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Centaur Stage

Cosmic Centaurs

87 episodes

1 week ago

After seven weeks of exploring systems thinking through the lens of leadership, culture, and transformation, the 2025 Cosmic Conference comes full circle with a powerful closing conversation. Professor José Santos, Affiliated Professor of Practice in Global Management at INSEAD, joins Marilyn Zakhour to challenge and deepen the conference’s central idea: Is the system really the strategy? Together, they explore how leaders can move from managing parts to understanding the whole and why seeing...

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After seven weeks of exploring systems thinking through the lens of leadership, culture, and transformation, the 2025 Cosmic Conference comes full circle with a powerful closing conversation. Professor José Santos, Affiliated Professor of Practice in Global Management at INSEAD, joins Marilyn Zakhour to challenge and deepen the conference’s central idea: Is the system really the strategy? Together, they explore how leaders can move from managing parts to understanding the whole and why seeing...

Show more...

Episodes (20/87)

Centaur Stage

Building Systems to Reclaim Your Time with Dhiren Bhatia

Time is the one system every leader struggles to manage — and the one that reveals how well all the others work. In this energizing conversation, Diren Bhatia, entrepreneur, coach, and founder of Cloudscape Technologies, joins Tala Ode to explore how leaders and founders can redesign their relationship with time. From his own journey of moving from a 14-hour-day founder to a “part-time CEO,” Diren shares how systems, rituals, and mindset shifts can help leaders free themselves from firefighti...

4 days ago

1 hour 2 minutes

Centaur Stage

Building Systems to Transform Large Companies with Breeze Dong

How do you nudge a 13,000-person organization to move from managing change to creating the conditions for change? In this conversation, Chun Feng “Breeze” Dong, Associate Director of Organizational Development at Roche, joins Marilyn Zakhour to share how she and her team applied systems thinking to enable large-scale learning, collaboration, and innovation across global teams. Drawing from years of experimentation inside one of the world’s leading healthcare companies, Breeze shows how transf...

5 days ago

57 minutes

Centaur Stage

Building Systems to Transform at Scale with Ibraheem Sheerah

What does it take to lead transformation across one of the region’s most complex organizations, and make it human? In this powerful conversation, Ibraheem Sheerah, Chief Transformation Officer at Saudia Group, joins Marilyn Zakhour to share how he led one of the Kingdom’s most ambitious transformation journeys, reshaping not just an airline, but the ecosystem around it. Through stories that span from listening to a security guard’s advice to engaging pilots, suppliers, and customers in change...

5 days ago

1 hour 52 minutes

Centaur Stage

Building Systems to Balance Parenthood & Work

Parenthood is one of the most complex systems we’ll ever navigate — and for working parents, it often runs in parallel with another: work. In this heartfelt conversation Faten Fathallah, Marie Nakhle, Marilyn Zakhour, Tala Odeh, and Zeinab Makke from the Cosmic Centaurs team join Hadeel Kabosh to explore how they design, adapt, and sustain systems that help them thrive as both professionals and parents. Together, they reflect on: 🔹 How motherhood reshapes priorities, time, and definitio...

1 week ago

54 minutes

Centaur Stage

Weaving the Human into the System (& Vice Versa) with Dr. José-Rodrigo Córdoba-Pachón

What does it mean to bring humanity back into our systems, and to see ourselves as part of them? In this conversation, Dr. José-Rodrigo Córdoba-Pachón, Associate Professor at Royal Holloway, University of London, joins Marilyn Zakhour to explore the intersection of systems thinking, rituals, and the art of being. Together, they reflect on how leaders can find balance between doing and being, structure and spontaneity, efficiency and presence. They discuss: 🔹 How philosophy, poetry, and ...

2 weeks ago

1 hour 7 minutes

Centaur Stage

Building Systems to Innovate with Wissam Adib

Innovation rarely fails because of a lack of ideas. It fails because the systems around it are built for compliance, not experimentation. In this episode, Wissam Adib, Executive Coach and former Advisor at the UAE Prime Minister’s Office, joins Marilyn Zakhour to explore what it really takes to build systems that foster innovation at scale. Drawing on two decades of experience shaping national innovation frameworks in the UAE, Wissam shares lessons that apply to both governments and organizat...

2 weeks ago

59 minutes

Centaur Stage

The Heart of Systems with Rawan Albina

In leadership, we often focus on strategies, frameworks, and structures. But what keeps systems alive are the people within them — their purpose, presence, and connection. In this soulful conversation, Rawan Albina, Leadership & Wellbeing Academies Director at Chalhoub Group, joins Marilyn Zakhour to explore the human and emotional dimensions of systems. Together, they discuss how leaders can nurture balance, resilience, and meaning within complex organizations. They explore: 🔹 What it ...

3 weeks ago

57 minutes

Centaur Stage

Building Systems to PERFORM with Stoyan Yankov

Most leaders want high performance. Few know how to sustain it. In this energizing session, Stoyan Yankov, productivity & performance consultant, bestselling author, and co-creator of the PERFORM methodology, joins Marilyn Zakhour to unpack what it really takes to build teams that deliver results and stay energized. Together, they explore how leaders can: 🔹 Design systems that balance productivity and people 🔹 Turn clarity, planning, and focus into everyday habits 🔹 Bui...

3 weeks ago

1 hour 24 minutes

Centaur Stage

🎧 Building Systems to Deepen Impact with Daniel Delati & Mazuba Haanyama

Metrics can tell you if you’re moving, but not whether you’re moving in the right direction. In this conversation, Daniel Delati, Managing Partner at 360 Consulting, and Mazuba Haanyama, Independent Consultant, join Hadeel Kabosh from Cosmic Centaurs to explore what it really takes to design systems that make impact visible, measurable, and meaningful. Together, they dive into: 🔹 How leaders can deliver impact by design strategies anchored in purpose 🔹 Why clarity and curiosity are th...

3 weeks ago

1 hour

Centaur Stage

Understanding the Systems Thinking Toolbox with Drs Derek & Laura Cabrera

What if you could train your brain to think more effectively, to see connections, anticipate ripple effects, and redesign the systems you operate in? In this episode of the 2025 Cosmic Conference: The System is the Strategy, Cosmic Centaurs CEO Marilyn Zakhour is joined by Dr. Derek Cabrera and Dr. Laura Cabrera, founders of the Cabrera Research Lab and professors at Cornell University. Together, they unpack what systems thinking really means and how leaders can move from firefighting to fut...

3 weeks ago

1 hour 2 minutes

Centaur Stage

Building Systems to Scale Psychological Safety with Sander Hoeken & Marilyn Zakhour

We often think of psychological safety as something created within teams — but what about the systems, structures, and incentives that surround them? 🌍 In this powerful Cosmic Conference 2025 session, Sander Hoeken, Co-Founder of The Fearless Organization Scan and Founder of CellSpace, joins Marilyn Zakhour, CEO of Cosmic Centaurs and Harvard Business Review author, to explore how organizations can build systems that sustain psychological safety at scale. Moderated by Marie Nakhle, Senior Con...

3 weeks ago

1 hour 5 minutes

Centaur Stage

🎧 Breaking the System: Leading in the Age of AI with Imad Lahad

AI is not just another wave of technological change, it’s reshaping the very systems that govern how we work, lead, and create value. In this episode, Imad Lahad, Global Chair for AI & Intelligence at APCO, joins Marilyn Zakhour to explore what it means to lead through disruption when the old playbooks no longer apply. Together, they unpack how leaders can: 🔹 Redesign business models and infrastructures for an AI-driven world 🔹 Create new loops of value instead of chasing incr...

3 weeks ago

59 minutes

Centaur Stage

Understanding Systems Change with Darren Yeh

In this session from the 2025 Cosmic Conference, Marilyn Zakhour is joined by Darren Yeh, Managing Director at Omplexity Consulting, a systems change agency that partners with global institutions to align resources for systemic impact. Together, they explore: The essentials of systems thinking for leadersHow to apply systems mapping to uncover hidden interconnectionsReal-world case studies in organizational resilience and systems changePractical tools and mental models for navigating complex...

1 month ago

58 minutes

Centaur Stage

Leading Through Systems: The 2025 Cosmic Conference Opening Keynote

We’re kicking off the 2025 Cosmic Conference with an opening keynote you won’t want to miss. In this episode, Marilyn Zakhour, CEO & Founder of Cosmic Centaurs, introduces this year’s theme and makes the case for why systems thinking is an essential skill for leaders navigating complexity. Over the past year, many leaders have shared how they feel stuck in firefighting mode, solving urgent problems only to see the same issues resurface. What these stories reveal isn’t a failure of leaders...

1 month ago

13 minutes

Centaur Stage

Psychological Safety: The Superpower of High-Performing Teams

What if the key to unlocking bold ideas, honest feedback, and high performance wasn’t talent or experience—but psychological safety? In this special episode marking Cosmic Centaurs’ 5th anniversary, our founder Marilyn Zakhour is joined by two remarkable guests: Sandra Salame, founder of Siira, and Sander Hoeken, co-founder of the Fearless Organization Scan and collaborator of Prof. Amy Edmondson (Harvard Business School), the pioneer of psychological safety. Together, they demystify psycholo...

6 months ago

59 minutes

Centaur Stage

The Surprising Power of Rituals - Learnings from our HBR Article

What if the key to more engaged employees isn’t a new incentive program, but something much more human? In this episode, Marilyn Zakhour and Dr. Constance Noonan Hadley take you behind the scenes of their three-year research journey on team rituals—work that led to their widely read Harvard Business Review article. Together, they unpack the data that proves rituals boost team commitment, psychological safety, and job satisfaction—and they share personal stories from the research process, incl...

8 months ago

1 hour 7 minutes

Centaur Stage

Mastering the Limitations of Polarities

In the closing session of The Cosmic Conference, Marilyn Zakhour is joined by Jose Santos, Affiliated Professor of Practice in Global Management at INSEAD, to explore the intricate art of managing polarities in leadership. Jose challenges conventional wisdom, shedding light on the importance of distinguishing true polarities—those interdependent tensions that sustain systems—from false dichotomies or oversimplified trade-offs. Through rich examples, he delves into situations where polari...

11 months ago

1 hour 31 minutes

Centaur Stage

Mastering Polarities in Organizations

In this episode of the Cosmic Conference series, Marilyn Zakhour unpacks how organizations can thrive by mastering the inherent polarities that define modern leadership. Drawing lessons from iconic case studies, such as Fujifilm and Kodak, Marilyn explores how strategy, structure, and culture can be aligned to build resilient, ambidextrous organizations that navigate complexity with grace.Tune in to learn:Why mastering polarities like exploration vs. exploitation and innovation vs. efficiency...

11 months ago

45 minutes

Centaur Stage

Mastering Sustainable Performance

Join us for a keynote with #Burnout Research & Coach Matt Bartlett-Bond MSc GMBPsS who shares his insights and research about burnout with CEO & Founder, Marilyn Zakhour.Matt is a key contributor to a global research initiative focused on understanding workplace burnout and promoting healthier behaviors to drive sustainable growth.With nearly 30 years of experience in the IT sector, he offers a unique perspective on how management practices impact individual well-being and organizatio...

11 months ago

46 minutes

Centaur Stage

Mastering the Mythic & the Mundane

Join us for a keynote and discussion with Executive Coach and Partner at Cultivating Leadership Gayle Karen Young Whyte as she explores the essential polarities organizations face in shaping their strategies and culture. Discover how to effectively leverage these tensions to foster an organization that thrives. Gayle Karen Young is a cultural architect and a catalyst for human and organizational development. She comes from a rich organizational consulting background with both corporate a...

11 months ago

1 hour