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Welcome to Inclusion Bites, your sanctuary for bold conversations that spark change. I'm Joanne Lockwood, your guide on this journey of exploration into the heart of inclusion, belonging and societal transformation. Ever wondered what it truly takes to create a world? Remember, everyone not only belongs, but thrives. You're not alone. Join me as we uncover the unseen, challenge the status quo and share stories that resonate deep within. Ready to dive in? Whether you're sipping your morning coffee or winding down after a long day, let's connect, reflect and inspire action together. Don't forget, you can be part of the conversation too. Reach out to jo.lockwood@seechangehappen.co.uk to share your insights or to join me on the show.

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And today is episode 184 with the title Emotional Agility in Action. And I have the absolute honour and privilege to welcome JD Walter. JD is a learning and development expert, helping organisations achieve peak performance by investing in people as humans, not just assets. When I asked JD to describe his superpower, he sees his ability to reframe emotional intelligence and resilience as tools for collective empowerment. Hello, jd. Welcome to the show.

Thanks, Joanne. It's absolutely a pleasure to be here. I look forward to our conversation today.

Yeah. You're based in the us, I believe.

Yes, I am in the Sunshine State of Florida, so I'm about as close to the Caribbean as you can get without actually being Caribbean. So southwest Florida, outside of Naples, and it is sunny.

And is that near the Gulf of America?

Well, I still call it the Gulf of Mexico, but yes.

Yeah, yeah, the. The Gulf. The Gulf. Anyway, the Gulf.

It's been the Gulf Mexico since I was a kid. It's going to stay that way as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah, yeah. So we had the unfortunate event that the Pope died last week, a week before, wasn't it? And his funeral was on Saturday. Is that a big thing in America, watching that?

I'll be honest, I don't know. I mean. Oh, it's in the news. I actually, you know, I don't really. I try and stay out of the news as much as possible. I try not to kind of fall in line with what everybody's talking about.

Wow. Yeah, fair play. I completely relate to that. There's a lot going on in the news, but probably a good segue on to talking about the topic of today, about this resilience. Emotional. Emotional intelligence. What got you into this? Where where did it all start?

So I think so my background, so education wise experience. I am a former member of the US Navy and I really was, I was more of a strategist early on. Um, I had more of an interest in how organisations are structured, how work is organised, processes. So I was very, very style organisation and I think that experience and that focus, while very beneficial for my career at some point couldn't resolve what I was sort of dealing with in an organisation. So I had a couple of instances where I was running programmes, had a large group of individuals working for me and I wasn't at the time prepared to kind of see the human dynamic clearly. I was so into the, well, I can fix this by restructuring, I can fix this by changing the process. We can, we can reallocate work, you know, we can organise in a way, but those things, at some point they break down and they don't actually solve what is ultimately happening inside of an organisation. And that is people being people, right? Like.