How Adam Grant uses data and intuition to make life decisions
4/28/202643 min
Most of us assume data-driven people make data-driven decisions. Not quite. Adam Grant has built a career helping others think more clearly — but when it comes to his own career, the most important calls he’s made didn’t have clear data behind them. So how did he decide? In this first episode of WorkLife with Molly Graham, Adam joins Molly to talk about how he actually navigates uncertainty — the four questions he asks before committing to any big project, what he calls “deliberate then dive”, and how he measures success when the numbers don’t tell the whole story.
Featured guest
- Follow Adam on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at adamgrant.net/
- Subscribe to Adam’s substack
Connect with the team
- Follow Molly on Instagram, LinkedIn, and at glueclub.com/
- Subscribe to Molly’s Substack Lesson
- Watch WorkLife videos on YouTube at TEDAudioCollective
- Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok
For the full text transcript, visit https://www.ted.com/podcasts/worklife-transcripts
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsAdam Grant· Guest0:00
[upbeat music] Hey Worklife-ers, it's Adam Grant. I'm excited to do this today. We're actually handing off Worklife to a new host, Molly Graham, who is a tech superstar. And I thought I would take today as a chance to get inside her head and figure out what motivates her, how does she work, what's she gonna teach us as she hosts this show? So Molly Graham, welcome to Worklife.
Molly Graham· Host0:23
Thanks, Adam. But just so you know, I'm actually interviewing you today.
Adam Grant· Guest0:28
Wait, what?
Molly Graham· Host0:29
[laughs] Yeah.
Adam Grant· Guest0:31
Wait, I'm sorry, I thought this was still my show.
Molly Graham· Host0:33
[laughs] Nope, it's my show now, so we get to interview you. Okay, here we go. Hi Adam, welcome to the new Worklife. [upbeat music] Hi everyone, I'm Molly Graham, and I'm taking over as the host of this show. For the past eight years, Adam Grant has built Worklife into one of the most thoughtful explorations of how we work, using research and psychology to help us understand our careers, our teams, and ourselves. I've learned a lot from it, and I know many of you have too. Now, I wanna take you on the next step of that journey, because most of what I know about work, I learned the hard way. In my career, I've led teams, scaled companies, and built things that worked, and things that really didn't. Over time, I've come to believe that what's most useful to people in the middle of mess is hearing