Email promised speed and delivered FOMO. In this episode, Steve reacts to Google’s deeper AI features in Gmail, calls out the irony of tech solving a problem it helped create, and reframes the real win of AI: buying back quiet time. We dig into how summaries, prioritization, and automated triage can free up hours, why creativity lives in the margins, and how leaders can shift from frantic processing to thoughtful insight. Inspired by reporting from The Verge on Gmail’s new AI.

Rethinking New Year’s Resolutions

New Year’s resolutions rarely stick because they start with wishes, not reality. In this episode, Steve Cadigan shares a simple, honest alternative he learned from Tim Ferriss, the Past Year Review. Instead of guessing what to change, you look back at what actually happened, who and what gave you energy, and what quietly drained you. From there, you make small, meaningful adjustments that fit real life, at work and at home.

In this episode

• A 4 step Past Year Review you can do in under an hour

• Why energy, not time, is the real constraint

• How to spot patterns in your calendar and protect what matters

• Practical ways to set boundaries, say yes with intention, and build in joy on purpose

Perfect for leaders, parents, and anyone ready to design a year that feels aligned, not performative.

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What can the NBA teach us about modern leadership? In this fast, practical episode, Steve riffs on a Wall Street Journal piece about Chris Paul’s retirement and the fading era of the classic “floor general.” On the court and at work, running everything through one person no longer fits the speed and complexity of today. Steve breaks down how the Warriors reinvented offense with shared playmaking, then connects it to how teams can share decision making, move faster, and become more resilient.

You’ll hear why centralized control collapses under modern complexity, how leadership can be a behavior instead of a title, and exactly where to start if you’ve built your career on being the hub for every decision. Expect concrete moves you can try this week, like rotating who leads meetings, pushing decisions to the edges, removing one bottleneck, and running short retros to learn quickly.

If the NBA can evolve, so can your team. This is the Workquake in action, and the future belongs to leaders who design for speed, autonomy, and trust.

Most AI headlines still shout about job loss. This week, I unpack McKinsey’s new State of AI report and the story is very different. Yes, many companies are experimenting, piloting, and playing. Only a small fraction are seeing real profit lift today. The ones that are winning share a pattern: they redesign how work gets done, they pursue growth and innovation, and they keep people at the center. We dig into what high performers do differently across manufacturing, consumer, finance, and life sciences, why workflow redesign beats tool buying, and how intent and trust shape adoption. If you lead people, this episode gives you a simple, practical lens to spot value, reduce fear, and build skills that elevate your teams.

You’ll learn:

• Why growth goals outperform cost cutting in AI initiatives

• How workflow redesign becomes the strongest predictor of impact

• What high performers prioritize across industries, from personalization to agentic systems

• The people moves that matter most, including reskilling and leader literacy

• How to shift the narrative so employees feel enhanced, not reduced

Takeaway:

The best AI strategies are talent strategies. Start with value creation, redesign the work, invest in hybrid human–AI skills, and measure outcomes, not pilot activity.

McKinsey AI Report 2025 : https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai

In this special, more personal episode, Steve looks past the headlines and into his own home to explore why early career paths feel so discouraging for today’s students. Using Lindsay Ellis’s Wall Street Journal article, “Companies Predict 2026 Will Be the Worst College Grad Job Market in Five Years,” as a springboard, Steve shares the real conversations he’s hearing from his college-senior son and from campuses around the country: ghosting, silence, fewer internships, and shrinking campus recruiting. Yet there’s real hope. This cohort was forged in Covid, and many aren’t waiting for permission. They’re building side hustles, micro-startups, creator businesses, and portfolios that prove capability. Steve challenges leaders to fix the early experience and invites families to support zigzags over straight lines. It’s a clear, human reset for anyone navigating or hiring into the messy first step of work.

• The early-career “handshake deal” is dissolving: students do the work, the system returns silence.

• Push factors (ghosting, black-hole processes) are beating corporate pull factors.

• Covid-shaped grads are unusually adaptive and entrepreneurial.

• Leaders must redesign the first mile of work: responsive communication, real projects, faster feedback.

• Families can champion experimentation, portfolios, and non-linear paths.

• Wall Street Journal article by Lindsay Ellis, “Companies Predict 2026 Will Be the Worst College Grad Job Market in Five Years.”https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/2026-graduates-job-market-7928bcd7?st=Lbd1QE&reflink=article_copyURL_share

Are our AI shields down? In this short, reflective episode, Steve explores how quickly skepticism around AI has faded and why that matters for leaders, teams, and culture. He unpacks the subtle forces behind the rush to adopt, from fear of being left behind to groupthink inside organizations, and offers a simple mindset: trust, but verify. Expect practical questions you can use with your team this week, plus a nudge to teach people how to think with AI, not for it.

You’ll hear about:

• Why growing confidence in AI can mask complacency and confusion

• How leadership pressure for speed can crowd out reflection

• Simple prompts to bring curiosity, context, and healthy skepticism back into your workflow

Mentioned:

The New Yorker, “The Case That A.I. Is Thinking,” by James Somers.

This week on Workquake Weekly, Steve Cadigan dives into one of the biggest myths in today’s workplace — that AI is killing entry-level jobs.

Spoiler alert: it’s not.

Drawing on Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky’s recent comments that “AI can do the interns’ work, but leaders should still hire Gen Z,” Steve explores why cutting early-career roles is one of the most dangerous mistakes companies can make — and how it’s quietly dismantling the leadership ladder from the bottom up.

He shares lessons from his time building LinkedIn’s early-career hiring programs, explains the real culture cost of removing young talent, and makes the case for why Gen Z might be the generation best equipped to help organizations use AI more intelligently.

You’ll learn:

• Why the “AI took my job” narrative misses the real issue.

• How skipping entry-level hiring sabotages your future leadership pipeline.

• How to redesign early-career roles so humans and AI actually work better together.

• Why Gen Z could be your company’s best AI accelerators.

And as always, Steve leaves you with a Workquake Challenge to turn insight into action — by reimagining one role on your team for the age of AI.

Tone: Conversational, optimistic, and deeply human — this episode is a wake-up call for leaders who want to future-proof their culture and their talent.

🎙️ Workquake Weekly — helping you make sense of the chaos we call modern work… one short episode at a time.

https://fortune.com/2025/10/30/airbnb-ceo-brian-chesky-ai-can-do-intern-work-bosses-should-hire-gen-z-lose-management-automation-employment-hiring-advice/

This week on Workquake Weekly, Steve Cadigan unpacks a powerful truth Brené Brown shared at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit: “If you’re leading people, you probably know people are not okay.”

In an age of nonstop change, AI disruption, and emotional overload, leaders aren’t just managing projects — they’re managing nervous systems. Steve explores why burnout today is less about weakness and more about biology, how disconnection shows up before disengagement, and what great leaders are doing differently to restore trust, calm, and meaning at work.

If you’re leading anyone — or just trying to stay grounded yourself — this episode is your reminder that being human isn’t a liability. It’s the advantage.

🎧 Listen in under 10 minutes — and start leading like it’s 2025, not 1999.

AI has officially moved from curiosity to urgency. But before we race ahead, Steve Cadigan asks a better question: Fast enough… toward what?

In this episode of Workquake Weekly, Steve explores how AI could finally repair our broken relationship with technology — if we let it. From burnout to trust, from productivity to potential, this is a call to leaders everywhere to rethink what “progress” really means.

Because the defining question of this era isn’t “How fast can we deploy AI?”

It’s “Will we use AI to bring people back — to creativity, curiosity, and possibility?”

Listen for practical hope and grounded wisdom on how leaders can make AI a force for human good.

This week on Workquake Weekly, Steve Cadigan unpacks a quiet shift in tech compensation: companies are moving from the classic four-year, even vesting schedule to front-loaded equity. Think 40/30/20/10 or even three-year designs. Why the change, what it signals, and how it might reshape trust, loyalty, and performance at work. Steve explores potential drivers like offer competitiveness, accounting optics, and the rise of refresher grants tied to impact, along with the tradeoffs that could speed up churn or strengthen engagement. If you lead people, negotiate offers, or design rewards, this short episode will help you rethink equity as more than retention math, and more like a performance promise.

What you’ll learn:

• Why many firms are moving away from 25/25/25/25

• How front-loaded equity changes behavior and incentives

• The role of refresher grants in rewarding real impact

• Risks to watch, from shorter cycles to signaling effects

• Practical questions to ask when evaluating an offer