Brain Chatter

Dr. Ken Chapman discusses the imperative of accurate self-reflection in organizational leadership and success. In fact, at the heart of almost every leadership issue in an organization, is the lack of accurate self-reflection on the individual level.
What is practical self-reflection? Why is it important? What are best practices? What tools and strategies are helpful? How do you self-reflect accurately without doing so neurotically? How can one help a leader who is unaware of their own deficit or avoidance of self-reflection? How often is failure at self-reflection by leaders tied to failure in overall business success?
Dr. Ken Chapman founded Ken Chapman & Associates, Inc. (producer of this podcast) almost 40 years ago. He has since worked on 4 continents in over 500 electric generating stations, foundries, manufacturing facilities, corporate headquarters, banks, nonprofits, and more. He is the author of 5 books, the mostly widely distributed of which is The Leader's Code. He is a graduate of Emory University and Colombia University.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Dr. Chapman's bio
• The Leader's Code book
• The Hero With A Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell

We'd love to hear your feedback on the podcast, as well as topics you'd like us to explore in a future episode. Email [email protected]

Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability.

Tom McNany walks us through the role of organizational culture in adoption outcome (success or failure) of new technologies that transform an organization. Rolling out a new technology that changes how business is done is stressful and difficult for all involved. Whether it is an ERP system, manufacturing execution systems, warehouse and inventory software systems, or otherwise. Very rarely on the leader's mind before such a major undertaking is this question: "Is my workplace culture prepped to support this all the way through to success?" But to not first address that question can be perilous and costly.
Tom outlines the keys to success that lie within successful adoption- and they all reside in the culture of the workplace. He delves into how vital it is to proactively answer the 'why' questions for all stakeholders. Why are we doing this? Why is it important? As well as painting a clear impact picture of how successful adoption will matter to each individual. At the heart of successful adoption is also: consistent messaging from all levels of leadership, accountability, and trust. All of these together result in mutually beneficial results.
What was at the heart of some digital transformation blunders and failures Tom has observed? Leadership wasn't bought in. Different messaging from leaders. Buy-in and trust were never earned from employees. The impact or end result was never communicated to all stakeholders or in a relevant 'this is how this impacts you' method.
Tom makes the case that to drive change, you have to have a strong culture with respected leaders in place.
MORE ABOUT TOM:
Tom is the Vice President of Information Technology at Flow Control Group. He and his wife Kim live in greater Charlotte, NC. They have two daughters.
Tom serves on the board of directors of Queen City Robotics Alliance and on the board of advisors of NC TECH.
Tom is an accomplished transformational IT leader who has an in-depth industry knowledge of global manufacturing, supply-chain management, and distribution systems. He has proven experience and success in driving business forward with IT led initiatives, system implementations and strategic management. He is a results oriented leader in all aspects of enterprise-wide technology systems and staffing, including strategic planning, enterprise infrastructure and architecture, project portfolio management, application development, and re-engineering business processes.
EPISODE RESOURCES:
> Tom McNany on LinkedIn
>Flow Control Group
>Queen City Robotics Alliance
>North Carolina Technology Association (NC TECH)

Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability.

KC&A's David Stanfield explores the life and career of one of the NBA all-time greats, Tim Duncan (San Antonio Spurs). The focus in this episode is on the 'walking the talk' examples Tim Duncan provided throughout his basketball career, by focusing on wins for the whole team and other teammates, cool-headed calmness, sharing credit, being coachable, accepting accountability and mentorship, and showing gratitude to teammates, fans, family, and coaches. All the while, consistently being humble.
EPISODE RESOURCES:
>Connect with David Stanfield on LinkedIn
>David Stanfield Bio
>Tim Duncan Stats on ESPN
>Biography of Tim Duncan on Wikipedia
>Tim Duncan's Retirement Letter (on Sports Illustrated)
>Air Alamo article referenced in episode
Basketball sound effects used by authorization of https://uppbeat.io

Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability.

Anthony Orlowski, is the Executive Vice President, Plumbing Group of McWane, Inc. In this role he has overall responsibility of the AB&I Foundry and Anaco-Husky facilities in California, Texas-based Tyler Pipe & Coupling plants, and the Sri City, India, Coupling plant, which combined account for more than 1,400 team members manufacturing drainage, waste and venting products for the commercial plumbing industry.
In this episode he shares his experiences with workplace safety. And it may not be what you expect. Where does safety begin? Whose responsibility is it to own an individual's safety? What's the ultimate cost to you and others of not being honest when it comes to safety? What are key questions related to safety to ask a prospective manager when you're preparing to hire for a position? How do you position yourself and your team to learn from bad decisions? How do you instill the telling of the correct story into the workplace culture?

Resources:
>Anthony Orlowski's Bio>Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn

Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability.

Dr. Isabel Scarinci, Vice Chair for Global and Rural Health in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UAB, psychologist, and polio survivor, discusses The Power of Thankfulness. How powerful is a genuine sense of thankfulness in our daily lives with co-workers, friends, and family? How does expressing thankfulness change our relationships with others? How can we make authentic thankfulness habitual? What is the science behind gratitude? And how does daily meditation on thankfulness impact our sleep?

This episode is a conversation with Dr. Isabel Scarinci who survived polio as a child in Brazil. That experience led her into a life of service to others. As a child, between surgeries she went door-to-door with her mother encouraging complete strangers to vaccinate their children against polio. Her efforts prevented untold other children from suffering. Now she works as an administrator and psychologist in cancer prevention with one of the world's leading cancer centers and medical schools. She is a leader in three major efforts to eradicate cervical cancer:
1- Operation Wipeout, an effort to eradicate cervical cancer in an entire US State (Alabama).
2- An effort between the Rotary Club of Birmingham, O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, Rotary International, Rotary Clubs in Guatemala, and the national government of Guatemala to eradicate any type of cancer (in this case cervical cancer) from an entire country for the first time in human history.
3- She has been appointed by the US White House to lead a workgroup to determine how to create a nationwide cervical cancer prevention strategy across the entire United States.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Isabel and her work in Rotary International Magazine (Nov 2024)
• Isabel's Appointment by US White House
• Isabel's Bio
• Connect with Isabel on LinkedIn
• Rotary International's END POLIO NOW Campaign
• Sri Lanka Cervical Cancer Eradication Effort
• Maya Angelou Quote referenced by Isabel (Forbes article)
• Honorary Consul of Brazil for Alabama article
• "How to Cultivate Gratitude, Compassion, and Pride on Your Team" Harvard Business Review article
• O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center

We'd love to hear your feedback on the podcast, as well as topics you'd like us to explore in a future episode. Email [email protected]

Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability.