Growing Through Change: Franziska Altenbeck on Meeting the Moment Wherever You Are
From Are We There Yet? by Jamie Hardy, Sonja Ernst
April 22, 2026 · 46 min · Season 3 · Episode 7
About this episode
Franziska Altenbeck discusses the importance of embracing change and its implications for leadership and society.
What do we lose when we resist inevitable change? How can organizations create stability in the face of constant evolution? How do we define progress if we're never truly "there yet"? Franziska Altenbeck, an industrial engineer and healthcare-sustainability innovator, is intimate with an ever-changing environment: she has relocated 17 times in her life and built a career across Germany, France, and beyond. In this episode, Franziska shares how a childhood in a coal-mining community shaped her relationship with change, and why she believes the inability to embrace it is one of society's greatest risks. The conversation travels through invisible labor in the workplace, caregiving skills that never show up on a performance review, the dangers of taking AI at face value, and what it means to be a bridge builder rather than a trailblazer: a rich, wide-ranging discussion about leadership, authenticity, and what it truly means to grow.
People in this episode
Hosts: Jamie Hardy, Sonja Ernst
Guest: Franziska Altenbeck
Topics covered
- change
- leadership
- authenticity
- healthcare sustainability
- AI
- workplace dynamics
Keywords
- change
- leadership
- sustainability
- AI
- workplace
- authenticity
- progress
Mentioned in this episode
Places: Germany, France, coal-mining community
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