Your policies are not failing because of the 5% who might abuse them, but because they quietly erode trust with the 95% who are doing their best work. When disruption hits, control-heavy policies put managers in an impossible spot and make your top performers feel punished instead of trusted.​

Mitchell Jeffery, founder of Ember Collective, helps organizations redesign HR policies from control-based to trust-centered frameworks that actually support modern work. In this episode, he and host Kim Bohr break down why rigid attendance and one-size-fits-all rules damage credibility, and how reframing “fair” vs. “equitable” can transform the employee experience.​

Mitchell Jeffery and Kim Bohr explore:

• Why policies built for the 5% quietly alienate the 95%—and how to spot it in your organization.​

• The fair vs. equitable framework for attendance, PTO, holidays, and bereavement.​

• How return-to-office mandates and point-based attendance systems erode trust at the manager level.​

• The four policies to reform first if you want to build trust resilience before the next disruption.​

For executives, CHROs, and senior leaders who want to build high-trust, high-performance organizations, this episode offers a practical starting point: begin with policy, not another culture campaign.

Your leadership skills vanish when fight-or-flight kicks in. Learn how to build trust when your brain screams "run." For executives facing high-stakes pressure.

Key Takeaways:

• Why technical competence is useless if you can't access it under pressure

• The exact moment manager trust collapses—and how to prevent it

• Strategic NeuroRegulation: training your nervous system like a musician trains their fingers

• Data: Organizations with self-regulating leaders handle disruption 6.5× better

Harry Pickens conquered stage fright performing with jazz legends, then proved his neuroscience framework through caregiving, cancer, and long COVID. Founder, Strategic NeuroRegulation Institute.

Learn More: → Download Trust Study: sparkeffect.com/trust-study

71% of employees experienced a crisis in the past 24 months, but only 36% of organizations emerged with strengthened trust. The difference? Leaders who understand that rebuilding trust requires listening, not fixing.

When Tammy Green became the third CEO in three years, 160 employees were in survival mode. Physicians were leaving. The board said, "Everything's broken." Most leaders would have arrived with a 90-day turnaround plan. Tammy made a harder choice: she stopped talking and started listening.

The culprit? Leaders who confuse action with progress. Without authentic listening and trust reserves, organizations break under pressure rather than bend.

Tammy Green and Kim Bohr explore:

• The listening tour that changed everything, observation over immediate action
• Why trust in managers is both stronger and more fragile than organizational trust
• Building trust reserves before a crisis hits, not during
• The three leadership superpowers: presence, listening to learn, and curiosity

Resources: Connect with Tammy at tammygreenconsulting.com

A practical framework for leaders rebuilding trust from survival mode to high performance.

71% of employees experienced a crisis in the past 24 months, but only 36% of organizations emerged with strengthened trust. The difference? Leaders who understand that career transitions trigger real grief.

Former NFL quarterback BJ Coleman learned this when told to "find your own way home." Now CEO of Pivotal Health Partners and author of The Pivot, he's developed eight rules for navigating identity crises during career shifts. His key insight? Career loss requires the same grief processing as any significant loss.

The culprit? Treating transitions as logistical events, not human experiences. Without grief processing, we break trust and strand employees in identity crisis.

BJ Coleman and Kim Bohr explore:

• The "iceberg principle"—mapping your invisible value beyond your title
• Whycareer grief requires real processing, not just "moving on"
• Normalizing help-seekingwithout compromising performance
• "Choosing your hard"—why acknowledging difficulty empowers change

Resources: Download chapter one at bjcoleman.com/the-book

A practical framework for helping your people bend without breaking.

Here's a boardroom paradox: The person who can make or break your organization—your CEO—receives the least comprehensive performance evaluation. Most boards focus narrowly on KPIs and operating objectives, missing the nuanced competencies that truly predict success.

In this conversation, Kim Bohr and SparkEffect Board Chair Mike Humphries reveal why well-intentioned boards still get CEO evaluations wrong. You'll discover the critical competencies beyond financial performance—adaptability, stakeholder leadership, and critical thinking—that separate sustainable success from short-term wins. Mike shares why co-creating evaluations with your CEO changes everything, what warning signs boards consistently miss when "numbers look good," and how independent assessments unlock honest feedback in the loneliest executive role.

If you're a board member, CHRO, or senior leader responsible for CEO evaluation, this episode will transform how you approach executive assessment.

The traditional change management playbook doesn't work for AI—and most organizations are about to learn this the hard way.

David Eliot, PhD candidate and author of Artificially Intelligent: The Very Human Story of AI, reveals a critical insight: those building AI systems actively benefit from keeping people confused. When confusion reigns, democratic participation gets deferred to tech executives who have vested interests—not the leaders and employees who'll live with the consequences.

The proof? Google's failed Toronto smart city versus Barcelona's thriving democratic smart city. Same technology. Opposite outcomes.

In this conversation, David and Kim Bohr (President of SparkEffect) explore:

• Why AI Advisory boards filled with tech executives create dangerous knowledge gaps

• The Barcelona model: democratic decision-making, hidden technology, citizen voting on data use

• Google's Toronto failure: corporate opacity versus public good

• The entry-level pipeline crisis: "We're going to run out of the well to promote from within"

• AI as amplifier: magnifying both society's problems AND its solutions

• Why understanding algorithms from 700 AD matters for today's implementations

SparkEffect's Trust Study found AI-driven systems among the most disruptive forces to employee trust.

The difference between the 36% who emerge stronger and the 64% who don't? Transparency, inclusion, and who controls the decisions.

Build trust through AI implementation. Listen now.

Your best leaders aren't leaving because they lack passion—they're leaving because you're using motivational myths that defy brain science.

Dr. Bobby Hoffman reveals research on 6 million college students showing extrinsic motivation (money, recognition, status) drives performance—yet we shame people for wanting it. The result? Self-doubt, anxiety, burnout, and during change initiatives, your top talent walks out the door.

The culprit? The "follow your passion" narrative creating guilt around fundamental human needs while leaders design change initiatives for their own mental models instead of employees' self-beliefs.

In this conversation, Dr. Bobby Hoffman (Associate Professor at UCF, former corporate HR consultant for GE, NBC, KPMG, and the NBA, author of The Paradox of Passion and Hack Your Motivation) shares:

• Why extrinsic motivation isn't shallow—it's essential for sustained performance

• The "momostasis" principle: Why your brain requires motivational cycles with recovery periods

• Why change initiatives fail: Ignoring employees' locus of control and mental models

• Awareness hacks to prevent motivational crashes before they destroy trust

• How to design rewards within employee discretion for long-term engagement

Resources mentioned: Dr. Hoffman's books The Paradox of Passion and Hack Your Motivation, plus 100+ Psychology Today articles translating neuroscience into actionable strategies.

Stop losing talent to motivational myths. Listen now.

Your best employees aren't leaving because they became parents—they're leaving because you don't know how to support them.

Mason Donovan and Mark Kaplan reveal shocking research: 100% of parents believe becoming a parent made them better employees—more empathetic, resilient, and organized. Yet the "motherhood penalty" persists (4% income decrease per child), while men get a 6% bonus.

The culprit? Well-intentioned managers making career-killing decisions "on behalf of" parents without including them.

In this conversation, Mason and Mark (Managing Partners of The Dagoba Group and authors of The Parenthood Advantage) share:

• The manager assumption trap driving talent away
• Why 95% of companies fail to support working parents adequately
• Three organizational quick wins to stop the talent bleed
• How parents can own their leave and advocate effectively

Special offer: Get 25% off The Parenthood Advantage with code COURAGE

Stop losing your best talent. Listen now.