Show Notes
Why do meetings feel like the place where work goes to die and what would it take to finally fix them? In this episode of The Future of Less Work, host Nirit Cohen sits down with Dr. Rebecca Hinds, organizational researcher, founder of Asana’s Work Innovation Lab, founder of the Work AI Institute at Glean, and author of Your Best Meeting Ever, to unpack why meetings became one of the most broken systems in modern organizations. Together, Nirit and Rebecca explore why organizations default to meetings even when asynchronous tools exist, how unclear communication norms fuel meeting overload, and what it means to design meetings for the people in the room rather than the organizer. Rebecca introduces practical frameworks from the book for deciding when a meeting should exist, how to shorten meetings without losing impact, and why status update meetings are one of the biggest drains on organizational time. They also examine the role of AI in meetings—where it genuinely helps and where it quietly makes bad meetings worse by masking deeper design problems. The episode closes with a broader reflection on the future of work, calm technology, and the responsibility leaders have to use AI in ways that amplify human potential rather than replace it. If you’ve ever questioned why your calendar feels full but progress feels slow—or wondered how meetings could become a lever for better work instead of a blocker—this conversation offers both a diagnosis and a way forward. Want to dive deeper into this topic? Read Nirit’s Forbes article, "The Most Important Meeting Leaders Are Cutting Right Now", to explore these ideas further. https://youtu.be/sR1c9d982gI Guest Information: Rebecca Hinds is a leading expert on organizational behavior and the future of work. She holds a BS, MS, and PhD from Stanford University. Rebecca founded the Work Innovation Lab at Asana and the Work AI Institute at Glean, first-of-their-kind corporate think tanks dedicated to conducting cutting-edge research on the future of work. Her research is consistently featured in publications like Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fast Company, Wired, TIME, CNBC, Bloomberg, Axios, and the Washington Post. Rebecca has been invited to speak on major stages including Dreamforce, SXSW, INBOUND, Ai4, Cloudfest, and the Gartner Digital Workplace Summit. She is a trusted advisor to companies navigating challenges of modern work—from meeting overload and hybrid dysfunction to the realities of AI adoption. YOUR BEST MEETING EVER: 7 Principles for Designing Meetings That Get Things Done By Rebecca Hinds, PhD| On-Sale: February 3, 2026 https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Your-Best-Meeting-Ever/Rebecca-Hinds/9781668067482 Chapters: 00:00 — Why Do Meetings Feel Like They Get Nothing Done? 01:11 — What Is a “Good Meeting” and Why Are Most Meetings Bad? 02:54 — Why Do We Default to Meetings Instead of Asynchronous Work? 04:55 — How Broken Communication Systems Create More Meetings 06:54 — What Is the 4D Test for Deciding If a Meeting Should Exist? 08:44 — Which Decisions Actually Require a Meeting? 09:52 — Why Do Meetings Always Last an Hour? 10:40 — How Shorter Meetings Can Be More Effective 12:25 — Can Running Better Meetings Help Advance Your Career? 14:22 — How to Design a Meeting Agenda That Actually Works 16:07 — Which Agenda Items Should Never Be in a Meeting? 17:37 — How to Measure If a Meeting Is Worth the Time 19:09 — Why Some People Find Meetings Valuable and Others Don’t 20:56 — Does AI Make Meetings Better or Worse? 23:01 — Should You Attend a Meeting If You’re Sending a Bot? 24:36 — Which Meetings Should We Stop Having First? 26:11 — Why Cancelling One-on-One Meetings Is Dangerous 27:58 — How Should Leaders Think About AI and Human Potentia
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What is self-leadership in the age of AI? How to find your value when AI changes your job? In this episode of The Future of Less Work, host Nirit Cohen sits down with Andrew Bryant, Founder of Self Leadership International and author of Self Leadership and Potential-ize, to explore why navigating the age of AI requires us to become the drivers of our own development. Andrew defines self-leadership as intentionally influencing your own thinking, feelings and actions, and explains why self-awareness, self-regulation and self-learning become even more important when the road ahead is unclear. Together, Nirit and Andrew explore why your future may depend less on the profession you trained for and more on understanding the capabilities underneath it. The conversation also examines what happens when job descriptions become obsolete faster than organizations can fill them, why companies need to hire for potential and learning velocity rather than yesterday’s experience, and how AI can become a partner in extending human capability instead of simply replacing it. And underneath it all is a question Andrew leaves us with: What is possible for me now that wasn’t possible before? In a world where the road ahead is increasingly covered in fog, the ability to keep learning, changing and expanding your own potential may become one of the most important career capabilities of all. https://youtu.be/0WR6UzS4_uA Guest Information: Andrew Bryant is the Founder of Self Leadership International (est. 1999), a Certified Speaking Professional, executive coach, and the author of five books, including the foundational academic text Self Leadership (Bryant & Kazan, McGraw-Hill, 2012), and his most recent work is POTENTIAL-IZE: How Leaders Unlock Human Potential in the Age of AI (Wiley, 2026). What distinguishes Andrew in this space is not simply what he knows. It is what he has built. He co-authored the most widely cited working definition of self-leadership, then spent the following years testing and refining that framework with executive leadership teams, Fortune 500 companies, Silicon Valley startups, and major multinationals across more than 40 countries. That combination of academic foundation, deep practitioner experience, and the ability to make ideas digestible and applicable is what makes him an in-demand speaker. In POTENTIAL-IZE, he introduces the IGNITE Framework, a six-stage leadership development model (Inspire, Guide, Nurture, Integrate, Transform, Evaluate) designed specifically for organizations navigating AI-driven change. The book's central argument: as AI assumes cognitive tasks, human judgment, trust-building, and self-directed performance become more valuable, not less. Leadership development that fails to address this shift misses the point. As a former physiotherapist and acupuncturist who worked with elite athletes, he understands that high performance is an inside-out process. In our minds, bodies, and organizations. English by birth, Australian by passport, and now based in Portugal after 17 years in Asia, Andrew is a genuine global citizen whose cultural fluency has served audiences from Singapore to Stockholm to San Francisco. Links: www.selfleadership.com Chapters: 00:00 How To Build Your Potential in the Age of AI 01:15 What Human Skills Still Matter in the Age of AI? 02:15 How To Reinvent Your Career Beyond Your Job Title 07:14 What Is Self-Leadership? 11:49 How To Lead Yourself When the Career Path Is Unclear 14:15 Should You Follow Your Passion or Build Competence First? 17:24 How To Expand What You Are Capable Of 18:42 How To Hire for Potential, Not Past Experience 22:00 How To Turn AI Fear Into Opportunity 23:45 What Makes Human Work Valuable With AI? 31:09 Why Learning Velocity Matters More Than Job Titles 33:17 How Will Entry-Level Workers Build Experience With AI? 35:56 What Is Possible for You in the Future of Work?
When Should You NOT Use AI at Work? How do you transform work when technology and people move at different speeds? What Does AI Transformation Look Like Inside a 128,000-Person Company? In this episode of The Future of Less Work, host Nirit Cohen sits down with Laurent Aufils, Chief AI & Future of Work Officer at Orange Group, to explore the tension at the heart of his job: redesigning work with AI while supporting the people living through that change. Together, they discuss how Orange is moving beyond individual AI tools to rethink workflows, customer service and human contribution. Laurent explains why promised time savings don’t always survive implementation—and why the gains that do materialize should benefit the company, its customers and its employees. They explore protected learning time, peer communities and the work underway to recognize AI ambassadors’ contributions in performance reviews. They also discuss why Orange continues to recruit graduates into roles being reshaped by AI, and how people develop the experience to question an AI output and take responsibility for the result. Whether you’re leading AI transformation, shaping people strategy or rethinking your own team’s work, this conversation explores the choices behind the technology: where human involvement creates value, how to use the time AI frees up, and what organizations must do beyond asking employees to adapt. https://youtu.be/98IdWkBUUD0 Guest Information: Laurent Aufils is the Chief AI & Future of Work Officer at Orange Group, leading people transformation for AI across 124,000 employees in 26 countries.
What Makes a Good Leader in the Age of AI? What do we need human leaders for when AI can do more of the work of management? In this episode of The Future of Less Work, host Nirit Cohen sits down with Allison Howell, CEO of Hogan Assessments, to explore how AI is changing what makes a leader valuable. As AI takes on more of the work traditionally associated with leadership, from analyzing information and monitoring performance to identifying talent and communicating decisions, organizations may need to rethink what they select and develop leaders for. Nirit and Allison explore why judgment is becoming more important, but also harder to define, as leaders increasingly evaluate information generated by AI rather than information created and understood by people. They discuss what happens to accountability when AI becomes part of the decision chain, and why critical thinking may become a capability everyone needs, not just leaders. They also examine the growing value of authenticity. When emails, presentations and even video messages can be generated by AI, human presence, original thinking, vulnerability and genuine connection may become some of the most important qualities a leader can bring. If AI can do more of what leaders used to do, this conversation asks a more fundamental question: what will make a human leader worth following? https://youtu.be/u7nh962yHpg Guest Information: Allison Howell is the chief executive officer at Hogan Assessments, where she leads the company’s global strategy, product innovation, and market growth. As CEO, she is responsible for advancing Hogan’s mission to deliver scientifically rigorous, ethical, and impactful personality assessments that support better talent decisions worldwide. Links: The Leadership Divide: Global Insights on Who Leads vs. Who Should – https://tracking.us.nylas.com/l/945b2726b6144b38bae12e460fe7abbc/2/6f76c7d95a1a094f0177a22b1e0b3297b5cd856b34d286a1f2638523881d1a13?cache_buster=1776268668 Chapters: 00:00 What Makes a Human Leader Worth Following in the Age of AI? 01:06 How Is AI Changing Leadership? 03:00 What Do Employees Really Want From Their Leaders? 05:22 Why Human Leadership Matters More With AI 07:50 How Should Companies Choose Leaders in the Age of AI? 10:41 What Leadership Skills Will Matter Most in the Future? 12:58 Why the Leadership Divide Is Growing 15:04 How Should We Assess Leaders for the AI Era? 18:03 How Do You Measure Human Judgment? 19:36 How AI Is Changing Decision-Making 21:44 Who Is Accountable When AI Gets It Wrong? 23:27 What Will Human Leadership Look Like in the Future? 25:44 What Should We Automate and What Should Stay Human? 28:03 How Humans Create Value When Everyone Has the Same AI 29:13 What Does Authentic Leadership Look Like in the Age of AI? 29:58 The Question Every Leader Should Be Asking
What Is The Human Edge In The Age Of AI? How Do Humans Create Value When AI Does The Work? In this episode of The Future of Less Work, host Nirit Cohen sits down with Nitin Seth, Co-Founder and CEO of Incedo and author of Human Edge in the AI Age, to explore how AI is changing the meaning of work, careers and human contribution. Nitin argues that the future of work may require a shift from employability to entrepreneurship, not necessarily because everyone will start a company, but because people will need to create new value with AI. He explains why execution alone will no longer be enough, why humans must move toward creativity, context and problem framing, and why organizations need to rethink how they allow ideas and experimentation to emerge from inside the business. Together, they discuss what it means to move from doing work to creating work, why AI-native early-career talent may generate surprising output, why experience alone is no longer protection, and how the middle layer of organizations may need to shift from task management to domain expertise and problem solving. They also explore why human context still matters, how AI may gradually absorb more of it, and why the next human opportunity may come from asking: what can we now do that we couldn’t do before? Whether you are leading AI transformation, rethinking talent development, or trying to understand how to stay relevant in the AI age, this conversation offers a practical and thought-provoking look at the human edge of work when AI does more of the doing. https://youtu.be/DGytt67x-6o Guest Information: Nitin Seth is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Incedo Inc, where he partners with Fortune 200 enterprises to reimagine operating models for the AI age—embedding intelligence into workflows, decision-making, and business models to drive measurable outcomes and sustained competitive advantage. With nearly three decades of leadership experience, he has previously served as Chief Operating Officer at Flipkart, Managing Director at Fidelity International, where he also led global strategy and served as Country Head for India, and Director at McKinsey & Company.
Can AI measure skills at work? How Will AI Change Learning and Employee Development? What if AI could tell what you’re actually capable of, not from your resume, job title or performance review, but from the work you do every day? In this episode of The Future of Less Work, host Nirit Cohen sits down with Kian Katanforoosh, Founder and CEO of Workera and Stanford Adjunct Lecturer, to explore how AI could change the way we measure skills, learn at work and understand human capability. Kian explains how AI can observe work in real time, identify strengths and skill gaps, and provide personalized coaching exactly when people need it. They explore whether verified skills profiles could eventually move with us across jobs, how AI is changing what expertise looks like in fields such as software engineering, and whether AI could one day assess human capabilities more fairly than managers do. The conversation also tackles the harder questions: Can AI really measure judgment and critical thinking? Who owns the data? What happens when AI itself keeps taking over more of the skills we are trying to develop? And why might our ability to keep learning become one of the most important forms of human agency in the age of AI? For leaders rethinking talent, learning and workforce capability, this episode explores what changes when AI can finally see not just the work people do, but what they are capable of becoming. https://youtu.be/EnConpvUupQ