Transcript

Lessons of Rapid Response for 2026

0:01 The very best founders I know are brilliant at building systems. They connect teams, they remove bottlenecks, and they eliminate single points of failure. And yet When it comes to their own wealth. Most are running a disconnected stack. A tax accountant here and a state attorney there, a wealth manager who doesn't talk to either one of them.

0:22 Creative planning was built to fix exactly that. One integrated team of tax professionals, state planners, investment specialists, all coordinated by a dedicated wealth manager who sees your full financial picture and keeps every piece working together. Proactive tax efficiency, state strategy, investments all under one roof. Creative planning where wealth works together. Learn more at creative planning dot com slash masters of scale.

0:53 Hey folks, Jeff Berman here. I am thrilled to share some of the new names who will be joining us at this year's Masters of Scale summit. This may be our biggest stage yet. Reed Hastings, Meredith Whitaker, Van Jones, Amjad Masad, and more. Will be there with us October 20th through 22nd in San Francisco. If you're building something great, or you want to build something great, We want you there with us too.

1:20 Join us at masters of scale dot com slash apply twenty six. That's mastersofscom slash apply. Twenty six. Hey everyone, welcome to a special episode of Rapid Response. This year has been filled with so many twists and turns in geopolitics, in trade and tariffs, in AI and new technology. It's an unprecedented environment to lead a business and to navigate a career.

1:52 Looking to 2026, that pace of disruption shows no signs of slowing down. So to help listeners to offer some grounding, we've pulled five lessons from our rapid response coverage about how to best operate amid such ambiguity. These are lessons drawn from the on the ground experiences of leaders deep in the trenches of disruption. They offer equal parts inspiration and instruction on how to turn uncertainty into opportunity. So let's get to it. I'm Bob Safian, and this is Lessons of Rapid Response. Lesson number one. As tech moves fast

2:38 We need to move even faster. One of our rapid response guests joked that talking about AI has become like a party game. Every time someone uses the phrase we should all have to take a drink. But the ubiquity of the AI chatter reflects the deep impact that the technology is having across industries, across roles, across business models. Among the most challenging aspects for leaders is the speed of change. And how it requires us to reset our expectations and practices. Here's the CEO of AI video company Runway, Chris Valenzuela, talking with me about planning in the eye of the AI storm. How far out do you think of your like product?

3:22 Road map. You know, or is or is that something you're like reassessing All the time. Yeah, I mean it's it's a weekly thing, to be honest. It's it's uh It's it happens like if you're planning on a quarterly basis, you're not gonna make it.

3:35 You're done. Like it's it's in four weeks you're like gonna get leapfrog and like things will change. We have long term visions and we have long term ambitions of where things want we we need to take them. We've historically taken this like open ended research approach. Instead of defining very specific goals you want to accomplish, you define the boundaries on which you want the team to like play and experiment.

3:56 And then setting the boundaries and the limits is kind of the hard thing because if it's too open then like There's nothing really like directionally had happening. If it's too broad, then it's it's just an objective that's very clear. If it's like broad enough and has enough of the right incentives, then people are gonna stumble on things. That are new, that you've never thought of before, that have a great value.

4:17 And those are the things that we care the most. Like that open ended research approach that's less focused by goals but much more by stepping stones of like discovery. Chris's approach is so different from traditional leadership, leaning into experimentation rather than specific goals, and reframing plans on a weekly basis. It's an approach that could make a lot of people uneasy. I talked about this with Clara Sche, who's led AI business at Salesforce and at Meta. She offered practical insights about navigating what's hype and what's imperative. Here's me and Clara.

4:55 How do leaders like strike the balance between I gotta be in this Versus like It's not really showing any like measurable impact now. Yeah.

5:05 It's such an important question. I mean, I see this all the time um from various leaders that that I meet with. I think it's first being hands on. And really getting in there and understanding the capabilities. Because I think with that judgment, with that firsthand experience, only then can leaders really know, okay, I want to apply it here, but not here. Another really great success formula is you know s splitting up the team, right? Having people focus on immediate use cases. What can I unlock today that will show me ROI this quarter, next quarter, versus what are the bigger bets where just I I see the secular trend and we have to And that area I can be more patient.

5:46 Should be patient. Patient, but just know that it's gonna take longer and more experiments to asymptotically hopefully get to the right answer. And then just having space and time to live in both time horizons simultaneously. What's the day to day, what's the quarter? And where do I wanna be? How could I be completely screwed in six months or twelve months if I don't have this tiger team that's incubating experiments at startup speed. Lesson 2 In an AI world, human connection. is a competitive advantage.

6:21 AI technology is so powerful. We've had rapid response guests during twenty twenty five talk about radical changes in healthcare delivery and coding and marketing and even online dating. But there's an equal thread about emphasizing the human factor within enterprises that that will truly differentiate the winners. Here's Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb. The term AI.

6:51 Is artificial. We're now living in a world where You cannot know for certain. I mean there could be digital f fin f like fingerprints that this is real, but we're gonna live in a world where it's not clear that you're seeing what you're seeing is real. In other words, now anything you won't be able to tell. And I think that's maybe the point of it. That in the future If it's on a screen, it will be artificial.

7:15 Or it could be artificial. And so you want to ride a trend. Or you might have the opposite of a trend. And the opposite of artificial is real. The opposite of screen is the real world. And so I think that the real world will not change that much in the next three years. I think we're gonna basically create this digital world, staring at a screen that's highly artificial. It's gonna get more and more immersive, and there's gonna be the physical world.

7:39 And again, like You know, people want real connections in the real world. Why are people feeling so lonely right now? Because you know, they're connecting with You know, before reasonab until recently they were connecting with people they don't know arguing with people on the internet and your Instagram followers aren't coming to your funeral. No one changed someone else's mind YouTube comment section. And now pretty soon we're gonna have a situation where your friends are gonna be AIs. And like

8:02 Like it it's so so there has to be this movement to real. Brian's business at the Airbnb, of course, relies on in-person interaction through home stays and experiences, but that doesn't diminish the leadership implications of what he's saying. The challenges and opportunities of this age come down to human choices. Here's Adi Ignatius, longtime editor in chief of the Harvard Business Review, talking about the big takeaways from his tenure. You know, the search for The kind of

8:34 Purpose of business. what we were talking about before, where, you know, for fifty years it was all about The share price. Um Uh I think we need a new

8:45 sort of consensus of of the new paradigm. And it, you know, it may be that the stakeholder stuff was too too fuzzy or unclear. Um I won't say woke'cause I I don't think that's I don't think that's a helpful word ever. Um But

9:00 I is their theory the case that That that we can all agree on that what is the responsibility of a company of the CEO And I guess the one other thing is that you know the soft skills You know, uh

9:14 Uh how do you interact with people? I mean the things that that Does it seem to be a Sort of basic. They really matter and and they matter kind of up from up and down the hierarchy, you know, from the from the CEO down to the lowest level.

9:30 Interact with one another. So Um You know, I I I I came to understand that that's is is really important. The choices we make about how we interact with each other defines leaders and organizations, especially because AI is changing how we're interacting. Here's LinkedIn's chief economic opportunity officer Anish Rahman talking about what he calls the five Cs, the core human skills for this era.

9:58 Anything that is routinizable is going to be the technology. And that's both physical and intellectual as you think about robots aided by AI taking on more and more physical labor. So what you've got is sort of what I call the five Cs uh this like list I've developed with neuroscientists. Courage. Compassion. Creativity.

10:18 Curiosity. And communication. Those are kind of the core skills, I think, that make us humans. Remember, our species until about forty thousand years ago wasn't the only sapiens around. And we were never the biggest. We were never the fastest. What allowed us to emerge as the Apex species on this planet is that we were able to adapt. in really important ways by those five Cs in how we both told really complex stories through language and then how we organized to increase scale around things like nation states. So that's gonna come to the center of it all for us. And we've got to shore those skills up. Lesson three.

10:55 The most important decisions are simple And brave. When uncertainty is high, clarity of mission matters more than ever. During 2025, I asked a bunch of rapid response guests about their organization's mission and values, because many leaders struggle to apply existing frameworks to new policies and demands, from law firms to universities to major brands. But for some new pressure served as a valuable reminder of what was most important. Here's an exchange I had with Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood, who's been in the crosshairs of the Trump administration all year.

11:36 The administration's strategy sometimes seems like they wanna flo the zone with so much to sort of Push. Opponents push organizations, corporate organizations to kind of give up on something in order to protect You know, a higherity. Do you feel any of that pressure? to like prioritize in a different way in this environment.

12:01 You know, I I can say I feel disappointment. I feel um Concern. That A number of really critical institutions in our society, the very institutions that kind of make up our demos, that make up our civic uh education and learning environment, that make up the kind of backbone of our jurisprudence and kind of legal foundations. Uh, corporations, you know, are feeling a financial pressure to, I think, in many ways go against their core values. There may be lots of ways in which they are reconciling that. Your values are, you know, that's your integrity. That's who you are. And so I cannot

12:40 Actually stand here and say we're gonna walk away from the very communities that we have committed ourselves to uh providing care for. It sounds like you wish maybe that there was a little more bravery from some other leaders who's I don't know, whose missions may not be as clearly values based all the time. Two things come to mind here, right? One is, you know. But Watching people obey in advance, right? Comply in advance before the actual directives come, which I think it sends a signal that people are willing to kind of stand down. But I think we're also missing the collective action here, right? That that there is a logic of collective action that means that when we actually stay kind of arms linked and say, you know what?

13:23 we are going to stand, you know, with the rule of law and what we believe the Constitution says here. You know, I think it really is about linking arms and understanding that that is really the the kind of strongest attack back in some ways um to the kinds of things that we are facing. When it comes to decision making, I often think of a framework Brian Chesky has talked about, focusing on what he calls principal decisions versus business decisions, choices that you'll be proud of, even if things don't go your way. It seems pretty simple, but then the most important decisions often are if boiled down to their essence. Jessica Berman, commissioner of the National Women's Soccer League, keeps a pile of children's books on the coffee table in her office to remind her team to ground themselves in the basics. Here's Jessica. Every single leadership lesson you need in life you learned when you were five.

14:16 And Um, I'll just give a recent example. Actually, this morning we were on a board call with my owners, so I report to the sixteen owners in the NWSL, by the way, for those of you who have only one boss, I do not recommend reporting to sixteen. It's hard. Um you know you know when you know. Um But On the call.

14:41 I got a little ping on Slack from someone on my team that quoted one of the children's books, which is if you give a mouse a cookie, guess what happens if you give a mouse a cookie? They're gonna want a glass. Of milk. That's what happens when you give a mouse a cookie. That's one of the fifteen books on my desk. So people on my staff are constantly like pulling those out, and I'm like, Yes, you get it. And it's like It's such a great

15:06 It's such a great analog for people to humanize and like boiled down sometimes hard to talk about or complex concepts or things that are really interpersonal. that like right now a children's book that you find yourself going to More. Is there a lesson that you pull from that? Uh we're going on a bear hunt.

15:28 It relates to what you just said. Guess what? You can't go around it. You can't go over it. You can't go under it, you just have to go. Through it.

15:38 And that is the story of challenges in life, and so we cite that in our office. Almost every single day. Уби бак від мор лесons of рапід респанс. After the break. Stay with us.

16:01 Humans will never be more intelligent than AI. There can be two types of companies. Those were great at AI and those that went out of business because they weren't. How do we build a future? That is human centered. I'm Rana El Calyubi.

16:17 On my podcast Pioneers of AI, we answer that question and so many more. As an AI scientist, entrepreneur, and investor, I know what it takes to build AI that works for everyone. Every week, I sit down with the pioneers shaping our future. And we take you behind the scenes of the AI that's transforming our lives. Find pioneers of AI wherever you tune in. Hey listeners, Bob here. If you listen to Rapid Response on Masters of Scale, you may be missing half the show. Because every Friday we release a second rapid response exclusively in the Rapid Response feed. The guests and topics are just as compelling and timely from Ford CEO to NASA's administrator to the lessons from The Devil Wears Prada. It takes about

17:08 10 seconds to find, just search rapid response wherever you listen to podcasts and hit follow to make sure you never miss an episode. I hope to see you there. Before the break, we shared three lessons of rapid response drawn from our 2025 episodes and directly applicable to 2026. Now, two additional lessons featuring insights from the CEO of Sesame Workshop, the CMO of Autodesk, and iconic chef and humanitarian Jose Andres. Let's jump back in. Lesson four

17:46 It's always time to take risks, try new things, and dream big. Wall Street analysts may focus on the numbers, but so much business success is intangible and emotional. In uncertain environments, we tend to revert to what we know. It's comforting, but it can be counterproductive, which is just one reason co-owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves and billionaire entrepreneur Mark Lori loves stretch goals. Here's Mark talking with me about how he deploys stretch goals at food delivery venture. Wonder. You've sent out these

18:20 Big. Public goals. Ninety five locations by next year. IPO ready by twenty twenty seven with a target valuation of thirty billion dollars. Does putting these goals out in the world Add pressure? Like it might be easier to just grow and announce milestones rather than set targets that, you know, maybe you won't meet. Yeah.

18:42 And it's true. There's always the possibility you don't meet the goals, but I think The probability Of hitting the goals goes up because you reverse engineer it and you work backwards and you get the company aligned, investor, everybody's like understands like. This is the size of the prize. This is the goal. We're working backwards from this. This is why we need this amount of capital. This is why we need to do X, Y, and Z in the next three months, six months, twelve months. So

19:11 you know, being able to properly plan for it. So It doesn't mean like Yeah. If you don't hit it, you failed, right?'Cause we're we're but we are giving us the highest probability of getting there by putting these goals out there.

19:23 The only drawback Is You know, you look foolish or people will say, Hey, you failed, or you set a goal and you didn't hit it or Okay, fine. I I can deal with all that. There's way more upside than downside.

19:37 Twenty twenty six will undoubtedly reveal plenty of upside, but we'll need to take the right kinds of risks to unlock them. Here's Dara Treseder, chief marketing officer of Autodesk, talking with me about how to stand out in a crowded marketplace without turning off potential customers. You talked to me previously about this idea of opine with a spine, right? That to break through you have to say something sharp. But you're also saying that the risk is higher than ever, but you have to take that risk. Like it's there's no way out of this find. There's no way out. Let me tell you. How we gotta give CLOs and marketers, all marketers and all levels, we gotta give marketers a break. It is a tough world out there. And so yes, you have to apply with the spine. But you gotta be careful what you opine on. You know, so you need to pick the thing that truly Make sense for your brand and business. You cannot opine on everything. If you speak about everything, you're speaking about nothing.

20:32 You know, and if you End up Speaking about things that you don't have not earned the right to speak about, you don't have the credibility to speak about, you could end up in some real hot waters that you don't want to be on. Not the not the good kind of bath, the the scouted kind of bath. So there really is that um There really is that thoughtfulness that has to go into it. Yeah, and you don't want to be w walking back things, which we've seen some brands get themselves into and then the blowback is really bad. Yes, yes. And it's like but you have to cut through. So it it really is that

21:04 You want to be in healthy tension. Mm-hmm. Not toxic tension. So it's almost like you but there's gotta be some tension. Because if there is no tension. There is no greatness. You're not achieving the outsize commercial. outcome so how do you get to tension that is healthy but it must not cross the line Into toxic.

21:24 Lesson five. When the unexpected hits. And it will. Look for the opportunities.

21:35 We all hate getting bad news, but it is inevitable. It's how we react to those challenges that defines us. Few entities have had headwinds in twenty twenty five quite as fierce as those faced by public media outlets. Sherry Weston, the CEO of Sesame Workshop, which produces Sesame Street, talked to me about dealing with slash government grants. I don't ever remember a more difficult, more challenging year than this past year. There were some really difficult decisions and periods no one ever wants to have to you know, lay off twenty percent of their staff.

22:09 But layoffs and budget pressures weren't the only obstacles Sherry faced. In the midst of this, Sesame Street's longtime streaming partner, HBO, bailed out of their partnership. Yet out of those lemons came lemonade. A new arrangement with Netflix. Here's me talking with Sherry about it. Last year at this time, you were on HBO or Max or whatever the they were calling it at that point. Then HBO dropped the show, Netflix came in. Was this all by design on your end? Well, listen, I mean, it it all worked out really well. And um I will say that. And it was we announced it as a public private partnership between Netflix and PBS because it was so important that we not only got the incredible reach that Netflix offers, but also that we were still available for all children across the US on PBS.

22:59 HBO Max was clear that children's was not their priority. So we don't take it personally. Um, you know, and we still have a great relationship, but Netflix is such a great place for us to be. As of today, we are reaching children in a hundred and ninety countries. That's three hundred and thirty million households. Um in over thirty languages, and it's the first time in fifty six years that we're reaching this many children all over the world. So that is something to celebrate. There's just no reward for wallowing in what isn't working. One of my favorite conversations of the year was with Jose Andres, restaurateur and founder of aid organization World Central Kitchen. No one lives in the duality of good living, fancy restaurants. And tough situations like natural disasters and war zones, quite like Jose, but despite his worries, he always finds a way to keep optimistic.

23:54 And there's no better way to round out our lessons. So listen in. Here's Jose. I am optimistic in the way that Um In life humans we we we we we learn how to adapt.

24:09 And we We seem sometimes we learn the lessons. Even it seems we only learn them. Short term and we have a short memory. Yeah.

24:19 And then we need to go back to the mistakes of the past. to remind ourselves that this other is always a better way. The last issues with Tariff ha happened what, over almost ha over a hundred years ago? And I guess nobody is alive that went through The great pains that those tariffs created. Therefore sometimes you have to go through problems to remind every human

24:43 How good our life is. How m how much we have to work to keep improving what doesn't work. But my God. I am masking everybody. Go out right now.

24:55 walking your cities, walk in the countryside, take a look at the uh at the at the trees with the flowers and the butterflies and the children playing in the campgrounds in poor neighborhoods and in in in in in in in in rich neighborhoods. Use people uh uh walking alongside uh fifty years married hand by hand And just smiling that they spend their lives together. Take a look around and uh airports that they function in a very amazing way that they don't know how. Things actually work. We we humans we've been building in the last post World War Two a good world. A good wall. that in America is full of imperfections and that we need to work together to fix them.

25:40 Of course! But you don't fix them burning everything down. You fix them by Coming together to the table, realizing that there is Problems? That must be soft.

25:53 Problems never will be solved by finger pointing. Problems will always be solved sitting down in the table and coming together and how we how we find common ground. That's the way we Bill Good uh in 10. Good empathy.

26:08 Good policy. that then becomes good politics because it's on On behalf of all Americans. That's the way we should be doing it. So that's why in a way, um I'm hopeful.

26:22 I hope Jose's spirit of coming together and hopefulness stays with you, whatever the adventures of 2026 bring our way. These lessons that we've outlined are gauged to provide some guidance as you navigate your own challenges and opportunities. We'll continue to come to you with rapid response every Tuesday and every Friday. To help keep you updated in this topsy turvy world. I'm Bob Safian. Thanks for listening. Rapid response is a wait what original.

27:01 I'm Bob Safian. Our executive producer is Eve Tro. Our producer is Alex Morris. Associate producer is Mashimaku Tonina. Mixing and Mastering by Aaron Bastanelli. Our theme music is by Ryan Holiday. Our head of podcast is Lytal Malad. For more, visit rapidresponsshow.com.

27:23 Yeah.