Why spaciousness matters for leading in speed—and how to create it

These are the key questions we discuss in this episode of Changing Conversations with Megan Reitz.

Megan Reitz is Associate Professor at Saïd Business School, Oxford, and Professor of Leadership and Dialogue at Hult-Ashridge Executive Education. A leading voice on leadership, speaking up and organisational dialogue, her latest research explores spaciousness: a quality of attention that reveals relationships, interdependencies and possibilities hidden in constant doing mode.

In this conversation, we share:

• That leaders operate in two modes of attention: doing (instrumental, narrow) and spacious (open, curious, unhurried)—and why “spaciously doing” integrates both
• How your presence shapes others’ voice and performance—and practical micro-pauses to shift how you show up
• Why we often avoid space (fear, success = activity) and the myth that spaciousness means doing nothing
• How to design for creativity and safety in fast-paced systems (rituals, metrics, environments)
• A practical framework: SPACE—Safety, People, Attention (speed bumps), Conflict (dissonance), Environment

We’d love to keep the conversation alive. Reach out to Katrina and Stig to challenge us, ask a question, recommend a future guest and give us feedback.

Why is consciousness important for leading in complexity? And how do you grow your consciousness?

These are the key questions that we discuss in this episode of Changing Conversations with Lisa Doig.

Lisa Doig is a pioneer in the field of values and consciousness, designing, facilitating and training practitioners in profoundly transformational leadership development programs that are accessible to business leaders. Lisa founded Corporate Evolution in 2002 and her background includes 20 years in the oil and gas industry, and 15 years working as an external facilitator for McKinsey & Company. 

In this vulnerable conversation, we share:

• That consciousness is expanding your view and your ability to navigate uncertainty and complexity
• How expanding consciousness is related to the fears that limit your ability to see
• A values-based approach to personal development
• How consciousness links to organisational development

We’d love to keep the conversation alive. Reach out to Katrina and Stig to challenge us, ask a question, recommend a future guest and give us feedback. 

Eli Buren is an expert in embodied presence. Eli has taught workshops and retreats and has worked with clients internationally since 2005, working with thousands of people across the US, Europe and Asia. We have invited Eli to talk about how we can be more present in our conversations by working with embodiment. 

 The key topics covered in this episode are: 

• How to bring presence to your conversations 
• How to practise presence 
• How to honour the creation cycle
• Giving space in the conversation to be more effective
• Noticing how your body is reacting in a conversation
• Using the body as your anchor

 For references, links and other episodes, visit our podcast page here. 

Michele Zanini is the co-founder of the management lab and the co-author of the book “Humanocracy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People Inside Them”. Michele helps organisations become more resilient, creative and engaging places to work by inventing new management practices. We have invited Michele to talk about how we can unleash people’s potential by introducing a more humanocratic organisational model. 

The key topics covered in this episode are: 

• How organisations can reach their full potential by introducing the right organisational model
• How conversations in post-bureaucratic companies are far more lateral than they are vertical
• How to transfer knowledge and problem-solving expertise in a very organic way
• How to create cross-pollination of expertise within an organisation
• The importance of opening up the conversation and giving people the tools to have interesting and productive conversations with each other. 

For references, links and other episodes, visit the podcast homepage here.  

Wendy Smith is a professor of management at the Alfred Lerner College of Business & Economics, co-founder of the Women’s Leadership Initiative and author of the book Both/And Thinking. She is an advocate for bold leadership, and much of her work focuses on helping leaders and teams navigate paradoxes. We have invited Wendy Smith to talk about how we can get better at embracing paradoxes and go from either/or to both/and thinking.

The key topics covered in this episode are: 

• How we can embrace and invite tensions into the organisation 
• How paradox invites us to honour different points of view 
• How we can capitalise on friction 
• The importance of being transparent and vulnerable as a leader 
• Inviting ourselves to think about a different possibility space 
• How we can change questions from either/or to both/and 

 For references, links, and other episodes, visit the podcast homepage here. 

Sheila Heen is the founder of Triad Consulting Group, a lecturer on law at Harvard Law School and Co-Author of “Thanks for the Feedback” and “Difficult Conversations”. She is consulting with companies ranging from Pixar, Hugo Boss to the NBA around difficult conversations, negotiation and sound decision-making. We have invited Sheila Heen to talk about the conversations around feedback and specifically how we can each be better feedback receivers.  

The key topics covered in this episode are: 

• How do we move away from being dismissive in the way we receive feedback to genuinely being grateful and appreciating the feedback 
• Feedback as a learning and leadership skill 
• The three types of triggered feedback reactions: Truth triggers, relationship triggers and identity triggers 
• Asking for the feedback you want 
• Enabling feedback in your organisation 

 For references, links, and other episodes, visit the podcast homepage here. 

Gail Gallie is the co-founder and creative leader of Project Everyone. Project Everyone is the organisation behind the campaign launch of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Previously, Gail has run marketing and advertising practices, but she is now focusing on how to drive solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. In this episode, we have invited Gail Gallie to talk about the conversations that led up to the big success that is the Global Goals and how it changed global conversations.

The key topics covered in this episode are:

• The conversations that led up to the creation of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• The power of conversations, trusting your instinct, keeping it low-fi and listening
• How visuals can help fuel a conversation 
• The importance of making things granular 
• How we can engage everyone in changing global conversations 
• How to enable a global ecosystem of changemakers 

For references, links, and other episodes, visit the podcast homepage here. 

Julie Diamond is the founder of Diamond Leadership. She works as an executive coach and international leadership consultant, and she authored the book: “Power - A User’s Guide”. Her focus is on creating transformational learning and leadership solutions across sectors. In this episode, we talk with Julie Diamond about the power of power in conversations and how each of us can become better power users.  

Key topics covered in this episode are:  

• Understanding the difference between social and personal power
• Advice on how to be more inclusive as a person with high social power
• Speaking up as a person with low social power
• Addressing power when it comes to difficult conversations, for example conversations in a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion space

For references, links, and other episodes, visit the podcast homepage here.

Fred Dust is the founder of Dust&Co. He works as a designer and advisor to social and business leaders and he authored the book “Making Conversation”. Fred works at the intersection of business, society, and creativity where he tries to implement the craft of humancentric design. In this conversation, we talk with Fred Dust about the importance of committing to the conversation and thinking of conversation as a creative act.

Key topics covered in this episode are:

• Building a space for creative conversations
• Committing to the conversation first, the people second and your beliefs third
• Making friends with the unknown
• The importance of being a good listener

 
For references, links, and other episodes, visit the podcast homepage here.

David Whyte is a philosopher and poet. He explores the conversational nature of reality, focusing on the relationship of human beings to their world, to creation, to others, and to the end of life itself. In this conversation, David challenges us to think of conversations not as an exchange of words but rather as a lens through which you can look at your life and way of being. 

Key topics covered in this episode are:

• Being in conversation with the things that are other than us
• The concept of a beautiful question
• The conversations you need to stop having
• The invitation you bring into a conversation
• Letting the conversation do the work

For references, links and other episodes, visit the podcast homepage here.

Elizabeth Stokoe British is a scientist and Professor of Social Interaction at Loughborough University where she studies conversation analysis. In this conversation, we explore how Elizabeth’s research and experience could be applied to better understand and change conversations. 
 

The key topics covered in this episode are: 

• Our ability to predict the way a conversation is going to go
• The way that one word can change an entire conversation
• Mapping conversations to better understand which parts of them work less well
• The importance of “recipient design” in shaping great conversations

For references, links, and other episodes, visit the podcast homepage here. 

In this episode we meet with conflict resolution facilitator and author, Priya Parker. We discuss takeaways from her book, “The Art of Gathering” and how to make a gathering meaningful, effective and engaging. 

In the pursuit of designing more transformational conversations and meetings, Priya encourages us to address the deepest need of the moment in our gatherings, to name a meeting according to its purpose, and to think about when a conversation or a meeting should take place in the context of the “arch of the week”.

For references and links, visit the podcast homepage here.

To what degree do you lean into conflict at work?

If you’re like most of us, it’s not always the most natural tendency – but there are business results to be gained for getting the balance right.

In this episode we are joined by Amy Gallo. Amy is a workplace expert who writes and speaks about effective communication, interpersonal dynamics, gender, difficult conversations, and feedback. She is the best-selling author of Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone (Even Difficult People) and the HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict, as well as hundreds of articles for Harvard Business Review.  

In this conversation we discuss:

• Why both getting along and healthy conflict are important in driving transformation
• What level of conflict to strive for in high performing teams
• How to surface tensions when you are working together with others

We’d love to keep the conversation alive. Reach out to Katrina and Stig to challenge us, ask a question, recommend a future guest and give us feedback. 

Hosts Katrina and Stig are joined by renowned strategy advisor and author Professor Roger Martin. Roger Martin is former Dean and Institute Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto in Canada.  

In this episode, we discuss Roger Martin’s 5 strategy questions laid out in his book “Playing to Win”. We talk about a case example from the book through the lens of changing conversations: how strategic conversations might have been problematic in the past, what the resulting conversations looked like, and what it took to change those conversations.

For references, links, and other episodes, visit the podcast homepage here. 

In this episode, hosts Katrina and Stig are joined by former CEO of Ørsted Mads Nipper. The episode explores how leaders are never not in conversation and Mads’ perspective on how he engages in those hundreds of touchpoints each day. 

In conversation, Mads lives by three principles that we can takeaway from the conversation: 

• Leave people with more energy
• Be present
• Strive for balance.

For references, links, and other episodes, visit the podcast homepage here. 

In this introductory episode, hosts Stig Albertsen and Katrina Marshall Dyrting discuss Changing Conversations in organisations and lay out the foundation for this podcast series: why focus on conversations, what could be possible if we do and who we will meet in the coming episodes? 

The key topics covered in this episode are: 

• Organisations are conversations
• If you want real change, change the conversation
• That conversations are the smallest biggest thing we can play with when it comes to change.

For references, links, and other episodes, visit the podcast homepage here. 

How do you find comfort in the discomfort of uncertainty?

In this episode we are joined by Susan David, PHD, and will bring her research and perspective to life on this topic.  

Susan David (link: https://www.susandavid.com/) is a renowned psychologist and the author of the best-selling book "Emotional Agility". (link: https://www.susandavid.com/book/) Susan is a co-founder of the Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate, and a frequent contributor to publications like the Harvard Business Review. Her groundbreaking work focuses on the role of emotions in psychological resilience, leadership, and personal growth.

As business leaders, most of us operate and lead in complex and uncertain environments – and emotional agility has an important role to play in how to find comfort in the discomfort of uncertainty. 

In this conversation, we discuss:

·        What it means to be emotionally agile

·        How emotions are data points in leading transformation 

·        How you can authentically be in your emotions without oversharing

We’d love to keep the conversation alive.
Reach out to Katrina and Stig to challenge us, ask a question, recommend a future guest and give us feedback. 

How can you build a stronger connection with others during conversation?

In this episode, we are joined by guest Charles Duhigg to explore this question and share several practical examples of things you can do to build a deeper connection with the people around you.

Charles Duhigg is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and best-selling author of the books The Power of Habit, Smarter Faster Better, and, most recently, Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Three categories of conversation: Practical (What’s this really about?), Emotional (How do we feel?), and Social (Who are we?)
• The importance of matching categories to build stronger connections
• The types of questions that can deepen our conversations and relationships with others

We would love to keep the conversation going, so feel free to reach out to Katrina and Stig to challenge us, ask a question, recommend a future guest, or provide feedback.

Adam Hede is an AI specialist at Implement Consulting Group. He helps organisations leverage artificial intelligence to improve operations and solve business problems. 

With expertise in machine learning and data analytics, Adam delivers practical AI solutions tailored to client needs. His mission is to encourage business leaders to dare to push the boundaries of the conversations we have about AI.

This conversation covers: 

• How to shape a bigger conversation – one that highlights the greatest potential AI can bring us 
• What it takes for us to engage in a more courageous conversation
• A reflection on the words "artificial intelligence" and how they might affect our trust in the technology

We would love to keep the conversation going, so feel free to reach out to Katrina and Stig to challenge us, ask a question, recommend a future guest, and give us feedback.

Professor Brian Cox is a physicist, musician, and a professor of particle physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester, and The Royal Society Professor for Public Engagement in Science. 

In this conversation, we talk with Brian Cox about what the scientific community can teach us about dealing with the unknown, and how business leaders can learn to embrace complexity to successfully navigate an ever-evolving business landscape.

The key topics covered in this episode are:

• How holding contradictory ideas can be a strength in handling complexity
• What business leaders can learn from scientists to embrace complexity and reduce fear of the unknown
• How to handle discomfort with the unknown
• What characteristics and attitudes are crucial to future leadership when dealing with complex challenges
• Finding comfort and curiosity in the unknown

For references, links and other episodes, visit the podcast homepage here. 

Zafer Achi is an executive coach, a team coach and a designer and facilitator of leadership development interventions. He has 34 years of consulting experience, including 27 years as a partner with McKinsey & Company. We have invited Zafer Achi to talk to us about complexity. He will help us create a language on the different types of challenges we face to enable us to apply the right tools.

The key topics covered in this episode are: 

• The difference between technical and adaptive challenges, and when something is complicated or complex
• How to lead with curiosity and compassion
• How to address adaptive challenges
• Integrating perspectives to manage complexity better
• How to set a direction instead of a destination and lead towards it

For references, links and other episodes, visit the podcast homepage here. 

Jennifer Garvey Berger is the co-founder and CEO of Cultivating Leadership. She holds a  master’s degree and a doctorate from Harvard University and is a former associate professor at George Mason University. Jennifer believes that leadership is one of the single most important tools in these times of uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. We have invited Jennifer to introduce us to mindtraps and how they can hinder us when dealing with complexity. 

The key topics covered in this episode are: 

• The five instincts that are most prevailing in our conversations
• How our mindtraps lead to corporate theatre
• How awareness of our mindtraps can lead to an invitation
• How we can dissemble our mindtraps to thrive in complexity

For references, links, and other episodes, visit the podcast homepage here. 

Dr Laura Sicola is a leadership communication and influence expert and the author of “Speaking to Influence: Mastering Your Leadership Voice”. We have invited Laura to talk to us about how you can establish your vocal executive presence through the three C’s: command, connect and close the deal. She also addresses how to remain invitational in conversations even if there is an experience of competing priorities and how to unlock the potential of seemingly opposing views. 
 

The key topics covered in this episode are: 

• The experts curse and not taking the perspective of the listener
• Conversations are not a zero-sum game
• People do not listen to process – they listen to respond
• The three C’s: command, connect and close the deal
• How to be intentional in the way you use your voice

For references, links and other episodes, visit the podcast homepage here. 

 Why is disturbance necessary for real change to happen? And how do leaders learn to welcome it rather than avoid it – both within themselves and in their organisations?

These are the key questions we discuss with Deborah Rowland in this episode of Changing Conversations.

Deborah is a pioneering expert on organisational change and change leadership. She is the best-selling author of numerous books, including Still Moving, and her latest book, From Ought to Is, which is piping hot off the press.

In this conversation, we share:

• That leading change starts with looking inward first – noticing your own patterns and reactivity.
• How to use emotions not only as personal, but also as systemic data to gain insights into the group and organisation.
• The difference between action – the unconscious repetition of past routines – and the movement that happens when patterns are disturbed.
• Why “edge and tension” is among the most important outer skills leaders can use to create movement, even though it is often avoided or poorly handled.
• How practices like check-ins, changing physical space, and asking “What’s the conversation we’re not having?” can change conversations and organisations.

We’d love to keep this conversation going. To continue the conversation with us, send your reflections and questions to katc@implement.se.

You’re also welcome to use this episode as a conversation starter by sharing it with your colleagues and friends.

Why does working with AI as a teammate unlock exponentially better results than treating it as a search engine? And how do you actually build that collaborative relationship? 

These are the key questions we discuss in this episode of Changing Conversations with Jeremy Utley. 

Jeremy is a leading thinker and speaker within innovation, creativity, and collaboration with AI. He teaches these topics as an Adjunct Professor at Stanford and advises CEOs and leadership teams. Jeremy also shares his expertise more broadly through his writing and podcasting. He is the best-selling author of IdeaFlow and host of the wildly popular podcast "Beyond the Prompt: How to use AI in your company." 

In this conversation, we share: 

• That most people treat AI like a search engine when they should be having real conversations. 
• How giving AI permission to ask you questions can significantly improve the quality of the output, enhancing (rather than replacing) your human intelligence. 
• Why leaders need firsthand experience experimenting with AI to imagine the future of their organizations. 
• The power of starting with personal, emotionally meaningful questions rather than work tasks to overcome fear and build fluency with AI. 
• How simple questions like "Have you tried AI?" can shift organizational cultures to support the spread of AI collaboration. 

We'd love to keep this conversation going. To continue the conversation with us, send your reflections and questions to us at katc@implement.se.  

You’re also welcome to use this episode as a conversation starter by sharing it with your colleagues and friends.