The PIVOT: Navigating Uncharted Territory with Dave Schoof

What does leadership look like when the old maps stop working — and the social contracts that guided your career have dissolved?

In this second conversation with JJ Vega, leadership coach and founder of Art of Unfolding, Dave Schoof goes deeper into the territory most leadership development avoids: grief as a necessary passage, natural cycles as an organizational practice, and the embodied awareness that makes a genuinely different kind of leadership possible. Drawing on William Bridges' transition model and their shared background in somatic and consciousness-informed coaching, Dave and JJ explore what it actually takes to lead well through endings — not just survive them.

In this episode:

Grief as a leadership skill — why it belongs in the room

The neutral zone: what lives between endings and new beginnings

Resilience vs. permeability — replacing the wall with a membrane

Regenerative leadership: honoring fallow seasons, natural cycles, and rest

Embodied awareness as the foundational leadership practice

Rewilding the human being — and the organizations we lead

Guest: JJ Vega is a leadership coach working at the intersection of the inner world and organizational impact. Together, we cover emergence as a leadership practice, somatic intelligence, edge walkers, the disintegrating success template, and whether the Hero's Journey needs a postmodern update.

CONNECT WITH JJ VEGA

Website: artofunfolding.org

Inside Out Leadership: leadinsideout.io

Co-Creation Loft Berlin: co-creation.loft

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jj-vega/

 

 

🔗 CONNECT WITH DAVE

Website: daveschoof.com

The Pivot Newsletter: [https://tinyurl.com/4vn8832a]

Substack: [https://dschoof.substack.com]

Podcast: [https://thepivotpodcast.net/?v=zm7s]

LinkedIn:  [https://www.linkedin.com/in/daveschoof/ ]

Leadership in a crisis nobody's playbook covers — what happens when the map runs out.

Three weeks into Operation Epic Fury, the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed and crude above $100 a barrel — this episode covers what's happening inside the people running organizations through it. The financial briefings tell you what's happening to the system. I want to talk about the moment leaders reach for their map and find it doesn't cover where they are.

Through the story of a composite leader I call Isabel — a CFO navigating this crisis in real time — I explore what it actually looks like to lead from genuine orientation rather than performed certainty. The difference between managing a situation and actually meeting it. And why the most practical thing in the room right now might be the one nobody's briefing you on.

In this episode:

Why working harder on the map is producing more noise, not more clarity

What paralysis actually is — and why it's information, not weakness

The 6 am practice that changed how Isabel showed up in the boardroom

The 48-hour decision that changed the outcome

What the unthinkable becoming real means for the next decade of leadership

⏱ CHAPTERS

00:00 — Introduction 01:30 — What the briefings aren't covering 04:00 — The moment leaders reach for the map 06:30 — Why working harder on the map stops working 09:00 — What paralysis actually is 12:00 — Meet Isabel 15:30 — Before — how she used to lead 19:00 — This week — leading differently 24:00 — The board call 27:30 — The Stefan moment 30:00 — The 48-hour decision 33:00 — What actually changed 36:00 — What this crisis is really revealing 38:30 — The question worth sitting with

 

🔗 CONNECT WITH DAVE

Website: daveschoof.com

The Pivot Newsletter: [https://tinyurl.com/4vn8832a]

Substack: [https://dschoof.substack.com]

Podcast: [https://thepivotpodcast.net/?v=zm7s]

LinkedIn:  [https://www.linkedin.com/in/daveschoof/ ]

Leadership coaching meets consciousness work in this wide-ranging conversation with JJ Vega — exploring what actually guides us when the old maps stop working.

 

What if desire, not strategy, is the real GPS for navigating complexity? That's where this conversation ended up — and neither of us saw it coming.

 

JJ Vega is a leadership coach working at the intersection of the inner world and organizational impact. Together, we cover emergence as a leadership practice, somatic intelligence, edge walkers, the disintegrating success template, and whether the Hero's Journey needs a postmodern update.

 

In this episode:

Why emergence requires holding your experience lightly enough for something new to come through

The body as an intelligence system that most leaders aren't using

Edge walkers — the people at the margins, your organization is probably ignoring

The Michelangelo principle — revealing what's already there vs. fixing what's broken

When the old success contract stops delivering, and what the disquiet actually means

Desire as navigation instrument — the GPS for a world without templates

The Hero's Journey as fractal, not an arc

Self-organized communities and the new human blueprint

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Introduction & how Dave and JJ connected

01:25 JJ introduces himself — coaching at the intersection of inner world and leadership

03:00 Expat life — Americans who chose another home

03:48 What emergence means — holding experience lightly

06:38 JJ on emergence — complexity theory and the relational field

09:22 Making emergence practical — bridging the esoteric

11:40 Invisible winds of the system — why teams repeat the same patterns

13:51 The body as intelligence — somatic coaching and why leaders aren't machines

16:14 From controlling to holding space — the identity transition

18:32 Intellectually getting it vs. embodying it

20:39 Supporting the destabilization — how transformation actually takes hold

21:11 Case study — the high-performing technician becoming a people leader

23:35 The two axes of transformation — vertical inner work and horizontal skills

25:31 From mechanic to gardener — a new orientation toward people

27:41 The field multiplier — how one leader raises the whole team

28:42 Navigating polycrisis — what JJ is finding in the field right now

29:20 Functional freeze — why people are maxed out and what to do

31:16 Crisis as threshold — the opportunity inside the breakdown

32:15 Check-in — modeling presence in real time

33:19 The coaching relationship as a leadership model

35:10 Behavior is contagious — how leaders infect their systems

38:33 Quantum physics never took off — why the relational field is still too spooky

41:23 Edge walkers — pay attention to people at the margins

 43:51 The prophet not welcome in his own company

45:12 Upgrades to your sensemaking dashboard

46:25 Avoiding confirmation bias and echo chambers

47:22 The edge walker on your team right now — a concrete example 49:27 Polarity navigation — both/and leadership

51:16 Tolerating the unknown — why innovation requires accepting failed bets

53:42 White water was supposed to be temporary — why that story is over

54:03 JJ's life breakdown three years ago — the story of accelerating change

59:00 The new human — new capacities for a new world

01:00:31 Inheriting a template — and what happens when it disintegrates

01:03:58 The old contract is breaking down

01:05:23 Desire as the new GPS — what if spark is your navigation instrument 

 

 

CONNECT WITH JJ VEGA

Website: artofunfolding.org

Inside Out Leadership: leadinsideout.io

Co-Creation Loft Berlin: co-creation.loft

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jj-vega/

 

 

🔗 CONNECT WITH DAVE

Website: daveschoof.com

The Pivot Newsletter: [https://tinyurl.com/4vn8832a]

Substack: [https://dschoof.substack.com]

Podcast: [https://thepivotpodcast.net/?v=zm7s]

LinkedIn:  [https://www.linkedin.com/in/daveschoof/ ]

Navigating the Polycrisis and Meta-Crisis: Strategies for Leaders in Uncertain Times
In this episode, Dave Schof explores the complex landscape of multiple simultaneous crises shaping our world — the polycrisis and the metacrisis — and offers practical tools for leaders to respond with clarity, resilience, and purpose. Discover how shifting from reactive survival to strategic navigation can transform your approach to leadership and change.

 

If you're feeling overwhelmed by complex interconnected crises, this episode offers a lens to see beyond the noise and act from a deeper awareness. Shift your focus from merely surviving the storm to understanding its climate — and start navigating with intention.

Most of us feel overwhelmed by the chaos of today’s world—climate crises, economic instability, AI disruptions, and collective anxiety. But what if the real challenge isn’t just managing these crises but understanding the deeper system that causes them? In this episode of The Pivot, Dave Schof reveals the distinction between the polycrisis—the storm of many crises occurring simultaneously—and the metacrisis, the underlying operating-system breakdown shaping it all. You’ll discover how shifting your perspective from reacting to symptoms to addressing core patterns can transform your response to chaos.

 

Key Topics
 

The difference between polycrisis and metacrisis and why understanding both matters

How the experience of overwhelm reflects deeper systemic patterns

Naming symptoms versus patterns to create space for decision-making

Practical attention hygiene practices to reduce reactivity

Using relational questions to move from symptom management to systems thinking

Reframing anxiety around AI and change as deeper fears about security and identity

Cultivating embodied capacity and relational awareness to navigate uncertainty

The importance of shifting your inner operating system to influence external change

Ways to incorporate these insights into daily leadership behaviors

 

Timestamps
 

00:00 - Exploring the shifting landscape of global crises

02:13 - The collective experience of overwhelm and confusion

03:11 - Understanding polycrisis: many crises occurring simultaneously

05:35 - Introducing the meta-crisis: the operating system problem

07:32 - Responding to the polycrisis vs. the meta-crisis

08:30 - Practical questions to understand what the moment asks of us

12:57 - The shift from drowning in the storm to recognizing the pattern

13:26 - Practical steps: 

 

Connect with Dave Schof

LinkedIn

Substack

Website

What if your strongest strategic signal feels like your weakest hunch?  

 

In this rich conversation, Dave Schoof sits down with Maurice Jenkens—host of The Intuitive Leader™ Podcast and an expert in psychological safety and high-performing teams—to explore the vital yet often overlooked role of intuition in leadership.

 

Chapters/Timestamps:

 
00:00 - Introduction


03:00 - Maurice's origin story with intuition


10:00 - The four types of intuition explained


35:00 - Neuroscience of intuition


45:00 - Psychological safety and team dynamics


55:00 - Morning ritual for intuitive mind


65:00 - Real-world applications and challenges


75:00 - Closing reflections and how to connect  

 

Guest Bio:



 

Maurice Jenkens is a two-time nominated Speaker on Trust, Psychological Safety, and High-Performing Leaders and Teams. He hosts The Intuitive Leader™ Podcast, where top global scientists, CEO,s and entrepreneurs share their best practices on how intuitive leadership boosts high performance.

 

Maurice's journey from high-performing sales strategist to leadership coach gives his work both depth and credibility. Backed by years of research, 50+ deep interviews, and 22+ years of real-world experience, his evidence-based approach builds self-awareness and helps leaders stay calm and strategic during uncertainty.

 

His programs help leaders read the room effectively, build high-trust teams, and develop strategic decision-making. Maurice runs signature programs in High-Trust & High-Performance and leads a by-invitation-only Intuitive Business Network (IBN).

Born in the Netherlands, Maurice currently lives with his family in Sweden.

 

Connect with Maurice:


 

Website: https://www.intuitiveleader.net/masterclass

 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mauricejenkens/  


Podcast: https://www.intuitiveleader.net/podcast

 

For More on the Pivot:  
https://www.daveschoof.com/    

 

Music by Phil Schoof