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Work For Humans

Work For Humans

Dart Lindsley 213 Episodes Oct 13, 2026

Too often business leaders are forced to choose between the needs of their company and the needs of their employees. It’s a lose/lose scenario leaving managers burned out and workers seeking other opportunities. At Work for Humans, we believe work can be designed differently. When you design work like products people love, your company wins. Work becomes irresistible, employees passionately buy into their roles every day, and your company takes measurable strides towards your vision.

Episodes

Radical Respect: How to Say What You Mean Without Being a Jerk | Kim Scott, Revisited
Radical Respect: How to Say What You Mean Without Being a Jerk | Kim Scott, Revisited Oct 13, 2026 3919 In her first job out of college, Kim Scott thought managing Russian diamond cutters would be simple: pay them well and the rest follows. It wasn't. They wanted a picnic, and by the end of a bottle of vodka, she understood what they actually wanted: someone who gave a damn. That instinct, respecting the whole person, not just the employee, became the seed of her book, Radical Respect. In this
Pay for Performance: How Compensation Becomes a System of Control | James A. Seechurn
Pay for Performance: How Compensation Becomes a System of Control | James A. Seechurn Oct 6, 2026 4411 James Seechurn spent over a decade building compensation programs on a simple premise: design the incentive right, and you'll get the behavior you want. But his first clue that this was wrong came from watching it fail on him. As a young accountant on billable hours, slowing down to actually understand something cost him money. He kept redesigning bonus plans for clients anyway, until the pat
Dangerously Incompetent: How AI and Robots Are Deskilling the Workforce | Matt Beane, Revisited
Dangerously Incompetent: How AI and Robots Are Deskilling the Workforce | Matt Beane, Revisited Sep 29, 2026 4391 In robotic surgery, a device good enough to let the surgeon operate alone makes the resident, the future expert, optional. Matt Beane saw this pattern everywhere technology gets smart enough to make the apprentice unnecessary. Dart calls this one of the episodes he keeps returning to, for how clearly Matt names one of AI's biggest threats to how we learn. In this revisited episode, Dart and M
Employees Are Family: How John Chambers Played Hardball at Cisco Without Getting Ruthless
Employees Are Family: How John Chambers Played Hardball at Cisco Without Getting Ruthless Sep 22, 2026 2884 Under John Chambers, Cisco grew from $70 million to $47 billion, completed 180 acquisitions, and became the most valuable company in the world. He built the company on one idea: employees aren't employees, they're family. Then the dot-com crash hit, and John had to lay off 7,854 people, almost all of whom he'd hired himself. He calls it his worst year as a leader. In this episode, D
7 Rules for Gaining Power and Influence at Work | Jeffrey Pfeffer, Revisited
7 Rules for Gaining Power and Influence at Work | Jeffrey Pfeffer, Revisited Sep 15, 2026 3444 Jeffrey Pfeffer has spent decades showing that people-first companies outperform, and just as long watching that evidence lose to habit. His answer is blunt: whether you're cautious about power or thirsty for it, there's no denying its role in the workplace, and ideas without power are just ideas. In this revisited episode, Dart and Jeff explore the purpose of power, the knowing-doing ga
Positive Discipline at Work: Why People Do Better When They Feel Better | Alanna Beebe
Positive Discipline at Work: Why People Do Better When They Feel Better | Alanna Beebe Sep 8, 2026 3681 Parents come to Alanna Beebe's classes hoping to change their kid. But by the second week, most of them realize the person who needs to change is them. Soon after, they notice the same tools working on their boss, colleagues, and staff. None of this surprises Alanna though. Her work rests on Alfred Adler's idea that every human is striving for belonging and significance, and that misbeha
How Companies Create Bad Performers | Elena Aylott, Revisited
How Companies Create Bad Performers | Elena Aylott, Revisited Sep 1, 2026 5277 When Elena Aylott was asked to lead HR at Oriflame Cosmetics, she initially saw the function as administrative and feared becoming a “chief firing officer.” Instead, she saw an opportunity to rethink what the people function could be. In this revisited episode, Dart and Elena explore how to remove the friction that gets in the way of good work, create individualized experiences at scale, and build
How Sabbaticals Can Change Your Career | DJ DiDonna
How Sabbaticals Can Change Your Career | DJ DiDonna Aug 25, 2026 4234 DJ DiDonna had built the kind of career many people would be reluctant to walk away from. He cofounded a growing company, built a life around work, and had every reason to keep going. But eventually, he decided to step away and take an extended break, an experience that changed how he thought about work, identity, and what comes next. In this episode, Dart and DJ explore what happens when people s
What We Get Wrong About Work | Barry Schwartz, Revisited
What We Get Wrong About Work | Barry Schwartz, Revisited Aug 18, 2026 5540 We’ve spent decades designing work around the idea that people need incentives to perform. But what happens when the systems designed to motivate people actually get in the way of motivation? Professor Barry Schwartz has spent decades studying what makes work meaningful, and his research challenges the idea that money and performance incentives are enough. In this revisited episode, Dart and Barry
When Career Success Feels Unfulfilling | Megan Hellerer
When Career Success Feels Unfulfilling | Megan Hellerer Aug 11, 2026 4101 Megan Hellerer had done everything she was supposed to do. She went to Stanford, graduated with a 3.9, and dutifully climbed the ladder at Google. But the life that looked great on paper felt terrible inside. A panic attack on the floor of a public restroom forced her to confront a bigger question: what if the problem wasn't choosing the wrong destination, but the idea that we need a destinat
The Core Value Equation: Building Culture That Scales | Darius Mirshahzadeh, Revisited
The Core Value Equation: Building Culture That Scales | Darius Mirshahzadeh, Revisited Aug 4, 2026 3702 Darius Mirshahzadeh built the company he'd always wanted. In just three years, he grew it from a one-person operation into one of the fastest-growing companies in the United States. But when he looked around, he realized something unsettling: he hated the company he had created. That experience forced him to rethink what it really means to scale a business. In this revisited episode, Dart and
The Missing Discipline for Better Work | Chris Metcalfe
The Missing Discipline for Better Work | Chris Metcalfe Jul 28, 2026 5303 After years building software products, Chris Metcalfe crossed into People & Culture and noticed something surprising. Organizations invested enormous effort into understanding customers, testing ideas, and improving products, yet the work people did every day was rarely designed with the same discipline. That realization led him to ask a different question: what if work itself were managed li

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