Few could predict the speed with which generative AI evolved in 2024, surprising even top global experts. Could we see similar explosive capability growth in 2025? On this bonus New Year episode of Minds Worth Meeting, Justin Louis sits down with Mark Esposito, a faculty associate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society and director of Hult International Business School’s Futures Impact Lab.

In this episode:

• Mark gives us some takeaways from 2024 in tech, including what surprised him.
• Thinking about generative AI specifically, we discuss what organizations are getting right so far and what leaders should think about so as not to make an expensive mistake when adopting the tech.
• We discuss what the next step in AI looks like and why “agentic AI” is already one of the top buzzwords of 2025.
• Mark zooms in on tech issues that have quickly become top priorities including regulation, privacy and cybersecurity concerns and why leaders should be paying attention to them immediately.

Where to find Mark Esposito:

• Mark’s Stern Strategy Group Speakers & Advisors profile
• Mark’s website
• Mark at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University
• Mark at Hult International Business School’s Futures Impact Lab

Email us to let us know your thoughts on this episode and to learn how Mark Esposito can help your organization create strategies to leverage artificial intelligence, identify trends and build future capabilities, and utilize circular economy business models to activate sustainable transitions.

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This season on Minds Worth Meeting, we talked to global experts including renowned thought leaders from Stern Strategy Group’s exclusive roster of speakers and advisors about everything from leading with purpose to digital exhaustion, protecting reputation and more.

Now, we’re taking a look back at our favorite moments to share the best of Minds Worth Meeting's fourth season.

In this episode:

• Harvard Business School professor Ranjay Gulati talks about leadership, purpose in the new digital age and how to view AI implementation.
• Researcher and head of the Human-First AI Group at the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy Renee Richardson Gosline emphasizes the importance of trust and privacy in digital commerce.
• University of California Santa Barbara professor and Technology Department chair Paul Leonardi reveals the causes of digital exhaustion and how to counteract them.
• Oxford University Saïd Business School associate fellow Megan Reitz explains why we all need permission to pause and the new landscape of employee activism.
• Former Cisco and Deloitte HR executive Ashley Goodall takes on performance reviews and how the HR department can put people first.
• Founding director of the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation Rupert Younger breaks down reputation, how vulnerable it is in today’s online world and how to protect it. 

Learn more about this season’s guests:
Ranjay Gulati
Renee Richardson Gosline
Paul Leonardi
Megan Reitz
Ashley Goodall
Rupert Younger

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Contact us to find out how you and your organization can work with any of our globally renowned expert speakers and advisors and for information about how you can partner with or sponsor the show. 

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It’s always been vital to stay on top of reputation management, both individually and organizationally. Today, though, bad actors can tarnish a reputation in the blink of an eye thanks to social media and artificial intelligence. On this episode of Minds Worth Meeting, we sit down with the founding director of the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation and author of “The Reputation Game,” Rupert Younger.

In this episode we discuss:

• How reputation attacks are becoming more sophisticated with AI and deepfakes.
• Preparing for when – not if – a bad actor will strike.
• The two kinds of reputation – capability and character – and how they can help or hinder you.
•  A positive reputation is hard to regain when it’s lost. Rupert tells us where to start.
• Rupert’s next book, “Forked Tongues,” and “the dark triad” of personality traits that can have a domino effect on those around them.

Where to find Rupert Younger:

• Rupert’s Stern Strategy Group Speakers & Advisors profile
• Rupert’s book, “The Reputation Game: The Art of Changing How People See You“
• Rupert’s podcast, “Global Conversations with Global Leaders“
• Rupert Younger at The University of Oxford

Email us to let us know your thoughts on this episode and to learn how Rupert Younger can equip your leadership team with practical, clear-eyed frameworks for managing integrity, organizational resilience and reputational excellence through custom speaking and advising arrangements.

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From an employee standpoint, constant upheaval and the specter of having to sit down with the boss multiple times a year to be graded via performance review is a recipe for organizational disaster. In this episode of Minds Worth Meeting, former Cisco and Deloitte HR executive and author, Ashley Goodall joins Justin Louis to discuss his latest book, "The Problem with Change" and offers practical solutions to help your business understand what people need at work in order to contribute their best.


In this episode:

• We talk about Ashley's book and how constant change stymies the process of actually achieving organizational goals.
• Ashley delves into why leaders need to get serious about understanding how their teams operate, especially what makes the best teams so good. 
• He picks apart the performance review process and explains why regularly assigning a grade or number to an employee's achievements has the opposite of the intended effect of boosting performance and morale.
• Ashley describes how HR has lost its way in today's business ecosystem, explaining why leaders need to become more focused on the human aspect of "human resources."

Where to find Ashley Goodall:

• Ashley's website
• Ashley Goodall on LinkedIn
• Ashley's book, “The Problem with Change: And the Essential Nature of Human Performance”

Click or tap here to learn more about how Ashley Goodall provides leaders with strategies for rethinking the change process and performance evaluations that will build stronger teams, not disengaged employees.

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Speaking up – and empowering your employees to speak up – is a vital prerequisite for a company culture that supports innovation. In this episode of Minds Worth Meeting, Justin Louis and Meg Virag sit down with Oxford University Saïd Business School associate fellow, Megan Reitz. We discuss the importance of how leaders “show up” to work, why we all need safe environments to speak up and permission to pause, and how AI is starting to change dialogue in organizations.

In this episode:

• Before employees can be empowered to speak up, Megan explains why leaders need to work on their own habits first.
  
  
• She shares fascinating insights about employee activism and how workers and leaders alike can constructively participate.
  
  
• Megan dives into her new research on “spaciousness” at work and how it can supercharge productivity, creativity and wellbeing.  

Where to find Megan Reitz

• Megan’s website
  
  
• Megan Reitz at the University of Oxford Saïd Business School 
  
  
• Megan’s book, “Speak Out, Listen Up: How to Have Conversations That Matter”
  
  
• Megan’s book, “Speak Up: Say What Needs to be Said and Hear What Needs to be Heard”

Click or tap here to learn more about how Megan Reitz teaches leaders how to cultivate environments of psychological safety where employees genuinely feel empowered to voice their perspectives with the confidence they will be heard.

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Successfully leading a business in the AI-heavy digital age requires a new mindset. In this episode of Minds Worth Meeting, Justin Louis sits down with University of California Santa Barbara professor and Technology Management department chair, Paul Leonardi. We talk about how to cultivate a digital mindset and why it’s so important to do so, he shares strategies for helping employees succeed with generative AI and tells us how to keep digital exhaustion at bay.

In this episode:

• Paul explains how digital technologies like artificial intelligence, especially generative AI, are changing work roles, and what those new roles look like.
• He reassures us that we don’t need to become experts overnight to be digitally literate and explains “the 30% rule.”
• On a topic that many of us feel in our professional and personal lives alike, Paul discusses digital exhaustion and how to avoid it with practical tips that anyone can implement immediately.

 Where to find Paul Leonardi:

• Paul’s website
• Paul Leonardi at the University of California Santa Barbara
• Paul’s book, “The Digital Mindset: What It Really Takes to Thrive in the Age of Data, Algorithms, and AI“

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The conventional wisdom in business is that friction is a bad thing that must be removed for processes to move forward smoothly. In this episode of Minds Worth Meeting, Whitney Jennings has a fascinating conversation with MIT researcher and head of the Human-First AI group at the school's Initiative on the Digital Economy, Renée Richardson Gosline. We discuss the benefits of the right kind of friction, particularly when creating with AI, leading with trust when building AI-enhanced customer experiences and more.

In this episode:

• Renée shares the results of a recent study investigating how friction can be applied in the human/AI content creation paradigm and what the most productive level is. 
• She outlines how AI tools can have a powerful role in enhancing customer experiences, but they must be built on a foundation of trust.
• Renée describes some of the vital do's and don'ts when implementing AI in an organization, both internally and externally.

Where to find Renée Richardson Gosline

• Renée's website
• Renée at the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy
• Renée's MIT Sloan School of Management faculty page

Click or tap here to learn more about how Renée Richardson Gosline gives leaders a better understanding of how customer experience can catalyze a company’s AI-enhanced digital transformation and create collaborative dynamics with customers.

Let us know your thoughts on this episode!

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How can leaders engage people both rationally and emotionally? In this episode of Minds Worth Meeting, Whitney Jennings and Justin Louis sit down with Harvard Business School professor Ranjay Gulati. We talk about corporate purpose, artificial intelligence leadership and Ranjay shares the inspiring story of how his mother’s passion became a global success story.

In this episode:

• Ranjay, author of “Deep Purpose,” explains how to bring purpose beyond just a statement on a company’s website to truly transform organizations.
• We talk about AI and why it’s vital for leaders to do something and learn rather than doing nothing and falling behind the competition.
• Ranjay tells us about what he’s learned from talking with some of the sports world’s most iconic coaches and how they motivate their teams to perform to the highest standards.

Where to find Ranjay Gulati:

• Ranjay Gulati’s website
• Ranjay’s book, “Deep Purpose: The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies”
• Ranjay’s “Deep Purpose” podcast
• Ranjay’s Harvard Business School faculty page

Click or tap here to learn more about Ranjay Gulati and how he equips companies with strategies to forge a path of resilience, purpose and strong leadership that empowers organizations – and the people within – to live up to their fullest potential.

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What do the geek takeover, rethinking economies, unparalleled resilience, appreciating nostalgia while understanding our past and ensuring recognition and dignity for all have in common? 

They’re just a few of the memorable lessons we learned this past season on Minds Worth Meeting. Join us as our hosts Whitney Jennings and Justin Louis take a look back at our favorite moments of Season 3. 

In this episode:

• Renowned MIT researcher Andrew McAfee tells us about his new book, “The Geek Way” and why he’s an optimist about the technology of tomorrow.
• Acclaimed New Yorker writer and lecturer at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, Nick Romeo discusses his latest book, “The Alternative”.
• Holocaust survivor and author Tova Friedman shares her lessons on how we can choose peace over hate and the message she gave to world leaders at the United Nations.
• NYU professor, social psychologist and author of “A More Just Future,” Dolly Chugh tells us what it means to be a “good-ish” person and why it’s important to appreciate the positives while acknowledging the negatives of our past.
• Harvard professor, sociologist and author of “Seeing Others,” Michèle Lamont tells us how taking the time to see others and give recognition and dignity to all can redefine the workplace.

Want to learn more about our guests? Click on a name below for their latest work and information on how your organization can work with them:

• Andrew McAfee
• Nick Romeo
• Tova Friedman
• Dolly Chugh 
• Michèle Lamont

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How can something seemingly as simple as recognition help to heal society's deep divides? In this episode of Minds Worth Meeting, Whitney Jennings has a conversation with sociologist and Harvard University professor Michèle Lamont. She tells us how taking the time to see others and give recognition and dignity to all can redefine the workplace, and even society, to be a more sustainable environment in which people can be their authentic selves and thrive.

 In this episode: 

• Michèle explains the long-term importance of recognition in the workplace as an aspect of good leadership.
• We discuss how it's the responsibility of all managers to create a workplace that acknowledges the dignity of all workers.
• Michèle tells us that stigmatization often begins with moral blaming, but narrative change can help us understand the differences between groups, a process that organizations play a central role in.

 Where to find Michèle Lamont: 

• Michèle Lamont's Website
• Michèle's book, "Seeing Others: How Recognition Works―and How It Can Heal a Divided World"
• Michèle Lamont on X (Twitter)
• Michèle's Harvard University Faculty Profile

Click or tap here to learn more about Michèle Lamont and how she equips companies with a unique, non-partisan perspective on how to create conditions where recognition, dignity, equality, respect, inclusion and destigmatization are actively promoted in empowering workplace environments. 

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