The Great Conversation

The Great Conversation episodes:

• 01.28.2024

  MIndStuck: Mastering the Art of Changing Minds (Your and others)

  When you have conversations with others, are you trying to win? Trying to defend a position? Then, perhaps, you might be stuck. In this Great Conversation with social researcher and author Michael McQueen, we learn what is is to be Mind Stuck,...

  
• 01.21.2024

  The Greatest Threat to Humans: It is not AI

  We create tools. The tools help us off load burdensome tasks as well as act as highly leveraged fulcrums to expand our energy and minds. These tools have helped us create. They have helped us build. They have helped us...

  
• 01.05.2024

  Accepting the Paradox of Leadership

  We are all on the journey of becoming. And we hope and pray, that at the end of the journey we are whole. For all of us that means being loved for who we are. And to get there, we...

  
• 12.27.2023

  Leadership Language

  Words are an attempt to articulate reality. The reality that was yesterday. The reality that is today. And the reality that is tomorrow. Words can be a weapon. They can bully, demonize, and destroy. Words can embrace, energize, and elevate. If these bookends...

  
• 12.22.2023

  Desperate for Impact

  Lives of quiet desperation. We have been pulling on the quote from Thoreau for awhile in our great conversations. Our great conversation on the Future of Work with this dynamic and inspirational leader may provide you the nudge to seize...

  
• 12.19.2023

  The Challenge of Industry: Creating a Bridge between Old and New

  Whenever you attempt to capture knowledge it is useful to understand that it is a snapshot in time. Very little of what we learn will survive as true given the unique nature of change. However, it is a platform for...

  
• 12.13.2023

  The Great5: The Language of Leadership

  Imagine being tasked to develop a first class talent and organizational management platform for one of the most respected companies in the Fortune 100. A company with a vision, mission, values, and goals that is highly respected in the industry,...

  
• 12.05.2023

  The Path to Value™

  What does it look like to create a path to value? What does that really mean? I have been having great conversations for over 20 years that have informed my physical leadership events and my podcasts. I have pursued people who...

  
• 11.29.2023

  Burn Out or Burn In?

  I would quickly describe “burn out” as exhaustion. But that is too simple. How did you become exhausted? It seems that there is this incredible stage we go through while heading toward exhaustion and part of it is being actively...

  
• 11.24.2023

  You are not Invisible

  I was visiting a prospective client the other day. We went out to lunch at one of their favorite restaurants. The waitress came up to the table and, as always, I asked what her name was. She replied and I...

  
• 11.15.2023

  The Holy Grail: Aligning Your Business to Your People

  Love it or hate it, the term “Holy Grail” is often used in life and business to describe something that has always been unobtainable. The pursuit of the “unobtainable” takes patience and indomitable faith. The pursuit of a leadership development program...

  
• 11.06.2023

  Learning, Seeing, and theThree Turns of a Leader

  Who am I? We answer this question through different stages of our lives. And much of our life is in the business world. It is natural, therefore, that a great deal of our quest becomes learning a craft. And this is...

  
• 10.31.2023

  Who Dares Shares

  “Who dares wins” is a motto made popular in the English-speaking world by the British Special Air Service. The motto has also been used by twelve elite special forces units around the world that in some way have historical ties to the British SAS. But the title...

  
• 10.10.2023

  The - Between -

  “It is said that what matters most is not your date of birth or your date of death but the hyphen that signifies the life that is between the two. We live in the - Between - a mysterious place...

  
• 10.04.2023

  Water of Life

  “Serve Honorably. Drink Honorably™” Inspired by a previous Great Conversation with author Michael Trott (The Art of Protecting the Leader), we caught up with his latest venture: Four Branches Bourbon. Imagine the heart, mind, and fortitude in launching a new company,...

  
• 07.20.2023

  Yes’s are Good. No’s are Good. Maybe’s will Kill You!

  You can learn a lot about life by studying how you and others make decisions. If you think about it, our life is a series of transactions of value. In a transaction, there is the possibility of a yes, a...

  
• 07.12.2023

  Hungry for Service

  We are largely motivated by self-interest. If we are acting as a buyer, we want the best product at the lowest price. But we also know that lowest price may not be the answer to our needs. If we are...

  
• 04.20.2023

  The Manifesto: A Declaration of Whole Leadership

  In our Great Conversation Podcast, we begin with a statement: “Welcome to The Great Conversation where Ideas Matter. Ideas shape markets. Ideas can change the world.” I originally decided to open with this to reinforce my passion for pursuing people and ideas that...

  
• 04.11.2023

  The Future of Security is the Future of Business

  Mark Ledlow is the Founder and CEO of Ledlow Security Group, that provides Physical Security, Site Security, Supply Chain Security, Disaster Response Teams, Executive Protection for High Networth Families and Executives. General Counsel support, and Risk Management He also founded the...

  
• 03.17.2023

  What does it mean to be a Time Traveler?

  Humans created constructs that represent time. Consider it the canvas in which they have painted their origin stories as well as their stories of the future. As this pendulum swings, we also are exploring the depths of our understanding of...

  
• 03.09.2023

  Sacrificial Leaders Galvanize an Industry Supporting Children and Families

  Many executives are asked by their boards to retain the services of a professional risk, resilience, and security firm that specializes in executive protection. The best ones find a way to become a part of the value proposition of the...

  
• 02.03.2023

  Augmenting the Machine: AI and the Future of Work

  What is the future of human and machine? We all know. We sense it. We are on the edge of something that will reset the economy. Reset how we work and play. Reset our notion of what is true And the center...

  
• 12.20.2022

  The Power of Business=The Power of Diversity. The Power of Equity. And the Power of Inclusion

  The care and feeding of a company creates a highly leveraged vehicle to optimize its path to value: personally, professionally, and within the context of a team known as a business. Great leaders know how to leverage different points of...

  
• 12.13.2022

  Time Held Me Green and Dying, Though I Sang in My Chains Like the Sea

  Dylan Thomas's famous poem, Fern Hill, is based on his childhood experiences on a farm in Wales. The poem is a celebration of the wonder, magic, and joy of this world that many of us experienced and have a hard...

  
• 12.06.2022

  Sourcing Intelligence to Navigate Risk and Opportunity

  If you were entering a new market in a foreign country, where do you acquire the boots on the ground intelligence to navigate your risks and opportunities? And how would you consume the information quickly enough to make an impact on...

  
• 10.31.2022

  The Stories that Influence Leaders

  History can teach us a lot about the repercussions of change. The impact of change is accelerated by the confluence of events, crisis upon crisis. Imagine if you were able to imagine it before it happened thereby providing the white space...

  
• 10.31.2022

  The Future belongs to the Data Driven Organization

  We are data driven. As leaders, we need the right data to make effective decisions. But most of the data that is provided to us only shows what happened. We are making decisions based by staring in a rear-view mirror. But...

  
• 10.31.2022

  The New Value Proposition of Policing

  As a strategic advisor to CEOs, helping to create the story that drives their organization and helping them achieve the promise of that story, I created The Path to Value. It was my way of learning. It was my way...

  
• 10.31.2022

  Single Source of Truth: In Security, in Business, and in Life

  “It is hard to breathe, and my heart is palpitating like a drum. I am feeling weak – I want to lie on the ground so the world stops spinning for a minute and I can catch my breath. A...

  
• 10.02.2022

  Living Life on Purpose: The End of TGIF

  Imagine there will be four eulogies at your funeral. One will come from a family member. One will come from a friend. One will come from someone you worked with. And another will be delivered by someone who represented how...

  
• 10.02.2022

  Great Leaders Ask Great Questions

  Are you a diminisher or a multiplier? Do you bring all the answers to the table, or do you help others solve problems? Do you believe you are the best voice in the room? Our guest learned the hard way, that...

  
• 10.02.2022

  Security Executives Defined by Their Value, Not by Their Title

  Words are real things. When conveyed through the written word or articulated in a speech, they have the power to direct and shape individual behavior and markets. With this mind, I would like to discuss what it means to be a...

  
• 10.02.2022

  Learning the Art of Credibility

  If you were known to be trustworthy. If you engendered trust from others, how would it change your life and your world? Our great conversation with a global credibility expert, Mitchell Levy, is really about saving our humanity and changing the...

  
• 09.01.2022

  The Urgency to Understand the Larger Story of Another

  The power of story. It influences our lives. We have a personal story, fed by the evolutionary stages of story from our culture, our tribes, and our family. Story describes our core values and the why of our journey. If you...

  
• 09.01.2022

  Bringing to the Surface What is Below the Surface

  I met a leader who is a Doctor of Law (JD), is certified on the Essentials of Workplace Violence and Intervention through ASIS, an Instructor at a world-renowned Advanced Threat Assessment Academy, and is a strategic partner in the vision...

  
• 09.01.2022

  Leading is a Verb. Learn It, Then Teach It

  I tracked down an incredible thought leader on systems and practices. I thought we would be exploring how to execute. Instead, I found a set of ideas that can be put into action. This is important. A set of ideas...

  
• 09.01.2022

  Beyond the Fenceline: The Mindset of the Next Generation Executive

  Scott Lindahl, VP Corporate Services & Chief Security Officer, at Kellogg Company sat down with me in a great conversation around his journey that led him to begin using this language and adopting the behavior of a corporate leader. Scott’s journey...

  
• 08.01.2022

  A Cry for Help: The Pathway of Violence

  I am always looking for the seeds of a disruptive new way of thinking. This often is the genesis of a new model for doing business or a new model for governance within a family, association, community, or nation. From this,...

  
• 08.01.2022

  The Path to Creating a Team

  Voracious Learners! Monica Duperon Rodriquez is Senior Manager of Global Security and Risk Management (Executive Protection) at LinkedIn. When we sat down to have a great conversation, she immediately drew me into her path to creating a team. What we find is a...

  
• 08.01.2022

  Leveraging Security and Safety for Competitive Advantage

  If a CEO’s primary role is navigating risk and opportunity, then they must have a risk, resilience, and security team who is prepared to be at the table. To be prepared, the Chief Security Officer (CSO) and their team must understand...

  
• 08.01.2022

  The 5 Pillars of a Strategic Security Program

  I meet many people who are unconscious competents. They intuitively know what to do, and largely are successful at doing it. And then there are the conscious competents. They took the time to understand what they do including the why of...

  
• 08.01.2022

  We are in Tomorrow

  One of the leaders in our Great Conversation community sent me a brief but compelling message: I want to introduce you to Hans Nyamie for your next Great Conversation. Hans is one of the most interesting people I have spoken with...

  
• 07.01.2022

  The Innovation Hub for Loss Prevention and Security

  Our world operates on a highly leveraged business model that depends on the belief in a civil society. A society of agreed upon values doesn’t require police presence in every store and stoplight. There are laws that are respected and...

  
• 07.01.2022

  The Power of Story for your Organization and your People

  Vitaly Geyman had a great conversation with us several months ago that we called “The Organization is not a Machine; It is a Person”. We explored the traditional view and practice that led to the organizations being treated like...

  
• 07.01.2022

  The Mind, Culture, and Readiness of Risk and the Business

  We need a wider lens in business. We have been trained to think in terms of specialization and we have created silos of information that serve our interests. But the platform for widening our lens is now available. And more...

  
• 07.01.2022

  Protecting at the Speed of Risk

  You only represent 2% of the population, but you are the most targeted religious group in the country with over 60% of the hate crimes committed against your constituency. You can’t sit on the sidelines. You must be engaged with...

  
• 05.31.2022

  Integrating ”Security and Safety” into the Fabric of the Business

  Tyson Aiken is a former executive at Nike with an intelligence background from the CIA. He left Nike and went on a journey exploring different opportunities in the commercial marketplace. When I spoke with him before and during his “sabbatical”,...

  
• 05.31.2022

  The Tail Wagging the Dog

  CEOs manage risk and opportunity. How well they do that determines their path to value. So, who should be at the table helping the C-level team navigate risk and opportunity? What data should be collected, organized, analyzed, and communicated? How should...

  
• 05.31.2022

  Security: The Great Enabler of Organizational Strength

  Every profession has its pioneers. The ones who worked with sticky notes and clunky first-generation SQL databases. They had the opportunity and skills to create, document, and teach their learnings to future generations. And they had a front row seat...

  
• 05.31.2022

  His Job is to Make Others Fear Less

  In this conversation, we have the opportunity to dive into how technology may disrupt the executive protection profession. Most of us recognize that our brains are wired to resist uncertainty. We seem to grasp and hold on to the potential negative...