Michael interviews Patrick Cates, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs at USC, Marshall School of Business, about the turbulent “new normal” facing higher education amid political pressures, international student compliance shifts, financial strain, layoffs, leadership turnover, and rapid AI-driven change. Cates argues AI is primarily a culture-change issue, noting universities’ slow, brittle structures—like the 1–2 year peer-review lifecycle—are colliding with the speed of AI. He explains why blanket AI policies often fail in distributed power environments and highlights change via respected faculty examples, including Marshall’s early AI pedagogy paper. Reflecting on USC’s post-2018 culture transformation, he emphasizes operationalizing shared values, measuring culture through people-centered indicators, and prioritizing strong, kind leadership, psychological safety, and adaptability as foundations for higher ed’s future.

Timestamps:
00:24 Welcome
01:27 Meet Patrick Cates
02:48 Higher Ed Turbulence
05:15 Resistance to Change
06:41 Perfect Storm Pressures
10:18 AI as Culture Change
13:59 How Universities Adapt
18:00 USC Culture Journey
20:30 Making Values Real
29:49 Measuring Culture Health
34:56 Culture Over AI
37:04 Psychological Safety
40:27 Key Takeaways
43:09 Walk Up Song
44:18 Where to Connect
44:55 Closing

Connect with Patrick:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickcates/

Michael's National Workforce Study on Change Management: https://www.michaeljlopez.coach/research

Michael welcomes Naphtali Bryant, managing principal consultant at RAC Leadership and former US Marine and chief people officer, to discuss the “curse of competence” and how leaders become bottlenecks by continuing to solve, edit, and rescue instead of building team capability. Naphtali explains that promotions often reward past competence, but leadership requires shifting from having answers to developing others, using the question “Whose growth does this moment belong to?” They cover how dependence shrinks ownership and initiative, why “my team needs to step up” can mean the leader must step back, and practical tactics like restraint, better questions, and telling hard truths. They also discuss culture, leadership inflection points, AI’s impact on leadership value, and when staying an individual contributor may be the best path.

Timestamps:
00:24 Welcome
01:10 Meet Naphtali Bryant
02:39 Marine Corps to Tech Journey
05:38 Defining the Curse
08:45 Whose Growth Is It
11:05 Ego and Restraint
13:10 Inflection Points Mirror
16:03 How Leaders Get Stuck
19:22 Culture and Echo
23:32 Top Down to AI Shift
25:54 AI Changes Leadership Value
28:15 IC vs Leader Path
31:06 Key Takeaways and Closing

Connect with Naphtali:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/naphtalibryant/
https://racleadership.com

Michael's National Workforce Study on Change Management: https://www.michaeljlopez.coach/research

Michael hosts Aditi Joshi, an emergency medicine physician turned digital health leader, to discuss the evolution and adoption challenges of telemedicine and broader healthcare technology. Aditi recounts entering telemedicine in 2013, scaling programs through the pandemic, and now consulting on digital health adoption and scaling. They cover why patients generally like telehealth, why many health tech startups fail due to slow health-system implementation and clinician behavior change, and how required usage plus department-level ownership helped scale telemedicine at Jefferson. They also discuss AI in healthcare, distinguishing administrative “back-end” uses from clinical “front-end” advice, and why confidence, trust, and messaging affect adoption. Aditi shares her book, “Telehealth Success,” and key takeaways on implementation strategy and understanding end users.

Timestamps:
00:24 Welcome and Setup
01:24 Aditi's Telehealth Journey
02:46 Telemedicine Then to Now
04:56 What Patients Really Want
07:07 Why Health Tech Fails
10:40 Clinician Adoption Barriers
16:34 Scaling Across Hospitals
21:02 AI Hype vs Reality
27:19 AI Telehealth Agents
29:01 Book and Consulting Work
31:37 Cost Savings and Incentives
34:00 Key Takeaways and Closing

Connect with Aditi:
https://draditiujoshi.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-aditi-joshi/

Aditis book:
https://a.co/d/08473ukY

Michael's National Workforce Study on Change Management: https://www.michaeljlopez.coach/research

Michael interviews Doug Milliken, former Clorox VP of Marketing and now partner at Kremer & Milliken, a consultancy focused on helping large companies understand and evolve organizational culture to improve performance. Milliken argues culture—defined as behavior and how work gets done—is a primary driver of operating profit and a capability leaders can intentionally manage. He discusses driving change as an “outsider-insider,” a Clorox decision-making initiative where teams discovered faster, Agile-like approaches by gaining agency and clarifying what decision-makers actually needed, and his experience leading Clorox’s digital transformation by building psychological safety, achieving zero attrition, record engagement, and 3x expected financial returns. They also explore rising change fatigue from overlapping transformations (including AI) and efforts to build teams’ capacity to absorb change.

Timestamps:
00:24 Welcome and Guest Intro
01:27 Career and Culture Focus
04:11 Outsider Insider Change Agent
07:13 Decision Making Transformation Story
13:29 Culture as Capital Capability
18:10 Winning Over Skeptical Leaders
22:19 Digital Transformation Culture Proof
27:08 Change Fatigue in the AI Era
34:08 Key Takeaways on Culture
36:47 Hardest Career Pivot Lesson
40:31 Where to Find Doug and Closing

Connect with Doug:
https://creamerandmilliken.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/doug-milliken-3798a01/

Michael's National Workforce Study on Change Management: https://www.michaeljlopez.coach/research

Michael interviews keynote speaker and USA Today bestselling author Simone Knego about her new book, Real Confidence, and why confidence is built like a skill rather than something you’re born with. Simone shares her journey as a mom of six, becoming a grandmother, and a pivotal 2015 decision to climb Mount Kilimanjaro that helped her reframe self-doubt and capability. She explains her REAL method—Respect yourself, Embrace your failures, Ask yourself what you want, and Live without limits—plus a practical “control-alt-delete” reset to change unhelpful thoughts and habits. They discuss high achievers’ confidence gaps, dropping “just” from self-talk, psychological safety and connection at work, and how leaders can use AI without losing human culture.

Timestamps:

00:24 Welcome and Guest Intro
01:23 Simone Journey and Book
03:29 Kilimanjaro Confidence Shift
06:12 Reframing Self Worth
06:54 The Confidence Gap
08:35 REAL Method Overview
09:17 Respect Yourself First
10:40 Embrace Failure to Grow
13:01 Ask What You Want
17:20 Living Without Limits
18:47 Control Alt Delete Method
20:08 Rewrite Your Inner Story
21:35 Thrive At Work Teams
24:17 Imposter Syndrome Promotions
27:06 Drop The Just Rule
29:38 Three Confidence Takeaways
31:23 AI And Company Culture
33:18 AI Confidence Risks
34:43 Where To Find Simone
35:14 Final Thanks And Wrap

Connect with Simone:
https://simoneknego.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/simoneknego/

Michael hosts a special panel episode of the Top Voice Podcast with Zensai leaders Nina Carøe (Chief Human Success Officer), Robin Daniels (Chief Business Officer, repeat guest), and CEO Rasmus Holst to discuss their book The Human Success Playbook and the future of the human-AI experience at work. They explain why Zensai positions itself around “human success” rather than traditional HR, focusing on building high-performance teams through learning, performance, and engagement, and introducing a Human Success Score to give executives a shared language. The conversation covers constant change since COVID, disengagement trends, treating AI as a tool and potential “team member,” and the need for clarity to avoid chaos. They contrast old hierarchical structures with a value-stream “diamond,” emphasize simple values (“human” and “success”), and share practical leadership advice, ending with where to find the book on Amazon and connect via LinkedIn and zensai.com.

Timestamps:
00:24 Welcome and First Panel
01:25 Meet the Guests
03:55 What Zensai Does
05:30 Why Human Success Now
07:06 From HR to Human Success
09:45 Inside the Human Success Playbook
12:11 CEO View No Map for AI
15:40 Chief Human Success Officer
20:33 Culture AI and Clarity
25:36 Hard Choices and Governance
26:17 Hard Cuts vs People
26:58 Why Teams Win
28:43 Rethinking Value Creation
30:15 Map Not GPS Leadership
31:47 From Hierarchy to Diamond
33:48 Values Human and Success
36:58 Why a Leadership Fable
40:38 One Action This Week
42:34 Sensei Future Vision
45:00 Unlearning for AI
47:15 Where to Find the Book
47:50 Closing Thanks and Wrap

Connect with Zensai panel:
https://zensai.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rasmusholst/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ninaelisabethcaroe/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robingdaniels/

Michael's National Workforce Study on Change Management:
https://www.michaeljlopez.coach/research

Michael talks with labor economist Sania Khan about interim findings from their joint research on AI pilots and why many are stalling. Sania shares her background from the White House, Capitol Hill, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics to serving as chief economist at a unicorn AI company, and explains why leaders must consider workforce strategy as AI transforms tasks across industries. They discuss common failures such as whiplash directives, unclear “why,” token-cost surprises, data access and compliance constraints, and a bifurcated tool experience between leaders and employees. They also cover entry-level hiring slowdowns, workforce opt-outs, rising entrepreneurship, and the need to measure outcomes beyond cost savings. Key takeaways include redesigning workflows, choosing better KPIs, and involving workers early to build trust and adoption.

Timestamps:
00:24 Welcome and Setup
01:10 Meet Sania Khan
03:12 AI and Jobs Outlook
06:13 Research Collaboration
08:10 Early Pilot Findings
10:21 Data Access Roadblocks
13:08 Entry Level Pipeline
15:57 Hiring Slowdown and Entrepreneurship
18:21 Measuring AI Value
23:31 AI as a Culture Mirror
27:02 Three Takeaways for Leaders
30:42 Closing


Connect with Sania:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sania-khan1/
https://www.inflectionpointstrategy.co

Michael talks with Cherian Koshy about his book Neurogiving and how neuroscience and behavioral science explain generosity and decision-making. Koshy, a longtime nonprofit professional, says the goal isn’t to manufacture generosity but to create conditions that make giving easier, emphasizing choice architecture, identity, belonging, emotion, and trust. He explains why metrics and “the business case” often fail, describing decision “gates” such as affective reasoning, identity alignment, and the identifiable individual effect, and argues that logic comes last. They discuss how nonprofits and companies should resequence outreach to prioritize relationship and trust-building, why transactional “pitch-first” approaches backfire, and how AI-driven growth tactics can burn trust and retention.


Timestamps:
00:24 Welcome
01:08 Meet Cherian Koshy
01:37 Why Neurogiving Exists
03:11 Early Fundraising Lessons
07:47 Innate Altruism Explained
13:07 Why Metrics Fail
19:33 Resequencing Trust First
25:47 AI and Trust Cliff
29:30 Key Takeaways on Generosity
35:06 Closing

Connect with Cherian:
https://www.cheriankoshy.com
https://www.labnotes.neurogivingbook.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cheriankoshy/