Home Podcasts Chain of Learning: Leadership Strategies for Transforming Culture, Developing People, and Getting Results
Chain of Learning: Leadership Strategies for Transforming Culture, Developing People, and Getting Results

Chain of Learning: Leadership Strategies for Transforming Culture, Developing People, and Getting Results

Katie Anderson 81 Episodes Aug 19, 2026

Chain of Learning is a leadership podcast hosted by Katie Anderson, award-winning author of 'Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn.' It focuses on people-centered leadership and helps leaders transform organizational culture, develop leaders at every level, and build capable, confident teams. The show explores how leaders can break free from the 'Doer Trap' and create conditions for success, emphasizing psychological safety, trust, and empowerment. Each biweekly episode offers practical insights, reflective questions, and real-world examples to help leaders develop leaders at scale, strengthen coaching culture, and lead culture transformation.

Episodes

82| Connect the Parts, Focus on People: Inside the Toyota Economic System [with Olivier Larue]
82| Connect the Parts, Focus on People: Inside the Toyota Economic System [with Olivier Larue] Aug 19, 2026 3442 Profit or cash. Efficiency or flexibility. Speed, or doing it right.Leaders feel like they have to make trade-offs like these all the time. But the choice often isn't real.Some contradictions are unavoidable. Others only look that way until you understand the real problem. The most effective organizations realize they don't have to pick a side if they can resolve the underlying tension.Ol
81| Adapt How You Lead: Situational Leadership in Practice [with Suzie Bishop]
81| Adapt How You Lead: Situational Leadership in Practice [with Suzie Bishop] Aug 5, 2026 2335 Your leadership style isn't the problem. Your default is.The gap between how you're leading and what the person in front of you actually needs is one of the most common and most invisible places leaders get stuck. Most of us default to one mode and don't notice the mismatch until something breaks down.Suzie Bishop has spent over a decade at the Center for Leadership Studies helping leader
80| Bad News First: How a Leader's Response Builds a Culture of Learning [with Isao Yoshino]
80| Bad News First: How a Leader's Response Builds a Culture of Learning [with Isao Yoshino] Jul 22, 2026 2669 How many problems are actually visible in your organization?Research shows senior leaders see just 4%. The other 96% stay hidden — invisible, yet still there. And some aren't even recognized by employees as problems anymore, because they have become the norm.We all say we want psychological safety. But you don't get it by saying you want it. People-centered leadership is about creating co
79| Build Powerful People: Why Transformation Starts with Your Own [with Gary Peterson]
79| Build Powerful People: Why Transformation Starts with Your Own [with Gary Peterson] Jul 8, 2026 3406 Efficiency and cost savings aren't what makes operational excellence last. People are.The leaders who create enduring, high-performing organizations are after something beyond business results. They want a company where people end the day more capable, more confident, more energized than when it began. That's the difference between a workplace that wears people down and one that builds po
78| Strategy Isn't Enough: 9 Practices to Help Your Team Meet the Moment [with Karina Mangu-Ward]
78| Strategy Isn't Enough: 9 Practices to Help Your Team Meet the Moment [with Karina Mangu-Ward] Jun 24, 2026 2434 Have you poured months into a strategy your team couldn't bring to life? Or watched capable people work harder than ever, and still struggle to pull together as a team?High performance isn't about a better strategy, more talent, or longer hours. It's about how your team works together, every single day.Karina Mangu-Ward, author of Teams That Meet the Moment, has spent more than a decade h
77| Lead with Joy: A Business Strategy for Success [with Rich Sheridan]
77| Lead with Joy: A Business Strategy for Success [with Rich Sheridan] Jun 10, 2026 3196 Joy isn't a perk. It's a business strategy.Have you ever wondered whether work has to feel this hard? Whether the team you've built can actually function without you? Whether there's a way to lead that doesn't burn you — or your people — out?Rich Sheridan built Menlo Innovations around one bold idea: ending human suffering in the workplace. The result is a company where joy isn't a slogan
76 | What Is the Purpose of Kaizen? John Shook Answers Your Questions (Part 3 of 3)
76 | What Is the Purpose of Kaizen? John Shook Answers Your Questions (Part 3 of 3) May 27, 2026 1725 What does it really take to sustain a culture of continuous improvement –  through pressure for results, across generations, and into an era of AI?In this final episode of my three-part series with John Shook, one of the most influential leaders and thinkers in the global lean community, we turned to the questions on your mind. Before we sat down to record, I asked listeners to submit you
75 | The Human Side of Lean: John Shook on Building Systems That Last (Part 2 of 3)
75 | The Human Side of Lean: John Shook on Building Systems That Last (Part 2 of 3) May 20, 2026 2830 Lean has always been about people. We just kept reaching for the tools, without understanding the human purpose behind them.In part two of my three-part conversation with John Shook, we go behind the scenes of Toyota's culture and leadership — sharing stories of the system-building leaders who actually made it what it is, and exploring what it really means to lead people-centered change.J
74 | What Problem Are We Solving? John Shook Reflects: Has Lean Failed? (Part 1 of 3)
74 | What Problem Are We Solving? John Shook Reflects: Has Lean Failed? (Part 1 of 3) May 13, 2026 2262 Has lean really failed?That question sparked one of the most listened-to conversations in the history of this podcast — my two-part series with Jim Womack in episodes 37 and 38.When I sat down with John Shook — one of the most influential thought leaders and practitioners in the global lean and continuous improvement community — we explored a different angle.John's perspective isn't a reb
73 | Small Steps, Leading with Heart: How Transformation Sustains [with Richard Koch]
73 | Small Steps, Leading with Heart: How Transformation Sustains [with Richard Koch] Apr 29, 2026 2795 The way you’re leading transformation might be getting in the way of the culture you’re trying to build.As change leaders and practitioners, we care about results. But in that focus, it’s easy to stay on the outer work—processes, metrics, systems—and underestimate the inner work – our mindset, behaviors, and relationships – that actually moves people.Our passion can unintentionally pull u
72 | Finding Clarity Through the Messy Middle: Reflections from My Book Retreat [with Betsy Jordyn] (BONUS)
72 | Finding Clarity Through the Messy Middle: Reflections from My Book Retreat [with Betsy Jordyn] (BONUS) Apr 22, 2026 2748 The messy middle is part of the learning process.It’s the point where what worked before no longer fully fits—but what comes next is not yet clear.Where your thinking is still forming, your ideas are evolving, and the answer has not fully emerged.And while it can feel uncertain, this is often where the deepest continuous learning happens.In this behind-the-scenes bonus episode on Chain of
71 | Own the Thinking Process, Not the Thinking: How Leaders Build Problem-Solving Capability
71 | Own the Thinking Process, Not the Thinking: How Leaders Build Problem-Solving Capability Apr 15, 2026 1375 Caring becomes carrying.It happens so naturally we rarely notice it. Someone brings us a problem. We care. We want to help. And somewhere in that desire to help, without meaning to, we take on the weight of solving it ourselves.That shift is subtle. And costly.Because the moment you take ownership of the thinking, you take away the very capability you're trying to build.In this episode, I

Recommended