Workestration

About Workestration

Work, technology, skills. re-orchestrated. Hosted by HR practitioners Donna Scarola and Stela Lupushor, workestration.ai spotlights AI innovation and what it means for people, teams, and results. Each episode brings Doers (HR leaders), Builders (startup founders, consultants), and Shapers (economists, ethicists, computer scientists) to share what’s working, what isn’t, and what to try now.

Publisher

Stela Lupushor and Donna Scarola

Category

technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

6 Oct 2025

Latest episode

3 Nov 2026

Latest episodes

11 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   3 Nov 2026

   AI Workers. Human Leaders.

   Season 3 opens with Marcus Sawyerr, founder and CEO of EQ.app and former head of innovation at The Adecco Group, on what staffing sells when AI workers can do an hour of admin for about a dollar. Donna Scarola and Stela Lupushor get into: Why Marcus calls EQ an evolution rather than a pivot, from an inclusion-first talent community to a platform for AI workers What PwC's analysis of over a billion job ads says about work being repriced, not replaced Where the next generation of recruiters comes from if agents take the entry-level work Systems thinking and the case for working hard so you can be lazy Trust as the scarce resource when candidates and recruiters both use AI, and why your network becomes the premium channel EQ as an orchestration layer over the ATS and CRM, and "human in the lead" rather than in the loop Agentic process outsourcing (APO), $1-an-hour pricing, and no setup fees The salesperson doing payroll who became an agent supervisor Who should own agent lifecycle management, HR or IT Why he hasn't cracked bias in AI hiring, and where inclusion goes next His advice to HR leaders: become the chief AI officer before you're asked References from the episode: Workestration: https://workestration.ai (https://workestration.ai/) EQ.app: https://www.eq.app (https://www.eq.app/) Marcus Sawyerr on LinkedIn ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcus-sawyerr-593a716/): Marcus's Substack (https://marcussawyerr.substack.com) PwC 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer (https://pwc.com/gx/en/news-room/press-releases/2026/pwc-2026-ai-jobs-barometer.html) Stanford Digital Economy Lab, "Canaries in the Coal Mine? (https://digitaleconomy.stanford.edu/publications/canaries-in-the-coal-mine/)" Imperva 2025 Bad Bot Report (https://www.imperva.com/resources/resource-library/reports/2025-bad-bot-report/)

2. 

   18 Jul 2026

   Retire Your Personas, Keep the Research

   Emily Goligoski, qualitative researcher and audience strategist (The Atlantic, Charter, the Membership Puzzle Project at NYU, Columbia Journalism School), on why most of what companies know about AI adoption is what people think they are supposed to say. Donna Scarola and Stela Lupushor get into: The chocolate croissant script: how Emily opens every focus group to get the actual answer instead of the impressive one Why the employee personas guiding AI rollouts are closer to fiction than research, and "personas plus" as the fix User needs and jobs to be done as the lightest-lift replacement The no surprises policy: show people what you did with their feedback Her Charter x IRC4HR finding that women, workers of color, and workers over 55 are at higher risk of being disadvantaged by workplace AI, and why that has continued The caregiving burden as the hidden variable in who gets time to experiment with AI Cloudflare's AI-washed layoffs, Bolt deleting HR, and who is making these decisions Measuring AI impact with diary studies and longitudinal research instead of time saved Questions worth stealing: the most embarrassing prompt, manager questions applied to AI, "when did AI last do a great job by you?" Executives failing out loud, vibe coding at Columbia, and the disclosure rule What leaders will regret three years from now: believing AI intelligence lives at the senior levels References from the episode: "Kick out your personas" by Emily Goligoski (Medium) "Using AI in Ways That Enhance Worker Dignity and Inclusion" (Charter x IRC4HR, 2023) "AI in the Workplace: How Companies and Workers Are Getting It Right" (Charter, 2024) Cal Newport, "Deep Work" Mary Oliver, "The Summer Day"

3. 

   17 Jun 2026

   Critics Don’t Get Statues: Arthur Matuszewski on operating instead of advising, the diamond-shaped org, and why everyone has to hold the spear again.

   Guest: Arthur Matuszewski, Managing Partner, Carrara Hosts: Stela Lupushor and Donna Scarola Category: Builder Episode summary Arthur Matuszewski runs Carrara, an operating firm that embeds inside companies and does the work across talent, finance, go-to-market, and ops. He is not there to advise. As he puts it, “critics don’t get statues.” He scaled Better.com’s talent function from 400 to 4,400 people in just over a year, led strategic talent sourcing at Wayfair from 7,000 to 14,000 in under two years, and built predictive hiring assessments at Bridgewater. He is also a venture partner at Shine Capital. In this conversation he makes the case that the comfortable HR illusion of the last fifteen years (focus on people and the work takes care of itself) is ending. When every contribution is tracked on Slack, Google Docs, and Git commits, productivity has nowhere to hide. Orgs flatten from pyramids into diamonds. The manager-only career ladder stops being the only way up. And the job shifts from collecting the right people to giving people context, momentum, judgment, and a good experience. Along the way: Bridgewater’s hiring “anti-portfolio,” resumes as “Victorian calling cards,” a four-layer “pyramid of value” for where AI actually does work, two anonymized Carrara turnarounds, and a closing argument about meaning, identity, and why a meaningless job is worse than the struggle to find a meaningful one. Chapters 00:00  Cold open and intro 01:52  Welcome: Arthur joins 02:01  Operator, not advisor: why Carrara does the work (“critics don’t get statues”) 03:50  Talent as top-line, not overhead: managing people like a portfolio 06:10  Focus on the work: the end of the people-first illusion 07:53  From pyramid to diamond: flattening orgs and the exponential individual 09:25  Leadership as a “cascade of absence” 11:46  Hold the spear: why the manager-only ladder was a momentary illusion 12:11  The Bridgewater anti-portfolio: hiring on upside, not false positives 15:24  Talent density as a moving target; hire the person vs. the role 17:33  Spiky people and “coding in a closet”: Palantir vs. the kombucha cage 18:31  Resumes as “Victorian calling cards”: pedigree out, exception in 21:04  Inside the Carrara playbook: the $2.5B social platform after 70% RTO attrition 25:03  The healthcare marketplace: a math problem and a new horizontal role 27:51  The pyramid of value: where AI is doing the most work 30:37  Defining value, and the “golden age of private equity and human equity” 33:48  Work, meaning, and identity beyond the job 36:38  Signals: the K-shaped workforce and what won’t fade (experience + judgment) 39:51  Rapid fire: Team Human, doing the work, and what we’ll get wrong 42:02  Where to find Arthur; close Mentioned in this episode Focus on the Work (https://carrara.is/ideas/focus-on-the-work-by-carrara), Arthur’s essay for Carrara, the thesis behind the conversation. Carrara (https://carrara.is/), Arthur’s operating firm. The Mythical Man-Month (Fred Brooks): the classic on why adding people to a late project makes it later, which Arthur revisits in an age of 2x to 4x engineering productivity at lower headcount. Bridgewater Associates: where Arthur built predictive hiring assessments and tracked the anti-portfolio. Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/workestration/id1844366068)  ·  Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/03bFFezxYA2yBMU7b88T0P)  ·  YouTube (https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdExURIwfX1j7Dy9AO5mrhEe-LG6w2b4P) About the guest Arthur Matuszewski is Managing Partner at Carrara, an operating firm that embeds inside companies to do the work across talent, finance, go-to-market, and ops. He was previously VP of Talent & People at Better.com, led strategic talent sourcing at Wayfair, and built predictive hiring assessments at Bridgewater. He is a venture partner at Shine Capital. Reach him at arthur@carrara.is. About Workestration Workestration is a podcast for the doers, builders, and shapers of the world of work. Practitioner-first, jargon-light, allergic to AI hype. Hosted by Stela Lupushor and Donna Scarola.

4. 

   18 May 2026

   Synthetic Consumers, Real Culture: AI adoption at Colgate-Palmolive | Michaela Schoberova

   Michaela Schoberova, SVP HR for Global Commercial Transformation at Colgate-Palmolive, on what 20+ years inside one company taught her about running AI experiments without breaking the culture. Stela Lupushor (Donna is off this week) gets into: Colgate's proprietary digital consumer twins and how they compress early-stage product innovation Whether you can, or should, build synthetic employees the same way The AI Hub, mandated short training, and broad access behind a firewall "Super You" peer cohorts: why voluntary, role-specific learning beats top-down training Where AI grows the business vs. where it just cuts cost Coaching at scale, knowledge management, learning velocity The positive psychology lens on AI: character strengths, human relationships, and what we risk losing Leadership for a BANI world (brittle, anxious, non-linear, incomprehensible): empathy, clarity, agency What HR will regret in three years if we don't act now References from the episode: "The GenAI Focus Shifts to Innovation at Colgate-Palmolive" (MIT Sloan Management Review, Davenport & Bean) "Navigating the Age of Chaos" by Jamais Cascio, Bob Johansen, and Angela F. Williams (2025) Anna Gallotti, MCC, Chair, ICF Task Force on AI in Coaching More at workestration.ai.

5. 

   11 May 2026

   The 21st Century Renaissance Workplace: HR in the Age of AI

   On the Workestration podcast, hosts Stela Lupushor and Donnas Scarola speak with Jeff Schwartz (VP at Gloat, author of “Work Disrupted” and “Workforce Ecosystems,” and Columbia Business School professor) about navigating the future of work in 2026 as AI accelerates. Schwartz argues leaders need “new maps” to move beyond old either/or frames (human vs. machine, employee vs. contractor) and focus on integrated automation and augmentation, super teams, and work orchestration. The conversation explores the shift from pilots to enterprise AI, the need to redesign work around outcomes rather than optimize existing processes, and the idea of “renaissance” roles enabled by AI (illustrated with radiology). Schwartz highlights Deloitte data that 84% of companies haven’t started redesigning work, emphasizes workforce ecosystems that include employees, contractors, and technology, and discusses evolving expectations for HR and managers as designers, coaches, and navigators, alongside concerns about individual adaptation, organizational speed, and public policy transition nets. 00:00 Welcome to Workestration 00:39 Meet Jeff Schwartz 02:10 New Maps for Work 06:23 Beyond AI vs Human 09:34 From Pilots to Redesign 14:35 Rethinking Jobs and Careers 24:08 Beyond Work Disrupted 29:28 Renaissance Work Example 33:14 Reimagining HR for 2030 42:55 Workforce Ecosystems Shift 45:03 What Keeps Jeff Up 47:58 HR as Navigators 50:08 Closing and Part Two You can contact Jeff at: Email:  jeff.s@gloat.com (mailto:jeff.s@gloat.com); jls2387@columbia.com (mailto:jls2387@columbia.com) Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-schwartz-future-of-work-disrupted/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-schwartz-future-of-work-disrupted/) Websites: gloat.com (http://gloat.com/); https://www.fowdisrupted.com/ (https://www.fowdisrupted.com/); https://business.columbia.edu/faculty/people/jeffrey-schwartz (https://business.columbia.edu/faculty/people/jeffrey-schwartz)

6. 

   4 Mar 2026

   From Davos to the Workplace: Practical AI, Radical Uncertainty, and Talent Transformation with Yelena Mammadova, EdD

   On the Workestration podcast, hosts Donna Scarola and Stela Lupushor speak with Yelena Mammadova Ed.D, fresh from Davos, about three themes shaping the 2026 AI trajectory: more grounded, pragmatic AI discussions (constraints like energy and ROI, plus societal impact), leadership in “radical uncertainty,” and the widening gap between technology advancement and people readiness. Yelena argues AI value must be judged by society, not just tech companies, and emphasizes that adoption requires workflow redesign, transparency, explainability, and safe space to experiment and fail forward. She describes her role at Microsoft at the intersection of product strategy and workforce transformation, building “people products” that interpret talent using observed, declared, and increasingly powerful inferred skills from work activity signals. The conversation covers intentional talent mobility, challenges of becoming truly skills-based, and Yelena’s personal AI use via a Researcher agent while writing a book. 00:00 Introduction to the Workestration Podcast 01:25 Insights from Davos: AI and Leadership 04:53 The Role of HR in AI Transformation 08:52 Yelena's Career Journey and Role 10:37 Building AI-Powered Tools for the Workforce 18:19 AI and Skills Data: Observations and Challenges 31:40 The Future of Skills-Based Organizations 34:21 Personal Use of AI and Final Thoughts 40:10 Conclusion and Forward-Looking Statements

7. 

   15 Jan 2026

   Culture Eats AI for Breakfast with Steve Garguilo, Cultivate

   In this episode of the Workestration podcast, hosts Donna and Stela welcome Steve Garguilo, CEO and Founder of Cultivate, a boutique consultancy that helps science-led companies build thriving cultures. Steve draws on 15 years of experience at global giants like Johnson & Johnson, Chevron, and Mars to discuss how organizations can navigate the intersection of human behavior and emerging technology. The conversation dives deep into why culture is the prerequisite for successful AI integration and how leadership must shift from a "scarcity" to an "abundance" mindset.

8. 

   4 Jan 2026

   Episode 3. Team Human? Team Machine? And Us (p2 of 2)

   In this episode of the Workestration podcast, hosts Donna and Stela welcome Douglas Rushkoff and Amar Bakshi, co-founders of Andus Labs. The conversation explores the evolving nature of work in the AI era, touching on themes such as the historical control over labor, the future of meaningful work, and the societal implications of artificial intelligence. Douglas and Amar discuss the potential for AI to restore human-centric, value-based work environments and the importance of collective action. They also reflect on how HR leaders can navigate these changes and the innovative approaches of Andus Labs in fostering a generative mindset within organizations. The discussion emphasizes the need for authenticity, human connection, and the re-imagination of value in the workplace.00:00 Team Human? Team Machine? And Us (p2) w/Douglas Rushkoff & Amar Bakshi co-founders of Andus Labs02:28 Introduction and Welcome02:38 The Changing Meaning of Work03:45 Reconnecting Work with Human Needs05:34 The Role of AI in the Future of Work06:30 Shared Studios and the Importance of Purpose10:05 The Impact of Automation on Jobs16:16 The Future of AI and Human Collaboration27:02 Building a Generative Mindset37:23 Conclusion and Final Thoughts Mentioned in the episode is Civic (https://civicplatform.org⁠): A system for public data, built on public collaboration; Technics and Civilization (https://www.amazon.com/Technics-Civilization-Lewis-Mumford/dp/0226550273) book by Lewis Mumford (https://www.amazon.com/Lewis-Mumford/e/B000APEA92/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1) Douglas' Books: Team Human, (https://www.amazon.com/Team-Human-Douglas-Rushkoff/dp/039365169X) Survival of the Richest (https://www.amazon.com/Survival-Richest-Escape-Fantasies-Billionaires/dp/B0B5JZMH29/ref=sr_1_1), Present Shock (https://www.amazon.com/Present-Shock-Douglas-Rushkoff-audiobook/dp/B00EJMGZCM/ref=sr_1_5), Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus (https://www.amazon.com/Throwing-Rocks-at-Google-Bus-audiobook/dp/B01A7L3LUM/ref=sr_1_1) and his Team Human (https://www.teamhuman.fm/) podcast. Amar's other ventures: Shared Studios (https://www.sharedstudios.com/), Noro (https://www.noro.co/), MIT center for constructive communication (https://www.ccc.mit.edu/). And their joint venture - Andus Labs (https://www.anduslabs.com/).

9. 

   4 Nov 2025

   Team Human? Team Machine? And Us (w/Jennifer McTiernan and Chris Perry, Andus Labs)

   In this episode of the Workestration podcast, Donna and Stela chat with Jennifer McTiernan and Chris Perry of Andus Labs, a generative AI strategy and leadership advisory firm. Throughout the episode, the co-founders discuss their backgrounds and the personal and professional experiences that led them to establish Andus Labs. They share insights on the importance of human agency and creativity in integrating AI into the workplace, the necessity of a proactive approach to AI deployment, and the concept of generative thinking as essential for the modern work environment. Emphasizing change management, equity, and the creation of safe spaces for innovation, this episode offers a comprehensive exploration of how to thoughtfully implement AI technologies in organizations. 00:00 Introduction and Welcome 00:31 Meet the Co-Founders of Andus Labs 03:21 The Genesis of Andus Labs 06:25 The Role of AI in Business Transformation 12:42 Challenges and Opportunities in AI Adoption 31:18 The Importance of Generative Thinking 36:54 HR's Role in the AI Era 43:16 Final Thoughts and Closing Remarks

10. 

    19 Oct 2025

    AI-Powered Scenario Planning

    In this episode of the new season of the Workestration podcast, hosts Stela and Donna interview David Evans, founder of ArcSyne. David discusses his extensive background in B2B information services, including stints at the Corporate Executive Board, CoStar, and the White House. He details the origin of ArcSyne, a native AI-based forecasting tool designed to help strategists, planners, and analysts handle the increasing macro uncertainty facing businesses today. The conversation spans topics such as the transformative impact of AI, the changing nature of strategic planning, and the critical importance of understanding and preparing for near-horizon futures. David highlights the need for leaders to take advantage of AI for better decision-making and not discounting the need to maintain human judgment - a critical component for the unpredictable world we live in.

11. 

    6 Oct 2025

    Workestration: the Future of Work in the Age of AI

    In this episode, Donna and Stela reconnect after a three-year hiatus, rebranding from 'An Internet of People' to 'Workestration.' The discussion focuses on the changes in work dynamics spurred by AI, including the diminishing need for entry-level jobs and the challenges of delayering management structures. The hosts explore the implications of AI on job training and the importance of human-machine collaboration. They introduce their new podcast format, aiming to bring together doers, builders, and shapers to discuss the emerging future (or should we say, present?) of work. Key topics include the controversy around automating jobs, middle management stress, and the potential for holocracy in modern workplaces. The episode closes with insights on recent AI advancements and their broader societal impacts. 00:00 Introduction and Welcome Back 00:33 Rebranding to Workestration 01:48 Exploring the Conductors of Work 03:29 Entry-Level Job Collapse and AI Impact 09:03 Delayering and Middle Management Challenges 14:59 Future of Work and Performance Management 19:41 Team Human vs. Team Machine 24:12 Conclusion and Call to Action

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