The Unbossing Podcast: Recent Episodes
The Unbossing Podcast
In this episode, we delve into a compelling conversation with Klaas Ariaans, the Director of Consumer Clients at ABN AMRO. At the helm of the 3.500 employee office organization within the bank, Klaas oversees a division undergoing rapid evolution. He spearheaded two pivotal transformations: firstly, through Personal Banking, digital interactions have taken on a deeply personalized dimension. Secondly, we've eliminated management by an astonishing 95%, ushering in a new era of self-organization. Join us as we distill lessons from six years of digital and cultural metamorphosis into a captivating 45-minute dialogue.
In this episode, we're inspired by the journey of Beetroot, a Swedish-Ukrainian company founded by students Andreas Flodström and Gustav Henman in 2012. From a humble backpack startup, Beetroot grew into a global tech ecosystem, all while staying true to its roots as a social enterprise. But their story doesn't end there. Amidst conflict in their homeland, Beetroot rose to the challenge, showcasing resilience, compassion, and innovation.
For the past ten years Stuart has been working with investment and legal firms on a new framework for sustainable Total Stakeholder Value creation. In this episode, we discuss Responsible Capitalism and the relation between tangible business value outcomes like PnL or shareholder value and investments in well-being, environment, safety, trust, diversity, etc.
In this episode, we delve into the extraordinary story of how a single LinkedIn post paved the way for raising 2 million euros and the establishment of a transparent booking platform poised to challenge the dubious practices prevalent in the realm of booking.com.
Links mentioned during the conversation
- Steward-ownership Patagonia:
https://medium.com/@purpose_network/the-patagonia-structure-in-the-context-of-steward-ownership-e9db3d260dc6 - Niels Blog about Steward Ownership (dutch)
https://www.deondernemer.nl/blog/steward-ownership-is-voor-ondernemers-die-meer-willen-doen-dan-alleen-geld-verdienen-voor-aandeelhouders~08eda50 - Book 'Companies of the future' (dutch)
https://www.managementboek.nl/boek/9789047017226/toekomstbedrijven-gijsbert-koren` - Documentary on Steward Ownership (Dutch)
https://www.vpro.nl/programmas/tegenlicht/kijk/afleveringen/2019-2020/goed-geld-verdienen.html
In this episode, we explain why we created the Unbossers Network, how you can leverage the collective power of this network for the value and the benefit of your people and your organization.
In this episode, we have the pleasure of being joined by Delia Mensitieri, a distinguished clinical psychologist and a leading expert in the realm of diversity and inclusion within the workplace. Join us as we delve into insightful discussions on fostering a more inclusive and diverse work environment. You'll gain valuable perspectives and learn how to create a truly equitable and empowering space for all.
In this episode, we're joined by Lizzie Penny and Alex Hirst, co-founders of WorkStyleRevolution.com and Hoxby. They share their insights on how work styles are evolving, and discuss the future of work in the context of changing technology and societal trends. Tune in to learn more about their innovative approach to helping individuals and organizations thrive in the modern workplace.
This episode is a conversation with Nico Moleman, founder & ceo of the steward-owned organization BuurtzorgT. They are active in psychiatric care and offer care at home instead of admissions for people with severe psychiatric disorders. They are proving in the field this prevents powerlessness and increases the chances of recovery at home.
Nico and I zoom in:
- The first chaotic two years of the journey to self-management
- Why and how they had to adapt the Buurtzorg framework for self-management
- Why they made BuurtzorgT a steward owned company which is a legal structure that makes the people in the company owner of the company
- But also very operational stuff like how the planning process in a self-managing care organization works
In this episode, we get world-class insights on inclusive, participatory and responsive decision-making processes and technology from Wietse Van Ransbeeck, co-founder of Citizenlab, the number one online community engagement platform for local governments.
Wietse is an impact entrepreneur, recognized as Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe leader, and determined to rebuild our (digital) democracies from the bottom-up.
400+ local governments trust CitizenLab with their community engagement project. They’ve supported 15,000+ Projects across all policy domains: from urban planning and climate action to mobility and participatory budgeting.
In this episode we learn from Viisi co-founder Tom van der Lubbe how they became Netherland's best employer 4 time in a row and one of the best places to work in Europe applying the ancient wisdom of self-organization.
Viisi is an expert in housing and mortgage advice. They want to realize dreams in a sustainable financial world. They do so by investing in lasting relationships and products that create freedom of choice, consciousness and transparency.
In this episode I talk to New York Times–bestselling author Daniel Pink about the transforming power of our most misunderstood yet potentially most valuable emotion: regret. Or in other words, how looking backwards moves us forward.
This episode is an audio recording of our Unbossers Toolbox Youtube Show in which we dissect the Triangle of Trust. It's a super simple and effective tool to understand trust, to facilitate though conversations and help each other improve in acting out trusted relationships.
In this episode, I have a conversation with award-winning consulting pharmacist Steven Adjei who has worked with Britain’s NHS and several pharmacy multiples in England and Africa about WAR and how it can trigger radical social innovation.
In this episode, I talk with Bruno Sirletti, Fujitsu VP Cloud & Digital Business Western Europe. He's actually doing the radical transformation at Fujitsu and we discuss the day-to-day operational challenges and results that come with it.
Learn more about Fujitsu's transformation and also listen to my conversation with Joao Domingos. He's Bruno's boss. We looked at their challenges more from a strategic perspective.
We dissect the advice process, the most agile, inclusive, and collaborative decision-making process in business. This is the audio recording of the first episode of Unbossers Toolbox, our Youtube spin-off of this Unbossers Podcast.
In this episode, we talk with Olga Potaptseva, named amongst the Top 150 CX Professionals globally she invented the Agile CX Implementation Toolkit and is the Founding Director of European Customer Consultancy. We talk about what exactly makes a great customer experience?
In this episode, we are blessed to talk with NK Chaudhary. Learn how he grew a business with two looms and nine artisans in 1978 to a global social enterprise exporting to over 60 countries while providing sustainable livelihood to 40,000 artisans in 600 remote villages across five states in India, out of which 80% of them are women.
Is leadership overvalued? Are management schools and transformation consultants too much focused on the managers? Learn from Jos de Blok why this is a problem. It’s bad for for business, and for manager's themselves, he claims.
Jos is the founder and CEO of Buurtzorg (neighborhood nursing), a Dutch organization with more than 10.000 employees, offering community based (home) care services to more than 70.000 patients a year.
This episode is a recording of a session with Joe Justice "the guy who introduced Agile at Tesla". This session was organized exclusively for our Unbossing Roundtable community. Thomas and I are so excited to give you a glimpse into one of the most fascinating organizations in the world. Joe gives detailed insides in how Tesla is blowing away customers and competitors with unprecedented speed by being radically Agile. I knew Tesla was not just innovating cars, but also the way they work. But I'm still baffled by how extreme they are in their pursuit of their mission.
In this episode, we had the pleasure to meet Kevin Nolan, CEO at GE Appliances, a 100-year-old billion-dollar company, with close to 15.000 employees, present in more than 50% of US homes and acquired by Haier in 2016. We explore the company’s adoption of the Rendanheyi philosophy with its challenges and the outstanding results it allowed them to reach, with the best year ever during Covid-19 times. In only four years, GE Appliances underwent a massive transformation taking inspiration from a model they were initially unaware of, not even knowing how to pronounce its name.
This episode goes deep into the most fundamental questions about organizations: why do they exist? how do they function? how can they innovate? Andreas Holmer is a designer, reader, and writer. Occasional speaker. CEO at MAQE in Bangkok, Thailand.(http://www.maqe.com). He is just like myself a seeker of truth, mental models, and better ways of working. He's on a mission to (literally) change how the world works. Make sure to check out his amazingly inspiring newsletter "work matters" on Medium: https://medium.com/workmatters
This episode provides an exclusive look within the Haier Corporation told by the amazing Willian (Bill) Fisher and shows how managerial accountability and responsibility have been repositioned at every level of the organization, with the core value of market-centricity, while aligning strategy on each level of management. It includes actual work reports that show this process in detail from the ground up.
Bill is a Professor at IMD, in Lausanne, Switzerland, where among other interests he specializes in the art and practice of successful innovation, and the effective expression of talent. He co-founded the IMD partnership program on Driving Strategic Innovation, in cooperation with the Sloan School of Management at MIT. He was on the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for twenty years, moved to China in 1980, and was the President and Dean of the China Europe International Business School [CEIBS] in Shanghai in 1998-1999. He has received awards for teaching, case-writing and research, and in 2008 he received the Imagination Lab Foundation Award for Innovative Scholarship for his writing and teaching on emerging markets. In 2011, the UK newspaper The Independent" named Bill “one of the most influential business tweeters”; and in 2012, InnovationExcellence.com named him one of its “Top 50 Innovation Tweeters,” while InnovationManagement.com's included him among their 40 top innovation bloggers.
Let's start 2022 with a bang! Kurt and Julia, both Professor in Strategic Management, talk about how smart companies are opening up strategic initiatives to involve front-line employees, experts, suppliers, customers, entrepreneurs, and even competitors. In other words: strategy ideation, - formulation and - execution the unbossed way!
This the first of a series of special editions of the Unbossing Podcast in which Thomas and Nick answer basically any question people might have on Unbossing. In this first episode, they tackle Unbossing 101 questions like "what is Unbossing?" "what's in it for employees?"' or "what's the role of transparency.
Jean Francois Zobrist, a metallurgical engineer and former paratrooper, became managing director of FAVI, a metalworking company in Hallencourt, northern France, in 1983. Zobrist found the way the company treated employees to be demeaning. He opted for a radically different approach with massive success. In this conversation we discuss the 4 main changes he made in the organization: 1. Employees do not work by the hour, nor for a salary. They work for the love of the customer. 2. Switch from forecast and control to trust. 3. Structure the organization into micro-enterprises. 4. Install relative objectives, in stead of numerical, at micro-enterprise level.
Inspired by Haier's Rendanheyi Model, Fujitsu Europe started experimenting with the microenterprise concept in spring 2020. One year later, results look promising—employees are more engaged, customers more satisfied, and business results have skyrocketed.
This conversation with Joao Domingos is one of the most practical how-to unboss episodes so far. What you will learn: 1. Why did they choose for the Rendanheyi principles? 2. Where did they start? 3. How did Joao's role as "middle manager" in a global organization change? 4. How important is it to get support from your N+1? 5. Where are they now in the journey? 6. What are the differences between leading a micro-enterprise organization and a traditional organization? 7. What about internal departments like Finance and HR? 8. How did organization structures and renumeration systems change? And much more!
Nina is a biomedical engineer currently working as eHealth projects director at the French Ministry of Health. She's also the driving source behind "Open Opal", the French community for Teal Organization. No wonder she is so good in explaining what this new organization model is all about. The three main topics we discuss are: 1. concrete examples of unbossing in heavy regulated healthcare businesses. 2. What is a company purpose, and is the purpose owned by the leader? 3. Can every organization evolve and how do you start?
Maura is a force of nature and owner of international recruitment agency STAFF Europe Recruitment & Consulting specialized in Executive Search.
In this podcast, she delivers us the perfect playbook on how to build - and sustain! - the Unbossed Team of the future: 1. As a CEO/Founder, get your ego out of the way! 2. Hire for mindset, passion, integrity first and foremost. 3. Be authentic and walk your talk. Nothing can be more disappointing than paying only lip-service to your proclaimed company culture and not following through when it counted.
Since 2014, the Vietnamese-French company Officience is on a journey to reinvent itself from a typical command-and-control organization with management by objectives, executive boards and steering committees to an unbossed organization with clusters, self-organized salary processes and liquified internal communication. Next to the company story, Duc explains in detail how he developed from a traditional CEO to an unbossed leader. And maybe even more interesting is to listen and learn from Nam Phuong who's sharing her experience as employee in this journey.
This episode listens like an amphetamine bom full of passion. Julie takes us on an insightful journey on what power is, how it’s gained and lost, and how it can be used for good. This episode made us rethink some of our most basic assumptions about influence.
Moreover, if this episode inspires you, then you should definitely read Julie's book Power, for All. I loved how Julie and her colleague Tiziana Casciaro analyse and explain power by waving together insights from world-class research, old greek philosophers and remarkable real-life cases.
In the" Tribe of Unbossers" John Hagel would be, just like Gary Hamel, an "elder". Meaning a wise man, a repository of huge cultural and philosophical knowledge and a transmitters of critical information for the leaders and organizations of the future. Regardless of his massive background and experience, he isn't stuck in the past. On the contrary, the central topic of this episode is the employee of the future: the passionate explorer. Those who want to have meaning-full impact in a specific area, those who see unexpected challenges as opportunities for having impact and those who connect with others to have more impact, faster. In John's study a staggering 86% of the US Workforce doesn't identify themselves at work with this definition. So yeah, John, Thomas and myself talk about what we can do to change this.
Dr. Manas Fuloria is the CEO - Custodian of Entrepreneurship in the Organization (his words!) - of Nagarro, a global digital engineering leader. The company employs over 10.000 people in 26 countries and is listed on the German stock exchange. More importantly, they are super unbossed. Where most global companies have a pyramid structure where few people are on top and then that breaks down into another span and so on, Nagarro has 10.000 people working in small two-pizza teams with hardly any hierarchy on top. That's because Manas, Doctor in Supply Chain Management, learned early on the crucial role of organizational design in a companies success. In this exclusive conversation we talk about the why and how of their unique culture and structure. How does Manas see his role as CEO? How does this way of working fit into the specific regulations of stock exchanges? What are the advantages of this structure in acquisitions and why is data and technology crucial? These and many other practical questions are answered by one of the most successful unbossed leaders in the world.
Many leaders and executives still believe unbossing is a slippery slope. That chaos is around the unbossing corner. That unbossing is synonym for no more leaders. That it works in start-ups and digital businesses, but god forbid, not in their unique business. And many more of these huge misconceptions used as excuses to protect the comfort zone.
And then comes Captain David Marquet. Leader in the most regulated, risk- and innovation averse context imaginable: a US Navy Nuclear Submarine. He himself trained for years by the US Army to tell people what to do. Used to giving orders in this high-stress environment it was crucial his men did their job well. But the ship he was placed on was dogged by poor morale, poor performance and the worst retention in the fleet. One day, Marquet unknowingly gave an impossible order, and his crew tried to follow it anyway.
He realized he was leading in a culture of followers, and they were all in danger unless they fundamentally changed the way they did things. Marquet took matters into his own hands and pushed for leadership at every level. Before long, his crew became fully engaged and the Santa Fe skyrocketed from worst to first in the fleet.
No surprise, Thomas, Nick and Captain David hit it off right away. They talk about the crucial importance of language, the hero's journey of letting go the ego and tons of other approaches and insights.
This 60 minutes episode is a true blessing for anyone who striving for a workplace where everyone takes responsibility for their actions, people are healthier and happier - and everyone is a leader.
Also watch the video version exclusively released for this episode because quite frankly, it makes the conversation even more energizing than it already is: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfnSXcV_w5U
Dennis Teichmann, Chairman of Jacando, was nominated by Analytics Insight as one of the 40 Innovators of the Year 2019. His company Jacando is revolutionizing HR for SME's with digital solutions in the field of recruitment and talent management.
In this episode, the Swiss tech-entrepreneur explains how he deals with non-believers in his company and how to keep crucial employees. He also sheds his light on topics like how the investor community looks at unbossing and in which exceptional cases he still exercises his veto right as CEO.
The story of Dennis is yet another confirmation that the successful start-ups of today (and thus the leading corporates of tomorrow) choose unbossing from the start.
This was one of the most anticipated episodes of the year because Nick and Thomas use insights from Unleashed on a daily basis. Frances and Anne argue that the popular leadership advice glosses over the most important thing you do as a leader: build others up. Leadership isn't about you. It's about how effective you are at empowering other people and making sure this impact endures even in your absence. Whether or not you are already, these 40 minutes are a true blessing.
Did you know the human brain works in unbossed ways? It does. The intelligence of nature is puzzling. Such a source of wisdom on how to organize complexity and create life. This podcast with blue-haired brain doctor Ravi Rao is a special plea for human connectedness to grow earnings and the economy. In a calm and almost soothing way Ravi helps us apply the latest insights in how the brain and human beings are wired onto work and organizations. Gosh, these were the most fascinating 45 minutes of the month!
The Dutch Railways is making solid progress transporting 1.25 million passengers a day and ranking among the top five best train companies in the world. Yet for years, passenger satisfaction lagged behind. And no matter what management tried, improvement was not forthcoming. NS had reached a performance ceiling.
Bringing performance sustainably to a higher level seems an impossible task for many organizations. The harsh reality is that most change programs fail. One change follows the other and people get exhausted.
In this podcast, change agent Paul Van Schaik explains how NS managed to break through the performance ceiling in recent years with a completely new way of working.
A holistic approach in which the employees are central and in which they found it was much less about the why of the change and more about the people who together bring about the change.
Every unbossing journey is beautiful and also a little bit messy. It feeds everyone with infinite new insights, it comes with a number of new responsibilities and it requires a whole new set of skills. It's the continuous process of trying to make an impact one step at a time, trying, failing and getting back up. Few people inspire others more to start their own journey than Ank De Wilde. She is the Co-Founder & CEO at Absolem, an engineering company with a passion to create and innovate technology, processes, industrial products or machinery that make people happy and businesses grow. And more importantly, she embodies the vast richness and potential of femininity in business.
Pebble Wave is an incubator, investor and private equity fund. They create conscious and purpose-driven organisations. In this episode, co-founder Stephan Bostoen explains why they only participate in start-ups and SMEs when the leaders give their unconditional YES for the unbossed philosophy.
Do you need a mandate to start working in an unbossed way within a corporate organization? Does unbossing always start at the top? Or can you also build an unbossed island within a corporate structure and as such inspire the organization step by step? Florian Lesch, the CIO of Lufthansa CityLine, choose the latter and explains us the why, how and what of transforming their ICT department into an Agile Island within the corporate Lufthansa
What if your organization of 1.900 employees is too decentralized, becoming too complex and growth, in every sense of the word, is blocked? How do you create a shared strategy, identity and culture without losing that sense of autonomy and intrapreneurship that comes with that decentralized structure? Find out in this unique conversation with the ever so passionate Karin Van Roy, Chief Human Ressources at the 120 year old Arvesta about strategy, culture and execution!
This episode is dedicated to everyone who truly and for once and for all wants to understand what Agile and Scrum is actually all about. Who better to enlighten us than Scrum Caretaker Gunther Verheyen, a Belgium Scrum expert and former long time partner of Ken Schwaber, co-inventor of Scrum, at Scrum.org.
Paul Van Oyen became CEO of Etex on 1 January 2015, yet he prefers the term "becoming the ceo" referring to his infinite journey to becoming the best leader he can be. This episode is truly a masterclass in humble and contextual leadership. Paul's insights on self-awareness, purpose, decision-making and driving change are pure gold.
Jennifer, Vice President, Global Head of Patient Access and Community Engagement at Sobi - Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB, is an executive on a mission to drive team cohesion, collaboration and performance. She tells the story of how she is using improv comedy techniques to accomplish this during the extended work from home COVID pandemic. Next to this, we also discuss unbossed islands in a traditional organization and how to learn from conflicts. Connect with Jeniffer on LinkedIn.
In 2019, the family-owned Schoenen Torfs chain was voted Best Employer for the 10th time as well as Best Employer in Europe. Wouter Torfs, CEO of the company, is famous for his entrepreneurial and people vision which resulted in this unique corporate culture. In this podcast, we look back with Wouter on the strange year 2020. He talks openly about dealing with the pandemic, what they did good and what they could have done better. His story is once again a confirmation that unbossing your organization is a journey that never stops, not even for Schoenen Torfs.
Curiosity is one the most important characteristic of an unbossed organization. Who better to guide us in this domain than Stefaan Van Hooydonck, founder of the Global Curiosity Institute and former celebrated global Chief Learning Officer at Cognizant and other multinational corporations.
Jacob Botter is the co-author of the book UNBOSS, released in 2014 and one of the triggers for this podcast. In this episode, we mostly focus on the fact that it is simply not possible to truly unboss an organization without the supporting technology and infrastructure. Learn from Jacob himself how the future technology landscape in unbossed organizations will look like.
Bruce is the co-Founder of Huapii. He formerly worked at McKinsey, Solvay and Euroclear where he participated in a series of impressive corporate HR innovation projects. In this podcast he shares his views and experiences on how we can (1) re-imagine our workplace and people ecosystem, (2) reinvent how we collaborate, innovate, make decisions, develop ourselves and colleagues and (3) make change and transition more fun & light. Connect with Bruce on LinkedIn.
“Baker McKenzie partner Anahita Thoms is an iconic figure within and far beyond the world of international top lawyers. She’s been recently recognised for the second time in a row in the category Manager of the Year 2020, within the German “Top 40 under 40” 🥇In this podcast episode she’s inspiring us with her vision of empowering leadership and teamwork within a world class law firm. Reach her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anahitathoms
Novartis is the global landmark case in Unbossing, not only due to its giant size, but also because of the deep commitment of its leadership team. Steven Baert, Chief People Officer Novartis Group, shares with us inspiring insights into this fascinating journey!”
Peter Vermeulen is a successful Executive Coach and coauthor of “be(come) an awesome manager”. He takes us on an inspiring journey through his years as HR Executive at Amazon, showing us the magic of “Disagree and Commit”, how Amazon drives innovation and - of course - the famous team size rule of 2 family pizzas! Find Peter on LinkedIn.
Thijs Claes and his team at DADDY KATE are active in the highly competitive and commoditised printing sector. Hear Thijs explaining how their customer centric strategy is delivering huge success in the marketplace and why an Unbossed organisation is the only way to make this strategy work. Learn more about Thijs and his team here on their website: https://www.daddykate.be/
Every CEO wanting to attract and keep top talent should listen to Laura Haleydt’s story! She left a promising corporate career to build a successful social media consulting business in record time. Which factors are giving her the energy and joy to achieve these stunning results? Please count how often she’s mentioning the word “freedom”! Learn more about Laura and her business here on Instagram and LinkedIn.
Michele Zanini is a cofounder of the Management Lab, where he helps large organizations become more adaptable, innovative and engaging places to work. Zanini is an alumnus of McKinsey & Company and the RAND Corporation, and holds degrees from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the Pardee RAND Graduate School. In this episode, we talk about whether most CEOs "get it", the biggest pitfalls and where and how to start the journey.
Gary Hamel is on the faculty of the London Business School and is a cofounder of the Management Lab, an organization that builds technology and tools to support breakthrough management innovation. Hailed by the Wall Street Journal as the world's most influential business thinker, Professor Hamel’s shares his thoughts on innovation, scaling creativity and so much more.
Your team is organized according to the agile books and still not performing? Kris Debisschop reminds us of the elephants in the room, purpose and motivation, in order to avoid being “lazy agile”. Kris was founder of Rebel Group. Currently he's a partner at Hifluence and chairman of the board at ArmenTekort.
You have organized your project state -of-the-art, all lights are on green, and still nothing moves forward? Listen to the fascinating story of Robert Harms, who experienced this situation building a new production plant at Siemens and solved it brilliantly: by giving back freedom and motivation to his team! Robert is co-founder of NextGenerationWorkx and 5thIndustry.
Your target is to establish trustful open-feedback culture within your team? Listen to Filip De Pooter, who’s achieving this by being true to himself and using smart tools. Filip is Country Manager Belgium @ Lee Hecht Harrison, member of the Adecco Group.
In this second episode, we introduce our second co-host of The Unbossing Podcast: Nick Van Langendonck. Also he shares his essential insight on unbossing with the world. Nick is the founder of Hifluence. He's also co-founder of Pebble.Link and guest lecturer at Antwerp Management School.
In this first episode, we introduce the co-host of The Unbossing Podcast: Thomas Hubbuch. He shares the one thing he feels the whole world should know about unbossing based on his 20+ years of top executive experience. Thomas was 15 years the CEO of the famous Belgium company Tiense Suiker. Today he's a partner at Hifluence.