Ravin Jesuthasan is a global thought leader, futurist, and bestselling author on the future of work. He has authored six books and over 200 articles including 15 for the Harvard Business Review and the Sloan Management Review. He is a regular presenter at the World Economic Forum and has been featured extensively by CNN, BBC, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, and Fortune, among others. Ravin is also featured prominently on PBS’s widely acclaimed documentary series The Future of Work. He is a frequent guest lecturer at universities around the world including Caltech, Oxford, Northwestern, NYU, and USC. He is also a facilitator of the executive education programs at Caltech.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• The skills that got us to where we are may not be sufficient to get us to where we want to go, given the rapidly changing world. So, we need to continually upscale or rescale, to prepare ourselves to do something adjacent or something different.
• For Ravin, the journey of reinvention is his destination.
• Seek to continually reinvent yourself.

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Sandra Matz, Professor at Columbia Business School, is a computational social scientist who studies human behavior using Big Data analytics. She was named a Poets & Quants 40 under 40 Business School Professor, and her new book, Mindmasters, explores how algorithms penetrate the most intimate aspects of our psychology. In this episode we discuss the following:

• We now live in a digital village, where AI can learn so much more about us than we realize. And naturally, this ability can be used to influence us for good or bad.

• Pay attention to AI progress. Look out for ways it can help us. But also be on the lookout for how it can harm us.

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Sarah Dalton is a partner at Conchie Associates, a consulting firm that uses psychometric assessments to help CEOs and Boards select talented leaders. She is the author of the book, The Five Talents that really Matter, with co-author Barry Conchie. Sarah earned a Masters degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Colorado State University. In this episode we discuss the following:

• To achieve our potential, it is most effective to focus on areas where we have some natural ability and curiosity. Motivation and hard work can only take us so far.

• Rather than constantly working on our weaknesses, it is often more effective to harness our strengths.

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Ken Burns is an icon. He’s been making documentaries for nearly 50 years, and has taught more people about American History than anyone else. His documentaries span topics such as baseball, jazz, national parks, U.S. presidents, authors, and inventors. And his television series, The Civil War, attracted an audience of 40 million during its premiere, becoming the most watched show in the history of public television.

Ken’s films have been honored with dozens of major awards, including seventeen Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, and two Oscar nominations. And Ken won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and was recently inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• Ken kept three-ring binders on his desk that had hundreds of rejections. Those binders reminded Ken that we pay for what we get with effort, hard work, and perseverance.
• I love how Ken followed his passion. He ignored the conventional advice to move to New York City, and instead followed his heart and moved to New Hampshire, and that made all the difference.
• In the words of Emerson: I will so trust that what is deep is holy, that I will do strongly before the sun and moon whatever inly rejoices me, and the heart appoints.

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Elizabeth Umphress is a professor of management at the University of Washington where she researches ethical decision making and organizational justice. She has been published in the top management journals, including the Academy of Management Journal and Organization Science.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• As a PhD student studying unethical behavior, Elizabeth found herself lying to prospective professors about the crime rate in Tulane. She then realized she was doing this to help the school, which prompted her to study unethical pro-organizational behaviors…lies we tell or unethical behaviors we engage in to help or our organizations.
• Elizabeth found that we’re especially prone to engage in unethical pro-organizational behaviors when we strongly identify with our organization. To combat this behavior, Elizabeth suggests that we think about other stakeholders who may be harmed by our behavior.

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Barry Conchie is Founder & President of Conchie Associates, which has a database of over 58,000 C-suite executives. Previously, Barry headed the Gallup organization's Global Leadership Research and Development business.

Born and educated in the UK with PhDs in Cognitive Neuroscience and Statistical Modeling at Oxford, his work for Gallup began in London where he developed their leadership consulting business across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and eventually the Americas as well.

Barry has 40 years of experience in the areas of psychometric assessment and testing, executive coaching, and team optimization. He has been ranked as one of the top 50 leadership thinkers in the world by Leadership Insights magazine. And he is also the New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling co-author of Strengths-Based Leadership.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• The reality is that most people are not going to be outstanding leaders. So, we should strive to be brilliant in the roles that best fit our capabilities, and then surround ourselves with people who have complementary skills who are brilliant in their roles.

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Costas Markides, professor of strategy at the London Business School, is one of the world’s foremost experts on strategy and innovation.

He examines how companies can create a culture of continuous innovation and the role that individual managers play in making a company more innovative.

Costas is the author of four books on strategy and innovation, he was listed by Forbes.com as one of the world’s most influential management gurus, and has served as a Fellow of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Costas received his BA and MA in Economics from Boston University, and his MBA and DBA from Harvard Business School.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• What often seems like an obvious answer to a problem is usually not the right answer. In the ‘60s and ‘70s, 1000s of companies diversified, only to refocus decades later. An obvious explanation for this was that the companies had made a mistake. But an alternative explanation was that the companies were right to diversify when they did and then right to refocus when they did because the market had changed.
• Just because a company communicates a particular strategy in public, does not mean that they aren’t communicating a different, or more refined, inspiring, strategy privately. To get at the heart of the onion, as Costas said, we need ask at least five Why’s.
• Managers know they should differentiate themselves. Yet data suggests that 92% of managers imitate rather than differentiate. To close the knowing/doing gap, Costas suggests we start small, develop a strategy, work hard, and try to turn behaviors into habits.

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In this episode I ask Tozer about his image, and whether or not he cares what people think of him. He also describes how he was forced to move once because his neighbors complained about him.