Mary Mulcahey: Welcome to the Lead Change podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Mary Mulcahy. I'm an orthopedic sports medicine surgeon with a huge interest in contributing to the growth and development of other leaders. On this podcast, we will share stories from many leaders in all medical specialties to understand the skills necessary to be an effective leader. We'll celebrate their success and hear about strategies to overcome hurdles. We will also highlight some of the unique challenges faced by women in medicine who are interested in pursuing leadership positions and the importance of mentorship.

Mary K. Mulcahey, MD: Welcome everyone to the Lead Change podcast. We're coming to you live from the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine or ELAM program in Philadelphia. I am so excited to have Martha Deary-Cotter on the podcast with me now. With over 20 years of experience, Martha has built her career on helping leaders and teams bring new ideas, concepts, and ways of working to life. As a director at Cotter, she designs and leads large scale transformation efforts, provides advisory services and coaching to C-level executives and leaders at all levels, and helps client teams successfully activate new mindsets, behaviors, and ways of working to achieve transformation success. Her work spans industries including healthcare, insurance, energy, consumer goods, and higher education. Prior to Cotter, Martha was a client advisor with a human-centered design firm, Fuse Project,

Mary Mulcahey: sponsorship, and allyship in achieving and being successful in those roles. Let's work together, build on shared experiences, learn from those before us, and use these lessons to propel us forward in our career. Let's lead change.

Mary K. Mulcahey, MD: She led product design and innovation teams with Fortune 500 companies and Silicon Valley startups. She was a founding member, operational leader, and coach of the Spring Social Impact Accelerator, where she mentored early stage entrepreneurs and executives across East Africa and Southeast Asia. Martha holds a bachelor's degree in English Literature and Language from Harvard University and a master's degree in Environment and Development Studies from the London School of Economics. I initially met Martha in September 2025 during our first week-long long in-person meeting at ELAM, Martha and her colleague Vanessa spoke to us about the Cotter framework for accelerating change amid uncertainty. Their talk was powerful, inspirational, and most importantly, provided us with tools to bring back to our institution to help implement change. Martha's talk yesterday, Building and Sustaining Change Momentum, picked up where the previous talk left off and motivated all of us to focus on opportunity as we try to facilitate a change within our own programs. looking forward to diving into these topics and having Martha share more about her own leadership journey. Martha, thank you so much for being here and welcome to the podcast. ⁓

Martha: Martha, thank you so much for being here and welcome to the podcast. It's an absolute pleasure, Mary. Always great to spend time with you. Awesome. Well, let's just dive into this. And before we get to the very end of it, that you are going to cover, I wanted to touch on the other leaders who are all at the helm. We touched briefly on this in the introduction, but your founding member and

Mary K. Mulcahey, MD: Awesome. Well, let's just dive into this and you know before we get to the very important work that you are doing with Cotter, I wanted to touch on another leadership role that you've held. We touched briefly on this in the introduction, but you are a founding member and a coach of the Spring Social Impact Accelerator. So can you share with all of us a little bit about what Spring Accelerator is? Yeah, so the Spring Accelerator is a five-week program on strength and resourceful

Martha: coach of the spring social impact accelerator. So can you share with all of us a little bit about what spring accelerator is? Yes. So the spring accelerator was a five year program launched by an international consortium. The intent of the accelerator was to go to economies and countries where girls are historically underserved and are not seen as economic actors and agents and are generally empowered. So we helped ⁓ bring to life businesses and entrepreneurs ⁓ with products and services that could transform the lives of adolescent girls in those countries. So these were businesses that could help girls earn, ⁓ learn, so getting to school, ⁓ save, invest, and protect themselves. ⁓ So we over the course of those five years and I think three cohorts that I worked with at Spring. ⁓ We helped each time bring about 15 or so businesses up to scale securing greater investment, getting their products and services to market. And ⁓ over the course of the five years, Spring was able to reach and impact over 1 million girls in eight countries.

Mary K. Mulcahey, MD: So we over the course of those five years, I think three cohorts that I worked with at Spring, we helped each time bring about 15 or so businesses up to scale securing greater investment, getting their products and services to market. And the course of the five years brings them to reach and over one million girls in eight countries. Wow, well that is incredible. Congratulations. And how amazing it must have been to see to add to see that growth and to contribute to the development of those businesses and see the incredible contribution that they have to the girls in those societies. It's amazing.

Martha: Yeah, was incredible. Entrepreneurs out there doing some really, really powerful and inspiring things.

Mary K. Mulcahey, MD: That's amazing. In your role with Spring, what were some of your main responsibilities?

Martha: What was and what were some of your So there was a full gamut of it. I was working with a human centered design firm, Fuse Project at the time. And so we were bringing our human centered design and product and brand expertise to develop a course and a curriculum for the entrepreneurs. So over the nine months, we shaped and delivered two two week boot camps. And in between those boot camps where we brought our designers along with international partners in everything from ⁓ impact, so monitoring the impact of the businesses to investment, so helping them procure the investment and getting sharper in their pitches, et cetera. ⁓ We developed the training and gave them the guidance and expertise to really focus in on the opportunity, focus in on maximizing their impact, and importantly, understanding, so researching in working with the girls in each country to really understand the lives of those girls and how to get their products, design their products to really impact those girls and to reach those girls. ⁓ in between boot camps ⁓ and the prototype and ⁓ designed in with girls. So we sent researchers with them ⁓ who helped further refine the products to really maximize their ⁓

Mary K. Mulcahey, MD: I that's such a great point that you brought up there too, is that your company, I mean, helped these businesses understand that it was really critical for them to recognize the culture and what these girls were going through and have them involved with some of the design so that what the companies were doing that truly could be impactful for the girls in that society. And that's so critical to understand that there are obviously huge differences, you know, in Southeast Asia compared to the United States and for these companies to understand just the culture I think is critical.

Martha: Absolutely. And importantly, these were local businesses. So they had to have presence operations and be employing and working with teams in country. And even on our our work in our partnership, we partnered with local firms because the people we do this in our change work as well. Those who are best equipped to lead transformation and change are those who are in the context and in the country. So it's that that's key. Yeah, that's the problem. ⁓

Mary K. Mulcahey, MD: did it. Yeah, that's incredible. And I imagine part of the goal of this program, the Accelerate Program 2, was to equip them with the tools to not only develop this to get integrated, but then to be successful and to be able to carry it forward. ⁓

Martha: Absolutely. Scaling was critical. So get your product to market but also have the plans and the path. How are you going to scale your service, scale your product, your manufacturing, scale your supply chains, your employees and capabilities as well. So that was a big part of ⁓ the program in the second stage of the boot camps.

Mary K. Mulcahey, MD: Yeah, you must have learned so much that you have carried forward with you. I do, you know, I want to touch on your, work now as a director at Cotter and that's how we all know you. ⁓ So for those listening who might not know what Cotter is, can you share some of the details about what the group focuses on and what really is the underlying mission?

Martha: Yes. So Cotter International is ⁓ a firm that ⁓ provides advisory, training and development ⁓ and research, ongoing research into leading change. So we're founded by Dr. John Cotter, who has spent over 50 years researching organizations that succeed. First of all, was just organizations that succeeded over time. So way back when looking into that and he discovered it's those organizations that are able to navigate transformation successfully. The figure back then was 70 or so percent of large scale transformations fail, just outright fail. 90 % fail to achieve or realize the full benefit value opportunity that they were seeking when they first launched into transformation. So that became sort of the basis of his research going forward and of our work leading up to today, which is what is it that made those organizations that succeeded, what were they doing differently? And that turned into our eight accelerators for leading change, our four principals for leading change, and sort of an ongoing suite of frameworks and tools to help organizations really succeed. A key point of that is it's all about leadership. So we talk a lot about change management. There's the budgets and the plans. Yes, that's all very important. But most important is the leadership of change, the vision, the inspiration, the engagement of people, and critically, the empowerment of people. Our organizational structures, ⁓ of traditional legacies, we grow larger institutions, often turn into hierarchies that can stymie innovation and stymie empowerment at scale. So we bring in a framework, we call it the dual operating system of helping the hierarchical structures operate alongside a network that really empowers agency and empowers more leadership at all levels of an organization. In short, the mission is millions leading billions benefiting. So by enabling that much more leadership within organizations, we can help create organizations that can make real impact in the world for those that they serve and those that work within them. That's a really powerful question. And I think that focusing on equipping the leaders with skills, success, not just each, but recognizing that everyone is part of the team, like also benefit from that leadership momentum. their reach is incredibly broad. And that's not focused on one particular group.

Mary K. Mulcahey, MD: Yeah, that's a really powerful mission and incredible that, you know, focusing on equipping the leaders with skills to successfully help navigate change, but recognizing to that everyone who's part of those groups, the teams like also will benefit from that improved leadership. And then it's just the reach is incredibly broad and that it's not focused on one particular group. ⁓

Martha: Absolutely, absolutely. Change happens at scale and it affects so many and it takes so many to lead it effectively. ⁓

Mary K. Mulcahey, MD: Yeah, I know that the two sessions that we've had with Kotter have just been amazing. And so I can only imagine that when you guys have a longer term relationship with companies or more opportunities to interact and impact the extent of the reach within those groups too. And can you give us just really an overview too of what types of groups really benefit the most from working with Kotter? Well, I would say Kotter's been a wonderful individual.

Martha: Well, I would say all groups and all individuals ⁓ benefit from working with Cotter, ⁓ especially these days. Now, maybe that's an easy answer. So we work with organizations going through large-scale transformation. That's sort of the core basis of our advisory services. ⁓ However, transformation and change has ⁓ changed with time, changes all around us today. organizations, individuals, we're continually experiencing constant change. So it's not just the change that we're leading inside, but we're navigating change on so many levels. So we have continued to evolve our work and our research to organizations with the capability, the skill and the internal confidence and ability to navigate these multiple levels of change. ⁓ So maybe we're working with an organization going through a large scale digital transformation. and our merger and acquisition and helping them really accelerate realization of what they set out to achieve. And oftentimes we're working with organizations simply to develop the capability and confidence and the agility needed these days to continually adapt. Think about all these tools and services. We no longer have, ⁓ you know. internal systems and capabilities. We're all in the cloud. Everything is changing continually outside of our control. We need to develop our teams with the ability, the capability, the mindset to continually learn and adapt themselves and their teams and pivot in this world of constant change. Yeah, that's really amazing. I think you made a critical point several words.

Mary K. Mulcahey, MD: Yeah, I mean, that's really it's amazing. And I think, you you made it really one critical point, like several important points, but one key point to that change is inevitable. And change is happening all around us in every facet of life and professions. And for all of us here, you know, in medicine and science, certainly there's a lot of change happening. And and so think with Cotter, know, equipping leaders with the skills to effectively be able to manage change is so important. ⁓ And other key principles you raised about being adaptable and being flexible and ⁓ agile, I guess, too, and being willing and able to change, to adapt, I guess, as things are changing around you. ⁓ And so having those skills and that foresight ⁓ is really critical to navigate that change successfully. And yesterday, you spoke to us specifically about building and sustaining change momentum amid this time of polycrisis. And a key point that you discussed was to focus on the opportunity when trying to help facilitate change. So can you explain to us what you mean by that so everyone listening can kind of get a better understanding too? Absolutely. As we think about change,

Martha: Absolutely. ⁓ As we think about change and when we have sort of an idea or a vision that we're trying to get others on board with, and you have to get others on board with it critically. ⁓ Change alone is not led by one person and without others on board it goes nowhere in your organization. ⁓ But as you think about that change, it's so important to really crystallize in simple terms and meaningful terms. So not sort of corporate speak or jargon, but just meaningful terms. What is it we're really trying to achieve here with this change? ⁓ What is the window of opportunity with so much going on around us? Why should we take on this particular initiative or vision right now? So what is that opportunity? Why do we need to do this now? Right. And then what are the benefits for all stakeholders?

Mary K. Mulcahey, MD: with this change? What is the opportunity with so much going on around us? Why should we take on this particular initiative or vision right now? So what is the opportunity? Why do we need to do this now? Right? And then what are the benefits for all of the stakeholders?

Martha: importantly to have to recognize what has to change in order to succeed, in order to achieve this. So, often now organizations and teams have so many priorities that as we talked about yesterday, nothing is the priority. So, how do you really help set teams up for success? How do you let them know what has to change and what are the trade-offs we're going to make? Sometimes what are we going to stop doing in order to really focus on and drive this forward to help empower teams with the clarity and focus to stay urgent to that particular mission. So when we talk about the opportunity, it's that whole vision of where are we going, how are we going to get there, and what is it we need to do differently.

Mary K. Mulcahey, MD: I think that's like, it's really powerful and it's a great way to look at change. Change sometimes I think can be perceived as something bad. think like as physicians, surgeons, scientists, like we think about change, we're like, ⁓ no, what's going to be different? Like, how is this going to impact me? it going to, you know, something negative in our department or our division? But it's great to frame it as an opportunity, right? Then that really, okay, how can different groups benefit, right? How can we, you know, yes, maybe some something's going to be different, but how is it going to be different in a positive way? And how can we really make the most of that, take advantage of this opportunity? I love that shift in mentality. And you mentioned this in your talk yesterday, and you just brought it up now, but the importance of stakeholders, right? And that change cannot happen alone. You need to have other people on board. But what are some of the most critical aspects of knowing our stakeholders that can really help improve the chances of us successfully implementing a desired change or taking advantage of this opportunity?

Martha: But what are some the most critical aspects of knowing our stakeholders that can really help improve the chances of us successfully implementing a desired opinion or taking advantage of this opportunity? There's sort of two parts to this answer. ⁓ When you're thinking about a change or embarking on a change, first of all, it's critical to understand who does this change impact and how. So we talked about the opportunity and the benefits. Importantly, it's important to what are the trade-offs, right? What might they lose in that? So we talk about change impacts and change impact analysis. So really understanding what might be changing in the day to day of that individual or team, what in their work, what in their processes and critically in their identity. So much of the resistance that can come up to change is that it can be very personal. asking me to change my deep expertise, medicine, scientists, people have studied years and years and this is what I built my career on and now I'm supposed to change. So really understanding the impact of the change that you're asking on people professionally and personally. ⁓ So that is key because if you can speak to that, if you can even just recognize it, even if you can't change if some is what they may feel lost in, but just recognizing it helps people really feel seen and valued and change and that is so important. Apart from those impacted by the change, there's those who you need to engage to help lead the change. So maybe that's sponsors, maybe that's external funders or board members and teams, and just teams outside of your directly impacted populations. Understanding sort of and finding the influencers key, the formal influencers and the informal influencers deeper in the organization who can really help bring others along. So important to understand who they are and then to understand what is it that gets them on board with the change? What is it that they need to hear or understand to help them really buy in and want to support what you're doing? So taking the time to step back and assess that and understand individuals and teams, their motivations, their identity, that is so key to really actively engaging them and helping them lift the load. Because again, Change cannot be led by one person. have to enable leaders at all levels to really help with the lift and to help move change through an organization. Yeah, looking at that from different perspectives, certainly the family discussions, as you mentioned, so important to understand who is getting impacted by whatever we can do. So that's the critical component of.

Mary K. Mulcahey, MD: Yeah, I love that looking at that from different perspectives, like certainly early on in these discussions, just as you were mentioning, so important to understand who's going to be impacted by whatever the changes, right? That's a critical component of developing a plan, understanding who is going to be impacted. ⁓ It's a really getting insight from all of those people, right? By stakeholders, right? People who are in it who are going to be impacted directly. ⁓ Critical, critical point. And then, you know, we we discussed this yesterday, certainly in the second point that you made in that last response about engaging our stakeholders, our leadership, like at our institutions, to those that can help us drive this change. ⁓ And so think those are two critical aspects to look at when you're having any type of change and identifying really the key opportunity that can be, you know, that is open there to everyone that's involved. So I love those two aspects. ⁓ You you've served in several important leadership roles. We've touched on just a couple of them, but I wonder if you share with us what is really your purpose Martha and the motivation in all that you do. What is it that drives you? What gets you out of bed in the morning?

Martha: to note those two aspects. You serve in several important leadership roles. You've touched on just a couple of them, but I wonder if you can share with us what is really important you at Samantha and your participation in all that you do. What is it that drives you? What gets you out of bed in the morning? I really like people. I like people and I want people. to feel seen and valued in the work that they do and how they spend their time. And that's something that Cotter does. I think that Cotter, well, makes Cotter pretty different from a lot of sort of consultancies out there, is it's all about empowering people at all levels. So we work with tremendous leaders, leaders as a role. But we also get to work with leaders who are not seen or recognized by a title, but deep in the organization. And we get to really help people connect with capabilities in themselves and to feel value and to get recognition for the work that they do wherever they are in the organization. And just seeing that brought to life in individuals day in and day out in our work is pretty powerful and inspiring. So it's a that I like people and I want people to feel good. want more people in the world to feel good and to feel value. ⁓

Mary K. Mulcahey, MD: is pretty powerful in this life. So it's real, and I love people, and I want people to feel good, want people in the world to feel good and to feel about it. Yeah, that's incredible. Well, even in the two sessions that we've had with you so far, I think we can all really appreciate that, that that is certainly something that motivates all that you do. So I want to round this out with a few questions that I'd like to ask all of my guests. So I want to start with, you this podcast is called Lead Change. So what does lead change mean to you? ⁓

Martha: So, I'm going round this out with a few questions that I'd like to ask all my guests. I'm going start with, and this podcast is called Lead Change. So, what does lead change mean to you? Oof, that's a deep question. Lead change, it means to believe in yourself. It means to have a vision. And it means to inspire and enable and empower others. So moving beyond yourself, but really to connect, inspire, and enable others to do new things, to do scary things, to do hard things, and to help make them feel safe while they do it. That's amazing. And I think for leaders, whatever we are going to be having more

Mary K. Mulcahey, MD: That's amazing. I think for leaders in whatever regard, whether you have an actual title or just in the position that you're in, for all of us here in science, in medicine, right? you know, having those characteristics for the teams you're working with is so important. And I love the last point that you made too, is about making everyone feel safe, right? That's the whole concept of psychological safety too. So really, really critical. Thank you for bringing up those points. I do that a lot. I'll underscore that. I should feel safe being safe too. But really, yeah, that's a lot of the safety that is so important.

Martha: I do actually want to underscore that and double click on that a little bit, is to feel safe being unsafe to but creating that psychological safety that it's okay to try new things. It's okay to fail. in the right ways, in the right places, you know. ⁓ But to create that possibility in that place for individuals to get out there and to just build their own capability and to try new things. When you can create that space and opportunity for people, I you are leading change.

Mary K. Mulcahey, MD: I wanted to ask you too, have you read any leadership books that you have found to be particularly impactful or influential for you? I mean, so many, maybe it's around here, I'm not sure right now, but there were more.

Martha: Wow. I mean, so many. Maybe just to rattle off a few. ⁓ I'm actually right now reworking my way through John Maxwell and Jim Dornan's Becoming a Person of Influence. ⁓ Yeah, it's a it's fantastic. I mean, it's it's so simple and so important and something that leaders in our world today really need to connect with again, but focuses on core components of leadership and influence, which is really empowering others, but it's also being a person of integrity, ⁓ being honest, being truthful, ⁓ and looking out for others. And it's simple and incredibly powerful. think two others ⁓ that have in my life inspired me, Coach Wooden on leadership. I can't help but love Coach Wooden. ⁓ And then actually, I'm going to say To Kill a Mockingbird. Wow. Yeah, I was an English major. Gotta remember that. And fiction is so important. The power of reading in our youth and in our older years as well, and just it creates so much empathy and understanding. And then to kill a mockingbird, the evolution of the characters and... of the way that they view the world and view others ⁓ and the habit of othering in the world. It's very, very powerful. And again, it goes back to that integrity, I think. ⁓ That's very important to me. ⁓

Mary K. Mulcahey, MD: in our youth and in our older years as well. And it creates so much empathy and understanding. And then to kill the evolution of the characters and of the way that view the world, view others, and the habit of covering the world. It's very, very powerful. And ⁓ it goes back to that integrity, I think. That's very important. Thank you so much for sharing the list of books that I want to read that that you know We're sharing with everybody really just keeps growing so I love that and I think honestly, that's the first You're the first guest who has proposed a book, suggested a book that is not just a dedicated leadership book. So I love that. ⁓ Thank you so much. We to kill a mockingbird. think probably many of us have read that, but I haven't read it in years. ⁓ So I'm sure I would pick up. We would all pick up things that we wouldn't even have realized then that we would learn now. And then the last question is, do you have any favorite quotes?

Martha: So this one I always thought came from my mom. It turns out it came from Zink Ziegler. I don't know if I'm embarrassed about that, but I want to attribute my mom very dearly because growing up, the youngest of eight, I probably heard this on a daily basis, but it is your attitude, not your aptitude that will determine your altitude. Yeah, love. Thank you so much. Thanks, mom.

Mary K. Mulcahey, MD: I'm of embarrassed without a judge. I hope you're taking my poem there, Jerry. Because growing up, I'm a young adult, and you probably heard this on a daily basis, but it is your attitude, not your aptitude, that will determine your aptitude. Yeah, love that. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. was really wonderful to have this discussion with you live at Elam. Thanks for your excellent talks in September and here with us this week. You and the Cotter Group have provided us, so the Elam and ELH fellows with important skills that we can implement immediately to help affect change at our institutions. Thank you for all you're doing to help make us more and better, more effective leaders. I'm grateful for your time and expertise and I know everyone listening will take a lot away from this discussion. So thank you again for being here. Thank you. It's an absolute pleasure and honor to work with you and to hear you and I'm sure everyone wants to do it. So thank you. Great. Thank you so much. Bye bye.

Martha: everyone listening will take a lot away from this discussion. So thank you again for being here. Thank you, Mary. Absolute pleasure and honor to work with you and the work that you're doing and that everyone here at ELAM is doing. So thank you. Great. Thank you so much. Bye bye.