In this episode of the Evolving Leader podcast, co-hosts Jean Gomes and Scott talk to entrepreneur, Chief Executive, broadcaster, and author Dr Margaret Heffernan. Margaret writes, speaks and blogs about business leadership, management, innovation and creativity, and her TED talks have been seen by over 14 million people. Margaret has written six books and her third book, ‘Wilful Blindness, Why We Ignore The Obvious’ was named one of the most important business books of the decade by the Financial Times. Her most recent book ‘Uncharted: How To Map The Future’ was published in 2020 and was nominated for the Financial Times Best Business Book award.
'Wilful Blindness: Why We Ignore The Obvious At Out Peril'
0.00 Introduction
4.04 How would you introduce yourself to someone you’ve not met at a dinner party?
5.33 You wrote ‘Wilful Blindness’ in 2012. Considering the vast changes that we’ve seen since the book was published, how do you see its central thesis today?
8.53 If you were talking to a group of leaders today, what would you ask them to confront to raise their awareness of wilful blindness and prevent the conditions for it flourishing?
21.02 What behaviours have you seen from leaders who are great at eliminating or reducing wilful blindness?
24.11 If we turn to your book ‘Beyond Measure’ which you wrote in 2015, in it you describe how transforming a company can be a process of making small systemic changes that empower people to speak up, collaborate and share. Can you tell us more about that?
28.51 In Uncharted, you write ‘being prepared in an age of uncertainty can intensify the craving for models’. Can you build on that?
38.55 This relationship between uncertainty and predictions is fascinating. What are your thoughts on the role that machine learning is playing in our relationship with predictions and what are some of the risks that you see?
45.29 If you could go back to Margaret Heffernan at 20, what advice would you give yourself as a future entrepreneur and leader?
51.03 What’s next for you, what are you working on at the moment?
53.36 It’s interesting to hear how you are currently reinventing yourself and therefore putting yourself into a high degree of vulnerability which sounds like it’s making you feel very alive. How is that effecting your wider life?
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The Evolving Leader is researched, written and presented by Jean Gomes and Scott Allender with production by Phil Kerby. It is an Outside production.
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After more than 5 years of hosting The Evolving Leader, Jean Gomes and Scott Allender are launching their new show The Mindset Economy in January 2026. The new show will explore how to live better, work smarter and be connected in a more uncertain world where machines can think.
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