Future Ready Leadership With Jacob Morgan

Jacob Morgan
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Are you ready to lead in the future of work? Most leaders aren't! Join 5x best-selling author & futurist Jacob Morgan as he interviews the world's top CEOs, best-selling authors, and leading thinkers to bring you the insights, strategies, and tools you need to become a future ready leader. Guests include CEOs from Best Buy, Netflix, Hyatt, and GE as well as leading thinkers like Seth Godin, Dan Pink, Yuval Harari, and Marshall Goldsmith. This is the world's #1 podcast to lead in the future of work! Watch the videos on Youtube: bit.ly/406fmFP IG: https://www.instagram.com/jacobmorgan8/ LI: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobmorgan8 TW: https://twitter.com/jacobm W: https://thefutureorganization.com/

  1. 1D AGO

    How NRG Balanced Cultural Preservation and Strategic Growth During a High-Stakes Acquisition

    What happens when activist investors call your multi-billion dollar acquisition the "single worst deal of the decade"? Most leadership teams would panic, but NRG Energy did the opposite: they doubled down on their people. While most large-scale acquisitions look great on a spreadsheet, they often fail because leadership loses sight of the human energy behind the numbers. In this episode, Peter Johnson, SVP and Head of Talent and Culture at NRG, reveals how his team navigated the acquisition of Vivint—a deal that tripled their workforce to 16,000 employees and was publicly condemned by activist investors as the "single worst deal" in the sector. While the announcement triggered a 25% stock crash, their leadership's commitment to a strategic "North Star" and a "don't crush the butterfly" cultural philosophy eventually drove a staggering 420% stock recovery. Peter explores the raw challenges of an 18-month integration, from the technical hurdles of migrating 16,000 employees between competing HR systems to the deeply emotional task of harmonizing job titles across disparate industries. By prioritizing the "why" behind the change and fostering a unified "One NRG" identity, the company successfully blended traditional corporate discipline with tech-forward innovation, nearly doubling employee engagement and proving that human-centric leadership is a massive financial win. If you're a CHRO, this episode shows what real value creation looks like when people come first.   ---------- Start your day with the world's top leaders by joining thousands of others at Great Leadership on Substack. Just enter your email: ⁠⁠https://greatleadership.substack.com/ Quick heads-up: my new book, The 8 Laws of Employee Experience, is a practical playbook for building an environment where people do their best work—preorder a copy here: 8EXlaws.com

    51 min
  2. You Might Also Like: Possible

    1D AGO · BONUS

    You Might Also Like: Possible

    Introducing Reid Riffs with Parth Patil on AI-Native Startups (Part 3 of 3) from Possible. Follow the show: Possible This episode is our third and final installment of a special, three-part Reid Riffs miniseries focused on what it actually means to become AI-native. In this episode, Parth shares how founders can rethink work by breaking problems into modular pieces, orchestrating AI agents in parallel, and collapsing timelines that once required entire teams days of iteration. Using real-world examples like coding agents that tackle week-long engineering challenges to reimagining how content can be localized across languages and regional markets, the conversation explores how AI enables small teams to operate with outsized leverage. Along the way, Reid and Parth discuss what separates real AI traction from “AI theater,” how founding teams are evolving, and why the most powerful AI often works best when it fades into the background, quietly amplifying human creativity and ambition. For more info on the podcast and transcripts of all the episodes, visit https://www.possible.fm/podcast/ DISCLAIMER: Please note, this is an independent podcast episode not affiliated with, endorsed by, or produced in conjunction with the host podcast feed or any of its media entities. The views and opinions expressed in this episode are solely those of the creators and guests. For any concerns, please reach out to team@podroll.fm.

  3. Part 2: The Futurist Framework Every Leader Needs for an AI-Driven Future of Work

    3D AGO

    Part 2: The Futurist Framework Every Leader Needs for an AI-Driven Future of Work

    January 30, 2026: The future of work is accelerating—and for many leaders, it feels overwhelming. Political shifts, new laws, rapid advances in AI, rising ethical expectations, and changing employee demands are all converging at once. The volume of change can make it feel like you're stuck on a treadmill that keeps getting faster. But here's the reality: not every trend deserves your attention. In this episode, I walk through how external forces—political, legal, and ethical—are reshaping the employee experience, from pay transparency and AI governance to data privacy, workplace monitoring, and evolving expectations of leadership. I also explain why compliance is no longer just an HR or legal responsibility—it's becoming a shared leadership mandate. More importantly, I share why trends aren't truths. Just because something is happening doesn't mean you should chase it.

    30 min
  4. One Employee Replaces Teams At Meta, AI Writes the Code, & Companies Are Hiring Storytellers!?

    4D AGO

    One Employee Replaces Teams At Meta, AI Writes the Code, & Companies Are Hiring Storytellers!?

    January 29, 2026: Today a series of stories made it impossible to ignore how fast work is changing. Meta says AI now allows one employee to do the work of entire teams. Engineers at Anthropic and OpenAI say AI writes nearly 100% of their code. Amazon and Dow announced thousands of job cuts as they restructure for efficiency. And at the same time, companies are hiring storytellers to help cut through the growing flood of AI-generated content. In this episode of Future Ready Today, I connect the dots across these developments and explain what they reveal about shrinking teams, disappearing roles, changing career paths, and the rising importance of human skills in an AI-driven world. These aren't isolated headlines — they're signals of a deeper shift in how companies are redesigning work right now. I break down what's actually happening inside organizations, share the data behind these changes, and offer a futurist lens on what this all means for leaders, employees, and anyone trying to stay future ready.

    23 min
  5. The Futurist Framework Every Leader Needs for an AI-Driven Future of Work

    5D AGO

    The Futurist Framework Every Leader Needs for an AI-Driven Future of Work

    January 28, 2026: In today's episode, I zoom out to help you see what's really shaping the future of work. Before we talk about AI, leadership, or organizational strategy, we need to understand the forces happening outside our companies. Because work doesn't evolve in isolation—it's shaped by powerful external trends in technology, society, economics, and more. That's why I walk through the STEEPLE framework: a futurist tool designed to help leaders move from reacting to predicting—and from predicting to designing. STEEPLE stands for Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political, Legal, and Ethical forces. Together, these seven domains explain how work is changing and what leaders need to prepare for over the next five-plus years, especially in an AI-driven world. We explore how AI is becoming the central nervous system of organizations, why skills are replacing job titles, how identity and purpose are reshaping careers, and why the economic contract between employers and employees is being rewritten in real time. I also share why the future of work isn't something organizations "deliver" to employees—it's something that's co-created, requiring accountability on both sides. If you're trying to make sense of rapid technological change, shifting employee expectations, and what leadership really means in the age of AI, this episode gives you a practical framework to understand what's coming—and how to design for it.

    28 min
  6. Gartner Warns AI Will Make Decisions Worse — CEOs Keep Buying It Anyway

    6D AGO

    Gartner Warns AI Will Make Decisions Worse — CEOs Keep Buying It Anyway

    January 27, 2026: Executives say AI is making work more efficient. Employees say it's barely saving time. Gartner warns that overreliance on AI will actually lead to worse decisions. And one of the world's leading AI CEOs says the real risks are arriving faster than society is prepared for. In today's episode of Future Ready Today, I break down four stories that, together, reveal what's really happening at work in the age of AI: A 5,000-year historical lens from Forbes Tech Council on how every major technology shift redefines what humans are valuable for — and why AI is no different, just faster. A new warning from Gartner that by 2030, 30% of organizations will see worse decision-making because employees are relying on AI before developing judgment. Reporting from the Wall Street Journal showing a growing gap between executives who believe AI is boosting productivity and employees who experience more rework, confusion, and an "AI tax" on their time. A sobering essay from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who argues that AI is entering its "adolescent" phase — powerful, fast-moving, and increasingly difficult to govern. Grab a copy of my new book: https://8exlaws.com/  Request to join my CHRO group: https://futureofworkleaders.com/  Join my Non-CHRO group: https://employeeexperienceleaders.com/

    29 min

  7. JAN 26

    Why Using AI for Short Term Efficiency Might Be Accidentally Killing Your Future Leaders W/ Melanie Tinto, CHRO of Grainger

    AI can handle entry-level tasks today, but at what cost to your future leadership? Many companies are accidentally "hollowing out" their talent pipeline by cutting junior roles, creating a massive gap that will haunt them in five years. Efficiency today shouldn't come at the expense of your leaders tomorrow. How do we thoughtfully architect the future workforce to prioritize the health and depth of the leadership bench? In this episode, Melanie Tinto, CHRO of Grainger, joins us to explore how the company utilizes Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP) to ensure a "tech powered, human led" organization that balances automation with career development. This discipline informs every aspect of Grainger's talent strategy, from navigating the impact of AI to addressing talent shortages. We look into the necessity of viewing workforce planning as a mirror to financial planning, focusing on the strategic migration of roles and skills rather than simple headcount reduction. Key highlights include managing the surge of AI-generated job applications, the importance of foundational talent programs such as maintaining the campus recruiting "spigot," and transitioning toward a skills-based organization through internal upskilling and "build vs. buy" strategies. This episode is the CHROs' blueprint to become strategic visionaries who stay three moves ahead of market disruption. Discover how to master these critical "chess moves" before the talent gap becomes irreversible.   ---------- Start your day with the world's top leaders by joining thousands of others at Great Leadership on Substack. Just enter your email: ⁠⁠https://greatleadership.substack.com/ Future-ready organizations are built, not hoped for. My latest book, -The 8 Laws of Employee Experience shows how. Preorder here: 8EXlaws.com

    53 min
  8. Citi's 'Results Over Effort' Message Signals the End of Comfortable Work—Amazon Follows

    JAN 23

    Citi's 'Results Over Effort' Message Signals the End of Comfortable Work—Amazon Follows

    January 23, 2026: In this episode of Future Ready Today, I unpack why Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser's blunt "results over effort" message is such an important signal—and why it marks the end of comfortable work far beyond Wall Street. Citi's job cuts and cultural reset aren't about short-term cost savings; they reflect a broader shift toward harder performance standards, fewer layers, and much less tolerance for ambiguity. I connect that message to Amazon's continued flattening of corporate roles, the growing "sink-or-swim" reality many employees are feeling across industries, and what global leaders at Davos are quietly admitting about jobs, competition, and adaptability in an AI-driven world. I also explore why the lack of consensus among AI leaders themselves is pushing responsibility back onto human judgment and leadership.

    26 min
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Are you ready to lead in the future of work? Most leaders aren't! Join 5x best-selling author & futurist Jacob Morgan as he interviews the world's top CEOs, best-selling authors, and leading thinkers to bring you the insights, strategies, and tools you need to become a future ready leader. Guests include CEOs from Best Buy, Netflix, Hyatt, and GE as well as leading thinkers like Seth Godin, Dan Pink, Yuval Harari, and Marshall Goldsmith. This is the world's #1 podcast to lead in the future of work! Watch the videos on Youtube: bit.ly/406fmFP IG: https://www.instagram.com/jacobmorgan8/ LI: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobmorgan8 TW: https://twitter.com/jacobm W: https://thefutureorganization.com/

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