Every organization employs someone whose job is to clean up after disasters. Almost none employs someone whose job is to see change coming. Richard H. Carson, PhD — 40-year veteran of county governments, regional planning agencies, nonprofits, and the state of Oregon — argues that this one asymmetry explains most of why organizations lurch between crises instead of adapting. In this conversation, Richard walks through what he learned across four decades of running the kind of organizations most people only complain about.

Richard holds a doctorate in change management and has spent his career inside the organizations academics write books about — county governments in Oregon, Clark County, regional planning bodies, nonprofits, and large private-sector stakeholders including Japanese industrial investors. He has studied every major change management model published since Kurt Lewin founded the field in 1947. His book, available at bookofchange.com, is the culmination of that work: a three-phase, ten-step model built on a diagnostic tool he adapted from the US National Institute of Health.

In this conversation, Richard unpacks why learning to listen is the single hardest skill for ambitious leaders — a lesson that started, embarrassingly, with his own wife — and how he once found an organization where the manager was making people report their activities in 15-minute increments. He walks through why most of the major change management models published since 1947 are “consultant loss leaders” rather than real frameworks, why the real problem in most change initiatives sits with the board or the CEO who commissioned them, and why every organization needs a change manager — a proactive counterpart to the risk manager — looking over the horizon. He talks about why you don’t want yes-people around you, how to be direct across cultures (he spent years learning this with Japanese investors), and why “don’t leave fingerprints” is one of the hardest lessons leaders in high-visibility roles have to learn. He closes on what he got wrong in his 30s and the first thing a leader should do when a change initiative is quietly managing them instead of the other way around.

CHAPTERS

[00:00] Cold open + intro
[00:57] The lesson Richard learned from his wife — “I want you to listen”
[02:26] The manager who had people report in 15-minute increments
[03:49] Why change management hasn’t changed since 1947
[05:30] Richard’s 3-phase, 10-step model
[06:24] The nonprofit board that was itself the problem
[07:48] Why you don’t want yes-people around you
[10:24] Risk manager vs change manager — the asymmetry nobody notices
[12:40] Keep a low profile — “don’t leave fingerprints”
[14:36] Why 70% of change initiatives fail
[18:00] Change management in government vs private sector
[20:20] Why leaders have to get out of the office
[23:30] Working with Japanese stakeholders — directness across cultures
[25:08] Diagnosing organizations like physicians diagnose patients
[27:48] What Richard got wrong in his 30s
[30:45] What to do when change is managing you instead

Guest & show links:

Richard H. Carson, PhD on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-h-carson-phd-mpa-7030b213/
Book of Change: https://bookofchange.com
In Parallel: https://www.in-parallel.com
Coordination Tax Index 2026: https://www.in-parallel.com/coordination-tax/#report

Most companies describe culture as a statement — values, mission, bios on a wall. Adam Christing — professional master of ceremonies, founder of Clean Comedians, and author of The Laughter Factor — argues that culture is actually a feeling, something you can walk into a room and sense within seconds. And the fastest shortcut to shifting it, he says, isn't a new mission statement or offsite. It's humor — used by leaders who understand that we feel before we think.

Adam has spent more than 30 years in corporate rooms as an emcee, keynote speaker, and comedian. He has delivered more than 4,000 humor presentations across Fortune 1000 companies, runs the Clean Comedians agency, and knows over a hundred professional comedians (most of them, he says, deeply serious people). His book The Laughter Factor is the result of decades of experimenting with how humor actually shifts a room — and what leaders get wrong when they try to be the funniest person at the table instead of the orchestrator of fun.

In this conversation, Adam unpacks why culture is an experience rather than a statement, why the root word of "culture" is "cult" (a shared association around a leader), and why the root word of "humor" is "human." He walks through what he does when he walks into a boardroom and feels something is off, why self-effacing humor is a shortcut to trust, and why leaders don't need to be funny — they need to be the orchestrator of fun, the conductor who puts the spotlight on their team. He shares the dad-jokes-on-3x5-cards exercise he runs with Fortune 1000 teams, the three things never to joke about (politics, prejudice, profanity), and his "if in doubt, leave it out" rule. He closes on AI: why the real danger isn't replacement, it's losing participation — the actual thing humor creates — and the one thing every leader should do this week to shift the culture of their team.

CHAPTERS

[00:00] Cold open + intro
[01:20] Walking into a boardroom and feeling the culture before you see it
[02:06] "We feel before we think" — culture as experience
[03:42] The root of "culture" is "cult"
[04:47] What a master of ceremonies actually does
[07:37] Humor + heart = authenticity
[09:15] Self-effacing humor as a shortcut to trust
[11:47] The root of "humor" is "human"
[14:00] You don't have to be funny — be the orchestrator of fun
[18:30] The dad-jokes-on-3x5-cards exercise
[20:27] Politics, prejudice, profanity — three to avoid
[23:06] Test your humor like a marketer
[26:13] The danger with AI — losing participation
[28:30] The one thing to do this week — hook their attention

Guest & show links:

Adam Christing on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-christing/
The Laughter Factor + Laugh Language quiz: https://thelaughterfactor.com
Clean Comedians: https://cleancomedians.com
In Parallel: https://www.in-parallel.com
Coordination Tax Index 2026: https://www.in-parallel.com/coordination-tax/#report

Every leader is quietly passing an addiction on to their team — the addiction to urgency. Jennifer Recla — leadership coach who's worked with hundreds of leaders across nonprofits, mission-driven organizations, and large financial institutions — argues that most of what feels like a "busy" workday isn't a workload problem at all. It's a mindset problem. And most leaders have no idea how much of the chaos in their teams they're personally creating.

Jennifer has spent her career coaching leaders across nonprofits, smaller organizations, and larger institutions to build sustainable schedules, healthier team dynamics, and clearer communication. Her clients typically come to her exhausted — working nights and weekends, drowning in emails, without time to think about strategy or develop the people around them. She's built diagnostic tools like the urgency mindset index to help leaders see where they land on the spectrum and how to move.

In this conversation, Jennifer unpacks why the single behavior driving organizational chaos isn't a behavior at all — it's a mindset. She walks through the urgency mindset spectrum (low urgency → strong urgency → urgency addiction), why emails and notifications are the biggest hidden time suck, and why a healthy leader has to consciously leave some work for others to pick up. She reframes managing up as a two-way skill — how helping your leader uncover what they actually mean strengthens trust rather than eroding it, and why doing it too often signals a bigger problem. She shares what mission-driven organizations get right about values and relationships that bigger companies quietly abandon. She closes on AI: why it won't replace people, why leaders now need to ramp up their people skills instead of scaling them down, and the three things every leader who creates clarity actually does — ending with the four questions every leader should ask their team this week.

📥 Download the Coordination Tax Index 2026: https://www.in-parallel.com/coordination-tax/#report

CHAPTERS

[00:00] Cold open + intro
[00:58] Why leaders create chaos — mindset, not behavior
[01:27] The urgency mindset — what it actually looks like
[02:36] The first diagnostic — audit your workload
[04:22] Why emails and notifications are the biggest time suck
[06:31] The urgency mindset index — where do you land?
[08:04] Side effects when the team can't read the leader
[10:07] Managing up as a two-way skill
[12:58] What smaller and mission-driven organizations get right
[16:38] AI won't replace people — why you need MORE people skills now
[17:55] Three things a leader who creates clarity does
[19:19] The four questions to ask your team this week

Guest & show links:

Jennifer Recla on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferrecla/
Website: https://www.jenrecla.com/
In Parallel: https://www.in-parallel.com
Coordination Tax Index 2026: https://www.in-parallel.com/coordination-tax/#report