In this episode, Chris sits down with Brett Hoogeveen, co-founder of Better Culture and Mindset LLC, keynote speaker, TEDx speaker, and host of the Better Culture podcast. Brett’s work is built on a simple but powerful premise: culture is undervalued, underappreciated, and when done right, the most powerful lever any leader has.

The conversation draws rich parallels between organizational culture and ecological systems. Just like a prairie is not “done” after one prescribed burn, culture improvement is never finished. It’s an infinite game: ongoing, intentional, and worth every bit of effort.

Brett shares the origin story of Better Culture, rooted in his father’s work building QLI, a catastrophic rehabilitation center in Omaha that became a five-time best place to work. Their employee engagement scores were so high that national auditors flew in suspecting fraud. From those foundations, Brett unpacks what it really takes to build a culture where people want to show up, do great work, and stay.

This episode is the recording of a live virtual call with members of the Next Level Leadership Community in attendance. Join in future conversations by joining the community at ParksandRestoration.com.

Key topics:

• Why culture directly impacts profit, safety, turnover, and quality of life (not just “vibes”)
• Where executives, middle managers, and individual contributors should each start
• The concept of “you bring the weather” and why how you show up every day matters more than you think
• The 7 Principles of Leadership Brett’s father developed in 1991 and why they still work across every industry
• Why measurement is not the most important part of culture improvement (and what is)
• How to deal with the “invasive species” on your team and why high-frequency feedback is the key
• Why strengthening your appreciation muscle is the single best place to start as a new leader

Resources mentioned:

• Better Culture - betterculture.com
• Better Culture Live - Leadership conference, September 23-24, 2026 in Omaha/Bellevue, Nebraska
• Mindset Leadership Program - betterculture.com/mlp
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
• Radical Candor by Kim Scott
• The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
• The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek

About Parks and Restoration Podcast

The Parks and Restoration Podcast is for parks and conservation professionals who want to become better leaders, because better leadership creates better ecosystems, stronger teams, and more meaningful impact.

Learn more at: ParksandRestoration.com

Chris sits down with Dr. Nick Askew, founder and director of Conservation Careers, for a wide-ranging conversation that spans barn owl behavior, international wildlife management, and the future of the conservation workforce.

Nick shares how a career arc that began with childhood fishing trips and a breathtaking first barn owl sighting led him through Birdlife International, fieldwork in the Pacific, and eventually back to the UK to build Conservation Careers — a global platform now serving over 1.2 million visitors annually and listing some 50,000–60,000 jobs per year.

The conversation covers the surprising parallels between barn owl foraging energetics and how we think about habitat corridors, what employers around the world are actually struggling to find in conservation job candidates (hint: it's not technical skills), and why the sector may need to look outside its own ranks to grow its impact. Chris and Nick also dig into leadership development, the value of coaching over training, and why self-awareness might be the most underrated career skill in conservation.

Topics covered:

• How Conservation Careers grew from a side hustle to a global platform
• The barn owl research behind Nick's PhD — and what it teaches us about habitat connectivity
• What the Lower Derwent Valley nature reserve model looks like compared to US public lands
• Why soft skills and professional skills matter more than employers let on
• Bringing non-conservation professionals into the sector — and integrating them well
• The case for entrepreneurial, commercial thinking in NGOs and nonprofits
• Rewilding success stories, including the Knepp Estate and Isabella Tree's book Wilding
• Nick's one piece of advice for aspiring conservation leaders

Resources mentioned:

• Conservation Careers
• Wilding by Isabella Tree
• Birdlife International
• The Knepp Estate rewilding project

About Parks and Restoration Podcast

The Parks and Restoration Podcast is for parks and conservation professionals who want to become better leaders—because better leadership creates better ecosystems, stronger teams, and more meaningful impact.

Learn more at: ParksandRestoration.com

What if the way we’ve been thinking about leadership is fundamentally wrong?

This episode is the meetup Chris hosted with Dr. Kathleen Allen, author of Leading from the Roots, and it explores a completely different way of thinking about leadership—one grounded not in control, hierarchy, or efficiency… but in nature.

Kathleen’s work focuses on regenerative leadership—designing organizations that function more like ecosystems than machines. And as you’ll hear, the implications are massive.

Key topics:

• Why treating organizations like machines creates burnout, silos, and dysfunction
• The shift from extractive systems to regenerative ones—and why it matters
• How a simple change in perspective (seeing people as living systems) transforms culture instantly
• Why most org charts are backwards—and what a “tree-based” org structure reveals
• The three stages of ecosystem development—and how they map directly to organizations
• Why diversity and relationships—not control—create resilience
• What distributed leadership actually looks like in practice (and why it works)
• How organizations unintentionally create fragility through efficiency and monoculture thinking

One of the biggest takeaways:
If your system is producing poor outcomes, the answer isn’t to push people harder—it’s to redesign the system.

This conversation will challenge how you think about leadership, culture, and even success itself.

Connect with Dr. Kathleen Allen:
Website: KathleenAllen.net
Email: keallen1@charter.net

About Parks and Restoration:
Parks and Restoration is the podcast for park and conservation professionals who want to lead better—by building stronger teams, healthier organizations, and more impactful work. Through real-world stories and practical insights, we explore how to create environments where both people and ecosystems can thrive.

What makes people want to stay on your team for the long haul?

In this episode, Chris is joined by Des Moines County Conservation’s Environmental Education Manager, Marcus Nack, for a conversation about workplace culture, leadership, and the kind of organizational ecosystem that makes people want to stay, grow, and do their best work. The discussion starts with a real example: an intern who came to the team looking for clarity and left saying, “I want to do this forever.” From there, Chris and Marcus unpack what creates that kind of environment—and why great culture is never an accident.

Marcus shares his own path into conservation and environmental education, from growing up in suburban Illinois and hunting with his dad in Wisconsin, to college, grad school, camp leadership, and eventually landing in southeast Iowa during the chaos of 2020. Along the way, he reflects on the experiences that shaped his leadership style and why fun, play, reflection, and emotional awareness matter more than most managers realize.

The conversation also explores the overlap between leadership and ecology—a theme longtime listeners will recognize. Chris and Marcus talk about how creating a thriving workplace is a lot like creating habitat: when people feel supported, energized, and safe to grow, better outcomes follow. They also dig into Marcus’s approach to leading the education team, including how he uses reflection, after-action reviews, and curiosity instead of blame to help people improve.

They also touch on Marcus’s new podcast, Paid Time Outdoors (find it on YouTube and Facebook), which explores how people choose to spend the time they work so hard to earn. It’s a fun side conversation, but one that ties right back into the episode’s bigger point: people thrive when they stay connected to what gives them energy.

A few takeaways from this episode:
A great workplace is built on trust, fun, and genuine human connection—not just productivity.
Reflection matters. Teams improve faster when they regularly ask what worked, what didn’t, and what they can do better next time.
Play is not a distraction from growth. It’s often how growth happens.

About Parks and Restoration:
Parks and Restoration is the podcast for parks and conservation professionals who want to be better leaders for their teams, agencies, and communities. Through conversations on leadership, culture, personal growth, and the work of conservation, the show helps listeners build healthier organizations and more meaningful careers. Learn more at ParksandRestoration.com.

Sometimes, productivity doesn’t come from adding more—it comes from taking things away. In this episode, Chris and Jeremy explore the law of subtraction through lessons from oak trees, prairies, and leadership. A fascinating Tennessee study showed that fertilizing oak trees had no effect on acorn production, but thinning the stand by 50% boosted production by 65%. The takeaway? Productivity often increases when we remove competition and clutter.

From managing cedars in prairies to reducing meetings and programs in the workplace, the guys connect ecological energy management to the way we lead our teams. They share practical ways to apply subtraction—cutting busywork, saying no to non-mission-critical projects, and empowering others to do the same—so you and your team can focus on what truly matters.

• Do less to accomplish more.A 50% reduction in oak density produced a 65% increase in acorns. The same principle applies to our work and leadership.

• Manage energy by what you remove.Just as ecologists remove cedars to let sunlight reach native prairie plants, leaders can remove bureaucracy, busywork, and distractions to free up their people’s energy.

• Clarity through subtraction.Jim Collins’s Stop Doing List and Greg McKeown’s Essentialism both remind us that great organizations get clear on what not to do, freeing focus for the work that truly drives their mission.

• Nature and leadership run on the same rules.Whether thinning forests or cutting unproductive projects, subtraction creates the conditions for new growth and stronger ecosystems—natural or organizational.

“We always think productivity comes from adding more initiatives, more committees, more goals. But often, the real productivity gains come when we thin the stand.” — Chris Lee

“In the prairie, the plants you want are already there. You just have to remove what’s stifling them. The same goes for people.” — Jeremy Yost

“When leaders focus on subtraction, they free people up to do the work they were hired and inspired to do.” — Chris Lee

How you can apply these lessons:

• Get clear on the "WHY" Work with your team to determine what's truly important.

• Do a “timber cruise” of your priorities.Identify projects, meetings, and reports that drain energy without creating value or contribute to mission.

• Create a Stop-Doing List.For every new “to-do,” remove something that doesn’t advance your mission.

• Audit meetings and processes.Eliminate or consolidate recurring meetings with no clear outcomes.

• Empower people to say no.Build a culture where questioning nonessential work is encouraged and rewarded, not punished.

• Experiment.Try subtracting something for a quarter. You can always add it back—but you’ll likely discover you don’t need to.

Resources:

• Brooke et al. (2019): Effects of fertilization and thinning on acorn production in upland oak stands.

• Leidy Klotz – Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less

• Jim Collins – Good to Great

• Greg McKeown – Essentialism

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About Parks and Restoration

Better leaders. Better parks.

Parks and Restoration is THE show for current and rising leaders in the parks, conservation, and natural resource professions. Every two weeks, you get new episodes that explore key leadership concepts and how they apply to you and your team.

Great parks and healthy lands and waters are the products of strong leadership. We aim to help you become that leader.

Join the movement (and the email list) at ⁠www.ParksandRestoration.com⁠

What happens when the people protecting our natural resources are running on empty?

In this episode of Parks and Restoration, Chris Lee and Jeremy Yost tackle an uncomfortable truth: the very passion that drives us to protect parks and natural resources might be slowly destroying us. They introduce the CARE Framework—a practical approach to wellbeing that every conservation professional needs to hear.

Through research-backed insights and personal stories (including Jeremy's two-month journey off energy drinks and Chris's sleep transformation), they explore how:

• Connection combats the isolation that might be your biggest occupational hazard
• Activity differs from "work movement" and sustains long-term health
• Rest functions as performance time, not just recovery
• Eating well becomes the fuel that makes or breaks your leadership effectiveness

If you've ever worked through lunch to finish a trail project, skipped vacation during burn season, or stayed late writing grants while telling yourself it's dedication, this conversation will show you why taking care of yourself is actually strategic leadership.

Be part of the conversation!

How do you prioritize wellbeing in this demanding field? What strategies work (or don't work) for you? Send us your insights and experiences at www.ParksandRestoration.com.

Chapters00:00 The Hidden Crisis in Conservation04:16 The CARE Framework Introduction05:03 Connection: Why Isolation is Dangerous16:18 Activity: Moving Beyond Work Movement25:23 Rest: Sleep as Performance Time36:23 Eat: Fueling Your Leadership48:06 Wellbeing as Strategic Leadership57:21 Putting CARE Into Practice

About Parks and Restoration

Better leaders. Better parks.

Parks and Restoration is THE show for current and rising leaders in the parks, conservation, and natural resource professions. Every two weeks, you get new episodes that explore key leadership concepts and how they apply to you and your team.

Great parks and healthy lands and waters are the products of strong leadership. We aim to help you become that leader.

Join the movement at www.ParksandRestoration.com

How do you eat an elephant?
Most people say, “one bite at a time.” But what if you invited 45 of your friends and turned it into a barbecue?

That’s exactly what happened in Iowa’s Loess Hills when multiple agencies came together for a cooperative cedar-cutting workday—and it’s the perfect picture of how partnerships expand capacity and tackle projects no one organization could handle alone.

In this episode of Parks and Restoration, Chris Lee and Jeremy Yost dive into the power of multi-organizational partnerships. From cooperative burn weeks to large-scale habitat projects, they explore how collaboration helps parks and conservation professionals:

• Multiply their impact with limited staff and resources

• Build a culture where cooperation is the norm, not the exception

• Manage logistics, permissions, and risk across multiple agencies

• Tell a better story to the public and media about conservation work

If you’ve ever felt like the challenges in your park system are too big for your team to handle, this conversation will show you how to invite others to the table—and barbecue the elephant together.

Be part of the conversation!

We want to hear your stories (successful or not!) of cooperation/collaboration with other agencies and organizations. Send us a message or leave us a voice memo at www.ParksandRestoration.com.

Chapters

00:00 Building a Culture of Cooperation

05:26 The Power of Community Engagement

10:52 Creating Effective Partnerships

16:41 Logistics of Collaboration

22:20 Expanding Influence Beyond Boundaries

27:12 Building Relationships for Effective Disaster Response

30:11 Decentralized Command: A Key to Effective Leadership

35:10 Logistics and Clarity in Large-Scale Events

39:27 Fueling the Team: Logistics of Food and Recognition

44:36 Transforming Challenges into Collaborative Opportunities

About Parks and Restoration

Better leaders. Better parks.

Parks and Restoration is THE show for current and rising leaders in the parks, conservation, and natural resource professions. Every two weeks, you get new episodes that explore key leadership concepts and how they apply to you and your team.

Great parks and healthy lands and waters are the products of strong leadership. We aim to help you become that leader.

Join the movement at www.ParksandRestoration.com

In this episode, I explore how onboarding isn’t just about filling out forms and handing over keys—it’s about shaping culture, boosting retention, and setting your team up for long-term success.

Whether you're bringing on seasonal staff or full-time hires, this episode breaks down the three essential functions of onboarding—belonging, purpose, and clarity—and offers practical, field-tested strategies to help new team members thrive from day one.