What does it mean to be a “future-fit” leader?

According to our guest this week, being future-fit means improving the performance of organizational leaders to solve the challenges they face today, while expanding their capacities to be more fit for the challenges ahead.

They're not just trying to be better at the old game; they're helping to create an entirely new paradigm for how we work and relate to each other.

Lyssa Adkins has spent the past decade developing leadership teams worldwide, using skillful professional and organizational systems coaching. She is an internationally recognized leadership coach, future of work expert, renowned Agile-coaching pioneer, and author of the top business book, Coaching Agile Teams.

Dive deep with us as Lyssa shares how leaders can replace command-and-control reflexes with adult-to-adult collaboration, deeper sense-making and what she calls a “future-fit toolbox” of cognitive, emotional and energetic skills.

Tools & Resources Mentioned

Methodologies:

• Liberating Structures for group facilitation

• Relationship Systems Coaching

• Open Space Technology

• Sense-making sessions for leadership teams

Technology & Platforms:

• Miro for visual collaboration

• Slack for remote team communication

Influential Thinkers:

• Diane Musho Hamilton Roshi (Zen teacher and conflict mediator)

• Daniel Schmachtenberger (Game B theorist)

• Laura Storm (Regenerative leadership)

• Bob Anderson (The Leadership Circle)

• Michelle Holliday ("The Age of Thriveability")

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyssaadkins

• If you're a leader ready to expand your cognitive, emotional, and energetic toolkit and make a bigger impact in the world, connect with Lyssa at lyssaadkins.com.

About Team Lab

Team Lab explores the power of teams, the science and art of collaboration, and the magic of thriving relationships at work. Hosted by Angela Migliaccio and Cori Caldwell, this podcast brings you inspiring stories and insights to help you build trust, foster alignment, and unlock creativity in your teams.

Follow us on LinkedIn and subscribe/follow here to never miss an episode!

What if the breakthrough your team needs isn't found in another strategy session or process improvement, but in a moment of unexpected connection? How can asking people to step outside their analytical comfort zone create the psychological safety that brings teams together? And why asking, "What duck are you feeling right now?" might just be what your next team meeting desperately needs?

In this episode of Team Lab, we're exploring these questions with Meredith Tozzer, HR partner and team transformation coach who brings a refreshingly unconventional approach to leading technical teams. With a background spanning art history, higher education, and global high-tech companies, Meredith has mastered the art of reading team dynamics and transforming tension into productive momentum.

Join us for a conversation that explores how "constructive friction" can actually accelerate your team's success instead of slowing it down, why the path to vulnerability is best initiated with silliness, and how to convert team resistance into authentic engagement.

Resources

Connect with Meredith Tozzer on LinkedIn

Mad Libs + Storytelling Team Exercise - Try Meredith's combination approach for team building that gets people out of their heads. Choose a topic or vision for the collective team to build upon. Have each team member write one sentence of a story, starting at the top of a sheet of paper. Have them fold it so the sentence can’t be seen by the next person

Three-by-Three Grid Icebreakers - Use silly animal pictures (rubber ducks, hedgehogs, raccoons) and ask team members to identify a picture that best represents them in this moment and why. This silly opening can help create safe spaces for sharing for the rest of the meeting!

Culture Amp Study referenced in the episode about high performance sustainability over time

Mental Health First Aid Training - Particularly valuable for leaders supporting high-pressure teams

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Follow us on LinkedIn and subscribe/follow to never miss an episode!

What if your workplace could energize your spirit rather than drain it? How much smoother might organizations transform if they focused on removing blockers instead of adding more processes? What would happen if we designed our work systems around human dignity, creativity, and meaningful connection?

In this episode of TeamLab, we're diving into these questions with business transformation strategist and award-winning author Jardena London. As the founder of Rosetta Agile, Jardena brings over 25 years of experience leading bold transformations across organizations of all sizes.

Join us for a conversation that bridges the gap between workplace efficiency and human fulfillment, exploring what it means to be successful at transformational leadership, how AI might actually help us reconnect with our humanity, and why the best leaders "give a hoot and don't pollute."

Connect with Jardena on LinkedIn

Subscribe to Jardena's bi-weekly newsletter for insights on making work more soulful at her website: JardenaLondon.com

Grab Jardena's book for your professional library: "Cultivating Transformations: A Leader's Guide to Connecting the Soulful and the Practical".

Check out the Theory of Constraints by Eli Goldratt to better understand how to help pinpoint critical issues.

Assess the ‘Me’ - Get insights into the qualities others see that you don’t see yourself.

What about the ‘We’? Try Liberating Structures facilitation techniques to gather and cull ideas from large groups so that all voices feel heard.

TeamLab explores the power of teams, the science and art of collaboration, and the magic of thriving relationships at work. Hosted by Angela Migliaccio and Cori Caldwell, this podcast brings you inspiring stories and insights to help you build trust, foster alignment, and unlock creativity in your teams.

Follow us on LinkedIn and subscribe/follow to never miss an episode!