In this episode of Work Matters, Thomas talks with Bruce Rosenstein, the managing editor of the acclaimed business journal ‘Leader to Leader’ and a longtime student of Peter Drucker's work, about the relevance of Drucker's management theories in today's world. Bruce first got introduced to Drucker’s ideas in the mid-1980s while studying library man…

In this episode of Work Matters, host Thomas Bertels welcomes Steve Crom, former chairman and partner emeritus of global consulting firm Oxygy. With over four decades of experience in transforming work and improving productivity for leading global companies, Steve shares his insights on managing across cultures and how national culture influences h…

In this episode, host Thomas Bertels talks to Dennis Adsit, president of AdsumInsights, about employee development. Dennis explains why leaders should prioritize developing their employees. He starts by emphasizing the significance of people development beyond the altruistic perspective. Leaders who focus on developing their teams not only leave a …

In this episode, Thomas and Ellen Frank-Miller, the founder of the Workforce and Organizational Research Center (WORC), explore the topic of job quality. Ellen explains the mission of WORC - creating an economy where every worker has a job worth having, and shares insights from a comprehensive review of over 3,000 peer-reviewed articles on manageri…

In this episode host Thomas Bertels welcomes Jeff Wald to discuss his book, "The End of Jobs." Jeff is the founder of WorkMarket, an enterprise software platform for managing freelancers, as well as several other tech companies. An active angel investor, startup advisor, and speaker, he previously held leadership roles in Financial Services with Ba…

In today's Work Matters, Thomas talks with Dart Lindsley, head of Global Process Excellence for People Operations at Google. He previously led the HR Transformation Planning and Analysis organization at Cisco Systems and is the host of the popular "Work for Humans" podcast. In this discussion, Dart unpacks what makes the middle manager role so chal…

In this episode of Work Matters, Thomas Bertels welcomes Todd Cherches to discuss Visual Leadership. Todd is the CEO of BigBlueGumball, a leadership development and executive coaching firm. He is also an award-winning professor and lecturer at NYU and Columbia University and the author of "VisuaLeadership: Leveraging the Power of Visual Thinking in…

In today's Work Matters, Thomas talks with Gordon "Gordy" Curphy about effective teamwork. Gordy is the Managing Partner at Curphy Leadership Solutions, where he helps business leaders implement major change initiatives, develop and promote leadership, and build high performing teams. With over 30 years of leadership expertise, Gordy has written nu…

In today's Work Matters, Thomas Bertels discusses Transformational Leadership with Faisal Hogue. Faisal is an advisor, entrepreneur, thought leader, and technology innovator who has developed 20+ commercial business and technology platforms. He is the founder of SHADOKA and NextChapter and has worked with GE, MasterCard, American Express, PepsiCo, …

In today's Work Matters, Thomas welcomes Dr. Anna Tavis, Clinical Professor and Chair of the Human Capital Management Department at NYU School of Professional Studies. She previously held senior HR roles with Motorola, Nokia, United Technologies, and AIG, and is the co-author of "Humans at Work" (with Stela Lupushor). Anna unpacks the major trends …

In today's Work Matters, Thomas welcomes Ron Ashkenas, Principal at Ashkenas Consulting and Partner Emeritus at Schaffer Consulting, to discuss simplifying organizations. Ron is a thought leader in business change and transformation and the author of numerous books and HBR articles including "Simply Effective." He unpacks the symptoms of overly com…

In today's Work Matters, Thomas talks innovation with Greg Larkin, the CEO of Punks & Pinstripes, a network for rebel corporate executives and start up founders. He is the author of the international best-seller ‘This Might Get Me Fired' and shares his expertise for overcoming organizational obstructionism to drive innovation. Greg unpacks the grea…

In today's Work Matters, Thomas Bertels welcomes Joe Batista, Chief Creatologist, and former Dell and Hewlett Packard executive. Joe is an innovative business and technology leader who shares how to unlock unseen assets within organizations to create value for customers. With real-world success stories, he unpacks strategies for compressing the dis…

In today's Work Matters, Thomas talks with Joe Spadaford, President of J Francis Consulting, about his experience implementing work design in financial services. Joe held senior leadership roles at Citibank, First National Bank of Chicago, First Chicago Trust Company, Axa, Computershare, and AST. He shares the lessons learned when transforming larg…

In today's episode, Thomas talks with Tristin Brisbois about intrapreneurship - how to create a successful innovative venture within a large company. Tristin is the director of PepsiCo's Advanced Personalization Ideation Center, where she is building personalized digital solutions. Providing a peek into Pepsico's Aspire2Be app which uses face scan …

In today's episode, Thomas talks with Elisabeth Swan, Continuous Improvement Consultant, Co-Founder of the Just-in-Time Café podcast, and Bestselling Author of "Picture Yourself a Leader." Recently named by the PEX Network as one of the top 50 thought leaders in operational excellence, Elisabeth Swan has consulted in the business process performanc…

In today's episode, Thomas talks with Bryan Sander about customer experience design. Bryan is the Head of Customer Experience, Digital Product, Analytics, Market Research, and BI at AAA’s National Office - and a CXPA Board Member. Bryan reveals the main challenges to the customer experience today and how younger consumers are demanding a more value…

In today's episode, Thomas talks with Dave Bookbinder, a business valuation expert, author of two books, and the host of the 'Behind the Numbers' podcast and TV show. Dave emphasizes that employees are not an expense but assets, and unpacks the implications for business leaders. Sharing how the value of human capital is traditionally determined, he…

In today's episode, Thomas Bertels welcomes Dr. Frank Gallo to discuss what Western businesses can learn from China. An executive coach, consultant, and author, Dr. Gallo has lived in China for over 20 years and written several books including "Business Leadership in China," and "The Enlightened Leader." He shares how the values of collectivism, ha…

In today's episode, Thomas talks with Tonille Miller, a management consultant, I/O psychologist, and founder of EXT about designing the employee experience. She unpacks how viewing an organization as a product can increase employee engagement and drive business outcomes. Sharing her framework to build better workplaces, Tonille details the qualitie…

In the first episode of season 4, Thomas Bertels talks with Tony O'Driscoll, a professor, speaker, advisor, and author on innovation and technology, about AI and the future of work. They cover the "routinization trap" with ChatGPT and other Large Language Models, simply using algorithms to automate workflows, replace humans, and reduce costs. Tony …

In this episode, Thomas Bertels talks to Mike Moshier and Dave Yawman of Cresco Partners about their approach for developing high performing leadership teams. They explain how important it is in today's face-paced work world for teams to intentionally pause, build relationships and trust, and set expectations for how work gets done. Mike and Dave e…

In this episode, host Thomas Bertels welcomes Dr. Solange Charas and Stela Lupushor, co-authors of "Humanizing Human Capital". They share how four major trends - demographics, digitization, datafication, and disintermediation - impact HR. Putting Human Capital in the context of the pandemic, the authors explain the tensions between employees and em…

In today's Work Matters, host Thomas Bertels welcomes Niels Pflaeging. Niels is a well-known speaker, consultant, and author of "OpenSpace Beta" and "Leading with Flexible Targets." His open-source Beta Codex Network grew out of the Beyond Budgeting movement and expanded into a broader framework to drive transformation from alpha - top down, comman…

In this Episode of the Work Matters podcast, Thomas talks with Laurent Choain, Chief Leadership, Education & Culture at Mazars. In this enlightening conversation, Choain traces the evolution of knowledge work, explains why Mazars made 'making friends for life' a central part of their employee value proposition, unpacks the relationship between auto…