People and Projects Podcast: Project Management Podcast

Summary
In this episode, Andy welcomes back Marcus Buckingham, bestselling author and researcher, to discuss his new book, Design Love In: How to Unleash the Most Powerful Force in Business. For 25 years, Marcus studied the most productive teams, loyal customers, and effective leaders in the world, and the word that kept appearing in his data was one he kept changing: love.
Andy and Marcus explore what love actually means in a business context, including how leaders are really experience makers whether they know it or not. You will hear the remarkable story of Josh D'Amaro, the CEO of Disney, and what his leadership reveals about designing love into a team's daily experience. Marcus unpacks the five feelings that lead people to say they love working for a leader, starting with something counterintuitive: control. The conversation also covers tough love, AI's limits as an experience maker, and how these principles can transform how we lead our families too.
If you're looking for a fresh, evidence-based look at what drives sustained high performance, this episode is for you!
Sound Bites
"I kept hearing that word (love) and shame on me, but I did keep changing it because I felt like it was a careless exaggeration of the word like or something."
"Don't keep changing the word (love). The word's the word. The question really should be why and how do we replicate it?"
"You're paid to change behavior. That's all you're paid to do. You're not paid to run a project. You're paid to change behavior as a leader."
"When you send an email, it's not an email. It's an experience for the person on the other end. When you call that team meeting, it's not a team meeting. It's an experience."
"You join a company and then you quit your boss."
"Undesigned experiences lead to unpredictable outcomes."
"It's cowardly, not loving. It's cowardly to leave them in that job."
"I am for you. I am for you. That doesn't always mean that I am going to tell you what you wanna hear. It means I want you to flourish."
"Loving's an ingredient, right? Loving isn't, 'Be nicer.' Loving's like, 'What are you trying to do for me?'"
"The beginning of love is rules. The beginning of love is clarity."
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:48 Start of Interview
01:57 Why Marcus Spent Decades Avoiding the Word "Love"
05:47 Misconceptions About Love in Business
11:29 Inside the "Josh Effect"
18:02 What Great Leaders Don't Do
22:13 Local Leadership and Variation in Team Experience
27:54 When Senior Leaders Couldn't Say the Word
31:04 Applying the "Is This Loving or Unloving?" Lens
37:43 Tough Love and Difficult Performance Conversations
46:20 Practical Takeaways: The Five Feelings of Love
50:25 AI and the Role of Love in Leadership
56:34 Designing Love Into Parenting and Family
1:01:26 End of Interview
1:01:57 Andy Comments After the Interview
1:05:03 Outtakes
Learn More
You can learn more about Marcus and his work at BuckinghamInstitute.com.
For more learning on this topic, check out:
Episode 252, which is our earlier interview with Marcus Buckingham. That book still impacts how Andy leads years after having Marcus on the first time.
Episode 332 with Kevin Eikenberry and Wayne Turmel. A discussion about keeping your teams engaged and connected, even if they're not co-located.
Episode 324 with Jim Harter. Jim is the Chief Scientist at Gallup and they have an insightful discussion about building resilient and thriving teams.
Chat with PMeLa
You can chat directly with PMeLa—the podcast's AI persona—to get episode recommendations and answers to your project management and leadership questions. Visit PeopleAndProjectsPodcast.com/PMeLa to chat with her.
Pass the PMP Exam
If you or someone you know is thinking about getting PMP certified, we've put together a helpful guide called The 5 Best Resources to Help You Pass the PMP Exam on Your First Try. We've helped thousands of people earn their certification, and we'd love to help you too. It's totally free, and it's a great way to get a head start.
Just go to 5BestResources.PeopleAndProjectsPodcast.com to grab your copy. I'd love to help you get your PMP this year!
Join Us for LEAD52
I know you want to be a more confident leader–that's why you listen to this podcast. LEAD52 is a global community of people like you who are committed to transforming their ability to lead and deliver. It's 52 weeks of leadership learning, delivered right to your inbox, taking less than 5 minutes a week. And it's all for free. Learn more and sign up at GetLEAD52.com. Thanks!
Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast!
Talent Triangle: Power Skills
Topics: Leadership, Love in Business, Team Culture, Employee Engagement, Customer Experience, Project Management, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Parenting, Organizational Culture, Experience Design
The following music was used for this episode:
Music: Summer Morning Full Version by MusicLFiles
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Music: Tuesday by Sascha Ende
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Summary
In this episode, Andy welcomes back Steve Kahle, entrepreneur, executive, and fractional CIO, author of Leadership Recall: Harness Insights. Accelerate Innovation. LEAD WITH AUTHORITY. Steve first joined the podcast in episode 184 to discuss email overload. This time, the conversation turns to a challenge every leader faces: the forgetting curve. Research suggests we forget up to 83% of what we learn within a week, and Steve argues this is not just a learning problem, it's a leadership problem.
Steve shares his CCR framework (Capture, Catalog, and Recall), along with practical tools such as the Anki flashcard app and the Email Me voice-note app, to build what he calls a learning operating system. The discussion covers how to design a recall fitness practice in as little as three minutes a day and how removing friction at every step keeps the system sustainable.
If you're looking for a practical system to stop letting great insights slip away and start leading with more authority, this episode is for you!
Sound Bites
"I think God put in my heart to be a relentless optimizer. I like to see things work and work well."
"When you really zoom out in life, those who are really successful have figured out what are the frameworks, what are the methodologies that work, and they simply apply those."
"Our subconscious mind can handle about 11 million bits of data per second, but about 40 bits conscious mind."
"I went all in. Christ totally transformed my heart, and I'm realizing that scripture memory is a superpower."
"Time swiftly washes away the obvious."
"Learning really is a privilege, and we need to be able to find time that works with our daily rhythms."
"Three minutes a day is really all you need to be able to see tremendous traction on being able to recall things that matter"
"Instead of 'I'm bad at remembering names,' you could, do a reframe like, 'Hey, I'm getting better at remembering people's names.'"
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:48 Start of Interview
02:06 Early Experiences and the Instinct to Remember
04:08 Is Memory a Natural Gift or a Trainable Skill?
05:19 Forgetting as a Feature, Not Just a Bug
07:10 The Leadership Cost of Forgetting
09:10 Shifting the Bottleneck from Input to Retention
12:02 The Five-Hour Rule and Three Learning Archetypes
14:19 The CCR Framework in Practice: Capture, Catalog, and Recall
19:50 Removing Friction from Your Learning System
23:23 Inside Anki: Cloze Deletions and Building Cards
26:10 Organizing Your Recall Decks
27:30 Real-World Results: When Readers Apply the System
28:56 Building Recall Habits in Your Kids
32:50 How to Get the Book
34:01 End of Interview
34:17 Andy Comments After the Interview
37:46 Outtakes
Learn More
You can learn more about Steve and his work at leadershiprecall.com.
For more learning on this topic, check out:
Episode 184 with Steve Kahle. It's our previous conversation about keeping your head above water when drowning in email and commitments. Definitely recommend checking it out.
Episode 411 with Laura Mae Martin. She's the head of productivity at Google and shares ideas that I still use to this day.
Episode 376 with Nick Sonnenberg. It's a book about helping you and your team stop drowning in all the information and commitments at work.
Chat with PMeLa
You can chat directly with PMeLa—the podcast's AI persona—to get episode recommendations and answers to your project management and leadership questions. Visit PeopleAndProjectsPodcast.com/PMeLa to chat with her.
Pass the PMP Exam
If you or someone you know is thinking about getting PMP certified, we've put together a helpful guide called The 5 Best Resources to Help You Pass the PMP Exam on Your First Try. We've helped thousands of people earn their certification, and we'd love to help you too. It's totally free, and it's a great way to get a head start.
Just go to 5BestResources.PeopleAndProjectsPodcast.com to grab your copy. I'd love to help you get your PMP this year!
Join Us for LEAD52
I know you want to be a more confident leader–that's why you listen to this podcast. LEAD52 is a global community of people like you who are committed to transforming their ability to lead and deliver. It's 52 weeks of leadership learning, delivered right to your inbox, taking less than 5 minutes a week. And it's all for free. Learn more and sign up at GetLEAD52.com. Thanks!
Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast!
Talent Triangle: Power Skills
Topics: Leadership, Memory, Learning, Productivity, Knowledge Management, Recall, Spaced Repetition, Personal Development, Continuous Learning, Networking, Project Management
The following music was used for this episode:
Music: Imagefilm 034 by Sascha Ende
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Music: Tuesday by Sascha Ende
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Summary
In this episode, Andy welcomes Dr. John La Puma, a board-certified internal medicine physician, professionally trained chef, regenerative organic farmer, and two-time New York Times bestselling author of The Indoor Epidemic.
Did you know most of us spend about 93% of our lives indoors? Dr. John makes the case, backed by more than 2,200 studies, that where we spend our time may matter just as much as the soft skills and productivity systems we so often focus on. In this conversation, Andy and Dr. John dig into what he calls digital obesity and analog wellness, the science of morning sunlight and circadian rhythm, why looking at the horizon for just one minute per hour can improve focus and eye health, and what forest bathing actually does to your immune system. They also explore loneliness as a health crisis, the social dimension of outdoor time, and practical ways to build a 17-minute daily nature habit that doesn't require moving to Santa Barbara.
If you're looking for science-backed ways to boost your energy, focus, and long-term wellbeing, this episode is for you!
Sound Bites
"Digital obesity is when you consume more pixels than you can metabolize."
"What people don't understand about this is that it's not a character flaw, that it's a biological mismatch."
"People don't appreciate that nature is actually social, and that social part is good for you."
"And loneliness is what? 15 cigarettes a day in mortality."
"Nature works through your senses. You touch, you listen, you see, you smell, you taste."
"You have a 56% higher function and number of natural killer cells because you are in the company of trees that are making these chemicals, alpha-pinene, D-limonene in citrus trees, many other trees, that improve your ability to kill tumor cells and kill virus infected cells."
"But immersion in the forest means that you're immersing your senses in it, and the forest is, is the therapist, and the walk is the therapy."
"Rest is actually self-preservation and capital investment."
"Often you can upgrade the thinking in a room just by opening a window."
"But you don't need a forest, and you don't need a park even. You just need a sky view."
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:56 Start of Interview
02:06 Background: Origins of the Indoor Epidemic
07:03 Digital Obesity and Analog Wellness
10:33 Dr. John's Morning Outdoor Routine
13:21 The Benefits of Looking at the Horizon
17:22 Experiencing Vastness and Awe
22:47 Forest Bathing: More Than Just a Walk
24:32 Walking Habits and Nature Recalibration
26:52 Loneliness and Outdoor Social Connection
30:04 Practical Tips for Parents
32:03 End of Interview
32:39 Andy Comments After the Interview
35:15 Outtakes
Learn More
You can learn more about Dr. John and his work at drjohnlapuma.com.
For more learning on this topic, check out:
Episode 461 with Dr. Patricia Grabarek. We talk about why our typical approaches to wellness are missing the mark.
Episode 421 with Dr. Bijoy John. He's a practicing sleep doctor and I think you'll find some practical ideas from our discussion.
Episode 200 with Jeffrey Pfeffer. He's the author of a book entitled Dying for a Paycheck and I think you'll find his insights challenging enough to look at work differently.
Chat with PMeLa
You can chat directly with PMeLa—the podcast's AI persona—to get episode recommendations and answers to your project management and leadership questions. Visit PeopleAndProjectsPodcast.com/PMeLa to chat with her.
Level Up Your AI Skills
Join other listeners from around the world who are taking our AI Made Simple course to prepare for an AI-infused future.
Just go to ai.PeopleAndProjectsPodcast.com. Thanks!
Pass the PMP Exam
If you or someone you know is thinking about getting PMP certified, we've put together a helpful guide called The 5 Best Resources to Help You Pass the PMP Exam on Your First Try. We've helped thousands of people earn their certification, and we'd love to help you too. It's totally free, and it's a great way to get a head start.
Just go to 5BestResources.PeopleAndProjectsPodcast.com to grab your copy. I'd love to help you get your PMP this year!
Join Us for LEAD52
I know you want to be a more confident leader–that's why you listen to this podcast. LEAD52 is a global community of people like you who are committed to transforming their ability to lead and deliver. It's 52 weeks of leadership learning, delivered right to your inbox, taking less than 5 minutes a week. And it's all for free. Learn more and sign up at GetLEAD52.com. Thanks!
Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast!
Talent Triangle: Power Skills
Topics: Nature, Digital Obesity, Analog Wellness, Productivity, Loneliness, Forest Bathing, Morning Sunlight, Wellbeing, Leadership, Sleep
The following music was used for this episode:
Music: On Point by Steven OBrien
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Music: Energetic Drive Indie Rock by WinnieTheMoog
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Summary
In this episode, Andy talks with Stephen Shapiro, innovation expert and author of You're Not Playing With a Full Deck: Why the People Who Drive You Crazy Are Your Unfair Advantage. Stephen's journey starts with a costly failure: a $30 million innovation project at Accenture that fell apart, not from a lack of talent, but because everyone on the team thought the same way.
Out of that failure came a framework built around a familiar metaphor: a deck of cards. Stephen introduces four distinct personality styles tied to the four suits and explains why teams missing certain suits are setting themselves up to struggle, even when everyone is smart and capable. In this conversation, you'll hear why unanimous agreement is actually a warning sign, how strengths can quietly sabotage performance when overplayed, and why the people who drive you crazy may be exactly who your team needs. Andy and Stephen also explore what the rise of AI means for the uniquely human qualities that only certain suits can provide.
If you're looking for a fresh, practical framework to build stronger teams and unlock better results, this episode is for you!
Sound Bites
"We were smart people. We had smart people on the team, and we somehow failed miserably."
"I realized I was the problem. And it wasn't just me, it was the way we constructed the team."
"Anytime you have everybody agreeing, that's a warning sign."
"I actually think the bigger enemy of innovation is, 'Wow, this is a great idea!' because then what ends up happening is we believe it's a great idea."
"It's less of a personality test and more of an opportunity to just stimulate some conversation that typically doesn't happen inside of organizations."
"Left to their own devices, diverse teams perform terribly."
"So it's not just diversity, it's diversity plus appreciation."
"I try to make it very clear to AI: don't agree with me!"
"Part of this is who are we really versus who did we become?"
"There's a difference between a strength and a strong suit. A strength means you're good at it. A strong suit means you're good at it and it energizes you because it's who you are at your core."
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:25 Start of Interview
01:37 When Teaming Started Going Wrong
02:52 Recognizing the Real Root Cause
03:38 Choosing Your Team Members
04:45 Similarity vs. Genuine Trust
06:00 A Real-World Team Turnaround
07:51 Overcoming Resistance to Difference
09:04 The Origin of the Card-Based Framework
10:47 When Strengths Become Liabilities
13:10 Warning Signs of Strengths Gone Wild
16:03 Meeting Personalities and How to Balance Them
22:00 How AI Changes the Human Equation on Teams
23:45 Which Personality Suits Are Hardest for AI to Replace
24:53 How Stephen Uses AI in His Own Work
26:18 Applying the Framework Outside of Work
29:42 End of Interview
30:20 Andy Comments After the Interview
33:36 Outtakes
Learn More
You can learn more about Stephen and his work at StephenShapiro.com/fulldeck.
For more learning on this topic, check out:
Episode 286 with Ruth Pearce. Ruth wrote a book about the power of character strengths, and she definitely comes at it through the lens of project managers. Check out episode 286 to learn more.
Episode 283 with Tom Rath. Tom is the StrengthsFinder guy and it's an engaging discussion that goes beyond personality to what he thinks is the most important question you need to be asking.
Episode 489 with Martin Dubin. It's an intriguing discussion about blind spots that, if you haven't already listened to, I highly recommend.
Chat with PMeLa
You can chat directly with PMeLa—the podcast's AI persona—to get episode recommendations and answers to your project management and leadership questions. Visit PeopleAndProjectsPodcast.com/PMeLa to chat with her.
Join Us for LEAD52
I know you want to be a more confident leader–that's why you listen to this podcast. LEAD52 is a global community of people like you who are committed to transforming their ability to lead and deliver. It's 52 weeks of leadership learning, delivered right to your inbox, taking less than 5 minutes a week. And it's all for free. Learn more and sign up at GetLEAD52.com. Thanks!
Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast!
Talent Triangle: Power Skills
Topics: Team Building, Leadership, Cognitive Diversity, Collaboration, Innovation, Project Management, Meeting Effectiveness, Personality Frameworks, AI, Human Potential, Self-Awareness, Strengths, Organizational Culture
The following music was used for this episode:
Music: Summer Awakening by Frank Schroeter
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Music: Synthiemania by Frank Schroeter
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Summary
In this episode, Andy welcomes Rebecca Hinds, organizational behavior researcher and author of Your Best Meeting Ever. Rebecca brings a behavioral science lens to one of the most persistent pain points in modern work: meetings that multiply, linger, and drain rather than deliver.
Andy and Rebecca explore the concept of meeting debt, and why reducing meeting volume often matters far more than optimizing agendas. They discuss why meetings have become status symbols and performance art, how a simple social contract makes it nearly impossible to decline an invite, and what meeting minimalism actually means (hint: it's not about ruthless efficiency). Rebecca shares practical ideas, like calendar cleanses, Return on Time Invested (ROTI) ratings, and unexpected guardrails, including the fascinating case of the 27-minute meeting. They also wrestle with AI's potential to either genuinely improve meeting culture or simply make expensive, inefficient meetings feel more productive.
If you're looking for a research-backed, practical guide to finally taking back your calendar, this episode is for you!
Sound Bites
"Why do we cling to this practice that has largely remained unchanged for decades and decades, and yet we know, we're highly aware that it's highly inefficient and dysfunctional."
"It's ironic and unfortunate that we now consider so many of these dysfunctional practices, so many of these tactics as business as usual."
"We tend to associate visibility with value and presence with productivity. A packed calendar is a very clear indication that you are busy, you're important, and you have high status within the organization."
"Meetings are the most important product in our entire organization, and yet also the least optimized."
"Meeting debt is so bad that it's not worth it to tinker at the edges and try to optimize the meetings that already exist because fundamentally, many of them should not exist in the first place."
"Return on Time Invested (ROTI) is a concept I learned from my colleague Elise Keith. It asks people to rate the effectiveness of a meeting on a scale of zero to five based on whether this meeting was well worth it in terms of the time invested."
"I don't mean efficiency for efficiency's sake, right? The goal isn't to make our meetings ruthlessly efficient at all costs."
"He was tasked with running these 30-minute meetings. He was seeing them drag on and on rather than make the meeting longer, he made them exactly 27 minutes, and that jolted people out of autopilot."
"What we're seeing in meetings overwhelmingly is people using AI to cognitively offload the work that they should be doing as humans."
"I continue to believe there's nothing that communicates your leadership more clearly than being able to run a good meeting, but also being able to steer a bad meeting back on track because people very quickly make the cognitive jump that if you can lead a meeting, if you can lead a meeting back on track, you can probably lead a team, you can probably lead a project, you can maybe lead a function."
"And the reverse is also true. If you can't lead a good meeting, it doesn't instill a whole lot of confidence in your ability to lead anything bigger."
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:27 Start of Interview
01:36 Rebecca's Background and Journey
02:51 The Meeting Sabotage Manual
04:38 Meetings as Status Symbols and Performance Art
07:30 Meeting Debt: Why Reducing Volume Comes First
10:12 Calendar Cleanses: Wiping the Slate Clean
11:28 Guardrails Against Meeting Bloat
14:30 Better Meeting Metrics: Return on Time Invested
17:34 Meeting Minimalism: What It Really Means
18:43 Minimalism in Practice
21:30 AI and Meeting Culture
27:50 Changing Meeting Culture Without Full Authority
32:06 End of Interview
32:39 Andy Comments After the Interview
35:34 Outtakes
Learn More
You can learn more about Rebecca and her work at RebeccaHinds.com.
For more learning on this topic, check out:
Episode 503 with Evan Unger. Evan shares some helpful ideas on leading better decision-making meetings.
Episode 246 with Steven Rogelberg. Steven is a leading meeting researcher whose work also appears in Rebecca's book.
Episode 72 with Steven Rogelberg. An earlier conversation with this leading meeting researcher.
Episode 245 with Elise Keith. Elise shares some practical insights on how to make meetings more effective.
Chat with PMeLa
You can chat directly with PMeLa—the podcast's AI persona—to get episode recommendations and answers to your project management and leadership questions. Visit PeopleAndProjectsPodcast.com/PMeLa to chat with her.
Pass the PMP Exam
If you or someone you know is thinking about getting PMP certified, we've put together a helpful guide called The 5 Best Resources to Help You Pass the PMP Exam on Your First Try. We've helped thousands of people earn their certification, and we'd love to help you too. It's totally free, and it's a great way to get a head start.
Just go to 5BestResources.PeopleAndProjectsPodcast.com to grab your copy. I'd love to help you get your PMP this year!
Join Us for LEAD52
I know you want to be a more confident leader–that's why you listen to this podcast. LEAD52 is a global community of people like you who are committed to transforming their ability to lead and deliver. It's 52 weeks of leadership learning, delivered right to your inbox, taking less than 5 minutes a week. And it's all for free. Learn more and sign up at GetLEAD52.com. Thanks!
Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast!
Talent Triangle: Power Skills
Topics: Meeting Culture, Meeting Debt, Meeting Facilitation, Return on Time Invested, Organizational Behavior, Leadership, Project Management, Behavioral Science, Meeting Minimalism, AI and Meetings, Team Productivity
The following music was used for this episode:
Music: Brooklyn Nights by Tim Kulig
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Music: Fashion Corporate by Frank Schroeter
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license