Leading from Being

 In the third episode in their series on climate consciousness, Marti and Todd are joined by Felipe Benitez, the founder of Corazón Latino. They dive into a discussion on approaches to leadership and addressing climate change through a lens of love, compassion, and engaging diverse communities. Benitez emphasizes the importance of reconnecting people, especially communities of color, with Nature in joyful and experiential ways, rather than relying on top-down messaging or policy changes alone. He shares insights on effectively inviting people into Nature, tapping into shared human experiences, and catalyzing collective action through a focus on hope and positive engagement. The three of them discuss the power of individual consciousness, the need to move beyond polarization, and the opportunity to create a more hopeful future by highlighting our interconnectedness with the natural world. 

In continuing the series on climate consciousness, Marti and Todd welcome guest Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir, an Icelandic author, filmmaker and sustainability leader. Hrund discusses the Icelandic concept of "InnSæi" which means intuition or "inner sea." She describes how InnSæi represents seeing within oneself, understanding one's place in the world, and navigating life with an inner compass.The conversation explores how modern life has disconnected people from their InnSæi and the natural world. However, by cultivating presence, imagination, and awe, we can shift our center of gravity back within. This helps us make better decisions, empathize, tap into creativity, and care for the planet. The conversation stresses the importance of understanding the complexity and interconnectedness of life. We must move from separation to participation, respecting planetary boundaries. Our consciousness and actions impact the world.

Marti and Todd welcome citizen scientists Hilde Fålun Strøm and Sunniva Sorby for this inaugural episode on climate consciousness. They discuss their eyewitness experiences with climate change in the Arctic over 19 months living in a small cabin, as well as their work educating others. Key points include the disproportionate impact occurring in polar regions, the importance of individual action, and the need for people worldwide to reconnect with Nature.Despite having no modern amenities in Svalbard , Hilde and Sunniva engaged people globally and inspired action. They continue to share the challenges climate change poses for humanity and biodiversity worldwide, emphasizing our interconnectedness. They share of how the isolation of their experience actually better connected them to themselves, each other, and the natural world. Their story underscores how belonging to the Earth and her cycles teaches us about belonging to Life itself.

 Marti and Todd welcome guest Elizabeth Soltis, author of Authentic Collaboration, to discuss the topic of bridging—the art of connecting ideas, groups, and perspectives. They explore how to shift mindsets from predetermining connections to living into the process of exchange and relationship building. The hosts and guest share insights on attuning groups, finding common ground, embracing vulnerability, getting comfortable with not knowing, and opening up to new possibilities. Key themes include moving from static structures to emergent processes, and from transmitting expertise to participatory meaning-making. Authentic collaboration requires suspending preconceived outcomes in order to bridge diverse views, tapping into the momentum and potential that arises through open disclosure. From the Edge: The Coordinates of You (Marti)Conscious Rant: Questioning the Need for Speed (Todd)  

In their final episode in the series on leadership and power, Marti and Todd explore what makes each person's expression of power unique and valuable, and how these expressions create a sense of wholeness in teams, organizations, and communities.From the Edge: Dam Dismantling  (Todd)Conscious Rant: In Case You Didn't Notice (Marti)

In Episode 23, Marti and Todd spent most of the hour discussing what power is not—our misconceptions and fears around power. In this discussion, they explore the relationships and experiences of being people of power.What does it mean to be in a state of collective power? What does it feel like? What are the needed conditions?From the Edge: The Age of Meeting Ourselves Again (Marti)Conscious Rant: Accountability (Todd)

What exactly is power? If we’re not playing “power games” or King of the Hill, then how do we perceive power? Work with power? Be people of power?Marti and Todd explore power in the negative, and then move into a conversation about how we can shift our perception and experience of power to participate in something much larger than ourselves.From the Edge: Tribute to Christopher Alexander (Todd)Conscious Rant: Frothing (Marti)

We spend so much time analyzing and choosing governance models. What if there is a different approach? Marti and Todd get into the dynamics of organizations that move beyond rigid structures and become negotiable in the experience of working together. They also introduce a new segment at the end of today’s episode:Takeaways.From the Edge: Being a Person of Power (Marti)Conscious Rant: Stop Managing Your Time (Todd)

Marti and Todd welcome guest Ted Wallach, founder of the Quantum Warrior program, to explore the principle of masculinity in the context of new beginnings.  They discuss the principles of the feminine and masculine as complementarities that are needed for creation—energies not attributes. The conversation moves from our obsession with defining, to how we can discuss, interact, and weave with these principles.From the Edge: Appreciative Inquiry (Todd)Conscious Rant: Why are We Still Ranting (Marti)

Are we in “late stage capitalism?” Can capitalism be reformed, restored, or redeemed? Marti and Todd cover why these are not the most important questions to consider. Rather, we need cycles of action at all scales that create the frameworks of the future. This is the first episode in the series "New Beginnings" -- Marti and Todd's exploration of what may be coming to completion, and what may be emerging simultaneously.From the Edge: Cosmology (Marti)Conscious Rant: Simplistic Platitudes (Todd) 

Marti and Todd welcome guest Melanie Goodchild, founder of the Turtle Island Institute, to discuss systems change that centers on relationships for mutual benefit. Melanie shares her experiences and wisdom on complexity, resilience, balance, and what we all need to move forward together, carrying centuries of indigenous wisdom and her Anishinaabe perspective alongside her Western academic education.The conversation flows from identity to language to our ways of being and relating that can impact the systems we live and work within.Special Segment: Excerpt from Relational Systems Thinking (Melanie), co-authored with Dan Longboat, Diane Longboat, Rick Hill, Kevin Deer, Peter Senge, and Otto Scharmer.

We have change agents, change-makers, turnaround specialists, and the field of change management, but do we understand what actually brings about change? Can we trust what worked in the past to work in the future?Marti and Todd explore how leaders can become stewards of change without trying to control people and situations. Stewards of change move with negotiability, flow, passion, and compassion, understanding the timings that exist within the nature of change.From the Edge: The Wonders of Slime Mold (Todd)Conscious Rant: The Problem with our Worldview (Marti)

Marti and Todd welcome guest Josie Gibson, co-founder of the Catalyst Network, to discuss “Decent Work”—re-imagining our notions of work, contributions, and devoting our energies in a system that leads to wellbeing rather than inequity.From the Edge: How We Know Shapes How We Lead (Marti)Conscious Rant: Freedom & Constraints (Todd)

How can we make sense of and respond as leaders to an event like the global spread of COVID-19?Marti and Todd explore addressing our rising emotions, the power of awareness, and the power of the heart in helping bring new creativity to a world that is being reshaped.From the Edge: Being a Cartographer (Todd)Conscious Rant: Staying Connected While We’re Apart (Marti)This episode was recorded on May 26, 2020. 

Marti & Todd welcome guest Giles Hutchins. As the co-author of Regenerative Leadership, Giles is an edge-walker between living systems and the business world.Giles Hutchins is a pioneering practitioner and senior adviser at the forefront of the [r]evolution in organizational and leadership consciousness, and developmental approaches that enhance personal, organizational and systemic agility and vitality. He is the Chair of The Future Fit Leadership Academy, Founder of Leadership Immersions, co-founder of Biomimicry for Creative Innovation,  and he runs a 60 acre leadership centre at Springwood Farm, an area of outstanding natural beauty near London, UK. Previously held corporate roles include Head of Practice for KPMG, and Global Head of Sustainability for AtosMarti, Todd, and Giles discuss approaches and the impact of bringing principles of the natural world into organizational leadership. The title of this episode is derived from seven principles in Regenerative Leadership, written with Laura Storm. From the Edge: Coming Together without Losing our Way (Marti)Conscious Rant: Enough with the Debate! (Todd)

Marti & Todd welcome guest Samantha Slade. As the co-founder of Percolab, Sam has been bringing new ways of working, learning, and governing to organizations for two decades. As a social innovator, Samantha supports teams, organizations and ecosystems to work with complexity and grow a conscious innovation mindset, from the European commission to bold start ups.Marti, Todd, and Sam discuss practices and principles that help drive participation, democracy, and shared leadership in organizations. The title of this episode is derived from Samantha’s book, Going Horizontal: Creating a Non-Hierarchical Organization One Practice at a Time.From the Edge: Honoring Esko Kilpi (Todd)Conscious Rant: Igniting Negotiability (Marti)

If we look beyond the seemingly chaotic state of the world today, what is on the horizon? What if the chaos is not actually chaotic, but the ending of a “timing” with a tremendous amount of free, unbound energy available for leaders.Marti and Todd explore what it means to be at a “mythic” level of engagement, imagination and risk, turning off our internal monologues, and what it takes to move forward in these times in a negotiable way with action and receptivity. From the Edge: Dissolving the Edge (Marti)Conscious Rant: Death by Comparison (Todd)    

Marti & Todd welcome guest Myra Jackson. As an Electrical Engineer, Organizational Development Professional and Systems Thinker, Myra has found that her studies in electrical theory, music, power generation, the sciences and the natural world deeply informed her spiritual life. Today, she devotes her time in service to communities and organizations focused on bringing forth public policies focused on the wellness of people and planet as a consultant, donor activist and philanthropic legacy builder. In her UN role as a focal point on climate change and the United Nations Expert Platform on Harmony with Nature, Myra links public policy, civic awareness, values of caring and sharing in action from the global to the local amplifying all 17 sustainable development goals.Marti, Todd, and Myra have an extended conversation about awareness and language. They discuss moving beyond being stuck in an individuated state, entrepreneurs as “undertakers,” entropy and centropy, and Myra’s story of advocating with the United Nations for one important capital letter. From the Edge: Shinrin Yoku (Todd)Conscious Rant: Self-Referential Madness (Marti)

Peter Senge persuasively introduced the idea of the "learning organization" that constantly transforms itself. What exactly is required to be in a state where ongoing, quality learning is the norm?Marti and Todd explore conditions for learning, why we need to use our hands and bodies, the underlying principles of apprenticeship, how principles guide us more than facts, and why we need to break our addiction to static knowledge. Learning from experience in a state of open awareness - this is the nature of dynamic learning.From the Edge: From Systems to Ecosystems (Marti)Conscious Rant: 15 Steps to Enlightenment (Todd)

Guest Nathan Walz joins Marti & Todd to discuss energy and wellbeing, both at an individual and organizational level. Nathan brings his knowledge of mitochondria and taking care of your own individual energy levels to the conversation about health that extends beyond the physical body.From the Edge: The Microbiome (Todd)Conscious Rant: “I can’t because . . .” (Marti)