Fixable

What do you do when there’s too much work but not enough people to do it? Bring in some support! This week, Anne and Frances talk to a listener whose expert sales team can no longer keep up with everything the company offers. Together, Anne and Frances outline ways to simplify work for a stressed out team—including the use of AI to reduce complexity and increase capacity. They also offer advice for any leader moving through a shift as radical as introducing AI into the workflow.

What problems are you dealing with at work right now? Call or text 234-FIXABLE or email [email protected] to be featured on the show.

Transcripts for Fixable are available at https://go.ted.com/fixablescripts

This is an episode of The TED Interview, another podcast from the TED Audio Collective, that we think you'll enjoy.

To get a free copy of the Infectious Generosity book, visit ted.com/generosity

Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft and the co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is one of the top ten richest people in the world. But since 2008, he has traded his day-to-day role with Microsoft to focus full-time on his foundation's work to expand opportunity around the world. Chris interviews Bill about his philanthropy philosophy and digs into the opportunities and challenges that face one of the largest private charitable foundations in the world. The two also discuss The Giving Pledge, the movement Bill co-founded with Warren Buffet, which encourages wealthy individuals to commit the majority of their wealth to charitable causes within their lifetimes. Chris and Bill examine the importance of solving the world’s most pressing problems efficiently, talk about why meaningful change requires scale, and compare notes on how to best encourage collective excitement about giving back.

Bullies can’t bully alone – they need other people to participate in their campaigns to shame, discredit, and exclude their targets. This means that we often have more power than we realize to stop bullying in the workplace. In Part 2 of Anne and Frances’s conversation with Master Fixer and social psychologist Amy Cuddy, they explore smart, simple actions all of us can take to prevent bullying and shut it down in its earliest stages. If you haven’t listened to Part 1 of this interview, make sure to first check out the previous episode, “How to spot a bully in the workplace.”

What problems are you dealing with at work right now? Text 234-FIXABLE or email [email protected] to be featured on the show.

Transcript for Fixable are available at go.ted.com/fixablescripts

(Note: This is an updated version of this episode – if you previously downloaded audio and got a different podcast, thanks for your patience as we deliver you the right episode, which is this one! The original episode is also updated and you can find it in this same feed.)

Where do bullies go when they grow up? New research shows they just move from the playground to the workplace. This week, Master Fixer and social psychologist Amy Cuddy joins Anne and Frances to walk us through the strikingly stable patterns bullies follow to undermine and ostracize their targets – patterns that are way more common than you might think. Stay tuned for part two where Cuddy details actions you can take to stop bullies in next week’s episode.

What problems are you dealing with at work right now? Text 234-FIXABLE or email [email protected] to be featured on the show.

Transcripts for Fixable are available at go.ted.com/fixabletranscripts.

Mental Health at Work Index (https://mentalhealthindex.org/): A partnership of Columbia University’s Mental Health + Work Design Lab (https://www.cugmhp.org/programs/mental-health-and-work-design-lab/) and One Mind at Work (https://onemindatwork.org/). This is an in-depth assessment tool created by a team of psychologists and business leaders to help companies measure and improve their mental health efforts in a scientfic and data-driven way.

Where do bullies go when they grow up? New research shows they just move from the playground to the workplace. This week, Master Fixer and social psychologist Amy Cuddy joins Anne and Frances to walk us through the strikingly stable patterns bullies follow to undermine and ostracize their targets – patterns that are way more common than you might think. Stay tuned for part two where Cuddy details actions you can take to stop bullies in next week’s episode.

What problems are you dealing with at work right now? Text 234-FIXABLE or email [email protected] to be featured on the show.

Transcripts for Fixable are available at go.ted.com/fixabletranscripts

Mental Health at Work Index (https://mentalhealthindex.org/): A partnership of Columbia University’s Mental Health + Work Design Lab (https://www.cugmhp.org/programs/mental-health-and-work-design-lab/) and One Mind at Work (https://onemindatwork.org/). This is an in-depth assessment tool created by a team of psychologists and business leaders to help companies measure and improve their mental health efforts in a scientific and data-driven way.

Multiple deadly crashes, a door flying off mid-flight, a CEO forced to step down Boeing has had more than a few disasters. And in case anyone at Boeing is listening, Anne and Frances have some advice to offer for our first ever “Unsolicited Advice” episode. How can a company redeem itself after so many appalling headlines? Where does the leadership team go from here? Listen for valuable takeaways anyone can learn from on taking “radical responsibility” for an organization’s performance.

What problems are you dealing with at work right now? Text 234-FIXABLE or email [email protected] to be featured on the show.

Transcripts for Fixable are available at go.ted.com/fixabletranscripts

How do you retain good people – and set them up for success in a dynamic, fast-moving environment? Promotion, job design, and clear career pathways are all part of the answer. This week, a pastor leading a growing church wants to know when is the right time to promote people and how to make sure they don't burn out. Anne and Frances deliver advice to help leaders embrace uncertainty and chart a course for success, whether they’re in the pulpit or the C-suite.

What problems are you dealing with at work right now? Call or text 234-FIXABLE or email [email protected] to be featured on the show.

Transcripts for Fixable are available at https://go.ted.com/fixablescripts

Whatever happens off-the-job comes with us to work, including our mental health. And having the right tools to talk about it is crucial to improving our experience of work. In this episode, Master Fixer and Harvard Business School professor Lauren Cohen joins Anne and Frances to deliver some surprising statistics on mental health and why it’s vital to have conversations about wellness in the workplace. Whether you’re worried about an employee who lost a loved one or don’t know how to bring up your struggle with depression to your boss – you’ll hear how to have transparent conversations that can change the way you work for the better.

What problems are you dealing with at work right now? Call/text 234-FIXABLE or email [email protected] to be featured on the show.

Transcripts for Fixable are available at https://go.ted.com/fixablescripts

Do ideas have the freedom to run in your workplace, or do they get caught in internal complexity? As companies grow, they tend to have more processes and stakeholders slowing down change. So what can you do to get things done? In this week’s episode, Anne and Frances help a rockstar Chief People Officer avoid her company’s bureaucratic tendencies and stay on the fast track to success. Tune in to learn how empowerment, reframing and intention can help accelerate your organization’s way of getting things done.

Transcripts for Fixable are available at go.ted.com/fixablescripts.

What problems are you dealing with at work right now? Text 234-FIXABLE or email [email protected] to be featured on the show.

Do you feel like you’re hitting a wall at work? This week, Anne and Frances are joined by Master Fixers Bob Sutton and Huggy Rao. Bob and Huggy are professors at Stanford University and authors of “The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder”. Together, the four discuss how anyone can eliminate the obstacles to doing their best work—and create constraints that make work even better.

Transcripts for Fixable are available at go.ted.com/fixablescripts.