Disrupt Yourself Podcast With Whitney Johnson

Open google, type a word or a phrase, any phrase... red car, modern couch, dog, and a slew of results will populate your browser window. Who is responsible for the avalanche information that lies just a few keystrokes away? Are there downsides to this world of information accessibility? Our guest this week, Mary L. Gray lives to answer these questions and attempts to do so in her new book, Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass. The book, written with co-author Siddharth Suri, tackles explaining the new and ever-changing workforce responsible for captioning photos, flagging and removing inappropriate content, or even writing, designing or coding a project to move it along. Mary and Siddharth explore the lives of these workers – ghost workers – exposing a world marked by low pay, no benefits and wildly unpredictable income. An estimated 8 percent of Americans have worked at least once in this “ghost economy,” and that number is growing. Mary L. Gray is a Senior Principal R

Conflict is becoming an ever more present reality in our lives, yet most of us try desperately to avoid it. The widening gap between the world in which we live and our lack of ability to navigate conflict, is showing up in our personal and professional spaces. Given our discomfort and conflict avoidance bend, how do we address this? Is there a way back? Can we face conflict head on, hash it out and be stronger for it? Our guest this week, Buster Benson, believes navigating conflict is an achievable “meta-skill” that allows us to integrate the differences we encounter in the world. In his book, Why Are We Yelling?, Buster reveals that conflict can serve as a valuable tool, that when channeled properly can be leveraged to deepen our relationships, strengthen our problem-solving skills and stimulate our creativity. As the mastermind behind highly successful teams at Amazon, Twitter, and Slack, Buster Benson spent decades leaning into and facilitating difficult conversations in high stress environments. Buster ex

Leaping to a new S-Curve of learning can be an overwhelming experience. As we transition from being at the top of our field into a new and less experienced trajectory, our emotions and anxieties can get the best of us. Our guest this week believes science, specifically the discipline of rocket science, can help us better navigate personal and professional disruption. Ozan Varol is a rocket scientist turned award-winning law professor and bestselling author. A renowned professor, author, and speaker, Ozan writes and speaks often about creativity and critical thinking. He's authored many book chapters and law review articles, and now he has a new book: Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life. In this episode we learn how Ozan stays attune to his mind and body, sensing when it is time to disrupt. He shares how important it is to see yourself through a forgiving lens and discusses the importance of failure in the trajectory of success. For a complete trans

Organizational change can be a disorienting experience. We all have bristled against it at one time or another, unnerved by the unknown. However, leaning into change and following the path of disruption can be a liminal moment for organizations and the individuals involved. Our guest this week, a self-described change junkie, knows all to well the discomfort and rewards of disruption. Michelle McKenna is currently the Senior Vice President, Chief Information Officer for the NFL. She is responsible for their technology strategy, shared service delivery and management of the league’s technology activities.  In this episode we learn the benefits of asking why we do it this way and how important it is to never stop innovating. Michelle offers an inside take on producing the 2020 NFL Draft and previews the future of data driven decision making for players and coaches. For a complete transcript and links from this episode, please visit https://whitneyjohnson.com/Michelle-McKenna

Mindsets are foundational to everything we do. Improving our mindsets can improve our success across life, work, and leadership. Our guest today Ryan Gottfredson, Ph.D., takes us on a deep dive into the power of mindsets. In his book, Success Mindsets: Your Keys to Unlocking Greater Success in Your Life, Work and Leadership, Ryan blends the latest in mindset research and practice to present the most comprehensive mindset framework to date. Ryan is a mental success coach and cutting-edge leadership consultant, author, trainer, and researcher. He helps improve organizations, leaders, teams, and employees by improving their mindsets. Ryan is currently a leadership and management professor at the Mihaylo College of Business and Economics at California State University-Fullerton (CSUF). He holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Human Resources from Indiana University, and a B.A. from Brigham Young University. In this episode, Ryan exposes how the lens in which we view the world impacts our mindset. He walks

One in three Americans listen to at least one podcast per month. This is an astounding number given podcasting was a relatively unknown medium as recently as 2012. Recently, Apple surpassed the 1 million mark in podcast titles, and we’ve witnessed an explosion of genres ready to tickle our ears on demand.  Our guest today, Molly Beck, knows the power of podcasting firsthand.  Molly is the founder of podcast creation site messy.fm, creator of the lifestyle blog Smart, Pretty & Awkward; and a marketing expert who has provided digital strategies for numerous companies including Forbes, Venmo, Rice University, and Hearst. Her work has been featured in Business Insider, Parade, Refinery29, Lifehacker, The Boston Globe, and more. In this episode of the Disrupt Yourself Podcast, Molly shares how early career constraints stimulated creativity and spurred her into an unexpected entrepreneurial journey.  For a complete transcript and links from this episode, please visit https://whitneyjohnson.com/molly-beck. 

Our inner desire to label ourselves into personality categorizations is strong. In the quest to understand one’s self, we find solace in labels and fixed ideations. However, focusing on labels alone can lead to a belief that we are who we are and as such, are incapable of change. Our guest today, Dr. Benjamin Hardy, is keenly aware of our propensity toward self-labeling. Through his research and work as an Organizational Psychologist, Dr. Hardy reveals that our inner makeup is not fixed, that we are in fact capable of learning and growing into new patterns of behaviors and beliefs. He encourages us to be aware and choose the meaning we give things. Dr. Hardy has authored two books, the bestseller Willpower Doesn’t Work: Discover the Hidden Keys to Success (2018) and his latest, Personality Isn’t Permanent: Break Free from Self-Limiting Beliefs and Rewrite Your Story (2020). He is a #1 rated writer on Medium.com for three years with blogs featured on Forbes, Fortune, CNBC, Cheddar, Big Think and countless oth

Today on the Disrupt Yourself Podcast, our guest is Liz O'Donnell, a marketing executive who is an expert on taking a step back to slingshot forward and that will be the topic of our conversation today. Liz is the award-winning author of Mogul, Mom & Maid: The Balancing Act of the Modern Woman and Liz's latest book is Working Daughter: A Guide to Caring for Your Aging Parents While Making a Living, a book in which she discusses her personal experiences and lessons learned from having to transition quickly from working mom to working daughter - working in a busy career, caring for her own family and taking on the care of her elderly parents. Many of the lessons she outlines in the book apply not only to taking care of elderly parents, but how to go through any type of disruption while showing up for others. For a complete transcript and links from this episode, please visit https://whitneyjohnson.com/liz-odonnell

Today on the Disrupt Yourself Podcast, our guest is Gregory Haile, President of Broward College in Florida. On this episode, Greg takes us through his educational journey and background - beginning as a child in a dangerous neighborhood in Queens, through his decision to attend college. Ultimately graduating magna cum laude from Arizona State University, going to Columbia Law School and eventually President at Broward College two years ago.  Though we did this interview several weeks ago, at the time of this recording, the United States is in the midst of riots and racial protests across the country. We hope this episode will give you a chance to listen and understand and start to help dismantle and battle any feelings of entitlement that might be holding you back from disrupting yourself and growing in the way you’d like to. For a complete transcript and links from this episode, please visit https://whitneyjohnson.com/gregory-haile

Today's episode is a rebroadcast of an episode we aired back in 2017 with speaker and New York Times bestselling author Luvvie Ajayi Jones. Pamay Bassey, the Chief Learning Officer at Kraft Heinz posted this quote from Cleo Wade on LinkedIn: “My friend Maud once said, 'There are times when we must speak, not because you are going to change the other person, but because if you don't speak, they have changed you.' Silence doesn't change the world. It changes us.” I don’t want to be silent, but I’m not yet sure what to say. But what I’ve learned from Luvvie, is that when you don’t know what to say, you pass the mic. That's why we decided instead of airing the episode we had scheduled today that it was important to re-air this episode. Several people shared with me on social media that it was this conversation that started them thinking differently about privilege, and that's a good place to start when it comes to seeing others as people and not objects.  Luvvie – I’m taking your advice. Here’s the mic.

Today, on the Disrupt Yourself Podcast, our guest is Hubert Joly, former CEO of Carlson, member of the board of directors of Ralph Lauren and Johnson & Johnson and currently chairman of Best Buy, where he was previously CEO for seven years. When Hubert took the job of CEO at Best Buy, they were in shambles. But he focused on people and purpose and ended up quadrupling the stock price. He was named as CEO of the year. At this moment, every company is in some sort of crisis. We've all been disrupted. It's not about deciding if we're going to jump to a new S-curve, we've just been pushed. So who better to turn to than a proven leader in a crisis. Hubert is talking to us today about his approach at Best Buy and how he would approach our current situation as a leader, why work is transformational for people and why purpose should be the thing that guides all of your decisions in work and in life. For a complete transcript and links from this episode, please visit https://whitneyjohnson.com/hubert-joly

Today on the Disrupt Yourself Podcast, our guest is Dr. David Peterson. David has been the Director of Leadership and Coaching at Google since 2011, Chief Transformation Officer at 7 Paths Forward, one of the original members of the Marshall Goldsmith 100, and one of the most influential coaches in the world. When you want to learn a new skill or level up - especially in sports - the first thing you do is find a coach. And in the world of leadership and personal development, it’s the same. One of the fastest ways for us to slingshot forward is to have someone help us see our blind spots, both the good, and the bad, and a coach can help us do that. And David Peterson is one of the best, and it is our absolute pleasure to have him on the podcast so that you can learn from him about how to navigate these uncertain times. For a complete transcript and links from this episode, please visit https://whitneyjohnson.com/david-peterson

Today our guest is Jennifer Petriglieri, associate professor of organizational behavior at INSEAD. She's been shortlisted for the Thinkers50 New Thinker and Talent Awards and been named one of the world's best business school professors under 40 by Poets and Quants. Jennifer is an expert on how people craft and sustain their personal and professional identities under conditions of high uncertainty such as organizations in crisis or mobile careers, basically when disruption is in play. Which is certainly true in the case of dual-career couples where there is a dance of disruption as by turns each partner upends the other, or in a time like we're experiencing at this airing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Jennifer discusses some sound principles and frameworks for navigating the transitions that allow us to thrive in relationships and careers. Complete transcript and show notes available at https://whitneyjohnson.com/jennifer-petriglieri

Today our guest is Kelly Goldsmith. Kelly received her PhD from Yale, is now a professor at Vanderbilt, where she's received numerous teaching awards including being one of the youngest professors ever to be nominated for Professor of the Year at Kellogg where she taught previously. Kelly studies how people respond to uncertainty and scarcity, uncovering the seemingly paradoxical effects, which is why I wanted you to hear from her. Pursuing a disruptive course involves embracing constraints, the lack of something, which in addition to her academic research, Kelly knows about first hand, not only because she went on the job market in 2008, but because she was a contestant on Survivor: Africa, the third season of Survivor. Complete transcript and links available at https://whitneyjohnson.com/podcast

Today, on the Disrupt Yourself Podcast, we welcome innovation expert and one of the top-ranked thinkers in the world, Alex Osterwalder. You will hear how Alex views failure, about his mentorship with Yves Pigneur, and which companies he views as leaders in business model innovation. Alex explains the ideal work structure in the 21st Century, including why your company might need a Chief Entrepreneur or Chief Internal Venture Capitalist. We also talk about the power of using visuals, and what it’s like to be a company in the “sweet spot”. For links and a complete transcript, please visit https://whitneyjohnson.com/alex-osterwalder

In Episode 80 of our podcast, we started a series, on our seven-point framework of personal disruption. In Episode 100, we did a deep dive accelerant #1, take the right risks, we moved to play to your distinctive strengths in Episode 120, to embrace your constraints in Episode 140, and now we are to Episode 160, we are talking about battling our entitlement––the S Curve Killer. In this episode, Whitney will share her current thinking on the process of battling entitlement - discussing what entitlement is, what it can look like in different examples in our lives and what it takes to battle entitlement as we climb our own individual S curves of learning.  Complete transcripts and links available here: https://whitneyjohnson.com/battle-entitlement    

Our guest today is Mark W. Johnson, the co-founder and senior partner of Innosight, a strategy and innovation consulting firm he co-founded with Clayton Christensen in 2000.  Mark's latest book is titled Lead From The Future: How To Turn Visionary Thinking Into Breakthrough Growth, and today, we're going to talk about what this means. Because whenever you make the decision to disrupt yourself, you are giving up what you have today for something you could have in the future, and the status quo that you have today, whether it's good or bad, is comfortable. We're more motivated by what we lose than by what we gain, and that's where Mark and his co-author Josh's work comes in. They've developed a process called future back thinking, a process that whether you are an organization or an individual, helps make living the present a little less scary, and the future a lot more hopeful and exciting. For a complete transcript and links from this conversation, visit https://whitneyjohnson.com/mark-johnson

Conflict is everywhere. Even in "normal" times, it's all around us. And it is inherent in the process of climbing an S-curve of learning. There will be challenges, there will be friction. Conflict is a constraint, so what do you do with that conflict? Does it stop you or does it become a tool of creation? Dr. Jen Goldman-Wetzler has an answer. She has the answer. She is the author of the new book, Optimal Outcomes: Free Yourself from Conflict at Work, at Home and in Life, which was recently named as a Financial Times Book of the Month. Show notes and complete transcript available at https://whitneyjohnson.com/podcast

You may decide that you are going to change jobs, move to another country to physically disrupt yourself, hoping to improve your lot. But based on Susan David's 20 years of academic and clinical research, it's how you navigate your inner world, your thoughts, your feelings, and self-talk; how you disrupt your mindset that determines how successful you will be. Her article on Emotional Agility was named the Management Idea of the Year by Harvard Business Review and her book by the same name has been a number one Wall Street Journal bestseller, USA Today bestseller and Amazon Best Book of the Year.  Links and complete transcript: https://whitneyjohnson.com/susan-david

Our brains control almost all of our thoughts, emotions, actions and reactions. For instance, the thought of wanting to get ahead in one’s career originates in the brain. The actions that we take (or do not take) to turn that thought into reality are governed by the brain. But while all brains may be created more or less equal at birth, some people nourish and exercise their brains to make them grow stronger while others do little to grow the brain beyond its natural progression. “To be an agent of disruption, first, we must become its subject, and that starts with understanding how our brains work.” To learn more about how we can tune our brains for peak performance, I invited Dr. Tara Swart to speak with me on the Disrupt Yourself podcast. Tara is highly accomplished; she’s a neuroscientist (Ph.D.), a psychiatric doctor (MD), a senior lecturer at MIT and King’s College London, and an executive advisor to business leaders throughout the world. Now more than ever, we need principles and truths to anchor us. T