Building Better Cultures

On this episode of the Building Better Cultures podcast, Scott McInnes welcomes Jonathan Reed of Paddy and Scott's coffee. A defining sense of purpose is the seed from which everything else at this disruptive, upstart coffee company grows. Hear Jonathan explain why he believes success starts with an alignment of core values. In the case of Paddy and Scott's, that means honouring the suppliers of the coffee beans the company serves. Social responsibility and a sense of pride are key to their workplace culture, but the strong employee buy-in comes from something more basic: Fun. Jonathan offers insights into how he hires the right people and cultivates their engagement on the job. He also shares managerial tips that resonate up and down the enterprise: from the coffee bean growers in Kenya to the baristas serving customers at their local cafes to the executive ranks driving the overall metrics and corporate mission.

In an unlikely origin story, Jonathan recalls the wake-up call that transformed the direction of both his business pursuits and life. Flattened by an unplanned afternoon of chasing around a soccer field with his son and a dozen other five-year-olds, he suddenly knew it was time to reorder his priorities. Jonathan wanted his work to reflect the value he placed on wellness and quality of life – not just for his own family but out in the wider world. Jonathan brought a strong sense of authenticity that defines the entire workplace culture. His goal is to engage every employee by communicating a sense of personal pride not only in Paddy and Scott's product but in the farmers whose toil provides it.

In addition to employee engagement and transparent internal communications, Jonathan also lets us in on perhaps the most powerful ingredient: Fun! It turns out that doing good also feels good – on the job and in life. With its socially responsible ethos, Paddy and Scott's workplace culture encourages and listens to voices at all levels. Jonathan uses a personalized leadership approach to empower employees, giving them permission both to make judgment calls and to fail along their path to learning.

Scott elicits from Jonathan candid thoughts on everything from how to energize the typical "bored meeting" agenda to which four questions provide a helpful check on how Paddy and Scott's is doing both internally and as a force for equity and advancement in the world. For this company, a cup of coffee in your local café equates directly with improved conditions in the Kenyan growing community from which the beans actually come. It's a win-win-win business proposition … that is all about building better cultures.

To learn more about the Building Better Cultures podcast and related services, visit www.buildingbettercultures.com

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• About Jonathan and how he has helped evolve Paddy and Scott's, a coffee company built on social responsibility as a core value.
• Jonathan initially trained as a hotel manager and within large corporate settings – not the best fit with his preference for entrepreneurial ventures. So he went instead to work at a tech startup focused on employee engagement.
• The grind of a London commute and a bunch of five-year-old rugby players revealed to Jonathan that it was time to pursue a change of lifestyle.
• Paddy and Scott's coffee farm in Kenya is part of a central purpose that fuels the company's employee engagement and overall success.
• The role social responsibility plays in employee engagement and customer experience success. Do venture capital investors "get" the intersection?
• Ways in which intentional leadership can impact the workplace culture:
• • Place high priority on authenticity.
  • Hire employees who believe in the mission.
  • Ensure that each individual employee feels valued and engaged.
• Unleashing passion, pushing the envelope and a willingness to fail makes for an engaging, accepting workplace culture.
• Jonathan's strategies for having board meetings (versus "bored meetings") and how he fosters inclusive communications/engagement.
• Four questions typically posed to an employee chosen at random to provide feedback at each of Paddy and Scott's board meetings:
• • How are we doing as a business?
  • How are we doing as a business geared to making a positive impact?
  • Tell us about the impact you're having or hope to have at Paddy and Scott's?
  • What are the barriers that limit your brilliance?
• Challenges integrating new leadership ideas into a wider workplace culture.
• Transparency as a powerful tool for building communication and buy-in up and down the company.
• Why Jonathan views effective leadership as not dissimilar from effective parenting.
• Jonathan's hiring ethos and tricks for recruiting quality employees who want to go the extra mile.
• Customer influence and the role it plays in building strong businesses inside and out, including ways of keeping the job fresh and focused on the mission. (Hint: Fun is a big part of it."
• Internal Communications strategy: How to foster consistent messaging within a distributed work environment:
• • Jonathan sends out a personal email each week, highlighting stand-out employees.
  • Emphasis is placed on a message throughout the company that HQ and field staff are all part of one family.
  • What's App – fun and illuminating way to have casual conversations!
  • In-person (Covid-19 notwithstanding) gatherings among team and departments.
  • Setting metrics that inspire data-driven goals and participation.
• What's the differentiator that sets Paddy and Scott's apart? Disrupting the traditional farm-to-cup retail chain, rebalancing profits to better serve the actual coffee growers' communities.

ABOUT JOHNATHAN REED

@LinkedIn

Website: www.paddyandscotts.co.uk

ABOUT SCOTT MCINNES

Learn more about Scott McInnes, founder and director of Inspiring Change, by clicking here.

ABOUT WORKVIVO To discover Workvivo, a workplace communication platform that offers seamless digital integration, please click here.

This week Scott talks about onboarding, how it's failing you and your new joiners, and how some communications and engagement thinking can maybe help.

Key to success is creating a more human connection with new joiners as quickly as possible. Yes, the operational stuff is important, but more important is how you make people FEEL when they join your business. It could mean the difference between them staying and going!

Key Takeaways:

➡️ Purpose and how you help people to feel a connection.

➡️ The power of tone and language.

➡️ Success by being a bit more creative.

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'Shorts by Building Better Cultures' is a short-form podcast in which we share our tuppenceworth on subjects in the areas of leadership, employee engagement, organisational culture and internal communications.

#buildingbettercultures #BBCShorts #inspiringchange #creatingconnections

Mark Edgar isn't a stranger to challenges; he's built a career teaching organizations how to thrive in spite of it all. As a people-centric, strategic and innovative consultant, facilitator, and coach he has global experience developing and delivering impactful and business focused people strategies. The HR expert and self-proclaimed optimist shares his passion for people and creating better workplaces in this episode of the Building Better Cultures podcast with Scott McInnes.

The core of Mark's philosophy of work is trust - something he's learned from years of experience and researching, looking ahead to an ever-changing work environment. Instead of running away from hybrid work models, he has assessed the setbacks and challenges others to see the opportunity to rethink the status quo and re-define what it means to be a successful company and how we get there. By capitalising on this moment, we have the opportunity to build leaders who are better equipped to support employees in this new world.

But how do we sustain productivity if we're changing where and how the work gets done? The answer isn't cut and dry. By treating each team differently and empowering them to do their job in the way that they want to be treated, Mark suggests that the key to profits may be in the way we treat our co-workers. Doing the work to create a more compassionate work environment retains talent and builds a better workforce and output, it just may require us to think again about business as usual.

Enjoy this thoughtful and passionate discussion and candid look at what it takes to build a healthy work culture in which everyone thrives – both at home and in the workplace.

To learn more about the Building Better Cultures podcast and related services, visit www.buildingbettercultures.com

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Mark's background is as an experienced HR professional, but more importantly, how he defines himself as a successful husband and father.
• A look into Mark's experience and the creation of his company, Goat Rodeo Project days before a global pandemic.
• Helping companies deal with disruption instead of turning into a train wreck.
• What is Human Leadership? People-centric movement where everyone matters.
• Importance of shifting companies to an employee first perspective. Acknowledging the challenges and setbacks and how we can learn from them.
• Hybrid work has leadership problem; the fundamentals support happier teams but it requires effective leadership.
• Fundamentals of on-boarding: how a pandemic highlighted the need to rethink a key portion of work life.
• What do we do with the problem of bad leadership?
• The future of work: what's working and what isn't and how can we turn a major disruption into an opportunity for better.

Parting Thought: Our romantic notion of how work needs to get done isn't working – if we focus on flexibility and trusting our employees, being conscious of the outputs and inputs we can create a hybrid work model that works better for everyone.

ABOUT MARK EDGAR

Website: https://goatrodeoproject.com/ @LinkedIn

ABOUT SCOTT MCINNES

Learn more about Scott McInnes, founder and director of Inspiring Change, by clicking here.

ABOUT WORKVIVO

To discover Workvivo, a workplace communication platform that offers seamless digital integration, please click here.

Friends of the Building Better Cultures podcast, Ireland Together (www.IrelandTogether.ie) ran a series of mini-conferences focused on the next great reset—returning to the workplace. They asked Scott to facilitate a discussion on the Future of Work—what we will do, how we will do it and where we will work from.

The panelists today are thought leaders in their own right, and during this discussion, they offer their insights into how work will be shaped by trends going forward. Our featured speakers are: Denise Black, Head of HR at Invest NI; Gillian French, CPO at Cubic Telecom; and Kevin Empey, Founder at WorkMatters.

We hope you enjoy the conversation.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Opinions about where work can be done vary widely.
• Employers should focus on gaining their employees' trust before moving into mandated reporting.
• Establish key contact points for in-person gathering.
• Companies should look at this as an opportunity to change the culture.
• Organizations need to include their employees in the conversation.
• Leadership is responsible for making sure these hybrid models are equitable.

Q&A:

Scott: Is there going to be any real significant change to the future of work?

Kevin: The future of work didn't start with COVID, and it will continue way beyond COVID. One example is the idea that business interruption is normal, that the frequency of change is happening more quickly. Another is that keeping an eye on the periphery is a crucial skill set. Finally, the ideas about how and where work can be done—as well as the expectations of management—are all changing as we move into the future. It's also not just what's happening within our own little bubbles, but what changes we can expect for our whole customer base and our suppliers with their own digital agendas.

Scott: If companies don't adapt to small change curves, they're dying. Gillian, what can we expect the future of work to look like for smaller companies?

Gillian: Generally speaking, smaller businesses are more agile and able to adapt to changes more readily than large, multinational companies. If smaller businesses can afford it, they should give their employees the flexibility that they desire. It will actually build social capital and build trust in your employees. It's ultimately about focusing on building strong relationships because those are the tools they need to successfully pivot when hard changes do come.

Scott: How do you balance the needs of the company and the needs of employers when they don't mesh?

Denise: I advocated that we start from a position of trust and empowerment. I said let's look at it based on the principles of four pillars to focus on when you come into the office. Those pillars are: to Connect, to Collaborate, to Client, and to Commute. And each team will look at what their responsibilities are and what pillars fit best.

The key is to train the people leaders to think in this way. The other key part is establishing critical contact points, like team meetings, new starts and critical HR issues, most definitely. Other key feedback moments, too, like performance reviews or midterms.

If staffers haven't made up their mind yet, I encourage them to. As soon as my staffers made a decision and showed they were going to roll out a plan, the shoulders dropped, and they could say now they know what's going to happen.

Scott: And they can say, "alright, now this is what we're going to try." Kevin, if organizations don't do something different after all of this, what is the impact going to be? What trick will they have said, do you think?

Kevin: I think there's an opportunity to leverage competition, talent and expertise from around the world. There is also the threat that if they don't act, they could be opening up their talent to other companies. You're engaging in a culture exercise as much as anything else. It allows the opportunity to show vulnerability, which can improve the culture in the long term, past when COVID is forgotten. They would be embedding some of those skills in the future.

Scott: We seem comfortable with contracting work from remote locations. What do you think it will take for leadership to feel the same way about their own teams?

Gillian: They are hard-pressed to make the argument now because we've proven that it works during the pandemic. They'd have to have a strong case for why those roles can't be filled remotely. One key thing I want to emphasize is that we need to squash presence privilege because it's unjust and it's a big threat to the hybrid model. My concern is that people will miss that and it will hurt our ability to fully capitalize on the culture change.

Kevin: We know that some people are nervous to come back, so many should embrace phases or waves of returning. And it should be stated that employees are wise to the problem of presence privilege, too. We are actually using technology to capture everything on a common canvas, so no one is disenfranchised. There's no doubt that these tools will help us.

Denise: A lot of people are asking about the deadlines, but my advice is to make the most of your day if you're going to go in.

Scott: Denise, how do you generate psychological safety within an organization?

Denise: It's intrinsically linked to the leadership in an organization. No matter what level you're at, the pandemic acted as an equalizer. And I think this helped us to see each other as equals again. I think psychological safety is something you have to work on as a team.

Scott: I think it was you, Denise, who shared with me the acronym "F.A.I.L."—if it's not a failure, it's a first attempt in learning. Denise, do you have anything to add to that?

Denise: We kept the comms as transparent as possible, which I think built a lot of trust in the organization. We need to involve the members of our teams as frequently as possible.

Kevin: It's that trust piece. It's fundamental to the relationship piece, too. There's also a stretch element to this next phase because there's an element to psychological safety that requires more trust-building. And leadership needs to set that tone.

Scott: What do you all think about the question of gender equality in the hybrid work place? Denise, I might throw that one to you.

Denise: It's actually quite topical. Promotions tend to be very Belfast-centered—but now we know that that doesn't have to be the case in a hybrid model. I think this is going to help make the workplace more equitable by leveling the playing field in that sense.

Gillian: I see a lot of concern about this because many women dropped out of the workforce because of stresses of home life and so on—

Kevin: We just need to watch that the hybrid model doesn't get skewed so far as to be associated with the different genders or presenteeism and so on. It's really important that our promotion and development programs are agnostic as well.

Scott: To close, what's the most important thing that companies should be doing to reap the benefits of the future of work.

Denise: They need to start the conversation.

Kevin: Leadership needs to be involving team members in the conversation rather than forcing it on them top-down. Also, you need to make sure the technology is there to boost employee engagement. Try as best as you can to create what is as close as possible to a "normal" work environment.

Scott: For me, the jigsaw piece in the middle is that we should tell people really obviously that we have made decisions in response to your feedback.

Gillian: They need to provide flexibility or employees will leave. And they need to make sure everyone is treated equally. There's nothing more important.

If it were up to Stuart Lancaster, he'd make emotional intelligence, communication and leadership core subjects starting early on in school. The nationally recognized rugby coach and high-performance leadership expert shares his experience and insights -- on and off the field -- in this episode of the Building Better Cultures podcast.

Vision and purpose are the starting point for Stuart, whose online master class distills years of learning gleaned from navigating highly competitive environments. He has observed that the most successful leaders take focused time to know themselves and, with that self-awareness, are able to communicate authentically. That vulnerability, says Stuart, is more than anything else what compels and inspires people to give 110% to whatever team effort.

But where do leaders come from? How are they made? Based on his own observations as a coach, Stuart believes age and seniority in no way guarantee the ability to empower and drive teams. Organizations depend on clearly articulated goals and a culture of safety in which everyone – from the novice to the veteran – feels respected and heard.

Enjoy this lively exchange of ideas and candid look at what it takes to build a healthy team environment in which everyone thrives – whether on the rugby pitch, at the highest echelons of commerce or in everyday life.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• About Stuart's formative years on a farm and his eventual move to boarding school and university studies that taught him early leadership lessons.
• Rugby started as an athletic pursuit for Stuart but, following an injury, wound up putting him on the path to coaching and ultimately becoming a sought-after expert on leadership strategies for high-performance cultures.
• How Stuart defines and measures for environments that are healthy, diverse and inclusive.
• The role of psychological safety in workplace cultures and the purpose it serves as far as empowering and inspiring teams.
• Genuine diversity of opinion and fresh ideas can't happen without everyone – from top leadership on down – feeling confident that their voice will be respected and heard.
• Investing in young people and growing leadership from within is a core value for Stuart that he believes translates across all kinds of organizations.
• Big personalities will by default become dominant leaders – when in fact the loudest voices don't necessarily make the best leaders.
• Seniority doesn't always equate with visionary leadership. To the contrary!
• Purpose-driven training and vision are key elements in the development of leaders in any team culture.
• Before identifying a leader it's critically important to have a process and understand the nature of the role as well as a candidate's skill set.
• Why authenticity is so important to cultivating a successful leadership style.
• Growth mentality requires curiosity, hunger to learn more and the ability to receive constructive criticism as a gift.
• High-performance cultures start early, cultivating the basics that Stuart believes are essential (and the sooner the better): emotional intelligence, communication and leadership skills.
• Vision: Where we're going. Purpose: Why we're doing it. Stuart shares thoughts on how to use internal communications to inspire organizations and create aspirational energy.
• Parting Thought: Inspiring leadership is more important than ever and requires time to get quiet, reflect on values and dig deep for the vulnerability that will resonate with and motivate others.

ABOUT STUART LANCASTER

Learn more about Stuart's six-module online master class, which includes bonus material and resources, by clicking here.

To learn more about the Building Better Cultures podcast and related services, visit www.buildingbettercultures.com

Some thoughts in this episode on the power of linking and labelling. It's something that we often don't focus on enough when it comes to internal communications and it's REALLY powerful!

Key takeaways:

➡️ What linking and labelling is and why it's important ➡️ How it can turbocharge engagement around your survey results➡️ How it's critical in showing your team their role in delivering your business strategy

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'Shorts by Building Better Cultures' is a short-form podcast in which we share our tuppenceworth on subjects in the areas of leadership, employee engagement, organisational culture and internal communications.

#buildingbettercultures #BBCShorts #inspiringchange #creatingconnections

Words matter - whether the goal is to promote buy-in among staff, save time on internal communications or create a more inclusive workplace culture.

In this episode of the Building Better Cultures podcast, Scott McInnes invites Charli Nordone, group creative director at The Writer, to take a deep dive into the power of language. It has never been more important to be intentional and disciplined in choosing the right tone of voice, along with words that communicate with precision. Great writing produces positive results across the enterprise – from creating engaging internal HR documents to building a big-budget advertising campaign to producing a coherent annual report that can be digested quickly and easily. Flabby, unfocused or cliched language can have just the opposite effect.

A decade ago, Charli had difficulty persuading clients to consider using the word "use" rather than "utilise." Few people understood the value of word choice and the power of clarity. Not so anymore. She explains why leaders today are demanding higher quality communications – and the value proposition smart writing represents. Effective branding is dependent on compelling language. Productive internal communications depend on the right choice of voice and disciplined messaging. And in an era of heightened sensitivity and commitment to inclusivity, poorly or insensitively chosen words can have an unintentional, and unnecessarily alienating effect.

Simply put, wherever you look within a company's culture, words matter.

Charli shares with Scott strategies for defining and putting into practice a company-wide "tone of voice." She also explains how her team at The Writer helps companies develop writing strategies to turbo-charge brand messaging, cut through counter-productive jargon and inspire engagement, whether among employees or prospective customers. Their conversation covers real-world use cases and demonstrates how clearly conceived, crisply written documents pay off with higher response rates and fewer incidents of miscommunication.

Check out The Writer's readability checker mentioned at the end of the podcast here.

More information about the Dixons Carphone case Scott references can be found here.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• What "tone of voice" means and why is it so essential to clear, effective messaging.
• Learning any new skill takes time, support and permission to try with impunity.
• Remember when you're writing: It's all about the reader.
• Choice of tone is similar in some ways to using a color palette. There are gradients to consider and options to deploy that are specific to circumstance.
• Flexibility is critical to implementing the most effective "tone of voice."
• The (important) role of language in fostering inclusion and embracing diversity.
• "Hi Guys" and the varying interpretations to consider.
• When in doubt, be brave and ask. It shows that you're interested in getting pronouns, pronunciation or other variables right.
• Practical suggestions for those looking to improve leadership and cultural sensitivity around issues of inclusivity.
• • Understand "business speak" (acronyms and arcane terminology) and the way it can be inherently off-putting or exclusive.
  • Deploy gender decoder tools such as Microsoft Word's inclusive language checker.
  • Always run whatever you've written past a fresh pair of eyes, particularly those whose perspective is other than your own.
  • Dig deep into internal and external policy documents to understand where default language is either alienating or exclusive.
• Clarity enhances marketing language, optimizes internal communications.
• Metrics are available to measure the ROI that comes with intentionally conceived, well-considered, disciplined writing.
• Senior leaders and board members are less and less tolerant of the time sink associated with windy, ineffective writing. Brevity is king.

ABOUT WORKVIVO

To learn more about Workvivo, a workplace communication platform that offers seamless digital integration, please click here.

This week a couple of thoughts on the idea that 'Awareness Precedes Action' - that if we don't take the time to realise that we can change the way we do things, nothing will ever change.

3 key takeaways: ➡️ Why it's important to take time to reflect. ➡️ Using your company values as a lens for decisions ➡️ Cultivating a culture of honest and open feedback

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'Shorts by Building Better Cultures' is a short-form podcast in which we share our tuppenceworth on subjects in the areas of leadership, employee engagement, organisational culture and internal communications.

#buildingbettercultures #BBCShorts #inspiringchange #creatingconnections

Discover how to revolutionise ESG communication in your organisation. From empowering underrepresented associates to bridging communication gaps, learn actionable strategies for fostering sustainability champions.

Today we chat with Gihan Hyde, the CEO and founder of Communique; a London-based social enterprise startup dedicated to crafting communication strategies for ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) and sustainability.

In this episode, Gihan sheds light on Communique's distinct approach to ESG communication. Notably, they recruit associates from underdeveloped nations and marginalized communities. Their mission revolves around guiding companies through their ESG journey, connecting them with experts for strategy implementation, and effectively disseminating these strategies to all stakeholders.

Highlights from the episode include:

> ESG vs. Sustainability: Gihan clarifies the distinction between sustainability and ESG, underlining the latter's role in investment decisions. She credits Greta Thunberg and Gen Z for driving ESG awareness.

> Bridging Communication Gaps: Gihan identifies a common issue: Many companies want to or try to implement ESG initiatives but fail to communicate them effectively. She cites the complexity of large organizations as a factor and urges sustainability experts to champion their causes internally.

> Empowering Internal Communication: Gihan stresses the vital role of internal communicators in connecting employees to ESG initiatives. She shares success stories, such as employees who championed plastic-free initiatives and empowered women in their communities.

> Unveiling the ESG Cake Analogy: Gihan introduces an analogy, comparing ESG to a layered cake where communication is the foundational tray.

> Practical Steps for Communication: Gihan offers actionable advice for internal communicators, including defining long-term purpose, integrating ESG into the employee experience, and fostering sustainability champions.

> Resources for Further Learning: Gihan recommends her company's blog and newsletter for insightful content. She also suggests reputable resources such as Gihan recommends her company blog and newsletter found at communique.global.

For listeners who are interested in the data, she recommends the following resources: MSCI, Deloitte, McKinsey & PwC.

GIHAN HYDE

www.communique.global or @LinkedIn

ABOUT SCOTT:

Learn more about Scott McInnes, your host and the Founder and Director of Inspiring Change, by click here.

ABOUT WORKVIVO:

If you're struggling with communications in this time of new hybrid workplace conditions, click here to explore Workvivo, a collaboration platform that offers seamless digital integration.

If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider clicking here to rate and review it!

This podcast is produced in partnership with podlad.com

In this Building Better Cultures Shorts episode, we discuss how to:

• Create better, more aligned values.
• Uphold and live your values daily.
• Embed your values into your culture.
• Recognise and reward employees who exemplify your values.

And, more!

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'Shorts by Building Better Cultures' is a short-form podcast in which we share our tuppenceworth on subjects in the areas of leadership, employee engagement, organisational culture and internal communications.