Truly Human Leadership

Shortly after BW Chairman Bob Chapman passing in March 2026, it was announced that Pat Berges had been named CEO and Managing Partner of Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute.

Chapman & Co. was founded by Bob to bring Truly Human Leadership to organizations around the world, improving their leadership, culture and performance. 

Pat was a longtime friend and colleague of Bob's, bringing more than 25 years of global leaders...

A couple of episodes ago, we talked about the $60 billion problem. That is the amount of money organizations spend on leadership training a year, although recent reports say that number may be as high as $100 billion a year.

But are organizations really seeing the ROI on that money and if not, why?

This is another installment of the People and Performance Playbook where...

Last fall, an episode of this podcast featured a discussion between Bob and Kyle Chapman. 

They talked about the legacy of the Chapman family in Barry-Wehmiller with an eye toward the future as Bob passed the mantle of CEO onto Kyle after 50 years in that role. It was a touching, heartfelt conversation between father and son, worth going back to listen, especially in light of Bob's pas...

Did you know that globally, organizations spend more than $60 billion annually on leadership development and training? 

$60 billion in seminars, workshops, coaches, certifications, assessments, subscriptions, books and much, much more. 

A lot of money spent, but then your leaders are still micromanaging, avoiding difficult conversations and solving every problem themselves. You might as well have just set those dollars on...

We recently started a series within the larger episode of the podcast called the People and Performance Playbook. The episodes are a little shorter, but packed filled with insight from the experts at Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute.

Chapman & Co. was founded by our late CEO and Chairman Bob Chapman to bring Truly Human Leadership to organizations around the world. You can learn m...

We continue to honor the late Chairman and CEO of Barry-Wehmiller, Bob Chapman and his legacy on the podcast. This episode is a virtual talk Bob gave to a book club in 2020, during the pandemic.

The club was made up of people around Aspen, Colorado, where Bob lived and they had read his book, Everybody Matters The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family. It is an interesti...

On this episode, we're introducing a new regular installment of the podcast, the People and Performance Playbook. 

Each one of these episodes will be shorter bits of insight from experts at Chapman &Co. Leadership Institute as they share stories from their work and the thinking and methodology they use to help organizations understand and put into practice the idea that people and ...

A few weeks ago, Barry-Wehmiller's Chief People Officer, Rhonda Spencer spoke at the 2026 i4CP Next Practices Now Conference. Rhonda was a featured speaker, sharing our message of Truly Human Leadership alongside CEOs and other Chief People Officers from companies such as John Deere, Dick's Sporting Goods, Lumen, Northwestern Mutual, Accenture, Microsoft, FedEx and many more.

Originally, Ba...

On this Truly Human Leadership Podcast where we continue to pay tribute to Bob Chapman, our leader and mentor who passed away on March 19, 2026.

All of us at Barry-Wehmiller are very appreciative of all the tributes, condolences and kind words that have come in over the last few weeks. If you'd like to send your own tribute, condolence or remembrance of Bob, we have a page to do so at bobch...

On this episode, we remember BW Chairman Bob Chapman, who passed away on March 19, 2026.

Bob Chapman was more than a business leader, author and speaker, he was a relentless optimist who dedicated his life to building a better world. He worked to redefine what it meant to be a leader in business, to further the understanding that it was an awesome responsibility because the way we lead impacts the way people live. He worked tireles...

For more than 75 years, The Gund Company has grown into one of the largest manufacturers and fabricators of composite materials, thermoplastic materials, and elastomeric materials. They have 12 manufacturing locations in five countries and have seen a tremendous amount of growth in the past few years.

Like Barry-Wehmiller, the Gund Company is based in St. Louis and also like Barry-Wehmiller...

Our last episode featured an interview with Raj Sisodia and Nilima Bhat on their new book, Healing Leaders: 7 Steps to Recovery of Self. In that discussion, we talk about their previous book collaboration, Shakti Leadership: Embracing Feminine and Masculine Power in Business. 

To compliment the discussion of Healing Leaders, we're going to re-release a podcast episode from 2016 where Raj and Nilima talk about Shakti Lead...

Raj Sisodia is the co-founder of Conscious Capitalism and, with BW Chairman Bob Chapman, the co-writer of Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family. Raj is a frequent guest on this podcast. For one, he's a very insightful friend and secondly, he's a prolific writer.

Raj has co-authored a new book, Healing Leaders: 7 Steps to Recovery of Self with his f...

Barry-Wehmiller Chairman Bob Chapman has said this about the importance of listening:

Time and again, I've written that listening is the most important thing a leader can do. But it transcends the leader role. Listening is the most important thing we, as humans, can do for one another. It shows empathy, it shows you care, and most importantly, it shows the person you are listening to that t...

A few months ago, we were honored that Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, named the week of October 13, 2025 "Chapman Leadership Week." That week, their School of Business Administration hosted the inaugural Chapman Lecture on Truly Human Leadership, named in honor of Barry-Wehmiller Chairman Bob Chapman.

It was the culmination of a partnership our outreach team has had with the university to bring the principles of Truly H...

Over the years, we've talked about the Harvard Case Study that was written about Barry-Wehmiller in 2016. It's a best seller, taught in over 200 universities to more than 30,000 students.

On an earlier podcast, we talked to the authors of the case study, one of which is our guest today, Harvard Professor Jan Rivkin.

The earlier episode kind of dealt with the how and why...

Aaron Witt started his career as a kid who loved construction. But over the years, he's built something bigger than he could have ever envisioned to support the industry he loves.

Aaron is the founder of Build Witt. You can find out more about them at buildwitt.com and Aaron has his own website at aaron-witt.com. Build Witt is a company that creates microlearning software for the critical i...

A few months ago, our friend Simon Sinek visited our BW Papersystems location in Phillips, WI to record an episode of his "A Bit of Optimism" podcast with Barry-Wehmiller Chairman Bob Chapman.

It wasn't the first time Simon had been to Phillips, WI, as you'll soon hear, and for his podcast, Simon not only wanted to talk to his good friend Bob, but other BW teammates in Phillips, some he had...

You may have heard Simon Sinek's recent "A Bit of Optimism" podcast that featured Barry-Wehmiller Chairman Bob Chapman and a number of BW team member from our BW Papersystems company in Phillips, WI. 

One particular team member that was interviewed was Randall Fleming, who was a welder when we aquired (or adopted) Marquip, the company that would become BW Papersystems. 

While presenting our message of Truly Human Leadersh...