Removing hierarchy and implementing self-management in an organisation can be challenging, but it can also lead to positive changes and benefits for businesses willing to take the leap. Agency founder Tom McLaughlin felt he needed to let go of some control and delegate more as the company grew. He wanted to remove the hierarchy and power dynamics in the organisation, so worked with an expert in the field of self-management, and set about restructuring his company. Tom’s book recommendations Mave...
Jun 29, 2023•51 min•Ep. 65
Embracing neurodiversity can bring valuable perspectives, innovation, and organisational endurance to teams. By recognising the strengths that come with neurodivergent conditions, individuals and teams can benefit from a plurality of perspectives and explore new ways of thinking and working together. Matthew Bellringer is a consultant, practitioner, speaker, and author who focuses on systems engineering, human systems, and ecosystems. They have a background in tech engineering but have always be...
Jun 22, 2023•37 min•Ep. 64
Teams need to prioritise creating and maintaining clarity, especially during times of disruption and uncertainty. While purpose and shared goals have held steady in Squadify’s latest Team Tracker data, the importance and presence of more granular aspects like a clear plan and measures of success have dropped, creating a significant clarity gap. Juliet Hammond joins Dan and Pia to discuss how teams need to focus on defining short-term priorities, experimenting, and reflecting in order to stay ali...
Jun 15, 2023•37 min•Ep. 63
In times of crisis, community collaboration can be a powerful force for relief efforts. Gaz Breen's coordinated efforts during the 2022 Burringbar floods demonstrated the importance of identifying our strengths and assets to contribute to a larger effort. Pia witnessed the recovery efforts that Gaz organised, and in their conversation, they discussed the significance of being an asset rather than a liability when facing difficult situations. Takeaways from Dan and Pia In a disaster, every team m...
Jun 08, 2023•46 min•Ep. 62
With the challenges of hybrid working and resource constraints, team leaders need to create a shared vision and a set of meaningful goals. By putting the team at the centre and leveraging the interdependencies between members, organisations can achieve greater improvements in performance and outcomes. In this first episode of the season 6, Dan and Pia look back on highlights from season 5, and what these conversations can teach us about collaboration. Episodes to check out from season 5 Leading ...
Jun 01, 2023•21 min•Ep. 61
If you want to build a community asset that promotes teamwork, communication, and resilience, focus on the positives, have a vision, and stick to your values. These are some of the things actuary Richard Giles discovered when taking up the position of Chairman at his local football club, Ilkley Town AFC. Richard has a growth mindset and the courage to make changes when needed. He believes in promoting good examples and having flexibility in streaming players to achieve the best outcomes for each...
Apr 13, 2023•39 min•Ep. 60
Innovation is a team sport and design thinking is a team activity. A great team involves multiple disciplines, diversity of perspectives, and a culture of permission to help guide each other towards good behaviours. Adam Billing is the founder of Treehouse Innovation and Sprintbase, and an expert in how design thinking can be used to fuel innovation. In his conversation with Dan and Pia, he explains the principles of design thinking, which involves deeply understanding what the customer cares ab...
Apr 06, 2023•42 min•Ep. 59
When companies put the customer at the heart of their business and empower employees to improve the customer experience, they form stronger relationships with satisfied customers. Marcus Swalwell and Tom Wedge worked together at a large optometry firm, owned by Novartis. They transformed the company by putting customers at the heart of the business, using a variety of methods from forming a virtual board of directors made up of customers, to encouraging employees to work in customers’ shops so t...
Mar 30, 2023•45 min•Ep. 58
the latest dataset from Squadify reveals how teams rate psychological safety. Juliet Owen joins Dan and Pia to go through the numbers and add some context. Carl Rogers defines psychological safety as an individual feeling unconditional worth. This forms the basis of the movement, continued on by Amy Edmondson who defines it as a shared belief held by team members that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. Timothy Clark's model defines four stages of psychological safety: inclusion safe...
Mar 24, 2023•32 min•Ep. 57
“I don’t fit in”. It’s something everybody feels, at least at some point. We're all struggling to find our place. And if we let systems define us, we'll always be at odds with ourselves. But as Robin Hutchinson discovered, if we identify the situations where we feel more comfortable and can cope better, then we can take ownership of it all. Robin describes himself as a very lucky person who has had opportunities come his way. His organisation, the Community Brain, creates playgrounds for adults ...
Mar 17, 2023•44 min•Ep. 56
Organisations think a lot about culture “fit”. But inclusivity strategist Marsha Ramroop believes people need to think more about “culture add”. Hiring for culture fit leads to homogenous teams and groupthink. Hiring for "culture add" on the other hand, leads to the creation of diverse and inclusive teams. Organisations need to be aware of bias in the recruitment process and take steps to mitigate them. This means investing proper time and money in the recruitment process and evaluating it for i...
Mar 10, 2023•38 min•Ep. 55
Whether you’re facing off against pirates or catering for celebrities, life on board a megayacht is about teamwork, reciprocity, and pulling your weight. Jens Lee is a deck engineer who has spent the last five years working on various large vessels. Jens describes the adventure of a lifetime, including working on everything from small sailing bases to 100-metre megayachts, catering for world leaders and A-list Hollywood stars, and even meeting pirates. He explains that life on board is “like a f...
Mar 03, 2023•30 min•Ep. 54
Teams need clarity in order to function. Without clear leadership or a shared goal, people can feel unheard and undervalued. This is all the more critical in a hospital setting where patients also need to be heard and valued. Dr Tim Arnold is a family medicine physician in Northern Minnesota, with 22 years of experience delivering babies, providing care in the ICU, emergency room, clinic, and hospital. Liz Dean worked for 20 years with Tim at the same organisation, focusing on business developme...
Feb 24, 2023•44 min•Ep. 53
We too often prioritise work over our own needs. This is compounded if you have a disability that might take you away from work for a time, if a new baby has entered your life, or if you’re grieving. Serena Savini lives with a chronic illness and had an accident at work that shed light on this realisation. Serena is an HR expert, coach, and podcaster who believes that those re-entering work need to be supported in every way possible. For her, the most important thing is to create a comfortable e...
Feb 17, 2023•31 min•Ep. 52
Real transformation comes from more than just money. Jim Goddard believes that investing time, talent, and treasure into community movements is the key to success. His leadership style reflects this philosophy and encourages volunteers to take an active role in making a difference. Jim Goddard has dedicated two decades to leading volunteers, transitioning from engineering to purposeful living. He advises leaders and organizations on purposeful, sustainable leadership, focusing on communication, ...
Feb 10, 2023•39 min•Ep. 51
When you don’t have a good work/life balance, you can begin to lose your identity outside of work. Joe Ryle discovered this during his work with the Labour Party, and it was partly this realisation that fuels his work today. Joe Ryle is the Director of the 4 Day Week Campaign. He believes that a four-day working week provides positive benefits to society, wellbeing, and people’s mental health. And contrary to what many believe, it boosts productivity, rather than hindering it. Takeaways from Dan...
Feb 03, 2023•36 min•Ep. 50
Is the balance of power shifting from employee to employer? Is AI in danger of reducing our willingness to connect as humans, or could it give us more opportunities for expression? Dan and Pia are joined by previous guests Amy Riley and Stephan Wiedner to share their predictions for 2023, and what we can all do to create spaces where people come together to get stuff done. Predictions from 2023 From Pia: The social fabric of humanity to affect change will become more important. From Amy: Employe...
Jan 27, 2023•41 min•Ep. 49
The workplace needs a rebrand. Design lead Doug Shapiro asked himself “If we didn’t feel like we had to drag ourselves to an office, would we feel differently about it?” Just like those pieces of broccoli our parents made us eat as kids – that most of us later realise is not only good for us, but tasty – a work space can be prepared or presented badly Takeaways from Pia and Dan A place can shape how we bring ourselves to work as individuals, and as members of a team. Work is in a state of flux a...
Dec 16, 2022•46 min•Ep. 48
Communities need a common goal to work towards. And even with that goal in place, how can we galvanise people together to help them achieve it? These are some of the questions this week’s guest, Nick Hudson has had to face while building the phenomenally successful Push-up Challenge. After challenging some friends to workout regularly, former engineer Nick setup a simple app and website that would expand from a few hundred to over 150,000 participants across Australia. Together they’ve tracked t...
Dec 09, 2022•41 min•Ep. 47
When we’re buried in our todo lists, we can lack the courage to take bolder choices. Amy Riley discovered this first-hand through her work helping leaders become more courageous. Amy is an international best-selling author and keynote speaker who helps leaders fully step into their purpose. Her framework for courageous leaders is based on four pillars: The courage to be authentically you The courage to say what needs to be said The courage to trust your leadership legacy The courage to be bold a...
Dec 02, 2022•45 min•Ep. 46
When Dr Beki Hooper began to study rhesus macaques, she found less-than-flattering similarities between monkey behaviour and human team structure. In this fascinating discussion, Dr Beki takes us into the habitat of the rhesus macaque, giving us a first-hand glimpse into a hierarchy based on gender and tenure. Takeaways from Pia and Dan Many of us have experience in organisations that feel like they were governed in the same way as groups of macaques. As humans, we should be able to break throug...
Nov 25, 2022•37 min•Ep. 45
For mountain guide Tania Noakes, leadership isn’t about giving commands, but is about collaborating. Tania is an adventurer and climber who works with teams to help them tackle some of nature’s biggest challenges. As a group guide, Tania has had to be something of a chameleon, adapting herself to what the team dynamic needs to reach their goal safely. Takeaways from Dan and Pia A good leader adapts to the team, rather than expecting the team to adapt to them. Tough times call for clear communica...
Nov 18, 2022•32 min•Ep. 44
We all believe diversity, equity and inclusion to be important, but bridging the gap between the intent and the positive outcomes it brings is no easy task. For Marsha Ramroop, that bridge is cultural intelligence, and she joins Pia and Dan to pose vital questions about inclusion that have surprising answers. After a career in broadcasting spanning 30 years, Marsha discovered the notion of cultural intelligence, and founded a consultancy and worked as Head of Inclusion at RIBA, so she could infl...
Nov 11, 2022•46 min•Ep. 43
What happens when you grow a company from the ground up, and are then asked to leave? For entrepreneur Bart Foster, it meant reassessing his identity, and ultimately redefining himself. After years spent as an intrapreneur within the corporate world, Bart founded his own health and wellness company and became an entrepreneur. Now he leads a company that helps teams think differently, get out of their comfort zones and into nature. Key takeaways Pay attention to the 70% of the bell curve in conve...
Nov 04, 2022•41 min•Ep. 42
Psychological safety is made up of a number of tiny interactions. Whether they be Slack messages, meetings, or emails, these forms of communication – and their responses – determine how likely someone is to speak up and share their ideas. Stephan Wiedner is a psychological safety trainer, CEO, and volunteer firefighter. Stephan trains coaches to help create spaces where people feel free to speak up, with the confidence to know they’ll be heard. Takeaways from Dan ad Pia Attunement is about makin...
Oct 27, 2022•43 min•Ep. 41
For the first time in over a thousand days of Squadify and forty episodes of the podcast, Dan and Pia are in the same room, and are joined by Juliet Owen, to discuss findings from a recent analysis on Squadify data. Squadify works by asking team members to fill in a survey at the start and end of a particular period. Participants rate the importance of a series of conditions for team success, and then later return to record the presence of those conditions. Key findings Teamwork is a more import...
Oct 20, 2022•38 min•Ep. 40
Effective dialogue is the one thing getting in the way of senior teams. Listening is a fundamental part of team communication, and it begins with curiosity. Without it, leadership can be a lonely pursuit with less diversity of thought. Before heading up design and research at LIW, Andy Chevis was an HR director and a salesperson, and has taken his curiosity in how we communicate effectively through his career. In this episode, he shares some of the common – and very human – pitfalls we all fall ...
Oct 13, 2022•46 min•Ep. 39
Community policing runs on trust, no matter the location. That trust flows both ways, and can have its basis in something as simple as a common interest. New Jersey police officer Adam Verducci and his squad are so well-connected that he knows when a situation is in progress just from the sound of a fellow officer’s voice on the radio. In his conversation with Dan and Pia, Adam walks us through a day in the life of a US police officer serving a relatively small town, where trust and connection c...
Oct 06, 2022•37 min•Ep. 38
Leadership is equal parts head, heart, and guts. Joining Dan and Pia to look back on an inspirational third season of We Not Me is CEO of LIW, Dan Meek . Episodes highlighted Breaking out of the box – neurodiversity and connection , with Ross Fraser The brain science of teams , with Sue Langley Teams at the frontline of medicine , with Andy Bocock Connecting to heal , with James & Kristy Thomas Teams in disaster relief , with Janet and Reid Boswell Bringing our baggage to teams , with Mark S...
Sep 29, 2022•53 min•Ep. 37
Undiagnosed autism can feel like a constant struggle to understand, and to be understood. For autism campaigner Ross Fraser, this led to him hiding away for decades to avoid continuing to feel like he was doing or saying the wrong thing, without ever being given rules that made sense. The autism community in the UK includes approximately five million people, and yet in Ross’s experience, most people who live with autism say they’ve felt alone most of their lives. In his conversation with Dan and...
Aug 04, 2022•30 min•Ep. 36
