Call In, Don’t Call Out: The Human Side of Sustainable Change

What does it really take to create change that lasts?

Dr. Andrea Austin welcomes Jennifer Brown for a powerful conversation about the human dimensions of change. Drawing from more than two decades of experience advising organizations on culture, talent, leadership, and transformation, Jennifer shares why successful change requires more than information, urgency, or advocacy. It requires curiosity, emotional support, trust, and the willingness to meet people where they are.

The conversation explores the challenges healthcare leaders face as they introduce new technologies such as AI-assisted documentation. Jennifer shares her personal changemaker story, from her early career as a performer and advocate to becoming an organizational change consultant. She reflects on her experience of being closeted as a performer, losing her singing voice, and ultimately discovering how her personal experiences with authenticity, safety, and transformation shaped the work she does today.

The conversation also examines the evolution and disruption of DEI, the difference between “calling out” and “calling in,” and how leaders can create psychological safety by making room for difficult conversations.

Finally, Jennifer introduces the BANI framework (brittle, anxious, nonlinear, and incomprehensible) and shares the powerful chrysalis metaphor from her book, The Shape of Change. Just as a caterpillar must surrender to transformation before becoming something new, leaders and organizations may need to let go of familiar identities, structures, and definitions of success in order to create what comes next.

You’ll hear how they:

• Meet people where they are instead of force-feeding change
• Identify the fears and concerns driving resistance to new technology
• Balance inquiry and advocacy when leading transformation
• Recognize the importance of emotional support alongside information
• Use “calling in” as an alternative to public shaming and criticism
• Create psychological safety that allows difficult conversations to strengthen relationships
• Understand the human lessons behind the disruption of DEI
• Navigate a BANI world that is brittle, anxious, nonlinear, and incomprehensible
• Embrace surrender, uncertainty, and transformation through the chrysalis metaphor

About the Guest:

“Maybe the art of falling apart isn’t about failing or breaking down. Perhaps it’s about having the courage to let go of who we’ve been so we can become what’s needed next.” – Jennifer Brown

Jennifer Brown is a bestselling author, speaker, entrepreneur, and leadership thinker whose work explores how people, organizations, and institutions adapt in times of profound change.

For more than two decades, she has advised leaders at some of the world’s most influential organizations on culture, talent, and transformation. She is the author of five books, including her latest, The Shape of Change, and her work focuses on leadership, organizational resilience, workforce transformation, and the human dimensions of change in an era of accelerating disruption.

Jennifer is also the host of The Will to Change podcast, and serves as the founding luminary for Cocelle’s Luminary Exchange, a global community exploring the future of work, leadership, technology, and society.

📍 Connect with Jennifer

Website: jenniferbrownspeaks.com

Instagram: @jenniferbrownspeaks

LinkedIn: Jennifer Brown

Podcast: The Will to Change : Where Leadership Meets the Courage to Evolve

📚 Resources + Mentions

· The Shape of Change by Jennifer Brown
· How to Be an Inclusive Leader by Jennifer Brown

🔑 Top 3 Key Takeaways

• Sustainable change starts with meeting people where they are: Change leaders need to balance inquiry and advocacy, understand what people care about, and identify the fears or concerns that may prevent them from embracing something new.
• Calling in can create more powerful change than calling out: Constructive feedback, delivered with grace and respect, can preserve relationships, reduce shame, and give people an opportunity to understand their impact and grow.
• Transformation requires surrender: Jennifer’s chrysalis metaphor reminds us that periods of uncertainty, grief, and apparent stillness can contain important unseen work. Letting go of what once was can create the space for something new to emerge.

🩺 About the Host:

Dr. Andrea Austin is a board-certified emergency physician, educator, and passionate advocate for system-level change in healthcare. As the creator and host of Heartline: Changemaking in Healthcare, Dr. Austin brings curiosity, compassion, and bold honesty to conversations with leaders who are challenging the norms and reshaping medicine from the inside out.

With decades of experience in high-pressure clinical environments, Andrea has seen firsthand the cracks in the system—and the people working to repair them. Whether she’s mentoring residents, speaking on national stages, or recording with a fellow disruptor, she centers one theme: change doesn’t happen in isolation. It happens heart to heart.

💫 About the Show:

Heartline: Changemaking in Healthcare isn’t just a podcast—it’s a pulse check on what’s possible.

Hosted by emergency physician and educator Dr. Andrea Austin, Heartline features conversations with healthcare leaders, innovators, and quiet disruptors who are challenging the way things have always been done.

Each episode explores real stories of change—from redefining leadership and communication, to reimagining systems built on burnout and hierarchy. This is a space for truth-telling, for asking better questions, and for reconnecting with the reason we all got into medicine in the first place: to make it better.

This isn’t about perfection. It’s about progress—with heart.

Follow Your Heartline and transform healthcare today!

🎓 Upcoming Events & Opportunities

• 🔥 ⁠⁠⁠⁠Recalibrate: Group Coaching for Physicians⁠⁠

Starting 2026, I’ll be co-leading Recalibrate with psychologist and coach Sharee Johnson. This 6-month group coaching program supports physicians in rediscovering mindfulness, meaning, and wholehearted practice. I'm an alum myself—this program transformed my career. Learn more and enroll here, and please share with colleagues who may benefit.⁠⁠

• Women in Medicine Summit | Chicago, Sept 24-26, 2026⁠⁠

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🎧 Thanks for tuning into Heartline: Changemaking in Healthcare!

🌟 Learn more and book a free discovery call today at ⁠⁠andreaaustinmd.com/coaching⁠⁠.

Stay connected and keep making a difference:

✅ Subscribe to the ⁠⁠Heartline newsletter⁠⁠ for insights into reclaiming your well-being as a healthcare professional, improving teams around you, and transforming the system.

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📚Discover Dr. Austin’s book Revitalized: A Guidebook to Following Your Healing Heartline.

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