foHRsight: HR, Leadership & the Future of Work
You’re leading people through constant change. Evolving expectations, AI disruption, and rising pressure to get culture and performance right.
If you’re an HR leader, People and Culture executive, or senior business leader shaping the future of work, foHRsight is for you.
foHRsight: HR, Leadership & the Future of Work is a weekly podcast from future foHRward, hosted by Mark Edgar and Naomi Titleman Colla. Each episode explores the most pressing issues facing HR and leadership today, including employee engagement, retention, flexible work, leadership effectiveness, and the real impact of AI on organizations.
Through candid conversations with CHROs, senior leaders, and forward-thinking experts, foHRsight delivers practical insight and strategic perspective you can apply immediately. The goal is simple: help you make better people decisions, build stronger organizations, and lead with confidence in an increasingly complex world of work.
Follow foHRsight on your favourite podcast platform and join the future foHRward community, a growing network of HR and People leaders connecting through conversation, events, and shared insight on what’s next for work.
foHRsight: HR, Leadership & the Future of Work
Give a Damn with Justin Ricklefs
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Most organizations would say they care about their people. The harder question is whether their people can actually feel it.
When work is moving quickly and leaders are navigating pressure, change and new technology, it is easy for care to become something organizations talk about rather than something employees experience. But culture is built in the everyday proof points: the questions leaders ask, the clarity they provide, how they respond when someone is struggling, and whether people feel seen in the first place.
In this episode of foHRsight, Mark Edgar speaks with Justin Ricklefs about why caring can be a genuine competitive advantage and what it takes to turn that idea into action.
Justin shares a practical framework built around curiosity, compassion, clarity and consistency, including why empathy without action only goes so far, why leaders need to ask better questions, and why the strongest culture signals are often much simpler than we think.
The conversation is a useful reminder that you cannot market your way to a healthy culture. Your people experience the organization from the inside, and the stories they tell about that experience become part of the business itself.
About Our Guest
Justin Ricklefs is the founder of strategic brand agency Guild Collective and the author of Give a Damn. His work explores how care, storytelling and human connection shape stronger organizations, brands and leadership cultures.
Links from the Episode
- Justin Ricklefs on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinricklefs
- Guild Collective: https://guildcollective.com/
- Give a Damn: The Catalyst for Caring Companies: https://thegiveadamnbook.com/
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On November 12th future foHRward will be celebrating our 10-year anniversary and 200th podcast episode in person in Toronto and you’re invited! More information and registration can be found at this link. Hope to see you there!