Inevitable: The Future Of Work

Come along for an amazing personal story of challenge, perservance, and triumph. The payoff for us is that Martine Kalaw, proprieter of a high impact consultancy bearing her name and the author of two books, shares her well-earned perspective and empathy with us in ways that allow us to set aside the shame and blame approach and instead invite people into constructive efforts to open up dialogues that lead to understanding, connection, and progress. https://martinekalaw.com Books: The ABC's of Diversity: A MANAGER'S GUIDE TO DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION IN THE NEW WORKPLACE and Illegal Among Us: A Stateless Woman's Quest for Citizenship

In his just released book, The Radical Enterprise https://itrevolution.com/a-radical-enterprise/, Matt K. Parker guides us through the four imperatives of the radical collaboration needed to save us from the repeated missteps we take by trying to foster innovation and engagement through mandate and hierarchy. Learn how to snatch sanity from madness by taking even small steps informed by the actual human condition as opposed to the one we've made up and maintained for centuries that is predicated on the belief that we need to be told what to do at every turn. You'll leave the conversation feeling liberated and able to take on the world we live in today and pursue an even better one for tomorrow.

SHIFT CEO and two-time best-selling author, Joe Mechlinski, returns to the IFOW to share his insights about the stories we tell ourselves and each other in pursuit of purpose, fulfillment, and impact. This lively conversation has something for everyone - including pretending today is unique, participation trophies, and the Norwegian Winter Olympic Team!

We live in unprecedented and unpredictable times…sort of a climate change circumstance for organizations. So what are leaders and activators to do? How will they facilitate sensemaking for themselves and their teams? Dr. Ciela Hartanov, who runs innovation and strategy firm humcollective, is an alumna of Google, and the author of the forthcoming book, "Reclaiming Sensitivity," provides an understanding of how to grow well beyond the Industrial Age thinking that remains a cornerstone of our engagement practices and help our people solve for the paradoxes that surround us…solutions that hold the key to revealing the emergent strategies that we need to navigate our uncertainty and fulfill our collective promise.

Brad Federman, Founder and CEO of PerformancePoint and author of Cultivating Culture, joins us for a lively discussion about leadership, engagement, and performance and offers great counsel about ways to help teams discover and live their possible. Can people really learn to walk the talk...tune in and find out. We also cover issues of vertical and follical challenge, because some of us are short and bald!

As many business books, seminars, programs and such that continue to be churned out, effective leadership remains an ongoing science project: hypothesis, test, observations, conclusions, update, repeat. Light the candle and see what sort of height and orbit we can achieve. Rocket Science! The IFOW is thrilled to welcome an actual rocket scientist, to talk us through how some of the principles of and lessons from his profession can inform us as activators. Tobin Anthony, CEO of a thriving small business devoted to getting things safely into space for its clients, also is responsible for weathering economic and other challenges and cultivating people and their talent, and committed to living a fulfilled life, is our guest...and you will be even more ready for launch after you listen to our conversation.

In an era of technology-enabled services and a greater embrace of holistic well-being, Lionrock Recovery could well be the poster organization for both. As they say, “We use technology to make it easier and more private to get addiction treatment, and to reach people who would not otherwise get help.” Ashley Loeb Blassingame, Co-founder and Chief People Officer, who also serves as an addiction counselor; and AJ Black, Director of Business Development focused on the employer market, share a variety of insights and encouragements for helping us understand when and how to pursue or support earlier intervention when substances begin to control our lives or the lives of people we care about. The conversation is informative, intense, and inspiring. In terms of the broader impact that life’s stressors can have on us, check out these articles: • Marriage hurts a hedge fund manager more than divorce • Divorce has "immense" impact on small businesses

Jennifer Byrne, CEO of Arrived Workforce and former CTO of Microsoft US, walks us through a variety of challenges and options we have for best utilizing technology versus being used by it. We cover topics ranging from AI to data to the cloud to how closely to follow a recipe!

Melissa Henderson, Executive Agent and hiring expert, rejoins us to splash some cold water on the faces of those trying to hire in our extremely tight and competitve talentmarket. She issues a blunt piece - and highly accessible - piece of advice to would-be employers: get off you backsides and do the work. Take a listen to find our ore about exactly what work will serve your interests best.

Jorge Quezada, Chief Inclusionist for Granite Construction, has built a career on being a practitioner able to guide multiple organizations in establishing a "method to the madness" of their diversity, equity, and inclusion aspirations. He counsels that no one has cornered the market on diversity, and that - without inclusion - the value of diversity remains untapped.

Leaders often think of - and are told to think of - themselves as a parent and their people as children. This is inappropriate, wrong-headed, and unproductive. Leaders should think of their people as puppies. You heard me right. Check out why.

People have never been more interested in or in need of focusing on what's most important to them. This quest has revealed that we all have "gremlins" - things we imagine or place in our paths that derail us. Turns out, this is how we're wired - with a negative bias that attaches to our brains like Velcro. Certified Mental Fitness Coach, Wendy Swire (www.swiresolutions.com) joins the IFOW to help us learn to activate our "Sage" brains and make a difference - by creating islands of excellence and guiding others towards the "light"! In our conversation, Wendy explains the importance and impact of mindset, in part, because emotions are contagious. Here’s a link to some of the research on Emotional Contagion she based her statement on: https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.elainehatfield.com%2Fuploads%2F3%2F4%2F5%2F2%2F34523593%2F116._hatfield__rapson_2010.pdf&data=04%7C01%7Cjlesher%40shiftthework.com%7C6ca3f2fb656245eb37b508d97465e7ca%7C673db8751f5141c1b4bc77dc49f92a95%7C0%7C

Co-authors of the book, Love As A Business Strategy, Chris Pitre and Frank Danna (along with Mohammad Anwar and Jeffrey Ma), share their views on how we can battle the loss of engagement and the great resignation through actively promoting acts of true caring for one another in the workplace. Frank and Chris are clear and compelling in their counsel that love is a business strategy with substance and impact, not something tangential or - to some - down right "icky." Instead, they riff on the famous Peter Drucker quote about culture eating strategy for breakfast with their belief that "behaviours eat culture for lunch," which sounds like a plan to us!

IFOW Executive Producer and Co-host, Jeff Lesher, provides perspective, candor, and encouragement to leaders to make a definitive call when it comes to vaccinations in their workplace. It IS the purview of leaders to make this call, and the time for them to make it is NOW. Their criteria need to include facts, the interests of the many, and the responsibilities that fall to each member of their team based on what they CHOOSE to do. Actions and inaction have consequences. Leaders need to stop letting things happen TO them and put a stake in the ground about how things need to be in the organizations in their care.

Standing for diversity, equality, equity, and inclusion by showing everyone respect because they deserve it, being willing and able to walk the "tightrope" while staying true to you, and - among other things - expanding your horizons by asking why, and making the time to share with and create space for others We tap into the experience-driven wisdom of D. John Jackson, a Fortune 50 corporate leader who's memoir, What About Me: Walking the Tightrope as a Black Man in America, shares a simple, powerful message: Your life matters. Your dreams matter. And you can achieve them, no matter who you are or where you’re starting out. John's insights and convictions were collected specifically to support young black men and boys, but truly are universal in their value. When we are fully appreciated, when we all come together through stories of success and hope, this country will finally reach its fullest potential.

Developing our next generations of leaders - even/especially as we encounter Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity (VUCA) requires that we: get out of your own way with your own development by giving yourself grace with and credit for the progress you're making and then share that sensibility and practice with others. We can and need to accelerate the acquisition of experience and perspective by actively passing on what we've learned and helping others adapt it for their use. And, we need to instil in all leaders the understanding that intention is not the destination of leadership, effect is. We have to constantly assess the effect our intentions are creating and adjust accordingly The development of leaders and their leadership abilities is a team sport. Your ability to develop others in a VUCA world requires that you, first, get out of your own way with your own development by giving yourself grace with and credit for the progress you're making. Kayvan Kian, author of the best-selling guide