Responsible Leaders - Healthy Cultures

In this episode of the Leading Transformational Change podcast, your host Tobias Sturesson brings back a conversation that many new listeners may not have heard. In this insightful interview with ethics professor and author Ann Tenbrunsel, from almost two years ago (November 2020), they discuss whether we truly are as values-driven as we think, and why we make bad decisions even when we might have good intentions.

Join your host Tobias Sturesson and his guest, Sandra J. Sucher, on this fascinating and timely episode of the Leading Transformational Change podcast. In this conversation, Sandra discusses the foundation of a healthy organizational culture - trust, and how trust can be built, lost, and regained.

Join your host Tobias Sturesson and his guest, Maria Hemberg, on this informative and helpful episode of the Leading Transformational Change podcast. In this conversation, Maria shares what it means to live one's values, how Volvo Cars think about ethics, and how they are meeting the radical shifts in the car industry.

Join your host Tobias Sturesson and his guest, Dan Cable, on this inspiring episode of the Leading Transformational Change podcast. In this conversation, Dan shares profound insights into how you can bring more meaning to your organization. With a focus on experimentation and purpose, Dan unpacks a remarkable example of the power of servant leadership and how redesigning your rituals can contribute to a healthier culture.

As we are now taking steps into a new post-pandemic normal in many parts of the world, it seems like many organizations are struggling with how to have trusting and constructive internal conversations about how and where they do their best work. As a result, internal trust in leadership seems to be shaken. An essential foundation for a healthy culture is an organization’s ability to have hard and important conversations that can move the organization forward.

Many organizations struggle with a culture of silence in which critical concerns are neither welcomed nor raised, essential feedback is unshared, and vital ideas are left unsaid. But how do you measure a lack of something? How do you deal with something that isn’t there? What strategies and habits need to be implemented to deal with silence?

As we are now taking steps into a new post-pandemic normal in many parts of the world, it seems like many organizations are struggling with how to have trusting and constructive internal conversations about how and where they do their best work. As a result, internal trust in leadership seems to be shaken. An essential foundation for a healthy culture is an organization’s ability to have hard and important conversations that can move the organization forward.

We live in times in which circumstances change rapidly, decisions are rarely black and white, and it's hard to know what is right, true, and most important. With our current political climate, polarization, and media culture, there are considerable risks involved in decision-making. How do we build a healthy organizational culture with an ethical compass in turbulent times? 

Professor and ethics expert, Alison Taylor, is currently writing a book for Harvard Business Review Press on how companies can do the right thing in a turbulent world. In this insightful episode, your host Tobias and Alison discuss her key learnings on what it takes to lead with values in the midst of crisis and uncertainty.

Alison Taylor is the Executive Director at Ethical Systems, a collaboration between leading academics in the fields of behavioral science, systems thinking, and organizational psychology. She holds an M.A. in International Relations and Organizational Psychology with her fields of expertise being ethics, management, and social responsibility. Alison has spent the last two decades working with MNCs on issues such as culture and behaviour, ethics and compliance, human rights, and risk. She has been Managing Director at non-profit business network Business for Social Responsibility, and a Senior Managing Director at Control Risks. She teaches professional responsibility and leadership to MBA and undergraduate students at NYU Stern and offers guest lectures on matters of business, public policy, sustainability, and political science.

Duration: 58:35

A culture of speaking up and listening up does not happen by default. Leaders need to build it with intentionality and an awareness of their blindspots. Researcher and author Megan Reitz is passionate about helping people flourish in their workplaces through the way they speak with, listen to, learn from, and care for each other. In this engaging and helpful episode, your host Tobias and Megan discuss building cultures of listening, understanding positions of power and its impact, and a framework for fostering psychological safety.

Megan Reitz is a facilitator, teacher, speaker, executive coach, researcher, and author dedicated to exploring and finding ways to improve the way people interact with one another in the workplace. She is Professor of Leadership and Dialogue at Ashridge Executive Education – part of Hult International Business School. She is ranked as one of the top 50 management thinkers in the world by Thinkers50 and is on the 2021 HR Most Influential List of Thinkers by HR Magazine. Megan is the co-author of "Speak Up: Say what needs to be said and hear what needs to be heard".  

Duration: 50:38

Values that don’t cost us something aren’t worth anything. In the struggle between upholding the principles we say we believe in and a possible loss of prestige or financial gain, our values get tested and are often found lacking. Sweden's leading political scientist, Bo Rothstein, gave up a coveted professorship because he couldn’t teach political ethics with good conscience in a role funded by a financier who supported a cause Bo believed conflicted with the values that the role represented. In this insightful episode, your host Tobias and Bo discuss the role of trust in building strong institutions and healthy organizations.

Bo Rothstein held the August Röhss Chair in Political Science at the University of Gothenburg from December 1994 to June 2021. His long and illustrious career includes roles as visiting scholar and professor at distinguished universities including Harvard, Cornell, and Stanford. Bo is the author of "Just Institutions Matter: The Moral and Political Logic of the Universal Welfare" and "Social Traps and the Problem of Trust", both with Cambridge University Press. His latest book is "Making Sense of Corruption" (together with Aiysha Varraich) published by Cambridge University Press in 2017. 

Duration: 42:24