Executive Coaching for Leaders & Teams

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Executive Coaching for Leaders & Teams episodes

October 18, 2019Podcast Episode 10: Carlo Giardinetti – Self-Organizing Teams & Holacracy
A Conversation with Carlo Giardinetti
A Conscious Collaboration Podcast
In this episode, Yosh discusses aspects of self-organization and self-management with Carlo Giardinetti, an educator, educational leader, and Holacracy expert.
Carlo is an expert practitioner of self-organization principles and a certified Holacracy Facilitator. After a career as a professional soccer player in Italy, Carlo moved into a fast-advancing career in the hospitality industry managing hotels and resorts in Italy, Tanzania, Kenya, Maldives, Egypt, and Ukraine. Now “living his third professional life,” he works in the education management space as Dean of Executive Education and Global Outreach at Franklin University Switzerland.
During his tenure as Dean for the International Business School Lausanne, Carlo guided the adoption of Holacacy into BSL. Treating this transformation as a real-world change project as much as a research project offered invaluable insights into his understanding of how to best support self-organization in teams and organizations.
Carlo’s research on self-organization organically touches aspects of adult development theory — connections we happily explored in our conversation.
Show Notes / Highlights from this episode:
Collaboration is an ongoing, committed, intentional practice that requires personal commitment
Collaboration is an act of functional generosity. People underestimate how much it takes in terms of personal change to become a great collaborator.
To become a great collaborator, we need to open up, to give to the group — such openness is an act of generosity, “I call that professional generosity”
But it’s also functional generosity – this kind of generosity isn’t just personal or moral – it “pays back” amazingly in terms of results and what the team or organization can accomplish
Side note: The core of functional generosity – the willingness to be open to input from others while being open with others – seems very related to the idea of reciprocity that came up in our podcast with Vincent Chang (See our post “Your Vision – Their Vision – Our Vision“)
Functional generosity comes at a cost
Functional generosity is a learned trait. It starts with oneself and it takes effort to cultivate it.
We have to train ourselves to allow that cost – it’s an investment into collaboration
What’s the “cost”?
Effort: It takes work to overcome attachments to our own ideas (See our blog article “why smart people defend stupid ideas“)
Political/Social cost: No one owns the idea – it’s not your idea vs. my idea but about the best idea for the organization. We have a desire to please or to avoid tension due to disagreement that can arise when we speak our truth. Even if it’s constructive, it takes courage to criticize ideas or to be open to criticism
We need to learn to welcome criticism
So, another aspect of functional generosity is learning to detach emotions when discussing ideas or processes
Of course, this is easier said than done and takes personal work
When we avoid vulnerability or withhold disagreement, hopes, or requests, we basically withhold information. Less available information makes it harder to self-organize.
Self-organization / Self-management doesn’t mean chaos
Self-organization isn’t about a lack of structure – but about the sweet spot between freedom and structure. What matters most is the synthesis of freedom and structure.
Having cultivated functional generosity really helps to have conversations required to have clarity about roles, accountability, dependability, the meaning of our work or the intended impact of it
Such clarifying conversations aren’t just operational conversations – they can be deeply personal
In my experience, there is no hierarchy between the personal and the process side of such conversations and the group will pursue these as needed
Self-organizing is very structured – it’s a bit like doing architecture
Holacracy isn’t a lack of structure – it has a constitution, a book of rules, meeting structure
“Scripts” – are templates for having clarifying conversations support the process
You start organizing around a hierarchy of work vs. a hierarchy of people
Freedom finds its best expression within a structure
Let’s make this practical: How to start the journey…
Google’s Project Artistotle and the five factors they identified is a good place to start for folks who are interested in bringing these ideas to their team
Self-organizing teams are actually very good at having conversations that support these five factors
They also tend to be more flexible because if a project evolves and requires changes in roles or agreements, people will bring this up
Psychological safety is critical because without it, the learning and feedback loops are broken and a team cannot self-organize effectively
Self-organizing teams aren’t looking for stability – they are looking for clarity.
How do people react to the offer of self-organization / self-management?
Reflecting with hindsight, my team and I had some painful insights
Our research finds that about 30% of people feel negative towards it, 50% neutral, and 20% are excited to be “liberated”
We thought we could convince people by showing how “cool” this approach is and by role-modeling it credibly. However, the harder we tried the more we alienated the people who were critical or even neutral at the outset
At first, we were defensive – like “not everyone is ready for this approach” – but you cannot give up on 30% of your employees – certainly not all of them
We realized it’s a strange assumption that self-organization “liberates”
Many people don’t feel liberated at all – that’s were adult development theory comes in:
More than 60% of the population is predominantly in a socialized mindset
(See our in-depth posts Growing Up at Work and What It Means to Have a Self-Authoring Mind)
There is nothing wrong with that and you cannot work against it – it would be the opposite of cultivating psychological safety
There is a risk of misunderstanding that a self-organizing / self-management approach requires self-authoring mindsets
It’s not about pushing people into self-authoring mind – which you cannot do anyways – it’s about separating our emotions from the work that needs to get done
High-performing teams and organizations are really good at keeping their focus on the funcational aspects of their work.
Where to start?
We had to learn what not to do: You cannot push for innovation and agility by demanding self-organization
Rather than trying to transform mindsets, provide what people need
Rather, you need to take time to facilitate conversations that create clarity about structure, roles, ownership, etc.
Don’t expect the leader to architect this process but teach the group to have the necessary conversations
Hierarchy is still good for some things – like setting a strategic direction. But it’s not so good at driving innovation or organizational agility – here hierarchy gets in the way. In the end, we saw a hybrid approach work well where you structure both hierarchy and self-organization.
Enjoy listening and stay tuned for our next episode.
The post Podcast Episode 10: Carlo Giardinetti – Self-Organizing Teams & Holacracy appeared first on Executive Coaching for Leaders & Teams.
33 min
July 25, 2019Podcast Episode 9: A Conversation with Dr. Paul Zak – The Neuroscience of Trust
A Conversation with Paul Zak
A Conscious Collaboration Podcast
In this episode, Yosh explores with Paul his work on the neuroscience of trust – and discuss how understanding trust on a neurological level helps leaders and teams deepen collaboration.
Dr. Paul Zak is a scientist, public speaker, and author of several books such as “The Moral Molecule” and “Trust Factor: The Science of Building High-Performance Organizations“. Trained in economics and neuroscience, he is a pioneer in the field of neuroeconomics – applying his research findings to the study of markets as well as organizational and team health. He researches and teaches at Claremont Graduate University.
One aspect of Paul’s research focuses on the neurological mechanisms that enable cooperation and trust. His work led to a deeper understanding of the critical role of the neurotransmitter oxytocin which he can measure not just in laboratory but also real-life workplace settings.
What I find fascinating about Paul’s work is that he and his colleagues “look under the hood”: They measure what’s happening in regard to trust and collaboration not just on a behavioral level but literally in the brain on a neurological/neuro-biological level.
Understanding the neurological details of trust and collaboration allows to reverse-engineer processes that create opportunities for the release of oxytocin – which, in turn, will facilitate trust and thus cooperation.
You can learn more about Paul’s work by visiting www.immersionneuro.com or oFactor, a neuroscience-based organizational trust survey.
What allows us to be great collaborators is also what makes us prone to feeling social slides.

Show Notes / Highlights from this episode – exploring the neuroscience of trust
Neuroscience 1.0 vs. Neuroscience 2.0
Neuroscience is a powerful lens to develop a deeper understanding of human behavior. Developing an understanding of the mechanisms and processes that drive behaviors has been a focus of Neuroscience 1.0
Human behavior comes in wide variations – and neuroscience can help us understand not only what we do by why we do it differently
Brains are constantly optimizing every second to increase the odds or survival and reproduction
Consistency of behavior – not variance – is really the outlier
It’s incumbent on leaders to focus team members’ brain activity on shared objectives. That’s no easy task. Neuroscience 2.0 adds actionable insight to support coaching and team leadership.
Collaboration is an ongoing, committed, intentional practice
Brains are inconsistent and want to idle.
It’s “metabolically costly” to sustain a conscious effort to exhibit consistent behaviors
That’s another reason, from a neurological point of view, why clear objectives and milestones are so important
A servant leadership approach – empowering others and supporting them in pursuing their goals – is the most effective leadership approach
Improving collaborative behaviors carries over into our personal lives.
The neuroscience of trust
We are built to collaborate… It literally feels good when we are connected with others and acting in aligned ways.
Our anatomy makes collaboration easy and enjoyable — due to an extraordinary density of oxytocin receptors and a dense network of brain molecules – that’s very different from even monkeys or great apes who would get territorial and compete way faster than human beings
Oxytocin is the key signal transmitter in brains that tells us others are trustworthy, safe, familiar.
Oxytocin facilitates some important neurological processes:
Allows us to measure behaviors of others – which reduces stress
Increases our ability to understand emotions – which supports empathy and thus an understanding of why others act the way they do
Motivates us to act on other’s / team’s behalf – i.e. work towards a shared goal bigger than my own
So we can study behaviors and conditions that promote or inhibit oxytocin release to “reverse engineer” / build effective collaborative, trust-building behaviors
One key way this boils down to is “ingroup cooperation and outgroup competition”.
oFactor Model: Our research identified eight factors / behavioral clusters that build trust in teams / organizations
One factor is “setting challenging but achievable goals” — called challenge stress
Brains like to be stressed but rest – recovery cycles are important – the brain in this respect is like a muscle
Challenge stress is not chronic stress which leads to burn-out
Under-challenging people leads to boredom and neurological idling
How to find the right level of challenge stress? –> Involve people into the conversation about what they want next for themselves that’s challenging in good ways
Neuroscience and our technology offers real data to assess the right levels of challenge stress for optimal engagement
Mistakes aren’t necessarily bad – they are an opportunity to find innovation
Trust matters so we can be open, experiment, admit and explore mistakes – so we can collectively find and improve best practices
Another word for the deviant side of errors is innovation.
Social Sensitivity – Blessing and burden
Our high density of oxytocin receptors is a blessing in that it enables collaboration
But it comes with a cost – social sensitivity
It’s important to read social signals from others
But having this sensitivity also means we are receptive to feeling social slides – actions of others that can evoke feelings of exclusion, incompetence, non-likability
Enjoy listening and stay tuned for our next episode.
Check out our related blog post: “What’s love to do with high-performance teams?“ –
which also speaks about Paul’s work specifically in the context of high-performance team-building.

The post Podcast Episode 9: A Conversation with Dr. Paul Zak – The Neuroscience of Trust appeared first on Executive Coaching for Leaders & Teams.
44 min
June 18, 2019Podcast Episode 8: A Conversation with Natalie Rast from Y7 Studio
A Conversation with Natalie Rast
A Conscious Collaboration Podcast
In this episode, Yael and Natalie discuss team growth and culture building – and the work Y7’s leadership team engaged in over the course of two+ years.
Natalie Rast, SHRM-CP, is the Head of People at Y7 Studio. Y7, a rapidly expanding and widely popular yoga studio with many locations in Manhattan, L.A, and elsewhere, is on a mission is to create an inclusive and accessible space for clients while offering an approach to Yoga that’s disrupting the Yoga space. It which was recently named number 80 in the Inc. Magazine’s Fastest Growing Companies List. After launching her career at Warby Parker, Natalie has gone on to build out the entire people department at Y7.
A key success factor to Y7’s success goes beyond its brand promise – but lies in its culture that values authenticity, empowerment, and experimentation. This mindset does not only inform the actual yoga practice at Y7. There is a general orientation towards growth and a readiness to show up for the personal work that comes with it – which ultimately positively affects how the organization is run and how leaders at Y7 role-model collaboration.
Natalie partnered with Yael to facilitate a series of workshops with Y7’s leadership team that helped it to engage in a process of authentic interactions, skill building, and “collaborative norming”. Both Natalie and Yael talk about steps on that journey.
I haven’t seen these types of trainings work sustainably before. But now, when we need to have difficult conversations, we are having them.
Highlights from this episode
Bringing intention to how you go about your work is important for you and your team
Approach each work interaction thoughtfully
Think about the impact you can have on others in your organization
Realize that we’re the same people inside and outside of work
Work relationships can be healthy, just like our personal relationships are
We bring our whole selves to work; this impacts our work and our team.
Support and trust start at the top
If the top management is not dealing with issues – be it a need to change or interpersonal dynamics – in an optimal way, it will trickle down and affect others
Support and trust can be felt on every level, but it must come from the leadership team
Working through the Forming and Storming stages of growth at Y7:
It’s important to go beyond the “what” (content and results-focussed) conversations and talk about the “how” and “why”, i.e. how are we doing/relating as we are acting on our sense of purpose
Trying to get things done together inevitably leads to friction
Begin having those difficult conversations
Anonymous one-on-one interviews in preparation of any team offsite help bring important issues to the fore; which allows us to then address the root of whatever is relevant
Laying the foundations of conscious leadership / conscious collaboration by drawing from shared theories and thus creating a common language for how we want to work together
Best Practices in Leadership at Y7:
Feedback training
Learning how to give and receive feedback upward, and peer-to-peer has made a big impact on the organization; more difficult conversations are happing and people are moving past the drama
Giving effective feedback affects every single aspect of a team; creating a tremendous amount of openness and trust
Be authentic
Authentic relationships contribute to growth – personal and business
Involve the team in the work of creating healthy work relationships and conscious leadership
Be willing to hear things that maybe you don’t want to hear in order to create change
Have the right people on the bus – people willing to engage in personal growth work and who work through conflict to support collaboration
You cannot build a healthy collaborative culture if people don’t have that readiness – it’s a serious consideration during any hiring process
Spread the culture of healthy relationships throughout the organization
Some concepts and materials mentioned in the conversation:
Y7 Anthem Campaign
Superpower Cards by SY Partners (nice strengths-based card deck to support teams to leverage team members’ “best self”
Above – Below the line: An concept from several decades ago to encourage responsibility and “self-authorship” – really brought back into popularity by for instance the Conscious Leadership Group. (They have a nice explainer video of the idea and we recommend their book The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership)
Drama Triangle: This idea goes back to Stephen Karpman, a student of Eric Berne, the father of Transactional Analysis. It’s a social dynamic model that looks at three archetypes (victim, villain, hero) that we inhabit when we go below the line. We can flip these, though, into proactive above the line archetypes – see this explainer video.
Enjoy listening and stay tuned for our next episode.

The post Podcast Episode 8: A Conversation with Natalie Rast from Y7 Studio appeared first on Executive Coaching for Leaders & Teams.
24 min
April 06, 2019Podcast Episode 7: A Conversation with Laura Quiros
A Conversation with Laura Quiros
A Conscious Collaboration Podcast
This podcast explores perspectives on what enables conscious collaboration in a given context or field. In this episode, Yael and Dr. Laura Quiros discuss what conscious collaboration involves vis-a-vis not just work style differences but in the face of more fundamental differences of race or gender.
Dr. Laura Quiros is an Associate Professor at the Adelphi University School of Social Work. Laura began her work in the clinical arena and has transitioned to working with executive leadership. She helps connect leadership of corporate, non-profit and academic organizations to missions of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Laura works to foster inclusion by helping to increase awareness and move towards action.
As a Latina and Jewish woman of color, a mother, a daughter, a former associate dean, an associate professor of social work, a coach, a consultant, a friend and a partner, connecting with identity is simply a part of who Dr. Quiros is. The ways in which she has had to negotiate her interpersonal identity as a woman of color from a multicultural and biracial history, positions her in a unique place.
Highlights from this episode
Personal and professional growth are one and the same thing
There is no distinction between the personal and professional self – they are all one
We are often unaware that we are bringing our identity (association with race, class, gender, religion, etc.) with us to work
Being conscious of your identity when you interact with others at work deeply enhances your ability to collaborate effectively
As a Latina and woman of color, I feel my collaboration almost has to be conscious. It’s a not a choice. With a bi-racial and bi-cultural background, all my interactions have a conscious element because I am conscious of who I am and which parts I bring to this relationship.
Being unaware that you are bringing your identity to work…
Can cause fractures in relationships
Puts you in danger of leading from ego and not authenticity
May create some unconscious negative non-verbal communication
Conscious Collaboration enhances the authenticity of a relationship, which leads to more effective and creative work
Diversity is not inclusion
Inclusion takes place when we are conscious collaborators
There is a strong push for diversity in organizations, but the conscious work comes with the inclusion piece not the diversity piece
When we are aware of everything we are bringing to the conversation – even our identity, we are inclusive
Diversity training is really looking at the “whiteness” of our culture; how white ideology has become the foundation of this country
How to make room for inclusion
There needs to be compassion and nurturing around the issue of diversity/inclusion
We need to be vulnerable
We need to be reflective in order to be conscious
Work through ambiguity with integrity, love, and compassion
Don’t stop after diversity training
Digging deeper by being reflective and noticing when you need to be more conscious
This work can be scary, but it is also very healing if you and your organization become more conscious
Unconscious messages of privilege, rank, and power come through in routine behaviors.
Take notice of:
Whom you sit next to in meetings
How often you speak in meetings
Are some people (including yourself) becoming silent when certain topics come up?
Do you check in with those that were silent after the meeting?
Do you speak from the “I” or from the “you”?
Are informal meetings/lunches inclusive or exclusive?
Is your organization hiring for diversity?
Do you message to people on diversity or whiteness? Are you showing your own vulnerability on that issue?
Do you allow for healing work conversations, or is your first response defensiveness?
Are you being reflective or reactive?
Are you inclusive in your emails?This work calls for humility and vulnerability, and we must be brave to exhibit those characteristicsConsciousness is a choiceInclusion calls for curiosity, without making assumptions
Looking at racism, sexism, classism, etc. as traumas that have impacted the organization helps us find ways to heal
When leadership is transparent and authentic about those traumas it helps organizations become more:
Generous
Compassionate
Accountable
Enjoy listening and stay tuned for our next episode.

The post Podcast Episode 7: A Conversation with Laura Quiros appeared first on Executive Coaching for Leaders & Teams.
41 min
January 28, 2019Podcast Episode 6: A Conversation with Vincent Chang
A Conversation with Vincent Chang
A Conscious Collaboration Podcast
In this episode, Yosh speaks with Vincent Chang, architect and partner at Grimshaw Global, about collaboration in the context of architecture and why he considers receptivity and reflection key characteristics of a conscious collaborator.
Grimshaw Global is an architecture firm originating from the UK. Grimshaw Global designs and executes large scale public space projects – such as the Fulton Transit Center in New York, the Frost Museum of Science in Miami, and the internationally acclaimed Eden Project in Cornwall, a closed ecological system of biodomes. Grimshaw Global’s philosophy involves creating designs that draw inspiration from the natural world while aiming at creating sustainable, meaningful spaces for people to connect.
Vincent is an accomplished architect by vocation. (You can learn more about his body of work here.) He is also Grimshaw Global’s Group Managing Partner. Consequently, his perspective on collaboration deeply draws from different sources: his experiences in a senior leadership role as well as through his involvement in co-creating and delivering architectural design.
Highlights from this episode
Architecture – as a field – is well placed to consider what collaboration is
Finding the right balance between humility (understanding what you bring) and receptiveness (understanding what others bring)
Collaboration is more than cooperation – you know that when you see a product that’s beyond what you could have considered on your own
THE PRODUCT OF TRUE COLLABORATION SURPRISES YOU – THERE IS NO ONE AUTHOR!
Importance of not bringing pre-conceived notions about a given solution to the process
Ideas can come from anywhere
But that requires a culture of receptiveness to allow fertility of exchange
Overcoming psychological ownership
A collaborator’s “dance” between leading and following
As an architect and/or leader – in some ways, you are the director of that dance
Seeing the effort to “align interest” as a key activity of conscious collaboration / leadership
Collaboration as an ongoing commitment to practices and attitudes
Being involved in architectural projects is an intimate and personal experience – that will challenge you not just professionally but also personally — we grow from such an experience
Personal and professional growth at this time and age are more inextricably linked to each other than ever
THE SYNTHESIS BETWEEN THE RATIONAL AND THE EMOTIONAL IS SO IMPORTANT: YOU NEED TO DO THAT AS AN ARCHITECT AND YOU NEED TO THAT AS A CONSCIOUS COLLABORATOR.
It takes faith to “loosen the reins” – so that open space can get filled with something bigger, unexpected
It’s important to have an ongoing practice of reflection, to challenge my own thinking and my sense of contribution, and to re-earn my credentials and relationships
Wished for attitude to support a culture of collaboration
It starts with oneself
“Generosity of spirit” – you need invest time to know each other more deeply – so you can appreciate individuals as individuals
Enjoy listening and stay tuned for our next episode.
The post Podcast Episode 6: A Conversation with Vincent Chang appeared first on Executive Coaching for Leaders & Teams.
29 min
December 12, 2018Podcast Episode 5: A Conversation with Rachael Peters
A Conversation with Rachael Peters
A Conscious Collaboration Podcast
In this episode, Yael had the opportunity to speak with Rachael Peters, the New York City Executive Director for Peer Health Exchange.
Peer Health Exchange is a national non-profit where college students teach health education to students in public schools. The health education includes mental health, sexual health, substance abuse, along with the benefits of safe and inclusive spaces.
Rachael is a member of the New York City Department of Education District Wellness Advisory Council and serves on the board of directors of Sadie Nash Leadership Project. Rachael brings to her work a deep commitment to social justice and health equity. She and Yael discuss how her background and values influence her leadership and her views on creating a safe and healthy places within the workplace.
Highlights from this episode
Conscious collaboration
Rachael’s thoughts on how conscious collaboration connects with her and staff
What does it mean to bring your whole self to work?
How national events could alter how one brings their whole self to work
How one’s identity integrates into the idea of bringing their whole self to work
Creating conditions to allow one to bring their whole self to work
How Peer Exchange’s work plays into their work practices
Positives of integrating practices of sharing “roses and thorns” in a group setting
Loving Accountability in a work place
Expectations and Accountability
Positivity of having clear goals with support
Rachael’s growth since she has had the opportunity to work with this organization
Clear boundaries assisted with growth
How influences from work helped at home and vice versa
Benefits of Interacting at work on different levels
Being transparent / vulnerable helps to engage others
Respect and love from allowing others to “see” me at work
Offering opportunities for others to share can help them learn that they can bring their whole self to work
Leaning on others to help find resolutions when needed
Enjoy listening and stay tuned for our next episode.

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33 min
October 15, 2018Podcast Episode 4: A Conversation with Ann Bodnar
A Conversation with Ann Bodnar
A Conscious Collaboration Podcast
In this episode, Yael speaks with Ann Bodnar, principal of Clinton Elementary School in Maplewood, New Jersey.
Clinton Elementary School has been cherished by local parents for many years. Ann Bodnar’s leadership – she became the principal in 2015 after years of contributing to this school in various roles – has been one important factor in this school’s success. Clinton Elementary, besides other recognitions, received the Let’s Move! Active Schools National Award in 2016.
Ann brings effective empowerment, humor, relatability, and a joy for never-ending growth & learning to her leadership. These values have shaped a culture at Clinton that supports excellent, inclusive teaching. But leadership isn’t just something for “grown-ups”. Clinton Elementary also hosts the “The Leader in Me” program – where students are introduced to a holistic range of leadership habits.
Highlights from this episode
Ann’s thoughts on “conscious collaboration”
We spend so much time at work: we are learning and growing and constantly putting something out there; we must also take risks and see how things evolve
People have many life experiences and those experiences might change the way they view something, we are all humans and we are all growing, all the time
Conscious collaboration is about creating community and a collaborative mindset with your teachers and staff
Experience with “conscious collaboration”
With Ann’s experience in teaching and being a principal for over 20 years, she’s grown to understand that her decisions can affect many others; it’s critical to have conscious collaboration since so many parents must trust her with their children
When working with children, teachers, and parents, you get people together and recognize everyone’s need to solve the problem or make a change. It’s important to get people from different perspectives together because it helps you see things from all angles
What it means to lead other people
It’s important for everyone to feel respected and to know that their opinions matter. You must look at things from all different perspectives of the people you work with and all of those around you. Giving people the opportunities to have their comfort zone appreciated but also help expand their ideas in their role
Learn to apologize when you are wrong and when something doesn’t go right. Always be transparent. Apologies allow people to understand that you did something wrong and that you’re going to do your absolute best never let that happen again
Learning to be a leader
Part of leadership is learning to feel proud of who you are and wanting to share it with others. It’s also about learning about ourselves; finding what we are good at and sharing it with our community
Build relationships and trust on an on-going basis; get to know people and their stories. Learn about their life stories and cultural backgrounds
Enjoy listening and stay tuned for our next episode.

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41 min
July 09, 2018Podcast Episode 3: A Conversation with David Sibbet
A Conversation with David Sibbet
A Conscious Collaboration Podcast
In this episode, Yosh has the pleasure of talking to David Sibbet, a pioneer in the field of visual facilitation and founder of The Grove Consultants International.
Yosh, being a team effectiveness consultant himself, learned about Dave’s work by coming across The Drexler Sibbet Team Performance model – a powerful framework for building high-performance teams. Curious about the influences and concepts behind the approach, we invited David to talk shop and to share some insights from decades’ worth of experience in facilitating creative ways to engage teams and organizations around a vision.
In addition to his ongoing work with The Grove, Dave co-directs The Grove’s Global Learning and Exchange Network (GLEN), a global learning community to evolve the methods and practices of collaboration within and across organizations and cultures. You can also follow Dave on his blog.
Highlights from this episode
Early influences
Design thinking and visual facilitation
The social changes of the 60s
“In order to deal with the problems, we had to collaborate”
“People needed to learn to walk in other people’s shoes long enough so they could start empathizing”
Collaboration as a practice
Do people want to? What’s the “inner pull”?
How can we create the right conditions for collaboration?
“The door to the future of collaboration hinges on the inner pull. In the past, we ran with our tribe. Now, our survival depends on learning to work with unlike people.”
SCARF model by David Rock
We pull back from collaboration when we are threatened
“Edginess” and collaboration
Co-authoring a book as a challenging example of collaboration
“The places I can go by collaborating are so much richer”
Edginess – the feeling that comes from wanting to work with others” – it’s exciting and demanding
Robert Fritz theory: Systems change when you resolve structural tensions
In human systems, that tension is between aspiration (what we want) and constraint (the situation we face)
Artists and creative folks show that kind of appetite and tolerance for such tension – conscious collaborators will benefit from cultivating this attitude
How do we create a safe environment so people feel it’s okay to experience the edginess and tension that comes with collaboration?
Use of Self in Change Work
Our quality of being and how we show up lies at the heart of how we do change work
“If you do change work only as a method, you can miss to create an opportunity for people to feel the tension/edginess from where creativity and ideas arise”
“When you make it safe for people to come out [with their truth] – they love it.” A facilitator’s state of being can open or shut down group discussions
Drexler-Sibbet Team Performance Model
Key influence: Arthur Young’s Theory of Process
“Consciousness is a part of nature and needs to be embraced the same as objectivity.”
Allan [Drexler] brought social science theory to the model whereby people orient themselves in a hierarchy of questions: why – who – what – how
Why: Purpose and goals aren’t the same. Goals need to connect to with purpose to have the power to ignite joint action”
Who: People’s sense of relationship and connectedness proceeds thinking
If you don’t have a connection with purpose or you don’t have a connection with people – the ‘juice’ needed to go through the detailed work [of collaboration] isn’t there.”
Enjoy listening and stay tuned for our next episode.
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36 min
June 13, 2018Podcast Episode 2: A Conversation with Andrew Nurkin
A Conversation with Andrew Nurkin
A Conscious Collaboration Podcast In this episode, Yael speaks with Andrew Nurkin, the Deputy Director for Enrichment and Civic Engagement at the Free Library of Philadelphia.
Andrew served previously the Executive Director at Princeton AlumniCorps, an organization dedicated to mobilizing people, organizations, and networks for the public good. Yael had the opportunity to work closely with Andrew – given her role as the lead facilitator for the Emerging Leaders NY program of AlumniCorps – a 9-month leadership development program for non-profit managers.
In his leadership, Andrew blends a unique combination of self-awareness, flexibility, humor, and strategic thinking – all in the spirit of the public good. And in this podcast, we particularly explore how Andrew relates to the notion of “conscious” collaboration in his previous and current leadership roles.
Highlights from this episode
Our working definition of “conscious collaboration”
“An attitude and a set of practices in working with others and leading others that recognizes that everything we do at work, every interaction we have, can be an opportunity for our professional growth, as well as our psychological or emotional growth as human beings. And every interaction is also a chance to help the workplace be a more healthy place to be or not.”
Andrew’s thoughts on “conscious collaboration”
“A lot of the joy of conscious collaboration is the interpersonal joy of getting to work with people.”
Two concerns of the definition:
“It seems to put a lot of burden on every interaction. Most growth is seen in retrospect.”
“Some kinds of labor for whom this definition does not make any sense at all.”
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs may also suggest conscious collaboration isn’t possible at all stages of adulthood / working life
Experience with “conscious collaboration”
First experience while working at the Center for Engagement at Princeton University
Project: build a post-education system across 13 correctional institutions across the state
Learning how to collaborate without prior knowledge – personal and leadership growth as a result
Facilitation and bringing the project together
Learning to check personal emotional responses
“Being able to check in with oneself and not be reactive has personal and professional benefits.”
Exploring the difference between reacting and responding
A reaction is sometimes needed, but the most constructive response is often pausing and letting someone else lead
What it means to lead other people
Taking on a facilitative role: the natural question is “How do you want to be managed?”
Part of leadership is trusting the people on your team and know themselves and know how they work best
Being a leader/manager is getting people to do their best work
Your job as a manager is that people find meaning, satisfaction, and high use in their projects
Outcome-driven vs mission-driven
“People can get very focused on their individual tracks and jobs. One of the roles as a leader is to keep people anchored and oriented towards the larger mission.”
Learning to be a leader
“Dropping into the deep end of the pool and figuring it out”
Mentors and guides who share wisdom and feedback
Formal leadership training: “Valuable mostly in forming relationships with people who are going through the same levels of experience as me”. There can be few spaces for reflection and collaborative learning
“Moments of truth” as a leader
Evolution of my understanding of what my role, and our work, is about
Public service tends not to be a culture of affirmation or “participation trophies”
How will I know I’ve achieved what I – or we— set out to achieve?
“I’ve learned to search more deeply for indicators of my success that are more truthful and authentic than someone saying ‘good job.’”
Discerning between our “higher” and “lower” motivations as a doorway into “conscious collaboration”
Understanding ego-driven needs vs. what we are trying to achieve here?
Everyone has ambition and ego invested in the work we do
Keep our ego in check
“I don’t think there’s any real value in denying that all of us have some ego and ambition in our work. I do think it’s helpful to keep it in check – and to be mindful, about when that’s your gut driver, or when that’s distracting you from a higher purpose or sense of accomplishment.”
Enjoy listening and stay tuned for our next episode.

The post Podcast Episode 2: A Conversation with Andrew Nurkin appeared first on Executive Coaching for Leaders & Teams.
32 min
May 23, 2018Podcast Episode 1: Meet the Hosts
Welcome to the Conscious Collaboration Podcast
Conscious Collaboration – authentic discussions with growth-oriented leaders and thinkers about all things collaboration
In this episode, meet Yael Sivi and Yosh Beier, the hosts of the Conscious Collaboration podcast and learn more about what this podcast series will be about.
Yael and Yosh have worked with hundreds of leaders and teams as executive coaches and organizational development consultants. They have conducted workshops and employee engagement focus groups with thousands of employees. Their journey led them to co-found Collaborative Coaching (read more about our story) but has also shaped their views on what makes or breaks collaboration.
Some highlights from this episode:
What makes collaboration conscious collaboration?
Collaboration is not a thing or method that teams need to get right but then can “set and forget”. Rather, it’s a set of practices that need persistent commitment. Conscious collaboration involves being intentional and mindful of how you lead and collaborate.
Personal growth and professional growth are two sides of the same coin
Collaboration is more than a coordination of effort to accomplish a goal but ultimately it is a deeply personal and relational experience. Nearly every “collaborative challenge” is more than a logistical or planning issue but involves learning that drives both personal and professional growth.
Listen and enjoy.
The post Podcast Episode 1: Meet the Hosts appeared first on Executive Coaching for Leaders & Teams.
31 min

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