On Connection

Law #6: Inclusion - "Differences + Trust = Brilliance"Inclusion isn't a side initiative - it's a leadership skill that drives performance Collaboration requires not only navigating differences across a team but leveraging them in ways that drive valuable results and fuel future successes. Leaders often express fatigue around inclusion efforts that feel bureaucratic or disconnected from business outcomes, and those that occur as performative (e.g. asking for input without real power-sharing) rather than generative (e.g. co-creating strategy, surfacing dissent, integrating frontline insight into decision-making). Teams that can engage multiple lenses, lived experiences, and cognitive styles make better decisions, faster. This inclusion of various perspectives is especially important when navigating ambiguity or complexity. Harnessing the value of difference requires stewarding an environment of trust, unlocking the full intelligence of a system. Insights from the episode:

• Over-inclusion and under-inclusion both erode clarity, speed, and trust
• Valuable inclusion requires clarity of purpose and a high-quality of listening and conversation
• Leaders who include wisely unlock creativity, commitment, and shared ownership

Resources mentioned in the episode:

⁠Overview of the 10 Laws of High-Performance Collaboration⁠⁠⁠⁠: Use this as a cheat sheet as you follow along with the series or practice the principles with your team

Decision Criteria Chart: Use this chart to map out criteria that can help guide upcoming decision-making conversations

WATCH this episode⁠⁠⁠⁠ on YouTube

Learn more about Conversant at https://www.conversant.com/

Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn

Presence - All improvement begins with what is present

Leadership Under Pressure Starts With Presence

Leaders who can attune to their own cognitive, emotional, and physical experience in real-time - without judgement - are better equipped to handle complexity, defuse conflict, and show up with emotional intelligence when it counts most. In this episode, we explore why cultivating presence is foundational to collaboration, resilience, and trust in fast-moving environments.

Insights from the episode:

• Practicing presence unlocks emotional intelligence
• Nonjudgmental awareness of the current moment fuels clearer decisions, and alignment
• Today's challenges - urgency, hybrid and virtual collaboration, dynamic circumstances - call for an unprecedented quality of leadership presence and emotional agility

Resources mentioned in the episode:

Overview of the 10 Laws of High-Performance Collaboration⁠⁠⁠: Use this as a cheat sheet as you follow along with the series or practice the principles with your team

⁠⁠Overview of the Conversation Meter⁠⁠: An essential summary for quick reference on how to utilize the tool

⁠The Bioreactive Styles Assessment⁠⁠⁠

WATCH this episode⁠⁠⁠ on YouTube

Learn more about Conversant at https://www.conversant.com/

Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn

Law #4: Authenticity - "Pivot to purpose in the face of fear, threat & disappointment"Life, and life at work, bring plenty of opportunities for disruption, especially in the context of our relationships with others. A collaborative effort is bound to surface misalignments, differences of opinion, and competing priorities. Circumstances themselves may knock our plans off course, sending a team into a space of anxiety, fear, and protection. Having a skillset for recovering a sense of purpose and generating focus and alignment where it's missing, even in challenging times, is a critically important leadership skill. In this episode we discuss the 4th Law of Authenticity. Authenticity - an art of listening for shared purpose and cultivating connection - is foundational to high-performance collaboration.Insights from the episode:

• Emotional agility is a core skill for successful leaders, collaborators, and high-performers

• Connection is an art of correction, not perfectionThe measure of your honor is the rate of your recovery
• "The secret to all success is constancy of purpose" - Benjamin DisraeliResources mentioned in the episode: ⁠⁠⁠

⁠Overview of the 10 Laws of High-Performance Collaboration⁠⁠: Use this as a cheat sheet as you follow along with the series or practice the principles with your team

⁠Overview of the Conversation Meter⁠: An essential summary for quick reference on how to utilize the tool The Bioreactive Styles Assessment⁠WATCH this episode⁠⁠ on YouTube

Learn more about Conversant at https://www.conversant.com/

Follow us on ⁠⁠LinkedIn

Law #3: The Law of Connection - "The conversations are the work."In today’s complex, fast-moving organizations, leaders are under constant pressure to drive results, manage competing priorities, and keep teams aligned—often across functions, locations, and time zones.This episode of The 10 Laws of High-Performance Collaboration introduces The Law of Connection, and core principles of leadership that are often overlooked: The quality of your team’s conversations determines the quality of your collaboration—and the results you’re able to achieve.We discuss:

• Why connection and conversation have a direct impact on efficiency, effectiveness, and supervision costs
• How to care for the quality of our conversations (hint: this has more to do with how well you listen than what you say)
• How to care for the timing of your conversations - "What conversation is it time for now?"
• The importance of developing the ability to notice when things are off track, and the skills that help you restore alignment and trust

Resources mentioned in the episode: ⁠

Overview of the 10 Laws of High-Performance Collaboration⁠: Use this as a cheat sheet as you follow along with the series or practice the principles with your team

Overview of the Conversation Meter: An essential summary for quick reference on how to utilize the tool

Moving Up the Meter: A handout that guides focus if looking to increase the quality of your conversations and your listening

⁠WATCH this episode⁠ on YouTube

Learn more about Conversant at https://www.conversant.com/

Follow us on ⁠LinkedIn

Law #2: The Law of Listening - "The test for listening is learning."

In today’s fast-paced, high-stakes environments, leaders are expected to drive results while fostering alignment, trust, and engagement. But one of the most underleveraged tools in that effort is also one of the most human: listening.

This episode introduces the second Law of High-Performance Collaboration: Listening. When leaders listen to learn, they create space for contribution and build the credibility and trust that enables teams to perform at their best. In the episode we discuss:

• The difference between listening to learn and listening to respond or defend
• Why leaders who listen well cultivate trust and psychological safety
• Why learning from others is a powerful act of leadership

For any leader navigating complexity, change, or growth, this conversation offers practical insight into how a commitment to listening transforms not just communication, but culture.

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Resources mentioned in the episode: Overview of the 10 Laws of High-Performance Collaboration: Use this as a cheat sheet as you follow along with the series or practice the principles with your team

WATCH this episode on YouTube

Learn more about Conversant at https://www.conversant.com/

Follow us on LinkedIn

Episode 1: The Law of Teamwork — "The Source of Teamwork is a Common Future"What makes a group of people into a team?Not just shared tasks—but a shared future.In this opening episode of The 10 Laws of High-Performance Collaboration, we explore what it takes to cultivate a team that's grounded in shared purpose, common values, and commitments to measurable goals. We also discuss three factors contributing to the strength of your team and their ability to collaborate effectively and efficiently - community, contribution, and choice. Caring for these elements set the foundation for addressing challenges relating to:

• Generating shared understanding of goals
• Building trust and psychological safety
• Clear roles, communication, and conflict norms
• Accountability and commitment

Questions to explore with your team:🔹 Given our shared future, where do we need to collaborate? Where don't we have to collaborate?🔹 What is or could be important to each of us personally if we achieve our goals?🔹 With whom must each of us interact to make that happen?🔹 Who benefits if we succeed?🔔 Subscribe to stay in the loop as new episodes drop📤 Share this video with fellow leaders or your team🎧 Tune in weekly for practical insights that will shift the way you leadResources mentioned in the episode: Overview of the 10 Laws of High-Performance Collaboration: Use this as a cheat sheet as you follow along with the series or practice the principles with your team

Finding Intersection WATCH this episode on YouTube: LINKLearn more about Conversant at https://www.conversant.com/ Follow us on LinkedIn

The most powerful tool a leader has? The next conversation.

Welcome to the first episode of our new series, The 10 Laws of High-Performance Collaboration—a series designed for leaders at all levels who want to unlock better communication, alignment, and performance in their teams.

In this opening episode, we explore what makes collaboration valuable (and what makes it wasteful), the hidden power dynamics in team interactions, and why rethinking how we coordinate might be the key to getting better results—with less friction.

Whether you lead a team of five or five hundred, this series is your guide to the human side of leadership, and the universal principles that lead to breakthroughs in collaboration.

Resources mentioned in the episode:

Overview of the 10 Laws of High-Performance Collaboration: Use this as a cheat sheet as you follow along with the series or practice the principles with your team

Overview on Power: A quick reference on the relationship of power to valuable and wasteful expressions of leadership WATCH this episode on YouTube

Learn more about Conversant at https://www.conversant.com/

Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/conversant

Leaders across industries and geographies are having to learn what it takes to drive progress in dynamic and unpredictable times. In this episode of On Connection, we engage with Ryo Penna, an entrepreneur, facilitator, and "practical philosopher", to explore how conscious leadership can drive systemic prosperity.

Drawing from his global experiences and recent research at University College London, Ryo delves into the importance of interpersonal skills, conscious collaboration, and effective listening in fostering systemic change. Learn how these principles can empower leaders to navigate today's complex and dynamic environments. Join us for an insightful discussion on leadership and the transformative power of connection.

About Ryo Penna

Ryo is a combination of entrepreneur and practical philosopher, especially fond of Socrates and Rumi. As challenging as it may sound, he is passionate about illuminating love, compassion, and empathy as skills that are core to any successful business. He likes to design good questions as a powerful tool of transformation. You can watch his TEDx Talk about “The Wisdom of Questions” (English subtitles) on YouTube.

Ryo has worked across geographies with corporations such as Unilever, DHL, Motorola, billion-dollar startups, and Amazon Rainforest communities. He co-founded and served as CEO of Grupo Anga&Din4mo, a holding of remote and self-managed companies that vary from consultancies to investing firms. He has spent most of his time working as CEO of Tribo, a consulting firm for organizational culture and conscious leadership. Grupo Anga&Din4mo is also the official publisher of MIT Sloan Review Brazil. Ryo also serves as advisor at Brasil Júnior (Brazil’s biggest university entrepreneurs network, where he also served as president back in college, leading more than 20k students) and Conscious Capitalism Brazil.

Ryo's website

Connect with Ryo on LinkedIn

University of College London Institute for Global Prosperity

In this episode of On Connection, we sit down with Lenya Quinn-Davidson, Fire Network Director at the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. Lenya shares her insights on the critical role of love and connection in leadership, especially in the context of fire management and community resilience. Her work on beneficial fire practices, community engagement, and her leadership in the Women in Fire Training Exchange program offer valuable lessons on how purpose-driven leadership can address complex challenges.

You can learn more about Lenya and her work below:

Lenya Quinn-Davidson Bio

Lenya Quinn-Davidson is the Fire Network Director for the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, where she leads a statewide team working on various facets of community and landscape resiliency. Over the last 15 years, Lenya’s work has focused in large part on the human connection with fire, building capacity and support for beneficial fire. Lenya has worked at various scales, including locally with private landowners and community members; at the state level, where she collaborates on policy, research, and training; and nationally/internationally, through her leadership on the Women-in-Fire Training Exchange (WTREX) Program. 

Balancing work and well-being is a constant challenge for many, particularly for leaders who are managing both people and organizational commitments. Well-being easily slips down the priority list when pressing accountabilities come up, and it can feel like a “nice-to-have” rather than a necessity. However, well-being is a critical foundation for productivity, engagement, collaboration, and leadership, and research increasingly shows that when this foundation is lacking, it affects the overall health of the business.

In today’s episode, Emma Rose is joined by Conversant consultant and partner Kell Delaney and guest Eleanor Allen. Eleanor is CEO of Catapult for Change, focusing on empowering other leaders and organizations to overcome challenges and ignite innovative ideas that enable success. Having worked across the corporate and nonprofit sectors she brings a practical but whole-hearted perspective to the question of what it takes for businesses and people to thrive. She has recently been working to bring science-based tools to organizations that support workplace experience and peak performance.

You can connect with Eleanor and learn more about her work

Eleanor Allen is a visionary catalyst for positive change, dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for both people and the planet. As a humanist, environmentalist, and versatile force in corporate and nonprofit sectors, she brings a wealth of experience as a CEO, business leader, board member, technical expert, consultant, and professional engineer. Eleanor's impressive career includes leadership roles in various organizations such as CEO of B Lab Global and Water For People, Global Water Leader at Arcadis, and Latin America Water Leader at CH2M (now Jacobs). Her contributions to the engineering profession led to her induction into the National Academy of Engineering in 2020.

Through her executive coaching and consulting business, Catapult For Change, Eleanor now focuses on empowering other leaders and organizations to overcome challenges and ignite innovative ideas that enable success. As a Certified Coach and registered Professional Engineer with global experience in over 50 countries, Eleanor is passionate about championing workplace well-being, organizational flourishing, and justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) principles.