As part of our Psych Safety in Focus webinar series, this is a special follow-up session to unpack the biggest insights, themes, and breakthroughs from the global event.

Marilyn Zakhour, CEO of Cosmic Centaurs, and Marie Nakhle, Psychological Safety Lead shared what they took from Psych Safety Day
🔹What Cosmic Centuars learned from the world’s leading researchers and facilitators
🔹Practical tools shared on curiosity, failure, belonging, and high-performing teams
🔹Their reflections and takeaways from a full day of experiential sessions and keynotes
🔹A readout of the findings from the annual global research on psychological safety


Here is The Contribution Method Cheat Sheet that was co-created during CHAD LITTLEFIELD session that Marie mentioned in the webinar: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1clqQQdYv4l6iomLmI6-zFquVRWEnBWwZ4dOBaMLWdXM/

Cosmic Centaurs is the exclusive MENA partner of The Fearless Organization. We bring globally recognized tools to help you create a psychologically safe work environment. In diverse, multicultural teams across GCC companies, building trust, respect, and open communication is essential to reduce fear at work and empower employees to contribute.

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This is the first of our Cosmic Centaurs Psychological Safety webinar series with a deep dive into the insights uncovered during our recent roundtable in Dubai, held in partnership with Sander Hoeken, Co-founder of The Fearless Organization Scan, where 18 HR leaders came together to discuss how psychological safety is understood and practiced across the MENA region.

The session will be facilitated by Marie Nakhle, Psychological Safety Lead at Cosmic Centaurs, in conversation with Marilyn Zakhour, CEO and Founder of Cosmic Centaurs and Hadeel Kabosh, Senior Consultant at Cosmic Centaurs.

In this webinar, Marie and Marilyn unpack the most important findings: what shapes leadership priorities, how multicultural teams navigate feedback and hierarchy, why psychological safety is often misunderstood, and how sector-specific contexts, from oil & gas to client-facing industries, require tailored language and approaches to make the concept meaningful and actionable.

Download the report here: https://www.cosmiccentaurs.com/rd-11-psych-safety-roundtable-key-learnings

Workplaces are at their best when every individual’s strengths are recognized and supported. Together, Dr Molly Taylor & Tala Odeh will explore what neurodivergence truly means, the strengths it brings, and the misconceptions that limit progress.

Together, we’ll look at the everyday realities of neurodivergent employees and the steps leaders can take to design systems, cultures, and learning experiences where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

This session provides leaders, people & culture professionals, and L&D executives who want to build environments where neurodivergent employees can thrive.

A conversation with Russell John Cailey, CEO and Founder of Elham Studio and Almach AI, and Tala Odeh, Capability Development Lead at Cosmic Centaurs.

As AI accelerates, collapses time, and democratizes knowledge, the world of work is undergoing a transformation unlike anything we have seen before. The question is no longer whether AI will replace some jobs. The real question is: What human capabilities become more valuable than ever

In this session, Russell and Tala explore:
• How AI is reshaping how we learn, grow, and work
• Why traditional learning systems lag behind and how to reimagine them
• The uniquely human skills we must double down on
• Firefly Sprints and the Collapse of Time from Russell’s book, The Firefly Effect
• Six month transformation cycles and why they work
• What leaders must do to build adaptive, future ready organizations
• What employees can practice to stay relevant and resilient in an AI driven world

Drawing on decades of global learning innovation, from THINK Global School to advisory work with educators, foundations, and companies, Russell brings a rare systems level perspective. His book The Firefly Effect challenges outdated assumptions about time, capability, and human potential, offering practical ways to design learning that is continuous, contextual, and deeply human.

Tala brings Cosmic Centaurs’ perspective on systems thinking, leadership development, and organizational capability building, exploring how companies can move away from annual cycles and surface level AI adoption and toward real, meaningful transformation.

About the Speakers
Russell John Cailey
CEO and Founder, Elham Studio and Almach AI
Amazon Bestselling Author of The Firefly Effect
Global Leader in Transformative Education and Learning Innovation

Tala Odeh
Capability Development Lead, Cosmic Centaurs

Topics Covered:
AI and learning, capability development, systems thinking, organizational transformation, Firefly Effect, Firefly Sprints, collapse of time, leadership in uncertainty, six month transformation cycles, future skills, emotional intelligence, discernment, storytelling, strategic learning, L and D innovation.

Resources:
The Firefly Effect by Russell John Cailey: https://www.thefireflyeffectbook.com/bookhome

Cosmic Centaurs: https://www.cosmiccentaurs.com

If you enjoyed this session, share your reflections in the comments and subscribe for more conversations on leadership, learning, and the future of work.

After seven weeks of exploring systems thinking through the lens of leadership, culture, and transformation, the 2025 Cosmic Conference comes full circle with a powerful closing conversation.

Professor José Santos, Affiliated Professor of Practice in Global Management at INSEAD, joins Marilyn Zakhour to challenge and deepen the conference’s central idea: Is the system really the strategy?

Together, they explore how leaders can move from managing parts to understanding the whole and why seeing organizations as living, interconnected systems may be the most strategic mindset of all.

They discuss:
🔹 Why most leaders struggle to see systems and how to learn to see them
🔹 The difference between simple, complicated, and complex systems
🔹 How emergence and interaction shape performance over time
🔹 Why resilience comes from managing relationships, not parts
🔹 How imagination, observation, and time help leaders design better systems

This closing session is a reflection on the essence of systems thinking, a bridge between theory and practice, between how we lead and how we live.

Culture isn’t the soft stuff, it’s the system that makes everything else work.

In this lively conversation, Marilyn Zakhour and Tala Ode from Cosmic Centaurs unpack how culture shows up not in slogans or posters, but in the invisible systems that shape how organizations operate: how decisions are made, how meetings run, how feedback flows, and how people feel when they show up to work.

Using the Omnichannel Organization™ framework, they explore how leaders can design culture through structure, process, people, and controls, so that it’s not an HR initiative, but a way of working that delivers results.

Together, they discuss:
🔹 Why culture isn’t a “project” but the operating system of an organization
🔹 How strategy and culture reinforce (or destroy) each other
🔹 The signals your org structure and workspace send about your values
🔹 How to measure and reward cultural behaviors, not just performance
🔹 What startups and fast-growing companies must know about scaling culture

This episode redefines culture as something built, measured, and lived. A system that connects purpose to practice.

Time is the one system every leader struggles to manage — and the one that reveals how well all the others work.

In this energizing conversation, Diren Bhatia, entrepreneur, coach, and founder of Cloudscape Technologies, joins Tala Ode to explore how leaders and founders can redesign their relationship with time. From his own journey of moving from a 14-hour-day founder to a “part-time CEO,” Diren shares how systems, rituals, and mindset shifts can help leaders free themselves from firefighting and refocus on what really matters.

Together, they explore:
🔹 Why working harder isn’t the answer — designing smarter systems is
🔹 How to move from founder to CEO and build teams that thrive without you
🔹 The art (and unlearning) of delegation and trust
🔹 Simple rituals and rhythms that reclaim focus, energy, and white space
🔹 Why every effective system must be agile, imperfect, and human

This conversation is a powerful reminder that time freedom isn’t about doing less — it’s about doing what matters most, by design.

What does it take to lead transformation across one of the region’s most complex organizations, and make it human?

In this powerful conversation, Ibraheem Sheerah, Chief Transformation Officer at Saudia Group, joins Marilyn Zakhour to share how he led one of the Kingdom’s most ambitious transformation journeys, reshaping not just an airline, but the ecosystem around it.

Through stories that span from listening to a security guard’s advice to engaging pilots, suppliers, and customers in change, Ibraheem reveals how transformation begins with humility, courage, and deep listening.

Together, they explore:
🔹 How to turn resistance into ownership across large systems
🔹 Why leaders must build connection before they build change
🔹 How to balance structure, speed, and humanity in transformation
🔹 What it means to lead through polarities: vision and detail, authority and service
🔹 Why every sustainable system starts with gratitude and self-work

This conversation is a masterclass in leading with purpose, conviction, and care, a reminder that real transformation is not about control, but about trust.