Knowing Kenning

Kenning Partner Daryl Ogden speaks with Philip Holt, head of Undead Labs, about his experiences running a gaming studio within the Xbox empire.  Philip explains his unusual introduction to the business of gaming, and why he found joining Undead to replace a charismatic founder both challenging and rewarding.  Daryl and Philip explore the deeper meaning of “State of Decay”, and how it might reflect on our own pandemic world.  

They go on to discuss how Philip worked with his team to develop and codify working values for the studio, and the role that DEI concerns played in that effort.  Daryl asks Philip how he has dealt with “The Great Resignation” and the ongoing challenge of attracting and keeping the highly skilled talent needed to create great games.  They explore the value Philip has found in his own coaching, and what it might offer studio leaders more broadly. Philip reveals the 7 books that made up his original leadership book club, and points to where the club will go next.  Finally, Philip and Daryl discuss how being a goalkeeper in his youth shaped the way Philip still sees risk and reward.

Reach out:

Philip Holt

Daryl Ogden

Book Club:

Ego is the Enemy

Endurance

Leadership in Turbulent Times

Lead from the Outside

Conscious Business

Dare to Lead

Creativity, Inc.

Solito

Join Kenning Partners Cathy Boeckmann and Jerry Stauduhar as they speak with Mike Merrill about the challenges facing strategic business communicators today. Despite a wealth of data–or maybe even because it is so plentiful–drawing out the “so what” and generating business insights seems ever more difficult. Experts in technology, the creative arts, or medicine can do great work and gather excellent data, but they can find it challenging to pull it together and present it in a way that helps decision makers take action. And the tools that allow for greater collaboration–like virtual meetings and cloud-based documents–can actually make things worse.

Find out how Cathy, Jerry, and their Kenning colleagues have addressed these challenges using tried and true methods as well as innovative new ways of meeting today’s needs. From investing in communications skills to building a culture that rewards judgment over raw information, see how Kenning has helped clients to make shared meaning.

Contact:

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

Continuing our series with Assistant Coach Ron Adams of the Golden State Warriors, Kenning Partner Daryl Ogden talks with Ron about coaching across the generations.  A collegiate and professional coach for over 50 years, Ron has seen a lot of changes, but as he tells Daryl, he’s had to adapt himself in order to “stay in the game.”

How has practice changed over the course of Ron’s career, and what does it have to do with disruptions in education?  How can music serve as a bridge between generations and how is basketball like jazz?  What role can generation markers–Boomers, X, Y, Z–play in helping you understand younger players and employees, and why are individual connections more important?  Ron and Daryl discuss these issues and more, and then Daryl and Mike Merrill apply Ron’s lessons to challenges you may face in working across generations in your own business context.

“The Guru of NBA Defense” is how Raptors coach Nick Nurse recently referred to Ron Adams, assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors whose time with the franchise has included 3 NBA championships.  Ron has coached not only Steph Curry and Kevin Garnett, but David Robinson, Ray Allen, and James Harden. In this wide-reaching conversation, Ron discusses with Kenning Partner Daryl Ogden how he builds rapport with players, especially superstars.

Are superstars just regular people, or should they be given extra privileges?  How does Ron span the chasm of his years of experience and rural upbringing to speak with today’s young stars?  Why was being left-handed a good way to build camaraderie with James Harden?  How can you develop relationships with your stars while telling them the truth?  What is the role of authenticity in leadership, and how can you build an inclusive culture, one founded on joy?

Join Ron and Daryl as they discuss this and more, and hear how Daryl and Mike Merrill apply Ron’s NBA wisdom to common business challenges.  

Contact:

[email protected]

[email protected]

Conventionally, we think of feedback as something we get from our immediate supervisor. But Kenning Partner Laurie Burkland Waller explains to Mike Merrill how we can use 360° feedback to broaden our perspective and ultimately provide us a competitive advantage. Laurie describes how Kenning uses both standard tools as well as custom interviews to gather feedback not only from senior leadership but peers and direct reports as well to provide a more comprehensive view of a leader’s performance.  

Determining strengths and opportunities is key, but Laurie notes that a well-conducted review can uncover issues that might derail a leader–for example, an overuse of a strength in a particular situation where it is not warranted. Laurie goes on to explain the importance of pursuing a developmental plan based on what has been learned in the process, and how ongoing coaching can not only help a leader experiment with new ways of working, but find ways to make change stick as well.

Contact:

[email protected]

[email protected]

Mentioned in the pod:

Korn Ferry 360° Assessment

The Leadership Circle

Culture Amp

How is leadership like time travel?  Kenning Partner Daryl Ogden explains to Mike Merrill an important tool he employs in his coaching practice:  “The Leadership Continuum”.  In this framework, Leadership is composed of three elements, all intrinsically associated with a facet of time:  Administration, with the past; Management, with the present; and Vision, with the future.   A good leader is one who can skillfully navigate through time, first gaining the measure of how much effort they expend on each element, and then intentionally focusing in turn on each with the amount of attention it warrants.  Daryl explains how to Manage successfully in the present, plant yourself in the future to gain Vision, and even animate the past through inspired Administration.  

Mentioned in the pod:

Neil Stroul, In Memoriam

The Eisenhower Matrix

Contact:

[email protected]

[email protected]

On the eve of her announced retirement from Xbox Game Studios, longtime Microsoft veteran Shannon Loftis met with Kenning Partner Daryl Ogden to discuss her storied career.  Shannon talks about the early days of gaming at Microsoft, and what it was like to be a woman in that hard-driving environment.  She explains how Microsoft’s culture has changed in the intervening years, and how she has as well.  A timely talk by Melinda French Gates provided some rules to live by for Shannon, guidelines she still shares with the women she supports today.  

Daryl and Shannon dig deep into how she arrived upon own leadership philosophy–one defined by the values of individual development, diversity & inclusion, and respect.  They talk about how to handle failure gracefully, and how to support individuals proactively.  Shannon identifies some of her favorite career moments.  She then examines the challenges posed by pandemic to the culture she and her team had built, and how they overcame those challenges.

In wrapping up, Daryl and Shannon explore the impact of coaching–for Shannon, and for her team.  On the eve of her retirement, she feels good about her team’s readiness to step up to fill the void she is leaving. 

Mentioned in the pod: 

Ages of Empire

The Coaching Habit

Contact:

Shannon on LinkedIn

Daryl: [email protected]

Kenning Associates Partner Jen Lachance says that facilitating a meeting means “creating space for group level sense-making”.  With that benchmark in mind, she and fellow Kenning Partner (and facilitation veteran) Thom Shaw discuss some of the best ways to prepare for a meeting, conduct it, and what you should do once it's done.  How do you define goals and outcomes going into a meeting, and how can you create a sense of progress during?  What are some of the ways you can profitably arrange the meeting room, where should you stand, and when does it even make sense to sit down?  What are some of the ways to deal with disruptive behavior, and why is some level of conflict actually a good sign?  And finally, what’s “the bike rack”?

Thom and Jen draw upon their deep experience to speak to these issues and many more.  In the end, Thom and Jen promise that facilitating a meeting–helping a group solve problems and build alignment–can be rewarding, meaningful, energizing, even fun.

Contact:

[email protected]

[email protected]

Kicking off our Women in Tech Series, Kenning Partner Cathy Boeckmann welcomes Katie Brown, Founder and Chief Education Officer of EnGen.  Katie charts her course from academia, to EdTech startup, and now to a public benefit corporation.  Katie describes the dire need for high-quality English Language Learning for immigrants to the U.S. She explains how EnGen’s pedagogy, founded on real English language examples, can aid learners in achieving a level of English proficiency that enables employment and offers the potential for economic mobility. Katie goes on to note how EnGen’s technology allows for a true “flipped classroom,” in which out-of-class individualized language activities can support in-class learning.

Katie and Cathy discuss Katie’s own journey:  How she learned to adapt her academic communication capabilities to business needs.  And they dig into both what it takes to be a “B Corporation” as well as  the fundraising landscape for women founders. Finally, Katie paints a picture of where she would like EnGen to be within 5 years' time.

Kenning Partner Laurie Burkland Waller speaks with Mike Merrill about leadership versatility, a trait she has found to be especially important for collaboration and effectiveness. Leaders with versatility have a kind of multilingual fluency: they are better able to adapt to stakeholders both inside and outside the organization and meet the needs of a particular person in a specific context. 

Laurie explains how the Birkman Method is an especially useful assessment for executives and teams looking to deepen their leadership versatility. Offering insights on four important dimensions – motivation, self-perception, social perception, and mindset – the Birkman can help colleagues adapt in ways that suit their teammates best. Finally, Laurie suggests some simple ways that anyone can develop greater leadership versatility.