Human Current

Why are all of our biggest global problems caused by reductionist thinking habits? How does the environment and sustainability influence global security? In this episode, Angie interviews global security thought leader, keynote speaker, and founder and CEO of BlindSpot Think Tank, James Greyson. James discusses his unique approach to solving intractable problems, which he calls “blindspotting”. He also shares the details of his research paper for NATO titled Seven Policy Switches for Global Security. 

In the spirit of Earth Day approaching, Angie and Haley discuss the importance of being environmentally consciousness. They also share clips from past guests, Laurie Marshall, Chris Ling, and James Greyson, who responded to a quote by environmental activist, Annie Leonard. Her quote states: “The assumptions that ‘pollution is the price of progress’ or that ‘we must choose between jobs and the environment’ have long limited our creative thinking about innovative solutions that can be good for the environment, the workers, and a healthy economy.”

In this episode, Angie interviews the Director of the School of Environment and Sustainability at Royal Roads University, Professor Chris Ling. Chris shares his experiences with sustainable community planning throughout his career, including some fascinating research he conducted on the scalability of farmer’s markets. Chris also explains the importance of implementing solutions which are “based on the local socio-ecological reality”.  

In this episode, Haley interviews author, public speaker, and education transformer, Laurie Marshall. Laurie discusses her passion for empowering youth through creative collaboration and introduces her new book, Beating the Odds Now, which she describes as “a love letter for teachers” to help them feel inspiration and joy in their work. Laurie also shares the importance of looking to nature as a tool for learning and a way for each individual to discover their inner genius. Learn more at www.Laurie-Marshall.com. The cover image for this episode is titled “Fig Singing Tree of the Child”.

In this episode, Haley interviews professor, complexity scientist, and founding president of the New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI), Yaneer Bar-Yam. Yaneer talks about how we can understand complex systems science by applying it across all of the systems we interact with in our society today. He also explains the importance of flatter, team-oriented organizations when dealing with complexity because, he says, today’s hierarchical organizations are limited by “what one individual can do and individuals have a limited degree of complexity that they can cope with". Also, in this episode, Angie and Stacy Hale discuss how the role of leadership is changing in the face of more and more complex problems. They also talk about Stacy’s experience as a student at NECSI.

In this episode, Angie interviews innovator, silicon valley veteran, and VP of Marketing at iCharts, Rico Andrade. Rico discusses the importance of a leader’s role in empowering teams and creating the right environment and conditions for them to interact and make real-time decisions. He also explains that because the world is more complex and data-driven it is becoming more important than ever for leaders to release some control and allow for emergent insights to play a role in guiding business decisions. Rico claims that using “data as a team member” is a powerful way for leaders to design employee collaboration and problem-solving.

In this episode, Haley interviews entrepreneur, teacher and visionary, Paolo Gaudiano, who applies complexity thinking to all aspects of his work and life. He is the President and Chief Technology Officer at Icosystem, which is an inspirational organization that combines expertise in human behavior & decision-making with simulation and optimization techniques inspired by complexity science and biology to build predictive analytics solutions. Paolo is also a professor at CCNY and a Forbes contributing author of a blog called, The Complexity of Diversity.

In this episode, Angie interviews consultant, blogger, and systems thinker, Scott Jancy. Reflecting on his background in architecture, Scott discusses why he believes design and leadership are synonymous. He explains how leaders can successfully utilize systems thinking for problem solving, stating that “solutions often emerge on their own with a little coaxing". Scott also emphasizes the importance of leadership vision while approaching complex problems. Check out his leadership blog at www.scottjancy.com

In this episode, Angie and Haley welcome the new year and get excited about their upcoming series on the complexity of leadership. They also introduce upcoming guests, Scott Jancy and Paolo Gaudiano, and share their responses to the question: “how did you become interested in complexity?”

In this episode, Angie and Haley share clips from past interviews about the power of human networks. They also reminisce about what they have learned in 2016 and share their excitement about upcoming guests and topics to come in the new year. Happy holidays from the HumanCurrent Complexity Podcast!