Make Life Less Difficult

Michael Koehler: Staying in the Learning Zone during Complexity

Nov 22, 2022

01:04:57

My guest today is Michael Koehler.

Michael is the CEO and co-founder of Konu, a leadership development organization focused on helping businesses and leaders manage complexity and take responsibility for change, with offices in the US, Germany, and Israel.

Michael is an executive leadership coach, a former national champion in rock ‘n’ roll acrobatic dance, a first generation immigrant to the US from Germany, a podcast host, and many many more things.

Michael's experiential methods he uses with his clients build from pedagogical training at the University of Marburg, where he obtained a Master's in Education, and at Georgetown University, where he obtained a Certificate in Leadership Coaching.

Michael has experienced first-hand the frustrations of generating change within multi-stakeholder systems. He founded bilingual K-12 charter schools and has a long list of his own leadership failures from attempting to generate changes in the German education system. He reflected deeply on these failures during his studies at Harvard for the Master's in Public Administration degree and zeroed in on the importance of leadership development in creating systems change.

I first connected with Michael through listening to his podcast, On the Balcony. It’s excellent and I highly recommend listening (as soon as you are finished listening to this one, of course!). What stood out so significantly, was that Michael himself is coached during several episodes. This is a vulnerable thing to do and I immediately wanted to get to know Michael and learn more about him and his work.

Michael, thank you for the work you do, for the wisdom you offer, for your willingness to share pieces of your own journey, both as a leader and as a human. I’m so grateful for this conversation. I have many reflections from our conversation and know our listeners will as well.

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