Worklife with Molly Graham

Most leaders say culture matters. Far fewer can explain how it's actually built. Mike Schroepfer spent more than a decade helping build Facebook's engineering organization during some of its fastest—and messiest—years of growth. As CTO, he helped shape a culture built around learning, experimentation, and moving quickly. In this episode, Mike discusses why great cultures aren't created through values decks or mission statements, how leaders teach people what matters through their behavior, and why the difference between a learning culture and a blame culture can determine an organization’s success. If culture is what happens when something goes wrong, this conversation is about how to build one that gets stronger under pressure.

Featured guest

• Follow Mike Schroepfer on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Gigascale Capital

Connect with the team

• Follow Molly on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at glueclub.com/
• Subscribe to Molly’s Substack Lesson
• Watch WorkLife videos on YouTube at TEDAudioCollective
• Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

For the full text transcript, visit https://www.ted.com/podcasts/worklife-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s easy to look at successful companies and other people’s successful careers and assume the path was obvious. The reality is that success feels messy. Claire Hughes Johnson, former COO of Stripe, joins Molly to explore how difficult moments distort our perspective and why some of the work we're proudest of often felt like failure while we were living it. Together they discuss resilience, uncertainty, leadership under pressure, and how to make decisions when you can't yet tell whether you're struggling or succeeding.

For the full text transcript, visit https://www.ted.com/podcasts/worklife-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In fast-changing companies, some things move so fast that you rarely have time to consult the business books when questions arise. Welcome to Frequently Asked Questions, a segment on WorkLife where Molly answers questions from listeners about the topics they confront in real time. In this episode, Molly is joined by Ashley Murphy, a key member of Molly’s team and one of the people that helped create Glue Club, a leadership development community that Molly and her team run focused on helping leaders feel more confident and less lonely at work. These questions are based on common questions from the community that Molly and Ashley thought would be relevant for the WorkLife audience as well – tips for working productively with a boss you don’t always agree with, knowing when it’s time to seek out an executive coach, and struggling to pitch yourself to prospective employers if you don’t fit into a traditional box.

Featured guest

• Follow Ashley Murphy on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Glue Club

Connect with the team

• Follow Molly on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at glueclub.com/
• Subscribe to Molly’s Substack Lesson
• Watch WorkLife videos on YouTube at TEDAudioCollective
• Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

For the full text transcript, visit https://www.ted.com/podcasts/worklife-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is your true purpose—and how do you find it? This month, Anne and Frances are tackling one of life’s biggest questions in search of answers for Fixers of all ages, from fresh graduates charting their first career moves to seasoned executives craving something more. In this episode, Anne sits down with Molly Graham, a former executive at Facebook and the new host of TED’s WorkLife podcast, to explore what it means to pursue meaningful work and stay open to opportunities you never saw coming. They also answer a question from a new graduate about finding your purpose somewhere between work and life. 

For the full text transcript, visit https://www.ted.com/podcasts/worklife-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you make content online or use social media frequently for work, it may feel like what you post and how often you post it is dictated by the elusive “algorithm.” You can spend your time chasing trends and trying to keep up with the internet’s ever-changing demands, but at what point does that mean sacrificing the quality of your work? Mark Rober is one of the most successful creators on YouTube, with almost 75 million followers and over 16 billion views. For 15 years, he has only posted one carefully crafted video per month. In this episode, Molly sits down with Mark at the TED Conference to uncover how Mark built his channel to be sustainable over time by prioritizing quality over quantity and staying true to his principles. Mark also reveals his secret to making a viral video, and shares tips for avoiding burnout in a fast-paced industry.

Featured guest

• Follow Mark Rober on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and at CrunchLabs

Connect with the team

• Follow Molly on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at glueclub.com/
• Subscribe to Molly’s Substack Lesson
• Watch WorkLife videos on YouTube at TEDAudioCollective
• Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

For the full text transcript, visit https://www.ted.com/podcasts/worklife-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Careers rarely move in a straight line, and for many people, the old roadmap no longer works. In this special feed drop from LinkedIn’s Hello Monday, host Jessi Hempel sits down with Caroline Wanga for a conversation about building a career with intention, authenticity, and room to evolve.

As president and CEO of Essence Ventures and co-founder of Wanga Woman, Caroline has spent years helping people rethink success on their own terms. Before leading Essence, she spent 15 years at Target, rising from intern to the C-suite — a journey that taught her the value of continuously revisiting, reshaping, and even reinventing your career map.

Jessi and Caroline discuss:

• Why your “next right move” may not look like anyone else’s
• Why playing with your career map, not perfecting it, leads to clarity
• How, and when, Caroline has created her own career maps
• The role of authenticity in leadership and life
• What it really takes to live and work with personal purpose
• Tools and mindsets for building a meaningful career in today’s world

Caroline also shares insights from her memoir, I’m Highly Percent Sure, and offers a refreshing perspective for anyone questioning what comes next.

Follow Jessi Hempel and Caroline Wanga on LinkedIn, and listen to more Hello Monday wherever you get your podcasts

For the full text transcript, visit https://www.ted.com/podcasts/worklife-transcripts

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Uncertainty is in the air in so many industries as AI disrupts and destabilizes even the jobs that felt most secure in the past. It can be difficult to see the path forward as the ground shifts beneath your feet. But for journalist and TED Radio Hour host Manoush Zomorodi, disruption and change are nothing new. In this episode, Manoush reflects on her career and the sudden shifts she has had to adjust to as new media technology emerges—from perfecting writing a seven-minute slot on broadcast radio to building a production company on the blockchain. She also shares what she’s learned about staying adaptable when the world around you keeps changing.

Featured guest

• Follow Manoush Zomorodi on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at https://www.manoushz.com/
• Subscribe to Manoush Minutes on Substack
• Buy her book Body Electric

Connect with the team

• Follow Molly on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at glueclub.com/
• Subscribe to Molly’s Substack Lesson
• Watch WorkLife videos on YouTube at TEDAudioCollective
• Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

For the full text transcript, visit https://www.ted.com/podcasts/worklife-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you’ve tried AI and felt underwhelmed — or if the constant pressure to “just play around with it” makes you want to throw your laptop across the room — you’re not alone. But according to Max Mullen, co-founder of Instacart and one of the most practical thinkers on this technology, you might be closer to becoming an AI expert than you realize. In this episode, Max makes the case that expertise with AI isn’t about taking a course or spending your weekend trying to learn how to use it. Max talks about how to use AI to solve real problems, why you want to try it more than once, and argues that building a relationship with the tool is the key to getting better and faster results. This is the episode for anyone who’s skeptical, behind, or just exhausted by the hype.

Featured guest

• Follow Max Mullen on LinkedIn and at maxmullen.com/
• Visit Instacart

Connect with the team

• Follow Molly on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at glueclub.com/
• Subscribe to Molly’s Substack Lesson
• Watch WorkLife videos on YouTube at TEDAudioCollective
• Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

For the full text transcript, visit https://www.ted.com/podcasts/worklife-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When you think about risk, you probably think about big, dramatic moves: quitting your job, moving across the country, saying something controversial. But the people who are actually good at taking risks are the ones who practice small challenges every day. Julie Zhuo was one of the earliest product and design leaders at Facebook, and is now the co-founder of Sundial, a company that uses AI to help organizations make better decisions. In this episode, Molly and Julie dissect what it actually means to take a risk and how you can build your risk-taking skills through daily practice. Julie reflects on her own risk-taking journey, the ways she has honed her abilities to challenge fear, her thinking on when you shouldn’t take a leap, and the important distinction between courage and fearlessness.

Featured guest

• Follow Julie Zhuo on Instagram, LinkedIn, Medium, and at juliezhuo.com/
• Learn more about Sundial.ai

Connect with the team

• Follow Molly on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at glueclub.com/
• Subscribe to Molly’s Substack Lesson
• Watch WorkLife videos on YouTube at TEDAudioCollective
• Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

For the full text transcript, visit https://www.ted.com/podcasts/worklife-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You might think the biggest, most prestigious job is always the right career move. Patty Stonesifer — founding CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and an early Amazon board member — says that’s exactly the wrong way to decide what to do next. So what should guide your career? In this episode, Patty joins Molly to share the nine-word personal mission statement she’s used for decades to filter opportunities, turn down what doesn’t fit, and speak up for what matters. Patty shares how you can write your own, and even coaches Molly through creating hers in real time.

Connect with the team

• Follow Molly on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at glueclub.com/
• Subscribe to Molly’s Substack Lesson
• Watch WorkLife videos on YouTube at TEDAudioCollective
• Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

For the full text transcript, visit https://www.ted.com/podcasts/worklife-transcripts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.