Evolving Enterprises: Stories of Growth Transformation

In this episode we focus on how organizations help change to happen using a psychological stages of change model, originally developed for addiction recovery, the model helps explain how individuals move from denial to action, often looping back through relapse. Martin illustrates this with the BBC's decision to not renew Jeremy Clarkson's contract, emphasizing the role that boundaries play in triggering and sustaining change. The episode underscores that inaction corrodes culture, and leaders must reframe risk, recognize systemic patterns, and protect those who speak up, to foster genuine transformation.

Today we look at the organizational and people dimensions of complexity. Laura Watford of STEMunity shares her journey of organisational development, highlighting the impact of coaching on her approach to developing STEMunity and growing in confidence as a female entrepreneur. Laura describes her recent inspiring STEM events for children including an incredible event in the Mary Rose museum.

In this episode we continue to explore how to deal with the people dimension of complexity. Today I am talking to Genovefa Kefalidou, a lecturer in Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Leicester. We talk about the importance of user-centric design in AI. Genovefa explores how evolving technologies—from smart homes to AI interfaces—require human trust, comfort, and inclusion to succeed. Genovefa's work in trustworthy AI highlights the critical role of placing the human user at the core of designing AI technologies in order to increase trust.

In this second podcast, we talk about information security and about how much information we are each willing to give up so that we can be provided with particular services. We focus on 5 areas that are most critical to consider to build our skills if we are to make sure that our AI solutions are effective: (1) productivity - new ways of looking at productivity, (2) value - what value do you want to provide and how do these match with the shifting value systems of the stakeholders, (3) ethics - maturity and governance of ethics is key, (4) leadership - need to move away from 'top down' management, ensuring that we value people who deliver solutions rapidly and (5) people - need to feel that they are part of the change and that they are valued.

Today I am talking to Professor Alan Brown, Professor of Digital Economy at the University of Exeter and Director of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Digital Leaders. We talk about how small and medium sized companies can get the best from AI. We cover how AI can help in education. We also talk about the Feasibility, viability and desirability of new solutions. We will look at relationships with technology, how AI can improve education and how adoption of new technology can be affected by people's perceived vulnerability – ultimately the question is how can people learn to trust technology?

I really want to hear your views about the podcast, what topics and who I include in series 2. Please do have your say in the survey https://rb.gy/qlbau2. We live in a complex world yet some leaders try to pretend that complexity is not there. Systems thinking provides prescriptions for standard types of complexity. In this episode I will talk about the 6 types of complexity that we are concerned with in business: Technical, Process, Structural, Organisational, Power and People. Series 2 of the podcast will be themed around these.

Today I am so pleased to introduce Toby Lowe who is a Visiting Professor of Public Management. We talk about what is wrong with New Public Management, and how it can lead to people manipulating the metrics. Toby talks about the pressures he faced while he was CEO of a charity to lie. We talk about how to govern and fund public services, and that there is choice in this, meaning that the old ways of doing things can be changed. Creating outcomes is complex. If people can respond to this complexity with trust and leaning this is the beginning of a new paradigm. The latest insights are also here:https://www.humanlearning.systems/uploads/WhatisHumanLearningSystemsRadicalPragmatism.pdf

In this episode of Evolving Enterprises, I am very lucky to be joined by Joseph Paris, CEO of Zolotech Consulting Group. This year marks the 40th year of Zolotech. We will be looking into what first led to Joseph's interest in operational excellence. We discuss how the challenges faced by companies and people around the world are very similar. We talk about the importance of trust and stakeholder engagement. Joseph shares insights including his use of the Socratic approach. 

In this episode I am delighted to talk to Laura Watford, co-founder of STEMunity about her inspiring journey from classroom teacher to STEM education innovator, highlighting the challenges and breakthroughs that led to the creation of a charity dedicated to improving STEM opportunities for underrepresented groups. In her career Laura has been a STEM network leader for local educators for the Royal Academy of Engineering.Business leaders will gain valuable insights into the power of industry-education partnerships, the importance of investing in future talent, and how entrepreneurial thinking can drive meaningful change. Laura's story is a masterclass in leadership, resilience, and the impact of strategic collaboration.If you're looking for inspiration on how to innovate, overcome obstacles, and contribute to the future workforce, this episode is a must-listen.

Today I am delighted to be joined by Bob Scott, Honorary Treasurer and Board Member of the Operational Research Society for this third podcast exploring Operational Research (OR). Bob is a former Senior Vice President of Capgemini. Today we explore OR applied to the automotive industry and the effect of having decisions taken in isolation. We talk about how a deep understanding of a business is only formed by being at the coalface or on the shopfloor.

Today I am delighted to be joined by Bob Scott, Honorary Treasurer and Board Member of the Operational Research Society for this second podcast exploring Operational Research (OR). Bob is a former Senior Vice President of Capgemini. Today we explore the difference that OR can make to the North American paper industry and in vastly reducing packaging costs in Europe.

Today I am delighted to be joined by Bob Scott, Honorary Treasurer and Board Member of the Operational Research Society. Bob is a former Senior Vice President of Capgemini. This is the first of a short series of podcasts that explore Operational Research (OR) which is using scientific methods to make better business decisions. In this episode Bob shares some of his stories of OR. We talk about Bob's career journey from Mining Engineer, through to Operational Researcher, consultant to the DTI ultimately becoming Senior Vice President of Capgemini. Bob also talks about optimisation and how this can improve industries from mining to airlines as well as business simulation and how this has benefited the oil and gas industry.

In this second podcast I am delighted to talk to Graeme a freelance philosophical consultant. We talk about personalised decision making, personalised medicine and how everything mediated by algorithms. But what do they do with “outliers” – the people who don't conform to the “average”? If we don't ‘fit the mould.' How much will the changes in society change the structure that the algorithms use. Or will these algorithms marginalise people further? We also talk about Graeme's fascinating career journey in academia, stand up comedy, through to working in America becoming head of the philosophy department. Finally we talk about cultures at work and what Confucius would suggest that we do to do in a toxic culture.

Today I am delighted to talk to Graham Forbes, who is a freelance philosophical consultant. We are talking about moral logistics – the way that how moral questions get understood as spreading or flowing through a complex organization and how responsibility for delivering promises works in a big and complex system. 

As we look back on 2024 I highlight some of the guests that have been so memorable for this podcast and I also look forward to our upcoming guests and to the vision for the future – to talk about what goes on behind the scenes to make our enterprises successful.

Today I continue to explore organisational culture, looking at the positive and negative. I look at the different types of culture and I review what you can do to change the culture of your organisation. If you would like a different type of workplace, be the change that you want to see. 

Today I begin a journey into organisational culture. What does culture really mean? Why would we care about what culture there is in our organisation? You will only keep great people if they remain engaged. Culture holds a lot of the keys to helping people remain engaged with an organisation. Culture affects the bottom line. According to Gallup, organisations that have high employee engagement see 23% increase in profitability, along with a host of other improvements.

Today I am going to look at two popular leadership styles – authoritative and coaching. I am going to look at the times that theses styles may be useful and how using the right style at the right time can help to get some of our systems work implemented well.

On National Engineering Day in the UK we are encouraged to consider  the people who inspire us. I look back on the many successes of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and the odd setback. I also look to the future, to the decisions that engineers will need to make very soon.  I am delighted to be part of a movement of people who specialise in getting amazing things done and in shaping society around us.

I'm so happy to be joined by Emma Harvey the co-founder of The 5 Hour Club (www.fivehourclub.com). The Five Hour Club is a platform that allows working parents to find professional work that fits around their caring responsibilities. I love this concept and I am delighted that my company is one of the employers on this platform.

Today I explore learning Journeys and how important they are if we are to really change complex organisations. I consider how I have encouraged board members to change their companies and what it takes to really drive change within a busy and complex corporate world. Finally I reflect on the situation within the UK NHS and look at what I have learned in my journey about this immensely complex organisation.

We all get stressed by different things, and stress changes us. Our personality type will highlight the likely changes that we will experience as stress increases. Once we know what these changes look like we are able to spot the warning signs and take action so that we don't reach “grip stress”. You can find your personality type at 16personalities.com. Once you have it e.g. ENFP type “ENFP grip stress” into Google to find your pathway.

Join me as I reflect on my journey through the engineering profession, following my recent appointment as a Visiting Professor to the University of Portsmouth, funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering. In this episode, I explore the critical role engineering plays in shaping senior leadership decisions and why it's essential for driving innovation and progress. Discover insights into the Royal Academy of Engineering's impact in the UK and the future of engineering for leaders in the industry.

I'm delighted today to introduce Julia Bakay, who is a keynote artist and visual strategist. Julia's work involves listening to live events and drawing in real time the key points. At the end visual maps of the discussions are created which highlight the themes and ideas for people to reflect on, which untangle the complexity and give clarity in a way that is engaging, accessible and enduring. We discuss Julia's journey in this fascinating area of graphic facilitation and visual systems thinking, including the power of visual representation and drawing the connections to provide new insights, how these images can facilitate stakeholder engagement and their power to lead discussions to get to the heart of what matters.https://www.byjuliabakay.com/

I'm delighted by the return of Wayne Turmel, author and consultant on developing communication and leadership skills with expertise in remote working. Today we build on our previous discussion on remote working. We talk about the specific advantages and challenges of remote working, how business leaders can get the best from staff who are working remotely and the importance of good leadership for remote working to be effective

I'm delighted today to be joined by James Brown, the co-founder and CEO of Super Sense Technologies. During a career break, James started volunteering for a local mental health charity, which inspired him to utilise AI to benefit those with dementia. We discuss the power and opportunity of AI when properly applied to its audience, the project SuperSense Technologies has embarked on to help those suffering with dementia, their families and carers using AI, and what lessons large organisations can learn from them.

I'm delighted today to be joined by Professor Jo Meehan. Jo is the Director for the Centre of Sustainable Business and is also Professor of Responsible Procurement at the University of Liverpool's Management School. Jo previously worked for a chemical company and developed a keen interest in the power of organisations, sustainability and the environment, which has guided her career and her home life. Jo talks about the idea of power and social inequalities within the natural world, living by the principles of sustainability and circularity, and the paradoxical need to slow down in order to address the climate emergency. 

Today I am thrilled to talk with Wayne Turmel who has been writing about how to develop communication and leadership skills for almost 26 years. Wayne has taught and consulted at Fortune 500 companies and startups around the world and is an expert in remote working. We talk about how business leaders can get the best from staff who are working remotely. We also talk about the secrets of building an audience, something that Wayne has learned a lot about as an author of 15 books including The Long Distance Leader https://kevineikenberry.com/products/the-long-distance-leader/

Today I am delighted to bring you a podcast from Troldhaugen near Bergen in Norway, the former home of the composer Edvard Grieg. Today I am talking with Johannes Holtmon who is the Musical Curator of the museum, we are considering what we can learn in business from the enduring legacy of the incredible Norwegian music, inspired by Edvard Grieg.

Today I will be considering why you shouldn't accept the either/or with the power of integrative thinking. A concept derived by strategy advisor and author Roger Martin, integrative thinking is a quality that is shared throughout numerous inspirational leaders to make the most effective decisions. I explore the challenges of adopting integrative thinking, why integrative thinking is so beneficial at creating and maintaining success in an organisation, and how you can adopt integrative thinking as an effective leader.

Today, I am delighted to welcome my guest Kelly Jennings-Robbins. Kelly is the Executive Director of Charity Mentors Oxfordshire, board director of IAPMD and a fundraising consultant. With nearly 20 years working in the private sector and educational publishing,  in recent years Kelly has transitioned into the third sector. We reflect on the unique demands and complexity in the third sector, how to make effective decisions within that space, and what lessons the private sector could learn from the third sector

Today I'm delighted to be joined by Elise Grint, who is the first person to pass the new Level 7 Systems Thinking Apprenticeship in the UK and will be opening up about what it was like to study within the apprenticeship and what systems thinking brings to her career. Elisse has a degree in project management but started her earlier career off as a zookeeper and then moved into the sciences to become a lab technician. 

Today I am delighted to chat with the founder of Red Wizard, Jules Barrow Reed and her business partner Colin Yoshoka Smith. We will be exploring the challenges we face in the external labour market and how we can best manage these risks. Jules talks about educating managers, highlighting that de-risking business through education is a first step.  

I'm delighted to welcome Mark Baker for a second podcast exploring governing strategic systems. Mark talks about balancing the conversation at senior levels between risk and opportunity. Practical application of foresight and linking this with organisational purpose. We talk about methods and applications for anticipating outcomes of decisions. Does the allocation of resources mirror the priorities of the organisation? We talk about holding competing ideas at the same time and rigorously assessing them. Mark shares the type of questioning he uses to have productive conversations about risk. We talk about resilience thinking and how senior leaders can excel within a difficult work environment. Mark is a scholar practitioner, a researcher and a management consultant. Mark also lectures both at Milton Keynes and at Cranfield Universities.

Today I am very happy to be joined by Mark Baker. Mark is a scholar practitioner who has links into industry, academia, commerce. Mark also runs his own consulting business. Mark talks about his journey into systems consultancy. Mark has spent a lot of his career solving complex problems for large companies and international businesses. Mark talks about the importance of feed-forward controls. Mark also talks about the research he has conducted in the dynamics of executive decision making. Mark has found that Teams mature more significantly by having productive discussions about risks. To do this it is important that all board members can share deep concerns, that they have a good discussion about unintended consequences and finally they check whether key assumptions have changed. Mark then talks about ways of ensuring that high value strategies get sufficient management time.

Today I am talking to Mary-Beth Hosking, who is a global CIO working in the CEO space. Mary-Beth's new book is Not Another Digital Transformation which looks at how organisations can really do well, about how they can maintain the pace and efficiency of a startup as they grow. Transformation isn't just about going digital. Transformation could be about re-imagining your organization from the ground up. We talk about the journey that small organisations take and how communication is easy at the beginning with a few people. At some point companies hit a barrier and silos are built, leading to inefficiency. We talk about how bloat happens in an organisation and why this is. It is difficult to work within an organisation that has lost sight of its vision, or one that is not explaining the vision all the way down through the tiers. A perfect antidote to this is the 10 X generation – a set of principles that allow us to look at what an organisations has, what works, what doesn't work. And then remove the things that are not working well.I highly recommend Mary-Beth's book which you can find at the link below:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Another-Transformation-Scottish-Statutory-Instruments/dp/0117094579

Today I am talking to Benjamin Taylor who is Chief Executive of the Public Service Transformation Academy and Managing Partner of Red Quadrant. I asked Benjamin about what led him into consultancy and we talk about his first job as coordinator of a youth development program, aiming to fill places on exciting expeditions, which would have been more straightforward if the cohort of people were very confident and were used to travel. The realities of young people with lower levels of literacy or just low familiarity with systems and bureaucracy meant that it was difficult to fill places.  Benjamin talks about the moment that his view of the system changed. Instead of preparing young people for THE expedition, Benjamin decided to prepare the young people for AN expedition and then call forward a group as each new adventure opened. This change led to a much higher take up of places. We talk about the challenges of the public sector and how systems thinking can help with the complexity of delivering local government services within a region, with partners such as the NHS. This experience has led to one of Benjamin's passions, which is enabling person centred, adaptive, agile provision of public services. Moving the thinking back to making public services centred on the people that they are provided for, not on the availability of staff, or the way that existing funding mechanisms as designed. We talk about adaptive systems and less adaptive systems. We talk about how the fire service don't fight fires – it is firefighters who fight fires and the service who create the capacity and capability to deal with a range of emergencies. We talk about how it is possible to make huge progress when we view systems in the right way and have the right kind of conversation, just as Benjamin did when his view of the youth development system changed.

In this episode I talk to Houda Boulahbel about her journey towards finding ways of dealing with complex projects. For people who are new to this area there is always the difficulty of where do you start when the problems that you see are complex and the systems methods take time to master? It all feels overwhelming. Houda has founded the Institute for Systems Intelligence which places a systems mindset before using a toolset, and this is important in helping people to have the right approach before they begin to apply tools. We talk about the importance of presenting a situation in the right way and that storytelling is a good approach to connect people and to get beyond the barriers so that we can see different perspectives and different views on the world. The Institute for Systems Intelligence has just been launched and is an exciting new approach to dealing with complexity.www.ifsi.uk

I this episode I am delighted to continue my conversation with Adam Townsend, founder of Viewit DataLabs Limited. Today we look beyond the data and consider the drivers for improving patient outcomes in hospital. We consider why is the system driven away from improving patient outcomes before people get to the hospital. One of the metrics that we talk about are hospital stays for respiratory conditions and diabetes that are less than 24 hours long – in the UK at least 300, 000 such hospital stays have been recorded. Many, possibly all, could have been prevented. We talk about the dilemmas for the healthcare system of balancing reactive and proactive stances. We also talk about the power of AI when coupled with the kind of data lakes that Adam has created. Adam talks as well about the fascinating journey that led him to create Viewit DataLabs

There is a lot of discussion about what is happening with our public services, a lot of newspaper columns are dedicated to attention grabbing headlines, but in this episode we dig into what is really going on. I am very pleased to introduce Adam Townsend, founder of Viewit DataLabs Limited. We talk about what the data really tells us, and from the data we can see that the NHS system is getting less efficient. This ‘ground truth' enables us to think about what is really going on. It is not that demand on the NHS is increasing exponentially, as may be commonly believed. The facts are that there is some increase in demand coupled with a less efficient system. Lower efficiency can be due to fatigue in the workforce of perhaps perverse incentives that encourage people to do things like discharge people early, knowing that those people will be back in the hospital again within 24 hours. We talk about the true motivations of our systems.

Today I am very privileged to be joined by Lindsay Scott and Eileen Roden who are co-founders of the House of PMO, a professional body for PMO professionals working to support Project, Programme and Portfolio Management (P3M). We talk about the need to brigade multiple projects underneath a programme level, the ways that portfolio management can enable change, and the value of PMO. We talk about how traditional and agile projects can fit within a PMO. Usually now PMOs now take a service orientated approach to ensure that the PMO is seen as an enabler to change within an organisation, not as the ‘project police'. We talk about the types of roles in a PMO –data analysis and relationship building. Both skills are essential. We also talk about how can you move towards embedding a PMO into any organisation.

Today I am joined by Donnie MacNicol who is a director of Team Animation LTD. Donnie is an advisor to the UK Major Projects portfolio and has led an innovative approach to cutting through the complexity with human centric data. Donnie talks about the challenges that people face in a transformation activity and how it is important to get underneath the emotions and politics. Donnie and his team use a novel approach to assessing meeting quality by asking everyone in a meeting to share anonymously what it is they truly are thinking and feeling. This leads to very rich insights into how to help and guide a team through transformation.

Today I am thrilled to introduce Suzana Barbosa as my guest. Suzana encourages people to change in her work as a facilitator of a popular method known as Psych-K, which aims to change limiting beliefs – things that people are usually unaware of and limit or hold them back. Suzana talks about her own journey of change and her experience of complex systems. Suzana also considers how we can learn from nature. How do we get back the balance that some of us have lost because of these busy modern times.

Welcome back to the Evolving Enterprises podcast. I have just returned having spent some time with my family at Easter.  In almost every consultancy assignment I have worked on people usually start by blaming the wrong people for the situation. Why is this? I will look at what drives people to do this and how this helps us to improve our public services, and to campaign appropriately for changes where they are needed. I will talk about how we can stay informed and encourage public sector organisations to work to support us.

Working from the approach that I suggested in the previous episode, Sophie Jackson and I work on planning the early stages of the Auto Consultant project. We look at how we can structure a complex business problem so that we can find a way forward using a systems approach. 

In this episode I look at how systems thinking get help to deal with a complex and unbounded problem. I look at the ways that we can view the problem and the different stakeholders that are involved. This leads on to next week's episode in which we will apply some systems thinking approaches to structure a business problem.

Today I will talk about the rise of systems thinking and how an increase in demand for systems thinking and increase in supply of systems staff has changed the way in which complex projects are delivered in the UK. This change has been gradual and there is a big difference from when I started using systems thinking 20 years ago. Now systems thinking is welcomed across the public sector and private sector, it is being used in UK government departments including Defence, Defra, Transport and Education. Last week I organised a conference with a group of friends which brought together some of the UK practitioners and academics from government, industry and the voluntary sector. We considered behaviour change and how that can be encouraged and brought about. We considered governance and what we can do to govern complex systems really well. I am sharing some highlights of the conference. There is a great deal that I can't put into a podcast because we talked about real systems that are confidential. In the afternoon we applied systems methods to some key problems which was an immensely interesting way of eliciting information and having really productive and efficient conversations.

Today I am joined by Seb Hargreaves, the Executive Director of the Operational Research Society (ORS). Seb talks about the recent highlights in the journey of supporting strategic decision making using scientific methods. There is great news. Some of the society's journals are becoming open access, meaning that it will be much easier for busy professionals to access full text papers. We talk about the amazing work of pro-bono within the society. This has enabled 3rd sector organisations to request professional help from the society's members in making strategic decisions.  Seb talks about having a strategic review performed on the ORS, using the tools of Operational Research and how this has helped to align the society with the ever-changing external environment. The review has also provided an independent perspective on ways that the society can enhance its decision making, and where the society can focus strategically and operationally. Following on from the review Seb talks about re-branding, and some re-positioning in the journey that will ensure that the ORS is fit for the future. As well as being the professional society for decision making, the society itself is also an evolving enterprise. 

I am so pleased to welcome Orian Mendes a business development manager with a vast experience of evolving businesses in Europe and Africa. Orian has worked in engineering, publishing and the clothing industry. We talk about what makes a business grow, how businesses evolve to match market need and the continual pushing and pulling of demand in the ever-changing business landscape. We contrast this market matching approach between socialist and capitalist systems and look at the demands on the planning system in a socialist market, that are simply taken care of by price in a capitalist system. We consider the customer experience and the feedback that organisations receive as they evolve, how a business can set itself apart from its rivals and how a business can find its purpose. We also talk about the community viewpoint, something that is very often considered in Africa, solving a problem together as a community, known as ubuntu.

I am delighted to welcome Ani Magill as my guest. Ani has provided inspirational leadership as CEO of a growing Multi Academy Trust, and in her previous roles as head teacher and “super head",  turning around failing schools. Ani's journey as a transformational leader in education illuminates invaluable lessons for CEOs and aspiring leaders across sectors. Through her unwavering commitment to clear messaging, accountability, and servant leadership, Ani has orchestrated tangible and lasting change within the educational landscape. Her steadfast dedication to prioritising the needs of educators and students alike has fostered a culture of excellence and innovation, driving positive outcomes throughout the organisation.

Today we look at the important topic of Systems Thinking. Is it useful for most problems and why? What does systems thinking do to help us move complex project forward? Hope does it help us manage risks and opportunities?