The Focus: Recent Episodes

Team Novavi

We believe everyone can live their ikigai. We are passionate about renewing ways of work, better leadership and oversight.

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In which we interview Erich Bühler

We discuss:

  • Leading Exponential Change
  • The impact of the neurochemistry of cortisol
  • Kelly McGonigal's TED talk on How to make stress your friend
  • Detecting organisational stress
  • Techniques for reducing stress, like breath-work, physical workouts, cold and heat exposure
  • Susan David's Emotional Agility
  • Celebrating when we notice holding inaccurate ideas
  • The trials and tribulations of interactions with people that have psychopathic habits
  • The Huberman Lab podcast
  • The Enterprise Agility World Conference - enjoy the discount code THEFOCUS for your registration

We are:

  • Aldo Rall
  • Horia Slușanschi
  • Gareth Holebrook

By visiting the home of The Focus Podcast you can find alternative ways to access this podcast. Thank you in anticipation for considering to support us.

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In which we interview Linda Rising

We discuss:

  • Effective ways of introducing new ideas, discovered through much struggle
  • Fearless Change
  • More Fearless Change
  • Telling stories that involve people emotionally
  • Attempting big change is usually unsustainable. Instead, growing ideas and approaches together organically works much better.
  • We cannot take everyone with us. For any new idea, there will be champions and early adopters, but there will be laggards as well.
  • What genuine diversity is about
  • Braver Angels
  • Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow
  • Jonathan Haidt's Happiness Hypothesis
  • Menlo Innovations
  • Building trust by sharing food together
  • The ease with which we get divided into groups, and yet we all overestimate the number of nickels in a jar
  • The miracle of agape
  • Embracing both the early adopters and the laggards
  • Choosing worthy targets
  • Dealing with ego
  • The magic of hope
  • Suzanne Simard's Finding the Mother Tree
  • Peter Wohlleben's The Hidden Life of Trees
  • Linda's intentions as a Mother Tree for us

We are:

  • Aldo Rall
  • Horia Slușanschi
  • Gareth Holebrook

By visiting the home of The Focus Podcast you can find alternative ways to access this podcast. Thank you in anticipation for considering to support us.

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In which we interview Tony Ponton 

We discuss:

  • The three-speed economy
  • Transformation or transition?
  • How do we fund agility?
  • Understanding organisations and "Undercover Boss"
  • Recreating watercoolers online for their social benefits
  • Measuring for outcomes rather than outputs
  • The Remote:af agility framework
  • Setting up home offices for healthy remote working
  • Crafting teams as if for planning a heist
  • Virtual Obeya rooms
  • The Responsibility Process by Christopher Avery
  • Finding the right person to get help from, in a distributed and dispersed environment
  • Rewarding courage
  • Genuine collaboration in leadership teams

We are:

  • Aldo Rall
  • Horia Slușanschi
  • Gareth Holebrook

By visiting the home of The Focus Podcast you can find alternative ways to access this podcast. Thank you in anticipation for considering to support us.

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In which we interview Renata Barcelos

We discuss:

  • Learning every day
  • The dynamics of family businesses in Brazil and dealing with succession
  • Pragmatic approaches to innovation
  • The need for ambidexterity in modern business
  • Leading from the future
  • Being wary of people that are 100% certain
  • How competence builds confidence
  • Sense making and OKR networks
  • The 4 stages of psychological safety
  • The OODA loop, double-loop learning and changing goals
  • Leadership is language
  • Studying culture and embracing vulnerability

We are:

  • Aldo Rall
  • Horia Slușanschi
  • Gareth Holebrook

By visiting the home of The Focus Podcast you can find alternative ways to access this podcast. Thank you in anticipation for considering to support us.

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In which we interview Angus Muir

We discuss:

  • Going from "this is crazy" to "wow, this works"
  • Being wary of Value Stream diagrams that are too pretty
  • Overcoming "not my problem"-syndrome and learned helplessness
  • Patterns of lean-agile leadership
  • The lessons of the marshmallow tower TED talk, and developing the "assassination skills" to stop throwing good money after bad and pivot initiatives.
  • Overcoming arrogance by creating clear accountability to our ultimate customers
  • Noticing and adjusting for bias
  • "Building bridges is a messy business; sometimes you have to deal with the mud"

We are:

  • Aldo Rall
  • Horia Slușanschi
  • Gareth Holebrook

By visiting the home of The Focus Podcast you can find alternative ways to access this podcast. Thank you in anticipation for considering to support us.

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In which we interview Clarke Ching

We discuss:

  • The Theory of Constraints
  • Dollarising the prize
  • Pre-crastination and procrastination
  • The Ikea effect
  • Test-first thinking
  • The curse of excellence
  • Being busy mistaken for productivity

We are:

  • Aldo Rall
  • Horia Slușanschi
  • Gareth Holebrook

By visiting the home of The Focus Podcast you can find alternative ways to access this podcast. Thank you in anticipation for considering to support us.

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In which we interview Shane Gibson

We discuss:

  • Making good decisions and sequencing work
  • Data quality
  • Frameworks and paywalls
  • The necessity of context sensitivity - adapting practice guides to the local situation, iterate and experiment
  • Using words that make more sense

We are:

  • Aldo Rall
  • Horia Slușanschi
  • Gareth Holebrook

By visiting the home of The Focus Podcast you can find alternative ways to access this podcast. Thank you in anticipation for considering to support us.

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In which we interview Ziaan Hattingh

We discuss:

  • Creative tension
  • Tailoring rewards
  • Strong teams
  • Abstraction and frameworks
  • Toxic cultures
  • David Marquet's Intent-Based Leadership
  • Stanley McChrystal's Team of Teams
  • Seth Godin's The Practice
  • Hiring for capability

We are:

  • Aldo Rall
  • Horia Slușanschi
  • Gareth Holebrook

By visiting the home of The Focus Podcast you can find alternative ways to access this podcast. Thank you in anticipation for considering to support us.

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In which we interview Andreas Drechsler

We discuss:

  • Organising for fluidity and change
  • Hype and management fashions
  • How languages shape how we see the world
  • The nature of value
  • Architectural thinking - a holistic view across the organisation and its partners
  • Sensing at speed
  • Ambidextrous organisations - explore and exploit in balanced measure
  • Struggles with value streams and value networks

We are:

  • Aldo Rall
  • Horia Slușanschi
  • Gareth Holebrook

By visiting the home of The Focus Podcast you can find alternative ways to access this podcast. Thank you in anticipation for considering to support us.

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In which we interview Samuel Crescêncio

We discuss:

  • Structure & flow, organically evolving structures
  • Creating virtual gembas (the actual places of work)
  • Tips and tricks for visual management in remote working
  • Building trust, leading by example
  • Inner pressure from a common purpose
  • Gratitude and changes of perspective
  • The Obstacle is The Way
  • Practicing curiosity
  • Mary & Tom Poppendieck
  • Opening spaces for change, and The Art of Holding Space
  • The Lean Pyramid
  • Sooner Safer Happier

We are:

  • Aldo Rall
  • Horia Slușanschi
  • Gareth Holebrook

By visiting the home of The Focus Podcast you can find alternative ways to access this podcast. Thank you in anticipation for considering to support us.

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In which we interview Johan Steyn

We discuss:

  • Why do so many incompetent men become leaders (and how to fix it)
  • K-waves or economic super-cycles
  • Sapiens, the "useless class", and dystopia, utopia or something else?
  • The hypothesis that "all sentiences are created equal"
  • Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey
  • How civilisation is quite thin, and we're only a few missed meals away from a riot. Hunger and privation are powerful motivators
  • The Truman Show and how people accept the realities they are presented with
  • The Theories of Everything podcast
  • The original meaning of "blessed are the meek" Matthew 5:5
  • How we are excellent procrastinators
  • The New Human Movement
  • Corporate Rebels

We are:

  • Aldo Rall
  • Horia Slușanschi
  • Gareth Holebrook

By visiting the home of The Focus Podcast you can find alternative ways to access this podcast. Thank you in anticipation for considering to support us.

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In which we interview Scott Ambler

We discuss:

  • Agile modelling and agile data
  • Short-termism
  • Non-invasive data governance
  • Truthfulness in work and data
  • The Disciplined Agile governance process blade
  • From PMO to VMO
  • Multi-disciplinary governance tribes
  • Value streams begin and continue through to the customer
  • Rapid adaptation including customer feedback and the example of Zara
  • Building relationships and automation of governance with a human touch (see also autonomation or jidoka)

We are:

  • Aldo Rall
  • Horia Slușanschi
  • Gareth Holebrook

By visiting the home of The Focus Podcast you can find alternative ways to access this podcast. Thank you in anticipation for considering to support us.

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In which we interview Shane Hastie

We discuss:

  • Skills and titles
  • Agile People
  • noprojects - A Culture of Continuous Value

  • From Project to Product
  • The code of ethical conduct for agile coaching
  • Frederic Laloux's concept of teal organisations
  • The Social Dilemma
  • The Art of Holding Space
  • Shane's upcoming book, The Rock Crusher - about a model for populating and managing product backlogs

We are:

  • Aldo Rall
  • Horia Slușanschi
  • Gareth Holebrook

By visiting the home of The Focus Podcast you can find alternative ways to access this podcast. Thank you in anticipation for considering to support us.

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In which we interview Alan Hesketh

We discuss:

  • How when we work better we enjoy life much better
  • Alan's upcoming book "Start Fast. Achieving rapid impact from digital transformation"
  • How the lessons of endurance swimming apply to leadership
  • Making Work Visible
  • The "Lemons and Roses award" idea
  • John Boyd's OODA loop
  • Paul O'Neill's keystone habits put into practice at Alcoa
  • Beyond Budgeting
  • Willful Blindness
  • The Obstacle is the Way
  • Management 3.0
  • The Bureau of Sabotage and Jorj X. McKie
  • Leadership is Language

We are:

  • Aldo Rall
  • Horia Slușanschi
  • Gareth Holebrook

By visiting the home of The Focus Podcast you can find alternative ways to access this podcast. Thank you in anticipation for considering to support us.

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In which we interview Joanne Stone

We discuss:

  • What Wick'd Agile is about
  • How getting fired as an Agile Coach triggers deep insight and professional growth
  • How people experienced in practicing an agile mindset may band together and help in more communities - with an invitation to join us in the World Café Event on September 10th.
  • The Agility Impact Community
  • Unintended consequences, and the story of the Cats in Borneo
  • Leadership agility
  • The inspirational example of José Andrés and the World Central Kitchen
  • Going from bickering to feeling like we belong

We are:

  • Aldo Rall
  • Horia Slușanschi
  • Gareth Holebrook

By visiting the home of The Focus Podcast you can find alternative ways to access this podcast. Thank you in anticipation for considering to support us.

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In which we interview Carlos Andrade

We discuss:

  • The value-add of effective leadership
  • The necessity of disciplined training to develop effective skills
  • How great leaders create great professionals in their organisations
  • Vicious and virtuous cycles
  • Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow
  • The Inside the mind of a master procrastinator TED talk
  • David Marquet's Intent-Based Leadership
  • Jocko Willink's Extreme Ownership
  • Corporate Rebels
  • Humanocracy
  • Steven Pinker
  • Simon Sinek's Start with Why and Adam Grant's Think Again
  • Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
  • Hoshin Kanri or strategy deployment
  • The role of the court jester

We are:

  • Aldo Rall
  • Horia Slușanschi
  • Gareth Holebrook

By visiting the home of The Focus Podcast you can find alternative ways to access this podcast. Thank you in anticipation for considering to support us.

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In which we interview Janet Gregory

We discuss:

  • Changing the perception of quality
  • The role of the tester into the future
  • Overcoming stigma
  • How we might get emotions to help us make better decisions
  • Seeing our teams as extended families
  • Beyond zero sum
  • Doing the work to get the benefits

We are:

  • Aldo Rall
  • Horia Slușanschi
  • Gareth Holebrook

By visiting the home of The Focus Podcast you can find alternative ways to access this podcast. Thank you in anticipation for considering to support us.

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In which we interview Al Shalloway

We discuss:

  • How logic isn't enough to achieve impact. An engaging conversation is essential.
  • Cultivating empathy
  • Echo chambers and how we might break out of them.
  • Ways of dealing with complexity
  • Systems Thinking and Russ Ackoff's "TED talk"
  • How amazing instructors seem to be reading our minds
  • Steve Tendon and The Book of TameFlow
  • What makes a professional coach?
  • Dealing with toxic cultures
  • Stoicism and Ryan Holiday's work
  • Trim tabs
  • The Amplio community of practice
  • Success Engineering

We are:

  • Aldo Rall
  • Horia Slușanschi
  • Gareth Holebrook

By visiting the home of The Focus Podcast you can find alternative ways to access this podcast. Thank you in anticipation for considering to support us.

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In which we interview Dr. Isabella Allan and we discuss:

  • Reading clues and cues
  • Confirmation bias
  • Network science and the need for social nodes
  • Overcoming marginalisation
  • Getting into flow together through song and rhythm
  • Maintaining a shared context and discipline in group conversations
  • Habit stacking
  • Disruptors, dissenters and outliers
  • The value of simulation and training for contingencies
  • Thriving in an enduring crisis

Turn Talk Into Action: Harness the power of dialogue and collective decision-making

We are:

  • Aldo Rall
  • Horia Slușanschi
  • Gareth Holebrook

By visiting the home of The Focus Podcast you can find alternative ways to access this podcast. Thank you in anticipation for considering to support us.

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In which we interview Kiron Bondale 

We discuss:

  • Risk management
  • Cognitive overload
  • Reframing combatants into partners - beyond us and them
  • Turning lessons into gold
  • Seeing learning as another type of work
  • The Peter Principle
  • Noticing erosion and skills to stop wasteful initiatives

We are:

  • Aldo Rall
  • Horia Slușanschi
  • Gareth Holebrook

By visiting the home of The Focus Podcast you can find alternative ways to access this podcast. Thank you in anticipation for considering to support us.

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In which we interview Daniel Gagnon and we discuss:

  • Ego struggles
  • People impervious to argument
  • When do we get to toxicity?
  • Left-shifting oversight
  • The four stages of psychological safety
  • Agency and organisational agility
  • Rasputin coaching
  • Anti-fragility
  • Escaping zero-sum thinking - there's nothing that has more room than a full heart

We are:

  • Aldo Rall
  • Horia Slușanschi
  • Gareth Holebrook

By visiting the home of The Focus Podcast you can find alternative ways to access this podcast. Thank you in anticipation for considering to support us.

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In which we interview Dawie Olivier, and we discuss:

  • Classic governance as a process of progressive disappointment
  • How the underlying foundations of governance and control are flawed
  • How we may learn to embrace auditors and devise competence-based controls
  • Hubris and fear
  • How we may energise change agents by setting them gently asmoulder
  • The vital importance of belief in the possibility of becoming better

We are:

  • Aldo Rall
  • Horia Slușanschi
  • Gareth Holebrook

By visiting the home of The Focus Podcast you can find alternative ways to access this podcast. Thank you in anticipation for considering to support us.

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In which Aldo and Horia explain what we found as we navigated the tension between safety and courage.

We are:

  • Aldo Rall
  • Horia Slușanschi
  • Gareth Holebrook

By visiting the home of The Focus Podcast you can find alternative ways to access this podcast. Thank you in anticipation for considering to support us.

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In which Aldo and Horia explain:

  • What we found as we navigated the tension between following the new rules and changing the rules - from the combined perspectives of both oversight and initiative professionals
  • How this contributes to balancing the maintenance of competent capability with exploration and innovation

We are:

  • Aldo Rall
  • Horia Slușanschi
  • Gareth Holebrook

By visiting the home of The Focus Podcast you can find alternative ways to access this podcast. Thank you in anticipation for considering to support us.

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In which Aldo and Horia explain:

  • What we found as we navigated the tension between keeping things steady and inviting exploration - primarily form the perspective of the people involved in the work that creates value
  • How this contributes to balancing the maintenance of competent capability with exploration and innovation

We are:

  • Aldo Rall https://www.linkedin.com/in/aldorall/
  • Horia Slușanschi https://www.linkedin.com/in/slusanschi/
  • Gareth Holebrook https://www.linkedin.com/in/garethholebrook/

Find us at https://novavi.co/the-focus-podcast/

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In which Aldo and Horia explain:

  • What we found as we navigated the tension between preserving the status quo and creating a better way of working  - primarily form the perspective of the people involved in oversight activities
  • How this contributes to balancing the maintenance of competent capability with exploration and innovation

We are:

  • Aldo Rall https://www.linkedin.com/in/aldorall/
  • Horia Slușanschi https://www.linkedin.com/in/slusanschi/
  • Gareth Holebrook https://www.linkedin.com/in/garethholebrook/

Find us at https://novavi.co

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In which Aldo and Horia explain:

  • What we found as we navigated the tension between optimising utilisation and optimising flow in an attempt to sustain a dynamic balance

We are:

  • Aldo Rall https://www.linkedin.com/in/aldorall/
  • Horia Slușanschi https://www.linkedin.com/in/slusanschi/
  • Gareth Holebrook https://www.linkedin.com/in/garethholebrook/

Find us at https://novavi.co

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In which Aldo and Horia explain:

  • What we found as we navigated the tension between personal interest and organisational purpose in an attempt to sustain a dynamic balance

We are:

  • Aldo Rall https://www.linkedin.com/in/aldorall/
  • Horia Slușanschi https://www.linkedin.com/in/slusanschi/
  • Gareth Holebrook https://www.linkedin.com/in/garethholebrook/

Find us at https://novavi.co

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In which Aldo and Horia explain:

  • What is the Iron Triangle
  • What is the Agile Triangle
  • What we found as we navigated the tension between the two triangles in an attempt to sustain a dynamic balance

We are:

Aldo Rall Horia Slușanschi Gareth Holebrook

Find us at https://novavi.co

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In which Aldo and Horia explain:

  • What we discovered as we navigated the tension between Control and Trust in an attempt to sustain a dynamic balance

We are:

Aldo Rall Horia Slușanschi Gareth Holebrook

Find us at https://novavi.co

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In which Aldo and Horia explain:

  • What we mean by Adaptive Oversight
  • How we navigate tension between polarities in order to sustain a dynamic balance
  • The six main polarities that we use to make sense of Adaptive Oversight

We are:

Aldo Rall Horia Slușanschi Gareth Holebrook

Find us at https://novavi.co

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In which Aldo and Horia explain:

  • Why we're creating The Focus and why we named it this way;
  • A bit about Adaptive Oversight and what to expect from this podcast;
  • Our fundamental values and principles, and some expectations about how we will interact with our guests and audience.

We are: 

  • Aldo Rall
  • Horia Slușanschi
  • Gareth Holebrook

Find us at https://novavi.co