In The Business of Healthy Masculinity Unleashing human energy and potential through healthier masculinity with Josh Allan Dykstra
Hi there,
What have you learnt this week? Hit reply and let me know. :)
One of the things I have learned, and have been reminded of, is the importance of us humans having the space to get into flow state, more often.
That space of uninterrupted creativity and imagination. My goodness we and the planet need this from us right now.
That leads me into introducing you to my next guest (see full episode above) on the In The Business of Healthy Masculinity platform, Josh Allan Dykstra:
Josh Allan Dykstra is the futurist who makes tomorrow feel exciting. A keynote speaker, former tech CEO, and serial entrepreneur, he’s spent 2 decades building 5 companies and working with iconic brands like Microsoft, Amazon, CHANEL, and Genentech, with his clients employing 1M+ people. Josh pioneers the field of Future Design™, helping leaders transform from tomorrow’s passengers into its architects. He’s a TEDx speaker, author, and the trusted advisor leaders turn to when they need to build a future everyone can love.
You can find out more about Josh at his website joshallan.com and you can check out his LinkedIn profile HERE.
In The Business of Healthy Masculinity is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
A reminder that you can follow/subscribe to these conversations at any of the following:
* Spotify
* Substack
* YouTube
I first met Josh in-person at the WorldBlu Freedom at Work summit in February 2024, in Miami, USA, where he (far right hand side in below pic), me, and Kali (second from right) went on some major deep dives around work, systems, colonisation, and loads more!
Back then, Josh was super interesting, and super clear, about the blockages of human energy that pervade our workplaces.
Fast forward to this conversation, in the following clip, Josh powerfully highlights the wasted human potential, and the knock-on effect of low flow state leadership and cultures in our organisations:
How often do YOU get into flow state, and how does Josh’s message above resonate with YOU, and within the leadership in your team or organisation?
I keep coming back to this terrifying statistic below from the Gallup Global State of the Workplace report whenever we talk about human wastes of potential:
It gets me curious. Do leaders honestly care about how engaged and productive people are? Are they disposal widgets on a balance sheet? Something else? What are you thinking, feeling, and what are your thoughts?
So what can YOU and we do to get into flow-state more often, regardless of the workplace culture that we operate within?
Josh also invites us to reflect upon why executive and senior leadership seems to accept a ‘human stack’ running at 10-20% efficiency all the while they are spending millions or even billions on a technology stack that is expected to work at optimum rates.
What unhealthy masculine traits may be causing this blockage around humans? What are you thinking, feeling, and what are your thoughts?
Looking positively forward, I absolutely LOVED when Josh shared his perspective of what he feels the original AI was all about:
One other thing I would like to invite you to consider is leaning into imagining beyond death i.e learning not to be afraid of the natural end of life aka death.
I appreciate that it is totally counter-cultural!
Personally, it took me having testicular cancer in 2020 to truly let go of fear, and Josh and I explore in the below clip the importance of allowing death within an organisational context too:
What are you thinking, feeling, and what are your thoughts in this moment? Hit reply and let me know.
One thing, I feel, that can keep us in fear is the belief that everything is on us. That unhealthy masculine trait of needing to have all the answers and that asking for help is a sign of weakness. Categorically not true, but that is our conditioning.
What can also fuel this is the sense of separateness. Below Josh shares that separateness is an illusion, and that we are moving towards better understanding of the entanglements that we are ALL part of:
I really hope that you took away loads of value from our conversation, I certainly did!
A reminder that you can reach Josh at the following:
Website - https://joshallan.com
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshallan
Finally, Josh really helped affirm below that this platform really is needed, as there is a severe lack of content and dialogue around the topic of healthy masculinity, especially within workplaces.
This reinforces Dr Jackson Katz message in his book Every Man, a key genesis for this platform in the first place.
If you would value someone at your side for this journey of reclaiming your healthy masculinity and inner freedom, I can be in your corner by voice note, virtually, and in-person, having found 5 x 60 minutes calls + unlimited voice note communication to work the best.
If you are ready to embrace the journey towards healthier masculinity, drop me a line at garry.turner@radicality.co.uk. Here is what Katie Marlow had to say about our time working together:
Next week, episode #5 will feature the previous WD-40 CEO and awesome human Garry Ridge.
In The Business of Healthy Masculinity is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
With much love and best regards
Garry Turner
+44 7928 979358
Get full access to In The Business of Healthy Masculinity at inbusinessofhealthymasculinity.substack.com/subscribe