Podcasts about Stakeholder engagement

Summary In this episode, Andy sits down with Cornelia Choe, leadership advisor and founder of global CEO peer groups, author of The Panoramic Leader: How Great Leaders See Differently, co-authored with Marshall Goldsmith. Cornelia's core idea is that the "mental maps" we form early in life quietly shape how we lead today, and that our decisions are only as good as the world we're actually able to see. Andy and Cornelia explore why so many new executives fail within their first 18 months, what she calls a visibility problem rather than an execution problem. They dig into practical tools: microtranslations for sharing ideas others can absorb, optimistic fear that lets us move forward without ignoring real risk, and the balcony-and-dance-floor balance of perspective and proximity. Cornelia also shares how getting up close to stakeholders, and even to her own kids, opens up options we couldn't see before. If you're looking for practical ways to see more clearly and make better decisions in an uncertain world, this episode is for you! Sound Bites "And the truth is, sometimes the problem is not that we lack data, it's that we're not seeing broadly enough." "And if you truly believe something, stick with it, keep it on your map, and have the courage to go through with it." "But the problem is it's no longer enough to be right in today's world, and having an incomplete picture is just as dangerous as getting it wrong." "Optimistic fear is the ability to keep the risks and the danger in mind, yet to still go forward and to use our fear to fuel our momentum going forward." "We don't need to have everything solved, but just getting up close can reward us with a lot of options." "I mean, in some ways you could argue that our brain's autopilot is not a bug, it's a feature." "You don't have to accept everything you hear or everything your stakeholders tell you, but we do need to think about it and, in a thoughtful way, choose to accept it or not." "And in a world that's constantly changing, this is going to be an even more crucial skill because your decisions are only as good as the world you see, and the most successful leaders learn to see more in today's world." "It's just a good reminder to me that a smart, well-intentioned person can see situations quite differently." "Our identity is created by the people around us, the people who share their perspectives with, and the perspectives that we allow to become part of our mental maps." "I heard someone once say that we're all driven by just a few lines of code that run in the background, and as a former software developer, I can relate to that." Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:48 Start of Interview 02:00 How Early Life Experiences Shape Our Maps 07:50 Why New Executives Fail in the First 18 Months 12:20 Microtranslations 16:01 Optimistic Fear vs. Pessimistic Fear 21:53 Keeping Curiosity Alive and Getting Off Autopilot 25:59 How We React When Our Map Is Challenged 29:25 The Balcony and the Dance Floor 34:41 How Our Circles Shape and Narrow Our Maps 38:33 Panoramic Leadership at Home 41:20 End of Interview 41:57 Andy Comments After the Interview 45:00 Outtakes Learn More You can learn more about Cornelia and her work at substack.com/@corneliachoe. For more learning on this topic, check out: Episode 489 with Marty Dubin. It's a book about blind spots and how they can easily derail us, an excellent complement to this discussion. Episode 318 with John Stepper. He's the author of Working Out Loud, and his approach to developing people has a lot of similarities to the leader circles that Cornelia runs. Episode 54 with Roger L. Martin. Roger is often in the top 10 of the Thinkers50, and we talk about how you can hold opposing ideas at the same time, very aligned with this book. Chat with PMeLa You can chat directly with PMeLa—the podcast's AI persona—to get episode recommendations and answers to your project management and leadership questions. Visit PeopleAndProjectsPodcast.com/PMeLa to chat with her. Pass the PMP Exam If you or someone you know is thinking about getting PMP certified, we've put together a helpful guide called The 5 Best Resources to Help You Pass the PMP Exam on Your First Try. We've helped thousands of people earn their certification, and we'd love to help you too. It's totally free, and it's a great way to get a head start. Just go to 5BestResources.PeopleAndProjectsPodcast.com to grab your copy. I'd love to help you get your PMP this year! Join Us for LEAD52 I know you want to be a more confident leader–that's why you listen to this podcast. LEAD52 is a global community of people like you who are committed to transforming their ability to lead and deliver. It's 52 weeks of leadership learning, delivered right to your inbox, taking less than 5 minutes a week. And it's all for free. Learn more and sign up at GetLEAD52.com. Thanks! Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Talent Triangle: Power Skills Topics: Leadership, Decision-Making, Mental Models, Stakeholder Engagement, Perspective, Curiosity, Self-Awareness, Change, Psychological Safety, Executive Effectiveness, Project Management The following music was used for this episode: Music: Brooklyn Nights by Tim Kulig License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Music: Energetic Drive Indie Rock by WinnieTheMoog License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Welcome to The Inner Game of Change.  where we explore the thinking that shapes how change really happens. Why is it that people can sit in a room, agree with a strategy, support a transformation and nod enthusiastically at a presentation, only to struggle when the change finally arrives?Today's guests suggest the answer may lie in a concept called psychological distance.Terri Block and Susan Bartlett from Workomics spend their days helping organisations bring customers, stakeholders and teams together to solve complex problems through co creation.In this conversation we explore Construal Level Theory, why humans think differently about things that feel distant versus things that feel immediate, and why co creation may be one of the most powerful ways of helping people move from abstract ideas to tangible action.Along the way we discuss ownership, expertise, accountability, skin in the game, whether facilitators can ever truly be neutral, and even whether artificial intelligence can become a co creator.I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation and I think you will too.I am grateful to have Susan and Terri chatting with me today. About The GuestsSusan BartlettI am a principal at Workomics, where we help biotechs bring life-changing therapies to patients. I contribute to projects from the perspectives of go-to-market strategy, operational effectiveness, human-centred design, and strategic communications. I treasure my colleagues and my clients, and feel fortunate to be able to work with them every day. I write a monthly Substack newsletter (please subscribe!). Through the newsletter, I explore how we make work and workplaces better for people — customer-centric, inclusive and equitable, focused on employee well-being, meaningfully integrated with emerging technology. In the past, I have been a Rhodes Scholar, a CEO, and a licensed propane dispenser, only one of which involved an objective assessment of my abilities. I love to solve specific, pragmatic problems by drawing on a variety of disciplines and traditions — my university degrees span English literature, software design, philosophy, politics, and economics, and computer science. At various points in my career, I have devoted myself to: — Communicating complex medical concepts to patients. — Architecting the data, software, technology, and IT governance structures of large enterprises. — Embedding human-centred design capabilities to enable customer experience. — Applying machine learning techniques to natural language problems.Terri BlockI co-lead Workomics where we help biotechs and pharma bring life-changing medications to patients who need it. We focus on patient experience including go-to-market strategies and campaigns, creating impactful educational experiences for patients and their care teams, and empowering internal teams to champion patient-centricity across their organization. My career in human-centered design in the life sciences industry spans 10 years and is underpinned by a whole other career in theatre and teaching. The red thread is bringing the best out in people and imagining better possibilities for our work-at-hand. I am a creative at heart and author of Words of Wonder www.wordsofwonderbook.com.Contactworkomics.comSend us Fan MailExecutive Wins PodcastThe Executive Wins Podcast features inspiring Executives who share their biggest wins.Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifyAli Juma @The Inner Game of Change podcastFollow me on LinkedIn

Expert Topic: Economic activity in May reaches lowest level since November 2025 Guest: Shergeran Naidoo: Head of Stakeholder Engagement at PayInc

Strategic planning creates the space nonprofit organizations need to move from reactive decision-making toward shared clarity, intentional action, and stronger alignment. In this re-released episode of Nonprofit Mission: Impact, nonprofit strategy consultant Carol Hamilton outlines a comprehensive five-step strategic planning process designed to help organizations engage stakeholders meaningfully, navigate complexity, and create plans that stay alive beyond the final document. Rather than treating strategic planning as a one-time retreat or static document, Carol emphasizes: Why strategic planning is about alignment and shared understanding—not predicting the future How inclusive engagement builds buy-in and surfaces important perspectives The importance of balancing structure with flexibility in uncertain times Why equity and relationship-centered processes strengthen strategy The role of exploration and imagination before narrowing into priorities How organizations can avoid creating overwhelming "wish list" plans Why regular review processes are essential to keeping plans relevant How strategic planning can create an anchor in complex environments Episode Highlights [00:00] Why Strategic Planning Still Matters in Uncertain Times [02:00] What Strategic Planning Is—and What It Is Not [06:00] Why a Retreat Alone Is Not Enough [07:30] Step One: Kickoff and Orientation [10:00] Step Two: Equity and Stakeholder Engagement in the Discovery Phase [12:00] The Value of a Listening Tour [13:30] Step Three: Exploration and Imagining Possible Futures [15:30] Step Four: Moving from Big Ideas to Strategic Decisions [17:00] Why Mission and Vision Work Comes Later [18:00] Step Five: Planning, Action, and Operationalizing the Plan [20:00] Keeping the Plan Alive   About your podcast host: Carol Hamilton, principal of Grace Social Sector Consulting, helps nonprofits become more strategic and effective through inclusive strategic planning, evaluation design, and organizational assessment. With over 30 years of experience, she brings a practical, human-centered approach that helps organizations align around clear priorities and take meaningful action toward their mission. When she is not working with nonprofits to improve their strategy and alignment, you can find her reading a good book, making diary comics, having a dance party in the kitchen, swimming, biking or kayaking on the Anacostia River.   Be in Touch: ✉️ Subscribe to Carol's newsletter at Grace Social Sector Consulting and receive the Common Mistakes Nonprofits Make In Strategic Planning And How To Avoid Them

What communications skills do engineers and scientists need most right now? Recorded live at the CAETS conference, Aurecon's Lorna Bishop sits down with one of Australia's most celebrated science communicators, Tanya Ha. Together they explore how to tailor your message for different audiences, and how to leverage AI in communications without diluting personality. This episode of engineering Reimagined was recorded live at the CAETS conference. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Complex selling is never just about “the buyer” and “the seller.”We wish it were. It would make life much easier, and we could probably all spend less time in meetings pretending the spreadsheet is “basically under control.”In this episode, we talk about stakeholder engagement — the people inside and outside the deal who can quietly make everything work… or loudly make everything fall apart.That includes executives, delivery teams, partners, suppliers, finance, operations, customer service, and sometimes the person who appears halfway through the process with a very strong opinion and absolutely no context.The big takeaway?Stakeholder management does not have to be perfect. But it does have to exist.Even a simple list of who is involved, what they care about, what they are worried about, and how they affect the outcome can prevent a lot of firefighting later.And if you are always firefighting, well… we may have accidentally diagnosed the problem.In this week's episode, we get into:Why stakeholder management goes beyond executive sellingHow to uncover hidden risks before they become expensive surprisesWhy internal delivery teams need to be involved earlierHow partners and suppliers shape the customer experienceWhy “known unknowns” are far better than “unknown unknowns”Have a listen, especially if your complex sales process currently relies on optimism, crossed fingers, and a heroic amount of Slack messages.

Host Alex Usher speaks with Christine Wach, Senior Vice President of Partnerships and Stakeholder Engagement at IDP Education, about the evolution of international student mobility and the shifting global higher education market. Wach traces IDP's origins as an Australian government and university initiative, its transformation into a multinational education services company, and the development of IELTS and other major business lines. The conversation explores the post-pandemic surge and subsequent slowdown in international student flows across Anglophone countries, the growing importance of migration pathways and employability in student decision-making, and the emergence of new destination markets beyond the traditional “Big Four.” They also discuss AI's impact on student recruitment, the challenges of sustainable growth, and how institutions and governments may need to rethink international education strategies in an increasingly competitive and uncertain environment.

I'm delighted today to be joined by Dr. Joseph Skelton, professor of Pediatrics, founder and director of Brenner Fit, a program at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. FIT stands for Families in Training, which is a family-based pediatric obesity program. He's the author of a new book on children and their weight, a topic we discussed in a separate podcast. But in this podcast, we're talking about something he teaches at Wake Forest, a course in culinary medicine. This is a fascinating, pioneering area of focus, so let's dig in. Interview Transcript There's a lot of language about medicine and nutrition now, so people talk about food as medicine. There's a move afoot to get more training and nutrition and medical education, and here you are doing culinary medicine. Tell me how all these things differ from one another. Our interest in this here at Wake Forest School Medicine started a little organically with our program. A lot of what we do is focus on family meals. There are decades of research showing the benefits of family meals, not only for the nutrition and obesity risk, but the quality of nutrition, time spent together, parent child communication. Kids are less likely to get pregnant or do drugs and alcohol. All these things from just spending that time together over the meal. And I inherited a small teaching kitchen that was at a local organization that someone before me had gotten funding for. And we, sort of, took it over and used this opportunity to teach families how to cook. And a lot of families know how to cook but trying foods in different ways and to get kids involved and things like that. Then a couple years after that, the local YMCA approached us. They had some space and wanted to do this as a partnership. So I became a fundraising machine for a year or two and took a lot of dinners to raise the funds. And we built this gorgeous teaching kitchen, and we were mainly doing it in the efforts of sort childhood obesity treatment or prevention, getting families, teaching them new recipes, which then kind of extended to that whole key thing of getting families just to be comfortable in the kitchen and spending that time together. And we just started seeing these amazing things. We always say we've converted more kids to Brussels sprouts than I think any other effort of just getting them cooking it a different way. You and I were both probably raised with steamed Brussels sprouts, which I think is an abomination. If you really want to highlight the sulfur smell of a food, then you're going to steam it. And so, we really started to do that. And then students started volunteering. Actually, it was a student, Josh Patman, he's an emergency medicine physician now at East Carolina University, and he was a cook in a professional kitchen college. And he said, hey, could I help volunteer with that? And then more student medical students wanted to do it. And then we all found that you, much like I did, I'm a self-taught cook myself, and the more time you spend in that, the more you learn, the more comfortable you are. And the more you start to know, you know, I can teach med students nutrition all day, but that doesn't teach them how to get nutrition on their patients' plates, into their mouth. And so it really grew from there. And then I, kind of, stumbled upon what other people were doing. It started in New York, but the biggest program started was really Tulane School of Medicine that had it as a very focused way about teaching nutrition through cooking. Not just on a blackboard through PowerPoint slides and stuff like that of like hey, let's teach it in a different way. And the old-fashioned analogy, and actually the medical educators hate this, it used to be see one, do one, teach one. That was sort of the old surgical thing. And so, it's really you got to see how to make a recipe and you got to do it yourself. And what we found that when students start then teaching each other, or teaching patients or teaching community members, it really drives home and gives them a much deeper understanding of what nutrition in the real world is. Let's talk about the need for this. If we go back in time and we think about your parents or my parents, you know, the likelihood is that meals were being prepared from the real foods rather than from a package, let's say, or in a micro. How are things different now for the modern parent that has kept people distanced from their food and where it comes from, and that's led families to be distant because they're not having meals together as much? What does that look like now? Yeah, pulling from our own history, you know, Home Ec is not really a thing anymore. We did this study in our own med students. You know, most of their cooking, nutrition, the nutrition education they're getting tends to be the popular media. They're learning it from social media. Very few students have a degree in nutrition or took a nutrition class. And as much as we have to cram into medical student's education, there's not much room for it. They mainly learn to cook from their families. And what we know is families are cooking less and less for multiple reasons. They're much busier. Especially parents, actually parents of kids of all ages with that. And again, the marketing of food, you know, it's much easier to get ready made meals. And I'm not badmouthing those, you know. We're in talks right now of actually writing a cookbook for families, and one of the things that we promise is we're going to have a chapter on assembled meals. You know, having a pre-made salad with a rotisserie chicken, that's still going to be a better thing to do if you bring that home, sit at a table or at a bar or around a coffee table and eat that meal together. It's still going to be better for your family in multiple ways on multiple levels than eating out. And what I see, it really with families right now when it comes to actually raising "healthy eaters" or raising good eaters is when we... and again, I love a good restaurant, I'm not trying to badmouth that... but when you're going out to eat a lot of kids have endless choices and there's two issues. One is a paradox of choice. Whatever they get, they're always going to think that other thing might have been better. And it doesn't allow them to spread their palate and try different foods and get exposed to different things. And we always laugh... whenever in this field we want to play a drinking game where every time you say complex or complexity, you take a drink because, but it is such a complex issue with parents. You know, with kids and getting meals on the table. And hopefully finding some time, whether it's a breakfast or it's a dinner, but finding that time to come together around a meal. You mentioned the paradox of choice. I was reminded at one point I downloaded this cute app called You Choose or something like that. And it would help you make a decision if you were undecided. It would flip a coin, it would roll a dice. It would do, yes, no, it would do rock, paper, scissors, it would do all these things. And I was at a restaurant once. I couldn't decide between two entrees, so I used it. I did rock, paper, scissors, or something, and I then it said, okay you should choose X. So I ordered X and the second I ordered it, I immediately thought I should have ordered Y. Alright, so tell us about culinary medicine. What does this course look like that you teach? Yeah, the best way to think about it is applied nutrition. Because again, you can understand a ton about nutrition, but if that doesn't change into you getting the foods that you want in front of you, to me it's almost theoretical or scientific. It's applied nutrition. It's this idea of teaching some very basic cooking skills, and then including within that very core elements of nutrition. And for us, we tend to do it by the balanced plate. We think that works really well for families. But having it be very real world. You know, so again, we have recipes... in two weeks, I'm doing one... we're doing a rotisserie chicken and you're breaking it apart and making a chicken salad out of it. We were always teaching using microwavable rice and a couple of the students cornered me and said, this is very offensive to my culture. You need to teach people how to make real rice. But what it looks like for us is about a quarter, almost a third of med students will rotate through these classes. So, it's voluntary. Next year we're actually hopefully going to surpass half of the first-year med school class. That's unbelievable. That's very impressive. Well, especially up until last year I was doing this in my free time and paying for it with fundraising money. But yeah, Wake Forest is really behind this now. But about a quarter to a third of med students. They do five classes. And it's set up and again, that sort of theme of that family meal. They come in and we get stuff cooking. We get stuff in the oven; we get stuff on the stove top. We usually take some time out for a very short lecture. Again, tends to be very practical stuff. We include a lot about social determinants of health and food insecurity. Given what I do, we talk about picky eating. Very little do we go into details about Mediterranean diet and Dash diet and some of the really core things with that. We really just try to keep it about getting that balanced plate of a protein, a starch and a fruit or vegetable on the plate in front of you. They come back and usually finish what they're cooking, and then they sit down to eat together. And unlike when I was in med school and you were in grad school, or when you were teaching, a lot of students don't go to class anymore. A lot of students, they record the lectures so they can listen to them at one and a quarter speed and study in the best way for them. I love getting to know my students on a different level of sitting down. And that's what my really own exposure to medical student education anymore is really through this, which to me is just the ultimate. Being able to sit down, teach them some interesting things, eat a meal with them. Given my chemistry background, I love getting into the science of a lot of the stuff. And I think for them being, you know, sort of STEM kids, it makes a lot more sense. One of my favorite things is the science of grilling, you know, the science of garlic, you know, things like that. And it helps them sort of understand and helps them remember that, and also peppering it with the stories. It just tends to stick that much more when they know the science, they know the story, they know the culture behind it. So, it's five classes. It's all set up that way, that there's a short lecture. They're preparing everything they can and they're eating it. Again, we include some very easy stuff. One of the classes we do microwaveable vegetables because that's what a lot of what their patients are doing. The bagged vegetable medleys. And one, the important thing that we teach them is most of these don't have any seasoning. So yeah, you can microwave them, but you have got to teach your patients throw a bit of olive oil on there, throw a pad of butter, do some salt and pepper, add some other spices to it. And they go nuts with one group will do some more Indian spices. One group will do more sort of traditional, one to do more Asian flavorings to it in our teaching kitchen. It's really teaching very practical things like that. The fun part of that, that's really spun onto the other things that I'll tell you about, is about half of those students that do that- we have about 18 per semester- and about half those students end up volunteering with us. They come to the classes that we have that are community focused. Now some of the students are going through lead teacher training. They get Serve Safe Certified. It's awesome for me and my staff because it saves us a lot of time and overtime that they come in, they let themselves in the kitchen, they set up, they run the class, they clean up, and they can't get enough of it. They absolutely love it. Now you do some celebration of different food cultures in your class. Tell, tell us about that. Including, as I understand, some of the food culture that you grew up with. Yeah. Yeah. That, that's about, that was a big understatement right there. We just love that and that's a great thing. Wake Forest, being a private medical school, kids are from all over the country, from all different backgrounds. And so, we absolutely sort of herald that. One of the things I love doing is class three is a plant-based proteins class. The first class is a general cooking class. The second class has a focus on animal proteins, and again, we're always also cooking vegetables and fruits and starches. The third class is plant-based proteins, and I do that as Southern cooking. And I just love that sort of theme with that. So, we do pinto beans, you know, And the slow cooker. We tell them how to use instant pots, pressure cookers. We do black eyed peas. A lot of these kids don't know that you're supposed to eat that on New Year's Day. I do a vegetarian collard green recipe, taught to me by a local chef. And I think this is probably my number one post that I do in social media is cornbread night. And teaching them how to make cast iron skillet cornbread, which is the only way to do cornbread in my book. And letting them know, sort of, the background of a lot of the stuff. My wife is from South Carolina, so I teach them great thing about cornbread if you're a poor student, is you have a slice with your beans and your collard greens, and then for dessert you put honey on. Which is what I picked up in South Carolina. So, you know, really celebrating that stuff. We have a whole Spanish speaking program, and we have an article written, we just haven't found the right journal for it. It says, leave my tortilla out of this. Instead of, you know, saying, oh, you have to eat less tortillas, celebrate it. Why is that such an important part of not even that culture, but this family's food history and stuff like that. Because food is personal, it's cultural, its family, and it's to be celebrated. We do a fourth-year elective, it's the last full elective of their fourth-year class and a very lucky 20 students get to do that class. And we always have one called Family Night where they bring a dish that's important to them and their family. And it could be like me, it was the roasted chicken that one of my classmates in med school cooked. And I just thought that was so exotic. You know, I never had a whole roasted chicken before. You know, we had a student that had spent the first part of her life in Australia, so she did pavlova and told the history about where the pavlova came from. Now that's considered sort of the national dessert of Australia. And I always remember this one student, he was going to emergency medicine, very quiet kid. And he's over there cooking these porridges. That's the only way I could describe it is just these porridges. We said, what are you doing? And he told the most amazing story. I almost tear up when I talk about it. His grandfather fled Saddam Hussein. He was Iraqi Christian and fled Saddam Hussein and his grandfather lived with them. And this was their afterschool snack. Was this Iraqi dish that his grandfather would make. And there was a sweet one and there was a savory one. And so just stuff like that is... it's fantastic. I just, I can't get enough of that. And they remember that. And so, as students leave us, and I just came from Match Day where they found out where they're spending the next three to seven years of their life. And I always say wherever you're going, learn something about that culture and that food. If you're moving to Cincinnati, you have got to learn about Cincinnati Chili and getta. take something from that. I did all my training in Wisconsin and the Wisconsin supper clubs and how you can tell what a fresh cheese curd is, and it's just... food is fantastic. And we can take that with us wherever we go. And it can give you a way to know your patients even better. And when I hear of a family that they're from West Africa, ah, you like Jollof Rice. And their face lights up and like, oh yeah, where'd you have Jollof rice? So, it's a great way to get to know more about people. So, there's way more to it than cooking technique. I mean, there's, you know, you roast a chicken that this temperature for that long, or here's how long you microwave. It's really a lot more than that, isn't it? It's just like medicine. It's science and an art. And you know that one of my most popular lectures I give does not have to do with obesity but has to do with barbecue and all the different styles of barbecue. And what is just amazing, despite what we know about the science of taking spareribs, which are an incredibly tough cut of meat, and you have to cook them low and slow to get that temperature up. I think it's 189 degrees or higher where you start to get the collagen that breaks down and they turn tender. So yeah, spareribs to be good tender and edible, you're talking four to six hours. But then you go to Tuscaloosa, Alabama and you go to Dreamland Barbecue. They do spareribs over live coals for an hour and a half. I sat there talking to the person doing it. I'm like, you must bake them ahead of time. Do you soak them? And he's just like, nope. And so again, I know the science of that. So how do these jokers do that for an hour and a half, and it turns out in what my opinion are the greatest bear ribs in the world. Oh really? Oh, I'll have to try. I'll have to try that place out. Yeah, there's several. Birmingham has two there. There's several in Southeast and they cook them for an hour and a half. Over live coals. Violating every scientific principle of low and slow. Don't get it. It's fascinating. That sounds really good. Yeah. Well, Joey, thanks very much. One final question. Do you see this... is this a movement in medicine now or more and more people doing this? Yeah, you know, it was really big for a while. Tulane had so much. You know, they were sharing their curriculum and they were doing some good research. And that's where a lot of what you see now as the food is medicine food is medicine or as medicine where hey, we need to find ways to get medically tailored meals in the patient's hands. There's really good evidence of that with diabetes and stuff like that. I think what you're seeing now is, I think especially with some of our efforts in the government right now, is sort of demanding more nutrition education in medical school. And I'm going to double down on culinary medicine because you know what? My students, myself, I don't need to know more about the biochemistry of carbohydrates. I need to know the biochemistry of cooking and how to do that quickly and safely to teach my patients. And also, with that, we have to forget, there's an entire field that's already doing this, you know? Dietetics and nutrition and there's professionals that probably are way better than us. But I think having this increased understanding, especially dwelling in that food space, is going to help us relate to them that much more. So even though I do a lot of nutritional counseling and talking, I still use my dieticians way more. I think they're going to be way better at that. So I think there is a lot of steam building towards that, but we don't need to turn doctors into junior dieticians. But I think we can give them deeper understanding of how food and nutrition affects their health and the broader aspects of that. It's not about the biochemistry of insulin secretion, it's about where are they accessing food and how can they make use of the food pantry near them. And let them know, hey, it's okay when you open a can of beans it's gonna smell like cat food initially, but you know what? You wash that off and actually it's not going taste like cat food. And you know, just kind of be able to work with them. Hey, canned beans are perfectly fine. Guess what? Canned beans now are coming in no salt added and low salt preparations. And here's an easy way that you could take these canned great northern beans, chop up some herbs with olive oil and a chunk of garlic and you can make some fantastic bean recipe that is incredibly filling and healthy and cheap as dirt. Oh, that's really nice. Well, this is an exciting advance in the field and you're really at the forefront of it, and your students are lucky that they have this available to them. So, thanks very much for being with us and sharing your experience. Well and what the big secret about this is, Kelly, is this is fantastic. I love doing it. Our med school really values it, but it's a lot of fun. That's the thing. You can tell just by the way you're talking about it. It is so much fun. And again, I just saw all my students that were graduating. And that some of these I hadn't seen in three years and they're like doing Doctors in the Kitchen and then seeing patients, they're cooking and being able to relate to them in those ways. I just have a text from one of my students going to family medicine, and she's like, this changed the trajectory in my career. And I'm not taking credit for that, but just the idea of giving that experience I think especially in my world to medical students, I absolutely love it. In the end it's a hell of a lot of fun. BIO Joseph A. "Joey" Skelton, MD, MS, FAAP, FTOS, DABOM is a Professor of Pediatrics, and of Epidemiology and Prevention, at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He is the Founder and Director of Brenner FIT® (Families In Training), an interdisciplinary pediatric obesity treatment, prevention, research, and educational program. He serves as the Director of the Center for Prevention Science in Child and Family Health, Vice Chair of Research for the Department of Pediatrics, Associate Leader of Community and Stakeholder Engagement at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Childhood Obesity. He is board certified in Pediatrics and Obesity Medicine. His research and clinical work has focused on the treatment of children with obesity. He has secured nearly $10 million in funding over the past 15 years, has given over 50 national and international presentations, and has over 130 peer-reviewed publications. He enjoys teaching cooking classes that are both fun and informative to anyone who will listen.

Episode Description: In this episode of the Elevate Yourself podcast, Rob is joined by Laurie Whitsel and Tom from the Physical Activity Alliance to discuss making physical activity a standard part of healthcare. Laurie shares insights from the It's Time to Move campaign, focused on integrating assessment, prescription, and referral into care systems, while Tom highlights the CEO Pledge and how organizations can create movement-friendly workplaces. Together, they explore how healthcare, workplaces, and communities can align to help more people move more often—and what it will take to turn physical activity into a true standard of care. Guest Bio: Laurie Whitsel, Ph.D. is currently the Vice President of Policy Research and Translation for the American Heart Association, helping to translate science into policy at a national level in the areas of cardiovascular disease and stroke prevention and health promotion. LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurie-whitsel-ph-d-faha-bb4b688/ Tom Richards is the Director of Engagement at the Physical Activity Alliance, where he leads national efforts to build partnerships and advance initiatives that promote physical activity across healthcare, workplaces, and communities. In this role, he supports campaigns like the CEO Pledge for Physical Activity, helping organizations adopt movement-friendly strategies that enhance health and productivity.Tom also serves as Principal of Old Stone Nonprofit Advisory, where he provides strategic planning, partnership development, and growth consulting to mission-driven organizations. Prior to his current roles, he was Director of Stakeholder Engagement at the American Council on Exercise (ACE), where he helped strengthen connections across the health and fitness industry. LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-richards1122/ Resources Discussed Physical Activity Alliance https://paamovewithus.org/ It's Time to Move Campaign https://paamovewithus.org/its-time-to-move/ CEO Pledge https://paamovewithus.org/about-the-pledge/ Sign The CEO Pledge https://paamovewithus.org/sign-the-pledge/ Physical Activity Fast Facts https://paamovewithus.org/resource/physical-activity-fast-facts/ *Fact Check Correction: The Cost Estimate of Healthcare expenditures is $192 Billion https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/08901171251357128 and https://journals.lww.com/acsm-tj/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2025&issue=07180&article=00005&type=Fulltext Physical Activity Alliance https://paamovewithus.org/ It's Time to Move Campaign https://paamovewithus.org/its-time-to-move/ CEO Pledge https://paamovewithus.org/about-the-pledge/ Sign The CEO Pledge https://paamovewithus.org/sign-the-pledge/ Physical Activity Fast Facts https://paamovewithus.org/resource/physical-activity-fast-facts/ *Fact Check Correction: The Cost Estimate of Healthcare expenditures is $192 Billion https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/08901171251357128 and https://journals.lww.com/acsm-tj/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2025&issue=07180&article=00005&type=Fulltext The Elevate Yourself Podcast is brought to you in partnership with Athletic Brewing. Use code ELEVATE30 for 30% OFF your first online order at checkout! https://athleticbrewing.com/

So going back more than 30 years, I was involved in work on childhood obesity. It was a prevalent problem at the time, but little attention was being devoted to children and weight issues. And it was fair to say that the field, as it were, was an academic backwater. Little was known about short and long-term effects of childhood obesity. The social and emotional lives experienced by the children hadn't really been documented or studied much. There was very little known about treatment or strategies for parents, but thankfully, things are different now. Thanks in part to the work of a number of really innovative people in the field, and one of the most innovative is our guest today, Dr. Joseph Skelton. He's a professor of pediatrics and founder and director of Brenner Fit. FIT stands for Families in Training, which is the family-based pediatric obesity program at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He's also editor of the Journal of Childhood Obesity is involved in clinical care, research, education, and community outreach. Dr. Skelton has just published what I think is a really important book through the American Academy of Pediatrics, entitled Your Child Is Not Their Weight: Parenting in a Size Obsessed World. I was asked to review the book and was delighted to see it before it was published and just was so happy to see that such a book existed at all, but such a good quality book at entering the picture. Really a very important advance in our field. Interview Transcript There have been some books about pediatric weight issues in the past. Who is this book for and how is it different than what's been out there? I feel overall the big audience for this book is any parent, especially of my generation, that were raised during some really toxic diet culture in the '70s, '80s, and '90s. And so, I think the main folks that that's for is that parent: I want my kids to eat healthy, to be active, to lead healthy lives. But I don't want them to become concerned about their weight to feed into our culture's focus on the ideal body image. I don't want to feed into that. But you know I do want to pay attention to the health habits. How can I do this in a healthy way? How can I focus on health habits with my kid that's not a focus on weight and do it in a way that's backed up by science. You know, that's what parents always want to know. Am I doing this right? Am I causing harm? And it is actually who the book is dedicated to, you know, all those parents that were raised in a toxic diet culture and want to do things differently with their children. So, in modern day America, what is life like for a child whose weight exceeds the standards that we know might be healthy, and for the parents who are raising those children? From personal experience and 20 years of running a program, as well as what the research shows, it can be kind of rough. Despite a lot of the advances that we've made around weight bias we're still in a place that kids are trying to live up to this idealized body image. And then they have all these toxic messages when it comes to nutrition and body image. I think it's rough. We know that kids in bigger bodies tend to have a lower quality life. They tend to have more symptoms of depression, anxiety; and it's because of this world that we live in. You mentioned messages that they might be getting from places like the media, but what are interactions like with peers and teachers and doctors and others in their lives that are affecting how they feel? Yes. So, the adults in their life were raised in that toxic culture. They're my generation and the generation behind me that was raised in that. You know, there's the myth that a smaller body is healthier than a bigger body. And I think we can't break away from that. And I think that still sort of comes through. We still see this as a lifestyle issue, and everyone has an opinion. Everyone has a thought of, you know, well, I did this... and I lowered my cholesterol... I did this and I lost weight, you need to do it too. And I think in the medical profession, because of a lack of understanding, a lack of training - I think that still occurs. I don't do a ton of medical education. I'm getting more and more into it, especially when it comes to areas around nutrition. But that's what I'm trying to avoid in the next generation of healthcare providers and even actually a lot of our community collaborators, teachers, and stuff like that. To get away from that. This is not a simple issue, so don't share advice because sometimes that advice can be damaging or could be wrong. You know, good lord how much I hear about carbs on a weekly basis. And not the carbs I like to talk about, which is around dessert and Carolina Gold rice and all these other food stuff. But it tends to be around sort of demonizing certain foods and just really bad messages that still are floating around out there. Let's dive in a little deeper about what you refer to as toxic diet culture that was especially pronounced in previous generations. What does that mean? Does it affect standards for what the ideal body looks like? What about messages about how much control you have over that yourself, and how responsible you are for your weight? How your self-image should be influenced by how you look? But tell us more about what you mean by that. We wanted this to be a book that didn't necessarily dwell on weight so much, but actually one of the first chapters is to say let's cover how complex weight really is. We know that 50% or more of someone's weight is heavily, heavily influenced by their genetics. Where they live, you know. The amount that our lifestyle affects that is much, much smaller. It's the minority of what goes into our body size. And even that, our habits are so influenced by the world around us. But it's, you know, trying to get people to understand that, hey, body sizes are just different. I love this picture from the Olympics and it was a medalist in gymnastics- it was Simone Biles; you know, the huge media personality of Ilona Maher who is a bronze medalist in rugby; and then one of the women's basketball players. You're talking 4'9", 5'10" and pure muscle and six foot seven, all people at the top of their game. And not only different heights, different body types. And, you know, body type is a hard thing to talk about because there's not standard body types. We're all just built differently. And starting that message at a young age that people are just oftentimes built differently. There's very little control that we have over our weight. And even though there are things that we can do about weight, what you can do is you can focus on your habits for health. And that has just gotten lost. We talk about in the book the, we call it veiled weight talk, and it's basically where you're just substituting the word health for the word weight. And kids pick up on that. They know when their parents and others are talking about weight. And so, a really big thing we want to accomplish is like, Hey, you know, eating for health is important. Being active for health is important. In my world, and I did one part of my early research in this, and we always try to have that message as there's so much more to health than weight. In our medical world right now, our primary outcome on these lifestyle changes that people are making is weight. You mentioned genetics as a contributing factor to who is affected by the problem. Tell me how you look at the food environment out there that people are exposed to now, and things like food marketing and the processing of foods. The availability of all these foods that are contributing to obesity and things. And the reason I ask is, you know, there was a time in our country when the prevalence of childhood obesity was probably close to zero. And there are plenty of countries around the world where that's still the case. But now in many countries there's large amounts of childhood obesity. And it's not as if the genetics have changed. When people move from other countries to the United States, their weight tends to go up. Their genes obviously don't change. There's something pretty toxic about the food environment that's driving this. So, thinking about things that way, does that help parents by shifting some of the blame from them and their children to an environment that they might be able to manage in some way? Absolutely. Because parents…they blame themselves oftentimes. You know, how did I let this happen? What did I do to sort of cause it happen and it's not. So, we do try to shift that of looking at ourselves as the reason blame. But you can kind of look at the - and I'm just going to focus on nutrition as the focus - the broader food environment and how that impacts. We tend to get a lot of buy-in or understanding when you talk about how they are trying to market to kids. And so, for any parent, all you have to do is bring up the checkout line at a grocery store, you know? And all the things that are at the kids' level that is just made to make your life as a parent hard when you're trying to feed your kids well-balanced regular meals but you're just kind of constantly walking through this landmine. It's the same thing with electronics and social media. There are so many things that they have a lot more money than you do to market to you than you do to protect yourself against it. And it absolutely influences it. And the way I talk about this is really when it comes down to snack foods, and using the parenting language that snacks get you between long periods of time between meals, but that got co-opted by companies marketing snack foods. And when you see food, smell food or hear about food, you kind of want that food. And that's what parents have every day to now the point is. Snacks always have to be crunchy, salty, and sweet, and we're supposed to give kids snacks when they ask for it, because that's what these companies tell us about hunger. You know, hunger hits us every time and you have got to have this bar to sort of get through that. Parenting is hard enough and then trying to parent through this when they're directly marketing kids... you know, in most European countries, they're not allowed to market to kids. In some countries it's age eight. Some countries it's age 12 because they don't quite recognize this is marketing, they're want you to buy this. It makes it a lot harder for parents. You know, when I was on the faculty at Yale, I got to know a political scientist. A very impressive person named Jacob Hacker. And he'd written a book called The Great Risk Shift. What he talked about was how government and American businesses have systematically shifted the responsibility for overcoming harm from products from themselves onto the consumer. And that's really true in a way here, isn't it? Because the problem is created by corporations who are marketing unhealthy foods in such high levels. It's not the only cause, but it's certainly an important one. But the responsibility for solving the problem then falls to the parents and the children who have it. And one party has way more resources than the other. As you said, it's really not a fair fight and parents have a very tough battle dealing with these things. Yes. There was a marketing study called The Nag Factor, and I'm an old Simpsons fan, you know. You imagine the people behind the one-way mirror watching things and trying to manipulate. And that's what the nag factor was. How can we get kids to nag their parents more effectively? And what they found is parents that were immune to nagging tended to be the more educated, higher-income parents. And so, they literally had this plan of we need to change how we're getting these kids to nag. We need to give them reasons to nag. And that's when you started seeing vitamin C, high in protein. So, you think the checkout at the grocery store is bad, but then the signage in the commercials each and every day are giving kids reasons they can go to their parents to tell them get me this. Because nagging is not going to be enough for the high-income parents. They have to have some purpose behind it. You know, when I was growing up, the only way I saw advertisements for food was on Saturday morning cartoon television. And there were three channels showing it. Well, it shows how old I am, but now it's just an avalanche of messages on social media, built into gaming, and it's just everywhere. And it's probably pretty hard for parents to control that. Wouldn't you say? Well, now that you've said that, that's what my phone's going to start doing. The next time I open up my Facebook, there's going to be an ad for some sort of food camp because it's listening to us. Absolutely. Oh yeah. There's just no comparison. And I think that's also something very hard for parents, regardless of the topic, is what worked for me that my parents used is different than for my kids. And even between your kids. You know, my 24-year-old and my 20-year-old are completely different kids. You wouldn't even know they're related and different personalities. And so, what worked for one, you can't necessarily apply to the other. And whereas we love the idea of multi-generation households and, you know, being involved and being there to give advice. And you should take the advice of your parents, but it doesn't always apply. It's just a different world. I feel like I need to give credit to my East Tennessee farming roots. There are two stories I always remember my dad talking about when they would go to a car hop. Maybe some of your listeners know what a car hop is maybe they don't. It's like a Sonic, you know, it's the old school drive up. Or for you Atlanta folks, like the varsity drive up. My grandparents would make my dad put on his Sunday clothes. You know, that was how rare they went out is they would actually get dressed up driving into town to go try these hamburgers and these French fries. Versus now you can you DoorDash that 24/7. I mean just what a different world and concept. And I still have to share this other story for my grandfather, who my oldest son is named after, he was a tobacco and sustenance his farmer in East Tennessee. And every time I have a med student that's a vegetarian in my cooking class, I always tell the story of he came home one day, and he was talking to my aunt. He says, you know what? The county agent said one day people are going to be eating soybeans. That's so funny. Soybeans were fed to cattle back then. It's really just how drastically we change and now it's changing even faster. I mean, my grandchildren will be light years different than what my children are. Let's dive back into your book. Tell me about the collaboration with the American Academy of Pediatrics and how did the book come about? They have had two books in the past that were sort of geared towards parents, you know, how to address weight in your kids if your child has a problem with their weight, what can you do about it? Well-written books. They had done well. But they were looking to try to do something different. It was kind of time to sort of update that. And the last book was great by Natalie Muth. It was a fantastic book. So, a lot of my friends were on the 2023 clinical practice guidelines. And when that came out, there was a huge blowback from the eating disorder community. And, again, it's sort of the polarization of our country right now. And, they had asked me to speak at a conference saying, hey, can you try to do something in the middle? They knew that we included elements of the body positivity movement in what we do. We're big adherents and teachers of authoritative parenting. And they said could you try to give a talk that kind of goes in between what we're trying to do with the treatment of obesity that's affecting children's health as well as the body positivity movement. It's kind of, again, speaking of the Saturday morning cartoons, it was kind of those things that everyone stepped back, and Bugs Bunny was still in the front and got volunteered. It was sort of one of those situations. And so, I gave this presentation and they said, hey, well, what do you think about turning this into a book? Would you be interested in writing a book? And I said, absolutely not. I don't have time. And never in a million years would I do it. But this needed to be out there. So, first of all, the AAP asks, as a pediatrician, you do it. And second of all, I feel like this book needs to be out there. Both for who I talked about earlier, those parents that don't want to hurt the kids' feelings, make them hate their bodies, feel like something's wrong with them, which is what a lot of kids say. But it's also for those parents that are wanting to do something. These are the parents that, you know, they want to put their kid on a diet or make a comment to them of you sure you need to have seconds on that? You know, which we know can do damage. And of course, parents, you know, they don't want to hurt their kids and get in the way. And so, it was kind of geared toward those parents that were starting down an avenue that may not have been safe. You know, they don't have access to a good evidence-based program. And so, it's also for those parents that says, hey, your kids aren't little adults. Don't take these weight loss approaches to kids. It's just a different beast. We'll come back in a minute and talk about specific parenting strategy, but you alluded to this blowback from the eating disorders fields and the clinical guidelines. Tell us a little bit more about that, because it's one of the key features that would drive the need for a book like yours. I'm not an eating disorder specialist, but there was a big concern that one of the big recommendations that was new was that you can't have watchful waiting anymore. It used to be, you know, if younger children were starting to gain weight, before you intervene or start into treatment or start to change a lot that maybe just wait to see if, you know kind of the old-fashioned thing, are they going to outgrow it? Are they going to go through a growth spurt? So that was a part of the recommendations. The evidence says that watchful waiting in today's world, you're unlikely to see a kid outgrow it anymore, including bariatric surgery, use of medications and things like that. And so, they felt like this increased focus that this was going to cause pediatricians and parents to focus even more on weight and therefore lead to eating disorders. And then that was coinciding over the previous five years, a lot of studies were coming out and then it got put into a couple of systematic reviews of meta-analyses that showed that kids in bigger bodies, kids with overweight and obesity, had a two to three times higher prevalence of eating disorders. Because typically eating disorders are always thought to occur in underweight or thinner children. But it actually is much higher risk of these in children in bigger bodies. And so, we use that term threading the needle, how do you help families who want to do something about their child's weight for health reasons but not worsening disorders. And so that blowback was really saying, hey, by increasing focus on this, you're going to make things worse with that. And it was kind of surprising. A lot of my good friends were on that practice guidelines and they're kind of taken aback because these are experts in the field. Well-meaning people that for 10, 15, 20 years had dedicated their careers to helping these kids looking for help. And I think any care provider to be accused of causing harm is always, always jarring. Tell us how you navigate that and what sort of advice do you give parents in this book? Yeah, so one is that I call weight literacy. It's sort of understanding this is a complex issue. It's not something you did. This is something that happens. We can't always explain it. There are still things, this is where you read too much of this science, it gets you really paranoid about microplastics and things like that. There are some legitimate arguments to me be made there in endocrine disrupting chemicals and stuff like that. We can't always explain why kids are growing bigger than other kids or at a heavier weight. So, the weight literacy, sort of, understanding this is a complex issue, this is not a lifestyle issue. And the second thing is it's worthwhile to focus on healthy eating and physical activity for health. Sometimes that will see improvements in weight, sometimes it won't. But it's still important to do. That's the idea of getting away from that weight being the primary outcome. We feel like this is a great adjunct for someone who might be pursuing bariatric surgery or medications, because it does give us the opportunity to not keep pushing kids harder on nutrition and physical activity, which could lead to that disorder eating. And I think the final thing is sometimes parents and kids are aligned. You know, give me a 15-year-old girl that wants to lose weight. A 15-year-old girl that wants to lose weight, that is unfortunately a child that's very high risk of developing disordered eating. And maybe the parents really wanted to help. But what oftentimes we see a lot is tension brewing between the parent and child. The parent making efforts to help the child with their health and their weight, and the child interpreting those efforts as you think I'm fat, you think I'm ugly, you think something's wrong with me. And it's causing that tension: you know, you can't eat too much of that. Taking Food away. That movie Spanglish with Adam Sandler, several scenes in that sort of reflect that of just small comments that parents can make. You know, actually wanting to help and how that can hurt children. And what we would hope for a lot of parents is to say how can you do this in a way that can be helpful. And one of our chapters is called how to not talk to your children about their weight. You know, the idea that parents don't need to feel that pressure to bring that up. Now, if their child wants to talk about it, absolutely they need to be there, and we give a lot of tips for that. But, you know, your job as the parent, you don't really have control of your child's weight, but there's lots that you can control and lots that you can do to promote the healthy development of your child. You know there's a heavy dose of compassion in your book. That was one thing that appealed to me about it and impressed me. Because if one thinks about a book for parents on dealing with their overweight children, you sort of default to, oh, this book is probably a diet or an exercise program, or things like that about how the child can change their weight. And you're talking much more here about understanding the psychological world of the child. Being sensitive to possible risks of talking to them in ways that are unhelpful or lead to eating disorders and things like that. It's wonderful that you pay so much attention to those issues. And it's very affirming because you're saying that there are some things parents can do about this in ways that affirm their children, accept them as individuals. It's built into the title of your book that your child is not their weight. And that just means so much, I think. Oh, thank you. That is what we had hoped. I mean, you know, parents love their children and in endless, endless ways. And the parents are the key to their children and their children's health. And I feel like sometimes we push too hard. Now we're doing it for good reasons. We want this child to be healthy. We want to help make some improvements. And we put a lot on the parents' back. And I think sometimes then that pressure then is extended to the children. And a lot of this is trying to get parents some insights of, we know you love your children. Here's how to make sure that your child is being loved. You know, the old parenting typology, and I kind of go through some of that history in there, really kind of gets at that. But sometimes we do or say things that doesn't make their children feel loved by accident of course. And it sort of highlights that, not to make parents feel bad, just so they're aware. I've been guilty of it. None of us are perfect parents. And you know, making sure that our kids are feeling, loved by us. Family-based treatment is obviously the key. And I always think of one of your, one of your hypertension studies, I think from 1983. I still quote it to this day. You know, the idea that even though we talk about family-based treatment, we're usually dealing with a parent and a child. The dyad. Now they're representative of the family and I've always felt like something was, sort of, missing there. And two things really influenced me. One of that is one of my co-authors, Dara Gardner-Edwards, who is a licensed clinical social worker. And they are all about the family. They know how to do family assessments. And so, recognizing there's more than just those parents and the child in the clinic with you. In addition to that, working the whole field, I didn't know about human development and family studies. Didn't know that was a field and actually came from the University of Minnesota. I was one of the early. Strong program. So, UNC-Greensboro, our neighbor over there. I started working with a professor over there, Cheryl Buehler, and we would go meet over sushi and she essentially taught me a four-hour freshman-focused family studies course. And just this whole other world, social science world of family dynamics and recognizing when you're working with that child and parent. You may or may not be affecting the family dynamics in the household, of that family system. And so being able to extend differently and having some more appreciation of the complexity of families and the relationships with families. Hopefully we're helping people understand making changes in health habits, relationships matter. We have a project going right now, led by one of my medical students. She was always impressed, in shadowing with us, of how many siblings were picky eaters. And I brought this up to my team, like, oh yeah, this is a huge stress. You know, this parent is obviously wants to change the habits of the entire family but is obviously focused on this child we have in clinic. But the struggle of having this other kid that's a picky eater really throws off those dynamics. And being able to account for that and that stress that that puts on families, and what can we do around that? Oh, that's so interesting. You know, the more aggressive, dramatic treatments that are being used for adults like bariatric surgery and the GLP one drugs, how do they fit into this picture? Yeah, so we feel like it's a perfect adjunct if someone is pursuing with this with their child, because it still is talking about that parenting approach. And it's not really going to change anything with how you're parenting around these things. You know, bariatric surgery for many years has been done safely and effectively in children. Not that it's always perfect, but again, because of the cost, the idea that it's not reversible and typically you want that done in a center that's very experienced with working with kids. So, access issues tend to be really big with that. It can be very effective for some kids but is not available to everyone. We're in the same situation with the medicines with GLP1s. There's one that has been approved for use down to age 12, and overall, they tend to work very well with kids. But we're in the real world now. We're learning a lot about that. It can be miraculous for some children because it gives them success with their weight. It takes pressure off themselves. We're always trying to prevent that restriction, both in hearing that from another adult or the child doing it themselves, trying to tell themselves to eat less. It's always going to backfire. It's going to increase your hunger and things like that. And having that GLP1 is going to help with that. It's actually going to lower that pressure. And oftentimes they can get in that healthy routine much quicker. In others, it's causing some problems. We are seeing some kids that it is absolutely wiping out their appetite. And we're figuring out now the kids are sort of at risk for that. And you can't do that. The kids gotta eat. But for some kids, they just lose all appetite whatsoever. And they can't not eat. And so, we're still figuring out through the real world. But I think, what we're also finding is the job that we do in these multidisciplinary teams, it's just as important if not more important when you're using medications than when you're not. Let me ask you a big picture question and let me see how optimistic you might feel about how, where things are going. So, think of a physician who is treating people with lung cancer. So, the lung cancer is caused by this terrible environmental influence: cigarettes. And the physician then is in the position of having to treat the people who have that really unfortunate problem. And thank God there are physicians who do that, and there's research showing how to treat it effectively. But of course, it would be better if the environmental insult that's causing the problem in the first place didn't exist. That would make everybody happier, except for the companies that sell the product. So, do you think you and colleagues who are doing similar work are faced with a similar kind of a problem? There are all these environmental things that are helping push this problem in the first place. Thankfully, there's kindness, compassion and effective care available and your book helps push that forward even further. But are you hopeful at all that the environmental situation, you know, all the bad foods and stuff out there is changing in a positive way so that there might be less of the problem, or it might be easier on the children now who deal with the problem? Some people think it's getting worse. Others think we might see some progress. But what do you think about that? My brother is an HR guy and he kind of talks about these different typologies with that. And, I forget, I'm called something like the mad scientist, which is you're very pessimistic in complaining, but you have enthusiasm. I don't really know how to take that. But I think, you know, I'm enthusiastic obviously about this topic and what we can do to help parents. But I'm a little pessimistic when it comes to the broader world. I think there's enough, and not saying that every for-profit company's bad, but I think a lot of history is on my side with that. I don't get paid more the more kids I see and the better success I have. I don't get paid more. My job is to be here to help. But, you know, companies, every time I see a for-profit company that comes out and says safety is our number one priority. Or, you know, your satisfaction is number priority, I'm like, no, it's not. Your number priority are your shareholders. And I think that's a very, you know, jaded way to say, I don't quite trust companies right now because of that. Are there some positives that you see, and do you see some changes being made in some menus? Do you see some different products out there that are really trying to get it healthy? But it's hard. I think I have some trust issues and I think that's well founded. Maybe that's my Appalachian background. I tend to be very distrustful of the large mining companies coming in. That, speaking of your lung analogy, that I think I have some healthy distrust that is well founded. So, I think trying to help, and that's obviously a big movement that we have, of trying to help people be more discerning parents, more discerning consumers. But it's hard because they, like you said earlier, they have a whole lot more marketing dollars to convince you to buy their product than we have trying to convince them to make smarter choices about it. BIO Joseph A. "Joey" Skelton, MD, MS, FAAP, FTOS, DABOM is a Professor of Pediatrics, and of Epidemiology and Prevention, at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He is the Founder and Director of Brenner FIT® (Families In Training), an interdisciplinary pediatric obesity treatment, prevention, research, and educational program. He serves as the Director of the Center for Prevention Science in Child and Family Health, Vice Chair of Research for the Department of Pediatrics, Associate Leader of Community and Stakeholder Engagement at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Childhood Obesity. He is board certified in Pediatrics and Obesity Medicine. His research and clinical work has focused on the treatment of children with obesity. He has secured nearly $10 million in funding over the past 15 years, has given over 50 national and international presentations, and has over 130 peer-reviewed publications. He enjoys teaching cooking classes that are both fun and informative to anyone who will listen.

Explore how climate leadership measures should be a routine part of decision-making with Emeritus Professor Mark Howden and Aurecon’s Dr Ben McGarry. Together they discuss the role engineers play in shaping a low-carbon and resilient future; and why starting with values, incorporating systems thinking, and highlighting long-term benefits all matter when engaging stakeholders and delivering meaningful change. This episode of Engineering Reimagined was recorded live at the 2025 CAETS conference. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

• Support & get perks!• Bayesian Modeling course (first 2 lessons free)Our theme music is « Good Bayesian », by Baba Brinkman (feat MC Lars and Mega Ran). Check out his awesome work !Takeaways:Q: Is generosity a natural human trait?A: Yes, generosity is hardwired in our brains and is essential for social interaction.Q: Why do people say they care about causes but not act on it?A: There is often a disconnect between stated care for causes and actual action. Understanding the conditions under which generosity aligns with a person's identity is crucial for bridging this gap.Q: How should fundraising efforts be approached?A: Fundraising should primarily focus on belief updating rather than mere persuasion.Q: What are the benefits of being generous?A: Generosity has significant mental and physical health benefits, as the brain's reward systems activate when we give, making us feel good.Q: How do our beliefs relate to our actions?A: Our beliefs about ourselves strongly influence our actions and decisions, including our decision to be generous.Q: Can generosity impact a community?A: Yes, generosity can be a powerful tool for improving community dynamics.Q: How can technology like AI assist institutions with donors?A: AI could help institutions remember donors better, improving the donor-institution relationship.Chapters:00:00 What's the role of Behavioral Science inPhilanthropy19:57 What is The Neuroscience of Generosity?24:40 How can we best understand Donor Decision-Making?32:14 How can we achieve reframe Beliefs and Actions?35:39 What is the role of Identity in Habit Formation?38:06 What is the Generosity Gap in Philanthropy?45:06 How can we reduce Friction in Donation Processes?48:27 What is the role of AI and Trust in Nonprofits?52:11 How can we build Predictive Models for Donor Behavior?55:41 What is the role of Empathy in Sales and Stakeholder Engagement?01:00:46 How can we best align ideas with Stakeholder Beliefs?01:02:06 How can we explore Generosity and Memory?Thank you to my Patrons for making this episode possible!Links from the show:Come meet Alex at the Field of Play Conference in Manchester, UK, March 27, 2026! https://www.fieldofplay.co.uk/Bayesian workflow agent skillNeurogiving, The Science of Donor Decision-MakingCherian's websiteCherian's press kitLBS #89 Unlocking the Science of Exercise, Nutrition & Weight Management, with Eric Trexler

In our latest senior leader interview, Craig is joined by Emel Morris, CIO at Central Bedfordshire Council.Emel shares her journey from corporate communications into IT leadership and the skills that helped her transition into the role. She also outlines why today's CIO must focus on stakeholder engagement, change, and aligning technology to real service outcomes.Craig and Emel also discuss pressures on public sector services, cyber security, AI alongside the importance of inclusion and Women in SAP.To learn more about the UKISUG referral scheme, visit: https://www.sapusers.org/community-referral-scheme

Pour un fois, je suis toute seule face à vous pour analyser les apprentissages communs partagés par les leaders du Product Marketing interviewés dans cette dernière saison.Les invité.es de la saison 6 :Julien Sauvage, CMO chez Cordial, ex VP PMM Clari et GongJulie Shaffer, PMM Director chez SmartlyBertrand Hazard, Consultant PMM, Ex VP PMMShannon Vettes, CEO & CPO chez UsersnapAxel Kirstetter, VP PMM chez GuidewireHarvey Lee, Fractional PMM & Advisor, Ex VP PMM chez Product Marketing AllianceÀ travers leurs parcours et leurs prises de position, une vision plus exigeante du métier se dessine.Mes 5 apprentissages :Le rôle PMM reste mal comprisLien entre PMM et revenuClarté et simplification comme levier stratégiqueLes parcours non linéairesFocus marché vs focus produitJ'espère que ce nouveau format vous plaît, n'hésitez pas à m'écrire sur Linkedin pour me dire ce que vous en avez pensé ! ça me fait toujours hyper plaisir de lire vos retours.INVITATION WEBINAR: On se retrouve le 26 février à 11h pour parler de feedback-loop et Voice of Customer? Pour en savoir plus et s'inscrire c'est iciDurant ce webinar, nous analysons comment les équipes B2B peuvent reconstruire une compréhension commune de leurs acheteurs à partir de la Win-Loss analysis, plutôt que de multiplier les signaux fragmentés. Une approche concrète pour aligner Sales, Marketing et Product autour d'une même réalité business.RESSOURCES

How do you design circular systems, not just circular products? In this episode, Anne Farken from Designworks, a BMW Group Company, talks about why circular design is not only about the product itself, but about the ecosystem around it. The conversation looks at the gap between saying design should be integrated from the beginning and actually thinking product and business model together from day one. What you'll hear in this episode: • How to design the product ecosystem and integrate product development, business model, and value creation from day one • The role of designers in translating business model insights into product requirements and facilitating integration across teams • Why the more you rethink a product, the more you need tolerance for ambiguity and alignment across teams The episode also touches on why constraints and tradeoffs should be seen as creative opportunities. This is the final episode in the series Implementing Circular Design Principles, produced in collaboration with the German Design Council. The series explored how design decisions shape circular outcomes at the material, product, and system level, following the principles of Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.

Greenhushing, Communication, and Stakeholder Engagement for Endowments with Lane Jost In this crossover episode of The Future of Finance and Beyond Carbon, hosts Georges Dyer and Chris Ito sit down with Lane Jost, Head of Sustainability & Governance Advisory at Edelman Smithfield, for a candid conversation about the evolving ESG and sustainable investing landscape. Lane traces the arc of ESG from its “1.0” early days to today's politically charged environment, unpacking the dynamics of greenwashing, greenhushing, regulatory risk, and the often-confusing language that shapes public perception. They examine what this moment means for endowments, asset managers, and campus stakeholders, and discuss Edelman Smithfield's work with endowments on strategic communications strategies. Ultimately, the episode balances realism about political headwinds with optimism about market innovation, improved governance, and the long-term trajectory toward resilience and value creation. Guest Lane Jost – Head of Sustainability & Governance Advisory at Edelman Smithfield Background Lane Jost leads the Sustainability & Governance Advisory Practice at Edelman Smithfield, bringing 16 years of sustainability leadership across facilities management, financial services, and consulting. Previously, he served on PwC's national Responsible Business Leadership team, contributing to the firm's global net zero strategy. Lane has held senior ESG roles at Santander US and Sodexo USA, developing sustainability strategies and managing significant grant portfolios. He holds degrees from UC San Diego and Kenyon College. Conversation Green Hushing May Actually Be Beneficial - The pullback from aggressive ESG marketing forces organizations to focus on substance over rhetoric, emphasizing rigorous processes and how ESG factors genuinely drive value and risk management. ESG Terminology Will Evolve, But Core Principles Remain - While "ESG" may fade within 3-5 years, evaluating material environmental, social, and governance factors remains fundamental to investment decisions regardless of political climate or terminology changes. Communications Must Align With Portfolio Management Reality - Strategic communications should be conservative, transparent, and grounded in fiduciary stewardship. Avoid making unvalidated claims, particularly given emerging regulatory risks around greenwashing in multiple jurisdictions. Context Matters: One Size Doesn't Fit All - Appropriate approaches vary by institution. Small liberal arts colleges have more latitude for impact investing, while large state universities face greater scrutiny. Mission and stakeholder context determine strategy. Educational Institutions Have Unique Teaching Opportunities - Universities should engage students in real-world discussions about balancing financial constraints, stakeholder pressures, climate risks, and portfolio construction—providing invaluable practical experience beyond traditional classroom learning.  

Consistency is not glamorous, but it's the engine that keeps a nonprofit's business model running when the calendar flips and the pressure spikes. In this conversation with  Matt Glazer, Founder and CEO of Blue Sky Partners (Austin-based, national reach), we talk about building consistent engagement without burning out your team or betting the whole year on a Q4 miracle.Matt brings a practical operator's lens: simplify what repeats, template what you can, and stop trying to cram “97 things” into the final stretch. His philosophy is steady, sustainable progress that makes room for reality—staff illness, unexpected disruptions, and capacity limits—so quality doesn't collapse under urgency. As Matt puts it, “I'm a big believer in doing a little bit of work a lot of the time.”From there, the conversation gets sharply useful for fundraising and stakeholder communications. Matt challenges the sector's fixation on “unicorn donors” and reminds us that the so-called boring work—like building a sustaining donor program—creates real stability. He shares a concrete example from his early nonprofit leadership: by repeatedly communicating the value of monthly giving, his organization grew from zero sustainers to $7,000 per month, proving that small gifts, stacked with intention, can fund real infrastructure.The discussion also tackles a leadership truth many avoid: in many nonprofits, clients and customers are not the same people. Funders may be the “customer” demanding reporting and outcomes, while beneficiaries deserve asset-based language and authentic voice. To bridge those realities, Matt recommends human-centered design tools—journey maps, empathy maps, and personas—to understand how people experience your organization and where alignment between mission, funding, and community needs can become a win for everyone.Finally, Matt introduces decision trees as a way to improve donor asks and engagement pathways by learning not only what people choose—but why they didn't choose the other option. That's how your nonprofit can turn assumptions into strategy and strategy into revenue!#TheNonprofitShow #NonprofitLeadership #FundraisingStrategyFind us Live daily on YouTube!Find us Live daily on LinkedIn!Find us Live daily on X: @Nonprofit_ShowOur national co-hosts and amazing guests discuss management, money and missions of nonprofits! 12:30pm ET 11:30am CT 10:30am MT 9:30am PTSend us your ideas for Show Guests or Topics: HelpDesk@AmericanNonprofitAcademy.comVisit us on the web:The Nonprofit Show

Send us a textIn this engaging episode of "Business Growth Talks," host Mark Hayward delves into the intricacies of scaling a business with seasoned entrepreneur and Dragons' Den alum, Solvej Biddle. Known for her acumen in stakeholder management, Solvej elaborates on the often-overlooked "people dynamic" that plays a crucial role once a business moves past product validation into scaling. She discusses how mastering stakeholder influence can convert business potential into tangible growth, transcending geographical boundaries and organizational barriers.As the conversation unfolds, Solvej shares vital insights into preparing for scale-up challenges, from securing international partnerships to strategically managing multiple stakeholders like investors, partners, and board members. The discussion is rich with actionable strategies that emphasize the importance of reading interpersonal signals and understanding stakeholder interests. With genuine anecdotes from her Dragons' Den experience and her current work with Tech Nordic Advocates, Solvej illustrates the essential skills needed to influence high-stakes business environments successfully.Key Takeaways:Scaling a business involves managing a vast network of stakeholders beyond product development, emphasizing the need for strong interpersonal skills.Effective stakeholder management involves preparation, active listening, and understanding stakeholder interests to foster meaningful engagements.Confidence, humility, and the ability to read the room are crucial when pitching to investors or negotiating in high-stakes situations.Career-long skills like stakeholder engagement are not only applicable in business environments but are invaluable in everyday interactions.Emerging entrepreneurs, particularly in tech sectors, can benefit significantly by refining their influence and persuasion skills, particularly when expanding across borders.SPONSORSGet a professional website built fast with Up in a Day, then book a call and see how easily you can elevate your online presence. https://upinaday.co/book-mark-haywardResources:Connect with Solvej Biddle via LinkedInLearn more about the Engage Method: engagemethod.co (Note: URL imagined, as it wasn't directly mentioned)Discover Tech Nordic Advocates Website (Note: URL imagined, as it wasn't directly mentioned)Dive deeper into the strategies and insights shared by Solvej Biddle by listening to the full episode. Stay tuned for more episodes of "Business Growth Talks," where we explore the complex but rewarding journey of scaling a business from those who have been therSupport the showIf you want to watch the full video of this episode go to:https://www.youtube.com/@markhayward-BizGrowthTalksDo you want to be a guest on multiple podcasts as a service go to:www.podcastintroduction.comFind more details about the podcast and my coaching business on:www.businessgrowthtalks.comFind me onLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-hayw...Tik Tok - https://www.tiktok.com/@mjh169183YouTube Shorts - https://www.youtube.com/@markhayward-BizGrowthTalks/shorts

"We're always running at 100%. Some people love that. I think it's like an adrenaline rush."That's how Katie Coulson describes leading Skanska Advanced Technology—where construction projects that typically take 2-3 years get done in a fraction of the time.In today's episode of Bricks & Bytes, we had Katie Coulson from Skanska Advanced Technology and we got to learn about how they're building data centers and semiconductor fabs at tech company speed, why they're often starting construction before the design is even finalized, and what 31 years in construction has taught her about the future of the industry... and many more!Tune in to find out about:✅ How Skanska's vertical unit model combines national tech expertise with local market knowledge to deliver high-speed projects across the US✅ Why the traditional construction bell curve doesn't exist in data center and semiconductor work—and the type of people who thrive in that chaos✅ The sophisticated subcontractor relationships that make it possible to mobilize quickly across different markets✅ Katie's predictions on AI, offsite manufacturing, and robotics as solutions to construction's labor challenges (especially as remote work isn't an option for field teams)If you're building in the data center or semiconductor space, or just curious about how construction is adapting to move at tech speed, this one's for you. Watch the full episode now. Link in the comment!

Summary In this episode, Andy talks with Dr. Craig Mattson, professor of communication and author of Digital Overwhelm: A Mid-Career Guide to Coping at Work. Rather than encouraging digital detoxing or escaping technology, Craig offers a refreshing way to understand and navigate the pressures of modern work. He introduces the idea of digiwhelm, explains why so much of our stress comes from the communication modes we inhabit, and shows how leaders can respond with intention rather than overload. You will hear Craig describe why email can be more than information transfer, how mode switching differs from context switching, and why one-way communication sometimes matters more than dialogue. Craig also shares why signals like silence, gestures, and tone often communicate more than words. Before closing, he draws connections to life at home, offering ideas for families that feel overwhelmed by devices and demands. If you are looking for practical insights to reduce digital overwhelm, improve communication, and lead with greater clarity and calm, this episode is for you! Sound Bites "Instead of digital minimalism, I recommend something like digital flexibility." "Humans are essentially users and switchers of modes." "What is going to be the defining overwhelm of my life?" "You are always overwhelmed by something." "Flexibility is the wisdom that my book is urging." "Your words do things." "Think about the voice of the email." "A mode is an approach, it is a posture, it is a way of relating." "Is there a way in which this is actually good for me and actually good for other people?" Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:33 Start of Interview 01:42 Early Life and Influences 02:57 Growing Up with Technology 04:11 What is Digiwhelm? 06:26 How Does It Compare to Overload? 08:35 The Impact of a David Ford Quote 10:34 Understanding Mode Switching 16:20 A Day in Communication Modes 22:04 Email as Conversation 24:29 Writing Email Like You Talk 27:24 Dissemination in Practice 32:00 Signals Leaders Should Notice 39:00 Coping with Digiwhelm at Home 43:04 End of Interview 43:44 Andy Comments After the Interview 48:14 Outtakes Learn More You can learn more about Craig and his work at DigitalOverwhelm.com. For more learning on this topic, check out: Episode 144 with Cal Newport. Craig references Cal's book Deep Work in Digital Overwhelm, making this a great companion conversation. Episode 269 with Nir Eyal, about his book Indistractable. Nir shares insights about shaping your day to be less distracted. Episode 377 with Cassie Holmes, about her book Happier Hour. It is not only about managing your time but focusing on what really matters. Level Up Your AI Skills Join other listeners from around the world who are taking our AI Made Simple course to prepare for an AI infused future. Just go to ai.PeopleAndProjectsPodcast.com. Thanks! Pass the PMP Exam If you or someone you know is thinking about getting PMP certified, we have a helpful guide called The 5 Best Resources to Help You Pass the PMP Exam on Your First Try. It is free and a great way to get a head start. Just go to 5BestResources.PeopleAndProjectsPodcast.com to grab your copy. I would love to help you get your PMP this year! Join Us for LEAD52 I know you want to be a more confident leader. That is why you listen to this podcast. LEAD52 is a global community of people like you who are committed to transforming their ability to lead and deliver. It is 52 weeks of leadership learning, delivered right to your inbox, taking less than 5 minutes a week. And it is all for free. Learn more and sign up at GetLEAD52.com. Thanks! Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Talent Triangle: Power Skills Topics: Digital Overwhelm, Leadership, Communication, Project Management, Email Effectiveness, Team Culture, Listening Skills, Collaboration, Productivity, Decision Making, Stakeholder Engagement, Psychological Safety The following music was used for this episode: Music: Echo by Alexander Nakarada License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Music: Energetic Drive Indie Rock by WinnieTheMoog License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Muzi Dladla – Executive Manager of Stakeholder Engagement, Sasria SAfm Market Update - Podcasts and live stream

On this episode of Destination on the Left, I talk with Chris Mondini, Vice President of Stakeholder Engagement and Managing Director of Europe for ICANN, and Dusty Trevino, CEO of Dot Vegas. We will learn how top-level domains are created and what domains like Dot Vegas can do to help a brand stand out. Our conversation is informative, educational, and will give you a whole new perspective on your brand's Internet address. What You Will Learn in This Episode: How top-level domains (TLDs) are created and why the addressing system of the Internet matters Why distinctive TLDs, like Dot Vegas, offer a strategic advantage for destination branding and marketing What it takes to register your own top-level domain, including the technical, financial, and organizational requirements necessary How geographic domains (such as .vegas, .nyc, and .brussels) can strengthen place identity and foster trust Why cities and entrepreneurs collaborate in launching city-based TLDs, and how community endorsement is essential for successful implementation How adopting new TLDs can make brands more memorable to prospective visitors, and help organizations stand out from the crowd Demystifying Top-Level Domains A memorable web address is more than just a convenience, it's an essential tool for branding, discoverability, and trust. Chris Mondini, Vice President of Stakeholder Engagement and Managing Director of Europe for ICANN, and Dusty Trevino, CEO of Dot Vegas, discuss how TLDs like .vegas, .paris, and .nyc can be invaluable assets for destination marketers, tourism professionals, and place branding experts. Most consider internet domains an afterthought, but as Chris explains, they're the backbone of online connectivity. The Internet isn't a single global network—it's tens of thousands of independently operated networks that agree to connect using common protocols and a shared addressing system. Fifteen years ago, there were only a handful: .com, .net, .org, and so on. Today, there are TLDs for cities (.nyc, .paris), concepts (.guru, .xyz), and more, opening new doors for personalized branding and community-building online. The Dot Vegas Story Dusty offers an inside look into operating Dot Vegas, which shows how a custom domain can amplify a destination's brand. Unlike some city domains, .vegas is globally accessible; anyone can register, regardless of residency. This flexibility enables local businesses, tour operators, and organizations worldwide to associate themselves with the Vegas brand, strengthening their ties to the city's renowned excitement and appeal. Why Top-Level Domains Matter for Marketers A custom TLD isn't just a vanity URL. Operating a TLD means running a piece of internet infrastructure and directly controlling your digital address, data queries, policies, and trust signals. For marketers, there are lots of benefits: Brand Identity: A city or region TLD immediately communicates place and can reinforce local pride. Discoverability: Words like "weddings.vegas" are memorable, making campaigns more effective and easier to recall. Trust & Security: A TLD operated or endorsed by local government or a trusted entity assures users of authenticity—crucial for e-commerce, municipal services, and tourism. Data Insights: TLD operators gain visibility into traffic and usage, supporting more targeted digital strategies. If you see ".yourcity," you can trust you're connecting with the real brand. Top-level domains aren't just technical jargon; they're strategic marketing tools that can transform destination branding, promote community engagement, and build trust with global audiences. Resources: Website: https://www.icann.org/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmondini/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustin-trevino-743064a/ We value your thoughts and feedback and would love to hear from you. Leave us a review on your favorite streaming platform to let us know what you want to hear more o​f. Here is a quick tutorial on how to leave us a rating and review on iTunes!

Summary In this episode, Andy talks with Amireh Amirmazaheri, CEO of PMO Solutions and a leading voice in the global PMO community. From growing up in Iran during a time of war to building a respected consultancy in Australia, Amireh shares how resilience and curiosity shaped her approach to leadership and enabling project success. You'll hear how PMOs have evolved from administrative hubs to strategic influencers, what it means to truly "speak the language of executives," and how to recognize when a PMO is at risk of drifting into irrelevance. We also explore how AI is transforming the work of PMOs and what leaders can do to stay ahead of the curve. Plus, Amireh offers practical advice on leading as a woman in project management and applying PMO principles at home as a parent. If you're looking for insights on elevating PMO impact, executive communication, and leading through change, this episode is for you! Sound Bites "Limitations aren't always bad. They push us into the creativity zone." "Executives don't want red or amber. They want to know where the ship is heading." "When PMOs chase BAU firefighting, they lose their strategic brain." "If PMOs stay educated and ahead of the game, they can influence the AI journey." "It's okay to cry. Then think, learn, and lead." "Um, should I tell you that my little one has a kanban board?" Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:31 Start of Interview 01:42 Early Life in Iran and Resilience 12:56 Lessons About Enablement 15:02 How PMOs Have Changed 18:55 Speaking the Language of Executives 21:22 Failure Clues and PMO Drift 25:11 Sponsorship as a Risk Factor 26:08 Using AI and Its Near-Term Impact on PMOs 32:25 Leading as a Woman 37:44 Applying PM and PMO Ideas at Home 40:22 PMO Global Alliance Overview 42:15 End of Interview 42:50 Andy Comments After the Interview 46:22 Outtakes Learn More You can learn more about Amireh and her work at PMOSol.com, or connect with her on LinkedIn. For more learning on this topic, check out: Episode 436 with Laura Barnard, about the IMPACT Engine Episode 429 with Bill Dow, about PMO insights Episode 187 with Peter Taylor, Bill Dow, and others, about the State of PMOs Level Up Your AI Skills Join other listeners from around the world who are taking our AI Made Simple course to prepare for an AI-infused future. Just go to ai.PeopleAndProjectsPodcast.com. Thanks! Pass the PMP Exam This Year If you or someone you know is thinking about getting PMP certified, we've put together a helpful guide called The 5 Best Resources to Help You Pass the PMP Exam on Your First Try. We've helped thousands of people earn their certification, and we'd love to help you, too. It's totally free, and it's a great way to get a head start. Just go to 5BestResources.PeopleAndProjectsPodcast.com to grab your copy. I'd love to help you get your PMP! Join Us for LEAD52 I know you want to be a more confident leader—that's why you listen to this podcast. LEAD52 is a global community of people like you who are committed to transforming their ability to lead and deliver. It's 52 weeks of leadership learning, delivered right to your inbox, taking less than 5 minutes a week. And it's all for free. Learn more and sign up at GetLEAD52.com. Thanks! Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Talent Triangle: Ways of Working Topics: PMOs, Executive Communication, Leadership, AI in Projects, Change Management, Strategic Thinking, Women in Leadership, Organizational Influence, Resilience, Stakeholder Engagement, Career Growth, Continuous Improvement The following music was used for this episode: Music: Brooklyn Nights by Tim Kulig License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Music: Tuesday by Sascha Ende License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Episode title and number: The Intersection of Blindness, Transportation, and Advocacy with Ron Brooks & Anthony Corona 5-#6Summary of the show:Hosts Nasreen Bhutta, Sylvia Stinson Perez, and Gabby Mendonca explore how disability, transportation, and advocacy connect, joined by guests Ron Brooks and Anthony Corona. The episode spotlights their advocacy work for inclusive transportation. They share challenges, wins, and the importance of combining stories with data, local involvement, and coalition-building. Listeners get practical travel tips and are encouraged to help drive systemic change.Bullet points of key topics & timestamps:00:00 Introduction and Hosts Introduction01:57 Guest Introductions: Ron Brooks and Anthony Corona02:12 Personal Journeys of Sight Loss10:49 Challenges in Advocating for Accessible Transportation13:33 Bold Blind Beauty Byte: Travel Essentials17:15 Successful Collaborations in Advocacy26:30 Future Innovations in Transportation31:00 How to Advocate for Better Transportation33:27 Connecting with Our Guests35:07 Conclusion and Call to ActionSupporting Our Advocacy Work:⦁ Be a part of the change! Support our advocacy efforts. Bios for Ron & Anthony:Ron Brooks is the founder of Accessible Avenue and Senior Director for Policy and Stakeholder Engagement at UZURV, a leader in accessible rideshare. With 32 years of experience in public transit, Ron is dedicated to making transportation accessible to everyone, especially people with disabilities. He's a frequent presenter, co-authored “All Aboard,” and actively serves on several disability advocacy boards.Anthony Corona is the founder and executive producer of the Sunday edition, a family of podcasts and digital media content services. For almost 6 years, a Sunday edition family has been producing quality, entertaining, educational, and fun podcasts, special events, and discussions. Anthony lives in Miami with his partner and four dogs who believe they run the world! Look for Anthony on your social media, Substack, and search for 'Sunday Edition with Anthony Corona,' where you can find your favorite podcasts.Connecting with Ron & Anthony:Ron Brooks: accessibleavenue.net, www.uzurv.com, LinkedIn @Ron Brooks Anthony Corona: opendoorsnfp.org, email - sundayeditionac@gmail.comConnect with Bold Blind Beauty to learn more about our advocacy: Join our Instagram community @BoldBlindBeauty Subscribe to our YouTube channel @BoldBlindBeauty Check out our website www.boldblindbeauty.com Music Credit: "Ambient Uplifting Harmonic Happy" By Panda-x-music https://audiojungle.net/item/ambient-uplifting-harmonic-happy/46309958Thanks for listening!❤️

In this episode, we chat with Choni Fernández, Chief Sustainability Officer and Customer at PortAventura World, the first carbon-neutral theme park in the world, and now proudly B Corp certified.Choni isn't just ticking ESG boxes, she's leading a cultural shift in how attractions operate. From zero-emissions hotels to renewable energy and deep supply chain work, PortAventura is setting the global standard.In this episode, we dive into the real work behind the headlines. How do you build a sustainability culture that actually sticks? Can you lead without a big green team? And what does digital sustainability really mean?If you're serious about sustainability, or wondering where to start, this is the conversation you need to hear.Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your host is Paul Marden, with co host Andy Povey and roving reporter Claire Furnival.If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website SkiptheQueue.fm.If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on LinkedIn. Show references:  PortAventura World website: https://www.portaventuraworld.com/nosotros/trabaja-con-nosotrosChoni Fernández on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/choni-fern%C3%A1ndez-veciana/Choni Fernández is Customer, Sustainability and Communications Director at PortAventura World. With a background in Economics and over a decade at BASF, she joined PortAventura in 2007, where she has led Procurement, Logistics, and Sustainability. She spearheaded the company's sustainability strategy, achieving the milestone of B Corp Certification, and now leads the newly created Customer Department to drive a more customer-centric approach. Choni also serves as Catalonia Delegate at DIRSE and is Chair of the IAAPA EMEA Sustainability Committee. Plus, live from the IAAPA Expo Europe show floor, we catch up with:Jakob Wahl, President & CEO of IAAPAhttps://iaapa.org/https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakob-wahl/Elliot Hall from Expression Capital Partners LLPhttps://expressioncapitalpartners.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliot-h-1b804a6a/Matt Barton, CEO / Co-Founder CurtainUp Ltd. & President of Themed Entertainment Association TEA https://www.curtainup.livehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-barton-99a8039/Melissa Oviedo, Chief Executive Officer, Themed Entertainment Association TEA https://www.teaconnect.org/https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-oviedo-ruminot-90a63228/Kevin Murphy, Senior VP, Kraftwerk Living Technologieshttp://www.kraftwerk.athttps://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-murphy-854439/Jacob Thompson, CX Director, Attractions.io https://attractions.iohttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-thompson-icap-151271149/ Transcriptions:  Welcome, skip the queue, to Barcelona.Paul Marden: Welcome to Skip the Queue, the podcast about the world's best attractions and the amazing people that work in them. I'm your host, Paul Marden, and along with my co-host, Andy Povey, and roving reporter Claire Furnival, we're bringing you the latest news from IAAPA Expo Europe in Barcelona.Paul Marden: You join me today tired and just a little bit emotional at the airport after an amazing week at the show.Paul Marden: In this episode, we wrap up our time at IAAPA Expo Europe with a final look back at the show floor buzz. I catch up with Jakob Wahl, Chief Executive Officer of IAAPA, to get his reflections on an unforgettable week, from standout innovations to what's next for the global attractions industry. But first, Andy sits down with Choni Fernandez, Chief Sustainability Officer at PortAventura World, to explore what it really takes to become the first carbon neutral theme park on the planet and why sustainability must be at the heart of guest experience going forward.Andy Povey: So hello, everybody. I'm joined today by Choni Fernandez from PortAventura World. Choni is responsible for sustainability and guest experience and a number of other things, I believe, Choni. Hello and welcome to Skip the Queue. Hello. Choni Fernandez: Thank you very much for your invitation. Andy Povey: So, Choni, you guys at PortAventura World are really leading the industry and probably more than just our industry. In terms of sustainability, you were the first carbon neutral theme park in the world and in '24, the first theme park company to achieve a BCorp certification. Am I right?Choni Fernandez: Yes, you're right. It was, in fact, we are VCOPS since 2022. And yes, we were operational carbon neutral because we reduced our emissions during several years. And after that, we acquired some carbon credits to compensate the result of the balancing emissions. For scope one and two. Yes. So since then we are operational carbon neutral. That is not really an official name, but it's easy to explain what we are doing. Andy Povey: Okay. So what is the official name?Choni Fernandez: The official name, in fact, now that's interesting because it's a big discussion in the European community. We chat the terms we can use or not. In the new CCRG, that is going to change. Some words like green, sustainable, are probably forbidden, words that cannot be used any longer. And you need to speak properly about the impact of your activity without using these words that can lead to a type of greenwashing. And you need to be more clear about when you say, for instance, 'carbon neutral,' you need to say, 'we have reduced emissions, we compensate.' More explanation than just using one word that can be easily misunderstood.Andy Povey: Okay, yeah, yeah. That makes a lot of sense. Just buying carbon credits. You're actually doing something positive. Taking action. Like, is it Europe's largest solar farm?Choni Fernandez: It's the largest solar farm. That was one of the biggest at the source of Europe. And for sure, I guess, is still the biggest in Spain.Andy Povey: The biggest solar farm in Spain.Choni Fernandez: Sorry, in a holiday resort, yes. There are other very big solar plants that they produce energy for third parties, but they are not linked to a tourist industry.Andy Povey: No, that makes absolute sense. So you're generating your own power.Choni Fernandez: We generate 30%. The plant is not big enough and we have some restrictions of the government. So we cannot sell the surplus of energy we produce. So we could only make the plan as big as the low on consumption we have in a period of a year.Andy Povey: That makes absolute sense.Choni Fernandez: So that means that there are several months where we produce 100% energy we need. But then, obviously, in the peak of the season, we need extra energy. We buy from the net, but we always buy green energy from the net, too. Then 100% of the energy we consume is green energy, not coming from non-renewable.Andy Povey: It all becomes much more complicated as you dive into the detail, doesn't it?Choni Fernandez: Yes, yes, yes. Everything is much more complicated. And in Europe, yes, I would say even one step more complicated than the rest of the world because of all the regulations.Andy Povey: So what was it that inspired PortAventura World and how did you persuade PortAventura World to take sustainability so seriously?Choni Fernandez Okay, the history starts really with, I would say, a huge pain point, even when they were designing the park. And it was related to water. We are established in an area where we suffer from water scarcity many periods. So for those designers, they already designed the park with sustainability in mind. So they have created a complex system to recover all water rains in a big tank that is our Mediterranean lake.Andy Povey: Yeah, yeah, yeah.Choni Fernandez: So water was a treasure since the beginning. And they have also in a private-public investment. Take all the gray waters from the park, sending it to a water treatment plant several kilometres far away from the resort, and making the pipe bring the recycled water back to the resort for gardening. So PortAventura was using recycled water since 30 years ago. And that was really the starting point of sustainability at PortAventura. So we start with all the environmental impacts that the activity was going to have. And they created the park open doors in 1995. So in 1997, just two years after that, they have created the Green Team.Choni Fernandez: It's a team from different members of different departments who takes care of the environmental impacts and how they can reduce the use of water, energy and so on. And this team is still working nowadays and takes care of more complex things, certifications, but with the same, I would say, purpose, you know, that is to reduce the environmental impact of the resort, and now we start to regenerate different areas. So it's not producing impact, it's creating positive impact through regeneration.Choni Fernandez: And that was a starting point. But I like to repeat that sustainability has not fixed rules. So that is the story of Pota Aventura, because we are what we are. We are located where we are. But for instance, in the Global Sustainability Committee of IAAPA, SCARBRED was a member of that. And SCARBRED, the sustainability, had not begun for the water scarcity. They don't have this problem.Choni Fernandez: So sustainability there was more linked to the social sustainability, how to integrate communities in the project. So it really depends, again, in that moment, the momentum, you know, that we call. Where you are, who you are, what is your future footprint of your activity in your community and in the environment.Choni Fernandez: So we start with that. And year after year, we consolidate this beginning. So any new activity of PortAventura, it doesn't matter— new hotel, new park, convention centre has always followed the same philosophy that we started in 1997.Andy Povey: Very good.Choni Fernandez: Yes, because I think that this makes the project really coherent, consistent, and resilient. So it's something that we have not done from day to night, you know. It's something that we have. It's like a dish you have cooked in a low, low temperature, you know. Andy Povey: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Slow cooker. Choni Fernandez: Slow cook. That is. Sustainable PortAventura is slow cook. But at the end, you know, the dish is very good cooked and it's good.Andy Povey: Absolutely. And then, as the person responsible for customer experience within PortAventura World, before talking to you, I wouldn't necessarily have put... sustainability and customer experience together in the same group.Choni Fernandez: You're right because, okay, that is something that has changed also through years, you know, so sustainability was linked and happened at PortAventura. It was totally linked to the environmental part. But that is only one third of what sustainability means. Sustainability is also the social impact and obviously the governance.Choni Fernandez: We call also ESG. Okay, it has some difference because it has more financial meaning. But what is clear when you talk, when we talk about sustainability, we talk about the environmental impacts and the social impacts. And the social impacts are the impacts that your activity, our activity has on people. And when we talk about people, we talk about employees, we talk about our community that's surrounding us, we talk about shareholders, we talk about suppliers, and we talk about guests or visitors. And the activity of any company should have a positive impact on these people that are affected by the activity, that they are also called stakeholders.Choni Fernandez: So, and here is the reason why we try to improve every year the guest experience in order to improve this positive impact. And at the end of the day, because we are not NGOs. We strongly believe that a positive impact on the guest experience is going to be translated in future revenues, more attendance for our parks, and makes our resort more resilient because it's more profitable in the long term.Andy Povey: So this really is a sort of a wheel or a cycle. Choni Fernandez: You are right. You are right. You are right. So we really differentiate at PortAventura. I mean, sustainability is also a new angle to see your business. There is the financial angle. And then there is the angle— how your activity affects the difference they hold up. But that is clear that both need to go together. I mean, business and sustainability. In fact... One of the reasons to become a BCorp company is to evolve our mission and vision with a purpose that integrates sustainability in the business model. So it is much easier for us to talk to employees, to talk to suppliers, to talk to guests. About what is the reason why it exists and why it's important to have sustainability included in order, again, to make our business resilient through the past of the years.Andy Povey: So we have a lot of listeners around the world. What would be your advice to someone running a venue that doesn't have the advantage of starting with sustainability right at the heart and from where they started their business? How do you make a start on this?Choni Fernandez: That is a very interesting question. And the first I think any company needs to do is really to understand the stakeholders they are affecting too. Because just with this complete transparent and dialogue with the different stakeholders, you really can understand what is the impact you are producing on them. And from this result, then you know where are your main pain points, where you need to focus first on. Obviously, there are some general rules. Your impact on the environment, as I told you before, normally a new venue has, for sure, clients, or at least customer guests, employees, probably shareholders, and then in another level, suppliers, community, etc.Choni Fernandez: So, and depends what is the situation, you need to start with that. You need to prepare a good analysis because, if not, what could happen? Imagine that you focus a lot on the environmental part and you start with that because you have seen that PortAventura has started with that.Choni Fernandez: But then that is not your problem because you are in an area where your resources are really well controlled or your resort has very good standards, very efficient, because it has done with high technology, but you have an employee problem.Choni Fernandez: You have problems perhaps to attract employees, to retain the talent, or really to make them happy working with you. Then you have to start the sustainability for not the most important topic in your company. So the most important is to understand what the stakeholders need from you and then to prepare. And it's also very interesting, I think, to start, you know, things small.Choni Fernandez: Making small projects that can be consolidated and embedded into the company. Because what is really important in a company is that each department, each area of the company, maintenance, procurement, human resources, marketing, and each of the departments really is doing the part of sustainability they need to, because it is impossible that one person on every team produces all the sustainability that the whole company needs to do.Choni Fernandez: So if sustainability is really not embedded in the activity of each Japan, it's really impossible to be a successful company in terms of sustainability. You know what I mean?Andy Povey: I know exactly what you mean. That rule is so true for so many things, isn't it? You could replace the word sustainability with guest experience or ride safety. Choni Fernandez: Yes, it's the same. Andy Povey: Any number of different things.Choni Fernandez: I always explain when people say, 'but you have done a lot, Choni.' I say, 'no, no, no, no, no.' Choni has not done a lot.Choni Fernandez: Many people are doing a lot, you know. And sustainability managers or directors normally are orchestra directors. But each one needs to play its own instrument so we have a nice music, you know. If not, it does not work at all, you know, like in orchestra. So we need the maintenance guy, really. or the energy manager to really take care of that. And human resources really to prepare inclusivity, et cetera, policies linked to employees. And marketing, doing really an ethic marketing to guests. So, and that is how everyone is really doing a part of the peak and sustainability of the company.Andy Povey: That sounds very familiar and I'm sure for our guests will ring true in many different areas. It's interesting you talk about really understanding where you are. What it is you're doing. We've done some work here in the UK on the sustainability of websites. So by not printing a park map, you obviously save resources, you save paper. But if you put that on a really inefficient webpage, then you're just consuming someone else's electricity. It doesn't make you any more sustainable.Choni Fernandez: And one thing I would like to tell you is that one of the big steps for us was when our investors make the management very clear that investors of the private funds that own PortAventura were asking for sustainable investments. So that was also a way, really, to receive more money from the investors to the owners. And that is very important because when the financial markets really recognise that sustainability is a plus for an investment, then, you know, things change. Things happen. And we had two moments in this company, in my opinion, for us, for sustainability managers, that make this big change in our mindset. Choni Fernandez: One is the world of our shareholders. And that was really a big, big step forward. Because we realised then, 'oh my God, we are sustainable. We can be sustainable. Our sustainability is a lever really to receive more funds to our business.'Choni Fernandez: And the second one was when we have two different businesses, really a B2C— final customer— and a B2E— travel agencies, companies who do their conventions in our convention, et cetera, et cetera. Once upon a time, a company came to PortAventura asking for a quotation for a big convention, European size, very big one.Choni Fernandez: And before receiving the quotation, they asked, 'Please, can you send us your sustainability report?' Because we would like to see if that's the venue where we want to go. Now, everything changed.Andy Povey: Absolutely.Choni Fernandez: Because at first time, sustainability was bringing business to the company. It was not a nice to have, something that we need to have. It was really part of the business. And that changed the history of the, I would say, the sustainability journey of this company when we have both shareholders' commitment and really request to continue on that. And on the other side, we were recognised for our sustainability activity in a business case.Andy Povey: It's very interesting when you get push or pull from both sides. Choni Fernandez: You're right. Then you realise that there is no other way to do that, you know, so you need pushing, pushing.Andy Povey: You're doing a lot of work about education, work, and working with schools, and having to engage them in your journey.Choni Fernandez: That's again the same case, you know. So in our guest segmentation, school groups are one of them. And it is a very important group for us and I guess for other operators too. As we receive many schoolers. But, you know, the teachers, not students, they thought that the trip to PortAventura was really 100% entertainment. And schools were looking for something more cultural, educational.Choni Fernandez: So then, at that moment, we prepare some workshops at the beginning of the day before the park opens. If the park opens at 10, we can deliver a sustainability workshop from 9 to 10. For instance, talking to kids about biodiversity, about waste management, how to produce green energy. So in the solar plant, we don't have only solar panels. We also have some instruments, some elements to explain children how to produce green energy with movement, with wind, with sun, with solar energy. And they can experiment with their hands. With this element, how to produce this green energy. And they understand very well because that is part of the curriculum that they have to study at school. But now they can put it in practice in a different way, in a way... that our industry delivers very well, that is entertainment, you know?Andy Povey: Yes, yeah, yeah.Choni Fernandez: And that is driving more schools to visit us. So again, there is another link with sustainability, more business, more attendance, more revenues.Andy Povey: We're back on the cycle.Choni Fernandez: Yeah, again, the cycle. We close the loop, you know.Andy Povey: Absolutely. Choni, is there something you'd like to leave as a sort of parting message or a final thought to everybody that's listening to the podcast? A single sentence about how they can emulate your success.Choni Fernandez: No, I think that, okay, sometimes in life, you know, for sustainability managers, I mean, and now in the world, perhaps you feel like Talmon, you know, coming up to the river.Andy Povey: Yeah, yeah, yeah.Choni Fernandez: In a difficult situation, but it doesn't matter. So the evidence is so strong that, if you really can close the loop, as we have been talking, if you can really demonstrate and we can close the gap. Between the sustainability impacts and the financial impacts, then sustainability is part of your business. I think that should be the goal— to really don't have sustainability as something nice to have additional to the business. Avoid that at all.Choni Fernandez: Sustainability is part of the business and makes the business more resilient and more profitable in the long term.Andy Povey: Lovely. That's a great message to leave us with. Paul Marden: Now let's hear some of the buzz from the show floor.Claire Furnival: So day three of IAAPA and I've just bumped into Matt Barton. Matt Barton: Hello. Claire Furnival: Matt, you wear many hats.Matt Barton: My day job is I'm the founder and CEO of Curtain Up. I'm also the owner of 7th Sense, a company that makes media servers and pixel management systems. But I'm also the president of the Themed Entertainment Association, better known as the TEA.Claire Furnival: Crumbs, the busy man. I hear you had a party last night. Matt Barton: We did. Yeah, we had a very successful mixer. We have a great relationship with IAAPA and we have a mixer at all of IAAPA's events around the globe. And we bring our members together, usually on the second or third night of the event.Claire Furnival: Anything announced last night at the party?Matt Barton: Yeah, so we announced our next SAIT conference, and SAIT stands for Storytelling, Architecture, Technology equals Experience. So it's a thought leadership conference where we talk about trends in the industry, best practices to follow, that kind of thing. We've just finished our SAIT Asia event just three weeks ago now, and that was in New Zealand this year. And we just last announced that we're going to be in Dubai next year. Again, building on that great relationship we have with IAAPA, we're actually doing it almost like a pre-conference event. So it's tied in with IAAPA Middle East, which is going to be in Abu Dhabi. We're going to be the week before. So people can then come to SAIT, enjoy SAIT with us, and then go straight down to Abu Dhabi for the IAAPA conference.Claire Furnival: What activities is it that the TEA do? What do you offer your members?Matt Barton: So a whole range of things. And what I'm going to do now is introduce our CEO, Melissa. Melissa Oviedo.Claire Furnival: Great to meet you, Melissa. So what is it that TEA offers its members?Melissa  Oviedo: We are really the connection community. The connection community for the design, the makers, the builders, the creators. Everybody who delivers world-class experiences around the world, that's really who we are and what we represent. That can be from theme parks to museums to cultural to location-based entertainment. Claire Furnival: So I understand that the TEA does an annual benchmark report. Melissa  Oviedo: Yeah, we've just rebranded this. This is the TEA Theme Experience Index. This is the 19th year that we're doing this benchmark study. Yeah, it's really exciting for us. And what this is, is this is the annual attendance report that tracks attendance data from around the globe for the top theme parks, water parks, and museums globally. It really looks at trends, so we can understand where are the guests going, where are they spending their time, how are the parks, especially as they're coming new on the market, how do they influence those trends? And we're actually going to be launching this on October 22nd.Claire Furnival: So a couple of questions spring to mind on that one. So first of all, can anybody access the report?Melissa  Oviedo: Yeah, sure can. It's a completely free resource. You can go online. If you're not a member, we just ask for you to fill out a quick form so we know who's downloading the report. And you will have full access to all of the data, and we will have actual books to hand out at IAAPA in Orlando in November.Claire Furnival: The sector's very, very, very lucky to have this piece of research. So can you give us any snippets as to what we might see in the report?Melissa  Oviedo: I think you'll see that the theme parks are really consistent. The big players are still the big players with Disney and Universal really driving the... main attendance data. And then China, with Chimalong Park, really still holding rank at number one water park in the world. We're seeing the attendance coming back in a fierce way in China.Melissa  Oviedo: Outlook is positive. Overall, though, you'll be able to find in the report a lot of the trends that we're seeing. A lot of what we're not only anticipating in 2025, but in the future as well, with all of the developments that are happening. So, really exciting, this year's report. Claire Furnival: And what about 2026? What does that bring the TEA? Melissa  Oviedo: Momentum is high, right? The community continues to look at how they diversify as an organisation or as a business. Theme parks is our core, but we're so much more than just that. So I think you're going to see. More people doing really cool and immersive things in new places. I think the definition of themed entertainment gets broadened and further defined. I think that you're going to see more activity and more collaboration because collaboration is really when the magic happens. And you're going to start to see that even more robustly in 2026 and beyond. Claire Furnival: Sounds exciting. So last thought from you, Matt.Matt Barton: Yeah, I just wanted to touch on a couple of things we've got left in 2025 before we look to 2026. So I mentioned SAIT earlier. We also have our SAIT conference in North America coming up. So that's in October. at Knott's Berry Farm, and that ties in with when we're launching the Global Experience Index. And then in November, we've got our mixer, our international mixer, combined with the IAAPA conference in Orlando. And so on the Tuesday night of IAAPA, we have our international mixer at the Isle of Berk attraction at Epic Universe. We've got the whole land, we've got dinner and drinks, and it's going to be a good one, so make sure you get your tickets in.Claire Furnival: One not to miss. Well, it's fabulous to catch up with both you, Matt, and you, Melissa. So thank you very much for your time.Matt Barton: Thank you.Melissa  Oviedo:  Thank you so much, Claire.Andy Povey: So we're on day three, and I'm sitting here with Elliot Hall, who's one of the founding partners behind Expression Capital Partners. Elliot, hello. Elliot Hall: Hi, Andy. Good to see you. Andy Povey: For our listeners at home, can you just tell me what Expression Capital Partners do and treat me like an idiot because I really don't understand the world of investment banking and all that kind of stuff.Elliot Hall: Okay, so Expression Capital Partners is the advisory firm to Entertainment Investments 1LP. Which is specialising in the entertainment industry. Andy Povey: Interesting. So I understand you're doing some work with Hasbro and in particular things like Monopoly.Elliot Hall: Yes, yes, yes, absolutely. So we're looking to open monopoly-themed hotels and casinos around the world. Andy Povey: Wow. Elliot Hall: Along with many of the different types of brands, as we're rather across their 1000 plus brands. Andy Povey: I understand there's also some sporting connections. Tell us a little bit about, tell us what you can. Elliot Hall: Yeah, so what we can. We are working with some brands that have relationships and contracts for the IP for UEFA, FIFA and the FA. Yeah, so some really exciting products there and businesses. And we are in a position to be able to sign licenses and lease agreements and so on. And we're looking at bringing all of those brands together, either in the same cluster of IP attractions or within one building under one roof. Andy Povey: So, Elliot, you guys really are the people that are bringing the magic together. The IP, the operators, and then working out how someone funds it all.Elliot Hall: Yes, absolutely, yes. Andy Povey: Fantastic.Claire Furnival: So I'm here talking to Kevin Murphy from Kraftwerk Living Technologies. How are you finding the show this year and what do you see the trends for 2026 for you, Kraftwerk or also the industry?Kevin Murphy: I think in many respects, the trend at the moment is survival, which isn't being negative, but the world is a different place from how it was pre-COVID. The industry, though, is very, very alive. There's a lot happening out there. It's good to see the show for full. We actually tried to get a booth this year and couldn't. Everything had sold out. It's busy. People are wandering around with a very positive vein. But there's no doubt that there's— world tensions and there's problems with investment— and it does affect the industry and you know we're not immune from that. Kevin Murphy: But what's been good about this show is that a lot of the partners and Clients that we're working with are starting to announce their new projects. You have to bear in mind, for us, we do high technology behind the scenes in parks and museums and science centres. We can be working on them for many, many years. So we've had projects that have been brewing and they're just starting to get announced now. So what I'm seeing is, although there's concern about the industry, there is a slightly more positive vein coming through. I think the economy is improving out there, investors are starting to come out, and you can make money out of our industry.Claire Furnival: So what in particular have you got going on in 2026? Anything you can talk about and share with us?Kevin Murphy: Well, we're very, very pleased it's been announced, so I can talk about it. Plopsaland, which is a park in Belgium, are working with Mac. And I'm delighted to see that they've just announced, earlier than we expected, we're still working behind the scenes, but they've now announced their new flying theatre. Which will be ready and prepared at the end of 2026 for the 2027 opening.Claire Furnival: Congratulations, that's really, really exciting news.Kevin Murphy: Sadly, a lot of the other projects, I still can't say too, too much, because they may not have announced.Claire Furnival: Yeah, the dreaded NDAs.Claire Furnival: Just bumped into Jacob from Attractions. io. How's the show been for you?Jacob   Thompson: Great. This is my second time at IAAPA in Barcelona. It's been even better than the first time. So the weather's held out. Great conversations, great company. So overall, a success.Claire Furnival: And a little birdie has told me that you have a new feature coming out.Jacob   Thompson: That is true. So, yeah, we have launched a new product this month called GX Pulse. And the idea is it's enabling operators to make sense of all the noise of guest reviews and sentiment by breaking... reviews down from TripAdvisor, Google reviews, their own internal platforms to make sense and map that across a guest journey, specifically for attractions. So it's able to understand sentiment across things like queue management, your attractions, your food and beverage, give you scores and benchmark you against other venues. But most importantly, give you actionable insights to make improvements to the guest experience.Claire Furnival: Brilliant use of data there. Really, really, really good. So is this product now launched?Jacob  Thompson: Yes, yes it is. So we've been demoing it across some attractions at the trade show floor this week and it's had some really positive feedback. This product is completely separate from our core app platform and experience. So even if you don't have a mobile app and don't need a mobile app, this can be valuable for anybody that is looking to understand the sentiment and experience of their guests across their attractions.Claire Furnival: Fabulous. Guest will be seeing you in IAAPA Orlando.Jacob   Thompson: Yes, and I heard there's going to be a great party hosted by Skip the Queue.Claire Furnival: I'm not sure we'll be hosting a party, but we'll certainly be partying.Jacob   Thompson: Well, I'll be there to join you nonetheless.Paul Marden: So we're here for the final day of IAAPA Expo Europe. I've had a whale of a time and I'm sat here with Jakob Wahl, who amazingly, considering three days into this fantastic expo, is still looking fresh and bright. Jakob, please introduce yourself for our listeners who may not know you.Jakob  Wahl: I'm president and CEO of IAAPA, the Global Association for the Attractions Industry. I've done that now for two and a half years, but in total I've been with IAPA for, I think, nearly 15 years.Paul Marden: Wow, so man and boy almost.Jakob  Wahl: Yeah, you know, and I always say the kid in the candy store— I love doing what we do and bringing people together.Paul Marden: How could you not? So this is my first IAAPA. It has been fantastic and stood on the show floor. I think it was yesterday. I was on my own, done so many interviews. I've been bouncing around, but I just had a few minutes by myself and just stood in the middle of it all. Totally is like being a kid in a candy store, the Willy Wonka moment isn't it? Of what this place is like, because it is so fantastic.Jakob  Wahl:  It is and the most wonderful thing about it is, you know, we as an association, we create a framework, but it is actually all of you, our members, who fill it with life. Because everybody comes together. It's just a massive class reunion. People know each other. And the best thing about it is they're all willing to help and support each other. So obviously, the trade show floor is one component, but we have all those networking sessions, the education sessions, safety corners, we have places where people can exchange, depending on what they work in or where they work, and everybody comes together to share. That is so wonderful, because it's not only family-owned parks, small parks, big parks, but it's also the big private equity corporate players. They're all here to really benefit from this platform, and that fills me with pride.Paul Marden: Good. So, as the week draws to a close, what's been the real highlights for you?Jakob  Wahl: How much time do I have? First of all, the people. It's always the people. It's, you know, for me, it's my team coming together from all around the world, putting this together. And then it's... the people coming and creating those education sessions, creating those moments together, sharing their knowledge. That is just wonderful. There's not one specific moment like that, but it happens all the time. Jakob  Wahl: And then one of the highlights for me is always, always, always the opening reception. That is our Tuesday night event, which took place at Tibidabo, this classic historic amusement park on top of Barcelona. We were a little bit concerned Monday. Will it rain? Will it not rain? So we had to rent tents to make sure that everybody will stay dry. And what happens if you're intense? Obviously, it doesn't rain. Jakob  Wahl: There was an expensive insurance, but it turned out to be exactly that evening. And we have been to Barcelona three times now. We have been to the Tibidabo three times and I think I can be pretty sure that when we go back to Barcelona in three years, we will also go again to Tibidabo because, you know, it's just this evening filled with magic and good people.Paul Marden: Excellent. You've had some time wandering the show floors, I'm sure, talking to suppliers, getting a feel for what's happening in the industry. What have you heard from the show floor that you think is going to influence the sector over the year ahead?Jakob  Wahl: I would have loved to ask you that question, actually. What is your impression?Paul Marden: Oh, the blending of tech with real life I find really interesting. We all want to take our kids to attractions because we want to pull them away from their screens. But there's got to be a hook, I think. And in many cases, there are rides or there are amusements of some form that is a skillful blending of that tech with an in-life, in-real-life experience that I think is the hook to get the kids in. But then we're still wrenching them away from the screens. They're doing something for real with family.Jakob  Wahl: Yeah, I think technology enhances the experience. It doesn't replace the experience. I think that is something which is very clear on the show floor, that there are different ways of how you can combine existing attractions with new technology. And we sometimes call it fusion attractions, where you bring several elements into play with each other. And I think that is very important. What we have seen also is an increase in what I would call smart technology. How can you use technology... to improve the guest flow, to make it even smoother. We all want to have a smooth process. It should be easy on the phone. All those things, besides the classic coasters and water slides and inflatables, that is, I think, some area which has really grown on our trade show floor over the past years.Paul Marden: Yeah, absolutely. If you can smooth that process from the moment that they hit the website all the way through, getting them to the experience and then back out the other side and encouraging them to want to return again is really important, isn't it?Jakob  Wahl: And the same is for operations and maintenance, the front of house for the customer, but also the back of house. And we learned some fascinating things. We talked in our leadership breakfast with the CEO of a large park group, and he said, 'There are tools that can now predict 93% of the attendance of every day.' And that is just fascinating because that helps operational planning, that helps food and beverage planning, that helps all those aspects in running a park successfully or running an attraction successfully.Paul Marden: Absolutely. So, as we come to the end of IAAPA Expo Europe, there are many US listeners, I'm sure, also quite a few Brits as well, anticipating IAAPA Expo Orlando in November. Have you got any insider tips or things that we can look forward to in Orlando? Jakob  Wahl: I can say it will be epic. There's quite a significant theme park which opened this year, Epic Universe, which is just down the road from the convention centre.Jakob  Wahl: And we actually have not only... Mark Woodbury is speaking in our keynote in our leadership breakfast. But we also have privatised the park on Thursday evening for the IAAPA Celebrates for four hours. So it is Epic Universe, just for IAAPA members, which will be amazing. I've had the luck to visit the park several times. And I can only tell you, you know, you should be there. The evening before the show opens on Monday, IAAPA has the Legends event, the honorary evening for the Hall of Fame. And this year we're actually inducting five inductees. Among them is Dolly Parton. So if you have ever wanted to meet Dolly Parton. Paul Marden: The real Dolly Parton. Wow.Jakob  Wahl: Yeah, Dolly Parton is getting into the IAAPA Hall of Fame, besides some other really fantastic candidates or inductees. And she will be there to receive that accolade. And as you said, you have many British listeners. Next year, IAAPA Expo Europe is in London.Paul Marden: Now, I'd quite like to do an edit for my family that might be listening, because that did sound quite epic. And we need to be absolutely clear that there's lots of hard work to be done in Orlando, as well as enjoying ourselves at Epic and seeing Dolly Parton.Jakob  Wahl: Yeah, I'm pretty sure we need to Skip the Queue on site for a podcast from Orlando.Paul Marden: Oh, there we go. There we go. I think we should end it there. Jakob, it has been delightful to meet you. I've really enjoyed it. I'm so grateful for being invited to come to IAAPA this year. Bring the podcast here. I've had so much fun. I've learned so much. It's been wonderful. Thank you.Jakob  Wahl: Oh, we love what you do. Thank you, you know, for making the attractions industry present in the digital space. And we are all great listeners of your podcast. So thank you for what you do for us.Paul Marden: Wow, what a week. A massive thank you to IAAPA for hosting us in Barcelona. It was an incredible few days of connection, innovation, and inspiration. We've absolutely loved being part of it. And who knows, maybe we'll see you again sooner than you think. If you liked today's episode, please like us or leave a comment on your podcast platform. It really does help people to find us. And lastly, thank you to all of the team that made these daily episodes and today's wrap-up session. A possibility without the team it could not have been possible to have done this— thank you to Emily and Sami at Plaster, Steve at Folland Co. Wenayn, Claire, and Andy back at Skip the Queue HQ. It has been a delight to be with you and I look forward to seeing you again next week. The 2025 Visitor Attraction Website Survey is now LIVE! Dive into groundbreaking benchmarks for the industryGain a better understanding of how to achieve the highest conversion ratesExplore the "why" behind visitor attraction site performanceLearn the impact of website optimisation and visitor engagement on conversion ratesUncover key steps to enhance user experience for greater conversionsTake the Rubber Cheese Visitor Attraction Website Survey Report

Thabo Shole-Mashao standing in for Clement Manyathela speaks to Phakamile Mbengashe, Head of Department of Communications, Marketing and Tourism at the City of Ekurhuleni to get an update on the tourim stakeholder engagement session happening in Ekurhuleni this morning. The Clement Manyathela Show is broadcast on 702, a Johannesburg based talk radio station, weekdays from 09:00 to 12:00 (SA Time). Clement Manyathela starts his show each weekday on 702 at 9 am taking your calls and voice notes on his Open Line. In the second hour of his show, he unpacks, explains, and makes sense of the news of the day. Clement has several features in his third hour from 11 am that provide you with information to help and guide you through your daily life. As your morning friend, he tackles the serious as well as the light-hearted, on your behalf. Thank you for listening to a podcast from The Clement Manyathela Show. Listen live on Primedia+ weekdays from 09:00 and 12:00 (SA Time) to The Clement Manyathela Show broadcast on 702 https://buff.ly/gk3y0Kj For more from the show go to https://buff.ly/XijPLtJ or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/p0gWuPE Subscribe to the 702 Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/v5mfetc Follow us on social media: 702 on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TalkRadio702 702 on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@talkradio702 702 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkradio702/ 702 on X: https://x.com/Radio702 702 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@radio702 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thabo Shole-Mashao standing in for Clement Manyathela is joined by to Greg Hoffman, Marketing Manager for Birchwood Hotel they discuss the servies offered by Birchwood Hotel. Greg also touched on the Hotel’s contribution to job creating in the city of Ekurhuleni by offering learnership to young people who do not have work experience. The Clement Manyathela Show is broadcast on 702, a Johannesburg based talk radio station, weekdays from 09:00 to 12:00 (SA Time). Clement Manyathela starts his show each weekday on 702 at 9 am taking your calls and voice notes on his Open Line. In the second hour of his show, he unpacks, explains, and makes sense of the news of the day. Clement has several features in his third hour from 11 am that provide you with information to help and guide you through your daily life. As your morning friend, he tackles the serious as well as the light-hearted, on your behalf. Thank you for listening to a podcast from The Clement Manyathela Show. Listen live on Primedia+ weekdays from 09:00 and 12:00 (SA Time) to The Clement Manyathela Show broadcast on 702 https://buff.ly/gk3y0Kj For more from the show go to https://buff.ly/XijPLtJ or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/p0gWuPE Subscribe to the 702 Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/v5mfetc Follow us on social media: 702 on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TalkRadio702 702 on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@talkradio702 702 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkradio702/ 702 on X: https://x.com/Radio702 702 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@radio702 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thabo Shole-Mashao standing in for Clement Manyathela is joined by Lebohang Skhosana from Toca Essentials, a pioneering wellness and cosmetics company that harnesses the power of African indigenous herbs in its processing and manufacturing operations. The Clement Manyathela Show is broadcast on 702, a Johannesburg based talk radio station, weekdays from 09:00 to 12:00 (SA Time). Clement Manyathela starts his show each weekday on 702 at 9 am taking your calls and voice notes on his Open Line. In the second hour of his show, he unpacks, explains, and makes sense of the news of the day. Clement has several features in his third hour from 11 am that provide you with information to help and guide you through your daily life. As your morning friend, he tackles the serious as well as the light-hearted, on your behalf. Thank you for listening to a podcast from The Clement Manyathela Show. Listen live on Primedia+ weekdays from 09:00 and 12:00 (SA Time) to The Clement Manyathela Show broadcast on 702 https://buff.ly/gk3y0Kj For more from the show go to https://buff.ly/XijPLtJ or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/p0gWuPE Subscribe to the 702 Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/v5mfetc Follow us on social media: 702 on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TalkRadio702 702 on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@talkradio702 702 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkradio702/ 702 on X: https://x.com/Radio702 702 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@radio702 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thabo shole-Mashao standing in for Clement Manyathela is joined by Dineo Matsi, Portfolio Chair for Corporate and Shared Services, to discuss the strategic importance of boosting tourism in Ekurhuleni and unlocking its full potential. The Clement Manyathela Show is broadcast on 702, a Johannesburg based talk radio station, weekdays from 09:00 to 12:00 (SA Time). Clement Manyathela starts his show each weekday on 702 at 9 am taking your calls and voice notes on his Open Line. In the second hour of his show, he unpacks, explains, and makes sense of the news of the day. Clement has several features in his third hour from 11 am that provide you with information to help and guide you through your daily life. As your morning friend, he tackles the serious as well as the light-hearted, on your behalf. Thank you for listening to a podcast from The Clement Manyathela Show. Listen live on Primedia+ weekdays from 09:00 and 12:00 (SA Time) to The Clement Manyathela Show broadcast on 702 https://buff.ly/gk3y0Kj For more from the show go to https://buff.ly/XijPLtJ or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/p0gWuPE Subscribe to the 702 Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/v5mfetc Follow us on social media: 702 on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TalkRadio702 702 on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@talkradio702 702 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkradio702/ 702 on X: https://x.com/Radio702 702 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@radio702 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thabo shole-Mashao standing in for Clement Manyathela is joined by Nkosindiphile Xhakaza, Executive Mayor of Ekurhuleni, to discuss the key objectives of the Tourism Stakeholder Engagement Sessions, focusing on enhancing the city's tourism capacity and fostering stronger partnerships with industry stakeholders. The Clement Manyathela Show is broadcast on 702, a Johannesburg based talk radio station, weekdays from 09:00 to 12:00 (SA Time). Clement Manyathela starts his show each weekday on 702 at 9 am taking your calls and voice notes on his Open Line. In the second hour of his show, he unpacks, explains, and makes sense of the news of the day. Clement has several features in his third hour from 11 am that provide you with information to help and guide you through your daily life. As your morning friend, he tackles the serious as well as the light-hearted, on your behalf. Thank you for listening to a podcast from The Clement Manyathela Show. Listen live on Primedia+ weekdays from 09:00 and 12:00 (SA Time) to The Clement Manyathela Show broadcast on 702 https://buff.ly/gk3y0Kj For more from the show go to https://buff.ly/XijPLtJ or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/p0gWuPE Subscribe to the 702 Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/v5mfetc Follow us on social media: 702 on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TalkRadio702 702 on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@talkradio702 702 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkradio702/ 702 on X: https://x.com/Radio702 702 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@radio702 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Suivez le guide pas à pas pour construire un programme de Win/Loss Analysis qui vous permet de rentrer dans la tête de vos prospects et clients.On parle d'un programme qui aligne les équipes et influence les décisions business pour générer + de CA, + de satisfaction et - de churn. Avec Jade Vandelook, Head of CSM - Program Manager chez Diffly, on revient sur les étapes concrètes pour construire un programme utile, exploitable et durable.

Comprenez (vraiment) vos clients grâce au programme Win-Loss. Fini les excuses "c'est trop cher", "C'est pas le bon moment". Jade Vandelook, Head of CSM - partage les clés pour récolter des insights fiables et enfin savoir ce que vos clients ne vous disent pas de prime abord.

The Department of Health and Human Services has made ChatGPT available to all of its employees effective immediately, according to a Tuesday departmentwide email obtained by FedScoop. In that message, HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O'Neill said the rollout of the generative AI platform follows a directive from President Donald Trump's AI Action Plan for agencies to ensure that workers who could benefit from the technology have access to it. “This tool can help us promote rigorous science, radical transparency, and robust good health,” O'Neill said. “As Secretary Kennedy said, ‘The AI revolution has arrived.'” O'Neill provided workers with instructions on how to log on to use the tool, as well as some warnings about how to treat outputs. He told workers to “be skeptical of everything you read, watch for potential bias, and treat answers as suggestions,” and directed them to weigh original sources and counterarguments prior to making a major decision. The General Services Administration has created a new office within the Federal Acquisition Service focused on streamlining the agency's procurement of common goods and services, a GSA spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. Acting GSA Administrator Michael Rigas recently signed the order establishing the Office of Centralized Acquisition Services (OCAS), the spokesperson said, describing it as a “centralized, enterprise-wide approach.” “By leveraging one federal wallet, GSA will deliver significant savings to the taxpayer, greater efficiencies, and reduced duplication, enabling agencies to focus on their core missions,” the spokesperson said in a written statement. GSA senior executive Thomas Meiron will serve as the office's assistant commissioner, the GSA said. Meiron has been with the GSA for over three decades, according to his LinkedIn profile. He most recently served as the acting assistant commissioner for the agency's Office of Customer and Stakeholder Engagement. The move directly supports President Donald Trump's executive order, signed in March, to consolidate federal procurement in the GSA. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Send us a MessageIn this episode of Culture Change Rx, Sue Tetzlaff engaged in conversation with Michelle Franklin, CEO of Sullivan County Community Hospital in Sullivan, Indiana, to discuss the importance of mission, vision, and values in the context of a community hospital. They explore how these elements evolve over time, particularly in response to organizational growth and community needs. Michelle shares insights from her experience as CEO, emphasizing the significance of engaging stakeholders in the process and ensuring that the mission and vision are actively lived and communicated within the organization and the community.While an organization's mission, vision, and values don't change often, they do need to evolve with the organization.Engaging stakeholders in the revision process is crucial.Behavior standards should be updated alongside mission, vision, and values changes.Organizational identity should reflect current capabilities and future aspirations.Regular reflection on mission and vision can drive organizational excellence.Capstone helps rural hospitals be the provider- and employer-of-choice to keep care local and margins strong. Learn more via a complimentary consultation call. Schedule at: CapstoneLeadership.net/Contact-Us Learn more - and register - for an upcoming Capstone Leadership Summit: CapstoneLeadership.net/Upcoming-EventsHi! I'm Sue Tetzlaff. I'm a culture and execution strategist for small and rural healthcare organizations - helping them to be the provider and employer-of-choice so they can keep care local and margins strong.For decades, I've worked with healthcare organizations to navigate the people-side of healthcare, the part that can make or break your results. What I've learned is this: culture is not a soft thing. It's the hardest thing, and it determines everything.When you're ready to take your culture to the next level, here are three ways I can help you:1. Listen to the Culture Change RX PodcastEvery week, I share conversations with leaders who are transforming healthcare workplaces and strategies for keeping teams engaged, patients loyal, and margins healthy. 2. Subscribe to our Email NewsletterGet practical tips, frameworks, and leadership tools delivered right to your inbox—plus exclusive content you won't find on the podcast.

How can conversation become a real driver of circular transformation? In this episode, George Marshall explains why conversations are central to circular change and how to design them to build trust, reach across difference, and motivate action. Circular economy strategies often focus on systems and structures but lasting change only happens when people connect new behaviors to their own identity and values. Without shared understanding and engagement, technical solutions risk staying at the surface. Recorded live at the LOOP Forum 2025, his keynote explores how businesses can move beyond top-down messaging to create real dialogue that activates people at every level of an organisation. This episode is part of our series on the LOOP Forum 2025 highlights, bringing you the key ideas and insights from this year's leading Nordic event on circularity.

Summary In this candid live-stream conversation, Andy chats with content creator and project leader Stuart Taylor, the mind behind the Influential PMO platform and the Stuart Taylor Project YouTube channel. They dig into the difference between influencers and thought leaders, how to choose topics that genuinely help practitioners, and what to do when metrics don't match the effort. Stuart shares practical strategies for building professional visibility on LinkedIn and YouTube, including how to craft resonant messages, handle trolls, and focus on service over self-promotion. The discussion also explores Stuart's experiment asking whether AI could manage a project. Spoiler: AI is a strong team member for first drafts and research, but a weak project manager. They wrap with career advice for today's shifting job market, including why to think like an internal consultant and how to future-proof your career by learning in public. If you're looking for insights on personal branding, creator tactics, and AI's real role in project work, this episode is for you! Sound Bites Regarding AI: "It cannot be the project manager. It's spineless. It is a weakling leader." "There is no such thing as a permanent job anymore." “Share what you know and people will be drawn to you for what you are sharing.” “Learn to make a resonating message. Learn how to share value.” “I never did this to become internet famous… What problem do I want to solve? That's it.” “Because you don't understand how the algorithm works. You think your whole network's ignoring you, and in fact, all that's happened is maybe less than 10% of your network has seen the message before the algorithm realized that your message wasn't resonating.” “It will be the penny pinching execs who want to save a few dollars, who will take your job, and they'll replace it with a machine that can do 50% of your job for a fraction of your price, and they'll live with the 50% they can't do.” Chapters 00:00 Start of Live Stream 02:13 Thoughts on Influencers and Thought Leaders 05:28 Deciding on Video Content 07:34 Views and Metrics 14:41 The Creative Process and Challenges 18:28 Sharing Knowledge and Building a Community 18:49 Navigating Social Media: The Good, The Bad, and The Trolls 19:18 Handling Criticism and Building Connections 24:37 The Role of AI in Project Management 29:10 The Future of Work: AI, Automation, and Adaptation 36:24 Staying Curious and Embracing Change Learn More You can learn more about Stuart and his work here: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/skt Website: InfluentialPMO.com YouTube: Stuart Taylor Project Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Talent Triangle: Business Acumen Topics: Leadership, Project Management, Content Strategy, Personal Branding, Career Development, LinkedIn, Artificial Intelligence, Communication, Influence, Stakeholder Engagement, Future Of Work, Creator Economy The following music was used for this episode: Music: Echo by Alexander Nakarada License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Music: Chillhouse by Frank Schroeter License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Giles Swan, a long-time UK regulator and crypto policy expert, joins Jordan Walker to unpack how the FCA approaches Bitcoin and the wider crypto landscape. With over 20 years in regulation, Giles shares insights from inside the system, including his work at the FCA and the evolving approach to digital assets.They discuss the thinking behind UK crypto rules, why spot Bitcoin ETFs remain out of reach for retail investors, and how the regulator balances innovation with investor protection. 00:00 - Introduction to Regulation and Crypto 03:04 - Giles Swan's Journey into Crypto 05:51 - FCA's Perspective on Bitcoin and Crypto 08:20 - The Regulatory Process Behind FCA's Decisions 11:02 - Consultations and Stakeholder Engagement 13:53 - The Digital Pound and CBDC Discussion 16:54 - Investor Education and Risk Awareness 19:15 - Comparing Crypto and Gambling Regulations 23:37 - Navigating Regulatory Frameworks in Crypto 24:58 - The Need for Dynamic Regulation 27:15 - Understanding ETFs and Investor Access 28:10 - Barriers to Bitcoin ETFs in the UK 30:15 - The Future of Crypto Regulation in the UK 31:59 - Holistic Approaches to Investor Access 33:52 - Education and Understanding in Retail Investment 35:37 - Comparing UK and US Regulatory Approaches 37:20 - Pushing for Progressive Regulation 39:08 - The Role of DeFi in Future Regulations 40:16 - Engaging with Regulators for Better Outcomes Follow Giles:

Most transformations fail quietly—not from poor planning, but from neglecting one core element: value. In this episode, we uncover the ten components of effective Value Management, from benefits realisation to stakeholder engagement. Learn how to align strategy, measure outcomes, and prove impact at every stage. Whether you're leading digital transformation or scaling innovation, this episode offers strategic insight to help you deliver true business value. 

Joelle Tegwen: Why Your Scrum Master Job Needs a Reset with Every Leadership Change Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. Joelle shares her experience as a coach and Scrum Master at a small startup where multiple companies had merged over several years. When a new VP with a conservative approach replaced her original sponsor who favored significant change, Joelle failed to adapt her tactics and align with the new leadership's direction.  She emphasizes the critical importance of listening to feedback from leaders and avoiding the anti-pattern of only listening to peers and direct managers instead of higher-level leadership. Joelle explains that whenever you get a new leader, your job essentially starts over again, requiring you to discover their goals and style through interviews about their priorities. She stresses that change happens through people, not just actions, and that pushing too hard creates more resistance. In this segment, we refer to the book The First 90 Days by Michael D. Watkins and the Deep Canvassing Technique.  Self-reflection Question: How do you currently assess and adapt to new leadership styles in your organization, and what steps could you take to better align your change management approach with leadership expectations? [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

In this episode of Executive IT, host Evan Kiely and guest JB Snodgrass discuss the intricacies of procurement processes, effective negotiation strategies, the importance of timing and communication, and common pitfalls to avoid when evaluating tools. JB shares insights from his extensive experience in procurement, emphasizing the need for thorough research, stakeholder engagement, and strategic negotiation to secure the best outcomes for organizations.This episode originally aired March 18, 2025

Tuna sustainability is more than a buzzword—it's a complex challenge tackled head-on by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF). In this episode, Susan Jackson, ISSF President, joins host Andrew Lewin to unpack their groundbreaking 2024 Annual Report. From developing biodegradable jelly-FADs to advancing electronic monitoring standards, Susan explains how ISSF works with fishers, corporations, and NGOs to make global tuna fishing more sustainable and transparent. Electronic monitoring takes center stage as Susan discusses how vessel-level cameras and sensors are reshaping compliance in tuna fisheries. She also highlights the Proactive Vessel Register (PVR), which now includes over 1,700 vessels committed to ISSF conservation measures. We dive deep into how financial investments, stakeholder workshops, and scientific research are creating real-world change in the oceans—plus ISSF's ambitious goals for 2025. Website: https://www.iss-foundation.org/ Join the Undertow: https://www.speakupforblue.com/jointheundertow Connect with Speak Up For Blue Website: https://bit.ly/3fOF3Wf Instagram: https://bit.ly/3rIaJSG TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@speakupforblue Twitter: https://bit.ly/3rHZxpc YouTube: www.speakupforblue.com/youtube    

 The first 90 days in a transformation role can make or break your success. In this episode, Rob Llewellyn reveals a proven roadmap to build credibility, control, and strategic influence from day one. Learn how to decode organisational dynamics, align with executive intent, deliver quick wins, and shape your leadership narrative. Whether you're starting fresh or resetting mid-journey, this guide is essential for any transformation leader. Tune in to lead with confidence and clarity. 

How can IT and the business work better together—without sacrificing speed, security, or sanity? In this episode of Executive IT, host Evan Kiely is joined by Volker Otto, a seasoned IT executive, to explore how teams can bridge the gap between user experience and technical requirements. They dive into the rise of business relationship managers, mapping the end-user journey, balancing risk with usability, and the power of proactive communication. Whether you're in IT, operations, or leadership, this episode offers real-world insights on building stronger, more strategic partnerships across the organization.

Summary In this episode of the Develop This Podcast, Dennis Fraise interviews Bill Cronin, the President and CEO of the Pasco Economic Development Council. They discuss the Council's recent achievement of becoming an Accredited Economic Development Organization (AEDO). Bill shares insights into the motivations for pursuing AEDO accreditation, the rigorous application process, and the team's involvement. He emphasizes the significance of ethics training and explains the preparation required for the site visit, as well as the importance of engaging stakeholders. The conversation also highlights the recognition the organization has received from the community and offers advice for other organizations considering the AEDO process. Takeaways The AEDO accreditation is a significant achievement for economic development organizations. Accreditation provides a quality seal of approval for organizations. The application process requires thorough documentation and team collaboration. Ethics training is an essential component of the accreditation process. Engaging stakeholders is crucial during the site visit preparation. The site visit allows for a comprehensive evaluation of the organization. Receiving the AEDO designation boosts morale and recognition within the community. Feedback from stakeholders can reveal positive aspects of the organization. The accreditation process encourages continuous improvement. Organizations should not hesitate to pursue AEDO accreditation.

Chris Sims: The Empathy Advantage, How Great POs Connect Teams with Users Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. The Great Product Owner: Deep Market Knowledge Creates Team Empathy Brad exemplifies a truly effective Product Owner through his exceptional understanding of end users and customers in the investment management space. What sets Brad apart is not just his deep domain knowledge, but his established relationships with gatekeepers at customer organizations. These connections provide valuable insights that inform product decisions. Most importantly, Brad regularly spends time with the development team, helping them empathize with stakeholders and understand the real-world impact of their work. His user stories consistently focus on actual users and why the requested features matter, creating clear context for developers and fostering meaningful connections between technical work and business outcomes. The Bad Product Owner: The Disempowered Proxy Problem Chris identifies a common anti-pattern: the disempowered proxy Product Owner. This situation occurs when someone performs the day-to-day PO responsibilities for the team, but lacks true authority to make decisions. Instead, an unseen "real PO" holds ultimate control and can swoop in at any time to change priorities or requirements. This arrangement quickly erodes team trust as they realize the proxy must continually defer decisions, creating delays and uncertainty. Chris suggests either empowering the proxy with more decision-making authority while keeping stakeholders appropriately involved, or having the higher-level PO commit to spending sufficient time with the team to fulfill the true Product Owner role themselves. Self-reflection Question: How might you identify and address power imbalances in the Product Owner role within your organization? [Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

In this episode, I discuss the importance of strategic planning tailored to the size and needs of your organization with special guest Kate Scherr-Adams. We talk about the significance of stakeholder engagement, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and how to develop focused, actionable plans. Plus insights on right-sizing your strategic initiatives, making data-informed decisions, and fostering a collaborative environment within your team. Episode Highlights 03:09 Challenges and Changes in Strategic Planning 05:16 Strategic Planning Essentials 07:25 Tailoring Strategic Planning to Organizational Needs 11:31 Importance of Stakeholder Engagement 16:45 Adapting to Organizational Challenges 20:26 Uncovering Organizational Issues Early On 20:58 The Importance of External Perspective 22:15 Strategic Planning vs. Organizational Readiness 24:20 Defining and Engaging Stakeholders 27:41 Collecting and Utilizing Data Effectively 32:47 Incorporating DEI in Strategic Planning Meet the Guest Kate Scherr-Adams, is a strategist, trainer, and facilitator dedicated to helping nonprofits and public-sector organizations navigate challenges and drive meaningful change. With a background in social work and nonprofit management, she founded KS Solutions Consulting in 2011, specializing in professional development, DEI, and workplace wellness. Kate has held senior leadership roles at Business Volunteers Maryland, the Family League of Baltimore City, and more, bringing expertise in strategic planning, board dynamics, and partnership building. She also teaches strategy and community engagement at UMBC. An avid volunteer, nature lover, and community advocate, Kate believes in listening to the birds, not the thunder—an outlook that guides both her work and life. Connect with Kate: website: https://www.kssolution.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katescherr-adams/ Sponsored Resource Join the Inspired Nonprofit Leadership Newsletter for weekly tips and inspiration for leading your nonprofit! Access it here >> Be sure to subscribe to Inspired Nonprofit Leadership so that you don't miss a single episode, and while you're at it, won't you take a moment to write a short review and rate our show? It would be greatly appreciated! Let us know the topics or questions you would like to hear about in a future episode. You can do that and follow us on LinkedIn.

Karen Suarez: How to Design Communication Channels to Protect Agile Team Focus, and Avoid Interruptions Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. As a first-time Scrum Master managing a team of 15-20 people, Karen focused primarily on protecting them from constant interruptions in their open office space. However, she soon realized this approach was creating barriers between the team and stakeholders. Karen developed strategies to balance protection with accessibility by establishing "office hours" when the team could be interrupted, creating dedicated communication channels (like Slack) to collect stakeholder questions, and always including the Product Owner when change requests came in. This balanced approach maintained team focus while keeping communication lines open. In this segment, we refer to the Coach Your Product Owner e-course, available to all who need to support their product owners with understanding, and adopting an Agile way of working. Self-reflection Question: How might creating structured interruption times help your team maintain focus while still remaining accessible to stakeholders? Featured Book of the Week: The Scrum Guide Karen recommends repeatedly reading The Scrum Guide throughout your Agile journey. She finds she learns something new with each reading as her interpretation evolves with experience. Karen also highlights "Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love" by Marty Cagan, which helped her better understand the Product Owner role and gave her practical tools to support POs in their responsibilities. About Karen Suarez  Karen is a dedicated Scrum Master with a long experience driving agile transformations and fostering high-performing teams. She is passionate about continuous learning, and excels in aligning agile practices with organizational innovation. You can link with Karen Suarez on LinkedIn.

Global Agile Summit Preview: Unifying Strategy, Discovery, and Delivery in Product Development With Roman Pichler In this BONUS Global Agile Summit preview episode, we explore a crucial topic that's shaping how we approach product development—sometimes in ways that serve us well and sometimes in ways that hold us back.  There's a growing trend in our industry to explicitly separate strategy, discovery, and delivery into distinct activities or even different teams. On the surface, this seems logical: strategy decides the right thing to do, discovery figures out how to do it, and delivery gets it done. But is this division actually helping us? Or is it creating barriers that make great product development harder? The Origins of Product Discovery "I think it's partly based, at least on Marty Cagan's work, and his insight that many teams are very much focused traditionally on delivering outputs, on writing code. And I think his original intention was to say, 'Let's not worry about creating outputs. Let's also make sure that what we creating makes sense.'" Roman Pichler shares insights on how the concept of product discovery emerged as a reaction to teams being overly focused on outputs rather than outcomes. He explains that conceptually distinguishing between product strategy, discovery, and delivery can be helpful—much like organizing clothes into different sections of a wardrobe. However, in reality, these activities must be connected, informing and guiding each other rather than existing as sequential steps. The Risks of Separating Product Strategy, from Discovery, and from Delivery "If we have a group of people who takes care of strategic decisions, a different group focusing on product discovery, and another group—the tech team—who focuses on product delivery, and those groups don't talk as much as they could and should do, then suddenly we have a sequential process and handoffs." One of the primary challenges with separating strategy, discovery, and delivery is the risk of creating handoffs between different teams. Roman highlights how this sequential approach can slow down value creation, lead to knowledge loss, and increase the likelihood of introducing mistakes. This separation can create barriers that ultimately make product development more difficult and less effective. In this segment, we refer to the podcast interview with Tim Herbig on the concept of Lateral Leadership, and how that is critical for product people. Integrating the Work Streams "What I usually use as a visualization tool is three work streams: a strategy work stream, a discovery work stream, and a delivery work stream. The strategy stream guides the discovery stream. The discovery stream guides the delivery stream, and then the delivery stream informs the discovery stream, and the discovery stream informs the strategy stream." Rather than seeing strategy, discovery, and delivery as separate phases, Roman suggests visualizing them as parallel work streams that continuously inform and guide each other.  This approach recognizes that strategy work doesn't just happen at the beginning—it continues throughout the product lifecycle, adapting as the product evolves. By integrating these work streams and ensuring they're interconnected through feedback loops, teams can create a more cohesive and effective product development process. The Power of Collaboration "The important thing is to make sure that the different areas of work are not disjointed but interlinked. A key element to make that work is to use collaboration and teamwork and ensure that there aren't any handoffs, or avoid handoffs as much as possible." Collaboration and teamwork are essential to successfully integrating strategy, discovery, and delivery. Roman emphasizes the importance of bringing product people—who understand customer needs, business models, and stakeholder relationships—together with tech teams to foster innovation and create value. This collaborative approach helps overcome the challenges that arise from treating these activities as separate, sequential steps. Building an Extended Product Team "Form a big product team, a product team that is empowered to make strategic decisions and consists not only of the person in charge of the product and maybe a UX designer and a software developer, but also key business stakeholders, maybe somebody from marketing, maybe somebody from sales, maybe a support team member." Roman advocates for forming an extended product team that includes not just product managers, designers, and developers, but also key business stakeholders. This larger team can collectively own the product strategy and have holistic ownership of the product—not just focusing on discovery or delivery. By empowering this extended team to make strategic decisions together, organizations can ensure that different perspectives and expertise inform the product development process. Practical Implementation: Bringing it all Together "Have regular meetings. A specific recommendation that I like to make is to have quarterly strategy workshops as a rule of thumb, where the current product strategy is reviewed and adjusted, but also the current product roadmap is reviewed and adapted." Implementing this integrated approach requires practical mechanisms for collaboration. Roman recommends holding quarterly strategy workshops to review and adjust the product strategy and roadmap, ensuring they stay in sync with insights from development work. Additionally, he suggests that members of the extended product team should attend monthly operational meetings, such as sprint reviews, to maintain a complete understanding of what's happening with the product at both strategic and tactical levels. Moving Beyond Sequential Thinking "Unfortunately, our software industry has a tendency to make things structured, linear, and assign ownership of different phases to different people. This usually leads to bigger problems like missing information, problems discovered too late that affect 'strategy', but need to be addressed in 'delivery'." One of the challenges in adopting a more integrated approach is overcoming the industry's tendency toward linear, sequential thinking. Roman and Vasco discuss how this mindset can lead to issues being discovered too late in the process, after strategic decisions have already been made. By embracing a more iterative, interconnected approach, teams can address problems more effectively and adapt their strategy based on insights from discovery and delivery. About Roman Pichler Roman Pichler is a leading product management expert specializing in product strategy, leadership, and agility. With nearly 20 years of experience, he has coached product managers, authored four books, and developed popular frameworks. He shares insights through his blog, podcast, and YouTube channel and speaks at major industry conferences worldwide. You can link with Roman Pichler on LinkedIn and check out the resources on Roman Pichler's website.

Summary In this conversation, Andy interviews Dave Garrett, a senior advisor to the CEO at Project Management Institute (PMI). They discuss the evolving definitions of project success, emphasizing the need to go beyond traditional metrics of scope, time, and cost to include value and customer-centric outcomes. Dave shares insights from his extensive experience and PMI's research, introducing the Net Project Success Score (NPSS) and strategies to enhance project success. Topics include the importance of managing perceptions, owning project success beyond metrics, relentlessly reassessing project parameters, and expanding perspectives. The conversation also explores the impact of AI on project management, practical applications of generative AI, and how project managers can leverage these tools to improve effectiveness. Wondering what the future of project management looks like? Join us for this discussion! Sound Bites "Value is a tricky thing to pin down." “The Sydney Opera House is a classic example of a project that was considered a failure for a very long time because of cost overruns. It overran from a time perspective, even to a point where the public was very upset about it… over time became known as one of the more successful projects ever." "Project success is not binary." Our research found that your project success score will double if you do three things: if you set goals up front, if you put in place a system of measurement that aligns and guides decision making, and if you track progress along the way." "Success can't be, 'I guess we didn't suck!'" Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:18 Start of Interview 01:30 Dave's Backstory 03:22 What Dave Does at PMI 03:59 Defining Project Success Beyond Traditional Metrics 08:03 Perception and Success 14:50 Introducing the Net Project Success Score 19:11 MORE Framework for Project Success 23:13 The Value of Being Customer-Centric 24:28 AI's Role in Project Management 31:31 PMI Resources 34:21 End Of Interview 34:39 Andy Comments After The Interview 38:58 Outtakes Learn More You can learn more about Project Management Institute at pmi.org. For more learning on this topic, check out: Episode 424 with Karla Eidem, who joined us to talk about project management trends. Episode 319 with Sierra Hampton-Simmons from PMI about the PMP exam. Episode 253 with one of the most passionate advocates of PMI: Lee Lambert Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Talent Triangle: Ways of Working Topics: Project Management, Value, Success Metrics, Stakeholder Engagement, AI, PMI, Research, Project Success

Welcome to another episode of Passion Struck! Today, we delve into the intricacies of communication, project management, and team dynamics with our remarkable guest, Clint Padgett, CEO and President of Project Success. Clint is also the author of "How Teams Triumph: Managing by Commitment" and the host of the "Conversation with Clint" podcast on the Forbes Podcast Network.He shares insights on managing by commitment rather than micromanagement, fostering trust and accountability within teams. Clint also discusses the unique challenges and complexities involved in planning major global events like the Olympics, highlighting the importance of collaboration and face-to-face interactions in building successful project teams. Through his experiences and expertise, Clint provides valuable strategies for maximizing team performance and achieving project success.SponsorsBabbel is the new way to learn a foreign language. The comprehensive learning system combines effective education methods with state-of-the-art technology! Right now, get SIXTY percent off your Babbel subscription—but only for our listeners, at Babbel dot com slash PASSION.--► For information about advertisers and promo codes, go to:https://passionstruck.com/deals/Order a copy of my book, "Passion Struck: Twelve Powerful Principles to Unlock Your Purpose and Ignite Your Most Intentional Life," today!  Recognized as a 2024 must-read by the Next Big Idea Club, the book has won the Business Minds Best Book Award, the Eric Hoffer Award, the International Book Awards for Best Non-Fiction, the 2024 Melanie P. Smith Reader's Choice Contest by Connections eMagazine, and the Non-Fiction Book Awards Gold Medal. Don't miss the opportunity to transform your life with these powerful principles!Full show notes and resources can be found here:  https://passionstruck.com/clint-padgett-on-team-performance-excellence/In this episode, you will learn:you will learn about the importance of communication,the power of face-to-face conversations in breaking down silos,the significance of managing by commitment rather than micromanagement,and insights into the complexities of planning for major global events like the Olympics.All things Clint Padgett: https://clintonmpadgett.com/Catch More of Passion StruckWatch my solo episode on The 6 Key Steps to Bold Risk-Taking for Personal Growth.Can't miss my episode with Jacob Morgan on the Vital Power of Leading With VulnerabilityListen to my interview withJames Rhee On How You Lead Change through KindnessCatch my interview with Gerry Hussey on How You Lead Yourself to Infinite PotentialListen to Seth Godin on Why We Need Systems Change to Save the PlanetLike this show? Please leave us a review here-- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter or Instagram handle so we can thank you personally!