What makes this conversation so inspiring is the notion that, when we are working with individual leaders to strengthen their leadership practice, we are also supporting their teams, their families and their communities. We are not just supporting the individual but the entire system in which they are located.

Sarah Cornally is a passionate leadership practitioner, and Partner at Acumen Global Partners. She is adamant 'systemic thinking' is the essential lens for anyone navigating the deep complexity of modern organisations. Sarah, KG and Paul dive straight into why understanding systems - rather than just individuals or silos - unlocks hidden dynamics, exposes entrenched patterns, and creates genuine possibilities for lasting change.

And the 'magic sauce'? In the end, to be able to productively navigate the many contradictory demands of any complex system, success rests on the quality of relationships, and not just structures or policies. It's the quality of our connections that determines whether transformation fails or flourishes, and why what lies “under the table” must be brought to light for the whole system to grow and progress.

And, as always, Annandale Cellars has generously provided an incredible bottle of wine to accompany this free-flowing conversation. On this occasion we crack open a bottle of 2023 Yohan Lardy Poppy Gamay. It is a gorgeous, light red wine, with lots of fruit and an easy drinking style.

Get at least half a dozen of these (or half a dozen of any of their amazing wines) and get a 20% discount by using our code at checkout: DECANTED

Sláinte friends!

Useful resources from this episode:

1. Acumen Partners
2. Dude Dancing on the Hill
3. Same Dude, shorter version
4. The Mandelbrot Set

We're keen to hear what you thought of this conversation. Please let us know through either of the options below.

Please reach out on askus@leadershipdecanted.com or visit us at www.leadershipdecanted.com

Disagree or agree with anything we've said? How wrong are we?!? Are there any leadership topics you'd like us to discuss (or perhaps other books or podcasts that might set us straight!)? Maybe you'd like to recommend a favourite wine!

Whatever tickles your fancy, we'd love to hear from you!!

Our very first live podcast recording with Steve Hearsum (Episode 5.07) is the gift that keeps giving!

Join Paul & KG as they open the space to questions from our audience for our highly engaging guest. The questions are considered, and the ongoing conversation is insightful, offering an unexpected invitation to deeper reflection and vulnerability.

And let us repeat, for your drinking pleasure, the delectable wines provided by our friends at Annandale Cellars on this occasion.

• 2022 Spinifex Bête Noir Shiraz.
• 2024 Catlow & Company Nebbiolo
• 2024 Wanderer Yarra Valley Macclesfield Chardonnay

Use our discount code when you get to check out and, for six bottles or more, you'll get a huge 20% off the total price of your order. What's the discount code, you ask? That's easy! It's 'DECANTED' (without the quote marks).

Sláinte friends!

We'd love to hear what you thought of this conversation and any suggestions on this topic for future episodes.

Please feel free to send us your thoughts, comments and suggestions any time via email.

Some useful resources from this episode:

1. Episode 5.07, Leadership & the Myth of the Silver Bullet (Spotify)
2. No Silver Bullet
3. Magnetic Nonsense (Paul Sweeney)
4. Edge and Stretch
5. New River Leadership

Please let us know through either of the options below.

Please reach out on askus@leadershipdecanted.com or visit us at www.leadershipdecanted.com

Disagree or agree with anything we've said? How wrong are we?!? Are there any leadership topics you'd like us to discuss (or perhaps other books or podcasts that might set us straight!)? Maybe you'd like to recommend a favourite wine!

Join KG and Paul in Leadership Decanted's FIRST podcast recorded in front of a live audience. Exciting times indeed!

It seems that if we're doing leadership well, then chances are we will regularly experience uncertainty, ambiguity, doubt, and maybe even shame at our inability to find a solution to many of our challenges. Leadership is hard. We know this.

If only there was a ready-made and easily deployable solution to each of these complex situations. There isn't one. We know this too.

And yet we nevertheless long for these silver bullets that will ease the heavy burden of leadership, so that we stop feeling so overwhelmed by these intractable challenges. Surely there's a silver bullet out there. Sorry, there isn't.

Steve Hearsum, an experienced organisational consultant and author of the deeply engaging, "No Silver Bullet", is adamant about this. In fact, he argues these deep and unshakeable desires - often unconscious and unacknowledged - can lead us, and the people we lead, into risky and dangerous territory when it comes to initiating the changes we need to grow and develop our organisations.

Paul and KG were joined by a lively audience (having already been plied with either a gorgeous Nebbiolo or Chardonnay from our friends at Annandale Cellars) to talk to Steve about his work, and his compelling insights around this tempting collusive dance in search of the silver bullet.

Of course, this entire conversation unfolded over a gorgeous bottle of Australian Shiraz: A 2022 Spinifex Bête Noir Shiraz. A medium-bodied Shiraz with aromas of blackberry, red plum, with hints of spice and velvety smooth tannins. Stunning. Our audience were also treated to a 2024 Catlow & Company Nebbiolo as well as a 2024 Wanderer Yarra Valley Macclesfield Chardonnay. The entire night was an absolute embarrassment of riches! As always, thank you Annandale Cellars!

And a grateful shout out to New River Leadership, our generous collab partners in this, Leadership Decanted's first live event.

Sláinte friends!

Useful resources from this episode:

1. No Silver Bullet
2. Edge and Stretch
3. New River Leadership

We're keen to hear what you thought of this conversation. Please let us know through either of the options below.

Please reach out on askus@leadershipdecanted.com or visit us at www.leadershipdecanted.com

Disagree or agree with anything we've said? How wrong are we?!? Are there any leadership topics you'd like us to discuss (or perhaps other books or podcasts that might set us straight!)? Maybe you'd like to recommend a favourite wine!

Whatever tickles your fancy, we'd love to hear from you!!

Paul & KG revisit the most recent Cheeky Half conversation to return to a most vexed question: What happens when I express a personal opinion in public that is at odds with my organisation's position? What right does my organisation have to curb my expression if I am in no way seeking to represent them or speak for them?

It's unlikely this conversation goes where you think it's going to go! We think this might even be a topic worth expanding on in a future episode. Please help! What do you think.

We'd love to hear what you thought of this conversation and any suggestions on this topic for future episodes.

Please feel free to send us your thoughts, comments and suggestions any time via email.

Sláinte friends!

Some useful resources from this episode:

1. The Cheeky Half Episode that kicked all this off.

Please let us know through either of the options below.

Please reach out on askus@leadershipdecanted.com or visit us at www.leadershipdecanted.com

Disagree or agree with anything we've said? How wrong are we?!? Are there any leadership topics you'd like us to discuss (or perhaps other books or podcasts that might set us straight!)? Maybe you'd like to recommend a favourite wine!

How many of us feel the urge to run away, hide or simply observe the foetal position when faced with the prospect of conflict? What if we were able to reframe that experience and begin to believe - really believe - that too much conflict is never enough? That conflict is the very fuel that drives both, our own growth and positive relationships with our colleagues?

Fiona McKenzie believes just that!

However, we don't just need to reframe our relationship to conflict to allow us to find this path. We also need to rethink what we mean by the very word 'conflict'.

On this episode, KG and Paul talk to Fiona about her work in negotiation. She is the Founding Director of Resolving Matters, a consultancy that works with teams and leaders to build negotiation skills that are rarely taught to us. Rather than leave it to osmosis or magic, she delves deeply to understand the stakes, surfacing the required skills for the situation and helps leaders practice in the real world.

Of course, this wonderful conversation was had over a gorgeous French white: A 2022 Delas Côtes du Rhône, from Maison Delas Frѐres. A juicy and clean drop that makes you want to dance by the right river bank! As always, thank you Annadale Cellars!

Sláinte friends!

Useful resources from this episode:

1. Resolving Matters

We're keen to hear what you thought of this conversation. Please let us know through either of the options below.

Please reach out on askus@leadershipdecanted.com or visit us at www.leadershipdecanted.com

Disagree or agree with anything we've said? How wrong are we?!? Are there any leadership topics you'd like us to discuss (or perhaps other books or podcasts that might set us straight!)? Maybe you'd like to recommend a favourite wine!

Whatever tickles your fancy, we'd love to hear from you!!

Paul & KG are back with their Cheeky Halves after a brief and unplanned hiatus. They have not, however, been idle during this time. In fact, KG in particular has been deep in reflection, wondering about all the leadership hats that might be available to us all, but also having a bit of trouble working out how best to wear those hats. Subsequently they both kick around some ideas around authenticity and risk.

We'd love to hear what you thought of this conversation.

Please feel free to send us your thoughts, comments and suggestions any time.

Sláinte friends!

Some useful resources from this episode:

1. The episode KG & Paul are referring to: (5.03) Artist, Academic, Activist: Leadership's Many Hats

Please let us know through either of the options below.

Please reach out on askus@leadershipdecanted.com or visit us at www.leadershipdecanted.com

Disagree or agree with anything we've said? How wrong are we?!? Are there any leadership topics you'd like us to discuss (or perhaps other books or podcasts that might set us straight!)? Maybe you'd like to recommend a favourite wine!

Serious. Social. Play. WTF?!?

On this episode, KG and Paul welcomed Chris Maxwell and Marcus Crow, the duo behind the consulting firm 10,000 Hours and the digital product company Pod & Hive to discuss their unique approach to leadership development, built on a conversation that began 18 years ago.

Their methodology centres on what they call "serious social play" - using simulated sandbox environments for teams to practice navigating complexity. These are not typical team-building exercises.

The goal of these games is to shift the focus from the individuals ('nodes') to the 'links' between them. Most development targets individuals, leaving the crucial work of building effective group dynamics to chance. Marcus and Chris' work explores what happens in those links; how teams handle ambiguity, compete, or collaborate when faced with a novel problem, as they find themselves in a 'complex state'. By shortening the feedback loop between action and outcome, these simulations make the team's invisible dynamics visible and discussable.

This conversation highlights a simple but powerful idea: if you want teams to perform at their best, you have to give them space and time to practice, and to take that practice seriously. By embracing a high 'practice to play' ratio, teams build muscle to improve collaboration and help them navigate inevitable uncertainty of day-to-day organisational life.

Of course, this is only one in many topics of this free-wheeling conversation. What helped make it so fluid and effortless, apart from the amazing generosity of the guests, was an equally amazing wine! Our friends at Annandale Cellars provided a 2023 Gounyan Wines, Murrumbateman Syrah, a delicious, fruity red that will make every conversation an enjoyable one!

Sláinte friends!

Useful resources from this episode:

1. 10,000 Hours
2. PodandHive
3. Shivoo

We're keen to hear what you thought of this conversation. Please let us know through either of the options below.

Please reach out on askus@leadershipdecanted.com or visit us at www.leadershipdecanted.com

Disagree or agree with anything we've said? How wrong are we?!? Are there any leadership topics you'd like us to discuss (or perhaps other books or podcasts that might set us straight!)? Maybe you'd like to recommend a favourite wine!

Whatever tickles your fancy, we'd love to hear from you!!

The word 'transformation' is thrown around in all sorts of contexts and in all manner of attempts to sell change. The outcomes are never given, despite best laid plans, and it often falls down not because of process nor technology. The stumbling block is usually us. And it's not about the oversimplified trope of being resistant to change. On many occasions we actually want to see the change succeed - especially if it will make our lives easier. But good intentions are rarely enough.

What is often ignored in both small and large change initiatives is that success rests on the skilful way we can navigate the change process itself. Sitting in the discomfort of uncertainty; working through potentially polarising differences with our colleagues; voicing our concerns and our ideas, despite perceived risks, so that we can all generate the best possible solutions. All of these are skilful practices no one ever really teaches us, but without which we simply spin our wheels.

KG and Paul spent time in the Podcave with Jamie Gerlach, CEO of 4C Transformative Learning and 4C Organisations. Jamie and his team spend their days working with both educators and organisations, exploring the deep processes and skills required to deeply engage with change, and to bring about real transformation.

As they kick back with an amazing chilled white wine from Sicily, they take their time to really think about what it takes to build this sort of transformational muscle - occasionally distracted by the outstanding quality of the drop - a 2023 Cantine Petrosino Lucido Catarratto. No, seriously, you've got to get yourself some of this wine. It is amazing. Thanks to our friends at Annandale Cellars!

Sláinte friends!

We're keen to hear what you thought of this conversation. Please let us know through either of the options below.

Please reach out on askus@leadershipdecanted.com or visit us at www.leadershipdecanted.com

Disagree or agree with anything we've said? How wrong are we?!? Are there any leadership topics you'd like us to discuss (or perhaps other books or podcasts that might set us straight!)? Maybe you'd like to recommend a favourite wine!

Whatever tickles your fancy, we'd love to hear from you!!