Most organizations don't have an innovation problem. They have a prioritization problem. The pipeline is full — and that's exactly what's breaking it.

In this episode of Breakthrough Innovation, JL Heather and Preston Chandler sit down with Noel Sobelman, 25-year innovation portfolio management expert and author of Innovation Portfolio Management: Linking Strategy to Execution, whose client work spans Medtronic, Honeywell, and Siemens. We cover why the most common failure mode in large-company innovation is saying yes too often, how metered funding and evidence strength replace hockey-stick spreadsheets as the real currency of innovation governance, and what a Chief Innovation Officer should actually do in their first 90 days.

⏱ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

1:27 Where innovation breaks down in large organizations — the real diagnostics

3:14 The two ends of the spectrum: everything gets killed vs. everything is underfunded

4:04 Why the companies that get it right say no more often

6:08 The stage gate question: what organizations consistently get wrong

9:36 Core vs. breakthrough innovation: why different uncertainty levels need different governance

11:08 Evidence strength: how to quantify uncertainty and compare projects with limited resources

13:18 Long-cycle industries (pharma, auto): how to de-risk before the execution engine turns on

16:56 Leadership behaviors that stall pipelines — and how to change them

18:52 Zombie projects, capacity buffers, and how to clean out a clogged pipeline

19:59 What to do first if you're a Chief Innovation Officer with 90 days to show results

💡 KEY TAKEAWAYS

✅ The most common failure in large-company innovation isn't a shortage of ideas — it's loading teams past capacity with underfunded projects. Throughput, not volume of yeses, is the right metric for a healthy pipeline

✅ Evidence strength is the operating currency of breakthrough innovation governance. The question isn't "what does the spreadsheet say?" — it's "what have customers actually shown us?" Metered funding tied to validated learning replaces ROI guesswork

✅ Core and breakthrough innovation need different governance models. Stage gates work for predictable extensions; high-uncertainty bets require an agile, learning-metric-driven approach with shorter cycles and a bias toward de-risking early

🎁 FREE RESOURCE

Download our Design Sprint Starter Guide → https://centered.work/design-sprint-starter-guide-signup

🔔 SUBSCRIBE for weekly innovation strategy → https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/breakthrough-innovation-7249796048536133632/

👥 CONNECT

Centered.work: https://centered.work

JL Heather: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jlheather/

Preston Chandler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prestonchandler/

Noel Sobelman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noelsobelman/

📕 Get the book Breakthrough Innovation → https://centered.work/books#innovation #portfoliomanagement #leadership #productdevelopment #breakthroughinnovation

Most companies building AI-powered health products are racing to ship features. Very few are asking whether their data is good enough — or whether their product actually makes sense to the person holding the phone.

In this episode of Breakthrough Innovation, JL Heather sits down with Dr. Akvile Ignotaite — data scientist, founder of System Akvile, and creator of Pimsy, an AI-powered skin health platform used by over 1 million people across more than 100 countries. We cover why scientifically rigorous six-week skincare programs fail completely with Gen Z users, what a four-hour car ride with her psychologist mother taught Dr. Ignotaite that dermatologists and data scientists couldn't, how a cartoon character with no visible credentials out-engages credentialed doctors posting expert content, and why building a global data set from day zero wasn't idealism — it was the only way to make the product work.

⏱ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

1:57 Pimsy and the love project that became a 70,000-follower growth engine

2:55 The biggest gap between how companies talk about AI health and what happens with real users

4:48 Why Gen Z rejected the scientifically designed six-week program

5:08 The car ride with her mom — and why a psychologist's reaction changed everything

7:12 The Mom Test moment: how the best feedback came from outside the team

8:03 Killing the six-week program and pivoting to a gaming mindset

9:43 Scaling across Europe, India, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Middle East

10:30 How Gen Z's global cultural convergence shaped the product strategy

11:44 Why global diversity inside the team was non-negotiable from day one

12:34 Coming from Lithuania: why a small-country mindset built a global product

13:08 Skin health as the most racially dividing topic in data — and why that made global data sets essential from the start

14:16 India grounded me: the Ayurvedic lesson that made Dr. Ignotaite say "I was wrong"

15:31 Including Ayurveda in the platform and what that signals about cultural humility in health tech

16:44 Why credentials no longer drive trust — and what Pimsy's comment section reveals about a generational shift

20:09 What executives sitting in golden towers are missing about Gen Z and health communication

21:03 Why if credentialed voices don't show up in the right format, misinformation will fill the vacuum

💡 KEY TAKEAWAYS

✅ Retention data doesn't care about scientific rigor. Gen Z won't complete a six-week program no matter how many dermatologists designed it — if the format doesn't match how they actually live, the product fails. Format is a product decision, not a UX detail

✅ Credentials have stopped driving trust for younger users. Pimsy — a cartoon character with no visible credentials — generates more serious health questions than posts from doctors with 30 years of experience, because it communicates in the language users understand. Credentialed organizations that can't adapt to that shift will cede health communication to influencers who will

✅ A global data set isn't a nice-to-have for health AI — it's a prerequisite. Skin tone, cultural practice, and regional health traditions like Ayurveda mean that a product trained on Western data cannot serve a global user base. Building for diversity from day zero is the only path to a trustworthy global product

🎁 FREE RESOURCE

Download our Design Sprint Starter Guide → https://centered.work/design-sprint-starter-guide-signup

🔔 SUBSCRIBE for weekly innovation strategy → https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/breakthrough-innovation-7249796048536133632/

👥 CONNECT

Centered.work: https://centered.work

JL Heather: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jlheather/

Preston Chandler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prestonchandler/

Dr. Akvile Ignotaite: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-akvile-ignotaite/ | Follow Pimsy on TikTok and Instagram

📕 Get the book Breakthrough Innovation → https://centered.work/books

#healthtech #artificialintelligence #genz #productinnovation #breakthroughinnovation

Most CEOs know talent is their biggest asset. Very few can tell you exactly how much their talent infrastructure is costing them right now — not in vague cultural terms, but in actual dollars. That gap is where growth quietly stalls.

In this episode of Breakthrough Innovation, Preston Chandler sits down with DeeAnn Palin — founder of On Point Business Solutions, a two-decade corporate executive turned operational HR strategist who has helped founder-led and private equity-backed companies across 22 industries recover millions of dollars hiding inside their people systems. We cover why inefficient hiring, misaligned benefits, and unmanaged turnover are rarely visible on a P&L but always visible in EBITDA, how a 120%-turnover private investigation firm recovered $1.3 million with a simple applicant tracking system and load-leveling process, and what every CEO over 40 employees should do differently before it's too late.

⏱ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

2:26 Why DeeAnn left traditional HR — and what changed when she came back

3:20 Where the million dollars is actually hiding in your people operations

4:48 Case study: 1.3 million recovered from a 26-state private investigation firm

6:25 The benefit plan fix that saved a company $500K without touching employee costs

8:44 The niche: founder-led and PE-backed companies across 22 industries

9:57 Why HR looks like a line-item expense — and why that math is completely wrong

10:09 Calibrating your people systems like you calibrate your equipment

12:00 The seven stages of growth and when scrappy HR starts destroying value

13:40 How total reward strategy drives productivity — or actively attracts the wrong people

15:27 The real cost of turnover: $6K per hourly employee, $500K per executive

17:10 One thing every CEO should do in the next 30 days

18:16 How to connect with DeeAnn and access the free X-Ray growth assessment

💡 KEY TAKEAWAYS

✅ Inefficient hiring, high turnover, and poorly designed benefit plans aren't HR problems — they're EBITDA problems. A $10,000 investment in fixing an applicant tracking system and hiring process can conservatively return $1.3 million in company value, especially for businesses approaching a sale or PE exit

✅ Once a company crosses 40 employees, informal HR management stops being scrappy and starts destroying value. Legal compliance exposure, benefit cost volatility, and span-of-control breakdown compound quietly until growth stalls — and most CEOs don't see it until it's already expensive

✅ Total reward strategy — compensation and benefits design — is a performance driver, not just an HR function. Pay slightly above market for your highest-turnover critical roles and you can generate 30–45% productivity improvements while cutting the turnover cost that's bleeding your margins

🎁 FREE RESOURCE

Download our Design Sprint Starter Guide → https://centered.work/design-sprint-starter-guide-signup

🔔 SUBSCRIBE for weekly innovation strategy → https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/breakthrough-innovation-7249796048536133632/

👥 CONNECT

Centered.work: https://centered.work

JL Heather: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jlheather/

Preston Chandler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prestonchandler/

DeeAnn Palin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deeannpalin/ | onpointbiz.com

📕 Get the book Breakthrough Innovation → https://centered.work/books

#hrleadership #talentmanagement #businessgrowth #foundersandceos #breakthroughinnovation

Most organizations don't have an innovation problem. They have a truth problem — and the accumulated cost of every small, tolerated lie shows up as slowed decisions, stalled initiatives, and talent that quietly stops trusting the system.

In this episode of Breakthrough Innovation, JL Heather and Preston Chandler sit down with Thane Bellomo — a 25-year veteran of Fortune 500 boardrooms and high-stakes regulated environments, including nuclear power, and the author of the forthcoming book The Courage Economy. We cover how comfort economies inevitably give way to lie economies, why exhorting individuals to be more courageous doesn't work without changing the system first, and what Thane observed during nuclear refueling outages that revealed the exact conditions under which truth-telling becomes not just possible but unavoidable.

⏱ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

1:42 The 30 lies organizations routinely tolerate — and the ones hiding in every culture

2:37 How polite lies become the lubricant that holds dysfunction together

3:29 Management debt: the accumulated cost of the lie economy

4:27 The story of the woman who spent years chasing feedback that was never true

6:35 How to catch yourself before telling a strategic lie — and what to do instead

7:44 Where the lie economy actually comes from: comfort economies and the system that enables it

8:37 Why exhorting leaders to "be more courageous" consistently fails

11:23 The nuclear refueling outage: what important work does to the culture around it

13:20 The five elements of the courage economy — important work, curiosity, challenge, trust, and community

14:18 Why trust is an outcome of struggle, not a team-building exercise

15:03 JL pushes back: is important work really the catalyst, or is it people-first culture?

16:51 Schopenhauer's will — and why conscience alone is never enough to beat the lie economy

18:58 The courage tax: what leaders need to decide before they try to change the system

20:10 The Courage Economy Inventory: a free diagnostic available on Thane's Substack

💡 KEY TAKEAWAYS

✅ The lie economy isn't a character problem — it's a systems problem. Organizations that optimize for comfort and easy collaboration create the conditions for dishonesty to flourish. Telling individuals to be more courageous inside that system will not change the culture

✅ Important work is the catalyst for the courage economy. When people are doing work that genuinely matters to them, lies become intolerable — not because of values, but because the cost of deception becomes higher than the cost of truth

✅ Trust is not something you build through team-building exercises. It is an outcome of people struggling through difficult, important work together. Leaders who want trust must first give their teams something worth trusting each other over

🎁 FREE RESOURCE

Download our Design Sprint Starter Guide → https://centered.work/design-sprint-starter-guide-signup

🔔 SUBSCRIBE for weekly innovation strategy → https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/breakthrough-innovation-7249796048536133632/

👥 CONNECT

Centered.work: https://centered.work

JL Heather: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jlheather/

Preston Chandler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prestonchandler/

Thane Bellomo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thanebellomo/ | thanebellomo.com | thane.substack.com

📕 Get the book Breakthrough Innovation → https://centered.work/books

#leadership #organizationalculture #psychologicalsafety #courageleadership #breakthroughinnovation

Most leaders believe better data and stronger logic win the argument. Behavioral science says otherwise — and the gap between those two assumptions is costing your organization buy-in, alignment, and momentum.

In this episode of Breakthrough Innovation, Preston Chandler sits down with Dr. JonRobert Tartaglione — a Cambridge-trained psychologist, behavioral scientist, and Founder & CEO of Influence 51. Dr. Tartaglione has spent over a decade translating peer-reviewed research in social psychology, behavioral economics, and cognitive neuroscience into actionable influence strategies for Fortune 500 executives, trial lawyers, and political campaigns. We cover why humans are rationalizing creatures rather than rational ones — and why that single distinction should change how every leader prepares for their next high-stakes conversation — how to think of someone else's brain as private property and what it actually means to earn permission before you try to persuade, and why small tweaks in structure and framing can produce a 34-percentage-point divergence in how trained physicians respond to identical data.

⏱ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

1:32 Why humans are rationalizing creatures — not rational ones

3:00 How brains work like trial lawyers, not scientists

4:12 Connect before you convince: leading with story to bypass resistance

5:21 Narrative transportation theory and the anti-persuasion system

7:51 The most common influence mistakes across boardrooms, courtrooms, and campaigns

9:13 Why someone else's brain is private property — and the garden analogy

11:04 How much rapport is actually needed before you can change a mind

12:13 Two factors that determine how hard it is to shift a belief

13:58 When a belief is tied to identity — why mind-changing requires courage

15:19 Principle 5: why structure and framing matter more than the message itself

16:44 The frozen yogurt example and the framing effect

17:07 The Kahneman-Tversky surgery study: 84% vs. 50% on identical data

💡 KEY TAKEAWAYS

✅ Humans don't decide rationally and then justify — they feel first and rationalize after. Leaders who open with data before establishing emotional connection are activating the brain's anti-persuasion system, not bypassing it

✅ Changing someone's mind requires treating their brain as private property. Rapport, trust, and psychological safety aren't soft skills — they're the prerequisite for any real persuasion to occur

✅ Framing effects are real and powerful. The same data, presented two different ways, caused trained physicians to diverge by 34 percentage points in their surgical recommendations. How you structure your message is not a presentation detail — it's a strategic decision

🎁 FREE RESOURCE

Download our Design Sprint Starter Guide → https://centered.work/design-sprint-starter-guide-signup

🔔 SUBSCRIBE for weekly innovation strategy → https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/breakthrough-innovation-7249796048536133632/

👥 CONNECT

Centered.work: https://centered.work

JL Heather: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jlheather/

Preston Chandler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prestonchandler/

Dr. JonRobert Tartaglione: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonrobert-tartaglione-ph-d-21b26770/ | influence51.com

📕 Get the book Breakthrough Innovation → https://centered.work/books

#influence #behavioralscience #leadership #executivecommunication #breakthroughinnovation

Most leaders can name the dysfunction on their team. Almost none of them can see it in themselves. That gap is where transformation dies.

In this episode of Breakthrough Innovation, JL Heather and Preston Chandler sit down with Charlie Sheppard — professor of leadership, founder of World Bridge University, biotech co-founder, and creator of the leadership application of the Drama Triangle framework. We cover why drama is hardwired into every human nervous system while leadership is a choice that has to be consciously made, how to use sound energy and breath as real-time diagnostic tools for identifying when you've entered the drama triangle, and what it actually looks like to shift organizational culture away from reactive loops — even in the most entrenched environments.

⏱ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

1:37 The origin of the Drama Triangle as a leadership framework — and why contrast is the key to teaching it

3:55 Drama as standard equipment: why patterns come built-in and leadership is optional

4:40 Why leaders who need this most are the hardest to reach — and how self-awareness changes everything

5:07 Sound energy as a diagnostic tool: how Charlie reads culture without listening to content

6:03 Save Drama for Your Mama: the critical caution — this is a self-reflection tool, not a weapon

8:44 The fastest way out of the drama triangle: breath, broadened perspective, and locus of control

11:04 Leadership as a Choice: vision, catalytic action, and coaching as the three exits from drama

12:04 What this looks like at the organizational level — how to actually inject this into culture

13:17 Why drama is 25x more pervasive in culture than leadership function — and how it spreads

14:13 Real-time example: how easy it is to enroll someone else in your drama

15:12 Media, social platforms, and external locus of control — the cultural headwinds leaders are fighting

16:39 Why anti-drama is contagious: the power of team-based vision and leading by example

19:07 How to connect with Charlie: Shepherd Partners, World Bridge University, humanpresence.org

💡 KEY TAKEAWAYS

✅ Drama is hardwired — leadership is a choice. Every human defaults to victim, rescuer, or persecutor under pressure. The leadership triangle (vision, catalyst, coach) is the alternative, but it requires a conscious decision that most people never learn to make in real time

✅ The fastest exit from the drama triangle is breath and a shift in locus of control. Asking "How did I create this?" moves a leader from reactive to responsible — and it works in three seconds. The tool is somatic and neurological, not theoretical

✅ Drama is 25x more pervasive in organizational culture than the leadership function can counteract on its own. To change culture, you have to surface the specific shadow patterns that are reinforcing the cycle — and pair that with a vision compelling enough to shift the collective energy of the group

🎁 FREE RESOURCE

Download our Design Sprint Starter Guide → https://centered.work/design-sprint-starter-guide-signup

🔔 SUBSCRIBE for weekly innovation strategy → https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/breakthrough-innovation-7249796048536133632/

👥 CONNECT

Centered.work: https://centered.work

JL Heather: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jlheather/

Preston Chandler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prestonchandler/

Charlie Sheppard: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliesheppard/ | shepherdpartners.com | humanpresence.org

📕 Get the book Breakthrough Innovation → https://centered.work/books

#leadership #organizationalculture #innovation #psychologicalsafety #breakthroughinnovation

Most leaders are operating with a playbook built for a world that no longer exists. The question isn't whether disruption is coming — it's whether your mindset can keep up with the pace.

In this episode of Breakthrough Innovation, JL Heather and Preston Chandler sit down with Robert Tucker, globally recognized futurist and innovation advisor who has spent more than 30 years advising Fortune 500 leaders across 54 countries. We cover why we've officially crossed from the information age into the acceleration age, how the Nokia story illustrates what happens when culture can't flex under pressure, and the specific thinking tools — including Robert's DITO framework — that distinguish leaders who shape the future from those who get shaped by it.

⏱ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

1:39 Why this moment is genuinely different from past disruptions

4:03 What leaders are getting wrong about pace of change

5:30 The futurist mindset: your information diet and the DITO framework

7:29 Why benchmarking is becoming a liability — and what replaces it

9:53 The danger of playing it safe and waiting for someone else to go first

10:00 Coaching executive teams out of defensiveness when the playbook is obsolete

11:11 The Nokia story: what "fog of disruption" actually looks like from the inside

14:36 Why innovation has lost its way — and what it means for leaders

15:57 The mindset shift that sets up your best life and career in an uncertain future

💡 KEY TAKEAWAYS

✅ We've entered the acceleration age — a fundamentally new era where more change will occur in the next 10 years than in the last 100. Leaders who treat this like a normal cycle of disruption will be dangerously unprepared

✅ The DITO framework (Direction, Implications, Threats, Opportunities) gives any leader a practical methodology for turning observed trends into strategic insight — without needing a crystal ball

✅ The Nokia story is a case study in "fog of disruption": a dominant company with a broken internal culture that couldn't self-correct when the iPhone changed everything — a pattern accelerating across industries today

🎁 FREE RESOURCE

Download our Design Sprint Starter Guide → https://centered.work/design-sprint-starter-guide-signup

🔔 SUBSCRIBE for weekly innovation strategy → https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/breakthrough-innovation-7249796048536133632/

👥 CONNECT

Centered.work: https://centered.work

JL Heather: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jlheather/

Preston Chandler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prestonchandler/

Robert Tucker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertbtucker/

📕 Get the book Breakthrough Innovation → https://centered.work/books#innovation #futureofwork #leadership #acceleration #breakthroughinnovation

Most leaders are trying to innovate inside a governance structure that was never designed for it. Change the structure, and you change what's possible.

In this episode of Breakthrough Innovation, JL Heather and Preston Chandler sit down with Brenna Davis, CEO of Organically Grown Company — a nine-figure national organic food distributor operating under a Perpetual Purpose Trust. We cover how governance structure determines strategic freedom, why embedding values at the ownership level unlocks long-horizon innovation, and the practical leadership philosophy that helped Brenna lead a national food supply chain through COVID and beyond.

⏱ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

1:58 Brenna's origin story — from Pacific Northwest forests to CEO

4:03 What is a Perpetual Purpose Trust (PPT) and how does it work?

5:55 How PPT unlocks long-term innovation over quarterly pressure

8:45 Sustainable packaging innovation: plastic-free net bags and compostable materials

10:46 Small innovations that compound: trim tabs and invisible impact

12:40 Using Lean methodology to improve order accuracy and coworker culture

14:29 Final advice: embrace excellence, not perfection

💡 KEY TAKEAWAYS

✅ Governance structure — not strategy, not talent — is often the hidden constraint on a company's ability to innovate. The Perpetual Purpose Trust model frees leaders from short-term financial pressure and enables long-horizon bets

✅ Sustainability and innovation aren't in tension — Organically Grown's plastic-free net bag became one of their most in-demand products, proving that purpose-driven decisions can generate competitive advantage

✅ Creating a culture of innovation requires rejecting the myth of perfection. When leaders treat mistakes as process failures rather than personal failures, psychological safety accelerates improvement

🎁 FREE RESOURCE

Download our Design Sprint Starter Guide → https://centered.work/design-sprint-starter-guide-signup

🔔 SUBSCRIBE for weekly innovation strategy → https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/breakthrough-innovation-7249796048536133632/

👥 CONNECT

Centered.work: https://centered.work

JL Heather: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jlheather/

Preston Chandler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prestonchandler/

Brenna Davis: [LinkedIn URL] | brennadavis.com | organicgrown.com

📕 Get the book Breakthrough Innovation → https://centered.work/books

#innovation #leadership #purposedriven #sustainablebusiness #organicallygrown

Most companies aren't failing because of the wrong people — they're failing because they're running the wrong playbook. If your go-to-market engine was built for an enterprise you're not, you're not behind. You're just fighting the wrong battle.

In this episode of Breakthrough Innovation, JL Heather and Preston Chandler sit down with Ben Morrison, founder of Made Simpler and a 20+ year revenue growth operator. We cover why mid-market teams keep copying enterprise playbooks that don't fit their stage, how Google's systematic changes have quietly erased traffic and revenue for thousands of small businesses, and what a lean, high-output go-to-market motion actually looks like in today's landscape.

⏱ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

1:24 Why marketing isn't working — the real problem underneath

3:39 Cargo cults, guerrilla strategy, and fighting your own battle

6:41 The Google Shakedown — what changed and why it matters

9:47 Motion vs. progress: vanity metrics vs. actions that drive impact

12:52 Old-school strategies making a comeback (and why they work)

15:15 The 90-day high-leverage move for B2B mid-market teams

18:50 How to reach Ben and the free competitive analysis tool

💡 KEY TAKEAWAYS

✅ Mid-market companies consistently fail by copying enterprise playbooks — the winning move is building a strategy designed for your actual position in the market

✅ Google has systematically reduced traffic for small businesses by 60–80%, and surviving means shifting attention to AI search engines, podcasts, community, and direct outreach

✅ For B2B teams, a personalized LinkedIn motion + email outreach + content engine is the highest-leverage trifecta to build in the next 90 days

🎁 FREE RESOURCE

Download our Design Sprint Starter Guide → https://centered.work/design-sprint-starter-guide-signup

🔔 SUBSCRIBE for weekly innovation strategy → https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/breakthrough-innovation-7249796048536133632/

👥 CONNECT

Centered.work: https://centered.work

JL Heather: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jlheather/

Preston Chandler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prestonchandler/

Learn more and get Ben's free Competitive Analysis tool at: competitiveanalysis.made-simpler.com

📕 Get the book Breakthrough Innovation → https://centered.work/books

#innovation #goToMarket #revenueGrowth #leadership #madesimpler

Most organizations say they care about culture. But if your last three culture initiatives quietly died, the problem probably isn't your strategy — it's the gap between what leadership believes is happening and what's actually true on the ground.

In this episode of Breakthrough Innovation, JL Heather and Preston Chandler sit down with LaChandra Baker, workforce optimization strategist, three-time TEDx speaker, and author of Your Own Biggest Cheerleader, and founder of LBB Edutainment. We cover why culture transformations keep stalling, how belonging-centered leadership drives real business value, and what self-advocacy actually looks like for leaders who are used to advocating for everyone else.

⏱ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

1:41 Meet LaChandra Baker

2:27 The gap between what leaders believe about culture and what's really happening

4:15 Why promoting top individual contributors into management sets them up to fail

6:33 The mindset-behavior-action framework: leading indicators over lagging ones

8:55 Giving teams ownership — the difference between order takers and innovation drivers

10:05 Belonging vs. fitting in: how to protect inclusive culture under pressure

13:07 What being your own biggest cheerleader really means for leaders

13:57 The first shift leaders need to make toward authentic self-advocacy

💡 KEY TAKEAWAYS

✅ Culture is what you reward, what you discipline, and what you coach — not what's on your posters. If you're bonusing toxic behaviors to hit outcomes, you're undermining everything else.

✅ Belonging isn't a DEI initiative — it's a business strategy. When people belong, they bring their full talent, perspective, and potential. When they're just fitting in, you're leaving innovation on the table.

✅ Self-advocacy starts with self-knowledge. Before a leader can advocate for themselves authentically, they have to understand their triggers, their biases, and what they may need to unlearn.

🎁 FREE RESOURCE

Download our Design Sprint Starter Guide → https://centered.work/design-sprint-starter-guide-signup

🔔 SUBSCRIBE for weekly innovation strategy → https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/breakthrough-innovation-7249796048536133632/

👥 CONNECT

Centered.work: https://centered.work

JL Heather: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jlheather/

Preston Chandler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prestonchandler/

LaChandra Baker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lachandra-baker/ | lbbedutainment.com

📕 Get the book Breakthrough Innovation → https://centered.work/books

#innovation #workplaceculture #leadership #belonging #breakthroughlab #lbbedutainment

🔗 Learn more about LaChandra's work at lbbedutainment.com

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