On The Balcony

Join us for What Stayed, a live Season Two gathering. March 31 · Virtual · Free · Limited spots · konu.org/eventsAs we arrive at the final conversation of Season Two, we turn to one of the deepest questions that has quietly threaded through the entire series: what happens when the conflicts we face are not simply disagreements, but conflicts about identity?In this episode, Michael Koehler sits down with Dr. Hugh O'Doherty, longtime teacher of Adaptive Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School and a practitioner of peacebuilding shaped by his experience growing up during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.Hugh's life unfolded inside a history of deep division, between Protestant unionists who identified with Britain and Catholic nationalists who identified with Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement brought an end to most large-scale violence in 1998, but the deeper work of peacebuilding, identity, grief, history, and trust, continues.Drawing on decades of work in conflict resolution, Hugh reflects on what exercising leadership looks like when people are asked to engage across seemingly unbridgeable divides. At the heart of the conversation lies a profound paradox: the very identities we cling to in order to know who we are can become the barriers that keep us trapped.Toward the end of the episode, Hugh shares a reading from Prior Unity, a reflection suggesting something radical. Beneath our divisions, unity is not something we must create. It may already be true.What You'll Explore in This EpisodeGrowing Up Inside Conflict: Hugh shares what it meant to grow up in Northern Ireland during decades of violence, where identity was shaped early and reinforced daily, in schools, communities, and public rituals. These early experiences formed the backdrop for his lifelong search to understand the roots of violence.Learning to Sit in the Fire: Working in early peace and reconciliation efforts, Hugh describes the experience of bringing people from opposing sides of the conflict into dialogue, and discovering how little preparation there was for what happens when the "other" is truly encountered. One of the most important capacities he developed was not intellectual. It was the ability to remain in the heat of conflict without fleeing from it.The Paradox of Identity: A turning point came when Hugh realized something unsettling: we often need the other as an enemy in order to know who we are. Letting go of that structure is not simply a change in opinion. It is a loss of identity. Adaptive leadership offers a way of understanding this. People do not resist change. They resist loss.Peace Agreements and Adaptive Work: Hugh reflects on the limits of traditional peace agreements. While they can stop violence, they often leave the deeper adaptive work untouched. Real reconciliation requires something much harder: helping people see how they themselves are participating in the very systems that keep conflict alive.The Inner Work of Peacebuilding: Over time, Hugh came to see that the work of peacebuilding is inseparable from inner work. The divisions we see in the world mirror divisions we carry within ourselves. The journey toward peace is therefore both political and deeply personal.Prior Unity: In the closing moments of the conversation, Hugh shares a reading that has shaped his own path: the idea that beneath our identities and divisions, the world is already a unity. Not a unity we must build, but one we may awaken to.Quotes from This Episode"I learned to sit in the fire." — Dr. Hugh O'Doherty"The more I kept him as the other, the more I realized I was keeping myself imprisoned." — Dr. Hugh O'Doherty"We need the other as enemy in order to know who we are." — Dr. Hugh O'Doherty"People don't resist change. They resist loss." — Dr. Hugh O'Doherty"The world is a prior unity. It is not that there is a unity yet to be established which you must seek for and work on. Unity is so." — Adi Da Samraj, quotes by Dr. Hugh O'DohertyLinks & ResourcesLectures by Hugh O’Doherty https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0I1yMElyFAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLlnwEUKxMQReading Shared in This Episode Adi Da Samraj. Prior Unity: The Basis for a New Human Civilization. Middletown, CA: The Adi Da Foundation Press, 2015.In this short philosophical work, Adi Da argues that humanity's deepest conflicts arise from the assumption of separateness. The book proposes a different starting point: the recognition that the world is already a prior unity, and that transformation begins with awakening to that reality.About Dr. Hugh O'DohertyDr. Hugh O'Doherty is an adjunct lecturer who has taught leadership and conflict resolution at the Harvard Kennedy School, the Jepson School of Leadership Studies, and the University of Maryland. Raised in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, his work has focused on peacebuilding and dialogue across deep identity divides.He directed the Ireland–US Public Leadership Program for emerging practitioners from across the political parties in Ireland and led the Inter-Group Relations Project bringing together political and community figures to establish protocols for political dialogue. Hugh has consulted with organizations including the Irish Civil Service, the American Leadership Forum, the Episcopalian Clergy Leadership Program, and the Mohawk Community Leadership Program in Canada. His work has also taken him to Bosnia, Croatia, and Cyprus, and he has addressed the United Nations Global Forum on Reinventing Government.He holds an M.Ed. and Ed.D. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.Continue the ConversationNew episodes of On the Balcony drop every two weeks. Receive additional reflections and resources at konu.org/balcony.Season Three will turn toward practitioners, people out in the world practicing adaptive leadership: their struggles, experiments, and lessons. If you know someone whose practice we should explore, Michael would love to hear from you.

Join us for What Stayed, a live Season Two gathering. March 31 · Virtual · Free · Limited spots · konu.org/eventsMindfulness has become respectable.It improves focus. It reduces stress. It helps leaders perform under pressure.But what if mindfulness isn't primarily about performance?In this episode of On the Balcony, Michael Koehler sits down with Dr. Matthias Birk—organizational psychologist, executive coach, former Global Head of Coaching & Advisory at Goldman Sachs, Global Director of Partner Development at White & Case, Zen teacher, and founder of Self-Transcendent Leadership.What unfolds is not a conversation about mindfulness as a productivity tool.It's a conversation about perspective.Matthias distinguishes between what he calls within-paradigm mindfulness—using meditation to cope more skillfully within the identity you already inhabit—and beyond-paradigm mindfulness, which loosens that identity altogether.One reduces suffering within the game. The other questions the game itself.At the heart of the episode is a passage from Rainer Maria Rilke:Be forever dead in Eurydice, singingly rise, praisingly rise, back into pure relation. Here, among the vanishing, be—in the realm of demise. Be the pulsating glass, shattered yet of its own vibration. Be—and yet know the non-being's ground, The infinite bottom of your innermost sound. So that you might complete it—this one only time.For Matthias, meditation isn't an accessory to leadership. It's not like playing golf. It's about being fully alive in the here and now—and discovering what remains when achievement, anxiety, and identity begin to soften.What You'll Explore in This EpisodeMeditation before it was fashionable Matthias began practicing Zen as a teenager, long before mindfulness entered corporate vocabulary.Within-paradigm vs. beyond-paradigm mindfulness Mindfulness can help you manage stress inside demanding roles. But it can also invite you to question who you are beyond those roles.Achievement and insecurity From McKinsey to Goldman Sachs to global leadership, Matthias reflects candidly on ambition and belonging—and how meditation shifted his relationship to that inner voice.Self-transcendence Drawing on Abraham Maslow's later work, Matthias explores what it means to move beyond ego-centered striving toward expression, service, and alignment with something larger.Leadership as expression What if leadership isn't about constructing a persona—but about listening deeply enough to express what's already there, this one only time?Quotes from This Episode"Meditation is not a hobby. It's not like playing golf. It's not something you do on the side. It is about being fully alive in the here and now." — Dr. Matthias Birk"If you don't brush your teeth, they're going to rot. If you don't brush your mind, it's going to come up with not great stuff." — Dr. Matthias Birk"The real benefit of mindfulness is that you can live a free life." — Dr. Matthias Birk"One of the saddest things is to live a life and never hear your innermost sound." — Dr. Matthias BirkLinks & ResourcesSelf-Transcendent Leadership — Dr. Matthias Birk https://www.self-transcendent.com/Publications & Articles by Dr. Matthias Birk https://www.matthiasbirk.com/publicationsSelected ArticlesWhy Leaders Need Meditation More Than Ever — Harvard Business Review (March 2020)Now Is a Great Time to Start Practicing Mindfulness — Harvard Business Review (January 2021)Why It Is Important (Especially for Leaders) to Feel Their Fear and Pain — Mindful Magazine (September 2022)At the Beginning You Hold the Structure, Then the Structure Holds You — Tricycle: The Buddhist Review(September 2023)Guided Meditation 7-Minute Guided Mindfulness Meditation — Insight Timerhttps://insighttimer.com/Matthias_Birk/guided-meditations/guided-mindfulness-meditation-2Continue the ConversationNew episodes of On the Balcony drop every two weeks. Receive additional reflections and resources at konu.org/balconyAbout Dr. Matthias BirkDr. Matthias Birk is an organizational psychologist, executive coach, and founder of Self-Transcendent Leadership. He began his career at McKinsey & Company advising clients on leadership development and organizational change, and later served as Global Head of Coaching & Advisory at Goldman Sachs and Global Director of Partner Development at White & Case.He is an ICF-certified executive coach, trained in family therapy at the Ackerman Institute in New York, and has taught leadership for over a decade as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School and NYU. He is also a long-time Zen practitioner and teacher at New York's Still Mind Zendo.He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two children—and is an equally passionate and mediocre surfer.

Season 2 of On the Balcony continues by looking sideways — exploring frameworks that stretch Adaptive Leadership into new terrain.In this episode, Michael Koehler sits down with Judit Teichert, Managing Director and Partner at KONU Germany. Judit's work is shaped by her background as a licensed psychotherapist trained in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and more than a decade of coaching and facilitation around adaptive leadership and adult development with teams and organizations across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the U.S.The conversation explores a question that sits quietly underneath so much leadership work: If we already understand the challenge, why is change still so hard?Judit's answer: insight alone isn't enough. We need practice — repeated iterations that build new pathways, not just in our thinking, but in our emotions, behaviors, and relationships. Change requires more than understanding. It requires reps.This episode also spends time with loss — not as something to fix or rush past, but as something that needs to be named, held, and lived through if change is going to last.Stay With What You're LearningEach episode, we send a short reflection and one resource to go deeper — things we don't include in the show.Sign up for the On the Balcony newsletter: konu.org/balconyWhat You'll Explore in This EpisodeThe triangle of change: thinking, feeling, actingHow cognitive behavioral therapy offers multiple entry points into change — and why limiting ourselves to "thinking our way" into new behavior often falls short.Why insight isn't enoughThe gap between understanding a pattern and actually changing it. Why we underestimate how many iterations — how many "reps" — real change requires.Practice as pathway-buildingThe metaphor of building a road through a jungle: the first time you take a new route, everything is unfamiliar and threatening. Only through repetition does a path become a highway.Managing loss in organizationsWhy naming loss is both diagnosis and intervention. How holding space — without rushing to solutions — allows groups to grieve and then reorient on their own terms.The role of ritual and structure in griefWhat we can learn from cultural and religious traditions about allocating time and space for mourning — and why organizations often skip this step.Reframing loss as sacrificeHow, after grief has been processed, framing loss as "in service of something bigger" can restore meaning and commitment.A live example from client workHow one organization combined adaptive leadership diagnosis with CBT-informed skills practice — role-playing difficult conversations repeatedly to build new muscles for candor.Quotes from This Episode"I think sometimes we underestimate how much practice, how many flight hours or reps it takes to actually change." — Judit Teichert"When you take a new route the first time, you're in a deep jungle. You don't know what the next step looks like. That's why it feels so tense and sometimes threatening to do something you've never learned to do before." — Judit Teichert"Paradoxically, one of the strategies to manage loss is not to manage — but to hold." — Judit Teichert"Grief and sadness — their function is to support us to reorient. If we don't take that time, we're clinging to something and we cannot wholeheartedly commit to something new." — Judit Teichert"There's a deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it. And there's like the absence of any drama in that sentence. That's one of the biggest changes." — Judit TeichertThe Poem: Autobiography in Five ChaptersJudit shares Autobiography in Five Chapters by Portia Nelson — a short poem that captures the long arc of change: from falling into the same hole, to noticing the pattern, to finally walking a different street.Portia Nelson, "Autobiography in Five Chapters," from There's a Hole in My Sidewalk (1977). Short excerpts are quoted in this episode for reflection and discussion. All rights remain with the author's estate. We highly recommend reading the full poem, which offers a powerful meditation on awareness, responsibility, and change.Links & ResourcesKONU — Growing and Provoking Leadership https://konu.orgOn the Balcony Newsletter https://konu.org/balconyAbout Judit TeichertJudit Teichert is a Partner at KONU and Managing Director of KONU Germany. Her work is shaped by her own journey as a leader — learning to stay grounded under pressure, bring care into tough conversations, and align action with what truly matters.Her early experiences at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York and as a licensed psychotherapist sharpened her ability to read human dynamics and support deep, sustainable change. She originally set out to become an actress — and left acting school with the humbling realization that her drive to "get it right" was getting in the way of being fully present. That insight has stayed with her ever since.Over more than a decade, she has worked as a facilitator, coach, and program designer with leadership teams across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the U.S. Her approach blends psychological depth with a systems perspective and strategic clarity — creating experiences that build trust and connection, encourage high standards and accountability, and lead to meaningful results.Next EpisodeNew episodes drop every two weeks.Key NotesThis episode complements Episode 1's focus on individual development (Immunity to Change) by exploring how insight translates into action through practice. Together with Episodes 2 and 3, it builds a picture of change that spans the cognitive, emotional, systemic, and behavioral.The poem Autobiography in Five Chapters offers a gentle, humorous mirror for anyone who has ever found themselves back in the same place — and a reminder that the hole doesn't disappear. We simply learn, over time, to walk around it.

When Your Team's Anxiety Is Actually the AnswerSeason 2 continues looking sideways — exploring frameworks that stretch Adaptive Leadership into new terrain.In this episode, Michael Koehler sits down with Dr. Candice Crawford-Zakian, a psychoanalytic psychologist and lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Candice's work focuses on systems psychodynamics — a field that helps us see the hidden life of groups.The conversation explores what lies beneath the surface of organizational life: the unconscious patterns, projections, and anxieties that shape what happens in teams and organizations long before anyone names them.What's fascinating is that this work sits in the background of Adaptive Leadership itself. Systems psychodynamics was one of the practices that informed Ron Heifetz's early teaching — and it remains a place where many practitioners go to sharpen their ability to consult with groups in real time.This episode feels like stepping behind the curtain of Adaptive Leadership — into the terrain where authority, anxiety, and imagination meet.What You'll Explore in This Episode:What systems psychodynamics is — and why it mattersHow this field helps us understand the hidden, unconscious social elements in groups that are highly impactful but intangible. The dynamics that shape whether work actually gets done.When anxiety is data, not disruptionWhy the distress in a group — the tension, reactivity, and discomfort — isn't something to manage away, but vital information about what the group actually needs. Learning to read anxiety as a signal rather than a problem to solve.Group relations conferencesA unique learning experience where the content is the live experience of the group itself. No talks, no papers — just studying what emerges in real time as people navigate authority, roles, and group dynamics.Consulting without memory, intent, or desireA practice from Wilfred Bion about meeting groups with spaciousness and openness — not inserting your agenda or expectations, but listening for what the group actually needs in the moment.The intersection with Adaptive LeadershipHow systems psychodynamics deepens the practice of reading the "heat map" — understanding what the anxiety in a group is actually about, which tells you what the group needs. Anxiety isn't random noise; it's a compass pointing toward the adaptive challenge.Why this work matters nowThe origins of systems psychodynamics in studying authoritarian regimes and the Holocaust — and why these insights are resources for navigating the rise of authoritarianism today.The role of the consultant as instrumentHow practitioners open themselves as channels through which hidden, unconscious dynamics can surface and be named. When the group triggers you publicly, that's not about you — it's telling you how high the distress is in the system.Quotes from This Episode:"We're carrying all this stuff, and my stuff dances with your stuff dances with the third person, and it creates this whole thing in and of itself."— Dr. Candice Crawford-Zakian"These unseen forces are born from our individual histories, assumptions, and feelings, which merge to create a powerful collective dynamic that is highly impactful, but difficult to see."— Dr. Candice Crawford-Zakian"Everything is data. So if this group has found a way to trigger me in a way that actually makes me publicly reactive, that tells me that's how high the distress is. It is not about me."— Dr. Candice Crawford-Zakian"To lead effectively, we must learn to see these hidden dynamics not as personal attacks, but as vital data that reveals what the group truly needs to make progress on its most important work."— Dr. Candice Crawford-Zakian"You are paying attention to this stuff not to navel-gaze, but because you're trying to get work done. You're trying to understand more clearly what might be impeding progress."— Dr. Candice Crawford-Zakian"The experience of the group is the content of study."— Dr. Candice Crawford-Zakian"Your instrument of self, of body, of energy, of spirit has to be in some relative open space — open a channel — so that these hidden, unconscious things can travel through you to be known."— Dr. Candice Crawford-ZakianLinks & Resources:A.K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems (Group Relations Conferences)https://www.akriceinstitute.org/Dr. Candice Crawford-Zakian's Faculty Profilehttps://www.gse.harvard.edu/directory/faculty/candice-crawford-zakianAbout Dr. Candice Crawford-Zakian:Dr. Candice Crawford-Zakian is a psychoanalytic psychologist and lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she teaches in the doctoral program "Practicing Leadership from the Inside and Out" alongside Michael Koehler and Dr. Lisa Lahey.Her work focuses on systems psychodynamics and group relations — helping individuals and organizations understand the unconscious dynamics that shape group life, authority, and leadership. She is also a musician, singer, and songwriter, bringing a creative lens to her practice.Candice came to this work after a transformative experience at a group relations conference while working in the startup chaos of XM Satellite Radio. That week-long conference changed the trajectory of her professional life and sent her back to school for psychology.Next Episode: Dr. Mary Gentile on Giving Voice to Values — bridging the gap between what we believe is right and what we actually do.New episodes drop every two weeks.KEY NOTES:This episode complements Episode 1's focus on individual development (Immunity to Change) by exploring group-level dynamics. Together, they show how personal and systemic forces interact — why change is hard both internally and in the systems we inhabit.The practice of "consulting without memory, intent, or desire" offers a powerful counterpoint to more directive leadership approaches — creating space for groups to discover what they actually need rather than what we think they should do.

On today’s season finale of On the Balcony, Michael Kohler welcomes Professor Ronald Heifetz, author of Leadership Without Easy Answers, the book that has formed the focus of this season. Professor Heifetz is among the world’s foremost authorities on the practice and teaching of leadership. His work addresses two challenges: developing a conceptual foundation for the analysis and practice of leadership and developing transformative methods for leadership education, training, and consultation. Heifetz  opens the episode by discussing how his own thinking in  last thirty years has been shaped by his role as a parent. He points out that parenting is fundamentally a series of adaptive challenges requiring the ability to deal with the unpredictable—a good model for thinking about the ongoing stream of challenges that organizations, companies, governments, and our societies as a whole are facing. Michael then asks Ron to reflect on the development of Leadership Without Easy Answers and how the Leadership Studies field has evolved since its publication. Heifetz shares some of the family history and personal experiences that influenced his thinking and led him to consider how charismatic authority emerges and how to teach leadership practice that would avoid the temptations of grandiosity and power. He also discusses his process of realizing that authority is not fundamentally bad or unnecessary but is an integral part of social relationships with its own virtues and significance and must be wielded with responsibility and trustworthiness.On the subject of trust, Heifetz next points out how common it is to experience violations or abuses of trust by authority and how many of us learn to distrust it as a result. He uses the example of politicians to illustrate this, pointing out that the fear of negativity often leads to a lack of trust on both sides of the relationship with their constituents, resulting in pandering rather than transformative leadership. He also points out that the COVID pandemic provided a useful set of cases to illustrate the impact of trust, with countries with lower trust in authority having higher death rates, the US being a prime example. Heifetz goes on to discuss the work of repairing and restoring trust, including encouraging those in roles of authority to develop a mindset of ongoing repair instead of an entitlement to trust. He also focuses on the challenge of mobilizing people to do adaptive work and the importance of developing new, more empathetic strategies for creating sustainable change in the hearts and minds of those who resist it. In order to make progress, he states that it’s essential that those in positions of authority and privilege are involved in the adaptive work, so we must resist the urge to resort to a cheap binary-ism of rejection and understand the difficulty of jettisoning one’s culture and traditions wholesale. And, to close the episode and the season, Heifetz shares his thoughts on what the future holds for him and his framework, including a refocusing of Leadership Studies onto cultural innovation and evolution. The Finer Details of This Episode:The adaptive challenges of parenthoodThe evolution of the Leadership Studies fieldThe virtues and significance of authorityHow politicians can lead and stay aliveQuotients of trust and the COVID pandemicThe practice of repairing and restoring trustActivism and mobilizing people to do adaptive workThe need for leadership at the micro levelThe future for Leadership StudiesQuotes:“We can’t afford to have an allergic reaction to authority systems just because they’ve been abusive to many of us historically.”“We all are designed to seek validation, affirmation, and even affection.”“We see politicians change their tune—not because they’ve learned about the world and fortunately keep evolving their points of view, but simply because the constituency has changed its point of view.”“The politician changes their point of view in order to gain the affirmation and ultimately then the authorization of that constituency.”Links:On the Balcony on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcastLeadership Without Easy Answers on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Without-Answershttps://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/ronald-heifetzMentioned in this episode:OtB_KONU_Nov promoOtB_KONU_Nov promo

On the eleventh episode of the On the Balcony podcast, Michael continues his conversation with George A. Papandreou, former Prime Minister of Greece, about Chapter 10 of Heifetz’s Leadership Without Easy Answers. Papandreou picks up the discussion by sharing how Heifetz inspired his decision to stage an intervention through an inclusive approach, encouraging the Greek people to take their future in their own hand. His proposal of a referendum was part of this emphasis on inclusion, but it was met by a backlash from the traditional political world, ultimately causing Papandreou’s decision to resign to allow the creation of a new coalition. Papandreou explains that he believes his actions have ultimately been viewed as the right move but that the hesitancy of the old power structures may have lost the opportunity to do deeper adaptive work in the country.Next, Papandreou discusses his experience as Greek Foreign Minister while dealing with Turkish/Greek relations. He explains that he tackled the tension between both sides by opening a dialogue with his counterpart İsmail Cem, both men finding someone they could trust and thereby beginning to make progress in their discussions. This led to an approach they called “people’s diplomacy”, involving citizens in foreign policy and working together to reframe the countries’ relationship from animosity to one of mutual benefit. Papandreou shares his belief that these kinds of values are what should motivate good leadership, allowing for an approach to conflict that is not angry or violent but respects the dignity of the other, an important part of the adaptive challenge of making change. The Finer Details of This Episode:Inclusive leadershipTaking a hit to make progressUsing communication to lower tensions and heatBuilding trust through “people’s diplomacy”Managing Pain and LossThe values of leadershipPacing the workProviding technical expertise while also working on the deeper issuesQuotes:“I was giving power to our citizens: you can make the decision. And the traditional political world didn’t like this because, had the decision been a positive one in this plebiscite, in this referendum, the other parties would have no say, they would’ve lost power. And many others. So inclusion is not a simple thing. You are basically changing the power structure, and the old power structures will very possibly react to this.”“We showed that we can rethink, reframe this relationship from one of animosity to putting it into a different frame and saying, ‘Okay, what if we can work together? What are the benefits of working together?’ And actually, one of the benefits was very, very clear: we had about three million in trade; in a few years, we had three billion in trade.”“In times of distress, in times of difficulty and uncertainty, it may be just the values that are the anchor, or if you like, the compass. It’s not trying to find a scapegoat. It is those values where you can say, ‘I am trying to be consistent with working with these values.’”“Democracy is a way to solve conflict through peaceful means, through debate, by respecting the dignity of the other.”“If you can really give a sense of dignity, that people feel dignified, they feel they’re being respected, they’re being recognized, their voice is being heard, their pain is being heard, that is very important in this adaptive challenge, to make those changes.”Links:On the Balcony on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcastLeadership Without Easy Answers on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Without-AnswersGeorge Papandreou Homepage: https://papandreou.gr/ and on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_PapandreouYoung Leaders Project - https://www.youngleadersproject.org/Mentioned in this episode:OtB_KONU_Nov promoOtB_KONU_Nov promo

On the ninth episode of the On the Balcony podcast, Michael welcomes Ashley B. Stewart to talk about Chapter 9 of Ron Heifetz’s, Leadership Without Easy Answers, the importance of pushing boundaries, taking risks and managing the dangers of practicing leadership  building from Ashley’s experience working as an Executive Coach, Transformation Facilitator, and Racial Consciousness Consultant as well as Executive Director for Talent and Organizational Development in the Baltimore City Public School System. Koehler and Stewart recall the 1965 Civil Rights activists who transformed and spearheaded the movement’s success while putting their lives on the line. Stewart analyzes how people without formal or informal authority practice leadership not despite, but because of their lack of power. He makes powerful connections to the racial justice work today and explores what it means to regulate the heat and orchestrate learning. The Finer Details of This Episode: The dangers of practicing leadership without authority 1965 Civil Rights activists successes and strategies The risk in pushing boundaries and becoming a lighting rod. Ashley’s experience in the public school systemWhy improvisation is necessary Quotes: "I'm black. And I pull on that part of my identity first. Because it is the part of my identity that I think has had the most harm done to it, is the part of my identity that needs the most repair.”“I lived in a society where I got a steady diet that black is less than, and that people of color are not worthy of, or in some cases, not even whole humans. And so I have my own journey to walk around my internalized subordination and internalized oppression.”“At every opportunity, I try to tell myself that black is amazing. It's beautiful. Period.”“They decided to push Selma past the breaking point, and that meant that the nation and the federal government would have to provide a holding environment. It also meant that people might die.” "What comes to me when I hear you read that text is the risk, the risk of not knowing what happens beyond the boundary, beyond the breaking point. It also conjures up in my mind, sort of this imagery of watershed moments, bloodshed, the spattering of blood from hard work and sacrifice, shedding of tears.""What I was doing to this person was the very thing we don't want people to do to young people, which is to ‘other’. Which is to see them as an outcast, which is to like, feel the provocation and take it personally, and then try to push them aside. And that's what I did with my, with my, with my authority, until I realized with lots of coaching and lots of support from colleagues and family, I realized that, while I disagreed wholeheartedly with what this person was standing on, I respected the fact that it was drawing me to learn.""A characteristic or aspect of white supremacy culture… is like, ‘There's one way to do it, and that's it, and we're not engaging other perspectives.’ And I engaged the perspectives that made me feel good. I engaged the perspectives that checked, double-clicked my ideas, that co-signed my initiatives, but I didn't listen to the naysayers. I didn't hear the provocation. I didn't hear the hole-poking. I wasn't open to acknowledging the space between the values I espoused and the values I was actually living.""One of the things that I'm reminded from this article is that people without formal power still have all kinds of power, and it is sometimes work avoidance to spend too much time equivocating about how much power I have or don't have in relation to someone else. And probably more powerful taking stock of that which I can actually harness and wield."“Everyone can lead because everybody can serve.”Links: On the Balcony on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcastLeadership Without Easy Answers on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Without-AnswersAshley Stewart on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ashleybstewart1Ashley Stewart on LinkedIn: Uy3V9y5P4Z Mentioned in this episode:OtB_KONU_Nov promoOtB_KONU_Nov promo

On today’s episode of On the Balcony, Michael is joined by Jevan Soo Lenox to discuss chapter seven of Ronald Heifetz’s Leadership Without Easy Answers. Jevan has held Chief People Officer roles at multiple exciting Bay Area growth companies, including Blue Bottle, Stitch Fix, and most recently, insitro, where he has brought the adaptive leadership framework to life in fast-paced hyper-growth environments. Today, he helps us bridge the lessons from Heifetz’s examples of leadership failures  into today’s world.In his reading of chapter seven, Jevan was struck by the common thread of failure resulting from an avoidance of adaptive work and leaning into the seduction of authority. It’s so common for people in charge to carry the burden of all the work, both technical and adaptive, and as a result to overpromise what can be achieved. The result is often disastrous - momentum is lost and opportunities are missed.  Eventually people get frustrated with their executives and politicians and push them out. Jevan has spent his career helping organizations to accept that adaptive work is an essential part of their approach to change and the emotions it creates within a company. This includes the loneliness and pressure experienced by those in authority  roles, and Jevan finds joy and meaning in helping CEOs and founders feel less alone in their work and think about bringing others in without shying away from their responsibilities. The Finer Details of this Episode:The seduction of authorityLessons from the adaptive leadership frameworkThe hazards of leadershipBalancing technical and adaptive workThe weight of holding secretsQuotes:“We live in a world that is fundamentally, I think, oriented towards polarizing us and categorizing us. And in many ways, I think, unfortunately, the human mind contributes to that, like we want to categorize things into binary categories. It’s how we process information.”“It is a really hard job. And it’s a very lonely job, and the temptations of doing these things are not… I don’t think it’s productive to think about them as an indictment of character or indictment of person, right? They are the hazards of the job.”“I’m now very, very conscious, actually, that there is, in almost any project or seemingly small kind of task or initiative, there is usually a technical element and an adaptive element and just being super clear on articulating them fast and then talking through them in a really open way.”“Part of, I think, adaptive leadership is just really living in this deep empathy. And even when you’re super frustrated, to just remember that often part of what’s challenging for these other parties is they don’t have the same constellation of experiences that you do, they often don’t have the same longitudinal set of experiences that you do.”“The adaptive challenge, the challenge writ large, of course, is well, how do you lift this whole set of leaders, this generation of leaders to where they need to be? You know, unfortunately, there is not a technical playbook to do that.”“As a political calculation, Johnson felt compelled to bear the weight alone and deceive the nation.”Links:On the Balcony on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcastLeadership Without Easy Answers on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Without-AnswersJevan on LinkedIn:   https://www.linkedin.com/in/jevansoo/Mentioned in this episode:OtB_KONU_Nov promoOtB_KONU_Nov promo

On the fifth episode of the On the Balcony podcast, Michael welcomes Radha Ruparell, author and Head of Global Leadership Accelerator at  Teach For All, into the conversation to talk about the main ideas in Chapter 5 of Ron Heifetz legendary book, Leadership Without Easy Answers (1998), namely informal and formal authority, holding environments, and nurturing our inner capacity.  When talking about what it means to practice leadership, we often think about what we can do for others, how we can increase learning and stimulate growth, but more often than not we forget about what we need to do for ourselvesAs the Head of Global Leadership Accelerator at Teach for All, an organization that develops collective leadership to change the future of education, Ruparell has found herself in scenarios, both with informal and formal authority, where she’s needed to take a breath for the sake of herself and her team.  Too often does leadership’s glitz and glam overshadow the pressure, stress, and discipline that come with the role.  That’s why it’s all the more important to grow your inner capacity, ground yourself, and find solace in the hearts of those around you.  Being in charge and practicing leadership is tough work that requires a lot of self discipline and poise.  So if you listen to today’s episode, our two seasoned experts can help you learn how to achieve just that.    The Finer Details of This Episode: Informal and formal authorityThe holding environmentTeach for AllGrowing Our Inner CapacitiesSelf-discipline and poise The innate power in young peopleQuotes:“When you have authority, whether it's formal or informal, you have this opportunity to shape the container– to shape the space.” “We only move at the speed of trust.”“How do we bring people across the globe to develop these leadership capacities together?”“So our belief is creating a world where students can shape a better world for themselves and for all of us. And more and more, we're seeing the power of activating the leadership of students.”“We talk a lot about these holding environments.  We talk about the ability of those who are exercising leadership to hold under a lot of conflict, to hold a lot of tension, to hold different views. And yet, I don't think we talk enough about the inner work that we need to do ourselves, that inner discipline, that poise, that groundedness that's required, in order to be able to hold that.”“Part of the know-how Parsons required was a discipline, poise.  She had to have the emotional capacity to tolerate uncertainty, frustration, and pain. She had to be able to raise questions about preparing for the possibility of death without getting too anxious herself.”“So I encourage those who are in formal authority positions find a support network. There's no shame in getting support. In fact, it's the opposite. Again, if we want to be able to hold space for others We have to be held ourselves.”Links: On The Balcony PodcastLeadership Without Easy Answers Brave Now Radha Ruparell on InstagramRadha Ruparell on Twitter   Radha Ruparell on LinkedInTeach for AllMentioned in this episode:OtB_KONU_Nov promoOtB_KONU_Nov promo

On this episode of the On the Balcony podcast, Michael Koehler welcomes Professor Leary to chat about yet another chapter of Ronald Heifetz’s Leadership Without Easy Answers. As a chief Harvard psychologist, a Senior VP at the Urban Institute, and an advisor to the White House, Professor Leary is deeply familiar with Heifetz’s work and the man himself. Today, with Michael, she opens up the episode to talk about authority and the importance of understanding that an authority figure doesn’t always exercise leadership. Often, we conflate the two, and look to people in authority roles to lead us away from suffering and pain. Working with Harvard students around the concepts highlighted in this chapter, she and Heifetz noticed how people often fall into a binary way of relating to authority: those who accept or even admire authority figures and those who reject and rebel against them. In their class, Professors Leary and Heifetz invited their students to explore further options to work with authority on a gradient. The first part of today’s episode is closed out by Leary’s personal experience in positions of authority. She looks back on these times with a sense of accomplishment around her team’s coordinated efforts around President Biden’s executive orders to address issues of equity. Be sure to stay tuned to the second part of today’s episode where Michael once again engages in a coaching session of his own. This week, he welcomes fellow coach Judit Teichnert to help him explore his patterns around authority, particularly around cisgender men—a deeply personal, emotional, and, ultimately, revelatory conversation. The Finer Details of This Episode:Authority as a roleLeadership as a practiceAuthority work: protection, direction, coordination, management Pains and promisesThe binary way to relate to authorityThe authority gradientTeaching at HarvardQuestioning authorityLearning from each otherProfessor Leary’s experience in positions of authorityMichael’s coaching session with Judit TeichertExamining his patterns around authorityQuotes:“In this chapter, authority, described in very particular ways, of course, has value to it. It’s about survival. It's about protection, it's about the human need to be empathically seen and recognized.”“Leadership as a practice and authority as a role.”“I also have been a chief psychologist running a division of Psychology at one of the Harvard hospitals. I'm currently a Senior Vice President at a DC based think tank, the Urban Institute. I'm a professor at 2 Harvard Schools and a lecturer at a third I did two turns of public service, one in the Obama administration as an advisor to the White House Council on Women and Girls, and most recently, as a senior advisor, Senior Policy Advisor to Domestic Policy Council, also in the White House.”“There is a sentence that I think captures a critical part of both the opportunity and the dangers of authority. ‘The misuse of authority,’ Ron Heifetz  writes, ‘We attribute charisma to people who voice our pains and provide us with promise.’“They are looking to you hoping that you might be able to bring them relief. And it's quite a thing to help them realize that relief will come from the two of you, but not from you alone.”“If you decide you're going to negotiate with authority, on one day, on one issue, it does not commit you for eternity to do that.”“That was a very powerful experience of seeing how coordinated expertise could deliver outcomes, and use both the tools of authority and the tools of leadership, towards trying to make the world a better place.”“I think the important part of the framework is that it's not as though you could take the work off their shoulders, you know.”“I realized that some of that pattern that felt, like, huge and big in my own family that relates to me feeling afraid around a parent, that some of those parents are also showing up in other parts of my life, maybe and are maybe not as big, but, like, present.”“I particularly feel, like, some fear and some nervousness around people in very senior roles of authority, especially if they're kind of cisgender, male, white, and, like, a little bit in that dominant, slightly even aggressive stance.”“I think I would love to find more courage to engage in moments when I may fall silent, when I may fall into that pleasing pattern, to at least be more in touch with that sense of injustice, that sense of my own anger.”Links:On The BalconyLeadership Without Easy AnswersProfessor Leary at the Urban InstituteProfessor Leary at Harvard Kennedy School Professor Leary on Twitter: @kimberlynlearyMentioned in this episode:OtB_KONU_Nov promoOtB_KONU_Nov promo

Welcome to the introductory episode of On the Balcony, a truly insightful podcast where leadership coach and facilitator Michael Kohler takes a deep dive into Ronald Heifetz’s  revolutionary book, Leadership Without Easy Answers, to uncover the theoretical and practical lessons it offers.  Not only are you invited to read along in the book as each episode covers a chapter in order, but you are also welcome to join Michael as he, himself, receives coaching that brings to life the message of that chosen chapter. This podcast represents a personal and professional journey toward leadership development and increased self-awareness that will prove both educational and actionable. Fellow coaches Rosi Greenberg and Andy Cahill join Michael for this premier episode which opens up with a discussion about the concept of leadership as a verb - all about mobilization, action, and understanding.  They go on to reveal that one can use their identity, wisdom, and acknowledgement of biases in service of their work.  Even more importantly, however, leadership requires a familiarity with silence.  In a field that’s typically associated with the spoken word, sometimes the pauses in between are far more important. The practice of leadership requires one to be in tune with the information in between the lines. Michael goes on to chat with Andy about how to genuinely follow through on commitments, find those commitments in the first place, and lead with values and intention.  The pair close out the episode by talking about intuition and the importance of taking baby steps, especially when it comes to embarking on a journey outside of your comfort zone. A formidable introduction to a powerful new podcast, today’s episode marks the first step in a crucial leadership journey. Joining this journey will prove a powerful investment in your own development .The Finer Details of This Episode: How to mobilize people (verb, mobilization, understanding)Managing lossThemes of silenceIntroduction and Chapter 1 ‘Values and Leadership’Identity, wisdom, and biasWhy leadership isn’t value-neutralFollowing through on commitmentsResisting change Listening to intuitionTaking baby stepsQuotes: “​​Definitions of what leadership actually is remain abstract and not really aligned.  The old joke goes that leadership professors would rather share the same toothbrush than the same definition of leadership.”“Unlike what you may have heard before, it is not that people are resisting change. People love change if it's in their favor. Nobody gives back the winning lottery ticket or the room upgrades. What people resist is loss, real loss or perceived loss.”“Rosie is a leadership coach, an artist, and most of the time, she combines these two practices in one as she did when she co-created the cover of our podcast. On her website, she writes that she spent 34 years trying to be less messy, but realized it's actually way funner to just embrace it.”“Leadership is not personality. Leadership is not a set of tools. Leadership is not a role… It's a practice; it's an activity. It's a verb.”“Music also teaches us to distinguish the varieties of silence: restless, energized, bored, tranquil, and sublime. Silence creates moments so that something new can be heard.”“There's something that we were told when we were four or five, we’ve got to stop making messes... And so we’ve got to just dive into them and figure them out rather than avoid them.”“My aspiration is that we can go deeper than we often get the chance to in the frenetic pace of our day-to-day lives. So that's what I try and bring into all of my coaching with my clients, and hope to bring that today here.”“There's something here that's activating your nervous system right now. And that's a pretty good clue that you're entering territory that's uncomfortable and a bit risky.” “Take a moment to connect your hand to your heart. And with as much compassion and non-judgment as you can muster, gently bring your conscious attention here to your heart, where you feel this fragility and this warmth.”“The belonging I'm actually looking for is the belonging that is generated, that is created in that moment of really getting to know people and really deeply connecting with them, including the ‘not so pretty’ sides. I mean, that's the belonging I want. Links: On The BalconyLeadership Without Easy AnswersRosi GreenbergAndy CahillMentioned in this episode:OtB_KONU_Nov promoOtB_KONU_Nov promo