Future Ready Leadership With Jacob Morgan

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Are You A Super Perpetual Learner Jul 26, 2019

Show notes

The term, "perpetual learner" has been thrown around a lot recently and while it is important to learn how to learn in today's fast pace of change, the concept is not something new. We have always had to adapt throughout history, but the difference is now we have to be Super Perpetual Learners.

There are a lot of organizations and leaders talking about the concept of becoming a perpetual learner these days. I have spoken about it many times. But the truth is, this is not a new concept.

All throughout history we have had to adapt personally and professionally to new technology, new processes, new policies, etc...We have always had to be perpetual learners. The difference now is that we have to be SUPER perpetual learners.

The pace of change in our time is much faster than it has ever been in history. So now it is not just about learning to learn; it is about being a perpetual learner in a quick, applicable and frequent way.

How One of The Largest Private Equity Investment Firms Is Ensuring The Best Experiences For Their Employees Jul 22, 2019

Show notes

Anilu Vazquez-Ubarri is the Chief Human Resource Officer at TPG, one of the world's largest private equity investment firms. Prior to moving to TPG, Anilu was the Chief Diversity Officer and Global Head of Talent Development at Goldman Sachs.

Anna Edwin, is the Global Head of Talent Development at TPG and she works very closely with Anilu. Prior to TPG Anna was the Head of Global Leadership Development at BlackRock and VP Human Capital Management at Goldman Sachs.

Anilu is actually the first ever CHRO at TPG and she is enjoying being able to shape that role. She says the firm has gone through several different evolutions of paying attention to its people, but they are now at a place where they are ready to have a specific team in place to intentionally create these experiences to set TPG apart from all other organizations.

Some of the programs, benefits and perks that they are currently working on include:

Updated parental leave that gives 12-18 weeks for primary care and 2-4 weeks for secondary care that can be taken anytime in the first year of becoming a parent
Lunch is provided for employees
They are currently working with Author of Radical Candor, Kim Scott to improve the ways they provide feedback to employees
Updated performance review system that allows they to provide ongoing feedback rather than once or twice a year

At TPG they are also focusing on providing flexibility, diversity and inclusion, and career planning for their employees as these are the biggest trends they are seeing when it comes to the future of work.

Speaking to the growing trend of employees wanting a clear understanding of their career path inside the organization, Anna says, "I've noticed people lately, before accepting an offer, want to understand what their career trajectory is going to look like, asking for a little bit more of a, I won't call it a formula per se, but really wanting to have an understanding that they're going to be with an organization where they can grow. So they want to trust the organization that they're going with and hold people accountable in a different way than I'd say maybe historically you've seen in the market."

When it comes to finding and retaining the top talent Anilu says, "I think that the reputation of your firm is something that you can never take for granted. Because it is definitely the calling card in the market, and if that doesn't align, or if you have a different understanding of how you're perceived in the market, you are going to run into trouble. So I think that we keep very humble on that, but I feel very good about how we're positioned."

What you will learn in this episode:

How TPG is shaping great experiences for their employees
Anna and Anilu's advice to managers on how to give intentional, effective feedback
How hiring and retaining talent has changed
Workforce trends they are paying attention to
Changes they have made to the performance rating process
Their thoughts on benefits and perks

It's Time To Move Beyond Perks Jul 18, 2019

Show notes

We have come to understand that in order to attract and retain the best talent in the future of work, organizations must create a workplace where people want, not need, to show up to work. But in this effort to create great employee experience, we can sometimes get sidetracked with focusing solely on perks and benefits.

While perks and benefits can be very beneficial to employees, it can also be dangerous. There is a term in psychology known as the Hedonic Treadmill, also known as the Hedonic Adaptation. This is a tendency in humans that has been observed which shows that we quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes.

What does this mean for organizations implementing the latest and greatest perks and benefits at the drop of a hat? Well, it means we adapt to our surroundings quickly. So, let's say your organization implements a new policy stating that there will be free food everyday and every Friday is bring your dog to work day. You may notice that on Day 1 of the new policy people are excited and engaged, they think their employer is the best.

But eventually these new perks will become old news, everyone will adapt and people will essentially become numb to the perk. Which means the organization has to come up with new and better perks to top the last few to get engagement back up. And on and on it goes.

The truth is, perks are a nice tactic, but they are not a strategy.

Why IPsoft CEO Believes The Labor Force Will Be 50-50 Digital And Human In 2025 And How We Should Prepare Jul 15, 2019

Show notes

Chetan Dube is the CEO at IPsoft, an American multinational technology company which primarily focuses on Artificial Intelligence. IPsoft has just over 2,000 employees in 15 countries.

When you think of AI you might remember an experience you've had with a chatbot when trying to contact a company in order to ask a question, make a return, or purchase an item. Most of our experiences with chatbots are extremely frustrating and commonly end with us screaming "agent" into the phone. But IPsoft is working on solving this problem.

Chetan says the problem is the average IQ of the chatbots and virtual assistants is around that of a 5 or 6 year old human. How can you expect great customer service from a five year old? You can't. So what IPsoft is doing is studying the human brain and finding ways to mimic the human hippocampus, ways to make chatbots and virtual assistants more flexible and able to read a customer's mood.

So where are we now in the grand scheme of things being able to recreate human intelligence in AI? Chetan says, "It's not a discussion if true artificial intelligence will start to rival human intellect. The only thing that is of discussion nowadays is when. Is it going to be in, as you mentioned, the Curtswell, the singularity and you feel that, is it going to be in 2030-35, is it going to be as we maintain by 2025, you will pass someone in the hallway and you won't be able to tell if it's a human or an android. I think that's the real difference is that just the time horizon. If it's going to be in the next six years, if it's going to be in the next 11 years. It's inevitable at this point that you will get to the point where these agents start to mimic human intellect."

With all of that said, Chetan still believes that AI will never be able to truly master human creativity. This is a skill that is unique to humans. Machines and Technology can complete tasks, find answers in their databases, use algorithms to solve math problems, but Chetan believes they won't be able to cure cancer, create life, find a way to colonize Mars, etc…Humans will always have a role no matter how many jobs AI can take over, because of human creativity.

The fact is advances in AI and technology are coming, it is not a question of if, but when and how fast. So what is Chetan's advice for how to prepare for what's to come? He says, "Dust the rust off your brain and focus on creativity and coming up with things that are ... Do not play the machines on their playing field, you will lose. Do not play on mundane, ordinary chores and say I'm going to be the Luddite or neo-Luddite and try and stop the machines from driving cars or flying planes or driving trucks. They're going to. They're going to. That's what they do. They are just more effective at that. Humans are more effective at, and will continue to be, creativity."

What you will learn in this episode:

How Chetan defines AI
What kind of AI IPsoft is designing and building
Where we are in the grand scheme of things of being able to recreate human intelligence
Is the world of AI over hyped?
Whether or not we should be worried about AI
How we can embrace AI and what's coming
Who or what Amelia is

How Experience Is Shaping Your Employees' Relationships With You, & Your Organization Jul 11, 2019

Show notes

If I were to ask you, when was the last time you spent time or money on creating an experience for yourself, what would the answer be? Most likely, the answer would be a few weeks ago, a few days ago, or maybe even earlier today. Experiences are genuinely human things, we care about them a lot.

Experiences are connected to our thoughts, emotions and memories. Think back to a big moment in your life, perhaps it was when you bought your first house, the day you graduated from college, the birth of your first child, or the first day in a new job. I bet you can remember the emotions you felt and the things you were thinking. Were you happy, sad, excited, angry?

Our experiences have a huge impact on us and they shape our relationships with others. With experience being that influential, you can see why it is so important for organizations to create positive experiences for their people. It will impact the relationships between your people and management, each other, the organization and the brand.

So, what kind of experiences are you creating for your people today?

How Citi Is Upskilling Employees, Preparing For AI, Getting Involved In Social Issues And Much More Jul 08, 2019

Show notes

Cameron Hedrick is the Chief Learning Officer at Citi, a 200 year old financial services company with around 200,000 employees in 100 countries. Cameron has been with Citi for 16 years and prior to that he worked at Fidelity for over 7 years.

As Chief Learning Officer at Citi Cameron is responsible for the performance rating system inside the organization, defining the corporate culture, and of course the learning platforms.

Citi is addressing a lot of key issues including climate change, urbanization, AI and automation, changing demographics, and plenty of others. Some of these issues may make sense for an organization to focus on, such as AI and automation, but how does climate change and urbanization affect Citi and other organizations?

When it comes to urbanization Citi realizes that there is currently a higher concentration of people in big cities--New York, Chicago, LA, etc… and so in the past a lot of companies have focused on putting headquarters there to draw in the best talent. But what Citi has realized as well is that the cost of distance between the worker and the company is going down, because with current technology people are able to live anywhere and work.

Cameron explains why they are addressing climate change as well, "I think we think of it for at least two reasons, but the obvious one is that it changes business dynamics, right? When you have areas that are going to be dramatically impacted by climate change or over time, coastal flooding will change the sort of real estate outline of the coastal areas that we've come to know, many of which are heavily populated. When drought and rain patterns happen, that changes the flow of goods around the world. So those are some of the reasons we look at it from a business standpoint. And then from a social responsibility standpoint, we think about it as well. Are we being responsible as a firm to not contribute to the issue?"

What is the culture like inside of Citi? Cameron says especially because they are a financial institution the culture has a large focus on ethics and trust. It is also about creating harmony between "the mission and value proposition that we put forth with the way we rate and pay people with the policies and processes that we put in place and with the leadership behaviors we espouse."

Citi uses something called the voice of the employees survey to measure culture and then they cross-pollinate that survey with other metrics such as performance rating patterns, attrition patterns, audit issues, etc.. and when you put all of these metrics together you start to see the company's strengths and weaknesses. From there they can create actionable items to work on their weaknesses.

Citi is a 200 year old company, but they are not afraid to evolve and change with the times. Cameron attributes the company's longevity to collaboration, local management, and the proper amount of risk.

What you will learn in this episode:

How a 200 year old company has kept up with the changing world of work
How learning has changed over the past decades
Macro trends Citi is paying attention to
How they are upskilling their employees
Cameron's view of AI and automation
How Citi handles performance ratings
How to measure corporate culture

The Definition Of "Work" Has Changed Jul 05, 2019

Show notes

In the past when we thought about work we mostly thought of it as a job where we put in our time and then we make money to pay the bills. But the mindset around work is shifting and work is much more than just a paycheck.

Now work is more about a sense of self, identity, and purpose. The impact that our work has on our customers, our communities and the world gives us a reason for being. People aren't picking jobs for just salary anymore, they want to feel as though their work has meaning.

What are you doing as an organization to account for this new way of thinking about work? Are you still thinking about job openings in your organization as a position to fill with a warm body who has decent skills? Or are you thinking about how someone can use that job to bring meaning and purpose to their life and how they will be able to impact the world around them within that role?

Bestselling Author And Zen Buddhist Teacher On How To Reclaim Joy, Combat Stress, And Find Meaning At Work Jul 01, 2019

Show notes

Haenim Sunim is the bestselling author of Love for Imperfect Things: How to Accept Yourself in a World Striving for Perfection and The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down: How to be Calm in a Busy World. He is also a monk and a Zen Buddhist teacher. Haemin was born and raised in South Korea and moved to the US when he was 18 to study at Berkeley, Harvard, and Princeton. While he was working on his Master's degree program he went back to South Korea and received the proper monastic training there.

He has over 1 million followers on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. His first book sold over 3 million copies and he has taught Asian religions at Hampshire College in Massachusetts for seven years.

In our society today people always seem to be so busy. We get burnout, stressed, overworked, overwhelmed. Haemin believes it is because we are goal driven, striving to get the end result as quickly as possible, and we aren't taking time to enjoy what we are doing. We have lost the joy of living and working.

Is it possible to reclaim our joy at work? Haemin says it is possible and suggests, "one of the ways to reclaim joy is to rediscover your own intention. What is your first reasons why you got into that particular industry? Or, that particular job. Usually that intention, first intention wasn't just make a lot of money and just do this kind of thing or that. But rather, it usually centers around helping other people or doing something good for the greater society or something. If you can just realign yourself with your first love, with your first intention, that's one step closer to reclaiming joy."

He also suggests taking time off away from work to avoid burnout. Even if you only take one hour away from work to go for a walk and think about other things it can help you feel better.

In order to combat stress Haemin suggests we don't keep everything compiled in our head, because that is what makes it worse. If you have too many things happening and you are overwhelmed, write everything down on paper and start with the easiest tasks first. Getting those first couple tasks done will motivate you to keep going.

Haemin's daily routine is a very intense one, when he is at the monastery he is up by 3:00am and then throughout the day they have specific times blocked off for meditation, cleaning, and eating. When he is not at the monastery he is up by 5:00am and he always makes time to meditate and to walk before and after he goes in to work at The School of Broken Hearts in South Korea.

One of his pieces of advice to listeners is to go to bed an hour earlier than usual, and see how it affects your schedule and attitude. By going to bed earlier, you get up earlier in the morning which gives you more time in the morning to start your day right--whether you pray, meditate, workout, etc.. starting your day right can have a huge impact.

And if you are having trouble finding purpose and meaning at work, Haemin says, "people find it when you are doing something beyond your own self interests. If you are helping other people, no matter how small it is, you see that you are contributing something for the better. The reason why it provides you with the sense of meaning is because from a Buddhist perspective, there is nothing but one interconnected reality. If you just subscribe yourself only in terms of your conceptual thoughts, ideas, then you reside, you live your life mainly from the perspective of your own ego."

What you will learn in this episode:

How Haenim became a Zen Buddhist teacher and what a typical day looks like for him
How we can reclaim joy in our lives and at work
Haemin's advice on combating stress
His thoughts on technology and social media
How to deal with loss in business
How to disassociate ourselves from our career
Advice to graduates figuring out what to do in life
The importance of self care

The Two Ways Of Thinking Jun 27, 2019

Show notes

In Psychology there are two ways of thinking; System 1, which is a fast, intuitive way, almost like a gut reaction and then there is System 2, which is a more conscious, purposeful way of thinking.

A lot of times in our organizations we tend to make decisions about our people initiatives and employee experiences in a System 1 type thinking. We react quickly, we don't think about it too deeply, we just do something for the sake of saying we did something.

We need to take a step back and be more conscious about our decisions around our initiatives to understand what we are doing and why. We need to act in a more mindful, purposeful way instead of reacting in a knee-jerk fashion. Our initiatives will be much more effective and successful if we can change our way of thinking.

Shaping The Future Of A City: Insights From President And CEO Of The Chattanooga Chamber Of Commerce Jun 24, 2019

Show notes

Christy Gillenwater is the President & CEO of the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce. Christy has been in the Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development field for over 20 years, mostly in various cities throughout Indiana. She moved to Chattanooga in 2017. Chattanooga is the first city to be twice named Outside Magazine's "Best Town Ever" and it was recently ranked one of U.S. News' Best Places to Live.

What does a Chamber of Commerce actually do? Christy shares that while every chamber has differences, one of the main focuses they all share is "the economic prosperity of their geographic region, so whether that's the county, their city, or a multi-state, multi-county area, they focus on making sure that their existing businesses can grow, thrive and prosper, that those companies have the talent they need to meet existing and future customer demands. They really think about and partner with their elected leaders, and business leaders, around what does their community need to continue to grow and diversify, and build their GDP in their area."

One of the main focuses of the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce is Velocity 2040, which allows the community to have a voice in the city's preparation for the future. A committee of over 50 people conducted a series of workshops and then they went out into neighborhoods and surveyed citizens. These surveys were meant to find out the priorities, hopes, and dreams of the community. From there the committee put together the Velocity 2040 report, which is what is being used to create actionable plans that bring the dreams of the community to life.

The five priorities that were pinpointed by the surveys are:

Learning--They are focused on educational excellence which means making sure students have what they need to learn and ensuring that everyone has access to good schools and good jobs.
Thriving--They are thinking about the types of jobs that are being created and doing what they can to make sure the best talent is being recruited to the local area
20 Minutes or Less--This is in reference to their new transit standard to help families and individuals overcome "time poverty"
Leadership--Making sure the community is intentionally inclusive and diverse
Collaboration--They have a new collaboration process in order to solve issues with openness, respect, participation, and a shared vision.

For each of these five areas the community is working on specific strategies that will help achieve their goals to build a better Chattanooga over the next 20 years.

Christy says individual citizens are able to make a difference in their cities. She encourages everyone to reach out to and engage with their chamber members. "I would say call your elected officials. Call your city council member. If you have county commissioners, or a county mayor, reach out to them. How can I help? Call your state legislators if there's something you're passionate about, and figure out how to volunteer, how to get engaged. Call your United Way."

What you will learn in this episode:

What a Chamber of Commerce actually does
Some of the big trends Christy is paying attention to when thinking about how the workforce is changing and how it's impacting citizens
A look at some of the initiatives the city of Chattanooga has going on, including Velocity 2040
Christy's view of the future of jobs and AI and automation
What Christy believes the city of the future looks like
What citizens can do to help shape their own city
What role business plays in the future of cities

Contact:

Velocity 2040 Information: https://velocity2040.com/welcome/

Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce: www.Chattanoogachamber.com

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