
The Salience Podcast
Salience is the state, quality or signal that stands out. It's the difference that makes the difference. Each fortnight in The Salience Podcast, we uncover patterns of sensemaking, thinking and acting from the frontiers of human performance, science and art to provide new and improved ways of acting in complex and uncertain times.
Latest episodes

Oct 6, 2023 • 50min
Season 3 Episode 2: Brady Turnage
On this episode of the salience podcast, we explore feedforward. A form of preemptive scenario testing and preparation to avoid events going wrong and to develop systemic resilience ahead of events going wrong. In a return to learning from military leadership, I am joined by retired Navy Commander, Brady Turnage. Brady had a 20-year aviation career that culminated as the Commanding Officer of a carrier-based jet squadron.Currently, Brady is an instructor at ‘The Program’ - a US veteran leadership development and team building company and he is a high school head lacrosse coach. Join us as we explore feedforward loops through the lens of military planning and lacrosse.For more information about The Salience Podcast and Frontline Mind please visit our website at https://www.frontlinemind.com/the-salience-podcast/ You can also sign up for our newsletter here https://frontlinemind.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=ff181d12c77d7cea5f19a2c48&id=fd7357f614

Sep 22, 2023 • 1h 1min
Season 3 Episode 1: Murray Hopkins
Today, on The Salience Podcast we begin Season 3 with an in depth exploration of feedback and feedforward.Feedback is the flow of information about past events. It is the opportunity to review and learn from decisions and actions.Feedforward is the anticipatory preparation for future events, it is the opportunity to orient ahead of time and to test assumptions and biases through observations in real-time as situations unfold. Our guest today is Murray Hopkins. Murray has over 35 years experience as a facilitator and coach in leadership development Working with individuals, teams and organisations through his business Curiosity Skilled the Cat.Today we will focus on personal feedback into feedforward and what many people regard as ‘difficult conversations’. We prefer to reframe such conversations to “coaching with curiosity”.For more information about The Salience Podcast and Frontline Mind please visit our website at https://www.frontlinemind.com/the-salience-podcast/ You can also sign up for our newsletter here https://frontlinemind.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=ff181d12c77d7cea5f19a2c48&id=fd7357f614

Sep 5, 2023 • 49min
Episode 14: Annie Duke
On this episode of The Salience Podcast, we conclude Season 2 with a deep dive into quitting. Our guest today is Annie Duke. Annie is a former world champion poker player and the best-selling author of Thinking in Bets, How to Decide, and her most recent book, Quit, the Power to Know When to Walk Away. Tune in as we discuss managing exit risk from sticky or downright deadly situations when attempts to Quit could have major or even fatal consequences. These are the sorts of choices that frontline workers often have to make, it’s the challenge of quitting crappy jobs or a bullying boss when we might have to accept a reduced salary and less favorable lifestyle, and it’s the daily reality of people, mostly women, who live in abusive relationships.For more information about The Salience Podcast and Frontline Mind please visit our website at https://www.frontlinemind.com/the-salience-podcast/ You can also sign up for our newsletter here https://frontlinemind.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=ff181d12c77d7cea5f19a2c48&id=fd7357f614

Jul 12, 2023 • 42min
Episode 13: Niven Postma
In today’s episode of The Salience Podcast, we explore more of the tough topics of surviving workplaces with a deep dive into office politics. Our guest is bestselling author Niven Postma. Niven is an expert in organisational politics and the author of “If you don’t do politics, politics will do you – A guide to navigating office politics ethically and successfully”.She is a visiting lecturer at Henley Business School and a Harvard Business Review Contributor, and has had a wide and varied executive career across multiple organisations and sectors.In today’s conversation, Niven draws on her experiences and offers some practical tips for dealing with office politics.For more information about The Salience Podcast and Frontline Mind please visit our website at https://www.frontlinemind.com/the-salience-podcast/ You can also sign up for our newsletter here https://frontlinemind.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=ff181d12c77d7cea5f19a2c48&id=fd7357f614

Jun 26, 2023 • 50min
Episode 12: Drew Hardesty
In this episode of The Salience Podcast we explore risk and culture and consider what we can all learn from the avalanche forecast industry..Our guest today is Drew Hardesty. Drew has over 20 years experience as a backcountry avalanche forecaster at the Utah Avalanche Center, and 15 years experience as a Climbing Ranger in Grand Teton National Park. Drew is widely regarded as a thought leader in the industry and his philosophical musings in his newsletter Life, Not After Death, But Before are relevant to anyone who is interested in culture, risk and living life to the fullest.For more information about The Salience Podcast and Frontline Mind please visit our website at https://www.frontlinemind.com/the-salience-podcast/ You can also sign up for our newsletter here https://frontlinemind.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=ff181d12c77d7cea5f19a2c48&id=fd7357f614

May 31, 2023 • 58min
Episode 11: Nurul Huda Rashid
In this episode, we discuss Culture Studies as a topic. We speak with researcher and visual artist, Nurul Huda Rashid who is currently pursuing her PhD in Cultural Studies in Asia at the National University of Singapore.Nurul’s research explores the role of algorithms in the study of Muslim women images. Her current project, Women in War, is a survey of images of women in war, critiqued through lenses of gender and violence, politics of the visual, and the roles of the algorithm and archive as methods. So we will be getting a double feature on this episode as we also venture into the burgeoning space of Generative AI. Nurul analyses how images of culture are produced, consumed and made through aspects of image reproduction, automation, computerisation, annotation, and articulationWe will discuss how culture, technology and AI can be understood together. We will get into juicy questions like “Does AI have a culture?“, and “How can we build more ethical AI?“.For more information about The Salience Podcast and Frontline Mind please visit our website at https://www.frontlinemind.com/the-salience-podcast/ You can also sign up for our newsletter here https://frontlinemind.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=ff181d12c77d7cea5f19a2c48&id=fd7357f614

May 18, 2023 • 38min
Episode 10: Nina Bressler
On This episode of the Salience Podcast, we explore the relationships between culture and change and the importance of curiosity. We speak with our good friend Nina Bressler, Global Head of Societal Learning at Novartis. Nina leads an aspirational program to help Novartis achieve their vision of Reimagining Medicine. Nina’s focus is to deliver sustainable learning outside the company, by supporting key partners and networks to build skills that strengthen the healthcare system and improve health outcomes. At the heart of her work is a purpose to help people thrive. She believes that curiosity unleashes people, teams, organisations, and their potential. Nina has honed her ability to navigate complexity through leading transformation. She evolved her focus from processes to people, from systems to culture, and from solving for the complicated through controls to being comfortable with the ambiguity of complexity, and even thriving in emergent and transformative environments that challenge her creativity and call upon her to bring her most innovative self to the solution.For more information about The Salience Podcast and Frontline Mind please visit our website at https://www.frontlinemind.com/the-salience-podcast/ You can also sign up for our newsletter here https://frontlinemind.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=ff181d12c77d7cea5f19a2c48&id=fd7357f614

May 4, 2023 • 36min
Episode 9: Allan Ball
In this episode of The Salience Podcast we explore the impact of culture on domestic and family violence, and what men can do to change culture. In Australia, around 1 in 3 women and 1 in 10 men have experienced physical and/or sexual violence, and a woman is murdered by her partner or former partner roughly every week. These sobering statistics are not unique to Australia. Gender-based violence is a global problem. It’s a problem that mainly affects women and LGBTIQ+ communities. Whilst men are sometimes victims, the solution has to come from a culture change led by men. To that end, my guest today is Allan Ball. Allan is a Director of White Ribbon. White Ribbon Australia is part of a global social movement working to eliminate gendered violence. Allan has previously worked for the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), and before that, he worked as a mental health clinician in forensic Child and Adolescent Health Services, Local Government and in Not-For-Profit organisations.Over the last decade, Allan has gained invaluable experience in frontline service delivery to assist women and children experiencing domestic and family violence. For more information about The Salience Podcast and Frontline Mind please visit our website at https://www.frontlinemind.com/the-salience-podcast/ You can also sign up for our newsletter here https://frontlinemind.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=ff181d12c77d7cea5f19a2c48&id=fd7357f614

Apr 19, 2023 • 52min
Episode 8: David Lee
On this episode, we speak to David Lee, a global change and business transformation executive and advisor with over 25 years of experience in leading change in organisations ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 to the public sector. He is currently a managing consultant and lead trainer at Prosci Singapore, a leading provider of expertise and capacity building in change management. David has engaged in organisational change as an executive sponsor, adviser, and instructor for a wide range of organisations including American Express, the Development Bank of Singapore, Chanel, Techcombank and Aboitiz Equity Ventures among others.David started his career in the travel industry - an industry that has gone through multiple value chain and technological disruptions, and has led several transformative responses. We discuss culture, leadership and change management.For more information about The Salience Podcast and Frontline Mind please visit our website at https://www.frontlinemind.com/the-salience-podcast/ You can also sign up for our newsletter here https://frontlinemind.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=ff181d12c77d7cea5f19a2c48&id=fd7357f614

Feb 15, 2023 • 57min
Episode 7: Riva Greenberg
Today on the Salience Podcast, We discuss the issues with industrialised healthcare’s culture of control, and how we can move from a more pathogenic culture of seeking to “control” chronic diseases, to one that recognises the variability of patient lives, and encourages salutogenesis - or, the sense of coherence that patients can seek by cultivating their ability to understand their own condition, manage and respond appropriately, and to also create meaning around their experience.Our guest is Riva Greenberg. Riva is an internationally recognised diabetes educator who provides education and advocacy on living with Type 1 diabetes. In 2015, she was awarded a distinguished lecture award from the International Diabetes Federation, and she continues to speak at the federation’s annual conference on her “Flourishing approach to diabetes”. She has written three books and contributes to the HuffPost on the topic, and is committed to helping others live an exceptional life, not despite having diabetes but because of it.As of 2022, she has lived with Type 1 Diabetes for 50 years and has just received her Joslin award. She continues to act as an influencer and Ambassador for Type 1, and advises industry, healthcare professionals and patients. For more information about The Salience Podcast and Frontline Mind please visit our website at https://www.frontlinemind.com/the-salience-podcast/ You can also sign up for our newsletter here https://frontlinemind.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=ff181d12c77d7cea5f19a2c48&id=fd7357f614