Navigating Chaos With Compassion: Zach Stone On PYP 623 The Plant Yourself podcast

Content provided by Dr Howie Jacobson. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Dr Howie Jacobson or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://staging.podcastplayer.com/legal.

The Plant Yourself Podcast »
Navigating Chaos with Compassion: Zach Stone on PYP 623

1d ago 1:00:21

MP3•Episode home

Zach Stone’s life arc runs from teenage “knucklehead” to crisis negotiator, trauma-informed facilitator, and head-of-product for thirty health-ed dev teams. In this rich, funny, and occasionally hair-raising conversation we drill down into the how of navigating chaos — on a subway platform, in a corporate boardroom, and inside your own nervous system.

Trigger warning: there's a conversation about suicide at about 15 minutes into the episode. Skip to minute 17 if you want to avoid this section.

Here's a tasting menu of our conversation:

Gang manuals & purple binders – How a Quaker-adjacent conflict resolution course turned a 15-year-old troublemaker into a group dynamics geek.

From union hall to board hall – Lessons learned refereeing SEPTA labor fights and why the same “rubber-and-glue” listening works on Zoom stand-ups.

OARS in rough water – Using Motivational Interviewing (Open questions, Affirmations, Reflections, Summaries) to defuse rage, whether from a bus driver or the voice in your own head.

Simulated danger, real breakthroughs – How well-designed role-plays can heal trauma if you hold the container (and what happens when a participant suddenly starts to undress).

Signs you’re in a chaotic system – Chronic absenteeism, cortisol tummy, “my work doesn’t matter” syndrome, and 70% burnout in tech.

Habit > culture – A shout-out to Paul Gibbons, Prochaska & DiClemente, and the myth of top-down culture change.

Martial arts as somatic therapy – TaeKwonDo to Muay Thai to boxing; what Zach saw when veterans laid down their canes and kids in shelters stopped fighting.

Virtual heartbreak – Coaching a Kharkiv dev team while missiles shook their bomb shelter.

Chaos surfing 101 – Why you don’t control chaos, you ride it; plus simple team-level practices to build collective resilience.

Takeaways

Name the elephant first. Start every workshop by voicing the resistance in the room; it evaporates faster than you’d think.

Watch for survival mode. Tight shoulders, skipped meals, rolling eyes? Slow down before you roll out another initiative.

Move the meat-sack. Five minutes of mindful movement (shadow-boxing, Tai-Chi, hallway laps) resets the neuro-chemistry better than another latte.

Change habits, not slogans. Draft tiny incentives that make the preferred behavior the easy behavior; culture follows.

Links & Resources

Zach on LinkedIn – the easiest place to connect and geek out about behavioral science.

Red Kite Project – trauma-informed organizational change (Charlotte DiBartolomeo).

AFSC Help Increase the Peace curriculum

Books

Peter Levine – Waking the Tiger

Bessel van der Kolk – The Body Keeps the Score

Paul Gibbons – The Science of Organizational Change

455 episodes

#Fitness #Health and Well-Being #Self-Improvement #Society #Philosophy #Leadership #Podcasting Education #Dr Howie Jacobson #Transformation #Consciousness #Healing #Environment

Navigating Chaos with Compassion: Zach Stone on PYP 623

The Plant Yourself Podcast

170 subscribers

published 1d ago