Thinkroom Podcast

• Lena Skogholm: När Kroppen Kraschar Men Hjärnan Växer - Hur en beteendevetare överlevde fem år sängliggande genom att medvetet träna solskenshjärnan

  Fem år. 22-23 timmar per dygn i sängen. Mörkt rum, inga sinnesintryck, ingen bot.Lena Skogholm förlorade nästan allt när en neurologisk sjukdom rev bort hennes fysiska liv. Men det hon gjorde med det inre landskapet som fanns kvar – medveten träning av solskenshjärnan, förståelse för reptilhjärnan och människohjärnan, insikten att hjärnan är plastisk inte elastisk – det blev grunden för hennes livsgärning.Här är paradoxen få pratar om: begränsning som skapar expansion. Sjukdom som blir forskning. Fysisk kollaps som möjliggör intellektuell frihet. Lena har hjälpt tusentals förstå varför stress bokstavligen stänger av människohjärnan och lämnar oss med instinkt och impulser. Hon är bevis på att inre utveckling inte kräver yttre perfektion.🚀NYCKELINSIKTER FRÅN AVSNITTET✅ Reptilhjärnan, Aphjärnan, Människohjärnan – Varför Vi Reagerar Som Vi GörHjärnan har tre medvetandenivåer med olika behov: reptilhjärnan (instinkt, trygghet), aphjärnan (tillhörighet, "känns det bra mellan oss?"), människohjärnan (kan välja respons). När någon går till verbal attack är det reptilhjärnan – då funkar inte logik, möt med trygghet och struktur istället.✅ Fem År Sängliggande Blev ForskningslaboratoriumVid köksbordet sa Lena högt: "Jag får tänka på allt jag inte kan göra – men jag får också tänka på allt jag kan göra." Hon letade med förstoringsglas efter det positiva: kunde äta själv, hade sköna lakan, en snäll man. Det var medveten träning av solskenshjärnan som gjorde skillnad mellan förtvivlan och överlevnad.✅ Hjärnan Är Plastisk, Inte ElastiskEtt resårband är elastiskt – släpper du, åker det tillbaka. Plast behåller formen du drar den till. Så formbar är hjärnan. När solskenshjärnan är aktiv bygger vi upp kroppen på cellnivå, tänker bättre, kommer ihåg bättre. Vi formar hjärnans layout genom vad vi väljer att fokusera på.✅ Livspusslet Är En Bluff – Utgångspunkten Måste Vara EnergiRätt utgångspunkt är energi, inte tid. Människohjärnans exekutiva funktioner tar extra mycket energi – den är sprinter, inte maratonlöpare. Lena fastnade i ett kapitel, mediterade 30 minuter, och i samma sekund hon öppnade ögonen visste hon exakt vad hon skulle skriva.✅ Spegelnevroner – Vi Väljer Vilken Smitta Vi SpriderNär du gör något mot mig blir det en spegelbild i min hjärna som om jag gjorde det. Lenas kollega kom hem trött fredag, sa kort "hej", fick kort "hej" tillbaka. Hon tänkte: reptilhjärnan, aphjärnan, vi smittar varandra. Gick ut, kom in igen med leende: "Men hej Bosse!" Resten blev fredagsmys istället för bråk.🎙️GÄST: Lena SkogholmLena Skogholm är beteendevetare, pedagog och prisbelönad författare. Hon har skrivit flera böcker om hur hjärnforskning kan bli praktisk nytta, senast "Så funkar din tonårshjärna" och "Koden till tonårshjärnan". Efter att ha överlevt fem år sängliggande med en neurologisk sjukdom utan bot vände hon sin förståelse för hjärnans funktioner till både överlevnadsstrategi och livsgärning. Hon föreläser om reptilhjärnan, aphjärnan och människohjärnan, om solskenshjärnan och grådaskhjärnan, och om varför stress bokstavligen stänger ner våra mest avancerade delar. Paradoxen hon förkroppsligar: fysiskt begränsad i 25 år, samtidigt intellektuellt fri och kreativt produktiv.Kontakt:Linkedin www.linkedin.com/in/jgronstedt/ThinkRoom Podcast www.thinkroompodcast.comGRAIL www.grail.works

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• Dr. Christian Guttmann on the Coming Tech Tsunami – and How Leaders Should Ride It

  Europe stands at a defining moment. While AI, robotics, quantum computing and new energy systems are rewriting the global playbook, most European leaders are still using yesterday’s map. Incrementalism feels safe; but in a time of technological convergence, safety is the greatest risk of all.In this episode, Christian Guttmann argues that innovation is not about efficiency. It’s about creative destruction. The leaders who dare to strategically dismantle what has served us in the past will own the future. Those who only “optimize” it will slowly be optimized out.This conversation moves beyond AI hype and into the deeper question: how do we rebuild our organizations, and ourselves, for a decade defined by exponential change?🎙️ Guest Christian Guttmann bridges worlds few others can: AI PhD turned global executive, startup founder, and investor. He’s worked in Silicon Valley, Europe, and Asia and seen firsthand what happens when courage meets technology. His message is both pragmatic and existential: the future isn’t just about mastering AI; it’s about reclaiming our capacity to think boldly and act fast.🔥 Key Insights from the Episode1️⃣ Creative destruction as a leadership principleProgress demands dismantling the systems that once made us successful. Are you ready to kill your own legacy before someone else does it for you?2️⃣ AI isn’t automation - it’s imaginationThe true potential of AI isn’t in saving costs but in reimagining how value is created. What if your biggest growth opportunity lies in reinventing what your business is, not just what it does?3️⃣ The convergence decade Quantum computing, robotics, space technology and fusion energy are advancing simultaneously. The next wave of disruption won’t come one at a time - it will come all at once. Waiting to act on AI means falling behind on everything.4️⃣ The technologist’s edgeThe leaders who understand technology at a deep level will define strategy; those who don’t will end up following it. The C-suite of the future speaks both the language of business and the logic of code.5️⃣ The human renaissanceAs machines master process, our value shifts toward creativity, empathy, and meaning. What if the real revolution AI brings is a return to the very things that make us human?

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• Stanford Professor Erik Brynjolfsson: Why Success Starts With Looking Like Failure

  Every leader right now is staring at the same paradox:Massive AI investments. Sky-high expectations. Flat productivity.Boards are asking where the ROI is. CFOs are tightening budgets. Competitors are bragging about automation wins. It looks like everyone’s racing ahead - but what if they’re racing in the wrong direction?At Stanford, Erik Brynjolfsson has spent three decades studying exactly this pattern. And his warning is clear: you’re being judged by the wrong metrics, at the wrong point in the curve.Just like the factories that electrified too early and saw almost no gains for 20 years, companies are now in the trough of what Brynjolfsson calls the Productivity J-Curve - that painful dip before the exponential payoff. It’s the phase where the right strategy looks like failure.This episode is a masterclass in seeing beyond the trough and understanding the one choice that will define your organization’s future: Are you using AI to automate, or to augment?🎙️ Erik BrynjolfssonErik Brynjolfsson is one of the world’s leading economists on digital transformation. As a Stanford professor and director of the Digital Economy Lab, he’s been decoding how technology reshapes productivity, prosperity, and inequality for over 30 years. His work, from The Second Machine Age to The Turing Trap sits at the intersection of AI, economics, and ethics.What sets him apart is his conviction that the goal of technology isn’t to replace people - it’s to raise the ceiling of what humans can do.🔥 Key Insights✅ The J-Curve of Progress – Decline is the sign you’re doing it right.When electricity came to factories, productivity fell for two decades before it exploded. Why? Because transformation demands reinvention. We’re in that same trough with AI and if your numbers aren’t improving, it might mean you’re actually on the right path.✅ Automation vs. Augmentation – The quiet fork in the road.Companies automating for short-term efficiency will look good this quarter… and irrelevant in five years. Those building for augmentation will emerge with superhuman teams, capable of things competitors can’t even imagine.✅ The Country of Geniuses – The scale of what’s coming.Imagine a data center filled with millions of Einstein-level minds each operating 100x faster than a human. That’s the trajectory of AI. If your organization is still teaching machines to do yesterday’s jobs cheaper, you’re preparing for the wrong revolution.✅ The Metrics Mirage – Why your dashboards are lying to you.Every traditional metric punishes real transformation. Cost reduction, headcount savings, short-term ROI all reward automation and penalize reinvention. To lead through the trough, you need new measures: learning velocity, new capabilities, cultural adaptability.✅ The Human Edge – What survives the exponential.Machines are getting astonishingly good at execution. What remains uniquely human is curiosity, creativity, and the ability to define the right problems. The leaders of the next decade will be those who know how to think with machines, not against them.

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• I Just Quit My Job to Build GRAIL - A Reverse Episode Where I Become The Guest

  I just quit my job.Not to take another job. Not to take a break. I quit to build something that I just had to build.After 15 years in strategy execution, hundreds of discussions in and around the podcast, and two years living as an AI-augmented executive... I couldn't ignore the pattern anymore: 96% of AI projects are failing. Not because the technology doesn't work. Because nobody wanted the future we were building toward.So I made a choice. Not slowly. Not carefully. All in.This episode is different. I'm handing my podcast over to Henrik Järleskog - one of the sharpest minds I know on AI transformation - and taking the guest seat myself. Together, we're exploring whether launching GRAIL is brilliant... or if I've gone completely insane.For every CEO staring at pilot purgatory, analysis paralysis, and initiatives that haven't moved the needle - this is the conversation you need to hear.🎙️ Henrik JärleskogHenrik Järleskog brings two decades of leading strategy and transformation for Fortune 500 companies, both as a management consultant and executive. Over the past two years, he's built his own agentic workforce and become a thought leader in the future of work space. In this episode, he turns the tables and puts me in the hot seat.🔥 Key Insights✅ The Super Worker – Your competitive advantage is human × 20.Imagine every hour you buy from an employee delivers 20 hours of output. That's not science fiction - it's the Super Worker model. By surrounding each person with specialized AI agents, you don't replace humans, you amplify them. Johan went from 140% workload to 50% time spent, with better quality output. This is augmentation in action.✅ The Triple Threat – You can lose on all three fronts simultaneously.The old rule: compete on speed, cost, OR quality - pick two. AI breaks this. A competitor in ghost mode right now could emerge tomorrow with higher quality, faster delivery, and lower prices. All three. At once. This isn't theoretical - the technology is already ahead of most companies' imagination. The question is: who moves first?✅ Automate vs. Augment – The most important choice you didn’t know you had to makePath 1 (Automation): Replace humans with AI. Maximize short-term cost savings. Look good this quarter. Build no sustainable advantage.Path 2 (Augmentation): Multiply human capability. Free salespeople from admin to spend 90% of their time with customers. Transform engineers into project managers with agent teams beneath them. Create experiences competitors can't copy because they're fundamentally human.Most companies are defaulting to Path 1 without realizing it. GRAIL is designed to help mid-market CEOs choose Path 2.✅ The Three-Tier GRAIL Model – Self-funding transformation.Step 1: Upskill the C-Suite and map opportunities. Build AI literacy and strategic vision at the top.Step 2: Quick wins that fund the bigger bet. Deploy automation that makes the CFO happy and proves ROI in 90 days.Step 3: The augmentation play. Build unfair competitive advantages that transform quality, speed, and cost simultaneously.The second tier funds the third. The transformation pays for itself.✅ Remote-First, Media-First, Agent-Augmented Consulting.GRAIL isn't built like a traditional consultancy. There's no 'hire the next consultant' playbook. Instead:• Media-first go-to-market (thought leadership value to the target ICP)• Remote-first delivery (enabling global reach and integrated life design)• Agent-augmented research and delivery (voice agents interview entire organizations in a day, research agents replace weeks of discovery work)This is what a consultancy looks like when you practice what you preach.If this conversation excites you - if you want to win, not just keep up - reach out to Johan at grail.works or connect on LinkedIn.

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• Peter Dahlen (AmCham Sweden): How Leaders Can Navigate Uncertainty in the New Global Order

  Global business leaders are operating in a landscape where the old rules of trade, governance, and leadership no longer hold steady. Free markets face protectionist pushes, trust in global institutions is eroding, and geopolitical rivalries add layers of uncertainty. For leaders, the challenge is both economic and existential; how do we create resilient organizations when the very frameworks we rely on are in flux?🎙️ Guest In this episode, Peter Dahlen, Managing Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Sweden, shares a unique vantage point shaped by decades in Washington, work with Joe Biden’s Senate team, and over a decade of bridging US and Swedish business interests. His reflections cut to the core of what it takes to lead when stability itself is no longer guaranteed.What makes his voice compelling now is his grasp of both systems: he has seen democratic ideals tested in practice, and he’s on the frontlines of navigating the business consequences of today’s geopolitical tensions .🔥 Key Insights✅ Uncertainty as the New NormalWhen even long-term allies turn protectionist, how should leaders make investment decisions without reliable rules of the game? ✅ The Myth of Pure Free MarketsEvery economy engages in “non-market” activity, but what happens when systematic state-driven strategies challenge the very foundation of capitalism? ✅ De-risking vs. DecouplingWhy the future of global trade may not be about cutting ties, but about selectively choosing partners based on shared values and security .✅ Competitiveness ReframedSweden’s innovation culture shows that competitiveness isn’t just about fierceness - it’s about transparency, rule of law, and long-term trust. What might US leaders learn from that lens? ✅ Democracy as Dialogue Polarization and cancel culture weaken not only politics but business too. How can leaders re-learn the art of disagreement without division?

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