Work in Progress with Christopher Wong Michaelson

Bill George joins Christopher Wong Michaelson for a candid conversation on leadership, purpose, and courage in uncertain times. Drawing on his journey from early career setbacks to leading Medtronic, George reflects on the importance of authentic relationships, values-driven decision-making, and aligning personal purpose with organizational mission. The discussion explores what it means to lead wi...

One way in which the University of St. Thomas is  trying to realize its mission to "educate students...to work skillfully...to advance the common good" is with a new course  called Work and the Good Life. Most of our students come here expecting that their college degrees will help them find jobs out of college. But as UST President Rob Vischer says, one reason that we have stellar emplo...

One way in which the University of St. Thomas is  trying to realize its mission to "educate students...to work skillfully...to advance the common good" is with a new course  called Work and the Good Life. Most of our students come here expecting that their college degrees will help them find jobs out of college. But as UST President Rob Vischer says, one reason that we have stellar emplo...

One way in which the University of St. Thomas is  trying to realize its mission to "educate students...to work skillfully...to advance the common good" is with a new course  called Work and the Good Life. Most of our students come here expecting that their college degrees will help them find jobs out of college. But as UST President Rob Vischer says, one reason that we have stellar emplo...

Is their one truth or is the truth relative? Are some moral values better than others? Are some cultural artifacts worth teaching and preserving more than others? Guided by perspectives in history, theology, and ethics from St. Thomas faculty (listed below) this conversation aims to foster understanding across differing values and religious beliefs as well as explore how shared values and a deeper...

Is beauty something that's antithetical to work, or is beauty to be found anywhere and everywhere, including work? During this LIVE podcast recording, hear from St. Thomas students who talk about the future of work that they are hoping for, from professionals who share their everyday reality of work, and scholars who connect goodness, truth, and beauty to meaningful work and a meaningful life...

Is fantasy football part of the good life, is it just a colossal waste of time – or worse? This podcast is ordinarily about work, but this episode is about play, and whether any redeeming consequences come from the work that a $30 billion industry of analysts, podcasters, pundits, gamers, and other fantasy nerds put into it. To put that question to the test, in Fall 2024, 11 honors students at the...

The Melrose Twin Cities Principled Leadership Award was established in 2021 to honor Ken Melrose, namesake of the Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership and fervent champion of ethics and servant leadership as well as promote an aspirational vision of responsible and responsive leadership in practice. The 2023 awardee, George Lee, is the founder of Jobs Foundation, REPOWER...

Is Your Work Worth It? : A conversation with Kristine Enea, JD, is the second of three episodes of Work in Progress with Christopher Wong Michaelson featuring interviewees whose stories appear in my new book with Jennifer Tosti-Kharas, Is Your Work Worth It? Because don’t we all, at some point, wonder whether what we get out of our work is worth what we give to it?  Enea has had many careers: in l...

Is Your Work Worth It? : A conversation with Chad Sokol is the third of three episodes of Work in Progress with Christopher Wong Michaelson featuring interviewees whose stories appear in my new book with Jennifer Tosti-Kharas, Is Your Work Worth It? Because don’t we all, at some point, wonder whether what we get out of our work is worth what we give to it?  Sokol has held some of the best executiv...

Is Your Work Worth It? : A conversation with Dennis Curley is the first of three episodes of Work in Progress with Christopher Wong Michaelson featuring interviewees whose stories appear in my new book with Jennifer Tosti-Kharas, Is Your Work Worth It? Because don’t we all, at some point, wonder whether what we get out of our work is worth what we give to it?  Dennis Curley has sung “Sweet Carolin...

In Search of Careers for the Common Good is a four-part series of candid conversations with professionals across three different career stages – early, middle and encore – discussing the ways in which reality and one’s ideals about careers intersect in the search and struggle to find careers for the common good.   In part two of this series, Christopher Wong Michaelson has a discussion with recent...

In Search of Careers for the Common Good is a four-part series of candid conversations with professionals across three different career stages – early, middle and encore – discussing the ways in which reality and one’s ideals about careers intersect in the search and struggle to find careers for the common good.   In part three of this series, Christopher Wong Michaelson has a discussion with Lind...

In Search of Careers for the Common Good is a four-part series of candid conversations with professionals across three different career stages – early, middle and encore – discussing the ways in which reality and one’s ideals about careers intersect in the search and struggle to find careers for the common good.   In part four of this series, Christopher Wong Michaelson has a discussion with John...

In Search of Careers for the Common Good is a four-part series of candid conversations with professionals across three different career stages – early, middle and encore – discussing the ways in which reality and one’s ideals about careers intersect in the search and struggle to find careers for the common good.   In part one of this series, Christopher Wong Michaelson has a discussion with recent...

In this episode, Michaelson moderates a discussion with each of the 2022 Principled Leadership Fellows from the Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership. So, how is it that apples, K-Pop and building trust are discussed on the same podcast episode? Listen to learn more from each Fellow as they share their unique research agendas and the connections to leadership and business...

In this episode, Michaelson moderates a panel discussion titled: Family business: How to create meaningful work for the family, employees and betterment of the community, as part of the University of St. Thomas Schulze School of Entrepreneurship Family Business Center breakfast series.  Panelists include three family business leaders who approach meaningful work in a variety of ways, but always wi...

In this episode, host, Christopher Michaelson, intermixes his commentary with a recording of a panel discussion taken during an in-person event at the Guthrie Theater in May 2022. The special event titled, A Raisin in the Sun: Panel Discussion and Performance, was an experiential opportunity aimed at helping shape the role of business in cultivating racial justice and social equity in the Twin Cit...

The Melrose Twin Cities Principled Leadership Award was established in 2021 to honor Ken Melrose, namesake of the Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership and fervent champion of ethics and servant leadership as well as promote an aspirational vision of responsible and responsive leadership in practice. The 2022 awardee, Erica Neubert Campbell, is the epitome of a principled...

Work in Progress with Christopher Michaelson , discusses every working person’s work in progress, namely, our quest to be fully human in a working world that all too often makes us feel like machines, in which we often don’t even have time to think, and that, in the words of Studs Terkel, too often feels like “a Monday through Friday sort of dying.” In this episode, host Michaelson and two guests:...

As much as the COVID-19 pandemic has brought out the best and worst in human behavior, it has also brought out the best and worst in business behavior. This discussion series seeks to learn from the ethical successes and failures of business during the pandemic to guide the future promise and purpose of business.  Series facilitators, Christopher Michaelson and Harry Van Buren III, the Barbara and...

As much as the COVID-19 pandemic has brought out the best and worst in human behavior, it has also brought out the best and worst in business behavior. This virtual series seeks to learn from the ethical successes and failures of business during the pandemic to guide the future promise and purpose of business Series facilitators, Christopher Michaelson and Harry Van Buren III, the Barbara and Davi...

As much as the COVID-19 pandemic has brought out the best and worst in human behavior, it has also brought out the best and worst in business behavior. This virtual series seeks to learn from the ethical successes and failures of business during the pandemic to guide the future promise and purpose of business.  Series facilitators, Christopher Michaelson and Harry Van Buren III, the Barbara and Da...

Work in Progress with Christopher Michaelson , discusses every working person’s work in progress, namely, our quest to be fully human in a working world that all too often makes us feel like machines, in which we often don’t even have time to think, and that, in the words of Studs Terkel, too often feels like “a Monday through Friday sort of dying.” Our ninth podcast episode airs with host Michael...

The Melrose Twin Cities Principled Leadership Award was established in 2021 to honor Ken Melrose, namesake of the Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership and fervent champion of ethics and servant leadership as well as promote an aspirational vision of responsible and responsive leadership in practice. The three inaugural awardees represent differing areas of ongoing servic...