Why you need to fail at work with Astro Teller

If a team isn’t working well, everybody feels it. But when problems arise in your team, the issue usually runs deeper than the people experiencing it. In this episode, Molly breaks down the Waterline Model, a framework developed by organizational psychologist Roger Harrison to help diagnose workplace problems by looking beneath the surface at the systems and dynamics that shape the way an organization functions. She explains the 4 layers of dysfunction that are often the root cause of workplace issues and how to address them, emphasises the importance of clear communication and definition of goals and roles, and shares how the Waterline Model has helped her throughout her career, including as a wilderness instructor at the National Outdoor Leadership School.

Whether you’re working on Wall Street or bussing tables, every job has something to teach you—and no job is more full of learning opportunities than your first. In this new Storytime segment, Molly invites Ashley Murphy back to swap stories about their first experiences in the working world and share advice for people navigating a new position. They break down how to set yourself up for success on day one, emphasise the importance of listening and asking dumb questions early on, and reflect on a story from past guest Claire Hughes Johnson about her very first job and how it shaped her mindset for the rest of her career.

Many people approach job searches backwards, trying to squeeze themselves into the mold of what a company is looking for in a candidate. But there are two sides to every hiring decision, and who you are and what you want is just as important as the job description. Jamie Tilotta Green is one of the most respected recruiters in Silicon Valley, and has helped some of the world’s most influential tech companies find their senior leaders. In this episode, Jamie joins Molly to take a closer look at what it actually means to be a good fit for a job, and how to effectively and authentically tell your story in an interview. She also offers advice on how to identify your key strengths, shares strategies for finding out the truth about what a company is actually like before you take the job, and reflects on the things that never change about hiring.

Molly Graham is back for round two, and this one is even more powerful. Molly has spent more than 20 years helping organizations and the humans inside them navigate growth and change. She’s held leadership roles at Google, Facebook, Quip, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and is the host of TED’s WorkLife podcast (which she took over from Adam Grant). She also runs Glue Club, a leadership community for senior operators, and writes a popular newsletter called Lessons.

Technology has been promising to revolutionize education for a long time. Online learning, smartphones, and even asynchronous classes during COVID seemed for a while like they might finally transform what learning can look like, but all we really learned was that changing education is slower and harder than anyone wants it to be. Could AI finally be the unlock we’ve been looking for? Leah Belsky has spent nearly 20 years at the intersection of education and technology. She helped lead Coursera during the rise of online learning, and is now the head of education at OpenAI. In this episode, Molly sits down with Leah to find out what AI really has to offer as a learning tool, and where it falls short of the hype. Leah shares what she’s learned as both a leader in the ed tech world and a parent of AI-curious kids, and offers tips for how to coach kids to use AI as an empowering tool without getting in the way of their learning.