The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership | Critical Thinking | Problem-Solving

This discussion explores climate change through the lens of leadership, human behavior, and systems design, drawing on Dr. Katharine K. Wilkinson's experience across academia, consulting, and nonprofit leadership.
Rather than revisiting scientific consensus, the conversation focuses on a more practical question: why progress remains uneven despite clear evidence and available solutions.
A central theme is the structural disconnect between natural systems and modern economic models. As Wilkinson observes, "that is not how nature functions… everything in nature is cycles. There is no such thing as waste." Yet many industries continue to operate on linear, extractive models—creating tension between how systems work and how they are designed.
Her experience in consulting reinforces that execution challenges are rarely technical alone. "Often they were about people… leadership and culture," with outcomes shaped by alignment, values, and clarity of purpose rather than strategy in isolation.
The discussion also reframes climate as a broader systems risk. Wilkinson highlights that "we are actively outstripping seven of nine planetary boundaries," underscoring that the issue extends beyond emissions into the stability of core systems that support economic and social life.
At the same time, there is a critical perception gap. "89% of people around the world want to see more climate action… it's just that they think they're in the minority." This misalignment between private concern and perceived consensus limits coordinated action, particularly within institutions.
On engagement, the conversation challenges the assumption that more data drives change. "It is not a shortage of good, robust science… but it's now kind of wound up in people's identity." More effective entry points are often values, lived experiences, and areas of shared interest.
Importantly, contribution does not require wholesale career shifts. Wilkinson emphasizes embedding action into existing decisions: "we don't need to be taking on whole new things… we can find footholds… woven right into our days," from capital allocation to operational choices.
The concept of climate wayfinding anchors the discussion. Leadership in this context is less about certainty and more about navigation: "the future is not yet written… the future lives between us." Progress comes from moving from isolation to collective action, and from concern to contribution.
Two broader principles emerge. First, relationships are foundational: "who we get to do it with… has everything to do with whether that work actually feels good." Second, better outcomes depend on better questions—recognizing that "the questions are companions… invitations into exploration and discovery."
The result is a grounded perspective on addressing complex, system-level challenges—focused less on abstract solutions and more on how individuals and institutions can act within the realities they already inhabit.
Get Dr. Katharine's new book, Climate Wayfinding, here: https://tinyurl.com/ypssavcn
Claim your free gift:
Free gift #1
McKinsey & BCG winning resume
www.FIRMSconsulting.com/resumePDF
Free gift #2
Breakthrough Decisions Guide with 25 AI Prompts
www.FIRMSconsulting.com/decisions
Free gift #3
Five Reasons Why People Ignore Somebody
www.FIRMSconsulting.com/owntheroom
Free gift #4
Access episode 1 from Build a Consulting Firm, Level 1
www.FIRMSconsulting.com/build
Free gift #5
The Overall Approach used in well-managed strategy studies
www.FIRMSconsulting.com/OverallApproach
Free gift #6
Get a copy of Nine Leaders in Action, a book we co-authored with some of our clients:
www.FIRMSconsulting.com/gift

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic featuring an interview with the author of Collaborative Disruption, Tom Muccio.
In this episode, Tom Muccio shares his experience leading Procter & Gamble's collaboration with Walmart. By breaking down corporate barriers and focusing on mutual understanding, Tom helped both companies grow dramatically and expand their business from $350 million to $8 billion. His approach focuses on respect, testing new ideas, and challenging traditional business norms through transparent communication and shared strategic goals.
Tom Muccio was the architect and first team leader of the groundbreaking process that turned an adversarial relationship between Walmart and P&G into one that created dynamic a win-win for both companies and has now been replicated in thousands of Customer-Supplier relationships around the world. P&G-Walmart groundbreaking relationship is outlined in his book "Collaborative Disruption."
Get Tom's book here: https://shorturl.at/GDNgl
Collaborative Disruption: The Walmart and P&G Partnership That Changed Retail Forever
Here are some free gifts for you:
Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach
McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf
Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Arun Gupta challenges conventional notions of career stability, arguing that "you should be seeking meaning… in meaning, you'll find your stability." As institutions become less reliable anchors, purpose—not title or employer—becomes the more durable foundation: "the constant will be why you're doing what you're doing."
He rejects the idea that clarity must precede action. In fast-changing environments, "start acting… the action will bring you clarity," as waiting for certainty often leaves decisions outdated. Mission, in this framing, is iterative: "you don't wake up one day… here's your mission… you have to go find it."
The discussion introduces a broader way to evaluate careers beyond compensation, emphasizing forms of capital that compound over time: trust, experience, learning, health, and mission. This supports a shift toward nonlinear careers, where phases of learning, earning, and contributing are integrated rather than sequential.
On AI, Gupta emphasizes practical fluency over technical depth: "people [will be] replaced by people that use AI." At the same time, human capabilities: judgment, relationships, and diverse experience, become more valuable.
The overarching message is measured optimism. Risk is often misjudged: "we over index on downside and underestimate upside." In this context, purposeful experimentation and long-term investment in multiple forms of capital offer a more resilient path.
Arun Gupta is CEO of the NobleReach Foundation, a venture capitalist, lecturer at Stanford University, and adjunct entrepreneurship professor at Georgetown University, and a bestselling author of Venture Meets Mission and The Mission Generation. As a partner at Columbia Capital, Arun's investment career spanned eighteen years including initiating the firm's Cybersecurity and Government technology investments with a focus on national security, AI, and SaaS/cloud infrastructure sectors.
Get Arun's new book, The Mission Generation, here: https://tinyurl.com/ytmkcnmz
Claim your free gift:
Free gift #1
McKinsey & BCG winning resume
www.FIRMSconsulting.com/resumePDF
Free gift #2
Breakthrough Decisions Guide with 25 AI Prompts
www.FIRMSconsulting.com/decisions
Free gift #3
Five Reasons Why People Ignore Somebody
www.FIRMSconsulting.com/owntheroom
Free gift #4
Access episode 1 from Build a Consulting Firm, Level 1
www.FIRMSconsulting.com/build
Free gift #5
The Overall Approach used in well-managed strategy studies
www.FIRMSconsulting.com/OverallApproach
Free gift #6
Get a copy of Nine Leaders in Action, a book we co-authored with some of our clients:
www.FIRMSconsulting.com/gift

For this episode, let's revisit a Strategy Skills classic featuring an interview with the author of The Problem with Change: And the Essential Nature of Human Performance, Ashley Goodall. Drawing on two decades spent leading HR organizations at Deloitte and Cisco, Ashley Goodall reveals in his book why change is not the same as improvement, and how, by prioritizing team cohesion (instead of reshuffling teams at will), by using real words (rather than corporate-speak), by sharing secrets (not mission statements), by fixing only the things that are truly broken (instead of moving fast and breaking everything in sight, and more, leaders at every level can create the stability that people need to thrive.
Ashley Goodall is a leadership expert who has spent his career exploring large organizations from the inside, most recently as an executive at Cisco. He is the co-author of Nine Lies About Work, which was selected as the best management book of 2019 by Strategy + Business and as one of Amazon's best business and leadership books of 2019. Prior to Cisco, he spent fourteen years at Deloitte as a consultant and as the Chief Learning Officer for Leadership and Professional development.
Get Ashley's book, The Problem with Change, here: https://rb.gy/sa4fe2
Claim your free gift:
Free gift #1
McKinsey & BCG winning resume
www.FIRMSconsulting.com/resumePDF
Free gift #2
Breakthrough Decisions Guide with 25 AI Prompts
www.FIRMSconsulting.com/decisions
Free gift #3
Five Reasons Why People Ignore Somebody
www.FIRMSconsulting.com/owntheroom
Free gift #4
Access episode 1 from Build a Consulting Firm, Level 1
www.FIRMSconsulting.com/build
Free gift #5
The Overall Approach used in well-managed strategy studies
www.FIRMSconsulting.com/OverallApproach
Free gift #6
Get a copy of Nine Leaders in Action, a book we co-authored with some of our clients:
www.FIRMSconsulting.com/gift

Sarah Keohane Williamson, CEO of FCLT Global and coauthor of The CEO's Guide to the Investment Galaxy, offers a disciplined primer for executives operating at the intersection of corporate strategy and capital markets. Drawing from her background in investment banking, government, consulting, and asset management, she explains why "investors are not a single audience," how their incentives shape corporate outcomes, and what leaders must do differently to secure durable capital and strategic flexibility.
Williamson pushes back on conventional wisdom about investor relations, replacing it with practical routines and priorities. She emphasizes a consulting-rooted discipline, "Start with the answer", as a communications principle, and translates it into a concrete playbook for CEOs who cannot afford ambiguity when describing long-term bets. She underscores that "quarterly calls are important, but they're often dominated by the sell side," and CEOs should deliberately allocate their limited time toward building trust with long-term owners and anchor shareholders.
Key takeaways include:
Map the owners. "Who actually owns your company? Who makes the decisions about those shares?" Owner types—retail, index funds, active managers, hedge funds—differ in incentives and time horizons, and executives should treat that map as a strategic input.

Build an investor strategy like a customer strategy. Decide which kinds of capital the company needs, why, and how to attract and retain those investors.

Use a long-term roadmap. Make risky investments intelligible by explaining milestones that link short-term actions to enduring value, and "don't be afraid to update the roadmap when the assumptions change."

Translate investor signals into operational choices. Avoid reflexive short-term fixes, like cutting R&D to meet a quarter, without measuring the long-term cost.

Treat disclosure and dialogue as governance tools. Clarity about ownership, voting, and incentives reduces misalignment and reputational risk.

Reframe consultancy input for execution. "The hard part is not the analysis, the hard part is making it happen inside the organization."



This episode equips CEOs, CFOs, and board members with a practical framework for raising capital, defending strategic bets, and managing shareholder composition. It reframes investor engagement from a compliance exercise into a core discipline of strategy and governance.
📚 Get Sarah's book, The CEO's Guide to the Investment Galaxy, here: https://shorturl.at/7hFeb
Here are some free gifts for you:
Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach
McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf
Get Exclusive Episode 1 Access of How to Build a Consulting Practice: www.firmsconsulting.com/build
Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo