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cover of episode 339: AI Anxiety and Burnout: Brian Elliott, Work Forward CEO, on Building Trust in the Workplace

339: AI Anxiety and Burnout: Brian Elliott, Work Forward CEO, on Building Trust in the Workplace

2025/6/9
logo of podcast AI and the Future of Work

AI and the Future of Work
AI Deep Dive AI Chapters Transcript
People
A
Ashu Garg
B
Brian Elliott
D
Dan Turchin
Topics
Brian Elliott: 我认为在AI时代，清晰地表达目标至关重要。现在很多企业都在上演“生产力剧场”，表面上活动增多，但实际收益并不一定增加。员工们因为担心失业，可能会隐藏AI带来的生产力提升，所以企业应该关注业务增长和客户价值，而不是仅仅强调效率。领导者应该以身作则，与团队一起学习AI工具，进行实验，建立信任，促进AI的采用。同时，要明确目标的责任人，即使需要多人协作，也要让每个人都感到自己肩负重任。 Dan Turchin: 我认为区分关注内部问题和外部问题非常重要。好的企业文化应该关注客户问题，了解业务目标和客户需求，而不是陷入内部矛盾。在效率驱动型文化中，员工被要求提高生产力，否则就会被取代，这会导致员工只关注最低标准，并引发内部竞争。因此，企业应该思考如何在企业文化中融入AI，让员工能够超越竞争，实现卓越。

Deep Dive

Chapters
This chapter explores the key attributes of a healthy workplace culture, focusing on the importance of aligning team goals, addressing both internal and external challenges, and fostering collaboration and trust among team members. It contrasts this with the problems encountered in organizations with misaligned goals and internal squabbling.
  • Customer-oriented problem-solving is a sign of a healthy culture.
  • Internal conflicts and lack of alignment hinder productivity.
  • Metrics-driven systems improve transparency and reduce internal squabbling.

Shownotes Transcript

Brian Elliott is one of the most recognized future of work thought leaders and the CEO of Work Forward, where he advises senior leaders on how to build better organizations. A former senior executive at Slack, Brian is also the bestselling author of How the Future Works: Leading Flexible Teams to Do the Best Work of Their Lives. His insights have been published in Harvard Business Review and Fortune, and cited in Time, Bloomberg, CNBC, The Economist, and Forbes. He holds a BA in Math and Economics from Northwestern and an MBA from Harvard.

In this conversation, we discuss:

  • Brian Elliott’s leadership journey from Google and Slack to founding Work Forward and advising companies on building healthier workplace cultures.
  • Why alignment, accountability, and shared purpose matter more than hustle culture in scaling organizations effectively.
  • The hidden risks of AI at work, including why employees often use it in secret out of fear of punishment or judgment.
  • The growing tension between executives and employees in an era of midnight layoffs, return-to-office mandates, and AI-induced anxiety.
  • How progressive leaders can create space for experimentation with AI and lead with fallibility instead of fear.
  • Why the future of work depends on creating space for learning, building trust, and valuing human craftsmanship in an AI-powered world.

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