202: A Culture of Simplicity: Lisa Bodell

07/21/24 • 44 min

Lisa Bodell is the CEO of Future Think, award wining author and one of the world's Top 50 Keynote speakers on issues such as creating simplicity and killing complexity. This episode was filmed in New York City during the 'Future of Everything' Festival.

Lisa always thought of herself as a helper and was naturally creative from an early age. She grew up in Michigan, studied business and wanted to go into marketing and advertising. However, she wanted to find a path where her ideas would be heard and mattered. At this point, the entrepreneur emerged and Lisa decided to do her own thing, start her own business and create a platform for ideas and collaboration.

Lisa's books became a global calling card for her thought leadership and ability to help others learn and master new skills and capabilities. Time is a non renewable resource that we never get back and this became the catalyst for Lisa's focus on simplification. In a society fixated with more, Lisa is intent we also see the value in less. This requires focus and an ability to get rid of things. What will you stop doing is a wonderfully powerful question for all leaders although fear is something that holds all of us back.

Stopping and saying 'no' is a critical ingredient for innovation. Simplicity is not about being more productive, its the front end of innovation and gives people the space to do what matters. It's also not about getting rid of everything, it's about getting rid of unnecessary complexity, the invisible waste, the work without the benefits. This is all about getting to the work that matters and not being more productive. As a leader, are you defining what meaningful work is?

Grooves and ruts look and feel the same. Grooves are productive, ruts are a waste of time.

Lisa speaks all over the world and I asked her in this episode what she wanted to talk about that she doesn't usually talk about in order to make this episode truly memorable. She decided to connect simplicity to wellbeing so we can feel that we are doing what we were born to do.

Lisa explains that much of our daily workload is based around meetings and emails, therefore within our control to change, yet most will not. As Lisa says during her keynotes, many of us 'survive another meeting that should have been an email.'

Technology has amplified the issue of complexity and the ease to create meeting after meeting. If you could kill off any 2 rules at work, what would they be? Many of the answers she hears are not even rules, they are just historical methods of working.

Lisa's top tips include (1) for leaders to mandate the right for people to get rid of things that they feel are unnecessary, and (2) model the behaviour.

All businesses fear becoming irrelevant, especially during great technological change. To be relevant we must change, we must innovate and people need time to think. People want to leave a legacy, not shareholder value. Simplicity is not a productivity exercise it's a about helping people to get to the work that they were hired to do in the first place and be their best self.

Simplicity is also a foundation for a high performing culture. In an age of Generative AI, time is something to harness and allow people to think more. As Lisa explains. 'thinking is a daring act'. Perhaps now, we have more time to be human which is actually the basis of our leadership capability.

www.futurethink.com

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Grooves and ruts look and feel the same. Grooves are productive, ruts are a waste of time.

Lisa's top tips include (1) for leaders to mandate the right for people to get rid of things that they feel are unnecessary, and (2) model the behaviour.

www.futurethink.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

201: A lIfe of 'Figital': Giuseppe Stigliano

Giuseppe Stigliano is the global CEO of Spring Studios in New York which was the venue for the Wall Street Journal 'Future of Everything' Festival. We filmed this episode on the rooftop of the studio overlooking The Hudson river and surrounding area.

Giuseppe is Italian and moved to Milan to study marketing working in multiple businesses with early experiences of leadership.

He now travels between London and New York in his role as CEO for Spring Studios. He has an entrepreneurial spirit so the NYC location is a multiple use site including an event space, studio business, private members club and more making it a unique agency with a core business focused on luxury, fashion and lifestyle.

Giuseppe is an entrepreneur by background, an author with Philip Kotler (the grandfather of marketing) adjunct professor and keynote speaker who also holds a Phd in marketing and economics. Giuseppe believes that the more you curiously explore opportunities and relationships the more life has to offer.

He is currently redefining retail in a landscape of significant digital transformation and specialises in helping people navigate the 4P's of marketing (product , price, place & promotion) with a mindset shifting from making people want things to making things people want.

Is the High Street dead? Giuseppe says no, if you can make it absolutely compelling for people to leave their sofas and online lives. Some of the biggest shifts for a retail business is the role of 'Figital', a three dimensional world of the physical, digital and the virtual. The plethora of data allows business to target the right message to the right person at the right time. Gen AI is changing the landscape again as it can create new ways of using what we already have available to us. However, Giuseppe also reminds us that AI will give us back time and can never compete with the truly human centred capabilities such as curiosity, empathy and creativity, simply more time for us to be human.

Marketing is key for every business. This is also changing. Supply exceeds demand so the competition is high. Marketing has historically been focused on making people want things but now the sheer amount of data available allows people to consider what do we need to create for the people based on the insights we have. Gen AI can now help the smallest of businesses to master the data analytics.

Giuseppe is always learning as a leader. He is a believer that the next generation of employees require servant leaders but also recognises that no one size fits all. Leadership has to flex to the context of the businesses growth and maturity. Giuseppe understands the importance of allowing smart people who are more expert that the CEO to be allowed and fully empowered to operate as they see fit. A leader must know when to get out of the way.

www.linkedin.com/in/giuseppestigliano/

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Next Episode

203: A Life of Crime: Sir Max Hill KC

Sir Max Hill KC is the former Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for the Crown Prosecution Service in the United Kingdom. Max was called to the Bar in 1987, appointed a Recorder 2004, Queen's Counsel 2008 and knighted by The King in the 2024 New Years Honours list.

The role of DPP is the highest non political appointment as the most senior prosecutor in the country, acknowledged by the Prime Minister but politically independent. As Head of the Crown Prosecution Service, Max was responsible for the the most high profile criminal cases, leader of over 8,000 staff nationally and ensuring consistency of approach in the courts across the country.

This episode is a fascinating and rare 'peek behind the curtain' of the criminal justice system.

Max studied law as a student, attending Oxford University before arriving at The Inns of Court School of Law to qualify as a barrister and specialise in court advocacy and criminal law. Max has both prosecuted and defended during his career which he explains assisted his ability to empathise and understand the independence and importance of both roles.

Max explains to younger lawyers, 'be careful not to take too much credit for the cases you win unless you are ready to take full responsibility for the cases you may lose.' Max had to transition for independent practitioner to leading almost 8,000 people nationally. He used his experiences of running large and complex cases with multiple stakeholders as a basis for his personal approach to leadership.

Max was part of the prosecution team (with Victor Temple QC) for the trial into the Preddie brothers aged 12 and 13 years old accused of the murder of 10 year old Damilola Taylor, tragically killed in November 2000, stabbed with a broken bottle and died on his own in a stairwell in Peckham. This was a tragic and horrific case that caught the attention of the national press and conscience.

One of the greatest challenges for an advocate is an ability to communicate with an eclectic audience, from High Court judge, to victim and from witness to jury members. His advice is having a core understanding that your way of doing things is better than trying to inauthentically replicate someone else.

Max was first introduced into the world of terrorism during the Real IRA activity in London and Birmingham in 2001. This led to him being involved with the trials post the events of 7/7 where 52 Londoners lost their lives during a series of 4 explosions, followed by 21/7 where London was again the target of four suicide bombers all of which failed as only the primary fired within the devices without the main charge detonating.

Max was instructed as part of a three strong barrister team tasked to prosecute all the suspects from 21/7 and also prosecute those who assisted them. Max was also asked to represent the Metropolitan Police at the Inquest into the deaths of the 52 Londoners from the 7/7 bombings.

Many of Max's roles have required significant senior stakeholder engagement with multiple agencies, navigating politics, bureaucracy and intense media and public scrutiny.

The leader is always a role model for the organisation and Max tells the compelling story of how he decided to connect with thousands of people within the Crown Prosecution Service which turned into the ultimate listening exercise.

Enjoy this incredible episode.

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