Meet Jim Lawless, a leading authority on what he calls AQ: developing organizational AdaptAbility skills to deliver bold, fast change.

Jim works with senior leaders to build cultures that can adapt and deliver. He has contributed to bold, fast change in global organizations, government, Olympic teams, and business schools for two decades. He has inspired and educated over half a million people on five continents through his mind-set shifting keynotes and even more through his bestselling book, Taming Tigers.

What’s fascinating about Jim is that he tested and developed the AQ skills personally. He became a televised jockey within a year of starting to ride and became Britain’s deepest freediver after just eight months of training. Both done alongside his day job – a key element of AdaptAbility.

Episode Highlights

In this interview, Jim and I discuss:

• His definition of the fear algorithm and the role it plays in organizational change
• The importance of creating a safe environment for people to embrace change
• How leaders inadvertently prevent their team members from moving away from the old patterns of behavior
• CEO’s and other leaders’ role in evolving a culture
• The importance of giving people the “permission” to change
• The reasons why behavioral changes need to be linked to the goals people care about
• The roots of resistance to change in our teams and the value of testing the data we have available
• The most effective ways of managing our self-limiting internal dialogue
• Making space on our calendars for change to take place