Practice? Podcast

Dave noticed that his former student Hannah Cooper , now a business analyst, was still the softball enthusiast he knew nearly ten years ago. Her practice evolved from player to coach to founder/trainer of Cooper Clinics . Hannah's vision is that girls and young women will develop in spirit, mind, and body with a sport they can play well into adulthood. 

Freek Sanders , from the Netherlands, is an action researcher, poet, and certified executive coach, among other things. Dave finds his current focus on the role of silence in leadership discourse interesting. However, this episode is not 30 minutes of silence. Rather, it suggests that we could all benefit from more moments of peaceful quiet.

Dave was attracted to the evocative title of Historian/Business Professor  Martin Gutmann's new book - The Unseen Leader . This led to a rousing conversation and the promise to keep on learning with each other. Seeing is believing in the depth of leadership. 

Dave always looks for thinkers who can contribute a different perspective to leading and developing our leadership and collaborative design practices. Dave had to reach all the way out from Connecticut to New Zealand, but he found BeWeDo founder, Aikido -inspired Mark Bradford fits this bill and so much more. 

Son Dave Fearon continues informing me about the hidden 'goings on' as we humans create and use information in conversation, laying out the path for practice.  The typed letters are not information until you read and give them meaning. 

Poet, coach, group process facilitator, and refreshingly kind person, Tenneson Woolf and Dave 'speak' in close harmony (singing is out of the question for Dave). They share ways, each in his way, gauges success as moments when guiding people releases untapped potential to solve and to soar.  

Dave and Kathy Lund Dean were recognized in subsequent years with the Management & Organizational Behavior Teaching Society's David L. Bradford Award for a lifetime of leadership focusing on teaching and learning. Years of creative accomplishments 'become' the person as a way of being. Kathy's unique role as The Board of Trustees Distinguished Chair in Leadership and Ethics is becoming to Gust...

Cornelius (Niel) Uliano tells Dave he was inspired to become a filmmaker in the eighth grade. And so he has! He left Newington, Connecticut, to attend film school four years later. Today, he is the Co-producer and writer of The Peanuts Movie . And, on to other Peanuts movies for Apple+... Well, listen, and Niel will tell his story. And to think he grew up two miles from Dave's campus and was the b...

Easterseals campaigns and inter-organizational collaborations happen out of the goodness of people's hearts. President & CEO of Easterseals Capital Region & Eastern Connecticut, inc.  Robin Sharp leads with a deep appreciation for volunteered resources whose  disabled beneficiaries have a better quality of life. 

I'll tell you a story about the sincerely practiced storyteller in this episode.  David Hutchens taps into our humanity and finds the gold in real and true stories (or delightful fiction). Our stories. Our organisations' stories. Our town's stories. And he/we will live happily ever after. 

Leading is a skillful practice, and the founder of the Leadership Skills Lab , Gary Lloyd , never lets up on the quest for better ways. Dave realizes he has fallen behind his contemporary Gary, who is urging him to put AI (artificial intelligence) to this purpose. Well, the learning never ceases if you are majorly curious. 

We continue our series of 'Dave & Dad" learning conversations, looking closely for what happens in moments , engaging all our senses, and compelling our full consciousness. Our practices grow us forward, always landing us in a new time and place (even if the space seems to be the same as before, yet connected anew). 

Our intentional practices have landed us amid a socio-political context of pessimism, anger, and even rage. Dave, Lizy , and Tom talk over such findings in a recent Discussion Partners Collaborative leadership sentiment survey.  We still focus and do what we can to make things better. 

A Bowling Green State University Doctorate in Organization Development & Change was just conferred upon this seasoned leader whose research focuses on exemplary leaders in highly disruptive settings (COVID). Dr. Kelly Gesmundo Clarke goes now where uncertainty prevails to encourage exemplary leadership practice. "You can find Dr. Gesmundo Clarke here: Exemplary Leadership Institute  

Kathryn Kaplan is now a professional grief counselor. For most of her career, she was an Organization Development consultant. This is the fifth episode with Kathryn, each marking a transformational moment in her practice life. Her latest book, Dying With His Eyes Wide Open , prompts this reunion of two former Peter Vaill students. Dave ventures that we can choose to develop grieving losses as a pr...

Dave discovers a natural teaching quality in his guest Organizational Development professional,  Dr. Lisa Thomas . Mutual development happens in moments when Lisa is coaching, facilitating, or instructing. Her earnest desire for the betterment of others is palpable. You will experience it in this conversation.  

Dave's former student, Kelly Harper, CPA , manages her fortunate way of life as an accountant who constantly leads and learns. After doing so at several global corporations, Kelly brings her team's talents to corporate customers of Deloitte . 

Dave Fearon, Jr . summarizes the progression of his Social Enaction thoughts across the 18 episodes of conversation with his co-inquiring father (me). This brings us to Conversational Analysis revealing the practice that holds us humans together (or apart). Talking.  

Vice-President of Organization Development & HR Carla McKnight's  conversation with Dave gets him 'all fired up' for the community college movement as Carla talks about her constantly changing Valencia College , keeping up with the needs of the Central  Florida communities. Changing again? Call Carla. 

Dave reaches across continents to see what fellow restless thinker Don Dunoon , Director of New Futures, has found since Episode 124 in August 2021. Plenty. He's still digging in the gold mine of natural conversation. He shares leadership 'finds' like the importance of safety.   

Dave loves to showcase former Management students who, then and now, are avid learners. Nicole, always up for change, moves into a new practicing estimating for jet engine transactions. "It's different every day". 

Digital artist and special effects practitioner, Realtime Supervisor at the visual effect company Framestore , Mike Zaman introduces Dave to the vast, fast, and broadly cast world of digitally rendered art.  

Dave meets Daryl Conner , a change consultant who, for many decades, has performed at the epicenter of organizational strategic decision-making, learning with his clients at the point of change execution. While his global firm serves enterprises across the spectrum, Daryl advises international NGOs addressing "changes that matter." 

Tom Casey 's Discussion Partner Collaborative shifted its leadership research practice to an unusual but elemental source of influence - ideas shaped by reading classic children's books. He and Dave sift through the gems of possibilities.    

Right now, Amanda Pizzoferrato is a Cookie Marketer. No, she's not a Girl Scout. Her's is the innovative Corso Cookie brand. She loves the daily learning of launching a direct sales online marketing practice. It's not unlike her previous venture, 'cooking up' a popular sandwich cafe  - the Sleepy Rooster. And yes, she's another of Dave's former students.