Work For Humans

Episódios

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  7 Rules for Gaining Power and Influence at Work | Jeffrey Pfeffer, Revisited 15.09.2026 57min

  Jeffrey Pfeffer has spent decades showing that people-first companies outperform, and just as long watching that evidence lose to habit. His answer is blunt: whether you're cautious about power or thirsty for it, there's no denying its role in the workplace, and ideas without power are just ideas. In this revisited episode, Dart and Jeff explore the purpose of power, the knowing-doing gap, and how to build profits by putting people first. Jeffrey Pfeffer is the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of ...
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  Positive Discipline at Work: Why People Do Better When They Feel Better | Alanna Beebe 08.09.2026 1h 1min

  Parents come to Alanna Beebe's classes hoping to change their kid. But by the second week, most of them realize the person who needs to change is them. Soon after, they notice the same tools working on their boss, colleagues, and staff. None of this surprises Alanna though. Her work rests on Alfred Adler's idea that every human is striving for belonging and significance, and that misbehavior, in a child or an adult, is a discouraged attempt to get there. In this episode, Dart and Alanna explo...
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  How Companies Create Bad Performers | Elena Aylott, Revisited 01.09.2026 1h 27min

  When Elena Aylott was asked to lead HR at Oriflame Cosmetics, she initially saw the function as administrative and feared becoming a “chief firing officer.” Instead, she saw an opportunity to rethink what the people function could be. In this revisited episode, Dart and Elena explore how to remove the friction that gets in the way of good work, create individualized experiences at scale, and build workplaces where people can develop their potential, form meaningful relationships, and feel a s...
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  How Sabbaticals Can Change Your Career | DJ DiDonna 25.08.2026 1h 10min

  DJ DiDonna had built the kind of career many people would be reluctant to walk away from. He cofounded a growing company, built a life around work, and had every reason to keep going. But eventually, he decided to step away and take an extended break, an experience that changed how he thought about work, identity, and what comes next. In this episode, Dart and DJ explore what happens when people step away from work long enough to see their lives from a different perspective. DJ DiDonna is a ...
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  What We Get Wrong About Work | Barry Schwartz, Revisited 18.08.2026 1h 32min

  We’ve spent decades designing work around the idea that people need incentives to perform. But what happens when the systems designed to motivate people actually get in the way of motivation? Professor Barry Schwartz has spent decades studying what makes work meaningful, and his research challenges the idea that money and performance incentives are enough. In this revisited episode, Dart and Barry explore what people really want from work, why pay-for-performance can undermine motivation, and...
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  When Career Success Feels Unfulfilling | Megan Hellerer 11.08.2026 1h 8min

  Megan Hellerer had done everything she was supposed to do. She went to Stanford, graduated with a 3.9, and dutifully climbed the ladder at Google. But the life that looked great on paper felt terrible inside. A panic attack on the floor of a public restroom forced her to confront a bigger question: what if the problem wasn't choosing the wrong destination, but the idea that we need a destination at all? In this episode, Dart and Megan explore how we move from “destinational living” to “direct...
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  The Core Value Equation: Building Culture That Scales | Darius Mirshahzadeh, Revisited 04.08.2026 1h 1min

  Darius Mirshahzadeh built the company he'd always wanted. In just three years, he grew it from a one-person operation into one of the fastest-growing companies in the United States. But when he looked around, he realized something unsettling: he hated the company he had created. That experience forced him to rethink what it really means to scale a business. In this revisited episode, Dart and Darius discuss how core values shape the way organizations grow, why culture must be designed intenti...
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  The Missing Discipline for Better Work | Chris Metcalfe 28.07.2026 1h 28min

  After years building software products, Chris Metcalfe crossed into People & Culture and noticed something surprising. Organizations invested enormous effort into understanding customers, testing ideas, and improving products, yet the work people did every day was rarely designed with the same discipline. That realization led him to ask a different question: what if work itself were managed like a product? In this episode, Dart and Chris discuss what happens when organizations move beyond...
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  Jobs to Be Done: A Better Way to Understand Customers | Jim Kalbach, Revisited 21.07.2026 1h 4min

  Most companies obsess over products, but Jim Kalbach believes they're asking the wrong question. Customers don't buy products because of what they are. They "hire" them to make progress in their lives. Jobs to Be Done is a way of uncovering that progress, helping organizations stop guessing what people want and start understanding twhat people are really trying to accomplish. In this revisited episode, Dart and Jim discuss how Jobs to Be Done helps organizations uncover unmet customer needs, ...
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  Designing Better Work With Product Thinking | Vanessa Monsequeira 14.07.2026 1h 12min

  Vanessa Monsequeira spent years leading change initiatives and helping organizations roll out new systems. Again and again, she saw that the hardest part wasn't convincing people to change, it was that the work itself had never been intentionally designed. That realization led her to apply product thinking to the workplace, treating work as something to be researched, tested, and continuously improved. In this episode, Dart and Vanessa discuss what it means to design work intentionally, how p...
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  Beyond HR: The Rise of Human Development | Bob Aubrey, Revisited 07.07.2026 1h 18min

  Dr. Bob Aubrey has spent decades advancing the field of human development across Asia. With experience spanning 25 countries and six continents, he founded and chairs the Advisory Board of the ASEAN Human Development Organisation (AHDO), which promotes human development across the region and beyond. In this episode, Dart and Bob discuss the global human development movement, where it fits alongside HR, and what it means for capitalism, company profitability, and the future of work. Dr. Bob A...
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  Teal Organizations: A Better Way to Organize Work | Matthew Spaur 30.06.2026 1h 6min

  Most organizations are built around hierarchy, clear reporting lines, and top-down control. But a growing number are experimenting with a different way of organizing work through self-management, distributed authority, and evolving purpose. As more organizations experiment with alternatives to traditional management, Matthew Spaur has spent years studying Teal organizations and what actually happens when hierarchy gives way to self-management. In this episode, Dart and Matthew discuss what T...
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  Experience Design: Creating More Meaningful Work | Abraham Burickson, Revisited 23.06.2026 1h 14min

  Twenty years ago, Abraham Burickson and his collaborators asked a simple question: what if a work of art were designed for just one person? Instead of creating experiences for the masses, they spent months crafting deeply personal journeys for an audience of one. That experiment grew into a new way of thinking about design, participation, and transformation. In this revisited episode, Dart and Abraham discuss what those lessons can teach us about management, why experience cannot be fully d...
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  Building Organizations for a Future That Doesn't Fit the Past | Rishad Tobaccowala 16.06.2026 1h 6min

  Rishad Tobaccowala has spent much of his career breaking out of boxes. First it was the spreadsheet and the idea that organizations can be managed through numbers alone. Then it was the office and the assumptions built into how we supervise and coordinate work. More recently, he has turned his attention to the broader structures that shape how we work and learn. In this episode, Dart and Rishad discuss the limits of measurement, management as a zone of control versus a zone of influence, and ...
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  Talentism: Building Organizations Around Human Potential | Jeff Hunter, Revisited 09.06.2026 1h 11min

  After years leading recruiting and talent systems at companies like Bridgewater, Electronic Arts, and Dolby, Jeff Hunter came to believe that many of our assumptions about talent, hiring, and performance are fundamentally wrong. The problem is not that people lack potential. The problem is that the systems around them often fail to recognize or develop it. In this revisited episode, Dart and Jeff discuss what gets in the way of human potential and what organizations can do differently. Prior...
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  Beyond Collective Impact: What It Really Takes to Change a System | John Kania 02.06.2026 1h 1min

  Many of the problems we care most about cannot be solved by a single organization. That insight helped John Kania develop Collective Impact, a framework for bringing people together around shared goals. But over time, Kania noticed that coordination alone was not enough. Even when groups made progress, the deeper patterns of the system often remained unchanged. In this episode, Dart and John discuss the evolution of systems change thinking and why lasting change requires more than alignment, ...
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  How Treating Employees Like Customers Transforms Performance and Belonging | Mark LeBusque, Revisited 26.05.2026 1h 2min

  After becoming painfully aware that he cared more about the numbers than the well-being of his employees, Mark LeBusque began to question his management philosophy. An insight to start thinking of his employees like customers helped Mark breakout of the "employees as inputs to production" model that previously informed his thinking. With this shift in management style, Mark was able to lead his team to unprecedented levels of growth and a new found sense of belonging. In this revisited episo...
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  Moral Economics: Where Human Values Shape Markets | Alvin Roth 19.05.2026 1h 5min

  A kidney transplant does not work like buying a gallon of milk. Neither does hiring or getting into a medical residency. In these markets, both sides care deeply about who they end up with, and a good outcome depends on more than money. Alvin Roth has spent his career studying what makes those systems succeed or fail. His work designing kidney exchange programs showed that even when people desperately want to help each other, the market can still break down unless the rules create the right...
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  Team Chemistry: The Intangible Forces That Make Teams Win | Joan Ryan, Revisited 12.05.2026 1h 6min

  When Joan Ryan stepped into the locker room to conduct her first post-game interview as a sports journalist, she was all but kicked out by the players. Feeling both unwelcome and undeterred, she made a firm decision to stick around and make a name for herself as one of the first female sports columnists in the country. Intrigued by the concept of team chemistry, Joan wrote Intangibles, where she shares what team chemistry really is, how to identify it, and how to use it to elevate the perfor...
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  The Hidden Cost of Leaving Faith Outside Work | Elaine Ecklund 05.05.2026 1h 10min

  Most workplaces don’t quite know what to do with faith. It often gets simplified, avoided, or treated as something too divisive to bring into professional life. Elaine Ecklund studies what happens when people try to leave that part of themselves outside the workplace, and what is lost when they do. Her research shows that faith is rarely just about religion. It becomes a window into bigger tensions around ethics, identity, belonging, and the struggle to feel fully present at work. In this e...