Growth Hacking Culture

Seven out of eight organizational changes fail.

Not because the strategy was wrong. Not because the timeline was unrealistic. Not because the employees were difficult.

Because nobody on the leadership team knew how to have the real conversation that change requires. Not the announcement. Not the update. The one where you sit with someone's ambivalence, listen to what's underneath the pushback, and help them find their own reasons to move forward.

Jeff Wetherhold has spent over 20 years studying exactly this gap. As a Harvard-trained behavioral science researcher, certified change practitioner, and founder of Change with Dignity, he has trained thousands of leaders across healthcare, government, and organizations including MIT on what genuinely moves people through change — without losing them in the process.

His argument is direct and backed by data: disengagement and turnover are not the inevitable price of change. They are the price of communication left to chance. And until organizations treat change as a communication problem first — not a planning problem, not a framework problem — the 88% failure rate isn't going anywhere.

In this conversation with Ivan Palomino, Jeff breaks down why the language of resistance does more harm than good, how motivational interviewing gives leaders a completely different path forward, and what behavioral science tells us about ambivalence that most change programs completely ignore.

In this episode:

This one is for the HR leader, change practitioner, or executive who suspects the field has been selling partial solutions to authentic problems — and is ready for something that actually works.

Connect with Jeff Wetherhold: https://www.jeffwetherhold.com/ LinkedIn: Jeff Wetherhold Change with Dignity

📘 Ivan Palomino is launching his new book, written IN FRENCH: Périmé? La science de rester indispensable quand le marché préfère le neuf

→ It is now available https://amzn.eu/d/0glpiU2r 

Most leaders think they have a talent problem.

They don't. They have a clarity problem.

When winning isn't defined, performance becomes an opinion. And when performance becomes an opinion, the wrong people get rewarded — not because the system is broken, but because nobody built a scoreboard in the first place.

Jamison Carrier has spent decades doing the unglamorous work of building performance-driven teams across some of the most competitive environments in business. As founder of Team NavX and author of Building a Championship Team, he's seen every version of this problem play out — and he knows exactly where it starts.

It starts with assumption. The assumption that your best interviewer is your best performer. That your most visible person is your most valuable one. That you can turn an average performer into a top performer if you just coach them hard enough.

In this conversation with Ivan Palomino, Jamison gets direct about what actually separates top performers from everyone else — the behavioral signals that almost never lie, why skills are trainable but behaviors aren't, and what it really means to build a team rather than a family.

In this episode:

This one is for the leader who suspects they've been measuring the wrong things — and is ready to build something that actually works.

Connect with Jamison Carrier: www.jamisoncarrier.com 

Book: Building a Championship Team — available on Amazon

📘 Ivan Palomino is launching his new book: Expired? The Science of Staying Indispensable in a World Obsessed with New → www.ivanpalomino.net/expired-book-ivan-palomino 

Growth Hacking Culture is a top 5% global podcast hosted by Ivan Palomino, exploring the human side of leadership and workplace performance.

There's a conversation happening in most organizations that nobody is having out loud.

Experienced professionals going quiet in meetings. Younger leaders assuming everyone speaks the same language. Messages that land perfectly with one part of the team and completely miss another. And somewhere in the middle, a slow leak of engagement, trust, and performance that shows up on the bottom line long before anyone names the cause.

Lee Caraher has spent decades at this exact intersection. As a CEO, author, and one of the clearest voices on multigenerational leadership, she's watched the same communication breakdowns play out across industries, company sizes, and cultures — and she knows exactly where they start.

It starts with an assumption. The belief that because you said it, everyone understood it the same way. That "end of day" means the same thing to a 55-year-old as it does to a 28-year-old. That appreciation looks the same for everyone. That experienced professionals will keep raising their hands forever, even when nobody seems to be listening.

In this conversation with Ivan Palomino, Lee gets into the specific habits, blind spots, and mindset shifts that determine whether a multigenerational team performs or quietly falls apart.

In this episode:

This one is for the leader managing a team that spans 30 years of lived experience. And for the experienced professional wondering whether the organization still has room for what they bring.

Connect with Lee Caraher: leecaraher.com | double-forte.com

📘 Ivan Palomino is launching his new book: Expired? The Science of Staying Indispensable in a World Obsessed with New → https://www.ivanpalomino.net/expired-book-ivan-palomino

The Growth Hacking Culture is a top 5% global podcast hosted by Ivan Palomino, exploring the human side of leadership and workplace performance.

You've done the work. Hit the targets. Delivered consistently. And yet somehow, when the promotion conversation happens, your name isn't the first one that comes up.

It's not about performance. It's about presence. And most of us were never taught the difference.

Amy Reczek has spent years helping professionals bridge that gap — not with grand gestures or personal branding frameworks, but with something far more accessible: the small moments most of us are sleepwalking through every day.

The elevator ride where your phone is out and the CEO steps in. The conference lobby where you're staring at your badge instead of the room. The flight where you have twenty minutes next to someone who could change everything — and you spend it on autopilot. These aren't missed opportunities by accident. They're missed opportunities by habit.

In this conversation, Amy walks us through what she calls the in-between moments — the hallway exchanges, the lunch lines, the thirty seconds before a meeting officially starts — and shows how tiny, intentional shifts in those moments build the kind of credibility and visibility that formal performance reviews simply don't capture.

She talks about trading "I-framing" for "U-framing." About replacing rehearsed small talk with genuine curiosity. About how asking "tell me more" opens more doors than any elevator pitch ever will. And about why introverts don't need to become extroverts to lead — they just need a toolkit that works with their energy rather than against it.

What makes this conversation genuinely useful is how human it stays throughout. The advice stretches across cultures and personalities — it works for the quiet Swiss executive as much as it does for the naturally gregarious colleague who just needs a little more direction. Amy isn't selling a script. She's offering a way of showing up that feels like you, just more intentional.

By the end, you'll start seeing your workplace differently. Not as a series of formal meetings and scheduled interactions — but as a continuous stream of small moments where presence, curiosity, and the willingness to actually listen can quietly change the arc of a career.

If you're tired of waiting to be noticed for work you're already doing — this one is for you.

Connect with Amy Reczek:

Amy's book Connect to Close

Ivan Palomino is writing a book. It's called Expired? — and it's about what it actually takes to stay relevant in a world that keeps moving the goalposts. If that question keeps you up at night, you might want to be among the first to hear about it. → ivanpalomino.net/expired-book-ivan-palomino

In the modern corporate world, we have been sold a lie that if we just find the right app or work an hour longer, we will finally catch up. For many of us, work feels less like a ladder and more like quicksand—the more we struggle, the deeper we sink into a pile of invisible work that never makes it into the official job description.

In this episode, we sit down with Lisa Woodruff, founder of Organize 365 and author of Escaping Quicksand. Lisa has spent her career deconstructing the science of productivity and executive function to help people reclaim their most valuable asset: mental clarity.

We dive into why your current organizing isn't working, how to build systems that actually protect your weekend, and what it really takes to stay organized as you move from being an individual contributor to a legacy leader. Lisa also explains the heavy "invisible workload" often carried by women, who frequently manage a 30- to 50-hour-a-week household job in addition to their professional roles.

In this episode, we discuss:

Stop reacting to the "bing" of the next notification and start building systems that respect your cognitive resources and your life outside the office.

Get a copy of Lisa's latest book here https://organize365.com/escapingquicksand/

Connect with Lisa https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisawoodruff/ 

Every HR leader knows the numbers. Absenteeism. Turnover. Declining performance. What most won't say out loud is who's driving them.

Working parents.

Not because they're less committed. Not because they can't handle pressure. But because we built the modern workplace for a reality that stopped existing decades ago — and nobody has had the courage to redesign it.

Dr. Rosina McAlpine has spent over a decade working with hundreds of organizations and hundreds of thousands of working parents on exactly this problem. As CEO of Win Win Parenting and a former university researcher in work-family integration, Dr. Rosina McAlpine doesn't deal in feel-good programs and tick-box policies. She deals in data, systems change, and the kind of practical frameworks that actually move the needle.

In this conversation with Ivan Palomino, Dr. Rosina McAlpine breaks down why the "leave your personal life at the door" model is now a business liability, what a genuinely family-friendly organization looks like beyond the branding, and how HR leaders can build the business case in numbers a CFO will respect.

If you're an HR professional, a people leader, or an executive who suspects your organization is losing more than it realizes — this episode is your starting point.

In this episode:

Connect with Dr. Rosina McAlpine: winwinparenting.com | drrosina.com 

Growth Hacking Culture is a top 5% global podcast hosted by Ivan Palomino, exploring the human side of leadership and workplace performance.

Most organizations are investing billions in leadership development, resilience training, and mindfulness programs — and burnout rates keep climbing. The problem isn't the intervention. It's that they're treating symptoms while the culture keeps producing the damage.

In this episode of the Growth Hacking Culture Podcast, Ivan Palomino speaks with Dr. Irena O'Brien — cognitive neuroscientist and founder of The Neuroscience School — about what brain science actually tells us about workplace culture, stress, and organizational performance.

Dr. Irena cuts through the corporate wellness theatre to deliver what the research really says: culture is not a soft layer on top of performance. It is one of the key conditions the brain uses to calculate threat, cost, effort, and possibility. And when that culture is chaotic, punitive, or overloaded — your people's brains are spending more of the day managing biological cost than doing the work you hired them for.

In this episode you will discover:

→ The most dangerous neuroscience myth running loose in corporate culture right now

→ Why insight and awareness training don't create behavioral change — and what does

→ What psychological unsafe environments do to the prefrontal cortex over time

→ The concept of allostasis and why every CEO should understand it before making culture decisions

→ Why high performers burn out faster — and what the data says about culture vs. compensation as a driver of turnover

→ The 6-hour cognitive limit and how decision fatigue silently degrades your organization's judgment

→ Why working from home improved productivity for many — and what that tells us about energy and autonomy

→ How to organize work around your brain's actual energy peaks

Free resource from Dr. Irena O'Brien: Applied Neuroscience Starter Kit — built specifically for this episode's audience: 👉 https://loveneuroscience.com/culture 🌐

Listen to her podcast, The Neuroscience of Coaching https://neuroscienceschool.com/podcasts/ 

About the host: Ivan Palomino

Most leaders are wired to push harder when things get tough. Evan Marks spent 25 years on Wall Street doing exactly that — until a panic attack stopped him cold at 46.

What he built after that experience became M1 Performance Group, and a coaching philosophy that's now used by top executives, athletes, and traders around the world. His core argument: talent is table stakes. What actually separates the best from the rest is what happens in your head when everything goes sideways.

In this conversation, Evan and Ivan get into the real stuff — the 35,000 decisions your brain processes daily, why "controlling your emotions" is the wrong goal, how to find composure when the pressure never lets up, and what regret has to do with any of it.

No hacks. No toxic positivity. Just a honest conversation about what elite performance actually looks like from the inside.

Evan's book The Quiet Edge drops soon. 

Find him at m1performancegroup.com

Growth Hacking Culture is a top 5% global podcast hosted by Ivan Palomino, exploring the human side of leadership and workplace culture.

Have you ever felt like your brain is on "auto-pilot"? You sit in the same chair, stare at the same screen, and follow the same routines until your office feels like a "sensory desert". Biologically, we are wired for discovery, yet the modern workplace often trades that natural curiosity for pure efficiency.

In this episode, I’m joined by the "Creativity Explorer" himself, Fredrik Haren. Fredrik has traveled to over 75 countries to interview the world's most inventive minds, and he’s here to help us build what he calls the "Curiosity Architecture".

We aren't just talking about "brainstorming" fluff. We’re diving into the real tactics—from the "50-Meter Rule" used by Swiss illustrators to the way an identical twin uses AI to "brainstorm with themselves". If you've ever felt that curiosity at work is an "admission of incompetence," this conversation will help you flip the script and turn "not knowing" into your greatest professional asset.

The 50-Meter Rule: Why turning around every 50 meters helps you see "twice as much forest"—and how to apply that to your desk.

Micro-Rituals for the Office: Why simply shifting your chair 25 degrees can trick your brain out of a "biologically stuck" state.

The Art of "Fractaling": How to find world-class ideas by diving deep into your own supply chain or the lives of your customers.

Bypassing the Amygdala: How leaders can design meetings that signal "safety to play" rather than just "safety to comply".

The "What Do You Think?" Rule: A life-changing tip for raising creative children and leading more innovative teams.

00:00 – Why the modern office is a "Sensory Desert".

05:40 – The 50-Meter Rule: A ritual for seeing what others miss.

12:10 – The "Dopamine Trick": Breaking out of auto-pilot.

17:35 – Digital vs. Tactile: Why your brain needs physical artifacts.

23:15 – What is "Fractaling"? Finding the hidden value in your work.

30:10 – Designing "Safe" Meetings: Getting the best from your team.

35:30 – Questions > Answers: Rewiring the corporate reward system.

45:50 – AI as your "Digital Twin": Scaling your own curiosity.

52:40 – Final Thoughts: One small change to make to your desk today.

Website: FredrikHaren.com

Book: The World of Creativity 

About the host: Ivan Palomino

In this episode of Growth Hacking Culture, we dive deep into The Habit Factor—the scientific bridge between stated company values and actual employee behavior. Our guest, Christoph Merrill (The Habit Freak), argues that most culture initiatives fail because they rely on inspiration rather than habit formation.

When the pressure of the corporate world hits, people don't fall back on mission statements; they fall back on their habitual defaults. If you want to transform your organization, you have to stop "managing" culture and start "hacking" habits.

In this episode, we deconstruct:

The Habit Loop in Business: How to identify the cues and rewards that drive current (and often counter-productive) office behaviors.

Why Willpower is a Corporate Myth: Why even the most dedicated employees struggle with culture change without a habit-based system.

Identity-Based Habit Formation: Moving your team from "following rules" to "embodying the brand" through consistent, repeatable actions.

The 92-Day Habit Rule: Why short-term "culture workshops" don't work and the timeline required for a new habit to become the organizational default.

The Zappos Model: Real-world examples of how habit-driven identity creates a self-sustaining high-performance culture.

Whether you are an HR leader, a CEO, or a manager looking to improve team dynamics, this conversation provides a tactical blueprint for using habit science to drive measurable cultural transformation.

Want to learn more about mastering your defaults or bringing habit-based transformation to your team? Connect with "The Habit Freak" here:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophmerrill/ 

Website: https://www.christophmerrill.com/ 

00:00 – The problem with "Values on Walls."

05:30 – Christoph Merrill’s journey into habit science.

11:15 – Why willpower fails in a corporate environment.

17:40 – Designing a "Default Operating System" for your team.

25:20 – The 92-Day Rule: Moving from initiative to instinct.

33:10 – Maintaining cultural integrity during high-stress periods.

42:05 – Practical first steps for "Culture Hacking" your department.