People Managing People

The People Managing People podcast equips forward-thinking leaders to thrive in the AI era—reshaping teams, systems, and strategy without losing what makes work human. Hosted by David Rice, each episode brings real-world insights from innovators, executives, and people leaders on topics like AI in practice, people-first leadership, performance systems, and workplace culture.

People Managing People is a business podcast hosted by David Rice, with 204 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

David Rice hosts People Managing People, a business show with 204 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  People Managing People

  What AI Surveillance Can’t Tell You About Your Employees

  Aug 18, 202650 min

  Nobody sets out to build a workforce surveillance system. It usually arrives dressed up as optimization, productivity, wellness, or efficiency. But as AI makes it possible to monitor everything from keystrokes and mouse movements to emotions and physical behavior, the line between legitimate measurement and invasive surveillance gets harder to ignore. In this episode, I speak with Lynn Parramore, Director of Special Projects at the Institute for New Economic Thinking, about what gets lost when leaders assume everything valuable at work can be measured. We dig into why constant monitoring erodes trust, how algorithms strip context from human behavior, why younger workers have good reason to be skeptical of AI, and why leaders need to get philosophical—not just practical—about where this technology belongs. Related Links: Join the People Managing People Community Subscribe to the newsletter to get our latest articles and podcasts Connect with Lynn on LinkedIn Check out Lynn’s book — Reading the Sphinx: Ancient Egypt in Nineteenth-Century Literary Culture Support the show

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  People Managing People

  Why The EU Pay Transparency Directive Is More Than A Compliance Exercise

  Aug 11, 202633 min

  The EU Pay Transparency Directive isn’t just another reporting requirement. As pay reporting expert Tom Heys puts it, it’s closer to the UK gender pay gap regime “on steroids”—combining organization-wide reporting with individual employee rights, restrictions on recruitment practices, and requirements to group jobs of equal value and explain the pay differences within them. The bigger issue is what happens when organizations are finally required to show their work. Pay transparency exposes weak job architecture, outdated job descriptions, excessive manager discretion, and analytical models nobody can explain. And there’s a broader AI lesson buried in all of this: technology can accelerate analysis, but it can’t absorb accountability. Leaders still have to understand—and defend—the decisions made in their name. Related Links: Join the People Managing People Community Subscribe to the newsletter to get our latest articles and podcasts Check out this episode’s sponsor: QuickBooks Online Connect with Tom on LinkedIn Visit Lewis Silkin Support the show

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  People Managing People

  Why AI Isn’t Delivering The Productivity Gains We Expected

  Aug 4, 202626 min

  AI spending continues to hit record highs, yet most organizations are still struggling to translate that investment into better work. In this conversation, David Rice sits down with Ofir Bloch of WalkMe to unpack the findings from the State of Digital Adoption 2026 report and explore why the problem isn't model capability—it's everything surrounding it. From the massive disconnect between what executives believe employees experience and the reality of day-to-day work, to the growing importance of contextual support and workflow orchestration, this episode argues that the companies seeing results aren't necessarily using the smartest AI. They're removing friction faster than everyone else. Related Links: Join the People Managing People Community Subscribe to the newsletter to get our latest articles and podcasts Connect with Ofir on LinkedIn Visit WalkMe WalkMe's State of Digital Adoption 2026 Support the show

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  People Managing People

  The New Leadership Test: What Makes Someone AI-Native?

  Jul 28, 202630 min

  AI is quickly becoming the new test of executive credibility—but there's a growing gap between leaders who use AI and leaders who've fundamentally rebuilt how they work around it. In this episode, David Rice sits down with JC Christian, President of executive search firm Christian & Timbers, to explore why "AI-enabled" is no longer enough and what it actually means to be AI-native at the executive level. Together, they unpack how executive hiring is changing, why demonstrating real AI deployment experience now matters more than talking strategy, and why adaptability—not decades of experience alone—is becoming the defining leadership capability. As today's competitive advantage rapidly becomes tomorrow's baseline expectation, leaders in every function will need to rethink not just the tools they use, but how they lead. Related Links: Join the People Managing People Community Subscribe to the newsletter to get our latest articles and podcasts Connect with JC on LinkedIn Visit Christian & Timbers Support the show

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  People Managing People

  Why Traditional AI Risk Frameworks Are Breaking Down

  Jul 21, 202657 min

  AI adoption isn't slowing down—and neither are the risks. The challenge isn't that organizations don't know AI can create problems. It's that employees are already using it in ways leaders can't fully anticipate, while governance models built for yesterday's technology struggle to keep pace. In this episode, David Rice sits down with AI ethics expert and The Ethical Nightmare Challenge author Reid Blackman to explore why traditional AI governance is falling behind the rise of generative and agentic AI. Rather than treating ethics as a bureaucratic exercise or a brake on innovation, Reid argues that the organizations moving fastest are the ones that learn how to identify potential "nightmares" before they become public failures. The conversation offers a practical framework leaders can begin using immediately—without waiting for enterprise-wide policies or perfect alignment. Related Links: Join the People Managing People Community Subscribe to the newsletter to get our latest articles and podcasts Connect with Reid on LinkedIn Visit Virtue Consultants Check out Reid’s book – " The Ethical Nightmare Challenge: How to Avoid the Worst of AI " Support the show

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