Changing Conversations – Details, episodes & analysis

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. 

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.

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 Ørsted CEO 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. 

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.