What happens when you're a capable leader trapped in a challenging organizational culture?

How do you create value and showcase your team's worth when you're dealing with controlling stakeholders, chaotic planning processes, and an authoritarian leadership style that permeates the entire organization?

In this special solo episode of Team Lab, hosts Angela Migliaccio and Cori Caldwell unpack a real listener situation from ‘Holly*’, a senior director at a large software company navigating the complexities of a highly matrixed, high-pressure environment with challenging stakeholder dynamics.

This episode explores the systemic nature of workplace dysfunction, practical tools for building psychological safety, and strategies for creating positive change from within - even when you feel like "a small cog in an important wheel deep inside the machine."

*Names and details anonymized.

Two-by-Two Stakeholder Matrix: Map stakeholders by influence level and relationship quality to identify gaps.

"Walk in My Shoes" Exercise: Empty chair technique for building empathy and understanding across roles.

Design Alliance/Rules of Engagement: Creating team contracts for communication and decision-making.

Red Card/Green Card System: Behavioral feedback tools for team accountability.

"Yes, And" Communication: Improv-based technique for building on ideas rather than shutting them down.

Need advice about a sticky situation with your team? Head to teamlabatwork.com, click the 'Submit a Team Dynamic Story' button and you just may hear it unpacked on a future episode!

"The Heart Aroused" by David Whyte - Referenced book on bringing humanity to corporate environments

About Team Lab

Team Lab explores the power of teams, the science and art of collaboration, and the magic of thriving relationships at work. Hosted by Angela Migliaccio and Cori Caldwell, this podcast brings you inspiring stories and insights to help you build trust, foster alignment, and unlock creativity in your teams.

Follow us on LinkedIn and subscribe/follow here to never miss an episode!

Team Lab's theme music was composed and performed by @subrasonic

What if we told you that your team’s capacity to carry challenging moments without shutting down is directly related to the amount of time you invest with them to build a culture of trust, adaptability and emotional intelligence?

In this wide-ranging conversation, leadership coach and global facilitator Joshua Pinchuk joins us to explore what it means to lead in a fast-changing work world. He shares stories from his own career—from a factory floor mishap that defined his leadership philosophy to coaching tech teams navigating the rise of AI.

Joshua makes the case for ditching outdated command-and-control leadership models in favor of compassionate, curiosity-driven cultures. He talks about how flatter organizations, mounting workplace pressures, and the speed of technological change are challenging leaders in new ways—and how adaptability, experimentation, and emotional intelligence are the remedies to meet the moment.

He also offers thoughtful insights on the future of work, including why companies must invest in early career professionals and embrace internal mobility to better maintain a flow of fresh perspective, engagement and commitment.

Joshua Pinchuk is an experienced leader in the fields of learning and coaching. Joshua has over twenty-five years of experience driving innovation in education, talent development, and organizational transformation. Recognized for his skills in people management, leadership development, and performance coaching, Joshua is passionate about enabling individuals and organizations to succeed.

Resources Mentioned

BetterUp Report → The Performance Crisis

Peter Drucker: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

About Team Lab

Team Lab explores the power of teams, the science and art of collaboration, and the magic of thriving relationships at work. Hosted by Angela Migliaccio and Cori Caldwell, this podcast brings you inspiring stories and insights to help you build trust, foster alignment, and unlock creativity in your teams.

Follow us on LinkedIn and subscribe/follow here to never miss an episode!

What does it mean to be a “future-fit” leader?

According to our guest this week, being future-fit means improving the performance of organizational leaders to solve the challenges they face today, while expanding their capacities to be more fit for the challenges ahead.

They're not just trying to be better at the old game; they're helping to create an entirely new paradigm for how we work and relate to each other.

Lyssa Adkins has spent the past decade developing leadership teams worldwide, using skillful professional and organizational systems coaching. She is an internationally recognized leadership coach, future of work expert, renowned Agile-coaching pioneer, and author of the top business book, Coaching Agile Teams.

Dive deep with us as Lyssa shares how leaders can replace command-and-control reflexes with adult-to-adult collaboration, deeper sense-making and what she calls a “future-fit toolbox” of cognitive, emotional and energetic skills.

Tools & Resources Mentioned

Methodologies:

• Liberating Structures for group facilitation

• Relationship Systems Coaching

• Open Space Technology

• Sense-making sessions for leadership teams

Technology & Platforms:

• Miro for visual collaboration

• Slack for remote team communication

Influential Thinkers:

• Diane Musho Hamilton Roshi (Zen teacher and conflict mediator)

• Daniel Schmachtenberger (Game B theorist)

• Laura Storm (Regenerative leadership)

• Bob Anderson (The Leadership Circle)

• Michelle Holliday ("The Age of Thriveability")

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyssaadkins

• If you're a leader ready to expand your cognitive, emotional, and energetic toolkit and make a bigger impact in the world, connect with Lyssa at lyssaadkins.com.

About Team Lab

Team Lab explores the power of teams, the science and art of collaboration, and the magic of thriving relationships at work. Hosted by Angela Migliaccio and Cori Caldwell, this podcast brings you inspiring stories and insights to help you build trust, foster alignment, and unlock creativity in your teams.

Follow us on LinkedIn and subscribe/follow here to never miss an episode!

What if the breakthrough your team needs isn't found in another strategy session or process improvement, but in a moment of unexpected connection? How can asking people to step outside their analytical comfort zone create the psychological safety that brings teams together? And why asking, "What duck are you feeling right now?" might just be what your next team meeting desperately needs?

In this episode of Team Lab, we're exploring these questions with Meredith Tozzer, HR partner and team transformation coach who brings a refreshingly unconventional approach to leading technical teams. With a background spanning art history, higher education, and global high-tech companies, Meredith has mastered the art of reading team dynamics and transforming tension into productive momentum.

Join us for a conversation that explores how "constructive friction" can actually accelerate your team's success instead of slowing it down, why the path to vulnerability is best initiated with silliness, and how to convert team resistance into authentic engagement.

Resources

Connect with Meredith Tozzer on LinkedIn

Mad Libs + Storytelling Team Exercise - Try Meredith's combination approach for team building that gets people out of their heads. Choose a topic or vision for the collective team to build upon. Have each team member write one sentence of a story, starting at the top of a sheet of paper. Have them fold it so the sentence can’t be seen by the next person

Three-by-Three Grid Icebreakers - Use silly animal pictures (rubber ducks, hedgehogs, raccoons) and ask team members to identify a picture that best represents them in this moment and why. This silly opening can help create safe spaces for sharing for the rest of the meeting!

Culture Amp Study referenced in the episode about high performance sustainability over time

Mental Health First Aid Training - Particularly valuable for leaders supporting high-pressure teams

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Follow us on LinkedIn and subscribe/follow to never miss an episode!

What if your workplace could energize your spirit rather than drain it? How much smoother might organizations transform if they focused on removing blockers instead of adding more processes? What would happen if we designed our work systems around human dignity, creativity, and meaningful connection?

In this episode of TeamLab, we're diving into these questions with business transformation strategist and award-winning author Jardena London. As the founder of Rosetta Agile, Jardena brings over 25 years of experience leading bold transformations across organizations of all sizes.

Join us for a conversation that bridges the gap between workplace efficiency and human fulfillment, exploring what it means to be successful at transformational leadership, how AI might actually help us reconnect with our humanity, and why the best leaders "give a hoot and don't pollute."

Connect with Jardena on LinkedIn

Subscribe to Jardena's bi-weekly newsletter for insights on making work more soulful at her website: JardenaLondon.com

Grab Jardena's book for your professional library: "Cultivating Transformations: A Leader's Guide to Connecting the Soulful and the Practical".

Check out the Theory of Constraints by Eli Goldratt to better understand how to help pinpoint critical issues.

Assess the ‘Me’ - Get insights into the qualities others see that you don’t see yourself.

What about the ‘We’? Try Liberating Structures facilitation techniques to gather and cull ideas from large groups so that all voices feel heard.

TeamLab explores the power of teams, the science and art of collaboration, and the magic of thriving relationships at work. Hosted by Angela Migliaccio and Cori Caldwell, this podcast brings you inspiring stories and insights to help you build trust, foster alignment, and unlock creativity in your teams.

Follow us on LinkedIn and subscribe/follow to never miss an episode!

Single-day team building and offsites can be powerful for identifying challenges and creating plans for change, but what happens when work resumes on Monday?

How do top teams SUSTAIN success?

In Part 2 of our talk with organization development expert Karen Duggan, we cut straight to the HOW: How to create norms and rituals that stick, sewing sustainable practices that fuel authentic collaboration, and so many actionable tools for leaders to help their people connect at deeper levels.

Karen also shares the ONE question leaders must ask to keep their teams thriving under pressure.

• Team Huddle template in Miro

• P-squared: Each team member *briefly* shares 2 professional, 2 personal items at the top of staff weekly/biweekly meetings

Karen Duggan is a renowned author and organization and talent development specialist who has coached over a thousand teams across various industries. Her unique approach combines practical tools with deep interpersonal work, helping organizations transform how their teams operate. Karen's expertise in team dynamics has made her a sought-after speaker and consultant for companies seeking to cultivate exceptional teamwork.

Connect with Karen on LinkedIn

• Have your team challenge featured and unpacked on a future episode of Team Lab!

• • >> Anonymous Submission Form <<

• Podcast Episodes Website

• LinkedIn

• Your hosts:

• • Angela Migliaccio

  • Cori Caldwell

• Work with us IRL! Book a consult: Team Lab at Work

• Team Lab theme music composed by Subra Doyle

• • Insta - @subrasonic; Spotify

Don't miss Episode 3, where be talking to team transformation consultant, speaker and author of “Cultivating Transformations: A Leader’s Guide to Connecting the Soulful and the Practical”, Jardena London! Jardena will walk us through what it means to take a soulful approach to leading teams, highlighting top moments and case studies from her years of working with organizations of all sizes and levels.

Ever wonder why some teams thrive while others struggle, despite having talented people? The answer might surprise you.

In this first episode, Karen Duggan, a powerhouse organization development expert who's coached literally thousands of teams throughout her career is here to break it all down!

Karen reveals the three non-negotiable elements that can transform an average team into an extraordinary one. Spoiler alert: it's not what most leaders focus on!

She shares so many practical exercises and strategies that you can implement TODAY to strengthen team relationships and skyrocket collaboration. (Seriously, we had to split this conversation into two episodes because the wisdom just wouldn't stop flowing!)

Get ready to take notes, challenge your assumptions, and discover what truly matters when building teams that create exceptional value.

In This Episode

• Why slowing down to have real conversations accelerates team performance

• Practical exercises to strengthen team relationships and collaboration

• How to recognize and address team dysfunction

• Strategies to elevate your team to unprecedented levels of performance

• "Crucial Conversations" by Kerry Patterson

• Psychological Safety / 5 Dysfunctions of a Team Model - Patrick Lencioni

Karen Duggan is a renowned author and organization and talent development specialist who has coached over a thousand teams across various industries. Her unique approach combines practical tools with deep interpersonal work, helping organizations transform how their teams operate. Karen's expertise in team dynamics has made her a sought-after speaker and consultant for companies seeking to cultivate exceptional teamwork.

Connect with Karen on LinkedIn

• Have your team challenge featured and unpacked on a future episode of Team Lab!

  • >> Anonymous Submission Form <<

• Podcast Episodes Website

• LinkedIn

• Your hosts:

  • Angela Migliaccio

  • Cori Caldwell

• Work with us IRL! Book a consult: Team Lab at Work

• Team Lab theme music composed by Subra Doyle

  • Insta - @subrasonic; Spotify

Don't miss part two of our conversation with Karen Duggan, where she breaks down the advanced team behaviors and mindsets behind high performing and high value-creating teams.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review us. Your support helps us bring more valuable content to team leaders everywhere!

The world of work is at an inflection point. Organizations are grappling with flatter hierarchies, the chaotic whiplash of return-to-office mandates, and the lingering legacy of top-down management—all while trying to build relatively functional, happy teams.

Enter Team Lab: Reimagining The Way We Work—a podcast dedicated to exploring the power of teams, the science and art of collaboration, and the magic of thriving relationships at work.

Hosted by Angela Migliaccio and Cori Caldwell, who’ve spent years coaching and empowering leaders across the tech industry and beyond, Team Lab invites you to rethink teams—not as hierarchical machines, but as vibrant, living ecosystems.

Each episode features relatable conversations, honest insights, and practical wisdom from struggling leaders, systemic team coaches, and innovative changemakers. We’ll uncover how successful teams build trust, foster alignment, navigate complexity, and unlock creativity.

Whether you’re a team leader, team member, coach, or facilitator, you’ll walk away inspired and equipped with fresh perspectives on teamwork and collaboration.

🎧 We want to hear from you! In addition to insightful guest interviews, our episode lineup also includes anonymous listener stories of actual team challenges. Submit yours today for a chance to have us unpack & offer expert guidance in a future show!