Not Simple

“There’s something very powerful about the fact that we see ourselves in stories.” Ann Kowal Smith, CEO of Books@Work, returned to discuss Franz Kafka’s very short story “Poseidon” with Wendy and a few colleagues. Together they discover the leadership lessons and complexities within what is, at first glance, a quite simple story.

“There’s one race, the human race. There are cultural groups. There are differences in skin tones and facial features and body features, but these don’t dictate who we are.” Amiel Handelsman is an executive coach and writer, as well as a semi-retired podcaster. He joined Wendy to discuss the many ways we oversimplify racial identity in America. 

You can learn more about Amiel and his work on his website.

“This could be the year that Americans find out that their simple assumption that we do elections well or right will be forever destroyed.” Jerry Mayer is a professor of Political Science at George Mason University and a self-proclaimed obsessive about all things election-related. He joined Wendy ten days before Election Day in the US to discuss everything from the Electoral College to the overlooked implications of high voter turnout.

“The reality is that friendships are infinitely messier and nastier and deeper in all sorts of ways good and bad than just two people who like each other and get along and are nice to each other.” Susan MacDougall, an anthropologist at Cambridge University, joins Wendy to discuss the complexities of friendship, its history, how it has changed in Covid times, and how its rules vary across cultures.

"We’re also focused on your students’ needs, their emotional needs and well being first, before we teach them algebra and physical science." On the eve of a new school year, elementary and middle school principal Aletha Snowberger talks to Wendy about reopening school in a pandemic. From the logistics of getting kindergarteners to the correct classrooms when parents aren’t allowed in the building to teachers learning how to engage online with new students, complexities abound.

"Getting stuff done peacefully is what most people want most of the time, and so the challenge isn’t to get them to do it but to remove the obstacles to them doing so." Adam Kahane, a Director of Reos Partners and author of several books, including Collaborating with the Enemy, joins Wendy to discuss the complexity of collaboration.

“I want the doing and the learning to happen simultaneously. I don’t want you to say ‘I don’t know enough and therefore I can’t do anything.’” Wendy Moomaw, an executive coach and founder of the Conscious Collaboratory, and our host begin their conversation exploring our experience in the collective as the world changes around us and end up discussing what it takes for us as individuals to fight racism. Collective and individual, dominant and non-dominant, internal and external—polarities abound in this not simple discussion.

“What Books@Work has helped his team to do is separate the person from the idea.” Ann Kowal Smith is the Founder and Executive Director of Books@Work. She talks to Wendy about how using the lens of narrative fiction and non-fiction can supercharge collaboration and inclusion in the workplace.

“People in poverty, people with addiction problems … there are assumptions that those people actually don’t care for themselves and don’t care for their life or their health.” Stephanie Marrs is a nurse practitioner with a passion for public health. She joins Wendy to discuss how we oversimplify the choices people make about their health, which actually may not be choices at all.

“[It’s] like the elephant has been named. And it’s been claimed. And now we can do something with the elephant.” Wendy is joined by her Cultivating Leadership colleague Akasha, whose work focuses on engaging across difference, to talk about race in America and the Caribbean--and the ways we do and don’t talk about it.