Podcasts about federal executive institute

Plus: the University of Virginia will acquire the Federal Executive Institute instead of Charlottesville City Schools; An update on tax rebate checks from the City of Richmond; and other stories.

My guest today is Steve Whearty.Steve is a certified executive coach and learning & development specialist with over 30 years of experience in leadership and learning professional roles. He began his career as a Naval Flight Officer, serving on active duty in the U.S., Italy, and Japan. Steve continued to serve as a civilian employee of the Federal Government in various roles from 2009-2022, including at the State Department's Foreign Service Institute and the Federal Executive Institute.  Since 2021, Steve has also served as an independent learning consultant, working with a variety of public and private sector clients on leadership development experiences and coaching.Steve received a B.A. in Public Policy from Duke University, an M.B.A. from Cameron University, and a M.A. in Education and Human Development from George Washington University. He resides in Charlottesville, VA.Steve and I met through mutual work opportunities and happened to be on a group call a couple of months ago when the topic of disruption came up.  I asked Steve if he'd be willing to have a deeper conversation about disruption, given that many people are facing a variety of disruptions currently.  I'm grateful he said yes, because this conversation you're about to listen to is the outcome.  And while we don't come up with a lot of answers, we share ideas, challenges, and stories of attempts to respond with agency to the disruptions in our own lives.  Steve, thank you for jumping into this conversation with curiosity and thoughtful reflection.  Thank you for sharing your stories, your questions, and your wisdom.  I'm both inspired and challenged to better my own response to the series of disruptions we call life!You can reach out to Steve at: stevewhearty@sentiero.consulting Make Life Less Difficult~ Support:buymeacoffee.com/lisatilstra

Would anyone notice if the podcast version of Charlottesville Community Engagement were to be produced from Antarctica? What about Zaire? It is conceivable that this weekly audio edition of the newsletter could be put together just about anywhere as long as all of the equipment can be packed into a suitable bag. That's the case this time around. I'm Sean Tubbs, and I'm not sure where I am, either.In this edition:* Speakers at final budget public hearing ask Albemarle Supervisors to spend more on housing and climate action (learn more)* Republican Scott Smith launches campaign for Samuel Miller District seat on Albemarle Board (learn more)* Albemarle Supervisors to hold public hearing on May 7 on Branchland precinct change (learn more)* Charlottesville City Schools selected to proceed with acquisition of Federal Executive Institute (learn more)* Charlottesville announces upcoming opportunity to provide feedback (learn more) Charlottesville Community Engagement is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.First shout-out: Piedmont Master Gardeners Plant Sale coming up this SaturdayThe Piedmont Master Gardeners will hold their annual Spring Plant Sale from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 3, at Albemarle Square Shopping Center in Charlottesville. The sale will offer thousands of annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees, vegetables, fruit-bearing plants, herbs and houseplants, along with a wide assortment of gently used garden tools, yard ornaments, outdoor furniture and other “Green Elephants.”The sale's large selection of native plants will include curated combinations of native species that support pollinators and provide food and habitat for wildlife throughout the growing season. These collections will be available in two versions, one for sunny locations and another for shade. Shoppers will also be able to purchase bags of locally produced compost and pick up kits for sending soil samples to Virginia Cooperative Extension for testing.Trained Master Gardeners will be on hand to help shoppers with their plant selections and will staff a Help Desk for addressing plant questions. Display booths and information tables will provide research-based educational resources on a variety of topics, such as conservation landscaping, soil health, composting, pest management and controlling invasive plants.Second-shout out: When Driving Is Not An Option webinar on May 12A third of people living in the United States do not have a driver's license and must navigate a mobility system designed almost exclusively for drivers. Does it have to be that way?On Monday May 12th from 6:30 pm to -7:30 pm, Livable Cville will hold a conversation with Anna Zivarts, author of the book When Driving Is Not An Option. Charlottesville City Councilor Natalie Oschrin will also make an appearance.When Driving is Not an Option shines a light on the reality for non-drivers and explains how improving our transportation system with nondrivers in mind will create a better quality of life for everyone. Zivarts is a low-vision mom, disability advocate, and non-driver. In this webinar, she'llexplain how healthier, more climate-friendly communities can be the result of what happened when the needs of involuntary nondrivers are viewed as essential to how we design our transportation systems and our communities.Councilor Oschrin will share about how these ideas apply to the Charlottesville area. There will be an opportunity for Q&A at the end. You can sign up here for this free event. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Today is the first day of early voting for statewide and local primaries, Charlottesville City Schools acquire the former Federal Executive Institute property at no cost, Controversy surrounding the Republican nominee to be Virginia's next lieutenant governor has been one of the top stories this week.

Plus: Charlottesville City Schools to acquire Federal Executive Institute property; Richmond Mayor Danny Avula to overhaul the city's P-card program; and other stories.    In the podcast: Richmond Mayor Danny Avula wants to overhaul the city's purchasing card program for city employees. 

Plus: the University of Virginia and Charlottesville City Schools want to acquire the Federal Executive Institute property, now considered government surplus, in Charlottesville.

The I Love CVille Show headlines: UVA & City Schools Want Federal Executive Institute Should UVA Halt FEI Pursuit To Help City Schools? Federal Executive Institute: $19.6M Assessment, 14 Acres Fear Of Attending Court Proceedings After ICE Raid Defaulted Student Loan Debt Will Be Collected On 5/5 Why Does This CVille Election Year Have So Little Interest? City's Dairy Rd Estate Sells For $3.5M (Top In History) Office For Rent $475 Monthly All Utilities Included Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air The I Love CVille Show airs live Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The I Love CVille Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible, Rumble and iLoveCVille.com.

The Federal Executive Institute, a long standing Leadership Development Center forfederal executives, is closing down following President Donald Trump's executive order signed on Monday. Federal News Network's Anastasia Obis is here with more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Federal Executive Institute, a long standing Leadership Development Center for federal executives, is closing down following President Donald Trump's executive order signed on Monday. Federal News Network's Anastasia Obis is here with more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jon Herold breaks down the latest deep state freakout as activist judges scramble to stop Trump's executive orders, throwing legal roadblocks at every turn. Trump's DOJ is making bold moves, dropping charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams while issuing a full pardon to Rod Blagojevich, a longtime victim of Obama's lawfare machine. Meanwhile, Kash Patel is already driving the deep state into hysteria before his official confirmation as FBI director, and Dick Durbin is throwing a tantrum about it. Elon Musk is back in the mix, exposing a FEMA scandal where tens of millions were funneled into luxury hotels for illegal migrants, leading to a DOJ crackdown and firings. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant is heading to Ukraine for high-level talks with Zelensky, raising major questions about the real play behind Trump's strategy to end the war. Meanwhile, Netanyahu's allies are facing indictments for witness intimidation, and Jordan's King Abdullah is in Washington as Trump's Gaza plan continues to send shockwaves through the Middle East. On the AI front, J.D. Vance takes center stage at the Paris AI Summit, laying out the Trump administration's vision for global dominance in artificial intelligence. Elon Musk just dropped a $97.4 billion offer to buy OpenAI, setting off a new phase in the AI power struggle. Plus, Trump brings back Fort Bragg's name with a clever workaround, axes the Federal Executive Institute, and, most importantly, ends the forced use of paper straws.

Send us a textIra Chaleff is an author, speaker, and executive coach in the greater Washington, DC, area. His extensive experience with the US federal government includes directing and chairing the nonpartisan Congressional Management Foundation, where he is now Chair Emeritus. Ira co-authored the original handbook for newly elected Members of Congress, now in its fifteenth edition, and has facilitated over a hundred retreats for congressional offices. He has led and participated in Democracy strengthening programs in Asia and West Africa and consulted for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Eastern Europe.He has been an adjunct faculty member at the Federal Executive Institute and a visiting leadership scholar at Churchill College, Cambridge University in England. Ira served two terms on the Board of Directors of the International Leadership Association and is the founder of its Followership Community.His previous award-winning books include The Courageous Follower: Standing Up To and For Our Leaders and Intelligent Disobedience: Doing Right When What You're Told To Do Is Wrong which has been published in translation in Beijing and Moscow. Ira speaks on courageous followership and intelligent disobedience at a wide variety of institutions, including the US Department of State, the US Naval Academy, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, the European Commission of the EU, and many others.A Quote From Ira Chaleff"If you were a supporter of Kamala Harris, and are feeling frightened by the election results. That is how Trump supporters would be feeling if Harris had won. Each side feared tyranny if the other side won, and neither can imagine how the other side could feel that. The work now is to reduce the chasm between these lived world views and for both sides to be vigilant and protect the rights we cherish.”Resources Mentioned in This EpisodeBook: To Stop a Tyrant by ChaleffBook: Intelligent Disobedience by ChaleffBook: The Courageous Follower by ChaleffAbout The International Leadership Association (ILA)The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Plan for Prague - October 15-18, 2025!My Approach to HostingThe views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic. ♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.

Shari Goodwin is an innovative business strategist, leadership coach, author, speaker, and horsewoman with over 25 years of experience, including starting four businesses and serving as Director of Program Strategy for a global engineering firm. One of the start-ups, an IT staffing and consulting firm, generated $2.1 million in its first year. As a former environmental scientist, she led the creation of winning proposals valued at $65 million and directed the development of science and engineering analyses for federal court litigation, including the US Supreme Court. She owns Jaeger2, specializes in reinvention, and helps leaders and teams position for optimum impact and quality of life. Author of two inspirational Amazon best-sellers, Take the Reins! 7 Secrets to Inspired Leadership, and Reinventing Greatness: Leading Yourself & Others Through Change with Confidence & Trust, Shari holds a Master's degree in biology, undergraduate degrees in Zoology and English, and is certified in executive coaching and equine-assisted learning. Her equine-assisted leadership programs have served hundreds including the Federal Executive Institute, the World Bank, and many leadership teams. Shari was a founding member of the Board for George Mason University's Women in Business Initiative, is the 2020 Board Chair of the Women's Business Council for the Fauquier Chamber of Commerce.

Meet Dianne Collins and Alan Collins “Our intent in every session we present is for you to have an on-the-spot transformation in your awareness that translates naturally and easily into measurable success with increased confidence and joy in whatever you are doing.” -Dianne Collins -Alan Collins Dianne Collins and Alan Collins have been partners in life and in business for more than 20 years. They consult leaders and senior executives in the world's leading corporations to go beyond hidden limits of their thinking – accelerating results and catapulting nonlinear achievements. They have presented Strategic QuantumThink® Consulting and unique QuantumThink coaching programs via teleconference to thousands of people worldwide, from every walk of life. Clients have included Accenture, AT&T, CNN, DuPont, Morgan Stanley, McKinsey, and Telstra; agencies of the USA government including National Partnership for Reinventing Government under Vice President Al Gore, Federal Executive Institute, Office of Personnel Management, and Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense; as well as entrepreneurs and politicos, homemakers and students, celebrities and evolutionaries worldwide. My entire life has been devoted to the question: what is the access to creating the results we truly desire? From studying everything from physics to metaphysics I made a few life altering discoveries that led me to create the QuantumThink® model—a system of thinking comprised of principles and practices that make it quick and easy for anyone to live the wisdom of science and spirituality in everyday life—not just to know the principles—to embody them.” – Dianne Collins Dianne Collins, original thinker and popular media personality is the creator of the QuantumThink® system of thinking and author of the 6-time award winning bestseller Do You QuantumThink? New Thinking That Will Rock Your World, considered a “must-read” for our changing times. She is dedicated to people living spirited, joyful, and masterful lives through leaps in awareness and new thinking using what she calls, “the physics of mind.” Dianne has been interviewed on more than 500 radio, internet and TV shows. She is a featured blogger on The Huffington Post, a recipient of the Top 20 Conscious Entrepreneurs award, and is considered the leading authority in new world view thinking. Dianne Collins is a graduate of the University of Miami in Philosophy and Psychology, and a lifelong student of meditation and yoga, quantum principles, and leading edge modalities that make life better and more joyful. Her varied experiences as a Fortune 100 corporate manager, award-winning photographic artist, video producer, and consultant to business executives and entrepreneurs, all contribute to her extraordinary gift of originality and ability to express complex universal subjects in clear and powerful ways that benefit people instantly. She provides a big picture view that makes sense of the changes all around us. Her work is considered as entertaining as it is enlightening. Everyone realizes we need to think in a new way. The question is, how? Drawing on cutting edge quantum insights, ageless spiritual knowledge and revealing the essential role of the mind in living effectively with modern and pop culture–Dianne Collins offers us advanced thinking principles for leaps in awareness that enable real solutions, from the pursuit of inner serenity to harmonious relationships, business results and global affairs. This book puts it all together with cheeky wit and exceptional wisdom to make sense of our dramatically changing times and the necessity for new thinking at this critical juncture for humanity.

In this episode, Will Wright talks with Professor Henry L. Chambers Jr. about the significant Supreme Court oral arguments in Trump v. Anderson, centering on whether former President Trump should be allowed on the ballot in Colorado. The discussion illuminates the legal pathways for cases to reach the Supreme Court, the intricacies of the 14th Amendment, and the specific constitutional arguments impacting the eligibility of candidates. They dissect the legal and constitutional frameworks guiding the Court's decision-making process, focusing on how this particular case could set precedents for future electoral and constitutional interpretations.The episode provides a deep dive into the broader implications of the Court's potential ruling, examining how it might influence the fundamental principles of democracy and the rule of law in the United States. Chambers offers his expert insights into the dynamics of the Supreme Court's deliberations, the importance of precedent, and the complex relationship between state and federal electoral laws. Through their conversation, Wright and Chambers engage listeners in a nuanced discussion about the balance of powers, the role of the judiciary in interpreting the Constitution, and the critical importance of this case in shaping the landscape of American electoral politics.Guest Bio:Professor Henry L. Chambers, Jr., teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law, criminal law, law and religion, and employment discrimination. He is active in the Virginia State Bar, including serving as chair of its Section on the Education of Lawyers from 2007-2009, and has been a member of the American Law Institute since 2002. Professor Chambers served as Special Assistant Attorney General for redistricting matters for the Commonwealth of Virginia from 2011-2013. He also frequently lectures on constitutional law through the We The People program, which provides civic education instruction to school teachers and the public; at James Madison's Montpelier; and at the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville.We have an upcoming documentary about Christian Nationalism We're thrilled to announce an upcoming special audio narrative documentary of Faithful Politics that's been in the works for quite some time – titled "Heavenly Homeland." This groundbreaking project delves into the intricate world of Christian nationalism, exploring its historical roots, contemporary impact, and the nuanced intersection with American politics and faith communities. Support the showTo learn more about the show, contact our hosts, or recommend future guests, click on the links below: Website: https://www.faithfulpoliticspodcast.com/ Faithful Host: Josh@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com Political Host: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com Twitter: @FaithfulPolitik Instagram: faithful_politics Facebook: FaithfulPoliticsPodcast LinkedIn: faithfulpolitics

Special Guest: Maria Marukian: Speaker and Host of ‘Culture Stew' Maria Morukian is a recognized organizational development practitioner specializing in training, coaching, and facilitation with a focus on diversity, equity, inclusion, and intercultural competence. Maria is the President of MSM Global Consulting, and an adjunct faculty member at American University's School of International Service. She previously served in leadership and organizational development positions at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's Federal Executive Institute and the U.S. Department of State. She has also served in leadership positions at Management Concepts and the National MultiCultural Institute. Over the last two decades, Maria has trained and coached thousands of individuals around the world to build practices for better communication, foster competent and respectful workplaces, and navigate conflict for meaningful culture change. She has worked with such diverse clients as PBS Distribution, the National Park Service, National Institutes of Health, the World Bank, and the Association for Animal Welfare Advancement.  Maria is host of the podcast Culture Stew, which focuses on the multidimensionality of identity and best practices in diversity, equity, and inclusion. Join us as we discuss fostering competent and respectful workplaces. Listen Live (Archive Available) Host: Andy Goram

Join us as we delve into the crucial debate surrounding the exclusion of Donald Trump from the Colorado and Maine ballots, a pivotal issue in the political and legal spheres with Austin E. Owen Research Scholar & Professor of Law, Henry L. Chambers, JR. Our insightful discussion centers on the implications of the 14th Amendment, specifically Section 3, which disqualifies individuals involved in insurrection from holding office. We dissect the self-executing aspect of the 14th Amendment and analyze the diverse interpretations by states like Colorado and Maine.Crucially, we examine the Supreme Court's role in determining Trump's eligibility, emphasizing the significance of their impending decision. Our conversation also ventures into the possibility of a write-in campaign and its extensive political ramifications.Throughout the episode, we navigate through various dimensions of the upcoming election, focusing on bipartisan perspectives on disqualifying Trump, the urgent need for highly qualified presidential candidates, and the intense nature of presidential elections. We address the concerning lack of national discourse on multiple qualified candidates, the internal divisions plaguing the Republican Party, and the overall scarcity of meaningful dialogues and common ground in today's political landscape.Furthermore, we discuss the anxieties surrounding the upcoming election, the ongoing court cases and state legislation pertinent to Trump's disqualification, the necessity for a national discussion on the January 6th insurrection, and the interpretation of the Constitution in the context of the Reconstruction Amendments. It was a very in-depth conversation with a wonderful mind helping us make sense of it all! Read the publication Professor Chambers mentioned in the show: https://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/mlr/vol69/iss1/10/Guest Bio:Professor Henry L. Chambers, Jr., teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law, criminal law, law and religion, and employment discrimination. He is active in the Virginia State Bar, including serving as chair of its Section on the Education of Lawyers from 2007-2009, and has been a member of the American Law Institute since 2002. Professor Chambers served as Special Assistant Attorney General for redistricting matters for the Commonwealth of Virginia from 2011-2013. He also frequently lectures on constitutional law through the We The People program, which provides civic education instruction to school teachers and the public; at James Madison's Montpelier; and at the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville.Support the showTo learn more about the show, contact our hosts, or recommend future guests, click on the links below: Website: https://www.faithfulpoliticspodcast.com/ Faithful Host: Josh@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com Political Host: Will@faithfulpoliticspodcast.com Twitter: @FaithfulPolitik Instagram: faithful_politics Facebook: FaithfulPoliticsPodcast LinkedIn: faithfulpolitics

Founder & CEO of Triple P Consulting LLC also a member of the Strong Skills team! Jon Tuteur is an Executive Coach, Facilitator, Speaker, Author, and Management Consultant with over 20 years of experience working across numerous industries including the U.S. Federal Government, State & Local Government, Nonprofit, Higher Education, Financial Services, Hospitality, Retail, Healthcare, Real Estate, High Tech, and Consulting. Jon had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include: “We're not connecting in the ways that we used to” (9:40). “It's so important for me in the work that I do to create that safe space for people to open up about whatever it is that's going on” (11:55). “A lot of what drives disconnection is assumptions” (12:55). “When we're just judging people based on behavior, there's a lot of assumptions that go along with that” (13:20). “There's a way to go deep and be vulnerable at work that isn't inappropriate” (16:50). “Vulnerability is power. There is strength in vulnerability. It is not a weakness at all” (21:00). “It's been an incredible journey, but writing a book is not for the faint of heart” (26:00). “For me, so much of [decision making] centers around emotion” (31:30). “What is my heart saying? What is my head saying? What is my gut saying?” (32:00). “Our body tells us so much that we aren't even aware of” (32:20). “Having gone through this has given me a new sense of being able to put myself in other people's shoes that are struggling” (39:20). “Having 3 brain surgeries was the hard option, it was the hard road, and it was starting over” (44:20). “My focus this year is leaning into the spotlight because I've spent so much of my life shying away from it, trying to let other people take that spotlight. But no one wins who's afraid of losing” (45:20). “I don't allow myself to go down rabbit holes very often” (50:15). “One of the reasons I'm drawn to emotional intelligence is it comes naturally to me” (50:25). “Adversity is much more comfortable than it was when I was 29” (52:35). “[My book, Starting Over: From Seizures to Seizing Life] is a firsthand vulnerable account of how a completely unexpected life change impacts someone” (1:00:25) Additionally, I'd encourage you to check out the website for Triple P Consulting here, a replay of Jon's ABC 7 Good Morning Washington interview here, and to pre-order Jon's upcoming book, Starting Over: From Seizures to Seizing Life, here. You can also follow Jon on Facebook and LinkedIn. Lastly, you can find the website for the Federal Executive Institute here, where Jon teaches a class about EQ. Thank you so much to Jon for coming on the podcast! I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers. Thanks for listening.

Maria Morukian (Gen X), recognized organizational development practitioner specializing in training, coaching, and facilitation with a focus on diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), and intercultural competence, joins Yo to discuss trends in DEI, emotions that can be present when leading DEI initiatives, and how “jaggedy” those efforts may appear. They also get into intergenerational expectations and how the societal polarization could be shifting its way back.   Maria is the President of MSM Global Consulting, and an adjunct faculty member at American University's School of International Service.  She previously served in leadership and organizational development positions at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's Federal Executive Institute and the U.S. Department of State. She has also served in leadership positions at Management Concepts and the National MultiCultural Institute. Over the last two decades, Maria has trained and coached thousands of individuals around the world to build practices for better communication, foster competent and respectful workplaces, and navigate conflict for meaningful culture change. She has worked with such diverse clients as PBS Distribution, the National Park Service, National Institutes of Health, the World Bank, and the Association for Animal Welfare Advancement..   3 Takeaways:  1.   There are numerous emotions likely to be present for leaders when implementing DEI initiatives (fear, shame, courage). 2.   We all want to have a balance of belonging and being recognized four our uniqueness. We want to be known for who we are. 3.   There are complex deeply entrenched systems which have been around for a long time. We have to be willing to see the process as “jaggedy” and may not come out right or the way we hope the first time we try DEI initiatives.   Related Episode: Ep 19, A Model for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion More About Maria:  Maria is a sought-after speaker and has presented at numerous events, including TEDx, the Forum on Workplace Inclusion, the Association for Talent Development, Blacks in Government, and Ellevate Women's Network. Her work has been published in Forbes and TD Magazine. She is author of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for Trainers: Fostering DEI in the Workplace (ATD, 2022), and has contributed chapters to ATD's Handbook for Training and Talent Development (ATD, 2022) and the upcoming Building an Organizational Coaching Culture (Taylor & Francis, 2023). Maria is host of the podcast Culture Stew, which focuses on the multidimensionality of identity and best practices in diversity, equity, and inclusion. Maria earned a dual Bachelor's Degree from the University of Michigan in Organizational Studies and Spanish, and a Master's Degree from American University in International Communication. She lives in Washington, DC with her husband and two daughters. She is an avid runner, dancer, reader, traveler, and lover of theatre. How to reach Maria:  Email: maria@msmglobalconsulting.com Website: www.msmglobalconsulting.com  FB: MSM Global MSM_global on Instagram Culture Stew podcast Book: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for Trainers Maria's Upcoming Event: Ember, a unique community and co-designed learning experience for DEI leaders and practitioners at every stage of their development How to reach Yo Canny:  Our website: www.girltaketheleadpod.com  You can send a message or voicemail there. We'd love to hear from you! email: yo@yocanny.com (Yo) FB group: Girl, Take the Lead https://www.facebook.com/groups/272025931481748/?ref=share IG: yocanny (Yo) YouTube LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yocanny/

This is the first episode in ANWA Deterrence Center's Legacy Series where we look back at the Manhattan Project and the evolution over 80 years of the U.S. strategic nuclear deterrent. Darwin Morgan retired as Director, Office of Public Affairs, Nevada Field Office, National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) In March 2021. In retirement he serves as the President of the Nevada Test Site Historical Foundation. This Non-Profit organization oversees the Atomic Testing Museum, a Smithsonian affiliated museum dedicated to the history of atmospheric and underground nuclear weapons testing. In addition, he is a Historian with the NNSA's Nevada National Security Site's (NNSS's).As the former Director, Office of Public Affairs, he served as the advisor to senior management for public and congressional affairs and oversaw Freedom of Information/ Privacy Act and all outreach activities for the NNSA Nevada Field Office. He has also served as the Deputy Assistant Manager, Office of Public and Institutional Affairs, where he was responsible for quality leadership and diversity, public affairs and information, and economic diversification.Morgan's federal service began in 1989 as a Public Affairs Specialist with the Department of Energy's (DOE) Nevada Operations Office of External Affairs. He provided public affairs support for the environmental management programs, Yucca Mountain Project, and the national security programs. In addition, he served on two Source Evaluation Boards for the site office, one as the chairperson. Morgan was awarded the NNSA Administrator's Gold Medal and is a Graduate of the Federal Executive Institute.EPISODE NOTES:Follow NucleCast on Twitter at @NucleCastEmail comments and story suggestions to NucleCast@anwadeter.orgSubscribe to NucleCast podcastRate the show

In today's episode, Ashanti Bentil-Dhue interviews Maria Morukian, an inspiring leader with nearly two decades of experience in the realm of organisational development, with a keen focus on diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), and intercultural competence. With a relentless drive to build bridges across the landscape of our differences, Maria shares insights into the systemic challenges and barriers often obstructing the path to DEI in organisations. “But really my drive, my focus, my purpose is to build connections with individuals and groups, especially across the landscape of our differences so that we are better equipped to be able to address the systemic challenges and barriers that so often get in the way and are perpetuated when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion.” Episode Highlights:  ● The importance of diversifying influences and content ● The importance of self-work in training and talent development ● The importance of listening to multiple perspectives About Maria Morukian:   Maria Morukian is a recognized organisational development practitioner specialising in training, coaching, and facilitation with a focus on diversity, equity, inclusion, and intercultural competence. Maria is the President of MSM Global Consulting, and an adjunct faculty member at American University's School of International Service. She previously served in leadership and organisational development positions at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's Federal Executive Institute and the U.S. Department of State. She has also served in leadership positions at Management Concepts and the National MultiCultural Institute.    Maria has trained and coached thousands of individuals around the world to build practices for better communication, foster competent and respectful workplaces, and navigate conflict for meaningful culture change. She has worked with such diverse clients as PBS Distribution, the National Park Service, National Institutes of Health, the World Bank, and the Association for Animal Welfare Advancement. Maria is a sought after speaker and has presented at numerous events, including TEDx, the Forum on Workplace Inclusion, the Association for Talent Development, Blacks in Government, and Ellevate Women's Network. Her work has been published in Forbes, the Association for Talent Development's Public Manager, and she is author of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for Trainers: Fostering DEI in the Workplace (ATD, 2022).   Maria is host of the podcast Culture Stew, which focuses on the multidimensionality of identity and best practices in diversity, equity, and inclusion.    Maria earned a dual Bachelor's Degree from the University of Michigan in Organisational Studies and Spanish, and a Master's Degree from American University in International Communication. She lives in Washington, DC with her husband and two daughters. She is an avid runner, dancer, reader, traveller, and lover of theatre.     Socials: LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-morukian https://www.linkedin.com/company/msm-global-consulting   Instagram: mariamorukian msm_global   Facebook: Maria Morukian MSM Global Consulting   Twitter: @MariaMorukian @GlobalMsm   Podcast: Culture Stew is on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Libsyn, and Audible If you would like to apply to be a guest on the show email: operations@goodsoilleaders.com   If you would like to schedule a capability briefing call with our team, email: operations@goodsoilleaders.com    If you would like to apply for DEI PRO Coaching, email: operations@goodsoilleaders.com  Stay Connected with Ashanti:  LinkedIn: Ashanti Bentil-Dhue 

Dianne Collins is a philosophical pioneer taking us to the edges of reality and beyond. She is a bridge, a translator, a modern oracle of higher consciousness, of living the wisdom of science and spirituality made practical. Dianne is the creator of the QuantumThink® system of thinking, author of 6-time award-winning bestseller,Do You QuantumThink? New Thinking That Will Rock Your World, and popular media personality, interviewed more than 500 times on radio and TV. A featured blogger on The Huffington Post, Dianne Collins declared “the consciousness crowd” as The New Mainstream and her post went viral.Dianne is dedicated to people living spirited, joyful, and masterful lives through leaps in awareness using what she calls, “the physics of mind.” She created QuantumThink – the groundbreaking system of 21 principles and practices for the mind and awareness – to have us leap beyond “old world view” Industrial Age thinking to the expanded, more accurate and cutting-edge “new world view” of our Quantum Age.QuantumThink integrates science, philosophy, and spirituality for living the highest and best in everyday practical life. Dianne Collins is a master of translating ancient knowledge into modern “quantum” wisdom that provides a transformative platform for the way we conduct our personal, business, and global affairs. Her work is as entertaining as it is enlightening.Along with her husband and business partner, Alan K. Collins, Dianne consults executives and entrepreneurs, celebrities and politicos in applying QuantumThink® to what's important to them – for mastering accomplishment and fulfillment. Their clients have included leaders in Accenture, AT&T, CNN, Dupont, McKinsey, and Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, as well as officials in United States Government agencies including the National Partnership for Reinventing Government, the Federal Executive Institute, and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense.Dianne Collins is on the Board of Directors of the Institute for Global Transformation, and sponsors Florida International University's Program in the Study of Spirituality. She was a keynote speaker at the International Enneagram Conference, and received the “Top 20 Conscious Entrepreneurs” award. Dianne has engaged in a spiritual practice every day for 30 years. She is an avid student of planetary energy trends and metaphysical laws, and is a natural intuitive. She wants everyone everywhere to access their power to create consciously, and share their unique wisdom for a glorious world.

diannecollins.com 305-527-7730 Meet Dianne Collins and Alan Collins “Our intent in every session we present is for you to have an on-the-spot transformation in your awareness that translates naturally and easily into measurable success with increased confidence and joy in whatever you are doing.” -Dianne Collins -Alan Collins Dianne Collins and Alan Collins have been partners in life and in business for more than 20 years. They consult leaders and senior executives in the world's leading corporations to go beyond hidden limits of their thinking – accelerating results and catapulting nonlinear achievements. They have presented Strategic QuantumThink® Consulting and unique QuantumThink coaching programs via teleconference to thousands of people worldwide, from every walk of life. Clients have included Accenture, AT&T, CNN, DuPont, Morgan Stanley, McKinsey, and Telstra; agencies of the USA government including National Partnership for Reinventing Government under Vice President Al Gore, Federal Executive Institute, Office of Personnel Management, and Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense; as well as entrepreneurs and politicos, homemakers and students, celebrities and evolutionaries worldwide. “My entire life has been devoted to the question: what is the access to creating the results we truly desire? From studying everything from physics to metaphysics I made a few life altering discoveries that led me to create the QuantumThink® model—a system of thinking comprised of principles and practices that make it quick and easy for anyone to live the wisdom of science and spirituality in everyday life—not just to know the principles—to embody them.” – Dianne Collins Dianne Collins, original thinker and popular media personality is the creator of the QuantumThink® system of thinking and author of the 6-time award winning bestseller Do You QuantumThink? New Thinking That Will Rock Your World, considered a “must-read” for our changing times. She is dedicated to people living spirited, joyful, and masterful lives through leaps in awareness and new thinking using what she calls, “the physics of mind.” Dianne has been interviewed on more than 500 radio, internet and TV shows. She is a featured blogger on The Huffington Post, a recipient of the Top 20 Conscious Entrepreneurs award, and is considered the leading authority in new world view thinking. Dianne Collins is a graduate of the University of Miami in Philosophy and Psychology, and a lifelong student of meditation and yoga, quantum principles, and leading edge modalities that make life better and more joyful. Her varied experiences as a Fortune 100 corporate manager, award-winning photographic artist, video producer, and consultant to business executives and entrepreneurs, all contribute to her extraordinary gift of originality and ability to express complex universal subjects in clear and powerful ways that benefit people instantly. She provides a big picture view that makes sense of the changes all around us. Her work is considered as entertaining as it is enlightening. Everyone realizes we need to think in a new way. The question is, how? Drawing on cutting edge quantum insights, ageless spiritual knowledge and revealing the essential role of the mind in living effectively with modern and pop culture–Dianne Collins offers us advanced thinking principles for leaps in awareness that enable real solutions, from the pursuit of inner serenity to harmonious relationships, business results and global affairs.

Dr. Heath Harding of the Office of Personnel Management's Center for Leadership Development, described what the Federal Executive Institute is and why you want to attend. FEI, located in Charlottesville, VA, offers leader development and networking opporunities you should know about. I attended many years ago and had a great exerpience that included working in teams with representatives from agencies and departments across the government. Listen to learn more. https://leadership.opm.gov/facilities.aspx?f=48 https://www.opm.gov/services-for-agencies/

Hacking is no longer a far-off, fictional plot from science fiction. We all participate in the digital world. The threats to individuals and their identities are real and inevitable; no person or corporation is exempt from identity theft or data breach. Last year, Microsoft was infiltrated by at least 10 different hacker groups as a result of software flaws and unsuspecting users. Cyber-tech leaders Shawn Wiora and Mike Echols will show Global Forum members how to manage cyber risks and be empowered to safely navigate the tech world.   About the Speakers: Mike Echoles headshotMike Echols is the CEO of IACI, a Kennedy Space Center nonprofit, and CEO of Max Cybersecurity LLC. Echols spent 10 years at the Department of Homeland Security in critical infrastructure protection and cybersecurity leadership and served as the point person for President Obama's Executive Order Promoting Private Sector Cybersecurity Information Sharing, Chair of the Communications Sector and Network Security Information Exchange, and designated federal official for the President's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee. Echols is a graduate of the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative – Harvard Kennedy School of Public Health, and the Federal Executive Institute.     Shawn Wiora headshotShawn Wiora is the co-founder and CEO of Maxxsure, a leading cyber risk quantification and blockchain company in DFW. Known as a cyber industry expert, Wiora has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, CIO.com, and CNNMoney and is a frequent keynote and conference speaker for SOX, PCI, NIST, and HIPAA. Additionally, he took the first healthcare company in the U.S. to the cloud, a company which received the designation of the most cyber-resilient healthcare company in the U.S. . . Do you believe in the importance of international education and connections? The nonprofit World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth is supported by gifts from people like you, who share our passion for engaging in dialogue on global affairs and building bridges of understanding. While the Council is not currently charging admission for virtual events, we ask you to please consider making a one-time or recurring gift to help us keep the conversation going through informative public programs and targeted events for students and teachers. Donate: https://www.dfwworld.org/donate

In this episode, I speak with Russ Linden on the topic of navigating change, having a growth mindset and learning from contemporary leaders.★ Russ' Bio: ★ Russ Linden is a management educator and author who specializes in organizational change methods. He is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Virginia and at the Federal Executive Institute. He writes a column on management innovations for Management Insights, an online column sponsored by Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and Governing Magazine. In 2003 he was the Williams Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the State University of New York (Fredonia) School of Business.Connect with Russ:http://www.russlinden.com/http://www.loss-discovery.com/

Dianne Collins is a philosophical pioneer taking us to the edges of reality and beyond. She is a bridge, a translator, a modern oracle of higher consciousness, of living the wisdom of science and spirituality made practical. Dianne is the creator of the QuantumThink® system of thinking, author of 6-time award-winning bestseller,Do You QuantumThink? New Thinking That Will Rock Your World, and popular media personality, interviewed more than 500 times on radio and TV. A featured blogger on The Huffington Post, Dianne Collins declared “the consciousness crowd” as The New Mainstream and her post went viral.Dianne is dedicated to people living spirited, joyful, and masterful lives through leaps in awareness using what she calls, “the physics of mind.” She created QuantumThink – the groundbreaking system of 21 principles and practices for the mind and awareness – to have us leap beyond “old world view” Industrial Age thinking to the expanded, more accurate and cutting-edge “new world view” of our Quantum Age. QuantumThink integrates science, philosophy, and spirituality for living the highest and best in everyday practical life. Dianne Collins is a master of translating ancient knowledge into modern “quantum” wisdom that provides a transformative platform for the way we conduct our personal, business, and global affairs. Her work is as entertaining as it is enlightening.Along with her husband and business partner, Alan K. Collins, Dianne consults executives and entrepreneurs, celebrities and politicos in applying QuantumThink® to what's important to them – for mastering accomplishment and fulfillment. Their clients have included leaders in Accenture, AT&T, CNN, Dupont, McKinsey, and Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, as well as officials in United States Government agencies including the National Partnership for Reinventing Government, the Federal Executive Institute, and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense.Dianne Collins is on the Board of Directors of the Institute for Global Transformation, and sponsors Florida International University's Program in the Study of Spirituality. She was a keynote speaker at the International Enneagram Conference, and received the “Top 20 Conscious Entrepreneurs” award. Dianne has engaged in a spiritual practice every day for 30 years. She is an avid student of planetary energy trends and metaphysical laws, and is a natural intuitive. She wants everyone everywhere to access their power to create consciously, and share their unique wisdom for a glorious world.

Charlie Palumbo is Chief Executive Officer of Intentional Leaders LLC, a professional services company focusing on leadership development and consulting. Prior to starting her company, she was a program manager for the Amazon Last Mile Delivery Service Partner (DSP) and led national partnerships. She assisted hundreds of candidates considering or launching small businesses in partnership with Amazon. She was the Director of Transition and Employment Programs at the Virginia Department of Veterans Services (DVS), where she served as the primary lead in developing and overseeing the creation of transition and employment programs all of these programs created opportunities and pathways for employment for veterans and their spouses. Prior to DVS, Mrs. Palumbo spent three years at the Virginia Employment Commission, as the Veteran Program Manager, where she oversaw the Bridge to Employment Program and the Jobs for Veterans Program. She also worked for several years at the Office of Personnel Management, as a Program Coordinator at the Federal Executive Institute. She spent four years in the Navy stationed in Yokosuka, Japan, and then accompanied her husband as a military spouse for a four-year tour in Naples, Italy. Mrs. Palumbo is a mom of two boys, poet, published author, and advocate.

Heard of the Office of Personnel Management's Federal Executive Institute? In this episode, Steven Frid (FEI Alumni Association Board Member), gives us a quick rundown on what FEI is and the upcoming alumni association event you won't want to miss! Steven Frid currently works as Director of Security at Federal Student Aid, where he manages programs, handles budgets, plans, coordinates personnel information, and oversees physical security efforts. He is also responsible for the emergency and facilities management programs for the agency. Learn more and get registered here: https://www.feiaa.org/ https://leadership.opm.gov/facilities.aspx?f=48

Laura has been working intuitively with people and their animals for over 20 years. She is constantly amazed by the ability and eagerness of animals to have conversations and give specific details about their health, relationships, emotions, histories, desires and life purposes. Animal communication can be learned by anyone and Laura's passion is to help people develop their own skills as well as to do individual animal sessions. Laura's lifelong love of horses has led her to barns across the country combining intuitive communication with relationship building for horse and rider. Shari Goodwin is an innovative business strategist, leadership coach, author, speaker, and horsewoman with over 25 years of experience, including starting four businesses and serving as Director of Program Strategy for a global engineering firm. One of the start-ups, an IT staffing and consulting firm, generated $2.1 million in its first year. As a former environmental scientist, she led the creation of winning proposals valued to $65 million and directed the development of science and engineering analyses for federal court litigation, including the US Supreme Court. She owns Jaeger2, specializes in reinvention, and helps leaders and teams position for optimum impact and quality of life. Author of two inspirational Amazon best-sellers, Take the Reins! 7 Secrets to Inspired Leadership, and Reinventing Greatness: Leading Yourself & Others Through Change with Confidence & Trust, Shari holds a Master's degree in biology, undergraduate degrees in Zoology and English, and is certified in executive coaching and equine-assisted learning. Her equine-assisted leadership programs have served hundreds including the Federal Executive Institute, the World Bank, and many leadership teams. Shari was a founding member of the Board for George Mason University's Women in Business Initiative, is the 2020 Board Chair of the Women's Business Council for the Fauquier Chamber of Commerce

Produced by KSQD90.7FM (We apologize some background noise.) “Be Bold America!” Sunday, March 27, 2022 at 5:00pm (PT) Authoritarianism is antithetical to democracy. The January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol, the invasion of Ukraine, and the militarizing of police in many of our cities are living examples of authoritarianism in action. Are there any similarities between them? Our two interview guests, Dr. William Benet, creator of the Polarities of Democracy theory, and Dr, Joseph McMillan, former President of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, say: “Yes!” They say, residents often feel as though the police are an occupying force rather than helpful servants of the people in those communities. Join us to talk about challenging police officers to change their minds. Our two expert guests will discuss how Polarities of Democracycan be applied through the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement (NOBLE) Interview Guest: Dr. Joseph McMillian is a Fellow with the Institute of Polarities of Democracy, a Contributing Faculty member in the Walden University School of Criminal Justice, a Past National President for the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Police Executive Research Foundation, and the American Society of Criminology. Dr. McMillan received a BA in Criminal Justice, from Wilmington College, a MA in Criminal Justice with an emphasis on Crime in Commerce from George Washington University, a MS in Strategic Intelligence from the National Defense Intelligence College, and his PhD. in Criminal Justice from Walden University. Dr. McMillan is also a graduate of the Air War College non-resident program and the Federal Executive Institute. Dr. William Benet is an activist, educator, and researcher who developed the Polarities of Democracy theory through his doctoral and post-doctoral research at the University of Toronto. He has over 50 years' experience in politics and social justice activism. He served in the US Army from 1965 to 1968, followed by 28 years in the Monroe County Legislature in Rochester, New York, including five years as Majority Leader. Dr. Benet currently holds academic appointments as a Dissertation Committee Chair with Walden University's School of Public Policy and Administration, and an Associate Researcher with the University of Toronto's Adult Education and Community Development Program. He serves as Vice-President and Senior Fellow for the Institute for Polarities of Democracy.

Ira Chaleff is an author, speaker, workshop presenter, and innovative thinker on the beneficial use of power between those who are leading and those who are following in any given situation. His groundbreaking book, The Courageous Follower: Standing Up To and For Our Leaders, is in its third edition, has been published in multiple languages, and is in use in institutions around the globe including educational, corporate, government, and military organizations. He has recently completed two terms of service as a member of the Board of Directors of the International Leadership Association (ILA) and is the founder of its Followership Member Community. He is currently mentoring a community of academics and professionals in the field of courageous followers gathered around the Teaching Followers Courage project. Ira is also the founder and president of Executive Coaching & Consulting Associates, which provides coaching, consulting, and facilitation to companies, associations, and agencies throughout the Washington, DC, area. He is chairman emeritus of the nonpartisan Congressional Management Foundation and has provided facilitation to nearly one hundred congressional offices to improve their service to constituents. Ira is Adjunct Faculty at the Federal Executive Institute where he teaches a weeklong elective workshop on Courageous Followers, Courageous Leaders in the Leadership in a Democratic Society program, and is a Visiting Leadership Scholar at the University of Cambridge, England.Ira has been named one of the “100 best minds on leadership” by Leadership Excellence magazine. He was cited in the Harvard Business Review as one of the three pioneers in the growing field of followership studies. Ira Chaleff lives in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains outside of Washington, DC, where bears frequently disobey the No Trespassing signs on the road and help keep his connection strong with the wonders of nature.A Quote From This Episode"I had to ask myself the question, 'if evolution sorts out the behaviors that don't contribute to a species' survival, why is this strong-man-autocrat, proto-tyrant, still so prevalent? They must be serving some purpose.' That's a very problematic statement."Resources Mentioned In This EpisodeBook - People of the Lie by M. Scott PeckBook - Intelligent Disobedience by ChaleffBook - A Celebration of Followership: The Story in Documents of Courageous Followership and the Followership Community by ChaleffBook - Power of Followership by KellyBook - Followership by KellermanAbout The International Leadership Association (ILA)The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals with a keen interest in the study, practice, and teaching of leadership. Plan now for ILA's 24th Global Conference Online October 6 & 7, 2022, and/or Onsite in Washington, D.C., October 13-16, 2022.Connect with Scott AllenWebsite

Jimmy Thai escaped Vietnam and went on to become a leading speaker and builder of schools in underprivileged areas. In this episode, Jimmy shares more about his escape and his journey to becoming an outstanding individual. Jimmy Thai (MSEE, MBA, PMP, DTM) fled Vietnam 15 times, was imprisoned twice, and witnessed police kill his brother. Through determination, he eventually arrived in America as a “Boat People” refugee. With no English, money, or education, he started as a janitor at Miramar community college. 5 years later, he graduated from UCSD with a BSEE degree. He went on to earn MSEE and MBA degrees, then attended Executive Leadership training at Harvard University and Federal Executive Institute. In 2011, he's cracked the “Bamboo Ceiling” as a Vice President for Technology with SAIC – a Fortune500 company with $11 Billion in revenue and 47K employees. His journey illustrates the American Dream, and his story is featured on ABC, San Diego Union Tribune, Time Warner TV, etc. A frequent speaker on TED Talks, PMI, CIO Vision, ISC conferences in Las Vegas, New York, Washington DC, and international stages, Jimmy's speaking, coaching, and training provoke your mind, heart, and humor! His 501.c.3 www.BuildaSchoolFoundation.org (BaSF) has built 81 schools and bridges in Vietnam, Philippines, Cambodia, and Kenya in 6 years.

Paul McFadden is a highly accomplished and sought-after executive & team coach, wellness coach, leadership development strategist, resilience & performance expert, trusted advisor, facilitator, keynote, former IT executive and veteran of the US Navy/Merchant Marine Reserves and has been exemplifying leadership excellence for almost 30 years in the Military, Private, Public and Volunteer sectors. For the last decade, he has been the Managing Director and COO of Zero Point Leadership, Inc., a global, science-based leadership and human development firm with foundations in neuroscience, mindfulness, resilience, quantum theory, peak performance and mind-body research. As a coach and consultant, Paul is passionate about helping individuals, leaders and organizations create an environment which fosters a culture of high trust, self-directed change, increased collaboration and optimal performance through the integration of cutting-edge strategies/techniques grounded in science-based research and evidence-based practice with innovations in leadership and personal development. His fundamental philosophy is that true leadership begins within through the mastery of self. The result of which has led to the co-creation of the Integrative NeuroSomatic® approach to Self-Mastery; inspiring leaders to align with their passion, disrupt limiting patterns, and develop the intentional practices or rituals essential for becoming the best versions of themselves. Paul is also a facilitator and Adjunct Faculty with the Center for Disease Control University, the Transportation Safety Institute, the Federal Executive Institute and the Office of Personnel Management's Center for Leadership Development. In addition, he is a member of a strategic facilitator's panel with the National Science Foundation and is Coach Faculty with Linkage's Global Institute for Leadership Development (GILD) as well as their Advancing Women in Leadership (WIL) Institute. Paul earned his Bachelor of Science at the United States Merchant Marine Academy and was honorably discharged from the US Navy/Merchant Marine Reserves after (4) years of service. He completed his coach specific training with the NeuroLeadership Institute and earned his Brain-Based Professional Coach Certification specializing in Executive and Team Coaching. He maintains the credential of Professional Certified Coach (PCC) through the International Coach Federation and has over 1800 hours of 1-on-1 and team coaching experience. Additionally, he is a HeartMath® Certified Trainer (HMCT) and completed his Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach (FMCHC) certification through the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy. Paul is currently completing his Certified Personal Trainer certification with the National Academy of Sports Medicine, is a fall 2020 Candidate for the National Board-Certified Health & Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC) certification and is pursuing his Ph.D. in Integrative Medicine at Quantum University in Hawaii. He is also an avid motorcycle enthusiast.

Powerful Collaborations with Stewart Levine Hugh Ballou: Welcome to The Nonprofit Exchange. Russell, here we are again. Week after week, we have amazing people. Yet today, this is a friend from years ago. I sent out an email asking people if they wanted to contribute to the magazine or be on the show. Immediately, Stewart Levine responded. How are things in Denver today, Russell? Russell Dennis: It's a little cloudy, a little bit cooler than it has been. But we are in the fall season. All is well otherwise. Welcome, Stewart. Thank you for coming. Stewart Levine: My pleasure to be with you guys today. I will be landing in Denver early tomorrow morning and then driving up to Vail for some American Bar Association meetings. Interesting, because I have a new book called Becoming the Best Lawyer You Can Be: How to Maintain Physical, Emotional, Spiritual, and Mental Health. The American Bar Association, 27 authors, I curated it and edited it. I'm actually very excited about it. Hugh: Look at that. Let's back up. I'm sure there is people watching who want to know who this guy is anyway. Why don't you tell them, Stewart? Stewart: Thank you, Hugh. Here's the short synopsis. I practiced law for about 10 years in a reasonably traditional number of contexts, starting off in the New Jersey Attorney General's office. Then I got tired of fighting with people. And it was before the whole ADR, Alternative Dispute Resolution, movement came on board. So I decided to do a little career change. I spent six years inside of AT&T as they were going through huge organizational change and transformation with major law firms as my clients, not in a legal sense, but in an account representative sense. On a parallel track, I started divorce meditation because I wanted to use the skills I had developed as a lawyer. I learned a lot about communication, about collaboration, about conflict resolution working with couples getting divorced because no one is in worse shape than that. Over time, I moved that work over into working with organizations, teens, organizational transformational cultural change work, individual coaching. For the last 30 years, that essentially is what I have been doing. The last 10 years, I have learned a ton of teaching programs and all the soft skills, relationship skills on behalf of the American Management Association. I have done a number of collaborations over time with various other individuals, all in the organizational space. That is the short synopsis, except I have also written a couple of best-selling books. The first one is called Getting to Resolution: Turning Conflict into Collaboration. It was endorsed by Stephen Covey. It was named one of the best business books of 1998, second edition came out in 2008. A follow-up called The Book of Agreement: 10 Essential Elements for Getting the Results You Want. That was endorsed by a number of notable people. That's the short answer. You and I met in the context of both being on the faculty of an organization called CEO Space. It's a pleasure to see your face again, Hugh. Hugh: It's a pleasure. Thank you for stepping up when I sent out that probing email. Actually, we were standing in those groups out in the lobby, and someone was addressing the group. I whipped out my draft of my workbook, Dealing with High Performance Teams, and I said, “Would you do me a favor and review this? Tell me what it's missing.” You sent me an email saying there was nothing about agreements in here. So I asked if I could quote your book of the 10EssentialElementsofAgreementsso I could give you attribution. I refer to those all the time. I send people to Amazon to get that book. It's really a treasure. We are speaking to people who are in the social benefit/for-purpose sector. They are clergy running a church or synagogue. They are executive directors running a for-purpose community-based organization. They are running a membership organization. I see a lot of conflict because people haven't been really good in creating this agreement. They don't write it down. They haven't decided how we are going to define expectations. I would guess, we're talking about collaboration and alignment today. I would think one tenet of alignment is to be able to have your expectations written down. Where do you start with alignment? What is the starting point? Stewart: Sure. Just to frame this, what I always say to people is you can pay me now or pay me later. If you pay me now, you'll pay me a lot less. Essentially what that means is spend a little time on the front end, making sure you have alignment, making sure you have shared expectations. Otherwise, the root of conflict is when people have different understandings of what they are doing together, and they have a different sense of metrics in terms of how we are going to measure whether or not we were successful. Critical piece is spending time on the front end. TheBookofAgreementcontains about 30 models of agreements for getting to a place of alignment. Those ten elements are actually so good I put them on the back of my business card. It's not like I'm trying to keep any secrets. I am happy to give them away. You start off by having a conversation. What is our intent and vision? In other words, what are we doing together? What's our intent and vision? By the way, as a little aside, most legal agreements are something that I refer to as agreements for protection. What if this goes wrong, and what if that goes wrong? There is not a huge amount of time spent on what we are trying to achieve here. That was the perspective that I took. What is our intent and vision? What is the role that each one of us is going to play? In other words, what is each party or person responsible for? What are the specific promises that each person makes? In other words, what is each person going to do to bring that vision into reality? How are they going to contribute? What is the value that each person receives? Why? Because if people don't receive, if they are not getting value out of any form of collaboration, they will stop contributing. They will stop performing. Metrics. How will you measure whether or not you were successful? Get it to a place of objectivity. Concerns and fears. People often have concerns and fears that they don't want to talk about. They are shy. What I like to do is put this in the model. No, this is something you have to talk about. Renegotiation. The idea that when we begin, we know what we know, but we don't know what we don't know. As we work together, moving down the road, we discover things, and we constantly need to be mindful of renegotiating that agreement to make sure we are back in a place of alignment. Consequences or benefits. What's at stake here? What's really at stake in this collaboration for the individuals involved, for the organization, for the community that is being served in the world of nonprofit and benefit organizations? Conflict resolution. We know that things happen. How are we going to resolve the conflicts and differences when they come up? After you have talked about those nine things, you look at the other person or the group and go, Yes or no. This is a project that I am engaged with. What I like to say is if you got good alignment, you don't have to worry about loose panels flapping off the rocket ship that you are trying to get to take off. I'm not sure where that came from. A little feedback from the universe. That's okay. The last element, number ten, is agreement and trust. Are we aligned? This is what is essential to do at the front end. People who start to use this and discover it think it's like sliced bread. It's just amazing, the simple ten element model, what it can create and what it can save you in the long run. Hugh: Absolutely. I call it paying the upfront price. You quoted the oil filter pay me now or pay me later. That's a great commercial. It's so true. It's the price upfront is far cheaper. That's a brilliant model. What happens when you get to #10 is you really know that you have an agreement. Stewart: You know you have an agreement, or you know you don't, which is of equal value. You know that Okay, this is, we're not in alignment. I don't think we can get to alignment. This is not a good project to work on together. Hugh: I don't know if you know I do lots of group board meetings and staff meetings. I am fundamentally a music connector who helps build ensembles, which is synergy in group interaction. In the South, y'all can tell I'm in the South, we say none of us is as smart as all of us. How do you get the best collective thinking without going into groupthink? My answer to that is we teach people how to build consensus. I find most people confuse consensus and compromise when they are the exact opposite. A consensus is a win-win, and compromise is lose-lose. What dawns on me as you are describing that model which I have read so many times is that prompts people to talk in a different way, discover new things, and come to some sort of consensus that whether we can work together or we can't. Is consensus part of alignment? Stewart: Absolutely. Consensus is essentially alignment. I'm glad you mentioned the word “compromise.” You said it exactly correctly, Hugh. Compromise means to lose-lose. People giving up what's important to them. Consensus is we are all in agreement, we are all in alignment, we are all moving forward toward the same things with the same end result in mind. Hugh: It's very misunderstood. What setting it is. A corporate setting, a boardroom, or anything like that. I think it's really misunderstood. It's important that we can build that synergy if we are going to work together as teams. Why is alignment essential in today's world? Why don't you go to D.C. and teach them? You can skip that second part. Stewart: I want to go back a second, and I will come to your question. I want to punctuate this point, Hugh. What also happens in the process of having this conversation is you start to develop a real deeper relationship. I don't mean an intimate personal relationship; I mean a working relationship. And as we all know, when you have relationship with people you are working with, it's much easier to resolve differences, which will inherently come up. The only reason people end up in lawsuits is when relationships break down. That's the only time they resort to those 100-page agreements that attorneys prepare, when the relationship breaks down. Otherwise, they work it out; they want to keep working together. Having said that, why is this more important in today's world? I think it's more important in today's world because we have a lot less face-to-face interaction. So much of what we're doing transactionally is virtual. In those kinds of situations, it's easier to be a jerk. And people don't consciously spend time to build relationships. This is a way to do it. That's one piece. The second piece is it's too costly when things break down. When you end up in conflict and any kind of lawsuits or legal process, you can't afford it. You can't afford to waste that time removing so quick. Three is if you look out at the world, it seems that there is a movement toward a much more values-based business and organizational culture. Much more. Because people realize what goes around comes around. You can't treat transactions as a one-shot deal. We have to be more relational and values-based. Even the millennial generation coming up, for them, it's real important to be part of a mission-driven organization, whatever that mission happens to be. To frame for-profit missions as having a “missionary” value. Business organizations in some sense are becoming a place where people get in culture. Business, nonprofits, in that context, it's where we spend so much time. Bringing values and alignment into that are critical. Probably more than you wanted to hear. To go back to that other question about Washington D.C., about 10 years ago, I was actually doing a two-day program for the Federal Executive Institute, which is run out of the Treasury Department. I had about 75 people for two days. At the end of the program, a bunch of Navy officers came up to me in white uniforms and said, “You need to go down the block and teach those guys in Congress.” Bottom line is, I don't know if you remember those old jokes, “How many blanks does it take to change a light bulb?” How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb? Only one, but it's got to want to change. The guys in D.C., I use guys generically, they don't seem to want to change. They are sitting in some old cultural model, and that's why the rating in D.C. of the folks that we elect as representatives and our employees, the ratings are so incredibly low. Hugh: They are. We are shaped by the culture that we have experienced and the culture we have been injected into. We don't have to accept that. I can't imagine what it's like on the inside. Some of the large companies and some of the large churches I have served have a culture. You refer to this topic of conflict. Before we leave the alignment and agreement piece, what I have experienced when people have those kinds of conversations. By the way, another piece Russell and I present and attend is the Business Acceleration Summit with your cheerleader Shannon Gronich, who studied your program with you. She uses it quite well. In going through that process, there is a transformation that happens with people's perspective, even those who want to change. There is a substantive transformation that happens. Give us the story. Am I right? Does that happen with people exploring those options? If so, is there an example without giving away names of the kind of transformation that happens when people can have a different kind of conversation? Stewart: It creates connection. Connectivity. To me, human connectivity is the key to productivity. That sounds like a rhyme. Connectivity is the key to productivity. It is. If you think about high performance teams, what was it about the teams that made them great? The human relationships. The high levels of trust. When you create alignment, that is naturally going to happen. For religious organizations, go back to the words of Christ. Wherever two or more of you are gathered, there is one. When you create alignment and connection, you create a different kind of energy. It's there. It's there. One other thing I wanted to say about this, Hugh. You mentioned the word “culture.” I do cultural transformation work. People often ask for that. It's a very amorphous concept. When you think about what is culture in an organization, culture is actually held in relationships. Relationships are a function of agreements, implicit and explicit. I say if we can make our agreements explicit, we can change the culture. By having agreements with how we will be with each other, how we will treat each other. I have done this in many organizations over time. It always comes up value-based because people use their highest aspirations when they are creating these kinds of agreements. Culture. Huge piece. Hugh: Let's focus in a minute. As a conductor, I create high performance cultures in choirs and orchestras. If you are familiar, the person at the front influences others. I have a lot of leaders say, “I want other people to change.” I point out, “That ain't gonna happen unless you change.” I don't know if you're familiar with the work of Murray Bowen, the psychiatrist who has a whole leadership methodology. Bowen's wisdom is if you want to change people on your team, you change yourself, and they reflect that. What you are talking about is the vulnerability of the leader willing to open their brains to something new. Stewart: Jim Kouzes, favorite leadership consultant, and his partner Barry Posner. Talk about as one of the key elements of leadership modeling the way. That is a validation of what you just said. Modeling the way. Change yourself. Show others how you want them to be. Critical piece. Hugh: Amen. Stewart: Amen. It's interesting. I did a project for a state government agency a few years ago. You asked for an example. They were implementing a new fiscal system to the entire state. It was coming out of the controller's office. You can imagine the political, the legacy systems. It was a group of professional accountants who were charged with the pilot program. I got a call from someone who had seen me present about 10 years ago for the Project Management Institutes in the Greater Bay Area of San Francisco, which is where I am. I got in there and used the models that we're talking about to get to the bottom of what conflicts were between the various units and to create an agreement about how it was that these folks were going to move forward with the level of human alignment to get this first pilot off the ground and in the implementation off the ground. It's amazing what these ten elements of agreement can do. It's a systematic way of creating an activity, alignment, a shift in culture, how to get humans hooked up and connected. Hugh: I'm coming back. We are champions of transformational leadership. That is a transformational mindset here of people being aware. I think what happens when I have seen leaders go through steps like which you are proposing, there is a transformation of their knowledge and their being. They see the world differently when they start having conversations. Stewart: I call that mindset “resolutionary thinking.” Resolutionary thinking. Mindset is certainly something that I talk about. As a matter of fact, in my first book, when Stephen Covey endorsed it, he actually said, “The mindset and the skillset are just terrific.” Hugh: Love it. I have been hogging all the time here. I want to give Russell a chance. He listens. Russell, I notice Stewart doesn't miss a lick. He comes back to my questions even though I forgot I asked them. Real clarity of thought here. Russell, what are you hearing? Before we switch over to talking about conflict, do you have any observations or questions on this powerful part Stewart is bringing to us? Russell: Thinking about alignment, it starts with ourselves. I am going to go out on a limb and guess that's why you wrote this book: to talk about internal alignment. We all have that. When we recognize that need to align ourselves internally, then we get along better with others. What is critical to this alignment and approaching this process in this manner it stops any problems before they start. People don't do business with entities; people do business with people. If we are not aligned or on the same page, it won't work very well. I really appreciate all of the things that I see. This is a book I keep for myself. I have used it to put agreements together that I put together for people I do business with so that we can create a good set of expectations. We don't want to have problems later. Although this book has been around for a while, people don't seem to be as proactive as they could be. You look at your typical agreement, and it's written in legalese. We don't want to duck for cover. We want to work together and solve some problems. I love your approach in that way. Stewart: It's interesting, Russell. Having practiced law for ten years, I saw all these legal books that their lawyers put their names in. In some ways, when I wrote The Book of Agreement, it was my antidote to that kind of agreement. The legal agreements I call agreements of protection. My agreements I call agreements for results. They help you get to that place you want to. Thank you. Thank you. To validate your point, this whole notion of being aligned internally, having some level of clarity, having some level of emotional intelligence, mindfulness, call it being awake, call it religion, religious people having a level of Christ consciousness, all these things are critical to being able to engage effectively with others. In some ways, having yourself out of the way a bit so that you can listen to the needs and wants of others, which is the only place you get connectivity. When I talk about listening skills, I say that listening is a skill that has you show up as a great communicator, and it's one of the few things you can do unilaterally. You don't need anyone else's cooperation. All you have to do is drop your concerns and be in service to the other to find out what it is they are talking about. That is the foundational piece to create real connectivity. Hugh: Russell, do you have a question you are noodling on here? Russell: No, I was thinking about what the great problem is. A lot of us internally make assumptions. When you make assumptions, the expectations build upon that, which is what leads to conflict. I have heard people define expectations as pre-planned resentment. People don't come to the table. They sit down, they sign an agreement, they assume that the other side knows what it is they want and what those expectations are, and there is a lot of legalese without getting to the meat and potatoes of assumptions. Stewart: Russell, one of the mantras when I was practicing law was when you would come to a resolution of the case, the mantra was, “If everybody is unhappy, then you have a good settlement.” I just scratched my head the first time I heard that and said, “No, there has to be a better way than this.” This is the perfect transition if you want to talk about conflict for a bit. The whole notion of resolving conflict is about when I say getting to resolution, not having an agreement everybody is unhappy with. You haven't resolved anything. Going back to our initial discussion, you compromised, and you ended up in a lose-lose situation to be able to move forward. You killed a relationship. You have killed what may have been an opportunity for real productivity. Hugh: Amazing. This fictitious topic of conflict in the workplace. Why don't you give us a perspective? How do you define conflict? Stewart: An important distinction in this conversation initially is differences versus conflict. Differences as we all know are a good thing. This leads to diversity in opinion, better solution, innovation, creativity. Difference is different perspectives. A good thing. Now, conflict arises when people become committed to being right, when their egos take over, and their way or the highway, or my way is the right way, or I have the truth here. That is when they get emotionally attached. That emotional attachment is what I call conflict. Difference is a good thing. Conflict is emotional attachment. Where that leads to in terms of thinking about conflict, it's never about who is going to get the corner office. It's about the individual's emotional attachment. If you really want to resolve the conflict, and I learned this early on doing divorce meditation, deal with the emotion first, whatever that happens to be. Give people the opportunity to vent and get that emotion out of their system. Then, whatever they were fighting about, it almost seems silly. When people have the opportunity to talk about the emotion that was hanging them up. Or another way of looking at that is you can think of conflict as oppositional. People are gripped in emotion. If we were all emotionally mature and evolved, when something was not working, you could just say to each other, “This isn't working, is it?” We both go, “No, it's not.” Where do we want to go together? Where do we want to go together in the future? As opposed to processing this conflict, let's create a new agreement. Whatever we think we have by way of agreement is not working. Let's create a new one prospectively for where we want to go together from this point forward. Otherwise, we keep dragging the baggage and the cost of conflict with us moment to moment, and the cash register is raining on that cost. So that's a frame, a way to think about it. Yeah, operating on assumptions and crossed expectations is the greatest cause of conflict in organizations. Greatest cause of conflict. Hugh, you look like you want to say something. Hugh: I do find it pretty much in any organization. It's more prevalent when people aren't willing or able to confront the facts. We have spun confront to be a toxic thing when it really means with your front. What I also learned in studying the work of Murray Bowen is that you approach conflict directly and calmly and factually. If you got your agreement form, we have got the renegotiation piece in there. We don't think we can do that. We have made a plan, so we have to work the plan. Wait a minute. Something is wrong. This renegotiation piece, it would occur to me is a part of way to move through conflict. Stewart: Critical piece. Just to validate this notion about confronting. Intel, which has been a pretty successful organization over the years, they actually characterize their culture as one of constructive confrontation, constructive conversation. We tackle what is off in terms of alignment. We want to be in that place of getting back to alignment. The renegotiation is that piece. As you know, people sometimes get attached to being right or their way, especially when the clarity of expectation was not set correctly at the front end with a good, solid agreement of the kind I might help facilitate or the kind that you use. Hugh: Back to the relationship piece. What I find happens, and we had a guest a couple months ago from Australia who has a brilliant tool called the Conversations game. People are able to take down a mask and talk about things they really didn't think they would talk about. People who were enemies asked each other for their phone numbers. Part of it is disarming people by leading them into having conversations of substance rather than the ones we think we ought to have. We learn about the other person. There is this relationship building. That is what is so good about my definition of consensus: an agreement that is worked out in a group process, but is backed by relationship. If you have gone through your agreement, your tenth point is you are in agreement because you know each other by then. Speak to the relationship piece of this moving through conflict. We write the agreement; how do we keep it active instead of a piece of paper we file away? Stewart: Great. First of all, it's not 100 pages. It's probably two or three. As you see from all the agreements in the book. Two, in terms of the relationship piece, people do get emotional. We have different perspectives. We have different observations. We have different feelings because we are unique individual biological machines. We get emotional. Our emotions get triggered. You need to give people the context in which they have the opportunity to get those up and out of their system. In my conversational model for resolving conflict, there are two ways in which that is done. One, people get to tell their stories about the situation, which is a narrative, an open-ended question. Then there is a specific set of questions to move people down a little bit deeper, to make sure what is tied up on the inside actually comes out. It's almost like there is not the truth of what the stories the people hold is, but you need to give them the opportunity to get it out and clear it a bit so then they can resume the positive relationship moving forward in the future. I saw this with couples, which is where I learned, and the emotions do not run so high in organizations. But I saw couples get out of them and given the opportunity to realize, Oh, that was my husband. That was my wife. That was my partner. That was my mate. That was my lover. How have I gotten to the point where I have created them as such a monster by the noise in my own head? They were doing the best they could. That's what most people realize in this process. The other person was not intentionally trying to be hurtful, but they were trying to do the best they can. We all know we are living in a very fast-paced soup that the military of all places, the U.S. military, has defined as we live in a VUCA environment. It is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. This is the soup we are trying to transact in. People get to see and realize they were doing the best that they could now, so what is our relationship going forward? Hugh: This is so synergistic with what we teach, isn't it, Russell? Russell: I thought so. Very much so. As we move through this process, it's taking the You statements out of what you say to people. That's critical. This is a place, and I know that when you talk about marketing, people want to address You statements and talk about the value for the people you are serving. When it comes to conflict though, You statements can escalate it. It's backing away from those things and really setting a frame where people want to cooperate, they want to resolve things, and they don't want to make it personal. There is a skill, and we will probably address it in the personal skills, that for separated people from behavior or from statements. That is critical to creating a place where you got an environment or friend where you want to come to agreement. Stewart: Critical. We have all seen it where you have major breakdowns on a business side, and people realize, Geez, there is too much profit here. We have to make this work. I did a program a number of years ago for a nonprofit private adoption agency. It was a partnership between a county child welfare agency and this adoption agency. What the adoption agency did is they got kids who were considered unadoptable up to speed so they could be placed in permanent homes. The consequences for a kid being emancipated when they are still in foster care and don't have permanent adoptive care are huge. I got Masters in Social Work on both sides, and it was almost like central casting. I am working in a room where I have posters of the kids all around. The bottom line was I kept trying to get them to realize, and they got it, that working together is absolutely essential because there is a larger benefit here. People realize that. To have a programmatic way of moving through the difference in conflict. My goal was to get it so that it wasn't just an agreement on the surface, but people would have a context in which to cleanse that emotion. They would resolve that emotion. That emotion wouldn't linger going forward. As they could actually have real alignment. The technical term I would use is there was no longer any chatter. Hugh: As you are working through this, you referred to some skills. Stewart, what are the critical interpersonal skills that one must pay attention to and embrace? Stewart: This whole area of emotional intelligence, which has become a buzz word these days. Self-knowledge, having some knowledge of who you are and self-awareness. What's going on inside of you at any moment in time. Self-regulation. Capacity to manage your own behavior and your own emotion. Self-motivation. Knowledge of what's important to you, which is like a strategic element of emotional intelligence. Empathy. Care and concern for others. I go back to my electronic signature. People use it all the time. It's a couplet from Longfellow, “If you knew the secret history of those you would like to punish, you would find a sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all in your hostility.” Very powerful. Standing in another's shoes. And the skills of speaking from the I perspective or I statements, as Russell mentioned earlier. Listening skills as a critical skill. Being able to appreciate and understand that the operating system of the human biological machine over there is different than the operating system in this human biological machine. Not good or bad, it's just the way it is. Trying to be more audience-centric in our conversation. Think about who it is we are speaking to. Otherwise, we are just talking to ourselves. So those are probably the most critical pieces. Hugh: Many leaders aren't aware of the impact and influence they have in the culture. Self-awareness is something that I see a lot of leaders struggle with. You probably serve as a confidential advisor to leaders. We call it different things. I choose not to use the word “coach” or :consultant.” It's around that mentoring/coaching/consulting people, and helping people discover some of these blind spots. What is your opinion on successful leaders having an advisor of some sort? Stewart: It's critical because leaders are working alone. If they are at the top of the pyramid, or as Max Dupree would say, at the bottom of the pyramid, I am here to serve everybody else. But essentially, it's in all literature that leaders are working alone. To have someone they can confide in and talk about their own insecurities, it's a critical piece. The self-awareness is- When I am teaching, I always say my goal is to become a more audience-centric, emotionally intelligent, conscious communicator, when I am teaching communications skills. By conscious communicator, you thought through in some ways the impact of what you are saying and doing on other people. Another one I left out is nonverbal. The awareness of your nonverbal skills. As we all know, so much of our communication, somewhere between 60-90% is nonverbal. To be aware that people are picking up messages from you. To be mindful about the presence that you bring. It's so important. Always having two-way communication, or as I like to say, communication happens when you establish shared meaning. Broadcasting messages is not communication. It's broadcasting messages. There is a big difference. Communication is when you have a back and forth, at least to a shared meaning and a common understanding. Hugh: It is a lost art in some places. We are in a high-tech world where people send out data assuming that is communication. I appreciate your reframing of that. In 31 years of working with groups, the subject of communication always comes out, lack thereof. It's like when Barry used to say is you perceive happiness, it eludes you. It's almost the same with communication. When you focus on communication, it eludes you, when really it's a byproduct of building relationships and being clear on our agreements, our purposes, our expectations. Within your strategy and implementation of your strategy, communication happens. You have demonstrated in this call today really good listening skills. That is top in being a conductor. We impact the culture by what we do, and the visual part is huge. One of the trainers of conductors says, “What they see is what you get.” The impact we have in that self-awareness is a huge one. I appreciate that list of skills. Good leaders are always working on those, aren't they? Stewart: Always. It's the whole notion of lifelong learning. After each interaction, you have the level of mindfulness to do a self-assessment. How did I do? How might have I been better at doing that? It's always about creating relationships. Always. Always. One of the things I wanted to say in terms of the context you guys operate in, the religious and nonprofit organizations, in those institutions, it takes an additional degree of focus to some sense. Why? Because people have a different sense of self. By that I mean there is some element of—and I don't say this in a negative way—righteousness. We are engaging and working on a good cause. We are working for something positive and of value. When it comes to interpersonal relationships, that righteousness can have a tendency to get in the way, which I am sure you have experienced over time. This is where these skills become important in those contexts. There is something else I wanted to say in response to what you said, Hugh. It left my mind. The thought drifted off into the universe. Maybe it will come back before we're done. Hugh: I am very fond of people who can encapsulate things. As I am thinking through all of what you're talking about, the leader impacts people. We're anxious. It spreads throughout the community. Richard Rohr, author and founder of OFM, says, “Hurting people hurt people. Transformed people transform people.” It would occur to me working through the system that you have created, which is not really difficult, but is pretty profound in its simplicity and directness and the impact that it has. Stewart: It's really interesting. I was just working with a group of senior scientists. I knew they would love this. This whole model I am talking about I have it drawn down to half a page schematic. Each one of the critical elements. As I like to say with so many things in this area, all of the things we are talking about are simple, but not easy. Simple to understand. This is not rocket science, but it's not easy to do. There is the one-page- Hugh: Cycle of Resolution. What book is that in? Stewart: It's in Getting to Resolution. Page 248. Hugh: You can find out more about Stewart at ResolutionWorks.com. I would imagine your books are listed somewhere on your website, and possibly on Amazon as well. Stewart: Both of those places. Hugh: I will give you a chance to have a parting thought with people. What would you like to leave people with? Russell will close out this interview. *Sponsor message from Wordsprint* Stewart, what would you like to leave people with? Stewart: The importance of relationships. The book Getting to Resolution might have been called Getting to Relationship. That is the critical piece. Alignment, moving through differences and conflict, always back to that place of relationship. That is where productivity comes from. That is where creating value comes from. Critical piece. It only happens as a result of, Russell pointed out, being centered in yourself, having alignment within yourself, and then when you have that foundation, you can use all the tools and techniques I talked about to connect with others. I wanted to thank both of you for the wonderful quality of your presence in this interview. My pleasure to contribute to the community you guys are serving. Russell: Thank you. Folks, take a trip over to ResolutionWorks.com. There is lots of material here. The principles are powerful. The power is in the simplicity. It's not easy. What separates what Stewart is doing from a lot of other things out there that you see is that it's not just dealing with situations or agreements in and of themselves, but it's creating a framework where we can talk to one another and continue to have open conversations together to keep things on track. We are all different. We will not agree on every little thing. If we have a process where we honor one another, the breakouts will disappear. That's a wonderful thing. Hugh: Thank you, guys. Such wonderful material. Stewart Levine, again, a pleasure to be with you. Stewart: My pleasure to be back in connection, Hugh. Thank you for inviting me. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript: https://westminster-institute.org/events/the-ongoing-war-in-the-persian-gulf-why-does-it-matter-to-the-us/ David Des Roches is Associate Professor at the Near East South Asia Center for Security Studies at National Defense University. Prior to this, he was the Defense Department director responsible for policy concerning Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Prior to this assignment, he has served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as Liaison to the Department of Homeland Security, as senior country director for Pakistan, as NATO operations director, and as deputy director for peacekeeping. An Airborne Ranger in the Army Reserve, he was awarded the Bronze Star for service in Afghanistan. He has commanded conventional and special operations parachute units and has served on the US Special Operations Command staff as well as on the Joint Staff. He graduated from the United States Military Academy and obtained advanced degrees in Arab Politics from the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies, in War Studies from Kings College London, and Strategic Studies from the US Army War College. He has also attended the Federal Executive Institute, the German Staff College’s Higher Officer Seminar, the US Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare School and the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.His academic awards include Phi Kappa Phi, the British Marshall Scholarship, designation as a Distinguished Alumnus of the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, and selection as a Joseph Malone Fellow of the National Council of Arab American Relations. His most recent publication is “Dominance versus Disruption: Asymmetry in Gulf Security,” which analyzes the security objectives of the Gulf Arab states and Iran. He previously spoke at Westminster on the Push and Pull of Religious Extremism: Who Are the Terrorists, How Are they Recruited, What Can We Do?

Valeria is a connector and social entrepreneur who values building strategic relationships and bringing people together for social impact. Her multi-cultural upbringing and experience in 68 countries allows her to connect with companies and individuals to discover their personal identities, to share their stories and to use data for sustained impact. As the president and founder of Chaski Global, Valeria instills her strengths of communications, strategy, training, project management, and her love for improving people’s lives, in every project she comes across. She is also the co-founder of The She Lab, a women’s networking organization that mobilizes and empowers women to change the world. She previously spent eight years at the U.S. Government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation overseeing communications in 24 countries and creating the agency’s results portfolio. Valeria was born and raised in La Paz, Bolivia, has a Masters in Corporate Communications from Georgetown University and a Bachelors in International Development and Hispanic Studies from Trinity College. She is a board member at Amazon Aid Foundation and the Tanga Tanga Foundation. When she is away from the office, you can find her teaching at the Federal Executive Institute, or exploring the world with her husband and three-year old twins.

SBA National Veterans Small Business Week on Georgia Business Radio Terri Denison District Director  SBA Georgia District Office Terri Denison is the Georgia District Director of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). In this role since May 2002, she is responsible for overseeing the implementation of the SBA's financial, counseling/training and business development programs for small businesses throughout Georgia. Terri began her SBA career in 1987 as a Presidential Management Fellow at the Agency's Washington, D. C. District and Headquarter Offices. Other positions included working with the Agency's Minority Enterprise Development and One Stop Capital Shop programs and Office of Field Operations. Terri holds a B.A. Degree in American Government from Cornell University and an M.A. Degree in Urban Studies from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. She is also a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville, Virginia. A native of Corpus Christi, Texas, Terri currently serves as the President of the Cornell Alumni Association of Atlanta and a member of the Cornell University Council. Other personal interests include ballroom dancing and travel. Brief Description of Product or Service: Federal Government Agency Provides programs and resources to support small business creation and expansion Topics to Discuss: National Veterans Small Business Week Web Site / Linkedin / Social Media Links: www.sba.gov/ga https://twitter.com/sba_georgia https://www.linkedin.com/in/terri-denison-952b37b Georgia Business Radio Interviewing industry and thought leaders with compelling stories. Relevant content on current business trends live from the Pro Business Channel studios in Atlanta. In addition to the live broadcast, content is distributed across multiple syndicated platforms with more than 500,000 downloads. Show Host: Rich Casanova, Chief Visionary Officer Pro Business Channel Rich Casanova began his broadcasting career in California's central valley at KSKS-FM. While in California he also ran a successful entertainment company whose staff and crew entertained over 100,000 people. After moving to Atlanta and selling his entertainment company, Casanova ventured into publishing as the Publisher and Franchise Owner of Coffee News, headquartered in Bangor, ME. Later became the Founder and CCO, Chief Connection Officer, of an online platform where local business professionals register to receive a free list of the top 100 networking events in metro Atlanta. With a name like Casanova and his gregarious personality, Rich was a natural as a music radio DJ. "I got the radio bug early in my career and often thought how great it would be if there was an opportunity to participate in a talk radio format with a pro-business perspective interviewing thought leaders from the local business community." Thus was born the Pro Business Channel where Rich is the CoFounder and Chief Visionary Officer. http://www.ProBusinessChannel.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/richcasanova https://twitter.com/RichCasanovaCom Check out more episodes at: http://www.GeorgiaBusinessRadio.com Submit a guest request at: http://www.OnAirGuest.com View guest photos at: http://www.ProBusinessPictures.com ‹ › × × Previous Next jQuery(function() { // Set blueimp gallery options jQuery.extend(blueimp.Gallery.prototype.options, { useBootstrapModal: false, hidePageScrollbars: false }); });  

Pat Ryan talks with Prof. David Des Roches (Col, USArmy Ret.) from the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University. He is an expert on Middle East affairs, especially US-Saudi relations and talked about the crisis in the relationship since the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018. Prof. Des Roches also provides insights and perspectives on developments in the Middle East and the challenges to US policymakers. About Professor Des Roches David Des Roches is an Associate Professor at the Near East South Asia Center for Security Studies. Prior to this, he was the director responsible for defense policy concerning Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Prior to this assignment, he has served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as the DoD Liaison to the Department of Homeland Security, as the senior country director for Pakistan, as the NATO operations director, and as the deputy director for peacekeeping. His first job in government was as a special assistant for strategy and later as the international law enforcement analyst in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. A British Marshall Scholar, he has also attended the Federal Executive Institute, the German Staff College’s Higher Officer Seminar, the US Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare School and the US Army Command and General Staff College. An Airborne Ranger in the Army Reserve, he was awarded the Bronze Star for service in Afghanistan. He has commanded conventional and special operations parachute units and has served on the US Special Operations Command staff as well as on the Joint Staff.

In some ways, the federal government is one of the largest training and education organizations anywhere. As director of the Federal Executive Institute, Suzanne Logan exemplifies this. A lifelong learner and educator, she among the new inductees to the National Academy of Public Administration. She joins Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

Dr. Tony Kern is the Founding Partner and CEO of Convergent Performance, LLC., a veteran-owned small business in Colorado Springs. Convergent was formed in 2003, and is specifically dedicated to reducing human error and improving performance in high risk environments such as aviation, military operations, surgical teams, law enforcement, and oil and gas. Tony is one of the world’s leading authorities on human performance in time constrained, error intolerant environments, and has lectured on the subject around the globe for over two decades. Dr. Kern has received multiple awards for his work, including Aviation Week & Space Technology 2002 Laurels Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government and Military, the University Aviation Association’s John K. Lauber Safety Award (2015), and the Flight Safety Foundation-Airbus Human Factors in Aviation Safety Award (2015). While Tony is grateful to have won these and other awards, it’s a completely different honor to have an award named after you. In 2015, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) announced the creation of the Dr. Tony Kern Professionalism in Aviation award, and at the NBAA National Safety Forum in 2016, NBAA President Ed Bolan announced the first 19 award recipients. Dr. Kern has authored eight books on human performance, including the award-winning “Plane of Excellence” trilogy (Redefining Airmanship, Flight Discipline, and Darker Shades of Blue; McGraw Hill 1995, 1997, 1999). Broadening his approach beyond aviation, his “Empowered Accountability” series (Blue Threat: Why to Err is Inhuman and Going Pro: The Deliberate Practice of Professionalism; Pygmy Books 2009, 2011) creates a 21st century guide to extreme professionalism. His newest book (The Ghost of Nathan Hale; North Slope Publications 2016) remains in line with Dr. Kern’s passion for identifying and reducing threats. In it he details how declining public trust in government is an existential threat to America and the world itself, and provides strong motivation and a step-by-step path for restoring the integrity of government. A prolific writer, Tony is also a featured columnist and Contributing Editor for Skies and Vertical 911 magazines. In addition, Dr. Kern has been interviewed regarding his methodologies by the Fox Business Network, Bloomberg TV, the Discovery Channel, National Public Radio, NBC Nightly News, and 48 Hours with Dan Rather, among others. Despite his three graduate degrees, Dr. Kern does not consider himself an “academic.” He has deep operational roots in the U.S. Air Force as a Command Pilot and Flight Examiner in the B-1B bomber, as well as diverse senior staff and leadership experience, including service as the Chairman of the U.S. Air Force Human Factors Steering Group, and Director and Professor of Military History at the USAF Academy. Upon retirement from the Air Force in 2000, Dr. Kern served as the National Aviation Director for the U.S. Forest Service, where he directed the largest non-military government aviation program in the world in support of federal wildland fire suppression. Tony is a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute and the U.S. Federal Government Senior Executive Service Development Program. Tony has dedicated his adult life to helping individuals and organizations reduce error, mitigate losses, and optimize their performance, but still finds time to enjoy his personal hobbies of hunting, fishing, sports of all kinds, and writing. He currently lives with his wife of 29 years and their seven dogs in Woodland Park, Colorado.  

Jason Drohn has been marketing online for 8 years, working with hundreds of businesses and thousands of entrepreneurs through his courses and done-for-you services.  He's best know for his ‘quickest path to cash' strategies where he cuts years of testing and development out of his client's lives, and delivers sales funnels that that are both automated and profitable Alyssa Clark certified professional career & business coach and owner of Clark Coaching Solutions.  She works with entrepreneurs who want to avoid going broke by increasing sales.  Alyssa has nearly ten years of experience as a human resources professional with a master's degree in business administration and a professional HR certification Anita Dahlstrom  spent 30 years in the hospitality and retail arena with Fortune 200 corporate and private equity companies, working both in operations and human resources.  She begun her coaching and consulting practice, Possible Conversations.com  She's a member of the International Coaches Federations. She's an expert in emotional intelligence. As a certified emotional intelligence coach, she specializes in leadership and life coaching working with executives, entrepreneurs, groups and individuals  Angela Cyrus Certified Executive Leadership Coach, educator and consultant for personal, team and organizational leadership development. She is a Distinguished Visiting Faculty member at the Harvard Summer Institute On College Admissions, an Adjunct Faculty member at the Federal Executive Institute and University of Maryland's Executive MBA Program. She is a retired Navy Captain and former Director of Admissions at the U.S. Naval Academy, where she taught courses in leadership theory and application.

Deborah L. Parker is Chief Inspirer, Author and Speaker of The DPJ Training Group based in Leesburg VA. For over 15 years she has specialized in result focused programs on leadership, career and diversity management for public and private sector clients. She is also Adjunct Faculty at the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville providing performance coaching and learning facilitation for senior government leaders. In her work Deborah blends experiences as an Army Reserve Officer and corporate manager with a B.A. in Sociology from the College of William and Mary plus a M.A. in Human Resource Development from George Mason University. Get inspired ▶ http://womentakingthelead.com/deborah-parker/

Join Dr. Krister Lowe and leading organizational coach Cliff Kayser for this week’s episode of The Team Coaching Zone Podcast.  Cliff is a Vice President at Polarity Partnerships, LLC as well as the President and Founder of XPERIENCE, LLC and Kayser Ridge (a retreat center).  Cliff holds Masters Degrees in Human Resources Management and Organizational Development, both from American University. He completed his ICF Coaching Certification at The Georgetown Executive Leadership Coaching Program.  Cliff has 25 years of experience in organization development consulting, coaching, and leadership training. Prior to joining Polarity Partnerships in 2012 and launching XPERIENCE, LLC in 2007, Cliff was Vice President of Organizational Development and Training for The National Cooperative Bank (NCB) and spent nearly a decade serving The Washington Post newspaper as Senior Organization Development Consultant and The Washington Post Company as Corporate Manager of Human Resources, Training & Web Development. Cliff is a faculty or adjunct faculty member for: The American University’s Master’s in Organization Development and KEY Executive Certificate Program; The Advanced Coaching Certificate program at George Mason Center for the Advancement of Well-being; The Gestalt Institute of Cleveland; The Federal Executive Institute under the Office of Personnel Management; and The 2-year Mastery Program in Polarity Thinking.  In this episode of the podcast, Cliff introduces listeners to "polarity thinking" and illustrates how this powerful framework can be used to drive leadership and team coaching.  Themes explored in the episode include: an introduction to polarity thinking; polarity maps; solvable problems vs. polarities; the 5-step process to leveraging polarities (Seeing, Mapping, Assessing, Learning, Leveraging); using polarities to go from "Good to Great" and more.  Cliff shares examples from his own practice of helping clients leverage polarities to drive leadership, team and organizational development.  Leadership and team coaches will find the polarity framework and tools a powerful addition to their coaching toolkit!

Join nationally recognized multi-media radio talk show host and award winning producer Patricia Raskin, as she interviews Dianne Collins, author of Do You Quantum Think? Dianne shares her discovery that has helped countless business leasers, such as Gail Evans who served as VP of CNN, to live life filled with new possibility. Part science, part philosophy, part spirituality, Do You Quantum Think? is a proven system of thinking that has been used successfully for the past fifteen years by executive in AT&T, Chase Bank, CNN, DuPont and by officials in the United States government including the Federal Executive Institute and the National Partnership for Reinventing Government under Vice President Al Gore.

Join nationally recognized multi-media radio talk show host and award winning producer Patricia Raskin, as she interviews Dianne Collins, author of Do You Quantum Think? Dianne shares her discovery that has helped countless business leasers, such as Gail Evans who served as VP of CNN, to live life filled with new possibility. Part science, part philosophy, part spirituality, Do You Quantum Think? is a proven system of thinking that has been used successfully for the past fifteen years by executive in AT&T, Chase Bank, CNN, DuPont and by officials in the United States government including the Federal Executive Institute and the National Partnership for Reinventing Government under Vice President Al Gore.

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 136! SPaMCAST 136 features my interview with Dr Ginger Levin and J. LeRoy Ward discussing their new book, Program Management Complexity: A Competency Model (ESI International Project Management Series).  We discussed program management, the impact of agile techniques and why competency is critical.  A wonderful information packed interview! Dr. Ginger Levin is a senior consultant and educator in project management. Her specialty areas are portfolio management, program management, the Project Management Office, knowledge management, metrics, and maturity assessments. She is certified as a PMP®, PgMP®, and as an OPM3 Assessor and Consultant. She was the second person in the world to receive the PgMP. In addition, Dr. Levin is an Adjunct Professor for the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, where she teaches in its M.S. in Project Management Program and for SKEMA (Esc Lille) University, France, in its project management program at the master’s and doctoral level. Also, she is a Visiting Professor for RMIT in Melbourne, Australia. In consulting, she has served as Project Manager in numerous efforts for Fortune 500 and public-sector clients, including UPS, Citibank, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, General Electric, SAP, EADS, John Deere, Schreiber Foods, TRW, the New York City Transit Authority, the U.S. Joint Forces Command, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Prior to her work in consulting, she held positions of increasing responsibility with the U.S. Government, including the Federal Aviation Administration, Office of Personnel Management, and the General Accounting Office. She is the co-author of Implementing Program Management: Forms and Templates Aligned with the Standard for Program Management, Second Edition (2008); Project Portfolio Management: Tools & Techniques; Metrics for Project Management; Achieving Project Management Success Using Virtual Teams; The Advanced Project Management Office: A Comprehensive Look at Function and Implementation; People Skills for Project Managers; Essential People Skills for Project Managers; The Business Development Capability Maturity Model; and ESI’s PMP Challenge! PMP Study Guide and the PgMP Study Guide (along with J. LeRoy Ward). Her book entitled Interpersonal Skills for Portfolio, Program, and Project Managers also was published in 2010.  Dr. Levin received her doctorate in Information Systems Technology and Public Administration from The George Washington University, and received the Outstanding Dissertation Award for her research on large organizations. She also was inducted into Phi Alpha Alpha, the National Honorary Society for Public Affairs and Administration. J. LeRoy Ward, Executive Vice President, is responsible for ESI’s worldwide product offerings and international partnerships. Complementing a 17-year career with four U.S. federal agencies, Ward has delivered project management programs to clients around the world.A noted author and speaker, Ward has served on the adjunct faculties of The George Washington University and The American University, presenting courses in remote sensing, cartography, computer systems management, and information systems. He has authored numerous articles and publications, including the Dictionary of Project Management Terms (3rd ed.); the PMP® Exam Practice Test and Study Guide, PMP® Challenge!, and the PgMP® Exam Practice Test and Study Guide (with Ginger Levin); a set of audio CDs entitled Conversations on Passing the PMP® Exam (with Carl Pritchard); and, ProjectFRAMEWORK, a Project Management Maturity Model (with multiple authors).  His articles have appeared in PMNetwork, Chief Learning Officer, and Project Manager Today (U.K.). A popular and dynamic presenter, he speaks frequently on project management and related topics at professional association meetings and conferences around the world. Ward holds B.S. and M.S. degrees from Southern Connecticut State University in geography and an MSTM degree, with distinction, in Computer Systems Management from The American University, where he was inducted into Phi Alpha Alpha, the National Honorary Society for Public Affairs and Administration. He is an alumnus of the General Services Administration’s Trail Boss Program (for major systems acquisitions) and the Federal Executive Institute. Ward is a member of several technical societies, including the American Society of Training and Development, the International Project Management Association, and the Project Management Institute where he is certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP - Number 431) and a Program Management Professional (PgMP), one of the first to earn the credential. Contact Information:Leroy's email:  LWard@esi-intl.comGinger's emai:  GINLEVIN@AOL.COM  (Listen to Ginger's comments on the topic on the podcast!) Both Ginger and Leroy can found on LinkedIn also! Shameless Ad for my book!  Mastering Software Project Management: Best Practices, Tools and Techniques co-authored by Murali Chematuri and myself and published by J. Ross Publishing. We have received great unsolicited reviews and the book has been picked up as a text book for university level work.  Have you bought your copy? Contact information for the Software Process and Measurement CastEmail:  spamcastinfo@gmail.comVoicemail:  +1-206-888-6111Website: www.spamcast.netTwitter: www.twitter.com/tcagleyFacebook:  http://bit.ly/16fBWV Next! In the SPaMCAST 137 I will tackle the topic of the "One" Number or as I call it fear of uncertainty.