Innovating Leadership: Co-Creating Our Future

Why do smart organizations keep making bad decisions? Professor Mats Alvesson joins Maureen Metcalf and Christopher Washington to explore the concept of functional stupidity, revealing how bureaucracy, conformity, and organizational habits can suppress critical thinking, slow learning, and undermine decision quality. Discover practical ways leaders can create cultures that encourage reflection, better judgment, and smarter action.

In this episode, Maureen Metcalf interviews Otto Scharmer, MIT senior lecturer and co-founder of the Presencing Institute, on Theory U and transformational leadership in times of disruption. As AI, digital transformation, and global uncertainty reshape organizations, traditional change management tools are no longer enough. Scharmer explains why executive leadership success depends on the “interior condition” of the leader, the four levels of listening, and the capacity to sense and shape emerging future possibilities. This conversation explores systems leadership, organizational change, and practical tools for leading through complexity and uncertainty.

Guest: Brian Ferguson, CEO, Arena Labs Burnout is a real and growing issue in the workplace. The healthcare industry provides a perfect example. It demands life-and-death decisions under relentless pressure…yet doctors, nurses, and frontline teams are rarely equipped the way elite performers are in sports and the military. In this episode, Maureen Metcalf speaks with Brian Ferguson, founder of Arena Labs and former special operations officer, about high-performance medicine, a new way of thinking about leadership, resilience, and team effectiveness in healthcare that has direct application across all workplaces. Drawing on lessons from elite military units, professional sports, and high-stakes operating rooms, Brian explains: Why burnout is not an individual weakness but a system design problem How firms underinvest in human performance The role of humility, learning cultures, and after-action reviews in preventing failure What COVID revealed about leadership, stress, and organizational fragility, and Why resilience must be built at the individual, team, and family level. This conversation goes beyond wellness slogans to address the real structural changes required to sustain excellence, and what leaders in any high-pressure industry can learn from it. Other episodes you'll enjoy: - Leveraging Tech to Deepen Human Performance with Brian Ferguson - The End of Stability: Leading in a Disrupted World with Robert Bush, Jr. - The End of Control: Leadership Trends for 2026 with Christopher Washington For daily wisdom from our guests, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn. RESOURCES: Brian’s company, Arena Labs, has more information on their high performance work at https://arenalabs.co/. The company Brian referenced with whom Arena Labs works to help organizations optimize is McChrystal Group: https://www.mcchrystalgroup.com/. The Santa Fe Institute, which developed the concept of consilience, has more information at https://www.santafe.edu/. And the wearables Arena Labs worked with to gather sleep and other health data on hospital staff is Whoop; learn more at https://www.whoop.com/us/en/. Our host Maureen Metcalf posts a newsletter every week on LinkedIn. You can subscribe here. Maureen’s latest book is Innovative Leadership & Followership in the Age of AI. You’ll find details about it at https://bit.ly/LeaderInAI, or check out the Kindle version at https://amzn.to/44buVz8 . The audiobook version is now available at https://amzn.to/4dTCleZ. Her other 10 books are available on Amazon here. ----------------------- OUR PODCAST TEAM: Host & Executive Producer: Maureen Metcalf Editor & Executive Producer: Dan Mushalko Graphics Editor: Stacia Rogan Sponsorship Sales: Kristine Gross Theme Music by Pavel Bekirov from Pixabay. CONNECT WITH US: YouTube: @InnovatingLeadership LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/ILI-LinkedIn2 Website: InnovativeLeadershipInstitute.com Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating! ----------------------- About Our Guest: Brian Ferguson has spent his career working in high-performance organizations, learning from leaders and decision-makers in national security, the military, and technology. He used those experiences to build Arena Labs, a company pioneering the field of High Performance Medicine®️. Arena Labs uses state-of-the-art training and technology solutions to bring the science of peak performance, creative mastery, and elite teams to modern healthcare and surgical teams. Before founding Arena Labs, Brian served in the military as a Navy SEAL and as a civilian in national security working on matters of global security policy. He received an MSc from the London School of Economics.

Guest: Brian Ferguson, CEO & Founder of Arena Labs Technology is accelerating faster than most leaders can adapt. But speed isn’t the real challenge. In this episode, Brian Ferguson joins host Maureen Metcalf to explore why human performance matters more, not less, in an era of exponential change. Drawing on examples from high-stakes environments such as medicine and defense, their conversation examines technology’s true role as an amplifier of human systems. They unpack: Why humility, learning, and disciplined execution remain the foundation of high performance, How expertise is eroding as change outpaces learning, and What senior leaders must do to lead effectively when tools evolve faster than organizations. This episode offers a grounded leadership reality check for those navigating complexity, technology fatigue, and the pressure to “keep up”—without losing judgment, clarity, or purpose. Other episodes you'll enjoy: The End of Control: The Leadership Trends of 2026 with Christopher Washington Leading When We’ve Stopped Thinking: AI’s Red Flag with Srini Koushik More Than Experience, More Than Degrees: Leaders Need More Values with George Limbert For daily wisdom from our guests, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn. We’re onTikTok, Threads, and Twitter, too! RESOURCES: Arena Labs’ website is https://arenalabs.co/. You’ll find more about Brian and the company’s human potential work there. The groundbreaking books Brian mentioned are Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast & Slow (paperback at https://amzn.to/3ZnEKIy or audiobook at https://amzn.to/4sQJ0xG) and Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (paperback at https://amzn.to/4r4Muet or audiobook at https://amzn.to/4qXFdNq). Our host Maureen Metcalf posts a newsletter every week on LinkedIn. You can subscribe here. Maureen’s latest book is Innovative Leadership & Followership in the Age of AI. You’ll find details about it at https://bit.ly/LeaderInAI, or check out the Kindle version at https://amzn.to/44buVz8. The audiobook version is now available at https://amzn.to/4dTCleZ. Her other 10 books are available on Amazon here. ----------------------- OUR PODCAST TEAM: Host & Executive Producer: Maureen Metcalf Editor & Executive Producer: Dan Mushalko Graphics Editor: Stacia Rogan Sponsorship Sales Manager: Kristine Gross (Kgross@innovativeleadership.com) Theme Music by Pavel Bekirov from Pixabay. CONNECT WITH US: YouTube: @InnovatingLeadership LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/ILI-LinkedIn2 Website: InnovativeLeadershipInstitute.com Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating! ----------------------- About Our Guest: Brian Ferguson has spent his career working in high-performance organizations, learning from leaders and decision-makers in national security, the military, and technology. He used those experiences to build Arena Labs, a company pioneering the field of High Performance Medicine®️. Arena Labs uses state-of-the-art training and technology solutions to bring the science of peak performance, creative mastery, and elite teams to modern healthcare and surgical teams. Before founding Arena Labs, Brian served in the military as a Navy SEAL and as a civilian in national security working on matters of global security policy. He received an MSc from the London School of Economics.

Guest: Paul Smith, former Procter & Gamble VP What if the most effective leaders didn’t need to explain more, push harder, or manage excuses? In this episode, host Maureen Metcalf is joined by leadership storytelling expert Paul Smith for a thought-provoking conversation about how leaders can most effectively influence behavior…and why logic alone so often fail at this. Drawing on neuroscience, leadership research, and real-world examples, Paul explains why people don’t change simply because they understand more, and how stories fill that need by helping leaders create accountability without blame, pressure, or defensiveness. You’ll learn: Why accountability works best when it’s chosen, not enforced; How emotion—not logic—drives decisions and follow-through; Why stories replace lecturing as a leadership tool; How leaders can reduce defensiveness while raising standards; and What the real test of leadership is when you’re not in the room. This is not an episode about storytelling as a communication technique. It’s about storytelling as a behavior-change lever…and a more human, sustainable way to lead. If you’re a seasoned leader who’s tired of explaining and ready to create real ownership, this episode offers a powerful reframe. Other episodes you'll enjoy: - Tales from the Top: How Leaders Use Stories with Tanvi Gautam - Using Storytelling to Elevate Leadership with Chris Nolan - How Great Leaders Are Made: Insights from “The Economist” with Andrew Palmer For daily wisdom from our guests, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn. RESOURCES: To learn more about Paul and access his free resources for leading (and for parenting) using story, check his website at https://leadwithastory.com/. Paul’s books include: Lead with a Story (paperback at https://amzn.to/4quEDq4, audiobook at https://amzn.to/4quEDq4) Sell with a Story (paperback at https://amzn.to/4q5MWJc, audiobook at https://amzn.to/4qFG4SN) and Parenting with a Story (paperback at https://amzn.to/3N2HBE1, audiobook at https://amzn.to/4q3JdM9). Our host Maureen Metcalf posts a newsletter every week on LinkedIn. You can subscribe here. Maureen’s latest book is Innovative Leadership & Followership in the Age of AI. You’ll find details about it at https://bit.ly/LeaderInAI, or check out the Kindle version at https://amzn.to/44buVz8. The audiobook version is now available at https://amzn.to/4dTCleZ. Her other 10 books are available on Amazon here. ----------------------- OUR PODCAST TEAM: Host & Executive Producer: Maureen Metcalf Editor & Executive Producer: Dan Mushalko Graphics Editor: Stacia Rogan Booking Producer: Jenna Reik Sponsorship Sales: Kristine Gross (kgross@worldtreeproductions.com) Theme Music by Pavel Bekirov from Pixabay. CONNECT WITH US: YouTube: @InnovatingLeadership LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/ILI-LinkedIn2 TikTok: @innovativeleadership Website: InnovativeLeadershipInstitute.com Loved this episode? Subscribe and leave us a review and rating! ----------------------- About Our Guest: Paul Smith is one of the world’s leading experts in business storytelling. He’s one of Inc. Magazine’s Top 100 Leadership Speakers of 2018, a storytelling coach, and bestselling author of several books on the art and science of storytelling. As part of his research on the effectiveness of storytelling, Paul has personally interviewed over 300 CEOs and executives in 25 countries, and documented over 3,000 individual business stories. That has allowed him to reverse-engineer what works in storytelling and what doesn’t. He’s a former executive at The Procter & Gamble Company and a consultant with Accenture prior to that. A 20-year veteran of P&G, Paul worked most recently as vice president of consumer and communications research for the company’s $6 billion global paper business where he led a research team across four continents. He also held leadership positions in corporate finance, and at manufacturing plan