Work For Humans

Parents come to Alanna Beebe's classes hoping to change their kid. But by the second week, most of them realize the person who needs to change is them. Soon after, they notice the same tools working on their boss, colleagues, and staff. None of this surprises Alanna though. Her work rests on Alfred Adler's idea that every human is striving for belonging and significance, and that misbehavior, in a child or an adult, is a discouraged attempt to get there. In this episode, Dart and Alanna explore where agency comes from, why encouragement is not the same as praise, and what parenting can teach us about designing better workplaces.

Alanna Beebe is the founder and Managing Director of Sproutable, which helps parents and teachers grow remarkable kids through Positive Discipline.

In this episode, Dart and Alanna discuss:
- Why discipline was never meant to be punishment
- What Adler believed that Freud didn't
- What a misbehaving kid is really asking for
- Why fixing your kids means changing yourself
- Kind and firm at the same time
- Where agency comes from, and who takes it away
- Why companies extract instead of grow
- What shared power looks like in practice
- Why money doesn't build motivation
- Why encouragement beats praise
- And other topics…

Alanna Beebe is the founder and Managing Director of Sproutable, a Seattle-based education company that has helped parents, teachers, and caregivers raise socially and emotionally skilled kids since 2016 through coaching, classes, and video content grounded in Positive Discipline and Adlerian psychology. In 2025, she founded Audacious Leadership, offering executive, life, and co-parenting coaching. She is a certified Positive Discipline Educator, Empowering People in the Workplace Educator, and Co-Active Practitioner. Before Sproutable, she spent more than 15 years in public health and early learning communications.

Resources Mentioned:
Positive Discipline, by Jane Nelsen: https://www.amazon.com/Positive-Discipline-Jane-Nelsen/dp/0345348567
Trust Factor: The Science of Creating High-Performance Companies, by Paul J. Zak: https://www.amazon.com/Trust-Factor-Creating-High-Performance-Companies/dp/0814437664
Peter Liljedahl on Work for Humans: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/thinking-classrooms-how-to-design-environments-that/id1612743401?i=1000631582031

Connect with Alanna:
Sproutable: https://www.besproutable.com
Audacious Leadership: https://www.audacious-leadership.com 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanna-beebe-5027967
Work with Dart:
Dart is the CEO and co-founder of the work design firm 11fold. Build work that makes employees feel alive, connected to their work, and focused on what’s most important to the business. Book a call at 11fold.com.

When Elena Aylott was asked to lead HR at Oriflame Cosmetics, she initially saw the function as administrative and feared becoming a “chief firing officer.” Instead, she saw an opportunity to rethink what the people function could be. In this revisited episode, Dart and Elena explore how to remove the friction that gets in the way of good work, create individualized experiences at scale, and build workplaces where people can develop their potential, form meaningful relationships, and feel a sense of belonging.

Elena Aylott is the Founder & CEO of Aylott Group and the former VP of Global Communications and Employee Experience at Oriflame Cosmetics. During her time at Oriflame, she worked to transform the employee experience across more than 60 countries.

In this episode, Dart and Elena discuss:
- Why Elena didn’t want to lead HR
- Making HR more human
- Why companies create bad performers
- Creating personal experiences at scale
- The power of small moments
- Building a team without HR professionals
- How language shapes culture
- The real meaning of personal branding
- Building one community at work
- Creating transformational experiences
- And other topics…

Elena Aylott is the Founder & CEO of Aylott Group and the former VP of Global Communications and Employee Experience at Oriflame Cosmetics. She spent 16 years at Oriflame, including seven years leading the company’s global people function. She is also a Business and Leadership Advisor to Wisory, a Certified Leadership Coach for the EuroAcademy Leadership Institute, and a member of the TEDxStockholm Speakers’ team.

Resources mentioned:
The Employee Experience Advantage, by Jacob Morgan: https://www.amazon.com/Employee-Experience-Advantage-Employees-Workspaces/dp/111932162X
The Power of Moments, by Chip and Dan Heath: https://www.amazon.com/Power-Moments-Certain-Experiences-Extraordinary/dp/1501147765
The Experience Economy, by Joseph Pine: https://www.amazon.com/Experience-Economy-Updated-Joseph-Pine/dp/1422161978
Mass Customization, by Joseph Pine: https://www.amazon.com/Mass-Customization-Frontier-Business-Competition/dp/0875843727

Connect with Elena:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elenaaylott/
Aylott Group: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aylottgroup/
Work with Dart:
Dart is the CEO and co-founder of the work design firm 11fold. Build work that makes employees feel alive, connected to their work, and focused on what’s most important to the business. Book a call at 11fold.com.

DJ DiDonna had built the kind of career many people would be reluctant to walk away from. He cofounded a growing company, built a life around work, and had every reason to keep going. But eventually, he decided to step away and take an extended break, an experience that changed how he thought about work, identity, and what comes next. In this episode, Dart and DJ explore what happens when people step away from work long enough to see their lives from a different perspective.

DJ DiDonna is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School and the founder of The Sabbatical Project, where he researches the effects of extended time away from work. He is also the author of Big Time Off.

In this episode, Dart and DJ discuss:
- Why DJ left his “dream job”
- What makes a sabbatical different from a vacation
- Why six to eight weeks can change the experience
- How time away can change your identity
- The feeling of “being human again”
- Why people rush back into the next job
- How sabbaticals build organizational resilience
- The risk of treating burnout as a medical problem
- What companies gain when people step away
- The three ways people use a sabbatical
- How to make space for curiosity and exploration
- And other topics…

DJ DiDonna is a Senior Lecturer of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and the founder of The Sabbatical Project. Before entering academia, he cofounded EFL Global, a fintech company that developed alternative credit scoring for entrepreneurs in emerging markets. His research focuses on sabbaticals, entrepreneurship, and the ways extended time away from work can affect people and organizations. He is the author of Big Time Off: The Transformative Power of Sabbaticals and How to Take One.

Resources Mentioned:
Big Time Off: The Transformative Power of Sabbaticals and How to Take One, by DJ DiDonna
The Sabbatical Project: https://thesabbaticalproject.org/
DJ DiDonna: http://djdidonna.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/djdidonna/
Work with Dart:
Dart is the CEO and co-founder of the work design firm 11fold. Build work that makes employees feel alive, connected to their work, and focused on what’s most important to the business. Book a call at 11fold.com.

We’ve spent decades designing work around the idea that people need incentives to perform. But what happens when the systems designed to motivate people actually get in the way of motivation? Professor Barry Schwartz has spent decades studying what makes work meaningful, and his research challenges the idea that money and performance incentives are enough. In this revisited episode, Dart and Barry explore what people really want from work, why pay-for-performance can undermine motivation, and what organizations can do to create work where people have the autonomy and responsibility to do good work.

In this episode, Dart and Barry discuss:
- Why Barry wrote Why We Work?
- How did we learn what people want from work?
- Lack of autonomy as a cost of employment
- How has Why We Work been received?
- How to protect against bias?
- Practicing autonomy with restraint
- The dangers of neglect in the workforce
- And other topics…

Barry Schwartz is an emeritus professor of psychology at Swarthmore College. He is the author of Why We Work, Practical Wisdom with Kenneth Sharpe, and The Paradox of Choice, as well as books on psychology, learning, and human behavior. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, The Guardian, Scientific American, and other publications.
Resources mentioned:
Barry Schwartz: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Schwartz_(psychologist)
Why We Work by Barry Schwartz: https://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN9781476784861
Practical Wisdom by Barry Schwartz: https://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN9781594487835
The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz: https://www.amazon.com/Paradox-Choice-Why-More-Less/dp/149151423X
Barry’s TedTalks: https://www.ted.com/speakers/barry_schwartz
Jeffrey Pfeffer: https://jeffreypfeffer.com/
The Human Equation by Jeffrey Pfeffer: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0875848419
Work with Dart:
Dart is the CEO and co-founder of the work design firm 11fold. Build work that makes employees feel alive, connected to their work, and focused on what’s most important to the business. Book a call at 11fold.com.

Megan Hellerer had done everything she was supposed to do. She went to Stanford, graduated with a 3.9, and dutifully climbed the ladder at Google. But the life that looked great on paper felt terrible inside. A panic attack on the floor of a public restroom forced her to confront a bigger question: what if the problem wasn't choosing the wrong destination, but the idea that we need a destination at all? In this episode, Dart and Megan explore how we move from “destinational living” to “directional living,” and what it means to build a life and career by following curiosity, experimenting, and learning as we go.

Megan Hellerer is the author of Directional Living and the founder of Coaching for Underfulfilled Overachievers. She spent eight years at Google in Strategic Partner Development before leaving to help other underfulfilled overachievers rethink work, success, and fulfillment.

In this episode, Dart and Megan discuss:
- The underfulfilled overachiever
- Why success can still leave you miserable
- Where our “shoulds” come from
- Destinational vs. directional living
- Why certainty can be so seductive
- Curiosity over purpose
- Using “warmer” and “colder” to find your direction
- The value of small experiments
- Designing more directional work
- Can fulfillment become another destination?
- And other topics…

Megan Hellerer is the author of Directional Living: A Transformational Guide to Fulfillment in Work and Life and the founder of Coaching for Underfulfilled Overachievers. She has spent the past decade helping high-achieving people who feel unfulfilled rethink their relationship with work and success. Before becoming a career coach, she spent eight years at Google in Strategic Partner Development. She graduated from Stanford University with a degree in International Relations and is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach.

Resources Mentioned:
Megan’s book: Directional Living: A Transformational Guide to Fulfillment in Work and Life: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0593299272 
Designing Your Life, by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1101875321
Bill Burnett on Work for Humans: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/designing-your-life-how-to-use-design-principles-to/id1612743401?i=1000738307337
Margaret Heffernan on Work for Humans: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hidden-cost-of-certainty-at-work-margaret-heffernan/id1612743401?i=1000754431168

Connect with Megan:
Website: https://meganhellerer.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megan-hellerer-6868326/
Work with Dart:
Dart is the CEO and co-founder of the work design firm 11fold. Build work that makes employees feel alive, connected to their work, and focused on what’s most important to the business. Book a call at 11fold.com.