Candid Craic

The struggle of wellbeing in a senior leadership role with Brian Henderson

In this Candid Craic, we talk to Brian Henderson about his experience of struggling with his psychological and physiological wellbeing in a senior leadership role, and how he is using it to help inform current executives just how harmful at individual and organisational levels the experience can be. Brian explains his reaction on realising he was experiencing all the signs of poor wellbeing, and why others in the same position might be equally likely to shrug it off just as he did; how he finally came to terms with what he was going through; the clues and signals that one might be in the early stages of a mental health challenge; and the organisational conditions that contributed to it. He explains how he coped with stress prior to that moment, and learned to cope in a more holistic mind, body and spirit manner afterwards; and how that embodied, whole self contrasts with the fragmenting self he was experiencing as the workplace pressures starting ramping up. Reflecting on the irony of his colleagues best intentions arguably making things far worse, Brian explains how he is employing his leadership experience to help executives think more deeply about wellbeing beyond current practices; how and why design thinking can help that process; and how and why leaders, HR and business schools can contribute to creating future organisations that place wellbeing at the heart of work.

Decrapifying work Colin Newlyn

In this Candid Craic, we talk to Colin Newlyn about his mission to decrapify work. Colin explains how, despite the rhetoric, we seem to be moving away from the trust and autonomy of the working conditions he experienced in his early career to a more command and control structure, often infected by bullying and toxicity, and replete with technologies, practices and processes that seem to hinder productivity and innovation. He explains how he has begun to take the concept of self-organisation increasingly seriously, seeing it as a holistic toolkit that can create better organisations if only we could work out a way to strip away prevailing power dynamics. He further explains how he has taken up the role of an "agitator from the margins", trying to translate and interpret complex ideas into more digestible forms that people find engaging and useful. We then take a fascinating journey into the golden age of pirates, with Colin explaining how they perhaps invented the democratic-participatory organisational form; why recreating it might not require the complex overthinking that dominates the market; and how simple truths and human-centric skills might be more than enough.

Adaptive facilitation in practice with Dr. Gemma Jiang

In this Candid Craic, Gemma Jiang talks about her role as a catalyzing and unifying presence in the massively transdisciplinary research on the circular economy; how she employs a range of facilitation techniques to hold transformational spaces in which pluralistic solutions get generated via civil dialogue between experts in different domains; and how she operates in the enabling spaces between adaptive entrepreneurs and administrative bureaucrats. Gemma explains how adaptive facilitation works in practice, providing two concrete examples; talks about the struggles she has faced and still faces in getting traditional institutions to take seriously adaptive facilitation methodologies; and how egocentric posturing from subject-matter experts can suck the air out of even the best intentioned discussions without facilitation. We close with a deep exploration of why so few organisations take such methodologies of working seriously; why it is vital for them to start doing so if we are to move beyond the linear, scarcity-focused, industrial models of work; and what the world might look like if we could do so.

Delivering conscious business philosophy in Singapore with Serene Seng

In this Candid Craic, we talk to Serene Seng about how she is working with Singaporean companies towards the delivery of a conscious business philosophy in the city. After Serene explains what she means by conscious business and why it isn't anti shareholder value, we find out the four ways in which conscious business practices positively impact organisational performance. Serene and Oscar then reflect on the level to which companies in Singapore and Hong Kong are (or are not) embracing the concept, and explore whether those failing to do so will struggle to attract or retain future talent. The Craic then takes a long tangent into the educational challenge in the region, as Serene laments that Singaporean education is producing great production workers when it needs to be producing great knowledge workers. We discuss where the future talent for Singapore and Hong Kong is going to come from; why Asian educational systems need to support and embrace ambiguity, sport and arts; how and why the current models are failing to help children discover their talents, and possibly delivering a life of poor mental health along the way; and how a conscious awareness of business and self might start addressing this issue. We conclude with a dive into the future of work and leadership in the region, with Serene suggesting that the guild model might re-emerge in the Singaporean gig-work ecosystem, and exploring how leadership might need to be reimagined alongside such a development.

The Incessant Negative Imagery of Black Lives with Martha Underwood

In this Candid Craic, we talk to Martha Underwood about the experience of being a black, female leader in the Deep South of the USA. Having been presented with a Leadership in Diversity award by Birmingham, Alabama, Martha explains the role she and others are playing in changing perceptions of the city, and the increasingly integrated plurality of the community. She talks about the origins of narrow perceptions about black Americans, highlighting the incessant negative imagery that has characterised the presentation of black lives in US print and media, from stupid illiterates in the 1930s to gang members, drug addicts and welfare queens in the late 20th Century. She goes on to outline numerous ways in which she helps young, black Americans overcome related perceptions of their abilities in contemporary society. We explore even deeper roots of racism and how even Enlightened Abolitionists contributed to "scientific" denigrations of the character and ability of black Americans, before turning to the tactics, stories and discourses that are generating hope for a more pluralistic, egalitarian future. We look at how grassroot change is developing better complexity of thinking in many young people of all races; how the emergence of female leaders can help shift outdated, narrow and problematic leadership discourses; and how the future might be so bright we'll need to wear shades. We highly recommend you watch the video on EQ Lab's YouTube channel to check out Oscar's hair!