Worklife with Molly Graham

Most leaders say culture matters. Far fewer can explain how it's actually built. Mike Schroepfer spent more than a decade helping build Facebook's engineering organization during some of its fastest—and messiest—years of growth. As CTO, he helped shape a culture built around learning, experimentation, and moving quickly. In this episode, Mike discusses why great cultures aren't created through values decks or mission statements, how leaders teach people what matters through their behavior, and why the difference between a learning culture and a blame culture can determine an organization’s success. If culture is what happens when something goes wrong, this conversation is about how to build one that gets stronger under pressure.

Featured guest

Follow Mike Schroepfer on LinkedIn
Learn more about Gigascale Capital

Connect with the team

Follow Molly on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at glueclub.com/
Subscribe to Molly’s Substack Lesson
Watch WorkLife videos on YouTube at TEDAudioCollective
Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok
For the full text transcript, visit https://www.ted.com/podcasts/worklife-transcripts
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s easy to look at successful companies and other people’s successful careers and assume the path was obvious. The reality is that success feels messy. Claire Hughes Johnson, former COO of Stripe, joins Molly to explore how difficult moments distort our perspective and why some of the work we're proudest of often felt like failure while we were living it. Together they discuss resilience, uncertainty, leadership under pressure, and how to make decisions when you can't yet tell whether you're struggling or succeeding.
For the full text transcript, visit https://www.ted.com/podcasts/worklife-transcripts
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In fast-changing companies, some things move so fast that you rarely have time to consult the business books when questions arise. Welcome to Frequently Asked Questions, a segment on WorkLife where Molly answers questions from listeners about the topics they confront in real time. In this episode, Molly is joined by Ashley Murphy, a key member of Molly’s team and one of the people that helped create Glue Club, a leadership development community that Molly and her team run focused on helping leaders feel more confident and less lonely at work. These questions are based on common questions from the community that Molly and Ashley thought would be relevant for the WorkLife audience as well – tips for working productively with a boss you don’t always agree with, knowing when it’s time to seek out an executive coach, and struggling to pitch yourself to prospective employers if you don’t fit into a traditional box.

Featured guest
Follow Ashley Murphy on LinkedIn
Learn more about Glue Club

Connect with the team
Follow Molly on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at glueclub.com/
Subscribe to Molly’s Substack Lesson
Watch WorkLife videos on YouTube at TEDAudioCollective
Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

For the full text transcript, visit https://www.ted.com/podcasts/worklife-transcripts
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is your true purpose—and how do you find it? This month, Anne and Frances are tackling one of life’s biggest questions in search of answers for Fixers of all ages, from fresh graduates charting their first career moves to seasoned executives craving something more. In this episode, Anne sits down with Molly Graham, a former executive at Facebook and the new host of TED’s WorkLife podcast, to explore what it means to pursue meaningful work and stay open to opportunities you never saw coming. They also answer a question from a new graduate about finding your purpose somewhere between work and life.
For the full text transcript, visit https://www.ted.com/podcasts/worklife-transcripts
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you make content online or use social media frequently for work, it may feel like what you post and how often you post it is dictated by the elusive “algorithm.” You can spend your time chasing trends and trying to keep up with the internet’s ever-changing demands, but at what point does that mean sacrificing the quality of your work? Mark Rober is one of the most successful creators on YouTube, with almost 75 million followers and over 16 billion views. For 15 years, he has only posted one carefully crafted video per month. In this episode, Molly sits down with Mark at the TED Conference to uncover how Mark built his channel to be sustainable over time by prioritizing quality over quantity and staying true to his principles. Mark also reveals his secret to making a viral video, and shares tips for avoiding burnout in a fast-paced industry.

Featured guest
Follow Mark Rober on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and at CrunchLabs

Connect with the team
Follow Molly on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at glueclub.com/
Subscribe to Molly’s Substack Lesson
Watch WorkLife videos on YouTube at TEDAudioCollective
Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

For the full text transcript, visit https://www.ted.com/podcasts/worklife-transcripts
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.