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The Growth House Podcast

The Growth House Podcast

Written by: Ben Fennell
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About this listen

 Welcome to The Growth House Podcast. My name is Ben Fennell, and I'm founder and CEO of The Growth House. This is an interview series where we explore leadership and teamship and growth, a series of topics that during 16 years as CEO of BBH, I grew passionate about and I've dedicated the last five years into studying it in as much detail as I possibly can. So we'll be speaking to business leaders, senior members of the military and special forces, athletes, coaches, technologists, and even astronauts and will be looking to understand the behaviours, the tools, and critically the habits that become part of the working daily and weekly life of a high performance team. If you enjoy this podcast and want to find out more, please look us up www.growthhouse.co.uk hope you really enjoy the interviews.

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The Growth House Careers Economics Personal Success
Episodes
  • Covid, climate change and the future of care

    Covid, climate change and the future of care
    Jan 19 2026
    1. Introduction & Podcast Context00:00 – 02:20 Ben Fennell introduces The Growth House Podcast, its focus on leadership, teamship and growth, and welcomes Dr Hugh Montgomery, outlining his extensive background in intensive care medicine, COVID-19 response, climate change advocacy, and extreme endurance pursuits.2. Hugh Montgomery’s Unplanned Career Journey02:20 – 05:15 Hugh reflects on a career shaped by curiosity rather than fixed goals — from commercial diving and physiology to intensive care medicine, academic research, and eventually climate change leadership.3. Integrating Clinical Practice, Research & Personal Experience05:15 – 07:45 Discussion on how Hugh’s clinical work, academic research and adventurous personal life inform one another, including insights gained from mountaineering, hypoxia research, and personal loss influencing scientific breakthroughs.4. Work, Purpose & Why “Work–Life Balance” Misses the Point07:45 – 09:15 A shared reflection on why meaningful work doesn’t feel like “work” and how purpose, not balance, sustains long-term motivation and performance.5. Leadership & Teamship in Intensive Care09:15 – 14:50 Hugh explains intensive care as a fundamentally flat, team-based environment — emphasising collective responsibility, trust, and listening over hierarchical command-and-control leadership.6. Decision-Making Under Pressure14:50 – 16:05 Insights into how high-stakes medical teams operate during crises, including the paradox that the more serious the situation, the calmer and quieter effective teams become.7. What Intensive Care Actually Is16:05 – 17:10 A clear explanation of the role of intensive care units, how patients arrive there, and what “life support” really means in practice.8. The Future of Healthcare: Technology, AI & Human Factors17:10 – 24:15 A wide-ranging discussion on the unsustainable trajectory of modern healthcare, rising chronic disease, workforce strain, the limits of AI, and the growing loss of human connection in medicine.9. Human Connection vs. Transactional Care24:15 – 26:20 Why continuity, ownership and genuine human connection matter more than efficiency alone — and how responsibility transforms patient outcomes and trust.10. Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic26:20 – 31:45 Hugh recounts the UK’s intensive care response to COVID-19, highlighting rapid collaboration, suspended bureaucracy, academic–industry partnerships, and extraordinary acts of leadership at every level.11. Personal Resilience, Energy & Leading Through Enthusiasm31:45 – 34:55 Reflections on what the pandemic revealed about Hugh’s own leadership style — particularly the power of energy, optimism and emotional contagion in sustaining teams under extreme pressure.12. Climate Change, Leadership Failure & Collective Responsibility34:55 – 40:35 A powerful critique of global inaction on climate change, framed as a failure of leadership and personal responsibility — and a call for individuals and organisations to lead rather than wait.13. Motivation, Fear & Changing Behaviour40:35 – 45:45 Discussion on why fear-based messaging often fails, the importance of meaningful motivation, and personal stories that illustrate how long-term purpose drives real behavioural change.14. Leadership Behaviours That Enable Growth45:45 – 50:30 Hugh shares the leadership behaviours he values most: immersion, accessibility, enthusiasm, curiosity, and creating environments where people feel ownership and purpose.15. Meaning, Purpose & What Ultimately Matters50:30 – 54:40 A deeply personal reflection on meaning, love, responsibility and legacy — drawing on Viktor Frankl’s work and personal loss to articulate what sustains people through hardship.16. Closing Reflections & Farewell54:40 – 55:30 Ben thanks Hugh for a wide-ranging and deeply insightful conversation, closing the episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    56 mins
  • CAPTAIN and COACH

    CAPTAIN and COACH
    Dec 10 2025
    It gives me great pleasure to share our 25th and latest podcast. In this final pod of the year I'm in conversation with 'Clipper Round The World' winning Captain, Brendan Hall. I think that this conversation is loaded with insight and learning for business leaders at all levels. Brendan talks with such candour and vulnerability about the evolution of his leadership style as he watched his team step up and grow. Without sharing any spoilers, I'm sure that his deeply personal story, in one of toughest environments imaginable, will resonate with many. I really hope that you enjoy listening to Brendan as much as I did.

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    54 mins
  • INSIGHT and DISRUPTION

    INSIGHT and DISRUPTION
    Aug 20 2025
    Azran is a serial Entrepreneur and Disruptor. I really enjoyed hearing him share his perspective on 'Finding customer insights that competitors might have overlooked', and 'Building a product offering that delivers against that unmet customer need'. To create a value proposition in the long haul airline industry is no small achievement, and I think that there are lessons for anyone trying to scale a business in the story of Air Asia X

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    47 mins
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