Guest: Peter Cross: Author of ‘Start with the Customer’

Peter Cross is a leading authority on serving customers in a changing world. Renowned as a champion and unflinching campaigner for world class customer service, his belief in the value of service, both to business, the customer and our broader society has fuelled a lifetime’s work, raising service standards across multiple sectors and building a deeper awareness of its transformational commercial power.

After lengthy stints in the luxury and retail sectors, Peter joined forces with Mary Portas to build one of London’s foremost customer marketing and insight agencies. He then spent eight years in charge of customer experience at the John Lewis Partnership.

Today, Peter is a consultant, international speaker and one of the world’s foremost authorities on customer behaviour, advising on the art of customer service and employee engagement. He is Vice President at the Institute of Customer Service, an ambassador for the Retail Trust and Pride Wide and Leader in Residence at the University of Leeds. Peter’s first book, ‘Start with the Customer’ was published by Pearson. An instant bestseller, the book was referred to by the Grocer magazine as the “essential text on customer experience”.

Join us as we discuss employee empowerment and engagement .

Host: Andy Goram

Guest: Maria Brinck- Founder & President of Zynergy International

Maria Brinck is a visionary thought leader devoted to breaking up the traditional leadership monopoly in order to generate the “diversity of thought” necessary to solve our most pressing challenges in organizations and nations. Maria founded Zynergy International, a leadership advisory firm in 2013, to fulfill her passion.

Today, Maria works with board members, CEOs, executives, business teams and HR professionals and is based in Colorado. Born and raised in Sweden and Algeria, Maria was educated in Sweden, France, and the USA with a focus on International Business. Her most transformative experience, reshaping her worldview, came when she lived and worked with indigenous people in the Congo Basin Rainforest in a remote part of Cameroon. While working on the rehabilitation of chimpanzees and gorillas, she observed first-hand human planetary destruction and its consequences for all living things, but also the type of leadership we need to bring out the best in humanity.

Join us as we discuss the leadership that got us here won’t get us where we need to go.

Host: Jo Dodds

Guest: Nic Marks: Statistician, and Author

Best known for creating the internationally recognised Five Ways to Wellbeing and for his TED Talk on the Happy Planet Index, Nic has spent 25 years helping organisations, from NHS trusts to global brands, build happier and more productive teams. His latest award-winning book, Happiness is a Serious Business, sets out a bold, evidence-based case for why happiness should sit at the heart of modern leadership.

As founder of Friday Pulse, Nic has developed practical, data-driven tools that measure and improve team culture, including the Seven Successes of Happy Teams, the Dynamic Model of Team Happiness, and his simple weekly rhythm, Measure–Meet–Repeat. His work blends statistics, psychology and systems thinking to show why happiness is not a luxury at work, but a core driver of performance, retention and innovation.

Join us as we discuss why happiness isn’t soft — it’s the engine of success

Host: Jo Dodds

Guest: Shim Ravalia: Corporate Health Strategist

We often think of employee engagement as a matter of culture, leadership, or motivation but what if the real foundation sits deeper? In this session, we’ll explore how nutrient status directly influences energy, focus, resilience, and even how people feel about their work and themselves. From stress and sleep to productivity and performance, our “health account” is quietly shaping the way we show up every day. By recognising the hidden costs of nutrient deficiencies in the workplace, organisations have an opportunity to unlock not just healthier employees, but more engaged, innovative, and sustainable teams.

Join us as we discuss how nutrition and employee engagement go hand in hand.

Host: Jo Moffatt

Special Guest: Dave MacDonald, Better Together Group

One short month after his twins were born, Dave MacDonald was unexpectedly fired and found himself urgently seeking income through side hustles and temp jobs, just to put food on the table. This struggle to provide for his own family ignites his passion to help essential blue-collar workers find enjoyable and dependable employment.

Nearly 30 years later, Dave’s dream is fully realized: he serves as the Owner and President of Better Together Group, the parent company of three unique staffing agencies. Better Together Group was built on Zig Ziglar’s belief that if you help enough others get what they want, you will eventually receive what you want, too. Their mission is twofold: to help their clients boost productivity and profitability by hiring the right people, and to ensure that job candidates can feed their families and fulfill their ambitions.

Dave studied Organizational Management at Concordia University of Chicago, but like a true bootstrapped business owner, credits his expertise to the school of hard knocks! He is active in several trucking associations across Canada, and his proudest achievement by far was welcoming his children into Better Together at their request! His daughter, Hannah, celebrates her dad by saying “he always has and always will put the people first”.

Join us as we discuss why every company should be teaching people how to WTF – Work Hard, Tell the Truth, & Finish the Job.

Host: Andy Goram

Guest: Andy Edwards: Author of Understanding People

‘RELATIONOMICS’ – is defined by Andy as leveraging the best possible workplace relationships as a business advantage. When we create, build and (where necessary) repair workplace relationships we create a healthier culture. We also benefit from higher discretionary effort through increased loyalty, enhanced productivity levels, fewer sick days, and reduced staff turnover.

Andy has written two books… one called “Why Can’t People Be More Like Me?!” which is all about simple behavioural psychology . In the book, he highlights the difference between people to be where the value resides.

His second book “LEADERSH*T – What your followers really think of your leadership and how to change their minds”, explores leadership from the perspective of a frank and fearless follower. In it he identifies 7 ‘leadership ‘Fails’ that lead to disengagement and dysfunctional relationships in the organisation.

Join us as we discuss Relationomics

Host: TBC

Guest: Matthew Olenuik: Public Sector Transformation Advisor

Governments around the world launch major programs with the promise of transformation — but far too often, those projects spiral out of control, deliver only a fraction of what was intended, or collapse entirely. In this episode, we’ll explore the deeper causes behind public sector project failures, including cultural resistance, poor oversight, and political misalignment. Most importantly, we’ll focus on how leadership behavior — not just tools or frameworks — can be the decisive factor in turning high-risk projects into successful ones.

Matthew Oleniuk is a former senior executive in the public service who spent over 15 years providing oversight of high-stakes government projects and reviewing billions in public spending. He now advises public service leaders on leadership behavior, oversight, and project risk through his platform The Risk Insider. He is also the creator of the free Project Health Check tool, helping teams catch trouble early and deliver what matters.

Join us as we discuss the reason why big government projects fail.

Host: Jo Moffatt

Guest: Lewis Eisen- International Expert on Respectful Policy Wording

You work hard to build engagement—but are your policies undermining your efforts? Too often, policies, directives, and other rules rely on outdated, dictatorial language, overlooking the human side of behaviour management. The words you choose directly affect trust and morale.

Drawing on over 40 years’ experience as a practising lawyer, business consultant, and federal government policy writer, Lewis Eisen, JD CIP is a leading global authority on the use of respectful language in policy drafting. He shows people how to shift their policy writing culture from confrontational to cooperative, and his approach has been adopted at organizations in countries around the world. The 4th edition of his Amazon international bestseller, RULES: Powerful Policy Wording to Maximize Engagement, was released in June 2024.

Join us as we discuss how traditional policy language signals distrust and how respectful wording boosts engagement.

Host: Jo Dodds

Special Guest: Lei Wang :🎙️Leadership Speaker

A former corporate professional turned adventurer, Lei now works as a leadership speaker and executive coach helping individuals and teams unlock bold ambition and resilience in the face of uncertainty.

In this episode, Lei will share actionable strategies for building mental strength, shifting perspective in adversity, and reigniting motivation when challenges seem overwhelming.

Drawing from both high-altitude extremes and boardroom dynamics, Lei will deliver powerful insights on how to reframe discomfort, find meaning in effort, and lead with courage when the path ahead feels unclear.

Join us as we discuss Lei’s experience climbing the highest peak on each continent and skiing to both the North and South Poles.

Host: Jo Moffatt

Guest: David Frost: Group People & Organisational Development Director at Dole Plc

David’s career started in automotive component manufacturing after he graduated with a degree in manufacturing engineering. After a period specialising in quality management and continuous improvement he became a Chartered Engineer and then went on to complete a master’s degree at Loughborough University in quality and human resource management. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and a Member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

He is passionate about building highly-engaged organisations and he decided to move his career into human resources, organisation development, people strategy and talent development. He has held executive and board-level HR roles in international businesses such as Carlsberg and Norbert Dentressangle (now XPO Logistics).

David is currently People and Organisational Development Director at Dole plc, the world’s largest fresh produce supplier with 40,000 people operating out of 30 countries. He reports to the CEO and is responsible for group people strategy, organisation design, succession planning and talent development. Since joining the company in early 2017, David has been involved with several strategic initiatives including designing and implementing a group people strategy in addition to being part of the process of listing the company on the New York Stock Exchange.

David has been designing and establishing global talent development programmes. At Dole, David has been fortunate in having the opportunity to lead the strategy to establish their global programme (called the Key Talent Programme or KTP). This has been running since 2018, with 7 cohorts and 120 participants taking part. Dole partners with Cranfield University and other providers and the KTP has now won 2 awards. David will talk about how these programmes add value to the organisation and how you gain buy-in.

Join us as we discuss the design and implementation of global development programmes

Host: Andy Goram