Let's talk Transformation : The business leaders podcast

"Wellbeing must be applied throughout the entire organisation and have equal weight across functions"A great discussion with Andy about understanding the strategic approach and integrating wellbeing into the strategic objectives and measurement of an organisation. The more digital load increases, the more visible and important the qualities that keep us human. We need patience and deliberate design, as well as personal agency as this is not a 'quick win', but yet leaders need to bust myths and role model behaviour that creates these conditions - for humans to thrive in the post pandemic workplace. Andy generously shares his stories, insight and experience fro his career to date and from working with leaders and organisation across the world.The main insights you'll get from this episode are : -       ‘C4human’ takes a strategic approach to human capacity and building and sustaining performance and is a single value chain underpinned by science, in which all factors are inextricably linked.-       It seeks to give wellbeing a seat at the top table along with other commercial metrics - if our wellbeing is under resourced, we lose the qualities of decision-making and self-awareness, both of which can impact business.-       Talented people still fail due to a lack of wellbeing and resource capacity to behave reasonably, make consistent decisions and act without bias. Wellbeing is an enabler rather than an obvious money-spinner, so it is hard for leaders to factor in.-       Messy human problems take time to resolve and commercial KPIs linked to wellbeing are long-term, low-penetration programmes with a low ROI – they should be seen as a sustainability metric, not an acute performance metric.-       Wellbeing must be applied throughout the entire organisation and have equal weight across functions. It is about individual agency and should not be mandated or disadvantaged by the wrong culture. ‘Millisecond lessons’ show the place of wellbeing within an organisation.-       The more digital load increases, the more visible and important the quality of the human; if wellbeing is compromised, our bias increases and we revert to type, stymying inclusive and synergetic behaviour.-       Mental health is a chronic issue, yet most information is targeted at those already struggling with acute symptoms. Mental energy would be a better label and have a less negative narrative, picking up problems before they become acute: prevention – optimisation - rather than cure.-       Good mental health affects the culture within an organisation and wellbeing should be integrated into daily operational and working practices with positive and authentic intent - humans sense, feel and experience everyday interactions.-       Sport involves dealing with intimidation, unfamiliarity and the psychology of experiencing changing situations. In the corporate world, negativity leads to recalcitrance, less inclusion and spikes of opinion, which will not yield innovation, open collaboration or performance.-       Sports psychology works because all team members understand it – does the same apply to the corporate world of comfort and threat? People are hyper-vigilant post-pandemic, and a lack of results often leads to impatience.-       The underlying biology informs what see in the workplace; we must increase understanding and education about wellbeing and the effects it can have and build comfort to allow senior leaders to see small but consistent progression in this space.-       Patience is required as there is no quick-fix; organisations must be able to visualise what the future would look like with enhanced wellbeing - what does success look like and what is the road map to get there?-       We must build elasticity - discomfort, tension, stretch and flex - within organisations. When stretched, wellbeing suffers. Endurance requires elasticity: how consistently can we flex and flex back? Justification of strain mode is a threat response.-       Post-Covid we have more capacity for strain; we know what is bad for us but change is difficult and we struggle to make changes that are incongruent with the way we feel and the environment in which we work.-       Leaders should role model switching off: wellbeing must start at organisational level, rather than individual level, as the message is easily undermined by behaviour on the ground. We must help each other to make positive changes.

Graham Boyd, author of "Rebuild, The Economy, Leadership and You," explores the vital role of inclusion in today’s ever-evolving business landscapes. He discusses how inclusion enhances connectivity within organizations and promotes ecosystem thinking. Graham emphasizes the need for adaptive structures and self-acceptance, urging businesses to allow individuals to evolve. The conversation dives into the complexities of team dynamics, the necessity of authentic inclusion, and innovative cultures, highlighting that solving problems is less about fixing and more about exploring mysteries.

An insightful and rich conversation with Linda about understanding and speaking out about psychological harassment and bullying in the workplace. How can we change the conversation in organisations ? How can we move away from normalising this to creating awareness and action ? We must self-monitor, and have self-insight, be aware and respectful of our environment and peoples’ sensitivities, and learn what the triggers are for both ourselves and others. This deepened understanding of ourselves coupled with further access to understanding the topic itself can create allies as opposed to bystanders. Linda shares her stories, experience and insights from working with bullies and victims of bullying in organisations and communities across the globe. The main insights you'll get from this episode are : -       Anyone can be bullied, and it is often only once they become physically and mentally ill that they see it for what it is and ask for help – it is unfortunately very normalised in our society and the metaverse adds yet a further dimension.-       Bullying - usually aimed at race, background, gender, religion – can be one-time or repeated whereas harassment is never one-time, but is more insidious, passive aggressive and often behind closed doors.-       They involve a variety of negative behaviours, words or non-verbal actions over three months or more aimed at a group or individual with conscious or unconscious intent that cause harm, i.e. humiliation, embarrassment, diminished self-esteem. -       People must understand what is and is not banter/appropriate; we must self-monitor, self-understand, have self-insight, be aware and respectful of our environment and peoples’ sensitivities, and learn what the triggers are for both ourselves and others. -       There are different types of bully - psychopath, narcissist, sociopath - who come across attractively until they are called out, but most people are not hard-wired to be bullies and can change their ways. -       Authoritarian leaders who abuse their power, are mean, rude, sarcastic and not accountable for their behaviour set the wrong tone - bullying comes from the top and contaminates the environment.-       There can be female bullies in a female-dominant environment and male bullies in a male-dominant environment but also cross-contamination e.g. a female trying to behave like a male, and sexual harassment can be perpetrated by and towards both genders.-       Everyone should be given trauma-informed training to build awareness and prevent further injury – using (crisis) intervention and special resources - with leaders acting as role models. The issue is often not taken seriously due to fear, insecurity, disinterest, arrogance and ignorance, but avoiding it can impact reputation.-       It is not just an HR issue and should be standardised and professionalised (via an official association) – we need strong legislation against bullying to hold leaders to account; policies and procedures for zero tolerance and consequences for bad behaviour. -       Witnesses are critical if harassment/bullying is behind closed doors, but they are often reticent to speak up because they have seen the process fail before, and the damage it causes. They need a support system to feel safe and should document everything for credibility in an investigation. -       A large proportion of burnout is due to psychological bullying and is often seen in hard-working, ethical, skilled and well-liked people; workaholics, overachievers or those defined by their work are also prone to bullying/burnout/greater devastation. -       We should check our own work-life balance using self-insight to ask if we are bullying ourselves; we need a tangible framework, must take explicit care of ourselves and outwardly demonstrate this to others.-       We must ask organisations about their policies on workplace harassment and violence, how they protect their employees and what the attitude of their leaders is – they can often come across well initially, but we can be easily fooled. -       We should know our own leadership style and aim to lead with emotional intelligence - dispel myths, assumptions and stereotypes; look at research; be informed and aware; know about the human experience; seek support; and introduce legislation to create change. 

"Digital technology is great, but digital profiles also need to include human science to enable sustainable innovation." A great discussion with Geoff where we explore a myriad of different subjects from self discovery, to digital profiles, rubiks cubes and the myths of modern agile for sustainable innovation. We discuss how to constantly question the orthodoxy, and hold different perspectives simultaneously to create a space for enquiry, listening and dialogue. This curiosity in turn encourages sense-making, decision taking and action but not necessarily in the layers of the organisation where we would expect to see it - understanding our role in the system is key. Geoff shares his stories, insights and experience of working with leaders and businesses across the globe The main insights you'll get from this episode are : -       Organisations must create cultures of innovation by making sustainable change and becoming proactively agile - COVID has in part forced a culture of innovation, agility and adaptiveness.-       (Digital) technology is very good and works well, but how do we get people to do the same?! Human science should be included in digital profiles: in the words of Ian McGilchrist, innovation requires science, reason, intuition and imagination.-       The key to success is to commercialise good ideas, see beyond things and question the orthodoxy; it is a big ask for people to constantly question their assumptions so it must be made tangible for organisations and leaders.-       No one ever sees the whole of any situation. In an organisation, someone with influence declares that their perspective is the only one to follow, but (this) power does not mean wisdom - ego pushes other people, and their views, away.-       Only eco-leadership can facilitate real co-creation but moving away from pyramids and into networks is intangible unless we really understand our roles within systems - English doesn’t have many words to describe subtle aspects of consciousness because we focus too much on the external world.-       Psychological safety is essential and to understand an organisation’s culture, we must ask the people who work there what they would advise to thrive. Behaviours based on fixed perspectives will stifle and strangle adaptiveness.-       The 2D/3D mindset system is based on looking at a culture of innovation like a Rubik’s cube – some see orange, some see green, some see yellow, etc. – and in the absence of colours, you look at different shapes instead, e.g. circle vs square vs triangle…-       The 2D/3D shape metaphor provides an easy way to understand a difficult psychological concept - different people provide different pieces of the puzzle when they work together, and it is not necessarily right vs wrong; humility is knowing that you don’t know everything.-       Climbing the greasy pole of an organisation boils down to brutal debate (meaning ‘to beat down’) and discussion (from percussion, meaning ‘to smash to pieces’) rather than dialogue, a spirit of enquiry and listening.-       Curiosity helps create a balance between advocacy and enquiry to produce meaning, and it is enquiry that is normally the missing piece of the jigsaw in organisations. We must encourage people to be curious.-       This begins with a sponsoring executive and a few naturally curious internal people - key instigators to bring alive a mindset and create a ripple effect; in-housing human capacity to influence is preferable to hiring help that hinders, which never leads to sustainable change.-       Agility is all about movement and building muscle, and habits take time to form. Joining forces internally (e.g. bringing marketing and R&D together) can produce results and change the culture by building muscles within the organisation.-       The release of human energy is liberating, proffering natural alignment and unlocking potential. It is all about human psychology – blame is often apportioned if something isn’t working, and project negativity arises through ignorance and by ‘othering’ people.-       Don’t bet the farm – stay curious to see if there is any truth in a different perspective but don’t give up your own. Listen to and hear others and develop, then strengthen, the muscle: play to your strengths so that your weaknesses become irrelevant.      You can find out more about Geoff here : www.geoffmarlow.com

Rahaf and I discuss hustle culture and why it is so harmful. We focus on the underlying belief systems of the "people" working in this culture because this isn't a new phenomenon - we were burning out before the pandemic, but COVID brought a rush to digitise and increased this 'scope creep' of "doing more with less", and presenteeism became digital (overload).We also discuss the big disconnect between what leaders want and what employees want, and how we can reprogram ourselves and reclaim intentional recovery as part of high performance. Neuroscience proves that our brains are not wired for permanent high cognitive/knowledge work and have a limited amount of time in ‘flow’. We now have powerful data to highlight opportunities for change and companies must look at their culture and ways of working, and how they use technology to enable a more human experience.  Rahaf shares her insights, experience and research from working with leaders and businesses around the globe.The main insights you'll get from this episode are :  Hustle culture: a set of beliefs/behaviours developed to prioritise being busy, glorifying and celebrating the process/effort of working hard rather than the end goal or result. Invisible - historical – forces stem from non-stop productivity due to the industrial revolution and its modern incarnation of the ‘American dream’ ideology.We do not look at effectiveness/efficiency; our systems seek solutions, but system users must ask fundamental questions; our expectations are flawed, and we try to ‘fix’ the system. The pandemic brought a rush to digitise and presenteeism became digital (overload); it amplified everything and highlighted different company cultures - companies that didn’t trust their employees used tech to control their staff instead of giving them flexibility.There is a resistance to moving away from hustle culture; we operate around assumptions of what success is and our internal operating systems are based on what we have been told. Our individual programming varies but we don’t stop to examine the narratives and can therefore inadvertently harm ourselves - we must make intentional choices and understand our own stories and beliefs surrounding success.To set ourselves up for success we must recharge and reset; we are addicted to our devices and live in a culture where everything is urgent and we must be constantly responsive. Teams should agree digital norms to provide safety and security; clarity reduces the need to be constantly connected and we put in place collective boundaries and commitment.Hybrid working models require these norms to ensure happy teams; communication is essential to understand peoples’ preferences to improve morale and performance and use tech to make the right decisions for people and create a more inclusive workplace.We must reprogram ourselves and reclaim intentional recovery as part of high performance; companies must look at policies and the use of technology. Neuroscience proves that our brains are not wired for permanent high cognitive/knowledge work and have a limited amount of time in ‘flow’. The high-performance cycle consists of ramp up, flow, ramp down, intentional recovery.-       The four stages of the cycle are the same for everybody but the times in each stage vary so that working days should ideally be structured differently for different individuals.National cultures determine work stories and these in turn affect our brains; executive functions diminish if we rely on fight or flight and compromised human functional capacities lead to burnout.The polarity of the pandemic was that we needed to connect but couldn’t - now we need time to regulate our nervous systems and listen to the signals our bodies are sending us to avoid long-term damage such as inflammation, heart attacks and anxiety.Productivity is not the point; surely it should be to live an enjoyable and meaningful life and make consistent progress on important things; as multi-hyphenates, we have a responsibility to put the right things in place and learn about ourselves. Post-pandemic there is powerful data for change, such as a more productive 4-day week. We should aim to live our best lives and deliberately choose our beliefs.

"A lack of acknowledgement leads to people feeling under-appreciated and gives rise to hidden resentment, internalising suffering and has a huge impact at a human level”Kylee and I dive into the power of storytelling, and more compassionate authentic leadership. Storytelling brings about transformation and offers the biggest breakthroughs, allowing people to discover their potential and develop organically, regardless of job title. So much goes unseen and unrecognised in today's workplace, and suffering is internalised and continues - silently. The power of acknowledging the different patterns and reactions can lead to different, and more transformative leadership for both individuals and collectively. Kylee shares her stories, insights and experience form working with leaders and business owners around the world. The main insights you'll get from this episode are : -       It is time to disrupt the status quo of traditional leadership - a hierarchical system offers many roles at the bottom but few at the top, where there is little space to act and lead.-       Storytelling brings about transformation and offers the biggest breakthroughs, allowing people to discover their potential and develop organically, regardless of job title.-       It should not be about a set direction or ultimate goal, but rather the journey itself, to pursue passions, vision, values and purpose in order to be more productive and authentic.-       Coaching others helps us on our own journey of where to position ourselves and recognising what our priorities are. Others demonstrating what to do makes us ask ourselves what we want, e.g. the opportunity to make a real difference.  -       Clarity on values requires us to look back on our own lives and ask what we fight for or against - the indicators of our core values - but focus tends to be on company as opposed to personal values.-       We often feel a disconnect between our work self and home self; many of us stay in a place of fear for our entire career, climbing a vertical ladder - the turning point is to acknowledge that fear.-       We must use acknowledgement as a lever, the first step to dismantling a lack of freedom – to acknowledge and be truthful to ourselves about what is really going on, i.e. are we showing up but not being authentic?-       We must make changes inside to bring about changes outside - the challenge for leaders is how to make the difference: they are blamed when things go badly yet miss out on acknowledgement and praise when things go well as it is directed at their team.-       It is not a leader’s job to make others happy or give answers; they can be good at talking and advising, but not so good at listening (to help employees make discoveries for themselves).-       A coach is a good reference point for leaders by providing feedback as opposed to answers; stepping back, allowing others to come forward and making them feel safe.-       A lack of acknowledgement leads to people feeling underappreciated and gives rise to hidden resentment, internalising suffering and having a huge impact at a human level.-       Acknowledgement is an ongoing practice that requires a change in habits; power comes from our own acknowledgement of what is happening in our lives and what we want to be acknowledged for.     -       There is no difference between men and women on this point despite the common assumption that women need acknowledgement more (in the workplace) – all humans have the same basic psychological needs.-       We must break our own (unconscious) bias and look at practices for ourselves before we can help others - great leaders are people that others want to be around by showing up for themselves in the best way possible.-       We need compassionate leadership that empathises with mental health, (inter-generational) trauma, self-criticism, etc. A community must thrive for people to be happy, and everything we do for ourselves has a ripple effect for those around us - we are wired for connection.  

"Just having data in your systems is not enough -its about how you intentionally make use of it." Sam & I have a great conversation about understanding data and navigating complexity in today's organisations. We look at the non-negotiables for leaders in a data driven world as well as the different skills that this requires. We also delve into what that means for organisational culture as we strive to build a more inclusive and collaborative workplace. Sam shares his thoughts and experience from working with organisations big and small on data and equipping organisations for more data driven ways of working. The main insights you'll get from this episode are : The role of data in organisations today is to provide visibility to facilitate informed/evidence-based decisions, i.e. data-driven decisions, by delivering the right data to the right person in the right context at the right time. This encompasses the entire organisation - HR, product development, operations, strategy – and provides new insights to bring about change at a strategic/operational level, which is now financially possible thanks to cheaper data storage and technology deskilling.Decision-making of old based on gut feelings, spreadsheets and personal experience was manual, inefficient and subject to human error. Now it can be delegated in trust-based organisations to allow those closest to the products, for example, to make decisions. Complexity is the change required in an organisation to relinquish control over the decision-making process. The three non-negotiables for this are:Data savvy leaders with a true understanding of what a data-driven decision is and is not. Many decisions tend to be ‘pseudo’ data-driven, i.e. made before evidence is found to back them up.A strong data foundation in the form of visualisation, algorithms, AI, machine learning, which in turn require good downstream data quality, collection, governance and engineering – good data is always better than good algorithms.A strong data culture beyond the data (science) team with curiosity at its core: investigating events, collecting information, integrating it, building a virtuous cycle, empowering employees to take action based on what they see.The biggest challenge for leaders is around the core technical skills of data and digital. The single profile of data scientist/engineer has been replaced with many different ones as a result of progression and specialisation.Deploying tech skills is a moving target as they develop and change all the time. Traditional classroom training is too slow, too late, too expensive and not scalable whereas online training is responsive, scalable and agile, but has lower retention and pass rates. A data-driven environment is by nature very inclusive but using data to become more inclusive can be problematic as data is biased by nature and algorithms are not robust enough to make ‘new’ decisions (because they are based on a pre-existing dataset). Data is a shadow of events that have happened, or a culture that existed, but should not be used for targets; metrics are the output of a culture and data points should be used for insight/audit purposes only, not input.Leaders must get to grips with AI and algorithms, move past the hype cycle and understand the true value of data by getting involved in their organisation’s data projects and learning from current examples.

“we need to bring a new set of assumptions to our field of work” Joan and I delve into the world of organisational ecology and reframing the hybrid workplace . Whilst some of the systemic assumptions have been around for some time, we haven’t really used them in organisations. How can we work in complexity and notice and influence the patterns and relationships within a system ? We discuss looking at systems through a new lens, being more humanistic, and embedding a sense of how do we improve the system and relational aspects of the system - listening more intently to what is happening at every level. The reductionist paradigm of 'fixing' systems or people leads to a world of opportunities for reinventing & rewiring the human systems of an organisation. Joan shares her research, experience and insights from using her methodology to work with businesses and leaders across the globe. to reinvent and reframe organisational systemsThe main insights you'll get from this episode are : -       Organisational ecology: how organisations come together in a market sense, looking at internal and external engagement to view the whole. There are 2 dominant paradigms:·      Technical: improving or ’fixing’ organisations based on process improvement, restructuring, well-known models, etc. and·      Psychological: focussing on the people in organisations, on their strengths and weaknesses, personalities, changing/creating awareness.-       The ‘fixing’ paradigm is reductionist – we must understand how organisations function and cultures develop, and use new language to frame it and disrupt the field using organisational psychology and a humanistic approach to system/relational aspects.-       The new role of organisational ecologists in a shift towards ‘collective’ will close the intention/action gap between collective and individual and reframe the role of leaders and HR to focus on seeing systemic patterns and diagnose shortcomings.-       A change in a system/organisation/behaviour requires a change to a person’s role in the system - we must encourage different roles and think of organisations as networks of roles and role relations that have become embedded in patterns that we need to make sense of.-       Organisational ecology deals with the relations in and between ecosystems. We need to focus more on the system with a ‘me and the system’, not a ‘me in the system’ approach.-       Many organisations favour this new (reframed) approach of observing the system: systems thinking, systems dynamics/psychodynamics and human systems. Systems develop ‘muscle memory’ that must be countered by meeting the system where it is.-       The Orgonomix analogy of ‘trying on a new pair of glasses’ to see things differently and experiment is an adaptive toolkit, an invitation to practice and start small.-       Leaders are used to being sold solutions (best practice) by consultants and relations between consultants and leaders must be repatterned: how can consultants know how the system works? The aim should be to jointly discover the systemic constraints.-       Leaders have always been expected to ‘fix’ things based on ‘don’t bring me the problem, bring me the solution’, but good leaders should empower people and opt for the better mantra of ‘don’t bring me problems, bring me ideas’.-       This new type of system leadership requires a different skill set: managing the system, creating space for the system to become visible, teaching how to see and diagnose systems (generate hypotheses), with leaders including themselves in the system.-       Busy leaders often don’t want to take the time to ‘listen to’ the system, which requires curiosity and a willingness to try something new. Anecdotal evidence from others can encourage leaders who are disheartened after other unsuccessful ‘transformation projects’.-       Hybrid working post-COVID is a great opportunity to do things differently. This could be allowing each sub-system to decide what is best for them - an adaptive way to build empathy, give ownership to the sub-system level and make it more contextual/relational.-       We must learn to ask questions of others on a human level and strive for relational and contextual intelligence to capitalise on this exciting opportunity to build organisational empathy and design intentionally for inclusion.-       In complexity, such work is liberating, achieves commercial results and changes interpersonal relationships within the organisation. Looking beyond or inserting and holding boundaries is important.-       HR should be a system disruptor, not a reactive service provider that maintains the system status quo. We must reframe our mental maps and shift the network of roles and meaning-making to get buy-in from top management and create space for reorganisation.

“When reaching your limits, its only there where you’ll catch a glimpse of your true potential”Luke shares his story and experience of overcoming obstacles, and chasing extremes. We discuss resilience and performance management, and how to translate his learnings into actionable and simple tools for management . We particularly look at self talk and how we can use it to improve our performance - consciously choosing the conversations you're having with yourself. For organisations to create space for a ‘reset’ they must look at their performance from a humanistic standpoint and leaders must normalise the conversation around mental health. Lots of corporate cultures will be questioned post-pandemic, and people must have the chance to grow, and embrace change in this changing workplace dynamic. Luke shares with us his insights, and learnings that he has operationalised into everyday tools, looking at how we can build resilience and have genuinely vulnerable and courageous conversations with ourselves. The main insights you'll get from this episode are : -       Being driven, curious and hard-working from a young age led to a career in professional sport travelling the world, but this took its toll on his mental and physical health, and he embarked on a new career as an adventurer, writer, documentary-maker and speaker.-       He was often asked how he pushes himself physically and mentally and how he views the world. To share his knowledge, he translated it into tools that can be used across the board to help people overcome obstacles and adapt to setbacks.-       Self-talk can help improve performance yet lots of people don’t admit to or realise they are doing it; it is good to talk out loud and consciously choose the conversation you have with yourself rather than let thoughts dictate the conversation you’re having.-       It is still perceived as weakness to ‘talk to yourself’ or talk at all, yet vulnerability is a superpower that no one can take from you. If we are positive with the truth and answer questions honestly, we eventually become more comfortable sharing our vulnerability.-       It is simple and effective but requires training and daily practice. As we become better at speaking (up), this skill can be applied anywhere in life.-       Sportspeople grow in their career because they are always practising different techniques. In an organisational setting, ‘corporate athletes‘ too must train their minds for physical performance and learn to pivot quickly.-       This requires companies to invest time and money in a cultural evolution to allow people to grow and develop resilience - many corporate performance management systems are outdated and based on wanting results too quickly.-       Mindset is about how we view, think and act on a daily basis. In organisations there is often lots of box-ticking but not much out-of-the-box doing; whilst they like the idea of change, they are resistant to it in practice because it is hard.-       In terms of performance mindset, we are all high performers, it just depends if we act on it. Everything is relative and an improvement is a high performance for the individual. We must consciously acknowledge the scenarios we face and apply tools to them. -       Post-pandemic, many are waiting for things to ‘return’ to pre-pandemic normal, but we have come too far to go back completely: we must let the dust settle and reassess; look forward and define what is important to us, take the opportunity to reset.-       For organisations to create space for a ‘reset’ they must look at their performance from a humanistic standpoint. Lots of corporate cultures will be questioned post-pandemic; people must have the chance to grow and embrace change - COVID has changed us all.-       Every ultra-endurance challenge is transformational and an opportunity to learn about himself. The biggest shift came from being physically and mentally broken after a challenge and realising that it didn’t ‘fix’ him. This forced him to stop and ask: what is important? what do I want to achieve? what am I waiting for? The time is now. No permission or justification is required.-       Leaders must normalise conversation around mental health. This requires education, mental health first aid training, and reassessment of what performance means - both personal and professional mindsets require authenticity and resilience.

“Through proactive decision-making, we can turn unplanned moments into positive outcomes and cultivate serendipity”Is innovation the result of genius, and intentional design or rather the result of randomness, luck and being in the right place at the right time ?  Is inclusion and connecting people a random and unpredictable activity ? We have all experienced first-hand during the pandemic that life is full of chance encounters and serendipity and Christian and I have a fun and insightful conversation on #connectingthedots differently. We talk about what this process could mean for innovation and business success, as well as for the human systems of an organisation. Framing uncertainty and unpredictability as an advantage is clearly at opposites with what we have learnt in existing binary and linear learning & leadership models, yet this hold the key to enabling the process of serendipity, reframing our attention, our intention and our courage and equipping leaders for the future. Christian shares his research, experience, insights and evocative stories of connecting the dots in life, business and society. The main insights you'll get from this episode are : - We have all experienced first-hand during the pandemic that life is full of chance encounters and serendipity. The most inspiring and purpose-driven people cultivate this serendipity and intuitively see opportunity in the unexpected.-  It is turning this paradigm on its head that is so effective: we have to see and seize chance occurrences - they imbue meaning into unexpected events and often produce very positive outcomes.-  Being lucky should be seen as an art and skill - the art of connection – and the mindset of feeling lucky may well make us lucky. But is there a science-based framework for this process? When innovators and inventors create, they spot and connect dots, and we can all learn how to create more dots.-  So is this a skill or a mindset? Small behavioural shifts accelerate things, for example, the hook strategy to build relevant talking points into conversations to give others the inspiration or opportunity to find coincidences.-  Leaders particularly often feel the need to prove that they are in control but the best way to build confidence is to give an approximate strategy and invite ideas of how to implement it – this legitimises the unexpected, and there is no threat to the authority of ideas. But the culture has to be strong enough to enable people to speak up and invest.-  Old-school leadership with a rigid strategy does not allow for the unexpected and then change is seen as failure because the revision of a timeline makes a leader look weak. Informed leadership sets an ultimate goal with an approximate timeline that is adjusted to new information - learning builds trust for a leader and makes them look stronger.-  Constraints for a serendipity mindset in a fast-paced delivery environment include self-limiting beliefs, bias and a fear of rejection and judgement; keeping a serendipity journal to document potential opportunities is a useful tool here as we consistently underestimate how likely the unexpected is, yet if we expect it, we will see it.-  The collective memory of an organisation is critical: it has an idea of what is right or wrong but is often too entrenched or blinkered. Organisations should not brand themselves too narrowly but branch out - a flow of knowledge opens up new opportunities.-       Multiple smaller ecosystems are better than non-reactive behemoths; microenterprises within a bigger company become investable entities and turn the company into more of a market, with employees able to fully invest in it and take responsibility.-  We must exercise our serendipity muscles by seeing dots and cultivating a deliberately developmental practice. Less planning is advisable as real life isn’t predictable – this in turn increases trust, productivity and innovativeness, and provides a vocabulary for discussion.-    Recommendations to leaders and organisations:1.    Legitimise serendipity – tell personal stories and share a vision/sense of direction2.    Integrate it into the organisation – incentivise and invest in new ideas3.    Do the individual work – look at what is holding you back, overcome bias and reframe -  Serendipity is performative and about authenticity – we should look to develop an environment of trust by sharing and asking questions of each other: What do you like? What do you find interesting? This can lead to vulnerable and deeper conversations.-  This analytical research is made mainstream and relatable; by scaling it up and pursuing co-creation, it can help everyone live a more purposeful and successful life.