In this episode, I speak with Adam Kahane about his new book, Facilitating Breakthrough, Facilitating Breakthrough: How to Remove Obstacles, Bridge Differences, and Move Forward Together. In the conversation, several things stood out for me. Here are a few What does it mean to be a facilitator? Many years ago, when I first received training, I thought about this question a lot. Since then, I have taken its meaning for granted. Adam got me to take a second look at the word and its purpose. For Ad...
Sep 15, 2021•29 min
In this conversation with Paul Desmarais III, we talk a lot about Disruption. In this episode, he shared many unique insights. Here are a few that stood out for me. What is Disruption? Naturally, this podcast has explored the word Disruption and what it means. Paul describes it as adding more people into the majority. He even said it was like growth. This idea that Disruption is about breaking things needs to change. The idea that we are going to dismantle entire industries is not helpful. It sh...
Apr 15, 2021•45 min
Christian Madsbjerg is a professor at the New School for Social Research in New York City, where he teaches German and French philosophy from the 20th century. He has also founded a company called Red Associates. Red Associates is a Social Science-based or anthropology-based company to advise on human behaviour and how humans make sense of the world, and what is meaningful and important to them from the level of experience. In this conversation, we explore perspectives on the role of social scie...
Apr 02, 2021•47 min
Paul Pangaro has a deep interest in the relationship between machines and people. He describes himself as an interaction designer, pragmatist and practitioner. He thinks, like me, believes if you have a good theory, you can then make progress. Currently, he teaches at Carnegie Mellon in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute there. In this conversation, talk about how conversations help us make sense of the world. Several things stood out for me, and here are just a few of them. Conversations ...
Mar 16, 2021•46 min
Joel Solomon is a financial activist and co-founder of a mission venture capital firm called Renewal Funds. He is also the author of The Clean Money Revolution: Reinventing Power, Purpose, and Capitalism. In this episode, we explore many a wide range of topics. Here are some of the things that stood out for me. How do we make money a force for good? The question can seem so simple. It is loaded. In our conversation, Joel and I discuss the notion that money as a force for good should be the statu...
Mar 01, 2021•43 min
Elizabeth Stokoe is a conversational analyst. This means she studies conversation in the wild. She looks at real-life conversations works to understand how talk works. Her work focuses on social interactions. What are people doing as they interact? Here are some of the highlights from our conversation. We build our world through social interactions. This may seem obvious, yet so few of us pay attention to the things we do and say daily. I have come to believe that the things we say and do build ...
Feb 15, 2021•41 min
Dr Larry Richard is a former Lawyer, who now works to understand what makes Lawyers tick. In our conversation, he shares his findings from his work with lawyers. His major insight is that skills and tools that make Lawyers good at law do not necessarily make them good leaders. In analyzing a variety of personality assessment tools, he found that Lawyers tend to be overrepresented in various traits. For example, when you analyze a population using the Caliper tool, you usually get most people sco...
Feb 01, 2021•38 min
In this conversation with Daniel, you hear from two people who are really fascinated with understanding conversations. We take a practical and philosophical journey thinking about and exploring our current thoughts on conversations. Here are some of the things that stood out for me in this conversation. We are designing conversations all the time. If you have ever asked a friend to read an email, you are about to send. If you thought to yourself “how should I say this?” If you have ever done any...
Jan 15, 2021•45 min
Dan Doty describes himself as a father, husband, entrepreneur and outdoorsman. He is the co-founder of Everyman. A global organization that brings men together to learn and practice emotional skill sets. Men too can learn to be in touch with the vulnerable parts of life. They can learn to express as fully as possible. This conversation with Dan was an inspiring one. Here are a few of the things that stood out for me. It stops with me. Perhaps the most powerful thing I took away from this convers...
Dec 01, 2020•47 min
In this episode of Disruptive Conversations, we hear from Liz Elam, founder of the largest coworking conference in the world know as the Global Coworking Unconference Conference (GCUC). There are a number of great takeaways. Here are a few of the insights I found helpful. To change your life, you have to change something you do every day. Later in the episode, Liz shares that it took her some time to come to terms with the word alcoholic. She is now 11 years sober. When she said, “to change your...
Nov 16, 2020•34 min
In this episode of Disruptive Conversations, I interview Isobel Stevenson, Director of Organizational Learning at the Connecticut Center for School Change. The Center is a nonprofit based in Hartford, Connecticut. In this conversation, we discuss a range of topics that span areas like coaching, leadership, evaluation, and even the role of gaming the system. You will need to listen to the episode to understand the last one. Some of the things that stood out for me in this interview were: How and ...
Nov 01, 2020•49 min
In this conversation with Hubert Saint-Onge we explore a number of big ideas. Below are some of the ideas that stood out for me. Hold back your precocious advice giving. When I asked Hubert about the best lessons he has ever learned, he responded, it is about listening for what is being said? A key part of conversations is listening. Over the years, I have come to understand that listening is probably one of the best leadership skills one can work to cultivate. In this episode, Hubert reminds us...
Oct 15, 2020•38 min
David Burkus has focused much of work, writing and research on how to not make work suck. A common joke in the world of organizational psychologists. He written books on creativity, networking, teams, teamwork and more recently remote work. In general, he asks, what do we think we know about work? Now that we have some ideas around that, what does the research or evidence say about what we think we know? In really enjoyed my conversations with David. Here are a few things that stood out for me. ...
Oct 01, 2020•51 min
In this episode, I interview John Ruffolo former Chief Executive Officer of OMERS Ventures. We explore how many of the entrepreneurs they invest in have a passion for solving a problem. He tells the story of Shopify. One of Canada’s great entrepreneurial stories. John and his team look for founders who care deeply about the problem to be solved. He explains that there is a confusion between invention and innovation. For John, he doesn’t see a lot of new invention, but rather interesting applicat...
Sep 16, 2020•32 min
In this conversation, Peter and I explore how solution-focused conversation has helped to shape his view of the world. This conversation is full of beautiful insights, stories, metaphors and quotable quotes. Here are some of the things that stood out for me in the conversation. Where do we have power and influence in conversations? Peter reminded me of the power we all have in conversation. He uses an example of how someone can complain about the political views of a friend and say something lik...
Sep 01, 2020•47 min
Michael Unger is a professor of social work and is currently the Canada Research Chair in Child, Family and Community Resilience at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. Although he began his career as a family therapist, today he is a researcher and looks at resilience in populations that under stress. He works around the world to try to understand how social and environmental factors help to foster innovation. Below are some of the things that stood out for me in this episode. What makes so...
Aug 15, 2020•52 min
Aneil Gokhale is the Director of Philanthropy at the Toronto Foundation. In this conversation, he and I cover a range of topics related to Philanthropy and the charitable sector. At the Foundation, he and his colleagues are trying to get people to think differently about how they give. In our conversation, we cover a range of inflexion points within the world of giving. Some of the things that stood out for me where: In a blink of an eye, you can be 40 years old and your life has passed by but y...
Jul 30, 2020•1 hr 7 min
In this episode of Disruptive Conversations, I speak with Sarah Kaplan (PhD). Sarah is an innovation scholar at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. She has recently written the book The 360˚ Corporation. Today, Sarah works to explore how ideas from innovation can be applied in a way that helps to create a world of social and economic justice. Although much of her work focuses on gender equality, it is clear Sarah takes an intersectional approach to her work. Here are some of...
Jul 15, 2020•52 min
Can we change the way people have dialogue? Can we make their interactions better? This is the simple premise of Haesun’s work. Admittedly, we share similar perspectives on the role conversations play and their potential to help people thrive. So often, we blame other people for not communicating well. When we are in fact not listening. Conversations, although we have them every day, are complex. If we are to improve our conversations, we need to be more intentional in how we enter dialogue. Hae...
Jul 01, 2020•41 min
Stefan Kollenberg is a Co-Founder of Crescendo. Crescendo delivers tailored microlearning for every employee inside of Slack. In our conversation, we discuss a number of themes. I really struggled to summarize this conversation but some of the things that stood out for me were: Using existing platforms to deliver a novel solution. Crescendo uses Slack to deliver micro-learning within organizations. I love this idea because it reminds me a past episode with Nick Scott, where he talked about troja...
Jun 15, 2020•30 min
In this episode, I talk with Misha Glouberman and I explore the nuance of a conversation. Admittedly, this was not my best interview. There was a moment in the interview where I was so caught up in being understood that Misha and I got in a silly dance where I broke all the rules of successful conversations. The irony of this conversation is that it demonstrates the best and the worst of great conversations. A few of the key things that stood out for me are: So often conflict blinds us to how wh...
Jun 01, 2020•1 hr 9 min
Sille Krukow is a Nudge Behavioral Design expert. She describes her work as using applied behavioral science to work to change behavior in a variety of industries. She stumbled into the field out of a desire to create an impact in the world. In her previous experiences, she found that she did great design and campaign work but she was never really able to create real change. Her insight was that if we are to impact the world, we need a different set of skills than what we are currently taught in...
May 15, 2020•31 min
Tonya Surman is the CEO of the Center for Social Innovation. One of the largest purpose driven coworking spaces, likely in the world. In this conversation, we explore a number of lessons that she has learned over the years. A few that stood out for me are: The goal of the work is to understand how to better support people. A major theme in this episode was about how do we support people? How do we help communities thrive? We discuss a number of ways in which Tonya’s work has always centred aroun...
May 15, 2019•54 min
In this conversation with Jon Shell, we talk about the a range of topics loosely connected to Impact Investing. Jon, throughout this episode, problematized a lot of the language people use. For example, instead of talking about the Future of Work, he talks about the Present of work. I really enjoyed this conversation and some of the take ways I have got from it were: Focus your energy on changing one small thing. I almost missed this insight, but it is the one that stood out the most for me. Jon...
May 01, 2019•50 min
Andrea Reimer is known for her disruptive public policy initiatives. She attributes her knack for disruption to her belief in fairness and justice. When she sees things that are unfair on unjust, she feels like she has to embark on transformative change initiatives. In this episode we explore many of the ideas that inform her knack for starting on disruptive conversations. Here are a few themes that stood out for me. Sports can teach you a lot about disruption. Andrea is an avid soccer player. S...
Apr 15, 2019•41 min
Keita Demming • Disruptive Conversations • Cameron Norman.mp3 Cameron Norman is a psychologist and designer who brings together the science of systems, program evaluation, and design to help people create impact and innovation. In this conversation, he and I explore a number of themes related to change and innovation. Here I highlight some of themes that stood out for me. Pay attention to what is front of us. So often we are so busy trying to make a difference we forget to pay attention to what ...
Apr 01, 2019•42 min
In this conversation, Ashley Proctor and I we talk about the difference between the coworking industry and the coworking movement. There are a number of things that stood out for me in this episode. Build something for community larger than you. Build something for people. Ashley points out that she is driven to build things for people. Essentially, that is the difference between coworking the industry and coworking the movement. The industry focuses on the Real Estate play while the movement fo...
Mar 15, 2019•23 min
Start your career where you can grow. Sarah decided to take the road less traveled and instead of taking a job with a major company she opted to take a job at Startup. In the basement of a house. She was interested in where could she learn the most and where could she learn the fastest? Keep making changes to your life until it’s the life you want or the life you deserve. The above quote is Sarah’s favorite. When I heard this quote, it made me think that it predisposes her to have what I call di...
Mar 04, 2019•42 min
This interview with Kofi Hope was thought-provoking on many levels. In this episode, we explored his work as an activist and an academic. Hope you enjoy the many insights we uncover in this episode. Here are some of the things that stood out for me. The most important journey we can go on is to find the fearless honestly within ourselves. Kofi reminds us that we do not control much in the world. One of the most important journeys we embark on is that of understanding who we are. Understanding wh...
Feb 18, 2019•55 min
Adrian Crook is an entrepreneur and housing activist. He is probably best known for his blog 5 Kids 1 Condo. Additionally, Adrian runs a successful game design company. Somehow, with five kids and as a fulltime entrepreneur, he manages to find time to write and speak about sustainable housing. Adrian is challenging the way we thinking about homes and hosing. There are few ideas that stood out for me in this conversation: Single-family homes are the least sustainable form of using. Adrian makes t...
Feb 01, 2019•1 hr 1 min
