Category: Podcast

In this special episode of Your Brain at Work, published to coincide with a presentation — delivered by Janet M. Stovall, our Global Head of DEI, and Matt Summers, our Global Head of Culture and Leadership — at the Society for Human Resource Management’s Talent Conference and Expo… they examine the emergence of AI through the lens of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion — this time focusing on breaking bias.

On this episode of Your Brain at Work, join Dr. David Rock and Dr. Emma Sarro to explore the transformation of organizational learning solutions over time – and recent breakthroughs that are transforming learning efficacy as we know it.

Do your managers struggle to delegate effectively? They’re not alone.

Leaders often delegate too little or too much, hurting both efficiency and employee morale. On this episode of Your Brain at Work, Dr. David Rock and Dr. Emma Sarro bridge the gap between knowing you should delegate and doing it right.

Learn brain based strategies to empower your team and free up your time for strategic thinking.

Is it time for the pendulum to swing back toward a focus on performance and less on people?

Many leaders today feel the pendulum has swung too far toward the employee, and cringe when they hear about increasing psychological safety.

Are they right, or are they missing something important here? Are these two ideas in opposition? Is it possible to truly have one without the other?

Join Dr. Amy Edmondson and Dr. David Rock as they robustly debate these and other important questions.

Join Dr. David Rock and Dr. Emma Sarro in a community discussion to explore a neuroscience-based approach to driving results.

Join Dr. David Rock and Dr. Emma Sarro in a community discussion to explore what it takes to sustainably lead yourself and your teams to optimal performance.

Every organization wants to be at the cutting edge of its industry, become a coveted employer and beat profit projections quarter over quarter. To get there, leaders themselves need to be able to make the best decisions and cultivate an environment in which everyone can do their best work. Of course, they need optimal cognitive capacity to rise to that challenge.  
Join Dr. David Rock and NLI Managing Editor Dr. Laura Cassiday to kick off a series centered on how leaders can optimize their own brain health and by extension, sustainably fortify their organization’s business position.

It has been 20 years since NLI identified the five domains in humans’ social experience: status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness.

Join Dr. Emma Sarro (Head of Scientific Research) and Evynn McFalls (Global VP of Marketing and Brand) in this week’s discussion on the evolution of The SCARF Model.

Hot on the heels of his recent publication on leadership trends in Fast Company, Dr. David Rock welcomes our global head of research, Dr. Emma Sarro to Your Brain at Work Live to discuss the quiet signals unfolding on the leadership landscape — and key trends to watch and influence as the year unfolds.

Over the last several months, there’s been a great deal of talk about the use cases for artificial intelligence. Millions around the world are excited about the creative potential, labor, and time savings that AI might unlock. But AI’s use cases don’t end there. In this episode of Your Brain At Work, our co-founder, Dr. David Rock connects with Dr. Teodor Grantcharov (Professor of Surgery at Stanford University and Associate Chief Quality Officer for Innovation and Safety at Stanford Healthcare) to explore a fascinating new use case for AI: saving lives in the operating room. Listen on for a fascinating exploration of how we might use AI to augment, rather than supplant, our humanity.

How do organizations that prioritize psychological safety differ — in terms of business performance — from those that don’t? What cognitive levers should organizations think about when executing change initiatives in order to manage threat, motivate their teams and drive positive business outcomes? On this episode of Your Brain at Work Live, Dr. Emma Sarro and Dr. Ryan Curl provide answers to these questions and more — sharing key findings from our latest NeuroLeadership Journal, “Managing Threat Response in the Workplace”.

As we prepare for the 19th NeuroLeadership Summit, we invite you to learn about the most important things we’ve learned over the past 15 years at the NeuroLeadership Summit and get a sneak peek at what’s to come at RECALIBRATE: The 2023 NeuroLeadership Summit.

As we prepare for the 19th NeuroLeadership Summit, we invite you to learn about the most important things we’ve learned over the past 15 years at the NeuroLeadership Summit and get a sneak peek at what’s to come at RECALIBRATE: The 2023 NeuroLeadership Summit.

On this episode of Your Brain at Work Live, Dr. David Rock (Co-Founder & CEO, NeuroLeadership Institute) and Janet M. Stovall (Global Head of DEI, NeuroLeadership Institute) investigate what it takes to zeitgeist-proof DEI. Together, we’ll explore how to build objective, measurable strategies that can stand firm in tough times and realize true business impact.

In the third and final episode of our special series, future Proof Your Leadership with neuroscience, our global vice president of culture and leadership, Matt Summers, answers these questions and more with the help of special guest Kath Carmean, an Organizational Development Partner at The Aerospace Corporation.

In a world where people can locate information with a few keystrokes, how has learning changed? What makes learning effective — and what pitfalls do leaders face when trying to make learning accessible and sustained?

In this episode of Your Brain at Work Live, Alyssa Abkowitz — our global head of Product and Content — interviews Dr. David Rock about the first principles we should all keep in mind as we navigate new paradigms in learning at work. Listen closely — you might just find some insights for the AGES.

Together, we’ll explore effective ways to drive impactful conversations, navigate difficult ones, and build new habits.

In the second in a series of episodes on human-centric leadership hosted by Matt Summers, the NeuroLeadership Institute’s Global Vice President of Culture & Leadership, we explore how leaders can overcome the employee apathy conundrum.

Why is it that there’s a crisis of confidence in leaders impacting organizations around the world right now?

What can organizations do about their talent pipeline and employee development lifecycle?

How does the neuroscience of learning figure into all of this?

In the first of a three-part series on Human Centric leadership hosted by our Global Vice President of Culture & Leadership, Matt Summers, we begin digging into these questions and more — illuminating the path to more adaptive, innovative organizations with evidence-based methods.

In this episode, we welcome Dr. Michaela Simpson, the NeuroLeadership Institute’s Global Vice President of Research and Innovation; and Janet M. Stovall, our Global Head of DEI — to share a neuroscientific perspective on this tradition of resilience, and what a more inclusive, equitable world might look like going forward.

In this episode of Your Brain at Work, we bring a generationally diverse panel of thinkers at the NeuroLeadership Institute — including Dr. Michaela Simpson, our global head of research and innovation; Nichole Hoskins, our global head of people; and Ariel Roldan, a business development associate — to explore the differences and commonalities across the five generations bringing their brains to today’s workforce.

Maybe this line sounds familiar: You’ve got to do more with less — less time, less funding, and fewer resources. In an economic environment where reductions in force and demands for ramped-up productivity — with sustainable business margins — are commonplace, does efficiency have to mean austerity? Perhaps not.

In this episode of Your Brain at Work, Dr. Rebecca “Becks” Port — Chief People Officer at 10X Genomics — connects with the NeuroLeadership Institute’s co-founder, Dr. David Rock, to explore strategies for improving talent and business outcomes by improving talent density.

In this episode of Your Brain at Work LIVE, Andrea LaBarbera (Head of Global Talent and Engagement, Zimmer Biomet) joins Dr. David Rock (NLI CEO and co-founder), and Rachel Cardero (NLI Vice President of Consulting) to discuss how Zimmer Biomet focused on their people to continue building their strategic road map, pillars, and guiding principles throughout the COVID-19 pandemic — and how we can learn to become nimble, resilient, and deliberate in the face of uncertainty today.

This week on Your Brain at Work LIVE, Dr. David Rock (NLI CEO and co-founder) and Tina Drews (Salt River Project Director of Talent), discuss how, through an illuminating partnership with the NeuroLeadership Institute, Salt River Project focused on supporting the needs of their teams to develop the psychologically safe climate that equipped them even further to face crisis head-on in the present and through the future.

Join author Kenji Yoshino and NLI co-founder and CEO Dr. David Rock for an illuminating discussion on effectively navigating delicate conversations around identity in the workplace inspired by Yoshino’s book, Say The Right Thing: How to Talk About Identity, Diversity, and Justice.

Talent leaders know that people programs make the best impact when everyone aligns to a shared goal — yet many struggle to get deep buy-in from company leadership. This hurdle can spell trouble for learning, development, and other talent initiatives, especially amid economic uncertainty. In this episode, we explore actionable insights for getting the CEO — and the whole leadership board — on board with your talent initiatives. We’ll show you how to elevate your pitch and successfully connect your initiatives to the outcomes that leaders beyond the HR function care about most.

In this groundbreaking episode of Your Brain at Work, Dr. Amy Edmondson joins Dr. David Rock for a wide-ranging conversation about organizational climate, role modeling and, of course, the neuroscience of psychological safety. If you’ve been hearing the buzz about psychological safety and are keen to understand what it’s all about, this episode will provide you with definitive answers.

Over a decade ago, we wondered: how can we scale what we’ve learned about coaching, continuous improvement and the science of motivation for the enterprise context? That question led us to introduce the Growth Mindset thinking framework to large-scale organizations.

In the first of a three-part series on Human Centric leadership hosted by our Global Vice President of Culture & Leadership, Matt Summers, we begin digging into these questions and more — illuminating the path to more adaptive, innovative organizations with evidence-based methods.

In this discussion, we will dive into how a generation of leaders may have lost their empathetic way and what we can do to correct course.

Join us to learn more about making change stick and the essentials of sustainment. In this episode, we’ll discuss what sustainment is, how to scale your sustainment efforts, and examine how clients have used sustainment to manage change over time.

In this episode, our panelists of esteemed guests offered three Juneteenth takeaways for African-Americans and Corporate America today.

In the next installment of our growth mindset series, we’ll connect with leaders from Akamai Technologies to explore how they’ve harnessed growth mindset to build out their global flex-based talent strategy providing a case study in how to make hybrid work at your organization.

In this episode, Dr. David Rock connects with Patricio Ramal (Director of Education, North America) and guest host Evynn McFalls (Global VP of Marketing & Brand, NLI) to reflect on this growth and consider the discoveries we’ve made over the past quarter-century.

Jyoti Mehra (CHRO, Gilead Sciences) joins Frank Gonzales (Deputy Director – ODEO NASA) to discuss key factors to consider in mulling a return, as well as the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

In this episode, Dr. David Rock is joined by Janet M. Stovall, our newly-minted Global Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. They explore the neuroscience science of DE&I, its historical underpinnings, and how we can harness neuroscience to pave the way forward.

Strange but true: google the SCARF model and you find more links online than Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. NLI co-founder David Rock walks through how the model was developed, what it does, why it is so sticky, and what’s next for this impactful framework.

In this episode of Your Brain at Work, we answer these questions and more with the help of Rachel Cardero — the NeuroLeadership Institute’s Senior Vice President of Consulting — to conversation with our Head of Impact and Measurement, Dr. Ryan Curl, and Associate Consultant Mary Toomey.

When driving organizational change, it’s key to consider approaches that will resonate widely and stick with people for the long term. Fluency, amount, coherence and time (F.A.C.T.) are the critical drivers of sustained and inclusive growth.

In this episode, NLI’s experts share perspectives on building organizations from first-hand experience, while answering questions to highlight best practices to ignite learning initiatives at-scale for teams.

In this special episode, recorded on Earth day 2022, we explore regenerative mindsets with Jaime Cloud (of the Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education) and learn actionable ways to make sustainability habitual.

In this episode of Your Brain at Work Live, Dr. David Rock (Co-Founder and CEO, NLI) joins Evynn McFalls (VP Marketing, NLI) to reveal the origins of the SEEDS bias mitigation model and how we put that science to work—transforming thousands of leaders and teams over the past decade.

In this episode of Your Brain at Work Live, Dr. David Rock (Co-Founder and CEO, NLI) joins Evynn McFalls (VP Marketing, NLI) to reveal the origins of the SEEDS bias mitigation model and how we put that science to work—transforming thousands of leaders and teams over the past decade.

The panel explored how unconscious bias manifests itself in our workplace relationships and talent pipelines, and dug deep into the complicated truths about how our factors like gender, race and identity can impact our career journeys.

In this episode, we’ll share the latest data and insights on the remote, hybrid, or in-office situation. If your organization is on the path to going hybrid or back to the office full-time, watch as we follow the science on how to do it well.

In this episode, we look at how these biases and expectations impact our ability to get the rest we need. We discuss how organizations can create more inclusive cultures and practices that take these unique challenges into consideration.

Boeing set out to create a culture in which every employee feels safe to speak up and believes that their voice matters. Two years of hard work culminated in “Seek, Speak, and Listen” Boeing’s new behavior change model that their CHRO recently characterized as the most significant culture effort in the company’s 106-year history. Tune in for an inspiring conversation and a remarkable story.

In this Season 7 Premiere episode, Dr. David Rock and John Edwards recap some of the landmark insights that came out of the 2022 NeuroLeadership Summit in February.

In this Season 6 finale of Your Brain at Work LIVE, Priya Priyadarshini (General Manager, Employee Career and Development, Microsoft) joins us to share the amazing story of Microsoft’s Growth Mindset journey. Learn how leaders at Microsoft were able to create stronger connections between teams through the pandemic and how the organization’s growth mindset translated to bigger impacts on industries and the marketplace.

Inclusion is more important now than ever before. In this episode, we dig into the neuroscience of inclusion with Linda Leonard (Global Diversity and Inclusion Lead, Bristol Myers Squibb). We discuss what we get wrong about inclusion and how we can use science to bring people together.
On this episode, Steve Miska, a retired US Army Colonel & Author shares his experience working with Iraqi interpreters during the war and the unexpected lessons on the value of compassion. Ultimately sharing stories that transcend the battlefield and translate directly into workplace leadership today.

Calls for empathetic leadership are on the rise in organizations. A new survey connects lack of empathy to the reason 54% of people recently quit their jobs. Empathy is a nuanced and often misunderstood term. When actually, compassion is what teams need. Compassion is when one’s desire to help becomes an impactful response. It’s the difference between telling someone you care and actually showing them.

On this episode, Steve Miska, a retired US Army Colonel & Author shares his experience working with Iraqi interpreters during the war and the unexpected lessons on the value of compassion. Ultimately sharing stories that transcend the battlefield and translate directly into workplace leadership today.

When people work together as a team, there are several “group dynamics” that determine how well they’re able to synergize, make decisions, and get things done. The factors that determine whether a team has a positive (or poor) group dynamic include power, relationships, status, fairness, the ability to put the interests of the group ahead of one’s own, and more.
How does your organization go through the process of team building? How are you being proactive in creating an inclusive environment that inspires team collaboration?
In this episode of Your Brain at Work, Dr. David Rock, Dr. Will Kalkhoff , and Dr. Joy VerPlanck will explore the science of group dynamics. We’ll examine the differences between status and power and analyze how leadership, group composition, expectations, and participation inequities that can impact decision-making and work outcomes.

As offices continue to open up, a study, recently conducted by Future Forum, found that only 3% of Black professionals want to return to the office full-time. Looking deeper, this statistic is a reflection of the depth and breadth of microaggressions that occur in the workplace and the psychological harm Black professionals experience.

Which brings larger questions of this impact to light. What ramifications could this have on diversity of teams, innovation, and companies’ bottom lines moving forward? What should leaders do to address this alarming discovery?

In this episode, Dr. Brian Lowery, Dr. Michaela Simpson, and Janet Stovall will unpack this data and its relation to workplace culture and Black professionals’ sense of belonging at work. Tapping into the science of cognitive bias and lived experiences, they will share ways organizations can create more inclusive cultures in the era of hybrid work.

With the backdrop of an ongoing pandemic, monthly resignations hitting all-time highs, and mounting reports of job burnout – nearly everyone is feeling the pressure right now. Some organizations may react to this moment by “bearing down” and pushing people harder. However, this is a major driver of the problem in the first place.

Human cognitive capacity- at both the individual and organizational level, is a precious resource that must be respected. In order to create truly engaged and productive workplaces, leaders need to map to cognitive capacity, not work against it. 

In this episode, NLI’s very own Dr. Michaela Simpson and Dr. David Rock discuss the neuroscience of capacity, motivation, and bias to better understand our limitations and share ways leaders can drive engagement and performance, while turning down the risk of burnout.

In recent weeks, we’ve examined the progression of the workplace as we know it. As organizations work to establish balance, combat burnout, and continue scaling toward the future, it has become increasingly clear it will take more than policies. Leaders are now being challenged to go beyond the surface and resonate with their employees on a human level.

Empathy is commonly used as a blanket term, but the neuroscience behind it reflects a multi-faceted structure of related emotions. So how do we process these feelings? What practical steps can we take to exercise them in both professional and personal spheres?

This week, Dr. Lisa Aziz-Zadeh of USC and Dr. David Rock discuss the neuroscience behind empathy and how to approach weaving it into the framework of organizational development during this new age of work.

The initial challenges of 2020 have continued into 2021 for many. With pandemic-related deaths, massive job loss, and burnout on the rise- work was deprioritized on the scale of importance. As news coverage of civil unrest, political polarization, and major events became normal, we as a society were challenged to reflect beyond the scope of our 9-5 life.

Fast forward and now we’re seeing the outcomes of this shift in perspective: “The Great Resignation”. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly four million Americans quit their jobs in July 2021 alone. The resignation rate in the U.S. is now at a two-decade high, with more than 11 million jobs open. One recent study found that 95% of workers would consider a job change. Harvard Business Review noted that employees between the ages of 30 and 45 have had the greatest jump in resignation rates, with an average increase of more than 20% between 2020 and 2021.

This reflects more than just “The Great Resignation”. This is a state of discontent. Join us for this episode, as we dive deeper into what is taking place in the workforce and the science behind it.

Employers have continued to fluctuate between work policies, throughout the pandemic. Repeatedly shifting strategic courses and still lacking clarity on how to effectively approach change for their teams. Many organizations, like some of you listening, have not physically seen each other in up to 22 months. Considering this isolation paired with the heightened frequency of current events taking place, it can feel chaotic.

This places a large amount of onus on leaders to take responsibility for the well-being of their teams. How do they keep teams connected when they are physically distanced? What’s the science behind connection? Why do we crave it so much? How valuable are stories in the new manager-employee contract?

That’s the focus of Season 6, Episode 3 of Your Brain At Work: How can we keep teams and people connected in times of chaos?

As work – and our connection to work – keeps shifting, many popular thought pieces and research are rooted in the same foundational question: What does a manager need to do now? How have managerial roles evolved as a result of the pandemic and remote/hybrid models? One of the major ways is a shift from “surveillance” focus – i.e. “I value having strong oversight of my teams and what they’re working on,” to prioritizing focus on “outcomes”, which is aligned to achieving key goals. This is a massive adjustment for some managers and organizations- and adaptation can prove even more challenging.

In this Season 6 Premiere episode of Your Brain at Work LIVE, our panel reviews the President’s recent Executive Order on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility that continues to drive positive change in the federal workspace and the organizations they impact. We examine some of the key points within the order through the lens of neuroscience and identify potential pitfalls that can snag even the most well-meaning leaders in their efforts.

Welcome to the Season 5 finale of Your Brain at Work Live. Performance management is a huge topic throughout work in general, but it’s faded somewhat recently due to COVID, hybrid approaches, and other concerns of leaders. We come back and revisit performance management as part of the talent ecosystem in this season finale, with David Rock, Marshall Bergmann, and Christy Pruitt-Haynes.

Many companies were ready for a hybrid work model to start up this summer and fall. There were still big questions, but we were headed that way. Then a few variants emerged, and we entered into a larger vaccination discussion, and now some of these dates have been pushed back, often into January 2022 for some big brands. But — this is good news for leaders! It gives you more time to navigate the landscape. In this podcast, three NLI experts talk about how to navigate the world of hybrid work, including how to account for your real estate position.

Unconscious bias is a huge driver of work outcomes. While we’ve known this for generations, only recently has it become a bigger discussion in management theory and the training space. In this episode of Your Brain at Work Live, our own Janet Stovall sits down with NYU’s inaugural senior vice president for global inclusion and strategic innovation, Dr. Lisa Coleman, and Dr. Natalie Byfield, a professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at St. John’s University. The three discuss bias as an impediment to innovation, bias as a cultural concern, and ways of overcoming the inherent challenges of bias.

We’ve talked about de-escalation in the past, mainly in the context of its application with law enforcement. But as the world attempts to reopen, and we’re constantly bombarded with images and videos of situations that need to be de-escalated — think about airlines, as one starting place — we wanted to revisit the topic. In this episode, we discuss the neuroscience of de-escalation, and day-to-day strategies for bringing down the boil on a situation, with in-house experts Dr. Joy VerPlanck (Senior Insight Strategist, NLI), Dr. David Rock (CEO & Co-Founder, NLI), and Brian Uridge (Deputy Director Division of Public Safety & Security, University of Michigan Medicine).

In this episode of Your Brain at Work, senior Neuroleadership Institute researcher Michaela Simpson and NLI’s Director of DEI Practice Paulette Gerkovich are joined by two distinguished guests: Elizabeth Nelson, the director of diversity and inclusion at Thomson Reuters, and Jennifer Amara, the VP of Global Talent at Otis Worldwide. This knowledgeable foursome of women walks through what works — and what doesn’t — about current approaches to diversity, equity, and inclusion on a global scale.

In this episode of Your Brain at Work, Dr. David Rock, the CEO and Co-founder of the Neuroleadership Institute is joined by two esteemed guests: Jonathan Haidt, a professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business and co-author of the best-seller The Coddling of the American Mind, and Alison Taylor, the Executive Director of Ethical Systems. The three shed light on the core divisions in America, how those divisions seep into professional discourse, and most importantly, what we can do to bridge divides. When the trio gets into strategies for bridging the divides we have, it’s less about deleting Facebook from your phone and more about what decades of brain science and social science research have taught us about practicing empathy, seeing others, and listening to opposing viewpoints.

In this episode of Your Brain at Work, Dr. David Rock, the CEO and Co-founder of the NeuroLeadership Institute is joined by Dr. Jason Mitchell, a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. Together, they explore the concept of in-group and out-group, the effects it has on the brain and behavior, and what we can do about it to mitigate the negative effects and accentuate the positive. The two scientists unpack how we can leverage that knowledge to make interactions more positive and effective, and to make organizations more human.

The United States Congress has passed a bill declaring Juneteenth a federal holiday. The bill’s passage marks the first time a new federal holiday has been established since Congress approved Martin Luther King Jr. day in 1983. More importantly, Juneteenth marks and commemorates emancipation of Black Americans. Now, organizations across the country are asking what they can and should do to mark the occasion. In this episode, an esteemed panel discusses Juneteenth from a historical perspective, how it resonates and moves communities today, and where the conversation is going in the future. They explore what meaningful ways can companies, leaders, and society-at-large deploy efforts and resources to create a more just, diverse, and equitable future.

At the start of the pandemic, when many US companies were implementing remote work policies, many leaders feared that workplace culture would wither without in-person interactions. But, to the amazement and relief of many, that wasn’t necessarily true. Why? Because your culture was never your building—it’s something more. In this episode of Your Brain at Work, we unpack the science and explore the data at the intersections of culture and hybrid work. Our panel, including Lisa McGregor, the Global Lead of Workplace Space Strategies at Jacobs, and Perri Mathews, the Manager of Culture Transformation and Change at Blue Cross & Blue Shield of North Carolina, shares how hybrid work settings can actually be a culture accelerator, if we follow the science.

After more than a year of uncertainty, a large portion of the U.S. is poised to return to the office in the coming months. As employees return, organizations and employees are renegotiating how, when, and where they’ll work. This migration is a once-in-a-century opportunity to build a better normal, but it won’t come without its challenges. To help leaders capitalize on this opportunity, and avoid the pitfalls, we kick off Season 5 of Your Brain at Work with a look at hybrid work. Dr. David Rock, NLI’s CEO and Co-Founder, is joined by Liane Hornsey, Executive Vice President & Chief People Officer at Palo Alto Networks, to share insights that will help leaders make the most of their people’s time and talent. Together, they explore what it means to “solve for autonomy, and manage for fairness;” the big concerns organizations have about hybrid work (and why they may be overhyped); and the skills managers will need to lead and succeed in a hybrid world.

Increasingly, equity is finding its way into conversations, organizations, and acronyms across the world. But there’s a lot of noise, and many misconceptions, about what equity means and how it applies to organizations. As a result, many business leaders aren’t quite sure how to define, develop, or deploy the “E” in DE&I. In Season 4’s final episode, our panel helps you reduce some of the noise by following the science. NLI’s Janet Stovall, Senior Client Advisor, is joined by Dr. Michaela Simpson, Senior Researcher, and Dr. Dominic Packer, Professor of Psychology, Lehigh University. Together they provide science-informed, applicable guidance to help solve systemic inequity and increase equity.

In this episode of Your Brain at Work we continue our discussion of equity. This time, we explore what’s happening in our brains when we’re at an advantage, at a disadvantage, and when we seek to restore equity to a situation (or don’t). NLI Senior Client Advisor Janet Stovall is joined by Senior Researcher, Dr. Michaela Simpson; and University of Pennsylvania Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Brad Mattan. Together, they discuss the neuroscience of power, inclusion, perspective taking, empathy, and allyship. The panel sheds light on the skills employees need to increase equity, and how organizations can leverage science to build them.

In recent months we’ve seen much debate, some productive and some not, on the concept of equity. So we, as we often do at the NeuroLeadership Institute, have looked at equity through the lens of neuroscience. In this episode of Your Brain at Work, Janet Stovall, Senior Client Strategist; Jeanine Stewart; Senior Consultant and Facilitator; and Dr. David Rock, Co-founder and CEO unpack the concept of equity. They explain why equity is different from equality (and why that matters), how allyship can increase equity in the workplace, and why equity rounds out diversity and inclusion in the modern corporate landscape. Throughout the discussion, they debunk common misconceptions and offer clarifying science.

In this episode of Your Brain at Work, Dr. David Rock welcomes Kristina Morton; Vice President Human Resources, Supply Chain, at General Mills. At General Mills, their mission is to feed the world. Hard enough on a good day, but how about during a global pandemic? Their challenges were multifaceted and complex, but throughout, factory workers went above and beyond to meet the goals of the organization. Rewards were obviously in order. So leaders at General Mills experimented with autonomy and rewards to say thanks. Here’s their story (and the science behind it).

There are millions of people that have tasted remote work and won’t easily let it go, and further, they’re expecting it at this point. And alternatively, there are others that would prefer to return to the office. We find ourselves on the precipice of yet another very important decision for many organizations. How much autonomy should we give our people about their work environments? We probably don’t have a choice but to face it head-on. In this episode Senior Client Strategist at NLI, Rob Ollander-Krane and Senior Director of Neuroscience Research  and Dr. Kamila Sip will do just that.

Last December 156,000 people lost jobs due to the pandemic—and all of them were women. Not just a high percentage of them. All of them. This could be the biggest backward step for women’s representation in the workplace we’ve ever seen. While there are many factors at play, there is one hidden culprit that has an outsized impact—gender bias. In this episode NLI Senior Consultant Deb Campbell facilitates a panel discussion with Francine Rosado-Cruz; Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer, Davis Polk & Wardwell; Janet Stovall, Senior Client Strategist at NLI; and Elizabeth Haines, Professor and Social Scientist at William Paterson University. Together they unpack the research about gender bias, how it shows up in the workplace, and how organizations can put us back on the road to gender parity.

For this episode we invited three leaders from very different companies to reveal their approaches to lifting inclusion. NLI’s VP of Client Experience, Katherine Milan leads the discussion with Romita Grover, Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging in the Card Division at Capital One, Lynn Hare, Director of Global Talent Development at Akamai, and Jon Suber, Supplier Diversity & Development Manager at Freddie Mac. Together, they review how their organizations structured inclusion programs, what obstacles they encountered, what they learned along the way, and what wisdom they can share with organizations looking to create similar outcomes.

In this episode David welcomes renowned neuroscientist and author of Seven and a Half Lessons about the Brain, Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett. Dr. Barrett and David walk us through the latest research and insights about how the brain (the physical organ) and the mind (the human consciousness that thinks, feels, and acts) interact and inform our behaviour. Together, they unpack the neural mechanisms that explain our behavior and how this understanding of the brain can impact how we mitigate bias, increase empathy and inclusion, both in ourselves and others.

Decades of research have made it clear that diverse teams are smarter and more innovative than homogeneous teams. But there are a few stubborn cognitive quirks that get in the way of building and fostering diversity in organizations. In this episode of Your Brain at Work, NLI CEO Dr. David Rock is joined by Associate Professor of Psychology at Columbia University, Dr. Valerie Purdie-Greenaway, and NLI Senior Consultant Dr. Paulette Gerkovich to discuss the compelling, and science-backed, business case for diversity, how to build diversity in teams, and why despite feeling less comfortable, diverse teams perform better.

Are you part of an organization that allows you to bring your authentic self to work? How does power and privilege impact your ability to do so? And does your organization support the authenticity of all of its employees? In this episode, Dr. David Rock is joined by best-selling author and renowned expert on covering, Kenji Yoshino, Professor of Constitutional Law at NYU School of Law. David and Kenji unpack these questions, exploring the concepts of power, privilege, inclusion, diversity, and allyship in the process. Listen to learn how individuals and organizations can create systemic solutions to these challenges.

This week we tap the mind of Martin Whitaker, CEO of JUST Capital. In a meeting of CEOs Dr. David Rock and Martin explore how JUST lifts the voice of the American public to identify the issues that matter most when it comes to just business behavior. They identify the specific qualities of leading companies that supported their workers, customers, and communities through the pandemic and ongoing racial injustices. Martin also shares how JUST Capital is addressing systemic challenges at scale to create an economy that serves all Americans.

Creating a culture that maps to the modern landscape of diversity, equity and inclusion requires a scientific approach. Here’s what science taught us: forcing people into DE&I training doesn’t work. In this episode, NLI’s co-founder and CEO Dr. David Rock, and consultants Camille Inge and Dr. Paulette Gerkovich reveals the real key to behavior change. Listen in as they review the research helping us to understand what truly works.

In the Season 4 premiere, our panel of experts discuss the forces of change that swept organizations in 2020, and how we can channel the momentum they unleashed into creating more human organizations in 2021. NLI’s co-founder and CEO, Dr. David Rock is joined by Director of Industry Research, Andrea Derler and Senior Vice President of Corporate Solutions, Marshall Bergmann. Together, they explore the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead and the directions organizations can (and should) go in.

We close Season 3 of Your Brain at Work with our two performance gurus, Barbara Steel, the head of our performance practice, and Rob Ollander-Krane, a Senior Client Advisor at NLI who will review some of the biggest trends of 2020. From the underrated—but absolutely vital— check-in conversation, to the role bias plays in performance management, and performance management’s impact on broader talent strategy, we look back on the trends and lessons of 2020, and look ahead to what organizations should prioritize in 2021.

Diversity Equity & Inclusion strategy will continue to be a top priority for organizations in 2021. They’ll enter the new year with more momentum than perhaps ever before, but that momentum needs to be channelled into real, impactful change. In other words, we need to do things right and right now. In this episode of Your Brain at Work, we look back at tectonic shifts that took place in 2020, and how, armed with that knowledge, organizations can follow the pathways to real change.

If you weren’t among the 2,400 attendees at our virtual Summit this year, we missed you, but don’t sweat it. This week on Your Brain at Work, we revisit our most insightful sessions from our three-day annual conference—all in one episode. Our senior NLI team shares how to implement large scale change initiatives, how to create impactful and scalable virtual learning programs, why organizations should strive to be regenerative—not just restorative, how to develop the leaders of tomorrow, how to build a culture of allyship, among many other things.

Many organizations are wondering how to address the chasm between right and left, and what many consider right and wrong. In this week’s Your Brain at Work, NLI’s Dr. David Rock and Dr. Kamila Sip welcome Dr. Peter Coleman (Professor of Psychology and Education, Columbia University) for a frank and informative conversation that traces the history of polarization in America, explores conflict in the brain, and outlines the steps organizations can take to successfully bridge the gap.

Holli Martinez leads the DE&I efforts at T-Mobile, and she’s on a mission—to make DE&I not just a priority, but a reality. This week on Your Brain at Work, Holli joins NLI’s Head of Diversity & Inclusion Ester Neznanova to discuss the pressing need for DE&I strategies that truly shift behaviors, they explore the power of culture, and they explain how organizations should approach creating lasting change in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

In this week’s episode, NLI Co-founder and CEO Dr. David Rock is joined by Senior Researcher Michaela Simpson. Together they unpack the importance and power of mindset. They discuss the research that suggests we can cultivate adaptive mindsets not just individually, but at scale, and explain the habits that can help us thrive through difficult times.

This week, our panel includes VP of Research, Practices, and Consulting Khalil Smith, DE&I Practice Lead Ester Neznanova, and Senior Consultant Camille Inge. Together, these NLI experts explore the nuances between racism and bias, discuss strategies used to detect and mitigate bias, and explain how you can build an anti-biased organization where better systems enable smarter decision-making.

In this week’s episode, NLI Co-founder and CEO Dr. David Rock is joined by Diversity & Inclusion Practice Lead Ester Neznanova, and Senior Researcher Michaela Simpson to discuss how science can inform strategy in DE&I. Together, they explore strategies used to engage leaders and spark change. They share NLI’s latest thinking and best practices, including how to activate emotional buy-in, the importance of accentuating benefits, and the role of explaining the mechanisms of change.

In this week’s episode, NLI Co-founder and CEO Dr. David Rock is joined by Senior Vice President of Client Experience Katherine Milan to discuss the science of learning. Together, they unpack the latest research around memory and habit formation, discuss how to make learning more social, identify the five biggest mistakes organizations are making when transitioning learning to a virtual format, and reveal the five ways you can avoid those pitfalls and design better learning experiences. Hint: it’s by following the science.

This week, our panel of experts includes NLI’s Head of Performance Barbara Steeel, Senior Client Strategist, Rob Ollander-Krane, and CEO and Co-Founder Dr. David Rock. Together, they discuss the latest trends and research in performance management; they share illuminating insights on giving, and receiving, feedback; and they reflect on the six critical conversations employees and managers should be having to perform at their best.

Joe Smarro, one of the two police officers featured in the Emmy-nominated HBO documentary, “Ernie & Joe, Crisis Cops,” is helping create a more human society. In the season three premiere of YBAW, Joe joins NLI CEO and Co-founder Dr. David Rock, Senor Director of Neuroscience Research Dr. Kamila Sip, and facilitator Davie Floyd to discuss bringing science-backed de-escalation training to police officers. Together, the panel unpacks how the science of social threat and reward can help us better understand and communicate with each other to reach positive outcomes. And the benefits extend far beyond front-line workers to organizations of all sizes, and individuals of all backgrounds.

This week, our panel of experts includes NLI’s Head of Consulting and Research Khalil Smith, Senior Consultant Paulette Gerkovich, and Senior Vice President of Corporate Solutions Marshall Bergmann. Together they discuss the latest research on the importance of taking bold action; they share illuminating and inspiring case studies from organizations who have embraced acting boldly; and they reflect on the series as a whole to offer leaders the best strategies to show up in the best way possible for the people who matter most.

Along with Dr. Kamila Sip, NLI’s Senior Director of Neuroscience Research, and Khalil Smith, Head of Research and Consulting at NLI, this episode features the insights of Dr. Dominic Packer, social psychologist at Lehigh University. The group discusses how we determine who’s “one of us,” the consequences of doing so, and how we can expand our perceived boundaries to create larger ingroups.

In a discussion on listening deeply, host Barbara Steel, Head of NLI’s Performance Practice, is joined by Paulette Gerkovich, a Senior Consultant at NLI, and Dr. Michaela Simpson, one of NLI’s Senior Scientists. Together they talk through what listening circles can look like in organizations, the science of psychological safety and perspective taking, and the potential pitfalls of getting it wrong.

Jamil Zaki, Stanford Professor of Psychology and the author of “The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World” joins NLI’s Head of Consulting and Practices, Khalil Smith. Jamil shares some of his biggest findings from studying empathy, and offers fascinating insights that anybody can use to build the muscle of empathy in their personal and professional relationships and create a better, kinder world.

Lindsay-Rae McIntyre, Chief Diversity Officer at Microsoft, sits down with with NLI CEO and Co-Founder Dr. David Rock and NLI Head of Research and Consulting, Khalil Smith, for a discussion on allyship. Learn how Microsoft has been working for the past two years to develop a culture of allyship and how leaders can develop tools to make allyship come alive in their organizations.

Chris Boruff, Director of Operations at the financial services firm Morningstar, sits down with NLI Co-Founder and CEO Dr. David Rock and NLI’s Director of Industry Research, Andrea Derler, to discuss growth mindset—what it is, how it works, and and how Morningstar has made the most of the COVID-19 crisis to transform the entire organization’s approach to learning, feedback, and growth.

Suzanne, together with NLI’s Khali Smith and Dr. David Rock, explore the many ways Splunk has designed and deployed a diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy. The conversation also delves into Splunk’s thoughtful response to the ongoing human rights movement and calls for racial justice.

At a time when the noise of the world seems to drown out any sense of clarity, Lynne Oldham, Chief People Officer at Zoom, and Tracey Grabowski, CHRO at Procter & Gamble remind us how to follow what’s essential—not just in the services they offer, but in how they’ve cultivated a calming, yet innovative, spirit through intense disruption, and in so doing, set an example for other leaders to follow.

A panel of NLI experts, including CEO and Co-Founder Dr. David Rock, VP of Consulting and Research Khalil Smith, and Head of D&I Ester Neznanova, walk us through the science and importance of listening deeply, uniting widely, and acting boldly. Along the way they address challenges leaders have been facing and offer science-based solutions to keep teams feeling heard, included, and empowered to effect change.

Shawna Erdmann, SVP of Learning at Comcast, and Melanie Davis, CLO at Ford, work for companies that have embraced growth mindset over the past few months, shifting from one set of expectations and roles, into brand-new operations. Their stories show how keeping an open mind benefits not just individuals as they work to adapt, but entire organizations looking to transform.

Jyoti Mehra, CHRO of Gilead Sciences, and Doug Shupinski, Head of Leadership Development at Merck are today’s guests. The discussion focuses on how Gilead is creating a culture of empathy, through leadership forums and developing a common language, and how Merck is meeting people where they are to keep learning and development going strong.

Bob Johansen, distinguished fellow at the Institute for the Future, and Amy Edmondson, Harvard professor and expert on psychological safety discuss what we can do today—for ourselves and for others—so that tomorrow, and the days after that, we’ll all be in the best position to stay healthy and successful.

Brian Kropp, Group Vice President at Gartner, and Deb Bubb, Head of Leadership, Learning, and Inclusion at IBM, discuss the growing importance of inclusive habits at work: respecting people’s capacity to get things done, the challenges of playing multiple roles, and helping teams see that they really are in this together.

Amy Schultz, Director of Organizational Effectiveness & Learning at DTE Energy, and Rebecca Port, VP of Talent at Netflix, represent two essential services during a crisis—perhaps in their own way. In this episode, Amy and Rebecca touch on their approach to giving employees a sense of certainty, autonomy, and relatedness in the way leaders focus their teams.

Tracy Keogh, CHRO at HP, and Dean Carter, Head of Finance, Legal, and HR at Patagonia, are dealing with different challenges at their organizations these days. But what you’ll hear from each leader echoes the same point: During a crisis, it’s people—not business goals or numbers—that need to come first.

Modern working life is overrun with distractions, obligations, and burnout. Arianna Huffington, author and CEO of Thrive Global, has made it her mission to infuse more humanity into how work gets done. In this week’s episode, Arianna sits down with Dr. David Rock, NLI Co-Founder and CEO, to explore the problem of being “always on” and offer leaders strategies to make their own organizations more human.

The most dangerous sound in any organization is silence. And yet, for many of us, speaking up is one of the hardest things to do at work. In this week’s episode, Assistant Professor of Management and Diversity at the Free University of Berlin Dr. Mona Weiss discusses her research around “employee voice.” She explains why personality alone can’t explain why some people keep quiet and why others make themselves heard, and offers research-backed tips to get everyone more engaged.

No one wants to be told they need fixing, and yet this is the impression so many diversity and inclusion programs leave on employees. According to Randall Tucker, Chief Inclusion Officer at Mastercard, the smarter way to gain people’s buy-in is to frame D&I as an extension of an organization’s business goals. That way, Randall says, leaders can help people see D&I as a tool for building their skills, not correcting their flaws.

It’s among the most heart-stopping questions a person can receive at work: Can I give you some feedback? But research shows it doesn’t have to be so dread-inducing. Done right, feedback can spark transformation. On this week’s episode, Liz Friedman, Senior Director of Global Performance & Development at Microsoft, shares how America’s most valuable company is learning to make self-improvement an active effort through smarter feedback.

Lynda Gratton believes the human experience is fundamentally shifting. It’s moving away from the three-stage life of education, career, and retirement, and instead moving into what she calls a “multi-stage life,” whereby people learn, work, and relax over many decades, well into old age. On this episode, discover how Lynda sees the future playing out in discussion with NLI’s Co-Founder and CEO, Dr. David Rock.

No one likes to feel like a number. And yet, so many organizations use rigid, ratings-based approaches for tracking employees’ performance. Rob Ollander-Krane, Director of Talent Planning and Performance at Gap Inc., has for years decided to take his teams in a different direction — namely, by killing performance ratings. In this episode, discover how Rob’s bold decision has ushered in a brand-new world of work.

To help employees learn new skills, IBM knows those people need to feel connected to their work. Which is why for the past few years, Deb Bubb, IBM’s Chief Leadership and Learning Officer, has sought to create more tight-knit communities within the company. That means more women. More people of color. And more cohesion overall. Listen in as Deb shares her progress and philosophies in adapting to this reskilling revolution.

For thousands of years, humans have used storytelling to share their truths and connect with others. And yet, as so many of today’s organizations continue to diversify, leaders still struggle to include a range of perspectives, even for critical decisions. Award-winning journalist Soledad O’Brien shares her thoughts on our collective need to get a bit more personal.

Patagonia, the clothing company beloved for its mountain-ready apparel, has a vision for changing not just everything about human resources, but about how we do business — and it might just save us all. Dean Carter, Patagonia’s CHRO, joins us to discuss the fascinating crossovers between agriculture and human-centered management.

FD Wilder, recently retired after 38 years as the Global Head of Innovation at P&G, believes the fastest learner prevails in the end. In this episode, FD shares the approach Procter & Gamble has taken in this new fight for consumer dollars to develop the products that millions of people use every day.