Chuck Gose and Jenni Field open on Patrick Lencioni's The Advantage and whether "organizational health" beats employee engagement as the goal — and whose job it actually is to keep clarity from dissolving as it cascades down. Then the Spellbook CEO who asked 200-plus employees for the "D+ version" of their work and mandated "hand-written" customer comms, from an AI company. They pressure-test Stephen Waddington's Wadds Inc. summer report against the US market, unpack Predictive Index data on the gap between how confident CEOs think their managers are and how confident managers actually feel, and close on Priya Parker's argument that Slack turbocharged workplace conflict.
Honest, specific, and a little uncomfortable — the way it should be.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro + Chuck's three weeks on the road
01:50 The Advantage: organizational health over engagement
08:40 The 'D+ version': Spellbook's hand-written AI memo
15:10 Wadds Inc. summer report: does it track in the US?
22:10 The work got automated, the talking didn't
26:50 Did Slack turbocharge conflict?
30:40 Freq-outs
LINKS
- The Advantage, Patrick Lencioni: https://www.tablegroup.com/product/the-advantage/
- Spellbook AI memo (Business Insider): https://www.businessinsider.com/spellbook-ceo-ai-policy-employee-writing-2026-9
- Wadds Inc. summer report: [drop in the report link]
- Doing the work got automated (HRD): https://www.hcamag.com/us/specialization/corporate-wellness/doing-the-work-got-automated-talking-about-it-didnt/588222
- Priya Parker on The Interview (TikTok): https://www.tiktok.com/@theinterview_nyt/video/7683495206485789965
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