Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2Pages‘The map is not the territory.’This is one of those obvious yet profound insights: the thing we use to try and understand reality, is not reality. It’s true for all charts in companies, for instance. While they tell you a lot, they don’t have all the answers. Your map of the world, what does it tell you and what does it not? Tiziana Casciaro is Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, and co-author of the book Power, for All: How It Really Works and Why It’s Everyone’s Business. Tiziana reads two pages from ‘The Heart is Noble’ by the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje. [reading begins at 26:25]  Hear us discuss: The study of the nonobvious. [6:33] | “When you have a lot of power imbalance, in the long run, bad things tend to happen.” [13:46] | The challenges and consequences of power in organizational spaces. [15:11] | “The world would be infinitely better if we were all more aware of how interdependent we are.” [33:03] | Power for all: “Sharing power doesn’t mean giving up power, it means empowering others.” [37:00] | Moving from certainty to ambiguity: “Remind yourself of the good in you so that you will be able to appreciate the good in others without fearing they will take over.” [42:33] | How human behavior is influenced by context. [46:41] 

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2PagesWhat was your first dream that felt big? The first time you set your eyes on something and thought, ‘I’d like to strive for that.’ Or, on the flip side, ‘I’m not accepting the status quo anymore, something needs to change.’ You were probably young, and though the motives may have not been entirely clear to you, it was a moment of stepping up and claiming your authority; of claiming the next best version of you. Olatunde Sobomehin is the co-author of the book Creative Hustle, and the CEO at StreetCode Academy, a community-based tech ecosystem that’s preparing the next generation of underrepresented tech leaders with everything from basic computing to virtual reality. Olatunde reads two pages from ‘The Life We’re Looking For’ by Andy Crouch. [reading begins at 17:45]  Hear us discuss: “I grew up in an environment where you could believe in the impossible.” [2:13] | What to say ‘yes’ to. [5:43] | How to start betting on your gifts. [8:48] | Dealing with resistance: “Holding onto your principles in moments of resistance is what keeps you grounded.” [12:05] | The notion of being known: “We’re all looking to be known in life.” [22:18] | The power of a shift in mindset. [27:38] | What it takes to reach out and ask for help. [32:36]

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2PagesI did a beginner’s class in ceramics earlier this year, and it was a pretty interesting experience to go up against a potter’s wheel and lose. Forget actually trying to create a pot, I found it nearly impossible just to get the lump of clay centered on the wheel. I did end up with a few lumpy, bumpy things to glaze - and glazing is its own adventure where you never really know how your project will turn out since every firing in the kiln is different. Do your best, create blindly, have your creation tempered by forces beyond your control, and end up with something unexpectedly gorgeous. Gosh, it’s a bit like life, really.  Susan Collett is someone I’ve shared a glass of wine with more than once on my balcony, as she lives just around the corner from me in Toronto. She also happens to be one of the pre-eminent artists who works in clay sculpture and printmaking, something she’s been doing successfully for 30 years. Susan reads two pages from ‘The Creative Habit’ by Twyla Tharp. [reading begins at 14:15]  Hear us discuss: What art does for the artist, and for the world: “Something good always comes forward out of chaos, difficulty, and struggle, and I want to remind people of their strength amidst fragile times.” [6:32] | How to engage with art. [8:52] | Planning helps the wheel go ‘round. [17:59] | Working through the doldrums as a creator. [20:01] | Our inner critics: “Just because you think it, doesn’t mean it’s real.” [21:52] | The importance of drawing. [25:55] | The next project: “Within one piece there are ten other pieces.” [27:31] | “The clay, itself, teaches you to let go into the materials.” [30:01] | How to find your audience. [33:49]

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2PagesI often get asked how I sold more than a million copies of The Coaching Habit. I wish I had one, but, of course, there is no singular answer - just a combination of things going well and a healthy dose of magic fairy dust. One thing we got right, though, is the design of the book itself. So many books feel heavy - a wall of text - and I wanted a book that felt lighter, accessible, and non-intimidating. In whatever you’re working on, what experience are you creating? Stefan Butcher is an acclaimed graphic designer and illustrator who likes designing books, and questions. When I found him through his wonderful book, 344 Questions: The Creative Person’s Do-It-Yourself Guide to Insight, Survival, and Artistic Fulfillment, I already knew we would get along. Get‌ ‌book‌ ‌links‌ ‌and‌ ‌resources‌ ‌at‌ https://www.mbs.works/2-pages-podcast/  Stefan reads two pages from ‘The Salmon of Doubt’ by Douglas Adams. [reading begins at 19:35]  Hear us discuss: Disrupting the status quo: “I’m weird … but I’m not a threat to anybody, I’m just trying to make my thing happen and help others do the same.” [9:23] | Performative competence versus embodied competence. [13:29] | How to keep your heart open: “It’s not the pain that kills you, it’s the numbness.” [24:22] | The difficult choice of what to work on. [28:40] | The essence of collaboration: “We are each other’s keeper.” [33:31]

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2PagesAs I’m recording this, I’m currently in Australia where we’re about two weeks out from a national referendum on whether or not to change the Australian Constitution to recognise the first peoples of Australia, by establishing a body called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. I’m embarrassed to say that it doesn’t look likely to pass, and by the time you’re hearing this we’ll know for sure. There’s a profoundly worrying general lack of energy and empathy among most Australians, and, to me, feels like a once-in-a-generation opportunity for reconciliation, empowerment, and healing is being missed. It’s confronting to recognise that so many of us live on unceded territories of First Nations, and it’s not easy to know what to do about it. That’s why I’m so grateful to the people doing the work to give the rest of us the chance to do the right things, and make the braver choices. Bob Joseph has been steadily changing the world for decades. He’s the President and CEO of Indigenous Corporate Training Inc, a company focused on teaching others how to work effectively with those people who are native to Canadian land, and also the author of a perpetual best-seller in Canada, 21 Things You May Not Know About The Indian Act. Get‌ ‌book‌ ‌links‌ ‌and‌ ‌resources‌ ‌at‌ https://www.mbs.works/2-pages-podcast/ Bob reads two pages from ‘BE DiFFERENT or be dead’ by Roy Osing. [reading begins at 32:15]  Hear us discuss:What reconciliation looks like: “It took us 137 years to get into this mess, and I’m hoping it won’t take us 137 years to get out of it.” [14:54] | The three selves: self-determination, self-government, and self-reliance. [17:00] | “A lot of people doing a lot of little things adds up to a pretty big change.” [40:03] | Knowing when to take control, and when to let it be. [40:59] | How to stay patient: “Watch for the little victories and celebrate those.” [45:08] 

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2PagesThe very first hotel that I got quarantined into, I looked out over Darling Harbour in Sydney. I knew just over the rise was the Sydney Opera House. It was my only view for two weeks. It changed constantly. It was on fire, lit up by a sunset. It was looming with threat as a storm passed by. It became lit up at night. It was actually a Ferris wheel, a carnival, like an underworld at my feet. We're constantly searching for what's new. We're constantly distracted. And sometimes it's wonderful to be forced to look and look again at what's right there in front of you. Miranda Keeling trained as an artist, initially with a degree in glass making, but has gone on to grace the big stage and to attack the tyranny of the blank page. Seeing small differences is Miranda’s thing; noticing the details of everyday life and elevating them with the various forms of art that she makes. And to be honest, this is something Miranda's done from the very start. Miranda reads two pages from Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present by Charlotte Zolotow. [reading begins at 14:54]Hear us discuss:What do you have to let go of to fully embrace the identity of being a writer? [8:36] | Writing and courage: “You're not swept along by somebody else's agenda in the same way you've got to set your own agenda, you've got to go into wherever you work and start and look at that blank page and it's a very different way of being.” [11:16] | “The simple things that you might not notice are the things that could be the most important.” [18:23] | How to ‘slow down’ and get in tune with your thoughts: “There's a meditation technique I did years ago, and I sometimes do still where you imagine that your mind is a blank theater and the curtains are open and you just wait to see what comes onto the stage. You try not to follow it or get too emotionally entangled, but you notice the players move across the stage.” [26:40] | Elevating the ordinary: “In the hot shop, there'd be lots of debris left over from [the glass blowers’] work, and I would take that glass debris from the floor and use it in my pieces… And my point being that's, again, me taking something pretty ordinary. … And I'm trying to get the best I can out of it and elevate it into something else.” [32:42]

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2PagesWhat does it take to be an ambassador, to be a diplomat? …If you had to list three core characteristics, what do you think they should be? Now, for me, part of me goes all espionage... You know, it's about blending in. It's about staying skeptical, perhaps wearing tweed. Part of me, of course, thinks of my brother Nigel, who actually works for the Department of Foreign Affairs in Australia and has actually played ambassadorial roles in Ankara, Turkey and in Berlin. Now, Nigel is the soul of discretion. He has a deep curiosity, also not that much tweed. But after this conversation, which you're about to listen to, a conversation where I realized that perhaps we all play the role of a diplomat and wondering if the key skills are actually empathy, rebellion, and a good left hook. Tom Fletcher is the principal of Hartford College in Oxford University. …I invited Tom because in his lifetime, he's been a diplomat and also a writer and a campaigner. But along the way, there were several things he was not, or at least not successfully. “Having felt evangelical about the importance of diplomacy,” Tom says, “I left diplomacy to write a book about why diplomacy matters so much and looking particularly at the way that technology is changing statecraft. That was The Naked Diplomat [which] came out in 2016, and that did well. So I then got to write two more books. 10 Survival Skills for a World in Flux is about the future of learning… And then in August, I put out my first novel, which was called The Ambassador…” Get‌ ‌book‌ ‌links‌ ‌and‌ ‌resources‌ ‌at‌ https://www.mbs.works/2-pages-podcast/Tom reads two pages from The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. [reading starts at 17:25]Hear us discuss:“But I guess all that adds up to this conclusion that education is upstream diplomacy. And that basically, if I want to make a real influence on the future of the country and the planet, then actually being here, developing young people, head, hand and heart is where I should be.” [4:07] | “A great diplomat, it’s about the last 3 feet, as Edward Murray said. It's about that ability to really understand the person you're talking to, know what baggage they arrive in the room with, and to almost zoom out of a situation in a room and use that empathy to understand what's going on.” [6:32] | Modern-day trends, including the rise of distrust, which makes it harder to govern. [24:05] | Ten skills for the future, including taking control of your life and becoming an active participant in shaping the future. [27:03] | “And here, because of the way the power structures work, it's much more important to lead from behind. Much more of it is about setting the tone, the sense of the overall direction and letting then the strategy emerge, rather than trying to dictate some sort of top down.” [32:40] | “There is space for hope.” [37:35]

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2PagesMy great grandparents feel fictional to me. Sure, I’ve seen pictures and I know their names, but do I feel their touch and influence? No, not really. My grandparents, however, are four presences I definitely notice.What have you learnt from your ancestors? And how might they be present in you, today? Sarah Lewis is an art and cultural historian, author of The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery, founder of the Vision & Justice initiative, and a professor at Harvard. She’s much more than that, though, and as she reminds us, we are all more than our pedigrees. Get‌ ‌book‌ ‌links‌ ‌and‌ ‌resources‌ ‌at‌ https://www.mbs.works/2-pages-podcast/ Sarah reads two pages from the speech-turned-essay, ‘The Artist’s Struggle for Integrity’ by James Baldwin. [reading begins at 16:30]  Hear us discuss: “The narrative you construct about who you are, and who the world should be to accommodate you, is foundational for your life.” [8:50] | Success ≠ safety: “Your achievements don’t accompany you when you have to produce all over again.” [24:43] | Prioritizing projects and saying no to distractions. [26:50] | The diverse perspectives and approaches to tradition. [28:59] | Unlikely teachers: “I take lessons now from greater sources than I did in the past.” [33:21] | Filling the role of the elder as you age. [36:02] | “The seeming accident oftentimes never is.” [43:20] 

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2PagesThe idea at the heart of my book, How to Begin, is that we unlock our greatness by working on the hard stuff. Now, when I wrote the first draft of that book …and I shared it with friends, the feedback I got was it was confusing and a deeply underwhelming mess. And so when I picked myself up off the floor and I picked through the rubble to see if there's anything that could be rescued, the most precious thing was, in fact, that line, ‘We unlock our greatness by working on the hard stuff.’ But here's the rub. What that is saying is this: how will you disrupt what's comfortable for you now? How will you stir things up? How will you confuse and disappoint and anger some people around you? How will you make them and you nervous? …When you step up and you work on the hard stuff, you step forward into the unknown and to that ambiguity, you find something thrilling and important and daunting.I first came across Tony Stubblebine because, back in the day, he started Coach Me, an early habit tracker app. He turned that app into a successful coaching business, in part by becoming one of the most successful writers on Medium, a platform devoted to publishing, writing about human stories and ideas. When the founding CEO of Medium wanted to step down, Tony welcomed the opportunity to step into that role, and grow Medium and widen its impact. Get‌ ‌book‌ ‌links‌ ‌and‌ ‌resources‌ ‌at‌ https://www.mbs.works/2-pages-podcast/ Tony Stubblebine reads two pages from Once A Runner by John L. Parker, Jr. [reading begins at 21:41]Hear us discuss:The desire to create your own company. “A lot of entrepreneurs have a lack of trust. [A belief that] I cannot put my career in the hands of other people.” [7:00] | When you say yes to something, you’re saying no to other things. Tony talks about what that meant for him when he was called back to be the CEO of Medium. [10:00] | “People especially are like, well, we got to put a bunch of ideas out and let them compete, and the best ideas will win. I think what we found is the best ideas don't win and the loudest ideas, the most toxic ideas, often are the ones that are winning.” [15:00] | Endurance athletes can experience expending all of their mental and physical resources; going to and tipping right over the edge of what is possible by observing and accepting what is happening rather than negotiating whether or not they can do it. There are benefits to this type of focus for everyone, and mental conditioning such as meditation can help you achieve them. [24:55] | “People always want a quick fix, but the most reliable fix is a massive amount of work.” Tony shares how increased calm and mental awareness can help you use what you know more effectively, even when you’re under great pressure. [34:16] | When you look beyond habits you find identity and belief which have a greater influence on the choices that you make. [41:40] | What can change for you when you think about your life in terms of a cognitive budget, and reducing the number of opportunities you have to make choices that aren’t aligned with your identity. [50:35]

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2PagesIn today's fast-paced world, change is the only constant. Yet, how do we truly understand, manage, and channel the emotions that accompany transformations, both personal and organizational? Whether you're an individual seeking personal growth, or a leader aiming to steer an organization, understanding the emotional dimensions of change can be a game-changer. Dr. Hilary Jacobs Hendel is a prominent psychotherapist and author. Driven by her personal experiences with anxiety and depression, Hilary embarked on a journey into psychotherapy. Her profound insights into emotions, coupled with her unique approach to therapy, has been an eye-opener for many. Hilary ventures into her experiences and the pivotal role of Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) in her practice. Get‌ ‌book‌ ‌links‌ ‌and‌ ‌resources‌ ‌at‌ https://www.mbs.works/2-pages-podcast/ Hilary reads two pages from The Transforming Power of Affect: A Model for Accelerated Change by Diana Fosha. [reading begins at 17:38]Hear us discuss:The connection of body and mind: “I noticed the sensations of tension in my chest that told me that I was anxious, and I breathed, as I was instructed to do, and voila, the anxiety went down, not up.” [5:58] | The 7 “selfish” emotions and why you shouldn’t judge them: “You can't stop emotions from happening. All you can do is be aware when they happen and change your response to them.” [17:13] | Do our emotions weaken us, or make us stronger? [22:51] | What is the role of others in helping us hear the whisper of our emotions? [26:28] | “A basic education in emotions is the path to a more peaceful world.” [34”25] | How being in tune with your emotions brings out your authentic self: “Emotions are physical experience, they're there for a good reason, and if we avoid them, we really lose a connection to our authentic self and to others.” [41:46]