Path & Purpose

Ken Rosen is a seasoned international facilitator for teams across industries and is the founder of Council.works (www.council.works) based in Los Angeles, CA. Passionate about helping companies and schools build community, he created and implemented engagement activities that foster connection, build successful relationships, and enhance workflow and productivity. Council.works was born in June of 2016 to partner with businesses to promote inclusivity and foster empathy through the power of Council.

His professional journey with Council got Ken hired by Snap Inc. (Snapchat) in September of 2016 to be a part of the growing global Council program. Two years later, Ken was promoted to manager and transferred to London, UK to build out the program for the offices in Europe, the Middle East, Ukraine and China. In August 2020, Ken left Snap and returned to the states to be closer to his family. Since then, he has continued to catalyze more connected company culture and increase engagement at work with teams both locally and virtually.

This episode explores:

How Council builds connections in businesses and schools

How this work is most effective and why

Observed results and stories of council in corporate and organizations

Stories of Council at Snap Inc. in different cultures like China and the Ukraine

Types of prompts and questions that guide transformative circles

Why leaders are allocating budget and time to this simple seeming practice and why you might want to as well

https://www.council.works/

Addressing the crest of burnout-hybrid-covid-work culture, what are top leaders at iconic companies doing to deal with the pressures of the world we are living and working in today?

This episode features David Shechtman (MSOD, PCC), Executive Coach and Senior Partner at Evolution, a premier consulting firm based in Los Angeles, California. We dive into anecdotes David shares about working with his clients and the realities of showing up virtually to inspire teams and run companies in this transformative time. How are we dealing with the unknown? What archetypal stories, rules, procedures and process help us move forward in professionally wild terrain?

More on our guest: David’s experience includes two decades of work in training & development, organizational consulting, and executive coaching. His experience includes work in the financial services, high tech, healthcare, automotive, and travel & hospitality industries. Specific clients include Twitter, Slack, Medtronic, Optum, Electronic Arts, Dave, Datassential, Coursera, Collective Health, Northwestern Mutual, ADP, DaVita, Virtuoso, Elementary Robotics, and the Entrepreneurs’ Organization.

David Shechtman is a committed coach who works with CEOs, high-potential leaders, and successful sales professionals on mastering Deep Change. He has an unparalleled ability to cut through the fog of complexity, confusion, and fear.

David partners with clients as a trusted advisor. This work includes identifying core issues, naming key challenges, and organizing action plans. His expertise comes from decades of studying the art and science of behavior change, including many deep dives with Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey construct.

David’s education includes a Master of Science in Organization Development from Pepperdine University. He also holds a PCC certification from the International Coach Federation. David has taught Organization and Strategy Consulting at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business and is a regular presenter at the Organization Development Network annual conference. He has presented at TEDxPasadena on the topic of learning from adversity.

Meet Lillian Soderman, Solution Engineer at Salesforce, one of the world's leading technology companies with a values-based core. In this episode, we explore the edge space; the liminal; the wild within ourselves. Vision quests, sitting in circle as a healing and innovative modality, looking at tech through a feminine lens and pondering our future through questions born in the self.

Lillian Soderman balances her work in tech with wisdom sourced in circle, a fascination with culture (B.A. Cultural Anthropology, CU Boulder) and years of working as an Alcohol and Drug Counselor in Portland, Oregon for homeless kids. She is also an inspired musician who just released a new album called Chasing Shadows, which you can listen to here: https://linktr.ee/Lillianmusic

This led to learning the Council process in 2011, moving to Los Angeles to become a youth rites of passage leader for Crossroads/New Roads and SnapChat becoming a certified trainer in 2015. Lillian has since helped to pilot the California Council prison program. Nannying during her time in Portland and LA led her to Salesforce, where she's been for nearly 3 years leading management and allyship circles and #IamRemarkable sessions internally, getting marry her many worlds. Check her out and listen in for inspiration about what it takes to become a whole-hearted leader in our modern world.

https://linktr.ee/Lillianmusic

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion have been key words in organizations around the world especially following the social justice movement re-invigorated by the death of George Floyd. These events inspired me to reconnect with an old friend and colleague, Don Lawrence, a New Yorker with a 20+ year career in DE&I and higher education.

He is currently writing a book entitled “The Love of Distinction”, which deals with the issue of diversity in evangelical Christian communities. He zeros in on a detected bias toward socio-cultural homogeneity and calls for people to love what makes them different, not wash over it.

I loved this conversation and particularly appreciate the more edgy areas we explore in the later half. Sadly, I must note that unfortunately my microphone had a serious issue and there is some buzzing when I speak. I decided to leave this in in places because I found the response or question relevant and worth being patient for. It adds a certain poetic reflection of the dissonance inherent in the turmoil surrounding diversity. Please listen with courage, curiosity and care. And may you kindly continue the conversation in your communities.

In this episode we enter the lab where religion, science and humanity converge. Jonathan Weitzman is a professor, published author and scientist who explores the mysteries bundled in the human genome through the emergent field of epigenetics. He’s also a devoted husband, father and Jew. I met Jonathan in 2017 as his coach helping to prepare his first TEDx talk at a technical University just outside of Paris.

Here, Jonathan humbly shares his problem with purpose, how he breaks convention to blend work and personal life, mingling research with tradition and why he finds identity so fascinating; i.e., we have so much more in common yet concentrate on difference.

He believes in decompartmentalizing knowledge so that different kinds of truth found in places like sacred text can inspire more grounded, holistic innovation. As honored in Judaism, he keeps a relationship with the past to build a better future. This one is for anyone interested in exploring a more integrated approach to science and human evolution.

Tune into Jonathan's new podcast, The Lonely Pippette, helping scientists do better science: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lonely-pipette-helping-scientists-do-better-science/id1532120809

Chelsea Sonksen is the Founder of Eredita Creative House. She's a writer, editor, curator and gifted community builder. Upon moving to the vast, hyper-creative and all-too-often lonely city of Los Angeles, Chelsea set out to create the community she needed. This kickstarted her journey of elevating and connecting visionary women through the creation of Bossladies Magazine in 2016. It also catapulted her into her current place of thought-leadership on Instagram where her words and insight bring light and inspiration to over 60,000 women, artists and professionals around the world.

Bossladies, the cleanly designed editorial, spotlights success stories from female entrepreneurs across cities. Once you read about these women, you just want to become one. So luckily, Bossladies spurred “Work Sesh” – a weekly space where creative professional women could come together in circle to share experience and inspiration to fuel good work. Work Sesh then became Eredita Circle. No longer solely dedicated to powerhouse productivity and business, this circle widens the aperture to include the softer peripheral space of the heart and whole-self journey. New circles begin monthly (you can join here: https://www.eredita.us).

I met Chelsea back in 2013 at the writing table of an LA novelist we were both assisting, and we have been friends ever since. Frankly, she is a light on my path ever reminding me to dream big and bring ideas to life with the help of good company.

For context: this talk happened near the beginning of the sheltering in place period back in early May 2020. We share stories about responding creatively to challenges like living through a global virus, to the life-raft of writing and expression when moving through grief, such as the early loss of her sister. Creativity in community is the through-line. Luckily we humans are built to adapt, especially well together. So we invite you to join us in refueling through hope found in beauty and connection.

https://www.eredita.us - for circles, symposia, curations and essays

https://www.instagram.com/ereditacreativehouse/ - for inspiration

Today we pass the talking piece to a powerful catalyst of individual, organisational and global transformation, Doctor Anita Sanchez. Award-winning author of The Four Sacred Gifts: Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times, named one of Conscious Company Magazine's World-Changing Women of 2020 and a transformational business coach, Anita has spent the past forty years working with executive teams from Fortune 500 companies, government agencies and NGOs sparking change from the inside out.

In this conversation, you’ll learn the meaning of the four sacred gifts and how you can invoke them right now to ignite the inner change necessary for personal liberation and global transformation.

"We don't need more information. We need more wisdom."

https://www.amazon.com/Four-Sacred-Gifts-Indigenous-Wisdom/dp/1501150707

https://foursacredgifts.com

https://anita-sanchez.com

Today I am thrilled to pass the talking piece to a powerful catalyst for conscious organisational development, Doctor Anita Sanchez. She is the award winning author of The Four Sacred Gifts: Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times. Anita was named one of Conscious Company Magazine's World-Changing Women of 2020. A world-class transformational business coach, she has spent the past forty years working with executive teams from Fortune 500 companies, government agencies and NGOs.

In this episode, Anita shares her personal experience blending indigenous wisdom with business savvy to equip us all to live with higher purpose, navigate the unknown and ignite our full potential.

"We don't need more information. We need more wisdom."

“Individually we’re amazing. But together we’re even more than a genius.”

https://www.amazon.com/Four-Sacred-Gifts-Indigenous-Wisdom/dp/1501150707

https://foursacredgifts.com

https://anita-sanchez.com

Guillaume Chaslot is a Doctor of Artificial Intelligence who has worked at Microsoft, Google, and Mozilla. He was on the team responsible for developing the YouTube Recommendation Algorithm. In this episode we explore how said algorithms can seize and mislead human attention. Think rabbit holes. Conspiracy theories. Divisive content. What do we need to know today to stay safe and aware online? What can we do to engage with each other in more socially just and healthier ways at work, in product development and at home to nurture a truly connected world?

Following his time at Google, Guillaume created AlgoTransparency.org, a project on a quest to understand how certain questionable content is pushed through YouTube's AI and how to turn the tide toward integrity and improve the future of humanity.

https://algotransparency.org

https://twitter.com/gchaslot?lang=en

Today we travel to Southern Italy to connect with Rose Robitaille, an independent researcher of sustainable agriculture and farmer. In this episode, Rose helps us explore the meaning of land sovereignty and ways to root - wherever you are. For nomadic globe trotters, expats, or us European-American settlers, this is vital. Rose helps us discover holes in our educations system, which have covered up our role in Indigenous Oppression for too long. Plus, the life-giving properties of biodiversity.

We cover topics like

- Rooting and rootlessness

- Diversity versus monoculture

- A surprising story about bananas

- A civil war you probably never learned about in school

- The wish of an elder leading ceremony at the sacred Lago Atlitan

This is a conversation on resilience, sustainability and homecoming through curiosity and human innovation. It’s a thread for everyone right now, especially those interested in living sustainably in community for the good of seven generations to come.

Rose Robitaille has a MA in food studies with a concentration on traditional food systems and biodiversity. 9 years of farming experience exploring low input agricultural methods and sustainable living. She spent the past 4 years working for the NGO Bioversity International in Rome researching the role of biodiversity and diversification of landscapes for climate resilience and nutrition. Taskforce member FAO Indigenous Food Systems Initiative in 2017/ 2018 where I was the lead coordinator of research with the Maya Ch'orti' in Guatemala.

PS: This is not meant to speak for Indigenous Groups, as members of individual tribes are the true experts. Rather, this is meant to help westerners especially in considering our role in climate change and the possibility for regeneration through adapting our food systems in ways indigenous peoples have been forced to through restriction of resources.

Bibliography

http://www.ncai.org/get-involved

https://resourcegeneration.org/land-reparations-indigenous-solidarity-action-guide/

https://www.narf.org/our-work/protection-tribal-natural-resources/

https://www.ienearth.org