Let's talk Transformation..‪.‬ Suzie Lewis

"As we navigate the post-COVID landscape, the need for intentionally empathetic leadership has never been clearer.."
Neal and I delve into the profound impact of empathy on cultivating thriving workplace cultures and how we can scale this skill, particularly at more senior levels of the organisation.
Empathy is often referred to as a 'soft skill' but is actually one of the hardest to enact and is more than a soft skill—it’s a strategic advantage. Executives and leaders who embrace empathetic practices are witnessing tangible benefits in business metrics, marketing, and branding.
We discuss debunking common myths about leadership and collaboration in organisations and conclude that it’s time to challenge the status quo and embrace the paradigm shift. Engaging in courageous conversations, addressing conflicts with sensitivity, and creating a shared vision through empathetic confrontation can be powerful and strategic tools for organisational transformation.
Neal shares his experience, insights and research from his book 'the E suite' and from his operational daily life as CEO of Cybercore Technologies.
The main insights you'll get from this episode are :
-      The shift in work-life balance during Covid saw people and empathetic leadership come first as opposed to empathy being considered a soft skill and not representative of ‘strong’ leadership.
-      Executive leaders must seek to apply empathy and openness by understanding context and emotional states and making decisions based on this – it is not about ‘niceness’ and should be reframed as relationship building.
-      The concept of business(-focused) empathy is about understanding the people you work with and using it as a tool to help with decision-making, e.g. how to deal with a diseased tree branch that impacts the tree as a whole.
-      Strategically impactful decisions for a business involve the deliberate and intentional use of empathy as a leadership skill and lever - empathetic confrontation is linked to collective vision and organisational transformation.
-      The most impactful transformations come from a place of safety and understanding the context so that transformation is not combative but involves all parties to solve a common problem.
-      Create unity, not homogeneity by creating a level of trust - intense conversations in a trusted and safe environment can be very productive and senior leaders can create the conditions for empathetic discussion by saying transparently what is going on, inviting people to talk to them and creating psychological safety.
-      Empathy is not always the solution but personal agency can be leveraged using effective communication, for example, by meeting with people for a disclosed reason; not letting emotional states come into play; monitoring reactions; looking for underlying issues and finding constructive solutions.
-      Post-Covid, there is more openness to empathy generally but still many generational differences in terms of what makes a workplace successful, although it is clear that people-first policies affect the bottom line.
-      Talent managers have an opportunity to inform leaders of the impact of empathy using bare metrics (e.g. the cost of firing/hiring v. retraining) or demonstrating the proven ROI of empathy.
-      Leaders must hold themselves and others accountable and practice empathy until they are conversant in it – if they lend their voice to the conversation, people are more disposed to talking.
-      Transformation instigates fear, which thrives in quiet and...

"There can be kindness in telling the truth, and therefore providing a place from which to move forward.."
A great conversation with Paru about being authentic, and defining our own meaning of success. Learning to trust one’s intuition is a skill that many overlook, and we discuss the very essence of authentic leadership, the art of self reflection and how to empower others as you stand boldly in who you are.
Paru shares the trials and triumphs of tuning into that inner voice. It’s about looking back to move forward, reflecting on past experiences to navigate & create the future. This isn’t just about what works in business—it’s about what makes us human in our careers.
Are you ready to lead with authenticity? Are you prepared to break the mould and champion honesty in your professional life? 
Paru generously shares her stories, her life experiences, her insights and her wisdom from working with C suite leaders across the globe.
The main insights you'll get from this episode are :
-      Mission: seeing across multiple functions and profiles and speaking authentic truth in the corporate world - leaders must remain authentic and truth is important for stability.
-      There can be kindness in telling the truth, thereby providing a place from which to move forward; many of us have a tendency to bury our heads in the sand instead.
-      The ability to spot patterns and predict next moves led to an advisory role, offering help to avoid falling back into old patterns in order to overcome fear and learn how to manage hypervigilance.
-      (Self-)reflection helps to prevent repetition of mistakes and sharing vulnerabilities builds trust - in short, being authentic saves time!
-      Just as we must encourage introspection and think about who we are, the same also applies for clients - exercises can be for both professional and personal purposes, but the universal truth is that there are no shortcuts.
-      Putting in the work brings epiphanies and results, which we can use as a mirror to reflect back, embracing tough lessons to grow and learn.
-      Moving from hypervigilance to trusting (one’s own) intuition is where genius happens; we must relinquish that which we hold on to and hold up the mirror to ourselves instead of other people.
-      Collating the data we derive from this will show us what happens when we follow our intuition and are ourselves – in the formula of ‘if you do x, I feel y, so I do z’, we can make choices.
-      Legacy means the impact we have on the world by sharing personal lessons learned, learning to trust our judgement in others, and offering stories for people to take ingredients from to maybe apply to their own lives.
-      How do we know when we have reached 100% (of ourselves)? It is a gradual process, and each challenge helps us dig deeper and find that bit more – we can’t really ever know if we are at 100%, as it is a constant journey.
-      It is helpful to be direct with others, to give instructions and information and be who we are - we cannot rely on others to do things for us and need our own backup plan.
-      We must find our authentic version of ourself by spending time alone, regularly checking in with who we are today; as we evolve, we are impacted by extraneous factors but once we find it, we must hang on to it!
Find out more about Paru and her upcoming book here :
https://www.paruradia.com/paru

"Role modelling is the most powerful way to influence people and cultures ..."
In today’s rapidly changing business landscape, resilience has become a buzzword, but how do we move beyond buzzwords to action? 
Julian and I do a deep dive into the heart of organisational resilience, unpacking strategies that can help your teams to do more than just survive, we focus on building resilience through fostering well-being, growth, learning, and vulnerability. We discuss the transformative effect of creating a workplace where challenges are shared openly, and optimism is balanced with a healthy dose of realism.
We also touch on the critical role vulnerability plays in team dynamics and how it ties back to character and attitude. We discuss the essence of authentic leadership and the importance of role modelling in catalysing and strengthening collective resilience. 
How can we create these conditions in a hybrid workplace ? 
How can we intentionally cultivate workplaces where people and teams can thrive ? 

Julian shares his research, experience, stories and insights from his ongoing work with leaders and teams.
The main insights you'll get from this episode are :
Thriving is the flipside of surviving – like a plant that thrives with the right food, soil, environment, water and sunlight, in an organisation this means people feel they can learn, grow, excel and make mistakes.It is an ambitious concept for organisations as constant high performance is unrealistic and can lead to a culture of toxic resilience, i.e. constant optimism, overachievement and ultimately burnout.The middle ground between thriving and surviving means being open about challenges; being real (with people); being optimistic, i.e. rooted in the now but with an eye on the future; and being realistic.Organisations should provide check-in times for teams and a comfortable environment in which to share – resilience must be operationalised and it can be developed and grown like a muscle (through discipline and practice).Given the diverse profiles in a team, it is important to scale the mindset and create collective resilience - having a mission lifts the team, gives energy from positive purpose, and offers a path forward with innovative solutions.There are processes to ‘reduce, regulate and repair’: scenario planning, iceberg drills, collaboration, mitigation ideas, debriefing through difficulties and successes, reflecting on lessons learned.Clear roles and responsibilities are required for collective understanding, as are discipline (i.e. a commitment with structure yet flexibility), consistency and messaging – the processes must serve the people, not the other way round.Authentic leadership improves team resilience through self-awareness, balanced processing, internal moral perspective, and openness and transparency – very important for interaction.Psychological safety is paramount and the responsibility of the leader, with self-awareness the most significant of all as it has the biggest impact on creating a resilient team.Hope and optimism are very good things to have in organisational constructs – leaders with hope retain staff, raise profits and have thriving teams with optimistic intentions for the future of both the organisation and the people.Role modelling is the most powerful way to influence people and cultures in terms of bringing in pessimists as it offers inspiration but not toxic positivity and grounds people in reality.Leaders must create conditions for people to thrive in a hybrid environment through connection and communication, e.g. virtual townhall meetings, in-person get-togethers (with social elements, not always work-based), and open-door policies (also via Zoom).
Find out more about Julian and his work here :
a...

"we always understand anything new in terms of what we already know.."
Dave and I discuss the art of possibility and how we can change our thoughts and perceptions to allow ourselves to enter the gateways of what's possible.
Ever wondered why visualising things is so powerful ? Ever challenged your beliefs about whether you can draw or not ? We discuss all this and more as Dave leads us through his philosophy of art and how it can contribute to helping us navigate this complex world we live and work in.
We delve into RFID codes, generative AI, and their potentially transformative effects on education and employment, as well as how we can step out of our patterns to think differently - to shake up our habitual routines, embrace change, and take proactive steps toward growth and innovation. After all, the jobs of tomorrow may not even exist today, so staying ahead means staying adaptable, open minded and curious.
So whether you’re a seasoned artist or someone who’s never thought of picking up a pencil for fun, consider this your personal invitation to explore the visual language within you and step away from autopilot and connect to the present moment. Who knows? It might just change the way you see the world—and the way the world sees you !
Dave shares his insights, teachings, experience and visuals from writing and working with artists, leaders and organisations across the globe .
The main insights you'll get from this episode are :
-       Humans are mostly on autopilot, which serves us when things are going well, but distracts us from the present moment and possibilities can only be seen in the present moment.
-       Digital overloads and distracts us but ‘possibilitarians’ are acutely tuned in to the present moment and the opportunities that might arise; we cannot know what will happen and it is our limiting beliefs that hold us back.
-       The School of the Possible is about a less structured approach, fostering and teaching creativity, i.e. imagining something and making it a reality. This cannot be taught in the conventional way in that there is no end goal per se, just a question and a direction.
-       Such a school of exploration engenders a community of people focused on what is possible in their worlds and supporting each other as entrepreneurs - an exciting, scary and uncomfortable reality that holds the promise of adventure and learning.
-       Organisations too must take risks to avoid becoming obsolete, as many people are now looking at alternatives to working in organisations - we must all find a way to make a living but nowadays we can create our own customers on our own terms.
-       An unusual approach to teaching creativity in the form of visual(isation) aspects, e.g. using game-storming, as a way to bring people together, help them align on a problem, and draw a complex issue to make it clearer.
-       This low-equipment approach is transformative, facilitating a real connection between body and mind – this allows a group to build something, change their interactions and actually see what is in other people’s heads.
-       The resulting visible, shareable work results in innovation, makes abstract things more tangible and takes the information landscape from fuzzy to focused - images are a universal language and explore things for which there are no words (yet).
-       Drawing is a conversation between what’s in your head and what’s on the piece of paper so it can be surprising – as a process it is intuitive as opposed to cognitive as our brains are pattern-finding...

" we are still so afraid of speaking up and showing our emotions in the workplace... "
Mollie and I discuss emotional inclusion, what it means and how it can help to humanise the workplace. How do we operationlise the 'doing' and bust the more traditional but very present leadership myths held in workplaces about vulnerability, emotions and 'strong leadership' ?
We explore the lagging advancement in tackling emotional wellness at work and the negative impacts this can have. The urgency for organisations to sincerely incorporate emotional inclusion by offering mental health support and educational workshops has never been more present.
At organisational level, leaders must be the voices of change to overcome the dichotomy of split selves, i.e. home self and work self, and lead authentic campaigns to demonstrate the benefits of a more inclusive ecosystem.
Mollie stresses the importance of a comprehensive approach to organisational emotional well-being and the benefits of understanding employees’ emotions as well as educating leaders and employees alike.
How can senior leaders contribute to this role-modelling of countering existing leadership myths and bringing in new ways of thinking and talking about emotions at work?
How can we move from reflection to action on this topic and ensure sustainable and welcome change in this area ?
Mollie shares her research, experience and insights from working on Emotional inclusion and from working with leaders around the globe.
The main insights you will get from this episode are :
-       Emotional intelligence is about knowing how to navigate our own and others’ emotions, emotional inclusion is about providing a roadmap of how to put emotions/emotional intelligence into action (also at work).
-       Company DE&I platforms rarely speak about the inclusion that is closest to humanity, i.e. ourselves. Emotions have a bad reputation, despite giving us purpose, creativity, and a sense of belonging, and are the gateway to spearheading productivity as a whole.
-       There is still an intention/action gap around emotions: we wear masks and vulnerability is seen as a weakness – there is fear and stigma around speaking up given the risk of perceived unprofessionalism.
-       At organisational level, leaders must be the voices of change to overcome the dichotomy of split selves, i.e. home self and work self, and lead authentic campaigns to demonstrate the benefits of a more inclusive ecosystem.
-       HR must ensure that there are mental health policies in insurance schemes for employees, over and above basic medical care, as the wellbeing of employees directly affects a company’s bottom line.
-       There is a big divide in leadership regarding mental health: leaders who talk about it but do little, and leaders who want to redefine what mental health within their organisation looks like and make changes, but it is still not enough.
-       Organisations need to create sustainable mental health pillars, but they are difficult to implement; corporate leadership vulnerability must role model behaviour for psychological safety, leading to increased receptiveness, empathy, openness, and authentic ‘team-ness’.
-       We must make inclusion systemic by educating around how inclusive and safe ecosystems boost productivity, and by truly acknowledging each other’s humanness – there has been little progress in emotional wellness since the industrial revolution!
-       Covid was a game-changer in that people refuse to fit into an antiquated workplace model; employees want to see...

“ We need to be looking at how the risks are entangled - we can’t think about any of them singly… “
Asha and I discuss the current meta-crisis, and the great uncertainty this holds : How can we influence the complex world we live in? What can we see from where we are? What levers do we have for action ?
Life is no longer stable, and organisations are still seeking to be ‘robust’, i.e. stable in an unstable world, so different approaches are required to influence any of this - so what can we do ?
We also unwrap complexity science, systems thinking and how complex adaptive systems (e.g. social groups, the stock market, generative AI) learn at the edge of chaos and discuss how we can have a stable economic system that can sustain, produce, and distribute what we need.
Asha shares her thought leadership as well as her operational experience in what this means for organisations and leaders, from her work with leaders across the globe.
The main insights you'll get from this episode are :
-       How can we influence the complex world we live in? What can we see from where we are? The current meta-crisis involves two large, intertwined risks: exponential tech (AI, biotech) and our industrial economy and its impact on the biosphere (climate change).
-       Both are causing great uncertainty and mean that life is no longer stable, and organisations are seeking to be ‘robust’, i.e. stable in an unstable world, a technocracy. Different approaches are required to influence any of this.
-       The (various models of) complexity give rise to systems thinking and complexity thinking:
•      Systems thinking looks for patterns and is non-linear - a system is made up of different components with a shared purpose whereby the collective effect is different from the individual effect.
•      Complexity thinking looks at the unexpected, unpredictable and random results (produced by complex systems), which are by definition emergent, not controllable and potentially undesirable.
-       Complexity science looks at how complex adaptive systems (e.g. social groups, the stock market, generative AI) learn at the edge of chaos and asks how we can have a stable economic system that can sustain, produce, and distribute what we need.
-       The concept of a regenerative economy is very interesting, but is it viable and suitable for complex adaptive systems? Our current system is enabling us to flourish at the edge of chaos.
-       We need to consider alternatives to globalisation and our current financial system - complexity economics offers answers (circular economy, an ‘adjacent possible’, doughnut economics) but we are not ready to embrace them.
-       Geopolitical will is required for change; we are experimenting on a small scale (particularly post-pandemic) but it is still a new, fragmented field; regenerative economics must evolve to be accessible for ordinary people.
-       Everyone has personal agency and organisations have a role to play, but how do we navigate the landscape and put in place methods to do so? We must define the purpose and how to measure it, whereby quantifying it easier than qualifying it.
-       Value is always contextual and depends on what is needed. There must be the requisite meaning and culture within an organisation for it to make a contribution to something more regenerative. Covid made us do things we thought we wouldn’t due to constraints, which can be likened to a river flowing faster when it’s...