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In this episode of the Company Road podcast, Chris Hudson and Dr. Jackie King delve into the transformative concept of empathy, emphasizing the importance of self-empathy as a foundational step. 

Dr. King shares her personal journey, highlighting how her experiences shaped her understanding of otherness and the necessity of self-discovery in leadership. 

The conversation explores the application of design thinking to personal growth, the complexities of identity, and the role of empathy in enhancing workplace dynamics and social cohesion. 

We encourage listeners to embark on their own journeys of self-exploration to unlock their potential and foster better relationships.

In this episode you’ll hear about

• The importance of self-empathy as a foundation for empathy towards others.
• Dr. Jackie King's personal journey of self-discovery and overcoming feelings of otherness.
• The role of design thinking in personal growth and self-awareness.
• Challenges of maintaining authenticity and aligning personal values in professional settings.
• Embracing unique identities to enhance leadership and team dynamics.
• Strategies for intrapreneurs to leverage self-awareness for innovative leadership.
• The impact of empathy on social cohesion and organizational success.

Key links

Dr. Jackie King's Website  www.drjackieking.com.au

The Ultimate Other, Jackie’s book https://www.amazon.com.au/Ultimate-Other-Woman-Divorced-Jew/dp/1998756963 

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackiedking/ 

About our guest 

Jackie offers a rare blend of academic rigour, professional expertise and lived insight to empower individuals, teams and organisations. She uses her professional expertise and academic theory grounded in real‑world empathy practice, which she shares to support individuals and organisations to navigate change with empathy though the ultimate Leadership Framework.

Jackie believes that it is only once you have empathy for yourself, that you can be open to having empathy for others. She explores this through a design thinking process that she applied to her personal life, with a gender and cultural lens after her divorce, and has shared in her award winning book, The Ultimate Other. 

Jackie has a PhD in public policy and EMBA in organisational leadership and strategy. 

About our host

Our host, Chris Hudson, is an Intrapreneurship Coach, Teacher, Experience Designer and Founder of business transformation coaching and consultancy Company Road.

Company Road was founded by Chris Hudson, who saw over-niching and specialisation within corporates as a significant barrier to change.

Chris considers himself incredibly fortunate to have worked with some of the world’s most ambitious and successful companies, including Google, Mercedes-Benz, Accenture (Fjord) and Dulux, to name a small few. He continues to teach with University of Melbourne in Innovation, and Academy Xi in CX, Product Management, Design Thinking and Service Design and mentors many business leaders internationally.

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"There's two parts of your career. There's the part that you do and then there's the part that people see you do. And the second one is equally important to the first one." - 

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• Making your work visible beyond just doing it well
• Building influence through strategic relationships and social capital
• Leveraging introvert strengths in leadership and facilitation roles
• Testing if difficult colleagues are misaligned or genuinely toxic
• Handling workplace bullies with specific tactical approaches
• Recognizing when manager advocacy is absent and exit strategies are needed

Key links

• Anna Findlay LinkedIn 
• Book: "Surrounded by Idiots" 
• 10 types of workplace bullies | Anna Findlay 🔑 Career Coach

About our guest 

Anna Findlay is a Career and Soft Skills Coach who helps mid-career professionals who feel stuck, undervalued, or off-track to confidently reposition themselves and build the career they truly want. Whether it’s a new job, a pivot, a promotion, or simply a better way of working, she helps clients move forward with clarity and purpose. Anna also works with teams to strengthen communication and improve collaboration.

Her coaching takes a holistic, strengths-based approach grounded in self-reflection, emotional intelligence, and self-advocacy. Her goal is to help smart, capable people navigate uncertainty, build confidence, and achieve meaningful career outcomes.

Drawing on her background in human-centered design, facilitation, and meditation, Anna creates a practical yet empowering coaching experience that meets clients where they are and takes them to where they want to be.

About our host

Our host, Chris Hudson, is an Intrapreneuship Coach, Teacher, Experience Designer and Founder of business transformation coaching and consultancy Company Road.

Company Road was founded by Chris Hudson, who saw over-niching and specialisation within corporates as a significant barrier to change.

Chris considers himself incredibly fortunate to have worked with some of the world’s most ambitious and successful companies, including Google, Mercedes-Benz, Accenture (Fjord) and Dulux, to name a small few. He continues to teach with University of Melbourne in Innovation, and Academy Xi in CX, Product Management, Design Thinking and Service Design and mentors many business leaders internationally.

P.S. If you're enjoying these conversations and finding them helpful, please consider supporting the show. Your pledge helps us keep bringing you incredible guests and valuable career insights. Thank you for being part of our community! You can contribute for less than the price of a coffee here.

Support the show

For weekly updates and to hear about the latest episodes, please subscribe to The Company Road Podcast at https://companyroad.co/podcast/

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"Actually 90% of the change you're trying to create comes through systemic changes to the environment rather than training." - Charlie Kneen

Charlie Kneen is the founder of Solvd Together, a learning and development transformation consultancy that reimagines how global brands approach their people strategy. Formerly the L&D lead at BP in the UK, Charlie brings together expertise in marketing, coaching, leadership, and human-centred design.

If you're tired of engagement surveys and hoping for the best, this episode offers tangible alternatives that focus on business performance rather than content delivery. 

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• The broken model of corporate learning
• Human-centred design in L&D
• How to handle difficult conversations when research reveals uncomfortable truths about leadership and systems
• Moving from order-takers to strategic partners
• Using nudges and contextual cues to drive behaviour change without formal training
• Setting up proper research methodologies with control groups to prove ROI and business impact

Key links

• Solvd Together Website
• Charlie Kneen LinkedIn
• Solvd Together LinkedIn
• How People Learn: Designing Education and Training that Works to Improve Performance
• "The Empty Brain" article by Robert Epstein (former editor of Psychology Today) 
• Nick Shackleton-Jones 
• Bp Website

About our guest 

Charlie Kneen is the founder of Solvd Together, a Learning & Development and Transformation consultancy that partners with global brands to reimagine how organisations engage, retain, and upskill their people. 

Drawing on a background in marketing, coaching, and leadership roles across both in-house teams and start-ups, Charlie brings a unique perspective on the psychology of work. His passion lies in applying human-centred design to learning and change, helping businesses achieve real impact and commercial value while creating better experiences for their people.

About our host

Our host, Chris Hudson, is an Intrapreneuship Coach, Teacher, Experience Designer and Founder of business transformation coaching and consultancy Company Road.

Company Road was founded by Chris Hudson, who saw over-niching and specialisation within corporates as a significant barrier to change.

Chris considers himself incredibly fortunate to have worked with some of the world’s most ambitious and successful companies, including Google, Mercedes-Benz, Accenture (Fjord) and Dulux, to name a small few. He continues to teach with University of Melbourne in Innovation, and Academy Xi in CX, Product Management, Design Thinking and Service Design and mentors many business leaders internationally.

For weekly updates and to hear about the latest episodes, please subscribe to The Company Road Podcast at https://companyroad.co/podcast/

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"Communicate to involve, not to tell, so that you can make the change stick." - Lana North

Lana North is a change communication specialist and founder of the Communication Exchange who has spent two decades managing complex transformation programmes across industries from banking to logistics. After working through major changes including the aftermath of the European financial crisis, she now helps leaders navigate organisational transformation with clarity and humanity. 

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• The psychology of change resistance
• Two-way communication vs. one-way instruction
• Stakeholder engagement and timing
• Managing conflict and building consensus
• Practical communication strategies

Key links

• Lana North LinkedIn
• The Communication Exchange
• Podcast with Andreas Moellmann
• PROSCI

About our guest 

Lana North is a change communication specialist and founder of The Communication Exchange.

After two decades of leading communication efforts across complex change programs in Australia and Europe, Lana now helps professional leaders to drive sustainable change by mastering their communication and team engagement skills.

Lana works with those leaders- the ones who care deeply, but feel overwhelmed by the pace, unsure how to say the hard things, and uncertain about how to truly engage their teams when they’re still finding their own footing.Her focus is on making change doable, not daunting -with less jargon, more humanity, and a real plan for making change stick so that the benefits can be realised.

When she’s not helping professional leaders to drive sustainable change, Lana’s juggling life with three kids, a Labrador, and the occasional fence-jumping cow.

About our host

Our host, Chris Hudson, is an Intrapreneuship Coach, Teacher, Experience Designer and Founder of business transformation coaching and consultancy Company Road.

Company Road was founded by Chris Hudson, who saw over-niching and specialisation within corporates as a significant barrier to change.

Chris considers himself incredibly fortunate to have worked with some of the world’s most ambitious and successful companies, including Google, Mercedes-Benz, Accenture (Fjord) and Dulux, to name a small few. He continues to teach with University of Melbourne in Innovation, and Academy Xi in CX, Product Management, Design Thinking and Service Design and mentors many business leaders internationally.

For weekly updates and to hear about the latest episodes, please subscribe to The Company Road Podcast at https://companyroad.co/podcast/

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"I think there are three things that are really valued in organizations from consultants. The first is consultants come without a legacy bias. So the challenges, the roadblocks, the cultural norms within an organization, consultants are able to sidestep those. So are able to kind of come in and observe those with a bit of a neutral gaze." - Steph Foxworthy

Steph Foxworthy brings over 25 years of experience spanning customer experience, digital strategy, product innovation, sales, and marketing. He was recently managing director at Accenture Song in Melbourne and has driven results for major organisations including Coles and Telstra.

If you've ever wondered how consultants drive change or how to apply that mindset from within this episode is for you.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• The differences between employee, agency, and consultant mindsets
• How consultants build trust and get repeat business through expertise
• The role of pattern recognition in consultant success
• Why consultants can ask "dumb questions" that employees cannot
• How AI is changing the consulting landscape and democratising expertise
• The importance of asking the right questions in an AI-powered world
• Three key things consultants bring: no legacy bias, pattern recognition, storytelling
• The relationship between consultants and organisational politics
• How to know when to be directive versus exploratory as an intrapreneur
• The therapeutic role consultants often play in organisations
• Why design education teaches valuable enquiry skills
• The changing pathways for learning consulting skills
• How AI agents might change business negotiations in the future

Key links

• Steph Foxworthy LinkedIn
• Accenture Song 
• Reactive

About our guest 

Steph is a customer experience, digital strategy and marketing professional with over 25 years' experience.

He’s an advocate for the power of technology to augment human creativity and to help drive growth and impact for customers, businesses and society.

After many years working in digital agencies and consulting, Steph is now Director of Managed Services at Our Community, a social enterprise dedicated to building stronger communities through software, education and services for the not-for-profit and grant-making sector.

Steph is also a non-executive director at Minus18 Foundation, a queer youth charity with a mission to improve the lives of LGBTQIA+ youth.

Steph is married with three high-school aged kids and lives bayside on Boonwurrung country in Naarm, Melbourne.

About our host

Our host, Chris Hudson, is an Intrapreneuship Coach, Teacher, Experience Designer and Founder of business transformation coaching and consultancy Company Road.

Company Road was founded by Chris Hudson, who saw over-niching and specialisation within corporates as a significant barrier to change.

Chris considers himself incredibly fortunate to have worked with some of the world’s most ambitious and successful companies, including Google, Mercedes-Benz, Accenture (Fjord) and Dulux, to name a small few. He continues to teach with University of Melbourne in Innovation

Support the show

For weekly updates and to hear about the latest episodes, please subscribe to The Company Road Podcast at https://companyroad.co/podcast/

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“The longer the tenure, the more things become, you know, this is the way we've always done it. And so an entrepreneur is someone that can go in and see that pretty quickly. What are the bits that are stale? Where are the potentials and opportunities for improvement?” - Dave Gregurke

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• Aligning stakeholders with different priorities
• Balancing innovation with security in high-risk settings
• Working around resistance to change
• The importance of customer research and involving executives
• Methods for breaking habitual behaviours in large organisations
• Using simple tools to collaborate across tech stacks
• Building trust in risk-conscious cultures
• Shifting from waterfall to iterative design practices
• Future-proofing change and sustaining momentum

Key links

• Dave Gregurke LinkedIn
• Dave Gregurke Website
• Amazon
• National Australia Bank
• University of Melbourne

About our guest 

Dave Gregurke is a designer of many things, born in Texas, USA where fell in love with baseball. From there the family moved to Yeosu, South Korea where he almost got kidnapped with his dog. Now long settled in Melbourne, Australia gave him a new home and accent.

For over 20 years across brand and customer experience, Dave has been a trusted end-to-end designer for Services, Product and Go-to-market.

He has deep experience in complex environments across startups, government & enterprise. Kicking-off in corporate design, he quickly fell in love with the interactive world and all its possibilities. Dave has big brands like Amazon, University of Melbourne, NAB and State Governments among his collaborators.

After founding two businesses, Dave currently focuses on complex problem spaces, including fintech payments. He’ll run your innovation and design sprints, as well as coach and train your team to develop that knowledge internally.

About our host

Our host, Chris Hudson, is an Intrapreneuship Coach, Teacher, Experience Designer and Founder of business transformation coaching and consultancy Company Road.

Company Road was founded by Chris Hudson, who saw over-niching and specialisation within corporates as a significant barrier to change.

Chris considers himself incredibly fortunate to have worked with some of the world’s most ambitious and successful companies, including Google, Mercedes-Benz, Accenture (Fjord) and Dulux, to name a small few. 

He continues to teach with University of Melbourne in Innovation, and Academy Xi in CX, Product Management, Design Thinking and Service Design and mentors m

Support the show

For weekly updates and to hear about the latest episodes, please subscribe to The Company Road Podcast at https://companyroad.co/podcast/

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“I realised, I'm just an arrogant tw@t that believes I know how to do things, but actually other people know how to do things as well, maybe even much better than I do. And that many solutions are based on context, on history, on future, on vision, on motivation, on setups, on ability, on all kinds of things. So there's no one solution to a problem. There are many, many solutions to a problem.” 

Andreas Moellmann

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• How different cultures approach change and innovation
• Why companies get stuck repeating past successes
• The horse race illusion of believing you have a winning method
• The innovator's dilemma between milking existing profitable models versus investing in new technologies
• The gap between developing solutions and getting organisations to accept and implement them
• How company size, systems, and hierarchies impact flexibility and innovation capacity

Key links

• Andreas Moellmann on LinkedIn
• Books: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
• Dentsu
• Publicis
• DDB
• Saatchi & Saatchi
• Sapient
• Derren Brown on horse racing

About our guest 

Andreas helps brands and businesses get future-ready. A seasoned brand and marketing strategist with over 30 years experience in transformative roles from strategic planner to Chief Experience Officer at network agencies (Publicis, BBDO, DDB, Saatchi & Saatchi) and digital agencies (SapientNitro, Isobar) in Berlin, London, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo. His experience stretches from automotive, FMCG, consumer electronics and telecommunications to banking and insurance where he worked on Berliner Bank and Gothaer Versicherungen. 

Andreas’ focus lies in connecting brand and marketing thinking with technology to help brands and businesses succeed. His work has been recognised at global, European, and local effectiveness awards, as well as creative competitions such as Cannes. He serves as a judge at the APAC Effectiveness award and local competitions in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Pakistan. 

Today, Andreas provides his experience as an independent brand and marketing consultant across APAC. He currently lives in Bangkok.

About our host

Our host, Chris Hudson, is an Intrapreneuship Coach, Teacher, Experience Designer and Founder of business transformation consultancy Company Road.

Company Road was founded by Chris Hudson, who saw over-niching and specialisation within corporates as a significant barrier to change.

Chris considers himself incredibly fortunate to have worked with some of the world’s most ambitious and successful companies, including Google, Mercedes-Benz, Accenture (Fjord) and Dulux, to name a small few. He continues to teach with University of Melbourne in Innovation, and Academy Xi in CX, Product Management, Design Thinking and Service Design and mentors many business leaders internationally.

For weekly updates and to hear about the latest episodes, please subscribe to The Company Road Podcast at https://companyroad.co/podcast/

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“I believe that everyone is a CEO of culture. Every interaction is either a deposit or withdrawal from culture. You can have the most amazing culture within the team, and you can put someone in there that doesn't do the right thing and doesn't treat people in the right way. And if they're in a leadership position, the shadow they leave is even bigger.” — Beth Hall

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• Why culture isn’t something you can “initiative” your way out of
• The impact of incivility versus workload on burnout
• What emotional intelligence has to do with team performance
• Cultural “fit” versus cultural “add”
• How generational expectations are reshaping what is tolerated at work
• The power of onboarding and moments that matter
• Startup culture: speed, messiness and who thrives in it
• The role of trust in hybrid work
• Why feedback cultures matter and how to make hard conversations easier
• What leaders should actually look for in their people data

Key links

• Beth’s consultancy: www.culturedge.com
• Beth Hall on LinkedIn
• Daniel Goleman’s book on Emotional Intelligence
• Michael Leiter’s research on burnout and incivility
• Jim Collins’ concept of “freedom within a framework”
• Saville Wave psychometric test
• Netflix’s public culture deck

About our guest 

Beth Hall is a highly regarded leader in People and Culture, with over 15 years of experience in shaping high-performing cultures across diverse industries. Holding a Master’s in Organisational Psychology from the University of London, Beth combines scientific evidence with lived experience, making her a trusted advisor to complex, dynamic organisations. Her career includes roles such as Global Head of Organisational Development at Cotton On Group, where she led transformational initiatives across a global workforce, and General Manager of Standards and Capability at AHRI, where she set the national benchmark for HR standards and Certification in Australia. Beth’s deep understanding of the people experience at work enables her to design and implement strategies that enable high performing individuals, teams, and cultures. Beth’s approach is grounded in the belief that sustainable, inclusive cultures are the foundation of business success.

About our host

Our host, Chris Hudson, is an Intrapreneuship Coach, Teacher, Experience Designer and Founder of business transformation coaching and consultancy Company Road.

Company Road was founded by Chris Hudson, who saw over-niching and specialisation within corporates as a significant barrier to change.

Chris considers himself incredibly fortunate to have worked with some of the world’s most ambitious and successful companies, including Google, Mercedes-Benz, Accenture (Fjord) and Dulux, to name a small few. He continues to teach with University of Melbourne in Innovation, and Academy Xi in CX, Product Management, Design Thinking and Service Design and mentors many business lead

For weekly updates and to hear about the latest episodes, please subscribe to The Company Road Podcast at https://companyroad.co/podcast/

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"People are using AI Tools whether they're being allowed to or not. More and more of large organisations’ ways of working are starting to operate out of these things organically."

Ben Le Ralph

Listen to the full episode for an in-depth look at how AI is changing the way teams work and why strategy may soon become the next big challenge in the age of AI.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• What Ben means by the “strategy execution gap”
• Why AI adoption is messy, fragmented, and very real
• The comparison between AI and Excel in organisational usage
• How teams are using AI tools unofficially to move faster
• The personal vs organisational use of AI - what’s working and what’s not
• The shift from AI hype to quiet productivity
• Why grey user insight can still be useful
• The risks (and benefits) of AI hallucinations
• Why AI won’t replace jobs - but will shift how we work
• How delivery bottlenecks are giving way to deeper strategy work
• The future of AI as a practical, democratic tool for decision-making
• The emerging value of strategy work in the wake of AI adoption
• How AI is revealing deeper patterns that drive decision-making, even if not perfectly accurate

Key links

• AI for Busy People
• Meet & Gather 
• B Corp Certification
• Ben Le Ralph’s TikTok
• Ben Le Ralph’s LinkedIn 

About our guest 

Ben Le Ralph is the founder of AI For Busy People and runs a small co-working space in Richmond called Meet and Gather.

Over the past 15 years, he has helped small teams, often within larger organisations, to achieve big things.

He specialises in supporting business owners and team leaders to align their teams on the right strategy and implement practical systems that supercharge delivery. Ben is passionate about helping teams work smarter and build things that actually move the needle and make an impact.

Before launching AI For Busy People, Ben co-founded and scaled a B-Corp certified consultancy, growing it to a team of 15+ and $6 million in revenue. His company partnered with some of Australia's most recognisable organisations and government departments to help them rethink how they tackle complex social challenges.

About our host

Our host, Chris Hudson, is an Intrapreneuship Coach, Teacher, Experience Designer and Founder of business transformation coaching and consultancy Company Road.

Company Road was founded by Chris Hudson, who saw over-niching and specialisation within corporates as a significant barrier to change.

Chris considers himself incredibly fortunate to have worked with some of the world’s most ambitious and successful companies, including Google, Mercedes-Benz, Accenture (Fjord) and Dulux, to name a small few. He continues to teach with University of Melbourne in Innovation, and Academy Xi in CX, Product Management, Design Thinking and Service Design and mentors many business leaders internationally.

For weekly updates and to hear about the latest episodes, please subscribe to The Company Road Podcast at https://companyroad.co/podcast/

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“It’s not that you are not creative, you just haven’t worked a little more on developing your capacity. We can all be creative.”  Dr. Maria Camacho

Dr. Maria Camacho is a global leader in design thinking and innovation. With over 30 years of experience across academia, consulting, and industry, she has helped shape the way organisations think about creativity and collaboration.

In this episode, Maria talks about how design thinking can help people and companies navigate uncertainty.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• Why Design Thinking matters now more than ever
• How creative resilience is built through practice
• The emotional highs and lows of the innovation process
• Why organisations still struggle to value design
• Tips to support introverts and quieter voices in ideation
• How to run a “dark horse” prototype that uncovers unexpected solutions
• The role of play and experimentation at work
• Helping teams fall in love with the process, not just the idea
• When to introduce creativity in education and leadership
• What it means to make creativity part of everyone’s role

Key links

• Dr. Maria Camacho LinkedIn
• Recommended Book: The Design Thinking Toolbox: A Guide to Mastering the Most Popular and Valuable Innovation Methods (Design Thinking Series)
• Stanford University
• Frog
• Swinburne University of Technology

About our guest 

Dr. Maria Camacho is a globally recognised expert in design thinking and strategic innovation with over 30 years of experience across academia, industry, and consulting. With a PhD in Design Thinking and a decade-long partnership with Stanford University's flagship programs, Maria has helped shape innovation practices at global companies and institutions, including Frog, the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care, Westpac, Swinburne University, and global European group Sonae.

Maria’s career spans founding and directing award-winning academic programs, mentoring teams to embrace human-centred approaches, and delivering impactful workshops and keynote speeches around the world. Known for her evidence-based methods, she empowers leaders and teams to tackle complexity with creativity, empathy, and humanity.

Today, Maria runs her independent practice as a speaker, corporate trainer, and advisor, inspiring organisations to foster cultures of innovation and collaborative problem-solving.

About our host

Our host, Chris Hudson, is an Intrapreneuship Coach, Teacher, Experience Designer and Founder of business transformation coaching and consultancy Company Road.

Company Road was founded by Chris Hudson, who saw over-niching and specialisation within corporates as a significant barrier to change.

Chris considers himself incredibly fortunate to have worked with some of the world’s most ambitious and successful companies, including Google, Mercedes-Benz, Accenture (Fjord) and Dulux, to name a small few. He continues to teach with University of Melbourne in Innovation, and Academy Xi in CX, Product Management, Design Thinking

For weekly updates and to hear about the latest episodes, please subscribe to The Company Road Podcast at https://companyroad.co/podcast/