Disruption Through Smart Growth (ft. Whitney Johnson)

04/04/22 • 29 min

One of the things we discuss on this show often is what the future will look like. Another key theme we keep coming back to is how individuals and companies can increase their impact so they can build the future they’re looking to create.

To that end, there was a book that came out right at the beginning of the year you might’ve missed, and I sure hope you didn’t. The book is SMART GROWTH: How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company, and it’s by Whitney Johnson, who’s CEO of Disruption Advisors, #8 on the Thinkers50 list of leading business thinkers in the world, and host of the popular Disrupt Yourself podcast. I talk to her about the concept of Smart Growth, how individuals and companies take stock of where they are now in order to help figure out where they ought to go next, how the Great Resignation is tied into the ideas she discusses in her book, and much more.

As always, we welcome your feedback. Please make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play - and make sure to follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn!

As always, we welcome your feedback. Please make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play - and make sure to follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn!

Previous Episode

Forecasting the Future Through Imagination (ft. Jane McGonigal)

What if we could imagine the future and even plan for it? What if there was a way to feel secure while still bracing for the next “unthinkable” event? What if we could still feel hope for the future while squarely facing its challenges? Jane McGonigal believes we can imagine the “unimaginable.” Why is she so confident? In 2008 and 2010, McGonigal and her team at the Institute of the Future ran simulations that predicted human behavior in the face of a hypothetical global respiratory pandemic in precise detail, from social distancing to masking to wildfires and even the spread of disinformation, conspiracy theories, and the unbridgeable political divide. Cut to 2020/2021, and not only were McGonigal’s predictions proven correct, but her findings have also shown that the participants in the simulation found themselves less shell shocked when COVID-19 hit. And I thought we could all stand to learn from her.

Jane is a future forecaster and a world-renowned designer of alternate reality games that are designed to improve real lives and solve real problems— andin her spare time, she’s the New York Times bestselling author of Reality Is Broken and SuperBetter, and her TED talks have more than 15 million views. I talk to her today about IMAGINABLE: How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything—Even Things That Seem Impossible Today, which came out this week.

I talk to her about getting better at imagining the unimaginable, why facial recognition technologies and climate change stand to have an impact on the years ahead, and the concept of urgent optimism. This is one of my favorites in recent memory, and I think it’ll be one of yours as well—so let’s jump right in!

As always, we welcome your feedback. Please make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play - and make sure to follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn!

Next Episode

The Shame Industrial Complex (ft. data scientist & author Cathy O' Neil)

Cathy O'Neil is a mathematician, data scientist, and author. She’s written books on data science, including the New York Times best-seller Weapons of Math Destruction, which is an influential source for the Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence community—and where I first started following her work.

She’s now the author of The Shame Machine: Who Profits in the New Age of Humiliation, which just came out a week or two back, and I’m excited to talk to her all about it, including what exactly a shame machine is, what’s the difference between punching up and punching down, and even if shame can be a good think and lead to societal growth.

As always, we welcome your feedback. Please make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play - and make sure to follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn!