Meikles & Dimes

David Miller spent 18 years as a professor at Princeton University, where he directed the Faith & Work Initiative. Before entering academia, he spent 16 years as a senior executive in international business and finance, including eight years in London. Today, he serves as a senior fellow at the Center of Theological Inquiry and president of the Avodah Institute. His latest book is The 5 Questions for Ethical Decisions: How to Succeed Without Selling Your Soul.  In this episode we discuss the following: I loved David's story about the IBM technician who replaced a $250,000 component even though it wasn't broken. IBM knows that eventually every component will fail, so rather than waiting for something to break, they replaced critical parts before they reached their expected failure point. We are all like the IBM machines in that we all have a mean time to failure. Given enough pressure, stress, or exhaustion, even good people will make bad decisions. And rather than assuming we'll always do the right thing, we should strive to prevent ethical failures before they happen. I also loved the story about David's friend who carried a resignation letter in his pocket for 40 years, as a reminder that he would never compromise his values just to keep his job. Using it three times, he was fired twice, and once promoted. I appreciated David's reminder that ethical decision-making requires looking through three different lenses: rules, consequences, and virtues. What moral principles, rules, or duties should guide our behavior?  What good or harm may result? And what would a virtuous person do? Each perspective helps us see things the others might miss.

Welcome to the new mini-series, AVID. In response to today's reading crisis, I want to help parents raise children who love to read and learn, laying the foundation for a lifetime of success. One of the greatest joys of my life has been reading children's books to our kids. We've read thousands over the years, and they've had a profound impact on our family—from unforgettable adventures to inside jokes and favorite lines we use every day. Because these books have meant so much to us, I decided to interview some of the authors who created them—people who have become heroes in our home. I'll continue releasing regular episodes of Meikles & Dimes each week, but if you're interested in helping children fall in love with reading in today's screen-saturated world, keep an eye out for occasional episodes of AVID on Meikles & Dimes. With that said, here is my first guest on AVID. Kate DiCamillo is one of America's most beloved children's authors and a two-time winner of the prestigious Newbery Medal with 44 million books in print. She has written dozens of books for children, including Because of Winn-Dixie, The Tale of Despereaux, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, Flora & Ulysses, and the popular Mercy Watson series. Her books have received numerous awards, including two Newbery Medals, a Newbery Honor, and the Theodor Seuss Geisel Medal. From 2014 to 2015, Kate served as the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, traveling the country to promote reading and the power of stories to connect people. Her work has touched generations of readers and continues to inspire children and adults around the world. In this episode we discuss the following: When we read with our children, we're creating shared experiences. We're meeting the same characters, visiting the same places, laughing at the same jokes, and feeling the same emotions. And in those moments, we create an environment where both the reader and the listener feel safe, seen, and connected. And that's why Kate believes reading aloud can change lives, and even save lives. I loved Kate's story about one of her favorite questions to ask adults: "Do you remember a teacher reading a particular book aloud to you in elementary school?" She says the question has never failed her. She watches people's faces light up as treasured memories come flooding back. Decades later, people still remember those stories and the teachers who read them. Something else Kate said really struck me. She reminded me that reading aloud isn't just for children. It's also for the elderly, for people in hospitals, and for people who may no longer be able to read for themselves.

Dr. Jay Conger is a leadership professor at Claremont McKenna College. Widely recognized as one of the world’s foremost experts on leadership and persuasion, he has been ranked by Financial Times among the top ten global management educators. He has taught at the Harvard Business School, the London Business School, McGill University and the University of Southern California. Jay teaches executive programs to over 6,500 leaders annually and coaches executives across dozens of Fortune 500 organizations. He is a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review and is the author of sixteen books, including his most recent: The Persuasive Leader. In this episode we discuss the following: I loved Jay’s story about the soccer captain. For months, he had tried unsuccessfully to persuade the school to fix the soccer field. His argument was that the team needed a better field to win the championship. But when he discovered that the decision maker had a background in risk management, he changed his frame. Instead of emphasizing winning, he emphasized injuries and liability. And within days, the school fixed the field. Jay’s four steps to persuasion: First, diagnose whether people actually care about the issue. Second, establish credibility. Third, find the right frame. And fourth, build arguments based on the frame. Different people see problems through different lenses. One person may care about costs, another about customer service, and another about implementation. If we're in a meeting with five decision makers, we may be dealing with five different frames. And the key is to understand what matters to each person and frame our arguments accordingly. Sometimes the best approach isn't to pitch a solution at all. It's to focus on the problem. In Jay's soccer story, the athletic director didn't believe there was a problem, so the captain's proposed solution didn't matter. Once the captain reframed the issue around safety and liability, the athletic director recognized the problem and took action. We tend to overestimate our credibility. Just because we think we're credible doesn't mean the other person sees us that way. We need to establish our credibility before our arguments will carry weight. In summary, effective persuasion begins with understanding our audience. Diagnose what matters to them, establish credibility, find the right frame, and only then build out arguments.

Eric Partaker is a CEO coach, entrepreneur, and expert on leadership and peak performance. He's advised Fortune 50 CEOs at McKinsey & Company, helped build Skype into a multibillion-dollar business, founded several companies, and helped scale more than 600 businesses. In 2019, he was named CEO of the Year at the Business Excellence Forum. His work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and The Economist. And he's also the author of Ultraproductive. In this episode we discuss the following: Most of us think we're focused when we identify the dot on the paper. But real focus requires taking out the scissors and cutting away everything else. Eric's story about LinkedIn is a great example of focus. After spending 20 years building 20,000 followers, he eliminated other distractions and focused exclusively on LinkedIn. Within just over two years, he had more than 1.2 million followers. I also loved Eric's formula of combining 10x ambition with 80/20 execution. When we set much bigger goals, we're forced to think differently about how to achieve them. We can't just do more of the same. We have to identify the few activities that will generate the biggest results. For growing Skype, that meant focusing on both growing their audience, while also identifying who already had the audience they wanted to reach. My favorite insight was the idea of applying the 80/20 rule repeatedly. Once we've identified the 20% that matters most, we can look for the 20% within that 20%. And then do it again.

Christian Poensgen is a scientist, entrepreneur, and executive coach who holds a PhD in the relationship between stress and performance. He previously served as Senior Fellow of a Future of Work think tank in the German Federal Parliament, co-founded the European Center for Digital Competitiveness, and has also contributed to the World Economic Forum. Most recently, he co-authored the book Ultraproductive: The 90-Minute Method to Optimize Focus, Sleep, and Stress, which explores how to improve productivity without sacrificing health and well-being. In this episode we discuss the following:  Quality matters just as much as quantity. We all know this when it comes to nutrition. But it's easy to overlook this principle when it comes to sleep and work. Just because we sleep eight hours doesn't mean we've slept well. Getting enough sleep is necessary, but it isn't sufficient. We also need to prepare for sleep. I loved the metaphor of landing a plane. Preparing for a good night's sleep begins long before we climb into bed. Getting sunlight early in the day and avoiding bright light at night help guide the plane toward a smooth landing. The first five to ten minutes of focused work can be hard for everyone. But we don't have to convince ourselves to work for an hour. We often only have to convince ourselves to work for the first five minutes, because after that, it gets easier. It's important not to check our email or our phone during those first five minutes of work. Otherwise, we can get endlessly stuck in five-minute work sessions and never get to the deep work. Preorder Ultraproductive at https://www.ultraproductive.com/ and get 9 one-page cheat sheets with the book’s most important methods delivered straight to your inbox.

Natalia Emanuel is a research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. She earned her PhD in economics from Harvard University and completed a postdoc at Princeton. Her research has been featured by the BBC, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and NPR's Planet Money, among others. She is also coauthor of the book In Person: How Working Together Fuels Creativity, Productivity, and Growth. In this episode we discuss the following: Working from home can eliminate a commute, increase flexibility, and may even help us be more productive. But Natalia's research highlights some of the costs that are easier to miss. When we work from home, we share less knowledge with colleagues. Younger employees receive less feedback. Senior employees have fewer opportunities to mentor. And maybe most importantly, we don't know what we're missing. We can't measure the conversation we never had or the idea that never surfaced over lunch. What's best for us today may not always be what's best for our team over time.

Emma Harrington is a professor of economics at the University of Virginia and coauthor of the book In Person: How Working Together Fuels Creativity, Productivity, and Growth. Emma earned her PhD in economics from Harvard and completed a postdoc at Princeton. Her research has been published in some of the world’s leading academic journals, including Science, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics. Her work has also been featured by the BBC, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Atlantic’s Good on Paper podcast, and NPR’s Planet Money. In this episode we discuss the following: Productivity is about more than getting things done. Working from home eliminates the commute, can reduce interruptions, and can help us knock things off our to-do list. But Emma’s research made me think about what we miss when we don’t go into the office: the friendships we don’t build, the conversations we don’t have, and the ideas that never get shared. Shark Week was such a great example of an idea born from people talking together. A group of executives sitting around a bar asking, “What would be cool?” Somebody says, “Sharks.” And decades later, Shark Week is still around. Some things simply take time. Emma cited research showing that it can take roughly 160 hours together to build a friendship. The question isn’t whether remote work or in-person work is better. The better question is: What’s the appropriate dose of each based on what I’m trying to accomplish?

Carlos Gutierrez is a Cuban immigrant who rose from selling cereal out of a Kellogg’s van to become the youngest CEO in the company’s history. He later served as U.S. Secretary of Commerce under President George W. Bush and as Vice Chairman of Citigroup. Over the course of his career, Carlos has served on the boards of organizations including Occidental Petroleum, Corning, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center. He also founded and chaired Global Political Strategies, co-founded EmPath, and is a regular commentator on CNBC. His career has spanned business, government, international affairs, and entrepreneurship, giving him a distinctive perspective on leadership, communication, and the lessons people learn over the course of a career. In this episode we discuss the following: We probably have more skills than we realize. Carlos discovered his ability to speak in a community-college class, and that skill eventually helped him sell, lead, connect with employees, become a CEO, serve in government, and deliver more than 900 speeches. Carlos never forgot the employee who asked him, “If you’re doing my job, who’s doing yours?” Micromanagement both frustrates employees and prevents leaders from doing the work that only they can do. I appreciated Carlos’ advice to not sit around and think about our failure and to learn from our sucesses

Michelle Gielan is a positive psychology researcher, bestselling author, and former national CBS News anchor who examines how optimism shapes performance and well-being. She is the author of Broadcasting Happiness and Resilient Optimism: The Science of Sustaining a Positive Mindset in Tough Times. She was an executive producer of The Happiness Advantage on PBS and a featured professor in Oprah’s Happiness course. Michelle holds a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from Tufts University. Her research and ideas have been featured by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and the Today show.  In this episode we discuss the following: Optimism doesn’t mean ignoring the bad news, minimizing a problem, or convincing ourselves that cars won’t hit us because we’re optimists. When Michelle was in the hospital with her newborn in the NICU, she focused on the next meaningful, constructive action she could take. Optimism is connected to countless positive outcomes, when our optimism leads us to take action. It’s not just wishful thinking. Our behaviors matter. And an optimistic mindset can change our behaviors, which can change what happens to us next.

Ron Johnson is one of the most influential retail executives of the past several decades. After graduating from Harvard Business School, he began his career at Mervyn’s before joining Target, where he helped turn Target into “Tar zhay.” That work caught the attention of Steve Jobs, who recruited Ron to create Apple’s retail business from the ground up. Over the next decade, Ron helped develop the vision for the Apple Store, build its world-class retail team, and launch innovations such as the Genius Bar—ultimately creating some of the most successful and productive retail stores in the world. He later served as CEO of J.C. Penney, an experience he says taught him more in 24 months of failure than in 24 years of success. Ron is the author of the book Shop Different: How Retail Revealed Apple’s Genius, which explores lessons on innovation, leadership, design, culture, and why human connection may matter more than ever in the age of AI and online shopping. In this episode we discuss the following: One of my favorite ideas from Ron is the distinction between the things we’re given and the things we choose. We might be born smart, athletic, talented, or attractive. Those are gifts. But kindness is a choice. And as Ron said, imagine if the smartest, most talented person, or the best leader also chose to be the kindest. I loved Ron’s perspective on Steve Jobs. Steve didn’t necessarily show kindness in the way people often think about it. He believed that one of the highest forms of kindness was telling people the truth—even when that truth was hard to hear. And Steve also showed kindness by building great products for others. He obsessed over making products easier, more useful, and more empowering because he wanted to improve people’s lives. In Ron’s words, he was trying to “secure the good” of the customer. And that idea eventually became the philosophy behind the Apple Store: enrich lives. Don’t just sell people something. Make their lives better. In a world increasingly shaped by AI, what matters most may be the things that only we can bring: our presence, our unique perspective, and the genuine human connection that comes through conversation.