Looking Outside Fear: Mark Minukas, co-author Unfear

The final episode of Season 3 takes us to the precipice of change, looking at the topic of Fear. We discuss this with Mark Minukas, co-author of Unfear, a book on the very topic.  

As someone who had to face into fear a few times, transitioning from a career as a civil engineer in the US Navy, to navigating the corporate world of management consulting, Mark shares how the discomfort of this change gave him perspective and forced him to see himself in ways he was previously blind to.

Mark explains the inaccuracy of the concept that to be strong and trusted, particularly if in a position of leadership, you are ineffective if you show vulnerability. Instead that trust comes from comes from competence and equally from honesty. It’s a false dichotomy that trust is built from an all or nothing approach.

Vulnerably, Mark shares how he has dealt with perceptions of male ‘strength’, and placing too much value being motivated by others' perception of him, to intervene in the stories he was being told and was telling himself.

Through intervention, and self-reflection, Mark illustrates how we can use fear and fear-driven reactions to our benefit, to better understand what we’re trying to ‘react’ to and what threatens our self-identity. The game is to be curious, Mark says, and use fear as a cue for learning more about yourself.

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To look outside Mark turns to books that activate his mind in different ways. While he reads business books, it’s fiction he has rediscovered a love for, and uses for deeper human insight. As Albert Camus famously said, 'Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.'

Mark also leverages meditation to create distance to the busy-ness of a cluttered mind ... though he resisted it for a while thinking it was silly, and certainly against type.

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Mark Minukas has been helping organizations transform their business performance for over 15 years. His work has taken him around the world exploring all kinds of industries – manufacturing, technology, travel and logistics, government, and financial services. Through this he discovered that human beings are the core of any organization. How people show up, communicate, problem solve, and lead determines how large the gap is between strategy and execution.

He now advises, consults, and coaches senior leaders and their teams on how they can design effective improvement programs and harness the talent and creativity of their people to achieve significantly better business results.

Mark began exploring the topics of leadership and operational improvement when he was an officer in the US Navy. An engineer by training, he studied how humans and organizations affected the reliability and safety of engineered systems. Following this, Mark ventured to McKinsey and Company as member of the Operations Practice.

There he actively learnt about the technical aspect of organizational transformation and process improvement (lean management based on the Toyota Production System), but also the softer or cultural side of transformation.

Today, Mark is Managing Partner at Co-Creation Partners, supporting clients with multi-year lean and agile transformation programs and activating operational excellence.

Mark is also co-author of the book Unfear: Transform your organization to create breakthrough performance and employee well-being, alongside Co-Creation Partners' Founder, Guarav Bhatnagar, and is a trained executive coach through Newfield Network.

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• Connect with Mark on LinkedIn
• Learn more about the Unfear book and concept: unfearbook.com
• Buy the Unfear book on Amazon
• Find out more about what Co-Creation Partners do: cocreationpartners.com
• Listen to Ep 25, where we discuss how the stories we tell ourselves limit us, with Dr Nora Gold.

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Looking Outside is a podcast dedicated to exploring fresh perspectives of familiar business topics. The show is hosted by its creator, Joanna Lepore, consumer goods innovator and futurist at McDonald's. Find out more at looking-outside.com.

Connect with Jo and join the Looking Outside community on LinkedIn.

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All views are that of the host and guests and don’t necessarily reflect those of their employers. Copyright 2023.

OBOY and Lincoln Davis music features in Episode 30.