EpisodeS
Episode 30: Climate Consciousness with Liz Carlisle
In the final episode of their climate consciousness series, Marti and Todd welcome Liz Carlisle, associate professor at UC Santa Barbara and author of "Healing Grounds: Climate Justice and the Deep Roots of Regenerative Farming." They explore the essential relationship between human consciousness and agriculture through the lens of indigenous wisdom and regenerative farming practices. Carlisle shares insights learned from women farmers and indigenous leaders about the importance of putting "roots in the ground all year round" - both literally in farming practices and metaphorically in how we approach our relationship with the land. The conversation delves into how regenerative agriculture isn't just about carbon sequestration, but about healing our relationship with the earth and each other through practices that give back to the land rather than simply taking from it. The hosts and guest discuss the potential for regional food systems to scale out (rather than up) regenerative practices, and how everyone - even those not directly involved in farming - can participate in healing our relationship with the planet. The episode concludes with the new "Potentialities" segment, replacing the previous "Conscious Rant," where Todd shares observations from a regenerating forest in Costa Rica as a metaphor for how consciousness in leadership can create conditions for transformation.
Episode 29: Climate Consciousness with Felipe Benitez
In the third episode in their series on climate consciousness, Marti and Todd are joined by Felipe Benitez, the founder of Corazón Latino. They dive into a discussion on approaches to leadership and addressing climate change through a lens of love, compassion, and engaging diverse communities. Benitez emphasizes the importance of reconnecting people, especially communities of color, with Nature in joyful and experiential ways, rather than relying on top-down messaging or policy changes alone. He shares insights on effectively inviting people into Nature, tapping into shared human experiences, and catalyzing collective action through a focus on hope and positive engagement. The three of them discuss the power of individual consciousness, the need to move beyond polarization, and the opportunity to create a more hopeful future by highlighting our interconnectedness with the natural world.
From the Edge: Evolution Evolving (Todd)
Conscious Rant: Nothing to Rant About (Marti)
Episode 28: Climate Consciousness with Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir
In continuing the series on climate consciousness, Marti and Todd welcome guest Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir, an Icelandic author, filmmaker, and sustainability leader. Hrund discusses the Icelandic concept of "InnSæi" which means intuition or "inner sea." She describes how InnSæi represents seeing within oneself, understanding one's place in the world, and navigating life through an inner compass.
The conversation explores how modern life has disconnected people from their InnSæi and the natural world. However, by cultivating presence, imagination, and awe, we can shift our center of gravity back within. This helps us make better decisions, empathize, tap into creativity, and care for the planet. The conversation stresses the importance of understanding the complexity and interconnectedness of life. We must move from separation to participation, respecting planetary boundaries. Our consciousness and actions impact the world.
From the Edge: Journey from the Edge (Marti)
Conscious Rant: Clearing the Lot (Todd)
Episode 27: Climate Consciousness with Hilde Fålun Strøm and Sunniva Sorby
Marti and Todd welcome citizen scientists Hilde Fålun Strøm and Sunniva Sorby for this inaugural episode on climate consciousness. They discuss their eyewitness experiences with climate change in the Arctic over 19 months living in a small cabin, as well as their work educating others. Key points include the disproportionate impact occurring in polar regions, the importance of individual action, and the need for people worldwide to reconnect with Nature.
Despite having no modern amenities, Hilde and Sunniva having engaged people globally and inspired action. They share the challenges climate change poses for humanity and biodiversity worldwide, emphasizing our interconnectedness. The isolation of their experience actually better connected them to themselves, each other, and the natural world. Their story underscores how belonging to the Earth and her cycles teaches us about belonging to Life itself.
From the Edge: Inner Development Goals (Todd)
Conscious Rant: Assembling Realities (Marti)
Episode 26: Bridging with Elizabeth Soltis
Marti and Todd welcome guest Elizabeth Soltis, author of Authentic Collaboration, to discuss the topic of bridging—the art of connecting ideas, groups, and perspectives. They explore how to shift mindsets from predetermining connections to living into the process of exchange and relationship building. The hosts and guest share insights on attuning groups, finding common ground, embracing vulnerability, getting comfortable with not knowing, and opening up to new possibilities. Key themes include moving from static structures to emergent processes, and from transmitting expertise to participatory meaning-making. Authentic collaboration requires suspending preconceived outcomes in order to bridge diverse views, tapping into the momentum and potential that arises through open disclosure.
From the Edge: The Coordinates of You (Marti)
Conscious Rant: Questioning the Need for Speed (Todd)
Episode 25: Expressing Power
In their final episode in the series on leadership and power, Marti and Todd explore what makes each person's expression of power unique and valuable, and how these expressions create a sense of wholeness in teams, organizations, and communities.
From the Edge: Dam Dismantling (Todd)
Conscious Rant: In Case You Didn't Notice (Marti)
Episode 24: Collective Power
In Episode 23, Marti and Todd spent most of the hour discussing what power is not—our misconceptions and fears around power. In this discussion, they explore the relationships and experiences of being people of power.
What does it mean to be in a state of collective power? What does it feel like? What are the needed conditions?
From the Edge: The Age of Meeting Ourselves Again (Marti)
Conscious Rant: Accountability (Todd)
Episode 23: The Essence of Power
The world needs people of power, not more power games, power struggles, and disempowerment.
Marti and Todd explore power in the negative, and then move into a conversation about how we can shift our perception and experience of power to participate in something much larger than ourselves.
From the Edge: Tribute to Christopher Alexander (Todd)
Conscious Rant: Frothing (Marti)
Episode 22: New Beginnings & Governance
We spend so much time analyzing and choosing governance models. What if there is a different approach? Marti and Todd get into the dynamics of organizations that move beyond rigid structures and become negotiable in the experience of working together. They also introduce a new segment at the end of today’s episode: Takeaways.
From the Edge: Being a Person of Power (Marti)
Conscious Rant: Stop Managing Your Time (Todd)
Episode 21: New Beginnings & The Masculine Principle with Ted Wallach
Marti and Todd welcome guest Ted Wallach, founder of the Quantum Warrior program, to explore the principle of masculinity in the context of new beginnings.
They discuss the principles of the feminine and masculine as complementarities that are needed for creation—energies not attributes. The conversation moves from the topic of defining, to boy kings, to imagining a different way of interacting and weaving.
From the Edge: Appreciative Inquiry (Todd)
Conscious Rant: Why are We Still Ranting (Marti)
Episode 20: New Beginnings and Capitalism
Marti and Todd start a new series: New Beginnings. They discuss what may be coming to completion, and what may be emerging.
Are we in “late stage capitalism?” Can capitalism be reformed, restored, or redeemed? Marti and Todd cover why these are not the most important questions to consider. Rather, we need cycles of action at all scales that create the frameworks of the future.
From the Edge: Cosmology (Marti)
Conscious Rant: Simplistic Platitudes (Todd)
Episode 19: Braiding & Balancing Wisdom with Melanie Goodchild
Marti and Todd welcome guest Melanie Goodchild, founder of the Turtle Island Institute, to discuss systems change that centers on relationships for mutual benefit. Melanie shares her experiences and wisdom on complexity, resilience, balance, and what we all need to move forward together, carrying centuries of indigenous wisdom and her Anishinaabe perspective alongside her Western academic education.
The conversation flows from identity to language to our ways of being and relating that can impact the systems we live and work within.
Special Segment: Excerpt from Relational Systems Thinking (Melanie), co-authored with Dan Longboat, Diane Longboat, Rick Hill, Kevin Deer, Peter Senge, and Otto Scharmer.
Episode 18: The Nature of Change
We have change agents, change-makers, turnaround specialists, and the field of change management, but do we understand what actually brings about change? Can we trust what worked in the past to work in the future?
Marti and Todd explore how leaders can become stewards of change without trying to control people and situations. Stewards of change move with negotiability, flow, passion, and compassion, understanding the timings that exist within the nature of change.
From the Edge: The Wonders of Slime Mold (Todd)
Conscious Rant: The Problem with our Worldview (Marti)
Episode 17: Decent Work with Josie Gibson
Marti and Todd welcome guest Josie Gibson, co-founder of the Catalyst Network, to discuss “Decent Work”—re-imagining our notions of work, contributions, and devoting our energies in a system that leads to wellbeing rather than inequity.
From the Edge: How We Know Shapes How We Lead (Marti)
Conscious Rant: Freedom & Constraints (Todd)
Episode 16: Mapping the Moment
How can we make sense of and respond as leaders to an event like the global spread of COVID-19?
Marti and Todd explore addressing our rising emotions, the power of awareness, and the power of the heart in helping bring new creativity to a world that is being reshaped.
From the Edge: Being a Cartographer (Todd)
Conscious Rant: Staying Connected While We’re Apart (Marti)
This episode was recorded on May 26, 2020.
Episode 15: The Logic of Life with Giles Hutchins
Marti & Todd welcome guest Giles Hutchins. As the co-author of Regenerative Leadership, Giles is an edge-walker between living systems and the business world.
Giles Hutchins is a pioneering practitioner and senior adviser at the forefront of the [r]evolution in organizational and leadership consciousness, and developmental approaches that enhance personal, organizational and systemic agility and vitality. He is the Chair of The Future Fit Leadership Academy, Founder of Leadership Immersions, co-founder of Biomimicry for Creative Innovation, and he runs a 60 acre leadership centre at Springwood Farm, an area of outstanding natural beauty near London, UK. Previously held corporate roles include Head of Practice for KPMG, and Global Head of Sustainability for Atos
Marti, Todd, and Giles discuss approaches and the impact of bringing principles of the natural world into organizational leadership. The title of this episode is derived from seven principles in Regenerative Leadership, written with Laura Storm.
From the Edge: Coming Together without Losing our Way (Marti)
Conscious Rant: Enough with the Debate! (Todd)
Episode 14: Going Horizontal with Samantha Slade
Marti & Todd welcome guest Samantha Slade. As the co-founder of Percolab, Sam has been bringing new ways of working, learning, and governing to organizations for two decades. As a social innovator, Samantha supports teams, organizations and ecosystems to work with complexity and grow a conscious innovation mindset, from the European commission to bold start ups.
Marti, Todd, and Sam discuss practices and principles that help drive participation, democracy, and shared leadership in organizations. The title of this episode is derived from Samantha’s book, Going Horizontal: Creating a Non-Hierarchical Organization One Practice at a Time.
From the Edge: Honoring Esko Kilpi (Todd)
Conscious Rant: Igniting Negotiability (Marti)
Episode 13: On the Horizon
If we look beyond the seemingly chaotic state of the world today, what is on the horizon? What if the chaos is not actually chaotic, but the ending of a “timing” with a tremendous amount of free, unbound energy available for leaders.
Marti and Todd explore what it means to be at a “mythic” level of engagement, imagination and risk, turning off our internal monologues, and what it takes to move forward in these times in a negotiable way with action and receptivity.
From the Edge: Dissolving the Edge (Marti)
Conscious Rant: Death by Comparison (Todd)
Episode 12: Awareness & Language with Myra Jackson
Marti & Todd welcome guest Myra Jackson. As an Electrical Engineer, Organizational Development Professional and Systems Thinker, Myra has found that her studies in electrical theory, music, power generation, the sciences, and the natural world deeply informed her spiritual life.
Marti, Todd, and Myra have an extended conversation about awareness and language. They discuss moving beyond being stuck in an individuated state, entrepreneurs as “undertakers,” entropy and centropy, and Myra’s story of advocating with the United Nations for one important capital letter.
From the Edge: Shinrin Yoku (Todd)
Conscious Rant: Self-Referential Madness (Marti)
Episode 11: From Static Knowledge to Dynamic Learning
Peter Senge persuasively introduced the idea of the "learning organization" that constantly transforms itself. What exactly is required to be in a state where ongoing, quality learning is the norm?
Marti and Todd explore conditions for learning, why we need to use our hands and bodies, the underlying principles of apprenticeship, how principles guide us more than facts, and why we need to break our addiction to static knowledge. Learning from experience in a state of open awareness - this is the nature of dynamic learning.
From the Edge: From Systems to Ecosystems (Marti)
Conscious Rant: 15 Steps to Enlightenment (Todd)
Episode 10: Energy + Wellbeing with Nathan Walz
Guest Nathan Walz joins Marti & Todd to discuss energy and wellbeing, both at an individual and organizational level. Nathan brings his knowledge of mitochondria and taking care of your own energy levels to the conversation about health that extends beyond the physical body.
From the Edge: The Microbiome (Todd)
Conscious Rant: “I can’t because . . .” (Marti)
Episode 9: Organizational Healing
Can organizations heal? What exactly does that mean?
Marti & Todd explore the topic of healing in living systems - what it takes to restore connection and flow in teams and across an organization. They draw the distinctions between healing and fixing, and between reactivity and responsiveness.
From the Edge: What is a Healed State Anyway? (Marti)
Conscious Rant: Healing Starts with You (Todd)
Episode 8: Leadership in Living Systems
What is mean to lead within a system, rather than lead with a system? With a tendency for leaders to impose or adopt a system of leadership, it's important to draw the distinctions of what it means to lead as a member of the system that is alive and continually evolving.
Marti & Todd discuss what it means to "design" within the system, the necessity of paying attention to the energy of the system, allowing the system to teach us, and the importance of relaxing into a receptive and aware state.
From the Edge: Emotional Contagion (Todd)
Conscious Rant: Confusing Outcomes & Source (Marti)
Episode 7: Organizational Vitality
What makes an organization vital, alive? This is the first in a series of episodes about living systems. Marti and Todd talk about evolving a vision, taking an experimental approach, the necessity of growing and adjusting, and why worker disengagement is so high.
We learn about zooming in and zooming out, and why acknowledging the value and contributions of others is so essential.
From the Edge - Pulses in the Field (Marti)
Conscious Rant - Stop Blaming the System! (Todd)
Episode 6: From Meaning to Value
How can we metaphorically imagine leaders positioned in an organization, if not at the top of a pyramid? What if scarcity were not attached to value? What happens when leaders "embody" meaning, or purpose, within their organization?
Marti and Todd address these questions, as well as the connections between generating meaning and value, and why stepping into experience itself is so essential for leaders.
Episode 5: Meaning as a Foundation
What do we mean when we say "leadership?" Or "consciousness?" There is importance in understanding meaning as it impacts effective we are as leaders. Action involves choice. Choices are based on value. Value is derived from meaning.
Meaning is foundational - to understanding others, communication, the recognition of great ideas, and much more. In this conversation, Marti & Todd also discuss resonance, alignment, and competition in continuing the exploration of how "to be" as leaders.
Episode 4: Being Transparent as a Leader
Transparency is not something you do, it's an outcome of being in full consciousness. When we feel safe and our awareness is directed to the world, we can bring our full unique selves into our projects and relationships. Todd & Marti talk about the bi-directional nature of transparency – it's not just what we show to others in particular contexts, it's also what we allow in as feeling and data. The metaphor of a semi-permeable membrane is offered as an example of this.
Episode 3: Business Strategy in Full Consciousness
How do we plan for the future when all change happens in the present? Todd & Marti look at the roles of awareness and imagination in how leaders can move collectively toward a vision. Planning is a necessity, and we need shorter time frames, better states of being from which we plan, and core principles from which we operate. They discuss the interference of fear and worry as a ‘gateway’. Todd introduces the idea of the organizational nervous system. Marti talks about the inextricable connection between consciousness and well-being.
Episode 2: The Seeds of Consciousness in Business
Have you noticed how often the word ‘conscious’ is used as an adjective, especially in relation to business? Does it provide a clear description, or does it cause confusion? Todd & Marti discuss the difference between describing something as conscious and actually being conscious, and call for leaders to go deeper, where they can experience and ‘become’ the core principles that actually shape the messages we try to convey. One of these principles involves the experience of membership, or true belonging. With a nod of appreciation to Frederic LaLoux, as well as a discussion about the potential trap of using Reinventing Organizations as a blueprint, Marti & Todd reveal truths and myths about our understanding of consciousness, being, and doing.
Episode 1: Leadership, Presence, and Being
As Apple CEO Tim Cook exits the stage, critics mourn that Apple has begun to emulate more than lead the way in creating the totally new. Todd & Marti look at the role consciousness plays in the power of a leader’s presence. And they look at what this means for the creative force of an organization, both in terms of its products and value creation. They also begin a discussion of all the ways the word ‘conscious’ is being used, and how this relates to the leader’s challenge of shifting from operating via ‘doing’ to operating from a state of full presence and ‘being’.