SightShift with Chris McAlister

Outsourcing Your Thinking Is Not a Plan | Lunch with Chris

Your AI tool outperforms 97% of people. Alice knows that — and she's running every decision through the model. Here's why that's exactly backwards, and what the 3% do instead.

Why Your Best People Are "Resisting"

In this episode of the Make Culture Your Edge series, Chris and Mark double-click on the second pillar of the SightShift culture model, Right Change, using the breaking of the Fellowship at Amon Hen as the running metaphor. The mission didn't change. The vision didn't change. But the structure that carried them up to that point had to fracture. And how each character responded to that fracture is the whole story of leading change.

Burpees Are Not a Plan | Lunch with Chris

If you're the leader who pushes harder when the team feels heavy, doubles intensity when the metrics stall, and confuses urgency for transformation — there's a drill sergeant running your insides. Here's why white-knuckling doesn't actually drive change, and what does.

Why Most "Open Dialogue" Is Actually Manipulation

Most leaders say they want open dialogue. What they actually want is conformity. Chris and Mark open the Conflict pillar of the culture model and reframe everything you've been taught about handling disagreement on a team.

Why Your Team Resists Change

Most leaders treat resistance as a threat. The healthy ones treat it as data. In this episode, Chris and Mark double-click on the Change pillar of the culture model and break down the three risk factors that quietly sabotage every change effort.

Calm Is Not a Plan | Lunch with Chris

Most leadership calm wears off the moment the hard conversation arrives. If you've been using morning rituals and mindfulness to feel steadier and nothing is actually moving — here's why, and what to do about it. Chris McAlister goes live every Wednesday at lunch. This week: Zen and the art of avoiding leadership. Meet Namaste Ned — the leader who uses breath work, meditation, and wellness language to avoid the sentence they need to say out loud. Mindfulness is a scalpel, not a butter knife. Calm is the posture. The conversation is the work.
 

Hype Is Not a Plan | Lunch with Chris

Most leadership hype wears off by the next Monday. If you've been chasing speakers, retreats, and motivation to move your team and nothing is sticking — here's why, and what to do about it. Hype is not a plan. Motivation isn't the problem. It's an outgrowth of something deeper. This week I walk through the hype cycle leaders keep buying, why it inoculates your organization against real transformation, and three applications to replace hype with formation.

What a $500K Retreat Can't Fix (But Truth Can) | Lunch with Chris

Every retreat has a porcupine-through-the-shower-ceiling moment. What doesn't is a leader willing to go first with the truth. This is the Company Retreat series finale — Jury Duty Season 2 just dropped its finale, and I'm closing the loop on four weeks of diagnosing dumb theater with the one thing that actually breaks it: truth. The spark for today: Plex went viral on X this week. A $500K Honduras retreat that ended with food poisoning, Navy Seal drills, a tarantula eaten, and 20 people stranded on an island overnight. Some said they bonded. Chris says: survivorship bias. The people who felt threatened just left. It doesn't have to be that dramatic. What's missing in most corporate culture moments isn't intensity. It's truth. 🔑 The IFQ™ (Identity Fear Quotient) reveals what's driving your decisions under pressure — the same tool Chris took live on air last week. 4 questions. Free: 👉 https://www.taketheifq.com?utm_source...