Directionally Correct, A People Analytics Podcast Podcast Por WRKdefined Podcast Network arte de portada

Directionally Correct, A People Analytics Podcast

Directionally Correct, A People Analytics Podcast

De: WRKdefined Podcast Network
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Directionally Correct is the #1 people analytics podcast in the world. Hosted by Cole Napper, the podcast dives into people analytics, workforce planning, behavioral science, and talent intelligence, helping leaders navigate the future of AI in the workplace with insight and a dash of fun. To find out more, check out colenapper.comAll rights reserved by WRKdefined Ciencia Economía Gestión Gestión y Liderazgo
Episodios
  • Global Talent Disruption, Mobility & Expats, & Soft Skills Importance - Dr. Paula Caliguiri - #163

    Global Talent Disruption, Mobility & Expats, & Soft Skills Importance - Dr. Paula Caliguiri - #163
    Mar 9 2026
    Check out this episode of the #1 people analytics podcast with special guest, Dr. Paula Caliguiri, Distinguished Professor at Northeastern University, Co-Founder of Skiilify, Best-Selling Author, Podcast Host of “International Business Today”! In this wide-ranging and deeply insightful conversation, host Cole Napper sits down with one of the world’s leading scholars on global talent, cultural agility, and international business to explore how work, careers, and human capability are evolving in a time of rapid technological and geopolitical disruption. The discussion begins with Paula’s decades of research on global mobility and expatriate success, where she studied how individuals adapt when working across cultures and unfamiliar environments. Drawing on her early work examining personality predictors of expatriate success, Paula explains why traits such as openness to experience and extraversion often predict who thrives in new and complex contexts. While traditional expatriate assignments have declined, the underlying challenge—humans operating outside familiar environments—has only intensified. Today, novelty comes to us rather than us traveling to it, as employees increasingly work across global teams, industries, generations, and rapidly changing technologies. From there, the conversation shifts toward cultural agility, a concept Paula has championed throughout her career. Rather than simply adapting to new situations, cultural agility involves knowing when to adapt, when to maintain your own standards, and when to help create new norms. In a world where AI, automation, and shifting labor markets are transforming jobs at unprecedented speed, these capabilities are becoming essential. Paula argues that while technology continues to reshape work, the human skills that help people navigate complexity—curiosity, humility, resilience, perspective taking, and relationship orientation—are becoming more important, not less. Cole and Paula also explore the growing conversation around skills-based organizations and the changing nature of talent management. As technical skills evolve rapidly and often have a shorter half-life than ever before, organizations must think carefully about how they build durable human capabilities that allow workers to move fluidly between roles, industries, and challenges. Paula shares insights from both academic research and real-world experimentation through her company Skillify, which helps individuals develop these capabilities through tools designed to build cultural agility across different stages of life and career. The conversation also explores Paula’s professional journey—balancing roles as a professor, entrepreneur, author, and podcast host. She reflects on the importance of translating academic insights into ideas practitioners can apply. Along the way, Paula offers practical advice for professionals seeking to build meaningful careers and strong personal brands, emphasizing the importance of understanding what you want your reputation to represent and consistently aligning your work with that purpose. Throughout the episode, Cole and Paula connect the dots between global labor dynamics, AI disruption, workforce transformation, and the future of human capability—offering a thought-provoking discussion about what it means to succeed in an era defined by uncertainty and constant change. If you like this episode, you’d also love exploring prior episodes—visit colenapper.com for the full archive and show links.
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    54 m
  • Workforce Intelligence in Healthcare & Being a Leader for 10 Years - Dr. Gary Russo - #162

    Workforce Intelligence in Healthcare & Being a Leader for 10 Years - Dr. Gary Russo - #162
    Mar 2 2026
    Check out this episode of the #1 people analytics podcast with special guest, Dr. Gary Russo, Executive Director of Workforce Intelligence at Providence Health! In this wide-ranging and deeply human conversation, Cole sits down with Gary to explore what it really means to build and sustain a people analytics function for more than a decade inside one of the largest not-for-profit health systems in the United States. Gary reflects on hitting his ten-year mark at Providence Health & Services and what it takes to move beyond the AI hype cycle that has dominated so many analytics conversations. Rather than chasing headlines, he shares how real progress often happens in small, unglamorous steps: defining terms, building trust, clarifying governance, and laying foundations so better decisions can take root years later. From early debates about what “analytics” even meant to establishing strategic HR data governance across dozens of executives, Gary explains why perseverance and continuity of vision matter more than any single dashboard or model. The discussion dives into how healthcare fundamentally differs from other industries. In a world where leaders can honestly say they skipped your email because they were saving lives, prioritization hits differently. Gary unpacks the unique reimbursement model of healthcare, where organizations are rewarded when patients get well and do not return—creating an industry that is, in many ways, funded to keep itself out of business. He also explores the looming workforce crisis driven by aging populations, chronic disease, and nurse shortages, and why creative, nontraditional pathways into care delivery may be essential to sustaining the system. AI gets a reality check as Gary distinguishes between generative buzzwords and the quieter power of automation, robotics, and computer vision already transforming surgery and diagnostics. He emphasizes that governance—clear definitions, aligned metrics, and shared language—is the prerequisite not only for AI, but for productive conversations between HR, finance, and operations. Sometimes progress begins with something simple, like distinguishing between “position FTE” and “worked FTE” so debates end and better questions can begin. Throughout the episode, Gary blends neuroscience, therapy insights, improv training, and even fire performance into his leadership philosophy. He shares how relationship counseling principles apply to employer-employee dynamics, why listening goes far beyond surveys, and how understanding human uncertainty is central to responsible analytics. The conversation also tackles burnout, pessimism, social isolation, hybrid work, and the growing gap between strategy and so-called “data fluency” problems—challenging the assumption that unused dashboards signal a skills issue rather than a clarity issue. At its core, this episode is about using analytics in service of something bigger: putting more caregivers at the bedside, strengthening communities, and making decisions that ripple far beyond a spreadsheet. If you care about the intersection of AI, workforce planning, healthcare, and long-term culture change, this is one you won’t want to miss. If you like this episode, you’d also love exploring prior episodes—visit colenapper.com for the full archive and show links.
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    1 h y 5 m
  • Workforce Strategy at Edwards Jones & Everything Wrong with HR - Buddy Benge - #161

    Workforce Strategy at Edwards Jones & Everything Wrong with HR - Buddy Benge - #161
    Feb 23 2026
    Check out this episode of the #1 people analytics podcast with special guest, Buddy Benge, Head of Workforce Strategy and Resource Management at Edward Jones! In this wide-ranging, unfiltered, and deeply thought-provoking conversation, Buddy joins host Cole Napper to explore the real future of work—beyond the buzzwords, vendor hype, and recycled HR talking points. Buddy shares his unconventional journey from coding AOL text-based games at 18 to earning a master’s degree from Cornell and building early dashboards at Raytheon, where he helped shape strategic workforce planning. He later stood up people analytics functions at Monsanto and Bayer and led Human Capital Insights at Edward Jones before stepping into his current role defining workforce strategy and resource management for a 55,000+ associate financial services firm. Together, Cole and Buddy unpack what workforce strategy actually means inside a large, complex organization. They explore how AI, automation, sourcing strategy, process excellence, job architecture, FP&A, and upskilling converge in a modern future-of-work function. Buddy explains why the conversation must shift from static “roles” to the “work to be done,” and how organizations need to deconstruct tasks, redesign jobs, and rethink capability building to remain competitive in an AI-accelerated world. The episode doesn’t shy away from controversy. Buddy challenges assumptions about AI agents, probabilistic versus deterministic systems, and unrealistic expectations placed on emerging technologies. He breaks down the math behind multi-step automation error rates and why leaders must understand acceptable risk, system maturity, and economic tradeoffs before turning decision-making over to machines. From there, the conversation expands into bold critiques of HR itself. Buddy questions why HR technology is often misconfigured and underleveraged, why performance management frequently destroys more value than it creates, and why common talent acquisition metrics like quality of hire may be fundamentally flawed. He pushes listeners to rethink how value is defined in white-collar work, how compensation systems attempt to price roles without understanding task-level impact, and why we may lack a shared language for articulating real contribution. They also explore leadership development, coaching, employee listening, benefits strategy, retirement risk, relocation in a return-to-office era, and the evolution of HR job titles. Buddy argues that leadership development may be the single most important function inside an organization—and that its future could be significantly reshaped by AI-driven tools. Throughout the episode, two seasoned practitioners wrestle with the tension between legacy HR structures and the urgent need to evolve. This is not a surface-level trends conversation. It is a candid, systems-level discussion about analytics maturity, data life cycles, organizational design, and the practical realities of driving change inside complex institutions. If you care about workforce intelligence, analytics, AI disruption, and the structural future of HR, this episode delivers sharp, experience-driven insight from someone who has built and reinvented people analytics functions across global organizations. If you like this episode, you’d also love exploring prior episodes—visit colenapper.com for the full archive and show links.
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    1 h y 22 m
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