Thank you for listening this far and meeting some of the amazing people I've had the honour and privilege of talking to. Right now I'm sitting back, imagining what's next. I'd like to take a moment to ask for some feedback and point you in some cool directions for how to engage while we're on a brief break. You're awesome and you're doing great. Th…

I recorded this episode in early July 2020, one year since I stepped away from being CEO of Box of Crayons and handed that responsibility over to today’s guest, Dr. Shannon Minifie. Now, most so-called founder transitions end up on the rocky shores of defeat for two reasons. First, most founders are a little bit like me: kind of neurotic and egotis…

One of the phrases that struck me when I was interviewing Tom Kolditz was when he said that “the US military is very egalitarian, very much in a meritocracy. People are expected to never lean on their rank. The rank gives them a certain set of responsibilities. But it doesn't give them any advantage in the framework that we operate in our military.…

When you ask “what makes a leader?” you will hear back, almost immediately, “vision”. Show us the way! Shine the light! “Without vision, the people perish” or so it’s written... But, perhaps not. What if “vision” was overrated ... and that another leadership behaviour was shown to be much more important? Today I’m speaking to Gianpiero “GP” Petrigl…

I’ve been busy all my life. And quite frankly, I’ve enjoyed it. Teetering on over-commitment ...there’s an exhilaration to that. And gosh, I’m tired sometimes. Part of the self-growth work for me right now is creating space in my life to think, to regenerate, to allow what’s next to emerge. And, frankly, I need help because of my lifetime habit of …

Hard as it is to believe, We Will Get Through This is not the only awesome podcast around here. Really, it’s true. Once a season, I’ll be sharing an episode from another podcast I listen to and admire, and there’s no better place to start than with Dave Stachowiak’s Coaching for Leaders. I’ve been a guest four times, and that’s not a scheduling err…

Bill Carrier is someone you’ve never heard of. Years ago, as a counterintuitive marketing strategy, he decided that he’d do no marketing. No website. No business card. No social media. You found out about Bill through word of mouth, and word of mouth only. I met him when we both worked with TED Fellows on a retreat, and we had the opportunity to wo…

I hope you enjoyed the conversation with Dave Snowden a few episodes ago. I loved it, although I admit I was a little intimidated by engaging in conversation with someone who has such a sharp mind and who’s thought about the challenges and possibilities of complexity for so long. You might have gotten to the end of that episode and asked ... “and n…

I originally invited Kerry, today’s guest, because she’s one of the world’s top financial bloggers. Truly. Her blog is one of the most visited websites in the world. But in setting up the call, I discovered that she had another story she could tell in the context of We Will Get Through This. It’s the experience of surviving one of the most virulent…

I hope you’ve had that experience of walking into somewhere special; a place that has a resonance, and a capacity, and a potential. But where does that special something, that sacredness, come from? Is it just a trick of architecture? What role do we have in creating sacred space ... and why would we want to? Pamay Bassey is the CLO of Kraft Heinz …

Think one year ahead. You can likely do that. Think 15 years ahead, let’s say to 2035. You might just about be able to do that. Think 100 years ahead. Almost impossible. And 1000 years? And yet, if we don’t build our capacity to think beyond our timespan, we’re likely doomed. So, how to do that? I’ve been a member of an organization called The Long…

Cynefin! Say it with me ... Well, you probably can’t. Because it’s a Welsh word and you have to know how it’s said: Ku-NEV-in. My guest today is Dave Snowden, the creator of the Cynefin model. And the reason we’re learning a little bit of Welsh is because this is the model that helps us understand what it means to be operating within a complex syst…

How to have a good day. I for one want to know the answer to that. Now! Immediately! Now let me be clear. I don't want bland, predictable “there is no ‘i’ in innovation” type aphorisms.I want insights from science, so the changes I make are based in reality. So let me introduce you to Caroline Webb. She is an executive coach, author and speaker who…

The power of ritual is profound. It’s woven deep into the rhythms of societies, and its power lies in the marking of a transition, from one state to another. It often means a death of some sort: something needs to pass, before something new can arrive. But few of us are comfortable with death, literal or metaphoric. My guest today is Sarah Kerr,a r…

I love the power of thinking about your thinking. This is where sustainable learning truly happens. Not in the telling. Not in the doing. But in the reflection on what’s happening. When you see patterns, you learn to manage them. My guest today is Trevor Ragan, the founder of The Learner Lab, an educational website that helps unpack and share the s…

You know me well enough to know that I love a good question. But there are times, particularly in a crisis, when the questions you’re being asked feel impossible to answer. They ask for certainty and reassurance that you’re just not able to give. In that moment, you feel anxiety and uncertainty. What do you say to the unanswerable question? Ron Car…

You know the marshmallow test, right? Some poor kid put in a room with a single marshmallow in front of them, and a choice: eat it now, or resist the temptation for 5 minutes and get a second marshmallow. Even though the research has been shown to be problematic, it’s illustrative: we so often take short-term, in-the-moment gratification that goes …

The odds are you’re not an elite athlete. I know, for sure and without a doubt, that I’m not. When I am playing sports or working out, the thing that’s mostly going through my head is how do I keep myself from quitting, because I almost always have that desire to quit halfway through. The way champions like Bonnie St. John do it, in part, is by bui…

I have three broad categories of books in my life. First, there are the books that come and go pretty quickly. They’re just not very good. There are quite a lot of those. The second bucket are ones I read and think, “This is a pretty good book. There’s a smart idea buried in here.” And then the final category is made up of the types of books I stri…

It’s one of the stories that doesn’t quite seem real. Man has a really rough time in his life, starts a blog to cheer himself up--1,000 awesome things--it blows up, the book versions sell millions, the TEDx talk is seen by more millions, and he goes on to write more intriguing books, begin compelling podcasts and be a sought after keynote speaker. …

For many years, I did five year plans. I'd sit there and do my best to map out what the next five years were going to be like. I would imagine great things: bold ambitions and brilliant outcomes. The other day as I was sorting through old boxes of paper, I came across some of these plans. What was both hilarious and slightly depressing about them i…

We Will Get Through This returns next week with another intriguing series of episodes. We'll be exploring how to see around corners, how to build micro-resilience, how to be invincible and so much more. This show is brought to you by The Advice Trap, Michael Bungay Stanier’s latest book. You can access a wide range of tools to help #TameYourAdviceM…

It turns out, somewhat to my surprise, that the body isn’t just a nifty thing that carries around your head. There’s more to it than that. When I want to understand the power of emotions in a way that someone who lives in his head might understand, the person I go to is Dr Robert Biswas-Diener. Robert’s a psychologist, a researcher, and a coach, an…

I like hyphenates. People whose journey has meant that they’ve got a bit of this and a bit of that. People who’ve taken expertise from one world into another. People whose journey to now makes no sense and total sense at the same time. I’m a bit like that (so confirmation bias, I guess). So to is Dr. Edy Greenblatt. She is a resilience pioneer, a w…

When I'm thinking to myself, "All right. Who do I need to talk to about money? Who would be a great source of wisdom and calmness and guidance in this time?" I thought I should introduce you to the person who helps me most. I'm going to introduce you to my financial advisor, Rona Birenbaum, who is brilliant. I love her not just for how she manages …

Some years ago I was wandering up my street, Roncesvalles Avenue, here in Toronto where I live. I wandered into my library and one of the reasons I go into the library is so I can wander the shelves and I can let serendipity happen. A book waves at you and goes, hey, notice me! In this visit, a book leapt off the shelf: The Chairs Are Where the Peo…

When I moved to Toronto and first dipped my toes in the murky waters of professional coaching, the name that got whispered with awe in the coffee shops and the ICF chapter gatherings was Karen Wright. Karen was already doing “coaching 2.0” before we’d really figured out what “coaching 1.0” was. Smart, provocative, rigorous and values-based. She and…

Can you tell the difference between a good PowerPoint deck and one that’s lousy? Do you have a commitment to slides that are useful, elegant and that tell a story? Do you feel some part of your soul die when you’re subjected to some poorly planned and poorly designed presentation? If so, knowingly or not, you’re likely a disciple of Nancy Duarte. S…

"If music be the food of love, play on." That William Shakespeare was onto something. I think he’s going to go places. So too is my guest, Nathan Leigh Jones, a musician and an academic. Let’s start with the facts he's an avid singer-songwriter: he's taken his piano all over the world, including performances at Joe's Pub in New York City, the Sydne…

This is the first season of We Will Get Through This, and of course I’m curious … should I keep doing it? Personally, I’m really enjoying the conversations, but I want to make sure that they’re useful for you too. Will you email and let me know? Tell me what you like and don’t like about the show. Suggest some awesome guests, if someone comes to mi…

Ric Leahy, my guest in this episode, was almost responsible for a career choice of mine that would have been disastrous, both for me and my country. Ric and I went to high school together. When we hit our final year, Ric had a plan: “I'm going to win a scholarship and join the navy." And I thought … well, why not. I'm going to join the air force. R…

Now I'm not going to name names but, oh, you need to know I have them in my head right now. I can see them, I can hear them, I can feel my breath getting a little faster, my shoulders going up around my ears, my spine stiffening, my jaw clenching a bit. Equally, and I hope this is true for you as well, there are some people who calm me down. People…

One of the few people in my life who was a great boss to me was Kate Lye. One of the reasons I truly love Kate, and this will sound a bit odd, is her intolerance. Intolerance not of people so much, but of shonky, flabby thinking. She has an ability to stick a finger at the kind of weak thinking that often shows up in the world of leadership and res…

The poet Muriel Rukeyser wrote, “The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.” I think, actually, it’s likely made of both … and while I can’t really claim any deep expertise in physics, I do know a little bit about the power of story-telling. A little bit. But not as much as Bernadette Jiwa who amongst other things has teamed up with Seth Godin …

I was introduced to the concept of projects and project management through a productivity guy: David Allen. In David’s book Getting Things Done, he says (and I paraphrase), "We get overwhelmed by all the stuff on our plates. Start thinking about almost everything you do as a project, and then you can start managing it as a project." David’s introdu…

Dorie Clark has been described by no less than the New York Times as an expert in self-reinvention and helping others make changes in their lives. That’s probably all you need to know. But in case you’re asking yourself, “yes, but what else?” know that she's a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review and is author of a number of books includ…

Money is so often a source of anxiety … and that’s during the good times. When times are hard, money can prove to be an even more significant source of concern and stress. That’s why I invited Bruce Sellery to be a guest on the podcast. I met him many years ago when he was a business journalist, and he’s gone on to be the host of the Million Dollar…

Jen Louden is one of my most important friends. We met fifteen years ago (it might even be more), when a mutual friend suggested we be part of a mastermind group together. Honestly, I wasn’t sure it would last. She was the best-selling author of The Women’s Comfort Book, the first mega-selling book on self-care … and what I assumed was likely a who…

The first time I saw Chester, he was wearing one of his trademark orange shirts and was surrounded by adoring fans at a learning and development conference. It was clear that people loved him. To be honest, I was irritated. I wanted some of that mojo for myself! When I got to know him years later, I discovered that, well, I loved him too … the man …

Confession: I’m not that great at conflict. For WAY too long my motto has been: Why have conflict when you can passively aggressively avoid it in some way? But the truth is, if we’re going to get through this, we need to manage conflict as best we can. Avoid the unnecessary fights; and fight well in the conflicts we have to have to move forward. Th…

Lots of people have one piece of the resilience puzzle. Their experience and expertise has given them insight on, say, nutrition or money or self-care or community building. These people are awesome, and they’ll be coming on the show. Few people have an established model about resilience, based on empirical evidence and tested in both the business …

In difficult times, it's easy to despair. But all around us are experts who have proven tactics and strategies to stay strong: for ourselves, for our teams and for our organizations. This is a podcast asking the very best in the world how to stay resilient. This is a podcast that shows us We Will Get Through This…