Giant Talk: The World‘s First OKR Podcast

S10: E8 The good, the bad and the ugly of becoming investable

In this podcast episode we sit down with James Church, COO and Co-Founder of investment readiness agency Robot Mascot.
We dive into (from a founders perspective) the good, the bad and the ugly of becoming investable.
What are the top 3 things that make a Founder (and their business) investable? How important is it to investors to be confident that Founders are evolving their approach to defining and delivering results, as their business grows in size and scale?
Listen to this exciting episode to find out more.
 
Links
Connect with James on LinkedIn
Find out more about Robot Mascot 
 

S10: E7 Are your teams wasting time on things they shouldn't be ?

In this episode Roger sits down with a Chief Elephant Spotter (curious, listen to find out what this entails). James Pels is founder of Proven EA, a consultancy specialising in providing business transformation, agile coaching and digital transformation services to a wide range of industries in the public and private sectors.
Roger and James dive into how to not waste time on things that you shouldn't be doing and discuss some common issues faced in workplaces that are a result of this. 
No matter how well teams are working, if they're not working on the right things then time is wasted...
Enjoy the episode!
 
Connect with James on LinkedIn
Find out more about Proven EA
Proven EA Toolkit Toolkit
Lean Agile Manchester 
 
 
 
 

S10: E6 How to sustainably invest in your organisational culture

Welcome back to Giant Talk!
 
In this episode Roger has an interesting conversation with Luke Fisher, CEO of Mo. Luke shares his journey from a fintech company undergoing cultural transformation to founding Mo, a platform designed to help managers and leaders sustainably invest in organisational culture.
We dive into the significance of high-performing teams, the critical role of bottom-up change, and how small, marginal changes can drive transformational impact. 
Whether you're looking to build a high-performance culture or engage your employees more effectively, this episode is packed with actionable insights and expert advice. 
 
Link to Mo - https://mo.work/
Connect with Luke - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lsfisher/

S10: E5 Building High-Performance Cultures: Insights from the Royal Air Force

Like any military organisation, command and control is necessary, especially in battle.  When the stakes are this high, how can the time and space be made for testing new ideas, and challenging the status quo?
So how does an organisation like the UK’s Royal Air Force learn, adapt and grow when hierarchy and orders are commonplace?  Flight Lieutenant Nic Corrigan joins us to share how time is consciously made for reflection and analysis so that the RAF can always be certain it’s improving and evolving its capacity and capabilities. Nic brings with him a critical perspective on this given his unit is responsible for human performance.
This is a fascinating insight into not just the processes the RAF follows, but also how they have developed and sustained the culture to support this.
 
Enjoy the episode!

S10: E4 The Advantages of OKRs in scaling businesses

In this episode, we reconnect with ECO Surv, a valued client from just over a year ago. ECO Surv offer compliance and workflow management solutions in the energy efficiency, retro fit and renewables sector. Dive into the conversation with Nate, Co-Founder and CEO, and Bex, People and Culture Manager, as they share their journey with OKRs.
Discover how, amid their rapid scaling, ECO Surv found OKRs to be a game-changer for prioritisation and aligning their team with a shared vision. Nate and Bex reflect on the transformative impact of using OKRs over the past 12 months – unveiling what strategies have proven effective and how they've adapted on this exciting journey.
Enjoy the insightful discussion!

S10: E3 Why should leaders care if they have a psychologically safe workplace?

Welcome to another episode of Giant Talk. In this episode Roger chats to chats to Joanna, Head of Academy and Expert Consultant at There Be Giants. This episode shines a spotlight on the important, yet often overlooked, topic of psychological safety in the workplace.
Jo brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from her work at There Be Giants and explores the essence of psychological safety - a climate where team members feel included, secured and free to express contrasting ideas. She argues that instilling psychological safety requires persistent effort and patience from both leaders and team members, with trust playing a crucial role.
Enjoy the episode!
 

S10: E2 The battle between waterfall and agile methodologies

We're clearly big fan of OKRs, but we're not so blindly fanatical that we don’t accept they are only part of the picture when it comes to strategy execution. 
OKRs signpost and help to chart progress at a high level but don’t do a great job at defining and tracking the details; they need to interface with the next level, and that’s often project management.
At TBG we've had a lot of involvement with project management over the years, both in a “traditional” waterfall sense and also agile, and have seen how either tribe (as that’s how it appears sometimes) seems to hold the other in disdain.  Because of this, Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez’s HBR paper on how Waterfall and Agile should learn how to work together better caught our eye.
 
Join us as we explore the challenges of managing modern projects and how Antonio believes a “hybrid” combination of waterfall and agile is now needed.
Antonio is the author of the HBR Project Management Handbook, he also writes for the WSJ and is one of the founders of https://www.strategyimplementationinstitute.org/
 
Antonio is currently conducting research into hybrid project management so if you are interested in contributing, you can do this via https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NXK2TCF
You can find his website at http://antonionietorodriguez.com/
He has a LinkedIn newsletter at https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/lead-projects-successfully-6820596029113565184/
And a selection of free courses on LinkedIn learning at https://www.linkedin.com/learning/instructors/antonio-nieto-rodriguez
 
Enjoy the episode!

S10: E1 Setting your OKR teams up for success

OKR teams rarely find themselves based in the same location, so forming and working together brings all the challenges of hybrid working in today's contemporary organisations. This is why we was particularly interested in having a chat with Alexandra Samuel, after reading her HBR article “3 Project Management Strategies for a Hybrid Workplace”. 
In our 30-minute+ conversation, we discuss all aspects of hybrid team forming and ongoing management, with Alex sharing insights and advice from her 25+ years of experience of working within and researching this aspect of work. 
Alexandra has also contributed to the WSJ, and she is co-author of “Remote Inc. – How to thrive at work wherever you are” 
You can connect with Alex at https://www.alexandrasamuel.com/ 
Enjoy the episode! 

S9: E18 What does it mean to lead with vulnerability?

Welcome back to Giant Talk, the world’s first OKR podcast.  
In this episode, Roger chats to Jacob Morgan author, futurist, & keynote Speaker on leadership, employee experience, & the future of work. In this discussion, Jacob talks about the topic of leading with vulnerability. How do you as a leader share a vulnerable side, share any gaps you have and open up about what you’ve learned to close any gaps. How can you as a leader feel safe enough to share this side? Fascinating conversation with an expert in this field.  
 Enjoy the episode! 
You can purchase Jacob’s book leading with vulnerability here. 

S9: E17 Using OKRs to transform the business, hear from a Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft

Welcome back to Giant Talk, the world’s first OKR podcast.  
In this episode, Roger chats to Ryan Lowdermilk, Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft, an OKR Champion and OKR Coach for the Microsoft Tech team for the America’s. Ryan chats to Roger about the use of OKRs at Microsoft, how OKRs can break through the hierarchy and why OKRs should be a light lift.  
 Enjoy the episode!