The Marcel Podcast

Dr. David Schramm is a family scholar at Utah State University, and a TEDx speaker, consultant and trainer. His research centers on couples, relationships, parenting, and flourishing at home and at work. He joins Marcel Schwantes in this week’s show to prove that successful business culture and outcomes are founded in family science. “Family for me is everything,” David says. “...I want to help other people have wonderful family and relationships just like I did.” [3:50]Marcel featured David in an Inc Magazine article recently. [4:25]Marcel asks, “How did a family scholar find his way into business leadership and work culture?” David explains what led him to this field. [4:35]David’s analysis of research on the top places to work showed that the ninth most frequently used word to describe them was family. [7:12]Humans thrive when three fundamental needs are met: safety, satisfaction and connection. David says that connection is the secret sauce for workplaces to flourish. [10:00]“Fear cripples connection, and it kills creativity. And those are essential in the workplace,” David remarks. He explains what happens in the brain when fear is activated. He adds that fear also cripples trust. Marcel shares his own experience working in a fear-based culture and the devastating effect it wreaked on his health and wellbeing. [13:00]Workplaces built on family culture thrive financially. Employees feel safe expressing their creativity and taking risks, as they know they will be rewarded even if things don’t work out. David says that there is an upward spiral, a spillover effect, when employees are doing well: “...a happy brain turns on all the learning centers in the brain… It spills over into the workplace because creativity, intelligence rises, energy rises.” [17:18]Building a family culture in the workplace comes down to small, consistent, day-to-day positive interactions. [20:38]“Managers who do well, they care about the personal lives of their employees,” David says. [20:55]Strong companies build their culture on a foundation of connection, direction then correction. “When companies get those out of order, and they focus on correction as their foundation, you see all kinds of issues and struggles,” David remarks. [24:05]David shares some tips for managers to help them build connection. These include recognition and showing care and respect for their employees. The top two tips, he comments, are showing gratitude and kindness. He quotes Martin Seligman, “A single act of kindness produces the single most reliable momentary increase in wellbeing…” [25:05]Marcel asks, “I want to begin the process of becoming a more family-oriented culture; is there a first step?” David gives him some practical advice. [27:47]David wants listeners to remember that people are more important than problems. [30:47]This is David’s formula for happiness and success: “Search inward, turn outward, look upward, and press forward.” [31:25]ResourcesDr David Schramm on LinkedInTEDx Talk: Family Fundamentals: The Secret Sauce to Booming BusinessInc Magazine: This Rare Workplace Strategy May Be the Secret Sauce to Booming BusinessMarcelSchwantes.comMarcel Schwantes on LinkedInEmail: [email protected]

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Karin Hurt is a former Verizon Wireless executive, an accomplished author, and an international keynote speaker. She has over 20 years of experience in customer service, sales, and human resources. She inspires transformational change around the world through her leadership training and consulting firm, Let's Grow Leaders, of which she is the CEO and co-founder. Her newest book, Courageous Cultures, is a practical manual to building an open environment in which ideas are cultivated at every level in an organization. She joins Marcel Schwantes to discuss her work.Many leaders believe that they have an open environment where their employees can speak up, feel heard and understood. They are shocked when they learn employees are holding back. [1:13]Karin shares that getting consistent critique has ensured that her book is thorough and practical. [6:06]According to Karin, 49% of people said they don’t share their ideas because no one asks; 50% don’t because they don’t believe anything would come out of it; and 40% said they lack confidence to share an idea. The number one reason why employees don’t share ideas, the research reveals, is that they don’t believe they would get the credit. [12:27]In the long run, the companies that will have high retention and creativity are those who are connecting humanly and empathetically during the current global crisis. [16:30]The three most toxic behaviors some leaders participate in that are being tolerated and even rewarded are shaming, blaming, and intimidation. These behaviors typically occur in dehumanizing cultures of fear, modeled from the top down. [21:30]Karin offers advice for leaders who want to cultivate courageous cultures. Leaders should use tools provided in the book to proactively ask people for ideas, then respond to those ideas with feedback and gratitude, and suggest another area where new ideas are needed. It doesn’t have to be a grand cultural change strategy, Karin points out. Focus first on making things practical, and then you can move on to the strategy. [27:59]Being vulnerable and asking for suggestions from new employees on how to improve allows for trust to be built, because they see you are willing to let your guard down and actually ask for help instead of just pushing your authority down on them and imposing rigid policies and procedures. [32:11]ResourcesKarin Hurt on LinkedIn | TwitterLetsGrowLeaders.comCourageous Cultures by Karin Hurt and David Dye MarcelSchwantes.comMarcel Schwantes on LinkedIn

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“If there’s ever a Mount Rushmore of leadership thinkers and experts that have changed the world,” Marcel Schwantes says, “...I believe that the bust of Edgar Schein should be deserving of a spot.” Edgar Schein is the world’s foremost expert on humble leadership. He is also the author of the Humble Leadership series, the first two of which are Humble Inquiry and Humble Consulting. The most recent addition to the series is Humble Leadership, which he co-wrote with his son Peter Schein, a leadership expert in his own right. Both Edgar and Peter join Marcel to discuss what makes a humble leader.Edgar defines leadership as an activity “that somehow produces something new and different that is actually better.” [4:38]“Here and now humility means embracing that idea that I don't know, I'm gonna have to trust the people I work with, and together we can figure it out,” Peter says. [6:32]Humble leadership requires a level two relationship: subordinates, peers and leaders get to know each other as whole human beings. This type of relationship makes it easy to ask for and tell one another the truth. [8:10]Effective leaders do not maintain a level one transactional role, they build more personal relationships. “They collapse the psychological distance and thereby enable themselves to be more humble and their subordinates to be more open and honest,” Edgar remarks. [9:56]Peter says that many companies are realizing that building open trusting relationships makes their hierarchy work better. [12:07]“Evolving organizations need to continue to emphasize these… personalized relationships between people that have to work together… Sharing information outside of your box is how you innovate, it’s how you prevent accidents, it’s how you grow the organization,” says Peter. [15:15]Edgar says that the purpose of his work is to help leaders become aware of their limitations without taking away their role as a leader. They need to understand that “this future world” demands a different way of thinking. [17:28]Marcel, Edgar and Peter discuss why management still favors command and control leadership. Peter believes that it’s because of job security as well as job insecurity. Edgar distinguishes between hierarchy and command and control: hierarchy is important for society to function, while command and control is when you use your position inappropriately in a hierarchy. [18:02]“What I am most impressed with is that the modern world is a multi-force, global, interdependent system in which figuring out what's right to do is intrinsically impossible,” Edgar says. [23:35]Edgar and Peter share how they think humble leadership will impact the future. [26:35]Marcel asks the guests to share some practical tips leaders should adopt habitually to become better humble leaders. Edgar replies, “I have truly discovered that good and evil is in my daily actions, not in some set of principles or codes… Every human relationship can start with a constructive intent...” [30:40]Edgar suggests that leading through fear comes in part from the US culture of dominance as well as fear of losing its position in the world. Peter adds that leaders fear being out-innovated. They both agree that leaders have to learn to compete as well as collaborate. [34:45]“Situational awareness,” Edgar comments, “...flows from the fact that the world is a complicated place and you have to be very conceptually and emotionally agile in the complex world.” [40:18]Peter emphasizes the distinction between transparency and openness. He shares why openness should be substituted for transparency. [41:38]Edgar wants listeners to embrace humble inquiry as it builds better relationships and allows you to figure out what’s going on and what you should do about it. [43:20][email protected] Schein on LinkedIn MarcelSchwantes.comMarcel Schwantes on LinkedIn

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Marcel Schwantes calls this episode “one of the most authentic and real and raw conversations” he has ever had. His guest, JT McCormick, is the CEO of Scribe Media, a multimillion dollar publishing company which has been ranked the number one Top Company Culture in America by Entrepreneur magazine, and number two Best Place to Work in Texas. JT is the author of I Got There: How a Mixed Race Kid Overcame Racism, Poverty and Abuse to Arrive at The American Dream. He joins Marcel to chat about his amazing life story - his journey from scrubbing toilets at a restaurant to becoming President of a million dollar software company, and now CEO of Scribe Media - and to share the lessons he learned along the way.JT says, “If you wake up in the morning and your feet hit the ground, you’ve got to be excellent… Anything that’s not excellent in my life I’m the only one that can change it, so there’s no need to complain about it, just get to work.” [3:45]“My why is to be a phenomenal husband, a phenomenal father, a phenomenal CEO. And then I would say fourth on the list is to give back to the communities which I came from.” [5:07]Marcel asks JT how he overcame all the adversity of his early life. He replies that he refused to be a victim. He decided, at age eight, not to spend his time trying to get everyone to like him, because some people just would not. This early lesson spared him years of grief. Another fundamental lesson he learned was to believe in himself. [8:38]“I just tend to look at things from a positive standpoint… I choose to figure out, How can we make a positive out of a negative situation?” [10:20]JT shares his journey from scrubbing toilets to President of a software company. Two lessons he learned were to be the best at whatever he did, and the magic of compound interest. [12:22]When JT was promoted to President, it struck him that he was only as good as the people he surrounded himself with. As such, his focus shifted to finding the greatest people to surround the company and himself with. [17:03]“If you are in a leadership position, you're only a leader if you serve,” JT argues. He describes how the principle of putting people first is lived out at Scribe Media. [18:05]Marcel asks, “How does a company become number one in the category of culture?” JT responds that it’s a matter of the little actions taken every day to live out your principles. At Scribe Media, they work with each other, not for JT. They bring their whole selves to work: he doesn’t believe in a work self vs a home self. He shares several practices they adopt at the company that build the culture. [22:37]JT and Marcel discuss Scribe Media’s Culture Bible, which is freely accessible to the public. They talk about three of the principles listed in the Culture Bible: Do right by people;Bring your whole self to work;Ask questions.  [26:46]“A lot of times you can eliminate questions in transparency,” JT points out. [33:21]JT explains why he disagrees with the remote work trend. [35:37]“What’s your best advice for business owners trying to stay resilient during these crazy stressful times?” Marcel asks. JT advises leaders to put their people first, be transparent, be visible and let people know where they stand. Let people feel safe, he adds, and if you have to pivot or make other tough decisions, make them early and let people know so that you can set their expectations. [39:35]JT teaches through sharing his mistakes. [44:19]“I can't become something that I don't even know exists,” JT says. “...I believe if people just know what's possible they can strive to achieve that.” [46:19]“I live by a formula: Mindset, choices and hard work equals success.” [48:48]ResourcesJT McCormick on [email protected] Got There: How a Mixed Race Kid Overcame Racism, Poverty and Abuse to Arrive at The American Dream

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Gary Hamel is a world-renowned influential business thinker, a consultant, the Director and co-founder of Management Lab, and a visiting Professor at the London Business School. His newest book, Humanocracy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People Inside Them, is a practical guide to dismantling business bureaucracy and replacing it with a much more human-centered and effective system. He and Marcel Schwantes discuss the book and how leaders can apply the principles of ‘humanocracy’.Many organizations struggle to adapt to change: it’s usually new businesses who create new business models. Gary remarks that deep change is usually episodic and crisis driven, due in part to pre-existing old bureaucratic structures. Those responsible for seeing and anticipating the future and change are at the top, and by the time an issue is big enough to cross their notice it is often too late. [8:18]Bureaucracy was invented for a reason and it was one of the most important human inventions. It was beneficial in bringing people together to do work at scale and improve productivity. However, like all technologies, it was a product of its time, and isn’t suited for the advanced modern world. [12:48]Bureaucracy was intended to maximize control, while humanocracy is aimed at maximizing contribution. There is still control and boundaries in humanocracy, while amplifying people’s capacities to grow and learn. [18:10]“Leaders are people who know how to make a catalytic effort with others not on the basis of positional authority, but rather through the ability to cast the vision and bring people together,” Gary says. “A leader seeks power with, not power over. If you have to use your bureaucratic power to get things done then you are eroding your real leadership capital.” Gary believes we must redefine leadership as an ability instead of a position. [25:22]“An organization has little to fear from the future or its competitors when it’s brimming with self-managing micropreneurs,” Marcel quotes from Gary’s book. He asks him to elaborate. Management pundits have claimed that building a large organization that is entrepreneurial at its core is impossible. Gary gives an example of a company that successfully proves them wrong. [30:33]Marcel asks Gary about the risks of a culture of too much humanocracy. He lists rushing into dismantling bureaucracy too quickly. Though imperfect, Gary says, bureaucracy has many benefits. Modern organizations need paradoxical characteristics, such as extreme discipline and control but enormous freedom. Gary believes human beings are good at handling paradox. To him, the definition of a successful organization is “one that is constantly optimizing and redefining those trade offs in the best possible way.” [40:05]Marcel asks Gary why he thinks some leaders still lead through fear. In the industrial age, the goal was to turn humans into literal machines, Gary posits. German sociologist Max Weber said, “Bureaucracy succeeds to the extent it is dehumanized,” so in a bureaucracy there was no room for what makes us human, including love. Gary believes that the problems of the modern world require every ounce of human initiative and ingenuity to be solved. An assumption exists that love and accountability are mutually exclusive, he adds. “Real love understands that for people to succeed, there must be discipline.” [48:12]ResourcesGary Hamel on LinkedIn | TwitterGaryHamel.comHumanocracy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People Inside Them

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This week’s guest on the Love In Action podcast, Robert (Bob) Quinn, believes that purpose has a positive influence on a company’s financial health and competitiveness. In addition, on a personal level, purpose helps people grow and thrive. Bob is the Margaret Elliot Tracy Collegiate Professor Emeritus at Michigan Ross School of Business. A prolific author and revered teacher and speaker, he has published 18 books and has been named one of the top speakers in the world on organizational culture. He is among the top 1% of professors cited in organizational behavior textbooks. His viral Google talk on personal purpose has amassed over 16 million views. Bob joins Marcel Schwantes to talk about his book, The Economics of Higher Purpose: Eight Counterintuitive Steps for Creating a Purpose-Driven Organization, including how to shift from a transaction-oriented to a purpose-oriented mindset.Bob’s purpose is to inspire positive change. [5:58]Once the central focus switches from external rewards to higher purpose, the workforce transforms from agents into owners. [9:01]Marcel asks, “What difference does higher purpose make in people's lives?” Bob responds, “To have a higher purpose is to have a calling in life. Your work becomes your purpose. The moment that happens everything changes because you're now living from intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivation, and at that point - Maslow said this years ago - labour becomes love.” [10:21]Purpose-driven people live longer, are less prone to many diseases, have better relationships, and make more money. [11:20]“Purpose-driven organizations have highly engaged workforces, and they make more money,” Bob says. When you pair profit with relationships, it leads to impressive results at work. [12:05]Marcel quotes Bob’s recent blog post, “How an organization responds in a crisis is a function of the culture created prior to the crisis… Those organizations are harvesting their rewards.” Bob gives an example of a company whose culture helped them recover from a crisis.  [16:04]These are extraordinary times, Marcel says. “So we got a global pandemic, economic hardship as a result, and then on top of that throw in racial injustice. And that's just in the last five months!” Bob comments that it’s the most tumultuous period he has lived through. [19:42]“In a crisis we desperately need a leader to do something,” Bob argues. “The purpose of a leader is to connect people to their purpose; it's to tie and bind people together in pursuit of a new and better future.” [20:31]Marcel and Bob discuss some counterintuitive steps for creating a purpose-driven organization, as detailed in Bob’s book. [22:39]“Purpose holds us accountable to do hard things, not convenient things,” Bob remarks. “But when we do hard things those are very powerful signals to the culture that it's changing and moving in a positive direction.” [28:19]Bob explains the role authenticity plays in high performance organizations. [28:47]Bob’s book lays out the counterintuitive process of connecting people to purpose. [35:34]Bob wants listeners to take away these four questions, which will instantaneously transform us if we answer them honestly: What result do I want to create? Am I internally directed? Am I other-focused? Am I externally open? [42:20]This episode is proudly sponsored by Ally Business Coaching. Visit them at https://lnkd.in/eTzc7HxResourcesRobertEQuinn.comRobertEQuinn.com/Blog The Economics of Higher Purpose: Eight Counterintuitive Steps for Creating a Purpose-Driven Organization bookBecoming Who You Really Are course

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Dr. Amy Bradley is a senior faculty member of Hult International Business School. She was chosen as a member of the Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2020 and her work has been published in the Harvard Business Review, Forbes, and The Guardian. Her recent book, The Human Moment: The Positive Power of Compassion in the Workplace, is a hands-on manual to cultivating a culture in the workplace that practices and supports compassion. She joins Marcel Schwantes to discuss the book, and how its principles apply in today’s world.Amy wrote her book to accomplish three goals: to teach leaders to practice self care so they can better care for those around them; to give leaders knowledge and confidence in attending to employees who may be going through difficult experiences; and to provide the tools for creating environments where compassion is both systemic and systematic. [9:09]Marcel asks Amy why she thinks the workplace is dehumanized. Our relationship dynamic with work has been unhealthy long before the current crisis, Amy claims. We prioritized tasks over relationships, which drove self-focused individualism instead of other-focused collectivism. The pandemic is giving us the opportunity to step back and reset the way we view ourselves and our relationship with work. [10:52]Marcel asks Amy to define compassion. She responds that compassion is noticing and responding to the suffering of others and ourselves with kindness, care, generosity, and non-judgment. Different types of compassion are relevant for different environments, but the bottom line is that human beings want to feel loved and cared for. [12:53]“Companies, organizations and institutions can have the brightest visions, but if the culture isn’t conducive, compassion will never flourish,” Amy remarks. Organizational culture is most powerfully demonstrated through the testimonies of those within the organization about how they are treated. Culture is intangible, but it is felt and experienced by all employees. [17:52]The four domains of growth are: appreciation of life; new possibilities; personal strength; and managerial growth. Amy’s research observed that leaders acquired these types of personal development post-trauma. She gives details and examples for each domain. “People need time, space and support to see their growth from these experiences,” she adds, “otherwise the impact goes unrealized.” [23:03]When fostering compassion in the workplace, leaders must be aware that they set the emotional tone in the organization, and should lead by example. Leaders that take the time to make connections and prioritize wellbeing over business outcomes set the tone and context for compassion. [27:27]Marcel advises listeners to be mindful of how they express compassion and to be introspective about how compassionate you are when listening to others. “Compassionate listening is being able to not just hear, but listen with the intent to meet someone’s needs or remove their suffering,” he says. Amy comments that a human moment is the act of making the time each day to connect with someone on a basic human level. [32:01]Amy believes that some leaders still lead through fear because of an internal drive that stimulates both fear and satisfaction in their brains, causing them to exist in a constant state of anxiety. That drive produces results in the short term, which satisfies the system that perpetuates it, but is not sustainable in the long term. [36:30]ResourcesDr. Amy Bradley on LinkedIn The Human Moment: The Positive Power of Compassion in the Workplace

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Jay Perry is the Founder and CEO of Ally Business Coaching, co-author of Success Manifesto with Brian Tracy, and a certified Birkman consultant. He joins Marcel Schwantes to discuss leadership, communication, and perceptions. This episode is proudly sponsored by Ally Business Coaching. Visit them at www.allybusinesscoaching.com     “Leadership is simple in theory but tricky in execution,” Jay says. He defines leadership as helping people towards being the best version of themselves. Before they are able to do so, however, leaders must first be their best selves. They can then transfer the knowledge and guidance they received to those in their care in order to help them work on their varying strengths. [8:22]There will always be emotional content once there is interaction with people. Jay says that everyone has an optimal state at which they are at their best. The leader’s responsibility is to help people reach and maintain that optimal state. Having respect for each other’s strengths and weaknesses is crucial in building an optimized team. [11:30]Marcel asks Jay what characteristics people should be looking for in leaders during this time of crisis and they discuss how leaders must communicate with clarity and urgency, setting the right expectations. [15:25]There is a prevalence of assumptions during communication: we assume we understand what people mean and their intentions. When someone asks us a question, we stop actively listening when our minds automatically go into solution mode and search for an answer that we assume we have. Additionally, we all have a bias and approach all situations through one perspective, which affects how we interact with others and handle situations. Creativity flourishes when we can control our biases and get to a place of learning. [16:43]Marcel asks Jay about the obstacles that hold leaders back. According to Jay, ego is a large hurdle that leaders must overcome. Other obstacles include assumption-making, a lack of clarity, and addressing realities instead of perceptions. “A person’s perception is more important than their reality,” Jay says. If you perceive something as a threat, you will behave as if you are threatened. [23:26]Marcel asks Jay why he thinks some leaders still lead through fear. “We underestimate the power of fear,” Jay replies. It runs deeper than simply holding us back; leaders themselves are fearful of leading through a way that is unfamiliar to them, and so they continue to use fear as a method of leadership. [27:51]The desired characteristics that the follower group wants their leadership to have include authenticity, confidence and modesty, and leading by example. Furthermore, leadership must be responsive to change, but hold fast to their core values. A good question leaders can ask themselves as a “self-check” is whether they are making those around them more powerful. [31:12]ResourcesJay Perry on LinkedIn | TwitterCall or text Jay: 416 587 1748AllyBusinessCoaching.comSuccess Manifesto by Brian Tracy and Jay Perry

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Moshe Engelberg is an author and the Founder and CEO of ResearchWorks, Inc. His recent book, The Amare Wave: Uplifting Business by Putting Love to Work (The Amare Way), is a practical guide to leading through love, deeply rooted in behavioral science and diverse wisdom traditions. He joins Marcel Schwantes to discuss his book and how its principles apply to the current global climate.The word “amare” is Latin for “love,” says Moshe, when Marcel asks about the motivation behind the title. There were several other prospective titles for the book, including Making Business Love, but they were dismissed in favor of using a substitute for the word “love”. [3:15]Moshe defines love as “energy that uplifts and connects.” He claims that it is the antidote to the problems within the world of work. We confuse business with war, he says. He and Marcel share examples of war terms that are so frequently used in business. While this may seem like a small concern, it is harmful because it dehumanizes customers and competition. [8:18]The seven principles of the Amare philosophy are: treat one another well; inspire connection; get on purpose; respect money; choose love over fear; take the long view; and prioritize relationships. Marcel asks Moshe to elaborate on the fifth principle: choose love over fear. Fear constricts us, he replies, and narrows our view of possibilities as we operate on survival mode. Love, however, is expansive, creates openness and awareness of possibilities, and does not limit you like fear. [14:21]“What is honored in a company is cultivated there,” Moshe quotes. If there is no alignment between a company’s stated values and their words, actions and priorities, then they are creating a culture in which those values are neither practiced nor essential. [22:36]The seven principles have three foundational pillars, called the ABC’s of the Amare Way philosophy. They are authenticity, belonging, and collaboration. Moshe gives details about each pillar and examples of how they apply in the world of work. [25:25]Significant evidence reveals that putting love in action at work makes more money. Companies that operate through the same concepts and principles of the Amare Way are significantly more profitable than their competitors who do not, a study shows. Moshe gives advice to encourage those who may doubt the prospects of establishing a culture that supports the Amare philosophy. [31:00]Marcel asks Moshe why he thinks some leaders still lead through fear. It’s what they were taught, Moshe suggests, as a result of a misinterpretation of one tenet of Darwin’s survival of the fittest philosophy. He urges listeners to have courage and do the right thing by putting love to work, saying that sometimes action needs to be taken first in order to change the attitude. [37:23]ResourcesMoshe Engelberg on LinkedIn | TwitterResearchWorks.comMosheEngelberg.comTheAmareWay.comThe Amare Wave: Uplifting Business by Putting Love to Work (The Amare Way)MarcelSchwantes.com

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Adam Waytz is an award winning social psychologist, and Associate Professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. His work has been published in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, and The Wall Street Journal. He joins Marcel Schwantes on this week’s show to discuss his new book, The Power of Human: How Our Shared Humanity Can Help Us Create a Better World. They chat about our innate need for human interaction, and why we need to see each other as fully human.Marcel calls Adam’s book “timely and crucial.” [2:30]Adam does research about “how thinking people think about other thinking people.” He is trying to understand why we treat others kindly or aggressively based on how much we consider their humanity. [5:00]Active dehumanization is seeing another person or social group as non-human (the rationale for slavery, genocide, and ethnic cleansing). Passive dehumanization, which is more widespread today, is just overlooking other people or groups as thinking, feeling human beings. [6:50]Adam describes four pillars of dehumanization: Political polarization - “People on the political left and people on the political right see less eye-to-eye, have more dehumanizing depictions of each other, are less inclined to mingle with each other, have less interest in each other,” Adam explains. [10:30]Social stratification - people of different socioeconomic classes have less in common with one another, which often breeds animosity. [11:36]The rise of automation - more technology means that we rely on humans less and as such we don’t see each other as often. [12:17]Growing marketization - Adam says that our interactions with one another nowadays is moving away from community and more toward buyer-seller relationships. [13:49]“The presence of humans is psychologically important and powerful,” Adam argues. He explains how human touch enhances trust and empathy. We place more value on objects made by human hands. The more we perceive humanness in others, the more we care about them. Humans influence us to do positive things and engage in sometimes difficult collective actions, Adam says. We’re inclined to work harder for the benefit of others than for our own self-interest. [17:30]Marcel and Adam discuss the power of daughters. Research proves that leaders with daughters are more concerned about gender equality and tend to invest more in corporate social responsibility. Adam says that it demonstrates the power humans have to influence you to change your mind and become interested in their wellbeing. [20:11]“...there's a tremendous benefit to getting employees to recognize the beneficiaries of their work,” Adam comments. Knowing that their work has impact and that their company cares about impacting others does more for employee engagement than even a pay raise, he adds. [23:19]Marcel asks Adam to explain his counterintuitive recommendation to increase employee disengagement to humanize the workplace. [24:45]“In virtually any conflict you have a power disparity. ...I think the way forward to increase common humanity is not to start with this idea that we're all humans, but to be really comfortable with saying we have differences, and because we have differences, we have different goals,” says Adam. “...We have divergent opinions, and we have to work within those different ways of resolving conflict… High power groups really benefit from listening; low power groups really benefit from expressing hurt.” [29:03]Adam feels that the issues going on in the world today are forcing us to think about what a better society would look like. He advises listeners to reconnect with someone they haven’t spoken to in a while. [35:14]Marcel cites Adam’s book: “Let robots do the robotic work and let humans do the rest.” [38:33]ResourcesAdamWaytz.comThe Power of Human: How Our Shared Humanity Can Help Us Creat

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