Episodes

  • 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
    Show More Show Less
    50 mins
  • 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
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr
  • 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
    Show More Show Less
    57 mins
  • Episode 35 | Why Most AI Productivity Claims Are Dangerously Misleading | Ben Waber
    Mar 27 2026
    MIT researcher and People Analytics author Ben Waber joins Amy and Meg for one of the most myth-busting conversations about AI, productivity, and what actually drives enterprise value. From a 23-year-old grad student who discovered that billion-dollar companies don't know how their own teams communicate, to the lunch table experiment that changed programmer productivity by 20%, Ben brings 15 years of behavioral data to challenge everything you think you know about how organizations work — and why most AI claims should make you very skeptical. ⏰ TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 What percent of your company is a dumpster fire? 00:11 Introduction to Ben Waber 01:11 From Philly to MIT: How Ben started measuring how humans work 04:35 A paper that made a billion-dollar bank reorganize 06:31 The Japanese minor, a bestselling book, and being recognized on the street 08:42 The Academic Run Playlist: 2,500+ talks and counting 13:07 The big idea: Where is the real value in AI? 14:37 Why AI vendors and economists are both getting it wrong 16:20 The calculation machines story: 20 years to get 20% cheaper 18:06 Amazon's box-packing metric and why "quantitative" doesn't mean "objective" 20:11 Jack Dorsey, Block, and the rude awakening ahead 22:11 Klarna's AI rollback and the nuance problem 24:33 "Spin up 100,000 agents doing nothing" — the meaningless metrics trap 27:17 The three things you need to understand before deploying AI 29:37 Tripwires: Building permission to be wrong 31:22 How do you actually model work? Amy's HRIS thesis 35:48 What we're really good at measuring: what's awful 37:12 From dumpster fires to board-level accountability 38:20 AI is a sugar rush — and profit predicts 1% of your future 39:06 If the cows are limping, it's bad 39:28 The lunch table story: a 20% productivity difference from a $50 decision 44:22 Leadership Corner: Breaking through when a peer team is gatekeeping 51:44 Wrap-up: What we learned from Ben 🔑 KEY INSIGHTS: - Most AI productivity claims are measuring activity, not value — "having a seizure on my keyboard outputs more lines of code" - Companies can't define what performance actually means — and that's the root problem - We can't predict what great looks like, but we're really good at identifying what's awful - The "dumpster fire" reframe: measure what percent of your company is broken and put a dollar value on it - AI adoption is a sugar rush — firing 40% of employees boosts quarterly profit but predicts nothing about the future - Current profit predicts only 1% of future profit — people metrics predict far more - A 20% difference in programmer productivity was driven by which cafeteria door people walked through - The financial industry is starting to use workplace behavioral data in investment decisions 📚 RESOURCES: Ben Waber's book, People Analytics: https://www.amazon.com/People-Analytics-Technology-Transform-Business/dp/0133158314 Ben's HBR piece on LLMs and organizational performance: https://hbr.org/2024/01/is-genais-impact-on-productivity-overblown Patty Azzarello, Move: https://www.amazon.com/Move-Decisive-Strategy-Obstacles-Setbacks/dp/1119348374 Nate B. Jones on Klarna: https://www.youtube.com/@NateBJones 🔗 CONNECT: Ben Waber: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminwaber/ Submit Leadership Questions: amywilsonadvisor@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/megandamyshow/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-meg-amy-show #Leadership #AI #AITransformation #PeopleAnalytics #FutureOfWork #MegAndAmyShow
    Show More Show Less
    57 mins
  • Episode 34 | You're the Weak Link Now | The Bottleneck Has Shifted From Your AI to You
    Mar 20 2026
    Our guest had to cancel (get well soon, Ankur!). So instead of the episode we planned, you're getting something better — us, unfiltered, on everything that's been consuming our lives for the past month. Amy has 100+ hours of vibe coding under her belt and has things to say. Meg has been reading Dan Heath's Reset and watching Jason Lemkin slowly become the worst worker on his own team. And together we've landed on a thesis that might be uncomfortable: the bottleneck in AI transformation isn't capability anymore. It's judgment. It's you. ⏰ TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 The Episode That Almost Wasn't 02:30 Field Trip: Meg & Amy Visit John Sumser & Heather Bussing 04:53 Ethan Mollick Was Right: Complexity Is in the Workflow 07:05 Customer Onboarding as a Case Study 12:08 Don't We Still Need Human Connection in the Age of AI? 15:44 Dan Heath's Reset & Three Judgment Failures 18:52 Stop Doing All the Things With AI 22:38 Amy's Vibe Coding Journey: 100+ Hours In 23:05 The Beach Walk Epiphany 29:09 The Executive Reframe: You're Not Just a Manager of AI 32:46 Why Mid-Level Leaders Are Most at Risk 35:55 It's Not a Time Problem. It's a Nervous System Problem. 41:13 Jason Lemkin's Weak Link Problem — And Amy's 47:10 Nate B. Jones & the Open Brain Concept 58:19 We're Out of the Messy Middle 🔑 KEY INSIGHTS: - The bottleneck has shifted — it's no longer your AI's capability, it's your judgment - The complexity is in the workflow design, not the tools — Forward Deployed AI Engineers won't save you - After 100+ hours of vibe coding, the lesson is clear: your job is to set intent, not implement - When your AI team never sleeps, you become the weak link — and that's an emotional adjustment nobody prepares you for - Mid-level leaders are most at risk from AI: most squeezed for time, least supported, caught in a double bind - If you're procrastinating on AI, it's probably a nervous system issue, not a time issue - Your first vibe coding project should be a throwaway — that IS the curriculum - The "open brain": your intelligence shouldn't live inside someone else's walled garden 📚 REFERENCES: Building Agents People Actually Trust | Ankur Bhatt https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/building-agents-people-actually-trust-ankur-bhatt-ujltc Reset | Dan Heath https://www.amazon.com/Reset-Dan-Heath/dp/1982195851 Ethan Mollick on Forward Deployed AI Engineers https://x.com/emollick Open Brain Concept | Nate B. Jones https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JiMmye2ezg Amy's AI Transformation Maturity Model https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ai-transformation-maturity-model-amy-wilson 🔗 CONNECT: Submit Leadership Questions: megandamyshow@gmail.com Instagram: @megandamyshow LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-meg-amy-show Meg's Website: https://www.megbear.com #AITransformation #VibeCoding #Leadership #FutureOfWork #MegAndAmyShow
    Show More Show Less
    57 mins
  • Episode 33 | Marc Coleman on Why Nobody Has Budget for Theory Anymore
    Mar 13 2026
    UNLEASH founder and CEO Marc Coleman joins Amy and Meg for a conversation about what 5,000 HR leaders actually need right now — not in theory, in practice. From launching a disastrous first conference with tangled lanyards and no sleep to building one of the world's largest HR technology events, Marc shares how he reads market signals, why he shifted from benefit-led to decision-led content, and the L'Oréal "journey book” that changed how he thinks about the value of gathering. Plus: why companies winning with AI won't tell you how, the real tension between boards and HR, and Marc's Vegas wedding story. Leadership Corner: what happens when your promotion makes your peers not your peers anymore. ⏰ TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 "Repurposing humanity in the age of machines" 00:14 Introduction — what do 5,000 HR leaders actually need? 01:02 Building communities around big ideas 03:29 The UNLEASH origin story — Chelsea FC and sore heads 06:42 First event chaos: tangled lanyards and one hour of sleep 07:47 How to separate signal from noise as an insider 08:07 The politician effect — why HR leaders can't share secrets 11:26 "I leave the clothes of yesterday behind me" 13:42 "Everyone has the same data — the ones who win make different decisions" 14:37 The L'Oréal journey book — 100 HR leaders, 38 brands, one week of decisions 18:05 What does "good" look like for a conference speaker? 20:44 One sentence can change your career — and a Vegas wedding 22:35 The gap between what boards want and what HR delivers 23:23 Why the hardest part of transformation is always the people 25:12 Boards want capital efficiency. HR manages human complexity. 26:45 Doing your homework — Ethan Mollick and the jaw on the floor 29:17 Why companies succeeding with AI won't share how 31:05 2026 is the year — doing nothing is very costly 32:24 "The execution lives and dies in HR" 33:11 Areas of hope — SAP, Walmart, and pioneering CHROs 34:20 The power of in-person learning and serendipity 37:40 UNLEASH America — March 17–19, Caesars Forum, Las Vegas 39:01 Leadership Corner: Promoted past your peers — now what? 42:23 Build your org structure first, then map the people 46:01 "This is a new job — not a step function of your old one" 47:10 Wrap-up: What HR leaders should focus on in 2026 🔑 KEY INSIGHTS: - Everyone has the same data — the winners make different decisions, not luckier ones - L'Oréal sends 100 HR leaders to UNLEASH annually with a custom "journey book" mapping decisions to sessions — the future of how organizations extract value from learning - AI capability is outpacing organizational design — companies think it's about tools when it's actually about human beings - The "politician effect": companies succeeding with AI treat it as competitive advantage and won't share publicly - Boards optimize for capital efficiency while HR manages human complexity — the leaders who win translate between both worlds - The execution of AI transformation lives and dies in HR — it's not a side initiative, it's the competitive advantage - Workforce transformation is a team sport — you can't do it alone behind a closed door - After a promotion: soothe your heart, then build your org completely separate from the relationships in place- A promotion isn't a step function — it's a new job requiring fresh onboarding and relationship building 📚 RESOURCES: UNLEASH America 2026: March 17–19, Caesars Forum, Las Vegas https://www.unleash.ai/ Ethan Mollick: https://www.oneusefulthing.org/ Jess Von Bank: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessvonbank/ Kirstin Ferguson Episode (Season 1): https://youtu.be/lceHtsbNAcs?si=rlOuV3HwrFk9r1lx 🔗 CONNECT: Marc Coleman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marccoleman/ Submit Leadership Questions: amywilsonadvisor@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/megandamyshow/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-meg-amy-show #Leadership #AITransformation #UNLEASH #FutureOfWork#HRLeadership #DecisionMaking #MegAndAmyShow
    Show More Show Less
    51 mins
  • Episode 32 | Kim Scott on Radical Candor, Courage, and Leading When Nobody Has Answers
    Mar 6 2026
    Radical Candor author Kim Scott joins Amy and Meg for one of the most candid conversations about leadership, courage, and what it really means to care in an era of AI disruption and rising authoritarianism. From managing diamond cutters in the Soviet Union to coaching CEOs at Google, Apple, and Twitter, Kim shares the personal stories behind her frameworks — including the moment a colleague's feedback made her rethink everything and write Radical Respect. Plus: what Kim would tell Workday's returning founder Aneel Bhusri, why Steve Jobs argued against himself, and how to give feedback when AI did half the work. ⏰ TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Radical candor is about praise, not just criticism 00:47 From Moscow diamond cutters to first management lessons 02:59 How Kim discovered Kieran Snyder and the power of candid praise 06:15 Silicon Valley's silence: Kim's New York Times op-ed 10:44 "Too much money in too few hands" — what history tells us 13:41 Courage and wealth are negatively correlated right now 14:12 The competence-likeability story: tight pants and a demotion 17:10 The ROI of speaking up vs. staying silent 19:27 Susan Fowler, regret, and the cost of going quietly 22:03 "Casually cruel in the name of being honest" — radical candor misused 26:49 The dog story: "It's not mean, it's clear" 28:48 Andy Grove's cab ride and the two-minute conversation 34:51 The four realizations that led to Radical Respect 39:10 Leadership skills vs. leadership qualities in the AI era 42:23 The Compass: AI role-play for practicing radical candor 44:59 "We don't know what's going to happen — that's it" 47:15 The SaaSpocalypse: What Kim would tell Workday's CEO 48:34 "You are not your stock price" 50:52 Steve Jobs argued against himself — and saved Apple 54:30 Leadership Corner: Giving feedback when AI did the work 🔑 KEY INSIGHTS: - Why self-censorship is the real goal of authoritarianism — and it's happening in tech - The difference between radical candor and obnoxious aggression in the "founder mode" era - Kim's four realizations that transformed Radical Candor into Radical Respect - How to evaluate and develop people when AI is producing their work - Why the best leaders argue against their own positions - "You are not your stock price" — leading vs. lagging indicators for founders in crisis - The Compass tool: using AI to practice hard conversations, not replace them 📚 RESOURCES: - Radical Candor Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@RadicalCandor/ - Compass AI Role-Play Tool: compass.radicalcandor.com - Lenny's Podcast: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/podcast - Kieran Snyder Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFqdGDylL6I - New York Times Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/opinion/trump-silicon-valley-state-meda-putin.html - Andy Grove: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Grove - TED Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/kim_scott_how_to_lead_with_radical_candor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmxHUiiHgNk 🔗 CONNECT: Kim Scott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimm4/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/megandamyshow/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-meg-amy-show #RadicalCandor #Leadership #AI #AITransformation #FounderMode #SiliconValley #FutureOfWork #MegAndAmyShow
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 4 mins
  • Episode 31 | Five Major Threads Shaping the Future | Season 2 Kickoff
    Feb 27 2026
    Episode 12 | Can You Transform from LegacyCo to NewCo in the AI Era? | Usman Sheikh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9WFX85Im2I Episode 18 | The Winning AI Strategy: Reshuffling Systems, Not Adding Smarts | Sangeet Paul Choudary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaSZhRkk2NU More or Less Podcast https://www.youtube.com/@MoreorLessPod/videos Meg Bear's LinkedIn Post https://www.linkedin.com/posts/megbear_how-ai-is-learning-to-think-in-secret-activity-7421328223759654912-CgdE?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAAVeN8BrXyqZRtd37eT9lCYDRykSAdLh5A Why the Biggest AI Career Opportunity Just Appeared - and Almost Nobody Sees It https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r0UeMQE66I High Agency in 30 Minutes https://www.highagency.com/ AI's trillion-dollar opportunity: Context Graphs https://foundationcapital.com/context-graphs-ais-trillion-dollar-opportunity/ The 5 Levels of AI Coding (Why Most of You Won't Make It Past Level 2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDcgHzCBgmQHow to build AI product sense https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-build-ai-product-sense
    Show More Show Less
    59 mins