In this excellent interview, Adam sits down with Ket Patel, the founder of Change Agitators and Assemble You, Expert.

Ket is a master change practitioner with over 20 years of experience who specialises in helping organisations navigate the uncertainty of scaling and modernising. Transitioning away from traditional, purely process-driven change management, Ket focuses deeply on the human, relational dynamics that dictate how groups of people respond to new organisational directions.

He's worked with Assemble You on two series that support organisations, leaders, and individuals in managing change more effectively.

In this episode, Ket unpacks the emotional reality of workplace transformations and shares practical frameworks to help leaders and teams navigate ambiguity, including:

1. Combating "Ambient Fatigue": Ket explains that the most common reaction to a new corporate initiative is an eye roll, stemming from the "ambient fatigue" of being asked to adopt the next big thing before the previous change has even settled.
2. Transferring Personal Resilience: While corporate change can feel frustrating because it is uninvited, Ket reminds listeners that every individual already possesses coping skills developed through personal life changes, like moving house or facing adversity.
3. The Art of Honest Feedback: Creating a safe space does not mean a manager must action every piece of feedback they hear. It is about listening fairly, validating the employee's voice, and being honest that leadership must ultimately choose which feedback to implement.
4. The Four Mindsets of Change: Ket shares his personal mental toolkit for enduring complex projects: Visionary Pragmatism, Sceptical Optimism, Belligerent Humility, and Persistent Humour.
5. Cultivating Group Resilience: Resilience is highly effective as a collective trait, allowing the group to pick up an individual when they are struggling. Ket recommends having teams openly share their individual experiences with change to build empathy and shared strength.

Ket offers a highly empathetic and human-centred approach to one of the corporate world's most stressful realities. If you are a leader guiding your team through a transition or an individual dealing with change fatigue, this is a must-listen-to episode.

Connect with Ket on LinkedIn: Ket Patel

Looking for a content library to help your team develop their productivity, communication, leadership skills and more? Check out assembleyou.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

Are your inclusion efforts driving real impact or just ticking boxes? 👀

In this episode, Brigid sits down with Chris Shearer-Wright, Senior EDI and Community Partnerships Manager at Oliver Bonas, to explore how L&D and EDI can work together to create more inclusive, effective workplaces.

Starting his career on the shop floor, Chris brings a unique perspective on how inclusion shows up across both customer experience and internal culture. He describes inclusion as a “golden thread” running through everything - from hiring to store design.

Together, they unpack how to design inclusive learning that drives real impact, from acting as a “critical friend” to L&D, to building solutions rooted in real business challenges and team needs.

Episode breakdown:

(00:00) From shop floor to EDI leadership

(02:30) The link between L&D and EDI

(05:00) EDI as a “critical friend” to learning

(07:00) Designing inclusive, brand-led learning

(09:00) Culture add vs culture fit

(11:00) Equitable decision-making in practice

(13:00) Leading multi-generational teams

(15:00) Measuring impact beyond metrics

(18:00) Aligning learning with business priorities

(20:00) Balancing brand identity and inclusion

(22:00) Listening to teams and customers

(24:00) Inclusion in store design and hiring

(27:00) When inclusion shapes business decisions

(30:00) Learning from what doesn’t land

(34:00) Why inclusion is an ongoing journey

(36:00) Bringing inclusion in from the start

🔗 Connect with Chris

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-shearer-wright-087698118/

📮 The Assembly Debrief

A short, practical email unpacking the best ideas from each episode, designed for modern learning leaders who want insight without the noise.

https://www.assembleyou.com/newsletter

👋 Come and connect with us

We’re always keen to hear what’s resonating or what you’re seeing in your world.

Adam Lacey - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamlacey/

Richard Ward - https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardpward/

More from The Assembly

Learning that feels more like great content than training—explore podcast-style lessons, video shorts, and series designed for real work.

https://www.assembleyou.com/

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In this special live episode recorded at the Podcast Learning Festival, Adam speaks with Stephen Holderness, Learning and Development Lead for Digital Strategy and Growth at AO.com.

Stephen shares his journey of transforming the digital learning offering at AO, a rapidly growing electrical retailer known for owning every part of its customer journey—from in-house legal teams to logistics networks and a massive fridge recycling plant. Recognising that traditional e-learning was not meeting the needs of this diverse, 3,000-strong workforce, Stephen pioneered the introduction of audio learning to the business.

In this interview, Stephen offers a candid look at the successes, mistakes, and lessons learned from launching an audio learning initiative. He discusses:

1. Listening to the Learner: Stephen's first step was to stop looking at what other companies were doing and instead ask AO employees what they actually wanted. A company-wide roadshow revealed a strong preference for audio formats and podcast-style learning, especially among neurodivergent staff who struggled with text-heavy e-learning.
2. The Power of the Expert Voice: AO employees specifically requested to hear from verifiable experts rather than faceless, authorless e-learning modules. Knowing the source of the information added immediate credibility and trust to the content.
3. Unlocking the "Commute Commute": By offering learning via a mobile app, AO inadvertently transformed its 9-to-5 learning culture into a 24/7 operation.
4. The L&D Professional as Marketer: Stephen emphasises that simply having a content library is not enough; L&D must act like marketers. He advocates for relentless, multi-channel promotion, integrating audio into existing leadership programs, aligning content with internal awareness days, and leaning heavily on word-of-mouth advocacy from peers.
5. Measuring Impact Through Stories: While AO uses quantitative data, Stephen argues that the most powerful ROI metric is qualitative storytelling. The fact that operational staff (who previously only completed mandatory compliance) are now voluntarily learning on their own time is a massive win that proves the "cost of inaction" was too high.

Stephen offers a highly practical roadmap for any organisation considering audio learning. If you want to understand how to align your training formats with your employees' daily realities, this is a must-listen episode.

Connect with Stephen on LinkedIn: Stephen Holderness

Looking for a content library to help your team develop their productivity, communication, leadership skills and more? Check out assembleyou.com and follow us on LinkedIn.