Welcome to Finding Your Collaborative Edge™, hosted by Anni Townend and Lucy Kidd.

This short introductory explainer invites you into the heart of our work—helping leaders, teams, and professionals live and lead with more curiosity, care, and courage.

🔶 Why psychological safety matters in collaboration

🔶 How meaningful connection is built before you’re even in the room

🔶 The role of intention and behaviour in leadership

🔶 The beginnings of our Collaboration Equation™

We created this podcast to help you unlock new ways of working, foster inclusive dialogue, and find your own Collaborative Edge™.

🔗 Learn more at: www.collaborationequation.com

🔗 Follow us on LinkedIn: Collaboration Equation

How can leaders create environments where diverse perspectives are valued, trust is nurtured, and meaningful conversations drive innovation?

Finding Your Collaborative Edge™ is a podcast for leaders, teams, and professionals who want to unlock the full potential of collaboration in their organisations and lives.

Hosted by Anni Townend and Lucy Kidd, co-founders of Collaboration Equation™, this show explores the essential elements of psychological safety, inclusive dialogue, and diversity of thought and feeling—helping you cultivate a mindset of curiosity, care, and courage.

Each episode delves into real-world leadership challenges, expert insights, and powerful stories from those who are finding their Collaborative Edge™. Whether you’re a senior leader, team manager, or someone passionate about creating human-centred workplaces, this podcast will inspire you to build connections, embrace difference, and lead with authenticity.

Join the conversation and start your journey towards more impactful, collaborative leadership.

Find out more at: www.collaborationequation.com

Follow us on LinkedIn: Collaboration Equation

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

In our conversation with Emma Edwards, CEO of Spotlight Young Onset Parkinson’s and Dawn Harding Trustee of Spotlight YOPD we explore:

• What it means to truly collaborate.
• What Emma and Dawn have learnt through their leadership and life experiences about the value of collaboration
• Why collaboration and partnership are so important to the charity. And the impact of these collaborations on raising awareness of Young Onset of Parkinson’s
• What they have noticed in their collaborations, and partnerships, in particular with the NHS, Parkinson’s UK and other communities, and organisations that facilitate successful collaboration
• What can sometimes hinder, and get in the way of collaboration
• How bringing the mindset and behaviours of Curiosity, Care and Courage helps people find their Collaborative Edge™
• And finally what has helped them to find their Collaborative Edge™

Emma and Dawn’s key encouragements to finding your Collaborative Edge:

1. Build a community through conversations that raise awareness for people, clinicians, family members, and the wider community.
2. Stretch yourself! You may be a professional in a field, however you can add a huge amount to a lot of small charities who need your skills especially in IT ,Digital and Communication.
3. Embrace technology, it can help you collaborate and connect with people.
4. Connect with people who have lived experience, and that's true of all sorts of collaborations.
5. Enjoy and have fun in your collaborations no matter how difficult and challenging the issues.

Find out more about Spotlight YOPD:

Go to their website, Spotlight YOPD; follow them on LinkedIn, and follow both Emma Edwards and Dawn Harding on LinkedIn. They would love to connect with and to collaborate with you. Dawn especially is on the hunt for people to share their skills with the charity. Also do follow Gaynor Edwards...

Hello, and welcome to the second Collaboration Equation™ episode in Leaders in Conversation with Anni Townend and Lucy Kidd.

Today’s guest is Somya Agrawal, Leader, Collaborator and Motivator and the title of our conversation is Finding your Collaborative Edge™.

Leaders in Conversation is the podcast in which leaders share their life and leadership stories, and in our Collaboration Equation™ episodes their experience of collaborating and how they find their Collaborative Edge™ to encourage you to bring even more curiosity, care and courage to your leadership.

If you are not already please do subscribe to the podcast, review and share it. Thank you!

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

In our conversation we talk about the application of Collaboration Equation™ and Somya shares her experience of collaboration and offers valuable insights into:

1. Bringing two teams together to get to know each other, to be able to have an open conversation, and how this fast tracks success.

2. Connecting through being vulnerable in sharing her experience of hearing loss and how this has created meaningful connection with others.

3. Creating psychological safety that invites people to give and ask for help, getting what we need from each other and caring about each other.

4. Building trust through being human and authentic with colleagues.

5. Meeting people where they are at, and making time for everyone to have a voice, and for different thoughts and feelings to be heard.

6. Creating a culture of care and connection whether working online or in person.

To connect, follow and find out more about Somya:

LinkedIn: Somya Agrawal

Instagram: @somyaagr

To listen to more Leaders in Conversation with Anni Townend visit my website www.annitownend.com

A big thank you to Coco O’Brien for the wonderful intro and outro music, for the lovely design and marketing of the podcast and to Tom at Brown Bear Studios for the excellent production of this episode.

To contact Anni Townend and Lucy Kidd do email us on anni@annitownend.com and lucy@lucykidd.com, or via our dedicated email address connect@collaborationequation.com

To explore more about how to find your Collaborative Edge™, visit our website www.collaborationequation.com, subscribe to our fortnightly Leadership Conversations and follow us on LinkedIn Collaboration Equation™.

We look forward to connecting and collaborating with you, thank you for listening.

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

Co-Founders Anni Townend and Lucy Kidd in conversation with Natalie Shering for a special episode of Leaders in Conversation with Anni Townend podcast. Here they explore why Curiosity, Care and Courage are the mindsets and behaviours that underpin their Collaboration Equation™ to:

• Build Psychological Safety
• Practice Inclusive Dialogue
• Invite Diversity of Thought & Feeling and
• Drive Collaborative Edge

Psychological Safety

Together they share how they met some 18 years ago and realised very early on in their working relationship that starting with and building psychological safety underpins creating cultures of care and connection in which people enjoy connecting, contributing and collaborating.

Curiosity, Care and Courage

They discuss how they partner with senior leaders and their teams helping them to bring the mindset and behaviours of Curiosity, Care and Courage to develop people and drive performance and how these underpin each of the building blocks of their Collaboration Equation™.

Meeting People where they are at, and moving from ‘me to we’

They specialise in meeting people where they are at, on having people well met, and supporting them in leading and driving Collaborative Edge through Inclusive Dialogue, Diversity of Thought and Feeling. And why for them inclusivity comes before diversity, the importance of Inclusive Dialogue, and how language can have a huge impact on how people think, feel and behave.

Open Conversations to get to Collaborative Edge

Their approach is one of helping leaders do their best thinking together, to think differently, to have open conversations in which people feel confident and safe, enjoy Inclusive Dialogue, and can bring Diversity of Thought and Feeling in order to get to Collaborative Edge. The conversations are always in service of enabling performance and driving results through people working together.

CONNECT WITH US

Collaboration Workshops, We are all Culture Creators:

How to Find Your Collaborative Edge workshops.

Fortnightly Coaching Conversations Series:

A series of questions to prompt conversations that will help you to lead with Curiosity, Care and Courage. Subscribe here.

WHO WE ARE

Lucy Kidd is a leadership team and culture coach, and describes how culture is the wrapping that feeds change and, or stifles it. Lucy’s passion is to help people find meaning and connection in their lives and work.

Anni Townend is a leadership partner to senior leaders and their teams. Anni’s passion is to help leaders create a culture in which people feel safe and able to have open conversations and do their best work. Anni is the author of Assertiveness and Diversity, published in 2007.

Natalie Shering is a leadership coach specialising in creative leadership and using nature in leadership. She is a collaborator with Collaboration Equation™.