How do we create workplaces where every individual feels a deep sense of belonging, and why does it matter for transformation?

In this episode of Transformation 2.0®, Chamara sits down with Uthpala Senarathne Tennakoon, PhD, Associate Professor of Human Resources Management at Mount Royal University and Belongify Certified Coach. Together, they explore how "Right to Disconnect" and belonging impacts performance, innovation, and retention, and why leaders must move beyond diversity checkboxes to cultivate true connection and contribution in their teams.

From hybrid teams to in-person environments, Uthpala shares practical, research-backed strategies for fostering cultures where people feel safe to contribute their best work, and how that sense of belonging directly fuels organisational transformation.

If you’re a leader, HR professional, or transformation consultant looking to unlock the full potential of your people, while balancing the legal implications of the ‘right to disconnect’ legislation that will be effective for small businesses from August 26, 2025, this episode will give you the frameworks, stories, and actions to make belonging a competitive advantage.

Key Takeaways:

✅ The ‘Right to Disconnect’ is no longer a luxury; it’s the law, even for small businesses

✅ Inclusion means designing environments where people can contribute meaningfully

✅ Belonging is a key driver of performance, not just a “nice to have”

✅ Hybrid and remote work require intentional belonging strategies

✅ Leaders must address systemic barriers in hiring and promotion to create equity

✅ Belonging is measurable - and measurable improvements lead to business impact

✅ Psychological safety is the foundation for innovation and change

Resources & Links:

🔗 Learn more about the work we do at Anthosa: https://www.anthosa.com

🔗 Connect with Uthpala on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/uthpala-stennakoon/ 

About the Guest

Uthpala Senarathne Tennakoon, PhD is an Associate Professor of Human Resources Management at the Bissett School of Business, Mount Royal University in Calgary, Canada. 

She has a rich background encompassing engineering, finance, and organisational dynamics. Her extensive academic and professional expertise positions her uniquely to guide leaders through complex workplace transformations, particularly in aligning strategic business outcomes with human-centric management practices. Uthpala also serves as a coach, leadership mentor and advocate for inclusive, thriving workplace cultures that enhance employee engagement, productivity, and overall well-being.

Her work focuses on turning diversity and inclusion into real connection, contribution, and performance - whether in hybrid, remote, or in-person teams. In addition to her academic role, Uthpala serves as Associate Editor of the South Asian Journal of Human Resources Management and brings two decades of experience across academia, business analysis, and financial services.

What can human services organisations learn from asset-heavy industries about using technology to drive change?

In this episode of Transformation 2.0®, we sit down with Ian Robinson, CIO at Life Without Barriers, to explore the unique opportunities and challenges of digital transformation in the not-for-profit sector.

Ian’s career has spanned rail, utilities, water, and now human services, giving him a rare lens on how culture, process, and technology intersect. We unpack how the lessons learned in engineering-led environments translate into a people-first sector – and why the cultural readiness of an organisation is just as critical as the systems it invests in.

If you’re a digital leader, CIO, or transformation consultant navigating change in complex environments, you’ll find inspiration and practical insights on how to create impact at scale while keeping the human at the centre of transformation.

Key Takeaways:

✅ The surprising parallels between asset-intensive industries and human services

✅ Why cultural readiness and stakeholder alignment are crucial for digital transformation

✅ The challenge of balancing efficiency with personalised care in a not-for-profit context

✅ How AI and automation can reduce admin burden and free up frontline workers

✅ The importance of human-centric design and co-creation in driving adoption

✅ Future-proofing organisations: how to stay agile while scaling

Resources & Links:

🔗 Connect Ian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-robinsoncio/

🔗 Learn more about the work we do at Anthosa: https://www.anthosa.com

About the Guest

Ian Robinson is the Chief Information Officer at Life Without Barriers. With a career that began in electrical engineering and telecommunications, Ian has held senior technology leadership roles across rail, utilities, water, and now the not-for-profit sector. His experience spans managing complex asset environments, leading large-scale digital transformations, and embedding human-centric approaches to technology. At Life Without Barriers, Ian is focused on using technology to create better outcomes for people and communities.

In this episode of Transformation 2.0®, we explore how modern learning design is unlocking transformation in organisations. Our hosts Taural Rhoden and Chamara Somaratne, discuss why traditional education models are falling short - and what change leaders can do to rethink learning as a strategic driver of innovation, adaptability, and growth.

From cognitive overload and box-ticking courses to AI-powered personalisation, this episode dives into the future of workforce learning and why curiosity, experimentation, and continuous adaptation are the new must-have capabilities.

Whether you’re a transformation leader, L&D professional, or business strategist, this conversation will challenge your assumptions and spark new ideas on how learning really works in fast-paced, high-change environments.

Key Takeaways:

✅ Traditional corporate learning fails when it's standardised, passive, and disconnected from real work

✅ Sports teams spend most of their time training, business teams should too

✅ Box-ticking compliance programs rarely produce behaviour change

✅ Curiosity, growth mindset, and psychological safety are critical for learning cultures

✅ AI and microlearning are game-changers for personalised, in-the-flow development

✅ One-size-fits-all methodologies don’t work, transformation requires adaptive learning

✅ Leaders must “walk the talk” by modeling curiosity and experimentation themselves

Resources & Links:

🔗 Learn more about the work we do at Anthosa: https://www.anthosa.com

🔗 Connect with Taural Rhoden on LinkedIn

🔗 Connect with Chamara Somaratne on LinkedIn

About Our Co-Host:

Taural Rhoden is the Principal of Rhoden Consulting, where he helps experts think commercially and build resilient, profitable service businesses. Over the last 20 years, he’s worked at the sharp end of international consulting, advisory, and transformation with IBM, DXC, Mercedes-Benz, and the US Army.

He’s built independent businesses, returned to corporate leadership, and led high-impact digital transformations across industries. Today, he helps solopreneurs and small consultancies craft premium offers, build scalable delivery models, grow authority, and create sustainable revenue without burnout.

His mission: Equip experts to think commercially – so they can act with clarity, grow with confidence, and build businesses that last.

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How do we design workplaces where everyone can thrive, especially those who see and process the world differently?

In this episode of Transformation 2.0®, we sit down with Laetitia Andrac - strategist, social entrepreneur, and founder of Understanding Zoe - to explore how more inclusive operating models can unlock innovation, wellbeing, and performance by embracing neurodiversity.

From recruitment practices to workplace environments, Laetitia shares her personal and professional insights on why our current systems exclude neurodivergent individuals – and how to redesign them to be not only fairer, but more effective.

Whether you're a business leader, HR practitioner, or transformation consultant, this episode will reshape how you think about inclusion, productivity, and the future of work.

Key Takeaways:

✅ Neurodivergent individuals make up ~20% of the workforce, and most workplaces aren’t designed with them in mind
✅ Inclusive design starts at the hiring process – and small changes (like providing interview questions in advance) can make a big difference
✅ Open-plan offices, bright lights, and inflexible schedules can exclude talent before they have a chance to contribute
✅ Creating inclusive workplaces increases productivity, retention, and even revenue (by up to 19%)
✅ Technology can help personalise support and improve team design through better understanding, not just automation
✅ Allyship is essential - inclusion isn’t just the responsibility of neurodivergent individuals

Resources & Links:

🔗 Learn more about Understanding Zoe: https://understandingzoe.com
 🔗 Learn more about the work we do at Anthosa: https://www.anthosa.com
 🔗 Connect with Laetitia Andrac on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laetitiaandrac/ 

About Our Guest:

Laetitia Andrac is the co-founder and CEO of Understanding Zoe, a purpose-driven social enterprise bringing neuro-inclusion to early childhood. A former strategy consultant and Telstra executive, she is now on a mission to design systems that honour the needs and strengths of neurodivergent individuals.

Through her platform, consultancy, and advocacy, Laetitia is challenging outdated norms and creating tools that help leaders build more inclusive, impactful organisations  from daycare to the boardroom.

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Forget compliance checklists.

Today’s competitive advantage lies in understanding your tech function’s real health - and making it visible across the business.In this episode of Transformation 2.0®, we sit down with Dane Eldridge and Andy Graham, co-founders of StackUp, a platform that’s redefining how technology leaders assess and elevate their teams.

Dane and Andy reveal why traditional assessments fall short, the dangers of assumption-based leadership, and how objective benchmarking can unlock sharper strategy, faster execution, and smarter investments.

If you’re a CIO, CTO, or transformation leader tired of slow discovery and vague roadmaps, this episode will change how you see tech diagnostics forever.

Key Takeaways:

✅ Compliance doesn’t equal capability, stop mistaking ISO badges for tech maturity

✅ The best decisions start with shared language and objective insight

✅ Tech strategy is a communication game; leaders must translate impact, not jargon

✅ Transformation starts when tech gets honest, and the business gets curious

Resources & Links:

🔗 Learn more about Stackup: https://www.stackup.tech/

🔗 Explore Anthosa’s Strategy Accelerators: https://www.anthosa.com

About Our Guests:

Andy Graham is a seasoned CIO/CTO with 30 years of experience across financial services and automotive. As the former tech leader at SG Fleet, Andy led audits, M&A due diligence, and compliance, but saw the gap in measuring true operational excellence. His frameworks formed the foundation for StackUp.

Dane Eldridge spent two decades running a software agency, collaborating with startups and corporates alike. Frustrated by the lack of visibility into tech leadership effectiveness, Dane co-founded StackUp to bring objectivity, speed, and consistency to tech diagnostics.

How do you drive innovation inside one of the most regulated, complex industries in the world?

In this episode of Transformation 2.0®, we sit down with Stephen Ranjan - Global Head of Digital Health at Roche - to explore how the pharmaceutical industry is embracing (and resisting) change, why strategic partnerships matter more than ever, and how leaders can build learning cultures that enable real transformation.

From accelerating R&D with AI, to navigating compliance and risk, to scaling ideas beyond pilot purgatory - this conversation unpacks the human and organisational shifts required to make innovation work in practice, not just theory.

If you work in pharma, healthcare, or any highly regulated sector, this episode offers practical insight into how transformation actually happens - and why people, not platforms, are the key to change.

Key Takeaways:

✅ Innovation in pharma must balance risk, compliance and experimentation

✅ Strategic partnerships can de-risk innovation and accelerate learning

✅ Pilots fail when they don’t have a landing zone in the core business

✅ Culture change begins with curiosity, not control

✅ Compliance shouldn’t kill innovation – it should guide responsible progress

✅ Organisational friction is inevitable; leaders must actively manage it

Resources & Links:

🔗 Learn more about the work we do at Anthosa: https://www.anthosa.com

🔗 Connect with Stephen Ranjan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenranjan/

About Our Guest:

Stephen Ranjan is a collaborative healthcare executive with over 20 years of experience leading high-performance teams and delivering digital innovation across global markets. Currently serving as Global Head of Digital Health at Roche, he has held senior roles at Merck, Johnson & Johnson, and Epic, and sits on multiple advisory boards.Stephen’s leadership combines strategic vision with a deep commitment to people development, making him a trusted voice in the evolving world of pharma innovation.

How do we lead real transformation, the kind that sticks, in organisations wired for comfort?

In this special episode of Transformation 2.0®, we welcome strategy and transformation expert Taural Rhoden as a regular co-host. Together, Chamara and Taural dive into the uncomfortable realities of change, why organisations resist it, how leaders can navigate it, and why individual growth is the real engine of business transformation.

From the boardroom to the front line, transformation isn’t just about new systems or strategies - it’s about helping people make sense of uncertainty and take action when the future feels unclear.

If you’re a change leader, transformation consultant, or executive navigating complexity, this episode will give you frameworks, language, and inspiration to lead with more clarity and confidence.

Key Takeaways:

✅ Real transformation requires people to get uncomfortable and stay there

✅ Change fails when we treat it as a tech project instead of a people challenge

✅ Organisational homeostasis is real: success depends on disrupting the status quo

✅ Courageous leadership isn’t about rank - it’s about conviction

✅ The best change agents use experiments, not overhauls, to learn and scale

✅ Resistance is insight in disguise; treat it as information, not defiance

✅ A learning mindset will be the #1 skill for future-fit leaders

Resources & Links:

🔗 Learn more about the work we do at Anthosa: https://www.anthosa.com 

🔗 Connect with Taural Rhoden on LinkedIn   

About Our Co-Host:

Taural Rhoden is the Principal of Rhoden Consulting, where he helps experts think commercially and build resilient, profitable service businesses. Over the last 20 years, Taural has worked across the sharp end of international consulting, advisory, and transformation, holding leadership roles at IBM, DXC, Mercedes-Benz, and the US Army.

He’s built independent businesses, returned to corporate leadership, and led high-impact digital transformations across industries. Today, he helps solopreneurs and small consultancies craft premium offers, build scalable delivery models, grow authority, and create sustainable revenue without burnout.

His mission:Equip experts to think commercially - so they can act with clarity, grow with confidence, and build businesses that last.

🎧 Enjoyed the episode? Share it on social media and tag us!

How can asset-heavy industries reinvent themselves in the age of AI and real-time data?

In this episode of Transformation 2.0®, we welcome back Professor Venkat Venkatraman to dive into his latest work, Fusion Strategy - a practical framework for navigating digital transformation in traditional, physical industries.

Co-authored with Vijay Govindarajan, Fusion Strategy explores how companies can integrate digital and physical capabilities to unlock new value, rethink competitive advantage, and reshape their industries from the inside out.

From manufacturing to healthcare to logistics, the message is clear: digital transformation isn’t just for tech companies. It’s for every business with a physical footprint and a future to protect.

Whether you're in operations, strategy, or innovation leadership, this episode will help you understand what it takes to thrive in a fusion-driven world.

Key Takeaways:

✅ Traditional companies must shift from product portfolios to capability ecosystems

✅ Winning in the future means fusing physical assets with digital intelligence

✅ AI, sensors, and real-time data are reshaping the scale, scope, and speed for every business

✅ Transformation happens in three zones: automation, augmentation, and amplification

Resources & Links:

🔗 Learn more about the work we do at Anthosa: https://www.anthosa.com 

🔗 Get Venkat’s book Fusion Startegy 

🔗 Connect with Venkat Venkataraman on LinkedIn

About Our Guest:

Venkat Venkatraman is Professor Emeritus of Information Systems and an acclaimed authority on digital transformation and business strategy. With a distinguished academic career spanning over three decades, Venkat has deeply explored how established companies adapt to disruptive digital technologies.

Venkat earned his Bachelor of Technology from IIT, followed by an MBA, and completed his PhD in Strategic Management in Information Systems at the University of Pittsburgh. His academic journey included roles as an Associate Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and a notable 30-year tenure at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business as the David J. McGrath Jr. Professor of Management.

His groundbreaking insights, first presented in his influential 2016 book, The Digital Matrix: New Rules for Business Transformation Through Technology, are now evolving further in a forthcoming book focusing specifically on digital transformation in asset-heavy, information-rich industries such as automotive, logistics, healthcare, and agriculture.

He has co-authored another influential book, Fusion Strategy: How Real-Time Data and AI Will Power the Industrial Future, alongside renowned strategist Vijay Govindarajan. Venkat continues to shape the conversation around digital strategy, guiding business leaders through the complexities of digital disruption.

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Why do some traditional businesses thrive in the face of digital disruption - while others fail to adapt?

In this episode of Transformation 2.0®, we speak with Venkat Venkataraman, Professor Emeritus of Information Systems and renowned expert on digital transformation, about how incumbents can navigate the shifting business landscape.

We explore key concepts from his influential book The Digital Matrix, including how companies can recognise new digital competitors, manage collisions between old and new business models, and reinvent themselves for a digital future. 

Whether you're leading strategy, transformation, or innovation, this episode will give you a strategic lens to approach digital disruption - not just as a threat, but as an opportunity.

Key Takeaways:

✅ Every industry will face competition from digital giants and tech startups

✅ Traditional strategies of scale, scope, and speed no longer apply in a digital world

✅ Transformation is a continuous journey - experiment, collide, and reinvent

✅ Winning in the digital era requires ecosystem thinking and co-creating value

✅ Success depends on blending human capability with machine intelligence

Resources & Links:

🔗 Learn more about the work we do at Anthosa: https://www.anthosa.com 

🔗 Get Venkat’s book The Digital Matrix

🔗 Connect with Venkat Venkataraman on LinkedIn

About Our Guest:

Venkat Venkatraman is Professor Emeritus of Information Systems and an acclaimed authority on digital transformation and business strategy. With a distinguished academic career spanning over three decades, Venkat has deeply explored how established companies adapt to disruptive digital technologies.

Venkat earned his Bachelor of Technology from IIT, followed by an MBA, and completed his PhD in Strategic Management in Information Systems at the University of Pittsburgh. His academic journey included roles as an Associate Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and a notable 30-year tenure at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business as the David J. McGrath Jr. Professor of Management.

His groundbreaking insights, first presented in his influential 2016 book, The Digital Matrix: New Rules for Business Transformation Through Technology, are now evolving further in a forthcoming book focusing specifically on digital transformation in asset-heavy, information-rich industries such as automotive, logistics, healthcare, and agriculture.

He has co-authored another influential book, Fusion Strategy: How Real-Time Data and AI Will Power the Industrial Future, alongside renowned strategist Vijay Govindarajan. Venkat continues to shape the conversation around digital strategy, guiding business leaders through the complexities of digital disruption.

🎧 Enjoyed the episode? Share it on social media and tag us!

Have you ever wondered why some companies can innovate at scale - while others get stuck in endless pilots and stalled initiatives?

In this episode of Transformation 2.0, we speak with Peter Roeber, Strategic Growth & Innovation Leader at W. L. Gore & Associates, about what it takes to test new ideas inside a global organisation - and actually get them to market.

We explore how W. L. Gore & Associates empowers teams to run rapid experiments, validate assumptions early, and make data-informed decisions about whether to kill, pivot, or persevere. Whether you’re leading innovation, managing a product team, or driving transformation across an enterprise, this episode will help you rethink how you approach evidence, alignment, and scaling.

Key Takeaways:

✅ Innovation fails when intuition replaces evidence

✅ The best innovation teams test “deathblow assumptions” first

✅ Great cultures support experimentation and celebrate what gets killed

✅ Scaling isn’t just about funding—it’s about stakeholder alignment

✅ Sometimes, spinning out a venture is the most strategic move

Resources & Links:

🔗 Learn more about the work we do at Anthosa: https://www.anthosa.com

🔗 Connect with Peter Roeber on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterroeber/

About Our Guest:

Peter Roeber is a lifelong learner, strategic visionary, and founder with over 20 years of experience creating transformative ventures across MedTech and performance apparel. At W. L. Gore & Associates, he has driven over $1.5B in growth opportunities by empowering teams to solve systemic challenges through sustainable business models and groundbreaking solutions.

An MIT Sloan Executive MBA graduate, Peter combines systems thinking and inclusive leadership to unlock organisational and human potential, inspiring meaningful impact and growth.

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