Shows
Practice? PodcastEpisode 291 - Conversation with a True Promethean (Tom Bohinc)Prometheans unlock the mysteries of the cosmos. Tom Bohinc is boldly going to where he and we colleagues can think of leadership in altogether different ways. Anchoring the Promethean Project: " dedicated to making leading clear and leaders common - and challenging institutional and social convention and complacency.", uniquely shapes Tom's executive coaching. Dave sees his and Peter Vaill's probing of the unexplored nature of Practice dovetailing with Tom's Promethean work.
2025-11-2435 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 290 - Her Copy Editing Practice Blends with her Collegiate Studies in Germany (Mahaska Stiegler)Three years ago, Dave recorded a conversation with the young high school student who was providing surprisingly accurate and thoughtful copy editing for his book with the late Peter B. Vaill, On Practice as a Way of Being. He marveled at her love of the accordion. Wondering what she is doing now as a college student, he reached out to Mahaska Stiegler, who is now an exchange student at a German university. She is deepening her German language and cultural acumen while continuing her proofreading and copyediting services. Her accordion was too heavy to make the trip, so she...
2025-11-1639 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 289 - Her Crocheted Sweaters Warm New Hampshire Children (Krisan Evenson)Can a retired professor with a Phd in Political Inquiry, Comparative Politics, Political Psychology from Syracuse University Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs find retired happiness crocheting and selling children's sweaters? Krisan Everson says, "Yes". Residing in her home state of New Hampshire, Krisan creates distinctive (and warm) children's sweaters and sells them in weekend community markets. She explains how her academic background in Foreign Affairs illuminates the cultural significance of handmade crafts.
2025-11-1035 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 288 - Origin and function of self, relationships, and shame in practice (Dave, Jr. and Dave, Sr Fearon)Dave & Dad continue their discussion series on enacted social action as it applies to emotions. We extend American Pragmatism philosopher George H. Mead's approach to self as I and Me, social acts and symbolic interaction to sociologist Thomas Scheff's social bond theory. From the communicative functions of primary emotions evolve composite emotions of shame, guilt, and pride. These social emotions are fundamental to maintaining social relationships and constitute language, as demonstrated in a close analysis of conversation. Part 2 of the discussion will explore therapeutic applications and consciousness.
2025-11-021h 35
Practice? PodcastEpisode 287 - She is Music, Music, Music (Emily Castellon)Dave shows us the reason he has joined a church choir, 70 years after his last time. It is Connecticut Music Educator and Burlington Congregational Church Music Director Emily Lombardo Castellon. Her enthusiasm for all manner of performing music is transmitted not only to her adult choir but also to the fifth- and sixth-grade members of her school's band. Emily represents the devoted practices of thousands of Music Teacher Educators across the Country. She and they transform lives—even Dave's.
2025-10-2737 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 286 - Change Agrees with Him (Fredrick Miller)Toward the end of this episode, you will hear revered Organization Development practitioner Fred Miller speak enthusiastically about an unprecedented wave of change, presenting fundamentally new prospects for organizational development. No rocking chair on the porch for Fred; he will be out there in the future helping business leaders transform their companies. He and host Dave Fearon speak of their mutual admiration of Peter B. Vaill, co-founder of this Practice? Podcast and co-author of Practice as a Way of Being.
2025-10-1931 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 285 - Mining Uncertainty for Nuggets for Decision Makers (Tom Casey)Periodically, Dave checks in with leadership trend researcher and advisor Tom Casey to learn what practicing business leaders have on their minds. He and his Discussion Partners Collaborative colleagues ask the question, "What if all you believe to be accurate and possible is incorrect?" In these turbulent times, Tom discusses how leaders are holding their beliefs in suspension. They are advised to 'snap out of it'.
2025-09-2247 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 284 - Whitewater Kyacking is His Element (David Silk)My friend and co-author Peter B. Vaill told us in his 1989 book, Managing as a Performing Art, to be ready to practice in permanent white water. David Silk kayaks daily in white waters raging in rivers around the globe. His practice has him racing among the top kayakers, exploring rivers around the world that have never been kayaked before, and teaching practitioners who are firmly committed to this challenging sport. In all ways, David is a whitewater professional.
2025-07-1931 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 283 - Their Idea is now Maine's Morning Moose CoffeeRichmond, Maine sisters Olivia and Elsie Winokurzew drew upon lessons from their leadership experiences at Starbucks to create their own coffee and donut business, which was needed in their hometown. They named it Morning Moose Coffee. As committed entrepreneurs, they continue learning every day, even after successfully growing their business for over three years.
2025-07-1236 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 282 - How Cognition is Enacted in Practice and Conversation Dave leads me through a process to understand understanding itself. What happens in real-time moments of cognition. is comprised of 6 E's, enacted, embodied, embedded, extended, emotional and exacting processes that are also visible in conversation. This is the latest in a series of episodes probing the nature of Practice. The YouTube version includes presentation slides.
2025-06-231h 17
Practice? PodcastEpisode 281 - Human Intelligence Thrives in Her Company (Jessica Rich)"High Tech. Human Touch" is a logo of Walker Group led by co-CEO Jessica Rich. Dave knows human intelligence thrives there, even as they know and apply AI, because Walker Group is a registered Benefit Corporation and the first Perpetual Purpose Trust-Owned Company in Connecticut. They promise their practitioners a stable foundation for a long career. Jessica has been with Walker for over 22 years and has no plan or reason to lead elsewhere.
2025-04-1433 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 280 - Exploring the Physics of Socially Enacted PracticesDave, Jr., and I had another conversation to discuss more dimensions of how information and practice in social behavior is not abstract but rooted in the real dynamics of physics, even at the quantum level. Explored this time are how enacted living systems are expressed by Constructor Theory, Assembly Theory, and Indivisible Stochastic Processes
2025-03-081h 14
Practice? PodcastEpisode 279 - Leading is Making and Offering Meaning (John Varney)Dave meets a contemporary who thinks alike about the nature of leading as practice. John Varney founded the Centre for Management Creativity and High Trenhouse and the author of Leadership as Meaning. Enjoy his wisdom and lovely English accent.
2025-03-0353 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 278 - We Each Have an Origin Story Informing our Practices (Kim Byas)Dave becomes acquainted with Dr. Kim Byas, who, among his several current endeavors, including Vice President of Community Engagement and Impact at The Center for Health Affairs, is a member of the Conscious Leadership Guild. In the course of this conversation, Kim introduces the concept of the origin story. Each of us has one, yet to inform and grow our practices, we can become more aware of this unique personal resource. Journaling is one way of doing so.
2025-02-2244 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 277 - Spirit at Work Guides Her Doctoral Practice (Kyndra Frazier)Dave introduces Kyndra Frazier, a doctoral student studying Organization Development and Change at Bowling Green University. She is well into her career as a pastor, social worker, and consultant and aims to become a chief spiritual officer in a progressive company.
2025-02-1636 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 276 - Her Genealogy Practice Grows with HerDave discovered that his versatile friend from 'way back' practices genealogy as an avocation. Barbara MacDonald Saabye, a fellow graduate of the Portland, Maine Deering High School Class of 1961, tells how searching for her grandfather's records captivated her interest in researching other family lineages. Forty years later, she uses Family Search.com to find the ancestry of friends and fellow genealogists.
2025-02-0337 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 275 - Two Practices Merge to Form a New Firm (Pam Potanka and John Kelly)Dave reconnects with his former student, Pam Potanka, to learn she is joining her former colleague, John Kelly, to blend their advanced managerial leadership practices to create a custom recruitment and development firm Arise Results Business Services.
2025-01-2647 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 274 - Offer the Predicate. Their is little choice otherwise (Tom Casey)Dave reconnects with Discussion Partner Collaborative Managing Principal Tom Casey to learn what his research tells senior leaders they are facing ahead in our time's raging Practice white waters. Vicarious trauma and Predicate are the two factors they have under discussion for leader development.
2025-01-201h 06
Practice? PodcastEpisode 273 - Dave and Dad on Relevance Realization in PracticeDave adds to our deep dive for the closest look so far at the socially-enacted nature of Practice, the ideas of philosopher and cognitive scientist John Vernaecke.; Relevance Realization in particular.
2025-01-051h 06
Practice? PodcastEpisode 272 - Dave and Dad Bring Complexity into the PictureDave Jr. and his dad resume their exploration of social enaction and Practice by delving into Ralph Stacey's theories on complex responsive processes. Reading Stacey's books caused Dave to make a major revision to his doctoral dissertation, Social Enactoin: How TalkinInteraction Constitutes Social Organization.
2024-11-0349 min
Practice? PodcastChange is AfootI am at an entirely different point in my life as a recent widower. Talk about change! Accordingly, I am shifting my attention to practitioners who make our daily lives livable, many of whom are paid by the hour. Yet, they shine and see their role and work as a personal practice. I will both podcast conversations with them and create short videos telling their stories. Yes, change is afoot. I'll still post conversations with organization and leadership developers, but I will feature the people whose work I also admire.
2024-10-1205 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 14 - (Reprised) Practice is a Central Organizing PrincipleI move past 12 and 13 to reprise this Episode 14 as the last one before I resume new podcasting. Peter gives us the "why" of our and your attention to Practice. It organizes what we think about our Practice, and Practice organizes us! Asked, "Who are you?', we tend to answer with what we do (Practice). Asked, "What do you love doing?" we may respond differently than what we are paid to do. That's Practice rising from our souls.
2024-10-0654 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 11 (Reprised) Is the sole purpose of leading change? Peter Vaill says soChange makes the leader, and leading makes the change. Peter and Dave, co-authors of On Practice as a Way of Being, talk about leading as a dynamic practice available to anyone, at any moment, to make change happen
2024-09-2940 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 10 (Reprised) All of Us Have Practices of SomethingPeter and Dave continue their conversation probing the developmental nature of Practice. Episode 10 was recorded in 2019 as they collaborated on what became Peter's last book - On Practice as a Way of Being. People find something we have the energy to do, and we are driven to do it better each time.
2024-09-1437 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 9 (Reprised) Increasingly, Consistenly Produce Intended ResultsDave and Peter deepened their thinking about practice, introduced in their digital book On Practice as a Way of Being. Over time, intended results teach practitioners what works and why. The payoff is increasing performance levels. If you stick with it, it sticks with you.
2024-09-0742 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 8 (Reprised) Digitizing Your Practices is InevitablePeter and Dave recorded in 2021. Peter predicted that digitizing our work and its context was accelerating. Today, Artificial Intelligence applications abound. Their book On Practice as a Way of Being is one of the first digital-only, interactive books. They went all in on this trend. Here is a preview.
2024-09-0149 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 7 (Reprised) - We Practice in a Socio-Technical SwirlDave and Peter examine their conjecture in On Practice as a Way of Being, that there is a dynamic interflow of social and technical conditions. Four years later, AI technologies are mimicking human-social behaviors. Practice seeks the optimum experience of both.
2024-08-2539 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 6 (Reprise) - Peter and Dave Talk About 'Learning in the Mess".This episode was initially recorded in late 2019, just as COVID invaded our lives and livelihoods. Then and now, it is a question of our desire and ability to learn as beginners. Change is changing. Can we keep up?
2024-08-1933 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 5 (Reprise) - Peter and Dave's Points of View on the Practitioner POVAmong the 32 Conjectures on why your practice matters in On Practice as a Way of Being is how Practice is perceptual and perspectival. What the person sees in moments of doing is what is acted upon (no matter what observers like Vaill and Fearon think is real). Listen to them form their points of view on points of view back in 2019.
2024-08-1139 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 4 (Reprise) Peter and Dave Continue to Probe the Nature of PracticeThe essence of Practice cannot be fully described through lists or agreements in this conversation. It is ultimately defined by each individual practitioner and so much more. Peter and Dave exchange ideas freely and formalize these ideas in their book On Practice as a Way of Being.
2024-08-0441 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 3 (Reprise) - Peter Vaill and Dave Fearon Clarifying the Nature of PracticeWhile collaborating on the final draft of On Practice as a Way of Being, Peter and Dave recorded conversations similar to those in the book to originate the Practice? Podcast. There are 32 conjectures about the complex, yet personal, nature of Pratice. Myths and assumptions are pondered in this episode.
2024-07-2834 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 2 (reprised) Peter Vaill and Dave - Conversation at the Origin of On PracticePeter Vaill invited Dave to help him complete what was likely to be Peter's last book, On Practice as a Way of Being. In the Summer of 2019, Dave learned how to produce a podcast to capture the idea-rich conversations he was having with Peter. To us, and you, Practice is personal.
2024-07-2136 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 271 - He Frees Compassion from Hardened Male Minds (Sean Harvey)Chief Compassion Officer Sean Harvey's work with men in the most challenging roles and situations elicits a string of 'wows' from Dave. The author of Warrior Compassion: Unleashing the Healing Power of Men, Sean, offers hope that new systems and structures are emerging that favor our spirits in all endeavors.
2024-07-0846 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 270 - He Catches Telling Signs in the Ever-shifting Context for Leading (Tom Casey)Tom Casey and his firm, Discussion Partners Collaborative, constantly cast questions to various leaders to catch the emerging trends shaping the context for leading their organizations. Dave and Tom discuss the yield from the cast of this question. What do you find reprehensible in a leader? Clue. #1 is hypocrisy.
2024-07-0142 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 269 - Problem Solving at the Nexus Corporate Operations (Greg Balicki)Corporate business operations are where multiple practices converge, with daily outcomes predicted and not. Dave's former student, Senior Vice President Greg Balicki, works at the nexus of Voya's converging business problems and opportunities to lead problem-solving projects addressing both.
2024-06-2341 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 268 -She Makes Space for Us to Do the Changing (Lisa Lloyd)People find the need and space to change by experiencing Lisa Lloyd's "bespoke support" designs. Dave enjoys this conversation with a fellow podcaster. Lisa is Beyond the Water Cooler. He agrees with her theme: "It's time for change."
2024-06-1637 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 267 - His Busines is the People Who Are the Business HR Huntsman)Dave talks with business growth specialist HR Huntsman and makes the pleasant discovery that The Leaders EDGE is his client company's people - all of them - working in a complex social system that his consulting makes lastingly real.
2024-06-1033 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 266 - She Revels in the Ambiguity of the Digital Future (ElisaTuijnder)Listening to Happiness at Work podcaster and agile leadership consultant Elisa Tuijnder is strangely encouraging. She is not hashing over the past (like Dave does). She is tossing digital breadcrumbs ahead of time for us to follow into the future.
2024-06-0153 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 265 - He Guides Business Owners Onward Into the Unknown (Scott Beebe)Dave was intrigued by a business consultant about the founder of My Business on Purpose, Scott Beebe's logo - Liberating Owners from Chaos. These days, who doesn't need a coach who believes we can handle the yet-to-be-known future? Scott's 100+ business clients know the value of a steady guide.
2024-05-2641 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 264 - His Practice is Media Magic (Alexander Liteplo)Dave met an actual AI content creator, Alex Liteplo, a practice for all our futures. Dave is trying out one of Alex's AI-generated clips to feature podcast episodes with his son Dave, Jr. The images correspond to Dave's words as in a dance. Magic!
2024-05-1944 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 263 - What Are You Discovering About AI? (Dave, Jr & Dave, Sr)Social Enaction thinker Dave Fearon helps his dad Dave Fearon overcome his reluctance to accept AI as an inevitable presence in our practice lives.
2024-05-111h 09
Practice? PodcastEpisode 262 - He Makes Space for Designing Conversations (Mark Bradford)Dave returned (see Episode 257) to Relational Leadership thinker Mark Bradford to be with him in a virtual social space where designing thinking has plenty of room to bloom. And, for Dave, it did.
2024-05-0637 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 261 - Classical Music Is His Learning Sound Track (Paul Crick)Dave and Paul Crick, Founder of Elevate Partnership, exchange insights into the marvelous mysteries of humans' behavior in leading, composing, and performing in concert. While you will not hear classical music in the background, it is the analogy to leading playing in their thoughts.
2024-04-2843 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 260 - Softball then, now, and forever (Hannah Cooper)Dave noticed that his former student Hannah Cooper, now a business analyst, was still the softball enthusiast he knew nearly ten years ago. Her practice evolved from player to coach to founder/trainer of Cooper Clinics. Hannah's vision is that girls and young women will develop in spirit, mind, and body with a sport they can play well into adulthood.
2024-04-2231 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 259 - He Studies the Sound of Silence (Freek Sanders)Freek Sanders, from the Netherlands, is an action researcher, poet, and certified executive coach, among other things. Dave finds his current focus on the role of silence in leadership discourse interesting. However, this episode is not 30 minutes of silence. Rather, it suggests that we could all benefit from more moments of peaceful quiet.
2024-04-1452 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 258 - He Helps Us See the Unseen (Leader) - Martin GutmannDave was attracted to the evocative title of Historian/Business Professor Martin Gutmann's new book - The Unseen Leader. This led to a rousing conversation and the promise to keep on learning with each other. Seeing is believing in the depth of leadership.
2024-04-0652 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 257 - His Practice Goes to the (Aikido) Mat (Mark Bradford)Dave always looks for thinkers who can contribute a different perspective to leading and developing our leadership and collaborative design practices. Dave had to reach all the way out from Connecticut to New Zealand, but he found BeWeDo founder, Aikido-inspired Mark Bradford fits this bill and so much more.
2024-03-3037 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 256 - Information Happens as We Practice (Dave, Jr & Dad)Son Dave Fearon continues informing me about the hidden 'goings on' as we humans create and use information in conversation, laying out the path for practice. The typed letters are not information until you read and give them meaning.
2024-03-231h 06
Practice? PodcastEpisode 255 - He Brings Out the Best (yet) in Us (Tenneson Woolf)Poet, coach, group process facilitator, and refreshingly kind person, Tenneson Woolf and Dave 'speak' in close harmony (singing is out of the question for Dave). They share ways, each in his way, gauges success as moments when guiding people releases untapped potential to solve and to soar.
2024-03-1738 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 254 - Teaching Becomes Her and Her College (Kathy Lund Dean)Dave and Kathy Lund Dean were recognized in subsequent years with the Management & Organizational Behavior Teaching Society's David L. Bradford Award for a lifetime of leadership focusing on teaching and learning. Years of creative accomplishments 'become' the person as a way of being. Kathy's unique role as The Board of Trustees Distinguished Chair in Leadership and Ethics is becoming to Gustus Adolfus College. Two unabashed lovers of teaching converse here.
2024-03-1045 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 253 - His Practice Earns Him Peanuts (Cornelius Uliano)Cornelius (Niel) Uliano tells Dave he was inspired to become a filmmaker in the eighth grade. And so he has! He left Newington, Connecticut, to attend film school four years later. Today, he is the Co-producer and writer of The Peanuts Movie. And, on to other Peanuts movies for Apple+... Well, listen, and Niel will tell his story. And to think he grew up two miles from Dave's campus and was the brother of Dave's favorite student, John Uliano!
2024-03-0241 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 252 - She Leads to Funding Better Lives (Robin Sharp)Easterseals campaigns and inter-organizational collaborations happen out of the goodness of people's hearts. President & CEO of Easterseals Capital Region & Eastern Connecticut, inc. Robin Sharp leads with a deep appreciation for volunteered resources whose disabled beneficiaries have a better quality of life.
2024-02-2439 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 251 - Once Upon Many Times - a Storied Practice (David Hutchens)I'll tell you a story about the sincerely practiced storyteller in this episode. David Hutchens taps into our humanity and finds the gold in real and true stories (or delightful fiction). Our stories. Our organisations' stories. Our town's stories. And he/we will live happily ever after.
2024-02-1741 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 250 - Still Exploring for New Ways for Developing Leadership Practice (Gary Lloyd)Leading is a skillful practice, and the founder of the Leadership Skills Lab, Gary Lloyd, never lets up on the quest for better ways. Dave realizes he has fallen behind his contemporary Gary, who is urging him to put AI (artificial intelligence) to this purpose. Well, the learning never ceases if you are majorly curious.
2024-02-1037 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 249 - Dave and Dad Talk About Time and Space - Always Real as Practice Contexts.We continue our series of 'Dave & Dad" learning conversations, looking closely for what happens in moments, engaging all our senses, and compelling our full consciousness. Our practices grow us forward, always landing us in a new time and place (even if the space seems to be the same as before, yet connected anew).
2024-02-0459 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 248 - Talking about Today's Distressing Context for Practice (Lizy Freudmann & Tom Casey)Our intentional practices have landed us amid a socio-political context of pessimism, anger, and even rage. Dave, Lizy, and Tom talk over such findings in a recent Discussion Partners Collaborative leadership sentiment survey. We still focus and do what we can to make things better.
2024-01-2845 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 247 - Exemplary Leading - Her Research. Her Practice (Kelly Gesmundo Clarke)A Bowling Green State University Doctorate in Organization Development & Change was just conferred upon this seasoned leader whose research focuses on exemplary leaders in highly disruptive settings (COVID). Dr. Kelly Gesmundo Clarke goes now where uncertainty prevails to encourage exemplary leadership practice. "You can find Dr. Gesmundo Clarke here: Exemplary Leadership Institute
2024-01-2040 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 246 - Yes, Even Grieving Can Be a Practice (Kathryn Kaplan)Kathryn Kaplan is now a professional grief counselor. For most of her career, she was an Organization Development consultant. This is the fifth episode with Kathryn, each marking a transformational moment in her practice life. Her latest book, Dying With His Eyes Wide Open, prompts this reunion of two former Peter Vaill students. Dave ventures that we can choose to develop grieving losses as a practice.
2024-01-1243 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 245 - She brings Development to Each Engagement (Lisa Thomas)Dave discovers a natural teaching quality in his guest Organizational Development professional, Dr. Lisa Thomas. Mutual development happens in moments when Lisa is coaching, facilitating, or instructing. Her earnest desire for the betterment of others is palpable. You will experience it in this conversation.
2024-01-0738 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 244 - She Accounts for Her Practice (Kelly Harper)Dave's former student, Kelly Harper, CPA, manages her fortunate way of life as an accountant who constantly leads and learns. After doing so at several global corporations, Kelly brings her team's talents to corporate customers of Deloitte.
2024-01-0131 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 243 - How the Practice of Talk Really Works (Dave Fearon, Jr and his Dad)Dave Fearon, Jr. summarizes the progression of his Social Enaction thoughts across the 18 episodes of conversation with his co-inquiring father (me). This brings us to Conversational Analysis revealing the practice that holds us humans together (or apart). Talking.
2023-12-171h 05
Practice? PodcastEpisode 242 - Her Practice is Changing Change for the Better (Carla McKnight)Vice-President of Organization Development & HR Carla McKnight's conversation with Dave gets him 'all fired up' for the community college movement as Carla talks about her constantly changing Valencia College, keeping up with the needs of the Central Florida communities. Changing again? Call Carla.
2023-12-0946 min
Practice? PodcastEpisde 241 - Still Digging for the Natural Moments of Leadership (Don Dunoon)Dave reaches across continents to see what fellow restless thinker Don Dunoon, Director of New Futures, has found since Episode 124 in August 2021. Plenty. He's still digging in the gold mine of natural conversation. He shares leadership 'finds' like the importance of safety.
2023-12-0250 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 240 - Diving into Complexity She Comes Up Smiling (Nicole Mata)Dave loves to showcase former Management students who, then and now, are avid learners. Nicole, always up for change, moves into a new practicing estimating for jet engine transactions. "It's different every day".
2023-11-2530 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 239 - The Effect of His Digital Artistry is Special (Mike Zaman)Digital artist and special effects practitioner, Realtime Supervisor at the visual effect company Framestore, Mike Zaman introduces Dave to the vast, fast, and broadly cast world of digitally rendered art.
2023-11-1834 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 238 - He Advises and Learns in the Thick of It (Daryl Conner)Dave meets Daryl Conner, a change consultant who, for many decades, has performed at the epicenter of organizational strategic decision-making, learning with his clients at the point of change execution. While his global firm serves enterprises across the spectrum, Daryl advises international NGOs addressing "changes that matter."
2023-11-1145 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 237 - He Led Discovery of Leadership Gems in Childrend's Books (Tom Casey)Tom Casey's Discussion Partner Collaborative shifted its leadership research practice to an unusual but elemental source of influence - ideas shaped by reading classic children's books. He and Dave sift through the gems of possibilities.
2023-11-0541 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 236 - Her Practice is Sweet (Amanda Pizzoferrato)Right now, Amanda Pizzoferrato is a Cookie Marketer. No, she's not a Girl Scout. Her's is the innovative Corso Cookie brand. She loves the daily learning of launching a direct sales online marketing practice. It's not unlike her previous venture, 'cooking up' a popular sandwich cafe - the Sleepy Rooster. And yes, she's another of Dave's former students.
2023-10-2748 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 235 - Her Practice is Simply Presidential! (Glynis Fitzgerald)Dave reconnects with his former university colleague Glynis Fitzgerald to celebrate her recent ascendence to President of Alvernia University with a conversation about old times, now-times, and time up ahead. Glynis' sunny nature is now a beacon for her school, as it was for Dave's back then. This time, her practice is simply presidential!
2023-10-2131 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 234 - Teaching 5th Grade -the Hub of his Gallaxy of Practices (Matt Dicks)Many have one soul-satisfying practice around which other ways of being cluster. Teaching 5th graders is Matt Dick's primary way of being his best self. Storytelling in many forms and forums orbits and compliments his teaching. Dave salutes his fellow adventurous teacher.
2023-10-1447 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 233 - She Alway Answers the New Alternative Doorbell (Kate Barhart)Kate Barnhart and her old friend "Uncle Dave" talk about her extraordinary service accomplishment - New Alternatives for LGBT Homeless Youth in New York City. Kate was a close friend of his late niece Kate Spencer, who helped this agency when she could. During this conversation, the New Alternatives doorbell rang - a possible new client needing guidance, solutions, and a hot meal.
2023-10-0833 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 232 - Encouragng Our Full Potetial for Doing Good in the World (Judi Neal)Judi Neal, an inspirational global educator, and leader, encourages us to be Edgewalkers and to elevate our Global Consciousness. It does take courage to change for the better. Listening to Judi in this conversation with Dave, you may experience some of her positive energy right through your screen. Dave did.
2023-09-3045 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 231 - She Listens for the Good (Ideas) in Us (Bessi Graham)Thinking partner Bessi Graham is a writer, speaker, podcaster, and listener. Hear this in a getting-acquainted conversation with Dave, who suddenly says she is a conversation 'alchemist.' Bessi draws out one's ideas and better is found: a better way forward, a better way to direct business, a better way of being.
2023-09-2344 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 230 - His Practice Results in Safety (Jordan Wareham)"It is safe to say" that Senior Director of Operational Safety for Spirit Airlines Jordan Wareham is a superb organizational learner. In this conversation, you will see why Dave says this is so. The Operation constantly 'teaches' him what it takes to sustain its exceptional safety. In turn, he brings these lessons to all responsible leaders, and they to him. Safety learning takes flight at Spirit.
2023-09-1640 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 229 - His Practice is on (a) Track - Mike HurczynMotorsports have been the roaring soundtrack of race driver Mike Hurczyn's career since childhood. Among the lessons Dave learns in this conversation with his former student is that all a driver's team does rides on the track on the 'second seat' in all aspects of a race. Mike now consults with those sponsoring and developing those vital teams and beyond.
2023-09-1035 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 228 - He Talks for the Towns (Bart Russell)Hundreds of thousands of people living in America's town have an advocate in Bart Russell. His practice is to know and care deeply about the small town way of life, telling their compelling story for positive change to major companies and government bodies. Dave has known Bart for forty years and is still amazed at how well he 'talks for the towns.'
2023-09-0335 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 227 - Teaching Organizational Behavior is His North (Michigan) Star (Gary Stark)Northern Michigan University Professor of Management Gary Stark found his place to thrive in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. He "talks shop" with Dave, who had, for 30 years, found his place to excel at teaching Organizational Behavior in a regional campus of the State University System. Both have been versatile leaders in the Management & Organizational Behavior Teaching Society celebrating its 50th year of "carrying the torch" for practice-enhancing learning.
2023-08-2543 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 226 - Teaching his Old Dad New Tricks (Dave Fearon, Jr.)Here is another conversation in which Dave Fearon, Jr. continues to teach his dad (me) how we humans are constantly fulfilling the promise of our practices and have the capacity called languaging to tell about it. Please think of the importance of other people when it comes to the telling. This usually happens in spirited conversations, when achievements are relived and made memorialized. It's the Talk of Fame.
2023-08-1949 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 225 - His Trumpet has Taken Him Far (Andy Forster)Outstanding Maine Music Educator Andy Forter was found in the fifth grade by an attic trumpet. Many trumpets since have kept Andy learning, growing, and inspiring the same in thousands of rural Maine students for 35 years. Making music is his gift to audiences. Making musicians is his gift to Maine and beyond.
2023-08-1335 minPractice? PodcastEpisode 1 - Reprising our First Recorded Conversaton - August 2019 (Peter Vaill and Dave Fearon)Over 200 individuals have engaged in discussions with Dave, exploring the distinctive essence of their practices. The catalyst behind these conversations was Peter B. Vaill, who requested Dave's assistance in completing his manuscript entitled "On Practice as a Way of Being." Despite Peter's deteriorating health, these determined educators launched a podcast to convert words from pages to sound waves. Sadly, Peter passed away in March of 2020, and his voice is deeply missed by Dave and others.
2023-08-0526 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 224 - He Prospects for Work Energy with a Different Map (Martin Goldberg)Recovering from COVID when he recorded this conversation, Dave knows first-hand what it means to Practice drained of energy. Martin Goldberg's new book Out of the Workplace Trap rolls out a different map (the works of Wilhelm Reich) for releasing natural human reservoirs of what Martin calls work energy. To Dave, this opens fresh ways to foster organizational development and Practice development tying in with On Practice as a Way of Being.
2023-07-2946 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 223 - Executive Decisions are His Legacy, Craft, and Study (David Mansfield)Entering his seventh decade, David Mansfield looks back at his years as CEO of a major UK media corporation, his satisfying times as an advisor/coach to senior leaders, and now, ahead as a student of effective decision-making. Hear Dave's conversation with this Monday Revolutionary.
2023-07-2248 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 222 - He Hears Computers Talking to Him (Dan Oleksiw)Diagnosing is a practice we rely upon in many fields. It takes 'a keen ear". Since his early teens, Dan Oleksiw has built and repaired PCs for his family's small business Computer Heads. Now, he chairs an IT department at a Connecticut Technical High School. Still helping out on weekends, Dan 'heard" Dave ailing PC's more profound problems and enacted a fix prompting this conversation. Dan's depth of experience told him "something was still not quite right," even after several part replacements. This very computer now works like a charm.
2023-07-1537 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 221 - He Made a Company from Scratch (John Hibbs)Perhaps John Hibbs was walking an Island of Guernsey beach when the first ideas for his company, CoEfficient, came to him. His practice is as a Maker, a co-maker of companies that help us see a business as its workers see it. This one is several Guernsey beach rock-skips along, but Dave finds it fascinating and promising for his Organization Development community.
2023-07-0944 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 220 - Practice Caught in the ACT (Dave, Sr & Dave, Jr.)Here is my conversation with my son Dave asking him to take me back to his learnings from George Herbert Meade. As you will hear, all there is about Practice happens at the moment we ACT. Picture holding your finger above the Send key. Then, send it! This ACT commits us to know what happens now and not know what will come next. The thrill of figuring out how to ACT upon what comes next energizes the associated Practice. Like it or not, we are 'caught in the ACT' and must change.
2023-07-0140 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 219 - He's Got the Music in Him (Rijon Ericson)Dave discovers something else about Practice. Music is at the core of Rijon Ericson's way of being, yet today he works as a people-gatherer. He draws people together for moments of free expression in the Open Space; not unlike a wandering troubadour of an earlier time. Yes, change can be wrenching and difficult, but why not try sheer fun with the singing Purple Person, Mr. Rijon?
2023-06-2544 min
Practice? PodcastEpsode 218- Youth is not eternal, but his teaching is (Ian Mitroff)Dave relishes this conversation with a professor whose career, like Peter Vaill's, began among the taproots of thinking, writing, and managing Organizational Behavior. Ian Mitroff is still drawing hope and energy from those who believe in the power of the human spirit. Dave and Ian -a leading thinker on Crisis Management - agree there has never been a better time for each of us to supply that power to the world.
2023-06-1844 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 217 - His Practice is research. His results help people change (Richard Boyatzis)Dave has a lively conversation with fellow Management Educator Richard Boyatzis. Richard's research practice informs his highly regarded teaching, writings, and consultations. His current interest is coaching which helps people make timely changes. This dovetails with Dave and Peter Vaill's focus on changing and growing to keep a practice viable in times of constant change.
2023-06-1139 min
Practice? PodcastEpisdode 216 - She Thrives and Learns at the Point of Action (Hilary Bradbury)Action IS the point of Hilary's research and of her Action Research peers. A Zoom call connects Dave with Hilary in her home in Ireland for a conversation where you'll hear her joy in convening people to apply collective thinking and caring to understand better and solve world problems.
2023-05-2739 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 215 - Pricing is Her Way of Being Katie (Katie Wei)When a person channels her practice over decades of use and learning, it becomes a prominent and reliable way of being. This is Cloudbed's Senior Pricing Analyst Katie Wei. We all know that everything we purchase has a price. Katie is teaching her former professor Dave that there is an art and science in determining what we customers value.
2023-05-2342 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 213 - They Prognosticate About the New Future of our Workforce (Lesley Tracy and Tom Casey)Dave joins Leadership and Change consultants Lesley Tracy and Tom Casey in 'prognosticating' what is happening with our five-generation workforce, changing the hiring game for organization leaders.
2023-05-0655 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 214 - Quality is Evolving and So Is Joe (Joe De Feo)Dave has followed, supported, and learned with Joe De Feo's Juran-Attain's Quality Management education practice for over 40 years. Like Dave, Joe has 'gone digital.; reaching people with new QM tools for making their practices indispensable.
2023-05-0652 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 212 - Her Latest Result is an Unexpected Memoir (Kathryn Kaplan)Practice is a way of being. A memoir tells us and others what we've been and why. Author, consultant, and now grief support counselor Kathryn Kaplan talks with Dave about how her new book - Becoming Visible to Myself - came to be. We are all living an imagined memoir. Kathryn made hers real.
2023-04-2950 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 211 - Practicing Happiness (Darrin Tulley)Yes, there is a choice to do what makes our Selves happier daily—a Happiness Practice guided and encouraged by author, consultant, and podcaster Darrin Tulley. Who would choose an Unhappiness Practice? Perhaps it is done by default?
2023-04-2437 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 210 - His Maine Places are the Proud Results of his Practice (Steve Rich)Stephen B. Rich has retired as CEO of his Maine architectural firm with the results of his practice places where Maine people feel welcomed in familiar surroundings. Schools, libraries, and university buildings each express the Rich character and values of Dave's Mainer cousin Steve.
2023-04-1737 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 209 - Serving Up Their Tax Solutions with Love and Laughter (Judi Strauss-Lipkin)Dave's long-time OB teaching friend Judi Strauss-Lipkin talks with him amid another 'taxing' Tax Season. How can she be so upbeat? Her boutique business is dedicated to clients whom she has helped for years to understand the complexities of their financial situations with Judi's considerable teaching talent and financial acumen. Why still do this? She loves her clients, and they love her.
2023-04-0943 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 208 - Social Enaction Revisited. What Have We Learned So Far? (Dave Jr and Dave Sr)My son Dave and I have periodically posted episodes from nearly the beginning. I was not the sort of father who tossed a ball with him back in his childhood in Maine. I was and am the father with whom we tossed ideas from his earliest years. These episodes formulate our mutual understanding of the social-psychological nature of Practice. Dave calls it Social Enaction. Please listen in.
2023-04-0135 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 207 - Just say I'm a storyteller (Gene Bellinger)Gene Bellinger is a storyteller, alright! To bring us closer to the meaning of Systems, he has posted hundreds of 5-minute videos on YouTube illustrating his always-evolving thinking about the complex nature of all manner of systems. This inspires Dave to create quick videos on the 32 Conjectures in his and Peter Vaill's book On Practice as a Way of Being.
2023-03-2540 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 206 - Her Practice is Generational Change (Lesley Tracy)Dave meets the CEO of Changing Behaviors Lesley Tracy, for the first time. Soon, their conversation is deep in contrasting the career requirements of Generation Z and Millenials to those we accepted in our early days. What do their stark values differences mean to their managers and their organizations? And much more.
2023-03-1945 min
Practice? PodcastEpisode 205 - His Practice Result is On Time and Fully Operational (Anthony Callegari)Assembling a jet engine at Connecticut's premier aircraft manufacturer calls for scheduled parts from hundreds of suppliers to arrive as planned with slight variance in on-time delivery. Anthony Callegari's management practice succeeds each time these promised results occur. Dave brings us another former student whose thriving ten years since graduation is the kind of envisioned teaching result that kept him innovating.
2023-03-1130 min