Advertise on podcast: The Inner Game of Change

In 1569, Gerard Mercator made a map for sailors. The sailors largely ignored it for almost two hundred years. Then it quietly became the picture of the world that generations of us grew up with, without anyone ever deciding it should. In September 2026, 164 countries at the United Nations voted to challenge it. In this episode of Stories of Change, I explore why the accurate map is the one that feels wrong, and what Mercator's slow adoption can teach anyone trying to make AI work in their organisation. Send us Fan Mail Support the show Ali Juma  @The Inner Game of Change podcast Follow me on LinkedIn

Welcome to The Inner Game of Change.  where we explore the thinking that shapes how change really happens. My guest today is Dr David Rock, cofounder and chief executive of the NeuroLeadership Institute, originator of the SCARF model and author of our Brain at Work. His forthcoming book, Good With Humans, brings together more than twenty five years of research into what motivates us, what puts us into a state of threat and how this shapes the way we interact with one another. In this conversation, we explore what change does to the brain, why even a perceived threat can affect our ability to think, how a leader’s emotional state can spread through a team, and whether continuous change is beginning to test the limits of our cognitive capacity. This is part one of my conversation with Dr David Rock. Enjoy. About David I coined the term 'Neuroleadership', and am the co-founder and CEO of the Neuroleadership Institute (NLI). NLI makes organizations better for humans through science. It has partnered with 2/3 of the Fortune 100, helped over 20 million people perform better by understanding the brain, and started whole movements in the workplace. Our work was central to Microsoft's culture transformation.  I am the author of 4 books including Quiet Leadership, the business best seller Your Brain at Work and published dozens of papers on the neuroscience of leadership. I have a new book coming out November 2026, called Good with Humans. Pre order: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Humans-Neuroscience-Makes-Ticks/dp/0063463962/ I own a small retreat center in upstate NY. Ideal for small corporate retreats, with 11 separate rooms, especially great for people with an interest in wellness and nature. Complete with a hyperbaric chamber, sauna, 2 x jacuzzi's and private walking trails. See https://www.roundhousefarms.org/ In addition, I support new authors through the Round House Literary Agency, see https://rhliterary.com/ where I leverage my understanding of the human brain to help architect ideas to have impact, and authors to do their best work. I am also an impact investor, mentor and coach to several neuro-tech, health-tech and wellness businesses, through my Round House Incubator. As a registered broker dealer agent, I also raise capital for early stage projects in that space. Send us Fan Mail Support the show Ali Juma  @The Inner Game of Change podcast Follow me on LinkedIn

In 1916, Clarence Saunders asked shoppers to do something that now feels completely normal: pick their own groceries. But self-service did more than change shopping. It shifted work from clerk to customer, redesigned the store around that new behaviour, and changed what happened to the job on the other side of the counter. A story about autonomy, work, design — and how change eventually becomes so normal we stop seeing it. Send us Fan Mail Support the show Ali Juma  @The Inner Game of Change podcast Follow me on LinkedIn

What happens when an entire country changes the alphabet its people use to read, write and work? In 1928, Türkiye made the switch quickly. The harder part came afterwards: teaching adults, changing newspapers and workplaces, rebuilding fluency, and helping experienced people become learners again. A story about adoption, identity, redesign...and why the human transition always moves at a different speed. Send us Fan Mail Support the show Ali Juma  @The Inner Game of Change podcast Follow me on LinkedIn

Welcome to The Inner Game of Change.  where we explore the thinking that shapes how change really happens.  Today I am joined by Grace Edwards, a journalist, communication expert and former United Nations professional who has spent much of her career helping people make complex ideas simple, clear and meaningful. Our conversation starts with a deceptively simple question. In an age where artificial intelligence can generate polished communication in seconds, what actually makes communication work? Is it the words? The context? The person delivering them? Or the judgement behind what we choose to say, and what we choose to leave out? Grace and I explore simplicity, journalism, change communication, reading the room, human judgement and what happens when artificial intelligence enters the communication process. And, in a small experiment, we actually invite ChatGPT into the conversation and ask it directly what it cannot bring to the table. But underneath all of this sits a bigger question about the purpose of communication itself. What are we really trying to create when we communicate well? Grace offers a perspective towards the end of our conversation that brings many of these threads together. This is a conversation about saying less, understanding more and why the human element in communication may matter more than ever. I am grateful to have Grace chatting with me today. About I am a communications consultant and public speaking coach with more than a decade of experience. Working with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and others, I turn complex ideas into messages that drive action in speeches, op-Ed’s, interview talking points, press releases, videos, corporate reports and more. I specialize in transforming policy and climate challenges into compelling content that moves decisions and global audiences. My ability to communicate in a clear and compelling way is enhanced by my early experience as a journalist, contributing previously to CNBC, Associated Press (AP), Reuters, BBC News and others.  With the surge in LLMs, I have also created my own customised GPT (the Speech Atelier), to help clients to use A.I. responsibly. This is supported by detailed knowledge documents I wrote from my experiences to ensure accuracy, fact-checking, relevance (reads related news), humanised language and storytelling tricks applied from Caesar to Churchill and Obama.  I hold a double bachelors degree in Law (LLB) / International Studies (University of Sydney) and am a native English speaker, advanced in Mandarin as well as intermediate Serbian. Grace’s profile linkedin.com/in/grace-brown-4b289828 Website instagram.com (Blog) Send us Fan Mail Support the show Ali Juma  @The Inner Game of Change podcast Follow me on LinkedIn

What happens when people believe in a change but still refuse to adopt it? In this episode of Stories of Change, we explore the surprising history of the seat belt—from invention and public resistance to legislation, enforcement and habit—and what it can teach us about behaviour change, AI adoption and the gap between knowing and doing. The invention mattered. The click changed everything. Send us Fan Mail Support the show Ali Juma  @The Inner Game of Change podcast Follow me on LinkedIn

Welcome to The Inner Game of Change.  where we explore the thinking that shapes how change really happens.  What happens to human learning when answers are suddenly abundant and change keeps accelerating? In this episode of The Inner Game of Change, I welcome back Tracy Defoe, Kata coach and adult learning expert, to explore the Coaching Kata and its growing relevance in the age of artificial intelligence. We explore a simple idea: when we cannot know exactly where change will take us, we need to learn our way forward. Tracy shares how the Coaching Kata helps people navigate uncertainty through small experiments, reflection and deliberate learning. We discuss productive struggle, psychological safety, the temptation to jump to solutions, and the importance of human judgement. We also ask whether artificial intelligence is helping us become better thinkers, or simply faster answer seekers, and where it can genuinely strengthen coaching and learning. A conversation about change without certainty, coaching without giving people the answers, and learning our way forward. About Tracy Aims to make you smarter about learning. Adult Education professional specializing in learning at work. Interested in culture change, supporting peer-leadership, informal learning, multiple literacies and communication in diverse settings.  Experienced in designing and implementing innovative learning at work programs.  Humble Lean Practitioner interested in combining my interests in Lean with Adult Learning and Culture Change. Student of the Kata, Coach and Learner.   Improvement and Coaching Kata learner and coach.  Volunteer Host of the Cascadia Kata Dojo Community Call - a 30 minute weekly zoom meeting for Kata Coaches From British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and California. Specialties: Customized solutions, embedding lean or essential skills in content training, facilitation of improvements or supporting leaders in improving their facilitation, communicating with the workforce, re-framing change as learning challenge, training design and delivery, implementation and evaluation.  Facilitating meetings and retreats for clients, strategic planning, realizing a mission and vision to a Challenge, and a daily improvement plan.  Plain Language and Clear Design. Contact Tracy Tracy’s profile linkedin.com/in/tracydefoe Website thelearningfactor.ca (Company) Email [email protected] Send us Fan Mail Support the show Ali Juma  @The Inner Game of Change podcast Follow me on LinkedIn

In 1931, Harry Beck looked at London’s increasingly complicated Underground map and asked a different question. What if passengers did not need a more accurate picture of the city, but a clearer way to move through it? His design distorted geography, simplified distance and was initially rejected. Yet it became one of the most influential maps ever created. In this episode of Stories of Change, I explore what Beck’s story can teach us about simplicity, confidence, human-centred design and helping people navigate change and AI adoption. Send us Fan Mail Support the show Ali Juma  @The Inner Game of Change podcast Follow me on LinkedIn

Welcome to The Inner Game of Change.  where we explore the thinking that shapes how change really happens.  In this warm and deeply human conversation, I speak with change practitioner and Australian Change Days convenor Sarah Glenister about the relationships that quietly shape how change is experienced. We explore trust, uncertainty, informal influence, the limits of plans and timelines, and why the real work of change often happens through conversations that cannot be easily measured. We also consider whether strong relationships can turn uncertainty from anxiety into curiosity, and what human connection may mean as artificial intelligence becomes more embedded in our working lives. I am grateful that Sarah is chatting with me today.  About Sarah 🔔 Over 15 years in senior roles - Director of Change Management, Director of Workforce, Director Corporate Services, Area Director Mental Health Services, Director of Financial Transition. Now working as an independent consultant, Founder and Director Change that matters  changethatmatters.com.au 🔔 Trained as an Organisational Psychologist, I bring those Behavioural Science skills to address the most complex of situations (and the simple ones), find out more at sarahglenister.com 🔔 Community builder - Convenor and Founder of Australasian Change Days, annual event for people wanting to Change the World! australasianchangedays.com 🔔 Genealogy and DNA geek, offering assistance in interpreting your results and researching your family tree, DM me here. Expertise and knowledge: 💡 Project management and change management of large complex projects 💡 Workforce and HR strategy and organisational development  💡 Team building and communication  💡 Training in Change Management for executive and managers. 💡 Data analysis and interpretation 💡 Facilitation of off-site or on-site strategy days  💡 Building online communities Send us Fan Mail Support the show Ali Juma  @The Inner Game of Change podcast Follow me on LinkedIn

What if one of the most important inventions of the last hundred years was a steel box? Not the internet. Not the smartphone. A box. In this episode of Stories of Change, Ali explores how a small experiment in 1956 transformed global trade and what it can teach us about AI, innovation and the hidden side of change. Because sometimes the biggest changes do not arrive looking like revolutions. Sometimes they arrive looking ordinary. And we only understand their significance years later. Send us Fan Mail Support the show Ali Juma  @The Inner Game of Change podcast Follow me on LinkedIn

Welcome to The Inner Game of Change.  where we explore the thinking that shapes how change really happens.  Four years ago, Joan Lurie joined me on this podcast to explore systems, roles, mental maps and how organisations adapt in times of uncertainty. Today, we return to that conversation through a different lens: artificial intelligence. But this is not a conversation about tools, prompts or technology. It is a conversation about what AI is revealing. The assumptions it is challenging. The roles it is reshaping. And what happens when AI enters the systems room. Joan is the founder of Orgonomics and one of Australia's leading systems thinkers. She has a unique way of helping leaders see organisations not simply as structures or collections of people, but as living systems of relationships, roles and patterns. I have learned a great deal from Joan's work over the years, and every conversation with her challenges me to see organisations differently. Together we explore leadership, adaptation, complexity and what organisations may need to rethink as AI becomes part of the fabric of work. I hope you enjoy this thoughtful and timely conversation with Joan Lurie. About I am the CEO of Orgonomics, a company I founded in 2008 to assist leaders and organisations to adapt, thrive and function at their growing edge. My work integrates strategy, systems thinking, complexity, narrative, ecology and developmental theory.    Over 30 years I’ve worked with boards, executives and leadership teams as a coach and consultant helping them achieve turnaround results - together emerging new cultures, operating models and different organisational systems, whilst simultaneously building their adaptive capacity.  Through this practice and experimentation, I have developed Orgonomics™ - a proprietary methodology which provides a ‘map’ for leaders to go beyond reductionism to navigate the complexity we are in.  Referred to as ground-breaking, Orgonomics enables leaders to fundamentally shift their ways of seeing and knowing to be more systemic; reframe their assumptions and mental maps and repattern their organisational systems for new ways of relating and operating, to achieve higher order functioning and performance. As a developmental psychologist and systemic change consultant my core purpose is to ensure that leaders and organisations are able to continuously develop, learn and grow to be fit for and thrive in our complex world. Developing a systems lens, relational intelligence and comfort with not ‘knowing’ used to be a ‘nice to have', but it has now become our individual and organisational imperative; we have to accelerate it for the good of our whole ecology. Contact Joan’s profile linkedin.com/in/joan-lurie-73bb0215 Website orgonomics.com (Company) Send us Fan Mail Support the show Ali Juma  @The Inner Game of Change podcast Follow me on LinkedIn

Why didn't lecturers disappear? For more than 700 years, the role of the lecturer has survived books, the printing press, libraries, the internet, and now artificial intelligence. In this episode of Stories of Change, we explore a fascinating question. How did one of the world's oldest professions keep evolving while the technologies around it kept changing? The story is not really about lecturers. It is about what happens when the thing that once made us valuable becomes easy to access. Perhaps the question is not whether AI will replace us. Perhaps the better question is: what becomes valuable next?  Grab a coffee and join me for this 10 minute story.  Send us Fan Mail Support the show Ali Juma  @The Inner Game of Change podcast Follow me on LinkedIn

Welcome to The Inner Game of Change.  where we explore the thinking that shapes how change really happens.  Why is it that people can sit in a room, agree with a strategy, support a transformation and nod enthusiastically at a presentation, only to struggle when the change finally arrives? Today's guests suggest the answer may lie in a concept called psychological distance. Terri Block and Susan Bartlett from Workomics spend their days helping organisations bring customers, stakeholders and teams together to solve complex problems through co creation. In this conversation we explore Construal Level Theory, why humans think differently about things that feel distant versus things that feel immediate, and why co creation may be one of the most powerful ways of helping people move from abstract ideas to tangible action. Along the way we discuss ownership, expertise, accountability, skin in the game, whether facilitators can ever truly be neutral, and even whether artificial intelligence can become a co creator. I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation and I think you will too. I am grateful to have Susan and Terri chatting with me today.  About The Guests Susan Bartlett I am a principal at Workomics, where we help biotechs bring life-changing therapies to patients. I contribute to projects from the perspectives of go-to-market strategy, operational effectiveness, human-centred design, and strategic communications. I treasure my colleagues and my clients, and feel fortunate to be able to work with them every day.  I write a monthly Substack newsletter (please subscribe!). Through the newsletter, I explore how we make work and workplaces better for people — customer-centric, inclusive and equitable, focused on employee well-being, meaningfully integrated with emerging technology.  In the past, I have been a Rhodes Scholar, a CEO, and a licensed propane dispenser, only one of which involved an objective assessment of my abilities. I love to solve specific, pragmatic problems by drawing on a variety of disciplines and traditions — my university degrees span English literature, software design, philosophy, politics, and economics, and computer science. At various points in my career, I have devoted myself to:  — Communicating complex medical concepts to patients.  — Architecting the data, software, technology, and IT governance structures of large enterprises.  — Embedding human-centred design capabilities to enable customer experience.  — Applying machine learning techniques to natural language problems. Terri Block I co-lead Workomics where we help biotechs and pharma bring life-changing medications to patients who need it. We focus on patient experience including go-to-market strategies and campaigns, creating impactful educational experiences for patients and their care teams, and empowering internal teams to champion patient-centricity across their organization.  My career in human-centered design in the life sciences industry spans 10 years and is underpinned by a whole other career in theatre and teaching. The red thread is bringing the best out in people and imagining better possibilities for our work-at-hand.  I am a creative at heart and author of Words of Wonder www.wordsofwonderbook.com. Contact workomics.com Send us Fan Mail Support the show Ali Juma  @The Inner Game of Change podcast Follow me on LinkedIn

Stories of Change is a special series from The Inner Game of Change. In this series, I explore stories from history, business, science, education, and sometimes from unexpected places. Some stories are famous. Many are not. Together, we will uncover the lessons hidden inside them and what they can teach us about change, leadership, human behaviour, innovation, trust, learning, and adaptation.  In this first episode of Stories of Change, we explore what elevators, trust, adoption, and artificial intelligence might have in common, and why every generation has its own version of the rope.  Send us Fan Mail Support the show Ali Juma  @The Inner Game of Change podcast Follow me on LinkedIn

Inside the Messy Middle is a special series from The Inner Game of Change This fortnightly short series is for people who carry responsibility inside complexity.  Between strategy and delivery. Between intent and impact. Between what was imagined and what must now be made real. In this episode of Inside the Messy Middle, I explore a salient idea: What if organisations are not resisting change… but being pulled back by the gravity of the current way of working? As AI enters workplaces, many organisations are introducing new capabilities while still operating inside environments designed for older workflows, behaviours, incentives, and assumptions. Through stories from business and history, including the arrival of electricity in factories and the persistence of the QWERTY keyboard, Ali explores why transformation often stalls even when people are willing to move. This episode is about: • behavioural gravity • environmental design • AI adoption versus workflow redesign • why old systems keep pulling people back • and the hidden tension between movement and stability inside organisations Because sometimes the challenge is not the future itself. It is the environment still rewarding the past. Send us Fan Mail Support the show Ali Juma  @The Inner Game of Change podcast Follow me on LinkedIn