10,000 Swamp Leaders
10,000 Swamp Leaders is a podcast that wades into muddy Swamp in search of people who have built social impact movements.The world needs 10,000 more people in the next five years who are willing to lead on issues like climate change, income inequality, peace building, and gender equality. If you are one of these people, you have found a home. Rick Torseth and his guests will unpack lessons learned, why small wins matter more than breakthroughs and how failure is our wisest teacher. We continue to confuse leading with authority. Leading is not a role or a position. It begins when you raise your hand and intervene in a heated environment that matters to you. Our conversations will dig into what is at stake when the heat is high and the only way forward is wadding into swampy conditions. These are human stories that don’t always have hero endings. We want to understand how these leaders’ lives are turning out differently because they chose to lead. What are the rewards for all this exposure and risk? Each episode will be a little different, as each guest will be different. Hit subscribe so you can prepare to lead.
Episodes
86 episodes
085_Tracy Roberts: Art of Stroke
Tracy Roberts visits the Swamp and shares her story of building her graphic design business. There are lessons here for all of us about the work required to build a successful business. But this is just the beginning of her story. What came nex...
084_Dave Cooper: The Map That Wasn't
Dave Cooper returns to the Swamp to explore his Substack post “The Map That Wasn’t.” Dave's post caught my attention because he explores the real challenges the United States government faces as a result of going to war with Iran. Dave...
083_ Janet Hawkes: Mastering Culture Change Inside UK Government
Janet Hawkes comes to the Swamp to share her insights and experiences from leading for 18 years inside Kent County Council in the United Kingdom. Leading inside Kent taught Jan the art and craft of navigating a political culture while providing...
082_Mau Espinosa: Let It Happen
Mau Espinosa joins me in the swamp to discuss his point of view on leadership and how he helps others through his “LET” approach to leadership development. Mau has travelled a challenging road to arrive at this moment. He is candid about his...
Episode 081_Ryan van der Marel: Change Happens One Conversation at a Time
Ryan van der Marel comes to the swamp and brings his wisdom and experience facilitating group conversations for deeper understanding and shared meaning. He shares how he coaches, nudges and holds the space so that groups and teams get to the he...
080_Eula Rohan: Collaborative Change with Equine assistance
Eula Rohan visits the Swamp and shares how she walks alongside Australia's First Nation communities as they build cross sector leadership capacity. Eula is practicing the “harder craft” of large group facilitation processes that address layers ...
079_Kelly Indira Buis: The Craft of Facilitation and Adaptation
Kelly Indira Buis comes to the Swamp to discuss the craft of group facilitation. Kelly is the founder of The Adaptation Company in The Hague, Netherlands. The work of facilitating groups of human beings is challenging. There are often ...
078_Runa Sabore: Designing a New Frame of Society Through Architecture.
Runa Sabore was raised in a commune. She has carried the communal lessons of caring for community into her work helping design buildings that support how people can live well in the “age of aging.” Runa talks about the potential of “universal d...
077_Paolo Quattrone: The Wonder of Accounting and the Society of Jesus
Paolo Quattrone comes to the Swamp and brings his love of accounting as basis for better judgment and decision making. He also re-introduces us to The Society of Jesus (Jesuits). Paolo makes the case that in a globalized world, increas...
076_ Graeme Findlay: Differential Voice: A Leadership Approach for Complexity
Graeme Findlay visits the swamp and brings his Differential Voice leadership meta-model. Graeme makes the case that to lead effectively today, a leader needs more than one voice. Graeme has us covered: his differential voice approach is b...
075_ Julie Drybrough: Transformation: From Moving Deck Chairs to Changing Ships
Julie Drybrough comes to the Swamp and shares her life wisdom fostering transformation. She is candid about her personal transformational path and how it shapes her coaching and group work. She learned how building a new narrative of trust can ...
074_CK and Clif McKenzie: Having The Right People Matters
Clif and CK McKenzie come to the Swamp and talk about their generational leadership transition of Watson Furniture. They discuss their different approaches to the work, how they make decisions and how they each lead. Clif has led Watson for a g...
073_Wendy Tyner: I Am One Who Listens
Wendy Tyner visits the Swamp to share her wisdom gained from leading philanthropic organizations and building communities. She begins our conversation sharing what she learned teaching children with learning disabilities. We then discuss how sh...
072_Aidan McQuade: Ethical Leadership
Aidan McQuade joins me in the Swamp to discuss his book, Ethical Leadership: Moral Decision-Making Under Pressure and his model “The Cruciform of Agency.” Aidan was born in Northern Ireland and grew up during the period known ...
071_Benjamin Taylor: Differentiation, Integration and Four Dynamics of Groups
Benjamin Taylor makes his third appearance in the Swamp and he brings some useful distinctions with him. We discuss the value and importance of understanding the positive and negative dynamics that differentiation and integration have on group ...
070_Joanne Murphy & Keith Grint: The Demanding Craft of Leading
Joanne Murphy and Keith Grint come to the swamp to discuss their views on leadership and the effort required to do it well. Joanne and Keith are deeply informed on this topic of leading. Their academic background includes teaching, research and...
069_Bill Sharpe: Three Horizons: The Patterns of Hope
Three Horizons: The Patterning of Hope Bill Sharpe visits the swamp and brings his Three Horizon framework for navigating the future. Bill is an independent researcher who helps people work together to create transformation...
068_Elvis Fraser: Advancing Social Justice and Equity through MLE
Elvis Fraser comes to the Swamp to share his commitment to helping non-profit organizations realize greater measurable results from their social impact investments through wise monitoring, learning and evaluation strategies.He and his Sa...
067_ Eva Grosman: Centre for Democracy and Peacebuilding
Eva Grosman joins me in the swamp to share how her “life factory setting” which is based on hope and courage, has guided her in building the Centre for Democracy and Peacebuilding as well as a community of peacebuilders around the worl...
066_ Nick Ellem: The Leadership Learning Cycle
Nick Ellem comes to the Swamp to share a comprehensive exploration of Adaptive Leadership as well as his journey to teach and help people building adaptive capacity. Nick speaks directly to the reasons why many leadership development p...
065_Joanne Murphy: Leadership is about creating change
Joanne Murphy, Professor of Inclusive Leadership at Birmingham Business School comes to the swamp and discusses how we can lead inside volatile environments. She brings a lifetime of lived experience on this topic. Joanne was raised...
064_Ethan Schutz: The Human Element
Ethan Schutz, President and CEO of The Schutz Company pays a visit to the swamp and shares the history and the work that is The Human Element. Ethan takes us back to when his father, Will Schutz developed his thinking ...
063_Jill Hufnagel: Leading Begins With Purpose
Jill Hufnagel comes to the swamp and shares her perspective and experience helping people develop leadership capacity. Jill served as guest faculty on the Harvard Kennedy School’s Art & Practice of Adaptive Leadership program and as a senio...
062_Geoff Mead: Narrative Leadership
Geoff Mead returns to the Swamp to discuss narrative leadership. Often acts of leading begin as a conversation. A conversation that might be internal or conversations with other people. It is important for people who choose to lead, to un...