Most teams don't have a collaboration problem because they lack talented people.

They have a collaboration problem because they've never really talked about how they work together.

We invest in Slack, Teams, Miro, Notion and countless other tools designed to make collaboration easier. But more tools haven't necessarily made teams better at collaborating. In some cases, they've simply created the illusion that collaboration is happening.

In this episode of foHRsight, Naomi sits down with Alison Coward to explore why great teamwork rarely happens by accident and what it means to intentionally design the way people work together.

They discuss why talented people don't automatically create high-performing teams, why workshops so often fail to create lasting change, and why small, consistent shifts in how teams communicate, align and make decisions can be far more powerful than sweeping culture initiatives.

For HR leaders, there's an important challenge here: stop treating collaboration as something that should happen naturally. Start creating the conditions for it.

About Our guest

Alison Coward is a team culture strategist, workshop facilitator, trainer, and keynote speaker based in London. As founder of Bracket, she partners with ambitious, forward-thinking companies to help them build high-performing team cultures. Her book, Workshop Culture, lays out a practical framework for taking the energy and effectiveness of great workshops and embedding them into how teams work every day.

Connect with Alison

• Website & newsletter: bracketcreative.co.uk | bracketcreative.co.uk/newsletter
• LinkedIn: Alison Coward
• Book: Workshop Culture — available wherever books are sold

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If you are looking for more foHRsight, sign up for our monthly foHRsight newsletter. It’s free and includes access to our quarterly white paper. This quarter’s white paper is about Rethinking Entry-Level work in the Age of AI, produced with Dr. Miranda Rodak from Indiana University’s Kelley school of business - an important topic for HR, Leadership and parents, students and society as a whole! https://www.futurefohrward.com/subscribe

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We spend so much time helping people perform that we often forget to help them recover.

Today's employees are balancing demanding workloads alongside constant notifications, endless comparison, economic uncertainty and personal pressures that don't disappear when the workday begins. By the time someone reaches a breaking point, the signs have often been there for much longer.

In this episode, Mark Edgar sits down with life and wellness coach Ashish Singh to explore what it really means to build resilience before it's needed. Together, they unpack why calm isn't something we discover after everything settles down, but something we cultivate in the middle of everyday life.

Ashish shares the deeply personal experience that led him from corporate life into coaching after a serious injury forced him to confront anxiety, uncertainty and his own internal dialogue. That journey became the foundation for his work helping others reconnect with what he calls "the steadiness within."

Throughout the conversation, they explore why we can only truly control our thoughts and our actions, how social media has amplified stress through constant comparison, why mindfulness doesn't have to mean lengthy meditation sessions, and what practical tools can help people reset throughout an ordinary workday.

For HR leaders, this conversation offers an important shift in perspective. Rather than waiting until employees are overwhelmed, organizations have an opportunity to normalize simple wellbeing practices that support people every day. Creating healthier workplaces isn't only about responding well during difficult moments. It's about making steadiness part of how work happens in the first place.

Resources

• Website: thecalmmind.co
• Instagram: singashish3
• LinkedIn: Available (handle mentioned in conversation)

About Our Guest

Ashish Singh is a life and wellness coach, author and founder of The Calm Mind. Drawing from his own experience navigating anxiety, injury and major life transitions, he helps individuals and organizations develop practical tools for building emotional resilience, mindfulness and lasting inner steadiness.

Stay Connected with foHRsight
To sign up for our monthly newsletter, foHRsight, click HERE

Follow us on LinkedIn:

• Mark Edgar
• Naomi Titleman Colla
• future foHRward
• Follow us on Instagram

If you are looking for more foHRsight, sign up for our monthly foHRsight newsletter. It’s free and includes access to our quarterly white paper. This quarter’s white paper is about Rethinking Entry-Level work in the Age of AI, produced with Dr. Miranda Rodak from Indiana University’s Kelley school of business - an important topic for HR, Leadership and parents, students and society as a whole! https://www.futurefohrward.com/subscribe

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We often think resilience is something we discover in the hardest moments. But what if it's actually something we build long before we need it?

As work becomes more complex, change accelerates, and cognitive demands continue to rise, many leaders find themselves relying on the same habits that helped them succeed in the past—only to realize they no longer have the capacity they once did. The challenge isn't a lack of capability. It's that resilience is too often treated as an individual trait instead of something we can intentionally strengthen.

In this episode of foHRsight, Naomi Titleman Colla sits down with leadership psychologist and executive coach Dr. Marie-Hélène (MH) Pelletier to explore why resilience isn't about pushing harder or simply "bouncing back." Instead, it's a strategic practice that can be developed by individuals, teams, and organizations alike.

Together, they discuss why high performers often underestimate the demands they're carrying, how cognitive patterns quietly erode decision-making, why resilience should be treated as leadership infrastructure rather than a wellness initiative, and the practical habits leaders can build today to protect their performance before they reach their breaking point.

Whether you're leading an HR function, supporting organizational change, or simply feeling the weight of today's pace of work, this conversation offers a practical and refreshingly human approach to sustaining performance without sacrificing wellbeing.

About Our Guest

Dr. Marie-Hélène (MH) Pelletier is a leadership psychologist, executive coach, keynote speaker, and author of The Resilience Plan: A Strategic Approach to Optimizing Your Work Performance and Mental Health. With more than 20 years of experience working with leaders across industries, she helps organizations build resilience as a strategic capability that strengthens decision-making, leadership, and long-term performance.

Connect with MH:

• Website & book: theresilienceplan.com
• LinkedIn: search Dr. Marie-Hélène Pelletier
• Link for free resources: https://drmarie-helene.com/free-resources-sign-up/

Stay Connected with foHRsight
To sign up for our monthly newsletter, foHRsight, click HERE

Follow us on LinkedIn:

• Mark Edgar
• Naomi Titleman Colla
• future foHRward
• Follow us on Instagram

If you are looking for more foHRsight, sign up for our monthly foHRsight newsletter. It’s free and includes access to our quarterly white paper. This quarter’s white paper is about Rethinking Entry-Level work in the Age of AI, produced with Dr. Miranda Rodak from Indiana University’s Kelley school of business - an important topic for HR, Leadership and parents, students and society as a whole! https://www.futurefohrward.com/subscribe

Support the show