Executives Series
This collection of podcasts delves into a wide range of subjects, providing invaluable insights and knowledge that can help you navigate the complexities of executive leadership with confidence and finesse.
This playlist has 53 episodes.
Listen on Spotify
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The Sponsor as a Fundamental Element in the Project
(Feb 04, 2008)
In this podcast, Ricardo talks about the sponsor and his/her influence on the project, as well as the importance of his/her involvement as a defender and facilitator for the success of the project. This podcast was recorded only in Brazilian Portuguese. The link below is for the Brazilian Portuguese version.
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Managing Expectations
(Dec 17, 2012)
In this podcast, Ricardo talks about managing stakeholders' expectations. What is the importance of properly managing expectations? What is the relationship of them with the project's scope and risk management?
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Why Ethics Matter?
(Mar 05, 2018)
In this episode, Ricardo returns to talk about the concept of ethics among the project environment and recommends the work of the Project Management Institute (available at www.pmi.org/about/ethics) and the Institute for Global Ethics (www.globalethics.org).
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You Must Get Your Most Talented Employees out of their Cocoons
(Aug 14, 2018)
In this episode, Ricardo discusses his recently published article on human behavior in the face of change and how safety nets need to be replaced by ropes to allow advancement. He discusses the paradox we live in today where change is the natural condition of organizational survival and, at the same time, one of the things we most fear as individuals. The original article is available at www.linkedin.com/pulse/you-must-g…ns-viana-vargas/
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Regardless of Everything: Self-Esteem and Self-Respect Determine your Success
(Aug 21, 2018)
About a year ago, Ricardo was approached by a young project manager whose appearance did not reveal his age. Physically he seemed much younger than his real age (28 years). A few days later he received an email from this young man talking about the challenges he had for appearing so young.
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What is VUCA and Why it is so Relevant in Today's Work Environment
(Sep 19, 2018)
In this episode, Ricardo explains what VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) is and what its implications for the current environment.
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People Manifesto: Revisiting our Concepts of Leadership, Collaboration, Culture and Self Interest
(Nov 05, 2018)
In this episode, Ricardo discusses the work done by the Brightline Initiative and its partners to address one of the greatest assets for organizational transformation: the people. Ricardo addresses the 4 essential points of the manifesto that raise questions around universal concepts of leadership, collaboration, culture, and interest. To download the manifesto, visit https://www.brightline.org/people-manifesto/
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Why is the Fear of Change So Relevant?
(Feb 04, 2019)
In this episode, Ricardo talks about one of the biggest obstacles to any transformation initiative: the fear of change. Fear is one of the fundamental principles of survival itself. However, when fear blocks the ability to progress, it becomes one of the worst enemies of projects and natural evolution.
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Understanding the Futures Wheel Tool
(May 21, 2019)
In this episode, Ricardo presents a simple visual tool to explore and understand future scenarios. The Futures Wheel is a form of a mind map that associates causes and consequences of events or decisions, allowing you to evaluate future scenarios from the present and evaluate the best options to take.
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What we can learn from honesty with the Caltech Honor Code
(Jul 12, 2019)
In this episode, Ricardo discusses a surprising tradition of one of the most respected educational institutions in the world, the Caltech (Californian Institute of Technology). At Caltech, students usually take their exams home, in a clear demonstration of the level of confidence and responsibility given to students by themselves, their professors, and the institution.
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Cognitive Bias: Understanding the Impact of Irrationality in our Decisions - Part 1 of 3
(Sep 03, 2019)
In the first episode of a 3-episode series, Ricardo discusses the main concepts of cognitive bias and why we often suffer from poor decisions that are made according to irrational criteria, disregarding knowledge and analytical thinking to make decisions.
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Cognitive Bias: The Birthday Paradox - Part 2 of 3
(Sep 09, 2019)
In the second episode of a 3-episode series, Ricardo provides the example of the birthday paradox, a simple probability exercise that demonstrated that the perceived probability of matching birthdays in a group tends to be much lower than what it is in reality.
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Cognitive Bias: The Dunning Kruger Effect and Impostor Syndrome - Part 3 of 3
(Sep 16, 2019)
In the third and final episode of the cognitive bias series, Ricardo discusses two types of opposed behaviours: the Dunning Kruger effect and the Impostor Syndrome. Both are related to the actual competence x competence that we think we have. At Dunning Kruger, we find ourselves more competent than we are. In impostor syndrome, we have a hard time admitting the real competence we have.
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Organizational and Personal Resilience: The Ability to Cope with Change
(Apr 03, 2020)
In this episode, Ricardo discusses the concept of organizational and personal resilience. In this sense, the rapid recovery capacity becomes a critical factor for companies, governments, and professionals. The issue becomes even more critical when faced with the uncertainty of an unprecedented crisis that we are having with the coronavirus. The infographic referred to this episode is available for download here.
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How to Become Optimist if you are Surrounded by Pessimism
(Apr 20, 2020)
In this week's episode, Ricardo talks about being optimistic in a pessimistic work environment. He addresses that one of the leading causes of pessimism is our inability to understand that what we are not able to control much, and this uncertainty is often counterintuitive. This inability to control everything usually generates an ever more distorted and pessimistic view of reality.
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Stop Worrying About Things You Cannot Control
(Jun 29, 2020)
In this episode, Ricardo reflects on our desire for control and how the lack of control can create all sorts of psychological threats which could culminate in poor results for the project, for the organization and for you. Ricardo also talks about mechanisms of acceptance, reaction, adaptation and learning that you should put in place to be effective and deliver positive results in an environment where you do not have control.
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There is no Template for Life
(Jul 06, 2020)
In this episode, Ricardo demonstrates his concerns about the blind use of templates everywhere. Despite being a reliable source of inspiration and ideas, the templates can make you think that your management work is just filling forms while, in reality, you should be thinking, deciding and acting.
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It is Possible to Innovate and Create Value Without Destroying What is Currently in Place
(Jul 20, 2020)
In this episode, Ricardo reflects on our innovation and creative process. Recently he reviewed some concepts related to the “Blue Ocean Strategy” created by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne from INSEAD, and one aspect raised his interest: nondestructive creation/innovation.
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Let’s be Mindful: What really is a Distinct Mindset?
(Aug 03, 2020)
In this episode, Ricardo comments on a recent LinkedIn post comparing “Project Management Thinking” with “Scrum Master Thinking”. The post clearly presents one side as a controller, authoritarian, centralizer, etc. and the other as a team player and an enabler. On a rare reply to posts, Ricardo mentioned that this is not the right comparison. This is a comparison between competent and incompetent professionals.
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Why We Should Care about Psychological Safety
(Aug 10, 2020)
In this episode, Ricardo discusses the connection between our desire for adaptability, creativity, experimentation and innovation with common human feelings like fear and safety. Providing a psychologically safe environment is becoming a critical success factor in surviving and thriving in the current scenario.
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Why is it so Hard to Make Smart People Work Together?
(Aug 17, 2020)
In this episode, Ricardo reflects on five aspects that could explain why some intellectually gifted professionals have such a hard time working in teams. He discusses aspects related to confidence, education, ego, EQ, and IQ, among others, and their impact on a “smart” person’s desire and effectiveness to work together.
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Review Your Metrics Because They Lose Value Over Time
(Sep 28, 2020)
This week, Ricardo talks about metrics and discusses why we should review metrics often to make sure they are still valuable. One of the main threats of old metrics is that people get used to the engine behind it, and they know exactly how to work so that they stay on permanent “green” without truly seeing the whole picture.
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Accountability: We Have to Live With the Decisions We Make
(Apr 05, 2021)
In this week's episode, Ricardo talks about accountability and the discomfort we face most of the time when making decisions. Having the chance to make decisions are one of the most significant freedom examples we have. However, it comes with a lot of pain because we do not know precisely a decision is correct or not. If we take only the professional lens, we have to make decisions constantly, bringing stress, but we have no other option.
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How to Get to the Root of a Problem Using the 5 Whys Technique
(Apr 12, 2021)
In this week's episode, Ricardo explains the 5 Whys technique to help you identify the root cause of an event, a specific risk, or even support your decision-making process. The technique, although simple, has nuances that allow you to be more effective and expand its range of uses beyond what was proposed by its creator, the founder of Toyota in the 1930s.
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3 Tips to Find Our Way Out of the Labyrinth of Imperfect Information
(Apr 19, 2021)
In this week's episode, Ricardo reflects on how our experiences, the media, and the different voices of society affect our perception of risks. We often increase, decrease or disregard the relevance of different threats and opportunities due to imperfect and biased information we receive every day. Ricardo also shares three simple tips you should always keep in mind to analyze future risk scenarios in the best possible way.
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What is Your Exit Strategy?
(May 24, 2021)
In this week's episode, Ricardo makes an analogy on how you can use the same approach to close a project in your own professional life when it is time for you to move on. Sometimes we know that, for any reason you may choose, it is time for you to end a cycle to give the opportunity to start a new one. But this process is not as happy and joyful as the beginning of a project or job.
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Your Example is Your Best Leadership Skill
(Jun 28, 2021)
In this week's episode, Ricardo talks about the relevance of being a role model and an example to foster leadership and improve results. Without being an example of behavior, character, ethics, and determination is impossible for you to lead a team effectively. Listen to the Podcast to know more.
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Peter Principle of Incompetency
(Jul 26, 2021)
In this week's episode, Ricardo talks about how good people can become incompetent when promoted to positions that require different skills than those that make them stand out. Ricardo gives tips on preparing ourselves not to fall into this trap and grow in organizations with the necessary skills. Listen to the new podcast episode to know more.
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Why Do We Often Ignore the Obvious?
(Aug 09, 2021)
In this week's episode, Ricardo reflects on why we often overlook the obvious. PMI principles that have often been forgotten or the Voluntary Blindness that prevents us from seeing what is in front of us. Why do we insist on preferring inertia or denial? Listen to the Podcast to learn more.
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How to Support Future Generations for a World Based in Projects
(Aug 23, 2021)
In the last 20 or 30 years, project management has taken on a vast proportion, and a good part of the population works, even if they don't know it, in some way with projects. So why do people see the world for projects as a threat? What are the misunderstandings? Let's talk about how I see project management and how to support future generations to work in a different world, a world by projects. Listen to the Podcast to learn more.
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How to Reframe your Fears
(Nov 15, 2021)
In this week's episode, Ricardo talks about the fears we have during the development of a product, where situations are not totally in our control. Whether in the speed with which we have to carry out our deliveries and releases or in the concern of not delivering the value expected by our client, which leads us to the fear of failing and not being accepted as a leader in the project. He explains that these fears are natural reactions we have.
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Antifragile: Why Being Able to Gain from Disorder is Key to Succeed Nowadays? - Part 1/2
(Mar 21, 2022)
In this week's episode, Ricardo talks about the concept of Antifragile, presented by Nicholas Taleb in his book. To better explain it, Ricardo explains the meaning of being "fragile" and "robust," where "robust" is not necessarily the opposite of fragile. Robust refers to the ability to resist shock and is not necessarily improved by shock. What improves with shock is Antifragile. And what you gain from stress.
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Antifragile: Why Being Able to Gain from Disorder is Key to Succeed Nowadays? – Part 2/2
(Mar 28, 2022)
In this week's episode, Ricardo returns to the concept of Antifragile, presented by Nicholas Taleb in his book, where Taleb stated that the antifragile "is not necessarily the opposite of fragile" but "what improves with shock." Ricardo talks about making the different types of systems antifragile, systems that can be you, your career, or your company. He complements the concept and outlines the five steps from fragile to antifragile.
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Understanding the Satir Change Model
(Apr 04, 2022)
In this week's episode, Ricardo talks about Satir Change Model, created by family psychologist Virginia Satir, considered the mother of modern family psychology. The podcast has a business focus, even though it was created thinking in the family environment. The model became widely used in the business context change process.
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The World of Inflexibility is Over
(Apr 11, 2022)
In this week's episode, Ricardo talks about flexibility and inflexibility when planning something. We often have the mindset of planning, executing, and controlling something so that it must go exactly as planned. Any variation in the plan is bad and should be avoided, this is inflexibility, and all we don't have today is predictability, showing that the world of inflexibility no longer exists.
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What We Can Learn from Netflix Roller Coaster
(May 02, 2022)
In this week's episode, Ricardo talks about the latest news published in the press about the streaming service Netflix, which, upon announcing the first reduction in the number of subscribers to the platform in the last ten years, suffered a devastating drop in the value of its shares. Netflix's value dropped from more than 300 billion dollars at the end of 2020 to 89 billion after the announcement.
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Never Go Straight to the Offer in a Negotiation
(Jul 18, 2022)
In this week's podcast, Ricardo talks about negotiation and how it is inserted into our daily lives far beyond buying and selling relationships. He talks about negotiation steps and how we often make mistakes when skipping important phases of this process.
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We Shouldn’t Only Think About Leadership: We Also Need to Think About Followership
(Jul 25, 2022)
In this week's podcast, Ricardo talks about leadership and followership and the paranoia of today's society to exclusively focus on leadership. This episode reflects on questions like: Is being a leader the only essential profile for a company? How is the followership in this equation? Don't we all have to develop skills to lead and to be led too? Can a job be done only with leaders?
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Benefits and Drawbacks of the Passion Economy
(Aug 22, 2022)
In this week's episode, Ricardo addresses the Passion Economy. There is a "passion economy" when you make money doing something you enjoy. The biggest illustration of this notion is the digital influencer, who may share information, expertise, and insights about a topic they find fascinating and monetize the content through a YouTube or TikTok channel, for example. However, the process is not as simple as most people believe.
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People do Not Want to Work from Home. People Want Flexibility!
(Oct 17, 2022)
In this week's episode, Ricardo talks about the flexibility people are looking for today to work from home or in the office. Following the pandemic, the relationship between employers and workers shifted, and employees now demand more freedom in their daily work lives. Having the option to work from wherever you like can help some people strike a better balance between their professional and personal lives, which in turn can boost productivity.
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Why Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) Is So Dangerous for You and Your Projects
(Oct 24, 2022)
Why the Fear of Being Left Out (FOMO) Is So Dangerous for You and Your Projects … This week, Ricardo talks about FOMO, or "Fear of missing out," which is the anxiety we have when we don't feel included in a specific scenario, causing us to feel unmotivated and have low self-esteem. New technologies, cryptocurrencies, the metaverse, and artificial intelligence are just examples that can make us feel out of date and like we are falling behind.
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Why It Is Important to Recognize When It Is Time to Quit
(Dec 19, 2022)
In this week's episode, Ricardo talks about the moment to get out of a certain situation and discusses three essential points based on the book "Quit" by Annie Duke. People are socialized to believe that staying in a harmful situation is a virtue, so the idea of stopping what is toxic, whether professionally or personally, is often seen as a negative choice and a demonstration of fragility.
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Trust is The Key to Get Things Done
(Jan 09, 2023)
In this episode, Ricardo talks about trust as a critical component to getting things done. He mentions that trust is not just a nice and politically correct word. Citing an HBR article, Ricardo says that trust increases productivity by 50%, engagement by 76%, and energy at work by 106%. Ricardo also shares three tips for developing trust among your teams:safety, consistency, and honesty. Listen to the episode to learn more.
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Understanding the Concept of Gray Rhinos and Our Negligence to Respond to Highly Likely and Impactful Events
(Jan 23, 2023)
In this week's episode, Ricardo discusses the Gray Rhino concept described in Michele Wucker's book. Ricardo comments that this idea is the opposite of the Black Swan concept. Events and risks, according to the Black Swan concept, have a very low probability of happening but can have catastrophic consequences if they do occur.
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Stop Overthinking With The 5-4-3-2-1 Method to Reduce Anxiety
(Feb 06, 2023)
To help us cope with anxiety, Ricardo discusses a technique he learned from Nick Trenton's book "Stop Overthinking": the 5,4,3,2,1 method. Every day brings new challenges, and it's easy to get caught up in a never-ending cycle of panic and worry about the potential dangers to our work and projects. The method is based on counting down from five to one; at each stage, we focus on a different sense in order to locate ourselves in the here and now.
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Do Not Mess Up Your Communications By Using the Wrong Channel
(Feb 20, 2023)
This week, Ricardo discusses the importance of careful communication in the workplace and throughout projects. Each of us brings unique beliefs, skills, experiences, and perspectives to the table. Noise and wear and tear are detrimental to the project and our work when communication is unclear or the means used to transmit information is inadequate. The data we thought to be useful ended up being harmful.
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3 Reasons Why We Make So Many Mistakes While Deciding
(Feb 27, 2023)
In this week's podcast, Ricardo discusses some common mistakes that can be made when making decisions in various contexts, such as a project. Our decision may have positive and negative consequences depending on the circumstances because we may have to sacrifice to achieve our objectives. To avoid errors, we must first understand the relationship between the decision and its outcomes (a good result does not always mean a good decision).
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Trust Me, We Can Control Much Less Than We Think
(Mar 20, 2023)
Ricardo talks about the predictions we make for our projects and initiatives in this week's episode. He explains that we frequently have an illusion of control and that the perception of future reality is significantly more complicated than reality itself. Professor Philip Tetlock found that only 45 percent of almost 30,000 predictions made by various professionals were accurate.
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Mental Liquidity and Our Ability to Change
(Apr 10, 2023)
In this episode, Ricardo delves into the concept of mental liquidity and why it's crucial to think quickly and creatively in today's fast-paced environment. Mental liquidity is a mindset that combines flexibility, creativity, and resilience, allowing individuals to adapt to changing circumstances and challenges.
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Three Strategies for Improving Your Remote Work
(May 01, 2023)
In this episode, Ricardo discusses three strategies for improving your remote work experience. These strategies include establishing clear boundaries between work and personal time, proactively and effectively communicating with your team using different channels, and embracing remote work's flexibility. As remote work becomes mainstream, these strategies improve team members' productivity, well-being, and job satisfaction.
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Is the Future of Artificial Intelligence the Future We Want for Us?
(May 08, 2023)
In this thought-provoking episode of the podcast, Ricardo explores the possibility of AI surpassing human intelligence and developing emotions to the point where it has a soul and feelings, as the philosopher Nick Bostrom proposed in his Big Think video. With such advancements in AI, it begs the question: will we need to consider "AI Rights" similar to "Human Rights"?
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The Cobra Effect: Unraveling Second-Order Consequences
(May 22, 2023)
In today's episode, Ricardo guides you through the fascinating world of second-order consequences, focusing on the Cobra Effect. He explores how solutions that seemed reasonable in the short term can sometimes spawn more complex issues in a project environment if not adequately anticipated. Ricardo suggests you rethink your decision-making process and underline the importance of considering all potential outcomes before deciding.
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The Challenge of Building Trust When People Want to Hear Only What They Like
(Aug 07, 2023)
In this episode, Ricardo discusses the dilemma of maintaining trust while conveying truths that may not always be pleasant to hear. He emphasizes the critical role of honesty and transparency in project management, despite the challenges they might bring. Ricardo uses his experience and shares real-life instances where telling hard truths was vital for the ultimate success of a project.
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