Let's talk Transformation : The business leaders podcast

"we need to create a pipeline of female founded companies that are well built and investor ready..."A great conversation with Fernanda about how to set female founders up for success and create a system that works for them too. We discuss the challenges women founders face and how to create a system that is designed for them as opposed to them having to ‘fit into the male-designed programme’ to be successful. How can we create a pipeline of well-built female companies ? How can we provide a systemic lens through which to educate women about their options, build strong foundations, attract investment, offer guidance and open doors where necessary ? We particularly discuss how to look at the architecture of the problem rather than trying to reinvent the wheel and perpetuate inequities and inefficiencies in the ecosystem. The virtual environment is positive for women in this respect and offers a window to fix the problems of the past and embrace the (entrepreneurial) revolution – the younger female generation of digital natives thinks differently.Fernanda shares her quest and what she has already built at We Global studios to offer female founders a clear path for success, the right mindset, the right partners and the right support. The main insights you will get from this episode are : -       Set up in response to inequities and inefficiencies in the startup ecosystem – there is lots of help for finance but none to build a business (beyond short-term incubator or accelerator programmes), and it is difficult for women to access this help.-       Wanted to provide something for women other than having to ‘fit into the male-designed programme’ to be successful – to offer them a clear path for success, understand how IP is created and look at the architecture of the problem rather than reinventing the wheel.-       The aim is to create a pipeline of well-built female companies and to focus on revenue generation in order for women to be able to exit with wealth to pay back to society.-       Five pillars: building founder DNA; business strategy and legal; product (or service) development; sales and marketing; operations and scaling. These pillars include many subcategories and social impact is also a priority.-       The company provides a systemic lens through which to educate women about their options, build strong foundations, attract investment, and offer guidance.  -       It also sets great store by lessons learned in life and how experiences inform what we do - working horizontally gives kernels of knowledge from completely separate industries that all share the same principles.-       The company’s tactical and dedicated advisers are the ‘stars’ and make the company unique – to be effective, WE Global requires a large number of ‘friends’ (such as brand ambassadors and volunteers) and a big network to increase accountability and success.-       Alongside the community of advisers, WE Global offers domain experts, a technology council, a marketing council, one-to-one relationships with advisers as well as opportunities for one-to-many relationships.-       Particular challenges for female founders are a mindset issue: they are too nice, need more permission and lack entitlement compared to their male counterparts - women must be assertive and speak the language of business – accounting – given that investors invest purely in a financial instrument, not in a particular company, product or service.-       The WE Global annual ‘rev up’ summit aims to help on the revenue front by imparting the right language to demonstrate insider or outsider positioning – success requires being an insider and understanding the levers that open up further doors.-       The virtual environment is positive for women and offers a window to fix the problems of the past and embrace the (entrepreneurial) revolution – the younger female generation of digital natives thinks differently.-       We must create systems that tell women, ‘you can do that’ – ones that women can simply step into without wasting time and money; WE Global will make introductions to take founders through the various stages and partners with universities as a bridge with private sector.-       Founders need enterprise partners and people to open doors and offer access – they are the stars of tomorrow. Female founders should be gracing the covers of magazines showcasing women doing incredible things for the planet with self-worth based on what you are doing to change the world.-       CTA for female founders: assess what exactly you are creating, identify a clear focus, eradicate all negative thinking, truly believe your past is your past and has no bearing on your future - believe in your vision. 

"lead more powerfully by being more human" Karolin, Minette and I delve into the world of being more human at work. We discuss how leaders can create these conditions in their work environment, as part of the normal ways of working. Where does safety show up and how can they enhance it through their understanding of more human centred management practices ? There is safety within collaboration; it takes time to develop and grows over time yet is simple to practice, in both virtual and face to face environments. Leaders must equip themselves with a deep enough understanding how to make their environment safe so that people can let go, experiment and share their ideas fully. Psychological safety brings hope and a new leadership paradigm to building more innovative and inclusive workplaces. It is easy to forget we are human beings in a transactional environment, and intentional psychological safety provides the foundation for us to be explicitly inclusive - this needs to become a muscle we exercise as leaders everyday. Karolin and Minette share their experiences, stories, insight and research from working with leaders all over the globe and how they crafted the toolkit that is in their newly published book : The psychological safety playbook. The main insights you'll get from this episode are : -       The authors came across each other online, have never met in real life – a perfect example of a psychological safe space! – and bring together science (doctorate in genetics) and business (Silicon Valley corporate experience).-       There is safety within collaboration; it takes time to develop and grows over time yet is simple.-       The workplace needs to be safer and more human, and the book offers a simple and light-hearted approach to this complex problem.-       It was a ’playful’ start to creating a useful book, which sets out five important topics to increase psychological safety.-       The book consists of five plays and five moves that are all standalone and self-contained – a modular approach with anecdotes as explanations.-       The plays scale empathy to enable leaders to connect with the people they work with, one interaction, conversation and reaction at a time.-       It is designed to fill the gap of ‘how’ to create psychological safety (for leaders) in a short, concise form that focuses on only the essential.-       It draws on the authors’ everyday experiences with clients and is a developmental practice, granting permission to experiment.-       Scientists know experiments don’t always work out, but they provide valuable information and data points to learn from failure.-       The ‘red threads’ of curiosity, openness and empathy are also the authors’ shared core values, which provide the underlying human connection.-       The authors practiced what they preach in the book, learned and ‘played’ themselves and experimented in order for the book to have great human impact.-       Psychological safety brings hope and a new leadership paradigm to inclusion. It is easy to forget we are human beings in a transactional environment and psychological safety provides the foundation for an inclusive environment.-       Anyone working with a team must contribute to creating a safe environment where people can disagree and be different but feel able to speak up.  -       The stronger the human connections, the easier the uncomfortable conversations become.-       One way to measure psychological safety is a ‘fearless organisation scan’ to provide data prior to action, but the most important thing is to act based on the data - in science, it starts to get interesting after the measuring stage.-       The playbook can and should be used in a book club, for example, to spread the word, build a movement, and share the work widely as it can be transformational.   -       A second book is in the pipeline - a ‘simmering pot’ of feedback, reactions, research and data to offer information about toxic/unsafe environments. All input gratefully received!

"The starting point must be that AI is built by human intelligence - how do you get a machine to think and act like a human ? "Lomit and I discuss how AI, the future of work and growth, and how to scale this growth and the necessary people strategy effectively. The challenge for growing startups is how to get more done with less. Lean is about being resourceful and engaging, retaining and monetizing customers; AI is about automating processes and turning data into actionable insights. The use of data and AI is transforming the workplace, and the future of skills and work. Leaders have to understand data, data driven decision making and have technical acumen to inform good AI. Companies are always under pressure to grow, and a product must unify rather than divide – consensus is required to focus on how to make or save money (growth v. efficiency). How do we continue to proactively manage the co-dependancy of Humans and technology ? How do we get more done with less ? and how do we scale the up-skilling necessary for tomorrow's workforce ? Lomit shares his experience and insights from his work with start ups and organisations and from working on growth platforms across the world. The main insights you'll get from this episode are : -       The challenge for growing startups is how to get more done with less. Lean is about being resourceful and engaging, retaining and monetizing customers; AI is about automating processes and turning data into actionable insights.  -       To leverage AI, we must train machines to think and act like humans, personalize the experience of a product to attract new customers and have an ideal user journey to enhance the product value.-       Manual personalisation is difficult, but built-in AI can integrate data into one place and populate different platforms to create an asynchronous journey for all customers - a much more efficient way of acquiring customers thanks to real-time data-driven decisions.-       Increasing the lifetime value of customers creates a virtuous cycle to grow business and control growth. An AI-based engine for growth can leverage marketing platforms instead of hiring more people. A great product still needs a great growth marketing engine.-       An aggressive growth curve starts with people (as in any transformation) - building internal alliances; creating a cloud-based customer data platform with cross-company buy-in; over-communicating; sharing best practices; defining the resources you have and need.-       Culture must be nimble and buy/bring in different technologies to support transformation; companies must aim for at-scale onboarding for customers from all over the world that require different approaches.-       Goals must be defined at the outset; successes and/or failures shared transparently; use cases utilised to bring immediate value to the business; marketing budget spent as efficiently as possible; ROI increased as quickly as possible (using AI – aka machine learning).-       Leaders have to understand data and have technical acumen to inform good AI. Companies are always under pressure to grow, and a product must unify rather than divide – consensus is required to focus on how to make or save money (growth v. efficiency).-       Risk audit assessment, scenario planning, controllable levers (e.g. data collection and optimum retention/access), input and technology are required to achieve the desired outcome. All the different layers of a company must be involved and heard.  -       We must demystify AI for a co-dependent relationship between AI and humans. A ‘winning together’ mindset addresses the elephant in the room and offers an opportunity to uplevel and upskill, e.g. make menial tasks more efficient.-       The starting point must be that AI is built by human intelligence - we define and control how we leverage it to make jobs better and easier. Ideas are often stifled due to lack of resources and AI facilitates experimentation. A growth mindset – test, learn and iterate – helps.-       The future is all about automation and coding, so these should be taught as early as possible, at school: ‘gamifying’ the experience makes it relatable. Modular teaching of (block) coding gives an understanding of simple algorithms.     -       Learning a second language broadens our perspective and coding is another language. It teaches logical, computational and critical thinking, offering lifelong skills, e.g. for future leaders, to understand how technology works.-       Children love to consume technology but also to make and create it too as it builds confidence. Group project-based work brings different children together, builds (creative) resilience and teaches communication, teamwork and problem-solving.     -       Top tips for adults to get started are to read around a subject first, ask other people about their experiences, teach yourself and give it a go to become a lifelong learner driven by curiosity.Find out more about Tynker here : www.tynker.comFind out more about Lomit Patel here : www.lomitpatel.com

"inclusion is about leadership - it is a verb not a noun.. "A great and fun conversation with Stephen about inclusion and accountability. How we can make it a natural part of the system : both in operations, decision making, leadership and culture ? How can senior leaders create the conditions for inclusive decision making to be the norm ? It all starts on the inside. Leaders must do their own inner work first to create psychological safety in their immediate bubbles, and there is patchy progress towards a more collective model but old habits die hard: we can grasp logical, intellectual, rational and commercial aspects but inclusion encompasses more emotional, unspoken aspects.Stephen shares his experience, research and insights on building sustainable inclusive workplaces from working with leaders and organisations across the globe. The main insights you'll get from this episode are : -       Diversity is a reality (no two people are the same), whereas inclusion is a choice (to include diversity) and therefore not always comfortable - homophily is our natural tendency, but it doesn’t help us solve problems or tackle challenges.-       Inclusion is measured based on strategy, data, governance, leadership and systems against an accompanying maturity scale of diversity 1.0 (compliance), diversity 2.0 (looks good), inclusion 3.0 (embedding) and inclusion 4.0 (changing the system to be more inclusive).-       Being truly inclusive – i.e. inclusion 4.0 – means feeling it in the culture of the organisation, witnessing it in behaviours, and having a low incidence of cognitive dissonance, e.g. by being employee-centric, offering choice, recalibrating systems and algorithms.-       Inclusion is the verb to diversity’s noun and is often difficult to enact in a hierarchy as there is less diversity towards the top - senior sponsorship must ensure checks and balances and transparency to make it tangible.-       Diversity is not an HR subject, but a strategic topic, and decision-making processes must be more inclusive.-       Leaders must start with themselves to prevent a credibility gap, create psychological safety, and motivate the team (intrinsically – e.g. self-worth, and extrinsically – e.g. remuneration).-       Being vulnerable is a necessity and not as risky as it might appear but the system holds us back on this front: data inflow exceeds our cognitive capacity and so we must seek help from others.-       There is patchy progress towards a more collective model but old habits die hard: we can grasp logical, intellectual, rational and commercial aspects but inclusion encompasses more emotional, unspoken aspects.-       A ‘speak up’ culture rewards questions and productive dissent and co-opting it enables evolution – often not intentionally but in response to a crisis - but ideally it should be intentional so as to integrate empathy, etc. into the education system as life skills.-       Inclusion has a central role to play when it comes to competitive advantage and why should it not? The exclusion of cognitive diversity and personality types represents a deficit model as opposed to the value-added model of inclusion.-       Maslow’s hierarchy of needs confirms that inclusion matters, and major disruption or crises (e.g. COVID) make us more open to accepting this and having a more balanced life.-       We need to democratise access to support, reduce the cost of learning and invest across the board to demystify inclusion.-       Senior leaders with power and budget must consider inclusion within the wider strategy, embed it on a daily basis, and benchmark against a maturity framework.-       The golden rule used to be ‘treat others as you wish to be treated’, but this is no longer enough, and the platinum rule now is ‘treat others as they wish to be treated’.-       If we expect others to adapt to us, we will never include but if we adapt to them, we automatically include and learn and grow as a result.-       All this is difficult to do 24/7 but we must make a start in order to shift the needle and demonstrate change to garner reciprocity, which in turn produces a virtuous circle.

" We need to create organisations for the people in them, and for society, not just for shareholders and the money." Jardena and I delve into the world of transformational leadership. What is transformational leadership, why do we need it and how can we constantly hold the balance between the soulful and the practical ? We look at the 3 different lenses of me, we and the system and get curious about soulful organisations. How can we intentionally connect these 3 levels and stay connected to our ecosystems at an emotional level as well as at an operational level ? What does the dance between the different levels of the system look like, and how can we think about 'soulful processes' ? We need to stop vying for scarcity and build developmental practice to intentionally cultivate, nurture and grow an environment of emotional literacy and purpose. Jardena shares her insights and experience from working with global businesses and leaders across the globe. The main insights you'll get from this episode are : -       Technology can’t solve all our problems; humans must manage it properly, communicate properly and organise themselves better.-       We all have an impact on our world (whether we like it or not) and we have personal agency over what that impact will be.-       Three different lenses/ecosystems produce the butterfly effect: me = know thyself, seek out our blind spots; we = acknowledge, sit in and heal pain; the system = incremental change, the ‘adjacent possible’ to give a different perspective (for the future).-       How do we connect the three, and connect people? Through empathy, rapport, healing pain and creating a cohesive unit - the third lens requires consideration of the previous two.-       Transformational leadership starts with better meetings, improved organisational design, and new and better ways of working introduced into embedded systems.-       It is underpinned by creating organisations for people and society/community; seeing employees as both the raw materials and the audience; and understanding that our behaviour at work is our behaviour in life (= soulful + practical).-       It holds tensions in the system in terms of the mechanics (process) and their impact on people’s wellbeing. We tend to think only in terms of money, but there is no reason why it cannot also be soulful.-       A soulful approach understands that the purpose of the process should be to thrive, but it is often soul-crushing. We must understand why and reimagine it, as soul-crushing will prevent transformation – we must sit squarely in the pain to heal it.-       Top executives often (unintentionally) cut themselves off from the organisation and we must guard against the ‘permafrost layer’ – buffering is not helpful, and neither is ‘don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions’.-       Transformational leaders must be curious and ask (disruptive) questions diplomatically outside the normal institutional framework.-       Cultivating transformation requires compassion, nurturing, adaptability, pruning and watering – we are looking after living systems, not building machines; it can be messy, but we must let it be messy because it doesn’t have be orderly to be effective.-       Scaling/operationalising soulful transformation requires deeply curious, emotionally literate and soulful organisations that have a collective identity; we must apply things we apply to ourselves at an organisational level and put structures and processes in place for it to work.-       A soulful organisation provides operational support for values such as emotional literacy, e.g. check-ins. Action becomes embedded and transcends individual leaders.-       There is problematic use of the word ‘failure’ – it should be ‘learning’; we should celebrate learning rather than failing, see everything as an experiment and use metrics to prove a hypothesis rather than measure ‘success’.-       Language is key for transformation, and DE&I work must precede transformation; conscious inclusion must be a strategic objective, one of the table stakes.click below to find out more about Jardena's work : JardenaLondon.com CultivatingTransformations.comRosettaAgile.com

"The concept & construct of leadership as we know it is fundamentally a male developed, created construct.. so how would women thrive ? "Susan and I explore women navigating leadership in a world that is still designed for men, and how we can intentionally nudge the system and create more inclusive leadership and decision making practices for sustainable change.  How can we change the conversation on 'fixing the women' to 'fixing the system' ? What we think and feel drives what we say and do and we need to tap into this a lot more than we do today as leaders. The universal question is how can we use this to lead from our best self ? How can we develop this to use our talents and energy and be in service of others to serve a more collective vision ? Inclusive leadership however is not just about women and we need to use our joint talents to level the playing field. How can we create systemic change in the system and step out of the exclusive groups often created in organisations ? How can we create organisational culture change and empower people through learning, equity and inclusivity ? Susan shares her years of research, insights and experience from working with leaders and organisations around the world. The main insights you'll get from this episode are : -       Many senior women lack support once they ‘arrive’ and do not thrive, which is not an attractive model for effective leadership: they must lead with their best self, bring unique value and foster equal respect for greater innovation, creativity and psychological safety.-       We must be and return to our best self (in times of adversity), which requires deliberately developmental practices from various fields such as sociology, anthropology and psychology,-       We must slow down and notice our thoughts and feelings; take time to respond, in order to prevent negative reaction or harm to self or others; heed our second consciousness; go from moment to moment and get to know ourselves at our best.-       Enablers/blockers to our best selves are important for efficacy and a precondition for thriving. We must ‘Velcro-in’ and develop an allergy to disempowerment - there are no rewards for putting yourself last.-       Being competently courageous means ensuring the right conditions for action by establishing a strong internal reputation based on values and managing our messaging and emotions.-       Relationships are a constant cycle of harmony, disharmony and repair, and courage needs quick and honourable reparation. Being appreciative is FREE and creates an organisation in which people feel valued.-       Courageous curiosity is a move away from defensive reaction - curiosity is the fuel that drives the car that is your best self. If leaders are transparent about their learning journey, we can all learn together.-       Women in the corporate world must purposefully and intentionally foster muscle, fortitude and agility to thrive whilst remaining resilient (positive deviance). Women make connections more naturally and build meaningful human relationships.-       The notion of connection is at the forefront post-pandemic: leadership is a social and human relationship and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to creating connection in a team.-       COVID forced us to confront our co-workers - with vulnerability, humanity, inclusion, uniqueness and belonging – and be intentionally inclusive. Indeed the three most important qualities of authenticity are honesty, openness, and confidence (owning imperfections).-       Tools for fostering resilience include reflective sense-making and capitalising on learning - we must continuously rediscover aspects of our own value, jettisoning that which no longer serves us and ascertaining what is missing.-       There is systemic bias particularly for women in leadership: leaders must start with themselves (‘changing me changes we’), demonstrate appreciative upstanding and create a collective environment.-       Organisational change to advance women must be leader-led and create a culture in which women can thrive and are empowered through learning, equity and inclusivity - formal sponsorship should be used to leverage potential to bring about change.-       Leaders must be change agents - not alone, but with a trusted circle inside and outside of work; they must make points respectfully for micro behaviour changes and do their best for others to follow suit. -       Inclusion is not even on the table if disrespect still exists in a gender equity context. Love must replace fear: fear-based behaviour is deficient and founded on scarcity, whereas abundance and appreciation are love-based.You can find out more about Susan Mackenty Brady here : www.inclusiveleadership.com

"imagine that your job is designed, not around roles & processes & competencies.. but around business - a business within a business"A rich and insightful conversation with Dean around his vision of a Market organisation : the design and engineering of an ecosystem in which we can all work and thrive. Dean walks us through the idea of a hierarchy that houses a network of entrepreneurs, using the science and engineering principles of organisational design, as well as the golden rules of empowerment to build high performance. How can we go about conceiving of this vision as well as the mechanics of implementing this vision successfully ? How can we help and support leaders to think more holistically - to design an organisational ecosystem in which everyone can prosper, even when they are no longer there ? Dean shares his research, insights and experience, as well as his definition of Organisational design as a science. Together we journey through the different structures within the system as well as his wider vision for high performing organisations, where leaders set time aside to work both 'in' and 'on' the system. The main insights you'll get from this episode are : -       Organisational design is the ecosystem in which we work and interact and there are five organisational systems: three major ones (structure, resource governance, culture) and two minor ones (best practices, metrics and consequences).-       Mechanics/engineering and collaboration within the ecosystem are both human systems and a leader must have a system design in which everyone can prosper.-       Structure cannot follow strategy as strategy is no longer stable in a fast-moving world –organisations must be more dynamic in design and take a systems approach.-       Hierarchy must be used to provide the requisite competencies when they are needed, and the required performance management and coordination so as to leave nothing to chance.-       A different organisational paradigm looks at the engineering science of the ecosystem and change management:·      Vision: a job as a business within a business, job holder is empowered and accountable, teamwork ripples across the organisation and fosters collaboration not competition.·      Decision-making: consensus and the golden rule of empowerment apply - authorities and accountabilities match to prevent either an unconstrained tyrant or a helpless victim.·      Consensus: should only/aways be used when a decision impacts multiple stakeholders across an organisation – this requires clarity from a well-designed ecosystem.-       The approach seems to work regardless of industry although consensus is difficult in large organisations (1000+). It is universal given the human and interaction aspects.-       System mechanics and organisational design are a combination of art and science: applied science of engineering comprising firm constructs plus aesthetics.-       Organisations exist to allow specialisation and the group performs better than the individual because individuals have to be generalists and do not perform as well as specialists.-       The human mind has finite brain cycles, bandwidth and throughput, whereas the world has unthinkable variety: a T-shaped team therefore gives an organisation breadth and depth.-       Common truth, collective wisdom and implementation form the power of participation for success and are essential both for transformation and for capturing hearts and minds. [LLS1] -       Three possible scenarios for creating a radically different organisational model:·      low tolerance for change = cautious evolution (low risk/low reward; a series of small linear changes to form a consistent end state; direction is required);·      choose either structure, resource governance or culture = restructuring and rainbow analysis (colour coding the orgchart to avoid conflict of interest and visualise substructures);·      comprehensive transformation covering all five systems = climate for change and ‘clean sheet’ restructuring (tweaks will not suffice and too many tweaks are painful).  -       Truly transformational leadership encompasses all five systems and covers:·      Vision (clear description of end state five years from now), consensus (understanding of subject and willingness/ability to teach and support);·      Gaps against the vision/in the created future (diagnose root cause, sequence root causes into transformation roadmap);·      Plan/root cause analysis (open communication to build trust and patience as well as a solid foundation).-       For total transformation, leaders must set time aside to work both in and on the system: leadership is working in the system, management is working on the system: a great leader focuses on the end game and leaves a legacy of an organisation that performs brilliantly long after they have moved on.You can find out more about Dean Meyer and his work here : www.ndma.com

"One of the top four drivers of happiness at work is the freedom to take opportunities .. happiness is what your heart needs, engagement is what your brain needs "A fun conversation with Matt about what happiness actually is, what it means for employee engagement and how we can intentionally leverage our own sense of happiness. Emotions are generally not spoken about in the workplace but wearing social masks and inhibiting emotions prevents flow and thus performance, and we sophisticatedly disguise/block our emotions using an emotional deflector field.How can business leaders use data/data science to shift organisational culture? How can technology enable a more human centred approach in organisations ?  The Happiness Index platform looks at the entire EX and allows the company to listen to the employees; it provides an unfiltered view for larger companies to visualise culture and interrogate data.What could this insight leverage for both employees, leaders and businesses if it was intentionally followed and used for understanding the flow of motivation, performance and well being? Matt shares his experience, stories and research from working with over a 100 countries and thousands of leaders across the globe. The main insights you will get from this episode are : -       Happiness consists of joy (fluctuating feeling) and eudaimonia (underlying feeling of how happy you are, spirit) and unlocks the freedom to be human and take opportunities, which is one of the top four drivers for happiness at work.-       Data backs up the neuroscience of happiness: happiness is what the heart needs and engagement is what the brain needs – when employee engagement and happiness are aligned, they achieve the right balance, e.g. happy at home/in life = happy at work.-       The analogy of a car is useful to illustrate the difference between engagement and happiness: engagement is the sat nav (direction, clarity, purpose of journey), and happiness depends on who is in the car with you (relationships).-       There are cultural differences in terms of the happiness index data, e.g. engagement is more westernised, whereas happiness is more global – a human emotion we all experience – and there are different interpretations of it and comfort levels in terms of talking about it.-       In both Canada and the US, the first driver of employee engagement is positive relationships, but the second driver differs: in the US it is clarity (engagement metric), and in Canada it is feelings of acknowledgement.-       In the US, a business case is required to discuss the happiness index, but this is not the case in Denmark, where there is a concept known as arbejdsglæde meaning ‘work happiness’ - in some cultures, the scientific question of ’what makes you happy?’ is perceived as too personal and a reluctance to have conversations can be a huge barrier.  -       There are three sources of happiness: flow, meanings and pleasure, all preceded by emotions, e.g. the difference between feeling anger and lashing out - we cannot ignore the emotion and positive relationships require sharing both positive and negative emotions.-       Emotions are generally not spoken about in the workplace but wearing social masks and inhibiting emotions prevents flow and thus performance - we sophisticatedly disguise/block our emotions using an emotional deflector field.-       Purpose and psychological safety feature in the top eight drivers of happiness but number one is positive relationships – this is more difficult remotely, but not impossible - after all, where there’s a will there’s a way, and companies must adapt, unlearn and be creative.-       Companies should have a test-and-learn culture, experiment with a variety of ‘ingredients’ and assemble them to produce the right dish for bespoke tastes; CEOs must have a vision for the dish - how it will look, taste and be experienced – and care about it.-       Most leaders were successful pre-pandemic and have their own bias when it comes to thinking about the future of work, but their personal data is outdated and they must step back, ask the right questions and let things emerge in hybrid environments.-       How can business leaders use data/data science to shift organisational culture? The HI platform looks at the entire EX and allows the company to listen to the employees; it provides an unfiltered view for larger companies to visualise culture and interrogate data.-       ‘Thriving’ often means competitive in reality – when engagement is high and happiness is low there is competitiveness; when happiness is high and engagement is low there is a lack of focus, so both are needed for a thriving environment.-       Brands need to be transparent about their culture and tech platforms provide objective data to drive culture change; companies cannot afford to miss out on employees who might leave and do their own thing instead of bringing innovation in house.-       Retaining happy/engaged staff affects the bottom line, reduces recruitment costs and lowers attrition rates - asking ‘what makes us happy?’ is an important question that can be used as a basis for planning a business.

"We can't have the benefits of a diverse & vibrant company without acknowledging when it gets hard...Everett and I delve into the leadership of global business and societal issues and the need to constantly navigate uncertainty, and solve complex problems creatively. This starts with leading from within first and foremost. How do we navigate when we don't know the answer ? How do we do 'sense making' in order to create the conditions for systems to thrive ? How do we create the system and emotional infrastructure to scale the new practices or products we want to adopt ? We often fail to solve complex problems because we have forgotten the human aspect...and not knowing what to say or do is an innately human reaction to uncertainty and it's sometimes hard.We need to master both interior and exterior practices to sustain and lead complex systems Everett shares his experience, personal stories and research from both building his own businesses and supporting businesses all over the globe to shift their mindset and move to their edge for more inclusive and sustainable businesses. The main insights you will get from this episode are : -       ‘Moving to the edge’ means navigating when not knowing the answer, an uncomfortable place to be but leaders should always do something, even if it’s saying ‘I don’t know’ - others are relieved to see leaders as human.-       ‘Declaring it center’ means understanding how to create a system to scale the new practice you want. Creating a transition giving rise to new skills and processes to prevent innovations dying on the vine due to a lack of infrastructure - we must create systems to scale, share and sustain them.-       Critical systems thinking is required for complex issues, but there is a difference between complex and complicated problems: complex problems involve unknown or unpredictable interactions; complicated problems involve well-known interactions.-       Interior and exterior practices are necessary to deal with complex problems: exterior practices involve different ways of dealing with problems, e.g. premortems; interior practices require internal alignment to apply frameworks correctly.-       We often fail to solve complex problems because we have forgotten the human aspect – we all have blind spots and the opinions of those closest to the problem must be factored into the decision-making process.-       When it comes to evolution in technology, we must take care not to code bias into AI and machines - with deep democracy, innovation is at the edges and those voices must be heard at meetings that are inclusive.-       There must be constant iteration to get better: as a pioneer of remote working, all-hands meetings at Truss are not in one room so it is important to have quick feedback loops - it is easy just not to get started, but the goal is to keep going.-       Originally from the agile world but applicable to many scenarios, regular retrospectives are a useful tool for learning - what went well? what didn’t go well? Both must be discussed in a blameless environment in order to learn.-       We should take a more systemic approach to problem-solving by starting with information gathering rather than an answer or a plan: optimization based on hypothesis enables rapid adaptation through curiosity and compassion instead of planning and linear thinking.-       Having experience of sport brings to leadership an understanding of losing, taking responsibility, having to carry on regardless, dealing with embarrassment/shame or a disappointed/demotivated teammate.-       Similarly, it is important to understand purpose – if we know why we are doing something, we won’t quit, we will relax and enjoy it, thereby improving our performance and resulting in success: the goal is to align with the purpose to produce results.-       Practicing at the edge and training hard to be able to make decisions at the edge means we can then move forward where others can’t by intentionally exercising the ‘edge’ muscle – we must transition from the mastery of craft to the mastery of self.-       Our imaginal selves pass through dark places along the way - it is easy to just keep going without rest, but recovery is essential to high performance. This can be a lonely place filled with existential questions, scary yet exciting.-       We must seek support for doubts and ask for help and guidance earlier and more often; we should all take a few minutes to ponder on something we don’t know the answer to and see what feelings come up.-       Being self-aware and taking a counterfactual approach – ‘trying on’ decisions as a powerful tool to learn from an imagined future and mitigate in the present in order to cultivate strong decision-making.

"We have an almost unlimited capacity to deny data that doesn't fit with our own view. It is therefore important to master the constant paradox of facts and feelings. "Why do we so often fail to lead and sustain transformational change ? All transformation is change, but not all change is transformational. Ian and I discuss the power of us : 200 voices in under 200 pages - how does this contribute to getting the right recipe for sustainable and transformational change ? There is wisdom in the collective, which allows leaders to scale change together with others who share the same purpose and passion. There is no need to necessarily change everything, as some leaders try to do, but it is about anticipating where possible and building ‘as you go’. The secret sauce is simple in ingredients and complex to implement because it is about constantly navigating human and business polarities and complexity. This is the capacity of a system to shape its future and nudge both people and processes towards a more innovative and agile culture. Ian shares his experience, thoughts and research from the Consortium For Change on working with leaders and businesses across the globe. The main insights you'll get from this episode are : -       Ingredients of the secret sauce:o  spirit of abundance: learn from and share with other people to create a wealth of information for the collective benefit with a huge spill over effect for leading transformational change – this is fundamental for success.o  from what to what: learn from life and experience (e.g. trauma, bereavement, life-changing events); it is the most important question to ask when driving large-scale change – what is the start and end point?o  the beauty of ‘and’: master paradoxes and reconcile polarities - facts and feelings, data and humans, speed and rhythm (of change), listen to what is and isn’t being said.-       There is wisdom in the collective, which allows leaders to scale change together with others who share the same purpose and passion. There is no need to necessarily change everything, as some leaders try to do, it is about anticipating where possible and building ‘as you go’.-       Leaders should demonstrate love and respect for those who influence and those who resist and not marginalise or ignore people. Covid shows that plans can be sent off course and we need the capacity to figure it out on the fly as part of managing uncertainty.-       The evolution of the workforce and the workplace sees future work as work without jobs - bite-sized, ‘nugget-ised’, not salaried, AI, robotics – and a smorgasbord for leaders to both select from and compile. Disruption brings new opportunities and up-/re-/new skilling should not have a negative connotation.-       Personal definition of transformational change is deriving a benefit from many different perspectives - completely rethinking the what, why, who, how, when and where. There should be a dramatic yet sustainable improvement in or the survival of something or something (at whatever level, i.e. personal, individual, company, societal).-       ‘Pizzanalogy’: a huge global industry from humble ancient beginnings with a multitude of shapes, sizes, toppings, crusts, cheeses, preparation styles, outlets, sauces - entails constant repositioning and reimagining to be relevant, despite being traditional. In a company setting, it prompts the question: what long-standing practices might be jeopardising the ability to see the need to rethink something? -       Do’s and don’ts for leaderso  don’t make people feel stupid or disloyal if they resist or ask questions; healthy scepticism is good.o  don’t ignore data that doesn’t reinforce views – start with the truth and reality.o  do address if it’s true that people hate change: they hate failure more so couch the context of change in ‘winning’ to persuade them of the value of change and help make it happen.o  do seek to navigate uncertainty and manage polarities.o  do understand the importance of surrounding yourself with other people that are closer to the problem or circumstance that calls for change – you can’t know everything all the time.