Category: Podcast

After listening to our two-part series on building functional teams, it’s easy to see all of the shortcomings in our teams and realize that we might have a ways to go before we can truly call our teams functional. This realization can result in shame and feelings of not being good enough. Once we realize that our brains are wired to focus more on what’s going wrong than on what’s going right, we can shift to a more balanced assessment using a powerful tool. Gratitude allows us to see how the things we might call “setbacks” or “failures” might actually be leading us to the success that we desire. Tune in to this bonus episode to learn about the power of gratitude in a team. “I would say the real, core reason as to why people resist gratitude besides that it’s strange and awkward in the beginning is the fact that they’re scared that they won’t be prepared for the inevitable doom that is always around the corner if they are happy.”

Last week, we discussed the characteristics that set functional teams apart and how to build your own. In part two of this series, we explore the opposite: what makes a team dysfunctional and how to recognize the signs of one in your own organization. Some of the things that we discuss include why trading short-term discomfort for long-term discomfort is often counterproductive, the top characteristics of leaders who produce dysfunctional teams and the root of the dysfunctional behavior itself. Join us to learn how to identify these behaviors in your team and correct them so that you can cultivate a team culture where creativity, innovation and group cohesion thrive. “The best way to measure if a team is dysfunctional is at the end of a meeting, do you feel invigorated or do you feel depleted?”

Every functional team is context-dependent on some level. Functionality looks different for a team of Navy Seals than it does for a team at a food processing center. However, there are qualities that all functional teams share. How are you meeting your goals and achieving results relative to other teams in your field? How much do people enjoy being a member of your team? How much do you trust that you will be seen, heard and respected when showing up as your authentic self? Tune in and learn more about what a functional team embodies and how to build your own. “I’ll go into teams and one of the things I’ll do immediately is ask everyone what they want from a team and they almost always agree on everything. Everybody really wants the same thing. If you start owning your wants and you start creating the vision of what you want the team to be, whether you are the head of the team or not, it doesn’t matter. Everybody wants it.”

In today’s episode, Brett interviews Heather Falenski, documentary filmmaker, adventure athlete and humanitarian worker. Her early career included several years of working on the African continent with refugees and others displaced by war. She is the founder of One World Media, a film production company based in Boulder, Colorado. Heather led a fast-paced life working in some of the world’s most remote and challenging environments. Although her work was fulfilling, it was also physically and mentally taxing. It culminated into a severe chronic illness that left her bedridden for over a year. Heather discusses an epiphany that she had after hitting rock bottom that allowed her to move beyond impossible circumstances to regain health and stability.

In today’s episode, we explore how fear underlies the power dynamics that develop in our relationships with others and within ourselves. When fear is present, we naturally desire to control outcomes by taking on a bully, victim or savior role that externalizes our fear and separates us from our truth. Tune in to join us as we discuss the difference between power and empowerment. We will explore how welcoming the emotions and resistance around undesired outcomes can allow us to exit the power dynamics and show up authentically, leading to deeper connection and more harmonious relationships.

In Episode 41, Brett interviews Jaime Waydo, Chief Technology Officer for Cavnue. Previously, Jaime led systems engineering at Waymo, Google’s Self Driving Car program, and collaborated with NASA on the Mars Rover Curiosity. Jaime came from a mindset passed down generationally that, especially as a woman, it was important to place everyone’s needs — children, spouse, employees — before her own. She quickly realized that this way of being led her to chronically running on empty, which neither benefited her nor her community. She pivoted to putting herself first: speaking her needs vulnerably, organizing systems to support her and designing a schedule that worked for her, transforming her work culture and her home life, while giving her the energy she needed to live life on her terms. Tune in to this episode to find out how she made it all happen.

Anxiety is a visceral experience of physical and emotional constriction that is hard to ignore. And yet, many of us engage in a maze of avoidant behaviors in an attempt to do just that. What happens when we see our anxiety as a signal pointing to unmet needs and the unfelt emotions around them? How can sitting with and feeling the sensations of anxiety result in profound internal and interpersonal shifts? Let anxiety be your guide as you tune into this episode. “To love it, to invite it. I can’t wait to be anxious again. When you’re at that place, that’s the real freedom, where you’re not trying to manage yourself. That’s where the real freedom is.”

In this episode, Brett and Joe interview Sam Altman on how self-awareness gained through meditation can be combined with intelligence in business. Sam is an entrepreneur, investor and programmer. He is the CEO of OpenAI and the former president of Y Combinator. Sam discusses his experiences with meditation and how it has transformed his decision making and resulted in a much calmer, more joyous default state of being. He explains some of the most profound realizations that he has had about himself and humanity in general through his work with AI. Join us to hear more about how Sam arrived at a place of calm detachment that allowed him to respond to challenging and stressful situations with ease. “Intelligence and awareness, to me, seem like that have to go together.”

In this work, we often talk about being in our body. There are practices and exercises in the courses where we’re invited to feel into our sensory experience and speak from our our heart or our gut, accessing deeper wisdom beyond our intellect. This can be very confusing for people when they approach this work for the first time. Today we’re going to explore what it means to cultivate awareness of what’s going on in our body and how it can help us access different kinds of knowing and wonder in our lives.