Dr Alison Edgar MBE, known as the Entrepreneur's Godmother, joins David Ventura for episode three of The Guest List. With more than 35 years across corporate, small business and startups, and clients from the FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 to EasyJet and government, Alison brings real-world experience to a conversation that opens on one big, small word: change. The genuinely big word is metathesiophobia, the fear of change, and it is what stops most organisations moving.

Alison makes the case for the intrapreneur, or everyday entrepreneur: the top performers who behave as if they run their own business inside a large organisation. The job of leadership, she argues, is to create the fertile soil, the culture and psychological safety in which a frontline idea (like EasyJet's 50p 'row one, bags only' sticker) can grow, rather than a blame culture that kills it before it starts.

Along the way: the Yellow Pages executive who said 'that Google thing will never catch on', her dad retraining on AutoCAD in the Clydebank shipyards, the three strength questions that unlock curiosity, why feedback is the breakfast of champions but you have to want to eat it, and three things to do on Monday to start building an entrepreneurial culture.

In this episode

• Change stalls because of metathesiophobia, the fear of change. Shift how a team thinks about change first, from threat to opportunity, and behaviour and communication follow.
• Grow intrapreneurs. Your best people behave as if they run their own business inside yours; the question to spread is 'what would I do if this were my business?'
• Leaders create the fertile soil. Psychological safety and permission let a frontline idea grow; a blame culture kills it before it starts.
• The best ideas are often at ground level, closest to the customer. By the time they reach the C-suite they are diluted, so listen to your frontline.
• Don't be Yellow Pages. Market leaders who fear cannibalising a profitable formula and ignore customers and frontline staff get overtaken. Today's version is 'that AI thing will never catch on'.
• Shine the mirror inward. Blame is the default; taking responsibility, an internal locus of control, is what lets people and businesses change.
• Master open questions. Who, what, why, where, when and how drive the curiosity leadership and problem-solving depend on; closed questions shut learning down.
• Difficult conversations are a gift. We avoid them for our own comfort, not the other person's; open questions let people reach the conclusion themselves.

Chapters

00:00 Change, and why it does not start in the boardroom

02:14 Metathesiophobia: the big word for the fear of change

05:12 Learning to be okay with failure

06:54 What is an intrapreneur?

10:53 Do you want your people to care as if they own it?

12:57 EasyJet's 50p sticker: fertile soil in action

16:58 The iPod, Pixar and psychological safety

21:01 Name the problem: make it safe to speak up

22:56 Yellow Pages and 'that Google thing will never catch on'

29:24 Clydebank: her dad, AutoCAD and shining the mirror inward

34:13 Master open questions: the root of curiosity

37:35 The first-day question and the dirty chair

40:17 The best-friend question and the difficult conversation

42:50 Diagonal opposites: adapting to difference and positive conflict

45:22 Neurodiversity as a strength

47:02 The business question, and Alison Edgar's Big Balls

50:32 Employee satisfaction, Smash It and being a 360 person

52:07 Three things to do on Monday

About Dr Alison Edgar MBE

Dr Alison Edgar MBE, known as the Entrepreneur's Godmother, is an author, speaker and one of the UK's leading experts on sales and entrepreneurship, with more than 35 years across corporate, small business and startups. She was awarded an MBE for services to entrepreneurship and business.

She works with organisations from the FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 to EasyJet, and has been invited to advise in government. She is the author of Secrets of Successful Sales and SMASH IT! The Art of Getting What YOU Want, and a passionate advocate for neurodiversity as a strength in business.

Watch this episode

https://frontandcentre.com/podcast/the-guest-list-alison-edgar

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