Gary Dixon - President, The Foundation for a Better Life

Every once in a while, we all find ourselves wanting for a little inspiration. We may feel burnt out from working long hours, or depleted by the burden of caregiving, or discouraged by a creative rut. We may feel disconnected from a greater purpose, wondering if our efforts are doing anything at all. But the good news is that the right nudge, at just the right time, can relight our fires and get us back into the game. Today’s guest makes those moments of inspiration possible–highlighting heroic stories online, on the radio, on TV–and sometimes–even as you’re driving down the highway. Together, we’ll examine the question:

Can one person’s values really make a difference?

A conversation with Gary Dixon, President of the Foundation for a Better Life, on this episode of Lead With a Question.

Guest Bio:

Gary Dixon has served as President at The Foundation for a Better Life since its founding in 1999. The Foundation for a Better Life promotes positive values through the media. Their public service announcements, based on values such as hope, honesty, encouragement and generosity are currently being seen on television in the United States over five million times each day. They are also airing in over 200 countries around the world. Additionally, these inspiring messages appear on thousands of billboards across the country, including Times Square. The Foundation makes posters and DVDs available to thousands of schools each year, at no charge. It offers these messages in an effort to promote good values, good role models and a better life.

Formerly, Gary served as vice president of Bonneville Communications where he directed the creative development of many successful campaigns, including Homefront, Major League Baseball, Children’s Miracle Network and the American Cancer Society. He has also been a speaker at regional and national advertising conferences for the American Advertising Federation and a keynote speaker for various events. Other assignments took him to Jakarta, where he served as a communications consultant on an Indonesian government project and, early in his career, to Japan where he directed a documentary on the first Trans-Pacific flight. Gary has a master’s degree in communications from Brigham Young University and a bachelor’s in broadcasting from Texas Tech University. He serves on the National Board of Directors for the College of Media and Communication at TTU. He lives in Denver with his wife Susan and their family.

Foundation for a Better Life website:

www.passiton.com

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Chris and Ian now have a book! It's called Brave Together: Lead by design, spark creativity, and shape the future with the power of co-creation. Available online at McGraw Hill and Amazon.

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Dan Ariely - Professor, Behavioral Economics

When you run a business, one of your jobs is to make wise choices about where you place your bets. This definitely applies in the marketplace with your customers and competitors, but it also applies internally–especially as it relates to how you treat your people. How do you slice the pie? Maybe you offer pet insurance. Or more vacation time. What’s going to create the conditions for your people to help the company win? Today’s guest has worked very hard to demystify that puzzle. With the mind of a researcher and the heart of a storyteller, he’ll help us consider the question:

What do employees care about most?

It’s a conversation with Dan Ariely, on this episode of Lead With a Question.

Guest Bio:

Dan Ariely, James B. Duke Professor of Psychology & Behavioral Economics at Duke University, is dedicated to answering these questions and others in order to help people live more sensible – if not rational – lives. His interests span a wide range of behaviors, and his sometimes unusual experiments are consistently interesting, amusing and informative, demonstrating profound ideas that fly in the face of common wisdom. Dan has also advised governments in South Africa, the Netherlands, Brazil, United Kingdom, US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. Among the projects he has been involved with is how to help those in historically excluded populations stay in school, how to help women in these populations find work, and how to encourage more kids—girls especially—to study computer science. He has also worked on finding ways to address traffic congestion, reduce government bureaucracy, reducing prostitution, improve trust between government and citizens and increase motivation among principals, teachers, and students.

He is a founding member of the Center for Advanced Hindsight, co-creator of the film documentary (Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies, and a three-time New York Times bestselling author. His books include Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality, The Honest Truth About Dishonesty, Irrationally Yours, Payoff, Dollars and Sense, Amazing Decisions, and the forthcoming Misbelief: What makes rational people believe irrational things, available now for preorder.

Dan's website:

danariely.com

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Scott Belsky - Chief Strategy Officer, Adobe

Every organization has a culture–whether it be a family, a company, or even a sports team. Most of the time, there’s an unspoken assumption that people on the team will share a set of attributes and values. Over time, this can lead to a homogenizing effect–also known as groupthink. Deviations become less frequent, because they disrupt the balance. But in our ever-changing world, is that really what we want? Our guest today has spent years building cultures, teams, and platforms with a singular focus: giving new ideas the oxygen they need. He’ll help us reflect on the question:

How can we protect creative thinking?

A conversation with Scott Belsky, on this episode of Lead With a Question.

Guest Bio:

Scott Belsky is an entrepreneur, author, investor, and now serves as EVP & Chief Product Officer at Adobe. Scott founded Behance, the leading online platform for the creative industry to showcase and discover creative work, and served as CEO until Adobe acquired Behance in 2012. He is an early product advisor and investor in Pinterest, Uber, Carta, Flexport, sweetgreen, Ro, as well as several others in the early stages. Scott is also the author of two national bestselling books: Making Ideas Happen and The Messy Middle, writes a popular monthly newsletter called *Implications,* and founded 99U, a publication and annual conference devoted to productivity in the creative world.

Scott's website:

https://www.scottbelsky.com/

Scott's newsletter:

https://www.implications.com/

The Messy Middle book:

https://www.themessymiddle.com/

Making Ideas Happen book:

https://www.scottbelsky.com/bio-part-3-1

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