No Turning Back

As a part of the "Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast" series of No Turning Back, Stan and Chris were excited to speak with Meg Gentle, the Executive Director of HIF USA. Meg has had an impressive 25-year career in the energy industry. A former oil & gas executive, she recently left the business to focus on decarbonization, with goals to return our planet to a CO2 homeostasis.

 

In this discussion, Stan and Chris ask Meg about the future of the energy sector: what leadership will look like, and how and when we should act during the ongoing challenge of climate change. It's a timely, necessary conversation, and we think you'll learn something useful.

We're officially in the "Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast" series, with a special guest: Bruce Broussard, the CEO of Humana. As organizations jump into 2022, they are eager to start the year with energy and vigor and leave behind the challenges of the past two years. We know all organizations – especially ones in healthcare, like Humana – must be more intentional than ever before.

 

In this episode, we spoke with Bruce Broussard and how speed affects the healthcare system. Bruce speaks about how the healthcare system should adopt the "Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast" idea by focusing on disease prevention, not just treatment. Stan and Bruce speak about why and how digital transformation is an evolution of the healthcare system, and even touch on the recent Theranos trial - considering how innovation will continue to affect the healthcare system.

Over the next several weeks, Stan and Chris will be embarking on a new mini-series, called "Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast." The title comes from a concept in special operations, where operators move more methodically and slowly to make fewer mistakes.  In this series, we're curious to hear how leaders are tackling unpredictability, being intentional in their leadership, and adapting to crises as they unfold. 

 

This week, we are teasing the mini-series with a conversation with Carl Liebert. Carl currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of kwx of Keller Williams. A member of the United States Naval Academy's basketball team, Carl went on to serve in the Navy, before navigating his way through a variety of positions in General Electric, Circuit City, Home Depot, 24Hour Fitness Worldwide, and USAA.

 

In this discussion, Stan and Chris learn more about how Carl navigates new industries and role positions. They get Carl's take on the role that both truth, and curiosity, play in a board of directors meeting, and hear about how Carl thinks about his first 90 days at any position. We were really interested in hearing about the intentionality behind all of Carl's decisions, as we start the "Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast" series of No Turning Back.

As we conclude this "Future Focused" series that looks to the future of work and our world at large, we were really interested in exploring how cities and businesses will grow together. Meet Maggie Hsu, the former Chief of Staff to the late CEO of Zappos, Tony Hsieh, who was heavily involved in the Downtown Project. The Downtown Project aimed to build and revitalize the community of Las Vegas. Maggie has spent her career thinking ahead about ways to make our future world better.

 

In this episode, Maggie explains the intent and legacy of the Downtown Project, dives into holacracy and its connections to blockchain, how cities can be cryptofriendly, and how she thinks work, life, and play have fundamentally changed after the pandemic. It's one of our more thought-provoking discussions as we look ahead to 2022.

 

This wraps up our No Turning Back content for 2021 - we look forward to an exciting year exploring new topics, and mini-series, with you next year.

How should we think about the future of technology in the military? How will warfighters leverage technology, artificial intelligence, and new innovations to best react to the conflicts that await us?

These are the sorts of questions on Major General Heather Pringle's mind, as the Commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory. Major General Pringle serves as the Technology Executive Officer, whose work and research supports the Air Force and Space Force.

 

In this episode, we hear about Major General Pringle's team of 6,000 folks who aim to create an exhaustive portfolio of technology that predicts new fighting environments and challenges for the military. Major General Pringle speaks about the symbiosis between technology and humans, how the basic "to-do" lists for warfighters today are similar to how they've always been (though the technology applied will be different), and the role that ethics plays in her lab. Major General Pringle discusses how her team is pushing to the exciting edge of technology - and we think you'll really enjoy what she has to say.

What will "work" look like in 2022, and the years beyond it?

Meet Philip Ross, a futurist who specializes on how technology influences how we live, work, shop, and socialize. He's our guest today on No Turning Back in the next episode of the "Future Focused" series. He is the founder of UnGroup and Cordless Group, and aims to help organizations navigate the future workplace. He advises companies, runs workshops and conferences, and writes books about the Future of Work, generously giving his time to us as we look ahead to the work place awaiting us.

Welcome to the Future Focused series of No Turning Back. As we end 2021 and take the step into 2022, we will be having future-focused conversations: largely talking about the future of work, but also the human-AI experience, technological innovation in the military, drafting out and discussing what our world will look like in the years to come.

 

Bob Johansen, this week's guest, kicks off the mini-series. Bob is a self-proclaimed "futurist" who looks at life backwards, focusing ten years ahead as he makes predictions about the life waiting for him. Bob is a distinguished fellow with the Institute for the Future, where he helps organizations get ready for, and influence, the future. He has been doing this work for 30 years while also authoring or co-authoring a massive 12 books on the subject.

In today's discussions, Bob explains that all humans will be cyborgs in 10 years, why he dislikes the term "artificial intelligence," and why good leaders must be digital leaders. He shared one of the more interesting and important questions in the future is: what can humans do best? And what can computers do best? He challenges us to focus on the hopeful potentials of both the human and the machine.

This week, Stan and Chris conclude the Risk mini-series of No Turning Back, looking back on the six episodes, and looking ahead to the greatest risks facing our nation and world.

Our podcast, after all, is called No Turning Back, and Stan and Chris will leave you today with clear insights into the challenges that lay ahead. Our next mini-series, coming to you within a matter of weeks, is about the Future of Work.

If you've enjoyed the Risk mini-series and are looking for more, pick up a copy of Stan's latest book, Risk: A User's Guide, which is available everywhere books are sold. https://www.mcchrystalgroup.com/library/risk-a-users-guide/

This week, we continue our risk mini-series on No Turning Back, with a very special, distinguished guest: John Chambers, the former chairman of S&P's sovereign rating committee. We couldn't think of a better guest to discuss the nuances of financial risk.

 

John spent 24 years at Standard & Poor's, or S&P, and is known most for downgrading the US credit rating in 2011. His insights and experiences are topical and relevant as the United States worked through the debt ceiling debate earlier this month. In the discussion, John shares his perspective on today's debt ceiling debates, the five components of S&P's risk assessment, and how he teaches risk at the Executive MBA level at NYU's Stern School of Business.

 

Stan and Chris's reflections in today's episode were particularly thought-provoking. They dive into existential risk: when and how leaders consider how entire efforts will fall apart, how we should be thinking about the risk to our republic, and also discuss how a "crisis in confidence" can generate more risk to our society.

 

Stan's latest book, Risk: A User's Guide, touches on more topics like these. You can learn more here: https://www.mcchrystalgroup.com/library/risk-a-users-guide/

This week, Stan and Chris speak to Bob Wood, the former Chairman and CEO of Chemtura Corporation. Bob has an impressive career navigating business risk: before Chemtura, Bob was an executive at Dow Chemical, spending over two decades there and climbing the ranks in the business. He has been a member of a variety of impressive boards, including the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee, MRC Global, Praxair Inc., and Univar Solutions, to name a few. Notably, Bob is a member of the board of directors at McChrystal Group, where Stan and Chris have worked closely with him for a number of years.

 

In this week's episode, Bob explains why market leaders need to be paranoid and why market laggards need to be creative. He walks us through how his own thinking of risk has evolved as he became responsible for others leading a team and how he thinks of risk as a member of boards of directors. Bob challenges leaders to understand the risk upfront through good questions, rather than understanding it from hindsight. He also outlines how he'd prompt younger leaders to think about the relationship between risk and opportunity.

 

Learn more about Stan's latest book, Risk: A User's Guide, here: https://www.mcchrystalgroup.com/library/risk-a-users-guide/