The Independent Minds

A structured, culture‑first framework designed to help organisations evolve rather than revolt

In this episode of The Independent Minds, host Michael Millward speaks with Janice Brathwaite, creator of the Workplace Transformations Method, a structured, culture‑first framework designed to help organisations evolve rather than revolt.

Drawing on a career spanning Xerox, Motorola, Procter & Gamble and 17 years in community healthcare, Janice explains how her method emerged from witnessing the same persistent organisational pain points: poor communication, lack of recognition, and low trust.

Across the episode, Janice walks Michael through the five pillars of her approach:

1. Diagnose – uncovering the real issues beneath the surface through staff insights and cultural assessments.
2. Align – reshaping leadership communication so everyone “marches to the same drum.”
3. Attract – hiring people whose values genuinely match the organisation’s mission.
4. Activate – turning cultural insights into practical action via her Culture in Action Playbook.
5. Sustain – measuring ROI so leaders can see the long‑term value of cultural change.

This episode is a thoughtful, practical look at how organisations can honour their past while building a healthier future—without the “wrecking ball” effect that often accompanies change.

If you’re interested in organisational culture, leadership behaviour, or how to create workplaces where people genuinely want to stay, this conversation will make you think—exactly as The Independent Minds intends.

Audience Offers – listings include links that may create a small commission for The Independent Minds

The Independent Minds is made on Zencastr, the all-in-one podcasting platform, that really does make creating content so easy.

Travel – With discounted membership of the Ultimate Travel Club, you can travel anywhere at trade prices.

Visit Three for information about business and personal telecom solutions from Three, and the special offers available when you quote my referral code WPFNUQHU.

Fit For Work – The Annual Health Test from York Test; assesses 39-health markers.

Use discount code MIND25.

Being a Guest

We recommend the podcasting guest training available from WPLC.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.

How will artificial intelligence impact internet accessibility

In this episode of Independent Minds, host Michael Millward talks with Leesa Blankert, founder of Lab Online Agency in British Columbia, to explore one of the most quietly transformative issues in modern work and technology: how artificial intelligence is reshaping internet accessibility.

Leesa brings a rare blend of expertise — nearly a decade working in the public school system supporting students with special needs, combined with her current work helping small businesses build websites that are “ever evolving” and genuinely accessible. 

Leesa explains that, accessibility isn’t just a “nice thing to do”; it’s a legal requirement, a moral responsibility, and a smart business investment.

Together, Michael and Leesa unpack topics including:

• Why accessibility matters far beyond compliance
• How AI is changing search, design, and user experience
• The emerging role of generative engine optimization
• The risks of over‑relying on AI for web development
• How small changes — like readable fonts or larger text — can dramatically improve usability
• The future possibility of websites adapting in real time to individual needs (ADHD, low vision, cognitive differences)

Leesa also reflects on the tension between AI’s promise and its pitfalls, noting that while AI can “present some great information,” it can also create new problems we’re not yet prepared to fix.

This is a thoughtful, forward‑looking conversation for anyone interested in digital inclusion, small business visibility, or the evolving relationship between humans and technology. As always, Independent Minds aims not to tell you what to think — but to make you think.

Audience Offers – listings include links that may create a small commission for The Independent Minds

The Independent Minds is made on Zencastr, the all-in-one podcasting platform, that really does make creating content so easy.

Travel – With discounted membership of the Ultimate Travel Club, you can travel anywhere at trade prices.

Visit Three for information about business and personal telecom solutions from Three, and the special offers available when you quote my referral code WPFNUQHU.

Fit For Work – The Annual Health Test from York Test; assesses 39-health markers.

Use discount code MIND25.

Being a Guest

We recommend the podcasting guest training available from WPLC.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.x

A clear‑eyed, deeply human conversation about conflict, emotion, and the hidden costs of “being right.”

In this episode of Independent Minds, host Michael Millward talks with Ursula Taylor – former litigation attorney turned conflict‑resolution consultant – about how individuals and organisations can navigate disputes effectively without stepping into the courtroom.

Drawing on 17 years of complex commercial litigation experience, Ursula explains why litigation is rarely the victory people imagine, why contracts alone can’t prevent conflict, and why emotional charge - not logic - is almost always the real driver behind disputes.

Ursula shares her journey from running her own law firm to helping clients resolve conflict more efficiently, more humanely, and with far less cost.

Michael and Ursula explore the emotional dynamics that derail relationships, the “stake in the ground” mindset that traps people in destructive patterns, and the surprising truth that you only need one willing party to begin resolving a dispute.

This episode dives into:

• Why litigation is a distraction from real business goals
• How emotional charge clouds decision‑making and fuels escalation
• The difference between what people want and what they actually need
• How leaders can reframe conflict to create unity rather than division
• Why understanding human emotion is essential to modern business
• Real examples of Ursula helping clients shift from defensiveness to clarity

Ursula’s approach is practical, compassionate, and refreshingly honest — offering listeners a new way to think about conflict, whether between business partners, suppliers, colleagues, or teams.

A thoughtful, insightful episode for anyone who wants to resolve disputes faster, protect relationships, and build healthier workplaces.

Building Your Dream Team - a conversation with Sarah Bishop

A conversation packed with sharp insight, lived experience, and the kind of practical wisdom founders will wish they’d heard sooner.

Audience Offers – listings include links that may create a small commission for The Independent Minds

The Independent Minds is made on Zencastr, the all-in-one podcasting platform, that really does make creating content so easy.

Travel – With discounted membership of the Ultimate Travel Club, you can travel anywhere at trade prices.

Visit Three for information about business and personal telecom solutions from Three, and the special offers available when you quote my referral code WPFNUQHU.

Fit For Work – The Annual Health Test from York Test; assesses 39-health markers.

Use discount code MIND25.

Being a Guest

We recommend the podcasting guest training available from WPLC.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.

A conversation packed with sharp insight, lived experience, and the kind of practical wisdom founders will wish they’d heard sooner.

In this episode of Independent Minds, host Michael Millward chats with Sarah Bishop — recruitment expert, founder of Recruit Recruit, and author of Scale Up: The Founder’s Guide to Accelerating Growth by Building Dream Teams.

Drawing on three decades in the industry, Sarah shares how she “fell into recruitment,” built a career across major organisations, and eventually helped a COVID‑era startup scale from zero to £30 million in just 21 months — placing more than 220 people across every department from finance to science to operations.

Together, Michael and Sarah explore what a “dream team” really is (hint: often a group of wonderfully mismatched people who share a mission), why founders must define their vision before hiring, and how most recruitment mistakes begin long before the interview. They discuss why hiring managers under pressure make poor decisions, why culture and values matter more than CV bullet points, and why “you get hired for hard skills and fired for soft skills.”

This episode is a step‑by‑step masterclass in building a business through people — from avoiding the trap of hiring friends, to designing roles based on what founders should let go of, to creating healthy tension between departments that drives performance rather than conflict.

If you’re a founder, leader, or anyone responsible for hiring, this conversation will make you rethink how work works — and how the right team can transform everything.

A thoughtful, energetic, and deeply practical listen — one that might just change how you build your business.

Audience Offers – listings include links that may create a small commission for The Independent Minds

The Independent Minds is made on Zencastr, the all-in-one podcasting platform, that really does make creating content so easy.

Travel – With discounted membership of the Ultimate Travel Club, you can travel anywhere at trade prices.

Visit Three for information about business and personal telecom solutions from Three, and the special offers available when you quote my referral code WPFNUQHU.

Fit For Work – The Annual Health Test from York Test; assesses 39-health markers.

Use discount code MIND25.

Being a Guest

We recommend the podcasting guest training available from WPLC.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.

Regrowth: How Organizations Can Overcome Stalling by Unlocking Their People’s Potential

When experienced HR professionals like Ernesto Gómez and Michael Millward start a conversation about work, they quickly get into one of the most insightful explorations of modern HR thinking you’ll hear this year.

Host Michael Millward speaks with Ernesto Gómez, author of Regrowth: How Organizations Can Overcome Stalling by Unlocking Their People’s Potential, about why people, not products, processes, or technology, are the true engine of organizational renewal.

⭐ What’s Inside This Episode

Ernesto’s unconventional path from serial entrepreneur to leading operations worth $1.3 billion, and eventually to becoming the HR leader of a 45,000‑person global company.

The shock of moving into HR—and why he discovered it’s one of the most intellectually demanding functions in business.

Why organizations stall, and how stagnation is rarely caused by people themselves but by self‑inflicted structural and cultural barriers.

The three pillars of regrowth:

1. Talent density — ensuring mission‑critical roles are filled with truly exceptional people.
2. Culture — the scaffolding that allows talent to shine rather than suffocate.
3. Mindset — the collective beliefs that determine whether people feel able to innovate, pivot, and grow.

A powerful discussion on why most employees operate at only 50–60% of their potential, and how leaders can remove the obstacles that hold them back.

The importance of hiring for values first, then attitude, then skills—because skills can be taught, but values cannot.

🎧 Why This Episode Matters

If you work in HR, lead teams, or simply care about how organizations evolve, this conversation will make you rethink how growth really happens. Ernesto argues that companies don’t stagnate because markets change—they stagnate because their people aren’t given the conditions to adapt, experiment, and flourish.

Audience Offers – listings include links that may create a small commission for The Independent Minds

The Independent Minds is made on Zencastr, the all-in-one podcasting platform, that really does make creating content so easy.

Travel – With discounted membership of the Ultimate Travel Club, you can travel anywhere at trade prices.

Visit Three for information about business and personal telecom solutions from Three, and the special offers available when you quote my referral code WPFNUQHU.

Fit For Work – The Annual Health Test from York Test; assesses 39-health markers. Use discount code MIND25.

Being a Guest

We recommend the podcasting guest training available from WPLC.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.

Figuring out what you’re here to do, and working so that you can do it

Eloise Skinner joins host Michael Millward for a thoughtful, quietly provocative chat about what it means to step outside of modern life and into a year‑long monastic experience, whilst maintaining a busy legal career.

Eloise reflects on how monastic values—intentionality, community, discipline, and the stripping‑back of identity—can reshape a person’s understanding of purpose and self.

Eloise explains the traditions that informed her experience, noting that monasticism “transcends particular religions… showing up in different cultures and representing different values” .  The program she joined at Lambeth Palace, is part of the “new monastic movement,” which adapts ancient practices for contemporary life. Rather than withdrawing entirely from society, Eloise continued her demanding legal career while committing to weekly community life, silent retreats, and a shared rule of life.

The conversation explores the tension between monastic ideals and corporate culture, especially the challenge of disentangling personal identity from professional status. Eloise describes the gradual shifting of her priorities: “finding a different sense of self… then looking back at everything… and choosing differently”. Ultimately Eloise left law and built a portfolio career centred on meaning, purpose, and therapeutic work.

Eloise is a successful author

• But Are You Alive?: How to Design a Life Worth Living
• The Purpose Handbook
• Junior Lawyers Handbook

You will gain insights into:

• What monastic values look like in practice
• How intentional living affects habits, diet, and community
• The difficulty—and liberation—of redefining identity beyond job titles
• Why deep personal change often unfolds slowly, long after an experience ends

This episode invites reflection rather than prescription.

Audience Offers – listings include links that may create a small commission for The Independent Minds

Books by Eloise Skinner available from Amazon

The Independent Minds is made on Zencastr, the all-in-one podcasting platform, Zencastr really does make creating content so easy.

Travel – With discounted membership of the Ultimate Travel Club, you can travel anywhere at trade prices.

Visit Three for information about business and personal telecom solutions from Three, and the special offers available when you quote my referral code WPFNUQHU.

Fit For Work – The Annual Health Test from York Test; assesses 39-health markers.

Use our discount code MIND25.

Being a Guest

We recommend the podcasting guest training programmes available from Work Place Learning Centre.

Matchmaker.fm is where great guests and great hosts are matched and great podcasts are hatched. Use our offer code MILW10 for a discount on membership.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.

Changing a manager’s behaviour isn’t just good leadership — it’s the fastest way to rescue a failing culture and unlock real profitability.

In this episode of The Independent Minds, host Michael Millward meets revenue strategist Debbie Longo, from Life in Bloom NY, to explore a deceptively simple idea: if you change the behaviour of managers, you can change the profitability of the entire organisation.

Debbie began her career in criminology before moving into commercial coaching, and she brings that sharp behavioural insight into the boardroom. She explains how negativity, ego, control, and manipulation quietly erode trust, damage team cohesion, and ultimately drive good employees away. As she puts it, even small moments of frustration can snowball into major organisational problems — “I drop a pen… the ink goes all over the floor…” — and unless leaders learn to interrupt these patterns, the business pays the price.

Michael and Debbie unpack why managers often cling to past successes, how ego distorts decision‑making, and why one person leaving can trigger a domino effect across a team. Debbie shares her practical method for breaking the cycle: a behavioural audit that helps leaders see their own actions clearly, often for the first time. She argues that sustained positivity isn’t naïve — it’s strategic — and that the most successful companies are those whose leaders continually examine and adjust their own behaviour.

Audience Offers – listings include links that may create a small commission for The Independent Minds

The Independent Minds is made on Zencastr, because as the all-in-one podcasting platform, Zencastr really does make creating content so easy.

Travel – With discounted membership of the Ultimate Travel Club, you can travel anywhere at trade prices.

Visit Three for information about business and personal telecom solutions from Three, and the special offers available when you quote my referral code WPFNUQHU.

Fit For Work – The Annual Health Test from York Test; assesses 39-health markers.

Use our discount code MIND25.

Being a Guest

We recommend the podcasting guest training programmes available from Work Place Learning Centre.

Matchmaker.fm is where great guests and great hosts are matched and great podcasts are hatched. Use our offer code MILW10 for a discount on membership.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.

Perhaps a better way to move from Thought to Thing?

In this episode of The Independent Minds, host Michael Millward sits down with entrepreneur and author David Carson to explore a counterintuitive idea: sometimes the smartest way to solve a problem is to think dumb.

Drawing on examples from history like Ignaz-Semmelweis, innovative businesses and his own career building design‑led media businesses — and from the mental models behind his book Dummify: How Ridiculous Thinking Can Solve Big Problems — David explains why unconventional, naïve, even “ridiculous” ideas often outperform the polished, over‑engineered ones. As he puts it: “The things that felt silly or counterintuitive tended to be the things that worked more often than not.”

Together, Michael and David unpack why workplaces suppress these ideas, how fear and conditioning make people hide their curiosity, and what leaders can do to build cultures where “dumb thinking” becomes a powerful creative tool. From Airbnb’s air mattress origins to the accidental invention of the chocolate chip cookie, the conversation shows how breakthroughs often come from mistakes, missteps, and moments most people would dismiss.

This episode is for anyone interested in innovation, organisational culture, or simply rethinking how ideas become reality. As Michael notes, “We won’t be telling you what to think, but we are hoping to make you think.”

Audience Offers – listings include links that may create a small commission for The Independent Minds

The Independent Minds is made on Zencastr, because as the all-in-one podcasting platform, Zencastr really does make creating content so easy.

Travel – With discounted membership of the Ultimate Travel Club, you can travel anywhere at trade prices.

Visit Three for information about business and personal telecom solutions from Three, and the special offers available when you quote my referral code WPFNUQHU.

Fit For Work – The Annual Health Test from York Test; assesses 39-health markers.

Use our discount code MIND25.

Being a Guest

We recommend the podcasting guest training programmes available from Work Place Learning Centre.

Matchmaker.fm is where great guests and great hosts are matched and great podcasts are hatched. Use our offer code MILW10 for a discount on membership.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.

Fix the root cause, not the symptoms: a smarter way to train.

Most workplace training doesn’t fail quietly — it fails expensively. In this explosive episode of the Abeceder podcast The Independent Minds, learning architect Dr. Carrie Graham and host Michael Millward identify why organisations keep pouring money into training that never changes behaviour, never fixes the real problem, and never delivers the results leaders expect.

Carrie brings the precision of a healthcare diagnostician and the insight of a seasoned professor to expose the hidden mistakes companies make: treating symptoms instead of causes, forcing everyone through “sheep‑dip” learning, ignoring how people actually learn, and preaching values they don’t live.

If your training feels like theatre, if your people aren’t improving, or if your organisation keeps repeating the same mistakes, this conversation will hit uncomfortably close to home — and offer a smarter, more strategic way forward.

Bold, honest, and packed with practical insight, this episode is a wake‑up call for employer that wants employee training that actually works.

Audience Offers – listings include links that may create a small commission for The Independent Minds

The Independent Minds is made on Zencastr, because as the all-in-one podcasting platform, Zencastr really does make creating content so easy.

Travel – With discounted membership of the Ultimate Travel Club, you can travel anywhere at trade prices.

Visit Three for information about business and personal telecom solutions from Three, and the special offers available when you quote my referral code WPFNUQHU.

Fit For Work – The Annual Health Test from York Test; assesses 39-health markers.

Use our discount code MIND25.

Being a Guest

We recommend the podcasting guest training programmes available from Work Place Learning Centre.

Matchmaker.fm is where great guests and great hosts are matched and great podcasts are hatched. Use our offer code MILW10 for a discount on membership.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.

How to prepare for what you don’t see coming - Marketing Edition

Like most entrepreneurs there came a time in Brady Dahmer career as a business owner when he looked back and relived the trauma of the mistakes he had made in building his business Tropoly a brand studio.

Brady lamented that there had not been a way for him to learn how to avoid the mistakes he knew he had made. So, Brady decided to create the  Blind Spots Handbook: How to prepare for what you don’t see coming - Marketing Edition.

In this episode of the Abeceder podcast The Independent Minds, Brady discusses his book with host Michael Millward.

Sharing their experience prompts frank exchanges that make for an informative and entertaining conversation about the marketing blind spots that can stop a business from scaling.

They discuss

• What a blind spot really is, and how they can impact a business
• Accepting that the problems blind spots cause, do not just happen to other people
• Real case studies that highlight how easily mistakes can be made, when you assume
• Accepting that you cannot learn everything and identifying what you really need to learn.
• The value that an expert can provide
• How to deal with someone who says that they know

This episode of The Independent Minds delivers implemental communication solutions for new and experienced leaders.

Audience Offers – listings include links that may create a small commission for The Independent Minds

The Independent Minds is made on Zencastr, because as the all-in-one podcasting platform, Zencastr really does make creating content so easy.

Travel – With discounted membership of the Ultimate Travel Club, you can travel anywhere at trade prices.

Visit Three for information about business and personal telecom solutions from Three, and the special offers available when you quote my referral code WPFNUQHU.

Fit For Work – The Annual Health Test from York Test; assesses 39-health markers.

Use our discount code MIND25.

Being a Guest

We recommend the podcasting guest training programmes available from Work Place Learning Centre.

Matchmaker.fm is where great guests and great hosts are matched and great podcasts are hatched. Use our offer code MILW10 for a discount on membership.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.