After a colorful career in government, Betsy founded the Aspen Tech Policy Hub with the support of the Aspen Institute to incubate and empower entrepreneurs and executives to impact policy. Chris and Betsy talk about where tech and policy intersects to solve real problems, how to break down complex policy problems, how to measure success in policy making and how the Aspen Tech Policy hub program supports selected fellows and executive leaders in making change.

• 1:58 Founding of the Aspen Tech Policy Hub
• 4:57 Bridging the gap between technologists and policymakers
• 7:12 What’s the Hub Fellowship program?
• 16:55 How does the Aspen Tech Policy Hub define success?
• 24:30 Overall thoughts on impacting policy and more about the Hub Tech Executive Leadership Initiative (TELI)

Links:

• Aspen Tech Policy Hub https://www.aspentechpolicyhub.org/
• See the Winter 2021 Cohort of the Aspen Tech Executive Leadership Initiative (TELI) https://www.aspentechpolicyhub.org/teli-leaders/
• For more about the Hub Fellowship and the TELI program the Winter 2021 Cohort of the Tech Entrepreneurship Fellowship

Transcript:

Welcome to Hidden Threads! I am your host and founder of Panorama Growth, Chris Hsiang.

On Hidden Threads, we will be talking to global changemakers who are making meaningful change happen in the face of increasing complexity in their companies, organizations, and communities.

The overuse of the words “change”, “innovation”, and “transformation” in the news and in our work have made us suspicious of them as buzzwords. Yet we know that change and innovation are valuable and inevitable. While we would rather lead the change (instead of letting change happen to us), the complexity of our organizations and society today make change seem impossible. Stakeholders, incentives, processes, organization structures, culture are just a few of the tight-knit variables we need to untangle and navigate.

On Hidden Threads, we will learn from changemakers about the tools and dynamics they are leveraging to overcome inertia and create successful impact. You’ll be hearing from a diverse group of guests from policy experts, head of talent leading global organizations, investors, innovators, and others leading transformation in our world today.

One of the many things that COVID-19 has taught us is that the rigid, predictable world that we know can evolve very quickly and drastically. And technology can facilitate that evolution. Technology holds a lot of promise in helping us solve big, hairy problems but it needs to be guided by vision, the right goals and values. This is why we will also be talking with changemakers who are thinking deeply about the role of technology and how to guide it.

I have been a corporate attorney in Silicon Valley working with global technology investors and startups in tech financings and Mergers & Acquisitions over the past 8 years. I saw the need for Western and Asian technology communities to share innovation insights and founded Panorama Growth in 2015. Working with innovators and leaders from the West and Asia has connected me with a diversity of change practices and models. It also helped me appreciate the valuable lessons that changemakers could share with us about creating more positive change in our organizations, systems, and society.

I’m excited to uncover these hidden threads connecting our complex world with you.

Learn more about us at PanoramaGrowth.com and if you like what you hear, please like, share and subscribe to our podcast channel for more!