The Great Conversation

Across every civilization, from the Nile to Wall Street, humans have built pyramids. Some were carved from stone, others from policy, process, and PowerPoint. But the shape persists. Why? Perhaps it is because the pyramid is more than a structure—it’s a belief system. It’s how we make sense of scale. It’s how we create order out of chaos, meaning out of complexity, and continuity out of uncertaint...

“People don’t need a spreadsheet of reasons to trust you. They don’t want another pitch deck. Another promise. Another polished lie. They are waiting for a signal. And what is the most powerful signal: "I see you. I hear you. You matter." Jack Barsky, a former KGB spy, did not learn this in Harvard Business School. He learned it from his tradecraft as a spy. In the Great Conversation, we navigate...

All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts… Shakespeare And so it goes with our professional lives as well. The way we enter the business world and how we exit has an “In-between” that establishes the story we one day will tell. This Great Conversation is between two men who have been on tha...

A “Washing Machine” sits in each company ready to toss you into a cycle of doing. If you let yourself and others enter it, you have shut the door on the full potential of the humans who have come alongside you to create something of value. These people have a conscious or unconscious need for meaning in their lives. If you are the leader: by title or by ownership, you have a choice to make. You ca...

The world spins off wheels (models used by any human organization to achieve success in the market). But what if the wheel begins to slow or suddenly stops? In this great conversation we face the existential question: Are we ready for the change that is upon us? This change is multi-faceted. The change is a wheel that can release the energy of the market, the organizations within a market, and the...

‘The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.’ — Attributed to George Bernard Shaw “Isn’t it time to stop holding people accountable?” You are a leader. You take on a role called owner, executive, or manager. Or you are part of a team. You are trying to get things done. And you have laggards among you. What is the common response"? Hold them accountable! Thi...

In this Great Conversation podcast we excavate the human and organizational need for better. For organizations that employ people, this is about the alignment of people, purpose, and organization. We turn to one of the former leaders responsible for learning and development at Microsoft. We learn about the “data-informed” approach that transformed technology leaders that has been transcended with...

Most of us have experienced the gnawing doubt of our purpose. Few have leaned into that doubt and set out on a journey of exploration, knowing they are seafarers navigating the risks and opportunities of the voyage. This Great Conversation is with a woman who pursued formal education in business and economics at Harvard. It became her future core competency. She is now acknowledged as a thought le...

If you are a data driven organization and measures of performance are important to you, it might be helpful to understand the measure that influences all other measures…. This great conversation is about cracking the code in creating a persistent measure of organizational trust that impacts the engagement and performance of your people. To paraphrase our guest: Leadership=Trust. Now you can measur...

I have often said that worldview is a predictor of behavior. What is a worldview? A worldview is the narrative you absorbed through your family, education, and experience that act as a toolbox of beliefs, assumptions, and values elements. by which you interact with the world. It is the story of you and your place in the world. The Great Conversation is really about worldview creating the soil for...

In 2022, 39% of 18- to 24-year-olds in the United States were enrolled in college or graduate school. The total cost of attendance for a four-year degree includes tuition and fees, room and board, books, supplies, and other expenses. In 2022-2023, the average annual cost of attendance for first-time, full-time undergraduate students was:  Private nonprofit institutions: $58,600+ Private for-profit...

Your team is in the room. It is a strategic moment. High risk, high reward. And you are the team leader. How do you help them navigate this moment of risk and opportunity? This is happening in board rooms, executive management team meetings, and in organizational teams throughout your company. Do you have the language, processes, and tools embedded in your people so they can meet the moment that m...

We had a great conversation with the Founder and CEO of The Demand Creation Institute , Sean Stormes. Sean had the good fortune of leading a Continuous Quality Improvement initiative within a Fortune 500 company. This led him to the world’s authority Dr. William Edwards Deming, the father of the quality movement. Deming was credited with revolutionizing Post World War II Japan’s manufacturing indu...

I have seen it before. So have you. A disconnect: with your people with your stakeholders in your market with your prospects and customers with your board And most important of all, you have compartments within you that are silos of excellence but are not integrated into a highly compelling story of you. We invited Chris Hare, the Founder and Principal of The Storied Future , to our Podcast to dis...

Markets are ecosystems. They are unique to geographies, economies, and weather (seasons of change). Market participants later find they need to be represented as a single voice in representing their needs to the government or to coalesce around industry standards to uplift the quality of their industry. For example, the American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS) was born in 1955. The original...

In the security industry, the ideal posture is to be proactive. To do this, requires a relationship with people, processes, tools, and the core values of the client. And ideally, the client is now able to identify risk, analyze and assess that risk, and then mitigate the risk down to an acceptable level.  If this is true, how do you assess the methodology and the core values of a vendor before the...

When you have conversations with others, are you trying to win? Trying to defend a position? Then, perhaps, you might be stuck. In this Great Conversation with social researcher and author Michael McQueen, we learn what is is to be Mind Stuck, and how we might discover a new way to see and be seen. This impacts you personally, professionally, and, in the end, influences the course of our organizat...

We create tools. The tools help us off load burdensome tasks as well as act as highly leveraged fulcrums to expand our energy and minds. These tools have helped us create. They have helped us build. They have helped us cure disease. They have helped us mitigate threats, from both human and animal. And now we have artificial intelligence. However, many of the implementations are failing because we...

We are all on the journey of becoming. And we hope and pray, that at the end of the journey we are whole. For all of us that means being loved for who we are. And to get there, we need to establish trust in ourselves and in others. Trust. Could it be the foundation of everything we touch? Are we not all builders? And if so, wouldn’t we want to build all the relationships we have in this life on to...

Words are an attempt to articulate reality. The reality that was yesterday. The reality that is today. And the reality that is tomorrow. Words can be a weapon. They can bully, demonize, and destroy. Words can embrace, energize, and elevate. If these bookends are true, then what is the area in-between that seems to be moved by one or the other? I have a great conversation with Chris Westfall , auth...

Lives of quiet desperation. We have been pulling on the quote from Thoreau for awhile in our great conversations. Our great conversation on the Future of Work with this dynamic and inspirational leader may provide you the nudge to seize this moment to recognize your impact on others and help create an engaged culture of impact and purpose with your team.

Whenever you attempt to capture knowledge it is useful to understand that it is a snapshot in time. Very little of what we learn will survive as true given the unique nature of change. However, it is a platform for growth as long as you have access to the real time experiences of change that are occurring. We explore this idea in this great conversation with a security consultant attempting to cre...

Imagine being tasked to develop a first class talent and organizational management platform for one of the most respected companies in the Fortune 100. A company with a vision, mission, values, and goals that is highly respected in the industry, with a CEO who looked to his leaders to articulate those things in a very specific way. And now you have been with this company for 20 years. You have wor...

What does it look like to create a path to value ? What does that really mean? I have been having great conversations for over 20 years that have informed my physical leadership events and my podcasts. I have pursued people who have ideas that might change their market and perhaps change their world. I have taken the position of learner within these conversations. I don’t interview, I consume. It...

I would quickly describe “burn out” as exhaustion. But that is too simple. How did you become exhausted? It seems that there is this incredible stage we go through while heading toward exhaustion and part of it is being actively disengaged from our purpose and settling for a frantic and numbing execution of droll work. Then what would be “Burn In”? It can mean a lot of things, but in this context...