Peggy Smedley Show

Peggy says safety has to be a priority when creating AVs (automated vehicles) and partnerships are focused on shortening the time between now and the age of autonomy. She shares examples of partnerships and projects that are going to help put more AVs on the road. She adds that we need to talk about new ways to test the technology and work together as a community to bring it to fruition safely.

Peggy and James Arthur Ray, entrepreneur, author, and life and business coach, discuss what makes up success in business and personal life. He says that fear is a huge problem and the cause is that very few people think for themselves and most of us change very little after 13. Further, regardless of whether you are a Fortune 100 CEO or a startup entrepreneur, success is about 95% psychology and 5% strategy.

Peggy and Rasheq Zarik, managing director, strategy and analytics, Deloitte Future of Mobility Tech Center, joins the show to define mobility and how it is causing a paradigm shift in smart cities. He explains that the smartphone has given us greater choice and has changed our behavior and it is now extending to our cities. They discuss the importance of public-private partnerships and 5G in smart cities—as well as the need for investment in both physical and digital infrastructure.

Peggy gives some examples of how smart-city competitions can open the doors for greater ideas. She shares how the IoT (Internet of Things) can go a long way in helping cities address pain points and enable better decision making. She also identifies how partnerships are key in furthering the reach in smart cities.

Peggy and Joshua Peschel, assistant professor of agricultural and bio-systems engineering, Iowa State University, talk about technology that is making the biggest impact in smart cities and developing countries. He shares how everyday people have more access to information, but developing countries aren't going to be turning over phones every year. He also explains that cities are becoming more saturated with technology and the impact that will have.

Peggy and Michael Pegues, CIO, City of Aurora, Ill., talk about smart future-proofing the city, and that technology is the common denominator for local and global growth, but cities have to figure out how to leverage that. He explains that cities need a strong vision and to be able to execute smart-city initiatives and that he is a big advocate of best practices and not reinventing the wheel.

Peggy talks about urbanization and how technology is going to support population growth, pointing to examples such as monitoring water quality, air quality, and pollution level. She digs into a movement called Cittaslow, which is the idea that slowing down is better when it comes to quality of life in a city. She explains that we need to deploy purposeful solutions that keep the end goal in mind and that for smart cities, the end goal is creating livable places where people can thrive.

Peggy and Stephanie Slocum, founder, Engineers Rising LLC, engage in a conversation about the role of women in engineering careers. They talk about the labor shortage and how we can get more women involved in the trades and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).

Peggy and Michelle Anderson, director of operations, The National Road Safety Foundation, talk about the change that is happening today and leading to more distracted driving; not to mention how it is becoming an epidemic. They discuss the emerging FOMO (fear of missing out) syndrome and just how dangerous this is becoming when sitting behind the wheel of a car. Anderson discusses how it is raising awareness in the hope of getting more advocates to come together to address it.

Peggy shares that the percentage of people clustered around urban centers is globally going to grow from 55% to 68% by 2050—which is going to bring new and exacerbated transportation challenges. She explains how one DOT (Dept. of Transportation) is developing relief plans to address congestion issues with the IoT (Internet of Things). She says technology is opening the door for new types of traffic-management solutions.

Peggy and Praveen Edara, professor of civil and environmental engineering, University of Missouri, discuss a recent research project that looks at naturalistic driving. He explains that we need behavior-counter measures to reduce distracted driving—especially in work zones. He says that while it is one of the biggest, cellphones are just one of many distractions that drivers experience.

Peggy and Phil Renaud, executive director, The Risk Institute, talk about research related to the distracted-driving epidemic. He says we need to be more aware of our environment and that the approach to distracted driving can't be one dimensional. Rather, it has to be multi-dimensional. We need both legislation and behavioral changes to address it. He also indicates that urban planning—and roundabouts—can reduce the crash severities.

Is 5G connectivity necessary for an autonomous future? Peggy explains that 5G is going to be something to watch, as solutions are developed leveraging its power and speed. Still, she asks: Is 5G here? It depends on your definition of here. If you're saying 5G is here is that the hardware is here, then yes. She says we can potentially do a lot of things quickly, but we have to think about what we are doing and how we want to do it.

Digital farming and Advanced Seed Prescriptions Mark Young, CTO, The Climate Corporation and Bret Sitzman, Global Director of Product Marketing, The Climate Corporation

Scott Tibbitts, CEO and founder, Katasi, adds to the conversation about distracted driving, and offers a software solution. He talks about his software-as-a-service platform, which blocks off notifications while a driver has their vehicle in motion. He notes many users find the application helpful, and even say, they are able to relax without the pressure of having to answer their phone notifications.

With Distracted Driving Awareness Month underway, Lisa Robinson, senior program manager, National Safety Council, joins Peggy to talk about patterns in distracted driving. She explains there is an increase in accidents due to distracted driving. She says many drivers exhibit a not-me syndrome, where many drivers are not taking accountability for their bad habits behind the wheel. She adds 100% of distracted driving is preventable. All it takes is to just drive.

Peggy begins the show by highlighting the changing relationship between humans and machines. She talks about the increase in autonomous and intelligent systems in the workplace. She encourages a public discussion, which confronts ethical questions. She brings up the IEEE, which recommends a set of principles when implementing AI (artificial intelligence) and machine learning into a work site. Tech giants show support for ethical conversations, but Peggy asks: how much is their concern for show, and how much of their support sincere?

Mike Kellenyi, founder, PADD (People Against Distracted Driving), talks to Peggy about distracted driving, labeling driver's bad behaviors as a new epidemic. He shares his initiative in spreading the message against distracted driving. He states drivers need stricter penalties in order to put their phones down and pay attention to the road. In the end, he asks listeners how many days they can go without looking at their phones while driving, and challenges drivers to end their bad habits in order to save lives.

Håkan Agnevall, president, Volvo Bus Corp., joins Peggy to discuss the future of transportation. He says the future of autonomous vehicles requires a step-by-step approach that will take time to achieve. He agrees in a collaborative approach in order to have the autonomous future come to fruition. Further, he answers Peggy's questions in regard to the redesign of cities, government regulation, and the change in services businesses will need to offer. He concludes the segment by inviting listeners to imagine the autonomous future, a journey of open opportunities.

Peggy Smedley starts the show by presenting the preparations the U.S. DOT (U.S. Dept. of Transportation) is making to inform the nation on AV (autonomous vehicles). She points out the evolution of technology, marking the transformation of transportation. She acknowledges the significance in talking about the autonomous future, and the collaborative effort it will take to arrive at an autonomous future soon. She asks business owners to consider their company's position in an autonomous environment.

Peggy welcomes Rob Mathews, coauthor of Entrepreneurship the Disney Way, to the show to discuss the differences between entrepreneur and enterprise leaders. He explains that many innovators can't turn their ideas into business models, whereas established companies work under a set of systems. He talks about the key elements all leaders share and the importance behind supporting business disruption in order to follow innovative trends.

Beth Mosher, director of public affairs, AAA, joins Peggy in the studio to talk about distracted driving in depth. She describes multiple ways a driver can experience cognitive distractions. Further, she discusses the safety involved with autonomous vehicles, and the need for professional training for consumers who purchase cars with autonomous systems. She goes into detail about the process of adopting a set of safety patterns, and the time and difficulty it takes for everyone to be on board.

Peggy kicks off Distracted Driving Awareness Month by sharing daunting statistics in vehicle accidents due to distracted drivers. Despite the numbers, many people still give into distracted driving. Peggy describes two major problems in the area of distracted driving. She says the message is not reaching teenagers, and that many people are not taking responsibilities for replicating the problem. She explains how autonomous vehicles factor into the equation. In the end, she states that all drivers can commit to being responsible on the road.

James Arthur Ray, author and entrepreneur, joins Peggy once again, this time to talk about leadership roles and responsibilities. He encourages leaders to be self-aware to recognize the pertinence between leader and employee. "When something is wrong with my company I have to look at me first," he says, as he advises leaders to take a deeper look into their employees' interior values.

Peggy welcomes Robert Mercado, a partner in the Assurance Services division at Marcum LLP, to the show to discuss best practices to improve profitability. He agrees that to adopt technological innovation in any industry, it begins with leadership. He advises that in an industry facing fast changes, a leader's role is to offer mentorship opportunities in order to prepare future workers. Further, he explains the importance experienced workers training the incoming workforce. Mercado goes on to say that industry leaders need to think further out, and start sending speakers to schools, where they can offer middle schoolers and high schoolers alternatives to a four-year college education. He concludes by advising companies to find ways to bridge experiences of both older and younger generations in the workforce for better company results.

Technology is changing the way work is done. How can industries keep up with the demand of innovation? Peggy Smedley takes a stance, and holds leaders responsible for the task of skilling, reskilling, and upskilling employees for the future of work. She talks about the labor shortage—which is due to the retiring baby boomers—younger generations' lack of interest for trade jobs, and even the result of connected devices on the job site being pertinent to the increasing skills gap. In the end, she explains the significance of restructuring from the top, beginning with a leadership revolution of change in order to fix the problem with labor shortages, the skills gap, and workers' new roles in the face of automation.

Gregg Witt, partner and chief strategy officer, Engage Youth Co., and author of "The Gen Z Frequency: How Brands Tune In and Build Credibility", explains the similarities and differences between Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z. The major differences between Gen Z and prior generations is their unrelenting relationship with information, media consumption, and mobile connectivity. Witt notes the mistakes branding companies make when targeting the Gen Z market. He explains the disconnect between companies and Gen Z audiences, and offers insights.

Mike Walsh, global futurist and CEO of Tomorrow, and author of "The Algorithmic Leader", describes the different styles of organizations that are succeeding in digital transformation. He discusses the ease in experimenting with automation, and the difficulties in changing company culture. Further, he dissects the purpose of a company and the role of leaders. In establishing the main responsibilities of industry leaders, he dissects the role of decision makers, explaining the hierarchy in their decisions. He advises company leaders to reevaluate their value as the adoption of AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) increases, as well as advising workers to rethink their position in order to ask: what do we want work to be?

Robots are changing the market, and these changes benefit companies. Peggy Smedley explains how cobots, collaborative robots, are enhancing human productivity. Company leaders continue to bring automation to the job-site. She explains that not every job can be 100% automated, so attention to retraining and re-skilling workers is required. Human skills that will remain valuable in the face of automation include analytical, creative, and complex thinking, and even emotional intelligence. Cobots compliment human capabilities by being available in physical work environments. In the end, Peggy advises companies to invest in re-skilling human workers for new opportunities in different roles.

Peggy and Juliana Stancampiano, author, Radical Outcomes and entrepreneur and CEO of Oxygen, discuss how training or re-skilling of employees is really broken. She says we have strayed so far from the market where we started with corporate education for employees. Further, they talk about perfection in today's fast-moving culture—and that now is the time to determine what is good enough.

Peggy and Paul Vragel, president, 4aBetterBusiness, talk about how everybody in an organization needs re-skilling and process thinking needs to be pervasive. He says these are common misconceptions: change cannot happen quickly and people are resistant to change. Employees can be part of the solution, not part of the problem. Even more, if you are going to automate something, you need to understand that a whole lot better.

Peggy Smedley says automation is turning industries upside down, narrowing in on customer service. She points to examples in hospitality and fast food and poises the question: How do we prepare workers for a new world in an age of automation? She says we need to talk about how to re-skill employees so they can continue to add value to their employers and still find fulfillment in their career.

Peggy and Arka Dhar, cofounder, Zinier, talk about how field service is at an inflection point, where manual processes need to become more predictive. He says AI (artificial intelligence) and the IoT (Internet of Things) have been reduced to buzzwords, but they are incredible technologies. The two also dive into the topic of how the workforce is changing, becoming more liquid and blended—and how technology will play an even more important role with this new, emerging workforce.

Peggy and Jason Cohen, founder and CEO, Analytical Flavor Systems, talk about the impact of AI (artificial intelligence) on the food industry. He says 3D printing is making it easier to do small-scale manufacturing and that while AI won't necessarily come in and solve all of our problems, there are very specific problems that AI will make a big impact on. Finally, he is a self-proclaimed blockchain skeptic, but does say that if blockchain has done anything well, it has made boring backoffice work exciting.

Peggy Smedley explains that the industry is calling for a slowdown and that automation will allow workers to focus on more interesting and rewarding aspects of their jobs. She says some big names have come out in favor of a robot tax to fund human services and balance out income inequality—which could essentially slow innovation down. She adds that automation is going to force us to change the way we tax in the years to come, which could be part of an overarching plan to manage the ripple effects of an automation age.

Peggy welcomes Brian Marcel, founder and chairman, Intl. Bar Code System Group and author, to the show to discuss his book and how it is a manual for entrepreneurs who want to change the world. He explains that in this day of fast moving technology, you have to keep changing your business model on a fairly regular basis—and if you want to get to the next level, you have to find the next big trend.

Sam George, director of Azure IoT, Microsoft, joins Peggy once again, this time to talk open source. He shares that one of the fundamental truths of the IoT (Internet of Things) is that it will transform virtually every market and business segment on the planet. Further, he says that open source is foundational for the IoT. He also talks security, standards, edge computing, digital twins, and more.

Open source. Inner source. How do the two compare? Peggy Smedley discusses the two. She says some smaller open-source projects do not do thorough security vetting and she asks: what if shared responsibility is keeping us from really being diligent about security? She continues that inner source has benefits such as adding transparency and making code better. In the end, she explains we need to create an open culture in which employees are invited to take part in processes and decisions.

Peggy and Claudette Rowley, CEO, Cultural Brilliance, and author of Cultural Brilliance, The DNA of Organizational Excellence, discuss brilliant cultures—and the biggest cultural challenges in companies today. They identify how to determine if a culture is in trouble and the best way to integrate cultural change. They also discuss why leaders have a hard time assessing and addressing their cultures.

Peggy and Tom Wheeler, visiting fellow, Brookings Institute, and book author, "From Gutenberg to Google, The History of Our Future", talk about how technology is evolutionary. It isn't always two guys in a garage having a Eureka moment. He explains that each new technology has had a serious economic and societal challenge—and why should we expect anything to be different today. He points to examples on the railroad and in coal mines. His recommendation? We have to have new expectations about what employment means to all of us.

Peggy Smedley talks about the American AI Initiative and what the U.S. is doing to preserve its role in innovation. She explains that it is a multi-pronged approach to maintaining and accelerating America's leadership in AI and it makes a point of saying it intends to prepare the U.S. workforce to adapt and thrive in this new age of AI. Further, she compares President Trump's American AI Initiative to former President Obama's big data initiatives. Calling for action, she says we must come together on important issues to continue to keep innovation moving forward.

Peggy and Bill Eckstrom and Sarah Wirth, co-authors of The Coaching Effect, talk about high-growth coaching activities. They explain that the most effective coaches are not running the team meeting all themselves and they are only holding meetings once a month. Further, training and education should rotate in team meetings and the only way to measure the effectiveness of coaching is through the eyes of people on your team.

Peggy and Greg Bentley, CEO, Bentley Systems, sit down for a candid conversation about open source and how it helps the construction industry go digital. He explains that it is possible to have an open information environment with a digital twin, which can be used for analytics and machine learning. He adds that what has been the inhabitation in infrastructure going digital is the work of engineers is cloaked in obscure file formats.

Peggy Smedley shares examples of how open source is bringing people together to address real-world problems and attracting the next generation of knowledge workers. She explains that trust is an essential component and standards and best practices will help open source grow. She also says the nature of open source is that users can view, change, and distribute source code as necessary or desired.

Peggy Smedley celebrates episode 600 of the show by looking back at how the IoT (Internet of Things) community has evolved since the podcast first began. She explains that we are changing the world of autonomous vehicles, smart cities, sustainability, infrastructure, construction, manufacturing, agriculture, and more. She also looks forward, suggesting that maybe in 10 more years we'll be calling the IoT something else entirely. Going forward, don't expect anything less than steady, continued innovation and evolution.

Peggy and Joshua Peschel, assistant professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, Iowa State University, kick off the month by talking about open source—and a big initiative for 2019 with open livestock. He shares that stakeholders include academic institutions, government agencies, and private industry. Also, this evolving technology will change careers and majors going forward.

Peggy and Sara Brown, vice president of marketing, MultiTech Systems, discuss the big things that have changed in the past 10 years. She also says adding a communication pipe and transmitting data has value, but at the same time, there is potentially even more value to build processing power into edge devices. Taking it even further, there is an opportunity to automate decisionmaking, which improves worker safety. They also dive into the topics of data security, cellular connectivity, and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) programs.

Wrapping up the month of January, Peggy and John Pletz, senior reporter, Crain's Chicago Business, have a conversation about all the emerging technologies that were center stage at CES—and how that will translate into innovation in the year ahead. They also discuss what new technologies to keep an eye on in the year ahead, especially as it relates to smart cities, autonomous cars, and drones.

Peggy and Maria Lensing, vice president, Healthcare Solutions, AT&T Business, sit down for a candid conversation about digital health and how the industry is moving toward a digital transformation. They discuss challenges, benefits, and what's coming next in this vertical market. They also dive into the topic of how 5G will impact the healthcare industry in the coming years.

Peggy Smedley covers the topics of AR (augmented reality), VR (virtual reality), and reality-as-a-service. She points to examples in government and customer service, where businesses have benefited from a digital-reality pilot program. She also explains tele-presence technology can link experts with technicians who were onsite performing equipment maintenance and how AR can provide key data about a product's lifecycle.