{"store":{"baseInfo":{"podcastTitle":"Unusual Conversations about Life and Work with Gifty and John","slug":"unusualconversationwithgiftyandjohn","podcastDescription":"Welcome to Lunch with Gifty and John, an Unusual Conversation Podcast featuring conversations with leading experts. The series features topics ranging from personal stories from our work and life on leadership, culture and change management, strategy formulation and implementation, and much more.","podcastLogo":"https://deow9bq0xqvbj.cloudfront.net/image-logo/14820556/Podcast_Cover_Final_1400_1400_px_1_1_avzpj.png","podcastShareLogo":"https://d2bwo9zemjwxh5.cloudfront.net/image-logo/14820556/Podcast_Cover_Final_1400_1400_px_1_1_avzpj_1200x628.jpg?s=0efed5bca185e284766df8804510ffaa&e=png","podcastUrl":"https://unusualconversationwithgiftyandjohn.podbean.com","podcastCanSearched":true,"feedUrl":"https://feed.podbean.com/unusualconversationwithgiftyandjohn/feed.xml","theme":"playlist2","podcastDeepLink":"https://www.podbean.com/pu/pbblog-4wcxv-e224cc","removePodbeanBranding":"no","brandingLogo":null,"timeZone":{"timeZoneId":5,"gmtAdjustment":"GMT-08:00","useDaylightTime":1,"value":-8,"text":"(GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)","daylightStartTime":"Second Sunday Of March +2 Hours","daylightEndTime":"First Sunday Of November +2 Hours","timezone":"America/Los_Angeles"},"podcastDownloads":null,"totalEpisodes":17,"showComments":true,"iOSAppDownloadLink":null,"customizeCssUrl":null,"androidAppDownloadLink":null,"showPostShare":true,"showLike":true,"author":"Gifty Parker and John Ballam","engagementStatsBaseUrl":null,"shareEmbedLink":"https://admin5.podbean.com/embed.html?id=pbblog-4wcxv-e224cc-playlist","language":"en","sensitivitySessionExpireTime":64800,"podcastApps":[{"name":"Podbean App","link":"https://r4j68.app.goo.gl/?link=https%3A%2F%2Funusualconversationwithgiftyandjohn.podbean.com%3Faction%3DopenPodcast%26podcastId%3Dpbblog14820556%26podcastIdTag%3D4wcxv&dfl=https%3A%2F%2Funusualconversationwithgiftyandjohn.podbean.com&utm_campaign=pb_web&utm_source=podbean_web&utm_medium=dlink&imv=670&amv=530&isi=973361050&ibi=com.podbean.app.podcast&ipbi=com.podbean.app.podcast&apn=com.podbean.app.podcast","image":"https://d8g345wuhgd7e.cloudfront.net/site/images/admin5/podbean-app.png","title":null},{"name":"Spotify","link":"https://open.spotify.com/show/5BehJ4OjN9TBOdOFynYxCw","image":"https://d8g345wuhgd7e.cloudfront.net/site/images/admin5/spotify.png","title":null}],"components":{"base":[{"id":"MainStyle","val":"light"},{"id":"Font","val":"Roboto"},{"id":"SecondaryFont","val":"Roboto"},{"id":"PlayerColor","val":"#E7E7E7"},{"id":"PlayerStyle","val":"player2"},{"id":"PlayerWave","val":"show"},{"id":"Favicon","val":null},{"id":"CookiesNotice","val":"hide"},{"id":"CookiesNoticeContent","val":"

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Why This Podcast?

We want to invite you to sit down with us and shoot the breeze a conversation between friends always seems like that. Somehow, we were not able to find easy-going informative unscripted conversations in many podcasts that we listened to. So we thought, why not invite you to a weekly picnic lunch with us on the banks of the Summas River or in and around Vancouver? We hope the background noises keep you intrigued and guessing.

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Gifty Parker - MBA, M.Ed., CPHR, Ph.D. Candidate

Founder & CEO at PARKER HR Solutions

I am an educator and human resources (HR) professional with over 20+ years of international experience in talent acquisition, learning and development, and performance management. I have had the opportunity to collaborate with clients from varied industries, including; SAS, Manufacturing, Financial Services, Transport, Construction, Agriculture, and Hospitality.

My international experience has provided her with numerous opportunities to transform human resource challenges into opportunities for better and more efficient business services. My focus on work mostly includes supporting leaders and top executives with a unique perspective and appreciation that human capital is their organization’s greatest asset — while crafting well-defined ways to deliver returns on their talents faster.

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Be Inspired In Every Conversation

Welcome to Lunch with Gifty and John, an Unusual Conversational Podcast where you can take a long slow walk with your hosts in these candid conversations between them about their working lives. Some of the topics include career management, strategy, organizational culture, change, and ‘the good, the true, and the beautiful in corporate life. Our full-time roles and professional consulting backgrounds make some of our views unique, as we draw out critical information and put it in a new light for our listeners.

Join Gifty and John weekly as we deep-dive into conversations on issues that matter most in their lives and possibly in yours.

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John Ballam - M.Phil. (Applied Ethics), B.Prim. Ed., FDE

Integral Associate Coach & Organizational Development Specialist

I am an educator, coach, and organizational development professional with a 30-year track record. My career has involved working with a wide variety of organizations, schools, large corporations, NGOs, and NPOs in order to facilitate the process of learning and personal development. I have an M.Phil in Business Ethics. My particular field of interest is adult identity development and the part that individuals play in shaping organizational culture and, conversely how organizations shape individuals' lives. This all centered around the systems and practices organizations develop in order to run effectively. In the long term, what is good for people and the planet is good for business. I am committed to helping people create workplace communities that are learning to make a better living alongside earning a living.

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How These Conversations Roll

Call it 'incidental learning:' so much of the important stuff happens on the job or in intimate encounters with bosses, friends, and lovers. There is \"the topic\" and the places the conversations drift off into. Lived experiences, processed in vulnerable conversations, might seem too personal. But as with all of life, what is radically unique to our own humanity is universal.

If we risk revealing who we are, we will reap the reward of finding the person we want to be. During these chats, we will share some pretty personal and vulnerable stories in the hope that you will take the risk of finding conversation partners like us with whom you can be real. Neither of us has THE ANSWER, but we have questions, beliefs, mistakes, and lessons learned that have helped us on our journey.

There is no perfect world out there, just a better one if we are willing to risk more to learn more. Tom Peters once wrote, \"If you want to be an elephant, you will eat like an elephant and s---- like an elephant; that is the only way to grow as big as an elephant.\"

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How We Met

We met as new immigrants to Canada while teaching at Gastown Business College in downtown Vancouver and later worked together at Greystone College. We grew up in Africa in entirely different circumstances, except for one thing. We know that life is a grand romance. We found it very easy to have conversations about the Good, the True, and the Beautiful there always seemed to be another way to see the world and change ourselves for the better.

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Our careers have evolved as we have developed professionally. This podcast introduces our early years, the obstacles we had to overcome, and the work we both do now.

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Our careers have evolved as we have developed professionally. This podcast introduces our early years, the obstacles we had to overcome, and the work we both do now.

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Getting to know Gifty and John

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