Beyond the Playbook | Podcast
Beyond the Playbook is a bite-sized podcast and companion blog that examines what actually shapes performance, learning, and leadership, especially in complex, people-centered systems.
Where playbooks promise clarity and control, Beyond the Playbook sits with ambiguity, tension, and context. It explores what leaders, educators, and practitioners are navigating when the rules are unclear, the stakes are high, and the human factors matter most.
Purpose
Most guidance stops at what to do. This series focuses on:
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How decisions are made under pressure
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Why strategies succeed in one context and fail in another
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What’s left unsaid in leadership, learning, and culture work
Podcast |Â January 14, 2026
Why Learning is Never Neutral
A conversation on how learning always reflects power, priorities, and values – whether we acknowledge it or not.
Listen NowBlog | January 14, 2026
Why Learning is Never Neutral
An examination of why learning is never neutral, and how design, access, and assumptions quietly shape who benefits and who is left behind.
Read Now
Podcast |Â January 21, 2026
What Sport Teaches Us About Learning
A conversation on what we can learn from sports – and how workplaces and sport need more psychological safety.
Listen NowBlog | January 14, 2026
Why Learning is Never Neutral
Looking at the key takeaways from sport and how we can apply this into our workplace – plus how both spaces need psychological safety.
Read NowNo playbooks. No shortcuts. Honest thinking for complex decisions.
What's Talked About
Each episode relates to three core concepts:
Decisions
The moments (big and small) where judgment, pressure, and context collide.
We examine how leaders, educators, and coaches make choices when information is incomplete, stakes are high, and people are affected.
Tensions
The friction points between values and behavior, policy and practice, intention and impact.
These tensions often signal where systems are misaligned and where change is quietly being resisted or demanded.
Practice
What people actually do when frameworks fade and conditions get real.
Practice reveals how learning, leadership, and culture show up day-to-day, beyond theory, tools, or prescribed models.
Looking for more?
Beyond the Playbook sits alongside:
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Signals & Patterns (monthly): noticing what’s emerging
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Learning Season (quarterly): slowing down for deeper learning
Beyond the Playbook is where those insights are worked through – out loud, in writing, and in conversation.
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Over time, the archive becomes a map of how priorities, language, and systems evolve.
You’re invited to:
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Reflect on what resonates (or challenges you)
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Notice where these signals show up in your own context
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Use the questions to inform strategy, dialogue, and design
Don't see what you're looking for? Share where you want us to investigate in the future.