EP 66: Rising above a Toxic Workplace – Brutal Bosses. Poisonous People. Soul-Crushing Cultures. Are you operating in a toxic workplace? Is your boss a narcissist? Do you have a black walnut tree in your midst? Is it worth risking your health for financial gain? Do you know what to do? We are joined by Dr. Paul White, psychologist, speaker, consultant and author whose passion is “making work relationships work.” For over 20 years, he has assisted businesses, government agencies, schools and non-profit agencies. Paul talks to us about the challenges of a toxic workplace and how we can deal with it.

On this episode, we talk about how to get the boss to buy into new ideas.

Jim Detert is a Global expert in this field. Organizations do not prosper unless middle managers have the confidence to identify and champion change. Getting buy-in is key.

Jim identifies the problems faced by so many corporate innovators, intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs in residence. He then discusses his frameworks on how to circumnavigate so many blockers to enable much-needed change and innovation. We also discuss how leaders can create the conditions for such recommendations to be made from simple changes in where ideation happens to how they mingle with their teams.

What ways could people have escaped from the Titanic?

How can we unlock talent in gifted people who are framed as less?

We explore how we can be fixed in our mindsets and how there are techniques to unlock their thinking.

We discuss a new kind of school and approach with Eagle Hill School. We discuss how AI and humanity can co-operate for even better results than working separately.

We talk to “Captain Sideways” a.k.a. Dr. Tony McCaffrey, CTO, Innovation Accelerator, Inc. and Director of Entrepreneurial Studies at Eagle Hill School

We talk to two founders. CEO of Coindrum Lukas Decker tells us of Coindrum, which provides airport self-service units that turn leftover coins into duty-free vouchers worth 110% of deposits. Lukas tells us of his journey and how he had the radar on for an innovation. He discusses his mindset and how he made it all happen.

http://www.coindrum.com/

Founder of Cubii Shivani Jain joins us to tell us how Cubii can help us. She tells us how ignorance can be an advantage when starting out and how her co-founders and her benefitted from the maker community and the help of others to forge Cubii.

For years, we’ve been told how ‘sitting is the new smoking’ and that prolonged sitting can increase your risk for cardiovascular disease, varicose veins and high blood pressure and cholesterol. Recent studies suggest active sitting could be the solution. Active sitting has numerous health benefits including better circulation, core engagement, higher energy and productivity levels and improved posture.

https://mycubii.com

Corporate structures are broken and rely on managerial hierarchies and organizational structures developed for the 19th and 20th century.

Holacracy is a revolutionary self-management practice used by companies, like Zappos, Blinkist and the David Allen Company and developed for the way business is done today.

Brian is an experienced entrepreneur, organizational pioneer, and author of the book Holacracy: The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World. He is most well-known for his work developing Holacracy, a self-management practice for running purpose-driven, responsive companies.

Brian currently works as a business partner at HolacracyOne, the organization he launched to steward the Holacracy practice and assist other organizations seeking to adopt it. Holacracy has been adopted by over 1,000 companies around the world to date.

We talk about his background, why he pioneered Holacracy, who thrives in this system and how you can get started.

Links: https://www.holacracy.org/ Talks, Blogs, Events: https://www.holacracy.org/resources/#top Book: http://a.co/8YusiTc

On this week’s innovation show we shine a light on the lack of gender balance in the workplace. Bringing balanced thinking into the workplace means different thinking, in a world craving different thinking. Representing 100% of your customers inevitably leads to innovation and breakthroughs, yet half the population is often underserved or misunderstood.  In parallel, 60% of today’s global graduating classes female, yet they are entering workplaces designed for their fathers. This is not a case of fairness, when 60% of the talent and 80% of the market is female, this is no longer a diversity dimension, it’s the future! Avivah Wittenberg-Cox is CEO of the leading gender consultancy, 20-first, and a world authority on leadership, gender and business.  Avivah suggests we stop Fixing the Women, and start adapting the workplace to 21st-century talent and markets.  That’s where innovation lies. Right here, right now. Not on the other side of the world, or in Silicon Valley’s latest app. But sitting right there, on the other side of the kitchen table. You can find out more about Avivah, her consulting, books and keynotes here: http://20-first.com/

Dominic Frisby is a true polymath, actor, writer for MoneyWeek, presenter and author of the excellent “Life after the State”, “Let’s Talk about Tax” and “Bitcoin”. While Bitcoin is around since the financial crisis, it is misunderstood. Dominic gives us a jargon-free history of the origins of Bitcoin. He also tells us where it is headed and how so many industries will be disrupted. As always, these industries are late to react, while Dominic tells us “The horse has bolted”. If you want to understand Bitcoin and Blockchain this is well worth a listen.

Peter Himmelman is an American singer-songwriter and film and television composer from Minnesota, who formerly played in the Minneapolis indie rock band Sussman Lawrence before pursuing an extensive solo career. Peter is also the founder of Big Muse, a company which helps individuals and organizations unlock their creative potential. Peter is also the author of the best-selling “Let Me Out”, a book which aims to liberate creativity and potential in individuals and organisations.  On this week’s show, we talk about the tools that can unleash potential, about the way corporations shackle their talent and how we as individuals can take control of their lives to release their potential.  

You can find out more about Peter here: http://www.peterhimmelman.com/home.php

and here:

http://www.bigmuse.com/

You can find his book here: http://a.co/akxm8VO

You can find his albums here: https://itunes.apple.com/ie/artist/peter-himmelman/id910855

Jerry Kennelly is one of Ireland’s original tech success stories. Jerry tells us how his childhood was key to his successful mindset. We talk about his parents’ business run from the home in Kerry and how their focus on craft, quality and customers informed his own working practices. He tells us of how his family built one of Ireland’s most successful regional papers “Kerry’s Eye” www.kerryseye.com, still in the family today.

He tells us of how his family built one of Ireland’s most successful regional papers “Kerry’s Eye” www.kerryseye.com, still in the family today. Jerry tells us how to overcome the dark days of entrepreneurship and how focus and commitment led him to build Stockbyte, one of the world’s first royalty-free stock imagery websites. After the acquisition of Stockbyte Jerry tells us how he focused on not-for-profit ventures in entrepreneurship. While he still continues to mentor and supports the entrepreneur community Jerry co-founder Junior Entrepreneur http://www.juniorentrepreneur.ie/,a phenomenal movement to instil the mindset and practices of entrepreneurship in children at a young age. Finally, Jerry tells us of his current venture www.tweak.com, which democratizes design offering a similar model to that he built with Stockbyte and offering organizations an easy way to control and save costs on their design and creative process.

Bill tells us of a gaping void we have in our midst. Children are being raised to do what they think their parents want more than what they want themselves. A huge number of third level students are afraid to study what they want and instead chose subjects that are “accepted” and “expected”. We talk how this originates in the home with “Tiger Parents”, we discuss the problems of pressure and aimlessness on the campuses and the so-called “Stanford Duck Syndrome”. We discuss the true meaning of diversity and how corporations can harness it for the future. We discuss the inequality of the education system and how it is no wonder that GroupThink is alive and well. Bill also informs us of how presidential candidates all follow the same path of education. Finally, Bill offers some sound advice to break the cycle so we stop producing ‘Excellent Sheep’ You can find out more about William, including how to book him for Keynote talks here. http://www.billderesiewicz.com/ You can find Bill on twitter here : https://twitter.com/WDeresiewicz