Organizational Intelligence Podcast Fri, 04 Sep 2026 19:12:17 +0400 https://www.youtube.com/@Organizational-Intelligence en-us © 2026 © 2026 Organizational Intelligence Podcast yes d01ddcd2-5f29-50ea-9196-b5e570adefbf najjar.yosr@gmail.com Yosr Najjar episodic false

Organizational Intelligence (OI) is a series of real conversations about how work actually works inside modern organizations -  how decisions get made, how trust is built (or broken), how information flows, and how teams adapt under pressure. Each episode unpacks one sharp idea about the invisible operating system: leadership, meetings, communication, decision-making, psychological safety, learning, accountability..  that determines whether people and organizations thrive.

A podcast about People, Practice and Possibilities at work.

]]> Buzzsprout (https://www.buzzsprout.com) Organizational Design, Future of Work, Work Design, Change Management, Organization Development, Organization Transformation, Leadership Development, Teaming, Meetings Yosr Najjar najjar.yosr@gmail.com https://storage.buzzsprout.com/mtnk3q1vzedgnajd9nqbk8qxnuvr?.jpg Organizational Intelligence Podcast https://www.youtube.com/@Organizational-Intelligence Beyond Strategy, TalenT and Hard Work: The Practices That Unlock Performance & Growth Beyond Strategy, TalenT and Hard Work: The Practices That Unlock Performance & Growth What if your organization doesn’t have a talent problem, a strategy problem, or even an effort problem?

What if work is hard because of… how work actually works?

In this episode of Organizational Intelligence, I sit down with Karina Mangu-Ward, author of Teams That Meet the Moment and Partner at August, to unpack the everyday habits that quietly determine whether teams move, stall, learn, adapt—or simply compensate for bad systems by working harder.

We talk about why “going above and beyond” can actually be a warning sign, why the org chart tells us surprisingly little about how work gets done, why decision-making is one of the biggest organizational pain points nobody really owns, and why consensus may be slowing your teams down.

And then we get into something I didn’t originally plan to ask Karina about: AI.

Because if working in public was already difficult, what happens when every employee now has their own private AI window? Are we creating faster individuals… but organizations that learn even less?

We also unpack several of the practices from Teams That Meet the Moment, including Team Charters, Make a Proposal, Safe to Try, Even/Overs, Working in Public, Small Bets and more.

This conversation is ultimately about something deceptively simple: great teamwork doesn’t just happen because we hire great people. We have to design how people work together.

🎧 In this episode:
• Why individual heroics can be a sign of organizational dysfunction
• Why the org chart is “not wrong, but not enough”
• The decision-making problem almost every organization has
• Why “I propose we…” can completely change a conversation
• Consensus vs. “safe to try”
• Why leaders struggle to make real trade-offs
• The vulnerability—and advantage—of working in public
• Why AI may be creating a crisis of working in private
• Three tiny language shifts anyone can start using tomorrow

ABOUT KARINA MANGU-WARD

Karina Mangu-Ward is the author of Teams That Meet the Moment and a Partner at August, where she has spent more than a decade helping teams and organizations rethink how they organize, decide, collaborate and learn.

🔗 LINKS & RESOURCES

Buy Teams That Meet the Moment: https://a.co/d/0bm61V30

Connect with Karina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karina-mangu-ward-276a558/

Explore August: https://www.aug.co/

Teams That Meet the Moment resources and assessment: https://www.aug.co/book

Meet the host: Yosr Najjar https://www.linkedin.com/in/yosrnajjar/



🎙 ORGANIZATIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Organizational Intelligence explores how organizations actually function, through the intersection of teaming, culture, systems, leadership and the human experience of work.

Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform: https://organiztionalintelligence.buzzsprout.com/

Follow Organizational Intelligence on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/organizational-intelligence-oi/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Organizational-Intelligence/

#OrganizationalIntelligence #FutureOfWork #TeamEffectiveness #OrganizationalDesign #Leadership #DecisionMaking #WaysOfWorking #AIatWork

Organizational Intelligence is a podcast about people, practice and possibilities at work.

We explore how organizations actually function: how decisions get made, how information moves, how teams learn, how power works, and the everyday systems and behaviors that make work either harder or better.


Host — Yosr Najjar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yosrnajjar/


]]> What if your organization doesn’t have a talent problem, a strategy problem, or even an effort problem?

What if work is hard because of… how work actually works?

In this episode of Organizational Intelligence, I sit down with Karina Mangu-Ward, author of Teams That Meet the Moment and Partner at August, to unpack the everyday habits that quietly determine whether teams move, stall, learn, adapt—or simply compensate for bad systems by working harder.

We talk about why “going above and beyond” can actually be a warning sign, why the org chart tells us surprisingly little about how work gets done, why decision-making is one of the biggest organizational pain points nobody really owns, and why consensus may be slowing your teams down.

And then we get into something I didn’t originally plan to ask Karina about: AI.

Because if working in public was already difficult, what happens when every employee now has their own private AI window? Are we creating faster individuals… but organizations that learn even less?

We also unpack several of the practices from Teams That Meet the Moment, including Team Charters, Make a Proposal, Safe to Try, Even/Overs, Working in Public, Small Bets and more.

This conversation is ultimately about something deceptively simple: great teamwork doesn’t just happen because we hire great people. We have to design how people work together.

🎧 In this episode:
• Why individual heroics can be a sign of organizational dysfunction
• Why the org chart is “not wrong, but not enough”
• The decision-making problem almost every organization has
• Why “I propose we…” can completely change a conversation
• Consensus vs. “safe to try”
• Why leaders struggle to make real trade-offs
• The vulnerability—and advantage—of working in public
• Why AI may be creating a crisis of working in private
• Three tiny language shifts anyone can start using tomorrow

ABOUT KARINA MANGU-WARD

Karina Mangu-Ward is the author of Teams That Meet the Moment and a Partner at August, where she has spent more than a decade helping teams and organizations rethink how they organize, decide, collaborate and learn.

🔗 LINKS & RESOURCES

Buy Teams That Meet the Moment: https://a.co/d/0bm61V30

Connect with Karina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karina-mangu-ward-276a558/

Explore August: https://www.aug.co/

Teams That Meet the Moment resources and assessment: https://www.aug.co/book

Meet the host: Yosr Najjar https://www.linkedin.com/in/yosrnajjar/



🎙 ORGANIZATIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Organizational Intelligence explores how organizations actually function, through the intersection of teaming, culture, systems, leadership and the human experience of work.

Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform: https://organiztionalintelligence.buzzsprout.com/

Follow Organizational Intelligence on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/organizational-intelligence-oi/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Organizational-Intelligence/

#OrganizationalIntelligence #FutureOfWork #TeamEffectiveness #OrganizationalDesign #Leadership #DecisionMaking #WaysOfWorking #AIatWork

Organizational Intelligence is a podcast about people, practice and possibilities at work.

We explore how organizations actually function: how decisions get made, how information moves, how teams learn, how power works, and the everyday systems and behaviors that make work either harder or better.


Host — Yosr Najjar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yosrnajjar/


]]> Yosr Najjar Buzzsprout-19746004 Thu, 03 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0400 2926 1 4 full false Employee Behavior is a System Output - Not the Problem! Employee Behavior is a System Output - Not the Problem! Performance dips. Leadership reacts: a survey goes out, a manager gets replaced, a training gets rolled out. Things improve for a quarter, then the same problems come back wearing different clothes. Why?

In this episode of the Organizational Intelligence Podcast, I sit down with Dustin Snyder, founder of Way Forward and author of Sink or Swim, who spent 20 years building the case that behavior inside organizations isn't the cause of dysfunction — it's the output of it.

Together, we explore why replacing people without changing the conditions around them just reproduces the same outcome with new faces, and how leaders can learn to diagnose the system instead of prosecuting the individual.

We discuss:

• Why behavior at scale is a rational response to environment, not a character flaw
• Why progressive discipline and coaching rarely change behavior — because they ask people to override how their brain reads the environment
• Why engagement surveys measure sentiment but never the drivers, and what happened when UPS's best-ever engagement score preceded a company-wide strike
• Why turnover is the most lagging indicator of dysfunction, and why "money" is rarely the real reason people leave
• Why employer value propositions fail when they're aspirational marketing instead of the truth
• What Strategic Workforce Insight Mapping (SWIM) actually is, and how psychodynamic interviewing surfaces what surveys can't
• The difference between resistance and disorientation — and why "I want to do well, I just can't figure out what well looks like anymore" is a cry for help, not defiance
• Why absenteeism clusters instead of distributing randomly, and what that tells you about the system producing it

Serious topics, but definitely not a stiff conversation. Expect cigar talk, Muay Thai and Strongman training, mountain climbing — and a closing question that might ruin your week: What challenge are you avoiding right now?

ABOUT DUSTIN SNYDER

Dustin Snyder ran a $300 million manufacturing division and led its turnaround before founding Way Forward. He built Strategic Workforce Insight Mapping (SWIM), a diagnostic methodology used to uncover the systemic root causes behind recurring people problems. He is the author of Sink or Swim, with a second book, Learn to Swim, coming soon.

CONNECT

Dustin Snyder on LinkedIn:   / snyderdustin
Explore Way Forward: https://wayforward.work/
Connect with me:   / yosrnajjar
Follow Organizational Intelligence on LinkedIn:   / organizational-intelligence-oi

What's something your organization blames on individuals that might actually be a system problem? Share it in the comments.

Subscribe for more conversations about how work actually works — and how we can build organizations where people and performance thrive together.

#OrganizationalIntelligence #FutureOfWork #OrganizationalDesign

🎙 ORGANIZATIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Organizational Intelligence explores how organizations actually function, through the intersection of teaming, culture, systems, leadership and the human experience of work.

Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform: https://organiztionalintelligence.buzzsprout.com/

Follow Organizational Intelligence on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/organizational-intelligence-oi/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Organizational-Intelligence/

#OrganizationalIntelligence #FutureOfWork #TeamEffectiveness #OrganizationalDesign #Leadership #DecisionMaking #WaysOfWorking #AIatWork

Organizational Intelligence is a podcast about people, practice and possibilities at work.

We explore how organizations actually function: how decisions get made, how information moves, how teams learn, how power works, and the everyday systems and behaviors that make work either harder or better.


Host — Yosr Najjar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yosrnajjar/


]]> Performance dips. Leadership reacts: a survey goes out, a manager gets replaced, a training gets rolled out. Things improve for a quarter, then the same problems come back wearing different clothes. Why?

In this episode of the Organizational Intelligence Podcast, I sit down with Dustin Snyder, founder of Way Forward and author of Sink or Swim, who spent 20 years building the case that behavior inside organizations isn't the cause of dysfunction — it's the output of it.

Together, we explore why replacing people without changing the conditions around them just reproduces the same outcome with new faces, and how leaders can learn to diagnose the system instead of prosecuting the individual.

We discuss:

• Why behavior at scale is a rational response to environment, not a character flaw
• Why progressive discipline and coaching rarely change behavior — because they ask people to override how their brain reads the environment
• Why engagement surveys measure sentiment but never the drivers, and what happened when UPS's best-ever engagement score preceded a company-wide strike
• Why turnover is the most lagging indicator of dysfunction, and why "money" is rarely the real reason people leave
• Why employer value propositions fail when they're aspirational marketing instead of the truth
• What Strategic Workforce Insight Mapping (SWIM) actually is, and how psychodynamic interviewing surfaces what surveys can't
• The difference between resistance and disorientation — and why "I want to do well, I just can't figure out what well looks like anymore" is a cry for help, not defiance
• Why absenteeism clusters instead of distributing randomly, and what that tells you about the system producing it

Serious topics, but definitely not a stiff conversation. Expect cigar talk, Muay Thai and Strongman training, mountain climbing — and a closing question that might ruin your week: What challenge are you avoiding right now?

ABOUT DUSTIN SNYDER

Dustin Snyder ran a $300 million manufacturing division and led its turnaround before founding Way Forward. He built Strategic Workforce Insight Mapping (SWIM), a diagnostic methodology used to uncover the systemic root causes behind recurring people problems. He is the author of Sink or Swim, with a second book, Learn to Swim, coming soon.

CONNECT

Dustin Snyder on LinkedIn:   / snyderdustin
Explore Way Forward: https://wayforward.work/
Connect with me:   / yosrnajjar
Follow Organizational Intelligence on LinkedIn:   / organizational-intelligence-oi

What's something your organization blames on individuals that might actually be a system problem? Share it in the comments.

Subscribe for more conversations about how work actually works — and how we can build organizations where people and performance thrive together.

#OrganizationalIntelligence #FutureOfWork #OrganizationalDesign

🎙 ORGANIZATIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Organizational Intelligence explores how organizations actually function, through the intersection of teaming, culture, systems, leadership and the human experience of work.

Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform: https://organiztionalintelligence.buzzsprout.com/

Follow Organizational Intelligence on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/organizational-intelligence-oi/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Organizational-Intelligence/

#OrganizationalIntelligence #FutureOfWork #TeamEffectiveness #OrganizationalDesign #Leadership #DecisionMaking #WaysOfWorking #AIatWork

Organizational Intelligence is a podcast about people, practice and possibilities at work.

We explore how organizations actually function: how decisions get made, how information moves, how teams learn, how power works, and the everyday systems and behaviors that make work either harder or better.


Host — Yosr Najjar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yosrnajjar/


]]> Buzzsprout-19669328 Wed, 19 Aug 2026 20:00:00 +0400 3655 1 3 full false The Future of Work Isn't New. We Just Forgot the Basics. The Future of Work Isn't New. We Just Forgot the Basics. The future of work may not need another shiny new idea.

It may need fewer bad meetings, clearer decisions, better access to information, more intentional ways of working—and leaders willing to do less.

In this episode of the Organizational Intelligence Podcast, Yosr Najjar sits down with Sam Spurlin, founder of Deliberate Works and former Principal Consultant and Head of Special Projects at The Ready.

Together, they explore why organizations hire smart people and then place them inside systems that prevent them from using their intelligence.

They discuss:

• Why big organizational problems do not always require big transformation programs
• Why empowerment fails when people lack information, skills, and genuine authority
• How invisible and inherited ways of working shape behavior
• Why great meetings never happen by accident
• How small practices can quietly shift power and participation
• Why organizational debt keeps people busy doing work that may not need to exist
• The question more leadership teams should ask: What are we going to stop doing?

Serious topics, but definitely not a stiff conversation.

Expect organizational rants, hockey, uncomfortable truths—and a surprisingly important debate about the best bird.

ABOUT SAM SPURLIN

Sam Spurlin helps organizations rethink how work actually happens. Through Deliberate Works, he supports leaders and teams in experimenting with organizational design, self-management, meetings, decision-making, and more intentional ways of working.

CONNECT

Sam Spurlin on LinkedIn:    / samspurlin 
Explore Deliberate Works: https://deliberateworks.com/
Connect with Yosr Najjar:   / yosrnajjar 
Follow Organizational Intelligence on LinkedIn    / organizational-intelligence-oi  \

What is one way of working your organization has inherited without ever consciously choosing it? Share it in the comments.

Subscribe for more conversations about how work actually works—and how we can build organizations where people and performance thrive together.

#OrganizationalIntelligence #FutureOfWork #OrganizationalDesign

🎙 ORGANIZATIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Organizational Intelligence explores how organizations actually function, through the intersection of teaming, culture, systems, leadership and the human experience of work.

Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform: https://organiztionalintelligence.buzzsprout.com/

Follow Organizational Intelligence on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/organizational-intelligence-oi/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Organizational-Intelligence/

#OrganizationalIntelligence #FutureOfWork #TeamEffectiveness #OrganizationalDesign #Leadership #DecisionMaking #WaysOfWorking #AIatWork

Organizational Intelligence is a podcast about people, practice and possibilities at work.

We explore how organizations actually function: how decisions get made, how information moves, how teams learn, how power works, and the everyday systems and behaviors that make work either harder or better.


Host — Yosr Najjar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yosrnajjar/


]]> The future of work may not need another shiny new idea.

It may need fewer bad meetings, clearer decisions, better access to information, more intentional ways of working—and leaders willing to do less.

In this episode of the Organizational Intelligence Podcast, Yosr Najjar sits down with Sam Spurlin, founder of Deliberate Works and former Principal Consultant and Head of Special Projects at The Ready.

Together, they explore why organizations hire smart people and then place them inside systems that prevent them from using their intelligence.

They discuss:

• Why big organizational problems do not always require big transformation programs
• Why empowerment fails when people lack information, skills, and genuine authority
• How invisible and inherited ways of working shape behavior
• Why great meetings never happen by accident
• How small practices can quietly shift power and participation
• Why organizational debt keeps people busy doing work that may not need to exist
• The question more leadership teams should ask: What are we going to stop doing?

Serious topics, but definitely not a stiff conversation.

Expect organizational rants, hockey, uncomfortable truths—and a surprisingly important debate about the best bird.

ABOUT SAM SPURLIN

Sam Spurlin helps organizations rethink how work actually happens. Through Deliberate Works, he supports leaders and teams in experimenting with organizational design, self-management, meetings, decision-making, and more intentional ways of working.

CONNECT

Sam Spurlin on LinkedIn:    / samspurlin 
Explore Deliberate Works: https://deliberateworks.com/
Connect with Yosr Najjar:   / yosrnajjar 
Follow Organizational Intelligence on LinkedIn    / organizational-intelligence-oi  \

What is one way of working your organization has inherited without ever consciously choosing it? Share it in the comments.

Subscribe for more conversations about how work actually works—and how we can build organizations where people and performance thrive together.

#OrganizationalIntelligence #FutureOfWork #OrganizationalDesign

🎙 ORGANIZATIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Organizational Intelligence explores how organizations actually function, through the intersection of teaming, culture, systems, leadership and the human experience of work.

Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform: https://organiztionalintelligence.buzzsprout.com/

Follow Organizational Intelligence on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/organizational-intelligence-oi/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Organizational-Intelligence/

#OrganizationalIntelligence #FutureOfWork #TeamEffectiveness #OrganizationalDesign #Leadership #DecisionMaking #WaysOfWorking #AIatWork

Organizational Intelligence is a podcast about people, practice and possibilities at work.

We explore how organizations actually function: how decisions get made, how information moves, how teams learn, how power works, and the everyday systems and behaviors that make work either harder or better.


Host — Yosr Najjar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yosrnajjar/


]]> Yosr Najjar Buzzsprout-19666532 Tue, 18 Aug 2026 22:00:00 +0400 3113 1 2 full false Organizational Intelligence Podcast - The OI Organizational Intelligence Podcast - The OI Organizational Intelligence (OI) is a series of real conversations about how work actually works inside modern organizations -  how decisions get made, how trust is built (or broken), how information flows, and how teams adapt under pressure. Each episode unpacks one sharp idea about the invisible operating system: leadership, meetings, communication, decision-making, psychological safety, learning, accountability..  that determines whether people and organizations thrive.


🎙 ORGANIZATIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Organizational Intelligence explores how organizations actually function, through the intersection of teaming, culture, systems, leadership and the human experience of work.

Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform: https://organiztionalintelligence.buzzsprout.com/

Follow Organizational Intelligence on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/organizational-intelligence-oi/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Organizational-Intelligence/

#OrganizationalIntelligence #FutureOfWork #TeamEffectiveness #OrganizationalDesign #Leadership #DecisionMaking #WaysOfWorking #AIatWork

Organizational Intelligence is a podcast about people, practice and possibilities at work.

We explore how organizations actually function: how decisions get made, how information moves, how teams learn, how power works, and the everyday systems and behaviors that make work either harder or better.


Host — Yosr Najjar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yosrnajjar/


]]> Organizational Intelligence (OI) is a series of real conversations about how work actually works inside modern organizations -  how decisions get made, how trust is built (or broken), how information flows, and how teams adapt under pressure. Each episode unpacks one sharp idea about the invisible operating system: leadership, meetings, communication, decision-making, psychological safety, learning, accountability..  that determines whether people and organizations thrive.


🎙 ORGANIZATIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Organizational Intelligence explores how organizations actually function, through the intersection of teaming, culture, systems, leadership and the human experience of work.

Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform: https://organiztionalintelligence.buzzsprout.com/

Follow Organizational Intelligence on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/organizational-intelligence-oi/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Organizational-Intelligence/

#OrganizationalIntelligence #FutureOfWork #TeamEffectiveness #OrganizationalDesign #Leadership #DecisionMaking #WaysOfWorking #AIatWork

Organizational Intelligence is a podcast about people, practice and possibilities at work.

We explore how organizations actually function: how decisions get made, how information moves, how teams learn, how power works, and the everyday systems and behaviors that make work either harder or better.


Host — Yosr Najjar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yosrnajjar/


]]> Yosr Najjar Buzzsprout-19686816 Sat, 01 Aug 2026 12:00:00 +0400 104 1 1 trailer false