Collective Effervescence

Will AI replace managers, or. make them more necessary? Will it make anonymous feedback better or worse? Alan and Candace revisit enablement versus entitlement in the age of AI, plus a movie review, the word of the year, and, of course, Halloween.

Getting feedback from your teams can be incredibly valuable, but what happens when that feedback is less than helpful? In this episode, Candace and Alan explore ways to encourage the right kind of feedback, the importance of both knowing how to tell your story and hear the stories of others, and whether or not Thanksgiving is- or even should be- restorative.

It's officially fall (to Candace, at least), which means your teams are kicking into high gear. How do you ensure they're able to do sustain that performance through the busy season? In this episode, Candace and Alan talk about how you preserve capacity, if you should reward people for not being terrible humans, and if your legacy cultural artifacts are still serving you.

It's the end of August, which means fall is around the corner... right? In this episode, Alan and Candace dive back into cognitive load, and when and how you should make space for someone else's burden. When fall actually begins, are teens regressing, and the unexpected community of solo travel- all in this episode!

There's so much going on, but how much of it is new? What if we tuned things out for a couple of weeks- what's actually changed when we return? In this episode, Alan and Candace dive into this, and how it might impact the cognitive load we're all trying to manage. All this plus getting ruthless, a missed storytelling opportunity from FIFA, and, Alan's continued disapproval of seeing men's legs in the office.

When something celebration-worthy happens, sometimes the real joy is found in the crowd around you. In this episode, Candace and Alan dive into the idea of collective effervescence, how leaders might think about the greater good when they need to tighten their belts, and the thrill of stealing fries.

Americans actually have more free time than ever, but it doesn't always feel that way. Does it matter if that free time is spent in increments of minutes? Does it matter if we're having fun? In this episode, Alan and Candace dive into all of this, how we think about community on the cusp of the semiquincentennial, celebrate cat victories, and maybe launch a lifestyle brand.

There's a lot that goes into how we show up as leaders. From the trappings of "wealth" to how we talk about our free time to what we choose to wear (or what we're told we can wear), every decision can shape perceptions- whether we think about them or not. In this episode, Alan and Candace talk about all that and more, bloopers and all.

Lots of things in the news recently seem bleak, but there have also been lots of reasons for hope... or are those reasons to be optimistic? Alan and Candace talk about the act of noticing, and how to look for joy in places we might miss. This, the commercialization of offline get togethers, competency porn, and Alan FINALLY becomes an advocate for better pockets for women's clothes.

Have you ever gotten mired in thinking about something as right or wrong and completely missed the nuances in between? In this episode, Alan and Candace talk about black and white thinking, how mindset impacts aging, and new research on how screentime impacts our next generation.