Meet Jon Levy — behavioral scientist and author of Team Intelligence: How Brilliant Leaders Unlock Collective Genius and the NYT/WSJ bestseller You’re Invited. Jon has spent years studying human behavior and leadership mechanics, advising companies on how to build teams that actually perform—beyond leadership myths and buzzwords.

We often hire “A-players,” roll out values, and assume great leadership traits will carry us. Then reality hits: strategy doesn’t execute itself—teams do. Jon explains why the smallest unit of performance is the team, why stacking stars backfires, and how culture and language shape what people actually do. If you’re trying to align leaders who don’t buy the data, this one’s for you.

You’ll learn how to engineer collective intelligence—the practical habits, roles, and rituals that raise a team’s game, how to recruit and empower “glue players,” and how to make strategy felt when spreadsheets won’t persuade.

• Culture as operating system: the sayings, status cues, and rituals that drive behavior (Apple’s “surprise and delight,” LEGO’s “fireside”).
• Bursty communication: why teams should “work together, then work apart” to boost problem-solving.
• Glue players: high-EQ, team-first multipliers (and why too many stars tank performance).
• Make the implicit explicit: roles, skills, and “player cards” that speed decisions.
• Trust, not traits: honesty, competence, benevolence—and dealing with the dark tetrad at work.
• When data won’t convince: crafting a narrative that makes people feel the better future.

00:00 Introduction 

00:36 Coming Up...

01:47 Unpacking Team Intelligence with John Levy

02:47 Insights on Leadership and Team Dynamics

05:13 The Role of Culture in Organizations

13:49 The Impact of Language on Behavior

16:54 The Concept of Glue Players

18:14 The Key to Predicting Success in Basketball

19:02 Characteristics of Glue Players

21:25 The Importance of Team Dynamics

23:49 The Antwerp Diamond Heist: A Lesson in Teamwork

27:52 Making Implicit Knowledge Explicit

29:36 The Dark Side of Team Dynamics

31:29 Understanding Trust in Teams

34:06 The Role of Emotion in Strategy

35:02 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

• Jon Levy — Website: https://www.jonlevy.com
• Book: https://www.jonlevy.com/team-intelligence
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonlevytlb

Thank you to our guest, our executive producer Zach Ness, our editor James Pearce, and the Outthinker team. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, download, and subscribe. I’m your host, Kaihan Krippendorff—thank you for listening.

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Christina Farr is an investor, startup advisor, and former health-tech journalist. She’s the author of The Storyteller’s Advantage: How Powerful Narratives Make Businesses Thrive and the creator of the Second Opinion newsletter, where she decodes healthcare and technology for leaders.

Most leaders try to move markets with features, roadmaps, and metrics. But the winners often move them with narrative—stories that rally investors, customers, and teams to build the future with them. Christina unpacks how great storytellers create belief that becomes momentum.

You’ll learn a simple framework to make your strategy legible and compelling, how to pick the right plot for your message, and practical ways to craft origin stories, pitch decks, and CEO communications that persuade.

In this episode we cover:

• The SOAP framework: Surprise, Openness, Authenticity, Pathos
• Seven classic plots for business (from David vs. Goliath to Rebirth) and when to use each
• Case studies: PillPack vs. incumbents; Apple’s comeback; Microsoft’s reinvention; WeWork’s cautionary tale
• Fundraising and sales: decks that move capital and customers
• Leading in tense moments: speaking to charged issues without fracturing culture

Episode Timeline:

00:00 – Highlight from today’s episode

01:05 – Introducing Christina + the power of narrative in business

03:05 – “If you really know me…”

04:20 – What is strategy? Story as prognostication

07:10 – Why story beats data alone in pitches, sales, and retention

10:55 – The SOAP framework (Surprise, Openness, Authenticity, Pathos)

18:40 – Engineering surprise; calibrating vulnerability

22:00 – Seven plots leaders can borrow (with modern brand examples)

28:45 – Case study: PillPack’s David vs. Goliath playbook

32:40 – Rebirths and tragedies: Apple, Microsoft, WeWork

36:10 – Origin stories that travel (and ones that don’t)

38:10 – CEO comms on divisive topics, without breaking culture

39:20 – Where to learn more from Christina

Additional Resources:

• Book: The Storyteller’s Advantage — Christina Farr (Basic Venture) -https://basic-venture.com/titles/christina-farr/the-storytellers-advantage/9781541704299/
• Newsletter: Second Opinion - https://secondopinion.media/
• Christina Farr on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinafarr/

Thank you to our guest, our executive producer Zach Ness, our editor James Pearce, and the Outthinker team. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, download, and subscribe. I’m your host, Kaihan Krippendorff—thank you for listening.

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In this special in-person conversation recorded at Adobe’s global headquarters, host Kaihan Krippendorff sits down with Malte Bernholz, Vice President of Strategy and Incubation at Adobe.

Malte brings a unique lens, combining years of experience in consulting and technology leadership, to unpack what might be the most significant technological shift of our lifetime. Together, Kaihan and Malte explore:

• The macro forces and creative trends redefining industries in the age of AI
• Why this moment rivals—and perhaps surpasses—the dot-com boom in its impact
• How AI is both lowering the floor of creativity, making it easier for anyone to create, and raising the ceiling, expanding what’s possible for professionals
• How personalization at scale is transforming customer experiences
• And what this means for the future of brands, creativity, and human originality

It’s a conversation about courage, imagination, and leadership at the edge of technological change.

And for the first time, you can watch this conversation as well as listen—check out the video version on Outthinker.com or YouTube.

Thank you to our guest, our executive producer Zach Ness, our editor James Pearce, and the Outthinker team. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, download, and subscribe. I’m your host, Kaihan Krippendorff—thank you for listening.

Follow us at outthinker.com/podcast

Mark Crowley is a longtime financial services leader who led consistently top-performing teams over a 25-year career. He’s the author of Lead From the Heart and the newly released The Power of Employee Well-being, a frequent contributor to Fast Company, and host of the Lead From the Heart podcast. In 2013, Mark was the first to publicize Gallup’s finding that only 30% of U.S. employees were engaged—helping ignite a decade-long debate about what truly drives performance.

In this conversation, we explore why feelings and emotions—not dashboards—drive behavior, how the heart–brain connection shapes decisions at work, and why belonging outperforms “boss quality” as a predictor of retention. Mark connects lived leadership to research—from Oxford’s wellbeing–productivity link to HeartMath’s work on coherence—and shows how caring (not coddling) creates the conditions for sustained results.

Whether you lead a business unit, a project team, or a transformation office, this episode will reframe how you raise performance by raising wellbeing—with specific, near-term moves any leader can make this week.

In this episode we cover:

• Why traditional engagement efforts flatline—and why wellbeing is the more powerful lever for performance
• The Oxford evidence: how self-reported wellbeing maps directly to productivity in real work
• Belonging > boss quality as a driver of retention—and how leaders actually build it
• Caring vs. being nice: creating psychological and emotional safety without lowering the bar
• A practical definition of strategy: know where you’re going, plan with rigor, pivot fast when reality disagrees

Episode Timeline:

00:00 – Introduction

01:10 – Guest introduction and the case for feelings over dashboards

03:05 – “If you really know me…” and how Mark learned to lead from the heart

06:45 – Managing differently: proof from 25 years of top-performing teams

09:30 – Mark’s definition of strategy: plan hard, pivot faster

12:20 – Why wellbeing (not satisfaction) sets the stage for peak performance

15:10 – What wellbeing actually is—and why managers determine most of it

18:05 – Up to 95% of behavior is emotion-driven: implications for leaders

20:30 – Engagement stalled; the Oxford call-center study on wellbeing → productivity

25:40 – Caring vs. nice; HeartMath and the science of coherence

31:00 – Selecting and developing leaders who elevate others (not just individual stars)

36:10 – Belonging as the #1 driver of retention—and how to create it

39:20 – Where to start: know yourself, clarify values, design team-first systems

42:15 – Reward the team first (then individuals) to eliminate zero-sum competition

44:10 – How to keep learning from Mark + close

Additional Resources:

• Website: https://markccrowley.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markccrowley
• Books: Lead From the Heart; The Power of Employee Wellbeing
• Podcast: Lead From the Heart

Thank you to our guest, our executive producer Zach Ness, our editor James Pearce, and the Outthinker team. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, download, and subscribe. I’m your host, Kaihan Krippendorff—thank you for listening.

Follow us at outthinker.com/podcast

Eddie Fishman is a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, adjunct professor of International & Public Affairs, and author of Choke Points: How the Global Economy Became a Weapon of War. A former U.S. State Department strategist, he served on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff and Foreign Affairs Policy Board, and led Russia/Europe sanctions policy—bringing a rare, in-the-room perspective to how economic power really works.

In this conversation, we trace how “choke points”—where one nation dominates and substitutes are scarce—have turned minerals, microchips, and money flows into the quiet weapons of great-power rivalry. Eddie unpacks the geo-economic “impossible trinity”—why you can’t maximize interdependence, economic security, and geopolitical calm all at once—and what that trade-off means for leaders making bets on AI, batteries, and supply chains.

Whether you’re steering strategy, procurement, or policy, this episode will change how you spot fragile dependencies, anticipate where pressure will build next, and engage policymakers before the rules harden around you.

In this episode we cover:

• Why a true “choke point” = dominance plus low substitutability 
• The geo-economic impossible trinity and its implications for business strategy
• Where the next choke points may emerge: AI compute, batteries/EVs, and the energy transition
• The firm’s role: don’t just adapt to policy—shape it (how to engage upstream, practically)
• Industrial policy realities: U.S. moves on rare earths and semis—benefits, risks, and tolerance for failure

Episode Timeline:

00:00 – Cold open: rare earths and leverage

02:00 – Guest introduction and Eddie’s background

05:45 - Strategy as “winning tomorrow,” not just today

07:02 - Defining choke points (dominance + substitution)

11:20 - The “impossible trinity” explained with historical arcs

27:05 - Should firms adapt or shape policy?

30:05 - Emerging choke points: AI chips, batteries, EVs

38:05 - U.S. industrial policy (MP Materials, Intel) and what comes next

Additional Resources:

Book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/726149/chokepoints-by-edward-fishman/

X (Twitter): https://x.com/edwardfishman?lang=en

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edward-fishman

Thank you to our guest, our executive producer Zach Ness, our editor James Pearce, and the Outthinker team. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, download, and subscribe. I’m your host, Kaihan Krippendorff—thank you for listening.

Follow us at outthinker.com/podcast

Today we’re welcoming back our first-ever guest on the Outthinker Podcast, Scott Anthony—Senior Lecturer at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and one of the world’s leading voices on innovation and transformation. Formerly a senior partner at Innosight, the consultancy founded by Clayton Christensen, Scott has spent decades helping global organizations navigate disruption, build strategic resilience, and create new engines of growth. He’s also the author of eight acclaimed books, including The First Mile, Dual Transformation, and his newest work, Epic Disruptions: 11 Innovations That Shaped Our Modern World.

In this discussion, we uncover how disruption has driven human progress for centuries—long before the dawn of Silicon Valley. From the cannon fire that toppled ancient empires to the printing press that democratized knowledge, Scott shows that the forces behind disruption are anything but new. Through stories spanning from gunpowder to generative AI, he reveals how these enduring patterns continue to reshape industries, technologies, and societies today.

Listeners will walk away with a richer understanding of how to spot and harness disruption rather than fear it. Scott explains how leaders can use history as a practical playbook—learning to make bold, informed decisions in fast‑changing environments. Whether you’re scaling a business or steering an enterprise through transformation, this is a conversation about seeing beyond the moment to shape what comes next.

In this episode we cover:

• What Clayton Christensen really meant by “disruptive innovation”
• Why the term is so often misused—and how to tell sustaining vs disruptive innovation apart
• The “ghosts” that haunt incumbents: past trauma, rigid habits, and identity fears that block change
• What leaders can learn from the printing press, steel mini mills, and the iPhone
• How to use history as a lens for seeing disruption before it strikes

Episode Timeline:

00:00 — Highlight from today’s episode
 01:10 — Introducing Scott Anthony and today’s topic
 04:00 — From consulting to academia: finding no “safe spaces” in the era of AI
 09:00 — Defining strategy: “a set of choices to achieve a designed aim”
 10:00 — Setting the record straight on Clayton Christensen’s theory
 16:30 — Bethlehem Steel, emotional ghosts, and leadership through disruption
 21:00 — From gunpowder to AI: how patterns keep repeating
 25:00 — The printing press and the unintended consequences of innovation
 30:00 — The hero’s journey of innovation—from Julia Child to Steve Jobs
 37:00 — Spotting modern disruptors: AI, robotics, and additive manufacturing
 41:00 — Where to learn more from Scott Anthony

Additional Resources:

Book Website: https://www.epicdisruptions.com
Scott Anthony’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottdanthony/

Thank you to our guest, our executive producer Zach Ness, our editor James Pearce, and the Outthinker team. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, download, and subscribe. I’m your host, Kaihan Krippendorff—thank you for listening.

Follow us at outthinker.com/podcast

Adam Brotman is the former Chief Digital Officer of Starbucks and Co-CEO of J.Crew, and co‑author of the e‑book AI‑First: The Playbook for a Future‑Proof Business and Brand. At Starbucks, he helped create one of the most admired digital customer experiences in the world and was named Chief Digital Officer of the Year. Today, as co‑founder of Forum3, Adam helps executives navigate the next era of business transformation—one where AI is no longer optional, but foundational.

Over the past two years, Adam has interviewed some of the most influential voices shaping artificial intelligence—Bill Gates, Sam Altman, Reid Hoffman, and Ethan Mollick, among others. Through those conversations, he’s uncovered what separates companies that simply experiment with AI from those that truly transform.

In this episode, we unpack what it really means to become an AI‑first leader—someone who doesn’t need to code or build models, but who develops the instinct and conviction to guide their teams into this new frontier.

In this episode we cover:

• What it means to be an AI‑first CEO and why it starts with an authentic “aha moment.”
• Bill Gates’ perspective on AI as a tool for qualitative uplift, not just productivity.
• The idea of the “middle era” of AI—why it feels messy, and how visionary leaders navigate it.
• Lessons from Starbucks’ shift from digital‑first to AI‑first thinking.
• Why the real ROI of AI lies in better decisions, faster, across every function.

Episode Timeline:
 00:00 — Highlight from today’s episode
 01:15 — Introducing Adam + today’s topic
 02:30 — The AI‑first mindset: where transformation really begins
 06:00 — Bill Gates on why AI is bigger than any past tech shift
 10:00 — Quantitative vs. qualitative productivity
 12:00 — Inside “the middle era” of AI
 16:00 — Defining the AI‑first company and leader
 25:00 — Beyond ROI: reframing AI’s value
 28:00 — Research insights: why AI improves decision quality
 31:00 — From skepticism to the CEO’s “aha” moment
 33:00 — What’s next after the middle era
 38:00 — Closing reflections + how to keep learning from Adam

Additional Resources:
 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adambrotman
Book & Company: https://www.forum3.com/ai-first-book

Thank you to our guest, our executive producer Zach Ness, our editor James Pearce, and the Outthinker team. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, download, and subscribe. I’m your host, Kaihan Krippendorff—thank you for listening.

Follow us at outthinker.com/podcast

Our guest today is Julia Austin—former senior leader at Akamai, VMware, and DigitalOcean, with decades of experience helping organizations make the leap from startup to scale. She’s also studied and guided countless founders as a professor at Harvard Business School. Julia now distills those lessons in her new book, After the Idea: What It Really Takes to Create and Scale a Startup.

In this conversation you’ll discover what separates ventures that thrive from those that stall. Every company begins with a spark, but too often innovators fall in love with ideas, overbuild too soon, or underestimate the hard realities of scaling and culture. Julia draws from experience spanning tech giants and countless startups to reveal how leaders can move from inspiration to momentum—and sustain innovation even as complexity grows.

You’ll learn practical frameworks and stories for transforming early insights into long-term impact. Whether you’re a founder, strategist, or innovator inside an established business, this conversation offers tools for approaching discovery, scaling, and culture design.

In this episode we cover:

• Four types of scrappy experiments every innovator should run: ethnographic, “be the bot,” Wizard of Oz, and low fidelity prototypes
• How to know if there’s really a there there in your market
• Balancing beachheads and total addressable markets while keeping unit economics in check
• Building competitive advantages through team, domain expertise, and partnerships
• How to design org structures and cultures that reward experimentation and embrace productive failure

Episode Timeline:

00:00 — Highlight from today’s episode
 01:18 — Introducing Julia Austin and today’s topic
 04:45 — “If you really know me…” Julia’s art background
 06:30 — Julia’s definition of strategy as a “living, breathing map”
 09:15 — Lessons from Akamai and VMware on scaling from startup to global enterprise
 14:50 — The importance of discovery: why slowing down helps you go faster
 21:05 — Four types of experiments: ethnographic, be the bot, Wizard of Oz, low fidelity
 33:40 — Testing markets: TAM, beachheads, and unit economics
 42:20 — Building competitive advantage beyond the idea
 49:15 — Designing cultures that keep innovation alive at scale
 55:45 — Why celebrating failure fuels long-term breakthroughs
 01:02:10 — Julia’s book After the Idea and how to connect with her

Additional Resources:

• Book Website: https://www.aftertheideabook.com/ 
• Julia Austin's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliaaustin

Thank you to our guest, our executive producer Zach Ness, our editor James Pearce, and the Outthinker team. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, download, and subscribe. I’m your host, Kaihan Krippendorff—thank you for listening.

Follow us at outthinker.com/podcast

Martin Reeves is Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute and author of The Imagination Machine and his newest book, Like: The Button That Changed the World. A prolific strategist and researcher, Martin is known for uncovering practical lessons from unexpected places and helping leaders rethink innovation for the real world.

In this conversation, we trace the surprising story of the “like” button—how a few lines of JavaScript, cultural quirks, and serendipitous accidents reshaped business models, advertising, and even human behavior. Martin reveals why most groundbreaking ideas don’t emerge from lone geniuses, but from messy communities, chance encounters, and recombinations of old ideas into something new.

Whether you’re leading innovation at scale or just curious about the unintended consequences of technology, this episode will change how you think about creativity, feedback, and the ripple effects of small decisions.

In this episode we cover:

• Why the “like” button is the ultimate case study in serendipitous innovation
• How social signals scale beyond social media into CX, commerce, and B2B services
• The role of culture, language, and naming in shaping adoption and meaning
• Why second-order effects of innovation often matter more than first-order ones
• A practical lens for spotting and leveraging serendipity inside organizations

Episode Timeline:
00:00 – Introduction
02:00 – Guest Introduction
03:45 – Toaster Projects and Innovation
06:13 - Origins of the Like Button
08:25 - Cultural History of the Thumbs Up Gesture
14:31 - Multiple Inventors and Facebook's Role
34:27 - Inside the Code: How Likes Work
36:11 - Future Implications of Like Technology

Additional Resources:

• Book Website: LikeBook.org
• Martin’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-reeves
• Book: Like: The Button That Changed the World

Thank you to our guest, our executive producer Zach Ness, our editor James Pearce, and the Outthinker team. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, download, and subscribe. I’m your host, Kaihan Krippendorff—thank you for listening.

Follow us at outthinker.com/podcast

Kurt Miscinski is the co-founder, CEO, and President of Cerity Partners, one of the fastest-growing firms in the wealth management space. Today, Cerity manages over $130 billion in client assets—but it started with a different vision: to create the first truly global, enduring professional services firm in wealth, drawing inspiration from firms like McKinsey and Deloitte, but applying it in a field that historically hasn’t operated that way.  

In this conversation, Kurt shares how that vision came to life—not through consolidation, but through a partnership ethos and a language shift that reframed everything from equity to culture. This is a story of architecture: how to build a firm that scales without losing its soul, and how to align incentives, ownership, and strategy to fuel long-term value. 

In this episode, we discuss: 

• How Kurt went from being a CPA and Deutsche Bank executive to founder of a firm redefining wealth advisory 
• Why Cerity’s operating model borrows more from McKinsey than Morgan Stanley—and how that unlocks scale 
• The strategic philosophy behind reinvesting 100% of profits and how it shaped the firm’s culture of ownership 
• How they use mergers to create a better firm, not just a bigger one—and why that distinction matters 
• The role of language in shaping culture, from avoiding the word “employee” to framing every merger as a partnership 

Episode Timeline:
00:00—Highlight from today's episode
00:55—Introducing Kurt + the topic of today’s episode
02:42—If you really know me, you know that...
05:30—What's your definition of strategy?
06:19—Creating Cerity—the founding story
08:57—Deutsche Bank and McKinsey as inspirations for a services-based business model
16:33—How has Cerity created a culture of partnership within the firm?
26:34—What is Cerity's model for capital allocation?
30:21—Where does the strategy office sit within the organization?
33:33—What are some of the principles that form your competitive differentiators?
37:03—How do you balance and maintain the coordination of the various services offered, as your clients evolve and grow?
41:03—What is your process for reevaluating and expanding your client services?
45:08—Closing

______________________________________________________________
Additional Resources:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kurtmiscinski
Cerity website: https://ceritypartners.com/

Thank you to our guest, our executive producer Zach Ness, our editor James Pearce, and the Outthinker team. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, download, and subscribe. I’m your host, Kaihan Krippendorff—thank you for listening.

Follow us at outthinker.com/podcast