypi.com/ltp .
Most leaders can point to their P&L and show you exactly where the money moves. Ask them to point to their people on that same page, and the room goes quiet. For Tracie Sponenberg, who spent nine years as Chief People Officer at The Granite Group, a wholesale distributor with 700+ employees across six states, that silence is the whole problem. Her new book, The Frontline People Strategy, makes the case that distribution and manufacturing leaders have been treating their workforce as a line item instead of the asset that actually drives revenue, and that the fix starts with a mindset most executives have never been taught.
Matt Poepsel sits down with Tracie Sponenberg, consultant and author of The Frontline People Strategy, to dig into why "that's just the way it is" is never a real answer for high turnover, why promoting your best forklift operator can quietly wreck your org chart, and why engagement is something you earn, not something you demand. Tracie draws on nearly a decade leading HR through four acquisitions and a pandemic to explain what it actually takes to build a culture for a deskless workforce, and why curiosity, not charisma, is the leadership skill that moves the needle.
What you'll learn:
Highlights:
(00:00) Meet Tracie Sponenberg
(03:13) A first job that taught her about bias
(04:34) Why "show me your people" exposed a blind spot
(06:00) The best ideas live on your front line
(09:02) Leading through four acquisitions and a pandemic
(10:41) Culture is built location by location, not by memo
(12:24) The hidden cost of promoting your best worker
(15:37) Engagement is a byproduct, not a goal
(18:01) Getting curious is a leadership skill
(22:22) The real cost of "that's just the way it is"
(25:06) Are You Smarter than AI?
Resources:
Follow Tracie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/traciesponenberg/
Learn more about Tracie and her new book, "The Frontline People Strategy"
Follow Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattpoepsel/
Subscribe to The Predictive Index on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePredictiveIndex
Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: shareyourgenius.com
Experience it for yourself at trypi.com/ltp .
Start with our free behavioral assessment. Go to trypi.com/ltp .
Most leaders treat uncertainty like a storm to wait out. Meridith Elliott Powell has spent two decades proving that's the wrong instinct. As CEO of MotionFirst, author of a benchmark study spanning more than 800 CEOs, and Hall of Fame speaker with the National Speakers Association, she argues the businesses that come out ahead aren't the ones with the most information. They're the ones who move while everyone else is still waiting for the shoe to drop.
In this episode, Matt Poepsel sits down with Meridith to dig into why false bravado isolates leaders rather than protects them, why the most durable companies treat their values as a litmus test, and why the antidote to anxiety is always action, not answers. Meridith draws on her research into nine companies that have thrived for 250 years and on her own experience rebuilding after two hurricanes, tracing what actually separates the businesses that grow through disruption from the ones that just survive it. Together, they explore why uncertainty is a team sport, not a solo climb, and how two simple team exercises can build a workforce that's ready for change before it arrives.
In this episode, you'll learn:
Highlights:
(00:00) Meet Meridith Elliott Powell
(02:34) Why uncertainty always has an upside
(03:50) The fear every leader is wired for
(05:53) Making change something people choose, not something done to them
(06:52) The generation most unprepared to lead
(09:25) Why your job now is producing better leaders, not being one
(10:40) What nine 250-year-old companies have in common
(15:15) Surviving two hurricanes and rebuilding twice
(20:06) Two team exercises that build change-ready teams
(23:33) Leading through the power of the question
Resources:
Follow Meridith on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meridithelliottpowell/
Meredith’s Website: https://www.meridithelliottpowell.com/
Explore Meridith's research and speaking at MotionFirst:
https://valuespeaker.com/
Follow MotionFirst on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/motionfirst/
Follow Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattpoepsel/
Subscribe to The Predictive Index on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePredictiveIndex
Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: shareyourgenius.com
Experience it for yourself at trypi.com/ltp .
Start with our free behavioral assessment. Go to trypi.com/ltp .
Most executive teams don't fail because someone drops the ball. They fail quietly, over months, while every function runs fine on its own and nobody can name what's actually wrong. For Adam Weber, executive coach at Adam Weber Coaching and co-founder of Helm, that quiet failure has a name and a shape, and it's measurable.
In this episode, Matt Poepsel sits down with Adam Weber, co-founder of Helm, to unpack why the real conversation on most executive teams happens in the hallway instead of the room, why an offsite's impact rarely survives past 90 days, and why work doesn't get lost inside functions; it gets lost in the margins between them. Adam introduces the five signals his team uses to diagnose executive team health: candor, agility, ownership, altitude, and cohesion, and makes the case that healthy teams aren't the ones who avoid hard problems, but the ones who face them together. Together, they explore what it actually takes to turn a team's unspoken tension into productive, ongoing conversation.
In this episode, you'll learn:
Highlights:
(03:08) What it feels like inside a stuck executive team
(05:51) Why offsites only work for about 90 days
(07:43) The five signals of a healthy executive team
(09:14) Candor means hearing hard things, not just saying them
(11:20) Where work actually gets lost: the margins
(12:40) Why balance across the five signals beats individual strength
(14:35) How a CEO's altitude cascades through the whole org
(16:03) Turning a low score into growth instead of grading
(19:31) Turning taboo topics into safe conversations
(23:09) Business is just a series of problems
Resources:
Follow Adam on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meetadam/
Learn more about Helm: helmteams.co
Follow Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattpoepsel/
Subscribe to The Predictive Index on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePredictiveIndex
Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: shareyourgenius.com
Experience it for yourself at trypi.com/ltp .
Start with our free behavioral assessment. Go to trypi.com/ltp .
Steve Farber has been arguing that love is a legitimate business discipline for over two decades, and people still flinch at the word. Companies print "we love our customers" on buttons and banners without breaking a sweat. Backing it up with policy, budget, and follow-through is where most of them quietly give up. His new book, The Radical Promise, co-written with Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, makes the case that the real gap in leadership isn't between people who talk about love and values and people who don't. It's between what any leader says and what they actually do.
In this episode, Matt Poepsel sits down with Steve Farber, founder of the Extreme Leadership Institute and author of The Radical Promise, to dig into why "we love our customers" is easy to print and hard to practice, why credibility might be the one trait that actually predicts whether people follow you anywhere, and how a shipping company came back from bankruptcy by asking one uncomfortable question about every policy on the books. Steve breaks down the acronym behind his research, DWYSYWD, do what you say you will do, and argues the gap between the two is where trust quietly erodes, one small unnoticed commitment at a time. Together, they trace what closing that gap actually looks like on a Monday morning, from customer policy down to the lunch plans you forgot you made.
In this episode, you'll learn:
Highlights:
(00:00) Meet Steve Farber
(01:50) Why love makes business people nervous
(07:01) Love as a practice, not a sentiment
(08:17) The Trailer Bridge turnaround
(09:58) Raising the standard beyond satisfaction
(11:30) The credibility formula behind DWYSYWD
(13:38) The commitment you didn't know you made
(17:01) Three strikes and your credibility is out
(21:59) High tech, high touch
(24:21) Credibility plus vision
Resources:
Follow Steve on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevefarber/
Get Steve's new book, "The Radical Promise: Mastering the Art of Doing What You Say You Will Do": https://theradicalpromise.com/
Follow Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattpoepsel/
Subscribe to The Predictive Index on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePredictiveIndex
Experience it for yourself at trypi.com/ltp .
Start with our free behavioral assessment. Go to trypi.com/ltp .
Most change management still assumes there's a gap between disruptions—a chance to catch your breath before the next transformation lands. Lata Hamilton's clients don't get that gap anymore. Change has stopped being an event and started being the weather.
In this episode, Matt Poepsel sits down with Lata Hamilton, founder and CEO of Passion Pioneers, accredited change manager, NLP practitioner, and bestselling author of Pioneer Your Career Change. They dig into why change triggers a survival instinct even when the stakes seem small, and why executives sometimes resist the very transformations they signed off on. Lata also breaks down a technique called "chunking up" that gets people to stop arguing over details and reconnect with why the change matters at all.
The natural break is right after her bio, so the intro sentence carries all the credentials and the second sentence starts the actual content. If you'd rather keep it tighter at two sentences, just fold that last line back in with an "and how" before "a technique called 'chunking up.'"
Lata makes the case that change fatigue isn't a personal failing; it's a structural one, and that leaders who skip the emotional side of change are setting themselves up for roadblocks down the line. Together, they explore what it means to lead from the "magic in the middle" and why purpose, not process, is what actually gets people on board.
In this episode, you'll learn:
Highlights:
(00:00) Meet Lata Hamilton
(02:54) Why change is harder to pull off than ever
(04:27) The hidden tax of constant change
(07:00) The three positions you can hold in any change
(12:03) How change triggers the survival instinct
(14:45) When executives resist the change they approved
(17:45) Finding the magic in the middle
(21:12) The NLP technique called chunking up
(23:44) Getting to the real purpose behind the change
(26:21) Why storytelling is what makes change stick
Resources:
Follow Lata on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/latahamilton/
Visit Lata's website and grab her free guide to change management: https://latahamilton.com/
Get Lata's book, "Pioneer Your Career Change"
Follow Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattpoepsel/
Subscribe to The Predictive Index on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePredictiveIndex
Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: shareyourgenius.com
Experience it for yourself at trypi.com/ltp .
Start with our free behavioral assessment. Go to trypi.com/ltp .
Culture isn't a slogan on a values slide; it's the daily discipline of listening to the people the org chart forgets. Most companies assume culture change means demolition, blow it up, start over, transform into something new. But Kevin Oakes, founder and chief strategy officer of i4cp and author of the Amazon bestseller Culture Renovation, has spent decades studying hundreds of companies and found the opposite: the ones who actually pull it off don't tear the house down. They renovate it.
In this episode, Matt Poepsel sits down with Kevin Oakes, founder and chief strategy officer of i4cp and author of Culture Renovation, to dig into why only 15% of companies that try to change their culture actually succeed, why the "energizers" who actually shape culture are almost never the ones on the org chart, and why AI has turned into an unplanned stress test for every company's culture. Kevin makes the case that a strong culture isn't a nice-to-have sitting next to strategy, it's the thing that determines whether strategy survives contact with reality, especially now that AI is exposing every crack that was already there. Together, they explore what future readiness actually means when culture, skills, and AI readiness stop being three separate conversations and become one.
In this episode, you'll learn:
Highlights:
(00:00) Meet Kevin Oakes
(01:40) What separates the 15% who succeed
(06:56) Finding your organization's energizers
(08:59) Renovation, not transformation
(10:49) Is business performance the only signal to change?
(12:11) How AI has changed and confirmed the renovation thesis
(19:41) Why culture, skills, and AI readiness can't be siloed
(23:05) Is purpose making a comeback?
Resources:
Follow Kevin on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kevinoakes/
Learn more about Kevin and i4cp: i4cp.com
Get Kevin's book, Culture Renovation
Follow Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattpoepsel/
Subscribe to The Predictive Index on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePredictiveIndex
Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: shareyourgenius.com
Experience it for yourself at trypi.com/ltp .
Start with our free behavioral assessment. Go to trypi.com/ltp .
Culture shows up in the small moments, and few moments are smaller, or more revealing, than a meeting. Most managers treat meetings as a scheduling problem to survive rather than a leadership opportunity to design. But for Jess Britt, leadership coach and meeting design expert, the real cost of a badly run meeting isn't wasted time; it's the leadership behavior you're modeling every time you fail to use the room well.
In this episode, Matt Poepsel sits down with Jess Britt, leadership coach and author of the newsletter Set the Agenda, to dig into why every meeting is a test of leadership, why the opportunity cost of a bad meeting goes far beyond payroll, and how a simple four-part framework can turn any meeting into a chance to develop your team. Jess challenges the idea that meetings are just something to get through, making the case that how you run a meeting communicates exactly what you value: whose input counts, whether you've thought ahead, and what behavior gets tolerated. Together, they explore how to draw out quieter voices, run hybrid meetings without losing half the room, and use AI as a tool without letting it excuse bad meeting design.
In this episode, you'll learn:
Highlights:
(00:00) Meet Jess Britt
(01:05) What drew Jess to meetings and fixing them
(02:37) Meetings as a leadership skill set
(04:42) The opportunity cost of a bad meeting
(08:14) The four building blocks of a meeting
(9:06) Why every meeting should have an agenda
(11:36) What happens during the warm-up
(14:02) What an actual intentional close looks like
(17:32) The difference between a personal meeting objective vs an agenda item
(20:45) Being a leader means developing other leaders
(23:50) Drawing out the quieter voices in the room
(26:25) Running hybrid meetings without losing half the room
(28:00) Is AI making our meetings better?
Resources:
Follow Jess on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-britt/
Subscribe to Jess's newsletter, Set the Agenda : https://settheagenda.com/
Learn more about Jess's work: jessbritt.com
Follow Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattpoepsel/
Subscribe to The Predictive Index on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePredictiveIndex
Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: shareyourgenius.com
Experience it for yourself at trypi.com/ltp .
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