As we close out 2025, this special highlight episode of The Leadership Vision Podcast brings together powerful moments from our year-long conversation series around Unfolded: Lessons in Transformation from an Origami Crane by Dr. Linda Schubring and Brian Schubring.
Drawing from episodes focused on both individual and team transformation, this compilation explores the five core themes of the book—Dream, Play, Try, Fly, and Home—and offers listeners practical reflection questions to carry into the new year.
This episode is an invitation to pause, reflect, and step into 2026 with greater clarity, courage, and compassion.
In This Episode, you’ll Learn Just a bit About:
- Why dreaming is essential to leadership and growth
- How play functions as practice in disguise
- Why trying is not weakness—but the path to greatness
- What it means to “fly” even when fear is present
- How returning home restores leaders and teams
Key Quotes:
- “Dreams point us to our greatest possibility.”
- “Play is practice in disguise.”
- “Trying is not weak.”
- “What does flying mean to me right now?”
- “Home is a return to our authentic self.”
Resources Mentioned:
- Unfolded: Lessons in Transformation from an Origami Crane
- Leadership Vision Consulting — https://leadershipvisionconsulting.com
🎉 Unfolded is a National Bestseller!
#1 in Business & #5 Overall on USA Today
#17 on Publisher’s Weekly Nonfiction
📘 Grab your copy + get the FREE Reflection Guide!
-
Read the full blog post here!
CONTACT US
- email: connect@leadershipvisionconsulting.com
- Leadership Vision Online
ABOUT
The Leadership Vision Podcast is a weekly show sharing our expertise in discovering, practicing, and implementing a Strengths-based approach to people, teams, and culture. Contact us to talk to us about helping your team understand the power of Strengths.
Episode Transcript
You are listening to the Leadership Vision Podcast,
our show helping you buildpositive team culture.
Our consulting firm has beendoing this work for the past 25
years so that leaders arementally engaged and emotionally
healthy.
To learn more about what we do,you can click the link in the
show notes or visit us on theweb at Leadership Vision
Consulting.com.
Hello everyone, my name isNathan Freeberg, and as we close
(02:08):
out 2025, we wanted to offersomething a little bit different
for you here on the podcasttoday.
A moment to pause and toreflect.
Now, this episode is bringingtogether about 10 or 12
different podcast conversationsthat I had over the past six or
seven months with Dr.
Linda and Brian Schuberg aroundtheir book, Unfolded Lessons and
(02:32):
Transformation from an origamicrane.
And you're gonna hear justlittle snippets, little
highlights, just little brief uhmoments about each of these
chapters, reflections ondreaming and playing and trying
and flying and finally onfinding home, along with a few
simple leadership uhinvitations, not even lessons,
(02:53):
but let's just call themleadership invitations to carry
with you into the year ahead.
Now, I've read the book fourtimes maybe, and even I was able
to be like, oh yeah, that's areally good reminder when Linda
said this thing about how tryingis not weak, or Brian said this
about dreams, or whatever.
So I hope as we kind of go intothe holiday season where we're
(03:18):
maybe taking a little bit of abreak, maybe a step back, that
you'll have some time to justkind of reflect on some of the
principles and ideas of thisallegory from the book, and
maybe figure out or think aboutways that you can apply them
towards your own life in thenext year ahead.
So, again, these are highlightsfrom the book Unfolded Lessons
(03:39):
and Transformation from anorigami crane.
You can click the link in theshow notes or just buy your book
if you don't have one already,wherever good books are sold.
Alright, let's jump into it.
Okay, as you listen to thisfirst section on dreams,
consider this question.
What is one dream that's beenquietly asking for your
(04:01):
attention?
And what might happen if yougave yourself permission to name
it.
Brian and Linda, I'm curious whyyou decided to start Unfolded
with a chapter about dreams.
SPEAKER_02 (04:15):
Dreams often inspire us and they focus us.
Dreams put us in a place wheresometimes things become more
clear, where we are willing toask for help.
And most importantly, I believethat dreams point us to our
greatest possibility and unfoldour greatest potential.
SPEAKER_00 (04:33):
My wish for people is that they would start to
become familiar with how youdream.
How you dream uniquely, whatkind of things inspire you,
who's around you that gets yourattention, what kind of things
ignite some of your thinking oryour feeling, and what inspires
you to act.
(04:53):
Maybe then after a little bit oftime or processing with another
person, you'll have a sense ofwhat your dreams truly are, and
then I would say go for it.
SPEAKER_02 (05:03):
Most of us have the capacity to carry many dreams at
the same time.
One of the things people oftenget confused on is that all
dreams can come true now.
I believe that there are somedreams that are given to us that
are designed to be put in thebackpack that we're carrying,
and they're going to befulfilled later.
They may not be the right sizeright now, but they're gonna be
(05:24):
something different later on.
And I believe that people oftenthink that they have to choose.
And I would invite people tothink, can I carry both?
Because I think that both ofthose dreams can be true.
I think that because I lived itfor myself, and I've seen it in
many people.
SPEAKER_01 (05:44):
So chapter two is all about play, and play is
often the first thing thatleaders sacrifice.
So as you listen to this part,ask yourself this where could
you loosen the pressure justenough to experiment again
without needing immediateresults.
How do you define play in thecontext of leadership or
(06:05):
transformation or lessons froman origami crane?
SPEAKER_00 (06:09):
We define play as practice in disguise.
Whenever someone is going aftera goal or or attempting to do
something, we know that manytries are in place.
But when we started to put thebook together, we were talking
about the the elements of playand the the joy and the fun in
(06:33):
discovering things that we likeas humans.
And no matter who you are orwhere you've been, you have some
sort of there, there's been somesort of play in your background.
And when you start to reallythink about the things that you
loved when you were young, youcan maybe draw a through line to
the things that you most enjoynow, just the adult version of
(06:56):
them.
SPEAKER_02 (06:56):
Sometimes I believe that there's a pause in our play
where we may not be making theprogress that we believe is
necessary to fulfill our dream,but we're actually providing the
inspiration to other people tofulfill their dream.
SPEAKER_00 (07:09):
Because play helps us practice levity where we
don't take ourselves soseriously, but maybe we take
whatever we're working onseriously or those around us
seriously.
But the practice of levity willalso, I don't know, maybe
increase our enjoyment orincrease our capacity to build
relationships that last.
SPEAKER_02 (07:28):
The importance of play is to give the characters
of our life a different contextto be who they are.
Because sometimes I believe thatstereotype creates a character
of context.
Oh, that person's a fox.
What play does, what play doesis it gives a team a chance to
(07:51):
erase the characterizations thatthey have of other people
because the topic is new.
SPEAKER_00 (07:57):
And part of that came through our play with other
clients.
Yep.
And so when we would give spacefor people to partner up and
have a conversation aboutsomething, we usually found that
they were able to go further inthe conversation and the
reflection than we could eventeach them about.
Sometimes we're saying, lightenup a little bit.
(08:19):
What can we achieve if we justengage with this practice in
disguise and then make itapplicable to the next hard
thing that we have to do?
SPEAKER_01 (08:31):
Chapter three on trying was one of my favorite
because trying lives in themessy middle.
And as you hear this nextreflection, think about one
place where you've stoppedtrying.
Not because you failed, butbecause maybe it felt too
uncomfortable.
How can you try again?
Chapter three, I feel, was thechapter where I live most of my
(08:53):
life.
You try this, that doesn't work,you try this, that doesn't work,
you try this.
Oh, that kind of works.
Let's maybe adjust that andadapt that.
Why is this chapter in the bookat all?
SPEAKER_00 (09:04):
And if you think of play as practice in disguise,
where try is more intentionalpractice.
The I like the research fromKeegan and Leahy that talk about
an everyone culture, they talkabout deliberate practice.
Some of those similar principlesare at play here in the chapter
(09:26):
called Try, which is practicingwith intention.
I think the the dreams thatactually come true are those
that step forward and try.
And so the forward momentum isnot just because I kept thinking
about it and I just keptdreaming about it, but I took it
to the playground and made ithappen.
SPEAKER_02 (09:46):
And I really believe that the chapter try is that
intersection where people needto stop and really consider that
middle ground of going from theorigin story of your dream to
the fulfillment of the dream.
This try chapter really helpspeople embrace that messy middle
(10:08):
that we all experience, andthat's often the place where
people give up or they losetheir direction or the voices of
doubt and despair overtake.
And they just kind of stop.
So that's why this chapter isimportant.
SPEAKER_00 (10:19):
Trying is not weak.
I think sometimes we hear theword try and it's like, well,
because that's just average.
Like just get in there and try.
And I think I want to say isjust as play gives people an
opportunity to practice thethings that they love, try
actually puts you on thetrajectory to greatness.
SPEAKER_02 (10:41):
And I believe that that's why try is so important.
Because without the beauty andthe brilliance of someone's
uniqueness coming out, there'sall these steps of try that no
one ever sees that are happeningbehind the scenes.
That's how we get there.
We get there by trying.
SPEAKER_01 (11:00):
Chapter 4 is about flying, and as Linda says, is
the highlight of the book.
Flying doesn't always mean a bigleap, though.
And now, as you listen, considerthis.
What small act of courage wouldmove you one step closer to
where you feel most alive, evenif it scares you.
Chapter 4.
I'm curious where this fits inthe larger arc, the larger
(11:23):
narrative of the story.
SPEAKER_00 (11:25):
The climax of the whole allegory is Fly, where OC
prepares and actually takesflight.
SPEAKER_02 (11:32):
It's an invitation for people to imagine when they
are in a place when they feelthe most alive and what are they
doing.
It's a place where sometimespeople are performing.
It could be a place wherethey're they're they're
teaching, educating, ormentoring someone.
Fly represents those moments inour life that we feel that we
have prepared and practiced for.
We've we've maybe spent years inpreparation for this one moment
(11:55):
where all the pieces seem tocome together.
We're in that moment when we'vetaken the risks and we've
engaged with courageous actionand we're taking flight, meaning
that we're in that flow state.
We're in that moment when thingsseem to be working.
We feel that we're most alivewhen the lights don't burn, and
we just have this sense of joywith achieving something that
we've been working so hardtowards.
SPEAKER_01 (12:16):
As you reflect this week, Brian and Linda and all of
you listeners, I want you to askyourself this question: what
does flying mean to me rightnow?
What small step of belief orcourage can I take towards that
dream?
SPEAKER_00 (12:29):
Even if it scares you.
SPEAKER_01 (12:30):
Yeah, because you didn't make it the first two
times.
SPEAKER_00 (12:32):
Because I like the I like the question
flying mean to me right now,even if it scares you?
What small step of belief orcourage can I take toward that
dream, even if it scares me?
Then it acknowledges the fear,but also gives you courage to
step forward.
In a world of possibilities, whynot fly?
Trust the process and grow yourpalate for transformation.
(12:54):
It's not to be feared, eventhough it's scary.
It's not to be feared, eventhough it's scary.
And the transformation will onlymake the world a better place if
we find ways to transform theworld into more kind places,
more growing places, moreevolved places that give dignity
(13:17):
and courage to each person.
SPEAKER_01 (13:21):
Before we talk about the final chapter on home, pause
and reflect.
Where do you feel most likeyourself?
And what helps you return therewhen leadership gets heavy?
How does this sort of fall inwith the rest of the story?
Maybe just briefly summarize.
SPEAKER_02 (13:40):
For me, home is perhaps the most meaningful of
the chapters.
Even though I have a favoritechapter, it's not home, but this
is the most meaningful chapterof the book.
Home for me is so symbolic ofmany, many things for me as a
person and as a professional.
And there are many layers thatare embedded in just this one
(14:01):
chapter about the importance ofhome.
I feel that people are alwayslooking for the feelings that
are attached to home.
People want to feel safe andsecure somewhere.
And sometimes we know where thatis when we think of a physical
place.
But for me, home is symbolic ofa true returning to our
(14:24):
authentic self.
And part of returning to home isto be in a place where we can
rest and be restored so that wehave the fitness or the ability
or the wellness to then continueto give more, to serve more, and
to fly again.
SPEAKER_00 (14:43):
And flyers need people at home.
And the characters that helpedOC with flight, they wanted to
reap the benefits as well.
Even the harsh voices.
And so if you think of home,think of the places where you
feel most at peace, where youfeel like yourself, and the
(15:04):
places where you have grown,where you need to reintroduce
yourself to another.
SPEAKER_02 (15:09):
When I was writing this chapter, there was a moment
where I started writing ameditation, and the meditation
was reflective of my own journeyand my own journey home.
And I chose to not write this asa meditation.
I chose to put the meditation inthe voice of Owl.
Because that first line,remember to learn to fly is to
(15:30):
learn to love.
To love and accept yourself forwho you are.
Those two sentences encapsulatethe last three years of my
journey of self-compassion andbeing guided by a coach helping
me to understand who I am.
SPEAKER_01 (15:47):
The first one was really focused on the
individual.
This one's focused on team andorganizational culture.
SPEAKER_02 (15:53):
I read this chapter, and when I think about applying
the themes of this chapter to ateam, I think of two groups.
One, the leader, and two, theteam members.
Because for me, the greatestchallenge could be in this
question.
How do we create a home in theworkforce's second home?
(16:16):
How do you create a sense ofhome in our second home?
The place where we spend thesecond most amount of time in
our life.
SPEAKER_00 (16:24):
When you look and are describing home, what kind
of words do you use?
And are there words that centeraround people and relationships?
Are there words that centeraround place?
Is it when something is reallyemotional or something is
dramatic or there's a part whereit can be cleaned up and put a
process around it?
So even looking at people'sperspective at home might ground
(16:48):
a team in understanding w wherethe team feels most safe and
where the team can be mostpushed and how to press pause,
but then launch from that point.
Because so oftentimes when weshare our experiences and you
really take the time to ask,they're not gonna just give you
(17:08):
the and then everything waseasy, and then we were fine.
SPEAKER_02 (17:12):
Because we never know how others are gonna
respond when someone sharestheir story of growth, and
that's the invitation.
SPEAKER_01 (17:24):
Thank you, Brian and Linda, for sharing this book
with us, for writing it, for allof the um little bits of wisdom
and insights and things that um,again, I'm fairly close to this
book and I still keep thinkingabout.
To close this out, I wanted toread something to you that I
(17:44):
actually shared back when Iinterviewed Deb Dixon a few
episodes ago.
There's a link to that in theshow notes.
She wrote um about Unfolded.
She wrote the forward of thebook.
She said, Unfolded invites us toimagine what might be possible
if we give ourselves permissionto never stop growing.
It reminds us that we'restronger than we often think,
that the answers we seek areoften already within us, and
(18:07):
that most importantly, we livein a world where we must support
one another and be open toreceiving support in return.
And I just wanted to leave youwith that, as Brian said there
at the end, talking about growthand sharing your growth story,
that as we go into this newyear, or whatever time of the
year you're listening to this,as you go into enter into this
(18:29):
next season of life, that youthink about growth.
You think about the ways thatyou want to grow, the places
that you want to grow, thepeople that you want to be
around that will help you grow,and that you also find ways to
do that in return for someoneelse.
So thank you for listening tothe Leadership Vision Podcast,
our show helping you buildpositive team culture.
(18:50):
For more information about us,you can click the link in the
show notes or visit us on theweb at Leadership Vision
Consulting.com.
We would appreciate it if youwould join our free email
newsletter, subscribe to ourpodcast, to our YouTube channel,
follow us on all the socials,and most importantly, share this
with someone that you thinkcould benefit from the message
of unfolded and leaning moreinto who you are.
(19:12):
My name is Nathan Freeberg, andon behalf of our entire team,
thanks for listening.
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