Ep.6 | Ironman Reflections, the Internal Talent Marketplace, & What a Cargo Plane Crash Reveals About Our Culture of Blame

📖 Episode 6 Summary

In this episode of Game Changer by Empowerhouse Coaching, Amanda Escobedo explores what it means to stay curious, creative, and courageous — from the Ironman finish line to the evolving world of work and leadership. 🌊

Through her Ironman reflections, Amanda talks about the power of doing hard things on purpose. Growth doesn’t come from avoiding difficulty; it comes from meeting it head-on and becoming the kind of person who can handle hard things with presence, resilience, and purpose. Every challenge shapes who you’re becoming. It’s not just endurance; it’s evolution.

This week’s episode looks at growth, creativity, and accountability through three stories:

• Ironman Insights — Choosing your challenges intentionally is how you build confidence and grit. When you keep showing up for the hard stuff, you build the identity of someone who follows through and stays aligned with what matters most.
• “Would You Apply for a Gig at Your Full-Time Job?” — A story of creativity in flow. As the workforce continues to evolve, Standard Chartered reimagined how work moves by creating an internal talent marketplace that turns curiosity into innovation and helps people grow beyond their roles. It’s a reminder that adaptability isn’t just strategy — it’s a creative practice.
• “A Cargo Aircraft Skids Off a Hong Kong Runway into the Sea” — Crises often reveal our instinct to look for someone to blame instead of looking for what we can learn. Amanda explores how strong leadership starts with curiosity and the courage to ask better questions: not “Who’s at fault?” but “What can we understand, and how can we grow?”

Together, these stories remind us that progress lives inside discomfort. The goal isn’t to avoid the hard parts — it’s to move through them with intention, curiosity, and grace.

💭 Reflection Prompts

👉 Where in your life are you being invited to do something hard — to grow into the next version of who you’re becoming?
 👉 What challenge or truth are you being asked to face, and what’s the cost of avoiding it?
 👉 How does your inner voice nudge you when you’re out of alignment, and what might it be trying to tell you?
 👉 As technology reshapes the workforce, how are you feeling about the future of your work?
 👉 Is this the moment to reimagine your career — to use new tools and changes as leverage instead of fear?
 👉 Where in your life, when things go wrong, do you lean toward blame instead of curiosity?

🔗 References

• Would You Apply for a Gig at Your Full-Time Job? — The Hustle / Wall Street Journal
• A Cargo Aircraft Skids Off a Hong Kong Runway into the Sea, Killing 2 Airport Workers — Associated Press

Transcript

Amanda Escobedo (00:02.892)
Check the mic and make sure it sound right, boys. Welcome to The Game Changer by Empower House Coaching, your podcast to master the mental game, elevate your brilliance, and build a legacy of progress and impact. My name is Amanda Escobedo. I'm your host, Intergame Coach, here to help you change the game. Welcome to episode six, Time Flies. We're halfway through almost to 10. 

Amanda Escobedo (00:31.022)
A couple shout outs. One, I should sound different. I've gotten a lot of feedback from many of my friends listening. Thank you. And more than just the feedback, I've gotten a lot of requests to help like identify great equipment. 

Amanda Escobedo (00:46.686)
And for someone that works with technologists, I feel like I should have more courage to just jump right into technology and all of this stuff, but it gives me anxiety. I'm like, I don't know what to buy. What should I use? I don't know. And more than that, like I'm afraid to the wrong thing. And then secondly, the hardest part for me is setting it all up. 

Amanda Escobedo (01:05.782)
All the QRG's, the quick reference guides or the directions that come with it. My brain just doesn't work very well. So shout out to Darryl because Darryl took the time to not only send me great links, but he helped me set up my whole shebang. So hopefully I should be coming in loud and clear. So thank you so much, Darryl. Also best DJ in the world. And also just shout out to two friends. So Evelyn and Daniel. 

Amanda Escobedo (01:36.0)
they just completed a freaking full Ironman. Full Ironman. That's like over a hundred miles of stuff. It's a couple of miles of swimming and then you're on the bike for, I don't know, a lot of miles. I think a hundred, maybe less, but a lot. Let's just say a lot of miles on the bike. And then after that, you're running a full marathon. 

Amanda Escobedo (02:01.184)
and I was watching them through like the tracker, watching them and I felt myself getting very emotional. It's like, why am getting so emotional? Especially when I saw them transition from the bike to the marathon because I had so much compassion. I'm like, they've already exhausted themselves to the tee and I sent them both kind of joking messages. You only have a marathon left. 

Amanda Escobedo (02:25.406)
And it's kind of crazy to me that all of this ends with the marathon mostly because running is the hardest part for me. And then watching them go through the finish line, like I saw a bunch of posts that I didn't even know that you could like watch them live somewhere outside the tracker. I don't know how that works, but just seeing them at the finish line. Then since then I've been like obsessed with watching the Iron Man. What does it handle on Instagram? Just all these people that did the same Iron Man and watching all their stories and their emotions. 

Amanda Escobedo (02:55.296)
And I felt myself getting so emotional because one thing I really love about just being around athletes, if you will, so I've invested in a very expensive gym and then I've met just very athletic people. I thought I was pretty fit until I met all these people and they always say you're the average of your five. I've been wanting to get into these type of circles because... 

Amanda Escobedo (03:20.414)
I don't want a plateau and I don't want like when I was working out my gym here in my apartment complex, I feel like I maxed out of like the itty bitty weights in my gym and I was like, I'm so strong. And I am, but going into this nicer, more prestige gym, if you will, that has all these bigger weights, more than these bigger weights, a lot of people that choose to invest in something like this have a lot of goals related to fitness. And I've never really had fitness goals. 

Amanda Escobedo (03:46.678)
So I jumped on the fitness journey just later in life, probably my early 30s is when I started figuring out a rhythm, but I've never had a purpose behind my workouts. And so meeting people at this gym has been very inspirational for me because a ton of people run a ton of marathons, they do all these bike tracks, they do triathlons, and it might sound super silly, but. 

Amanda Escobedo (04:09.976)
You know, I'd never even really understood what a triathlon was. And then even Ironman, of course, I've heard of the term Ironman, but I never really looked it up to understand what it was. And my friend Evelyn has told me she was signing up for the full Ironman multiple times, but my brain didn't click that. I knew she did like an Olympic one, a smaller one, and then she did a half. And then she sent me a really cute postcard. I was like, follow me for my first Ironman. 

Amanda Escobedo (04:37.08)
but it didn't register she was doing the fool. And I could not, when I finally like was like, you're doing the fool. She's like, girl, how many times have I told you? I just didn't believe it. Maybe she told me, but I don't think my brain clicked how like she was doing the fool and what the fool actually meant. Like over a hundred miles of stuff is what I say. 

Amanda Escobedo (04:57.782)
And so now it's a goal I want to eventually do. And I think that was another thing that I was becoming very emotional about because as I was seeing all these people going through the finish line, it just really triggered me inside. It's something that I wanna be able to do. And last episode, you all heard me talk about what I love about Jiu-Jitsu is, know, choosing to do hard, honestly, choosing to do hard and suck at something. 

Amanda Escobedo (05:24.012)
and then figuring out how to navigate and get better, get into that flow state. We all have that flow where there's just innate things that we are naturals at, but there are lot of other areas of life where we're not as natural and it takes a lot of hard work, a lot of suckiness, a lot of repetition, a lot of commitment, a lot of discipline to keep showing up until you do the thing that you decided to commit to. like the Ironman just feels like the biggest beast to do. 

Amanda Escobedo (05:53.098)
And Iron Man, the other piece that I really love about setting that goal for myself is it's not something I can just check off the box any year. It's something I have to prepare for many years. And so what that means for me is you guys have been hearing me a bit of my running journey. I just did my first half marathon a couple weeks ago. That is a really big deal for me. 

Amanda Escobedo (06:16.014)
But I don't wanna stop there. Now that I have this goal, I have also a goal for next year, I wanna run my first marathon. So I wanna get a couple of half marathons, more half marathons under my belt and then accomplish my first full marathon by next year, the end of next year. And then now having this bigger goal, the Ironman, I wanna have a couple of marathons under my belt before I go into the Ironman. 

Amanda Escobedo (06:42.722)
And the other thing I find really inspirational about my friend's stories, know, multiple, you know, kudos to Daniel and Evelyn for finishing this whole thing. I don't know a lot of Daniel's background when it comes to swimming and biking, but what I can say for Evelyn is she like just learned how to swim this year. She was taking a bunch of swimming lessons, just bought her bathing suit, and then was like learning, I forget what it's called, gym, like deep waters or deep something. 

Amanda Escobedo (07:09.23)
but was learning like proper strokes and breathing techniques. And then all of a sudden she was just in the pool as part of her schedule and routine. And then she bought her bike. So all of this happened this year. And I think this is why my mind is completely blown by this and feels a little broken. they both had amazing times. I just, how hard all of this was and it just goes to my own half marathon journey. It's like, it's only half, but I'm still celebrating myself. But that half... 

Amanda Escobedo (07:37.742)
was really hard, okay? It was so hard, but I did it and talking to somebody else, I did a full marathon, I was like, at what point did you hit that wall? And he was like, mile 16. I was like, mile 16? You had a lot more miles ahead of you, like 10 more miles. He's like, I know, to finish the full marathon. So I can recognize, there were probably multiple states of the wall. 

Amanda Escobedo (08:01.676)
within the Iron Man and when I was watching to their treks and I haven't had the time to connect with them individually to ask them the journey. I'm seeing them both tomorrow. but I was watching you know they're they're running the running their marathon and seeing a bit of their times like going up and down and I can only imagine the walls that they've hit. I've just heard so many stories. It's like you can't eat. You can't even drink water. Your body seems like it's just starting to break down. I had another friend that tried this 

Amanda Escobedo (08:31.374)
broke down at mile 40 of the bike. So it's really hard people. And I think again, to be able to put in the discipline, the commitment for a goal like this, to show up for yourself, to work the mental game of all of this, because it's really your mind that breaks down before your body. 

Amanda Escobedo (08:50.23)
And so if you can master that mental mind game, then your body can really keep going. And that's what I want to be able to accomplish for myself. And this is an example of where we get our confidence. We get our confidence from doing things that are really hard. So when things are just handed to us, when our parents, you know, when we're growing up and we don't have any chores and... 

Amanda Escobedo (09:14.904)
We have all this help and no shade to any of that lifestyle. But if there's nothing we have ownership of, if there's nothing that we are required to commit to, if we have the ability to say no when we want to, then this is the stuff that takes away our sense of purpose. This is the stuff that takes away our sense of ownership. This is the stuff that takes away our sense of courage, our discipline, and this is the stuff that takes away our sense of confidence. We build confidence. 

Amanda Escobedo (09:43.33)
when we are able to do those things that are hard for us. Last note I'll mention on this, I have a friend that lives in Sacramento, well I have two friends, Liz and Otto, shout out to Liz and Otto. They both are married, they live in Sacramento. And I went to visit them this year, Otto was very kind when he was like, you're doing jujitsu, come up with me and we'll roll together, we'll get private lessons, we'll do cold plunges, all these things. I was like, awesome. 

Amanda Escobedo (10:12.554)
I went up with them, did all that, stayed with them. There was a moment with their kids that I watched and loved the dynamic. And part of it, they were going to swim lessons, I think, and one of the daughters did not wanna go. And I could relate to that. She woke up and was like, it's not happening today. And Otto was like, you're going, whether you want to or not. And it was so great, giving her that sense of push. 

Amanda Escobedo (10:40.056)
There was probably a lot of just resistance with just having toddlers and all that sort of thing. But she went, and the best part of this was she went and she got like a medal because she hit, don't know, I don't know how the swim lessons things, but she got a medal of some sort of recognition. And maybe it was just a new milestone in her swim, but it was a good lesson for her because Otto and even myself, I pulled her aside. I was like, this is such a great lesson life for you because you're gonna have so many times in life that you're not gonna want to do something. 

Amanda Escobedo (11:09.734)
And you're gonna have to choose to show up anyways. And this is a perfect example of the rewards that you can start to earn for yourself when you choose to show up even when you don't want to. And I was talking to her even more, was like, think your dad wants to wake up at like 3.30 to go on a run at 4 a.m. or whatever time he gets up, you think he wants to wake up early to jump in cold water in the river, because he's also doing triathlons? No! 

Amanda Escobedo (11:38.136)
But we do it anyways, and this is where we build our confidence every time we show up for ourselves. A lot of the time we're showing up for other people. We put other people first. It's a lot easier for us to have a sense of purpose in other people's lives. But a lot of the time we're putting our needs, our desires, everything on the back burner. And especially too if what we're looking to achieve looks like a big mountain. 

Amanda Escobedo (12:05.174)
And this is where you'll hear me talk about, again, getting into that sense of flow requires us when to let go of expectations. And a lot of time letting go of expectations means we have to change our relationship with time, with time. Because a lot of us, when we're setting these goals, we have these all or nothing mindsets, and we expect to achieve all this with a limited amount of time. And it takes time to achieve what we want to achieve. 

Amanda Escobedo (12:33.324)
because I believe a big purpose of life is not achieving the goal. A big purpose of life is who we get to become in the process of achieving that goal. And that's another thing I've really had some deep reflection. It's so crazy how many reflections and insights I've gotten from my two friends' experiences of accomplishing their own Ironman. 

Amanda Escobedo (12:56.076)
because I really, again, was starting to envision myself crossing that finish line. And part of starting to envision myself was not just like watching myself be like, I did it. Yeah, that is something I'd be like, I did it. But it would also be just the feeling of reward and who I had to become to achieve that. And so I'm really looking forward to meeting her one day, the person that has to put herself through hell to achieve that. 

Amanda Escobedo (13:23.832)
but put yourself through hell with a sense of purpose. It's doing hard. And here's the thing, there's a lot of hard things in life, right? It's about being intentional about the type of hard that you're choosing. There's the type of hard that keeps us stuck and type of hard meaning we're not making the hard decision of either quitting the job that's out of alignment with us, getting out of the relationship that's out of alignment with us. We want the easy road so we just stay stagnant, stay coasting in these relationships, stay coasting in these jobs. 

Amanda Escobedo (13:53.602)
whatever it is, and that feels easy, but the heart is building every single day, your soul is out of alignment with your possibilities. What it knows that you're capable of achieving, what it knows who you're supposed to be showing up and being and growing into, that's a different type of heart. That's a daily, it's a daily nudge of heart. Every single day, your soul is just tapping on you. 

Amanda Escobedo (14:19.222)
reminding you of what you're capable of and you're choosing not. And this is where we don't wanna hear that. That's the anxiety that starts to within us. We don't wanna feel that. And that's when many people start to tap into a bit of either, you know, overeating, over drinking, binge watching Netflix. We're using all these different things as escapisms, drugs, because we don't want to feel that little tap of anxiety that's telling us. 

Amanda Escobedo (14:47.854)
something is out of alignment. And so the other side of hard is choosing to get curious of what is this anxiety from the other side of hard is setting these milestones, these goals, these things that feel impossible. Like I can't tell you how many times and how many years I have told myself that I am not a runner and my body is just not built for me and has been taking me years to rewire that narrative and start to identify differently. 

Amanda Escobedo (15:17.492)
And a lot of the time, the brain doesn't want to identify as something because you don't have the evidence yet, right? And so you have to start kind of tricking yourself and choosing to identify anyways and let the evidence follow. And again, these are choices. And so I'm all about choosing hard, choosing hard because it teaches me how to do hard. When you become more more successful, you don't have less problems. 

Amanda Escobedo (15:45.006)
You don't have less problems, you have bigger problems. But I like to think of problems, not as actual problems, they're areas of business and life and health and relationships that just require your attention. So stop avoiding what needs your attention. That was a little bit of my rant. Shout out again to Darryl, to Darryl for my equipment, shout out to Daniel and Evelyn for their Iron Man. 

Amanda Escobedo (16:12.802)
Little update on my jujitsu journey. I think I think I told you guys last week or the episode before I've been doing a couple different VIP lessons I still suck Like have not gotten better today. I just felt so defeated today went to class at 6 a.m. And I Today was no gee so you didn't have your cute little outfit is what I call with the belts and all that 

Amanda Escobedo (16:38.498)
It was no geese, you're an under armor. I just like everything I learned, my brain just completely left. And I'll own why I sucked. I didn't come in with intention. I should have walked in watching my videos and being like, of started to replay the moves in my head. And I kind of just went in and was like freestyling again. So without that intention, I'm learning. This is where I start to lose my confidence. And so I own... 

Amanda Escobedo (17:04.632)
how I showed up today, I could have showed up better. And so today was just a big reflective moment. And part of sucking too, I mean, you can get injured. This is the spazzy white belt. My wrist did a thing, my neck, I rolled my head. I rolled my body over my head, which you were supposed to and rolled through like a neck, but like a piece, I rolled the wrong side, something happened. And I heard my entire neck go, a lot of cracks. And I was like, I hope that's the good kind of cracks, like the chiropractor cracks. 

Amanda Escobedo (17:34.318)
Where it's like a sense of release? Luckily, I'm okay. I did see the chiropractor today. I had a foot thing happen today, but just quick update I still suck but this is a part of the flow and part of the flow is choosing to show up anyway and Humbling yourself and just showing up being committed learning pivoting adjusting showing up sucking failing falling, you know, you know the drill That's where I'm at 

Amanda Escobedo (18:02.752)
So let's get into some topics, a little bit of topics today. So I only have two stories to review for you. Number one, I wanted to unpack what I consider a creative story. And what I call a creative story, just again, background on my background, I am a coach that an intergame coach is what I consider myself and I really specialize in cultivating creativity in business. 

Amanda Escobedo (18:30.414)
And creativity in business, as a reminder, you're like, what does that mean, creativity in business? Creativity is really just an approach to life. Everything is a creative process. And I like to say creativity, the way I'm defining it, it's really just a figuratable mindset. It's when you're coming up against a brick wall of frustration, you're coming up against that anxiety that you have, you're coming up against a... 

Amanda Escobedo (18:55.722)
some type of trouble within business, you know, all of a sudden funding got cut, the goal hasn't changed. So now you got to get creative. How do we achieve that goal with less resources? Right? So that's a creative process. The plan didn't go as planned. if you're feeling that anxiety, a creative process is getting curious to understand where's that anxiety coming from and how to solve for that. And likely whatever you're doing to try and solve for that, you'll 

Amanda Escobedo (19:21.132)
you probably won't get the desired outcome you're looking for. Similar to injuries, I've been working with a new injury from running and I have been having like sciatica on both sides of my glutes. So every time I'm trying to sleep and I'm just like, where is this coming from? Is it, what's the root of it? Is it in my glutes? Is it in my hips? Is it in my lower back? Where is it coming from? So I've just been curious, trying to find all these different things, trying to find all these different hotspots. 

Amanda Escobedo (19:46.86)
Saw my dad as an example who's a certified massage therapist, stretcher, saw my chiropractor, kind of helped, but we have not found the solution yet. We have not found the root of the issue or the solution. This is a creative process. And so I want you to start understanding and fundamentally everything is a creative process, any challenge you're coming across. And so... 

Amanda Escobedo (20:08.994)
Come back to my injury, there are many people in life that are like, well, I just can't run because I have this hip thing, right? I just can't run because my knees. You hear that stuff all the time. I have all of that stuff. The difference is with many other people that choose to continue on the journey that the running, the sports, whatever it is that they're looking to accomplish is it's rehab. 

Amanda Escobedo (20:31.906)
Right, but part of rehab is a creative process. So you have to get curious of what is the root of the issue and then try to support that. And so, but that takes time. And right now I'm not in a place to give up. It's just about getting curious, listening to my body, being in tune and being creative and adapting, trying different things, sees what working, sees what's not, and then pivoting. That is a creative process. 

Amanda Escobedo (20:57.014)
And so when we come into business, again, especially now in the AI world, In the AI world, you keep talking about how it's going to change the future of the workforce. And so how, if it's going to change the future of the workforce, how do we adapt to that in a way that's really benefiting us? And more than just benefiting us as humans, how do we evolve in a way where we can actually live and lead a more 

Amanda Escobedo (21:26.606)
Thriving life and this is a powerful question creativity always starts with the question You will hear that from me every single episode. I promise you and one of the podcasts I want to recommend to Which I love listening to I think I talked about it in like the first episode is the all-in podcast You've got all these like a few they call themselves the besties. It's there these tech entrepreneurs billionaires, they have their own podcast called 

Amanda Escobedo (21:56.492)
the All In podcast, they had an All In summit I went to that was so great, met phenomenal people, phenomenal speakers. But I love listening to their podcasts because they talk about politics, geopolitics, they talk about real world problems, tech problems, whatever it is, and they always lead with a powerful question. So I love listening just because of the questions that they ask. 

Amanda Escobedo (22:20.652)
They have very curious minds and part of the curious minds, it's very energizing. It's full of possibilities. It's very disruptive in a way of thinking and it really reframes fear out of fear and it brings us into innovative new possible solutions. And so that's what I hope to do here. I'm not necessarily gonna talk about world problems and we should talk about them together, but I want to with some examples. 

Amanda Escobedo (22:50.254)
some articles where I do feel like maybe there are real world challenges happening and there are real problems that are solving for them. And I wanna break out some of the creativity tools that fundamentally have potentially driven us into these type of solutions. So that's a little context of what got my attention for this particular article that I'm gonna be sharing. So this article that I came across, it's called, Would You Apply for a Gig at Your Full-Time Job? 

Amanda Escobedo (23:20.27)
And I was like, what an interesting title, caught my attention immediately. And I was like, let me click on that. So would you apply for a gig at your full-time job? The reason why I thought that was interesting and it caught my attention, gig work. Gig work is generally like temporary work, contract work. So let's say, I don't know, I'm a graphic designer and I have just like a bunch of odd jobs from different companies. They have a project, Nike has a project, they need a graphic designer. 

Amanda Escobedo (23:48.186)
and just to launch for that campaign, they need something in particular, maybe they need, I don't know, whatever it is, they only want temporary work. They don't wanna hire full-time. There's gonna be an end date. That's an example of gig work. So to say, would you apply for a gig at your full-time job, that's asking, like you already have a full-time job, so then asking, would you apply for a gig work? I was like, what do they mean by that? Do they mean if I'm already at my full-time job? 

Amanda Escobedo (24:15.308)
Would I quit it for a gig role at this company? Doesn't mean I have a full-time job and then I'm applying for a gig job so I get extra money. So my brain went to all these things. What does this mean? So it caught my attention. I clicked and I learned more. So a little setting about what the story is about. So when I came across the story in the Wall Street Journal, it's about global banking group standard charter, okay? 

Amanda Escobedo (24:41.804)
And again, I couldn't help but see this through a lens of creativity and leadership. So as AI continues to reshape how we work, Standard Charter did something very creative. They created an internal talent marketplace. And I was like, ooh, what's an internal talent marketplace? Again, my brain got a lot more curious. Ooh. So they created an internal talent marketplace, which is a platform where employees can actually volunteer to take on short-term gigs inside the company. 

Amanda Escobedo (25:11.968)
even outside of their usual roles. So then immediately my brain goes, okay, they're applying for short-term gigs inside their company. It's a volunteer opportunity. And then my brain goes, volunteer, does that mean they're getting money or no money? So they can do this and spend up to eight hours a week helping other teams on projects that interest them, but they don't get paid extra. So going back to my question, I was like, do they get more money? They don't get paid extra. 

Amanda Escobedo (25:38.766)
but they do gain experience, exposure and new connections. So kind of like networking visibility across the organization. It's completely employee driven. People choose to opt into this program, the Talent Marking Place. And this choice has actually sparked something very powerful. 60 % participation. That's a lot. 60 % participation and over 8 

Amanda Escobedo (26:05.486)
$8.5 million in new project value since 2020. Think of that, $8.5 million in new project value since 2020, and that's no additional cost to them. They didn't have to get more overhead, hire more bodies to get that value. So what problem were they trying to solve with building this internal talent marketplace? 

Amanda Escobedo (26:31.63)
So the problem they were trying to solve, wasn't purely operational from my perspective. I believe it was very innovative in their solutioning. So in the world of work, as I mentioned before, it's changing faster than ever, especially with AI. And so the world of work is changing faster than job descriptions can actually keep up. So according to Deloitte, the half life of a skill, I was like, I had to Google what that meant, the half life of a skill. 

Amanda Escobedo (26:58.54)
So the half life of a skill, meaning the time it takes for half of what you know to become outdated. So the half life skill, meaning the time it takes for half of what you know to become outdated is now less than, drum roll, five years. Five years, that's it. So it doesn't mean people are falling behind, but it means the environment is moving faster than ever. 

Amanda Escobedo (27:27.616)
So roles evolve, if roles are evolved and technology is changing, what used to make us very valuable in the workplace isn't static anymore. Now at the same time, companies are under increasing pressure to move faster, reduce costs, fill skill gaps quickly, but hiring externally isn't always the smartest solution because when we're hiring externally, it takes so much time to recruit. 

Amanda Escobedo (27:54.722)
to onboard, to ramp up a new employee, especially for specialized or emerging roles, and it's expensive. So beyond salary, there are hidden costs of recruiting as well. So beyond salary, there's hidden costs of recruiting, training, onboarding, and all the time again to see that true return on investment. So the real question, coming back to questions, open questions, the real question is, 

Amanda Escobedo (28:24.066)
How do you evolve a workforce in a way that allows both work and the people to grow, to stay engaged, relevant, be inspired without having to constantly hire externally every time a new skill of need emerges in this ever evolving world of work? So this is... 

Amanda Escobedo (28:47.192)
You know, a lot of time we're trying to think of like, what problem are we trying to solve? What's the problem statement? Part of that, I like to go into an open, powerful question, transform that problem statement into a powerful question. Because if you can turn that problem statement into a powerful question, your brain will always answer a question. Always. You just have to ask it the right questions. If you ask the wrong type of questions, there's questions that really block your creativity, that really invite the itty bitty. 

Amanda Escobedo (29:17.272)
committee, the career brain, that they come in all those judgments, the insecurities that make us really dumb too. And then there are questions that really cultivate our creativity. So this question, let's read it one more time. How do we evolve our workforce in a way that allows both work and the people to stay engaged, relevant and inspired without having to constantly hire externally every time a new skill of need emerges in this ever evolving world of work? 

Amanda Escobedo (29:46.636)
Now again, that question became the problem to solve a challenge rooted in strategy, speed and human potential. And so that question is very powerful, but what is most meaningful change? One question led to another. with most, sorry, let me reframe that. With most meaningful changes, one question really leads to another. So instead of rushing to really find an answer, so by asking that question, what are our ideas? 

Amanda Escobedo (30:15.832)
there's another opportunity to get more curious. So I like to think of creativity as like a little onion. We just go deeper and deeper and deeper into questions. Whenever I'm working with a coaching client too, it's not about me. A lot of people come to me thinking I can solve their problems. like, I don't have any more or better answers than you do. My goal is not to solve your problems and give you answers. I actually believe you have all the answers. 

Amanda Escobedo (30:39.628)
And so if I believe you have all the answers, then it's really my job to unlock them. And part of me unlocking them is asking a lot of powerful questions. And we start going deeper and deeper and deeper into your subconscious, your, your intuitive intelligence into your human potential. That's where all that creativity starts to come in. So one powerful question leads to another powerful question. And so instead of again, rushing to find an answer, then this is another opportunity to get curious and ask a second question. 

Amanda Escobedo (31:09.674)
What if the solution wasn't outside of the organization but was already within it? What a great question. What if the solution to this question, it wasn't about it being outside of the organization, what if the answer was already within it? And then it leads to, you know, I wonder if we could meet this new skill, not by hiring new people, but by unlocking the potential of the people we already have. Whoa. 

Amanda Escobedo (31:39.488)
Isn't that powerful? Don't you feel inspired? Don't you feel like your brain is like, what if, what if we tried? my gosh, what a great idea. And so you start to feel more energized about the possibility with these types of questions instead of feeling stuck and frustrated with like AI and the workforce and like fear of not having work and jobs. We are out of that fear state and we're into not just solutions, we're into empowerment, we're into possibilities. And so. 

Amanda Escobedo (32:08.876)
That's the question. It's open going back to what if the solution wasn't outside of our organization? Then your brain go, wow, what if the solution wasn't outside of the organization? What if it was already within? my God, what if the solution was already in the organization? And then your brain goes to, I wonder if we could meet new skill needs, not by hiring new people, but by unlocking potential of the people we already have. Now that... 

Amanda Escobedo (32:38.496)
question and statements folding into is so open, so curious, so full of wonder. It doesn't assume we already know, right? It invites exploration. This is why these questions are so good. It's the kind of question that energizes what you think. What if we could? What would it look like if we did? That's the kind of thinking that turns a business problem into a creativity opportunity. 

Amanda Escobedo (33:06.178)
Now let's bring it back to the story. So standard charter didn't start with certainty. They started with curiosity. And their next question then became, you know, how can we surface and deploy the skills we already have internally instead of constantly hiring externally? And that's the magic of creativity and business right there, people, when a problem statement transforms into a possible question, possibility of questions. 

Amanda Escobedo (33:33.258)
one that invites again exploration, imagination and change. And because the challenge was both practical and forward looking, the solution really became innovated. And because this challenge was both practical and forward looking, this was not just about talent, growth, engagement, it was really about adaptability, efficiency and staying ahead of the curve in a rapidly evolving world of work. 

Amanda Escobedo (34:00.952)
So hiring externally, again, let's go back to some of the cons. Hiring externally, takes a lot of time. It's costly to hire externally. It requires that onboarding, that training, that long runway before the results show up. And so instead of reacting to every new skill gap with another hire, standard chartered reimagine how work itself could evolve, how people and skills could actually grow together. I love this. 

Amanda Escobedo (34:30.594)
Their internal talent marketplace, didn't just fill the skill gap, it actually helped build it. So by giving employees opportunities to contribute to projects outside of their usual scope of work, they weren't just meeting business needs faster, they were actually expanding what their people were capable of. And so all of this is actually very much a mindset shift. It shifts us from fearing disruption to actually... 

Amanda Escobedo (34:58.03)
riding the wave of it. I say disruption as an example, the disruption of AI and its impact or our fear of workforce, right? The change that it's going to have, the evolution to the workforce. So it's the fearing that disruption. really helps us. These types of questions as creativity helps us ride the wave of it using curiosity, creativity, experimentation as tools for adaption, not resistance. From a coaching perspective, cultivating creativity is a self discovery. 

Amanda Escobedo (35:27.734)
journey. So that's another thing that's a value add here. So you've heard me over and over talk about cultivating creativity, cultivating creativity. It stems from self discovery, which means it requires you to know thyself. It requires you to know and understand your innate gifts. It requires you to understand your desires, have clarity of vision, be curious. And so 

Amanda Escobedo (35:53.204)
Standard Chartered's approach did exactly this. It really helped lead this self-discovery journey for both leaders and employees within this solution. How's so Amanda? I'm not following. Glad you asked. Leadership got creative by reframing the problem. So they didn't just say, again, we need to hire faster. No, they said, let's look inward. Maybe the talent, the ideas, the energy we already need is here. So that thought 

Amanda Escobedo (36:21.902)
process, that paradigm shift, if you will, that mindset shift, that shift opened the door for employees to do the same, look inward and explore their own potential. So employees volunteer for new gigs, they have the opportunity to experiment, they get to test what lights them up. So going back to that self discovery. 

Amanda Escobedo (36:43.541)
This solution actually feeds self-discovery. If an employee is raising their hand to say, wanna try that, they don't have to be so committed to that. They get to test, is this something that lights me up? They have the opportunity to utilize and leverage maybe skills that are being unused in their current job as well. And so this experiment of trying this gig, it gives them... 

Amanda Escobedo (37:08.162)
the opportunity test, know, is this something that gives me energy? Is this something that drains me? Is this a challenge that I actually enjoy? Is this something I want to learn more of? And when people operate from that mindset, which that mindset is really a mindset of I get to do this versus I have to do this, you're being pushed into it, it changes everything. That mindset is the core of blocking creativity or fueling creativity. 

Amanda Escobedo (37:37.974)
And so the, get to is the fuel. And this is where, when you have that mindset and the ability to be attached to something that you enjoy, you're curious of, this is where ownership comes into play. This is where engagement increases. And this is really where creativity is born. Now, another highlight I want to kind of give credit to this solution, the talent marketplace within this company has built and the HR world. 

Amanda Escobedo (38:05.602)
for learning and development, for really growing people in their careers. There's what's called the 70-20-10 model. And really the foundation is how we grow and develop people. Most people, let's say they have a high potential, they wanna grow into a leader, maybe they wanna grow into a senior engineer, whatever it is. Maybe someone wants to evolve into an engineer from a different group. 

Amanda Escobedo (38:31.026)
Generally the first thing that managers come to HR for, they raise their hand, they're like, do you have a training for this? Do you have like some type of technical skill training to help this employee? Whatever it is, they go first to trainings. But what's fascinating about this 70, 10, 20 model is it actually frames the training aspect of our development at a lower score. 

Amanda Escobedo (38:56.366)
So the 70-20 model actually says 70 % of our learning happens on the job through on the job experience from example, stretch assignments. So this talent place market is that opportunity to give you on the job experience. That's where 70 % of our learning happens. 20 % comes from exposure. So collaboration, mentorship, feedback. 

Amanda Escobedo (39:21.89)
That's another great benefit from this talent marketplace. It gives you the opportunity to work with different teams, have exposure to different executives, have exposure to different leaders, have exposure to different type of mentorship styles, and you'll be able to potentially get different type of feedback from different groups. So again, so great in this talent marketplace. You're getting that on the job learning experience and you're getting... 

Amanda Escobedo (39:48.11)
which is 70 % of our learning and you're getting that exposure, that visibility, and that's 20 % of our learning. And then the last is only 10 % of formal training. And so the talent marketplace doesn't solve for that, which is fine. Again, it's only 10%. The fact that it hits both this 70 and 20 % is huge. So again, what the standard chart really built essentially activates that 70, 20, learn by doing and learn by connecting or through exposure. 

Amanda Escobedo (40:15.276)
It's a perfect example of how creativity and business isn't just confined within innovative teams. So that's another thing I always constantly see. I used to work at the North Face. They had like a whole innovative center. They built literally like an innovative center. And most people think creativity must happen in these incubation, incubate within these innovation centers. this is, creativity is less about just innovation. Innovation can come out of that, but everything is a creative process. 

Amanda Escobedo (40:45.174)
And what I really love about this talent marketplace, again, it's feeding our growth and development. It's feeding the, your desires, the self exploration, the self discovery. And all of this is feeding the I get to mindset. It's voluntary. Nobody's forcing you, in this process. And so when you zoom out, the story isn't just about adaption. It's really about flow. Another word for creativity. So when you hear me talk about 

Amanda Escobedo (41:13.56)
cultivating creativity, you might also hear me talk about getting us into our flow state. True creativity is the ability to move with change, not resist it. So all you cancers out there, my dad and my brother are cancers, hate change. You gotta learn to flow. So flow is gonna be the best skill that you can learn for yourself. And flow is really flowing through challenges instead of getting stuck in them. 

Amanda Escobedo (41:41.258)
It's the ongoing rhythm and reflecting, learning, strategizing, ideating, executing, failing, incubating, and beginning that over and over with renewed insight. Kind of like jujitsu, right? So that's what it means to create emotion, to stay curious, to evolve, and to let each cycle of growth shape what's next. And as AI continues to reshape 

Amanda Escobedo (42:06.636)
the way we work, none of us fully really know the future of what the workforce will look like. But this model gives us a glimpse of what flowing with it could look like. And so what flowing with it means, we actually have the ability to create a future, create a future that benefits us. But the only way that we have the ability to be intentional and create a future, if change is happening, change that we may not want, but if we decide to flow with it, 

Amanda Escobedo (42:35.352)
Flowing means being intentional of how we want this to benefit us. And so you have the ability to have any change benefit you. It's a mindset shift. It's a choice. And it starts with powerful question. Again, it's not about fearing because fear adds zero value to us. There is no critical thought that comes out of fear. Fear keeps you stagnant, keeps you stuck. It's really about figuring out and learning how to ride the wave by asking. 

Amanda Escobedo (43:04.174)
powerful questions. What possibilities exist right here, right now within us, within our teams that we haven't seen yet. What a simple question. If we're talking about, if you don't know what question to ask, ask this question. If you are feeling fear and you're a leader within your organization, what possibilities exist right here, right now within us, within our teams that we haven't seen yet. That's what creativity and business truly is. It's a continuous journey of curiosity, of courage. 

Amanda Escobedo (43:34.102)
of reinvention and it always starts with a brave, courageous, powerful question. One that's open enough to ignite the possibility and human enough to inspire transformation. So quick summary of some of the coaching tools or from a coaching lens takeaway from this article. Again, 

Amanda Escobedo (43:56.578)
Cultivating creativity in business, what does that mean and how are we getting it out of this article? It's leading with curiosity, not with fear. So that is the antidote there. You can't have judgments with curiosity. You can't really have fear with curiosity. You can get curious of the fear. And if we think about exactly as AI transforms work, what curiosity cultivates that creativity for us that solve our ability to flow, whereas fear blocks it. 

Amanda Escobedo (44:24.93)
Now, another takeaway from this, again, you'll hear me say this over and over, is open, powerful questions are what expand the possibilities, they're what cultivate our creativity. And that could look like, can we? I wonder if we, what would it look like if we were inviting experimentation, ownership, and innovation with these type of questions? Another great takeaway is really learning to adopt the I get to mindset. 

Amanda Escobedo (44:53.004)
And so within this solution here, I'll say this story, what I'm trying to highlight is this talent marketplace. Actually this program actively cultivates the, get to mindset because it's a voluntary program and they're not even paying people for more money. So, you know, it's an, get to mindset. If you're volunteering for more work, you already have a full-time job and you're volunteering for more work. Now that is a true, I get to mindset, but I think my question to you would be, 

Amanda Escobedo (45:21.832)
How do you cultivate an I get to mindset for yourself? And sometimes there are things that you're super excited to do where you have this I get to, but not everything is I get to. I like to say within the adult world, we have the three Rs. There's our responsibility. We do something because it's a responsibility. I have to pick up the kids. I have to do the laundry. I have to wash the dishes. The all that I have to is right. We do. 

Amanda Escobedo (45:49.122)
The second R we do something for reward, right? So I might do something for that promotion. I might do something for, you know, more money and then recognition. We might do something to be recognized and to be praised. And so those are all the adult Rs. And those are things that we have to do on the day to day. And if you have the mindset, just, you just heard me say, those are the things we have to do on the day to day. So those things that you have to do, you, 

Amanda Escobedo (46:16.972)
have to get very creative and intentional with figuring out how can I transform this from a high I have to, to a I get to. And that's a creative process. We'll take a lot of time throughout these podcast episodes to teach you how to do that. But I just wanna plant that seed, the I have to mindset is what physically drains you, blocks your creativity. And so the more that you can figure out how to get into the I get to. 

Amanda Escobedo (46:42.582)
Similar to this, this podcast, similar to like me posting on social media, when I first started in coaching, I was super stoked to be recording, super stoked to be posting on social media. I was having so much fun. And then there hit a point where I was like, gosh, this feels like work. Now I have to like commit to this schedule and all of these things. And I started getting to an I have to mindset. And I set and reflected with myself because that mindset is not gonna add value to the people on the other side of me. 

Amanda Escobedo (47:10.478)
If that's what I'm thinking, that's what I'm going to be giving. And that is not the energy that I want the people on the other side of me to receive. That was one thing. And two, you know, I started this whole coaching thing because it gave me a sense of vision. want a sense of purpose. I wanted to add value to other people's lives. I wanted to have an impact. But again, if I am starting to turn this into, I have to, then that's going to take away from the value I'm going to get, give you if I'm starting to feel like this is a chore. 

Amanda Escobedo (47:38.37)
So I had to sit with myself and reflect, how do I get this, I get to mindset back into play? And I went through a lot of different trial and errors to figure out what worked for me to get back into it so that this became enjoyable again. And just with everything, everything ups and flows, just like your relationships, you you have the honeymuffins that falls down, the love feels like it's dipped, where's the fire? 

Amanda Escobedo (48:00.79)
It's an intentional process to choose to redate your partner. It's an intentional process to partner with your partner to figure out how do we reignite this blame? And that's really it. It's asking those questions. It's getting creative. The other part this article really pulls out is the self-discovery piece. Self-discovery fuels, as I mentioned, creativity and unlocks human potential. So exploring new opportunities, helping individuals uncover their strengths. 

Amanda Escobedo (48:27.616)
interests and passions in real time, that's what this talent marketplace has done. And the more aligned these employees or you become, the more you have the ability to tap into your limitless potential. And that alignment is what really, again, it drives higher innovation, engagement, fulfillment, performance, all the things. And then the last thing here that I'll say that this article really pulls as an example, but I really love what the example of the talent marketplace is. 

Amanda Escobedo (48:53.88)
There's a detachment from the outcome piece, which I love. So these gig work allows employees to not be so attached. It allows them to experiment in their career, to grow, to see what happens, to gain insights, to learn, to be driven, to be the drivers of their own career. A lot of us, are in college where there's pressure, you know, to graduate and have your life figured out and you're like jumping into a career. And then we feel so attached and into that process and stuck. 

Amanda Escobedo (49:23.278)
But what if life actually had the ability, what if you had the ability to try different things with low risk and have this learning outcome? And that's what I love about this talent marketplace. So it's a little bit about the first article. Would you apply for gig work at your own job? And actually it's a great question. I'm curious to you, would you? Would you apply for gig work at your own company? I think it's a great idea. And most... 

Amanda Escobedo (49:51.13)
The last note I'll say is especially working in HR for so many years, many employees, they're asking for opportunities. They're asking to be grown. They're asking to be development and immediately they're asking to be paid for it. And one of the things that's a rude awakening, especially for early careers that we have to teach them is like, you know, this is an opportunity for you. You don't have the experience for this. We are giving you the experience in this process and putting you on this project, having you get visibility with these 

Amanda Escobedo (50:19.89)
executives being new is even a risk for us, but we want to help enable you create a safe space for you to stumble and fall, give you feedback so you can course correct. So this is a choice you can choose to take on. is more work for you, but if you want to grow in your career, there's a give and take. And so it's just something to think about folks. And that's what the talent marketplace does. All right. What is the second article that we've got for you? So the second article that we've got for you. 

Amanda Escobedo (50:49.656)
headlines, you might have heard of this recently. The headlines are, a cargo aircraft skids off a Hong Kong runway in the sea, killing two airport workers. So this Hong Kong cargo plane crash and the culture of accountability, that's really what this article is about. 

Amanda Escobedo (51:10.464)
So there were early Monday morning, I don't know if it was this week or last week, a Boeing 747 cargo aircraft operated by ACT Airlines, leased by Emirates, don't know, skidded off the runway at Hong Kong International Airport and collided with a security patrol vehicle before both actually plunged into the sea, very sad. 

Amanda Escobedo (51:36.364)
The four crew members survived, but the two airport security workers in the patrol car tragically lost their lives. So this incident occurred around 3.50 a.m. after a flight from Dubai. Weather conditions were reported as suitable and no distress calls were made before landing. Investigators are underway. 

Amanda Escobedo (51:59.854)
Hong Kong Air Accidental Investigation Authority has classified the case as an incident and is examining multiple factors. So from systems and operations to maintenance and communication. So these are all things that they're investigating to see what is the root of this crash and this accident. So far, no cause has been identified. Now, 

Amanda Escobedo (52:22.464)
That is a bit of the summary of the story, but I will say at the end of the article, this is where the tone of the article changes. And this is one of an example of one of the things I wanted. I started this podcast for is I want to introduce you all of narratives that start to influence how you think narratives that influence how you think and also start to drive our con our culture subconsciously. want to start increasing your awareness. And that's where this story turns a bit. 

Amanda Escobedo (52:52.27)
So up to the point where it talks about there's no cause has been identified. I would say this whole article is very objective, does a good job just telling the story of an incident. It's very factual, procedural, responsible, but then the article takes a very unexpected turn. So it references closer towards the end of the article, it references a previous ACT airline crash from 2017. So now we're like nowhere near today, okay? 2025, folks. 

Amanda Escobedo (53:21.568)
It's now referencing an incident from 2017 reporting that investigators back then blamed the flight crew. So there's that fun word blamed blamed the flight crew for misjudging the plane's position while landing in poor weather, citing fatigue and a heat exchange with the air traffic control. It's subtle. This, this tiny little paragraph is very subtle, subtle, but the moment we 

Amanda Escobedo (53:49.518)
put in an insert blame in this narrative, this is where your brain will start to shift gears. So without even realizing it, we start really scanning the story as whose fault is it by inserting that word, by pooling an incident from 2017. So it's really starting to trigger in the brain who messed up, who's responsible, who's to blame. 

Amanda Escobedo (54:17.518)
And that's where our collective conditioning as a society starts to show up. We, I would argue, is our culture of blame. Especially when I say we are a culture of blame, it's not everybody, I'm totally generalizing, but I'd say if you look at our politics, and this is where you've heard me in previous episodes come from, when things go wrong in the government. 

Amanda Escobedo (54:38.24)
I don't hear a lot of solutioning. I don't hear a lot of creativity and collaborating. I hear whose fault is it in pointing fingers at the Democrat versus the Republicans. And this stems from our top leadership, the president. And it's not just our current president. This is a narrative and a culture that we have had for decades within the U.S. government. So this article I want to highlight isn't political. 

Amanda Escobedo (55:02.046)
at all, but it does reflect something very deep within our culture. We live in a society conditioned to lead with blame. And if you don't feel like you live in that condition, which is awesome, I just want to highlight these little notes that have the ability to influence people subconsciously. Blame has become a social reflex, reinforcing daily through our media, corporate communication, and politics. We see it everywhere, right? As I just mentioned, 

Amanda Escobedo (55:30.99)
It's how our leaders speak, not all of them. It's how new stories, many of them, unfold for us, even in how organizations maybe have failures. Blame feels productive in the moment. It gives us a target to attack. It gives us a sense of closure, right? We're always looking for accountability. Whose fault is it? They need to be held accountable. It gives us a story to tell. But the truth is... 

Amanda Escobedo (55:57.57)
Blame really blocks our creativity. It blocks our collaboration. It blocks our problem solving. Because the moment we decide whose fault is it, we really stop being curious. We start asking why, how did this happen? So from a coaching and leadership perspective, this pattern is very, I'd say universal. Very universal and maybe especially, 

Amanda Escobedo (56:22.51)
companies that support the government that absorb that I'd say that government culture as well. So when something goes wrong, a crash, a failed project, a broken system, leaders actually have a choice. So this is again, we always have a choice. You have a choice to blame, identify the person to hold accountable, or you have the ability to get curious. 

Amanda Escobedo (56:46.676)
explore what the environment was, explore the process or the behavior that made this possible outcome. Now in the moment blame feels very satisfying. It's fast, it's clean, it's emotional. But curiosity is a lot slower. It requires humility. It requires empathy and courage. But only curiosity drives progress because human error will always exist in these situations, always. 

Amanda Escobedo (57:15.64)
But what defines real leadership is whether we design systems that can anticipate it or cultures that punish it, right? We don't want the punishing type of culture. When leaders respond to a crisis with curiosity, leaders, they really respond and unlock creativity. They transform that fear into learning and a mistake into a movement. Now, if you zoom out, 

Amanda Escobedo (57:44.046)
of this article a bit, it isn't just about aviation. So that's the problem that we're solving here or the problem that occurred, a crash, aviation. We've actually seen multiple articles in the last few years related to Boeing and crashes. And a lot of those articles are really whose fault is it looking for someone to blame? It's about... 

Amanda Escobedo (58:03.414)
I'd say if we zoom out from my perspective, this article is not just about aviation. It's really about how culture learns or doesn't learn from our mistakes or doesn't learn from our mistakes. And aviation blame doesn't just create fear. It actually creates safety risks when people are afraid of being reprimanded. And so that's what I'm speaking of fear. Their fear being blamed, right? Being punished for something. 

Amanda Escobedo (58:30.968)
When people are afraid of being reprimanded, they stop reporting concerns. They stay silent when it most matters and psychological safety starts to disappear. And without it, so does proactive problem solving. In politics, blame breeds division. It turns dialogue into defense and curiosity into combat. In organizations, blame can breed silence. Teams stop speaking up. 

Amanda Escobedo (59:01.068)
Innovation stalls and growth gives way to self-protection. Blame targets, humans as the problem. That's another thing. Curiosity is looking for the root of the issue. What behavior occurred, what system is not working for us, right? But when we blame, the only way to solve the problem is to remove the human because the human is the problem. 

Amanda Escobedo (59:22.88)
It never actually reaches the root cause of the issue. It creates an illusion of accountability while leaving the system unchanged. That's the huge risk here. We don't have any learnings in this problem. We still have a system that doesn't work and this challenge, this crash as an example, can occur again. Blame also protects the ego. Curiosity protects progress. Because curiosity doesn't... 

Amanda Escobedo (59:51.136)
make excuses for mistakes, it investigates them. It asks what failed instead of who failed. Very different. And that's the foundation of every culture that evolves and stays safe. Now the human element of this and even in aviation, an industry built on precision and safety, the human experience remains at the center. Fatigue, right? Stress. 

Amanda Escobedo (01:00:21.24)
communication lapse. They're all signs of weaknesses. They're a part of being human. It's part of the human experience. So the real leadership question in this creativity always starts with the question. The real leadership question becomes how do we build systems that protect us from being our most human in the wrong moment? So that really means, you know, reducing fatigue, improving communication under pressure. 

Amanda Escobedo (01:00:50.818)
designing relationships rooted in psychological safety because every cockpit, every team, every boardroom really depends on trust and an aviation without that trust, we have larger safety risks. Now the investigation into this crash, I wanna remind us all is still ongoing and the facts will eventually surface but even now the story offers a mirror for every leader because how we respond to failure with blame, 

Amanda Escobedo (01:01:20.238)
curiosity. It shapes everything that follows. So the next time something goes wrong, whether it's a misstep, whether it's a misgoal, a moment of misjudgment, let's pause before we start pointing fingers and let's ask instead a powerful question. What might have driven this outcome? What system behavior or assumption made this possible? 

Amanda Escobedo (01:01:49.632)
What can we redesign to prevent this from happening next time? There's a million questions you could ask, but these are some Kickstarter questions because again, creativity does not blame. It lives in curiosity. It lives in courage and in the willingness to ask better questions, especially when the world wants easy answers like whose fault is it? That's where leadership, real leadership begins. The courage to just lead with curiosity. 

Amanda Escobedo (01:02:19.992)
That's all I've got for you folks. My name is Amanda Escobedo and you've been listening to Game Changer. If today's sparked insights, ahas or new perspectives, I'd be so grateful if you subscribed, left a review and shared this episode with at least three people in your network who are ready to master the mental game and unlock their potential. Your support helps others discover this resource and invites them to be the next Game Changer. 

Amanda Escobedo (01:02:48.386)
Join me next time for another conversation on leadership, culture and creating impact that lasts. Thanks for listening.