Thought Sparks

In this week’s Thought Sparks Podcast episode, Rita McGrath, a Columbia University Business School Professor, C-Suite strategist, business founder and best-selling author, welcomes Sylvia Acevedo,  a trailblazer with experience spanning NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to executive roles at Apple, Dell, and IBM, and serving as the CEO of the Girl Scouts.  
 
1:56: The Trailblazer’s Playbook: From a Dirt Road Town to NASA and the C-Suite 
4:33: Sylvia’s Origins: A Girl Scouts Model Rocket and Lessons in Failure 
8:31: Breaking Big Goals into Smaller Pieces 
11:25: “Don’t Leave a Cookie Sale Until You Hear No 3 Times”: Lessons in Tenacity from the Girl Scouts 
14:01: “Girls Like You Don’t Go to College”: Becoming One of the First Hispanics to Earn a Graduate Engineering Degree from Stanford 
18:06: Innovating Above and Beyond at IBM 
21:23: A Mental Checklist to Reach the C-Suite 
30:50: Building Back Better after Failure at Autodesk 
33:58: “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There”: The Link Between Personal and Professional Growth 
36:58: Family Tragedy, and Sylvia’s Transition from Technology to Education 
39:05: The Power of Influence in Changing Opinion 
42:09: Leading the Girl Scouts: Empowering Girls in Civics, Technology, and Entrepreneurship 
46:11: Historically Women’s Colleges and the Girl Scouts: The Role of Single-Gender Spaces 
48:49: Leadership in Chip Manufacturing 
53:07: The Story of Sylvia’s Name, and Bilingual Systems Thinking 
54:46: The Power of Taking Even Small Actions 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Thought Sparks are the brainchild of Rita McGrath. They are insightful actions, strategic ideas, actionable suggestions and innovative approaches that help organizations and leaders master the future with less fear and more confidence.  
 
New episodes of the Thought Sparks Podcast are released every other Tuesday at 11am Eastern.  
 
Want to learn more about Rita’s ideas and hear more of her conversations with business leaders and innovators?  
Listen to more Thought Sparks Podcast episodes on Apple Podcasts  and Spotify. 

Watch Thought Sparks episodes on YouTube. 

Follow Rita on LinkedIn, Instagram, X and Blue Sky. 

Connect with Rita on TikTok. 

Sign up for her Thought Sparks Newsletter on Substack.  

Learn more about Rita, her books and ideas at RitaMcGrath.com

In this week’s Thought Sparks Podcast episode, Rita McGrath, a Columbia University Business School Professor, C-Suite strategist, business founder and best-selling author, sits down with Don Tapscott, CEO of the Tapscott Group, Chairman and co-Founder of the Blockchain Research Institute, and author of “You to the Power of Two”.  
 
00:00: Introductions and Don’s Expertise in Blockchains and Identic AI 
3:04: Predictions about the Web, Revisited 20 Years On 
5:20: Blockchain and The Transition from the Internet of Information to the Internet of Value 
7:27: A Personalized Future with Identic AI 
11:18: The 3 Phases of Digital Identities 
13:10: Digital Feudalism: How Digital Conglomerates Own Our Digital Identities 
18:14: “What’s the Ghost in the Machine?”: When AI Gets Embedded in Daily Life 
20:06: The Jobs Question: How AI Will Affect the Nature of Employment 
26:00: From Firms to Individual Contractors: When Units of Value Creation Become Smaller 
31:12: The Need for a New Social Contract in the Age of AI 
37:29: Rebuilding the AI Stack Around a Decentralized Physical Infrastructure 
42:155: Movement Building for Self-Sovereignty over a Digital Future

In this week’s Thought Sparks Podcast episode, Rita McGrath, a Columbia University Business School Professor, C-Suite strategist, business founder and best-selling author, speaks with Peter Capelli of Wharton and HR Strategist Ranya Nehmeh. Their book, In Praise of the Office, is a research-based assessment of the benefits and drawback of both in-person and remote work. 
1:10: WFH, RTO, WFM: Acronym Soup Around Where We Should Work 
3:01: Working From Home in the Early Days in the COVID-19 Pandemic 
5:52: What Has Not Been Working Well, From Employer Perspectives 
7:29: Generational Differences: Why Junior and Senior People Have Different Experiences with Remote Work 
9:31: The Allen Curve: Poor Information Flows  and Shrinking Networks 
12:38: Cubicles, Long Tables, and Hot Desking: How the Physical Office Has Evolved 
15:37: Why CFOs Loved Remote Work 
19:50: Individual Contributors Can Thrive in Remote Work Settings 
22:57: Where New Hires Get Lost in Remote Work Settings 
24:10: The Intentionality of a Hybrid Setup 
26:14: Why Anchor Days Fall Short 
28:15: Collaboration and Learning: When KPIs Don’t Measure What Makes Work Happen 
32:03: Cohorts, Friendships, and The Social Elements of Work 
34:30: Identifying When Remote Work Has Become a Problem 
38:30: What Leadership Misses 
43:00: Blowback to the Book: How Capelli and Nehmeh Struck a Chord 
46:13: Understanding Where People Land on the RTO Debate 
49:40: Case Studies: Netflix and Toss 
57:07: Gen Z’s Return to the Office 
 
 
Thought Sparks are the brainchild of Rita McGrath. They are insightful actions, strategic ideas, actionable suggestions and innovative approaches that help organizations and leaders master the future with less fear and more confidence.  
 
New episodes of the Thought Sparks Podcast are released every other Tuesday at 11am Eastern.  
 
Want to learn more about Rita’s ideas and hear more of her conversations with business leaders and innovators?  
Listen to more Thought Sparks Podcast episodes on Apple Podcasts  and Spotify. 

Watch Thought Sparks episodes on YouTube 

Follow Rita on LinkedIn, Instagram, X and Blue Sky. 

Connect with Rita on TikTok 

Sign up for her Thought Sparks Newsletter on Substack.  

Learn more about Rita, her books and ideas at RitaMcGrath.com

In this week’s Thought Sparks Podcast episode, Rita McGrath, a Columbia University Business School Professor, C-Suite strategist, business founder and best-selling author, speaks with Rob Siegel, Lecturer in Management at Stanford University , a venture investor, a former operator, and author of The Systems Leader: Mastering the Cross-Pressures That Make or Break Today’s Companies.
1:10: Teaching Systems Leadership with GE CEO Jeff Immelt 2:10: “Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?”: Lessons in Strategy from Janis Joplin
4:57: Playing for the Long Term and the Short Term, How Leaders Deal with Cross Pressures
8:11: The Benefits of Bureaucracy: Insights from Rita’s Forthcoming Book
9:50: Globalization 1.0 and Globalization 2.0
13:09: A Plea For Serious Leadership, Not Cage Match Challenges
15:40: “Leadership is about Everybody but You”: Kathy Mazzarella’s Leadership at Graybar
18:25: Moving from Megalithic Companies to Constellations of Capability
20:03: Purpose, and the False Choice Between Being Ambitious and Being Kind
24:30: Investing in Your People: Lessons from the Rise and Fall of GE’s Crotonville
29:48: Traffic Lights vs. Traffic Circles: Designing Sensing Systems
33:39: Developing AI as a Thought Partner
37:58: How Leaders Can Accept that Change is Difficult
42:00: Capitalism's Current Transition: Climate and the Economy 47:02: Bright Spots in Education

Thought Sparks are the brainchild of Rita McGrath. They are insightful actions, strategic ideas, actionable suggestions and innovative approaches that help organizations and leaders master the future with less fear and more confidence. New episodes of the Thought Sparks Podcast are released every other Tuesday at 11am Eastern. Want to learn more about Rita’s ideas and hear more of her conversations with business leaders and innovators? Listen to more Thought Sparks Podcast episodes on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Watch Thought Sparks episodes on YouTube Follow Rita on LinkedIn, Instagram, X and Blue Sky. Connect with Rita on TikTok Sign up for her Thought Sparks Newsletter on Substack. Learn more about Rita, her books and ideas at RitaMcGrath.com

In this week’s Thought Sparks Podcast episode, Rita McGrath, a Columbia University Business School Professor, C-Suite strategist, business founder and best-selling author, speaks with Cheryl McKissack Daniel, the fifth-generation leader of McKissack & McKissack, the nation’s oldest Black-owned design and construction services firm. Her book, “The Black Family Who Built America”, traces her family’s narrative from enslavement to building iconic American buildings, such as the National Civil Rights Museum, and Barclays Arena. Cheryl shares her insights and strategies for success in a white male-dominated industry. 
00:06 Why This Book Now: Telling True Stories of the American Past 
3:34: Origins: From Enslavement to Becoming the First Black Licensed Architects in America 
6:47: Breaking Into the “Old Boys’ Club” 
15:28: The Barclays Center Arena: The McKissacks’ Role in Revitalizing Downtown Brooklyn 
19:37: The Value of Sharing the Whole Story: What Business Books and Memoirs Leave Out 
21:04: The Next Generation and Effective Succession Planning 
22:30: Advice for Young Black Women Considering Design and Construction 
 
 
 
Thought Sparks are the brainchild of Rita McGrath. They are insightful actions, strategic ideas, actionable suggestions and innovative approaches that help organizations and leaders master the future with less fear and more confidence.  
 
New episodes of the Thought Sparks Podcast are released every other Tuesday at 11am Eastern.  
 
Want to learn more about Rita’s ideas and hear more of her conversations with business leaders and innovators?  
Listen to more Thought Sparks Podcast episodes on Apple Podcasts  and Spotify. 

Watch Thought Sparks episodes on YouTube 

Follow Rita on LinkedIn, Instagram, X and Blue Sky. 

Connect with Rita on TikTok 

Sign up for her Thought Sparks Newsletter on Substack.  

Learn more about Rita, her books and ideas at RitaMcGrath.com