Eric Pratum sits down with Kari Zeller, whose journey began as an Air Force officer confronting the critical realities of aircraft maintenance during wartime. Kari explains how her leadership evolution from the battlefield to the corporate world shaped her approach to organizational mobilization—a distinct departure from traditional change management. Together, they explore why aligning strategy, structure, culture, and human engagement is essential for successfully navigating complex transitions, including mergers, acquisitions, and shifts in organizational eras.
Kari also addresses today’s pressing leadership challenges around AI disruption, accelerating technological change, and the profound psychological aspects of human transitions, urging leaders to foster genuine trust and co-creation rather than control and coercion.
Topics Explored:
- From Battlefield to Boardroom: How Kari’s military experiences shaped her views on leadership and organizational mobilization.
- Beyond Change Management: Why traditional strategies often fail and how mobilization creates lasting organizational transformations.
- Human Messiness & Performance: Embracing subjective human experiences as a pathway to real organizational success.
- Co-Creation in Leadership: The importance of genuinely involving teams in authoring the organization’s future.
- AI and Organizational Uncertainty: Preparing teams and strategies for accelerating disruptions from AI and quantum computing.
- Psychological Transitions: Effectively navigating the human dimensions of major change, from grief and loss to successful integration into new organizational realities.
Links:
- Connect with Kari on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kari-zeller
- Visit Kari’s Company: https://www.tgn-consulting.com/
- Some of Kari’s thoughts on AI: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/introducing-leaders-our-new-non-human-peer-kari-granger-eo9uc/
- Is this our Buffalo Moment? https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/future-work-augmentation-human-connection-competitive-kari-granger-uoaac/
- Kari discussing ontological vulnerability: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0FIA29Wm6Q
- Radical Hope by Jonathan Lear: https://amzn.to/44mA7lY
- JOEY Restaurants https://joeyrestaurants.com
- It was in Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, where the discussion of the difference between Orwell’s and Huxley’s visions of the future occurred: https://amzn.to/44uDUxB
- Kari’s podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/leadership-impact/id1438805019
- Adam Wallace’s episode: https://unfoldingthought.com/18-adam-wallace-overcoming-constraints-to-capture-value/
For more episodes, visit: https://unfoldingthought.com
Join the conversation by emailing Eric at: eric@inboundandagile.com