29 episodes

Podcast by Chris Clearfield

The Breakdown with Chris Clearfield Chris Clearfield

    • Business

Podcast by Chris Clearfield

    Ep. 28 — Diane Chadwick-Jones — Can you change the culture of a company overnight?

    Ep. 28 — Diane Chadwick-Jones — Can you change the culture of a company overnight?

    Today's guest on the podcast is Diane Chadwick-Jones, a safety executive who recently retired from her position as BP’s Human Performance Director after 30 years at the company. She was appointed the Director of Leadership and Culture at BP just days before the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.

    Regular listeners and those who have read Meltdown know that Deepwater Horizon was pivotal for me. Before it, I tended to think about complexity in the context of financial systems and global markets. After it, I saw clearly what kind of impact complexity can wreak on the wider world.

    Diane and I don't talk about the Deepwater Horizon accident, and that's very intentional.

    But we did get a chance to talk about her approach to safety, what it means to be a systems thinker, the problem with (some) incentives, and building a culture of learning without scaring people off.

    Listen to the interview here.

    • 55 min
    Ep. 27 — Amba Gale — The Heart of Leadership

    Ep. 27 — Amba Gale — The Heart of Leadership

    Today on the podcast, I speak with Amba Gale, the owner of Gale Leadership Development. She has run leadership development programs for some of the world's biggest companies for the past four decades—something I find incredibly impressive.

    A previous podcast guest, Bill Weymer, recommended that I speak to Amba, who has worked with Bill and his team at Town & Country Markets. If you listen to my interview with Bill, you’ll gain a sense of how Town & Country Markets has built a culture of participation, sharing, creativity, and collaboration—and Bill told me that Amba was instrumental in creating a cohort of leaders there who grew that culture.

    In our conversation, Amba shares her thoughts about leadership (particularly the nature of leadership in the modern world) and talks about how to support leaders and transform organizations in an intuitive, human-centered way. We also talk a lot about vulnerability and the art of listening (really listening).

    I felt very present and grounded in this conversation, and it was an impactful conversation for me. I hope you take something from it, too.

    Find more about Amba Gale at https://galeleadership.com/.
    You can register for her free course that introduces her work: https://galeleadership.com/next-opening-intro/.
    Read about her upcoming class called Crossing Thresholds: A Conversational Bridge to Your Next Opening: https://galeleadership.com/the-next-opening/.

    • 55 min
    Ep. 26 — Jason Barnwell — How To Build an Innovation Machine

    Ep. 26 — Jason Barnwell — How To Build an Innovation Machine

    Ep. 26 — Jason Barnwell — How To Build an Innovation Machine by Chris Clearfield

    • 58 min
    Ep. 25 – Bill Weymer – How To Lead with Humility

    Ep. 25 – Bill Weymer – How To Lead with Humility

    Today on The Breakdown™, I speak with Bill Weymer, the humble, thoughtful, and down-to-earth president and CEO of Town & Country Markets, a flourishing family-owned grocery store chain in greater Seattle that’s been around since 1957.

    We talked about a lot: what it was like to run a public-facing retail business during 2020, why Bill and his leadership team lead with humility, how to develop a companywide culture and shared sense of purpose amongst workers, and the importance of listening to, caring about, and investing in workers both during peacetime and COVID-19.

    Bill and I also talked about the way that, like every part of our world, technology has become a huge part of the grocery business, an industry where margins are tight and relevance is fought for.

    • 50 min
    Ep. 24 – Rani Olson – Are You Seeing the Invisible Systems That Surround Us?

    Ep. 24 – Rani Olson – Are You Seeing the Invisible Systems That Surround Us?

    Today on the podcast, I speak with Rani Olson. We talk about the food system, as well as different economic systems. We discuss the cost of those systems, as well as the cost that fully buying into the system without awareness can bring—not just for us as individuals, but for us as a society.

    Olson is an assistant professor of practice in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Arizona, where she also coordinates the Nutrition and Food Systems Degree Program. Throughout the course of her career, she has worked in virtually every corner of the food industry, most recently as a chef and a farm-to-table coordinator for Tucson’s largest school district.

    • 1 hr 1 min
    Ep. 23 – Elsbeth Johnson – Are You Missing These Concrete Steps To Lead Change in Your Organization?

    Ep. 23 – Elsbeth Johnson – Are You Missing These Concrete Steps To Lead Change in Your Organization?

    How can organizational change actually be successful?

    That’s what I’m talking about today with my guest Elsbeth Johnson. We discuss concrete steps that senior leaders can take to ensure that their efforts work out.

    Elsbeth was the perfect conversational partner to discuss organizational change with: she is an MIT Sloan professor and the author of Step Up, Step Back: How to Really Deliver Strategic Change in Your Organization, published last year. She has also worked as a change consultant for at least ten years.

    Among other things, we discussed:

    - Elsbeth’s articles “How to Make Strategic Choices in Uncertain Conditions” in People + Strategy Journal and, with Fiona Murray, “What a Crisis Teaches Us About Innovation” in MIT Sloan Management Review
    - Using the Cynefin framework to help with decision-making

    • 59 min

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