THE NEW WORK PLAYBOOK

By Annett Burger

Most of what we consider to be leadership is about managing resources, not leading humans. AI is about to make that impossible to ignore.

The leadership practices that would actually make work bette... more

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FAQs about THE NEW WORK PLAYBOOK:

How many episodes does THE NEW WORK PLAYBOOK have?

The podcast currently has 20 episodes available.

THE NEW WORK PLAYBOOK episodes:

April 27, 2026The End of Why
We Killed Curiosity Long Before AI Arrived
In this episode:
What curiosity actually is, and why treating it as a personality trait costs organisations more than they realise.
A formative experience from a 1995 computer science classroom, and what it taught me about how environments shape who stays and who leaves.
Two CEOs who built people-first cultures during their companies' worst moments, and what their results show.
The Deloitte research on AI investment that should stop every leader in their tracks.
What recent research on nearly 2,000 working adults reveals about who is actually losing their thinking to AI.
What the founding figures of modern AI are actually warning about, and why their voices keep getting absorbed into the fear narrative they're trying to counter.
Why fear is never a good teacher, and what curiosity offers instead.
What leaders can do to bring curiosity back into their teams before AI accelerates what was already lost.
Resources mentioned:
Deloitte AI ROI research (October 2025)
BCG AI Adoption research
Research on AI use and confidence in own thinking (Technology, Mind, and Behavior, April 2026)
Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio on AI safety
Delta Airlines under Ed Bastian's leadership
LEGO under Jørgen Vig Knudstorp's leadership
Next reflection episode: Reclaiming Our Curiosity.
Connect with me:
LinkedIn
Instagram
Website
...more
28min
April 24, 2026The Confidence Check
The Reflection Episode on Practicing Confident Humility
In this episode:
A quick test to catch your System 1 thinking in real time.
Why our success stories rarely tell the whole truth, and what hindsight bias hides.
Two reflections to check your own confidence patterns.
Two practices you can start using this week.
Free download:
The Leader's Bias Cheat Sheet](https://thenewworkplaybook.com/explore/the-leaders-bias-cheat-sheet/))
Resources mentioned:
Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011)
Connect with me:
LinkedIn
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Website
...more
14min
April 20, 2026The Confidence Trap
What Happens When We Stop Questioning Ourselves
In this episode:
Why we naturally associate confidence with competence, and how the attention economy amplifies this.
My downhill mountain biking lesson in overconfidence.
The Dunning-Kruger effect, and why expertise can be the moment overconfidence catches us.
Why leaders are often overconfident in their ability to evaluate other people.
Why System 1 and System 2 thinking matters in high-stakes decisions like hiring.
Confident humility and the scientist's mindset as countermeasures to overconfidence.
Why experts driven by personal excellence should think twice before taking leadership roles.
Free download:
The Leader's Bias Cheat Sheet](https://thenewworkplaybook.com/explore/the-leaders-bias-cheat-sheet/))
Resources mentioned:
Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011)
Adam Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know (2021)
Connect with me:
LinkedIn
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Website
...more
27min
April 17, 2026The Pull of Power
The Reflection Episode on Handling Power with Care
In this episode:
Three areas where the pull of power is strongest:
Your relationship with feedback, and how power isolates us from honest and critical voices.
How you talk about people who are not in the room.
How you handle advantages and favours.
Three signs that political games have started reaching you:
You rehearse conversations to tell people what they want to hear.
You make decisions to protect your position rather than to serve the work.
You start enjoying being in favour more than noticing what it costs.
Next episode: The Confidence Trap.
Connect with me:
LinkedIn
Instagram
Website
...more
11min
April 13, 2026The Power Paradox
Why The Motivation For Power Matters More Than We Think
In this episode:
Why the motivation to seek power matters more than we think.
Two contrasting drivers behind leadership:
Power as the goal — advancing oneself.
Purpose and responsibility — advancing something larger.
Why we often don't see the difference in hiring.
What the "power paradox" reveals about how power changes behaviour.
How even well-intentioned leaders get pulled into unhealthy power dynamics.
Why destructive leadership is a selection problem, not a development problem.
What the dark triad traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, and subclinical psychopathy) reveal about leadership.
Why psychological safety acts as a structural countermeasure to misuse of power.
Next Reflection episode: Which areas to watch so power doesn't draw us to the dark side.
Connect with me:
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Website
...more
27min
April 10, 2026Training Your Respect Muscles
The Reflection Episode on Grounded Respect
In this episode:
How to read your Respect Stacking post-its and find the patterns underneath them.
Three foundational daily practices to train your respect muscles:
Using people's names.
Giving full attention.
Specific acknowledgement.
Two countermeasures for when your triggers hit:
The Pause and Flip.
The Status Check.
Why awareness is a continuous practice.
If you tried Respect Stacking, I'd love to hear what you found. S
end me a message on LinkedIn.
Next episode: The Power Paradox.
Connect with me:
LinkedIn
Instagram
Website
...more
9min
April 06, 2026We Are Losing Respect
The Foundational Leadership Practice We Rarely Train
In this episode:
Why respect isn't politeness, and what makes it collapse under pressure.
The IKEA moment that made me rethink how I show up with people.
Performative versus grounded respect, and why our attention makes the difference.
Respect Stacking: a three-day exercise to uncover your blind spots.
Resources mentioned:
Dacher Keltner, The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence (2016)
Christine Porath, Mastering Civility: A Manifesto for the Workplace (2016)
Try Respect Stacking for three days before the reflection episode on Friday.
Next episode: The Power Paradox.
Connect with me:
LinkedIn
Instagram
Website
...more
21min
April 03, 2026The Beliefs Running Your Leadership
The Reflection Episode: A Guided Audit of Your Leadership Beliefs
In this episode:
The three statements that uncover what you believe about your role as a leader.
Where leadership beliefs come from, and which experiences shaped yours.
Why Self-Determination Theory matters: autonomy, competence, and relatedness as the conditions for sustained performance.
The cost of solving for your team rather than developing them.
How to rewrite a belief once you can see it clearly.
The five-stage framework:
Mirror — what do you actually believe?
Origin — where did the belief come from?
Test — does it produce what you want?
Cost — what is it costing you and your team?
Rewrite — what would the belief become?
Free Resource:
Personal Leadership Belief Audit (free download): Belief Audit
Next episode: Why respect is foundational and non-negotiable in leadership.
Connect with me:
LinkedIn
Instagram
Website
...more
11min
March 30, 2026The Lazy Human
How Our Beliefs Shape Our Environment
In this episode:
Where our beliefs about work and motivation come from.
The gap between what organisations expect from people and the environments they give them.
Why employee engagement keeps falling, and what role leadership plays.
What happens when modern concepts get bolted onto outdated beliefs.
How to start questioning assumptions that might be holding you and your organisation back.
Resources mentioned:
Douglas McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y.
Gallup's global engagement research.
George Bernard Shaw on progress and changing minds.
Free Resource:
Personal Leadership Belief Audit (free download): Belief Audit
Next episode: Why respect is foundational and non-negotiable in leadership.
Connect with me:
LinkedIn
Instagram
Website
...more
19min
March 23, 2026THE NEW WORK PLAYBOOK
Where Work Gets Better Because People Matter
In this episode:
Why most organisations still operate on industrial-age beliefs about work.
The difference between treating people as resources and seeing them as the reason a business exists.
How AI is amplifying the urgency to rethink leadership.
Frithjof Bergmann's New Work vision and why it has not stuck.
Why "New Work" without "New Leadership" often becomes theatre.
What career advice Geoffrey Hinton is giving and what it reveals about the future of human work.
What to expect from the podcast:
Monday episodes explore why something matters for leadership in the age of AI.
Friday reflection episodes give you something practical to try.
Interviews and conversations are standalone.
Start with Episode 1: The Lazy Human
Connect with me:
LinkedIn
Instagram
Website
...more
14min

FAQs about THE NEW WORK PLAYBOOK:

How many episodes does THE NEW WORK PLAYBOOK have?

The podcast currently has 20 episodes available.