Giant Talk: Where Strategy Meets Results

In this episode of Giant Talk, James and Roger discuss leadership strategies with Dave Joyce, CEO of Macrium. The conversation explores the importance of creating a self-sufficient leadership team, the vision for making the workplace irresistible, and the integration of OKRs into the company's operating system. The conversation explores the implementation of the OKR framework and its impact on org...

The conversation covers the expansion of the Giant Talk Podcast, the introduction of a new guest in the OKR software market, Stephen's entrepreneurial journey with OKRs, the ROI of OKRs and research reports, the impact of leadership on OKRs, the quality of decision makingThe conversation covers the expansion of the Giant Talk Podcast, the introduction of a new guest in the OKR software market, Ste...

“Values plus behaviours times consistency equals culture.” Roger and James speak with Chris Wisely about how Atlas grew from a small cleaning business into a £400 million, 15,000-person employee-owned business. The conversation focuses on what changed as the company scaled, why culture and performance must stay linked, and how Atlas is keeping decision-making fast while adding more structure. Chri...

The conversation with Emily from Redmore Environmental covers the evolution of the company, the challenges of growth, management and leadership, horizontal alignment and working groups, personal transition and lessons learned, and future growth and strategy. The key takeaways include the importance of strategy and structure, as well as the impact of leadership and management style on organizationa...

In the first of our new 10min "PodBlogs" Jo & Rog talk about the recent blog Jo wrote on the importance of people seeing themselves in the story when it comes to successfully navigating change. They discuss challenges of change communication, understanding the operational mindset, the role of coaches in bridging the gap, excitement about collaboration, and connecting work to a bigger purpose....

Connecting Strategy to Results with Simon Norie James and Roger explore how organisations can align their purpose, strategy, and customer experience to drive meaningful results. Simon Norie of Custerian shares insights on navigating organisational change, fostering alignment, and the role of leadership in achieving sustainable success. Key Topics The importance of understanding and articulating yo...

The conversation explores the shift in the Giant Talk podcast's focus, introduces Ian Turner and delves into his HR experience, transformation, and human-centered leadership. It discusses empathy, performance standards, and the impact of a CEO's disrespectful comments on culture. The conversation also covers OKRs, individual recognition, challenges in human-centered leadership, and the balance bet...

After a bit of a (long) break, Giant Talk is back, with a new look, feel and a new co-host! Still the same focus - decoding what works in translating strategy into results. James Perryman of Momentus joins Roger to bring a new perspective to the conversations on Giant Talk. While he and Roger share similar outlooks on business, strategy and performance, they come at it from different angles - with...

We're sure you've heard the acronym: OKRs - Objectives and Key Results. But somewhere along the way, the simplicity got lost in translation. In this episode, we ask: What if we stopped calling them OKRs altogether? Roger Longden, TBG Founder and Marc Applebaum PM2 OKR Consultant at PM2 discuss how goal-setting became over engineered, why rhythms matter more than rituals, and the power of intention...

  In this insightful episode of Giant Talk, Roger sits down with Sonia, an experienced HR professional and coach, to explore the critical challenge of organisational alignment. They dive deep into why strategic goals often get lost or diluted as they cascade through different levels of an organisation. Drawing from decades of experience at the board level, Sonia shares sharp insights into the disc...

In this episode, we sit down with our long-time friend Henrik-Jan Van Der Pol, Founder of Perdoo, to dig into the evolving world of OKRs. As the market shifts, with consultancies and software providers consolidating or shutting down, what’s really going on? Henrik-Jan shares his insights on these changes, the lessons learned over the past 4–5 years, and what Microsoft’s decision to retire Viva Goa...

In this episode, we’re joined by Sten, founder of Tability, an OKR platform designed to make accountability seamless and help teams achieve their goals faster. We chat about how accountability fits into the OKR framework and why this is so crucial. Sten explains that while teams often excel at setting goals during workshops, they frequently “drop the ball” when it comes to staying on track. Tabili...

Welcome back to another episode of Giant Talk. In this episode, we sit down with Jonathan Elliot, a seasoned CEO with a career spanning commercial sales & marketing, strategy consulting, and leadership. Jonathan shares his expertise on implementing Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) in large, complex organisations and the unique challenges that come with it. We discuss: The role of OKRs: How OK...

In this episode, we explore the power of communication with James Milsom, Head of Marketing at Hunter. AI. With extensive experience across tech start-ups and large SMBs, James shares his perspective on why communication serves as the bedrock of both success and failure within organisations. From enhancing collaboration to avoiding costly missteps, James highlights actionable strategies for leader...

In this podcast episode we sit down with James Church, COO and Co-Founder of investment readiness agency Robot Mascot. We dive into (from a founders perspective) the good, the bad and the ugly of becoming investable. What are the top 3 things that make a Founder (and their business) investable? How important is it to investors to be confident that Founders are evolving their approach to defining a...

In this episode Roger sits down with a Chief Elephant Spotter (curious, listen to find out what this entails). James Pels is founder of Proven EA, a consultancy specialising in providing business transformation, agile coaching and digital transformation services to a wide range of industries in the public and private sectors. Roger and James dive into how to not waste time on things that you shoul...

Welcome back to Giant Talk!   In this episode Roger has an interesting conversation with Luke Fisher, CEO of Mo. Luke shares his journey from a fintech company undergoing cultural transformation to founding Mo, a platform designed to help managers and leaders sustainably invest in organisational culture. We dive into the significance of high-performing teams, the critical role of bottom-up change,...

Like any military organisation, command and control is necessary, especially in battle.  When the stakes are this high, how can the time and space be made for testing new ideas, and challenging the status quo? So how does an organisation like the UK’s Royal Air Force learn, adapt and grow when hierarchy and orders are commonplace?  Flight Lieutenant Nic Corrigan joins us to share how time is consc...

In this episode, we reconnect with ECO Surv, a valued client from just over a year ago. ECO Surv offer compliance and workflow management solutions in the energy efficiency, retro fit and renewables sector. Dive into the conversation with Nate, Co-Founder and CEO, and Bex, People and Culture Manager, as they share their journey with OKRs. Discover how, amid their rapid scaling, ECO Surv found OKRs...

Welcome to another episode of Giant Talk. In this episode Roger chats to chats to Joanna, Head of Academy and Expert Consultant at There Be Giants. This episode shines a spotlight on the important, yet often overlooked, topic of psychological safety in the workplace. Jo brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from her work at There Be Giants and explores the essence of psychological safety - a...

We're clearly big fan of OKRs, but we're not so blindly fanatical that we don’t accept they are only part of the picture when it comes to strategy execution.  OKRs signpost and help to chart progress at a high level but don’t do a great job at defining and tracking the details; they need to interface with the next level, and that’s often project management. At TBG we've had a lot of involvement wi...

OKR teams rarely find themselves based in the same location, so forming and working together brings all the challenges of hybrid working in today's contemporary organisations. This is why we was particularly interested in having a chat with Alexandra Samuel, after reading her HBR article “3 Project Management Strategies for a Hybrid Workplace” .  In our 30-minute+ conversation, we discuss all aspe...

Welcome back to Giant Talk, the world’s first OKR podcast.   In this episode, Roger chats to Jacob Morgan author, futurist, & keynote Speaker on leadership, employee experience, & the future of work. In this discussion, Jacob talks about the topic of leading with vulnerability. How do you as a leader share a vulnerable side, share any gaps you have and open up about what you’ve learned to...

Welcome back to Giant Talk, the world’s first OKR podcast.   In this episode, Roger chats to Ryan Lowdermilk, Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft, an OKR Champion and OKR Coach for the Microsoft Tech team for the America’s. Ryan chats to Roger about the use of OKRs at Microsoft, how OKRs can break through the hierarchy and why OKRs should be a light lift.     Enjoy the episode!  If you have 3 mi...

Welcome back to Giant Talk, the world’s first OKR podcast.   In this episode, Roger catches up with Tracey Boylin, CEO of Organisational Genetics. Organisational Genetics was born out of the real life experiences of the founders to address the challenge of nurturing a more open reporting culture in the NHS and other organisations.  Tracey chats to Roger about her work in Ukraine in preventing corr...