Transform Your Workplace

Most workplace wellness programs run on willpower. Step challenges, incentives, apps, wearables. Joe Leutzinger and Wolf Kirsten have spent decades in workplace health, and their new book, The Healthy Life Blueprint, looks at what 14 countries do to build health into everyday life. In this conversation, Brandon brings those lessons back to work. Joe shares what he learned running health promotion at Union Pacific and later evaluating wellness programs. He explains why leaders should know the cost of poor health before asking a program to prove its ROI, and why field employees often carry the highest health risks while getting the least attention. Wolf explains why the way work is organized, from workload to your relationship with your supervisor, shapes wellbeing as much as anything aimed at the individual. They also get into the difference between a default and a perk, why middle managers make or break any wellness effort, where the line sits between helping people and telling them how to live, and what simple living looks like for a leader who listens more than they talk. About our guests Joe Leutzinger, PhD, was director of health promotion at Union Pacific Railroad, where the program earned multiple C. Everett Koop National Health Awards. He later consulted with senior leadership teams on evaluating wellness programs and understanding the real cost of poor health inside their organizations. Wolf Kirsten is the founder of International Health Consulting and co-founder of the Global Centre for Healthy Workplaces, which runs the Global Healthy Workplace Awards and Certification. He has advised multinational employers including IBM, SAP, and Siemens, consulted the World Health Organization on its healthy workplace guidelines, and has lived and worked in Germany, the United States, England, China, and Brazil. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro 01:45 How workplace culture shapes healthy choices 04:10 What Wolf saw in the parks of Beijing 07:35 What Joe learned evaluating wellness programs 09:25 Why to measure the burden of illness, not just ROI 10:30 Why field employees get left behind 11:25 What infrastructure looks like inside a company 13:15 How employers can shape community health 14:05 How to build movement into the workday 14:50 Why middle managers make or break wellness 15:15 How a default differs from a perk 16:00 When healthy defaults start to feel paternalistic 19:35 Where the line is between helping and telling people how to live 21:05 How traditional wellness programs can widen the health gap 22:35 What Costa Rica's Pura Vida teaches about simple living 25:05 What Norway gets right about youth sports 28:00 How Paris built activity into the commute 30:20 Lessons from China, Switzerland, and Japan 33:00 Why lasting change takes every stakeholder 36:05 What both authors brought home 37:15 How leaders can bring simple living to work 39:00 Where to find Joe and Wolf A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, sponsored by Xenium HR Host: Brandon Laws In Brandon's own words: "The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your go-to source for the latest workplace trends, big ideas, and time-tested methods straight from the mouths of industry experts and respected thought-leaders." About Xenium HR Xenium HR is on a mission to transform workplaces by providing expert outsourced HR and payroll services for small and medium-sized businesses. With a people-first approach, Xenium helps organizations create thriving work environments where employees feel valued and supported. From navigating compliance to enhancing workplace culture, Xenium offers tailored solutions that empower growth and simplify HR. Whether managing employee relations, payroll processing, or implementing impactful training programs, Xenium is the trusted partner businesses rely on to elevate their workplace experience. Discover how Xenium can transform your workplace: Learn more Connect with Joe Leutzinger: LinkedIn Connect with Wolf Kirsten: Website LinkedIn Global Centre for Healthy Workplaces X Connect with Brandon Laws: LinkedIn Instagram About Connect with Xenium HR: Website LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube

Getting AI into everyone's account feels like progress. But having the tool and actually changing how people work are two very different things.   Lesley Bodine has spent more than 20 years helping teams change how they work. Now she's focused on a problem showing up inside small and mid-sized businesses: companies are investing in AI tools, rolling out training, and still struggling to see meaningful adoption or return.   Brandon Laws and Lesley get into why implementation is the easy part compared with adoption, and why resistance to AI may have less to do with the technology than leaders think. For an employee, changing a workflow can also mean changing how they see their role, their value, and even their future at the company.   They also talk about the risks of shadow AI, why HR can be set up to fail when AI adoption gets handed over as another training project, and what leaders can do instead. Lesley offers a practical place to start for a 30-person company: choose one department, build one useful AI workflow, work directly with the people affected, and use that early success as a test case before expanding.   About our guest   Lesley Bodine has spent more than two decades helping teams change how they work. Her work now focuses on helping founder-led and people-first businesses adopt AI without damaging the trust they have built with their people. Her AI That Sticks framework looks beyond tools and training to the human side of adoption, including employee identity, communication, adaptive culture, capability, governance, and measurable results.   Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:53 Why AI implementation and adoption are two different things 04:05 How traditional change management can miss the human side 07:04 How poor communication can make employees feel disposable 11:50 Why every company is behind on AI 13:29 How the AI That Sticks framework approaches adoption 14:59 Why AI resistance may really be about identity 16:28 Why AI tools can fail to produce measurable ROI 17:58 How leaders should think about shadow AI 20:31 How to know whether your company is ready for AI adoption 22:22 Where small businesses are actually at with AI 25:15 How AI skills can automate repeatable work 28:16 How Brandon uses AI to save hours on podcast production 30:23 Why AI adoption shouldn't simply become HR's job 33:45 How a 30-person company can make AI stick 35:55 How leaders can assess AI excitement and resistance 37:05 Where to connect with Lesley A quick glimpse into our podcast   Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, sponsored by Xenium HR Host: Brandon Laws In Brandon's own words: "The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your go-to source for the latest workplace trends, big ideas, and time-tested methods straight from the mouths of industry experts and respected thought-leaders."   About Xenium HR   Xenium HR is on a mission to transform workplaces by providing expert outsourced HR and payroll services for small and medium-sized businesses. With a people-first approach, Xenium helps organizations create thriving work environments where employees feel valued and supported. From navigating compliance to enhancing workplace culture, Xenium offers tailored solutions that empower growth and simplify HR. Whether managing employee relations, payroll processing, or implementing impactful training programs, Xenium is the trusted partner businesses rely on to elevate their workplace experience. Discover how Xenium can transform your workplace: Learn more   Connect with Lesley Bodine: LinkedIn Instagram   Connect with Brandon Laws: LinkedIn Instagram About   Connect with Xenium HR: Website LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube

Most managers want to support someone on their team who's struggling. Very few were ever shown how. So when it happens, a lot of leaders fall back on what they know, and too often that's some version of "get over it." Tara Rolstad came to this work as a family member. She teaches leaders what people need from them when work and life get heavy, and her answer is simpler than most managers expect: "We don't have to fix anything, we just have to be present." Brandon and Tara get into why "what happened?" lands so differently than "what's wrong with you?" They talk through what to say when someone tells you they're fine and clearly isn't, and the small, passing comment a leader can make that tells a whole team it's okay to be real. Brandon also shares what it means to have a manager who listened during a hard stretch, and the loyalty that came from it. This episode includes a discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US. About our guest Tara Rolstad, MBA, is a professional speaker, author, and mental health advocate who helps organizations open up honest conversations about mental health at work. Her path into this work started at home, as a foster parent to her nieces and later as a parent supporting one of her own kids through serious mental health struggles. She has been a consultant and program partner with NAMI organizations in Oregon and Texas and founded the Parenting & Mental Health conference. Her latest book, What to Do Right Now When Your Child Is Suicidal, is a practical guide for parents and caregivers. Her forthcoming book for managers is Get Real: Mental Health in the Workplace. She has also performed stand-up comedy about mental health, and that humor shows up in how she teaches. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro 02:00 Why managers who want to help still default to "get over it" 05:10 How Tara first met mental illness 08:55 What a family member knows that an expert doesn't 12:00 What Tara learned the hard way as a parent and foster parent 16:30 How to make it safe for people to be real at work 19:40 Why "what happened?" works better than "what's wrong with you?" 21:25 Why we try to fix instead of listen 23:00 What a manager who has your back actually does 28:30 A shortcut for leaders who want to signal it's safe 30:00 Why we talk about our brains differently than strep throat 32:40 How a small assist gets someone through the moment 34:40 Where humor helps and where it hurts 37:30 How Tara works with leadership teams 40:20 What to say when someone says "I'm fine" 44:20 Get Real and where to find Tara A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, sponsored by Xenium HR Host: Brandon Laws In Brandon's own words: "The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your go-to source for the latest workplace trends, big ideas, and time-tested methods straight from the mouths of industry experts and respected thought-leaders." About Xenium HR Xenium HR is on a mission to transform workplaces by providing expert outsourced HR and payroll services for small and medium-sized businesses. With a people-first approach, Xenium helps organizations create thriving work environments where employees feel valued and supported. From navigating compliance to enhancing workplace culture, Xenium offers tailored solutions that empower growth and simplify HR. Whether managing employee relations, payroll processing, or implementing impactful training programs, Xenium is the trusted partner businesses rely on to elevate their workplace experience. Discover how Xenium can transform your workplace: Learn more Connect with Tara Rolstad: Website LinkedIn Instagram YouTube TikTok Connect with Brandon Laws: LinkedIn Instagram About Connect with Xenium HR: Website LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube

Christian Poensgen earned his PhD studying stress and performance. Then he started a company right out of school and came close to burning out anyway. He was working 80-hour weeks and sleeping seven or eight hours a night, and he still woke up exhausted. Every morning, the day already felt lost. This episode is a little different. It's about your own performance, and it applies to the people you lead too. Brandon and Christian get into pseudo-productive busyness. That's the pattern of spending all day in meetings, email, and chat while the important work slides to evenings and weekends. Christian explains why the first five to ten minutes of focused work always feel terrible. He covers why a full night of sleep can still be junk sleep, and why checking your sleep score first thing in the morning can make your day worse. He also answers the objection he hears from nine out of ten executives he coaches: I don't control my calendar. You'll walk away with three small changes to your video calls, drawn from Stanford researcher Jeremy Bailenson's work on Zoom fatigue, that you can try in your next meeting. About our guest Dr. Christian Poensgen is a scientist turned entrepreneur, writer, and executive coach. He earned his PhD on the relationship between stress and performance. He has served as senior fellow of the Future of Work think tank in the German federal parliament and as co-founder and director of the European Center for Digital Competitiveness at ESCP Business School. He has also been an agenda contributor at the World Economic Forum. With his co-author, Eric Partaker, he coaches executives on focus, sleep, and stress. Their new book, Ultraproductive: The 90-Minute Method to Optimize Focus, Sleep, and Stress, is out now from Portfolio. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro 02:05 What the "ultra" in Ultraproductive means 04:50 How a stress researcher came close to burnout 06:50 Why every morning felt like the day was already lost 09:15 What Christian would tell his younger self 10:45 Why a full night of sleep can still be junk sleep 13:00 What pseudo-productive busyness looks like at work 14:10 Why so many interruptions are self-inflicted 16:40 How burnout and a heart attack shaped the book 19:55 Why going fast takes great brakes 23:20 Why raw sleep data beats your sleep score 26:15 Why checking your sleep data first thing can backfire 29:05 Why the first ten minutes of focus always feel terrible 32:55 What to do when you don't control your calendar 35:50 How to plan focus time around your chronotype 39:30 How to cut Zoom fatigue, starting with hiding self-view 44:10 Where to find Christian and the book A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, sponsored by Xenium HR Host: Brandon Laws In Brandon's own words: "The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your go-to source for the latest workplace trends, big ideas, and time-tested methods straight from the mouths of industry experts and respected thought-leaders." About Xenium HR Xenium HR is on a mission to transform workplaces by providing expert outsourced HR and payroll services for small and medium-sized businesses. With a people-first approach, Xenium helps organizations create thriving work environments where employees feel valued and supported. From navigating compliance to enhancing workplace culture, Xenium offers tailored solutions that empower growth and simplify HR. Whether managing employee relations, payroll processing, or implementing impactful training programs, Xenium is the trusted partner businesses rely on to elevate their workplace experience. Discover how Xenium can transform your workplace: Learn more Connect with Christian Poensgen: Website LinkedIn Connect with Brandon Laws: LinkedIn Instagram About Connect with Xenium HR: Website LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube

Plenty of companies say they're all in on AI. Privately, a lot of them aren't sure what to do with it. Jeff Wilser sees that gap in leadership rooms all the time, and he calls what often fills it AI theater. Think shiny tools that never make it into real workflows, or quotas that punish people for not using AI enough. Brandon and Jeff get into why leaders are usually excited about AI while their most junior people are anxious, and why adoption won't stick until that gap gets addressed. They talk through the choice every company faces when AI frees up time, whether to grow or cut. Jeff explains why he thinks the companies that only cut will get lapped by the ones that grow. Jeff also makes the case that AI is a people issue, and that most companies don't bring HR to the table nearly enough. He shares the red line he holds as a writer: AI won't write a word of his book. He also names the line he believes every HR team should hold. No one gets hired, fired, or put on a PIP because an AI recommended it. If you're a one-person HR team with no IT support, don't skip the end. Jeff's first move takes an hour or less, and he says it almost always works. About our guest Jeff Wilser is a journalist, keynote speaker, and AI strategist who works with leadership teams on what to actually do about AI. He has reported for The New York Times, WIRED, Fast Company, and GQ, and he's the author of eight books. On his podcast, AI-Curious, he's interviewed people at the center of AI, from OpenAI's Sam Altman to IBM's chief scientist. Today he runs hands-on AI workshops for organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies to community banks. He started his career in business and finance at Intel and lives in Denver. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro 02:45 What leaders say about AI in public versus in private 04:10 How leadership teams get aligned when some love AI and some won't touch it 07:35 Why admitting you don't have AI figured out builds trust 09:15 How a journalist ended up teaching companies about AI 11:55 What Jeff heard in his first workshops 14:40 Why leaders are excited and junior employees are anxious 16:35 Where Jeff draws the line on AI in his own work 20:45 Why companies that only use AI to cut get lapped 27:10 Why HR belongs at the AI table, and how to earn a seat 29:05 What AI theater looks like 31:15 Why your AI rules should fit on one page 34:50 The HR decision AI should never make 36:55 How to use AI to get smarter instead of dumber 41:00 What a one-person HR team should do first 42:30 What HR work should stay human five years from now 44:20 Where to find Jeff A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, sponsored by Xenium HR Host: Brandon Laws In Brandon's own words: "The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your go-to source for the latest workplace trends, big ideas, and time-tested methods straight from the mouths of industry experts and respected thought-leaders." About Xenium HR Xenium HR is on a mission to transform workplaces by providing expert outsourced HR and payroll services for small and medium-sized businesses. With a people-first approach, Xenium helps organizations create thriving work environments where employees feel valued and supported. From navigating compliance to enhancing workplace culture, Xenium offers tailored solutions that empower growth and simplify HR. Whether managing employee relations, payroll processing, or implementing impactful training programs, Xenium is the trusted partner businesses rely on to elevate their workplace experience. Discover how Xenium can transform your workplace: Learn more Connect with Jeff Wilser: Website LinkedIn X YouTube AI-Curious Connect with Brandon Laws: LinkedIn Instagram About Connect with Xenium HR: Website LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube