Has our pursuit of professionalism usurped our innate social abilities to work collectively and creatively for the greater good? Samantha Slade, author, social designer and cultural anthropologist, believes so and is working with organisations and teams to help them rebalance their leadership paradigms and flatten their hierarchies. While this is not a ‘perfect or easy journey’, Sam taps into what she sees as our core human instincts of care and togetherness that have been smothered by corporate structures. Making her work both hopeful and insightful is the way it braids the three strands of past, present and future paradigms into a new way of leading, teaming and performing.
This is pivotal: We are straddling two leadership paradigms
Why you should listen: Leadership is not what you do but how you do it
Shifting from a leadership power dynamic of coercion to caring
We explore non-hierarchical corporate cultures
Where is your culture showing up? It starts with how you hire
Co-create meetings for more fairness and better contributions
Horizontal gains include shared leadership responsibility
Key moments
3:13 An amazing origin story - revolution and kidnapping!
10:10 Deep change is required to get horizontal
12:20 Our innate abilities - we know how to be together
14:00 Straddling two leadership paradigms
16:10 Join us in Amplifiers Academy™️
18:00 Non-hierarchical gains
19:50 Understanding leadership status
23:00 Equity and fairness - from meetings to money
28:00 The compensation conversation
29:20 Fairness is not equal
32:10 Individual versus collective focus
33:40 Unpacking the power dynamic
36:50 Consent-based decision making
38:20 How to enable a paradigm shift
42:00 Why go horizontal?
45:10 Where to start
48:10 Zoë’s wrap up
About Samantha Slade
Samantha Slade draws from over 20 years of applied ethnographic research growing her own non-hierarchical organisation and supporting other organisations in a dozen countries. She has worked with innovative North American startups to the European Commission. With a background in Cultural Anthropology and Education, Samantha has been tuned into the subtleties of the way organisations function for a long time. Today, as an international social designer, speaker and consultant Samantha supports teams, organisations and ecosystems to grow their horizontal ways. Samantha co-founded Percolab, an international co-creation and co-design firm, in 2007, and is the author of Going Horizontal.
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About your host, Canberra leadership expert Zoë Routh:
Zoë Routh is a leadership futurist, podcaster, and multiple award-winning author. She works with leaders and teams to navigate future horizons.
She has worked with individuals and teams internationally and in Australia since 1987. From wild Canadian rivers to the Australian Outback, and the Boardroom jungles, Zoë is an adventurist! She facilitates strategy and culture sessions with audacious teams.
Zoë's fourth leadership book, People Stuff - Beyond Personality Problems: An advanced handbook for leadership, won the Book of the Year at the Australian Business Book Awards in 2020. Her fifth book is a near future science fiction dystopian novel, The Olympus Project.
Zoë is the producer of the Zoë Routh Leadership Podcast, dedicated to asking “What if…?” and sharing Big Ideas on the Future of Leadership.
Zoë is an outdoor adventurist and enjoys telemark skiing, has run six marathons, is a one-time belly-dancer, has survived cancer, and loves hiking in the high country. She is married to a gorgeous Aussie and is a self-confessed dark chocolate addict.