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The Meg and Amy Show

The Meg and Amy Show

By: WRKdefined Podcast Network
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 Join best friends Meg Bear and Amy Wilson on The Meg and Amy Show – a podcast for big-picture thinkers who are ready to challenge the status quo. As former tech executives and seasoned business leaders, Meg and Amy have spent decades leading through change. Now, they’re joining forces to break down the trends they’ve lived and helped shape.All rights reserved by WRKdefined Career Success Economics
Episodes
  • Episode 38 | Nilofer Merchant | Stop Making It All About You: Collective Plays Over Star Players

    Episode 38 | Nilofer Merchant | Stop Making It All About You: Collective Plays Over Star Players
    Apr 17 2026
    Nilofer Merchant, ranked among the top 50 most influential management thinkers in the world, joins Amy and Meg to dismantle one of management's most beloved myths: the high-impact player ideology. From launching over 100 products netting $18 billion at companies like Apple and Autodesk, to getting fired after securing board approval, Nilofer reveals why making yourself indispensable actually makes you exploitable — and what happens when organizations optimize for individual heroes instead of collective capacity. She shares the Autodesk story: winning the board vote, receiving applause, and getting removed from her role the next day because her competitive approach destroyed team trust. The lesson? The system rewards a very particular profile, and what looks like individual success often comes at the cost of organizational capability. We explore how the "outrun the bear" mentality breaks down when survival requires more than just you, why Franklin Leonard changed Hollywood by asking "what scripts do you love?" instead of "will it make money?", and what happens when AI removes execution scarcity. Plus: Abby Wambach's habit of pointing to the assist, Mary Parker Follett's "law of the situation," and why designing for human aliveness matters more than optimizing for profit. ⏰ TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Introduction: Writing a Book With a Concussion 03:11 The Collaborative Nature of All Work 05:49 Chapter 19: Stop Making It All About You 09:22 The Autodesk Story: Fired After Winning 13:46 Systemic Problems with the A-Player Model 17:20 Alternative Leadership: Shared Ownership 24:00 Steve Jobs and Team Cohesion 25:31 Metrics: Power vs. Purpose 28:22 Generative Questions and AI's Future 30:41 Franklin Leonard's Black List 36:12 Human Aliveness in the AI Era 45:26 Leadership Corner: Managing the Rock Star Bottleneck 🔑 KEY INSIGHTS: - The high-impact player ideology makes you exploitable while destroying team capacity - Organizations don't scale through players — they scale through plays - "Something" can lead instead of "someone" (shared objectives vs. singular accountability) - Shift from "will you help me?" to "do you care about this problem too?" - AI research: 12% more productivity, 25% faster, 30% better decisions - 70% of jobs globally require zero creativity — what if AI handled that? - IKEA retrained 8,000 customer service employees as designers instead of firing them 📚 RESOURCES: Our Best Work by Nilofer Merchant: https://nilofermerchant.com/big-ideas/our-best-work/ The Intangible Labs: https://theintangiblelabs.com/ TED Talk: https://www.ted.com/speakers/nilofer_merchant 🔗 CONNECT: Nilofer Merchant: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nilofermerchant/ Submit Leadership Questions: megandamyshow@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/megandamyshow/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-meg-amy-show #Leadership #HighImpactPlayers #TeamWork #AITransformation #FutureOfWork #MegAndAmyShow
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    50 mins
  • Episode 37 | Doug Merritt on Leading With Love & Curiosity Through AI Disruption

    Episode 37 | Doug Merritt on Leading With Love & Curiosity Through AI Disruption
    Apr 10 2026
    Doug Merritt led one of the boldest transformations in enterprise software — taking Splunk from $220M perpetual license to over $3B in cloud SaaS revenue. Now, as CEO of Aviatrix, he's building the network security layer enterprises desperately need in the AI era. In this conversation, Doug gets vulnerable about his months of depression when ChatGPT launched, shares why "buying into fear is super lazy," and explains the daily battle every leader faces: love or fear. We also dive deep into the cybersecurity crisis no one's talking about — why not a single company has 100% network security coverage, what happened during Aviatrix's "benign breach" when an AI agent spammed shareware sites to complete its task, and why agents have no "absurdity governor." Plus: Doug's five leadership principles in priority order, why focusing on outcomes is actually lazier than daily mastery, and what it takes to help people when their hard-earned skills are losing market value. ⏰ TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Cold Open: You Can Buy Into Fear or You Can Buy Into Love 00:16 Introduction 01:12 Welcome Doug 04:00 Be Open to the 1% — There Are Infinite Ways to Get to the Answer 06:34 How Do You Let in That 1% From the People Around You? 09:00 Five Leadership Principles in Priority Order 12:10 The Daily Battle of Love or Fear 15:41 What Skills Matter in the AI Era? 19:59 We Built Management Training for Managing Agents 22:24 How Do You Build Capacity as a Leader? 25:09 Divorce Forced Me to Set Boundaries 27:12 Joshua Metcalfe and Daily Mastery Philosophy 29:13 Splunk Transformation vs. AI Transformation — What's Different? 32:00 We're Still Not 100% AI Company — And We Tried 34:20 The Cybersecurity Crisis: Not a Single Company Has 100% Coverage 36:50 The LiteLLM Breach Story 40:10 The Benign Breach at Aviatrix 41:59 Agents Have No Absurdity Governor 44:19 Identity + Network = Your Security Foundation 48:05 Daily Mastery Over Outcomes — Still Believe It 50:02 Leadership Corner: Installing a Durable Method for Deep Thinking 🔑 KEY INSIGHTS: - Why "be open to the 1%" — the probability you might be wrong - "There is no failure, only learning" — reframing growth mindset - Five leadership principles: relentless curiosity, lead with empathy, purpose before action, radical accountability, celebrate success - The daily battle of love vs. fear — and why buying into fear is lazy - Your value is shifting from "doing" to judgment, experience, and orchestration - Management training for managing AI agents — they operate very differently than humans - "Focusing on the outcome is actually lazier" — why daily mastery matters more - Not a single company has 100% network security coverage in the cloud - The Team PCP / LiteLLM breach: credentials harvested and sent to Netherlands - The benign breach: AI agent spammed 8 shareware sites to make a PowerPoint - "Agents have no absurdity governor" — they just keep trying everything - In the cloud, you're left with identity and network — get those right or you're not safe 📚 RESOURCES: - Chop Wood, Carry Water by Joshua Metcalfe: https://www.amazon.com/Chop-Wood-Carry-Water-Instructions/dp/0997077824 - When by Daniel Pink: https://www.amazon.com/When-Scientific-Secrets-Perfect-Timing/dp/0735210624 - Doug Merritt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/doug-merritt/ - Aviatrix: https://aviatrix.ai/ 🔗 CONNECT: Submit Leadership Questions: megandamyshow@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/megandamyshow/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-meg-amy-show #Leadership #AITransformation #Cybersecurity #DougMerritt #DailyMastery #CloudSecurity #FutureOfWork #MegAndAmyShow
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    1 hr
  • Episode 036 | Stop Doing Things Right. Start Doing the Right Things. | Himanshu Palsule

    Episode 036 | Stop Doing Things Right. Start Doing the Right Things. | Himanshu Palsule
    Apr 3 2026
    Cornerstone OnDemand CEO Himanshu Palsule joins Amy and Meg to discuss Generation Beta, the leadership pipeline vacuum, and what it takes to build a workforce for a world that doesn't exist yet. From his World Economic Forum panel on corporate ladders to hiring a Chief AI Officer who asked for just 12 people, Himanshu shares what he's learned leading a major talent platform through complete transformation while the rules of work are being rewritten. Plus: why inference, context, and trust matter more than token counts, how drug development timelines collapsed from 10 years to one, and what to do when your team can't let go. ⏰ TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 If you remove the bottom rungs, who's left on the ladder? 00:52 Generation Beta: AI will always know more than they will 03:53 We are custodians of a generation — don't become zombies 05:45 The leadership pipeline vacuum at Davos 08:18 Hyper-personalized learning and the lowest common denominator problem 12:19 Technical vs. human skills: the gap is collapsing (70/30 to 50/50) 15:49 Everyone needs executive function now 18:48 From optimization to reimagination: doing the right things 23:53 Drug development: 10 years to 1 year with AI 26:23 Inference, context, and trust: the three pillars that matter 32:29 Swimming in rivers, not pools: learning agility vs. future-proofing 36:56 The Chief AI Officer who asked for 12 people 42:26 Spend 20 days defining the problem, 20 days imagining the solution 44:49 The SaaS-pocalypse: deterministic vs. probabilistic functions 47:50 Three leadership traits: curiosity, situational awareness, courage to say no 48:42 Leadership Corner: How to delegate without taking it back 🔑 KEY INSIGHTS: - The workforce most capable of reimagining AI is being excluded from the transformation - Human skills (curiosity, flexibility, courage) now matter as much as technical skills - For every 100 AI agents, there's one human orchestrating — making human skills critical - Companies that earn trust through context and deliberate solutions will survive the AI chaos - Learning agility beats future-proofing when everything changes every three months - Small, focused teams outperform large development groups in the AI era - Probabilistic software functions will be disrupted; deterministic functions (payroll, HR) will endure 📚 RESOURCES: - World Economic Forum Panel: Corporate Ladders and the Great AI Reshuffling https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2026/sessions/corporate-ladders-and-the-great-ai-reshuffling/ - Cornerstone OnDemand Skills Economy Report: https://www.cornerstoneondemand.com/resources/article/skills-economy-report/ - Stephen Covey: “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9923896-management-is-doing-things-right-leadership-is-doing-the-right 🔗 CONNECT: Himanshu Palsule: https://www.linkedin.com/in/himanshu-palsule/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/megandamyshow/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-meg-amy-show #Leadership #AITransformation #FutureOfWork #GenerationBeta #LearningAgility #MegAndAmyShow
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    57 mins
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