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New Work and Sustainability
Ecology meets Liberating Structures w Jeremy Akers
Join me on the journey to new work and sustainability!
Imagine your organization as a living system (not a machine) designed for people to thrive, grow, innovate, and laugh. Bringing themselves and your business forward. I believe we can create better working environments and companies that are better for communities and for the planet!
Therefore, in this podcast you can explore:
- cutting edge new work practices and sustainability practices for your organization, for your team, and for you as a leader
- hands-on conversations with international experts in new work and sustainability
- new insights, ideas, perspectives, methods, tools, skills, hacks, learning nuggets
so we can all get out of our silos and learn from each other!
This podcast if for:
leaders, HR and sustainability managers, agile folks, and everyone who wants to make a difference inside the workplace, while protecting our planet.
Episode 4: Ecology meets Liberating Structures
My guest today
Jeremy Akers spreads the gospel of change full heartedly. He’s happiest enabling agency, in assemblages towards prosocial outcomes by using interaction game design and Liberating Structures. He believes that the future of leadership looks like coaching and facilitation, his work as an agile coach foregrounds communication, coordination and collaboration. He is a pioneer and active in social impact DAOs and web3 movements such as Regens Unite, Refi Spring and regenerative finance (ReFi). He lives in Amsterdam and works in Europe. Connect with him on LinkedIn and find out more about his work everywhere online under gospelofchange.
Our topic
How do you bring new work and sustainability together?
In this episode we suggest using liberating structures as thinking and practice tools to activate, enable, and embody ecological thinking. LS allow you and your teams to navigate hands on ecology and systems thinking.
In detail we talk about:
🔹What are liberating structures and why and how do they matter for your work?
🔹What is ecology and how can liberating structures support your sustainability work?
🔹What are social impact DAOs and how are they a place where new work and sustainability come together?
Resources we mention:
- Liberating Structures https://www.liberatingstructures.com/ls-menu/
- Regens Unite https://www.regensunite.earth/
- ReFi Spring https://www.refispring.com/
Get in touch with me:
Let us continue the discussion and connect on LinkedIn and dive deeper into today’s topic with my blog articles.
Want to work with me? Write me an email: info[a]nicole-helmerich.com or a LinkedIn DM.
More episodes
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12. New Work Hack. Liberating Structures 1,2,4,all -boost your collaboration
14:05||Season 1, Ep. 12About the podcastImagine your organization as a living system (not a machine) designed for people to thrive, grow, innovate, and laugh. Bringing themselves and your business forward. I believe we can create better working environments and companies that are better for communities and for the planet! About this episodeThis episode is a learning hack. It is a short episode on a specific hack you can use when leading in transformation, when working with groups and teams on change, when leading a sustainable transition of an organization. I will address new work practices or sustainability practices.Today I present a new work hack on “Liberating Structures 1,2,4, all -boost your collaboration”. Use this structure to include the knowledge, experience, and ideas of all your team members. This is collaboration at its best! I talk about Liberating Structures, what they are, why they matter, and you can learn the core structures 1, 2, 4, all step by step for:🔹 Face to face settings🔹 For online settings (zoom or MS Teams)🔹 For a hybrid setting🔹 I also give an example on how you can specifically use it to improve your regular team meetings.This episode is for LS beginners as well as pros. I am a big LS promoter and I use it when I work with leaders and teams in transformation and change as well as in team and culture development. Try it out and share your feedback and insights down in the comments of this post.Want more after listening to the new work hack?🔹Get the entire 1,2,4, all description from the podcast in this blog post of mine: ADD LINK🔹Join my event: BarCamp of the non-profit organization #play14 I co-host in Zurich from September 21 in the evening to September 23, 2023, to learn and exchange on liberating structures, play, serious games, team development hacks, agile hacks etc. https://play14zh.com/ 🔹Join our LS go online User group to practice 🔹 Go back to episode 4 of my podcast “Ecology meets Liberating Structures with Jeremy Akers“ to deep dive on Liberating Structures🔹Visit www.liberatingstructures.com for all 33 LS Get in touch with me:· Let us continue the discussion and connect on LinkedIn and dive deeper into today’s topic with my blog articles.· Want to work with me? Write me an email: info[a]nicole-helmerich.com or a LinkedIn DM.11. Colonial Sustainability with Lavinia Muth
39:10||Season 1, Ep. 11Imagine your organization as a living system (not a machine) designed for people to thrive, grow, innovate, and laugh. Bringing themselves and your business forward. I believe we can create better working environments and companies that are better for communities and for the planet!Therefore, in this podcast you can explore:cutting edge new work practices and sustainability practices for your organization, for your team, and for you as a leaderhands-on conversations with international pioneers in new work and sustainabilitynew insights, ideas, perspectives, methods, tools, skills, hacks, learning nuggetsso we can all get out of our silos and learn from each other!This podcast if for:leaders, HR and sustainability managers, agile folks, and everyone who wants to make a difference inside the workplace, while protecting our planet.Episode 11: Colonial Sustainability and how to decolonize sustainability in your supply chains My guest todayLavinia advocates for social & environmental justice and has 15 years of proven experience in the world of ethically driven business with a focus on apparel, footwear, and solidarity agriculture. Prior to leading the sustainability activities of the German fashion brand ARMEDANGELS, she researched in the field of Child Labour in global trade; audited and consulted fashion brands and factories in Europe, Asia, and South America. Lavinia claims that colonial sustainability is not a theoretical subject, but a real lived one, which all of us who interact with sustainable development and the Global South experience and fuel daily. Connect with her on Linked In and visit her website.Our topic: Colonial Sustainability and how to decolonize sustainability in your supply chains This podcast episode is for leaders caring about or being responsible for supply chain sustainability and human rights in supply chains. Find out, how to rethink your sustainability and human rights approach in your supply chain:what colonial sustainability means and why we need to rethink our sustainability policies for the supply chainswhat are right relationships between buyers, suppliers and workers and why a risk approach has its limitshow you can co-create sustainability and a great product in your supply chain with all relevant actorsResources we mention: Moving beyond carbon tunnel vision by Dr.Jan Konietzko Nicole’s favorite song “Jarabe De Palo - Dejame Vivir” Lavinia’s favourite film “triangle of sadness” Lavinia’s mentioned course for professionals: Intro decolonial sustainability Future Work method for co-creation: Liberating Structures, join our online user groupGet in touch with me:· Let us connect on LinkedIn .10. Sustainability Hack: Inner Development Goals and how to use them in your team
10:00||Season 1, Ep. 10Join me on the journey to new work and sustainability!My name is Nicole Helmerich, I accompany leaders and teams to connect, and co-create meaningfully, and to grow bringing themselves and their business forward. I help organizations to transform in a sustainable and people-centred way.Imagine your organization as a living system (not a machine) designed for people to thrive, grow, innovate, and laugh. Bringing themselves and your business forward. I believe we can create better working environments and companies that are better for communities and for the planet!Therefore, in this podcast you can explore:cutting edge new work practices and sustainability practices for your organization, for your team, and for you as a leaderhands-on conversations with international pioneers in new work and sustainabilitynew insights, ideas, perspectives, methods, tools, skills, hacks, learning nuggetsso we can all get out of our silos and learn from each other!This podcast if for:leaders, HR and sustainability managers, agile folks, and everyone who wants to make a difference inside the workplace, while protecting our planet.Episode 10: Sustainability Hack. Inner development goals (IDGs) and how to use them in your teamThis episode is a short learning hack. What is this podcast format about?The conversation format with my wonderful international network of promoters of new work and sustainability will continue. But I will add a new format - that of a learning hack. A short episode on a specific hack you can use when leading in transformation, when working with groups and teams on change, when leading a sustainable transition of an organization. I will address new work practices or sustainability practices.Today I present a sustainability hack. inner development goals (IDGs) and how to use them in your team.Next steps for you:Try the collaborating dimension out with your team and let me know, how it goes. If you have any questions do not hesitate to reach out to me on linked in and I am happy to support youContact me and let’s bring IDGs to your organizationResources I mention:Join the IDG communityJoin the Inner Development Goals Summit 2023 in October in Stockholm Read more about the 5 dimensions and 23 skills https://www.innerdevelopmentgoals.org/framework Listen to the new work hack river crossing in episode 9 Up for more serious games? Attend our BarCamp of the non-profit organization #play14 I co-host in Zurich from Sep 21 in the evening to Sep 23 to learn and exchange on play, serious games, team development hacks etc. https://play14zh.com/Get in touch with me:Let us continue the discussion and connect on LinkedIn and dive deeper into today’s topic with my blog articles.Want to work with me? Write me an email: info[a]nicole-helmerich.com or a LinkedIn DM.9. New Work Hack. River crossing 4 collaboration and trust
07:57||Season 1, Ep. 9Join me on the journey to new work and sustainability!My name is Nicole Helmerich, I accompany leaders and teams to connect, and co-create meaningfully, and to grow bringing themselves and their business forward. I help organizations to transform in a sustainable and people-centred way.Imagine your organization as a living system (not a machine) designed for people to thrive, grow, innovate, and laugh. Bringing themselves and your business forward. I believe we can create better working environments and companies that are better for communities and for the planet!Therefore, in this podcast you can explore:cutting edge new work practices and sustainability practices for your organization, for your team, and for you as a leaderhands-on conversations with international pioneers in new work and sustainabilitynew insights, ideas, perspectives, methods, tools, skills, hacks, learning nuggetsso we can all get out of our silos and learn from each other!This podcast if for:leaders, HR and sustainability managers, agile folks, and everyone who wants to make a difference inside the workplace, while protecting our planet.Episode 9: New Work Hack. River crossing 4 collaboration and trustIn this episode I introduce a new episode format - a learning hack.What is this new podcast format about?The conversation format with my wonderful international network of promoters of new work and sustainability will continue. But I will add a new format - that of a learning hack. A short episode on a specific hack you can use when leading in transformation, when working with groups and teams on change, when leading a sustainable transition of an organization.I will address new work practices or sustainability practices.Today we will start with a new work hack. I call this learning hack: river crossing for trust and collaboration.Resources I mention:Episode 2 of my podcast with Nancy Beers with the title: Play it forward. Play for organizations to get to know some more serious games and play Join my event: BarCamp of the non-profit organization #play14 I co-host in Zurich from September 21 in the evening to September 23, 2023 to learn and exchange on play, serious games, team development hacks etc. Get in touch with me:Let us continue the discussion and connect on LinkedIn and dive deeper into today’s topic with my blog articles.Want to work with me? Write me an email: info[a]nicole-helmerich.com or a LinkedIn DM.8. Lego serious play for transformation with Suleander Zahn
35:36||Season 1, Ep. 8Join me on the journey to new work and sustainability!Imagine your organization as a living system (not a machine) designed for people to thrive, grow, innovate, and laugh. Bringing themselves and your business forward. I believe we can create better working environments and companies that are better for communities and for the planet!Therefore, in this podcast you can explore:cutting edge new work practices and sustainability practices for your organization, for your team, and for you as a leaderhands-on conversations with international pioneers in new work and sustainabilitynew insights, ideas, perspectives, methods, tools, skills, hacks, learning nuggetsso we can all get out of our silos and learn from each other!This podcast if for:leaders, HR and sustainability managers, agile folks, and everyone who wants to make a difference inside the workplace, while protecting our planet.Episode 8: Lego serious play for transformationMy guest todaySuleander Zahn spends his time changing hats between being an Agile Coach, mentor, trainer, but his preferred one is the hat of a facilitator. He is part of many agile related communities, organising meetups face to face especially in Portugal, but some online too. On the personal side, he also likes changing actual hats (He owns a small collection of them). He also enjoys long walks in the nature. But when playing and facilitating with Lego bricks, those are the moments when he completely bonds the Professional and Personal sides into one. Our topic: Lego serious play for transformation “Your hands know things that your mind never imagined or that at least you didn’t know you knew”. Lego serious play is a problem-solving method. It allows you to tap on various sources of your creativity and join forces with your colleagues when solving a team challenge, designing your vision, transforming your team or organization, or developing your strategy. A facilitator guides you through four core steps: 1) facilitator poses one question or challenge, 2) everybody in the room builds something with lego bricks answering the question/challenge, 3) everybody shares what they have built, and 4) everybody reflects on what they have shared, what the others have shared and what they have discovered in the moments of building, sharing, and reflecting. We repeat these steps many times during one session, and we go through seven application techniques. We go from individual models to shared models where we combine the models of various participants. We move from stories to metaphors to get in the end, what we call some real time strategy, overall guiding rules, or principles. Get out your bricks and join this hands-on journey with us! Resources we mention:Per Kristiansen and Robert Rasmussen Building a better business using the lego serious play methodLS go online, online user group of liberating structures Get in touch with me:· Let us continue the discussion and connect on LinkedIn and dive deeper into today’s topic with my blog articles.· Want to work with me? Write me an email: info[a]nicole-helmerich.com or a LinkedIn DM.7. A new narrative for a grand transition w Guido Palazzo
40:28||Season 1, Ep. 7Join me on the journey to new work and sustainability!Imagine your organization as a living system (not a machine) designed for people to thrive, grow, innovate, and laugh. Bringing themselves and your business forward. I believe we can create better working environments and companies that are better for communities and for the planet!Therefore, in this podcast you can explore:cutting edge new work practices and sustainability practices for your organization, for your team, and for you as a leaderhands-on conversations with international pioneers in new work and sustainabilitynew insights, ideas, perspectives, methods, tools, skills, hacks, learning nuggetsso we can all get out of our silos and learn from each other!This podcast if for:leaders, HR and sustainability managers, agile folks, and everyone who wants to make a difference inside the workplace, while protecting our planet.Episode 7: A new narrative for a grand transitionMy guest todayGuido Palazzo is Professor of Business Ethics at HEC Lausanne. He has studied business and philosophy and did his PhD in political philosophy at the University of Marburg in Germany. In his current research he examines, how societies and organizations construct imaginaries that guide behavior. What if we understand the multiple crises, the world is facing as a storytelling crisis? What if the ecological transition depends not only on new technologies, but also and maybe in particular on our ability to craft a new narrative?Our topic: A new narrative for a grand transition How do you include a dolphin as a stakeholder in your business? And how do we care as business leaders and employees about multiple crisis of the world and change our behavior to embark on the grand transition? In this episode we talk about the power of positive narratives to shape the transition and tackle our climate crisis. Guido connects, how to create a positive narrative of transition with practical tips for leaders, how to implement and use positive narratives for their sustainable business transition and have representatives of animals and nature in boards of companies. A doomsday narrative is less powerful than a positive narrative. Positivity makes us move if the new narrative is connected to reality and has functional value for organizations and the society at large. He is critical about AI control mechanisms which are guided by the belief of exercising control in complex systems and efficiency. Instead, he suggests the importance of collaboration, connectedness and giving agency to nature to navigate in the grand transition, achieve a mindset shift and a personal emotional connection with the transition. Resources we mention:· Bruno Latour: Facing Gaia. Eight Lectures on the New Climatic Regime · Guido Palazzo: From corona anxiety towards a new Enlightenment Get in touch with me:· Let us continue the discussion and connect on LinkedIn and dive deeper into today’s topic with my blog articles.· Want to work with me? Write me an email: info[a]nicole-helmerich.com or a LinkedIn DM.6. Circular Economy w Heike Hess
36:43||Season 1, Ep. 6Join me on the journey to new work and sustainability!Imagine your organization as a living system (not a machine) designed for people to thrive, grow, innovate, and laugh. Bringing themselves and your business forward. I believe we can create better working environments and companies that are better for communities and for the planet!Therefore, in this podcast you can explore:cutting edge new work practices and sustainability practices for your organization, for your team, and for you as a leaderhands-on conversations with international pioneers in new work and sustainabilitynew insights, ideas, perspectives, methods, tools, skills, hacks, learning nuggetsso we can all get out of our silos and learn from each other!This podcast if for:leaders, HR and sustainability managers, agile folks, and everyone who wants to make a difference inside the workplace, while protecting our planet.Episode 6: Circular EconomyMy guest todayHeike has been working for over 25 years with and for sustainable textiles. She leads the International Association of Natural Textile Industry. Her daily work makes her an expert for many different aspects of sustainability in the global textile supply chain. It is close to her heart that fashion is produced in a socially fair and environmentally friendly way and that fast fashion is accepted less and less. For this end she works with producers, retailers, brands, politicians, consumers. Connect with her via email or give her a call. Our topic: Circular EconomyHow do we shift from a linear economy to a circular economy? Why should circular economy matter in your organization? How can you embark on this endeavour? What steps you can take to make your business circular? In this episode we talk about why and how circular economy is important for organizations. We illustrate this with the textile sector. We suggest when introducing circularity, besides the tools, technology, and investments, it is a major mindset shift. We need to think design, sourcing, production, distribution, and end of life cycle differently! And we need to start co-creating and collaborating with our stakeholders to achieve this transformation. Resources we mention:Circular Economy: Key Ideas, Ellen MacArthur Foundation Furferi, R.; Volpe, Y.;Mantellassi, F. Circular Economy Guidelines for the Textile Industry. Sustainability 2022, 14, 11111.Get in touch with me:Let us continue the discussion and connect on LinkedIn and dive deeper into today’s topic with my blog articles.Want to work with me? Write me an email: info[a]nicole-helmerich.com or a LinkedIn DM. THANKS TO SIMON SCHULTZ FOR MAKING US SOUND GOOD!5. When organizations go agile w Isabel Michiels
37:57||Season 1, Ep. 5Join me on the journey to new work and sustainability!Imagine your organization as a living system (not a machine) designed for people to thrive, grow, innovate, and laugh. Bringing themselves and your business forward. I believe we can create better working environments and companies that are better for communities and for the planet!Therefore, in this podcast you can explore:cutting edge new work practices and sustainability practices for your organization, for your team, and for you as a leaderhands-on conversations with international pioneers in new work and sustainabilitynew insights, ideas, perspectives, methods, tools, skills, hacks, learning nuggetsso we can all get out of our silos and learn from each other!This podcast if for:leaders, HR and sustainability managers, agile folks, and everyone who wants to make a difference inside the workplace, while protecting our planet.Episode 5: When organizations go agileMy guest todayIsabel Michiels works in IT for 25 years in the insurance and banking sector. She has worked and lead people in an agile way for many years and has shaped and witnessed various transformations to agile ways of working She lives in Portugal and works in Europe. Connect with her on LinkedIn. Our topic: when organizations go agileWhy should you do an agile transformation in a people centred way? How can people have a voice and support the transformation step by step? Why does this make the transformation easier and more likely to be successful? How does the approach continuous improvement in an agile transformation work?In this episode we talk about why and how organizations go agile and what this means for leaders and teams. We suggest when introducing agility to not only deploy agile ways of working but also the underlying principles from the agile manifesto. Drawing on Isabel’s rich experience in going agile we talk about her learnings and hacks that help leaders and teams when going agile. She also shares a fuckup story. Resources we mention:The agile manifesto https://agilemanifesto.org/Liberating Structures go online https://www.meetup.com/liberating-structures-go-online/Management 3.0 https://management30.com/My favourite song for this episode: Les Cowboys Fringants: les étoiles filantes Get in touch with me:Let us continue the discussion and connect on LinkedIn and dive deeper into today’s topic with my blog articles.Want to work with me? Write me an email: info[a]nicole-helmerich.com or a LinkedIn DM. THANKS TO SIMON SCHULTZ FOR MAKING US SOUND GOOD!