ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Emily Kaur and Fred Schoon are co-founders of Seasons Consulting, who bring a contemporary view on how to lead for change within your organisation. Focusing on relationship dynamics, conversations, group patterns and ingrained mindsets and beliefs.
They believe the biggest challenge for businesses today is to deliver results against a defined strategy AND remain open, aware and agile enough to respond to rapidly changing environments.
The answer lies in developing leaders and building high-performing teams that are expectant of change, open to it and strong and confident enough to perform to their highest potential within this volatile and uncertain climate.
They want to partner with leaders who are seeking change, pushing boundaries and operating at the edge of what is possible. These possibilities bring excitement and opportunity but also uncertainty, ambiguity and discomfort. At Seasons Consulting, we make a difference to leaders by partnering with them as they take the bold, brave steps needed in today’s business.
Ross, Emily and Fred talk about their work in organizational change and leadership development. The conversation explored why the pair chose to partner rather than work independently, with Emily explaining they wanted to bring allies together and recruit both experienced and younger consultants. Fred shared key transitions they experienced over seven years, including the challenge of developing new consultants who took longer to train than expected and the increasing complexity of bespoke change work versus their initial off-the-shelf models. The discussion addressed how people analytics has evolved, with Emily noting that while knowledge and methods have become more widely shared, organizations still need expertise in behavioral change and psychological aspects of transformation. Fred acknowledged they don't frequently encounter dedicated HR analytics teams in their work, though they do see analytics integrated into engagement surveys. The conversation touched on the challenge of organizations being overwhelmed by data and technology, with Fred describing a recent project helping a German fashion company address organizational paradoxes. The episode concluded with a reflection on unlearning, where Emily shared saying yes to the podcast as a recent first-time experience, and Fred described taking on a challenging project to develop critical thinking skills in a global strategy team.
Timecodes:
- 00:20 Intro to Emily and Fred
- 02:17 Emily and Fred's business partnership
- 04:02 The companies key transitions and organizational evolution
- 07:45 People analytics and workplace changes
- 14:02 Dealing with technology crossover, re-skilling and the unknown
- 19:54 Lasting impressions for the upcoming event
- 21:37 Overwhelm and exhaustion
- 26:20 The last time Emily did something for the first time
- 26:54 The last time Fred did something for the first time
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