Transformation From The Trenches DAVID MCTHOMAS

Welcome to Transformation from the Trenches.

In this episode, David and Kwasi speak to Richard James, the Ways of Working Enablement Leader at Nationwide Building Society.

Curiosity and Bravery are 2 of the enablers he steps into for his leadership stance and how curiosity can be infectious.

We had a great conversation around these topics below as the highlights of this episode;

Highlights and Take-Aways:
- Showing up as a leader
- Enablers for being the leader
- Bravery and how to support teams to show up Brave.
- Finding the balance between Inflicting vs Inviting
- Organisational social constructs and the behaviours they create
- Humanising our organisations
- Adaptive leadership

Hope you enjoy this episode and the conversation we had with Richard, and that you look out to the follow-up conversation.

Let us hear your thoughts.

Hi All,

We are back!! 

It's been a while and just like many of you Covid swept in and impacted our lives and forced us to re-focus and prioritise. We are now back with a fresh perspective and renewed focus on how the world and we have changed in reaction to it.  

This episode was recorded around a month or so ago and is a start to us getting back into the conversations we enjoy and sharing with the community we love. This is a very casual conversation about what we experienced during Covid, the challenges we faced and the topics we now reflect upon. We conversate around the following areas:


Being swept up in a Covid world:
The shift in focus to our families
Recognising how we have changed and what's next

The blurred line of work and home
The benefits of being at home
The challenges we personally faced
How companies are and can support people

How to connect fully in a Covid(remote) world
How those connections feel different
The filter that exists while connecting through digital channels
The challenges we faced

The ability to be a 'Team' while being remote
What team connection looks like while being remote
The tools we use to try to compensate for face-to-face interaction
The gaps and what essence of a team are missing

The impact that Covid has had on our HealthThe benefits we miss from passive exercise, e.g. Walking Meetings, Travelling to work, running sessions etc.
The shift in our thinking of how we view exercise and forcing it to become an active part of our lives

Positive Impact Covid has had on certain companies forcing companies to transform and being that catalyst for change.
Putting companies in a position where they have to increase the trust in their people to get stuff done wherever they are
The creation of new customer interaction patterns and the shift towards digital engagement

The word and social impact of Covid
How the world allowed to health a little with reduced travel and pollution
Forced us to stop and pay attention to the planet
How maybe the government could look at a long-term strategy for healing the planet through periods of reduced travel etc


There is a lot here, and we scratch the surface on most of these topics while diving a little further into others. It was just great for Kwasi and me to reconnect with each other and for you to share how things have gone through Covid and these past 12-18month's.

We hope you enjoy this, and there will be more Podcasts soon 🙏 

Kwasi & Dave

Welcome to Transformation from the Trenches.

In this episode, David and Kwasi speak to Elizabeth Sherman who is a Life and Weight Loss Coach. We had a great conversation around eating, sleeping, exercise and stress management and how she helps her clients connect on a deeper level around these topics.
We also draw on synergies of weight loss and stress management into the world of business and organisations. 

Highlights:
- Identity and Values: how powerful they are in achieving impactful fulfilling change.
- Managing Stress: including before the stress happens in the first place
- Self-Care: and the link back to Identity
- Emotions: leveraging any form of emotion that shows up in us 

Take-Aways:
- We speak about logical levels and how truly understanding of our identity and values aligns us to our goals and how that helps us make an impact on life fulfilment - same is true for organisations.
- We tap into the real power of understanding your true identity and how that triggers our behaviours
- We draw on a connection of overfeeding and underfeeding analogy in organisations

Hope you enjoy this episode and the conversation we have with Elizabeth and stories she shares we us all.

Let us hear your thoughts.

Welcome to Transformation from the Trenches.

In this episode, David and Kwasi speak about three key topics, Transformational fallout, being careful about workplace trauma and the concept of distributed transformation.
We also discuss the benefits of putting people first within organisations and the emphasis on building meaningful and intentful relationships, which transcends to how people truly show up.

Highlights:
- Transformational Fallout
- Being careful about workplace trauma
- Distributed Transformation

Take-Aways:
An insight into some of the transformation fallouts we've seen on our journey. 
The invisible trauma caused in the workplace that most aren't aware it's happening.
We touch on distributed transformation briefly (we'll do a podcast on this to explore further and share it with you all).

Hope you enjoy this mini-episode and find this useful.

We'll be keen to hear your thoughts.

Welcome to Transformation from the Trenches.

In this episode, we speak to Bob Anderson, creator and author of 
The Leadership Circle. We discuss what transformation means for him, and he shares some powerful personal stories to bring things to life for us.

Bob has dedicated his career to exploring and pioneering the intersections between leadership and personal mastery and the connection between competence and consciousness.  
Bob is a true pioneer in the field of leadership development and research.

Highlights of this episode,
- The three core centres of Transformation; Heart, Head, and Will are the different levels of consciousness
- How Businesses have diluted the true meaning of the word 'Transformation'
- How Organisational Development has missed the deep journey that's required in leadership for the organisation.
- Shifts in a transformative self; conditioned mind, self-authoring mind, socialised mind
- Tips for leaders going on this transformative journey.

In this episode, you'll learn what a truly transformative journey means and the shifts we go through.

You'll hear some very powerful stories and a constant thread of self-work in a truly transformative journey. 

Bob shares some tips to consider if you are on or about to embark on a transformative journey;

- Start with self
- Don't underestimate it
- It's life's work
- It's gutty work
- Don't delegate it 
- Don't sponsor it
- It's a spiritual journey

Enjoy the episode!

Welcome to Transformation from the Trenches.

In this episode, David and Kwasi speak about how organisations take models and implement them without truly understanding the consequences of doing so within their context. 
We specifically focus on the Spotify model and how consultancies have packaged the Spotify model and sold it to organisations. 

Highlights:
- 3 Pillars and 6 Principles for real successful transformation 
- The Spotify model and what it meant for Spotify. 
- Some consultancies lack of ethical values and selling models. They have no capability of true transformation to support their clients correctly. 
- Lack of true organisational leadership to look inwards to their own people. 
- How to limit test consultancies selling your models. 

Take-Aways:
In this episode, we share three pillars and six principles to help you achieve real successful transformations. 

You'll get some ideas on how to help your leadership team really understand the impact of what they are signing up for with consultancy firms. 
You'll get an idea of how to limit test whatever is being sold. 

You'll also understand the importance of looking inwards and using the collective intelligence of your teams to solve the problems you are looking to solve. 

It's a very expansive topic, and we've only touched the tip of the iceberg, but definitely enjoy listening to this, and we'll love to hear about your experiences.