Cohesion – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Technical and general information from the podcast's RSS feed.

Cohesion

SIMPPLR

Business

Technology

Frequency: 1 episode/36d. Total Eps: 88

Cohesion is a thought leadership venture in the internal comms, HR, and IT space, providing structured, high-value, quick-hitting strategies and tactics for internal comms professionals. Each episode features an interview with a top practitioner in the space and highlights specific insights to be implemented to improve your company’s employee experience

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http://www.simpplr.com/podcast
55 shares
https://www.simpplr.com/podcasts/
27 shares
https://www.simpplr.com/
11 shares

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aberrycomms/
54 shares
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnpfunder/
22 shares
https://www.linkedin.com/in/miriam-connaughton/
5 shares

https://twitter.com/sama
1 share
https://twitter.com/dcwarrington
1 share

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RSS feed quality

Good

Score global : 73%

Publication history

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Bridging Art and Strategy: Redefining internal comms in a growing company, with Sarah Kaplan

Episode 82

Tuesday, June 24, 2025 • Duration 34:56

In this inspiring episode of the Cohesion Podcast, Carolyn Clark (VP of Employee Experience Strategy & Transformation at Simpplr) sits down with Sarah Kaplan, Director of Internal Communications at Smarsh. With a unique background in opera performance and a keen instinct for people-first storytelling, Sarah has led major internal transformation at Smarsh—starting from scratch just before a company acquisition and CEO transition.

Sarah shares how she evolved the internal comms function from a team of one to a strategic partner to executive leadership. From ruthless prioritization to launching a global employee event across time zones, Sarah’s story is full of practical insights and human depth.

If you’re building a comms team, navigating rapid organizational change, or just curious how opera can shape a corporate career—this one’s for you.

Topics Covered:

Building an internal comms function from zero
Becoming a strategic partner to leadership
Balancing trust with clarity during acquisitions and CEO change
Leading hybrid transitions and global engagement events
How performance arts skills translate to leadership and empathy

Connect with Sarah Kaplan: LinkedIn

Subscribe to get the latest conversations on employee experience, change leadership, and internal communications.

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Redefining L&D for Global Workforces with Sarah Lovelace, VP of People at Airbase

Episode 72

Tuesday, November 12, 2024 • Duration 45:25

This episode features an interview with Sarah Lovelace, Vice President of People at Airbase. Prior to this role, Sarah served as VP of People at Plenty, held various roles at Box, and was a Recruiting Coordinator at Google.

In this episode, Shawn sits down with Sarah to discuss adapting leadership to different organizational stages, realistic and meaningful leadership development programs, and challenges and trends in global workforce management.

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“You have to go through all of the seasons and you have to go through the reviews, you have to go through having a first hard conversation with an employee. Sometimes there's just not a time limit on that. I think, ultimately, those L&D programs sometimes aim to fast track that. But, I have truly found the best value is again, getting to know managers.” – Sarah Lovelace

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Episode Timestamps:

*(01:58): Getting to know Sarah

*(07:52): Sarah’s leadership style at Airbase

*(24:17): Strategies for measuring organizational trust

*(31:23): Values that drive the People team at Airbase

*(35:56): How Airbase develops leaders

*(42:28): Future challenges for People teams

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Links:

Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn

Connect with Shawn on LinkedIn

Cohesion Podcast

Relentless Forward Progress: Shaping Tomorrow's Leaders with Brady Pyle, Chief HR & Inclusion Officer at Space Center Houston

Episode 71

Tuesday, October 29, 2024 • Duration 51:51

This episode features an interview with Brady Pyle, Chief HR & Inclusion Officer at Space Center Houston. Over a 30-year federal career, Brady held various HR leadership roles at NASA, including HR Director for the Johnson Space Center and Director of HR Services, earning two NASA Outstanding Leadership Medals. In 2013, Brady created his leadership blog, OutOfThisWorldLeadership.com, which now ranks among Feedspot’s Top 100 Leadership Blogs.

In this episode, Shawn and Brady discuss how space exploration's unique challenges shape forward-thinking organizational strategies, strategies for cultivating internal talent and establishing robust leadership pipelines, and utilizing AI in leadership and employee development.

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“When leaders are moving from individual contributors to leadership roles, a lot of times they were selected because they're the technical expert. They're the smartest person in the room. We had to teach them as you move into that role, you've got to train yourself to use coaching skills, to ask questions. Because if you're constantly giving answers, you're not going to grow the capacity of the team. You're the team's lid. If you want to grow technical expertise in your function and in your field, those are the people we want in our management and leadership positions. You're asking questions, you're developing those creative solutions from your team. The role becomes more of coaching and facilitation and less of giving the answer.” – Brady Pyle

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:56): Getting to know Brady

*(16:21): Leadership development strategies

*(27:02): Implementing effective recognition programs

*(32:35): Building trust in leadership

*(42:44): Differences between NASA and Space Center Houston

*(45:43): The role of AI in leadership development

The Role of Cooperation in Surviving Apocalyptic Times with Athena Aktipis, Author & Professor

Episode 70

Tuesday, October 15, 2024 • Duration 51:06

This episode features an interview with Athena Aktipis, author of A Field Guide to the Apocalypse: A Mostly Serious Guide to Surviving Our Wild Times. She is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Arizona State University, director of the Cooperation and Conflict Lab and co-director of the Human Generosity Project, the first large-scale collaborative project to investigate the interrelationship between biological and cultural influences on human generosity. Athena also created and co-hosts the Zombified Podcast.

In this episode, Shawn sits down with Athena to discuss the dynamics of need-based transfers in societies, the study of zombification, and strategies for building trust in communities.

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“Oftentimes in more corporate settings, it's easy to forget how important feelings of autonomy are for building anything lasting. You can make somebody do something in the short-term because you're like, ‘This is part of your job. You won't get paid if you don't do this, et cetera.’ But if you want to create trust, create a bond, create a foundation for long-term or even medium-term future productivity and innovation and all of that, people have to feel, I think, individually empowered and autonomous in how they're associating with the people who they are working with.” – Athena Aktipis

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Episode Timetamps:

*(02:52): Getting to know Athena

*(09:21): Athena dives into cooperation

*(18:36): What inspired Athena to study zombification and write A Field Guide to the Apocalypse

*(32:51): How the idea of cooperation translates the workplace

*(35:13): Athena’s recommendations for building trust

*(41:14): Other takeaways from Athena’s book

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Navigating the AI Revolution in Comms with Shaun Randol, Founder of Mister Editorial

Episode 69

Tuesday, October 1, 2024 • Duration 39:47

This episode features an interview with Shaun Randol, Founder of Mister Editorial, a mixternal communications newsletter. Shaun has spent a large portion of his career piloting communications for international companies such as Bloomberg and BlackRock.

In this episode, Shawn and Shaun discuss the myth of planning in storytelling, the importance of adapting to new technologies, and maintaining a strategic perspective on the evolution of communications work.

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“I think those of us who have 10 to 15 years left in their career, can't ignore [AI]. They should embrace it, learn to use it. Dial in to one or two tools or use cases and become deeply expert at it immediately. Change comms, multimedia, photography, graphics, storytelling, whatever it is. Pick one or two because there's many of them out there and just get known for it as soon as possible, because that expertise will be needed.” – Shaun Randol

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:26): Getting to know Shaun

*(09:12): Where Shaun stands today on AI replacing people

*(14:19): How technology changes the way we communicate

*(18:45): Shaun’s opinion on slowing down generative AI

*(29:36): Shaun’s advice for comms professionals using AI

*(35:44): Other ways comms professionals can embrace AI

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Links:

Connect with Shaun on LinkedIn

Connect with Shawn on LinkedIn

Shifting Paradigms: How Trust Transforms Teams and Leadership with Stephen M.R. Covey, Author of The Speed of Trust

Episode 68

Tuesday, September 17, 2024 • Duration 01:02:29

This episode features an interview with Stephen M.R. Covey, author of The Speed of Trust and Co-founder of FranklinCovey’s Global Trust Practice. He is a sought-after international speaker, who has taught trust and leadership to business, government, military, education, healthcare, and NGO entities. As the former President and CEO of the Covey Leadership Center, Stephen increased shareholder value by 67 times and grew the company to become the largest leadership development firm in the world.

In this episode, Shawn sits down with Stephen to discuss the foundational concepts of trust and leadership, practical strategies for enabling authenticity, and the importance of having a growth mindset.

Hear more from Stephen when he participates in the World Business Forum this October!

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“The style of leadership that maybe has taken us to where we are today in a different world, is not going to be where we need to go tomorrow in a new world of remote work and hybrid work and intentionally flexible work with younger generations. Gen Z have a completely different expectation of how they want to be engaged and led. With work becoming far more collaborative and interdependent and with technology changing, disrupting everything with AI, with all these things happening, we need a new way to lead in a new world of work. Maybe command and control got us to where we are today, but trust and inspire is what's going to take us to where we need to go tomorrow.” – Stephen M.R. Covey

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Episode Timestamps:

*(03:32): Getting to know Stephen

*(13:14): The reciprocity of trust

*(26:37): Building stewardship agreements

Why Control is for Amateurs with Rachel Happe, Founder of Engaged Organizations

Episode 67

Tuesday, September 3, 2024 • Duration 49:31

This episode features an interview with Rachel Happe, Founder and Digital Workplace, Organization, and Community Strategist at Engaged Organizations. She started Engaged Organizations to focus on helping organizations adapt to new technologies and accelerate knowledge supply chains while improving trust, transparency, and agility. She is a sought after speaker and expert on the impact of technology on engagement, relationships, and culture and has keynoted at several digital workplace conferences.

In this episode, Shawn and Rachel discuss treating employees as assets rather than machines, rewarding human contributions, and valuing emotional and social aspects in the workplace.

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“We still have this mechanistic system and the human system, and we're still treating humans like machines. I wrote a post a while back, because I was getting really annoyed reading about how AI could help employees. It was all like, ‘It can do these 10 tasks for you.’ And I'm like, ‘If that's all we are, we should go home.’ It's the mindset of what we think employees or people's value is. The example I use in presentations is diamonds. Why are diamonds valuable? They're rocks. De Beers made them mean something. You know who can't make something mean something to somebody else? AI. The value of people is activating other people. And value is meaning.” – Rachel Happe

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:20): Getting to know Rachel

*(10:27): Rachel’s career background

*(15:42): Employees are not machines

*(21:50): How to calculate the value of community

*(32:21): The role of AI in community

*(42:39): The current and future state of valuing humans

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Links:

Unleashing Employee Superpowers and Leader Authenticity with Sandy Gould, Chief People Officer at Pinwheel

Episode 66

Tuesday, August 20, 2024 • Duration 59:00

This episode features an interview with Sandy Gould, Chief People Officer at Pinwheel. Sandy has nearly three decades of experience in human resources and talent acquisition. He has worked for companies like Disney and Yahoo where he led recruitment and diversity efforts. Sandy’s mission in life is to help people unleash their super powers and lead with authenticity.

In this episode, Shawn sits down with Sandy to discuss strategies for building company culture, insights into building trust and fostering psychological safety, and injecting humanity into HR.

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“There is one mission for HR, and I can state it in three words. Amplify everything human. That's our job. If it's helping the CEO understand and have empathy with their employees, if it's helping the employees decode the CEO and executives, yes, we should do that. Helping to amplify and enhance your relationship skills, your communication skills, your connection, your problem solving, anything. How you think, training, learning, resources, strategy, you name it, we should be amplifying every part of it that's human. But, we are not there to be a substitute. There is no substitute for direct relationships and direct communication and direct feedback.” – Sandy Gould

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:32): Getting to know Sandy

*(09:02): Building company culture

*(14:41): Sandy’s take on superpowers

*(26:55): Creating trust and authenticity

*(34:10): The challenges of authenticity

*(47:23): How to scale authenticity in an organization

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Links:

Connect with Sandy on LinkedIn

Digital Alchemy: Building Human Connection in a Tech World with Kosheno Moore, VP & Digital Community Leader – Regional Center Satellite, Fidelity Investments

Episode 65

Tuesday, August 6, 2024 • Duration 51:14

This episode features an interview with Kosheno Moore, Vice President and Digital Community Leader for Regional Center Satellite at Fidelity Investments. Prior to joining Fidelity, she served as the Manager of CX Communications at Workday, Head of Communities at Aurea Software, Principal of Employee Communications at Jive Software, and spent 7 years at Agilent Technologies in various roles.

In this episode, Shawn and Kosheno discuss strategies for creating meaningful digital connections, the future of D&I within corporate culture, and how to foster a sense of belonging among employees.

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“In order to create a sense of community in a digital environment, you have to not just think about the technology itself, like anyone can deploy any technology. It's almost moot point what technology you use, but it's about the strategy piece of it. It's about the bringing people together piece of it. Which means like, what's going to motivate people to come together? Can we organize people around certain themes? In order to do that, you need to be able to create communication messaging, and you need to do that in so many different forms of media, and you need to tap into different audience source. Community management, I think, really forces you to be omnichannel. And yes, communication is a big component of it, but it really challenges us to think cross-disciplinary, like you want to be strategic, you also want to be tactical, you also want to be multimedia savvy, and a great communicator, too. I think that's the beauty of it. I think when it's done well, community management strategy and technology, a robust technology platform, I think those could be win-win.” – Kosheno Moore

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:26): Getting to know Kosheno

*(07:37): Kosheno’s career journey

*(19:39): The challenges of building digital communities

*(31:35): The impact of community size

Cohesion – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

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RSS feed quality and score

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Cohesion – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Other99+

LinkedIn92

Twitter12

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other99+

LinkedIn92

Twitter12