Your Working Life Caroline Dowd-Higgins

Anne Morriss is an entrepreneur, leadership coach, and founder of the Leadership Consortium, a first-of-its-kind leadership accelerator that works to help emerging leaders thrive. Her collaborators have ranged from early-stage tech founders to Fortune 50 executives to public-sector leaders building national competitiveness. Her recent TED talk, which has had over one million views, focuses on the move fast and fix things approach.
 
Co-Author
Frances Frei is a professor at Harvard Business School. She served as Uber's first Senior Vice President of Leadership and Strategy, helping the company navigate its crisis in leadership and culture. Frei regularly works with companies embarking on large-scale organizational transformation. Her TED talk on the topic of building trust has had over six million views.
https://www.theleadershipconsortium.org/team
 
 
Book title: Move Fast and Fix Things (by Anne Morriss and Frances Frei)
 
Key Messages:
 
Over a decade ago, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg declared they would, “Move fast and break things.” The phrase, legitimizing recklessness, became an informal motto at the tech giant, as well as for thousands of businesses who aspired to be like them. However, leadership experts Frances Frei and Anne Morriss, cohosts of the TED podcast Fixable, are upending that Silicon Valley ethos with a new mandate for businesses: move fast and fix things.
Over the past decade they have helped countless companies create the speed and trust necessary to generate momentum and results. In MOVE FAST & FIX THINGS (October 3, 2023) they share the unique playbook they have developed, from their work with companies from Uber to Riot Games to Walmart. They have helped an exceptional range of businesses become impatient for progress, tackle hard problems, and take decisive action, elevating performance as they go. Their week-long approach lays out a distinct agenda for each day:
 
Monday: Identify the real problem holding you back – Far too often, companies don’t tackle the root issues but instead focus on surface problems that mask what’s really going on. The solution, for Frei and Morriss is to ask tough questions, build a team of problems solvers, and surface major roadblocks to progress. Then, gather new data and listen, really listen, with the curiosity of an anthropologist and the accountability of a leader.
 
Tuesday: Build and rebuild trust in your company – With the confidence that comes from knowing the right problem to solve, running smart experiments to steady trust “wobbles” helps strengthen relationships with key stakeholders.
 
Wednesday: Create a culture where everyone can thrive (aka “make new friends”) – Creating the conditions where everyone can thrive as complex, multidimensional humans can lead to a better change plan—and better performance—by including more and more varied perspectives.
 
Thursday: Communicate powerfully as a leader – Creating change means developing a powerful narrative honoring the past (both the good stuff and the not-so-good), articulating a compelling change mandate, and describing a rigorous and optimistic way forward. Then, telling that story with emotion, again and again, makes it impactful.
 
Friday: Go fast by empowering the team and removing roadblocks. – Leading change with a sense of urgency means empowering others to execute quickly. Clear strategy and a culture of speed are keys to unlocking rapid, enduring change.
Frei and Morriss’s larger message is to: “operate with urgency, be wildly ambitious, fix as much as you can along the way. And while the work of change is sometimes deadly serious, you can avoid the trap of taking yourself seriously.” They explain that while their playbook is meant to create momentum, some steps may take longer than one day to complete, but they provocatively point out how much can be accomplished in even a single day

Morra Aarons-Mele is the host of The Anxious Achiever, a top-10 management podcast that helps people rethink the relationship between their mental health and their leadership. Morra founded Women Online and The Mission List, an award-winning digital-consulting firm and influencer marketing company dedicated to social change in 2010 and sold her businesses in 2021. She helped Hillary Clinton log on for her first internet chat and has launched digital campaigns for President Obama, Malala Yousafzai, the United Nations, the CDC, and many other leading figures and organizations. She lives outside Boston with her family and menagerie. For more details, visit www.theanxiousachiever.com.   
Book synopsis:

Anxiety affects over one third of Americans. But anxiety at work, especially among leaders, has long been a taboo topic hidden in plain sight. Until now.
In THE ANXIOUS ACHIEVER: Turn Your Biggest Fears into Your Leadership Superpower, acclaimed podcast host and author Morra Aarons-Mele transforms anxiety from a perceived weakness to a strength. Anxiety is a normal human response, and by its nature, a major part of leadership, but it is a double-edged sword: When unmanaged, it can be a destructive force – as overwork, perfectionism, micro- management, unhealthy diets, drinking, or substance use all impact today’s workplace experience.  But if harnessed constructively, it can be a catalyst for growth, helping channel superpowers like greater vision, empathy, and communication skills.
Inspired by her popular podcast of the same name, Morra Aarons-Mele has packed THE ANXIOUS ACHIEVER with actionable advice, as well as insights from leading psychologists and other experts, revealing how to:

●             Decode your own anxiety profile to avoid common thought traps and triggers
●             Confront bad habits and unhealthy coping mechanisms
●             Resist perfectionism, manage social anxiety, and set boundaries to prevent burnout
●             Deal with feedback, criticism, and impostor syndrome
●             Model and convey healthy leadership behavior

 
"If you are a high achiever and you know—you just know—that you could achieve even more
and be happier if you could wrestle your anxiety to the ground, this is your playbook."
— Whitney Johnson, Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Smart Growth
 
"Morra Aarons-Mele gently and intelligently guides readers through the different facets of anxiety
and shows us how to tame negative self-talk and experience more joy and more success.
Wise and practical, The Anxious Achiever is a game changer."
— Amy C. Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management, Harvard Business School; author, The Fearless Organization
 
Social channels:
·      https://twitter.com/morraam
·      https://www.linkedin.com/in/morraaaronsmele/
·      https://www.instagram.com/morraam/
 

Megan Keyser is a soloprenuer, digital nomad, and founder of luxury branding agency, Skapande Creative Co.

Skapande Creative Co. Links:
https://www.instagram.com/skapande.creative.co/
https://www.facebook.com/skapande.creative.co
https://twitter.com/TheSkapande
https://www.linkedin.com/company/81923730/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNnY6SGmccZ2VN6LO5t6uYg
#SkapandeCreativeC 
Personal:
 https://www.linkedin.com/in/keysermegan/
https://www.instagram.com/makingit_withmegan
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf6wgsGSOeO8iv9jALNjwUA
 
 

Barbie Brewer, author of Live and Let Lead began her career in Silicon Valley during the dot.com boom of the ’90s and is now an industry-leading expert in developing critical areas of modern business performance and culture, including remote and hybrid workforces. As Chief Culture Officer at GitLab Inc., Brewer contributed to the all-remote SAS company’s growth from 150 employees to over 1,000 in more than 60 countries. She was Vice President of Talent for Netflix when the streaming service expanded from 20 million subscribers to over 150 million. Learn more at https://www.linkedin.com/in/bjbrewer/ ,www.barbiejane.com
 
 
Why Remote Work Can Change Both the Workplace and the World
 
This is a segment about why remote work, and the diversity it allows, is good for business—and good for the world.
 
The big idea: Remote work might have been a reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic, but forward-thinking companies now recognize its potential to transform the workplace by helping employees achieve better work-life balance and by breaking down boundaries.
 
The so-what: All businesses benefit from diversity, and the remote workplace, by eliminating geography in hiring decisions, can open the entire world of talent to hiring managers.
Key messages:
 Rather than pushing back against remote work now that the pandemic has eased, forward-thinking companies recognize its benefits to their business and the world at large. Remote work allows employees more time to nurture their lives outside the workplace, bring those talents to their community, and live happier, more balanced lives.  Remote work means that rather than relying on talent within the business’ geographic area or potential employees’ willingness to relocate, companies can hire the best people regardless of where they live.  This also means that businesses can bring opportunities to all corners of the world, allowing employees to remain engaged with and keep their talents in their communities, strengthening those as well.  SOCIAL MEDIA:
·       https://www.facebook.com/barbiejane/
·       https://www.linkedin.com/in/bjbrewer/ 
·       https://twitter.com/BarbieJBrewer
·       Hashtags: #LeadandLetLive
·       www.barbiejane.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Zeynep Ton is a Practice in the Operations Management group at MIT Sloan School of Management. She is also president of the nonprofit Good Jobs Institute, where she works with companies to improve their operations in a way that satisfies employees, customers, and investors alike. Before joining MIT Sloan, Ton spent seven years on the faculty at Harvard Business School. She is the author of The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs and Boost Profits and The Case for Good Jobs: How Great Companies Bring Dignity, Pay and Meaning to Everyone’s Work.
 
From healthcare facilities to call centers, fulfillment centers to factories, and restaurants to retail stores, companies are struggling to find or keep workers, because the jobs they offer are low-paying, stressful, and provide little chance for growth and success.
 
In THE CASE FOR GOOD JOBS: How Great Companies Bring Dignity, Pay, and Meaning to Everyone’s Work, Zeynep Ton, MIT professor and pre-eminent voice on the good jobs strategy and co- founder of the nonprofit, Good Jobs Institute, lays out plainly what most companies and leaders are doing wrong—and provides a blueprint for how to get it right.
While many leaders want to provide good jobs—that pay more, provide dignity and meaning in people’s work, and offer opportunities for growth—most don’t know how to start, or they don’t think it can be done without hurting the bottom line. Most want to win with customers but are hobbled by a host of service and operational problems largely driven by high employee turnover—which is partly driven by the low pay.
It is indeed a vicious cycle. In THE CASE FOR GOOD JOBS, Ton provides a way out: why good jobs
combined with strong operations lead to higher productivity and increased competitiveness for the business, positioning organizations for future success.
In this follow-up to her previous book, The Good Jobs Strategy, Ton examines the “why” and “how” of the good jobs system—to help leaders and managers overcome the disconnect between recognizing a better model, and having the courage to implement it. Now more than ever— in a post-pandemic world, where baby boomers are retiring, people are having fewer children, and immigration is on the decline— employees and job seekers may have the cards in their favor for a while, a trend that will lead to rising wages.
·       Why market wages aren’t enough and the case for raising frontline worker pay
·       Employee turnover: what drives it and how it costs companies more than most executives
think. Various aspects of a high-turnover system including lack of trust between workers and
executives, work overload and understaffing, lack of autonomy, and low expectations
·       Why higher pay for workers doesn’t mean higher prices for customers. How H-E-B, Costco,
Sam’s Club, Quest Diagnostics and others have embraced the good jobs system to drive
competitiveness.
·       The good jobs system with two mutually dependent components: (1) heavy investment in
people, (2) an operational model that helps workers be more productive and serve customer
better
·       Differences in mindsets between good jobs and bad jobs systems
·       Why involvement of upstream functions such as product design, marketing, and logistics are
necessary to adopting a good jobs system
·       The biggest obstacles to adopting a good jobs system and how courageous leaders have
overcome them
·       How to make large investments in labor in stages so that they begin to pay for themselves
·       Why system change is less risky than what company leaders think
·       Why automation and trends in labor markets including rising minimum wage, fair scheduling,
an aging workforce, rise of employee voice make the good jobs system more attractive

Christina Wallace, a Senior Lecturer of Entrepreneurial Management at Harvard Business School, angel investor, and author of The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build A Life Bigger Than Your Business Card.
 
A self-described "human Venn diagram," Christina Wallace has crafted a career at the intersection of business, technology, and the arts. After a decade as a serial entrepreneur, she joined the faculty of Harvard Business School where she is the course head of the first-year entrepreneurship class and runs the HBS Startup Bootcamp. Her latest book is The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build A Life Bigger Than Your Business Card (Hachette, April 2023). 


A frequent public speaker on topics including entrepreneurship, failure, and women in tech, Christina is also known for her viral TED talk on using a sales funnel for online dating and her TEDx talk about portfolio careers and the future of work. A business and creative non-fiction writer, she co-authored New to Big (Penguin Random House, 2019), a book about corporate innovation, with David Kidder and has been published in Forbes, Quartz, the Detroit Free Press, Time, and ELLE, among others. An enthusiastic-yet-mediocre marathoner and erstwhile mezzo soprano, Christina lives in Cambridge with her husband and two children.
 
WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA: 
·       http://www.christinawallace.com/
·       https://www.portfoliolife.com/
·       https://www.instagram.com/cmwalla/
·       https://twitter.com/cmwalla/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinawallace/