In this episode of "Accessible Disruption," hosts Anthony Vade and Tahira Endean speak with Jenny Sauer-Klein about her career in making change accessible and appealing. Jenny shares how she first disrupted the traditional yoga world with AcroYoga, a practice she co-founded that combines yoga, acrobatics, and Thai massage. She contrasts the somber, individualistic nature of traditional yoga conferences with AcroYoga's exuberant, playful, and community-based approach. The practice was designed to reward strength as well as flexibility and emphasize that "we can do more together than we can alone".

Jenny explains that pioneering AcroYoga required overcoming participants' initial fears and limiting beliefs. The key was building trust and confidence through gradual, incremental steps and creating psychological safety. She used playful, non-acrobatic icebreakers to build rapport, enabling strangers to feel safe enough to try more risky physical movements together. Jenny later applied these values of trust, connection, and playfulness to the corporate world through "The Culture Conference". She also discusses the difficult decision to leave AcroYoga, which taught her the importance of letting go of projects and following what is "most alive".

The conversation focuses on Jenny's latest project, the "conference for conferences," which aims to disrupt boring, disembodied corporate events. She criticizes the standard "flat line" conference model, keynotes, breakout workshops, fireside chats, and panels, as a passive "sit and listen" experience. Instead, she advocates for minimizing information dissemination and maximizing the collaborative, interactive potential of in-person gatherings. She details her "Primary Shift" framework, which involves identifying where an audience is starting "from" and where the event needs to take them "to". Jenny encourages event organizers to be transparent with audiences when experimenting and to create "brave spaces" where both presenters and attendees can take risks together.

Connect with Suzanne Dameron today: Suzanne Dameron
Learn more about Suzanne’s Work: Third Edge Studio

Suzanne Dameron, MS, APR, a distinguished communications consultant and FourSight facilitator, joined the Accessible Disruption podcast to discuss the power of Creative Problem Solving (CPS) in navigating change. After more than 20 years in public relations, Dameron formed The Third Edge Studio to focus fully on CPS and change management, defining her work as leading organizations toward resilience through process. She outlined the modern four-step CPS process, which is practical and already used by humans unconsciously every day. The four steps are: Clarifying (understanding the present situation), Ideating (generating ideas), Developing (making the best idea workable), and Implementing (taking action).

The discussion highlighted that while everyone has the capacity for all four steps, people have cognitive preferences for certain steps —a key insight derived from the Foresight thinking profile work. These preferences explain why the same process can be draining for one person and energizing for another. The CPS process is inherently resilient and relies on the core principle of separating the generation of options (divergent thinking) from the selection of options (convergent thinking) in each step, a refinement of traditional brainstorming. Dameron named her company, The Third Edge Studio, after the concept of the "third edge," or liminal space, which is the often uncomfortable space of transition and ambiguity where transformation occurs.

Dameron stressed that CPS is specifically designed to address complex problems—those with multiple possible solutions, making it a vital tool for navigating the rapid pace of change in the current era. She emphasized the vital role of a facilitator in guiding individuals and teams through these challenges, ensuring they don't get stuck and helping them deepen their thinking beyond what they could achieve alone. The process works by inviting collaboration and helping people find their own solutions, which builds resilience and better human skills, such as tolerance for ambiguity and better listening. Her call to action was for listeners to research CPS and explore the concepts in the book Good Team Bad Team.

Connect with Dr Ferron Gray today: Dr Ferron Gray

Learn more about Dr Ferron Gray’s Work: Grae Matta Foundation

This episode of Accessible Disruption features Dr. Ferron Gray, a highly specialized forensic psychologist and President of the Grae Matta Foundation. The non-profit organization helps businesses, institutions, and organizations develop mental health standards, policies, and campaigns that are specific to their industry. The foundation’s mission is to improve mental health in both the workplace and higher education. Dr. Gray was inspired to start the foundation after his goddaughter and her father both committed suicide following long waits for mental health services. He realized the core issue was a lack of sufficient policy, and sought to create industry-specific standards to ensure mental health services are fit for purpose.

Dr. Gray is currently working to create a mental health standard for the events industry, which he notes is one of the most stressful in the world. He explains that event professionals, often seen as “dream makers,” face unique stress due to a lack of boundaries with clients, who may not respect their off-hours. He believes a cultural shift is needed, and this can be achieved through policy and targeted public advertising, which would help clients understand and respect these boundaries. In addition to policy, Dr. Gray also discusses the importance of rest and sleep, suggesting that dedicated time off after an event should be built into the event plan to combat the habitual cycle of constantly moving from one project to the next.

When discussing how to create change, Dr. Gray advises that industries should not wait for governments, which are slow to act, but should instead take action themselves by creating their own policies and standards. He says that if enough businesses join a call to action, they can collectively create policies that will affect the entire industry. He also contrasts his work with academia and the events industry, noting that academia can be more daunting to work with because, despite being highly educated, they have mental health services that are “not fit for purpose” and staff who are severely stressed from helping students. He praises the IMEX group as an example of an organization doing well in supporting its staff and guests. For individuals and organizations looking to begin their mental health journey, he suggests small changes such as offering mental health days and encouraging structured breaks throughout the day. Dr. Gray’s final call to action is for organizations to “design resilience into their cultures” because the workforce of today and tomorrow demands it.