Blow up the Hierarchy: Why Building Teams Around Value Creation is the New Competitive Advantage
Team Lab
In this episode of the Team Lab Podcast, we sit down with Greg Petroff to discuss why traditional hierarchies often hinder work and how leaders can transition toward value-driven, outcome-oriented teams. Greg is a veteran design and technology leader who has driven major organizational transformations at companies like GE Digital, Google, ServiceNow, Compass, and Cisco Secure. He's a founding member of Design Executive Council, and advises organizations of all sizes on how to rethink workflows and team agency through the lens of new technological capabilities. In his public work...
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Toxic Teams & Narcissistic Leaders: The Science of Workplace Dysfunction
Team Lab
What if the "problem team member or leader" isn't the problem at all—but a symptom of a system protecting itself from the truth? In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Nathalie Martinek, a former cancer researcher who discovered unsettling parallels between tumor metastasis and toxic workplace behavior. After experiencing a carcinogenic work environment herself, Nathalie hung up her lab coat to study what she calls "the human lab"—how good people become participants in dysfunctional systems, often without realizing it. The Big Questions We Tackle: What's the difference between psychological...
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Moving Goalposts & Burnout: How to Lead Teams Through Constant Change with Suzanne Sitrin
Team Lab
What if navigating constant change isn’t about moving faster, but noticing who’s stuck at the edge of the bridge? In this episode, we sit down with Suzanne Sitrin, a leadership consultant who’s spent decades helping leaders guide teams through transformation: from the quality-management era to today’s rapid growth and perpetual pivots. Suzanne shares what actually helps when the bar keeps moving and people are running out of runway. The Big Questions We Tackle: How do you lead when the goalposts keep moving? Suzanne unpacks what she’s seeing in so many corporate environments:...
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Unlearn to Lead: Why Your Leadership Playbook Might Be Expired and What to Do About It with Karen Ferris
Team Lab
What if everything you learned about leadership is actually holding you back? And what if the secret to thriving through AI disruption and remote work chaos isn't adding new skills—it's unlearning the old ones? In this episode, we sit down with , organizational change expert, author of eight books including Be Remarkable: Learn to Unlearn, and a voice that cuts through the noise on what teams actually need from leaders today. Karen has spent her career watching organizations struggle with change—and she's seen what separates the ones that thrive from the ones that collapse under pressure....
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Building Trust in the Age of AI with Matt Tabor - Part 2
Team Lab
What if the workplace transformation everyone's worried about is actually the breakthrough we've been waiting for? What if AI agents don't replace us—they finally free us to do the work that actually matters? Welcome back to Part 2 of our conversation with Matt Tabor, organizational performance expert and founder of BCGN Group. If you caught Part 1, you heard Matt lay out his four 2030 future of work predictions: AI is a Valued Team Member People & Teams Fuel Growth and Innovation Silos Collapse; Outcomes Become Shared Cultures Prioritize Ethics, Resilience & Critical Thinking ...
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Building Trust in the Age of AI with Matt Tabor - Part 1
Team Lab
What if AI agents could finally break down the silos that have frustrated teams for decades? And what if freeing humans from task-based work actually creates the workplace we've always dreamed of? In our first episode of Season 2, and Part 1 of 2, we welcome Matt Tabor, organizational performance expert and founder of BCGN Group, to explore a future that's closer than you think. In addition to spending 25+ years empowering companies and leaders to cultivate adaptive organizations, Matt lead teams at Zendesk watching AI transform not just technology, but how teams think, connect, and create...
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Trust, Friction, Silos & Soul: Season 1 Wrap-Up
Team Lab
That’s a wrap! Season 1 of Team Lab: Reimagining the Way We Work is in the books. Join us for a reflective walk down memory lane, surfacing the big themes, sticky challenges, and practical tools that shaped our conversations with some of the most thoughtful leaders, coaches, and practitioners this season. What You’ll Hear in This Episode The Four Biggest Challenges Teams Face Trust & Vulnerability: Why predictive trust isn’t enough and why vulnerability-based trust is the real unlock for high-performing teams. Internalized Urgency: How rushing for the sake of rushing erodes...
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Breaking Decision-Making Gridlock: Purpose, Process, and People
Team Lab
If you’ve ever sat in a meeting that felt like a never-ending swirl of competing voices and unresolved tensions, this episode will show you what’s possible when teams bring structure, trust, and purpose into their collaboration. In this episode, we’re honored to welcome Stefan Morales, Founder of Working Together Consulting, Associate with and BASE. His background spans organizational development, social design, facilitation, and public engagement — all grounded in a belief that complexity isn’t something to fear, but something we can learn to navigate together. Whether it’s...
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The Ripple Effect: How One Leader's Change Can Transform Entire Organizations
Team Lab
What does it take to move an entire organization forward—without relying on brute force leadership or toxic top-down control? In this episode, Chris Hutchinson shares how authentic leadership creates ripple effects that move teams, organizations, and entire systems. Drawing from his book Ripple, Chris explains how small, intentional leadership actions can generate long-lasting, exponential impact. He reflects on his own journey from an early experience on a challenging team in the military to building thriving leadership ecosystems. We discuss why thriving teams start with trust and...
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From Small Cog to Big Impact: Sticky Listener Situation UNPACKED!
Team Lab
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....
info_outlineSingle-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.
Resources Mentioned
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Team Huddle template in Miro
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P-squared: Each team member *briefly* shares 2 professional, 2 personal items at the top of staff weekly/biweekly meetings
About Our Guest
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
Connect With Us
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Have your team challenge featured and unpacked on a future episode of Team Lab!
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Your hosts:
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Work with us IRL! Book a consult: Team Lab at Work
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Team Lab theme music composed by Subra Doyle
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Insta - @subrasonic; Spotify
Up Next:
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.