On The Edge

“How do you change the system to take longer term decisions without forcing people and using a government to do that, and the answer is you set up cooperatives and mutuals.” Shiv Malik

In this conversation I connected with Shiv Malik who is a technologist, broadcaster, author, former Guardian investigative journalist and co-founder of the Intergenerational Foundation think tank. He is also author of several books - The Messenger and Jilted Generation. He joined the Web3 space in 2017 with Golem and then Streamr. In 2021 he co-founded Pool and currently leads the organization on its mission to bring Data Unions to the world and ensure people have control of their data and a genuine stake in the digital economy.

In this conversation we talked about web3 and data unions and why are they are important, building upon his background as an investigative journalist.

"We all need to have that stake in the future and be able to leverage that."

https://www.pooldata.io/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiv_Malik

https://www.faber.co.uk/author/shiv-malik/

https://www.theguardian.com/profile/shiv-malik

https://www.weareliminal.co/

In this conversation I connected with Sonja Blignaut. 

Originally a meteorologist, Sonja now partners with people who need to navigate, make sense of, and lead in uncertainty. She spans the boundaries of leadership, organisational development & change, strategy, risk, innovation, and marketing. In short, she works wherever there is complexity, which nowadays is more or less everywhere. 

Sonja is internationally recognised as an expert on Complexity, the Cynefin Framework, Waysfinding, and Complexity Fitness. She is certified in various individual and systemic coaching methods and a sought-after speaker, with experience at various conferences locally and internationally, including TedX. 

In this conversation we talked about crossing thresholds and the skills, capabilities, rituals, and mindsets are required to navigate transitions well?- inspired by this blog post that she shared recently that I’ll link to in the show notes. That post starts with the following quote by John O’Donohue:  

“At any time you can ask yourself: At which threshold am I now standing? At this time in my life, what am I leaving? Where am I about to enter? What is preventing me from crossing my next threshold? What gift would enable me to do it?” 

So I started out by asking her, at what threshold she is now standing and how it makes her feel? Enjoy! 

____ 

- The space of not knowing is where the growth happens 

- The hardest conversations we are avoiding the most are the ones with ourselves 

- The value of rituals in transitions and the need for containment  

- How much of my own life am I putting off until someday? 

- The time has come to cross - don’t let your life flow by without noticing 

https://complexityfit.com/sonja-blignaut/ 

https://sonjablignaut.medium.com/crossing-thresholds-a109d1b2d392 

https://www.weareliminal.co

In this conversation I connected with Nick Hare, founder of Aleph Insights - an analytics consultancy that specialises in supporting strategic decision-making for both business and government in defence, security, intelligence and international affairs.

Prior to establishing Aleph Insights, he worked in various roles across the Ministry of Defence, the Cabinet Office and the intelligence community, most recently within Defence Intelligence, where he was responsible for professionalising intelligence analysis."

I first met Nick via an old school friend and have gone on to work with him a few times over the last decade.

In this conversation - recorded on 1st April 2022 - we talked about the current war in Ukraine. In particular we talked about: What can we learn about analysis and decision making from such turbulent times? And is there a new world order emerging, and if so are are some of the possible future scenarios?

So I started out by asking him, how has the war in Ukraine affected him personally, and also whether he agrees that we are past a point of no return? Enjoy!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-hare-a7b12161/ 

https://alephinsights.com/

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/cognitive-engineering/id1142986387

https://twitter.com/AlephInsights

https://www.weareliminal.co/

In this conversation I connected with Jon Alexander who is the author of a new book called Citizens. 

Jon started his career working in the advertising industry, selling some of the world's biggest brands, and winning plenty of awards along the way. Then he realised he was caught up in a story he didn't believe in: The Consumer Story.

So in 2014, Jon co-founded the New Citizenship Project. Their mission was to figure out how to use their skills not just to sell stuff to Consumers, but to involve people in the decisions that affect their lives as Citizens, working with the likes of the Co-op, Body Shop, National Trust, BBC, and European Central Bank.

In this conversation we talked about:

So I started out by asking him, what is the citizen story, and why is it important right now? Enjoy!

https://www.jonalexander.net/

https://www.newcitizenship.org.uk/

https://www.weareliminal.co/

http://www.participatorycity.org/

https://anchor.fm/weareliminal/episodes/004-Participatory-Cities---Tessy-Britton-e57bok

https://info.vtaiwan.tw/

Please Note: In this conversation we talked about several examples including Participatory Cities (of which I am a trustee) and Tessy Britton (who I interviewed way back in episode 4 of this podcast) - links above. Also Jon and I were introduced recently thanks to Francine Bennet so many thanks to Fran for the introduction.

"What gives me hope is that people are getting involved with climate action, not just politicians and businesses. There is a strong show of human demand for change and that’s what we’ve always needed." Gurjit Singh Lalli

In this conversation I connected with Gurjit Singh Lalli, who is one of the best connected people in Glasgow, and with the eyes of the world on the City due to the United Nations COP26 Climate Change Conference summit, I caught him on a very busy day yesterday, in-between meetings in a cafe, a short distance from the main summit event.

Born in England, raised in Scotland, educated in Sweden, having lived in Mexico & Middle East, with a wife from Hong Kong, and parents from India, he has been back in Glasgow and since 2010 and is the Founding Curator TEDxGlasgow.

They have had hosted numerous events in Glasgow and over 14 million views of the talks we put online. 

He is the founder of several companies is also winner of the Business Man of the Year award at the Scottish Asian Business Awards. 

So I started out by asking him. How does it feel to be in and from Glasgow right now?

https://tedxglasgow.com/

https://ukcop26.org/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gurjitsinghlalli/

"If we can bail out banks then lets bail out humanity."

"There are two types of activism I’m seeing. One on the street and one in the boardroom."

"Climate action is not something we should be competing on it’s something we should be collaborating on."