Inspirational Insights Podcast - Insight To Action

After three sports-related head injuries, one subarachnoid hemorrhage, financial loss, loss of housing, and other setbacks, I began to process difficult experiences as a learning lab for resilience, to stay in alignment with my purpose and what has meaning. It occurred to me that my experience might help others. In this video, I share what I observed, the steps I wandered (or staggered) through to process various life experiences, recover, and move forward. Disclaimer: This is not professional advice; it is personal experience. Because I am a process nerd and specialize in transforming life’s experiences into value, making sense is combined with the steps I used to guide myself into new territory with confidence. My hope is/was that what I experienced would have value to others navigating the messy middle between one state of being and the next. Feedback is welcome. There’s more to come. The inner work is becoming increasingly essential if we are to collectively work with high uncertainty while redirecting leadership decisions toward a life-affirming understanding of system relationships. Navigating Uncertainty: Visionary Resilience is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.One more simple step not in the video:Be in awe with life. Every morning! For me, lately it has been the massive flocks of geese flying south. Canada geese, Snow geese, White-fronted geese in formation or not. These are Ross’s geese from my father’s photo collection and a book that never got published. Above the deafening manmade noise is the subtle sound of wings riding the slipstream following the bird ahead. Their trip is not as long as other species, only 4800 km (2 - 3000 miles). Still, pretty impressive! Thanks for reading Navigating Uncertainty: Visionary Resilience! This post is public so feel free to share it. Get full access to Navigating Uncertainty: Visionary Resilience at dawnajones.substack.com/subscribe

This is the pony. In the video you see only her butt so this photo shows her front end. She has one eye and two sides. In this story, I share how a six-year-old decided brushing one side was good enough. It is something that everyone does occasionally. Perceive through a narrow ‘Me’ lens and forget about the purpose - why you are doing what you’re doing. In this video, I share how the six-year-old’s actions and motivation mirror those of anyone whose focus is on ‘Me’ and not on why. The value of paying attention to what you focus on is one of the most powerful ways to maintain your well-being, oversee organizational change, and teamwork. One simple practice with infinite value for leaders leading their lives with consciousness, self and situational awareness. I mention a podcast I did with Richard Sheridan where we go into detail on focus, outcomes and the rigour associated with being clear about what you’re aiming to achieve. That link is here. The Business Value of Joy! Get full access to Navigating Uncertainty: Visionary Resilience at dawnajones.substack.com/subscribe

What if companies engaged their people, replacing fear of losing control with a focus on health, well-being and high value contribution? According to Perplexity.ai, it would add $9.6 trillion to the global economy. Worse, 27% of managers are disengaged. So why isn’t making an engagement a priority happening? I gained insight when a colleague who consults within US companies mentioned that, post-COVID, he was hearing executives say they could hardly wait for this engagement fad to be over. Hopefully, that’s not a popular view, but if it is, then fear of losing control over others, rooted in emotional insecurity, lies at the source of failure to adapt thinking. Could replacing emotional insecurity with emotional mastery be the highest leverage step toward well-being and resilience? Thanks for reading Navigating Uncertainty for Radical Action! This post is public so feel free to share it.Dan Szuc and Jo Wong run a UX consultancy out of Hong Kong. Aware of space, place and interaction, and grounded in theatre production and education, they observed how interactions are driven by culture. Make Meaningful Work has templates for observing micro action in place. Their cultural work involves paying attention to what is going around, widening the lens, opening the aperture to capture the bigger picture. How about treating culture as a theatre production?The live stream is on my YouTube podcast channel. This is a 5 minute overview of the discussion. I have questions. * How can workplace cultures be moved from process-driven to being aligned in personal and organizational values, when decision-makers fear loss of control? * How can there be movement toward high engagement and company resilience when there is habitual avoidance of discomfort? * What if asking and having challenging conversations deepened skillsets, engaged creative thinking, and connected decisions to consequence, meaning and purpose? In 2024, the Edelman Trust Barometer reported an innovation crisis. Innovation reverted to tweaking what existed, skipping the opportunity to rethink and delete processes that worked against company viability. That’s not innovation. More like retrenching to the familiar and bypassing the value of uncertainty for leadership and growth. If there is a simple way to illuminate possibilities, it would be to observe where the focus is going and make an intentional decision to take action and move forward. At the end of our longer discussion, Jo Wong closed with: “ You have power. Just be more aware of it and be more intentional about how you frame things. The mindset and attitude can affect your choices.”Find Jo and Dan’s book on Amazon, and their work on the links below. Subscribe to their newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/make-meaningful-work-7327884648296972288 https://www.makemeaningfulwork.com/ https://www.apogeehk.com/ https://www.makemeaningfulwork.com/books https://www.amazon.com/dp/173792823X?ref_=pe_93986420_774957520 https://www.makemeaningfulwork.com/about Get full access to Navigating Uncertainty: Visionary Resilience at dawnajones.substack.com/subscribe

Note: The sound on the first publication was distorted so I have redone the whole thing and replaced the video and audio files (now on Spotify etc). If you missed listening the first time try now. Imagine the possibilities if every single person in this world, in your company, or in your family could express themselves from their original pure note. In the early part of 2003-4 when I was rethinking my role in the world I came across quantum coherence where each person in a company brought their unique note to their work, in harmony with all others focusing on the achievement of a goal. Lofty right?And then along came Sam Kukathas with a voice that can transmute barriers of disbelief, limits imposed through difficult experiences, to reveal the deepest source of your True Self. Sam Kukathas is an academic who had a crisis. Through that, he became who he is today. Bringing a visionary approach to the larger issues we are capable of solving collectively. On the full episode, we talk about his journey which has parallels to all of our journeys in the return to self. We recorded a YouTube livestream on Thursday, March 13th where we talked about sound, and frequency at the intersection of science and spirit. Then Sam gave every listener a gift. In this video clip Sam makes neuro-resonance optimization real and shares what Neuro Resonance Optimization is. Every time I hear Sam’s voice I feel an opening and elevation in spirit and in my heart. I hope you gain hope from this experience, that we are capable of much more than we have been doing so far. And that nothing is impossible. This is a short clip so I encourage you listen to the full episode where we talk about breakthroughs and a shift in global political consciousness. Please share this post, and reach out to Sam if you are curious and have questions about evolving into who you fully are. Find Sam’s work here: https://soulpurposeleaders.com/https://samkukathas.com/ and for a digital recording head to Bandcamp:If you appreciate this work please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Only by working together can companies contribute to business being better for and in the world. Beyond business, it is citizen-led visionary action that can solve most of the large problems we face today. Get full access to Navigating Uncertainty: Visionary Resilience at dawnajones.substack.com/subscribe

The infamous scandal posed by the Horizon One Post Office illustrates what happens when high-impact decision-makers ignore the signals and cues and the negative ripple effect. Using this example, in this video, I lay out what happened as a result of one out of several decision-makers involved, then look at reasons why it happened and how you can avoid being caught in a similar trap. Of course, it is easy to see the obvious benefits using hindsight. The focus is not on judging people retroactively or retrospectively, but on seeing what can be learned about reading system-level sourced issues. The book I mentioned in this episode is How to Read Water: Clues and Patterns from puddles to the Sea by Tristan Gooley Links to research behind this episode:https://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Post-Office-Horizon-scandal-explained-everything-you-need-to-knowhttps://www.iod.com/app/uploads/2024/10/IoD-The-Post-Office-Scandal-%E2%80%93-A-Failure-of-Governance-3a831350ff1204afaabb59adb973590e.pdf This is the research Perplexity.ai pulled up for this episode:“Paula Vennells served as the CEO of the Post Office from 2012 to 2019 and played a significant role in the Post Office Horizon scandal2. Her decisions and actions had a detrimental impact on subpostmasters, who were essentially distributed staff managing local post office branches.During Vennells' tenure, the Post Office:1. Blamed subpostmasters for financial discrepancies caused by the faulty Horizon IT system2.2. Prosecuted many subpostmasters for financial crimes they did not commit2.3. Used legal action and deep pockets to defend itself against accusations, silencing subpostmasters who raised concerns2.4. Lied to journalists, politicians, and others who questioned the Horizon system's robustness2.The fallout from Vennells' decisions was severe:1. Hundreds of subpostmasters were wrongly convicted of financial crimes2.2. Many subpostmasters faced bankruptcy, imprisonment, and devastating personal consequences2.3. The scandal has been described as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history2.”Navigating Uncertainty is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Navigating Uncertainty: Visionary Resilience at dawnajones.substack.com/subscribe

Sitting in a coffee shop a couple of weekends ago, I learned from a few twenty-somethings that AI was intended to replace humans. That’s one option but not the only one. If we do nothing then it is a fair fear, but if we bring awareness and clarity to the decision of how to respond, then In this short clip innovation coach and facilitator Curtis Michelson talk about the greatest barrier to innovation in the education sector. Reflective QuestionTo what extent does fear of the unknown and unfamiliar block having conversations and making intentional decisions about how to respond and decide? What part of humanity do we give up for convenience? AI, Ethics and GovernanceIn 2018 I talked to Robbie Stamp about our relationship with AI. The conversation centered on ethics and agency. How do we decide what our relationship will be? In 2024 and 2025, the conversation has circled back to how AI is used to augment or replace human intelligence. Listen to my chat with Robbie Stamp here. https://embed.acast.com/$/5a6fab1455cdce603414631c/ep40-ai-ethics-and-governance-with-robbie-stamp?The longer version of the podcast will hit your inbox shortly. Just ironing out a few tech glitches.Your Revive and Restore TipRevive and Restore is Dawna’s online program for coaching yourself to a dynamic state of mental and emotional health. Challenge: How do you lead wisely when emotional can cloud judgement?Skill: Breathe out any tension. Take a walk and allow all the chatter in your head to sink to your diaphragm. When your mind is clear, then decide. This newsletter is generated by Dawna Jones. www.DawnaJones.com Please share or recommend this newsletter. Thanks! Dawna Get full access to Navigating Uncertainty: Visionary Resilience at dawnajones.substack.com/subscribe

With the geopolitical global context more volatile than at any point in history, humanity faces big questions that need imaginative answers. That’s not the only compelling reason for citizen-led action. Any one of the large global issues we face could inspire imaginative and radical creativity that governments are not capable of doing. A few things need to change:Human consciousness. We tend to destroy to survive when we can cooperate and create better solutions. Here’s my low-tech image of the evolution of human consciousness adapted from Barrett’s Value vertical and incorporating the thinking of David Hawkins. Adapting thinking. Thinking in terms of designing for life, connectedness, relationships, patterns and context. Unifying and inspiring visions for the future. More than one future will unfold. The question is which ones do we collectively nurture? The aim of this podcast, the one before it, and all the work I’ve been doing for twenty years is to shift thinking from reliance on analytical to expand perception to a wider, holistic view. Not by everyone thinking the same way but by learning how to combine thinking to solve intractable problems. In this episode, I look at: - Breaking old paradigms and embracing diverse perspectives. - Balancing linear and non-linear thinking. - The critical role of biodiversity in a sustainable future. - Ethical decision-making beyond legal frameworks. - Emotional mastery as a foundation for effective decision-making. - Insights from companies like Patagonia and Novo Nordisk. Big vision and answering hard questions. - Examining the impact of linear decision-making as a generator of e-waste. - Exploring different views on keystone species like wolves. - Insights from *Not the End of the World* by Hannah Richie. -A way to see the future from *Imaginable* by Jane McGonigal.- Download the future worksheet using a ten-year frame. You’ll also receive an invitation to join a webinar to brainstorm solutions for a hopeful, resilient future.Thanks for reading Navigating Uncertainty! This post is public so feel free to share it.“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” - Jane GoodallComments are open to subscribers supporting the production of this work, the podcast, the writing, the creator (moi). I’ll be making some changes going forward to move all this work to a sustainable level. Navigating Uncertainty is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Navigating Uncertainty: Visionary Resilience at dawnajones.substack.com/subscribe

“In any given moment we have two options. To step forward into growth or step back into safety.” Abraham MaslowOn my second trip to Europe between university semesters, I met an older woman on the train who had never been to London. She lived 30 km away in a village. I had just traveled around the world for a year with my family and on a three-month wander through Europe following the sun. Later in life, I organized a trip to Europe for my daughter and her soccer school. She was fourteen and at that pivotal hormonal age where leaps of maturity come with increased responsibility and accountability supported by trust. One of the parents denied his daughter’s participation using the rationale that there wasn’t anything you could see in Europe, you couldn’t see in Canada. They were playing soccer against highly competitive players. The logic escaped me then, and now. Landscapes can look similar, but people’s thinking is shaped by their childhood experiences, their exposure to the unfamiliar and the confidence gained from learning from different points of view and experiences. It is shaped by culture, by emotional and social norms, and by memorable moments. Combined you have an individual and collective worldview.There is an episode on worldview intelligence that dives deeper into what that is and why it is important. So in this episode with Karl Hebenstreit, we are talking about the application of the Enneagram for personal and business-personal growth. In the course of my facilitation work observing deep dynamics, it became obvious that a business reflects the cumulative emotional maturity and capacity of individuals to learn. One expression of that is leadership consciousness.Navigating Uncertainty is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.There is a skill-building, self-organizational awareness boost that directly improves how business decisions are made. Complex issues like COVID-19, organizational change, communication, ecological and social health or workplace health benefit from diverse points of view. Yet oddly diversity and inclusion is treated as an add-on, not an essential element of making sustainable and supportable decisions. One skill set lost in the rush to resolve conflicts sparked by seemingly incompatible points of view is knowing how to respect and bring those differing views into the open. This is where the Enneagram comes in.My guest in this episode is Karl Hebenstreit who brings a lengthy list of accomplishments to the conversation. Karl is a certified Executive Coach, Leadership/Team/Organization Development Consultant, and international speaker with over 25 years of experience coaching leaders and their teams (from Individual Contributors to CEOs in myriad industries and sectors) to work better together and consistently exceed their organizations’ goals. He holds a PhD in Organizational Psychology and authored three books: “The How & Why: Taking Care of Business with the Enneagram” (now in its 3rd Edition), “Nina and the Really, Really Tough Decision” (now available in English, Spanish, French, and Greek), and the newly-released “Explicit Expectations: The Essential Guide & Toolkit of Management Fundamentals.” Karl is an “International Enneagram Association (IEA) Accredited Professional with Distinction” and “IEA Accredited Professional/Provider/Teacher.”We talk about:· Understanding the Enneagram· Challenges in Modern Business Practices· The Oz Principle and Mindset Shifts· Head, Heart, and Gut Leadership· Exploring the Enneagram Types (with Dawna as the demo!)· Understanding Organizational Culture Through Enneagram· Hiring Bias and Personality Assessments· Integrating Enneagram in Decision Making· Enneagram's Role in Broader Worldview· Children's Book: Teaching Enneagram Early· Empowering Choices and Psychological SafetyKarl also wrote a children’s book so that the skills and understanding could start earlier and improve conversation outcomes. Contact info for Karl:R. Karl Hebenstreit, Ph.D., PCCExecutive Coach | Author | Speaker | Leadership, Team, & Organization Development Consultantwww.performandfunction.comConnect with me on LinkedIn!510.381.0121Check out Explicit Expectations here!Check out the Enneagram business book here!Check out the children's book here!¡Obtén el libro infantil en español aquí!Παραγγείλετε το παιδικό Ελληνικό βιβλίο εδώ!Retrouvez le livre jeunesse en français ici !Schedule a meeting with me via Calendly! Get full access to Navigating Uncertainty: Visionary Resilience at dawnajones.substack.com/subscribe