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303 - Directed Innovation: How to Point AI at Something That Actually Matters (Jevan Lenox, Chief People Officer, Writer)
Description
Jevan Lenox, Chief People Officer at Writer, joined us on The Modern People Leader.
We talked about why AI adoption alone is not enough, how companies can use “directed innovation” to drive real business outcomes with AI, and what high performance looks like in the AI era.
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(06:23) Reinventing McKinsey’s Hiring Process Across North America
(07:21) Moving to Asia-Pacific & Falling in Love with the People Path
(08:22) Leaving Consulting for High-Growth Companies
(09:03) Lessons From Square, Blue Bottle Coffee & Founder-Led Companies
(10:08) Why Blue Bottle Coffee Changed Jevan’s Perspective on Leadership
(12:55) What Writer Actually Does Explained in Plain Language
(14:40) The Disconnect Between AI Adoption & Real Business Outcomes
(16:10) Why AI Fluency Alone Does Not Create Business Value
(17:34) Why the Best AI Strategies Combine Bottom-Up & Top-Down Leadership
(20:06) AI’s Next Phase: Growth, Scale & Expanding the Business
(21:40) Marketing Personalization, AI Agents & Customer Experience at Scale
(23:35) Stephen’s CTO Experiments & Building AI Systems for MPL
(27:10) Directed Innovation vs “Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom”
(29:30) From AI Adoption Metrics to Real Organizational Outcomes
(31:05) Why AI Leaderboards Can Create the Wrong Behaviors
(32:22) Understanding AI Workflows, Iteration & Knowledge Sharing
(33:28) Positive Deviance & Finding High-Impact AI Use Cases
(36:10) AI Virality, Peer Learning & Spreading Better Workflows
(38:12) What High Performance Looks Like in the AI Era
(39:45) Why “AI-Pilled” Employees Become Force Multipliers
(41:18) System Thinking, Career Growth & Reinventing Performance
(42:05) Daniel’s AI Sales Bot & Reinventing Enterprise Sales Workflows
(43:18) Why Traditional Change Management No Longer Works
(44:15) “There Is No Final Answer in HR Anymore”
(45:20) AI as a Creative Thought Partner & Expanding Imagination
(46:08) AI, Productivity & Unlocking Strategic Thinking Time
(47:20) The “Maslow’s Hierarchy” of AI Value Creation
(48:10) The Rise of AI Managers & Automated Leadership Structures
(50:32) AI’s Impact on Early Career Talent & New Grads
(52:02) Why Adaptability Will Matter More Than Specialization
(53:32) Why Talent Acquisition & Recruiting May Be Fundamentally Reinvented
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Past guests on MPL include Brené Brown, Annie Dean (VP of Team Anywhere, Atlassian), Josh Bersin, Katie Burke (Chief People Officer, Harvey), Liz Fosslien, Helen Russell (Chief People Officer, HubSpot), Dave Scott (Chief People Officer, ADT), Melanie Rossenwasser (Chief People Officer, Dropbox), Cr