In this episode, Pilar talks with Michael Jenkins, CEO at Expert Humans, Partner of FutureWork Forum and an anchor on BeNext's upcoming program, 'Building a Culture of Empathy for Productivity & Innovation'

Even prior to the pandemic, we were living in intensely uncertain times. Business leaders the world over are aware of the need to approach this disruption with compassion, to guide with empathy and to exhibit kindness and authenticity. But what does this actually look like? In this conversation with Pilar, Michael describes the critical concepts behind his ACE model (Altruism, Compassion and Empathy) and their application to the present day's challenges, including health, sustainability, and digital transformation, seeking answers to big questions: what are the subtle but important differences between these concepts? Can empathy and compassion be taught or learned? What is the business imperative driving this need to create a culture of empathy? 

Michael's latest book, 'Expert Humans: Critical Leadership Skills for a Disrupted World' is available for purchase here. 

For women across the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic has created the ‘perfect storm’ of economic, social and health impacts. Before this crisis the majority of recessions were either classed as 'man-cessions' or impacted men and women equally. This time around, however, there has been a disproportionate effect on women. 

In this insightful conversation with People Matters, Mohammad Naciri, Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific at UN Women, discusses how the events of the last year and a half affected existing gender inequalities and what might be some of the challenges for women to achieve equity with men going forward.

The BeNext program on Gender Balance: Promoting Women addresses these issues and more. Running July 12th — 13th August 2021, this program is designed for women leaders committed to accelerating their career growth within their organization and learning critical skills for heading up teams. 

Pilar mentions the book 'Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men' by Caroline Criado-Perez. 

Episode 7 features a panel discussion between four of the Lighthouse Speakers from the BeNext 'D&I: Overcoming Unconscious Bias' program. The episode touches on topics such as psychological safety, driving innovation through different viewpoints, compassion, empathy and the importance of coaching, mentoring and representation when it comes to building a more inclusive and diverse organisation. Here, the speakers draw on dilemmas such as how to win over team members who are resistant to D&I transformation efforts and what can be done to address biases both within ourselves and those around us. The voices included in this episode are:

• Dr. Ritu Anand, Chief Leadership & Diversity Officer at Tata Consultancy Services

• Maria Teixidor, CEO of VUCA Solutions 

• Duncan Hewett, senior vice president and general manager for VMware's business in Asia Pacific & Japan
  
• Dr Sondra Thiederman, Ph.D., President of Cross-Cultural Communications and author of four books, including 'Three Keys to Defeating Unconscious Bias: Watch, Think, Act.' 

This panel discussion was part of the LIVE Masterclass Session for the BeNext ‘D&I: Overcoming: Unconscious Bias’ program, which will be returning in August. Many of the themes discussed in this episode will also be explored in our upcoming July program, ‘Gender Balance: Promoting Women,’ which you can find out more about here. 

A new era began when COVID hit last year and affected all of our daily lives. Many of us in the recruitment and talent acquisition sphere shifted to a totally virtual workflow virtually overnight to adapt to the unforeseen change in circumstances. But what about the companies who had been operating entirely remotely from day one? How have they harnessed the opportunities presented by remote or distributed to create a more inclusive, personalized recruiting experience? How have they made the most of hiring from anywhere? At a time when collaboration and connection is suffering for many organizations, what can we learn from these distributed businesses about hiring for culture add rather than culture fit? In this latest episode, Pilar and Ester discuss an earlier conversation with GitLab’s Diversity & Inclusion Partner, Liam McNally, outlining some of the approaches this fully remote tech company take in their values-driven, inclusion-focused processes, and what the future of recruiting and hiring may look like for those still getting to grips with an increasingly hybrid world of work.

Episode 5 of the BeNext Radio Show is all about how to be a better virtual team leader. Here, our host Pilar Orti is joined by our Virtual Learning & Development Manager, Cindy Scholts, to discuss how shifts in workplace models have created a new set of considerations for coaches and leaders, specifically when it comes to leading, learning and navigating challenges in a hybrid world. A few topics up for discussion include: 

How did 2020 transform the way we think about virtual leadership?

How does the role of the leader differ in distributed teams? 

How can we motivate our people to attend and invest in virtual learning opportunities? 

What does collaboration and connection actually mean in a virtual context? 

How can we assuage fears around visibility in a virtual setting?

This conversation comes as part of the BeNext Leadership & Coaching in the Hybrid World Certification program, opening on June 7th 2021. Pilar will be a Lighthouse Keeper on this course, delivering the masterclass and guiding learners through the journey. To enroll and find out more, click here. 

The latest episode also features details of upcoming BeNext programs and exclusive insights from real BeNext learners. 

Find out more about upcoming BeNext courses here:

https://www.peoplematters.digital/benext/index

In the fourth episode of the BeNext Radio Show, we explore unconscious bias which, in essence, is the prejudices and stereotypes we might hold in our heads but might not be aware of. Here, we feature an earlier conversation with Sondra Thiederman, Ph.D., President of Cross-Cultural Communications and author of four books, including 'Three Keys to Defeating Unconscious Bias: Watch, Think, Act.’ Maia Jenkins and Sondra discuss how to identify biases and address them - where do they come from? How can we spot them? How do we overcome them? What can leaders do to avoid having their D&I efforts undermined by these biases? 

Sondra is one of our Lighthouse Keepers on the BeNext D&I: Overcoming Unconscious Bias program starting on May 10th. If this is something you'd like to get your teeth into, click here. 

This episode also features insights from real BeNext learners on the changing role of managers and the nature of leadership. 

In Episode 3, Pilar shares with us the voice of management consultant, researcher and BeNext Lighthouse speaker Dave Snowden. Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Cognitive Edge, Dave is also the mind behind the groundbreaking Cynefin framework - a sense-making tool that supports decision-making by identifying which problem domain we are in. The episode is all about understanding the complex situations in our organisation and how this can help us navigate or even drive change. 

Our conversation with Dave comes ahead of the four-week BeNext Agile & Design Thinking for HR Teams Program, running from April 19th. Click here for more information.  

You can also download the Cynefin-inspired field guide, 'Managing Complexity (and Chaos) in Times of Crisis', which Pilar refers to, here: 

https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/managing-complexity-and-chaos-times-crisis-field-guide-decision-makers-inspired-cynefin-framework

Find out more about upcoming BeNext courses here:

https://www.peoplematters.digital/benext/index

Design Thinking and Agile for HR Teams - 19 April 2021

HR for Startups: Building a winning team - 3 May 2021

Diversity & Inclusion: Overcoming Unconscious Bias - 10 May 2021

Pilar mentions the article:

https://www.peoplematters.in/article/skilling/ten-reasons-why-cohort-based-programs-are-the-future-of-skilling-28455?page=5