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The Experimental LeaderAuthor: Melanie Parish and Mel Rutherford
Are you a business owner, executive, leader, team leader, aspiring future leader, leadership junkie, a scientist, a design thinker, or simply the leader of your own life? If you are, then you are a leader, and as such, you should be experimenting!Welcome to The Experimental Leader, a podcast where we tackle the ways leaders are experimenting in their own work. Hosted by Melanie Parish and Dr. Mel Rutherford, we dive into the most interesting questions about leaders and get into real-life conversations about how people might be experimenting with their leadership. What they are trying? How they are leading and managing their flow of work and throughput? How are they managing bottlenecks, mission, vision, strategic, operational, and tactical intents? How do they organize experiments? How do they succeed? How do they fail? How do they collect data?The loneliness of leadership can be overwhelming, especially when a leader gets promoted and doesnt have a roadmap for how to lead. They might feel like they are supposed to have the answers, and yet they have to figure out what that really means. The hardest part can be not having anyone to talk to about their leadership journey.Fear not. Let Melanie Parish and Mel Rutherford be your guide to becoming the leader you were meant to be an experimental leader!A public speaker, consultant, workshop leader, author, and Master Certified Coach through the International Coach Federation, from whom she received the Prism Award, Melanie is an expert in problem-solving, constraints management, operations, strategic hiring, and brand development. She has consulted and coached organizations ranging from a Fortune 50 company to IT start-ups receiving their first round of funding. Her individual clients include those in FAANG and other top global IT companies. Melanie is a Certified Professional Coactive Coach and, Organization and Relationship Systems Certified Coach, and a Theory of Constraints Certified Jonah. As an author, educator, and Language: en-us Genres: Business, Entrepreneurship, Management Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Digital Detox & Thoughtload with Liane Davey
Tuesday, 11 August, 2026
What if feeling overwhelmed isn’t really about your workload but your thought load?In this episode of The Experimental Leader, Melanie Parish and Mel Rutherford sit down with leadership expert Liane Davey to explore the invisible mental and emotional demands that can leave leaders and teams feeling depleted, distracted, and overwhelmed.Liane introduces the concept of thought load, which goes beyond the traditional idea of workload. Thought load is created by the combination of rising cognitive demands, emotional burdens, and depleted energy reserves and it can quietly affect our performance, relationships, decision-making, and ability to engage in productive conflict.Liane shares her own experiment with a two-week digital and mental reset, including silent walks, coloring, and intentional periods of zero input. The goal isn’t to eliminate thoughts, but to create enough space for deeper processing, new connections, emotional regulation, and renewed energy.The conversation also explores how digital overstimulation, remote work, smartphones, and even AI can impact the way we think, connect, learn, and process information. Liane challenges us to consider whether our constant access to information is helping us think better or encouraging us to surrender some of the deeper cognitive work that makes us curious, creative, and thoughtful.You’ll also hear how high thought load can contribute to conflict debt, why workplaces may be missing opportunities for informal learning, and what leaders can do to make thought load more manageable and purposeful.In this episode, you’ll discover:What thought load is and why it matters for leadersThe connection between cognitive demands, emotional burdens, and energyHow digital overstimulation contributes to mental overloadPractical ways to create space for deeper thinking and processingWhy unresolved conflict can increase thought loadHow remote work has changed informal learning and connectionThe potential risks of relying too heavily on AIHow leaders can redirect thought load toward meaningful work, relationships, and contributionIf you’ve ever felt busy without knowing exactly why you’re exhausted, this conversation offers a new way to understand what may be happening beneath the surface.Listen now and keep experimenting with your leadership.Bonus: Get free access to the Leadership Blueprint course using code ODYSSEY.
