Sometimes the clearest signal is short.
Julie Jungalwala describes intuition as a quiet, non-insistent invitation. She describes today’s technological environment as “compression”, making space to hear your own signal a more deliberate practice.
Julie is a Harvard instructor in Professional & Executive Development, author, workshop leader and executive coach. Through Human Possibility and the Terrain of Transition™, she helps people navigate change and move towards work that feels genuinely theirs. She is writing her second book, The Work You Were Made For: How to find it, do it, and live it, publishing in 2027.
Her favourite coaching question is simple: “What do you want?” Julie says around 80% of people pause. Asking from first principles can feel both exhilarating and terrifying.
The conversation moves through self-location, seasons of transition, intuition and the appeal of certainty, then into a practical way forward: follow curiosity, run “safe-to-fail experiments” and make choices. Small moves let us learn without demanding the whole answer first.
Julie’s career moved from developing individual skills into systems thinking after realising “the environment wins every time”, then back towards the individual after watching people come alive doing work uniquely theirs. Her question now: what is my work to do amid this?
What you’ll hear
• “What do you want?” and asking from first principles
• The Terrain of Transition™ and locating yourself in change
• Northern Ireland, roots, safety and privilege
• Intuition, technological “compression” and Julie’s three-to-five-word signal
• Going slow to go fast and trusting your own internal system
• Safe-to-fail experiments, curiosity and embodied choice
• Systems thinking and work that brings people alive
Guest links
• Julie Jungalwala: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliejungalwala/
• Human Possibility: https://www.humanpossibility.com/
• The Knowledge Era Is Ending. Here’s What’s Replacing It [Julie's post that re-connected Sam and Julie]: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/knowledge-era-ending-heres-whats-replacing-julie-jungalwala-ed-m--rkg9e/
• Institute for the Future of Learning: https://www.the-ifl.org/
• The Human Side of Changing Education: https://www.the-ifl.org/book
• Terrain of Transition™ Reflection Tool: https://tot.humanpossibility.com/
Conversation mentions
• Clare and David Hieatt and The DO Lectures: https://thedolectures.com/info/
• Naomi Dyer-Jones: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naomi-dyer/
• Hamish Curry’s Natural Genius: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfNMrg6aMfg
• Raj / Series A Photography: https://www.seriesaphotography.com/about/
• Sara Walshe: https://www.upswellcoaching.com/sara
• Maggie Doyne’s Natural Genius: https://youtu.be/k-CVbUT1O7E
• Tim Ferriss: https://tim.blog/
• Annie Parker’s Natural Genius: https://youtu.be/mGH_mAgcZfc
• Serana Hunt-Hughes’s Natural Genius: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CeCpefExpY
• SXSW EDU: https://sxswedu.com/
Chapters
00:13 Reconnecting through The DO Lectures and Julie’s work
07:29 “What do you want?” and the developmental edge
10:19 Terrain of Transition™ and seasons of change
11:42 Northern Ireland, roots, safety and privilege
17:33 Intuition, compression and “woo in a suit”
21:31 Go slow to go fast, certainty and your own internal system
27:17 The work in your heart, safe-to-fail experiments and systems change
Explore further
Discover Natural Genius: https://naturalgenius.com.au
Learn more about Sam Bell: https://samanthabell.com.au
Other platforms: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2568387
Subscribe to hear future episodes.
Credits
Hosted by Samantha (Sam) Bell in Kiama and the Boston area, 18 August 2026
Produced at the Kiama office, 18 August - 3 September 2026
Natural Genius Podcast https://naturalgenius.com.au
