Tom Draffen, Adoption & Identity

"Carolyn and I got excited about the question of how does your body know how to handle complexity in ways that are exciting and useful and even joyful—and how can you amplify that?"

Wendy is back in the host's chair, talking to her longtime friends and colleagues about their book, Unleash Your Complexity Genius: Growing Your Inner Capacity to Lead. They cover action urges, the power of noticing, and the genius of breath, dance, and laughter.

"What we’re seeing as we start to humanise organizations is this acknowledgment that actually leadership exists within everyone."

Leanne Holdsworth and Naryan Wong recently led their Cultivating Leadership colleagues in a research and writing project that resulted in the book Human Work: Five Leadership Mindsets for Humanising Workplaces. They share those mindsets with Rebecca and discuss the ripples unleashed when work is truly human.

Their book is available now. Learn more and connect with The Human Work Network here.

"I think we do ourselves such a disservice to not acknowledge that iterative process, to just pretend that it’s yes/no, black/white. It’s never been the world we live in, but it certainly isn’t now."

Jarel LaPan Hill, the former city manager of the City of Santa Fe, NM, shares the complexity lessons learned managing an organization through Covid and how we might carry them forward.

“I spent two decades writing prescriptions… and it occurred to me that what determined somebody’s health was really what they were doing between visits.”



Dr. Eileen O’Grady is a nurse practitioner, a wellness coach, and the author of Choosing Wellness: Unconventional Wisdom for the Overwhelmed, the Discouraged, the Addicted, the Fearful, or the Stuck. She joined Rebecca and Diana to discuss often overlooked facets of well-being like setting boundaries, parenting, and dealing with difficult people.

“We tend to think if we send teachers off to a two day workshop magically they’ll come back to the classroom and be able to do something different that will impact the lives of children.”

Dr. Jennie Snyder, deputy superintendent for instructional services for the Sonoma County Office of Education and longtime educator, talks to Wendy about enacting change in education and the difference made by approaching things with a spirit of experimentation and curiosity.

"There is so much emergent change that’s happening around us, so we need every piece of this human condition to be able to be okay and to thrive and to be resilient."


Dr. Ciela Hartanov is the founder of humcollective, and her book, Reclaiming Sensitivity, will be out in the new year. She and Wendy discuss how we have oversimplified the idea of sensitivity and what we may gain by embracing it in all of its complexity and messiness.

“We try to help people ask additional questions, to say ‘How might I work differently than Wendy and how can I take a couple of steps to be closer to where she is so that our differences can be strengths?’”

Parker Mitchell is the founder of Valence, a software company specializing in building stronger teams. He joined Wendy to talk about teamwork—especially how to help individuals work with a wider diversity of styles and approaches.

“The world doesn’t allow a lot of room for messiness these days, as messy as the world is.”

Sarah Dasher is a communications professional, a college professor, and a person living in recovery. She and Rebecca talk about the dual issues of stigma and disclosure for people in recovery—and living with chronic illness.

"Every moment in my life where I’ve learned some massive truth or had some big epiphany has always been in some small group or coffee shop experience. Human connection is ridiculously important to me."

TJ Fairchild, founder and CEO of Commonplace Coffee, has a mission to create environments that foster human connection. He and Wendy discuss the many things that go into running a successful, purposeful business.

“The world demands that all leaders be inclusive leaders. If we’re not leading inclusively, we’re really not leading in some crucial dimension.”

Not Simple welcomed Cultivating Leadership colleague and founder of Flourishing Gays Dominic Longo to discuss how organizations compartmentalize leadership development and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts and to consider what happens when individuals step fully into who they are as humans and leaders.