Dropping your armour

In this episode our guest Julio Maria Muhorro, a young entrepreneur from Mozambique and founder of "Sharing Knowledge International" dives together with Neha into the topic "integrity".

Following this energizing conversation, you can learn more about different aspects of integrity on not only societal and organisational levels, but also on a very personal level. After this thought-provoking discussion, we asked ourselves: What does integrity mean to me and how can I leverage it?

We hope you enjoy this episode and these further reading suggestions to join the discourse on integrity.

Julio' concept of individual power is drawn from a number of philosophical and psychological traditions, with a general summary here:

• Firestone, R. W. (12 April 2009) Personal power: There is a clear distinction between personal and negative power. Psychology Today, via https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-human-experience/200904/personal-power

On the topic of organizational integrity/values and actual behavior

• Held, A. (29 September 2021). The problem with corporate "values": When values are at odds with a company's bottom line, all too often they won't win out. Vox, via https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22696810/corporate-company-values-netflix-google.
• Jensen, Clayton, S. (5 December 2019). 6 signs your corporate culture is a liability. Harvard Business Review, via https://hbr.org/2019/12/6-signs-your-corporate-culture-is-a-liability.
• Sull, D, Turconi, S., & Sull., C. (21 July 2020). When it comes to culture, does your company walk the talk? Company practices often conflict with corporate values. Closing the gap starts with communication. MIT Sloan Management Review, via https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/when-it-comes-to-culture-does-your-company-walk-the-talk/.

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Neha

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In this episode, Neha talks to Mansi Jasuja, a phenomenal person who brings love, joy, humor, and color to everything she does. She is a coach, a mother, an activist, and she brings all of that to her work at Conscious Business, a company in the Netherlands dedicated to supporting businesses to adopt a more conscious approach that creates true prosperity and harmony for people, communities, and nature. 

This conversation is both insightful and uplifting. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Further links and reading on people, publications, organizations, and topics mentioned in the recording, in the order they are mentioned (embed links as possible):

• Conscious Capitalism (https://www.consciouscapitalism.org/)
• Mackey, John., & Sisodia, Raj. (2014). Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business. Harvard Business Review Press.
• Sen, Amartya. (1999). Development as Freedom. Oxford University Press.
• Charles Eisenstein (https://charleseisenstein.org/)
  • An Introduction to the Story of Separation, from Charles Eisenstein's official youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4FU-9iBoLg)
• Ikigai (of individuals, of organization) (https://positivepsychology.com/ikigai/)
• The Art of Hosting and Harvesting Conversations that Matter / The Art of Participatory Leadership
  • https://artofhosting.org/
  • Quick, K., & Sandfort, J. (2014). Learning to facilitate deliberation: Practicing the art of hosting. Critical Policy Studies, 8(3), 300–322. https://doi.org/10.1080/19460171.2014.912959
  • Quick, K., Sandfort, J., & Stuber, N. (July 2012). Practicing the Art of Hosting: Exploring what Art of Hosting and Harvesting workshop participants understand and do. Center for Integrative Leadership, University of Minnesota. https://doi.org/10.13140/2.1.2676.8161
  • Mary Alice Arthur (https://www.getsoaring.com/about-MA), "steward" of the art of hosting 
• Teal Organizations and self-managed teams, participatory leadership
  • Laloux, Frederic (2014). Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness. Nelson Parker. ISBN 978-2960133509.
  • https://www.tealaroundtheworld.com/

 As always please send your feedback to [email protected] 

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Neha

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In this episode, you’ll hear the story of Shruthi Bopaiah. Shruthi is the Head of Client Engagement and Communications at Bridgeweave, an AI fintech company. Previously, she was Global Head of Internal Communication at Infosys, one of the biggest IT companies in India and the world. From talent acquisition to HR consulting to internal communications and now to client engagement, Shruthi is constantly learning and pushing the boundaries of her skills and impact. Outside of work, you can find her on the basketball court or at yoga studio, in addition to working hard to create awareness and engagement to care for stray/abandoned dogs. Against the exciting backdrop of Shruthi’s story and how her relationship with learning evolved overtime, we discussed the importance of experience in learning, where the value of the experience is measured not in the number of years, but in its richness. We dove into the advantages of cultivating skills in diverse areas and how those skills can be transferred to seemingly unconnected situations. This conversation with Shruthi made me wonder if it’s time to retire the age-old saying of “jack of all and master of none” because the world needs us in our multifaceted glory!

Further Readings:

·       In relation to “T-shaped” people:

Professor Ruth Bridgstock (PhD, M Ed, psychology/education)

A summary of her research through 2015 appears on her blog http://www.futurecapable.com/?m=201507

A list of her published research appears on her university profile page https://www.swinburne.edu.au/research/our-research/access-our-research/find-a-researcher-or-supervisor/researcher-profile/?id=rbridgstock

·       In relation to “design thinking”:

Linke, R. (14 September 2017). Design thinking, explained. MIT Sloan School of Management. https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/design-thinking-explained

·       In relation to “generalist vs. specialist”

Teodoridis F, Bikard M, Vakili K. (18 July 2018). When generalists are better than specialists, and vice versa. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2018/07/when-generalists-are-better-than-specialists-and-vice-versa

Teodoridis F, Bikard M, Vakili K. Creativity at the Knowledge Frontier: The Impact of Specialization in Fast- and Slow-paced Domains. (2019). Administrative Science Quarterly, 64(4), 894-927. doi:10.1177/0001839218793384

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Neha

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In this short Intro, I will explain what you can expect from the podcast "Dropping your armour".

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Neha

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Timm Urschinger from LiveSciences and Teal Network and talk about control and how it manifests in our lives and leadership. We start by following Timm in his life’s journey and along the way, discuss the manner in which our inner world (our needs, motivations, and fear) and outer world (other people, institutions, organizations, and systems) reinforce our need for control. Timm’s experiences of working in a traditional corporate setting as well as leading an organization that prides itself in being “radical self-organized” provide a unique view into how leadership must evolve in sync with the world around us.

I thoroughly enjoyed Timm’s astute observations, his no-bullshit-let’s-get-real way of speaking, and friendly banter - I hope you do too.

Should you want to get in touch with Timm, feel free to connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timm-urschinger-43269825

Resources: All about Teal and the Teal Network:
https://www.tealaroundtheworld.com/
https://www.reinventingorganizations.com/
https://reinventingorganizationswiki.com/ 

Further reading on authors, concepts, and research mentioned during the conversation:

• Karen Horney’s work: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/finding-inner-harmony-the-underappreciated-legacy-of-karen-horney/
• Leadership Circle Profile (LCP) https://leadershipcircle.com/en/reactive-leadership/ 
• Revenge bedtime procrastination: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20201123-the-psychology-behind-revenge-bedtime-procrastination
• BBC article which outlines origins of the term, mentioned by Neha during the conversation
• Peter Koenig’ “sourcework”: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/peter-koenig-on-source-money-and-consciousness/id1234632893?i=1000473862257 ; https://peterkoenig.typepad.com/eng/the-role-of-source/
• Otti Vogt’s talk at TATW 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSX-0bTS-48&t=2008s

As always please send your feedback to [email protected] 

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Neha

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In this episode of Dropping Your Armour, we have with us Sonja Sinz, who is a coach, entrepreneur, a cat mom, and above all, a truly inspiring person who is full of joy and on a mission to make the world more human, creative and sustainable. She works closely with several leaders in many different organizations and helps them connect with their inner world to transform the outer world. Today, we’ll be talking about creating inclusive and creative spaces at work that are engaging and fulfilling for people.

Should you wish to get in touch with Sonja, you can find her on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonja-sinz)  or visit her website (https://sonjasinz.de/) and blog (https://byebyehamsterwheel.org/).

Resources: 

Creating inclusive (and therefore creative) workspaces:

• Bourke, J., & Titus, A. (6 March 2020). They key to inclusive leadership. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2020/03/the-key-to-inclusive-leadership
• Center for Creative Leadership. (28 November 2020). The importance of empathy in the workplace. https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/empathy-in-the-workplace-a-tool-for-effective-leadership/

Performance management kills motivation:

• Murphy, K. R. (2020). Performance evaluation will not die, but it should. Human Resource Management Journal, 30, 13–31. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12259
• Schleicher, D. J., Baumann, H. M., Sullivan, D. W., & Yim, J. (2019).  Evaluating the effectiveness of performance management: A 30-year integrative conceptual review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 104 -(7), 851–887. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/apl0000368

As always please send your feedback to [email protected] 

Enjoy this episode!

Neha

As always please send your feedback to [email protected] 

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