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Genetec's Lee Shelford says AI and cloud are giving security teams faster investigations while turning physical security systems into tools for broader business operations. Organisations should stop treating AI as a box-ticking exercise and focus on where it can deliver measurable operational gains, according to Genetec's Lee Shelford. Speaking on the Cyber Uncut podcast with David Hollingworth, Shelford says AI-powered video analytics can cut investigations from hours to minutes, allowing operators to find people, vehicles, objects, and behaviours using natural-language searches and respond while incidents are still unfolding. Shelford urges organisations to look beyond traditional surveillance, with Genetec combining video, access control, vehicle recognition, communications, and IoT data through a single interface. The technology can also support use cases beyond security, including bushfire detection, remote monitoring, car park management, and improving the movement of people and vehicles through airports and shopping centres. According to Shelford, remote management can eliminate the need for onsite upgrades and configuration, while AI can reduce the manual tuning previously required as conditions change. But cyber security must remain central, with Genetec having pursued Australian requirements, including IRAP assessment and Essential Eight alignment. Enjoy, The Cyber Uncut team
Today's Question: Evaluate the view that pressure groups are far more influential than other collective organisations. 30 marksThis pod compares the influence of pressure groups with corporations, lobbyists and think tanks. It centres around their influence upon government, parliament and public opinion. Enjoyed the show? Then why not subscribe to PLUS PLUS PLUS! For just £1.99 per month, you will receive access to every episode and every transcript of the A Level Politics Show. That's right, the full back catalogue for less than a price of a coffee. Furthermore, you can cancel anytime – no obligations or hidden costs. Click here to get started! I'm also excited to announce the launch of POLITICS IN BULLETS, a revision notes service built upon the transcripts of the podcast. These revision notes update throughout your A Level. Head over to The A Level Politics Show's website for a sample. You can buy revision notes separately for papers 1, 2 & 3 or purchase them as a bundle at a discounted rate. For the month of September 2026, use coupon code Early Bird September at checkout to get 15% off. To easily search the podcast back catalogue and to get details of forthcoming shows, organised by topic, click here. If you listen through Spotify, you can ask follow-up questions to each episode by clicking on the comment section in the show notes. And why not take part in episode-by-episode polls once you have finished listening. If a PLUS PLUS PLUS subscription is not for you at this time then no worries – rest assured that the latest episode of the show will remain free until the next episode comes out. One last thing: don't forget to leave a nice review wherever you listen to your podcasts so that more people can find out about us. Happy listening, dear listener, and thanks for your support of the show.
Change is the one constant in today's work landscape. This episode sparks fresh ideas on leading people through change without losing their trust or buy-in. Expert guest Richard Gerver – who has worked with Google and Deloitte and will speak on Leading Humans Through Continuous Change at CPA Congress 2026 – looks at why restructures so often fail on the human side, not the technical one. He explains why: Asking questions beats presenting answers Change works better when people have ownership of it Organisations need to move from "managing change" to becoming comfortable with continuous change Leaders should unlock the ideas and potential already inside their organisation Psychological safety and leader vulnerability are essential to innovation Resilience isn't about asking people to cope with more, it's something leaders help build If you're leading a team through a restructure, a system migration or AI adoption, this conversation reframes resilience as something you build deliberately, not something people simply have or don't. Give it a listen this week. Host Tahn Sharpe, INTHEBLACK Editor, CPA Australia Guest: Richard Gerver, award-winning change and leadership speaker with a background in education, innovation and human potential For more information on Richard Gerver, head online to his international speakers bureau page. Richard will speak at CPA Congress 2026. Loving this episode? Listen to more INTHEBLACK episodes and other CPA Australia podcasts on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@CPAaustralia/podcasts And don't forget to click subscribe to the channel for a wide range of content that will help your career. CPA Australia publishes four podcasts, providing commentary and thought leadership across business, finance and accounting: With Interest https://www.cpaaustralia.com.au/tools-and-resources/podcasts/with-interest INTHEBLACK https://www.cpaaustralia.com.au/tools-and-resources/podcasts/intheblack INTHEBLACK Out Loud https://www.cpaaustralia.com.au/tools-and-resources/podcasts/intheblack-outloud Excel Tips https://www.cpaaustralia.com.au/tools-and-resources/podcasts/excel-tips Search for them in your podcast platform. Email the podcast team at podcasts@cpaaustralia.com.au Chapters: 00:00 Richard Gerver on leadership vulnerability and empowering teams 00:29 Introduction to Richard Gerver, change leadership expert and educator 01:27 How Richard Gerver transformed a failing school through empowerment 04:54 Employee empowerment vs top-down change management 06:15 Why continuous change is the new normal for leaders 10:51 How to get employee buy-in for organisational change 13:00 Leadership, psychological safety and encouraging innovation 16:58 Resilience, failure and learning in a changing workplace 20:29 Leading humans through change, AI adoption and ERP transformation 22:25 Richard Gerver's advice for finance leaders managing major change projects 23:41 Key takeaways and CPA Australia Congress 2026 preview
Major cyber and data incidents now trigger a widening set of consequences, including regulator action, complex litigation including class actions, and reputational fallout. Organisations are increasingly judged on how well they anticipate and respond.Our panel unpacks the fast-evolving disputes landscape at the intersection of privacy, cyber incidents, regulatory enforcement, and class actions. Her Honour Justice Kate Richardson, barrister Nicholas De Young KC and Mallesons litigators explore:• where claims are developing, and what new claims are expected to emerge from recent law reform• what is driving regulator action and plaintiff activity in Australia, and• the practical steps organisations can take before, during and after a significant privacy incident to prepare for and manage anticipated litigation.A timely session for in-house lawyers, boards and senior executives, offering a clear view of where privacy risk is heading and how privacy incidents can develop into complex material litigation with a long tail.Speakers:• The Honourable Justice Kate Richardson, Supreme Court of New South Wales • Nicholas De Young KC, Barrister • Peta Stevenson, Partner, Mallesons • James Russell, Partner, MallesonsResources:Mallesons Digital Future SummitMallesons Data and Privacy insights'Data wars' insight seriesPrivacy Law Annual Update
Gears, Action, Growth: Shifting Business Culture one Conversation at a Time
What does it take to lead change without relying on control? Jayo Macasaquit, Chief People Officer at The 19th News, joins Josephine Palermo and Iain to explore organizational adaptability, psychological safety, distributed leadership, and the hidden assumptions that keep teams stuck.They discuss the “immunity to change” framework, moving from “hero to host” leadership, the challenge of delegation, and how reflection, coaching, and experimentation can help organizations thrive in uncertainty.Chapter index00:00 — Introduction02:45 — Jayo's journey into HR and people strategy06:42 — The 19th News and equity-centered leadership13:10 — When mission and internal culture don't align16:05 — Why leaders struggle to delegate19:02 — Understanding “immunity to change”22:41 — Using community and accountability to create change25:22 — Moving from “hero” to “host” leadership28:27 — Hierarchy, attention, and distributed decision-making32:45 — Reflection, coaching, and courageous conversations34:35 — Building operational resilience in a changing world41:10 — Psychological safety, failure, and imposter syndrome46:38 — Balancing self-belief with openness to feedback48:52 — Clarity over certainty50:44 — Jayo's closing reflections: from blamestorming to brainstormingContact Josephinewww.josephinepalermo.com.auShare your views with us at josephine@gearedforgrowth.biz Watch on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL18BTBLfckRwwraLZMvbpNj-MjHHy-cSH&si=pXJAR_mmTGGEcO2q
Laura Hackney is the founder of AnnieCannons, an organisation that prepares vulnerable, overlooked people for sustainable careers in tech. Plus: The Fintech leader swapping payment platforms for a focus on women’s health.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What happens when leaders stop performing, start telling the truth and allow themselves to be human?In this episode of Mirror Talk: Soulful Conversations, Tobi speaks with Jim Brown—leadership advisor, founder of OrgHealth, former partner at The Table Group and USA Today bestselling author of The Imperfect CEO. Drawing on more than 30 years of experience alongside CEOs, boards and executive teams, Jim explores why healthy leadership begins with honesty rather than perfection.Together, they examine the hidden pressure many leaders carry to appear certain, capable and in control—even when trust is weakening beneath the surface. Jim explains how the corporate “telephone game” distorts communication as organisations grow, why culture problems are often personal problems in disguise and what happens when ego, fear and image management replace truthful conversation.The conversation also enters the “messy middle”: the uncomfortable space where old leadership habits have stopped working but healthier ways of relating have not yet taken root. Jim reflects on the team trials that reveal what success can conceal, the freedom of admitting that we do not have all the answers and the difference between leading as a hero and leading as a steward.Grounded in Jim's Christian faith and his experiences as a father and grandfather, this episode is an invitation to rethink success, legacy and responsibility. Real leadership is not a polished performance. It is the courage to face reality, care for people and build trust through honest conversation.Chapters00:00 Leading with Humanity Instead of Ego10:21 The Journey of Self-Discovery and Leadership21:00 The Imperfect CEO and the Power of Vulnerability31:52 Communication and the Corporate Telephone Game43:01 When Culture Problems Become Personal45:48 Leadership Through Stewardship and Service51:49 Defining Success Beyond Career AchievementAbout Jim BrownJim Brown is a leadership advisor, author and the founder and founding partner of OrgHealth, where he helps CEOs, executive teams and boards build healthy, life-giving organizational cultures. For more than 30 years, he has worked with leaders carrying significant responsibility and helped them replace guarded performance with clarity, trust and shared ownership.Jim is the USA Today bestselling author of The Imperfect CEO: Making the Climb to Organizational Health and the author of The Imperfect Board Member. His work invites leaders to release the myth of perfection and embrace a more honest, grounded and human way of leading.Connect with Jim BrownOrgHealth: https://www.orghealthteam.com/Jim Brown on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/authorjimbrown/The Imperfect CEO: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1637749023The Imperfect Board Member — 20th Anniversary Edition: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1394336543If this conversation speaks to you, share it with someone learning to lead with greater honesty, humility and courage.Remember: real connection is more powerful than a perfect image.Continue Your JourneyRead CONFESSIONS: A personal invitation to reflection, healing and honest self-discovery: https://mirrortalkpodcast.com/confessions-book/ Try Aletheia: Receive calm, personalised biblical wisdom for the questions and decisions shaping your life: https://aletheia.mirrortalkpodcast.com Ask Mirror Talk: Share what is on your heart and receive a thoughtful reflection that may help you see your situation more clearly: https://mirrortalkpodcast.com/ask-mirror-talk/ Support Mirror TalkFollow or subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or your preferred podcast platform so you do not miss future conversations about personal growth, spirituality, healing, purpose, relationships, leadership and intentional living.Your rating, review and shared recommendation help more people discover the podcast.You can also support our work and outreach by becoming a Mirror Talk Patreon member: http://patreon.com/MirrorTalk
In Episode 23 of Season 7 of Driven by Data: The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is rejoined by Greg Freeman, CEO & Founder at Data & AI Literacy Academy, where they discuss why most organisations have mistaken tool training for AI literacy – and why a data-literate workforce, critical thinking and the willingness to rebuild processes from the ground up matter far more than knowing which buttons to press in Copilot.They also explore why data quality and governance are finally having their day in the sun, how leaders must role-model the discipline to challenge AI-generated work, and why the businesses winning with AI focused on four or five core processes rather than spinning up 95 pilots.They also discuss:Why the line between data literacy and AI literacy is blurry, and why Greg wants it to stay that way.Why a data-literate workforce is the enabler of an AI-ready workforce.Why data quality, governance and risk management have gone from "not that sexy" to the most important topics in the business.Why there isn't a Copilot buttonology programme in the world that can teach critical thinking.How AI slop is bleeding from LinkedIn into the work employees put in front of internal and external audiences.Why leaders must ask pointed questions of AI-enabled work to test whether the human in the loop has actually done their job.Why people treat LLMs like Google, and why that makes them less able to challenge the answers.What separates the asker, the conversationalist and the process redesigner, and why 98% of employees are still stuck at the first stage.Why leaders need the mindset to burn processes down and rebuild them with AI at the core, rather than layering it on top.Why enterprise learning conflates training with education, and why that is the root of the tool-centric problem.How hyperscalers and training partners are incentivised to teach the tool rather than transferable principles.Why a workforce using Copilot instead of Google is an expensive thing, not a useful thing.Why generative AI gives executives a hands-on "aha moment" that dashboards never did.Why nine out of ten AI conversations mean generative AI, and what that costs organisations in forecasting, decisioning and recommendation opportunities.Who should own the operating model conversation with the board, and why it depends on having the right kind of data and AI leader.Why cutting headcount and graduate intake is the wrong reason to do AI, and why AI-native graduates are the hires to make.What the US market's shift from 95 pilots to four or five core use cases teaches UK businesses.How democratising AI capability into local teams frees the central team to focus on the big wins.Why customer-facing AI use cases remain a minority, and what Lloyds Bank gets right.How to measure AI literacy by whether people see and solve business problems differently.
Jetzt mein neues Buch kaufen (in Co-Produktion mit Prof. Dr. Johanna Bath): "Die perfekte Employee Journey & Experience" (erschienen im Oktober 2025): Springer: https://link.springer.com/book/9783662714195 Amazon: https://bit.ly/44aajaP Thalia: https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/A1074960417 Dieses Fachbuch stellt die wichtigsten Elemente der Employee Journey vor – vom Pre-Boarding bis zum Offboarding – und erläutert, wie Verantwortliche in Unternehmen eine gelungene Employee Experience realisieren und nachhaltig verankern können. Hintergrund zu dieser Folge: In der GainTalents-Solofolge 464 greife ich erstmalig Fragen aus der Recruiting-, HR- und Personalentwicklungspraxis von GainTalents-Hörerinnen auf. Viele von Euch hören GainTalents schon seit längerer Zeit und ich bekomme immer wieder Fragen zu Themen wie Recruiting, Führung, Personalentwicklung, Candidate Experience und natürlich inzwischen sehr häufig auch zum Einsatz von künstlicher Intelligenz in diesen Bereichen. Und genau daraus werde ich ab sofort jeden Monat regelmäßig eine eigene Solofolge machen. Ich werde jeweils ein Themenfeld herausgreifen und dazu drei oder vier Fragen beantworten, die aus meiner Sicht für Recruiter, Personalentwickler und Führungskräfte besonders relevant sind. Zusätzlich möchte ich in jeder Folge einen ganz konkreten operativen „Kopfschmerz" behandeln. Also keine theoretische HR-Frage, sondern eine Situation, bei der man morgens ins Büro kommt und denkt: „Wie soll ich das jetzt wieder lösen?" Und genau dafür brauche ich künftig auch Eure Unterstützung. Schickt mir bitte Eure Fragen. Was beschäftigt Euch gerade im Recruiting? Wo funktionieren Dinge im Recruiting oder in der Personalentwicklung nicht oder nur schlecht? Welche Prozesse nerven Euch? Wo verliert Ihr Kandidatinnen und Kandidaten? Was funktioniert beim Einsatz von KI nicht? Ihr könnt mir Eure Fragen jederzeit an kontakt@gaintalents.com schicken und müsst daraus übrigens keinen Roman machen. Zwei oder drei Sätze zur Frage reichen vollkommen. Herzlichen Dank bereits jetzt für Euer Mitwirken! Thema der Folge: Hiring Manager im Recruiting: Erfolgsfaktor oder größter Engpass? Viel Spaß beim Reinhören! Die wichtigsten Inhalte: Welche Verantwortung haben Hiring Manager im Recruiting wirklich? Was gehört in ein gutes Profilbriefing? Wie bekommen wir Führungskräfte besser auf Interviews vorbereitet? Welche verbindlichen Spielregeln braucht es zwischen Recruiting und Fachbereich? Und natürlich schauen wir auch darauf, wo KI dabei heute schon sinnvoll unterstützen kann – und wo sie eben kein Organisations- oder Prioritätenproblem löst. Zusätzlich gibt es in dieser Folge Antworten auf einen ganz konkreten operativen „Recruiting-Kopfschmerz". Was mache ich, wenn mein Hiring Manager schnelle Kandidaten fordert, selbst aber tagelang kein Feedback gibt? #GainTalents #Recruiting #HiringManager #TalentAcquisition #CandidateExperience #HR #KünstlicheIntelligenz Links Hans-Heinz Wisotzky: Website: https://www.gaintalents.com/podcast und https://www.gaintalents.com/blog Podcast: https://www.gaintalents.com/podcast Bücher: Neu (jetzt überall zu kaufen): Die perfekte Employee Journey und Experience https://link.springer.com/book/9783662714195 Erste Buch: Die perfekte Candidate Journey und Experience https://www.gaintalents.com/buch-die-perfekte-candidate-journey-und-experience LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/hansheinzwisotzky/ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/gaintalents XING https://www.xing.com/profile/HansHeinz_Wisotzky/cv Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GainTalents
Show NotesWhat happens to authority when hierarchy begins to disappear? And why might leaders themselves be part of the problems they are trying to solve?In this episode of Edgy Ideas, Simon Western is joined by Dr Larry Hirschhorn - founder and Principal Emeritus of CFAR and a leading thinker in systems psychodynamics and organisational consulting.Drawing on a lifetime of working with organisations, Larry discusses the tension between the independence leaders need and the danger of becoming caught in an idealised image of themselves. Challenging the notion that authority disappears in flatter organisations, Larry shares how it actually becomes more personal, relational and political.Larry introduces his idea of 'Primary Risk' - asking what we foreground and what we fail to notice when making strategic decisions. He also shares his most interesting emerging work with Reversal Theory, offering a less pathologising way of understanding how groups actually work.Simon and Larry also reflect on why systems psychodynamics remains at the margins of organisational life. The conversation ends with a refelction on how might we create a good life that holds together our desire for individual freedom and our yearning for collective life.Key Reflections Leadership requires separateness, but this can easily slip into self-idealisation. Less hierarchy does not mean less authority; it makes authority more relational, personal and political. Primary Risk asks us to notice what our strategies push into the background. Groups need to move between challenge and consensus, purpose and playfulness. Leaders are part of the systems they are trying to understand and change. Psychodynamic thinking may be most useful when the theory stays in the background and the organisation's real challenges stay in the foreground. The good life requires finding ways to hold individual freedom and collective belonging together. KeywordsLeadership; Authority; Systems Psychodynamics; Primary Risk; Reversal Theory; Group Dynamics; Distributed Leadership; Organisational Politics; Strategy; Collective Life Brief BioDr. Larry Hirschhorn is a founder and Principal Emeritus at CFAR, a management consulting firm specialising in organisational development, strategy, change implementation, collaboration and leadership transition. With over four decades of experience as an organisational consultant, scholar and thought leader, Larry has worked extensively with leaders and organisations on strategy formulation and execution, organisational diagnosis and organisational design.He is the Director of CFAR's Dynamics of Consulting Program, an advanced programme for experienced consultants and coaches that explores the intersections between business dynamics and psychodynamics.Trained as an economist, with a PhD from MIT, and later as a psychoanalytically informed organisational consultant, Larry is widely recognised for his work on the psychodynamics of organisations and for connecting the deeper dynamics of groups, relationships and decision-making with the practical realities of strategy and organisational performance.Larry is also a founding member and former President of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations (ISPSO). A prolific writer, he has received several awards for his work, including the Eliot Jaques Award from the Society of Consulting Psychology, as well as journal awards for his writing on organisational life, leadership and moral purpose. He has also held faculty and teaching roles at the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton, Fielding Graduate University and the William Alanson White Institute.
The debate about whether AI will replace human workers has already been settled - not by academics or futurists, but by the organisations that fired their humans, discovered AI couldn't do what they needed, and quietly hired them back. The future isn't AI replacing humans. It's humans and AI working together in ways that neither could manage alone.In this episode, Victor Coimbra joins Dr Genevieve Hayes to share what hybrid agentic organisations actually look like in practice, and what data scientists need to do to position themselves at the centre of them.You'll discover:Why thinking of AI as a tool rather than a coworker is the mindset holding most organisations back [03:58]The four archetypes that determine which tasks belong to humans and which to agents [08:17]How AI is turning data scientists back into scientists [18:24]The two skills that will define an indispensable data scientist in a hybrid organisation [27:01]Guest BioVictor Coimbra is a Partner and CTO at Artefact, the world's largest pure-play AI consulting firm and co-founded the firm's Latin American operations. In 2024, he was recognised in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Brazil list for his outstanding contributions to AI innovation.LinksConnect with Victor on LinkedInArtefact websiteConnect with Genevieve on LinkedInBe among the first to hear about the release of each new podcast episode by signing up HERE
Was passiert, wenn eine Führungskraft gekündigt hat, formal aber noch monatelang Verantwortung trägt und gleichzeitig das Gefühl bekommt, im eigenen Unternehmen bereits aus dem Spiel genommen zu werden?In dieser Folge von Mit Brille und Bart beschäftigen sich Armin Ziesemer und Thomas Böhlefeld mit der Zuschrift einer Führungskraft, die uns über Instagram erreicht hat.Die Person hat gekündigt. Sechs Monate Kündigungsfrist liegen noch vor ihr. Auf dem Papier trägt sie weiterhin volle Verantwortung.Doch im Alltag entsteht zunehmend eine zweite Realität.Gespräche finden ohne sie statt.Informationen erreichen sie über Protokolle, Flurfunk oder das Intranet.Entscheidungen werden getroffen, ohne sie einzubeziehen.Persönlich bleiben gleichzeitig alle freundlich.Und damit entsteht eine schwierige Frage:
Send us Fan MailWhat if joy isn't the reward for success, but the foundation for achieving it?In this episode of the Enterprise Excellence Podcast, Brad Jeavons is joined by Kevin Surace, a Silicon Valley innovator, serial entrepreneur, CEO and inventor, to explore joy, success, innovation, AI, productivity and workplace culture.Kevin has more than 90 worldwide patents and is recognised as a pioneer of virtual assistant technology that helped pave the way for Siri and Alexa. He has been named Inc. Magazine's Entrepreneur of the Year, CNBC's Innovator of the Decade, and a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer.His latest book, The Joy Success Cycle, explores a powerful idea:Joy comes before success, not after it.In this episode, we discuss:Why joy can be a prerequisite for successKevin's journey from engineer to entrepreneur and inventorHow curiosity drives innovation and problem solvingWhy lifelong learning mattersKevin's early work developing virtual assistant technologyWhy organisations struggle to adopt artificial intelligence (AI)The impact of workplace culture on AI implementationHow AI can eliminate joyless and low-value workWhy AI should increase productivity and value, not simply reduce costsHow AI is changing software development and knowledge workWhy employees should become AI-firstKevin's "one complaint a day" ruleThe relationship between mindset, behaviour and performanceHow leaders can create positive and engaged workplacesAI: Cost Cutting or Productivity?Kevin argues that the opportunity isn't simply to use AI to reduce headcount and cut costs. Organisations can use AI to remove waste, increase productivity, accelerate delivery and create more value with the people they already have.Brad connects this to continuous improvement and enterprise excellence, using technology to improve the flow of value while enabling people and machines to work together.The Joy Success CycleKevin's central message is that people shouldn't wait until they achieve success to experience joy.Instead, joy can create the mindset and environment that makes greater success possible.The conversation explores how people can take greater control of their mindset, reduce negativity, focus on what they can influence and create more positive working environments.About Kevin SuraceKevin Surace is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, innovator, CEO and inventor with more than 90 worldwide patents. He is recognised as a pioneer of virtual assistant technology and is the author of The Joy Success Cycle.Listen to the Enterprise Excellence Podcast:https://www.buzzsprout.com/1120772/episodes/19720903Watch more episodes:[https://www.youtube.com/ @enterpriseexcellencepodcas6777 Learn more about Kevin Surace:https://www.kevinsurace.com/Enterprise Excellence Group:https://eexg.com.au/Chapters00:00 – Introduction00:24 – Meet Kevin Surace01:48 – Kevin's journey as an innovator and entrepreneur03:45 – Being early with innovation04:20 – Curiosity and lifelong learning06:46 – Why Kevin wrote The Joy Success Cycle08:00 – The connection between joy, innovation and success09:00 – AI, workplace culture and employee resistance10:58 – How AI can remove joyless work13:17 – Eliminating waste through AI14:15 – AI and the future of software development17:17 – AI, productivity and employment19:00 – The Joy Success Cycle21:17 – The "one complaint a day" rule23:37 – How joy influences behaviour and results24:20 – Advice for leaders and organisations27:21 – Stop worrying about what you can't control30:55 – Creating a culture of joy and engagement32:17 – Social influence and workplace culture34:32 – Where to find Kevin and The Joy Success Cycle35:28 – Final thoughts35:30 – Brad's key takeawaysSubscribe to the Enterprise Excellence Podcast for conversations with global experts, innovators, CEOs and practitioners exploring enterprise excellence, continuous improvement, innovation, leadership, organisational culture, AI, productivity and creating a better future.#EnterpriseExcellence #ai #innovation #leadership #productivity #workplaceculture #joyatwork #KevinSuraceTo learn more about what we do, visit https://eexg.com.au/Thanks for your time, and thanks for helping to create a better future.
What do the organisations recognised as the best places to work have in common?According to insights from the Australian Financial Review's 2025 Best Places to Work report, visible leadership was a common theme among the top-performing organisations.But what does “visible leadership” actually mean?It's not simply being seen around the office, sending regular CEO updates or appearing at the occasional town hall. True leadership visibility is about creating a sense of connection, accessibility, context and trust, so employees understand who is leading, what matters to them, why decisions are being made, and how their own voices are being heard.In this episode of Get Jasched, Jess explores why visible leadership matters for employee engagement, psychological safety, workplace wellbeing, organisational culture and performance, particularly as organisations grow and layers of hierarchy create greater distance between leaders and their people.We'll unpack:What visible leadership actually looks like in practiceWhy leadership communication isn't necessarily the same as leadership visibilityWhy visibility becomes more important as organisations growHow leaders can create genuine proximity without micromanagingWhy explaining decisions can build trust — even when people disagree with themThe connection between visible leadership, wellbeing and psychological safetyWhy employees don't just need to see their leaders — they need to know their leaders can see themPractical ways leaders can become more visible, accessible and responsiveYour people need you to be a leader they can actually experience. And if culture is what people experience every day, leadership visibility might be one of the most important - and most overlooked - ways leaders shape organisational culture.Resources mentioned:
AI is transforming the technology industry, but it's also transforming how we think about energy. As AI models continue to grow, data centres continue to pop up, and agentic AI becomes part of everyday life, our tech infrastructure is consuming more energy than ever before. So how do we power the next generation of AI? In this penultimate episode of our HPE Labs miniseries celebrating 60 years of innovation, Technology Now is joined by Cullen Bash, Deputy Director of HPE Labs, to discuss:Why energy is becoming a strategic concern for CIOs and CEOsHow the increasing demand for compute in data centres is reshaping how we think about energyWhy innovation in electricity generation is as vital as making infrastructure more efficientHow AI could help solve the very problems it is creating
How We Work Now (Best Bits) Office, home, hybrid. Are we any clearer on how it actually works? In this best-bits episode of Building Better Cultures, Scott McInnes goes back to Episodes 71 and 37 with Chris Dyer and Jane Sparrow to hear how organisational culture is evolving as we work out how we'll probably be working for the next century. And that comes down to finding a happy balance between what employers need and what employees want. Chris Dyer starts with a definition worth stealing: culture is the norms. It is the way we work, the things people pick up in their first week, seen and unseen. From there he walks through the seven pillars he found repeated across the best organisations, from transparency and positive leadership to celebrating what makes people different rather than what makes them the same. He is especially good on mistakes, using the Post-it note, which began life as a failed glue, to make the point that how you respond to a mistake tells people whether it is safe to try anything. Then he gets specific about transparency: sharing goals across teams so people aren't unknowingly competing with each other, and sharing the numbers every month, good news or bad, including how long the company could keep going before layoffs. Jane Sparrow picks up the space in between. The third culture is neither home nor office but a new place that leaders have to shape deliberately, and she is clear that scrambling for the right tech and tools is the easy part. What takes work is the conversations, because everyone's situation is different. She closes on something worth sitting with: information from the centre, the comms team or HR, only really lands when a leader translates it into what it means for us. The common thread? This is less about where we work and more about whether culture survives the shift. Neither guest thinks it happens on its own. Key Takeaways Culture is the norms, not the posters. It is what people learn in their first week about how things actually get done, including the unwritten bits. Great cultures are consistent, not identical. The same pillars show up across very different organisations, each expressed in its own way. Celebrate what makes people unique, not what makes them the same. Organisations put real effort into differentiating themselves to customers, then ask their people to blend in. How you handle mistakes sets the ceiling on ambition. Punish them and people stop trying things. The Post-it note exists because someone documented a glue that failed. A mistake and an error are not the same thing. Getting something consistently wrong that training should have covered points at bad process, stress or multitasking. Trying something new and misjudging it is worth talking about, not punishing. Transparency starts with goals. If teams cannot see each other's objectives, organisations end up creating competition nobody intended. Share the numbers, including the bad ones. Telling people how long the company can keep going is uncomfortable, and it is also what trust looks like under pressure. The third culture has to be built on purpose. The space between home and office is new, and leaders shaping it deliberately is the difference between a culture and a vacuum. Tools are the easy part. Getting the right tech was the scramble. The harder, more valuable work is the conversations around it, because every person's situation is different. Information needs a translator. A message from HR or the comms team becomes real when a line leader explains what it means for this team, and asks what we start, stop and continue doing. Timestamps 00:00 – Introduction: less about where we work, more about how culture survives the shift 00:31 – Chris Dyer: culture is the norms, seen and unseen 01:41 – The seven pillars found across great company cultures 02:23 – Transparency, positive leadership, listening and celebrating what makes people unique 02:51 – Recognition that actually works 03:19 – What you do when someone makes a mistake 03:47 – The Post-it note, and the failure it came from 04:30 – Transparency in practice: shared goals, and why teams end up competing by accident 05:33 – Sharing the numbers every month, good news or bad 05:51 – Jane Sparrow: the third culture, and why tools alone won't build it 08:23 – Managing vs leading, and the leader's role when people are under strain 09:56 – Building connection deliberately, and mixing up how you do it 10:56 – Why information only lands when a leader translates it 11:20 – Wrap-up Hear the full conversations EP071 – Chris Dyer: Listen here EP037 – Jane Sparrow: Listen Here Connect with us LinkedIn | YouTube | Instagram Connect with Scott McInnes: LinkedIn
durée : 00:17:47 - Les Matins de France Culture - Attaques en particulier sur la route de Méditerranée centrale. C'est ce que déplorent plusieurs ONG, dont SOS Méditerranée. - équipe : La Rédaction de France Culture, Margot Delpierre Vous aimez ce podcast ? Pour écouter tous les épisodes sans limite, rendez-vous sur Radio France
durée : 00:17:47 - Journal de 8 h - Attaques en particulier sur la route de Méditerranée centrale. C'est ce que déplorent plusieurs ONG, dont SOS Méditerranée. - équipe : La Rédaction de France Culture, Margot Delpierre Vous aimez ce podcast ? Pour écouter tous les épisodes sans limite, rendez-vous sur Radio France
durée : 00:17:47 - Les journaux de France Culture - Attaques en particulier sur la route de Méditerranée centrale. C'est ce que déplorent plusieurs ONG, dont SOS Méditerranée. - équipe : La Rédaction de France Culture, Margot Delpierre Vous aimez ce podcast ? Pour écouter tous les épisodes sans limite, rendez-vous sur Radio France
Training and development can be a powerful tool for improving performance, but not every performance problem is a skills or knowledge problem. Sometimes what an employee really needs isn't another course or LMS module – it's clearer expectations, better feedback, coaching or simply an honest conversation. In this episode of The HR Room Podcast, Dave and Mary Cullen are joined by Ann Halloran, Talent & Learning Development Professional and author of Helping Others Learn in the Workplace, to explore how managers and HR professionals can distinguish between genuine learning needs and wider performance issues. Together, they discuss why managers can be too quick to reach for training as a solution, the importance of properly diagnosing the cause of underperformance, and why avoiding difficult conversations can allow relatively straightforward issues to become much bigger problems. They also explore what makes workplace learning genuinely effective, how managers can help new skills stick after training, and what organisations can do to create a stronger culture of continuous learning. Guests Ann Halloran — Talent & Learning Development Professional | Author, Helping Others Learn in the Workplace Topics include: How to tell whether poor performance is really a training issue Why managers sometimes use training to avoid difficult conversations Taking a diagnostic approach to performance problems Ann's RIPPLE framework for designing effective workplace learning When performance issues may require a structured performance improvement process The role of mentoring, peer learning, coaching and reflective practice How organisations can create a genuine learning culture Why developing managers is central to improving employee performance and engagement Key Takeaways for HR Diagnose before you prescribe. Before recommending training, establish what's actually preventing someone from performing. Training won't solve unclear expectations, poor motivation, workplace conflict or a manager's reluctance to address an issue directly. Training doesn't end when the course finishes. Managers play a critical role in helping employees transfer learning back into their day-to-day work through reinforcement, accountability, encouragement and ongoing feedback. Don't ask employees to self-diagnose. Giving people access to a large library of LMS modules isn't the same as identifying their development needs. Managers need to be actively involved in understanding where performance or capability gaps exist. Sometimes the answer is a conversation. If someone has the ability to perform but isn't doing so, another training course may achieve very little. Clear, specific and timely feedback can be far more effective. Invest in your managers. Direct line managers have an enormous influence on how employees learn, develop and perform. Organisations that want a genuine learning culture need to equip managers with the communication, feedback, conflict management and performance management skills to support their teams effectively. About Ann's Book Ann's book, Helping Others Learn in the Workplace, is a practical guide designed for managers and trainers who are responsible for helping others learn but may never have been taught how to train effectively themselves. It is available to purchase here. You can get the free checklist we mentioned in the podcast here. Get in Touch If you're not already following us on LinkedIn, we'd love to connect with you. If you have suggestions for future podcast episodes, or would like to appear as a guest on The HR Room, contact Dave Corkery at dcorkery@insighthr.ie or connect with him on LinkedIn. About The HR Room Podcast The HR Room Podcast is brought to you by Insight HR, where we speak with HR leaders, legal experts and workplace specialists from across Ireland about the issues shaping the future of work. If you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe, leave us a review, and share it with colleagues or friends. We're always keen to hear your feedback and suggestions for future episodes. For immediate HR support, contact Insight HR on 056 770 1060 or email info@insighthr.ie.
What does it take to deliver one of the world's most complex sporting events?In 2026, the Winter Olympics faced a challenge unlike any previous games: delivering secure, resilient, and effective connectivity over the most geographically distributed games in history. With venues spread across hundreds of kilometres, organisers built a network supported by more than 1,600km of fibre optics and AI-driven technologies to keep critical infrastructure running smoothly. To find out more about how this was possible, Technology Now is joined by Giuseppe Civale, Director of ICT Infrastructure and Venue Technologies, to discuss:The unique challenge presented by venues spread across hundreds of kilometresThe infrastructure built to support the games, and what happens to it now the games are overHow AI was used to help keep the network safe and secureHow the technology developed for Milano Cortina could influence future global sporting events
THE Leadership Japan Series by Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo, Japan
Many organisations say they need better leadership, but what they often have is a collection of very busy managers. Managers are expected to control costs, meet deadlines, maintain quality, solve problems and keep increasingly complex processes moving. Then, without providing much leadership training, companies complain that these same people are not developing their staff, communicating the strategy or inspiring stronger performance. Management and leadership overlap, but they are not the same job. Organisations need people who can manage the processes, interpret the strategy and develop the people. What is the difference between a manager and a leader? Managers make sure the work gets done correctly, while leaders make sure people understand where the organisation is going and want to contribute to getting it there. Managers naturally concentrate on processes, budgets, deadlines and quality. Modern work involves multiple interconnected tasks, so one late or poorly completed piece can disrupt an entire project. Someone must watch the details and make sure everything stays in tandem. Leadership adds two major responsibilities: setting or interpreting the strategy and developing the people. Senior executives may determine the broad corporate strategy, but leaders further down the organisation must translate that strategy into meaningful action for their own division, department or team. The problem is that companies often promote good technical performers into management and assume leadership will somehow appear automatically. Do now: Clearly define which parts of a role involve managing processes and which parts require leading people. Why do good managers sometimes struggle to become leaders? Good managers often struggle with leadership because the abilities that earned them promotion are not necessarily the abilities they need after promotion. A technically strong employee may be promoted because of expertise, reliability and attention to detail. These are valuable qualities, particularly in Japan's no-defect work culture, where managers are expected to prevent errors and avoid surprises. However, leadership requires a different set of behaviours. Leaders must communicate direction, coach individuals, handle difficult conversations, build confidence and persuade people to support objectives beyond their own immediate responsibilities. Too many companies provide little formal training, limited onboarding and almost no meaningful on-the-job coaching before expecting newly promoted managers to lead effectively. This became even more obvious during the pandemic, when remote work reduced opportunities to observe experienced leaders and learn informally. Promotion changes the title immediately. It does not automatically change the person's capabilities. Do now: Provide leadership training before or immediately after promotion rather than waiting for the new leader to struggle. How should leaders connect corporate strategy with daily work? Leaders must translate broad corporate strategy into practical priorities that employees can understand, remember and act upon. Vision, Mission and Values statements are often beautifully framed and placed behind glass. Unfortunately, many become corporate dust catchers. Nobody remembers them, nobody discusses them and certainly nobody lives them. The leader's job is to make those ideas real. Employees need to understand how the organisation's strategy connects with their daily responsibilities, customer interactions and decisions. They also need to know what the strategy means for their particular team. This requires repetition. It is not enough to mention the strategy at an annual meeting and assume everyone is now aligned. At Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training, we begin each morning with what we call the "Daily Dale". We review our Vision, Mission and Values, together with one Dale Carnegie human relations or stress management principle. Repetition helps the team remember the ideas so they can actually live them. Do now: Turn strategic language into short, repeated conversations about what employees should do differently today. How did Ritz-Carlton make its service principles part of the culture? Ritz-Carlton made its service principles operational by discussing them constantly rather than leaving them in a manual. I once attended a presentation in Osaka by Ricco De Blanc, who helped open the Ritz-Carlton hotels in Osaka and Tokyo. He explained the organisation's customer service principles and how they were embedded into daily operations. I was so impressed that I later invited him to speak to my colleagues at Shinsei Retail Bank. I also convinced my boss to send me to the Ritz-Carlton training centre in Washington, D.C. When I returned, I adapted what I had learned and created customer service principles for our retail banking business. The secret sauce was consistency. At Ritz-Carlton locations around the world, each shift began by reviewing the same service principle for that day. The principles were not treated as decorative statements. They became a shared language for behaviour and decision-making. Do now: Choose one cultural principle each day and ask the team how it applies to their customers and current work. Why is employee coaching disappearing from the workplace? Employee coaching is disappearing because managers are overloaded with operational work and mistake giving instructions for developing people. Technology was supposed to make work easier, but in many cases it has simply increased the quantity and speed of work. Managers now spend their days moving between email, online meetings, reporting systems, deadlines and urgent requests. One of the casualties is coaching. Look closely at the calendars of many people in leadership positions and remove the meetings where they are simply giving commands, checking progress or correcting errors. The remaining time devoted to genuine coaching may be measured in nanoseconds. Remote and hybrid work add another complication. Managers have fewer informal opportunities to notice changes in performance, attitude or confidence. Coaching must therefore become intentional rather than accidental. Real coaching means asking questions, listening, helping people think and encouraging them to take greater ownership. It cannot be reduced to telling employees what to do more loudly or more frequently. Do now: Schedule regular coaching conversations that are separate from progress checks and performance instructions. Can leaders really motivate their employees? Leaders cannot directly motivate other people, but they can create an environment in which people are more likely to motivate themselves. The phrase "motivating others" is slightly misleading. We cannot reach inside another person and install motivation. People are motivated by different combinations of achievement, recognition, responsibility, security, growth, purpose and belonging. The leader's responsibility is to discover what matters to each person and communicate accordingly. That takes time, curiosity and excellent interpersonal skills. Leaders must also help employees see the connection between organisational objectives and their own goals. When employees understand why the work matters, how they contribute and how they can grow, they are more likely to take ownership. This is particularly important in Japan's increasingly competitive talent market. Employees may tolerate a weak manager for a while, but talented people have more reason than ever to seek an environment where they feel respected, developed and valued. Do now: Ask employees what kind of work, responsibility and recognition brings out their best performance. What should companies expect from their middle leaders? Middle leaders must manage the processes, interpret the strategy and build the people at the same time. Process management remains essential. Deadlines, costs and quality do not disappear simply because someone has adopted a leadership mindset. However, operational control alone is not enough. The middle leader must connect senior management's direction with frontline execution. This means explaining the strategy, gaining commitment, adjusting priorities and helping employees build the capabilities required to deliver. Companies also need to give middle leaders enough time, authority and training to perform these responsibilities. It is unreasonable to overload managers with administrative work and then criticise them for failing to coach their teams. The organisations that develop capable middle leaders will be better positioned to retain talent, implement strategy and adapt to change. Their competitors may have equally good products and systems, but stronger leadership will eventually create a major performance difference. Do now: Assess middle leaders on people development and strategic alignment, not only on budgets, deadlines and error rates. Conclusion Companies do not need to choose between management and leadership. They need both. Managers keep the machinery operating. Leaders make sure the machinery is heading in the right direction and that the people operating it are growing, contributing and committed. The problem begins when organisations assume that management experience automatically produces leadership ability. It does not. Leadership requires deliberate development, repeated practice, coaching and organisational support. Your managers may already be extremely busy controlling processes, budgets and quality. The question is whether you are also helping them become the leaders your people and your strategy require. In the long term, talented employees will not simply leave companies. They will leave middle managers and stay with middle leaders. There is a world of difference between the two. Author Bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" in 2018 and 2021 and received the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award in 2012. As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including the bestsellers Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery, together with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His Japanese-language books include Za Eigyō(ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin(プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō(トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう)and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā(現代版「人を動かす」リーダー). Greg also publishes regular business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and X and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews for executives and professionals seeking practical strategies for succeeding in Japan.
On this episode, I speak to Barry O'Reilly, entrepreneur, executive adviser and author of Lean Enterprise, Unlearn and his latest book, Artificial Organizations. Barry works with senior leaders around the world to improve how their organisations make decisions and perform, and has also spent recent years building and advising AI-enabled companies through Nobody Studios. We discuss what AI changes about leadership when the goal is not simply to produce more output, but to make better decisions. Barry argues that the real opportunity is to use AI to reduce cognitive and administrative load, strengthen judgement, improve organisational context and create more space for thoughtful, high-quality work - without outsourcing the thinking itself. Episode highlights AI should increase thinking capacity, not just output - The most valuable gain is not producing 10 or 100 times more work, but reducing administrative load so people have more time for creative problem solving, reflection and consequential decisions. Start with how you work, not with the tools - Rather than adopting AI because a particular tool is fashionable, identify where you create the most value, how you naturally work best and which tasks get in the way. Technology should support that operating model rather than dictate it. Judgement is the capability leaders need to protect - AI is strong at capturing, synthesising and interrogating large amounts of information, but leaders still need to own the decision. Using AI to pressure-test thinking is fundamentally different from asking it to make the judgement for you. Treat conversations as organisational data - Meetings, decisions and working sessions can become reusable context rather than disposable moments. Capturing and synthesising them can improve preparation, continuity, follow-through and the quality of future decisions. Use AI as a thinking partner, not an answer machine - One of the highest-value uses is to challenge assumptions, find blind spots, generate alternative scenarios and simulate the questions a sceptical stakeholder might ask before a high-stakes conversation. Leaders need to role-model experimentation - AI adoption is unlikely to succeed through licences, mandates or transformation programmes alone. Leaders can create safer and more useful experimentation by visibly trying new approaches, sharing what worked and what failed, and learning alongside their teams. AI-generated output can simply move work downstream - Producing a polished 20-page document in minutes is not valuable if somebody else must spend an hour working out whether it says anything useful. Good AI-enabled work should reduce the processing burden on colleagues rather than transfer it to them. Organisations may need an explicit 'slop policy' - Teams should establish expectations that people do the synthesis and thinking before asking others for feedback. A good recommendation should show the options considered, relevant evidence, trade-offs and a proposed decision rather than handing raw AI output to someone else. Fresh organisational context is a competitive advantage - Generic models produce generic answers. The organisations that benefit most will be those that can maintain useful context about customers, strategy, decisions, work and relationships, and make that information available at the point where decisions are being made. Start AI adoption with one real decision - Instead of trying to redesign an entire operating model at once, take an upcoming decision, write down how you would normally make it, then use AI to challenge that process: what assumptions are missing, what evidence matters, and how could the decision framework be made more robust? About Artificial Organizations Artificial Organizations explores how leaders can combine human judgement with machine intelligence to improve decision-making, organisational performance and the way work gets done. Learn more about the book: https://artificialorganizations.com/ Learn more about Barry's work: https://barryoreilly.com/ Connect with Barry LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barryoreilly/
The relationship between employers and employees is changing. The era of the "job for life" has long since disappeared, but so too is the more recent model where organisations sought to become a source of identity, community, purpose and even care for their employees. With AI accelerating change, economic uncertainty increasing and the balance of power shifting once again, the psychological contract between organisations and their people is being rewritten. In this episode of The HR Room Podcast, Dave and Mary Cullen are joined by Deirdre Donovan, HR Strategist & Speaker, to explore what this means for the future role of HR. Drawing on more than 25 years of experience, including roles with Diageo and Meta, Deirdre argues that HR now has an opportunity to move organisations away from paternalism and towards a more mature partnership with employees. From the rise and retreat of lavish employee benefits to return-to-office mandates, AI, job security and changing expectations around workplace culture, the conversation examines why HR may be more important than ever. Rather than simply managing processes, HR has a critical role to play in helping employees make sense of change, building organisational capability and creating honest, adult-to-adult relationships between employers and their people. Guest: Deirdre Donovan — HR Strategist & Speaker Topics include: Why the traditional psychological contract between employers and employees is changing How we've moved from the era of the "job for life" to a much more uncertain employment relationship Whether organisations went too far in becoming a source of identity, community and care for employees How the war for talent transformed employee expectations and workplace culture Why return-to-office mandates have tested trust between employers and employees How AI is changing jobs, skills and the role of HR Why HR needs to help employees make sense of rapid organisational change The move from workplace paternalism towards a more mature partnership with employees Why honest, transparent communication becomes even more important during uncertainty How HR can build the skills and capabilities organisations will need for an AI-enabled future Key Takeaways for HR Leaders The psychological contract has changed. Organisations need to be realistic and transparent about what employees can expect from the employment relationship. HR should aim for an adult-to-adult partnership with employees, built around clear expectations, frequent feedback, dignity and honest communication. AI will change many jobs, but that makes human skills such as communication, judgement, empathy and leadership even more important. HR has a vital role in sense-making — helping employees understand change, translating organisational priorities and ensuring communication flows effectively throughout the business. Organisations shouldn't simply use AI as an opportunity to reduce headcount. Its greater potential lies in augmenting work, removing administrative burden and enabling people to focus on higher-value activities. Treating employees with dignity, respect and transparency during good times makes organisations better equipped to navigate difficult periods of change. Rather than making HR less relevant, the AI revolution could make HR one of the most pivotal functions in helping organisations successfully navigate the future of work. Get in Touch If you're not already following us on LinkedIn, we'd love to connect with you. If you have suggestions for future podcast episodes, or would like to appear as a guest on The HR Room, contact Dave Corkery at dcorkery@insighthr.ie or connect with him on LinkedIn. About The HR Room Podcast The HR Room Podcast is brought to you by Insight HR, where we speak with HR leaders, legal experts and workplace specialists from across Ireland about the issues shaping the future of work. If you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe, leave us a review, and share it with colleagues or friends. We're always keen to hear your feedback and suggestions for future episodes. For immediate HR support, contact Insight HR on 056 770 1060 or email info@insighthr.ie.
For every $1 an organisation invests in employee wellbeing, the return is almost $5. Yet most organisations are still trying to fix one of the most costly challenges in the modern workplace with simple initiatives like a yoga class and a bowl of free fruit - which are healthy initiatives, but not enough. Nicola Spencer-Perera - a professional coach, burnout specialist and founder of Reset Wellness spent 27 years in fast-paced global corporate communications before burnout changed everything. In this podcast, she shares the signs your team is quietly going under, why wellbeing initiatives fail without genuine leadership buy-in, and what does works. If you lead people or simply want to take better care of yourself in a world that glorifies being busy - this conversation is for you.
Send us Fan MailIn this episode we feature a Baldwin loco - 590 – a war veteran in its own right as it returns to traffic on the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway. Young reporters Cynan Hughes, George Woodward and Alasdair Stewart go along to find out more.Sharon Gregory heads on a railway rideout by train this time to the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Railway in Yorkshire.Producer Laura Raymond calls in to have a chat at Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway, a standard gauge rural line. Young Reporter Cynan, whose on an episode take over this time it seems, recently went along with Dad Steve to meet another dad and young son team: Railway Social Media Influencer, Andy Miller, who works full time in the bus industry and young son. And Alasdair calls in for a behind the scenes tour at the Bluebell Railway in East Sussex.Here are links to the Railways and Organisations mentioned in this episode.The Welsh Highland Heritage RailwayAndy Miller - you can follow him on social media here.Chinnor and Princes Risborough RailwayEmbsay and Bolton Abbey railwayThe Bluebell RailwayThis podcast is produced by Laura Raymond and presented by Alasdair Stewart and Sharon Gregory.Radio Presenter and Diesel Fan Paddy Range regularly guests. Young Rail Enthusiasts George Woodward and Cynan Hughes (plus parents!) report back from interesting railways and events. Our 'Making Tracks' music is with kind permission of composer and musician Richard Durrant. It is a unique piece inspired by the rhythm of the historic rolling stock on the Ffestiniog Railway on the scenic journey from Harbour Station to Tan y Blwch. You can listen and download the full 'Tan y Bwlch' Ukulele Quartet here: Thank you to voice artist David King - for the Railway Ride outs voice over. Ukulele Quartet No. 1 "Tan y Bwlch" Ukulele Quartet No. 1 "Tan y Bwlch" Richard Durrant · Single · 2019 · 3 songs.
What do AI adoption, cyber resilience, and the great VM reset have in common? They're all trends which are colliding to reshape the world of enterprise technology. As organisations prepare for a future powered by intelligent systems, infrastructure, security and virtualisation are becoming increasingly connected strategic priorities. This week, Technology Now explores how these changes are reshaping enterprise technology, as Patrick Osborne, SVP Hybrid Cloud and Office of the CTO, joins the show to discuss:The economic and technological impacts of the great VM resetWhy hybrid systems are essential to succeed in the world of AIThe role of sovereignty and governance in AI adoptionWhat the agentic enterprise could mean for infrastructure and operations
Welcome to another episode of the Data Debrief, the companion show to Driven by Data: The Podcast, where hosts Catherine Dowden-King and Kyle Winterbottom unpack Tuesday's episode, share what's been on their minds, and explore the realities of leadership, culture, and capability across the data and AI landscape.This week, Catherine and Kyle reflect on the conversation with Marion Shaw, Senior Director of Data, Analytics and Data Management at Cencora, and her new book on data culture, before digging into why the "data culture" debate keeps circling the same questions, and why the answer almost always comes back to people rather than technology.They cover:The wildfires spreading across South Wales and Europe, and how AI and drones are being deployed in France to spot smoke earlier, distinguish dust from smoke, and cut down the false positives that waste emergency resourceThe bigger climate paradox facing the industry, from record-wet winters followed by hosepipe bans and water mismanagement, to the uncomfortable reality that the data centres powering AI advances are themselves enormous consumers of waterWhy absolutism helps no one, and how the healthiest position on AI, sustainability, and change sits somewhere in the messy middle rather than all-in or all-outHow incentives quietly shape behaviour, illustrated by the fact that three flights across Europe can cost less than a single train from Manchester to London, and why people ultimately do what they're incentivised to doCatherine's latest build for the Orbition community: a NED Opportunity Finder, a live, daily-updating table of listed non-executive director roles showing remuneration, location, and whether the board is public or private, free to access for registered community members, and why she's so keen to see more data leaders move into board positionsWhy Marion's candour hit home, especially the reminder that you simply cannot force people to be interested in or care about data, and why that truth is uncomfortable but essentialHow technology becomes a distraction, the "shiny thing syndrome" that pulls focus away from the outcomes that actually matter, and why that's the real answer to "why now"The endlessly debated question of whether "data culture" even exists, why the industry loves arguing over semantics no one outside it cares about, and why every organisation already has a data culture, somewhere on the spectrum from barely-there to full tiltWhy culture and outcomes feed each other rather than being an either/or, and how influencing behaviours and showing results almost always happen in tandemWhy every business claims to be "data-driven," how the reality usually differs, and why a new CDO's first 90 to 100 days is really about working out where the organisation actually sits versus where leadership thinks it doesThe "slippery shoulders" problem, and why nothing improves or gets maintained unless someone genuinely owns itWhy you can't see your own culture from the inside, and how stepping out to network, attend events, and compare notes with peers is often the only way to know whether you're ahead, behind, or better off than you thoughtA look ahead to the Orbition magazine landing in October, featuring a data leader who hasn't spoken publicly in over two years, alongside mentor and mentee stories and perspectives from beyond the CDO communityThe Director of Police AI role at the College of Policing, and how its rigid entry criteria expose the same old problem seen across data leadership: job descriptions that bear little resemblance to what organisations actually want from the roleKyle's thought of the week: most job descriptions are disconnected from what the business actually needs. Organisations have learned to use the right language, asking for leaders who'll work with the board and use data to drive commercial performance, then listing purely technical requirements underneath. Until that gap closes, the mismatch between what's advertised and what's wanted will keep repeating itself. Fundamentally, every organisation already has a data culture; it simply sits somewhere on a spectrum, and the job is to understand where before trying to move it.Catherine's thought of the week: you rarely recognise your own culture until you step outside it. Whether it's trust versus micromanagement, or how your data leaders are really perceived, the comparison only becomes clear when you go out, meet people, and see how others operate. And the honesty applies inward too, because no organisation describes itself as not caring about data, so the real work is uncovering where it genuinely stands.This episode is a candid, wide-ranging conversation on data culture, ownership, and incentives, and a reminder that the hardest problems in data and AI leadership remain stubbornly human, no matter how much the technology moves on.Housekeeping: The podcast is now broadcasting on LinkedIn Live. To watch along in real time, head to the Driven by Data Productions page on LinkedIn and follow it. We go live with each episode every Tuesday at 1pm BST, and our guest often joins the comments to answer your questions. Keep an eye out for upcoming events towards the end of the year, including Driven by Data Live, where Catherine will be handing out physical copies of the new magazine.
Artificial intelligence has spent the last several years getting smarter on screens, recommending what to watch, drafting what to write, answering what we ask. This type of progress is now spilling out into the physical world, where machines are starting to move, sense, and adapt on their own. In this episode of Tech Transformed, host John Santaferraro, Founder and Analyst at Ferraro Consulting, talks with Prith Banerjee, Senior Vice President of Innovation at Synopsys, about what happens when AI has to obey the laws of physics instead of just the patterns in a dataset.Banerjee brings a rare vantage point to the conversation. Before Synopsys, he led HP Labs worldwide, served as group CTO at ABB and Schneider Electric, and ran engineering simulation software company ANSYS as CTO until its acquisition by Synopsys roughly a year ago - a deal that now anchors much of what he describes as Synopsys's "silicon to systems" strategy.The Road to Physical AIBanerjee traces AI's progress through distinct phases he's tracked across his career. It started with analytics, which was the correlation engines behind a Netflix recommendation, or the placement and routing improvements Synopsys has long applied inside its own chip design tools. Generative AI came next, giving machines the ability to produce original language, images, and video from a prompt rather than just surface existing content. Agentic AI followed close behind, handing off entire tasks, drafting a slide deck, prepping a sales call to systems that act more like assistants than tools.Physical AI is the phase Banerjee sees unfolding now, and it's a different kind of leap. Instead of learning from words or pixels, these systems learn from real physical measurements: pressure, temperature, stress, and strain. Training that kind of intelligence takes synthetic data generated across structural, fluid, and electromagnetic physics precisely the simulation capability ANSYS brought into Synopsys.Teaching Robots to Learn Like HumansThe shift shows up clearly in how robots are built today. A decade ago, getting a robotic arm to pick up a bottle without crushing it meant writing enormous programs, sometimes 100,000 lines of code specifying exactly how each motor should move. Physical AI throws that playbook out. Banerjee compares it to teaching a child to ride a bike: nobody narrates which pedal to push. The child watches, tries, falls, and adjusts.Robots now learn the same way, refining their behaviour through reward and penalty as they attempt a task thousands of times. Autonomous vehicles follow the identical pattern at far greater scale, learning from millions of hours of driving footage until they recognise, for instance, that a pedestrian stepping into the street means stop. Synopsys works with autonomous vehicle and robotics companies to generate the synthetic training data that makes this kind of learning possible without requiring endless real-world testing.Engineering the Intelligent Systems of TomorrowThat intelligence has to run on something, and the conversation turns to what it takes to build the silicon underneath it. Chips that once held a few hundred thousand transistors now carry tens or hundreds of billions, some approaching trillions, stacked using advanced 3D and chiplet techniques. Designing them means balancing power, performance, and thermal limits simultaneously rather than simply over-engineering for safety margin, which Banerjee calls co-design.Synopsys is tackling that complexity with what it calls agent engineers. AI systems introduced at its Converge conference that work alongside human chip designers on tasks like RTL design, test benches, and sign-off, effectively multiplying engineering capacity without multiplying headcount. The same pressure shows up at the edge, where trained AI models have to run inside a drone, car, or warehouse robot on a fraction of the power a data centre would use, with no room for cloud latency. Banerjee shares his perspective on why many AI projects struggle. He argues that the real challenge lies in balancing innovation with trust: robots operating alongside people raise questions of safety and collaboration, while autonomous systems connected to networks demand security, traceability, and clear explanations for the decisions they make.His advice to engineering leaders is to treat this shift as organisation-wide rather than a single team's problem, from legal and marketing functions already using agentic tools to engineering teams rethinking how code gets written. The goal, as he puts it, isn't replacing people but making them capable of far more than they could manage alone. If you would find out more about this, visit Synopsys or follow Prith Banerjee on LinkedIn.TakeawaysEvolution of AI from analytics to physical AI.Role of synthetic data in training physical AI.How robots learn through physical interactions.Complexity and innovation in chip design.Agentic AI and its applications in engineering.Challenges of edge AI in autonomous systems.Security, governance, and safety in physical AI.Chapters00:00 Introduction to AI's Evolution and Physical AI01:15 Prith Banerjee's Career Journey and Role at Synopsys04:19 The Phases of AI: Analytics, Generative, and Agentic07:55 What is Physical AI and How It Learns from the Physical World09:23 Robotics and Autonomous Learning Through Physical AI19:41 Impact of AI on Chip Design and Complex Systems23:29 Design Challenges of Complex, AI-Driven Chips26:57 Edge AI and Challenges in Autonomous Devices28:09 Implications for Organisations and Future Investments
In this episode Martin Couzins and Dr Nigel Paine discuss proactive vs reactive organisations. The discussion was prompted by a recent post by Martin on LinkedIn. We discuss topics including . . .The risks of being a reactive organisationChange now happens so quickly that, by the time an organisation responds to a challenge or copies a competitor, circumstances may already have moved on.The importance of data and foresightStrong organisations actively manage and interpret data, notice emerging trends and weak signals, and use these insights to anticipate change rather than wait for a crisis. Thanks to Teresa Rose for making this point.Employee knowledge as the “organisational brain”Employees closest to the work hold valuable expertise, ideas and experience—including insights about AI and process improvements. Proactive organisations create the psychological safety and channels needed to share this knowledge; reactive ones trap it in functional silos.Why continuous adaptation is essentialCustomer demands, technology and employee expectations are constantly evolving. Organisations therefore need curiosity, integrated systems thinking and a willingness to experiment—not rigid procedures designed to preserve the status quo.
What do you do when you create an AI that can find security vulnerabilities in almost everything? As AI exposes vulnerabilities hidden deep within critical systems, organisations face a new challenge: staying ahead of threats that can now be discovered at machine speed.This week, Technology Now explores the changing cyber security landscape as AI transforms how vulnerabilities are found, fixed, and exploited, forcing organisations to rethink how they manage risk. Jon Green, CTO HPE Networking, joins us to help explain: How AI can be used to pen test new software before releaseHow AI could fundamentally change the way organisations patch and upgrade technology Why critical infrastructure is particularly vulnerable to these types of attacksWhether we could be heading towards a future where software is completely vulnerability free
THE Leadership Japan Series by Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo, Japan
Leadership is not only about watching the P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, revenue and profit. Those numbers matter enormously, especially when conditions are difficult, but leaders can become so absorbed in survival that they neglect the people who must deliver the recovery. Effective leadership requires the agility to keep several priorities in motion at once: business performance, cooperation, culture, career development and personal self-control. Why must leaders influence cooperation rather than simply issue orders? Leaders achieve results through people, so cooperation is more sustainable than command-and-control pressure. When the business is under strain, determination, grit and force of will can become dangerous strengths. The leader starts pushing harder, communicating from on high and assuming that one perspective—the leader's own—is enough. That may produce short-term compliance, but it weakens ownership, trust and discretionary effort. A leader only has value in relation to the organisation and the people who constitute it. The real task is therefore to influence others to cooperate toward a desired result, not merely to demand obedience. Servant leadership is easiest to discuss when conditions are comfortable; it is tested when revenues are falling, cash is tight and everyone is tired. In those moments, leaders need to explain the goal, involve people in the path forward and make cooperation feel purposeful rather than compulsory. Do now: Replace one directive this week with a conversation that clarifies the outcome, invites input and builds shared ownership. How does a leader's personality shape organisational culture? A leader's attitudes, emotional control and assumptions about people are constantly transmitted into the culture. Leaders bring their whole personality to work: hopes, fears, values, impatience, humour and bias. When business is going well, it is easy to appear positive, tolerant and encouraging. The harder test comes when the organisation is facing chaos, missed targets or serious risk. Negativity at the top quickly permeates the team. Douglas McGregor's Theory X view of motivation described leaders who focus on shortcomings and become detectives searching for faults and failures. That mindset affects how people are treated and what kind of culture develops. Leaders do not need to pretend that everything is fine, but they do need the discipline to remain calm, fair and constructive. Sometimes leadership requires an actor's composure: appearing steady enough to help others think clearly, even when the leader is deeply concerned underneath. Do now: Before reacting under pressure, ask what emotional signal your behaviour will send to the organisation. Why should organisational goals and individual career goals be aligned? Performance improves when the organisation's ambitions and each employee's career goals can grow together. Leaders naturally have their own goals, incentives and ambitions, so pretending that self-interest does not exist is unrealistic. The higher standard is to pursue business outcomes while also taking a genuine interest in the growth of subordinates. That requires time. Leaders need to understand what motivates each person, what skills they want to build, what responsibilities they seek and what success means to them. Only then can the leader look for ways to connect individual aspirations with organisational priorities. In many cases, the two can be blended: a new project can build capability, a stretch assignment can support succession, or a cross-functional initiative can advance both enterprise performance and personal development. The details are rarely effortless, but creating that alignment is one of the clearest marks of leadership excellence. Do now: Ask each direct report what progress they want to make over the next twelve months, then connect it to a real business priority. What is a leader's responsibility for developing people? A central leadership responsibility is to help people become capable of producing important results. Developing people is not a soft extra that sits beside the real work; it is part of the real work. Organisations succeed through capable people who can make decisions, solve problems and recover from setbacks. That means leaders must coach, delegate, provide feedback and create opportunities to practise. Development also requires patience because growth is rarely tidy. The Japanese expression hanmen kyoshi means learning from a negative example, and that example may be another person or ourselves. Leaders who openly learn from their own mistakes make it safer for others to learn as well. By contrast, a leader who excuses personal errors but punishes subordinate errors creates a toxic double standard. Accountability still matters, but it should be applied consistently and used to strengthen judgement rather than merely assign blame. Do now: Turn one recent mistake into a structured learning conversation: what happened, what was learned and what will change next time? How should leaders treat failure when the stakes are high? Leaders must distinguish between careless failure and intelligent failure, while applying the same standards to themselves and their teams. Innovation, transformation and difficult decisions all carry risk. If every setback is treated as proof of incompetence, people will hide problems, avoid experimentation and wait for permission. Yet saying "we never fail, we only learn" is meaningless unless leaders apply that philosophy when the financial consequences become serious. The real test comes when large numbers, client relationships or reputational risks are involved. Leaders should examine whether the decision process was sound, whether assumptions were reasonable, whether warning signs were ignored and whether the lesson is being captured. They should also ask whether they would judge themselves by the same standard. Integrity, credibility and trust depend on this consistency. Generosity toward failure does not mean abandoning accountability; it means ensuring that accountability produces better future performance. Do now: Review one failed initiative for decision quality, not only outcome quality, and document the lesson for future teams. How can leaders read their own 'air' during difficult times? Leaders need enough self-awareness to recognise what is happening inside themselves before it distorts what happens around them. The Japanese phrase kuki wo yomu means reading the air: noticing what is really happening in a room beyond the visible surface. Leaders often try to read everyone else—the mood, resistance, hesitation or hidden concern—but fail to read their own internal atmosphere. Under pressure, fear may appear as aggression, uncertainty as over-control and fatigue as impatience. A short pause can prevent those emotions from becoming organisational signals. Self-reflection is especially important when leaders are juggling numbers, people, clients and operational risk at the same time. The four essential undertakings—building cooperation, managing personal impact, aligning goals and developing people—provide a practical check on whether leadership perspective has narrowed too far. Reading your own air is not self-indulgence; it is a way to protect the quality of judgement and the health of the team. Do now: In your next difficult meeting, pause and name your internal state before you speak or decide. What should leaders remember? Sustainable performance comes from combining financial focus with disciplined attention to people. Leadership becomes most visible when conditions are rough and tough. Financial discipline remains essential, but numbers alone cannot produce cooperation, resilience or growth. Leaders need to manage their own impact, connect organisational goals with individual aspirations, develop people through both success and failure, and regularly examine what pressure is doing to their judgement. The strongest leaders do not choose between performance and people. They understand that sustainable performance is delivered through people. Author bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including three best-sellers—Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery—along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese. Greg publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and X, hosts six weekly podcasts, and produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews on YouTube.
What parts of yourself have you learned to hide in order to be taken seriously? My guest on this episode is Mark Heywood, a friend of the show, returning guest and someone I've collaborated with on a number of projects. Episode Summary & Guest ProfileMark has spent more than twenty years working in crisis management and operational resilience, while simultaneously building a successful career as a bestselling novelist, screenwriter and, more recently, stand-up comedian.On the morning we recorded this conversation, Mark published an article marking his fifty-first birthday. In it, he reflected on the pressure many of us feel to present only one version of ourselves professionally, arguing that his creative and corporate lives were never really separate. As he puts it, they were 'not two jobs, but one obsession wearing two different lanyards.' That simple idea becomes the starting point for a much wider discussion about the stories we tell ourselves, and the stories organisations tell themselves.Along the way we explore:Why "stay in your lane" may say more about other people's expectations than your own potential.Why organisations often encourage people to bring their whole selves to work, while rewarding conformity.What interviews, dress codes and organisational culture reveal about human behaviour.Why stories often influence behaviour more effectively than rules, policies and frameworks.What films can teach us about operational resilience, cybersecurity and crisis management.Why the Titanic remains one of the most powerful lessons in organisational failure.How imagination is a strategic capability rather than a soft skill.Why thinking through "severe but plausible" scenarios requires organisations to become better storytellers.LinksMark's birthday article: "A Birthday Declaration from Someone Who Spent Over Twenty Years Pretending to Be Half of Himself" (LinkedIn)Mark's Behind The Spine podcastThe Writing SalonBehind The Spine podcastMark on LinkedInMark's previous appearances on the show talking about The Creative Industries under COVID, and Human Risk in the Creative IndustriesFilms, Stories & People MentionedDie Hard Apollo 13 The Martian The Odyssey (Christopher Nolan)Don't Look UpSnakes on a Plane Sharknado Noah's Ark RMS TitanicRachel Heyhoe Flint Jeremy King AI-Generated Timestamped Summary00:00 – Why do we hide parts of ourselves to be taken seriously?03:40 – Mark explains why he stopped separating his creative and corporate identities.08:00 – Which hobbies and outside interests are considered professionally acceptable—and why?10:30 – Job interviews, authenticity and bringing your whole self to work.16:00 – Jeremy King on why behaviour matters more than dress codes.19:00 – Rachel Heyhoe Flint, the MCC and what institutional rules reveal about culture.23:00 – Why stories influence behaviour more effectively than rules.24:00 – The Trojan Horse and using films to teach cybersecurity and resilience.29:00 – The Titanic as a lesson in organisational resilience rather than maritime history.32:00 – Conduct versus outcomes: why testing matters more than compliance.36:00 – Using stories and popular culture to make risk real.38:00 – Noah's Ark, history and the enduring power of storytelling.40:30 – CrowdStrike, PPE and why organisations keep repeating the same mistakes.46:00 – Stories aren't predictions—they're a way of exploring possibility.49:00 – A ransomware exercise and the danger of relying on fixed policies.52:00 – Returning to the Titanic: preparing for the inquiry before the crisis.55:00 – Thinking like an attacker and challenging assumptions about cyber risk.58:00 – Taylor Swift, insurance and why seemingly ordinary data can become highly sensitive.1:02:00 – The idea of "risk inflation" and why yesterday's rules aren't enough.1:10:00 – Why memorable stories change behaviour more effectively than realistic scenarios.1:15:00 – Reverse stress testing and imagining what could really break an organisation.1:20:00 – RAG ratings, reporting and the danger of looking resilient instead of being resilient.1:23:00 – Final reflections on creativity, identity and why being more than one thing is a strength.
In this episode, Minter Dial engages in a profound conversation with Preeti D'mello, whose life and work revolve around the pursuit of fulfilment, both individually and within organisations. Drawing on an upbringing steeped in spiritual seeking and a career spanning major corporate environments, Preeti brings a unique blend of Eastern philosophy and Western psychology to the discussion, unravelling what it truly means to live and work with a sense of purpose. The conversation focused on how fulfilment is not merely a personal aspiration, but a functional human capacity and a systemic necessity for modern organisations. A key theme that emerged was the need for workplaces to facilitate wholeness—what Preeti refers to as “purna”—moving beyond superficial rewards and performance metrics to foster genuine belonging, care, and engagement. The discussion explored the practical tensions leaders face, balancing business performance with human development, and unpacked the ways in which vulnerability, complexity, and imperfection can actually catalyse stronger cultures and higher achievement. Several points were raised, including actionable frameworks for leaders to measure and nurture fulfilment, the importance of structured yet bold conversations to reveal the true state of organisational culture, and the responsibility organisations hold in supporting not just output, but the deeper capacities of their people. The episode also ventures into the rapidly changing needs of younger generations entering the workforce, examining the impact of parenting, resilience, and the pursuit of meaning in a world saturated with external distractions. Whether you're a seasoned leader striving for a thriving culture or an individual wondering where to begin your own journey toward fulfilment, this episode offers practical guidance and a refreshingly holistic perspective on what it takes to achieve wholeness—in work and in life. Listen in as Minter Dial and Preeti D'mello challenge traditional narratives and illuminate new pathways to sustainable, meaningful success.
In 2022, a watershed moment changed the course of our relationship with AI forever, forcing us to reassess what ‘artificial intelligence' means and its place in our world. Four years later, with generative AI and LLMs now mainstream in our lives, we must ask the question: what comes next? This week, as part of our mini-series celebrating 60 years of innovation with HPE Labs, Technology Now is joined by Kirk Bresniker, Chief Architect at HPE Labs to look to the future and discuss: Why AI is more than just a language modelThe issues with ever-increasing model sizes, and why specialised “expert models” could become the normWhat the differences are between large language models and energy-based modelsHow agentic AI and orchestration could enable the next generation of AI systems
Simon Scriver's Amazingly Ultimate Fundraising Superstar Podcast
In this episode of the Fundraising Everywhere Podcast, host Cam St.Omer Donaldson is joined by two graduates of the JustGiving Digital Learning Grant Programme — Kayleigh Wingate from Cambridge Cyrenians and Claire Caborn from Dove Cottage Day Hospice. Both fundraisers work in small charities where wearing multiple hats is the norm, and both came into the DLG program with different goals — Kayleigh to build her fundraising foundations after a background in copywriting and marketing, and Claire to take her charity's first steps into digital fundraising ahead of a landmark 30th anniversary Big Give Christmas Challenge. Together, they share: What they learned across six months of the program — from email marketing and social media strategy to storytelling and grants Why it's okay not to have all the answers (and why that realisation was liberating) How the program boosted their confidence and sparked new strategies for their organisations Why Fundraising Everywhere feels like an extended fundraising team — and a "fundraising encyclopaedia" Applications for the Digital Learning Grant Program 2027 (sponsored by JustGiving) are now open. Head to https://www.fundraisingeverywhere.com/digitallearninggrant/ to apply. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to hit follow and enable notifications so you'll get notified to be first to hear of future podcast episodes. We'd love to see you back again! And thank you to our friends at JustGiving who make the Fundraising Everywhere Podcast possible.
Two projects from County Clare are in the running for national recognition after being shortlisted for the 2026 National Age Friendly Recognition and Achievement Awards. Rock The Rails Family Store in Kilrush, and the Road Safety for Older People initiative have been recognised for their work in improving the lives of older people and creating more inclusive communities. To tell us more about the awards, what they mean for Clare, and the impact these projects are having, Derrick Lynch was joined by Shanelle Warring, Clare Age Friendly Programme Manager. Image (c) Age Friendly Ireland
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You might be following a proven sales process, you might even be generating consistent revenue. But if you are not building in a regular strategic thinking space, your sales results are almost certainly not as strong as they could be and they are more fragile than you realise. In this episode of the Selling to Corporate® podcast, Jess Lorimer addresses one of the most common and costly problems she sees across the sales processes of coaches, consultants, trainers, speakers, and done-for-you service providers: the failure to stop, think strategically, and work on the process rather than just in it. Jess explains why this matters whether your sales are going well or badly, what specifically goes wrong when strategic thinking space is absent, and what you need to do differently in the second half of 2026 to make September and Q4 the most productive quarter of your year. Who This Episode Is For Coaches, consultants, trainers, speakers, and done-for-you service providers selling to corporate clients Anyone who feels busy in their business but is not seeing the sales results they expected Those who have invested in a sales strategy or programme but are not consistently reviewing whether it is working Business owners who are generating some revenue but want to make the second half of the year significantly stronger Anyone who has been experimenting with different sales approaches and wondering why nothing is gaining traction Service providers who want to understand why their sales process is difficult to troubleshoot or improve Questions This Episode Answers What is the number one problem in B2B sales processes, even for people already making sales? Why does testing and experimenting with sales strategies cost more than buying a proven one? What does strategic thinking space mean in a sales context, and why does it matter? What are the three specific problems that arise when coaches and consultants skip strategic thinking in their sales process? Why does a lack of specificity in B2B sales make everything harder? How do I know whether my sales process is working or whether I am working around its gaps? What should I focus on in the second half of 2026 to have a stronger September and Q4? Key Takeaways 1. The Number One Problem Is Not the Market. It Is the Absence of a Proven Process. Jess opens this episode with a direct challenge to one of the most common narratives she hears from coaches and consultants in 2026: that the market is slow, budgets are frozen, and decision makers are not signing things off. Her clients are signing 40k, 60k, and six-figure retainers. People are charging over 3,000 pounds for a 45-minute corporate session. First-time corporate workshop sales are happening every week. The difference between those results and the experience of people who feel stuck is not the market. It is whether or not they are using and consistently implementing a proven sales process. If your sales are not producing the results you want, the answer is not to wait for the market to improve, jump to a new specialism or test a new strategy. It is to implement something that is already proven and implement it properly. 2. Experimenting With Your Own Sales Strategy Is More Expensive Than Buying a Proven One One of the patterns Jess challenges directly in this episode is the tendency among intelligent, cost-conscious business owners to build their own sales strategy using AI tools, borrowed frameworks, or pieced-together advice, rather than investing in something with a verified track record. When you test an unproven strategy, you have no baseline for what results to expect, no reliable metrics to monitor and no way to troubleshoot what is or is not working. That means that when it does not produce results, you cannot tell whether the strategy failed, whether you executed it incorrectly or whether you simply did not give it enough time or volume. The real cost of testing unproven strategies is not the time spent on the activity itself. It is the confidence lost when nothing works, the motivation that erodes and the months or quarters where no revenue is generated because the strategy was never set up to succeed in the first place. A proven strategy removes that uncertainty and gives you something concrete to follow, measure, and improve. 3. Strategic Thinking Space Is Not Procrastination. It Is a Sales Action. The central concept in this episode is what Jess calls strategic thinking space: the deliberate practice of pausing to assess, analyse, and plan before and during sales activity, rather than simply executing tasks and hoping they produce results. Strategic thinking space is not sitting still, overthinking decisions, or using reflection as a reason to avoid action. It is the opposite: it is taking calculated, informed action rather than reactive, rushed action. In sales, speed and volume matter, but they only produce results when they are applied to the right activities with the right foundations in place. 4. Three Specific Problems Arise When Strategic Thinking Space Is Missing Jess identifies three concrete ways that the absence of strategic thinking space damages a sales process: Problem One: Jumping Into Activity Without Laying the Foundations The most common version of this is outreach. A business owner decides to do email outreach, sends 10, 20, or 50 emails, receives little or no response, and concludes that email outreach does not work. What they skipped was the foundational thinking: who specifically to target, what messaging would resonate with that person commercially and how to position themselves as a credible and relevant resource worth speaking to. The task was completed. The foundations were not. Without the foundations, the activity produces poor results, the person loses confidence in the method, and they move on to the next thing, repeating the same pattern. Problem Two: Lack of Specificity Without thinking space, most coaches and consultants default to broad, generalised positioning: their services work for any organisation, at any level, in any industry. They are afraid to narrow down because it feels like ruling people out. In reality, the absence of specificity makes everything harder. Lead generation becomes unfocused. Sales calls lack the diagnostic depth that comes from specialised expertise. Proposals feel generic rather than tailored. And when a genuine specialist appears in the same shortlist, the generalist loses. Specificity is not a limitation on who you can help. It is what makes it possible to identify the right people, ask the right questions and create offers that convert because they speak directly to a defined problem in a defined context. Problem Three: Troubleshooting Becomes Impossible For those operating a proven sales process, strategic thinking space is what makes it possible to spot early warning signs that something needs adjusting, before the problem becomes a crisis. Without that thinking space, you remain in constant doing mode, unable to step back and assess whether the activity is producing the right indicators at the right volume. The risk is that you miss early signals that something is working exceptionally well and could be scaled, or that something is underperforming and needs to change. Both missed opportunities cost revenue. For those not yet on a proven process, troubleshooting is even harder because there are no established benchmarks to compare against. 5. Corporate Clients Want Specialists, Not Trend-Followers Jess addresses a temptation she sees frequently in the online business space: when sales slow down, pivot to something new. Launch a different course, rebrand to a different specialism, or chase whatever appears to be gaining traction in the market right now. She is clear about why this does not work for people selling to corporate clients. Organisations are not buying generalists or people who shift their positioning with market trends. They are buying specialists: people who have depth, consistency and a track record in a specific area. Changing specialism under pressure signals exactly the opposite of what corporate buyers are looking for. The answer to a difficult market is not a new direction. It is a more focused, better-executed version of the proven process you already have, or one you should be implementing. Key Quotes "The market is not the problem. The people I work with are signing 40k, 60k, six-figure retainers right now. The difference is that they are using a proven system and following it properly." "Not allocating thinking space is a real problem in sales. Thinking strategically and allowing yourself that time and energy to do so is an action in sales." "In being valuable to everybody, your offer is valuable to absolutely no one. Strategic thinking space gives you the specificity that then lets you action every other part of your sales process effectively." If you've enjoyed listening to #1 problem in sales processes (even if you're generating revenue!) Check out these episodes. STC176: The Most Important Skill Professional Salespeople Have (and How You Can Use It!) https://sellingtocorporate.com/podcast/the-most-important-skill-professional-salespeople-have-and-how-you-can-use-it/ STC177: 3 Important Sales Actions to Complete Before Summer Starts https://sellingtocorporate.com/podcast/3-important-sales-actions-to-complete-before-summer-starts/ STC171: The Simple Sales Technique I Use to Sign Corporate Clients Every Month https://sellingtocorporate.com/podcast/the-simple-sales-technique-i-use-to-sign-corporate-clients-every-month/ Join the Selling To Corporate B2B Sales Edit: Weekly newsletter for coaches and consultants; sharing the real B2B sales techniques that have taken over 30,000 sales processes from busy -> balanced and profitable. https://sellingtocorporate.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=applepodcasts&utm_medium=podcast_shownotes&utm_campaign=stc-podcast-shownotes-2026 Cold -> Closed The self-paced B2B sales experience for coaches / consultants / speakers / trainers and done-for-you service providers who want scalable, sustainable sales from brand new corporate clients in 90 days or less. https://smartleaderssell.thrivecart.com/-cold-to-closed-product/ Episode Sponsored by The Expert Services Directory Access The Expert Services Directory here: https://bit.ly/ExpertServicesDirectory A curated directory that proactively markets your services to corporate decision makers every month. Standard listings reach 1,000+ decision makers per month; Directory Plus listings reach 2,000+. Only 10 suppliers per category. Standard listing: 1,000+ decision makers per month Directory Plus listing: 2,000+ decision makers per month Application required, not all applications are accepted Content Disclaimer The information contained above is provided for information purposes only. The contents of this article, video or audio are not intended to amount to advice and you should not rely on any of the contents of this article, video or audio. Professional advice should be obtained before taking or refraining from taking any action as a result of the contents of this article, video or audio. Jessica Lorimer disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on any of the contents of this article, video or audio.
As agentic AI becomes more commonplace, the way in which we interact with our technology is fundamentally changing. Engineers are giving way to domain experts, as the role of IT in the workplace evolves faster than ever before. This week, Technology Now is joined by Bob Friday, Chief AI Officer HPE Networking to discuss: • What AI looks like in 2026, traditional models, agentic AI, and more• The surprising role of “bad” data in training models• How businesses and organisations must respond to the new AI-first world
Organisations that work with migrants are concerned a new national emergency alert system will not be understood by people who cannot speak English.
"You can't be the most expensive and be the most crap at what you do.” Andrew Griffiths Top Five Tips For Why You Should Proudly Be The Most Expensive1. When you play in the cheap end of town, you are just another transaction2. If you're going to be the most expensive you have to be the best, and there is no downside to this3. The right customers are looking for the best, not the cheapest4. Being the most expensive differentiates you in so many ways5. Businesses that charge the most build financial resilience TIME STAMP SUMMARY 01:40 Competing solely on price is a lack of creativity and leads to a lack of emotional connection with customers.04:10 Being the most expensive requires delivering exceptional value in every aspect of the transaction.09:20 Rewriting the stories and mindsets that prevent business owners from charging appropriately.15:25 Attracting the right customers who value quality and are willing to pay more leads to long-term business success.20:10 Financial resilience leads to a more sustainable and less stressful business environment. Where to find Andrew?Website https://www.andrewgriffiths.com.auWebsite LinkedIn https://au.linkedin.com/in/griffithsandrew Andrew Griffiths Long BioAndrew Griffiths stands as Australia's #1 small business author and global authority on future-proofing businesses. With 40 years of entrepreneurial wisdom, 14 bestsellingbooks published in 65 countries, and over 1,000 presentations delivered across 25 countries, Andrew brings a rare combination of street-smart experience and profound business insight to every stage. What sets Andrew apart isn't just his impressive credentials – it's his ability to see the human element in an increasinglydigital world. Renowned as one of the greatest storytellers in the speaking profession, Andrew weaves masterful narratives drawn from his vast bank of personal experiencesand business observations, delivering powerful lessons that resonate long after the presentation ends. As an entrepreneurial futurist, he champions the power of human intelligence in business, helping organisations and leaders navigate change while staying authentically connected to their customers. His gift for storytelling transforms complex business concepts into memorable, actionable insights that inspire real change. Drawing from his extraordinary journey from orphan to international business authority, Andrew delivers more than just insights, he shares battle-tested wisdomthat has helped both Fortune 500 companies and small business owners thrive. His presentations blend powerful storytelling with practical strategies, delivered with anauthenticity that can only come from someone who has lived the entrepreneurial journey in all its ups and downs. Organisations around the world including the EuropeanUnion, CBS, Hewlett Packard and Hertz have trusted Andrew to deliver not just inspiration, but actionable wisdom that creates lasting impact. His unique ability to hold a mirror up to audiences, showing them both challenges and opportunities comes wrapped in his signature style of unapologetic honesty and quick wit.Andrew specialises in helping audiences:• Look at their business from a global trend perspective• Embrace human intelligence as a competitive advantage • Use storytelling in a strategic way to connect and influence • Build deeper customer connections in a digital age• Navigate price increases and value positioning• Transform their definition of success• Create bulletproof brands that stand the test of time• Feel inspired by global stories of innovation in businessWhen Andrew takes the stage, he doesn't just leave a warm impression, he catalyses real change. His mission is to help people of substance build businesses of substance,ensuring they remain relevant and resilient in an ever-evolving marketplace.
Sometimes the biggest challenge isn't having enough data, it's knowing what to do with it. As agentic AI moves to real-world deployment, our cities and towns are becoming smarter. The mountain town of Vail, Colorado is just one such example of where artificial intelligence is helping streamline services, improve decision making and enhance experiences for residents and visitors alike. This week, Technology Now welcomes Robin Braun, VP, AI Business Development, Hybrid Cloud, to the show to find out: • How AI has been successfully used in Vail to improve outcomes for staff and consumers• Why breaking down silos helps instigate necessary communication between departments• Why AI is more than just a productivity tool, it's an essential part of modern day infrastructure
Organisations providing HIV services to gay men have had to close in Niger after a ban on same sex acts. Gay men there fear coming forward to be tested or treated and have lost access to condoms and medication protecting against HIV. Claudia Hammond and health journalist Camilla Mota discuss what this might mean for HIV rates in the country.We also hear about a US study looking at whether cancer screening rates differ across sexual orientation and gender identity, and discuss the return of a crisis hotline which aims to prevent suicide in LGBTQ+ in the US which had been closed a year ago.And little is known about how screen time impacts recovery after a concussion. Claudia speaks with Professor Ginger Yang from the Center for Injury, Research and Policy at the Nationwide Children's Hospital in the United States about her new research which found that for teens, the relationship may be more complicated than we thought.Then reporter Sen Nguyen takes us to Bangkok, where an intrepid group of cyclists are looking to change the city's road culture, and we hear how changes like these could fit into Thailand's proposed Clean Air Bill.And finally, we hear about how the smell of chocolate could help us to train harder in the gym.Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producers: Jonathan Blackwell and Georgia Christie
Minister Catherine Ardagh is one of those helping to organise the event today. Her son Darragh has an assistant dog who came to live with the family this year from the group Dog For The Disabled. Catherine spoke to our reporter Laura Whelan.
Zero Trust has transitioned from buzzword to basic necessity. As AI has transformed the cybersecurity landscape, becoming a tool for both attack and defence, organisations are being forced to rethink how thy protect themselves, their users, and their networks. Technology Now welcomes back friend of the show Jaye Tillson, CTO Security and HPE Distinguished Technologist to discuss:• The impact of AI on cyber threats as well as cybersecurity• How Zero Trust can contain breeches if they cannot be prevented entirely• Why limited access is more important than ever in a distributed network
Farmers who graze their livestock on what's called Common Land in England were being excluded from the government's new farming environmental support schemes - not because they didn't qualify, but because the Rural Payments Agency's computer system wasn't up to the job of processing their applications. However, campaigners say that the system's being changed and commoners will now be able to apply.Changing sea temperatures, rising fuel costs and offshore windfarms are all challenges for the fishing industry. All week we'll be exploring the state of the sector. We start off by asking the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations about fishing stocks, recruitment and an octopus bloom off UK waters. ,The combination of higher fertiliser and fuel prices, and challenging weather mean farmers have their thinking caps firmly on their heads when considering long-term options for how they farm in the future. Should they use less fertiliser and fuel, to save costs and help the environment and can they do that, while still producing enough of the food we all need? We bring to together a buying cooperative, a university professor and a potato grower to discuss.Presenter = Anna Hill Producer = Rebecca Rooney
AI is making our technology smarter… but it's also making it much, much hotter. With higher demand for HPC and enterprise AI, data centres are having to adapt to meet the changing demands on the modern world. This week, Technology Now is joined by Jason Zeiler Principal Product Manager for Next Generation Infrastructure and HPC/AI Liquid Cooling at HPE to find out:• The efficiency benefits of liquid cooling compared to air cooling and why that isn't always enough to convince enterprises to switch• Whether future data centres will be built from first principles around liquid cooling infrastructure• How higher operating temperatures are feeding back into microchip manufacturers' designs for the next generation of chips