Curious Minds at Work

Most of us have a love-hate relationship with New Year’s resolutions. We love that feeling of a fresh start. But we hate how our commitments seldom make it to Valentine’s Day. So what if this year we had an expert teach us how to do it right?  Ayelet Fishbach is that expert. She’s a social psychologist at the University of Chicago and author of the book, Get It Done: Surprising Lessons from the Sc...

We hear it all the time, that the pace of technological change today is faster than ever before. But what does that really mean, and why does it matter? It means that if you were born in 1920, technologies in your life changed slowly. Think electricity, cars, telephones. At the time, these were huge innovations. But they took over 40 years to reach 3 out of 4 households in the U.S. Compare this to...

Just a few years ago, the possibility of working from anywhere made us wistful. With family and friends, we’d play the “what if” game: What if we could work from home? What if we could live somewhere warmer? What if we could move to another country? When the pandemic hit and remote work made “what if” possible, some responded, “why not?” And that’s when things got complicated. Now we’re faced with...

There are countless benefits to collaboration. We get new ideas. Solve problems more quickly. Produce higher quality work. But too much of anything can turn toxic. And it doesn’t have to be that way. Rob Cross, Professor of Global Leadership at Babson College, has spent time with hundreds of leaders who’ve figured out how to collaborate more effectively. What he learned led to him develop a framew...

We like to think of our identities as singular and stable: I’m an early riser (and will always be), or I’m a foodie (and can’t imagine otherwise). But if we take a step back, we see how we not only hold multiple identities, but how many of these identities change over the course of our lives.  Remember when you were a student? Or a time when you were single? While there are some identities we can’...

How to change someone’s mind. It’s a topic that’s come up a few times before on the podcast. For example, I talked to Jonah Berger about how to make inroads by asking for less. I also spoke with Tali Sharot about how to get further by focusing first on what you have in common. Yet there’s one tip that’s never made the list. And it’s one that’s proven to have an incredible impact. In fact, we’ve se...

We like to think we’re in complete control of the decisions we make. From the sandwich we ordered for lunch to the Netflix show we watched last night. Yet, in each case, we’ve got a hidden partner, one that influences nearly every decision we make. That partner is the designer. Whether we’re reading a restaurant menu or scrolling a website, we’re taking in information that’s been presented to us i...

What do you think makes companies like Amazon or Google so innovative? With Amazon you might say their relentless focus on the customer. With Google, you might point to their powerful search engine or cloud computing. What you might not think about is just how important experiments are to their success. Not just a few experiments, but tens of thousands run annually so they can improve on what they...

I’ve spent a lot of time talking to guests about our relationships at work. For example, we’ve discussed how to listen better, how to navigate conflict, and how to influence others, just to name a few. What I’ve spent less time talking about are the relationships that go beyond work. That’s why I invited Kat Vellos on the show this week to talk about her amazing book, We Should Get Together: The S...

One of the messages our culture delivers is “not enough.” Not clever enough. Not busy enough. Not successful enough. It’s a cultural mantra that beats just below the surface of many conversations, especially the ones we have with ourselves. That’s what’s so refreshing about Vanessa Bohns’ book, You Have More Influence Than You Think: How We Underestimate our Power of Persuasion and Why It Matters....

I have a confession to make. I enjoy talking to people I don't know. I like learning about them and hearing their stories. I'm sure it explains why I started this podcast nearly six years ago. Yet I know a lot of people who avoid talking to strangers. And if, for any reason, they have to, they dread it. But these feelings of dread work against us. Study after study shows that when we talk to stran...

Numbers have power. They convey certainty. For example, when we know whether cases of Covid-19 are rising or falling, we feel like we have more control. Like we’ve got the answer. Yet numbers can be slippery too. Sure. Counting the number of people in a sports stadium is objective. But what about race totals in the U.S. Census? The same goes for the number of people who fall below the poverty line...

So often, when we try to solve a problem, we focus on what we can add. Let’s say you're moving to a smaller space. Your first thought might be to research shelving or rent a storage unit. But what if, instead, you subtracted? What if you thought about what you’d sell, donate, or just throw out?  That’s the question Leidy Klotz answers in his book, Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less. It’s a top...

I'll admit it. I'm a sucker for brain science. I love learning new things about how our brains work and how to get the most out of this amazing organ. That means I'm always scanning for my next book on the topic. And, when I find it, I'm usually placing an order before I've made it through the table of contents. With this week's guest, I barely glanced at her book's title before I clicked "buy." T...

When you think about courage at work, what comes to mind? Most of us think of the whistleblowers, the people who speak out on illegal corporate practices. Yet many who succeed in changing the workplace, do so on a smaller scale. They push back on sexist comments. Point out bias in hiring. Or challenge unequal promotion practices. Each is an example of courage at work, and it’s a form of courage mo...

Think of your family, your friends, and your colleagues. In each of these relationships, you can expect to experience conflict from time to time. Sometimes, it's unhealthy conflict that harms our relationships. Other times, it's healthy conflict that strengthens them. High conflict is something different. It happens when we view the conflict as good versus evil. It's when the walls go up. When it'...

I've got a riddle for you. What do we need to get better at our jobs? To maintain relationships with family and friends? To find our keys? The answer is memory.  Yet when it comes to what it is and how to get the most out of it, we may not know as much as we'd like. And that's too bad, because knowing even a little about how our memory works can give us a lot, including peace of mind. That's what...

Change happens through action. For example, if we want to solve the hunger problem in our local community, we donate to a food drive. We volunteer at a food bank. We do things that solve the problem. But often the hurdle to taking action is knowing what action to take. Research shows that bystanders are often unsure of what to do. And when they don't know what to do, they tend to do nothing. That'...

Most of us have a voice in our heads. On some days, it builds our confidence. On others, it tears us down.  Our inner voice is an invisible force that has a big effect on our work and our lives. I've often been curious about this voice. What shapes it? What makes it louder? If we understood it better, could we get it to work for us, rather than against us? Ethan Kross has spent the bulk of his car...

For many of us, public speaking creates a lot of anxiety. And like all phobias, it comes at a cost. Researchers have linked a fear of public speaking to lower college graduation rates, lower wages, and fewer promotions. But I think the biggest price we pay is the loss of our voice. It robs us of the ability to share our ideas. And it diminishes an important way for us to have an impact on the worl...

A hundred years ago, if you asked someone about burnout, they wouldn't know what you were talking about. Fast forward to today and there's a good chance they'd say they've experienced it. Burnout's a term psychologist Herbert Freudenberger popularized in the 1970s. He used it to describe the experience of doctors and nurses exposed to long periods of stress and overwork. Over the past 20 years, us...

Most of us are hungry for feedback. Whether it's from bosses, teachers, family, or friends, we know it's the key to getting better. And the research supports this: frequent, effective feedback improves our motivation and our performance. Yet, when we become managers, we often forget this lesson, which means most of the people we manage don't get enough feedback. And it's not because we don't think...

I'll admit it. I'm a sucker for brain science. I love learning new things about how our brains work and how to get the most out of this amazing organ. That means I'm always scanning for my next book on the topic. And, when I find it, I'm usually placing an order before I've made it through the table of contents. With this week's guest, I barely glanced at her book's title before I clicked "buy." T...

For a good part of my life, I believed that focusing on my weaknesses was the key to achieving success. In fact, I didn't realize how much I'd embraced this way of thinking until I began working with an executive coach. Soon after we started working together, my coach made an observation I've never forgotten. She said, "Gayle, you're great at pointing out your weaknesses - all the ways you feel yo...

Meaningful conversations can be a creative lab space. At their best, they're a place to share perspectives and be heard. They can also be a place to stress test new ideas and catch the limits in our thinking. When conversations work, we gain a stronger connection to the people we work with. We feel like we understand each other better and that we're channeling each other's knowledge and skills to...