Bring It In | The Future of Work, Jobs, and Education
By 1Huddle
1Huddle’s original podcast series tackles all things jobs, innovation, and future of work. Hear from CEOs, coaches, educators, elected officials, entrepreneurs, and startups as they share their experiences, perspective, and advice for today's workforce.
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Bring It In | The Future of Work, Jobs, and EducationApr 20, 2022
#130: Justin Brooks — Author of “You Might Go to Prison, Even Though You're Innocent,” Founder of the California Innocence Project, Director of the LLM Program in Law at University of San Diego
According to a recent study, about 4-6% of all those incarcerated are considered to be wrongly imprisoned. That’s over 70,000 people who are wrongly incarcerated every year.
Today’s guest, Justin Brooks has dedicated his life to representing those who have fallen victim to wrongful incarceration. Justin practiced as a criminal defense attorney in Washington, D.C., Michigan, Illinois, and California in both the trial and appellate courts. He was the founding director of the California Innocence Project at Cal Western Law School from 1999-2023, and under his direction the project freed 40 innocent people from prison (including former NFL player Brian Banks).
He’s been recognized several times by the Los Angeles Daily Journal as one of the Top 100 Lawyers in California, and in 2010 and 2012, California Lawyer Magazine honored him with the “Lawyer of the Year” award. He was named “International Lawyer of the Year” by the California Bar International Section in 2020 and in the same year was named “Champion of Justice” by the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys.
In his latest book, “You Might Go to Prison Even Though You’re Innocent” he details the causes of wrongful convictions based on his experience of more than three decades as a criminal defense attorney and innocence organization director.
Justin took time to share his experience with us writing the book, over 30 years of legal work, and why everybody should care about wrongful convictions and the ramifications it has for our society.
This is another episode you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#129: Jennifer Pahlka — Author of “Recoding America: Why Government is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better,” Fmr. US Deputy Chief Technology Officer, Founder of Code for America
According to a Pew Research poll, over 40% of adults in the United States are considered to be digitally illiterate, and while America’s crumbling transportation infrastructure often makes headlines, its digital infrastructure is equally as out of date. Organizations from the IRS, to the healthcare system are still relying on technology from the 80s or earlier.
This is what today’s guest is out to remedy. Jennifer Pahlka is the former US Deputy Chief Technology Officer under the Obama Administration and helped found the US Digital Service. She was also the Executive Director of the International Games Developers Association, and founded the non-profit Code for America, which aims to improve the digital systems within government.
Jennifer's most recent book “Recoding America: Why Government is Failing in the DIgital Age and How We can Do Better” pulls from her experience in the tech sector and government and the importance of government bodies understanding how technology affects the people they’re meant to serve.
In an age where mobile apps, A.I., and metaverses are all the rage, the conversation we had with Jennifer is an important one that all leaders need to consider.
This is another episode you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#128: Dave Eng, EdD — Clinical Professor of eLearning, Training + Development, + Instructional Design at NYU, Principle at University XP, Founder of Bandito’s Gaming on Games, Theory, and Tech
A study came across our desks recently that said, gamification was “just a fad.”
We’re going to disagree with that, and so does our guest today Dr. Dave Eng; a creative intellectual, educator, designer, & researcher focusing on games, theory, and technology. Dave serves as the faculty member of NYU’s School of Professional Studies and the Principle Lead at University XP, a consulting group for game-based learning programs. He’s also the founder of Bandito’s Gaming, a registered 501(c)(3) social and educational non-profit organization that promotes play, community development, and learning through games.
So needless to say, he knows a thing or two about how games really work.
In this episode, we dive into how games have been used throughout history, the power of experiential learning, and how there are good games…and there are bad games.
If you’re a talent leader looking to engage your people, this is definitely another episode you’re not going to want to miss. So with that, let’s bring it in!
#127: Dr. Jerry Lynch — Author of “The Mindful Coach,” Founder and Director of Way of Champions, Former Naval Officer, Sports Psychologist, Philosopher
Who’s ready for our first podcast 3-peat?
Dr. Jerry Lynch is back for his third solo appearance on the Bring It In podcast, to share with us some wisdom from his latest book, “The Mindful Coach.”
Dr. Jerry Lynch is the Founder of Way of Champions, a performance consultancy that combines elite sports psychology, with international philosophy concepts, to generate peak performance. He’s written over a dozen books on his studies on excellence, from “The Competitive Buddha,” “Coaching with Heart,” “Win the Day,” “Let them Play,” and more.
Dr. Lynch has worked together with coaches and athletes like Steve Kerr, Nancy Stevens, Anson Dorrance, and Phil Jackson, and a slew of accolades. In total, Dr. Lynch has helped secure 73 Conference Championships, 54 Final Fours, and 39 National Championships so…it’s safe to say, he knows a thing or two about coaching.
This time around Dr. J is sharing wisdom from his latest book, “The Mindful Coach,” where he dives into the not-so-new-age thoughts and practices the highest performing coaches are using everywhere, from sports, to medicine, to business.
This is another episode you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#126: Alissa Quart — Author of “Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream,” Prof. at Columbia University, Executive Director of the Economic Hardships Reporting Project, Nieman Fellow
You’ve probably heard the term “pull yourself up by your bootstraps,” referring to one's ability to pick themselves up, and get to work.
But what if we said the whole phrase was actually a joke?
There’s no one better to explain this than Alissa Quart, an author, professor at Brown and Columbia Universities, and the Executive Director of the Economic Hardships Reporting Project and the author of the book “Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream” and “Squeezed: Why Our Families Can’t Afford America.”
We sat down with Alissa to talk about how the great American myth of the ‘self-made’ person, may be just that: a myth, and one that is weaponized to keep support systems and opportunities out of the hands of some of our nation's poorest workers.
This is another episode you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#125: Cody Royle — Author of "Second Set Of Eyes," "The Tough Stuff," and "Where Others Won’t," Head Coach at Where Others Won’t Inc., Former Head Coach of the Australian Football League Canada
Enter today’s guest, Cody Royle, a coach who’s dedicated his entire focus on improving other coaches through the ‘user experience’ of coaching.
Cody’s coaching career has taken him from playing Rugby in his home of Canberra, Australia, all the way to Toronto, Canada where he currently resides. Serving for over 10 years as a Head Coach in Canada’s AFL Aussie Rules, he set out with the goal to transform the league as a national afterthought, to a viable career path for aspiring athletes. During this time, Cody saw the opportunity to help leaders in both the sports world and business world. He met and interviewed hundreds of coaches around the world, and compiled much of his learnings into his first book Where Others Won’t: Taking People Innovation from the Locker Room to the Board Room.
The success of the book led to Cody hosting a podcast of the same name, and two other books The Tough Stuff: Seven Hard Truths about Being a Head Coach and Second Set of Eyes: How Great Coaches Become Champions.
Cody’s focus on the user experience, a term that’s usually reserved for those developing technology, brings a unique and most importantly, actionable set of guidelines for coaches to improve their craft.
This is another one you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#124: Harry Holzer — Former Chief Economist for the U.S. Department of Labor, Professor of Public Policy at Georgetown, Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution
The United States only spends 0.1% of its GDP on job training and reskilling initiatives, putting us in last place for funding towards job reskilling amongst other developed countries.
Now, it may be hard to concretely define the effects of this, but let’s look at what we know: only 15% of workers are currently engaged at their jobs, 44% of workers are in bad jobs, and almost 1-in-2 workers is just $400 away from falling beneath the poverty line.
So, that 0.1% GDP spent on job training? It’s probably not helping much.
That’s what today’s guest, Harry Holzer, fresh from testifying before the House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development, joins us on the podcast to talk about.
Harry is the former Chief Economist for the U.S. Department of Labor under the Clinton Administration, is a senior fellow in Economics at the Brookings Institution, and the LaFarge SJ Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown. He’s written extensively on economic inequality, with books such as “Making College Work: Pathways to Success for Disadvantaged Students” and “Improving Employment and Earnings in Twenty-First Century Labor Markets: An Introduction.”
So needless to say, Harry knows a thing or two about this. In this episode, we chatted about the intersection of government, the private sector, and educational institutions, and how they can better cooperate and support each other to develop a high-performing and equitable workforce.
This is another episode you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#123: Hara Estroff Marano — Author of “A Nation of Wimps: The High Cost of Invasive Parenting,” Award-Winning Writer and Editor-at-Large for Psychology Today
Despite mountains of research showing how “helicopter parenting” is incredibly detrimental for kids, it still happens. A University of Michigan study published this year said that while the majority of parents said they encouraged kids to ‘do things for themselves,’ half also felt that unsupervised kids caused trouble, and a third felt that their kids weren’t ready to be left alone.
It’s this cognitive dissonance from parents that today’s guest, Hara Estroff Marano, says is not just seriously harming kids, but our society as a whole.
Hara is the Editor-at-Large at Psychology Today, where she honed in on the rising epidemic of serious mental health illnesses in college age children. Her research done for the ‘Blues Buster’ newsletter led her to write two books, “Why Doesn’t Anybody Like Me?: A Guide to Raising Socially Confident Kids” and “A Nation of Wimps: The High Cost of Invasive Parenting” where she puts most of the responsibility on the mental health crisis many young people are experiencing from one source: parents.
Hara points out how invasive parenting strips kids of important experiences, and leaves them underdeveloped to deal with many of life's challenges, which she believes not only has underlying consequences for the workforce, but for our very societal institutions.
This is another episode that’s essential for leaders everywhere to listen to, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#122: Jamie McCallum — Author of “Essential: How the Pandemic Transformed the Long Fight for Worker Justice,” Award-Winning Sociologist, Filmmaker, Activist, Professor
The COVID-19 pandemic brought upon some of the most sweeping changes to benefit the modern workforce…or did it?
Returning for a second episode on the Bring It In Podcast, author, professor, and filmmaker Jamie McCallum is back to talk about the findings of his new book, “Essential: How the Pandemic Transformed the Long Fight for Worker Justice.”
Jamie’s previous book, “Worked Over: How Round-the-Clock Work is Killing the American Dream,” focused on those most overworked, underpaid, and vulnerable, workers in the country, and how systems are up to almost ensure that low wage workers stay in low wage positions.
“Essential” takes many of the points made in his previous book and takes it to a new level, shining a light on how one of the largest made work slightly better for some, and a lot worse for many others.
Even with the pandemic being officially over, many companies across the world are still struggling to find ways to engage, and take care of their workforce. A lot of observations from Jamie’s book, while disheartening, are also enlightening and timely, and can show leaders a better path to create good work in a post pandemic world.
This is another episode you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#121: Zeynep Ton — Author of “The Case for Good Jobs: How Great Companies Bring Dignity, Pay, and Meaning to Everyone's Work,” Professor of the Practice at the MIT Sloan School of Management
Don’t believe the jobs reports: it’s a tough labor market out there, and not in the way you’re thinking. 44% of workers have what’s considered a bad job, which is defined as a high risk, low wage position. The majority of these jobs are frontline, hourly positions, with little to no consistency or benefits. These organizations have some of the highest turnover rates, costing the U.S. economy 1 Trillion dollars per year.
This is where today’s guest Zeynep Ton has set her sights on fixing. Zeynep is a professor of the practice in the operations management group at MIT Sloan School of Management and president of the nonprofit Good Jobs Institute, whose mission is to help companies thrive by creating good jobs and to redefine what it means to run a successful business.
Her organization has advised the likes of Quest Diagnostics, Mud Bay, and many more. Zeynep’s work and research on the benefits of supporting good jobs has been featured in publications like The Atlantic, the New York Times, and more, culminating in her book, “The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs and Boost Profits”.
We wanted to catch up with Zeynep to hear first hand about why it’s important to design good jobs for workers, and how it benefits everyone from the top to bottom of an organization. This is another one you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#120: WIlliam B. Bonvillian — Author of “Workforce Education: A New Roadmap,” Lecturer at MIT, Innovation and Technology Policy Specialist
There's a learning problem in America's workforce. Opportunities for workers to develop skills that can lead them down successful career paths are scarce, and often ineffective. 83 cents of every dollar goes towards training for people who already have received some form of higher education, and even then, 59% of workers claim they had no proper training, and simply acquired skills "on the job."
With massive turnover rates and somehow so-called "talent shortages," the current playbook companies are using needs to be shaken up, and that's what today's guest has set out to do.
William B. Bonvillian is a lecturer at MIT in the Science Technology and Society and Political Science Departments, as well as Senior Director of Special Projects, at MIT's Office of Digital Learning. He also served for seventeen years as a senior policy advisor in the U.S. Senate. His legislative efforts included science and technology policy, helping create the Department of Homeland Security, and legislation regarding Intelligence Reform, climate change, and national defense and life science R&D.
He's also the co-author of Workforce Education: A New Roadmap alongside our previous Bring It In guest, Sanjay Sarma. In the book, William dives into the disconnect between the public, private, and education systems that's led to many of the struggles facing our workforce, and what steps we can take at the legislative, educational, and business levels to fix it.
In today's episode of the podcast we got to take a deep dive into William's strategies and hopes for the future of work. This is another one you're not going to want to miss, so with that…let's bring it in!
#119: Saru Jarayaman — Author of “One Fair Wage: Ending Subminimum Pay In America,” Attorney, Activist, President of One Fair Wage, Director of The Food Labor Research Center at UC, Berkeley
Subminimum wage workers make about 10% of the American workforce. That means, of all working Americans, 13 million people make about $2.13.
These workers are in an incredibly vulnerable position, as they’re often reliant on tips, receive little to no benefits, and lack consistent hours, to make ends meet. It’s a massive problem that's become endemic to our workforce, especially in areas like the hospitality and restaurant industry.
This is what today's guest, Saru Jarayaman, is fighting against as she strives to ensure every worker across America gets a fair chance at a liveable wage. A graduate from Yale Law, Saru is the co-founder of the Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC), which she founded with displaced World Trade Center workers after 9/11. Eventually, it grew into a national movement of restaurant workers, employers and consumers. This led her to also found, and become president of One Fair Wage, a national organization of nearly 300,000 service workers, over 2,000 restaurant employers, and dozens of organizations nationwide all working together to end all subminimum wages in the United States and improve wages and working conditions in the service industry.
For her work she was recognized in CNN’s “Top10 Visionary Women” and as a Champion of Change by the White House in 2014. In 2015, she received the James Beard Foundation Leadership Award, and many, many other awards.
Her latest book “One Fair Wage: Ending Subminimum Pay in America” uplifts the stories of subminimum wage workers across many sectors — including tipped restaurants, workers with disabilities, incarcerated workers, and more. The book not just highlights the massive inequalities and injustices these people face, but also offers insights, and solutions, into how fixing these systems makes everyone winners.
This is an especially important episode of the podcast, one that’s essential for those who are managing frontline workers! Lucky for you, this is a shorter episode, so with that…let’s bring it in.
#118: Jonathan Fader — Author of "Coaching Athletes To Be Their Best: Motivational Interviewing In Sports," Performance Psychologist (NY Giants, NY Mets)
Leaders across the world are struggling to motivate their people to get fired up for the task at hand. A recent Gallup study found that only 1-in-3 of the entirety of the United States workforce is considered engaged. This issue has managers everywhere grasping for straws on how to motivate their people, using everything from the classic underwhelming pizza party, to forcing employees to ‘have fun’ with disastrous results.
But the great coaches in the world know that the most powerful motivation comes from within someone, not from external stimuli. It’s something that our guest today, Jonathan Fader specializes in teaching others.
Jonathan is an NYC based coach, performance psychologist, speaker and author and founder of SportsStrata, a Mental Performance Coaching group who has worked with organizations ranging from elite athletes like the NY Mets and NY Giants, to first responders and the military.
In his book “Coaching Athletes to Be Their Best: Motivational Interviewing in Sports” Johnathan details the ins and outs of the technique called Conversational Motivation, which harnesses the power of conversation and active listening to unlock the psychology of success.
At a time when engagement is at an almost all-time low and managers are struggling to do more with less, being able to keep your people fired up, goal oriented, and receptive to correct feedback is an essential skill for managers. Jonathan’s Motivational Interviewing techniques can be a guaranteed way for managers to acquire these skills.
This is another episode you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#117: Kirk Everist — 2x USA Olympian, 5x National Champion, Head Men's Water Polo Coach at The University of California, Berkeley
Water Polo is a very tough sport, demanding straight swimming for 30 plus minutes, grappling with opposing players, and the mental acuity to be able to remember strategies and positions.
It’s also one of the oldest sports in the world, with the first game being played in 1888 in America, and quickly spread across the collegiate athletic circle.
Our guest today is Kirk Everist, a 2x Olympian, head coach of men’s water polo at U Cal Berkeley, 5x National Champion, 4x ACWPC Coach of the Year, USA Water Polo Hall of Fame Inductee, Cal Athletics Hall of Fame Inductee...well, you get the idea.
Not only does Kirk coach young athletes in one of the toughest sports in the world, but also has to rebuild a new team year after year, to add onto a hundred plus year legacy of excellence at U Cal Berkeley. In today’s episode, he shares some of his secrets, beliefs, and strategies for continuously improving at being a coach, and how to balance tradition, with the need to evolve.
This is another episode you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#116: Matt Abrahams — Author of “Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You're Put on the Spot,” Instructor + Lecturer at Stanford University
Glossophobia, is the fear of public speaking and it’s believed to affect about 75% of people across the globe.
With this in mind, think about how critical being able to speak to an audience, to customers, to teammates, in any working environment is. It’s why communication skills are in such high demand in organizations, and why today’s guest is particularly important.
Matt Abrahams is an instructor and lecturer at Stanford University, and author of “Speaking Up Without Freaking Out: 50 Techniques for Confident and Compelling Presenting.” He was the co-founder of Silicon Valley based coaching group BoldEcho and is the founder of Think Fast Talk Smart - The Podcast.
Matt has been studying and practicing the art of communicating for over 25 years, and after helping companies like Twitter, Google, and even the U.S. Army coach their members to be better communicators, Matt has compiled all of his experience in his latest book, “Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You're Put on the Spot.”
We caught up with Matt to dive headfirst into the book, and cover some of the biggest pain points around speaking, things people often overlook, and what the dawn of AI means for our ever evolving communication styles.
This is another episode you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#115: Anna Tavis + Stela Lupushor — Authors of “Humans at Work: The Art and Practice of Creating the Hybrid Workplace,” Professors at NYU
For as long as work has existed, new technologies have been a double edged sword for the workforce, making some jobs easier to do and making others obsolete. With data collection, computer processing, automation, and generative AI being implemented daily within our workforce, this issue has never been more apparent than today.
Educators and authors Dr. Anna Tavis and Stela Lupushor are at the forefront of the fight for human capital, to make sure that technology is set to enhance the worker experience, not to replace it.
Dr. Anna Tavis is Clinical Professor and Academic Director of Human Capital Management Department at NYU School of Professional Studies, Senior Fellow with the Conference Board, and the Academic in Residence with Executive Networks. She is a former Executive Editor of People+Strategy Journal, a publication of SHRM’s Executive network and is currently an Associate Editor of Workforce Solutions Review of IHRIM.
Stela Lupushor is an Adjunct Faculty Adjunct Faculty at the NYU School of Professional Studies. She is also a Senior Fellow in Human Capital Center and the Program Director for The Conference Board Strategic Workforce Planning Council, and leads Reframe.Work Inc. where she consults on how to create inclusive workplaces through the use of technology, human-centered design, people analytics, and future-thinking. Previously Stela consulted at Fidelity Investments, TIAA, IBM, Price Waterhouse, and PwC Consulting.
Together, the pair have combined their vast amount of experience in the HR world to write their book, Humans at Work: The Art and Practice of Creating the Hybrid Workplace where they’ve compiled all their strategies on how to develop a human centric workforce that uses technology to help improve their people, and ultimately, the way they do business.
This is another podcast you’re not going to want to miss, especially with stories about the impact of AI dominating the headlines almost everyday, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#114: Anne Walker — Head Women’s Golf Coach at Stanford University, 2x NCAA Champion
One of the biggest challenges of leading any team, is being able to coach the individuals in an organization, as well as coach the team that those individuals make up.
A number of sports encapsulate this coaching challenge, and golf, is probably one of the best examples of it. That’s what led us to our conversation with today’s guest, Coach Anne Walker.
Coach Anne is the Margot and Mitch Milas Director of Women’s Golf at Stanford, has two (2015 and 2022) NCAA Championship titles under her belt, 2x WGCA National Coach of the Year, and 3x Pac-12 Coach of the Year. Upon her appointment to Stanford in 2012, she had an immediate, and profound effect on the Stanford golf program, with 39 full-field victories to her name, and produced 28 (and counting) All-American women’s golf athletes.
We wanted to sit down and have a conversation with Coach Walker about what it takes to transform, and lead a program in a highly competitive field with some of the biggest churn out of any field. And it doesn’t come down to any secret drill, or running long and hard practices: but relationships and understanding.
This is another episode you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#113: Alex Barker — Author of “How to Be: More Pirate” on Pirates and Future of Work
AAAAAAAARRRRRRR MATEY! We’re still talking about pirates on the podcast, because there's just too much treasure to dig up here. Today, we’re looking at the “sequel” to “Be More Pirate” with the aptly named “How to Be: More Pirate” by our guest, Alex Barker.
Alex graduated from Kings College in 2008 and after pursuing an MA in Conflict Resolution studies, began backpacking around the Middle East which eventually led to her working at Global Citizen, and then came to the Royal Society of Arts as a community manager.
Eventually she began freelance writing, where she came upon (last week's guest) Sam Conniff’s Be More Pirate, and was inspired to join his team in 2019. Since then, as Conniff described, Alex has gone from his “right hand pirate” to “full time pirate” spearheading the Be More Pirate movement.
It led to How to Be: More Pirate, which chronicles the strategies and stories of “modern day pirates” from healthcare workers to startups, and the How To Be: More Pirate Podcast, and to a bona-fide social movement that spans the globe.
With looking at lessons from the history of old school pirates, to new modern day “pirates” this is another episode of the podcast you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#112: Sam Conniff — Bestselling Author of “Be More Pirate: or How To Take On The World And Win” on Pirates and the Future of Work
Steve Jobs once said, ‘I’d rather be a Pirate than be in the Navy.’ He believed it so much that often, the Skull and Crossbones would be flown at Apple HQ, so what can businesses learn from pirates?
Our guest today, Sam Conniff is here to answer that with his book, Be More Pirate.
Sam is a multi-company founder from the UK, starting with Don’t Panic London, a creative agency that he founded out of his bedroom when he was 20 years old in 1997. Since then he’s gone on to co-found a youth centered marketing agency Livity, and it’s sister company Digify Africa, as well as to produce and present content on BBC 4 and Netflix.
Sam has gone on to speak and consult with major companies around the world such as Google, Salesforce, Mercedes-Benz, Coca-Cola and more, bringing his insights from over 25 years in the startup world, and lessons learned from those “living on the edges”.
During the Golden Age of Piracy, as Sam goes on to uncover in his book, pirate crews were some of the most democratic and diverse teams in the world, where leadership, teamwork, and absolute trust in culture decided whether or not a crew scored some treasure, or sunk to the bottom of the sea.
‘Tis is one of the most unique conversations we’ve had on the podcast, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#111: Jerry Lynch + John O’Sullivan — Authors of “The Champion Teammate: Timeless Lessons to Connect, Compete and Lead in Sports and Life”
Today’s a very special episode of the Bring It In podcast, as we’ve got not one, but two returning guests and friends of the podcast!
First we’ve got John O'Sullivan, a member of the 1990 Patriot League Championship team, the former executive director of Oregon Rush Soccer Club, and founder of the Changing the Game Project, as well as the author of the “Changing the Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes, and Giving Youth Sports Back to our Kids” book.
He’s joined by Dr. Jerry Lynch, founder of Way of Champions, author of a ton of books like “The Competitive Buddah: How to Up Your Game in Sports, Leadership and Life” and “Let Them Play: The Mindful Way to Parent Kids for Fun and Success in Sports” ex-Navy Officer, sports psychologist, speaker, athlete, and has coached super stars in the sports world like Phil Jackson, Steve Kerr, and Kobe Bryant.
These two superstars have teamed up to add another book into their already impressive collection of written works, “The Champion Teammate: Timeless Lessons to Connect, Compete and Lead in Sports and Life” that compiles decades of championship winning experience into a book that focuses on how to develop winning, healthy, and caring teams at a time when most organizations are in disarray.
This is another one you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#110: Margueritte Aozasa — Head Women’s Soccer Coach at UCLA, 2x NCAA National Champion
It’s World Cup Season and if you’ve caught the past few games, you’ve probably seen a few former players from the UCLA Bruins on the field, coached by the great Margueritte Aozasa.
Coach Margueritte is the 6th head coach in UCLA women's soccer history and only one of five Asian American women currently serving as a head coach for a NCAA women's soccer team.
She previously coached Stanford to great success during her seven seasons (2015-21), helping guide the Cardinals to the NCAA Championships in 2017 and 2019 and Pac-12 titles from 2015-19. The 2018 team also reached the College Cup.
Margueritte Aozasa made history in 2022, becoming the first rookie head coach and first woman of color ever to win the NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Championship, in an epic match against the UNC Tar Heels.
We talked with Coach about her journey to becoming one of the youngest high performance coaches in the NCAA, and the importance of trust and preparation in her team, especially when things get tough.
This is another episode you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#109: Patricia Ryan Madson — Author of “Improv Wisdom: Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up,” Professor Emerita in Stanford Theater Department on How to Use Improv at Work
While there are specific skills that go into doing any job, being able to learn by doing and make it up as you go along, is a skill a lot of workers need to have in today's market. With 80% of Americans in a job where they’ve had little to no training for, a surprising skill is becoming more and more important for workers every day: the ability to improvise.
Patricia Ryan Madson is a longtime professor Emerita from Stanford University’s theater department. During her time at the university, she founded the Creative Initiative course and the Stanford Summer Improvisation School. She’s been a speaker, coach, and advisor for multiple tech giants in the Silicon Valley area, such as Adobe, Google, and Apple.
We wanted to catch up with Patricia to talk about her book “Improv Wisdom: Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up,” and how theater skills like improvisation, empathy, and gratitude are imperative for business leaders in today's complicated workforce.
In a time when only 15% of workers are engaged, leaders need to find a way to do more with less, and the secrets to that may just lie in some of the oldest theater practices in the world.
This is another episode you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#108: Todd Burnham — Author of “Comeback: Epic Rebound Strategies for Personal or Business Adversity,” Founding Partner of Burnham Law, Keynote Speaker, Podcast Host
Words like desperation, rock bottom, and adversity probably don’t inspire the best of feelings in people. But for Todd Burnham, embracing these extremes has led him to become one of the most successful litigators in the country.
A two-time All American NCAA Lacrosse Star from Hobart College and graduate from Albany Law School, Todd is the founding partner of Burnham Law, one of the top rated law firms in the country with offices spread across the Western United States. He’s also the host of the Deep Bench Podcast, and author of the book “Comeback: Epic Rebound Strategies for Personal or Business Adversity.”
Starting from a basement practice, Todd has built a career around intensely focused service, not just to his clients, and to those he coaches, but to his immediate community. Todd is a member of the Executive Board of Directors for the nonprofit organization Von’s Vision, providing low-income Denver youth with corrective eyewear and quality eye care. He is a former executive board member of the nonprofit Boulder Interdisciplinary Committee, a team of professionals focused on educating and supporting individuals working in the family law arena.
We caught up with Todd to talk about his practice, his book, and how with the right mindset, embracing desperation, rock bottom, and adversity can actually help you build (or re-build) you and your company, into a stronger, more resilient group.
This is another episode you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#107: Charles Vogl — Author of the International Bestseller “The Art of Community: Seven Principles for Belonging" on What It Takes to Build a Strong Community at Work
Today, we’re living in the loneliest time in history. Despite the marketing campaigns from major social media companies claiming to be able to connect with one another, technology, globalization, and urbanization have driven humanity at large to be more isolated, disconnected, and disengaged than any other time in human history.
Charles Vogl has made it his mission to help reconnect us and to build better communities.
Charles served in the U.S. Peace Corps in Sub-Saharan Africa where he worked on justice for human rights abuse and providing rural health care for his host village. Later he created Broken English Productions documentary film company in NYC. His PBS projects won numerous international awards, including the Amnesty International Movies That Matter Award. He then began advising and developing leadership and programs worldwide within organizations including Google, Airbnb, LinkedIn, Twitch, Amazon, and the US Army.
Over the course of his work, Charles has authored numerous books such as, “Building Brand Communities: How Organizations Succeed by Creating Belonging,” “Storytelling for Leadership: Creating Authentic Connections” and the book that we wanted to chat to Charles about, “The Art of Community: Seven Principles for Belonging.”
Charles sat down with us to discuss the consequences of the epidemic of loneliness in America, and how you foster a strong community through connection, boundaries, and genuine care.
At a time when only 15% of workers are engaged at work, and layoffs are sweeping across industries, it’s more important than ever to create strong communities within the workspace.
So, with that…let’s bring it in!
#106: Val Grubb — Author of “Clash of the Generations: Managing the New Workplace Reality,” Keynote Speaker, Executive Coach, Trainer, Founder of Val Grubb & Associates
Never before have we seen 5 generations of workers at work at the same time.
Almost like a tradition, the previous generation has always bemoaned the newest one as lazy, spoiled, and in general, not as good as they were “back in the day.” Naturally, this can cause quite a lot of friction in a workplace and in the age of social media and 24/7 news cycles, it seems like there’s always some new beef between Millennials and Gen Z’ers, and those that came before.
But today’s guest, Val Grubb, believes there’s strength to be found in these differences.
Val is the founder of Val Grubb & Associates, a coaching and consultancy agency that works with companies such as Siemens, Cathay Bank, Best Buy, and hundreds more. Prior to founding VG&A, Val served as the Vice President of Strategic Operations at NBC Universal, where she oversaw business development opportunities and spearheaded on-air quality initiatives for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. Val played a seminal role in the 1999 formation of Oxygen Media and its subsequent success, which led to the company’s purchase by NBC Universal in 2007.
It’s safe to say that Val knows how to lead a team to great success and in her book “Clash of the Generations: Managing the New Workplace Reality,” Val goes into detail about how leaning into and embracing differences between the generations can lead to a greater performing team.
This is another episode you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#105: Dr. Fergus Connolly — Performance Coach for Liverpool FC, Boston Bruins, San Francisco 49ers, & Carolina Panthers, Speaker, Author of "Game Changer: The Art of Sports Science"
To the dissatisfaction of a lot of leaders out there, there’s no definitive, cookie cutter way to manage and get the best out of people.
But to Dr. Fergus Connolly, that's actually a good thing.
And he should know a thing or two about developing people: he’s been the performance coach for franchises across all sorts of pro sports, like the Boston Bruins, the Carolina Panthers, Liverpool FC, The Australian Football League, and the Welsh National Team Munster Rugby.
He’s also consulted for companies and military special forces group around the world and authored dozens of books on the subject of coaching like The Process: The Methodology, Philosophy & Principles of Coaching Winning Teams, Game Changer: The Art of Sports Science, and 59 Lessons: Working with the World's Greatest Coaches, Athletes, & Special Forces.
Fergus shared some of his keen insights with us and how traditionally thought of “challenges” are actually strengths that coaches need to unlock for their people, so they can flourish as individuals to make a high performing team.
If you want to build a high-performing team, this is an episode you’re not going to want to miss.
So, with that…let’s bring it in!
#104: Brandon Chrostowski — James Beard Nominated Chef, Restaurateur, Sommelier, Fromager, Politician, and Founder, President, and CEO of Edwins Leadership & Restaurant Institute
The restaurant and hospitality industry is one of the leading sources of jobs not just in America, but across the globe. What an individual learns working in a kitchen, front of house, behind a bar, or in support of a restaurant can serve as lifelong skills to develop across industries.
Chef Brandon Edwin Chrostowski knows this better than most people, not just because he’s made a career for himself in the restaurant industry, but he’s made it his goal to give as many people as possible a career in the space alongside him, with Edwins Leadership & Restaurant Institute.
At eighteen years old Chef Brandon received a ‘break’ from a judge who gave him a year of probation instead of a ten year prison sentence. After his probation, he studied under Detroit Chef George Kalergis, and worked his way to the Culinary Institute of America in New York.
Upon graduating from the CIA, Chef Brandon worked in renowned kitchens around the world like Charlie Trotters, Lucas Carton, and Le Cirque. Then in 2007, Chef Brandon founded Edwins Leadership & Restaurant Institute, which trains people returning from court involvement in the culinary arts, empower them with a passion for hospitality management, and prepare students for a successful transition home. The Impact of Edwins was so great, it was the subject of the 2017 Oscar nominated documentary Knife Skills.
So far hundreds of folks have passed through the 6 month program at Edwins, and graduates have held a 95% employment rate with less than 1% recidivism into the court system. In addition, Edwins has expanded to include a butcher shop, bakery, a sister restaurant location, and with a full blown housing complex and campus.
If it’s not already obvious why we wanted to talk with Chef Brandon already, we wanted to sit down with him to discuss what it takes to build a winning culture, the importance of giving everyone the support and opportunity to work, and the power of food, restaurants, and treating everyone with respect and dignity.
This is definitely an episode you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#103: Talmon Smith — Economics Reporter for The New York Times, Harvard Institute of Politics National Campaign Ambassador
Navigating the restaurant industry can be tough for workers involved in it.
From constantly changing schedules, demanding, and unruly customers, even A.I. and robots beginning to disrupt the space, restaurant workers are contending with a lot these days.
The last thing they need is an organization using their own wages to lobby against increases to the minimum wage, which is exactly what’s happening through the ServSafe certification.
Talmon Smith is an Economic Reporter for The New York Times, a Harvard Institute of Politics National Campaign Ambassador, and a former fellow at the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy. Much of Talmon’s work focuses on labor issues regarding wages, corruption, and racial politics.
Alongside previous guest David Fahrenthold, Talmon co-authored the article “How Restaurant Workers Pay for Lobbying to Keep Their Wages Low,” that delves into how the National Restaurant Association (NRA), the largest foodservice trade association in the world, utilizes the fifteen dollar fee from required ServSafe courses to fund their own lobbying efforts.
We wanted to get Talmon’s perspective on what was most surprising about putting together the article, the legal intricacies of how the NRA set up such a system, and the “benefits” of ServSafe, and if it really helps workers.
In a time when restaurant workers, once lauded as essential workers, are now increasingly under pressure to do more with less, this is another episode you’re not going to want to miss.
So, with that…let’s bring it in!
#102: Ken Hom — Michelin Star Winning Chef, Author, TV Host, Cookware Producer, Restaurant Consultant, and Ambassador for Action Against Hunger
With a culinary career spanning over six decades, Chef Ken Hom, CBE is a legend in the restaurant space.
Starting at his family's restaurant, Chef Ken has helped build restaurants from Bangkok to Rio de Janeiro, and is credited with championing traditional Chinese cuisine around the world. He’s developed his own line of Chinese cuisine cookware, which has become one of the highest-selling cookware brands in the world.
Chef Ken’s been host to a number of cooking shows on the BBC and has authored over 40 books, the most recent “My Stir-fried Life” is his first autobiographical book. On top of the mountain of books, TV shows, and restaurants he’s worked on, Chef Ken is a revered private chef for celebrities and dignitaries all over the world, and was called to create a dish for the coronation of the new King Charles II.
From working in a small family run kitchen, to a sprawling hotel kitchen in Brazil, no matter where in the world he is Chef Ken knows how to lead a team. His secret? Mentoring and caring.
In a time when workers are filled with anxiety, job instability, automation and A.I. and having to do more with less, Chef Ken has learned to operate Michelin Star winning restaurants with a people first mindset, a practice something managers everywhere can learn from.
So, with that…let’s bring it in!
#101: Dr. Jeff Brown — Harvard Psychologist, Psychologist for the Boston Marathon Medical Team, Author of “The Winner's Brain: 8 Strategies Great Minds Use To Achieve Success”
Winning is hard.
Whether it’s coming in first place in a race or making it to the end of a marathon, winning takes a lot of effort. In an age of Instagram life coaches, TikTok motivation accounts, “Alpha” and “Winner” influencers, there are a lot of external forces that can make you feel that the path to winning is one dimensional, “have it or you don’t” situation.
Dr. Jeff Brown is here to change that.
Dr. Jeff Brown is the Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the Psychologist for the Boston Marathon Medical Team (and a first responder during the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings), as well as a member of Runner’s World magazine’s Scientific Advisory Board, where he’s taken a scientific approach to understanding how to win.
Co-authoring the book “The Winner’s Brain: 8 Strategies Great Minds Use to Achieve Success,” Dr. Brown traveled across the world to hear the stories of some of the greatest high performers in the world, from musician B.B. King and Olympian Kerri Strung, to FBI agents, fighter pilots, and even high-altitude window washers.
Dr. Brown believes that everyone is capable of achieving a winner’s brain, because it’s a skill that you can train your mind to adopt. Empowering your people to be able to adopt a winner's brain is critical for any manager creating a high performance working environment.
And plus, who doesn’t want a few more wins in their life?
This is definitely another episode you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#100: Nick Wallace — Chopped Season 34 Winner, Top Chef Contestant, Named 2020’s Best Chef of Mississippi, Executive Chef, Founder of Nick Wallace Culinary
It’s episode 100!
For hitting such an incredible milestone, we decided to bring in a guest that works in one of the most high pressure fields in the world; a place where mentorship, teamwork, process-oriented hard work, and demands of the highest quality are needed: the professional kitchen.
Chef Nick Wallace is Mississippi born and raised and with a lifelong passion for cooking instilled in him from his grandmothers, he knows a thing or two about creating a tight knit and highly effective team to get a job done.
After working in various local kitchens throughout his teens, Chef Nick joined the Marriott Hotels culinary team at 20 years old, and within a year was promoted to executive chef, a position he occupied for ten years. He went on to found Nick Wallace Culinary, opening two locations in Jackson, MI as well as appearing on high profile cooking shows such as Comfort Nation, Cutthroat Kitchen, Chopped, winning Season 34, and Top Chef.
On top of obsessing over great food, Chef Nick also prioritizes giving back to his community, founding Creativity Kitchen to develop healthier lunches for Jackson schools, as well as partnerships with the American Cancer Society and co-chairing Share the Gulf, Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi.
With the restaurant and hospitality space still the largest source of employment across the US, Chef Nick's experience building a hardworking and compassionate team that impacts his community is a story we can all take value from, during a time when workers are feeling disconnected and abandoned more than ever.
Thanks to everyone who’s stuck with us for these past 100 episodes. This is another episode you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#99: Tom Sterner — Author of “It’s Just a Thought: Emotional Freedom Through Deliberate Thinking,” Founder & CEO of the Practicing Mind Institute, Professional Coach
Between remote work, quiet hiring, quiet firing, forced back into office, gig work, A.I., automation, and so much more, the workforce is in a challenging position today.
Workers are sandwiched between anxiety towards an unsure future and strict performance reviews saying ‘do better!’ of the past. Sadly, what workers lack support in, is focusing on the present.
Luckily, Tom Sterner is here to change that.
Tom Sterner is the Founder and CEO of the Practicing Mind Institute, and author of books “The Practicing Mind: The Practicing Mind,” “It’s Just a Thought: Emotional Freedom Through Deliberate Thinking,” and “Fully Engaged: Using the Practicing Mind in Daily Life.” Tom is a leading expert in the field of Present Moment Functioning and coaches some of the world's top business leaders, organizations, athletes, and performers in this technique he’s dedicated the past few decades of his life studying.
Rooted in millennia old philosophy and backed by decades of neuroscientific research, Tom’s work in the field of Present Moment Functioning is critical for leaders to understand. At a time when the workforce is particularly vulnerable, leaders need to understand how to support their workers, in order to get them performing at their best.
This is another podcast you’re definitely not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#98: Sanjay Sarma — Professor at MIT, Author of “Grasp: The Science Transforming How We Learn” + “Workforce Education: A New Roadmap”
According to the 2022 World Talent Ranking from the IMD, the U.S. ranked 16th out of 64 developed countries, dropping 2 spots from 2021.
What accounts for this decline?
“Education is the oxygen to work, you can’t breath without air, you can’t work without education,” says Sanjay Sarma, our very special guest on today's episode.
Sanjay is a professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and the former Vice President of Open Learning, a division of MIT dedicated to researching how learning works, and providing MIT lectures and resources to learners around the globe. Much of his work with Open Learning is what culminated into his book “Grasp: The Science Transforming How We Learn,” where Sanjay focused all of his research on answering the question: how can the science of learning help build a better society and better individuals?
Sanjay has made it his life goal to address the many problems that face modern education, from accessibility, outdated techniques, to bureaucratic disruption and misaligned programs.
Sanjay’s work as an educator, researcher, author, and advocate is incredibly important, especially today and this is definitely an episode you’re not going to want to miss. So with that…let’s bring it in!
#97: Joe Baker — Author of “The Tyranny of Talent: How it Compels and Limits Athletic Achievement…and Why You Should Ignore It,” High-Performance Sports Coach, Professor at York University
Talent is a good thing…right?
In today’s episode, we’re joined by professor, PhD, coach, author, scientist, Joe Baker. Joe is a Professor at York University whose work focuses on studying human development, looking at psychosocial and environmental factors, to see how the best athletes in the world achieve peak performance.
Joe’s work has led him to advise dozens of high-profile athletic organizations, including the Texas Rangers, the Canadian Paralympic Committee, and Wheelchair Rugby Canada.
We wanted to sit down with Joe to discuss his research on ‘talent development’ and how in many environments, in sports or in the workforce, ‘talent,’ as we traditionally think about it, can actually do more harm than good for your people.
This one’s a really interesting episode, one you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#96: Marsha Lovett, PhD — Co-Author of “How Learning Works: 8 Research Based Principles of Smart Teaching,” Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning Innovation at the Carnegie Mellon University
In a back-to-back special, we’re continuing to explore how learning works through the book “How Learning Works: 8 Research Based Principles of Smart Teaching”.
Picking up from our last episode with Dr. Marie Norman at the University of Pittsburgh, a short walk down Forbes Ave towards Carnegie Mellon, you can find the office of today’s guest, Dr. Marsha Lovett.
Starting as a professor in Carnegie Mellon’s psychology department, Dr. Lovett now serves as Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning Innovation. She manages the Eberly Center, a team of teaching consultants, learning designers, data scientists, and technologists who help instructors create meaningful and demonstrably effective educational experiences (and still, she has time to teach her psych classes).
Dr. Lovett’s psychological background was front and center in our chat with her, where we talked about the importance of motivation and engagement in learning, the power of generative learning, and how organizations can really tell if the information they’re teaching people is sticking, and working.
If you enjoyed our last podcast, this is a great follow up to dive even deeper into how learning really works, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#95: Dr. Marie Norman — Co-Author of “How Learning Works: 8 Research Based Principles of Smart Teaching” on the Science of Learning, Motivation, and the Future of Work
How does learning really work?
Who better to join us on the podcast than Dr. Marie K. Norman -- the co-author of “How Learning Works: 8 Research Based Principles of Smart Teaching,” to answer the question?
After graduating from University of Pittsburgh and acquiring her Ph.D, Dr. Norman began teaching at Carnegie Melon and has been there for 14 years, including designing programs for the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence. More recently she’s moved back to her alma mater as an associate professor of Medicine, Clinical and Translational Science, as well as the Director of the university’s Innovative Design for Education and Assessment (IDEA) Lab, where her research focuses on everything from the application of research-based learning principles to teaching to cross-cultural issues in education.
We had a great time sitting down with Dr. Norman, where we chatted about exactly how learning works, what generative learning is, why it’s so effective, why both challenge and engaging content is so important, and what new updates are being made to the newest edition to “How Learning Works: 8 Research Based Principles for Smart Teaching.”
You want to build a high performance workforce? You aren't going to want to miss this episode...
#94: David Fahrenthold — Pulitzer Prize-Winning Reporter for The New York Times on "How Restaurant Workers Pay for Lobbying to Keep Their Wages Low"
For anyone who has ever worked in the food service industry, the word ServSafe will likely bring back painful memories of some of the most mind-numbing, waste of time online courses in the world.
But, as New York Times reporter David Fahrenthold has uncovered, there’s a much more sinister side to the infamous food safety software.
David’s been a reporter since 2000, where he started as an intern on the night shift desk at The Washington Post. Eventually he made his way to the political analyst desk, covering much of the Obama and Trump Administrations. He earned his Pulitzer in 2017 for his investigation into Trump’s charitable givings, exposing a web of misallocated funds for personal debts.
In his recent New York Times article “How Restaurant Workers Pay for Lobbying to Keep Their Wages Low,” David cracks open how The National Restaurant Association, the largest foodservice trade association in the world, utilizes the fifteen dollar fee from required ServSafe courses to fund their own lobbying efforts.
That means the money from millions of frontline restaurant workers goes into the pockets of the lobbyists that are often the key blockers of reform regarding hourly wages, healthcare, and benefits.
We wanted to sit down with David today to learn why he wanted to pursue the subject of ServSafe and The National Restaurant Association, the effectiveness of ServSafe, and what this means for the greater restaurant industry.
This is a really special episode, one that’s important for everyone regardless of position in the food industry to listen to, so without further ado…let’s bring it in!
#93: Sam Caucci — Founder & CEO of 1Huddle, Thought Leader, Executive Coach, Keynote Speaker, and Bestselling Author
2022 is in the bag and with that, comes our traditional End of Year Special where Sam and our very own Jaime, Manager of Branded Media sat down and to chat about the year.
2022 was a year filled with craziness in the workforce, from in-office mandates, to The Great Resignation, Boss Loss, to the rise and fall of dozens of companies, the year certainly had its ups and downs.
And, how did 1Huddle navigate this crazy year?
By doubling down and investing in our people. The name of the game this year was coaching, as Jaime and Sam dig into what it takes to create a coaching environment and predictions for the future of work in 2023.
Let’s bring it in!
#92: Justin Reich — Associate Professor at MIT and Author of “Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can't Transform Education”
How do teachers learn how to teach? They go through a whole process of licensing, and academic theory, but where do teachers practice teaching?
Justin Reich is an Associate Professor of Comparative Media Studies at MIT, as well as the Director for the MIT Teaching Systems Lab, a space where teachers can practice how to teach. He’s compiled nearly two decades of experience into a book, Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can't Transform Education, and hosts a podcast called TeachLab.
As a veteran of the education space, Justin feels that there's no tech based magic bullet that somehow can improve the country's gigantic education system: it’s going to come down to having the best teachers.
And you get the best teachers, just like how coaches get the best athletes, by creating a safe space where people can experiment, fail, reflect, try again, and practice, practice, practice.
With a new year just around the corner, it’s the perfect time to think about turning over a new leaf when it comes to teaching, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#91: Mathieu Stevenson — CEO of Snagajob on the Jobs Report and Hourly Workers
So today, Sam was joined by Mathieu Stevenson, the CEO of Snagajob, the country's largest marketplace for hourly jobs and shifts. They connect millions of job seekers each month to right-fit-employment opportunities across the US. Their mission? To empower hourly workers with the ability to design the way they work– not just for full-time or part-time, but also for flexible and gig workers.
Together they discuss the jobs report, what they’re seeing from a workforce trend perspective, and reflect on what lies ahead in a post-covid world, where the Future of Work is rapidly shifting.
With that, let's bring it in!
#90: Tammy Browning — President of KellyOCG on Jobs Report and "Boss Loss"
72%!
To learn more about “Boss Loss,” 1Huddle Founder and CEO Sam Caucci sat down with Tammy Browning, the President of the company that coined that term, KellyOCG – global leader that manages all categories of talent to drive strategic growth for clients worldwide– and one of the brains behind that shocking report.
Together they unpack what dynamics are behind those numbers, what change management has to do with your tech strategies, and what talent is really looking for in their work experience.
Tammy has long been an innovator in the industry, developing visionary talent supply chain solutions over the course of a career that spans more than 20 years. Her perspective is invaluable, and we loved getting into the weeds with her.
This episode is mandatory listening.
Let’s Bring It In!
#89: Jim Lang — Author of “Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning,” Speaker, and Workshop Leader for Teachers and Writers
Want to learn about cognitive psychology that affects teachers and students?
Then this is the episode for you.
Jim Lang has delivered conference keynotes and conducted workshops at more than a hundred colleges, universities, and high schools in the United States and abroad. The Jim Lang Foundation, which he formed and leads with his wife, provides grants to non-profit organizations dedicated to alleviating poverty; supporting and funding the arts, libraries, and public education. He has written six books in total. His latest is, “Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You Can Do About It” (Basic Books, 2020).
Lang first became interested in the science of learning at Northwestern’s Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Technology. There, while promoting better teaching techniques for university faculty, he discovered a growing body of research about how the brain worked, how human beings learned, and how best to translate those discoveries into teaching recommendations.
His book, “Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning,” emerged from that work, and since its publication in 2016, its message – premised on the idea that teachers, by implementing small, manageable techniques, could revolutionize the way students learn– has been embraced by higher and secondary education faculty around the world.
As Jim says, it’s not “a charisma contest.” Great teachers aren’t always the most confident people in the room, but they are the ones thinking the most about the learner – whether that’s their student, or their employee– and that’s what makes the difference.
Now, with that… Let’s bring it in!
#88: Scott Young — Author of “Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career,” Entrepreneur, and Programmer
Think it’s impossible to complete and pass a 4 year MIT course, in just 1 year?
Not for Scott Young.
He’s the author of "Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career", where he shares how he managed to turn 4 years of learning into 1.
It’s a technique he calls “Ultralearning,” an aggressive, self-directed method that helped him master self portraiture in a month– and it’s helping him learn his wife’s native language right now.
Over the course of his book, Scott shares the scientific basis for his techniques, as well as sharing the stories of a few other “Ultralearners.”
A poor public speaker who becomes a Toastmasters Top 10 Finalist, someone who acquires language mastery with ease, and a man who won the French Scrabble Championships: without speaking French.
If you’re looking to train, upskill, or prepare your people, our conversation with Scott is one you’re not going to want to miss.
Let’s bring it in!
#87: Dr. Jerry Lynch — Coach, Mentor, and Teacher to 115+ Championship Teams, Author of “Everyday Champion Wisdom”
What happens when you get involved with 115 championship-winning teams, consult 12 Hall of Fame coaches, found one of the most elite performance consultancy agencies, earn doctorates in psychology and philosophy, and write over a dozen best-selling books?
Well, you write another book, about the best bits you’ve learned so far.
Dr. Lynch has worked together with coaches and athletes like Steve Kerr, Nancy Stevens, Anson Dorrance, and Phil Jackson, and a slew of accolades. In total, Dr. Lynch has helped secure 73 conference championships, 54 Final Fours, and 39 National Championships.
Dr. Jerry Lynch is the Founder of Way of Champions, a performance consultancy that combines elite sports psychology, with international philosophy concepts, to generate peak performance. He’s written over a dozen books on his studies on excellence, from “The Competitive Buddha,” “Coaching with Heart,” “Win the Day,” “Let them Play,” with his newest book on the horizon, “Everyday Champion Wisdom.”
Dr. Lynch spent some time with us to talk about big ideas like the importance of failure, the need for play, and how you are never crowned a champion: you be a champion.
This is one of our most impactful and inspiring podcasts to date, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#86: Coach Melissa Kutcher — D1 Women's Gymnastics Coach at University of Denver on Motivating Athletes
But what does character actually look like? What does it mean?
Coach Melissa Kutcher knows the importance of character. It’s how she led the University of Denver Women’s Gymnastics team to 22 consecutive NCAA finals appearances, 2 NCAA individual championships, the 2021 Big 12 Championship, and 5 team NCAA appearances.
Since her appointment to head coach at University of Denver’s Women’s Gymnastics in 1998 she’s been awarded the 2019 National Coach of the Year Award, a 2x Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year, 2002s WGC’s Coach of the Year, and a 6x recipient of the North Central Region Coach of the Year.
Every year Coach Kutcher is tasked with creating a high performing team while constantly letting go of one batch of her star athletes, while also welcoming a brand new class of student athletes. She gets the importance of building a strong culture, and the importance of recruiting people who can develop character.
In a time where the members of your workforce can fluctuate more rapidly than ever, knowing how to develop a winning culture amongst the ups and downs of recruiting and losing people is an invaluable skill, one that Coach Kutcher has mastered during her tenure at University of Denver.
This is another episode you won’t want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#85: Joe De Sena — Founder and CEO of Spartan Race, Author and Podcast Host of “Spartan Up!,” and Host of CNBC’s "No Retreat: Business Bootcamp"
Any time you look to the news today, it seems that things are pretty bleak: struggling workers and businesses, inflating cost of living, political strife. But to quote our guest, Joe De Sana, “It could be worse.”
Joe is the CEO and Founder of Spartan Race, the premiere obstacle course group in the nation. Joe has been a lifelong entrepreneur, from starting a pool cleaning business as a teen, to a stint at Wall Street, to creating the entire Spartan Brand.
Joe’s deep passion for intense, long distance running has turned the Spartan Race into a philosophy and brand that spans the globe. From books like “Spartan Up! A Take-No-Prisoners Guide to Overcoming Obstacles and Achieving Peak Performance in Life” and his podcast Spartan Up! And now a full fledged show on CNBC titled No Retreat: Business Bootcamp.
Joe understands the necessity of being able to persevere under pressure, a skill that everyone involved with business from the CEO to frontline workers needs to have. You’re not going to want to miss Joe’s insights to building grit and resilience, so with that…let’s bring it in!
#84: Coach Jeff Graba — Head Women’s Gymnastics Coach at Auburn
Managing a team is always challenging.
Balancing the individual needs of each member, with the greater objectives of the group is never easy, especially for a workforce where burnout is at a record high.
Coach Jeff Graba is the Head Women’s Coach of the Auburn Tigers Gymnastics Program, who also coaches gymnastics all-stars such as Caitlin Atkinson, Samantha Cerio, Derrian Gobourne, Cassie Stevens, and most recently, welcomed Olympic Gold medalist Suni Lee to the team.
In nine seasons, Coach Graba has led his student-athletes to 16 All-American Honors (both NACGC/W and NCAA) and 22 All-SEC recognitions, including their first trip to the NCAA Championship Super Six in 2015, their first in 22 years.
In 2014 and 2015 he was named the SEC Coach of the Year, a title he earned through his unique coaching philosophy that focuses on gaining courage (not losing fear), on “aiming for a rising average,” and on preparing his players to fight against something they know they can’t win against: gravity.
In a sport where a team is made up it’s members completing dangerous routines alone, Coach Graba is able to give it’s individual players the confidence to perform, while guiding the whole team in the right direction.
WIth that…let’s bring it in!
#83: Michelle Weise — Author of “Life Long Learning: Preparing for Jobs that Don't Even Exist Yet” and Future of Education & Workforce Strategist
"The answer to filling a skills gap or for upskilling for the future is not always going to be another degree."
There’s approximately 4,000 degree granting institutions across the United States, offering hundreds of thousands of different credentials. Each of these institutions offer the promise of secure and fulfilling employment after graduation, but in a rapidly changing working landscape, how is someone supposed to know what credential is going to best suit their needs?
More importantly, who can afford the cost, both in time and in finances, to attend these institutions?
These are just some of the areas that our next guest, Michelle Weise, focuses on. Author of the book "Life Long Learning: Long Life Learning: Preparing for Jobs that Don't Even Exist Yet", and Chancellor of Strategy and Innovation at the International University System, Michelle has dedicated her professional career to creating an educational system that’s better suited for a workforce that is expected to work longer, emphasize soft skills, and be more strapped for time.
With the value of college being questioned more than ever, The Great Resignation showing no signs of slowing and the future of work in more flux than ever before, Michelle’s strategies are more important than ever.
This is another episode you’re not going to want to miss, so without further ado…let’s bring it in!
#82: Coach Anson Dorrance — 22x National Championship Head Women’s Soccer Coach at UNC — Chapel Hill on Competition, Team and Being the Best
The U.S. Women’s National Soccer team boasts one of the most impressive dynasties in all of sports, with numerous World Cup Wins, Olympic Gold Medals, and more under their belts. Many elite players such as Mia Hamm, Allie Long, Crystal Dunn, and Jessica McDonald all went through the same Soccer program at the University of North Carolina under the leadership of today’s guest, Anson Dorrance.
Coach Dorrance has been at the helm of the UNC’s Women’s Soccer program since its inception in 1979. Over his 45 years, he has achieved over 1000 career wins, 22 National Titles, and 22 ACC Titles, the first coach to ever win 20 titles in a single sport. In 1991 he led the U.S. Women’s National Soccer team to victory in the first-ever Women’s World Cup, and set the standard for the U.S. Women’s Soccer domination. For these accomplishments and more, he was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2008.
Currently, of every game he has ever played, Coach Dorrance holds a 90.5% win rate. It’s safe to say he knows a lot about creating high-performing teams.
We sat down today with Coach Dorrance to take a deep dive into the three components of his program that he focuses on, to create high-performing and high-character team players that win.
This is another episode you’re definitely not going to want to miss, so with that...let’s bring it in!
#81: Barbara Oakley — Author of “Uncommon Sense Teaching: Practical Insights in Brain Science to Help Students Learn,” Engineer, Professor at Oakland University, and Fmr. Army Captain
Hundreds of institutions, both online and offline, claim to offer quality educational experiences and expose you to the best learning techniques available.
According to Barbara Oakley, most of these groups are nothing more than scams.
For the past 30 years Barbara has focused all of her research on the relationship between neuroscience and social behavior. Published in outlets such as the National Academy of Sciences, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, where her work has been called “revolutionary.”
Barbara has had a varied career, starting in the U.S. Army and eventually serving as a Captain stationed in Europe. She then received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, while serving as a translator for ships in the Bering Sea. She then spent a season as the radio operator for South Pole Station Antarctica (where she met her husband), and then “settled down” near Seattle as a control engineer in a laser research and development firm. After a final run at Ford Motors, Barbara began consulting and teaching at Oakland University.
Needless to say, Barbara knows how to master skills quickly and effectively. Her decades of hands-on application and in depth research has been compiled into a number of her books, most recently “Learning How to Learn,” “Learn Like a Pro,” and “Uncommon Sense Teaching.”
We sat down with Barbara to delve deeper into her strategies and research, and what the future of learning could achieve with a new hybrid standard.
So with that…let’s bring it in!