Getting Unstuck – Cultivating Curiosity

How might you think differently about how your organization works and approaches change? Here, we'll learn how Rona Wilensky, Ivette Visbal, and a team of educators wrestled with this question when they decided to break the mold of the traditional high school. Rona is the founding and former principal of New Vista, an alternative high school in Boulder, Colorado, and Ivette Visbal is currently the school's Dean of Students.

How human is your workplace? How can what works well at work, work even better? Whom do you rely on to initiate change at work: Yourself? Or "leadership" from above? We'll discuss these and other questions with Mike Vacanti, an organizational change catalyst. Mike is also the inspiration behind the #Human First Club – an intimate conference that seeks to "address the future of work, personal and organizational development, wellness and strategies for success in today's transformational business climate."

In this episode of "Getting Unstuck – Shift for Impact," we're joined by Kris Macc. Kris is the founder and president of KMACC Solutions, a consulting firm specializing in emotional intelligence and leadership development in the workplace. She is also the author of the recently published and highly acclaimed #NOAPPROVALNEEDED, a book that brings together the consistency of voice of women in their 40s from all over the world. Women in their 20s, 30s, and 50s and beyond – and men – listen up!

Kevin Strauss is the CEO of Uchi, an app for connecting with others authentically and privately. Kevin trained as a biomedical engineer and invented medical devices for improving people's lives. Over time, he realized that a key element in whether individuals and teams could innovate successfully had more to do with soft-side human skills than their hard-side technical skills. Kevin turned this passion for connection into a consulting practice where he works with organizations to improve emotional wellness.

In this episode, we're joined by Marvin Cadet, a Project Manager for The Mission Continues. The Mission Continues is a national, nonpartisan nonprofit that supports Armed Forces' veterans to continue their service, and empower communities with their talent, skills and preparedness to generate visible impact. Marvin helps run critical community service projects in the Northeast – revitalizing neighborhoods, transforming public spaces, and improving educational resources.

In this episode, we're joined by Bill Ruggles, a true Zen-master of project management. Bill will help us demystify the role of PM as it pertains to complex change initiatives. He'll talk extensively about three factors that organizations must consider when planning a major shift. Along the way we'll learn how PM can help organizations avoid having their change initiatives become part of the 70% that fail.

Do you have to be naturally creative to innovate? Or is there a method and are there tools that everyone can use innovate? We'll explore this question and others with Amnon Levav, co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Systematic Inventive Thinking (S.I.T.), a Tel Aviv-based innovation firm that works with organizations all over the world. Amnon will explain why innovating against the product, service or process you already have yields better ideas than blue-sky brainstorming.

Do you have to be naturally creative to innovate? Or is there a method and are there tools that everyone can use innovate? We'll explore this question and others with Amnon Levav, co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Systematic Inventive Thinking (S.I.T.), a Tel Aviv-based innovation firm that works with organizations all over the world. Amnon will explain why innovating against the product, service or process you already have yields better ideas than blue-sky brainstorming.

Sarah Elkins is a keynote speaker, a Gallup certified Strengths coach, the creator of the annual and unique #NoLongerVirtual conference. She is also a communications coach, the host of the podcast, Your Stories Don't Define You. How You Tell Them Will, and the author of a forthcoming book by the same name. The river that runs through her work is communication – the stories we tell, how we tell them, the patterns of thought they create, and their impact on the relationship we have with ourself and others.

Gallup reports that some 70% of all U.S. workers are on the spectrum of disengagement at work. A number of factors converge here: ineffective leadership, a stifling culture, and unclear agreement on what impact the organization is trying have. So, too, does the fact that many workers are grinding away at jobs that reflect neither their passion nor their talents. in this interview, we'll hear from Chester Elton, recognized as being among the world's top leadership and organizational culture experts.