Work For Humans
Too often business leaders are forced to choose between the needs of their company and the needs of their employees. It’s a lose/lose scenario leaving managers burned out and workers seeking other opportunities. At Work for Humans, we believe work can be designed differently. When you design work like products people love, your company wins. Work becomes irresistible, employees passionately buy into their roles every day, and your company takes measurable strides towards your vision.
Episodes
120 episodes
Dangerously Incompetent: How AI and Robots Are Deskilling the Workforce | Matt Beane
As AI and automation reshape the workforce, the traditional way we pass down critical skills is under threat. Junior workers are losing the opportunity to learn directly from experienced mentors, putting essential human abilities at risk. Matt ...
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Season 1
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Episode 118
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1:12:14
StumpCraft: The Simple Joy of Turning Chaos into Order | Jasen Robillard
On Work for Humans, we explore what people truly seek from their work. A recurring theme we have found is the desire for puzzles to solve. In today’s episode, we chat with a puzzle expert and creator to uncover the elements that make a compelli...
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Season 1
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Episode 117
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1:03:12
First Responders for the Workforce: The Dark Challenges of Frontline HR Professionals | Julie Turney
From managing crises to ensuring compliance and safety, HR professionals are often the first responders in the workplace. Julie Turney, an HR specialist with over 15 years in the field, found herself so focused on supporting others that she bec...
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Season 1
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Episode 116
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49:38
How to Design Products People Love: Principles and Insights for Work Designers | Marty Cagan
Marty Cagan was ten years into his engineering career when he began questioning the purpose of his work. Frustrated with the products he was building, he wondered why they were necessary—but soon, he realized that asking "why" was the ...
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Season 1
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Episode 115
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1:10:56
The Employee Advantage: How Putting Workers First Helps Business Thrive | Stephan Meier
Work for Humans has long advocated for employees to be seen as customers, but we've faced resistance from traditional programs that churn out MBAs focused on profits and the bottom line. This perspective overlooks a critical point: companies ri...
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Season 1
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Episode 114
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1:02:26
Designing Work for Humans: Organizational Design with Humans in Mind | Stephanie Goia and Melanie Kahl
Work for Humans has always been about designing with the employee in mind, but many designers mistakenly focus on objects rather than the actions those objects should create. This leads to falling back on traditional roles and routines when the...
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Season 1
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Episode 113
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1:28:35
In-Between Spaces: Where Designers Go Wrong When Creating Workspaces for Humans | Blaine Merker and Alice Katter
Architecture has traditionally centered on buildings, often overlooking the most crucial element—people. Urban designer Blaine Merker sees this as a missed opportunity. As Partner, Director, and Head of Climate Action at the Gehl research consu...
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Season 1
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Episode 112
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1:10:41
How the Future Works: What We’ve Learned from 4 Years of Remote Work Experiments | Brian Elliott
Remote, hybrid, and from-home work options are here to stay, but there’s more to work flexibility than just location. Leadership advisor and author Brian Elliott has found that most employees want more control over their work, from when they wo...
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Season 1
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Episode 111
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1:08:18
A Bad Deal: What Higher Education Is Costing Our Society | Phillip Brown
Hundreds of thousands of college graduates were promised that more learning meant more earning – but they’re now facing a harsh new reality. AI, outsourcing, and a shifting economy have created an oversupply of educated workers, leading to wide...
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Season 1
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Episode 110
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1:02:38
Nourishment for the Soul: The Sacred Power of Ritual in Work and Life | Tiu de Haan, Revisited
We tend to use the word ritual to talk about everyday routines. For instance, we have our ritualistic cup of coffee in the morning. But rituals are much more than just repetitive actions. True rituals carry deep meaning, emotion, and a promise ...
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Season 1
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Episode 109
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58:30
Ashley Goodall: Life in the Blender, Surviving the Chaos of Modern Workplaces
In the modern workplace, constant change is the norm. One week, teams are navigating a new project management system; the next, they need to adapt to a new organizational chart. Even office layouts seem to change overnight to match the company’...
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Season 1
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Episode 108
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1:05:49
Seth Godin, Revisited: We Are in a Race to the Bottom. Wake Up, and Shake Off Your Indoctrination!
Industrial capitalism has treated workers like marionettes breaking down work into discreet, disconnected, repeatable actions. It loves uniformity and people who do what they're told. Seth Godin’s new book, The Song of Significance,&nb...
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Season 1
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Episode 107
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37:36
B Lab Co-founder: We Are in a Culture War About the Purpose of Business | Bart Houlahan
The last two financial crises resulted in recessions, financial market instability, and high unemployment rates, but one group of companies proved resilient. Benefit Corporations – businesses that balance profit with social and environmental im...
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Season 1
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Episode 106
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1:03:10
WorkShift: Creating a Movement for More Just and Equitable Labor Systems | Rebecca Sanderson
Most of us have preconceived notions about work, workers and employment that are so fundamental to how we think that we don’t notice them. The thing is, such preconceptions shape how large parts of society understand and solve problems. S...
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Season 1
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Episode 105
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1:04:31
Unschooling: Redefining Learning for Humans One Conversation at a Time | Christine Renaud
Christine Renaud always felt destined to be a teacher, but after training in education, she came to a disturbing realization – traditional schools were not created to develop students effectively. Determined to better support students’...
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Season 1
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Episode 104
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53:38
Beyond Marx: A Modern Vision for Economic Democracy, Labor Contracts, and Employee-Owned Cooperatives | David Ellerman
Despite their revolutionary zeal, followers of Marx have failed to create real economic democracies, frequently ending up with one-party systems that mirror the capitalist structures they sought to overthrow. A compelling alternative exists: a ...
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Season 1
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Episode 103
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1:03:06
Confronting Techno-Optimism: Why Technology Struggles to Create Meaningful Social Change | Kentaro Toyama
Kentaro Toyama spent a decade designing technologies to fight global poverty and improve education and health. As co-founder of Microsoft Research India lab, he made a troubling discovery – innovative technologies can’t create change on their o...
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Season 1
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Episode 102
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1:05:19
Exploring the Paradoxes of Life and Work With CD Baby Founder Derek Sivers
Work for Humans wants to understand what people want from work – but every perspective is different. One person’s dream job is another person’s nightmare, making it challenging to define fulfilling work. Derek Sivers captures this struggle in h...
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Season 1
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Episode 101
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1:03:24
Paul Zak: What Measuring 50,000 Brains Taught Me About Building Highly Engaged Workplaces
Paul Zak has been on a quest for two decades to understand the neuroscience of human connection, human happiness, and effective teamwork. From the Pentagon to Fortune 500 boardrooms to the rainforest of Papua New Guinea, Paul’s research has now...
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Season 1
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Episode 100
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1:06:03
Matt Higgins, Revisited: Burn the Boats, How Plan B Holds You and Your Company Back From Achieving Your Potential
Matt Higgins was a struggling teen, working at McDonald’s for $3.75/hr to put food on the table for his ailing mother. When he saw the pay increase offered to college students, he decided to do something unorthodox; he dropped out of high schoo...
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Season 1
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Episode 99
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1:09:27
Design Lessons From IDEOU: Using Human-Centered Systems Thinking to Solve Complex Problems | Deirdre Cerminaro
Work for Humans host Dart Lindsley experienced a distressing moment in the hospital when his father was left in a wheelchair facing a wall while awaiting radiology. This small but significant oversight in the hospital's system pointed to an iss...
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Season 1
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Episode 98
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1:01:23
The Transformation Economy: Transforming Customer Lives Is the Final Tier of Economic Value | Joe Pine
Joe Pine has a knack for seeing workplace trends ahead of others. As a co-founder of Strategic Horizons LLP, he has helped organizations innovatively increase economic value for over three decades. Joe is a pioneer behind the experi...
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Season 1
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Episode 97
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59:03
Shaping Work Futures: Using the Present to Create a More Promising Future of Work | Reanna Browne
Many people offer predictions about the future of work, but only a handful are trained futurists who know how to influence that future effectively. Reanna Browne stands out by making the future of work her specialty. With a thorough academic ba...
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Season 1
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Episode 96
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1:08:07
HR and Tech: Revolutionizing Employee Experience Through HR-Tech Synergy | Marlene de Koning
Artificial intelligence technologies are transforming our world, with innovations like LLMs and VR becoming part of everyday life and the workplace. Marlene de Koning, HR tech and experience expert, sees an opportunity to enhance employee well-...
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Season 1
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Episode 95
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1:01:45
Biology, Buddhism and AI: Placing Mindfulness Principles at the Heart of Innovation | Bill Duane
Bill Duane has been navigating complex situations since he was a child, but facing his father’s death as an adult created an experience that he didn’t have an answer for. Trying to come to terms with his situation, Bill realized that what he ne...
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Season 1
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Episode 94
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1:02:40