“Everything we know, do, & think is already out of date because the world moves so quickly.”

Allister and I discuss what being future ready really means in today's workplace. Everything we know, do and think is already obsolete – whilst a scary concept, it is also an empowering way to look at the world and identify what we can improve, a paradigm shift from the old adage of ‘if it ain’t broke’ …

Curiosity is highlighted as one of the 3 leadership superpowers. It involves challenging and questioning the status quo, similar to a child constantly asking “why.” This can help uncover hidden assumptions and new possibilities. Leaders should create environments where employees feel safe to share ideas without fear of ridicule, as they go through the FROST ready already cycle. Scaling through small yet impactful changes to our systems and cycles to create sustainable change.

AI is discussed as a powerful tool. However, it has limitations and should be viewed as augmented intelligence rather than a replacement for human skills. It is important to stay focused on higher-level value-adding processes and uniquely human abilities such as critical thinking, creativity, and emotional intelligence. By developing these skills, individuals can remain indispensable in the workforce.

Allister shares his stories, models and experience of working in and accompanying organisations and leaders across the globe.

The main insights you'll get from this episode are :

- Everything we know, do and think is already obsolete – whilst a scary concept, it is also an empowering way to look at the world and identify what we can improve, a paradigm shift from the old adage of ‘if it ain’t broke’ …

- A Future-Ready Mindset builds on the growth mindset but adds ‘the fuel for your future’ – a heartfelt reason to do what you do in the service of others with a commitment and energy to bring about change.

- Focusing on the downstream consequences of our work helps to reframe our personal mission - our job enables the company to grow but we also use the company as a vehicle for our own skills.

- The FROST – Follow, React, Open, Surprise, Tell – growth model helps us change the way we think about ourselves and our mission; for companies to adopt this mindset at scale means embedding this new vocabulary.

- The Open phase sees curiosity as a superpower – CEOs are often scared of employees having ideas, but all ideas are improved by exposing them to other people. And AI cannot do curiosity!

- Like children who constantly ask why in order to feel safe and make sense of the world, we too must have the courage to question and challenge the status quo with a change already in mind.

- Having ideas to address the ‘why’ is the next superpower, moving from knowing to learning, asking questions of ourselves before asking others, and sharing our own ideas.

- The Tell phase is about using the brilliance of other people, designing the session to encourage the sharing of unfinished ideas and foster a culture of appreciating others’ input whilst being transformative in the process.

- The ReadyAlready cycle can be used to identify where to deploy AI - pattern recognition at scale makes it brilliant but not without limitations; it is augmented intelligence alongside our value-adding superpowers.

- Having a personal sense of direction is very important - repeating the ReadyAlready cycle will unlock something new every time and lead to either big or small improvements, but without...

"Whatever we have achieved as a species has nothing to do with one person alone."

Why start a leadership book with a mammoth hunt?

Nicolas and I delve into the human dimension of leadership and what it brings to society.

Human behaviour is the most unmeasured risk in strategy implementation. To avoid pitfalls, be aware of evolutionary biases such as the false positive decision-making bias. Companies build echo chambers, where people raise a view that is not the same as their boss’s, and then avoid talking about it.

A crucial point: humans achieve greatness through collaboration. A lone human has little chance against a mammoth. Hunting one requires strategy, the right people, and a shared purpose. This highlights a fundamental truth: our collective efforts drive success.

Organisations should acknowledge the inherent tension between individualistic needs, collaboration, and competition among employees, fostering a culture where personal and company goals align.

Nicolas shares his insights, experience and stories of working and researching the human dimensions of leadership and what it means for today's workplace.

The main insights you'll get from this episode are :

- The human dimension of leadership and what it brings to society is key – a failure to understand ourselves and the people we lead is a big problem that is borne out by history (as far back as the time of the mammoth).

- Collaboration and strategy were needed to hunt the mammoth (cf. the big machine in modern times); nowadays we have lots of smaller, interconnected mammoths but we still need to know how to lead a herd of mammoths.

- To progress in an organisation requires sharing our learning and leading a team towards a goal: leaders need people with the right expertise and people they trust – very similar to a mammoth hunt.

- The human ego is problematic when it comes to achieving a common goal, with the apparent paradox between working for oneself and being wired for collaboration, i.e. the individual vs the collective.

- Leaders in the transactional corporate world must learn to be humble, lead by example, be purpose-driven and role model a positive culture – they need their team more than their team needs them.

- Leadership, followship and hierarchy counteract the vulnerability, slowness and weakness of the individual; leadership was originally task-related, with different leaders for different tasks, teaching how to lead and how to follow.

- Today, one person becomes CEO without the relevant skills/knowledge for all the different tasks and must therefore understand when to lead and when to follow, going against the grain of what it means to be a ‘strong leader’.

- The ‘mammoth’ approach to leadership involves four levels of team performance - fight or flight, competitive, creative and flow – along with a leadership/ followship framework and a dynamic stability framework.

- These are old ideas to avoid pitfalls, e.g. if you don’t evolve, you die as an individual and die out as a species – the same is true for companies, yet human behaviour remains the most unmeasured risk in business strategy.

- Diversification is very risky – if the main aim is to survive and be sustainable, it is vital not to lose sight of the core business; what you do today is most important, otherwise there is no tomorrow.

- We must understand that as humans we have evolutionary biases (false positive decision-making bias, confirmation bias, anchoring bias), are risk averse...

"Transformation isn’t about control, its about letting go… teams that breathe together thrive together"

Anthony and I explore the power of stillness and breathing into the present moment.

The constant pressure to keep going and keep busy means we never find (the time to find) calm and we ignore the innate wisdom in our body. Bringing inner work to the outside world means being enough and understanding this.

How can cultivating inner calm help us to navigate uncertainty and ground ourselves and our teams in purpose, presence and ultimately allow us all to perform to the best of our abilities ?

How can we recognise the frame we live in and consciously build emotional resilience for the greater good in our teams, our organisations and our lives ?

Leadership is about becoming aware of our inherent value and the impact we have, fostering a culture of care and connection through practices like conscious breathing.

Anthony shares his richinsights from his personal journey and from accompanying leaders all over the globe on their journeys to transformation and serenity.

The main insights you'll get from this episode are :

- Raising consciousness means appreciating how much power we have as human beings; being small is often easier but means we don’t understand the bigger frame of life.

- Breathing is the very first thing we do naturally, yet conscious breathwork is difficult - the significance of breath becomes ‘normal’ but there is so much to it physiologically, metaphysically and spiritually.

- The first breath of life is the only time we haven’t been hurt and we are filled with wonder and curiosity; the last breath of life is about letting go of everything, and we can be curious about that surrender.

- We only ever pay attention when we lose our breath, but emotional resilience and intelligence are about being able to take a breath when we don’t want to - we lose our choices and processing power when we don’t breathe properly.

- We tend to suppress trauma and panic and resort to fight, flight or freeze, which are not thinking processes; we can practise different types of breath for different states, e.g. anxiety, anger, etc., to have them at our disposal when necessary.

- The fourth choice after fight, flight or freeze is breathe: we lose our breath due to abuse or trauma but it lives on in our body. We can create space by breathing and (re)connecting with our inner child to find boundlessness and freedom.

- The BRIDGE technique is a way of saving the inner child without returning to the trauma, i.e. to repair our own wounds and become the agent of our own healing:

B = Breathe, R = Recognise, I = Investigate, D = Dialogue, G = Gather, E = Exercise.

- All learning, including the somatic, is operationalised through discipline and consistency to leave the familiar and move forward - transformation isn’t about control, it’s about surrendering and being the architect of your own soul.

- The moment we remove the masks we wear and become present is tender, private and individual; we need our will to breathe in and surrender to breathe out, and whilst we do it all the time, we live in a world where wilfulness prevails.

- Being embedded in corporate life comes at enormous personal cost (burnout is increasing, immunity is decreasing), which leads to a lack of resilience; we associate surrender with weakness and only surrender as a very last resort.

- The constant pressure to keep going means we never find (the time to find) calm and we...