September 17th is the 20th anniversary of the launch of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®. Sadly due to the pandemic, there's unlikely to be a large party with a cake shaped like a piece of LEGO or a nationwide strategic planning session in which we are prompted to build a model of [...]
There is an old Arab Bedouin saying: “I, against my brothers. I and my brothers against my cousins. I and my brothers and my cousins against the world.” In this episode the guys consider examples of being part of a tribe in both business and the wider society and talk about the pros and cons of tribalism.
The film Wall Street, with its iconic character Gordon Gekko, coined the phrase greed is good. “Greed is right, greed works,” he claimed. But this runs counter to almost every intuition we have. We assume that employees who prize the collective good are going to be better for our workplace culture. This [...]
In this episode the guys talk about the importance of separating behaviour and opinion from the person. In a seemingly ever polarising world, both at work and in society generally, just because an individual does or says something you don’t like or agree with, it doesn’t automatically mean that that individual is an ‘evil’ person, whose raison d’etre is to piss you off. People aren’t bad people simply because they don’t agree with us, perhaps we should try and understand the world from their perspective, rather than simply tell them they are wrong. Once we understand that other person’s perspective, then we can work with them to meet a common goal. Don’t simply call them an f***ing idiot because they don’t see things the way you do! Remember, in the words of Brene Brown - “People are hard to hate close up. Move in.”
Fergus Lawson studied French at University and developed a love for France and the French culture. He has been an organizational development and leadership consultant across the public sector for the main part of his career, working with the National Health Service, the Metropolitan Police in London and the London Ambulance Service. In this interview Fergus talks about the challenges of public sector leadership, including the need to understand the context you are leading in, taking a whole systems approach to change and leaving your f***ing ego at the door.
With a podcast title in homage to Monty Python's 'Life of Brian', the guys discuss the Four Directional Influence Model from their book "I Need To F***ing Talk T You The Art Of Difficult Workplace Conversations'.
In this episode Russell is locked in his f***ing basement, why Ken lives his best life swinging in an f***ing hammock watching an eagle fly over his cabin in the forest. The guys talk about their experiences of f***ing COVID lockdowns and how they and their clients have tried to manage work/life balance.
We’ve wanted to f***ing talk to Monique for some time. Monique has a f***ing impressive resume - she is currently a City Council Candidate for Ward 8, she is a transformative CEO, International speaker, author, board member, advocate & catalyst for change in the social sector.
Have you ver had “one of those bosses”? Someone who’s an f***ing nightmare of a boss, someone who drives you and your co-workers f***ing crazy? In this episode Ken and Russell discuss more of the worst f***ing bosses submitted by our listeners in response to our earlier edition.
Ken and Russell wanted to f***ing talk to long time friend and collaborator Nicole Zylstra about her work as an improviser, actor, director and playwright. Nicole draws on her work as a leading light in the Calgary Improv Scene to discuss how this artistic approach can be used in the business world.
