Growth Hacking Culture

Ivan Palomino
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Self-Improvement
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The Growth Hacking Culture Podcast is a series of insightful interviews with prominent experts on mindsets, skills and mental resources to grow individually, lead motivated teams and create human-centric work cultures. These episodes are about thought provoking ideas to scale up and growth hack human-centric and performing work cultures. Hosted by Ivan Palomino.

  1. How HR Leaders Can Actually Use AI to Kill Admin Work (2026) with John Sansoucie

    Jun 8

    How HR Leaders Can Actually Use AI to Kill Admin Work (2026) with John Sansoucie

    AI use in HR climbed to 43% in 2026, yet most HR leaders still spend the majority of their day on spreadsheets, manual reconciliations, and transactional work that adds zero strategic value. In this episode of the Growth Hacking Culture Podcast, John Sansoucie, CEO of Cognet, shares a practical roadmap for HR leaders who want to implement AI in HR, eliminate admin overload, and finally operate as a strategic function inside their organization. If you are searching for real HR technology strategy advice that goes beyond vendor demos and buzzwords, this conversation delivers exactly that. John has spent years helping small and mid-market organizations build AI-powered HR functions that reduce costs, improve hiring quality, and free up time for culture and people development.   What you will learn in this episode: Why HR is lagging behind finance and other functions in AI adoption in 2026 and what to do about it. How to use AI automation tools to eliminate transactional HR tasks like benefits reconciliation, payroll checks, and compliance tracking. What predictive hiring with AI actually looks like and how to use it to reduce costly unwanted turnover. The biggest risks of implementing AI in HR including data security, overpromising vendors, and failed rollouts. How to evaluate AI tools for HR professionals without technical expertise. Practical first steps for HR leaders with no background in technology who want to start today. John Sansoucie is the CEO of Cognet, an HR outsourcing and AI solutions company helping organizations turn AI into measurable business results. He brings 35 years of experience across HR outsourcing, finance, and operations. 🔗 Connect with John: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-sansoucie-033b20/ 🌐 Cognet: https://www.cognethro.com/    Subscribe to the Growth Hacking Culture Podcast for weekly conversations on AI in the workplace, HR leadership, and the future of work. #AIinHR #HRAutomation #HRLeadership #HRTechnology #FutureOfWork #HumanResourcesStrategy #AItools #HRtech #PeopleAnalytics #HRDigitalTransformation

    35 min
  2. HR Leaders Will Soon Manage Humans and Agents. Most Aren't Ready. | Tami Rosen

    Jun 2

    HR Leaders Will Soon Manage Humans and Agents. Most Aren't Ready. | Tami Rosen

    The job description for HR leader just changed. Again. Not the version that added culture after COVID. Not the version that added AI literacy after ChatGPT. The version that nobody has written yet — the one where you are responsible for a workforce that is part human, part agent, and entirely your problem to lead effectively. Most HR leaders are not ready for this. Not because they lack intelligence or intention. Because the function has spent decades being handed other people's problems and called a support function for it. And you cannot build the commercial acumen, the technical fluency, and the strategic credibility required to lead in a human-machine era if you are still running nine-month performance review cycles and buying SAP modules to solve problems that didn't need a SAP module. Tami Rosen has led HR at Apple, Goldman Sachs, Atlassian, Luminar Technologies and Pagaya. She is writing a book called Superhuman Companies. Her argument is not gentle: people strategy is business strategy. And the organizations — and the HR leaders — who haven't internalized that are already behind. In this conversation with Ivan Palomino, Tami gets direct about what actually separates strategic HR from administrative HR, why the apprenticeship model is the only thing that genuinely works for AI skill development, how the Continuous Learning Cycle replaced performance reviews at Pagaya and got 100% employee participation, and what it means to lead a blended workforce before the industry has figured out the playbook. In this episode: Why COVID was the moment HR stepped into the spotlight — and what it has to do now to stay there The four pillars of a superhuman company that stands the test of any crisis Why the apprenticeship model beats every AI training program ever built How to replace the performance review with something that actually develops people The first thing every HR leader should kill to become more strategic immediately Why every business problem eventually becomes a people problem at scale How to think about building vs buying in an HR tech ecosystem full of shiny objects This one is for the HR leader who knows the function needs to change and wants to understand exactly what that change looks like in practice — from someone who has already done it at some of the world's most demanding companies. Connect with Tami Rosen: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamirosen/ Book: Superhuman Companies — coming soon 📘 Ivan Palomino's new book (French version) is now available: Périmé?: La science de rester indispensable quand le marché préfère le neuf → https://amzn.eu/d/08VSK1OA    Growth Hacking Culture is a top 5% global podcast hosted by Ivan Palomino, exploring the neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral science behind leadership and workplace performance.

    40 min
  3. Stop Measuring Culture. Start Changing It. How AI Makes the Difference | Omar Shbaro

    May 27

    Stop Measuring Culture. Start Changing It. How AI Makes the Difference | Omar Shbaro

    Most HR leaders already know the survey isn't working. They know because they've seen the same deck three years in a row. They know because the workshops got scheduled and nothing changed. They know because the employees who participated last year are participating again this year with slightly less enthusiasm and exactly the same frustrations. And yet the survey gets launched again. Because it's what you do. Because the contract renews. Because nobody has been given a credible alternative. Omar Shbaro has spent years building that alternative. As CTO of VAI Solutions and creator of CultureSim, he starts from a premise that most of the industry quietly avoids: measuring culture and changing culture are two completely different jobs. And until organizations treat them that way, the cycle doesn't break. In this conversation with Ivan Palomino, Omar breaks down why traditional surveys produce culture noise instead of readable signals, how AI can finally do what no consultant or dashboard has managed to do — listen to what people actually say and translate it into specific action at three different levels of the organization — and why the most powerful shift an HR leader can make right now has nothing to do with buying better data. In this episode: Why culture is a behavioral problem not a reporting problem — and what that changes How AI removes the human bias that distorts most culture diagnostics The difference between culture noise and readable signals — and why it matters for action How CultureSim works at individual, manager and organizational level simultaneously Why there is always a human in the loop — AI advises, it never decides The one question every HR leader should be asking instead of launching another survey Why imperfect action taken today beats perfect data collected next quarter This one is for the HR leader who has sat in enough culture debriefs to know something is broken — and is ready to hear what actually works instead. Connect with Omar Shbaro: LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/omarshbaro  Email: omar@vaisolutions.ai  Website: https://vaisolutions.ai   📘 Ivan Palomino is launching his new book in french: Expired? The Science of Staying Indispensable in a World Obsessed with New → https://www.ivanpalomino.net/perime-livre-ivan-palomino Growth Hacking Culture is a top 5% global podcast hosted by Ivan Palomino, exploring the neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral science behind leadership and workplace performance.

    35 min
  4. The System Is Pushing Out Your Best People. Here's Why Age Is the Hidden Culprit | Lucy Standing

    May 24

    The System Is Pushing Out Your Best People. Here's Why Age Is the Hidden Culprit | Lucy Standing

    Most organizations lose their most experienced people without ever understanding why. Not through dramatic exits or public conflicts. Through a quiet, cumulative process of being overlooked, underinvested in, and gradually made to feel that what they bring no longer fits. And by the time anyone notices, the knowledge, judgment, and institutional memory they carried has walked out the door with them. Lucy Standing has spent years studying exactly this. As founder of Brave Starts — one of the UK's leading communities for over-50 professionals navigating career transitions — and author of The Age Against the Machine, she makes a case that most organizations aren't ready to hear: ageism isn't a collection of individual biases. It's a structural system. And until we name the machine, we can't dismantle it. In this conversation with Ivan Palomino, Lucy breaks down the forces driving experienced professionals out of the workforce — from retirement policies designed for a world that no longer exists, to recruitment processes that structurally filter out anyone with grey hair — and what individuals and organizations can actually do about it. What this episode covers: The invisibility paradox: why experience becomes simultaneously more valuable and less visible Why the CV has a 0.06 correlation with job performance — and why nothing has changed The self-fulfilling prophecy of ageist stereotypes and how to break the cycle Why older workers are actually closing the AI skills gap faster than younger colleagues The three challenges over-50 professionals bring to Brave Starts most consistently Why nobody should fully retire — and what the science says about purpose and cognitive health How to navigate a system that hasn't caught up — without waiting for it to This episode is for the experienced professional who knows they still have their best work ahead of them. And for the HR leader or executive who suspects their organization is losing more than it realizes. Connect with Lucy Standing: bravestarts.com Book: The Age Against the Machine  LinkedIn: Lucy Standing   📘 Ivan Palomino is launching his new book (FRENCH edition): Périmé? La science de rester indispensable quand le marché préfère le neuf → https://www.ivanpalomino.net/perime-livre-ivan-palomino

    42 min
  5. What Zappos Knew About Trust and Failure That Most Companies Still Refuse to Learn | Megan Petrini

    May 19

    What Zappos Knew About Trust and Failure That Most Companies Still Refuse to Learn | Megan Petrini

    Most organizations say they have a safe to fail culture. Then someone actually fails. And you find out very quickly whether they meant it. Megan Petrini spent years at Zappos — one of the boldest cultural experiments in corporate history — watching the difference between an organization that genuinely treats failure as data and one that just puts it on the values poster. As a certified professional in talent development, a trust at work practitioner, and author of Manage to Fail, she has spent 16 years studying the habits that quietly destroy team trust and the conditions that actually rebuild it. The gap between those two things is where most organizations live permanently. Where new hires lose confidence before they've found their footing. Where unclear expectations create invisible failure traps. Where managers move meetings, disappear under pressure, and wonder why their team stopped coming to them. In this conversation with Ivan Palomino, Megan gets direct about what Zappos did differently — including a million-dollar pricing mistake that became a masterclass in what real psychological safety looks like under pressure — and what it would actually cost most organizations to mean what they say about failure. In this episode: The single most common trust-destroying habit managers don't realize they have Why the 70-20-10 rule exists and why most L&D programs ignore the only part that matters How to tell whether a company's safe-to-fail culture is real before you join it Why perfectionism in leadership kills momentum faster than any mistake ever could The three pillars of employee engagement — and why a ping pong table isn't one of them What the Zappos CFO said to the employee who cost the company millions in one night This one is for the HR leader, the L&D practitioner, and the manager who genuinely wants to build a team where failure makes people better — not smaller. Connect with Megan Petrini: managetofail.com | megan@managetofail.com | Book: Manage to Fail — available now   📘 Ivan Palomino is launching his new book: Expired? The Science of Staying Indispensable in a World Obsessed with New  Growth Hacking Culture is a top 5% global podcast hosted by Ivan Palomino, exploring the human side of leadership and workplace performance.

    49 min
  6. Stop Blaming Resistance: What Actually Kills Organizational Change | Jeff Wetherhold

    May 12

    Stop Blaming Resistance: What Actually Kills Organizational Change | Jeff Wetherhold

    Seven out of eight organizational changes fail. Not because the strategy was wrong. Not because the timeline was unrealistic. Not because the employees were difficult. Because nobody on the leadership team knew how to have the real conversation that change requires. Not the announcement. Not the update. The one where you sit with someone's ambivalence, listen to what's underneath the pushback, and help them find their own reasons to move forward. Jeff Wetherhold has spent over 20 years studying exactly this gap. As a Harvard-trained behavioral science researcher, certified change practitioner, and founder of Change with Dignity, he has trained thousands of leaders across healthcare, government, and organizations including MIT on what genuinely moves people through change — without losing them in the process. His argument is direct and backed by data: disengagement and turnover are not the inevitable price of change. They are the price of communication left to chance. And until organizations treat change as a communication problem first — not a planning problem, not a framework problem — the 88% failure rate isn't going anywhere. In this conversation with Ivan Palomino, Jeff breaks down why the language of resistance does more harm than good, how motivational interviewing gives leaders a completely different path forward, and what behavioral science tells us about ambivalence that most change programs completely ignore. In this episode: Why employees aren't resistant — they're rational, and there's a crucial difference The 11x and 19x amplification effect that determines whether people talk themselves into or out of change Why selling change always backfires — and what genuine engagement actually looks like How introverts can lead change conversations more powerfully than they think The one question to ask any change management consultant before you hire them What culture actually is — and why a workshop will never change it on its own This one is for the HR leader, change practitioner, or executive who suspects the field has been selling partial solutions to authentic problems — and is ready for something that actually works. Connect with Jeff Wetherhold: https://www.jeffwetherhold.com/ LinkedIn: Jeff Wetherhold Change with Dignity   📘 Ivan Palomino is launching his new book, written IN FRENCH: Périmé? La science de rester indispensable quand le marché préfère le neuf → It is now available https://amzn.eu/d/0glpiU2r

    40 min
  7. The Scoreboard Doesn't Lie: How to Build a Team That Wins Consistently | Jamison Carrier

    May 5

    The Scoreboard Doesn't Lie: How to Build a Team That Wins Consistently | Jamison Carrier

    Most leaders think they have a talent problem. They don't. They have a clarity problem. When winning isn't defined, performance becomes an opinion. And when performance becomes an opinion, the wrong people get rewarded — not because the system is broken, but because nobody built a scoreboard in the first place. Jamison Carrier has spent decades doing the unglamorous work of building performance-driven teams across some of the most competitive environments in business. As founder of Team NavX and author of Building a Championship Team, he's seen every version of this problem play out — and he knows exactly where it starts. It starts with assumption. The assumption that your best interviewer is your best performer. That your most visible person is your most valuable one. That you can turn an average performer into a top performer if you just coach them hard enough. In this conversation with Ivan Palomino, Jamison gets direct about what actually separates top performers from everyone else — the behavioral signals that almost never lie, why skills are trainable but behaviors aren't, and what it really means to build a team rather than a family. In this episode: The difference between interviewability and actual performance — and why it costs organizations dearly Hungry, humble and smart: what each trait genuinely looks like in practice Why autonomy and accountability are not opposites — and how top performers need both The Peter Principle trap: how promoting your best people destroys two roles at once Why mediocrity doesn't survive because of bad systems — it survives because leaders choose comfort over truth This one is for the leader who suspects they've been measuring the wrong things — and is ready to build something that actually works. Connect with Jamison Carrier: www.jamisoncarrier.com  Book: Building a Championship Team — available on Amazon   📘 Ivan Palomino is launching his new book: Expired? The Science of Staying Indispensable in a World Obsessed with New → www.ivanpalomino.net/expired-book-ivan-palomino  Growth Hacking Culture is a top 5% global podcast hosted by Ivan Palomino, exploring the human side of leadership and workplace performance.

    37 min
  8. The Communication Gap Nobody Talks About: How to Lead and Be Heard Across Every Generation

    Apr 28

    The Communication Gap Nobody Talks About: How to Lead and Be Heard Across Every Generation

    There's a conversation happening in most organizations that nobody is having out loud. Experienced professionals going quiet in meetings. Younger leaders assuming everyone speaks the same language. Messages that land perfectly with one part of the team and completely miss another. And somewhere in the middle, a slow leak of engagement, trust, and performance that shows up on the bottom line long before anyone names the cause. Lee Caraher has spent decades at this exact intersection. As a CEO, author, and one of the clearest voices on multigenerational leadership, she's watched the same communication breakdowns play out across industries, company sizes, and cultures — and she knows exactly where they start. It starts with an assumption. The belief that because you said it, everyone understood it the same way. That "end of day" means the same thing to a 55-year-old as it does to a 28-year-old. That appreciation looks the same for everyone. That experienced professionals will keep raising their hands forever, even when nobody seems to be listening. In this conversation with Ivan Palomino, Lee gets into the specific habits, blind spots, and mindset shifts that determine whether a multigenerational team performs or quietly falls apart. In this episode: Why specificity — not sensitivity training — is the real fix for generational communication The appreciation languages that actually move people, and why a paycheck isn't one of them How to arc every career so your most experienced people stay valuable and engaged Why staying relevant after 50 isn't optional — and what brain science says about your capacity to do it What leaders owe every generation on their team — and what each generation owes themselves This one is for the leader managing a team that spans 30 years of lived experience. And for the experienced professional wondering whether the organization still has room for what they bring. Connect with Lee Caraher: leecaraher.com | double-forte.com Books: Millennials and Management | The Boomerang Principle 📘 Ivan Palomino is launching his new book: Expired? The Science of Staying Indispensable in a World Obsessed with New → https://www.ivanpalomino.net/expired-book-ivan-palomino   The Growth Hacking Culture is a top 5% global podcast hosted by Ivan Palomino, exploring the human side of leadership and workplace performance.

    55 min
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The Growth Hacking Culture Podcast is a series of insightful interviews with prominent experts on mindsets, skills and mental resources to grow individually, lead motivated teams and create human-centric work cultures. These episodes are about thought provoking ideas to scale up and growth hack human-centric and performing work cultures. Hosted by Ivan Palomino.

Information

  • Creator
    Ivan Palomino
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    100
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 All rights reserved Ivan Palomino.
  • Show Website
    Growth Hacking Culture