In this episode, we are joined by David Novak, former CEO and Founder of Yum! Brands which includes Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC. David is the author of several books including Taking People With You and his biography The Education of An Accidental CEO. Most recently, David has co-founded oGoLead, a digital leadership training platform that aims to change the world by building better leaders.

• Why David believes there is a toxic leadership problem in today’s business world and the role leadership training has to play in solving this problem
• The recognition methods and processes that are central to David’s leadership philosophy
• How David uses his experience as a marketer to get inside the minds of the people he leads to learn perceptions, habits, and beliefs and so better understand where to focus efforts to achieve change

Key Takeaways and Learnings

• ‘Heartwiring’ and ‘Hardwiring’; why leading from your heart and making others feel valued is just as important to business results as process excellence
• ‘Freedom within a framework’; how David boosted the international market for US fast food brands through localization
• ‘Extraordinary authenticity’; why self-awareness and being confident yet vulnerable is the key to becoming a better leader

Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode

• Get in touch with David Novak via Twitter or LinkedIn
• David Novak's website
• Lift a Life Foundation, website
• Lead2Feed program
• Taking People With You, a book by David Novak
• The Education of An Accidental CEO, a book by David Novak
• Yum!Brands, website
• oGoInsider Leadership Podcast with David Novak, Episode #8 - Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMORGAN CHASE

• How EA suffered a ‘near-death experience’ and rapid decline in profits through not responding fast enough to the digital gaming revolution and how the company used this experience to transform its culture, go to market approach and relationships with its gamers  
• How the company categorises innovation in three ways - Incremental, Breakthrough, and Disruptive – to maximise return on the energy and creativity within its business 
• How EA marries process, guidelines and practices with creativity to stay relevant in a rapidly evolving market where development cycles can be up to five years 

• How embracing small i - incremental innovation at the enterprise level can allow it to be part of the day to day operations of the organization and not just the responsibility of an R&D lab 
• How EA transformed their customer relationship practices (what they call Player First) and how the results of these gamer interactions drive other core processes such as game release schedules  
• The importance of a learning mindset to a hits based company so that the inevitable misses can help create future value - or as Andy says, “Never try and help the organisation learn twice exactly the same way” 

Resources

• Electronic Arts University: https://www.ea.com/careers 
• Singularity University: https://su.org/ 

In this episode I am joined by Professor Nicholas Thomas, an anthropologist and historian who has been a Director of The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge since 2006. He is the author of several books including his latest book called The Return of Curiosity: What Museums are Good For in the Twenty-first Century. Nick Thomas gives us fresh perspectives on museums and their potential role in fostering curiosity and open dialogue as key leadership skills in the contemporary VUCA world.

What Was Covered:

• The resurgence of museums and why their importance is growing in contemporary society where everyone is supposedly online
• Why a visit to a museum is unique and different from other cultural activities and what it can offer to a business leader
• The importance of encounters with the unknown in a safe setting that a museum can provide a visitor

Key Learnings And Takeaways:

• A museum visit is an unscripted experience and a space for reflection that may be critical for looking at problems from different perspectives and inspiring innovation
• Asking simple questions of curiosity is a critical skill in today’s heterogenous world
• Anthropological thinking and taking cultural differences into account has become of fundamental importance in business

Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• The Return of Curiosity: What Museums Are Good For in Twenty-first Century, a book by Professor Nicholas Thomas
• Connect with Nicholas Thomas by email
• The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
• Tate Modern
• British Museum
• Louvre Museum
• Louvre Abu Dhabi
• Apartheid Museum
• Museum of Anthropology at UBC
• El Anatsui: Triumphant Scale, a past exhibition at Haus Der Kunst in Munich
• Books by Gillian Tett, author and journalist at Financial Times
• Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady, a book by Samuel Richardson

In this episode, we are joined by author and social scientist, Dolly Chugh, to discuss her book, The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias, which studies how implicit bias and unintentional ethical behaviour affects our everyday decision making. Dolly is a Professor of Management and Organizations at New York University, has won several awards for excellence in teaching and ethics, and is a monthly columnist for Forbes.com.

What We Covered

• Why our brains are biased, and the ways in which we can begin to recognize our own conscious and unconscious biases
• Why confirmation bias can hinder the success of a recruiting the best potential talent in the workplace
• How we can learn to recognize and use our own privileges to challenge and help change other people’s biases

Key Takeaways and Learnings

• The growth mindset: why seeing ourselves as a ‘work in progress’ can help us to learn from other perspectives
• Conscious and unconscious biases: why affinities and associations with our personal identity can lead us to make less successful decisions
• The business benefits that come from bringing in different perspectives to core business processes, including higher levels of innovation, increased creativity, improved employee retention and recruiting success

Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode

• Get in touch with Dolly Chugh via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Good Reads
• Dolly Chugh's website
• The Person You Mean to Be, a book by Dolly Chugh
• NYU Stern School of Business, website
• Forbes.com, website
• Thinking, Fast and Slow, a book by Daniel Kahneman
• Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, a book by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein
• Anthony G. Greenwald, psychologist

In this episode, we are joined by Scott E. Page, a Professor of Complex Systems, Politcal Sciences, and Economics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Scott is an external faculty member at the Santa Fe Institute and is an author and speaker who has worked with Google, Bloomberg, Blackrock and NASA. Today, he discusses his book, The Diversity Bonus.

What was covered

• Why diversity within teams must be based on cognitive differences and not solely differences in identity
• How the best problem-solvers and forecasters use several models and equations to assess the best strategy for solving complex economic issues
• Why cognitive diversity is a strategic asset given its impact on high-value problem solving, predictions and strategic planning

Key Takeaways and Learnings

• The Diversity Bonus; the added value that comes from team members thinking about problem solving differently, bringing different tools together and how to realize this bonus
• Avoiding the ‘siren call of sameness’ – why business leaders go wrong in employing people that are similar in identity and experience
• If you have one way to look at the world you would be better off flipping a coin to support your business decision making

Links and Resources Mentioned in this Podcast

• Get in touch with Scoot Page via email, Facebook or LinkedIn
• The Diversity Bonus: How Great Teams Pay Off in the Knowledge Economy (Our Compelling Interests), a book by Scott E. Page
• University of Michigan, Ann Arbor website
• Santa Fe institute website
• Course taught by Scott Page 'Model Thinking'
• Other mentions: Cinematch, Bell Labs, Kaggle, Molex, InnoCentive, CalTech
• The Big Short, a movie by Adam McKay
• Expert Political Judgement, a book by Philip E. Tetlock
• The Chessboard and the Web, a book by Anne-Marie Slaughter
• The Success Eqaution, a book by Michael J. Mauboussin
• Cognition in the Wild, a book by Edwin Hutchins
• The Pause Principle, a book by Kevin Cashman

Kevin Kelly, Senior Maverick at Wired magazine, co-founded Wired in 1993 and served as its Executive Editor for the first seven years. His acclaimed book is called The Inevitable, where he discusses the 12 technological forces that will change our future. On today's show, he talks on how technology will shape organisations and why leaders need to adapt to a teaching mentality within the company.

• 02:55 - Who is Kevin and what does a typical week look like for him?
• 06:35 - Kevin talks about one of his books, Cool Tools.
• 08:10 - Why did Kevin become so optimistic about technology back in the 80's?
• 12:05 - Kevin talks about his book The Inevitable, and what it means to entrepreneurs/corporate executives.
• 15:10 - Questioning authority is now the default.
• 17:35 - We have to train ourselves on how to scan and use our digital media properly, just like the way we learned how to read, write, and speak.
• 18:40 - What kind of skills would people need to survive in the future?
• 19:50 - No matter what career field you're in, you have to become a teacher in order to effectively disrupt.
• 21:40 - What does a CEO have to know today?
• 22:20 - We're having the second industrial revolution right now – The power of AI.
• 25:15 - AI will mostly be replacing tedious tasks, other than jobs.
• 27:25 - Machines are good at answering questions, whereas people are good at asking those questions. This means a good question will be ever more valuable because machines can't do it.
• 30:30 - Innovation is primarily failure.
• 33:30 - There's no perfect school out there. You, as the parent, have to fill in for your children.
• 34:05 - The only way we know what technology is good for is by using it, not by prohibiting it.
• 36:40 - Learning is the new currency.
• 44:00 - China is going a thousand miles into the future; however, they still don't know where they want to go.
• 47:15 - What is Kevin afraid about? Treating our AI like slaves.
• 51:20 - What's the next big project for Kevin?

Links And Resources:

• The Inevitable: Understanding 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future by Kevin Kelly
• Cool Tools: A Catalogue of Possibilities by Kevin Kelly
• WIRED Magazine

In this episode, we are joined by author, speaker, and entrepreneur, Frans Johansson. Frans is the author of the bestselling book, The Medici Effect, from which the now popular term was coined, and more recently, The Click Moment. Frans is the Founder and CEO of The Medici Group, a consultancy firm which promotes innovation through diversity.

What Was Covered

• The Medici Effect, the name given to what happened in a period in Florence history where creative individuals from myriad disciplines, sculptors, architects, painters, philosophers, etc., were able to break down the boundaries between the different disciplines and cultures and ignite what became one of the most creative eras in Europe's history and the lessons it has for today’s world of business
• How the instinct to surround yourself with people like yourself creates barriers to innovation
• How organizations typically do not properly capitalize on the valuable resource that new hires bring – a critical period where new concepts and ideas can be introduced
• How to introduce diversity at executive level by overcoming the fear of the unpredictability of innovation

Key Takeaways and Learning

• How diversity drives innovation through different perspectives that build upon each other to break new ground
• The concept of “Intersectional hunting” - to actively look for a field or a discipline or a person or a culture that doesn't necessarily make immediate sense and then through that make a connection, then using this to tackle the issue, opportunity, challenge that you have at hand in a new way

Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode

• Get in touch with Frans Johansson via Twitter or LinkedIn
• Frans Johansson's website
• The Medici Group, website
• The Medici Effect, a book by Frans Johansson
• The Click Moment,  a book by Frans Johansson
• Lucky or Smart, a book by Bo Peabody