Molly Graham

Like I do a lot of speeches and stuff inside of mostly tech companies, although now more and more companies all over the world because

I think the experience of change is highly emotional, and it feels like a giant mess.

And you're sort of like, successful things can't feel this messy, can they?

And, you know, a lot of what I'm here to say is the most successful companies in the world feel like a mess all the time.

And part of it is because they're changing pretty rapidly.

And the question is, you're going to have that experience of change and sort of like the emotional experience of work.

Really what defines the difference between successful people and folks that get crushed by it are the ones that are able to like...

manage their emotions and like have all those experiences but not let them dictate their actions i always say you have this little monster and the monster for me is like this really helpful way to externalize those emotions i give my monster a name mine mine's name is bob yours can be named whatever you want sorry all the bobs out there but like i grew up on the muppets so i think it's basically a muppet that like travels with me and i always think he's like on my shoulder he's on my toes and unfortunately this monster's job is to basically make you the worst version of yourself

You know what I mean?

And it's like, he's there just being like, who gave you this job?

Like, why are you like, did a really bad job in that meeting?

Like, don't speak up.

Like, you're gonna get fired, whatever.

And I think part of maturing at work, part of learning how to get good at change is essentially not letting that monster dictate your actions.

Like, you can have the feelings.

Let me tell you, I've been giving speeches about Bob for 20 years, and he's still there.

But I've learned what is a Bob.

moment, you know, what's him talking, and then what's me.

And I think that's been really helpful to me.

And it's not something that people talk about enough, which is that there is this whole emotional human life of work that we have to learn to get good at in order to handle the kind of change that everyone's going through right now in the world, you know?