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On the 141st episode of What is a Good Life?, I’m delighted to welcome Professor Megan Reitz. Megan is an Associate Fellow at Saïd Business School, Oxford University, and Professor of Leadership and Dialogue at Hult International Business School. She is a leading thinker on leadership and dialogue, featured in the Thinkers50 ranking of global business thinkers, and the author of Dialogue in Organizations, Mind Time, and, most recently, Speak Out, Listen Up. Her work explores how we create the conditions for transformative dialogue at work, and her latest research examines how we can foster spaciousness — the capacity to innovate, reflect, and build relationships in workplaces addicted to busyness.
In this conversation, we explore the impact of space, silence, attention, and an outward focus on our relationships and our experience of life.
This episode serves as an invitation to pause, question the busyness we’ve become entangled in, and reconsider the status quo of how we relate.
I’ve worked with Megan for years: we ran a brilliant simulation together and that experience was a period of growth and exploration for both of us.
Since then, Megan has written some of the most amazing research and books, with co-authors like Michael Chaskalson and John Higgins, who have both been guests in this series. She is sought after as a speaker, facilitator and consultant, and I admire her greatly.
I am delighted that we had the chance to do this episode before she went off on a summer break. It’s a lovely exploration of her research and writing, its roots and why it all matters so much to her. I do hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
‘Busyness’ is increasingly seen as a badge of honour and productivity is regularly measured and rewarded at work. Despite all we now know about workplace stress, anxiety and burnout, we seem to be doing little to address the destructive pace at which we are living our lives. In this episode, Jen, Dom and Cat chat with Megan Reitz and John Higgins about their latest research, on the topic of spaciousness and how to find it.
Do you feel like a rubber band about to snap- low on capacity, time, and space to think? Are you constantly stuck in a mode of “doing” - trapped by your own productivity? Researcher and author Megan Reitz says that shifting into “spacious mode” could do wonders for your mental health, your relationships, and your work. She speaks with Morra about how our obsession with productivity might be crowding out creativity, insight, and connection. Plus, she’ll share practical ways to slow down, get present, and pay attention.
On this episode of Culture & Compliance Chronicles, Nitish Upadhyaya from Ropes & Gray’s Insights Lab and Richard Bistrong of Front-Line Anti-Bribery, are joined by Megan Reitz, founder of Reitz Consulting and an Associate Fellow at Saïd Business School, Oxford University. Megan, a renowned thought leader listed on the Thinkers50 ranking and HR Magazine’s Most Influential list, shares insights from her latest co-authored book, Speak Out, Listen Up: How to Have Conversations That Matter.
Megan has a long history of working at the cutting edge of leadership development and marks a departure from the usual guest on this podcast.
She is a deep thinker and researcher around how leaders need to behave in what she calls a ‘pathologically busy’ workplace. This interview explores how our society has an over focus on the short-term, the to do list which leads to rampant busyness. This is not the role of a leader who needs to be able to step back and have perspective.
Megan shares how reflective practices and wise attention will help us become the leaders we want to be.
🎙️ On the next episode of Minds Worth Meeting, leadership and dialogue expert Megan Reitz joins us to discuss the importance of how leaders “show up” to work, why we all need safe environments to speak up and permission to pause, how AI is starting to change dialogue in organizations, and more.
is Associate Fellow at Saïd Business School, Oxford University and Adjunct Professor of Leadership and Dialogue at Hult International Business School. She focuses on how we create the conditions for transformative dialogue at work and her research is at the intersection of leadership, change, dialogue and mindfulness. She is on the Thinkers50 ranking of global business thinkers and is ranked in HR Magazine’s Most Influential Thinkers listing.
A Quote From This Episode
"Many leaders and managers I work with are lovely...but they've got these titles and labels that mean that they're intimidating."
In the last of our special Mind Matters sessions, Megan Reitz, Amy Edmondson, Peter Sims and moderator Morra Aarons Mele discuss the implications of the leader’s optimism bubble, de-stigmatising failure, and building scaffolding to invite input: a culture of speaking up doesn’t create itself, it requires scaffolding. Find out more about productive vulnerability, the role of experiential knowing, and how to make space for the bigger conversations.
How can you speak confidently and navigate difficult conversations in your organization? How does power dynamics affect communication? In this episode, Megan Reitz, the author of Speak Out, Listen Up, talks about how perceptions of power enable and silence others. She also breaks down the TRUTH Framework that affects whether we speak or listen. Delve into the subtle influences that prevent us from voicing our most innovative ideas. Join Megan Reitz in this valuable conversation today.
Brené Brown: “In this episode, I’m talking to Megan Reitz, a professor of leadership and dialogue, and John Higgins, a researcher and author, about an article they published in the MIT Sloan Management Review titled “Leading in an Age of Employee Activism.””
Oxford Mindfulness Centre: Speak Up; Say what needs to be said and hear what needs to be hear
Does political discourse have a place in the workplace? What is going on Basecamp? A truly dazzling discussion with Megan Reitz, Professor of Leadership and Dialogue at Ashridge Executive Education – part of Hult International Business School
This episode of the Mindfulness in the Workplace podcast series features Megan Reitz. Megan is a facilitator, teacher, speaker, executive coach, researcher and author dedicated to exploring and finding ways to improve the way we interact with one another in the workplace.