Edgy Ideas

In this podcast, Nick and Simon go on an intriguing journey that explores coaching from different perspectives. Nick shares his experiences of what is called ‘life coaching’ and reflects on how this differs, and shares common ground with, executive coaching and other forms of helping relationships such as counselling and psychotherapy.  

Nick believes that coaching is a new configuration, built on the shoulders of giants i.e. it draws from the well of knowledge and practices from psychology, psychotherapy and more. Yet he also claims that coaching delivers its support to others in a new way, and also that it has created a new and different client group.  Contemporary society demands a lot emotionally and psychologically and navigating our way through ‘life coaching’ has emerged because it can be beneficial in this domain. Those who are attracted to life coaching aren’t typically experiencing their lives as dysfunctional or suffering in a way that might attract them to psychotherapy or counselling. This opens up a new space to explore and leads to new conversations, methods and insights.  In this fascinating podcast, what it means to be human emerges to be at the centre of Nick's work. 

Nick Bolton is the founder and CEO of Animas Centre for Coaching and the International Centre for Coaching Supervision. With a particular interest in the role of coaching in helping individuals navigate existential issues and the complexities of 21st-century life, Nick combines a solution-focused approach with a deeper inquiry into the client’s worldview which contributes to, though isn’t exclusively responsible for, the conditions or dilemmas they are facing. Nick is an avid lifelong learner and recognises that anything he says today merely reflects his limited thinking in the moment. He considers that a wise disclaimer for any foolishness he says along the way!

Animal rights activism is at the heart of Esther’s work and life. In this podcast, Esther shares her thinking on the entanglements between the way we treat animals and how we live in consumer capitalist cultures. Esther discusses the economic structures behind our mistreatment of animals and the ways in which they are commodified and treated as resources that mirror slavery. She then also offers ideas about what a future world could look like; where animals and human beings have a healthy relationship with one another  

Simon and Esther discuss what facing animal rights issues bring up in others, often disassociation and guilt.  To live with the awareness of how we treat animals is to live with a burden.  We all like to protect the idea of our ‘good-self’; therefore, to acknowledge the animal suffering we collude with is a direct challenge to our 'good-selves', hence our defensiveness.  Esther and Simon discuss whether animals are 'individuals', and what rights they have in relation to individual humans.  Esther discusses broader social movements, direct action and mass mobilisations in this fascinating podcast. 

Bio

Esther delved into full-time Animal Justice work early in life. She dedicates her time towards understanding and building people-powered organisations capable of creating transformative change. She helped to kick-start Animal Rebellion as a full-time member in 2019 and supported it through its first wave of resistance. Esther is the co-founder and Strategic Lead of Animal Think Tank, where she works to promote nonviolence, mass direct action, civil resistance and grassroots activism.

Follow Esther

Websites:

https://animalthinktank.org.uk
https://www.plantbasedfuture.animalrebellion.org

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/esther-salomon-0a89a11b9/

We are celebrating our Golden Jubilee with the 50th episode of Edgy Ideas and thought it appropriate to reflect on the monarchy and its meaning. 

My guest Leslie Brissett draws on his wealth of experience in human dynamics and as Director of Group Relations at the Tavistock Institute to share his thoughts on what is projected onto the monarchy from the people, and what the monarchy represents, contains and holds for us.  

Simon is an anti-monarchist, and whilst able to admire Queen Elizabeth's extraordinary leadership over 70 years and recognise how the monarchy offers continuity for many, it also is highly problematic. Simon believes it reinforces a dependency and a "know-your-place" culture that reproduces class divisions, and elitist power and undermines our capacity for autonomy and to maximise our collective potential. 

Leslie and Simon ponder together the meaning of the monarchy and explore the difference, and continuity between a matriarchy (the Queen) and patriarchy (the King). They reflect together in a non-partisan way, what future containment might look like without a monarchy and what can be learnt from the monarchy, that can help us to work towards creating the good society.  
 
Bio 

Leslie is a member of the Judiciary in England and Director of the Group Relations Programme at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations and has studied human dynamics in experiential settings in many countries. He is also the Company Secretary at TIHR. Born in the UK, Leslie experiences life as a Citizen of the World

More on Leslie: https://www.tavinstitute.org/staff/leslie-brissett/

In this episode, Liz Hall draws on her experience of editing 'Coaching at Work' journal to reflect on the state of coaching today. Liz shares how she believes coaching is thriving for two key reasons

First, the demand on managers increasingly means they need a reflective space, and support to help them navigate the emotional and relational people side of the work, and the intensity of work demands upon them. 

Second, Liz blurs the boundaries between coaching and therapy and believes that coaching provides important support to people who would not necessarily go to therapy. 

Liz shares her own practices of utilising mindfulness and somatics in her work, sharing how important this is in her own life, and how the bodywork is gaining increasing prominence in coaching more generally. Her initiative 'Coaching for Covid and Beyond' was established with colleagues and offered free coaching during the pandemic, and Liz shares her experience of this project.  Enjoy this exploration of coaching!

Bio

Liz Hall is a leadership coach and mindfulness teacher. An award-winning journalist, she’s the editor of Coaching at Work magazine, and the author of publications including Mindful Coaching (Kogan Page), Coach your team (Penguin Business), and author/editor of Coaching in times of crisis and transformation (Kogan Page), and numerous chapters in other books. As a co-founder of the award-winning Coaching through Covid and Beyond, offering pro-bono coaching to NHS workers impacted by the pandemic, she helped create a trail-blazing organizational culture shaped by compassion, relational mindfulness, psychological safety, agility and openness to emergence. The initiative is to be the subject of a study by a leading university exploring coaching in crisis. Through Coaching at Work, Liz has launched initiatives including the pioneering Roundtable towards Race Equity in the Coaching Profession which has seen professional coaching bodies agree to collaborate around a charter for change, and Climate Coaching Action Day, an annual event in March to celebrate and encourage climate coaching.

Liz is also a co-founder of the International Summit for Mindfulness and Compassion at Work and speaks regularly on mindfulness and coaching at conferences. She is a member of the Academy of Executive coaching’s faculty, teaching on mindfulness in coaching. She’s currently working on a book on relational mindfulness with Dr Emma Donaldson-Feilder.


Follow Liz

Website: https://lizhallcoaching.com
Coaching at Work Magazine: www.coaching-at-work.com
Coaching through Covid and Beyond www.coachingthroughcovid.org
Article on Coaching Through Covid Initiative: https://www.coaching-at-work.com/2021/03/01/covid-a-year-in-coaching/

Shermin Voshmgir is a leading thinker in the world of Web 3. This podcast explores the intersections between human dynamics and Web 3 developments. Shermin discusses the new possibilities of more democratic and decentralised ways of being and organising, and shares her growing concerns about how old politics, ego-driven behaviours, and simply the lack of awareness around potential dangers. There are tensions around transparency and privacy, algorithmic bias, and lack of participation in decentralised systems which leaves a few people making decisions. Power dynamics and biases become embedded in new DAOs and networks, making them difficult to influence and change. Shermin shares her new adventures in the domain of agriculture as she works with her partner to bring together Web 3 technologies, such as tokenization, that will support more sustainable farming. We are all entering the new world of Web 3, and Shermin Voshmgir is a brilliant translator who brings that space to life for those of us struggling to understand it - a must-listen episode! 

Bio 

Shermin is the author of the best-selling book “Token Economy“, the founder of Token Kitchen and BlockchainHub Berlin. In the past, she was the director of the Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics which she also co-founded and a curator of the infamous project TheDAO back in 2016. She is currently setting up a data-driven farm in Portugal with her Partner where they investigate how to tokenize agricultural assets and sustainable ecosystem services such as soil quality or CO2 capture with the support of hardware wallets and sensor technology. Shermin studied Information Systems Management at the Vienna University of Economics and film-making in Madrid. Under her alter ego KAMIKAT.SE she has also created a series of audio-visual works. She is Austrian, with Iranian roots, and now lives in Portugal where she works on the intersection of technology, agriculture, art & social science.

Her biggest strength is to make complex issues easily understandable to a wide audience without losing the depth or scope of the issues she writes or talks about. Shermin has a long track record of public speaking about Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies, the Web3 and the future of technologies in general – from prestigious community conferences such as TedX, The Next Web or Re:publica, to private events for companies and institutions such as Vodafone, Audi, IMF and the Wordbank. She has a multidisciplinary perspective of how Web3 will impact different areas of society. She believes that Web3 and its tokenized applications can shift the dynamics of our socio-economic systems. Her focus is to make technology accessible to a non-tech audience so that all those who use technology can also take part in the decision-making process of the technology they use.

Buy Token Economy, Shermin's fantastic Web3 explainer: https://www.bookdepository.com/Token-Economy/9783982103853

Follow Shermin

Website: https://shermin.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sherminvo
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherminvoshmgir

Daniel Matalon is on a mission. Dan asserts that humanity’s biggest existential threat is not climate change, tribalism, or inequality but our inability to make agreements with each other at the level we require to address our challenges.  In this podcast Simon explores both the mission and what's behind it, making interesting connections to how the personal and the project come together.  The question "is there enough?" is like a yeast starter, once you ask the question it expands. Dan aims to meet everyday folk in a place where they can reflect on their identities and their worldviews, opening a space for new collaborations. Enjoy this podcast! 

Bio

Daniel Matalon is the founder of #IsThereEnough, a provocative new conversation about the intersection of survival economics and social justice. He is also the co-founder of Impact Launchpad, a UK-based venture studio for social impact incubation and development. His upcoming title, The First Agreement, is a historical and future-leaning look at economics, scarcity, and survival, that suggests that our drivers of incentive can be measurably built around human beings at the center of our economies, rather than the assets and resources we measure them by today.

Visit Dan's website: https://www.isthereenough.org

Giles Hutchins shares his work and thinks about how to lead organizations following nature's flow rather than using nature as an external resource.  Since the industrial revolution, we have been an extractive society, taking from the environment, without understanding or considering our interconnectivity and interdependence with the environment.  We are now paying heavily for this way of thinking, and Giles works in organizations to change worldviews and create regenerative leadership. He calls for a shift from the machine mindset to a living-systems mindset; from a world that is made of separate parts, to a world that is interconnected and interdependent.  If you want to be part of creating more humane and sustainable workplaces, this is an important podcast to listen to! 

Bio

Giles is a pioneering practitioner, keynote speaker and executive coach at the fore-front of this necessary revolution. He applies advanced consciousness raising techniques, deep-dive nature immersions, embodiment work, ancient wisdom tradition insights, and cutting edge research on leadership consciousness.  Giles has over 20 years business experience in helping all shapes and sizes of organisations transform.  Formerly, over a decade as management consultant, programme manager and business practice lead at KPMG, and more recently Global Head of Sustainability for the global technology provider Atos.  He is currently Chairman of the Future Fit Leadership Academy, Lead Partner of The Natural Business Partnership, co-founder of Biomimicry for Creative Innovation, co-founder of Regenerators.co and partner/associate with a number of pioneering organisations, such as The Global Leaders Academy and The Laszlo New Paradigm

Hetty explores how transpersonal coaching takes us ‘beyond the person’ and into the wider ecosystems in which we live and work, including the spiritual realm. Hetty and Simon share their own faith journeys that have shaped how they engage with this work. They discuss how spirituality is either ignored in the workplace because it is not relevant to a high-performance ‘modern’ work culture and belongs in the private realm, or how it can be instrumentalised i.e. take this mindfulness course and your productivity will increase by 30% (which immediately turns a transpersonal opportunity into a secular, goal-focused activity.

To work with a transpersonal frame is therefore challenging yet Hetty claims they are vitally important. She describes how this work needs to be embodied and how her yoga practice has helped her with this over the years. Hetty also shares how women’s experiences have been marginalised, and the part they play in developing a transpersonal frame. We are facing very challenging times, and the answers will not come from more of the same. It is only by de-centering the human and recovering a sense of belonging to the whole that will bring hope and change to our current state of being. Hetty believes that focusing on the transpersonal is an essential part of this journey.

Bio

Hetty brings 25 years of psychology and executive coaching experience to global leadership development. A best-selling author, her career has spanned the arts, journalism, media, health, and policy development in the private, public and voluntary sectors. She designs and delivers leader-coach and global culture change programs. Key focuses are women’s leadership, Transpersonal Coaching, and the regenerative contributions approach. She works ecosystemically and holistically founded on transpersonal psychology and informed by psychoanalysis and embodiment approaches. She teaches at the Irish Management Institute, is a Senior Associate Director with Common Purpose, and she coaches, teaches, and facilitates in French. Hetty is Director of Publications Strategy for the Association for Coaching and Executive Editor of the AC global magazine, Coaching Perspectives, now a leading publication in the field. Hetty holds a Masters in Psychoanalytic and Systemic Approaches to Organisational Consulting from the Tavistock Centre (UEL), a Certificate in Coaching Supervision from Oxford Brookes, a Masters in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute (UL), and a BA in languages from Cambridge University. She is married with two millennial daughters.

Recent publications: The Future of Coaching: Vision, Leadership and Responsibility in a Transforming World published by Routledge. Her long-form essay on Radical hope: a dimension of the soul rooted will be
published in the Autumn by PCCS Books in the collection of essays, Holding the Hope: Essays exploring psychological and spiritual responses and practices to climate change and extreme biodiversity loss.


For more information on Transpersonal Coaching programmes
For more information on Ecosystems Supervision programmes with Martin Vogel
Contact: [email protected]
http://www.hettyeinzig.com

Our guest this week is Dr Eliat Aram, CEO of The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations (TIHR). 
Dr Eliat Aram has been the CEO of TIHR for over 13 years. The TIHR, a not-for-profit outfit operating in the UK and abroad is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2022 and is a world-leading research, evaluation, consultancy, and professional development organisation. Believing in the abundant potential of human relationships and love for people are the drivers in the way she shapes the direction of the institute, the multitude of its activities as well as her praxis.  
TIHR was established in 1947, dedicated to the study of human relations for the bettering of working life. Eliat discusses some of the TIHR developments over the years and shares new directions they are pioneering, particularly in the areas of how aesthetics, art, and place inform our working lives today.    
TIHR developed many experiential learning methodologies, drawing on systemic thinking, anthropology, psychoanalysis, and other social sciences, the most well-known are the Group Relations Conferences. Eliat reflects on the importance of this innovative learning methodology and its continued relevance in today's disruptive world. This podcast will be of great interest to all of us indebted to the Tavistock Institute and its positive influence on work, organisations, and society. 
Bio
Dr Eliat Aram is a Chartered Scientist Psychologist (BPS), a UKCP registered Gestalt Psychotherapist, and has been one of the pioneering members of the CMC (Complexity & Management Centre) of Hertfordshire University. Her theoretical grounding is in complexity theory, organisational studies, Gestalt psychotherapy theory, and systems psychodynamics. She is a keen practitioner of Group Relations, the Tavistock enterprise’s core ‘learning through experience’ practice. She has directed many Group Relations Conferences internationally including the Tavistock Institute’s flagship GRC known as the ‘Leicester’ conference. She has been one of the two directors of the TIHR’s certified courses Coaching for Leadership and Professional Development (2014-2017) and co-founder of the Supervision for Coaching and Consultancy course, now in its seventh cohort. She has contributed to all TIHR Professional Development activities and program design. Someone told her recently that perhaps work-life balance is found when one finds their love at, and for, work and life. Working with the dynamic of shame as an integral part of any potentially transformative learning process has been her quest and the tenet of her evolving thinking over the decades of her practice. Someone told her recently that perhaps work-life balance is found when one finds their love at, and for, work and life. She unashamedly thinks this might just be so. 

Susan Long has studied and practiced working with the unconscious for many years. She brings fresh thinking to help us understand the unconscious in its many forms.

Susan discusses the pre-Freudian unconscious drawing on the romantic philosopher Friedrich Schelling’s work who thought of the unconscious as a source of creativity.

Susan reflects on the ‘repressed unconscious’ of Freud, and how he developed a treatment method (psychoanalysis) based on using free association to access the unconscious. Freud also pioneered group psychology, and Susan explores the group unconscious and how this manifests in society today. 

The 'associative unconscious' is a more contemporary exploration of the unconscious and Susan shares how we might draw on it to discover individual and group thoughts that are not yet accessed, what Christopher Bollas called the 'unthought known'. 

Simon shares his experiences of using a 'free-association matrix' method in a work setting

The conversation finishes by exploring a new wave of thinking about the unconscious, such as neuro-scientific insights and a more generative eco-unconscious, taking the unconscious beyond the human mind. This is a fascinating discussion, enjoy!

Bio

Susan Long is a Melbourne based organisational consultant and executive coach. Previously Professor of Creative and Sustainable Organisation at RMIT University, she is now a Professor and Director of Research and Scholarship at the National Institute for Organisation Dynamics Australia (NIODA) and a coach and consultant in private practice. Susan has been in a leadership position in many professional organisations and has published ten books and many articles in books and scholarly journals, is General Editor of the journal Socioanalysis and an Associate Editor with Organisational and Social Dynamics. Susan is a distinguished member of ISPSO.

Simon Western is the host of Edgy Ideas Podcast, founder of the Eco-Leadership Institute www.ecoleadershipinstitute.org, and CEO of Analytic-Network Coaching- an advanced coach training company. He is the author of internationally acclaimed leadership and coaching books, and blogs on wider social-political issues. Previously a past president of ISPSO,  a family psychotherapist, general and psychiatric nurse, and a factory worker.  Simon works with senior leaders in global companies as a leadership consultant with the aim of delivering new eco-leadership cultures that support system-change, and to coach ‘leaders to act in good faith to create the good society’.