CHROs today face a pressing mandate: how to build cultures of clarity and belonging while navigating hybrid work, rising employee expectations, and the disruptive pace of AI. The risk of drifting into transactional cultures is real, yet so is the opportunity to shape organizations where culture drives performance and technology enables growth. The question for CHROs is, how do you create alignment while preparing your workforce for what’s next? In this episode, Paulo Pisano, EVP and CHRO at Booking Holdings—and the leader shaping the Future of Work for 24,000 employees—shares how culture and AI intersect to redefine leadership. He explains why culture is ultimately about how people get things done, why clarity is the cornerstone of inclusion, and what it means to bring your “whole professional self” to work. Paulo also addresses polarizing topics at work, the trade-offs of remote versus office culture, and how employee sentiment, trust in leadership, and decision effectiveness can be measured as cultural indicators. Finally, he offers a forward-looking view on how generative and agentic AI—through both HR applications and customer-facing tools—are accelerating productivity and experimentation, and what this means for reskilling and the future role of HR in shaping culture.

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We’ve all had that moment: working at a job we dislike, then moving to a nearly identical role at a different company, and suddenly loving it. The work didn’t change, the industry didn’t change, and the location didn’t change. So what did? The answer is the environment. In today’s Leadership Spark, we explore why employee experience has become the foundation of modern workplaces. Drawing on research, case studies, and over 150 executive interviews, I share why employee experience is not about perks, but about fundamentally changing how organizations shape the environment in which work gets done. Every employee’s experience comes down to three things: culture, technology, and physical space. Organizations can’t control the work employees choose to do, but they can control the environment around it, and that environment determines whether people love or hate their jobs.

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The future of work is unfolding faster than anyone expected, and leaders are scrambling to keep up. In this special Best of the Quarter episode, we revisit two standout conversations that tackle the future of work from very different, yet complementary angles. Charlotte Eaton, Chief People Officer at Arm, shares how the company is rolling out AI tools to thousands of employees, the cultural shifts required to keep pace with rapid technological change, and the risks of outsourcing human thinking to machines. Joe Hart, President and CEO of Dale Carnegie, explores why timeless human skills like empathy, trust, and confidence are more vital than ever, especially as younger generations enter the workforce and AI reshapes how we work. Together, these episodes reveal that the future of work isn’t about choosing between people or technology—it’s about how leaders bring both together.

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