Back2Different

I’ve run across (or into!) Mark O’Brien ( mark@obriencg.com ) in several online conversations. From the first, I knew we’d be friends, for two reasons. First, Mark and I both love to write and love to explore and discover, even if we ruffle a few feathers—or entire flocks—in the process. Second, after Mark says something, I never need to stop and consider, “I wonder what’s really on his mind?” So...

Competitive skier, off to college to play baseball, golfer, professor, experienced in mergers and acquisitions, and now Brian Sommer ( briansommercoaching.com ) carries a passion for leadership and learning into his coaching work. We both love sports, through Brian is good at them. We both abide in a skeptical place, “separating what happens from what we say happens.” And we both discovered during...

I see podcasting as the discovery of surprises. I’m not in charge, just a part of. My conversation with Barry Schwartz ( bschwar1@swarthmore.edu ) is a luge ride, full speed and switching the role of top slider (the one who signals the turn) and the bottom driver (the one who makes the turn) throughout. Here’s some of where we went:                                                                 ...

We find our common territory much more easily than most may think. John Dunia ( shamedoctor.com) is the 46th visitor to record on back2different . I’ve added layers of understanding and connection to my life since this podcast journey started, its birth parallel to the generation of the virus.  I’d like to suggest that we don’t need to experience this time as a separation but as an acknowledgment...

We pick up a lot of ‘stuff’ as we grow up. If you’re familiar with George Carlin, you know what ‘stuff’ means. Joanna Bennett ( joanna@obriencg.com ) shares her story, no holds barred, about finding her way through situations and assumptions that stood in the way of what she now knows and loves. She and her children have grown closer during the pandemic, and she lives by a very clear credo: I valu...

Laura Gray ( lgray@maloneynovotny.com ) has no lack of credentials. Corporate, academic, sales and training. And trauma. Her journey toward emotional rejuvenation and spirit included opening up some scabs and scars that were scary and necessary. In this courageous conversation, she tells her story to deliver a deep appreciation of how resilient we can become if we can barter shame for clarity. She...

As Andrew Foster led me through his story, he focused on writing. He has taken this advice from one of his professors and holds it close to his heart: “Stop! Write about it!”  We share a love of writing, especially of the most demanding love, poetry.  I believe we are all in need of spiritual nutrition, the emotional body-building that comes from community. Especially now, as we are all bound up i...

When I first met Roger Martin ( roger@themindsetdifference.com ), I realized he was someone who spoke with marked purpose—what he was about to say would be focused, clear, and memorable. I found myself hoping he would be the next person to speak in our group. Roger, who is Co-Founder of The Mindset Difference , working with Sarah Matthew, Founder of The Vibrant Company and Barry Holmes, Founder of...

Nicola Lipscombe ( nicola@nicolalipscombe.com ) lives in Kent Town, South Australia. Heartwise Leadership—her words for her focus— captures her journey and her work. She has wandered the planet, worked in business and the academic world, found herself not quite sure who she was seeing in the mirror, then stopped ‘following the guard rails’ and went hell-for-leather forward into finding Nicola rath...

My first conversation with Shara Lewis-Campbell ( https://www.beautyandthebeastpublishing.net ) leapfrogged from theme to idea to insight and back again. It affirmed my belief that all we need to do is be mutually interested in discovery and our interests will align. Shara's and my country of origin, culture, race, generation, gender, all differ. Yet we quickly found ourselves passengers on t...

Valerie Andrews ( reinventinghome.org ) has caught on to something immediate and important—what has home  become, especially during the pandemic? Home has been that place of memory, where we ate and slept and familied between school or work. Some of us have moved a bunch, some of us live (especially now) in a caravan of RVs, some of us still live within the walls that grew us up. No matter. We all...

Colin Heyman ( maine-stream.co.uk ) showed up as part of a growing cadre of coaches and facilitators who recognize that we all need to contribute to a world based on understanding and community. This is not a political issue, it’s a survival issue. And it’s a business issue. The data are clear that when people feel valued and included in any endeavor, they work not only harder, they work better. I...

Says Bilbo, “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out one’s front door.” That dangerous business leads to adventure and connection. I love that kind of danger. So here’s Steven Howard, guru of Caliente Leadership ( https://www.calienteleadership.com ), whom I met while virtually meandering.  It took a while to finally talk, then longer to stop. I had to put the brakes on since the record button...

I’ve discovered that podcasting is a great way to make new friends. We begin miles apart (even thousands!) and very quickly find ourselves having the kind of intimate conversations that grow with close friendship. Sarah is no exception. We’ve been friends for a long time, though we’ve never met. When we first started our conversations, Sarah was the Chief Happiness Officer at a corporation. I&apos...

I will confess that Colleague Consulting is one of my clients. Maya Larson ( linkedin.com/in/mayalarson ) just came to the company as its new president. She’s been discovering lots of stuff throughout her life, including helping deal with two weather disasters—Katrina in New Orleans and superstorm Sandy in New Jersey. Like me, she’s animated by passion, a sense of adventure, and a strong curiosity...

“We need to have a big enough conversation” said Catherine Sherlock ( linkedin.com/in/catherinesherlock ) the first time we spoke. I agree. The conversations we generally have about what’s happening tend to be too small — focused on agendas, opinions, or events, rather than on the systems and beliefs that limit our sense of discovery and spirit. She and I ran into the usual scheduling madness befo...

This is how it works: Along comes this fellow by the name of Nick Wright; we bump into each other in the virtual village. In the course of our conversation, he mentions a friend (also in the U.K) named Chris Lever ( chrislever@teleiosconsulting.com ). “I think you two have a lot to talk about,” Nick opines. It turns out we do, and here it is. It’s a good story that begins with young Chris walking...

We’re both lovers of language, Jack and I - I’m a recovering English teacher; he comes from the fields of journalism and PR. He cuts right to the chase about 'value over volume' and has some very cool insights about the impact of powerful-and vague- writing. His opus is Ten Steps to Successful Business Writing , a very down-to-earth approach to simplifying and clarifying before we hit “S...

How big is a neighborhood? I guess it has to be big enough to hold all your neighbors. Greg Chapman ( linkedin.com/in/thisisgregchapman ) lives in my neighborhood. He also lives in South Delhi, India. He and I live across the virtual street from each other. We’re fearless about our friendship and have somehow achieved lifelong connection. Though the chronology of that life only stretches for six m...

Editing the back2different podcast I recorded with Steve Pearlman  took longer than usual. I kept going back to listen to points he made, e.g. “Intelligence is less important than critical thinking.” He’s right. Critical thinking is a perspective, a way of living that embraces skepticism and continuous discovery, playing with ideas , knowledge as a basis for insight, not as an end in itself. We ba...

David Osborne published Laboratories of Democracy— his first book—in 1988. It spotlights five governors around the country who wanted to change how states operate. I chose his title for this podcast because schools are our greatest laboratory for democracy, yet they are arguably the least democratic institution in our country. David is a champion for change—in government ( Reinventing Government )...

John and I support Margaret Wheatley’s idea that “Power in organizations is the capacity generated by relationships.” Leadership does not exist within leaders, it exists between everyone involved. After spending time working  as an architect and mountaineer (seriously!), he and his wife moved to North Yorkshire for a temporary stay in the country. He’s still there. He has had a peripatetic career,...

After too long apart, Greg and I have rediscovered how much understanding and sense of discovery we have always shared and still do. His thinking, his writing, his courage and transparency all remind me that we need to act in order to nourish change and help, inch by inch, spread the warmth and power of community. Greg’s work in sustainability and humane leadership continue even as he and Frances...

Megan Miller ( aprovecharlanguagesolutions@gmail.com ) , like me, followed a winding road to find her way to her business, a very personalized and focused way of teaching language. We both love riding horses, are infernally curious, and value a childlike place of wonder and discovery. During our conversation, she gave me a gift about teaching: teachers need to be “utterly curious and relentlessly...

The connections keep showing up if we’re available. Bill Bray and I live within a few miles of each other, yet we’ve met, and become friends, only virtually. He served, I did not. That difference provided us with curiosity rather than judgment. Bill works at USNI ( www. USNI.org ), the United States Naval Institute. Among other things, they feature and publish what he calls insurgents —people in t...