The 5Cs

Hosted by Charlene Norman

Business Entrepreneurship Science

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187

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Jun 2026

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About the show

Healing the globe can take many different paths. Imagine if most businesses took the lead in healing the planet and helping the people. Imagine the profit; imagine the impact. Imagine if it worked beyond our wildest dreams! Practical insights, provocative points of view. Simultaneously inspiring and educational. Join Charlene Norman every Saturday at 6 a.m. EST for this 2.1 version of Exploring Compassionate Capitalism.

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60 recent

June 13, 202618 min

The Leader of Tomorrow

The Leader of Tomorrow In this episode with Rashmir Balasubramaniam of https://rashmir.net/ we bring the series home with the question that has been sitting underneath every conversation: what does the leader who can actually do all of this look like? Rashmir names five roles the leader of tomorrow needs to be able to play. We end with a reframe of leadership built not on authority, not on vision, not even on competence — but on humility and the radical act of giving others permission to lead. The key highlights are: The five roles for tomorrow's leader and why each one requires a fundamentally different orientation than the leadership models most of us inherited Why no single person can sustain all five roles, and what becomes possible when we stop expecting them to Why permission is the missing ingredient for most changemakers Links and notes for show: Rashmir's Authentic Leadership Program for women Lao Tzu / Tao Te Ching Ready to benchmark your leadership impact? Take this 5-minute Stewardship Quiz and get a personalized report showing exactly where you rank - plus actionable strategies to elevate your performance.The 5Cs Podcast connects forward-thinking executives who are building sustainable competitive advantages while driving positive impact. Think of it as an exclusive network of leaders who understand that stewardship isn't just good ethics - it's good business.Connect with Charlene Norman on LinkedIn, find her at her website, subscribe to our Substack for strategic insights, or download the full series on Spotify and Apple.

June 6, 202618 min

The Seven Principles of Regeneration

The Seven Principles of Regeneration In this episode with Rashmir Balasubramaniam of https://rashmir.net/ we discuss the framework at the heart of regenerative practice. Carol Sanford's seven principles of regeneration and what it actually looks like to apply them inside real organisations and systems. Rashmir walks us through each principle clearly and without jargon, grounds them in concrete examples, and then answers the question I most needed her to answer: has she actually seen any of this work yet? Her answer is more nuanced than a simple yes or no. The key highlights are: The seven principles of regeneration explained plainly and connected to the real challenges leaders and organisations are navigating right now Why working with problems alone will never produce regenerative outcomes and what shifts when you orient instead toward potential, essence, and the health of the whole system Why you have to go slower in the beginning to go faster in the long run and why that insight, as obvious as it sounds, is exactly what stops most change efforts from ever gaining real traction Links and notes for show: Carol Sanford Regenesis Group John Bennett Charles Krone Ready to benchmark your leadership impact? Take this 5-minute Stewardship Quiz and get a personalized report showing exactly where you rank - plus actionable strategies to elevate your performance.The 5Cs Podcast connects forward-thinking executives who are building sustainable competitive advantages while driving positive impact. Think of it as an exclusive network of leaders who understand that stewardship isn't just good ethics - it's good business.Connect with Charlene Norman on LinkedIn, find her at her website, subscribe to our Substack for strategic insights, or download the full series on Spotify and Apple.

May 30, 202612 min

Masculine, Feminine, and the Danger of Overfocus

Masculine, Feminine, and the Danger of Overfocus In this episode with Rashmir Balasubramaniam of https://rashmir.net/ we discuss the broken balance between masculine and feminine ways of operating. Not as opposites to set against each other, but as complementary forces we have allowed to fall dangerously out of alignment. Rashmir offers one of the most unexpected and clarifying metaphors I've encountered for understanding what our economic system has done to us: the biology of shortsightedness. And she lands at reversibility and genuine hope. The key highlights are: Why the problem isn't masculinity or the drive toward outcomes. It's the over-reliance on one mode of operating at the expense of everything else, and what that crowding-out effect has cost us The shortsightedness metaphor: how over-focusing on a single goal, whether in our eyes or our economies, physically and systemically narrows what we're able to see as possible Why the belief that the damage is irreversible may be the single biggest barrier to genuine change, and why the regenerative evidence says otherwise Links and notes for show: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Carol Sanford and Regenisis Group Ready to benchmark your leadership impact? Take this 5-minute Stewardship Quiz and get a personalized report showing exactly where you rank - plus actionable strategies to elevate your performance.The 5Cs Podcast connects forward-thinking executives who are building sustainable competitive advantages while driving positive impact. Think of it as an exclusive network of leaders who understand that stewardship isn't just good ethics - it's good business.Connect with Charlene Norman on LinkedIn, find her at her website, subscribe to our Substack for strategic insights, or download the full series on Spotify and Apple.

May 23, 202613 min

The Inner Work Nobody Talks About

The Inner Work Nobody Talks About In this episode with Rashmir Balasubramaniam of https://rashmir.net/ we discuss what it actually takes to move from where most leaders are operating right now toward something genuinely different. And why the answer is not a strategy, a method, or a roadmap. Rashmir introduces a parallel framework for understanding how we relate to the world, from feeling like a victim of circumstances all the way through to allowing life to flow through us. And she makes the case that the inner work of leadership is not a detour from the work of change. It IS the work. The key highlights are: A four-level framework for how we relate to the world — from the world happening to us, through for us, as us, and ultimately through us — and why most leaders are operating far below their actual capacity Why you can only meet people where they are and how working with the potential someone can already see, rather than the potential you can see for them, is what makes change sustainable Why global development work has lost the development piece and what it costs us when we focus so relentlessly on outcomes that we stop developing the people inside the systems we're trying to shift Links and notes for show: Peter Sage Carol Sanford Ready to benchmark your leadership impact? Take this 5-minute Stewardship Quiz and get a personalized report showing exactly where you rank - plus actionable strategies to elevate your performance.The 5Cs Podcast connects forward-thinking executives who are building sustainable competitive advantages while driving positive impact. Think of it as an exclusive network of leaders who understand that stewardship isn't just good ethics - it's good business.Connect with Charlene Norman on LinkedIn, find her at her website, subscribe to our Substack for strategic insights, or download the full series on Spotify and Apple.

May 16, 202614 min

From Stewardship to Co-Creation

From Stewardship to Co-Creation In this episode with Rashmir Balasubramaniam of https://rashmir.net/ we discuss what it actually means to move from a force-based to a flow-based way of leading — and why that shift matters more right now than any strategy, tool, or methodology. Rashmir introduces the distinction between stewardship and co-creation, unpacks two very different schools of thought on flow, and offers a four-level energy framework that maps the journey from functioning on automatic to operating at the level of genuine creativity. The key highlights are: Why the dominant model of leadership — forceful, linear, outcome-driven — has served its purpose but is no longer sufficient for what the world is asking of us now The difference between performance-based flow (optimising for output) and a more feminine, receptive flow that asks what wants to happen here rather than making it happen Four levels of energy — vital, automatic, conscious, and creative — and why moving from automatic toward creative is the central leadership challenge of our time Links and notes John Bennett framework (four energy levels) — The Dramatic Universe Carol Sanford — Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi — flow psychology reference Steven Kotler — flow performance science Ready to benchmark your leadership impact? Take this 5-minute Stewardship Quiz and get a personalized report showing exactly where you rank - plus actionable strategies to elevate your performance.The 5Cs Podcast connects forward-thinking executives who are building sustainable competitive advantages while driving positive impact. Think of it as an exclusive network of leaders who understand that stewardship isn't just good ethics - it's good business.Connect with Charlene Norman on LinkedIn, find her at her website, subscribe to our Substack for strategic insights, or download the full series on Spotify and Apple.

May 9, 202624 min

How We Got Here What We Can Do

How We Got Here; What We Can Do completes the series of You're Playing Someone Else's Game: The Operating System Underneath Business In this final episode, Simon Mont of Harmonize ends this series with more provocative thinking. From monarchies to neoliberalism. And where the game actually changes. You can also find him on Instagram and YouTube. The key highlights are: -The straight line from medieval feudalism to Ronald Reagan to the Amazon driver who can't take a bathroom break -Why the populist uprising hired someone running the exact same operating system it was trying to fight -Where the game actually changes — and it's closer than you think Ready to benchmark your leadership impact? Take this 5-minute Stewardship Quiz and get a personalized report showing exactly where you rank - plus actionable strategies to elevate your performance.The 5Cs Podcast connects forward-thinking executives who are building sustainable competitive advantages while driving positive impact. Think of it as an exclusive network of leaders who understand that stewardship isn't just good ethics - it's good business.Connect with Charlene Norman on LinkedIn, find her at her website, subscribe to our Substack for strategic insights, or download the full series on Spotify and Apple.

May 2, 202613 min

Power, Belonging, Justice

Power. Belonging, Justice is the third episode in the series of You're Playing Someone Else's Game: The Operating System Underneath Business Simon Mont of Harmonize shares his take on the whys and hows business is.The three forces running every organisation — and how we lost track of all three. You can also find him on Instagram and YouTube. The key highlights are: The three forces running every organisation on earth — and why most leaders can't see them Why culture work, without addressing power and belonging, changes nothing How the 1980s quietly replaced an entire region's definition of justice — and what we lost Ready to benchmark your leadership impact? Take this 5-minute Stewardship Quiz and get a personalized report showing exactly where you rank - plus actionable strategies to elevate your performance.The 5Cs Podcast connects forward-thinking executives who are building sustainable competitive advantages while driving positive impact. Think of it as an exclusive network of leaders who understand that stewardship isn't just good ethics - it's good business.Connect with Charlene Norman on LinkedIn, find her at her website, subscribe to our Substack for strategic insights, or download the full series on Spotify and Apple.

April 25, 202617 min

The Field

The Field is the second of four episodes in You're Playing Someone Else's Game: The Operating System Underneath Business. Simon Mont of Harmonize continues with his knack of provoking innovative thinking.Why all the smart solutions are failing — and what they're all missing. You can also find him on Instagram and YouTube. The key highlights are: -Why good intentions keep producing the same broken outcomes -The one thing every organisational intervention is missing -Whether anyone has actually cracked this. The answer is YES! Ready to benchmark your leadership impact? Take this 5-minute Stewardship Quiz and get a personalized report showing exactly where you rank - plus actionable strategies to elevate your performance.The 5Cs Podcast connects forward-thinking executives who are building sustainable competitive advantages while driving positive impact. Think of it as an exclusive network of leaders who understand that stewardship isn't just good ethics - it's good business.Connect with Charlene Norman on LinkedIn, find her at her website, subscribe to our Substack for strategic insights, or download the full series on Spotify and Apple.

April 18, 202619 min

The Puzzle

The Puzzle kicks off the new series of You're Playing Someone Else's Game: The Operating System Underneath Business In this first episode, Simon Mont of Harmonize kicks off this series with some provocative thinking. Why everything wrong with the world is a design problem. You can also find him on Instagram and YouTube. The key highlights are: Businesses are nothing more than operating systems. Operating systems can be dialled up, refurbished, replenished and even replaced The million dollar question nobody asks: how we organize together determines everything we create. Ready to benchmark your leadership impact? Take this 5-minute Stewardship Quiz and get a personalized report showing exactly where you rank - plus actionable strategies to elevate your performance.The 5Cs Podcast connects forward-thinking executives who are building sustainable competitive advantages while driving positive impact. Think of it as an exclusive network of leaders who understand that stewardship isn't just good ethics - it's good business.Connect with Charlene Norman on LinkedIn, find her at her website, subscribe to our Substack for strategic insights, or download the full series on Spotify and Apple.

April 11, 202620 min

What Jobs Knew That Most Leaders Still Miss

What Jobs Knew That Most Leaders Still Miss. The final episode in a new six part series. The Rock Tumbler: How Different Minds Create Breakthrough Thinking. With special guest Josh Harrison, of the Center for the Study of the Force Majeure and Leaf Island. 5 KEY TAKEAWAYS: Steve Jobs: "Musicians, poets, artists, zoologists who happened to be computer scientists"—not despite diversity, because of it Rock Tumbler Theory: Sharp rocks + friction + grit = polished beauty Force majeure (knock-off effects of extraction) vs. counterforce (how we respond) "The harvest preserves the system" and "folk dance with rising waters"—frameworks for regenerative thinking Pattern across history: Homogeneity kills innovation, diversity creates breakthroughs Ready to benchmark your leadership impact? Take this 5-minute Stewardship Quiz and get a personalized report showing exactly where you rank - plus actionable strategies to elevate your performance.The 5Cs Podcast connects forward-thinking executives who are building sustainable competitive advantages while driving positive impact. Think of it as an exclusive network of leaders who understand that stewardship isn't just good ethics - it's good business.Connect with Charlene Norman on LinkedIn, find her at her website, subscribe to our Substack for strategic insights, or download the full series on Spotify and Apple.