On our latest episode of the Building Better Cultures podcast, we speak to Dan Sodergren. Dan is the Co-Founder of YourFLOCK. This SaaS platform helps teams to grow by finding the best-fit candidates and maximising their value to your unique team based on culture.

In this episode, we talk about organizational culture, employee engagement, and remote vs hybrid work. 

Key discussions:

1. How leaders can use culture as a tool to drive employee engagement and productivity. 

2. Effective strategies and best practices for improving engagement among your employees. 

3. What you should do to avoid common challenges to achieve high levels of engagement in the workplace.

And lots more!

Whether you're a business owner, People Leader, HR professional, or employee, this episode will give listeners a deeper understanding of culture's role in the modern workplace.

DAN'S LINKS: 

Company: https://yourflock.co.uk/ TEDx Talk: The Future Of Work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=uiZJkod7h-4&feature=emb_title  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-sodergren-futureofwork/ 

ABOUT SCOTT: 

Learn more about Scott McInnes, your host and the Founder and Director of Inspiring Change, by clicking 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! 

Do you think storytelling has no place at work? That it’s just a fluffy exercise that doesn’t deliver results? Then, the latest guest on the Building Better Culture podcast, Richard Newman, the Founder and CEO of BodyTalk, says, “You’re missing the point!” Richard shares that for a millennia, the human brain has learned to sequence and process information delivered as a story, but HOW that story is told makes all the DIFFERENCE. We learn about the neuroscience behind effective communication to yield actionable results and fully engage your people. You’ll learn how to blast through denial, overcome the brain’s resistance to change and avoid “non-verbal leakage.” It transforms workplace cultures by delivering information in ways our brains can receive process, and act upon – with the kinds of epic outcomes your corporate leaders will doubtless remember. Heroic journeys start in small daily interactions, and Richard is here to share some of the tools most critical tools set that stage. 

KEY INSIGHTS: >>> Focus on storytelling as a vehicle for connection. 

>>> It’s critical to understand how the logical and emotional minds differ when it comes to interacting with information, depending on how its delivered. 

>>> Stories that fail? They are stories that make you, your company, product or service the hero.  

>>> Stories that succeed? Those that deliver a compelling hero’s journey through the eyes of the listeners – the recipients of your intended message.  

>>> Non-Verbal Leakage: Body language, tone and words need to be in complete alignment. If they are incongruent, the effect is inauthentic and can generate distrust. Humans respond viscerally to energy and subtext. 

>>> Start Small: The quickest way to break down resistance to storytelling in the workplace is to integrate it into every daily interaction. It’s not a heroic tale, but a framework to deliver information in ways that the brains of others can accept, process and act upon. 

FURTHER RESOURCES: >>> "Thinking Fast and Slow," by Daniel Kahneman. 

ABOUT RICHARD:  Company: https://ukbodytalk.com/ Book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/191645920X  Podcast: LIFT with Richard Newman LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardnewmanspeaks/ 

ABOUT SCOTT: Learn more about Scott McInnes, your host and the Founder and Director of Inspiring Change, by clicking 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! 

On this episode of the Building Better Cultures podcast, we drill down on the pivotal role that empathy plays in the workplace – especially in this time of remote work and back-to-back-to-back Zoom interactions. It’s about understanding someone else’s perspective, yes. But equally important is the ability to fully and non-judgmentally inhabit another person’s shoes, then communicate back in ways that create meaningful connection. 

Our guest Rob Volpe, CEO of Ignite 360, is an “empathy activist” who consults with businesses struggling to weave understanding and compassion into workplace cultures. With his Five Steps to Build + Apply Empathy at Work, Rob shows leaders how to integrate simple – but transformational – practices to embody your brand and build self-awareness among teams across the enterprise. Studies show that organisations that prioritise empathy generate more loyalty, innovation and inclusivity among employees. You’ll come away from this episode with a keen understanding of how to listen with full awareness as well as specific exercises to build your empathy muscle and invite authentic communication at every level of your business. 

KEY INSIGHTS: 

1. The Empathy Crisis: Many leaders find it difficult to connect with personal perspectives and are untrained in the art of leveraging the power of storytelling in the workplace. 

 2. Leaders who promote empathy in the workplace see significant increases in loyalty, innovation and inclusivity among team members. 

3. There is a difference between emotional empathy and cognitive empathy – one that many old-school leaders don’t fully understand, resulting in unfounded fears about losing respect. 

4. Rob’s Macro-Level Framework: 

- Bring self-awareness in deciding how to show up. 

- Have the courage to practice empathy. 

- Adopt The Five Steps, which require practice and inevitable stumbles. 

- Offer yourself grace and forgiveness.   

5. Rob’s Five Steps to Empathy: 

- Dismantle judgment: Notice negativity and resist casting aspersion.

- Reframe Questions: Skip “why” – with its negative, closed associations and undertones. 

- Listen Actively: Be present and use all your senses to take in what others are saying.

- Integrate Understanding: Stay open to and curious about divergent points of view.

- Use Solution Imagination: Take what you’ve heard to advance the conversation, closing the gap between knowledge and action.  

>>> Rob’s Top Tip: Be courageous. Empathy is acquired one step at a time! 

LINKS: 

Company: https://www.ignite-360.com Book: https://www.5stepstoempathy.com  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmvolpe/ 

ABOUT SCOTT: 

Learn more about Scott McInnes, your host and the Founder and Director of Inspiring Change, by clicking 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! 

In this episode of the Building Better Cultures podcast, we learn about the principles of Raw Leadership, how to lean into your authentic power as a leader and how to create better organisational cultures that your employees want to participate in. Our guest is Colleen Bashar, is the Senior VP of Global Solution Sales for Guidewire Software; a cloud-based service that efficiently combines digital, core, analytics, and AI to deliver results to clients. Colleen walks us through her 16-year journey at the company, where she started as a sales consultant, to her current position as a people leader and how she effectively manages a team of over 150 people.

KEY INSIGHTS:

>>> What ‘Raw Leadership’ is, and its three core values: Curiosity, Authenticity and Vulnerability. >>> The importance of investing and reflecting on yourself as a leader to help you lean into your authentic self. >>> Why practicing self-awareness is incredibly powerful.

LINKS:

GuideWire LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/guidewire-software/  Colleen’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleenscott/ 

ABOUT SCOTT: Learn more about Scott McInnes, your host and the Founder and Director of Inspiring Change, by clicking here.

ABOUT OUR SPONSOR - 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.

Celebrating Success and Building Pride​: 

We're doing some focus groups for a new client, and an attendee said, "We used to hear stories of the difference we made, and we don't hear about it anymore. It'd be nice to get that back.​" ​ Why is it important?  ​

Because it helps to celebrate your purpose – Why you exist – through the difference you make, and that's at the very core of the culture you want to create​.

Stories bring strategy to life:

Strategy is boring – stories bring it to life and show the difference people can make. The halo effect is people seeing examples of the difference they can make​.

Aligned with your strategy, it highlights the difference everyone can make​ They create a sense of belonging and a reason to stay – we know from research that people will move jobs for a mere 5-10% pay rise, so we need to do something more to get them to stay – pride is EMOTIVE and powerful​. ​ So how can you find and tell them?​

Proactively look for them – get your senior leaders or internal communications staff out into the business, talking to people and asking, 'Tell me a story about a time when you or someone on the team made a difference.'​

Create feedback channels for your front-line staff to provide feedback on the stories they see and hear. And turn it into a recognition programme or reward your people when they submit a story. ​ Using Your Stories:

Bring them to life at staff events, turn them into short internal podcasts or videos on your intranet - even email as a last resort​ Keep it local – ask leaders at team meetings to spend 10 mins asking teams about what's made them proud.

About Scott (Your host): Learn more about Scott McInnes, your host and the Founder and Director of Inspiring Change, by clicking here.

On this episode of Building Better Cultures we’re checking in with Kevin Empey, Managing Director of WorkMatters, who first shared thoughts about pandemic fall-out back in March 2021 (Ep 61)  

Kevin details various models going forward and where the priorities must lie for leaders invested in cultivating agility as well as sustainability. The need for onsite collaboration and innovation is real, but so are the advantages virtual workers have seen in skipping their commutes. Are hybrid solutions a brilliant compromise or the source of confusing mixed messages? Finding the right balance will require leaders to develop experiential metrics as well as communications that resonate with the hearts and minds of employees. “We have an opportunity to reset workplace culture and reaffirm it,” says Kevin. “And also maybe to lose some of those values that we said were important, but in fact actually are not.” Employee experience and servant leadership loom large on the new Work 4.0 horizon – one ideally based in fulsome, authentic values and transparency. What signals is your workplace culture sending in this time of transition?  

Key Takeaways: 

• Pandemic overnight transformed old, arguably broken models of workplace culture. 
• What’s coming next? Organisational culture has been infused with a complexity of choice, modes of operation, challenges and opportunities. 

• Should leaders embrace flexibility or prioritize certainty? Kevin advocates for “freedom within a frame,” providing guardrails while preserving a critical measure of flexibility. 
• Workplace culture has been forever redefined by the upsides that employees have experienced in working remotely. There is an element of questioning that makes directives less easily rolled out than in the past. 
• Change management today requires more intentionality than ever, with leadership mapping communications to employee hearts and minds.  
• Office productivity and meaningful collaboration have a bar to meet. Employees no longer want to default to long commutes just to check the box. 
• What’s does Work 4.0 look like? Kevin sees two intersecting horizons: 

• • The 2022 Agenda: Helping leaders and managers navigate the transition to new work models that are sustainable and effective today. 
  • The Long-Term Agenda: Visioning objectives, strategies and cultural values that will drive greater adaptivity and agility moving into the future. 

• Kevin believes several factors that will be determinative of corporate fates: 

• • Whether flexible, forward-looking models for performance management, rewards, development, recruitment and succession are adopted. 
  • Whether leaders put in place processes adapted to new workplace cultures. 

• • Whether Future of Work strategy is leveraged to examine and redefine who, how, why and whether certain workplace processes remain viable. 
•  
  • Whether agile cultural, leadership and employee experience strategies are established and sustainable in the long term. 

• Advice for maximizing organizational opportunity at this juncture:
  • Implement coaching and HR support to foster servant leadership.
  • Adopt strategies that thoughtfully reflect corporate values and culture.
  • Acknowledge and address leadership vulnerability in the face of unknown variables and change.
  • Balance open communications and a human-centered approach with a more directive, command-and-control leadership style where indicated. 

• Moving ahead cultural values are center stage, revealing truths and challenging received wisdom about what works and doesn’t for employees across demographics. 
• Leaders are faced with a unique opportunity to undertake a robust assessment of the values that underpin their cultures and will shape workplace health going into the future. 

ABOUT KEVIN EMPEY

Kevin is the founder of WorkMatters, a leadership and organisation development consulting firm focused on supporting business leaders, HR leaders and their employees prepare for the changing world of work.

Website: https://workmatters.ie  WorkMatters @LinkedIn  Kevin @LinkedIn  Kevin @Twitter 

ABOUT SCOTT MCINNES Learn more about Scott McInnes, your host and the Founder and Director of Inspiring Change, by clicking 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. 

Organisations of all sizes are trying to define parameters for today's new workplace cultures – whether remote, on-site or in-between. Host, Scott McInnes, invites a people management expert Andrew Bartlow, the Founder and Managing Partner at the People Leader Accelerator, to share his 25+ years of expertise. Andrew shares practical tips and tools leaders can implement when establishing healthy workplace cultures. He dives into detail on a critical strategy –– clarity –– and its importance in engaging and motivating your organization to pursue corporate goals. 

Thank you to our sponsor, Workvivo, the communications and collaboration platform that provides seamless digital integration for your hybrid or traditional workplace. 

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

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Leaders need to stay flexible and iterative with new workplace models while at the same time communicating solid, dependable plans. 

2. Change management via tiny steps can be disruptive. Andrew advises "ripping off the bandage" and carefully considering decisions to accelerate adoption and minimize fatigue. 

3. Internal communications are the core much that happens within organizations, but rather than dropping by a desk, it's about dropping in on chat or Slack. 

4. Determine the best modes of communication. What works most effectively at each level of the organization? 

5. Learning through listening (and osmosis) isn't gone. It's just moved from the hallway or cafeteria to social media platforms. 

6. Create dedicated corporate retreat spaces where "planful" human interaction occurs. 

7. Execute meaningful, consistent communications and check-ins at all levels. 

8. Andrew sees new mediums as potentially impactful alternatives to the written word: Podcasts, short audios, and video messaging.  

9. To retain and recruit talent in a highly competitive market, organizations must offer remote options, fair compensation, and competent and humane management. 

10. Andrew believes the No. 1 thing to build a thriving workplace culture is clarity, including well-defined organizational priorities and comprehensive and comprehensible messaging.  

ABOUT ANDREW BARTLOW Andrew helps organisations design people-management practices that support success. Leveraging 25+ years of Human Resources and Talent experience within the most highly regarded HR functions globally, he provides organisational advisory services and mentoring for HR leaders.  

Website: www.peopleleaderaccelerator.com

Andrew @LinkedIn 

ABOUT SCOTT MCINNES Learn more about Scott McInnes, your host and the Founder and Director of Inspiring Change, by clicking here. 

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

Darren Murph is an organisational architect who specialises in and knows what works – and what doesn’t. Based on 15 years at GitLab, most recently as Head of Remote, he has all kinds of concrete advice for organisations trying to figure out the correct configuration for their individually distributed workplace models.  

Some C-suiters are reluctant to abandon old office-based operations, emphasizing proximity over business results. But looking ahead at the role and impacts of organisational design, Darren believes the forward-thinking, progressive leaders (and ultimately the most successful enterprises) will embrace flexibility, learning and a healthy redefinition of what it means to … build better cultures. 

You can check out GitLab’s playbook, filled with information about all things remote, here. 

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

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• GitLab was founded as an all-remote company and today has 1,500 team members in more than 67+ countries with no brick-and-mortar offices. 
• What to keep in mind when getting started with a remote work design: 
• Shift your mindset from where people work to how people work.   
• Actively implement programs that combat proximity bias. Leadership can communicate that there is no advantage in working at the office by themselves working from home. 
• Audit workflows across your organisation and ask: Will this work if everyone is distributed, or do they need to be in an office? Then build out a changelog based on those jobs that require an office and reconceive them. 
• Making remote work viable across the enterprise builds resiliency.   
• All-remote or all co-located workplace environments are the easiest to administer because the playing field is even. Hybrid, by contrast, can quickly devolve into the worst of all scenarios with proximity bias and jockeying.   
• The easiest way to hedge against proximity bias is to keep senior leaders outside the office by default. Remote work is a top-down proposition and requires conviction. 
• Agility is key, and the ability to test, learn, and iterate. People and operations can be modulated based on proactive experimentation.   
• Darren references research compiled by the workplace communications platform Slack that reveals interesting insights into the impacts on middle management of the overnight adoption of remote work and the current lack of response on the part of leadership.   
• Writers Take Note: The most important thing a company can do is ensure that all employees have strong written communication skills. Effective storytelling will be far more influential in remote environments that don’t rely on or reward charisma and talk. Scott recommends some related reading from a previous guest, John Simmons, author of "We, Me, Them and It."   
• On Diversity: Hire a diverse group of recruiters, watch your staffing demographic shift, and broaden by extension. 
• Parting thoughts for leaders at companies of all sizes: 
• Build the right workplace culture and ethics into your business model. 
• Fully embrace a people-first orientation that recognizes the power of uplifting employees with empathy and flexibility. 
• Take advantage of the journey and opportunity to get honest, embracing the importance of values fit – not just a culture fit. 

ABOUT DARREN MURPH

Named an “oracle of remote work” by CNBC, Darren serves as GitLab’s Head of Remote. He is a visionary in organisational design, leading at the intersection of people, culture, operations, inclusivity, marketing, employer branding and communication. 

• About Darren/GitLab 
• @LinkedIn 
• @Twitter 

ABOUT SCOTT MCINNES Learn more about Scott McInnes, your host and the Founder and Director of Inspiring Change, by clicking 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. 

Big corporate initiatives designed to transform workplace cultures are often top-down affairs, this week’s guest has taken a different approach to integrate sustainability across Swiss Re, a global financial services provider. James Hartley, a global HR Leader at Swiss Re, shares with us the nuts and bolts of their CO2NetZero programme, a rallying point for climate activism that has ignited ongoing interest and creativity among employees around the world.  

James has maintained the momentum by staying communicative and open to changes as well as by fostering storytelling that resonates on a personal level. The results? Many measurable quantitative and qualitative impacts, large and small, as well as an interactive app that more than 4,000 employees have downloaded to track, learn about and better understand the ways in which environmental healing starts with the kind of individual daily efforts we can all make — if we know how.  

 KEY TAKEAWAYS 

• James unpacks Swiss Re’s corporate DNA, which fuels a commitment to sustainability: 

• • A purpose-led culture whose core mission includes empowering employees to help make the world more resilient.
  • Climate change and reaching a net-zero footprint is a central corporate value. 

• Does micro-change make an actual difference? Absolutely — when people band together to take individual actions that build community and truly add up through sheer volume. 
• Swiss Re’s CO2NetZero programme is iterative — meant to be co-created, fluid and responsive to feedback from across the enterprise. 
• Inviting employees at every level of the organisation to participate not just in the execution but the conception of an ESG programme is key. By building cross-functional teams, staging workshops and taking ongoing feedback, leadership secured tremendous buy-in. 

• Internal champions play an important role by spreading the word and engaging others. 
• Narrative Benefits: Out of Swiss Re’s company-wide commitment to sustainability has come a wealth of anecdotes, both emotional and practical, that connect to the “why.” 
• Sharing personal stories opens up emotional connections in even “right-brained” financial services types, reinforcing the overall corporate commitment to climate activism. 
• Swiss Re’s sustainability programme is built on trust, not micromanagement. James believes employees feel deputized and motivated to take action independently.   
• Bottom Line Stats:  

• • 130,000 individual acts of climate activism. 
  • 1,500 tonnes of direct removal through carbon certificates. 
  • A cumulative direct removal of thousands of tonnes globally.   

• Maintaining Momentum:  

• • James fosters ongoing engagement by cultivating connections, very often through constantly refreshed shared stories and interactive tools on the app. 

• • The platform is constantly refreshed with new series of challenges, education and information.  
  • Regional champions are deputized to run with locally relevant ideas.   

• Recommended first steps for companies of any size that want to make a concerted commitment to sustainability:  

• • Start a conversation. Don’t be intimidated by being the need to be something big, shiny and already fully formed. 
  • Create a space for individuals to bring their ideas and express their creativity through action. 

• • No matter the size of your organisation, recognize that every single action contributes to a joint movement that drives bigger global change. 

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

ABOUT SCOTT MCINNES   Learn more about Scott McInnes, your host and the Founder and Director of Inspiring Change, by clicking here.  

ABOUT JAMES HARTLEY

A transformational and purpose-led People & Culture Executive, James has extensive global HR experience.   

• James on LinkedIn -  @LinkedIn 
• Website - About Swiss Re's Sustainability Programme 

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. 

Are you ready to integrate a values-based component into your corporate ethos? It’s a big commitment, but one with tremendous ROI at every level. On this episode of Building Better Cultures, Scott talks with Sandy Cross, CPO in the Professional Golf Association of America (PGA).    

But for it to work, the effort must be for real. Without buy-in from top leadership – a deep understanding and commitment to sustained change – don’t bother, says Sandy. The PGA’s working group based its program on feedback from up and down the organization, and leaders have deployed it without equivocation. Learn what elements are key to upping your DEI game and how your workplace culture’s frame of mind benefits when a clearly articulated corporate values set is kept front of mind.    

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Mission-driven to values-based: The PGA culture embraced its mission deeply but Sandy advocated for more attention to the “how” of executing that agenda.    
• The PGA developed a playbook to support four people-centered pillar values – each of which includes visible, observable behaviours:  
  • Have each other’s back. 
  • Practice gratitude.
  • Get better every day.
  • Start with clarity.
• Sandy’s initiatives have bolstered retention by fostering the flexible, culturally connected hybrid workplace that Millennials (especially) demand.  

• The PGA used a bottom-up approach to define values, based on the outcome of a working group of nine employees selected by peers.    
• Keeping It Real: Sandy’s values-driven agenda emphasizes measurable, behaviors and actions.

• Having well-defined values gives a chance for difficult conversations because they provide a shared language, foundation and understanding.   
• Committed Deployment: The PGA’s approach is holistic, using values as a lens starting at the hiring process through onboarding and annual values-based (as separate from performance-based) evaluations.   
• Opportunity for Growth: Team members who “get it” can serve as coaches, mentoring and encouraging open communication among team members.    
• Watch Out for Weaponization: There can be friction because values-based culture doesn’t promise that everyone gets what they want every time.   
• Powerful Goal-Setting: Each PGA individual on an annual basis must identify one of the shared values they intend to prioritize for improvement and articulate what success would look like. What’s the desired behavior or outcome?

• The best first steps for organizations undertaking a “values journey”: 
  • Talk to the leadership team. Are they ready on every level to embark on – and stay committed to – the journey? 
  • Support and embody the mission throughout the enterprise. 
  • The program has to be embedded across the full employee lifecycle.
  • If it’s not going to be a deep, sustained commitment, say Sandy, skip it. False starts, shallow or hollow efforts are definitively a step in the wrong direction.   

ABOUT SCOTT MCINNES Learn more about Scott McInnes, your host and the Founder and Director of Inspiring Change, by clicking here.  

ABOUT SANDY CROSS

As Chief People Officer for the PGA of American with responsibility for DEI, Sandy’s career journey has been about building purpose-driven, values-based and people-centric cultures.  Learn more here:  

• Website: www.pga.com 
• Sandy @Twitter 
• Sandy @LinkedIn 

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.