Culture by Design: Recent Episodes
LeaderFactor
Timothy R. Clark talks with experts around the world about culture and what it takes to create sanctuaries of inclusion and incubators of innovation. Many try, but few succeed. Why? There’s one thing we know for sure: You can approach culture by design or by default. Either way, you get a culture. But if you approach it by default, don’t expect to get the culture you want.
Today's lesson:
Use Minimum Necessary Intervention to Liberate Talent
Key Points:One of the hardest things for leaders to learn is when to be more or less directive, when to tighten down and when to loosen up. Too little intervention and you’re an absentee landlord. Too much, and you’re micromanaging. As humans we yearn for autonomy in our contribution. We want to create, we want to affect reality in a way that is uniquely ours and in order to do this, we need room.
Today's key action:Next time you work with a high performer, spend time determining what minimum necessary intervention looks like, and then behave accordingly. Even better, write it down.
In this week's episode of Culture by Design, Tim and Junior discuss The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety in a way you might not expect. Using social exchange theory, they'll do a deeper dive to add some color to The 4 Stages model and give you additional tools and frames to use when you look at psychological safety.
What is social exchange theory? (01:47) According to social exchange theory, people are motivated to engage in social exchanges that they perceive as beneficial. Tim and Junior discuss four key concepts related to social exchange theory: Costs, benefits, reciprocity, and power.
What is psychological safety? (13:03) Psychological safety is a culture of rewarded vulnerability and lies at the heart of healthy social exchange. In order for a culture to be truly psychologically safe, the environment must provide something and then the participant must provide something. Tim and Junior explain that each stage within The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety has a social exchange.
The social exchange for Stage One: Inclusion Safety (16:39) In stage one, we are given inclusion in exchange for lack of harm. Tim and Junior explain how this works and what the difference is between worth and worthiness.
The social exchange for Stage Two: Learner Safety (23:30) In stage two, we are given encouragement to learn in exchange for engagement in the learning process. Tim and Junior explain how this works and who has the first-mover obligation.
The social exchange for Stage Three: Contributor Safety (30:02) In stage three, we are given autonomy with guidance in exchange for results. Tim and Junior explain how this works and the ratio between autonomy and accountability.
The social exchange for Stage Four: Challenger Safety (38:15) In stage four, we are given air cover in exchange for candor. Tim and Junior explain how this works and how to protect our people in their most vulnerable state.
Today's lesson:
Adversity is an Opportunity for Beauty
Key Points:There’s tremendous incentive to make things as easy as possible but adversity is a constant. "The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen." -Elisabeth Kubler Ross
Today's key action:Take five minutes and ask yourself, name 3 people you consider to be beautiful people. Not in looks but in character. Why those three names? What characterizes their experience? Have they had easy lives?
Psychological safety has been found to be the number one variable in team performance, and in recent episodes we've discussed the most important variable for psychological safety was the leader of the team. As a manager, as a leader of people, you either lead the way or you get in the way. Much of what dictates whether you're leading the way or getting in the way is the way in which you integrate or don't integrate psychological safety into your work.
In this episode of Culture by Design, Tim and Junior discuss exactly how to incorporate psychological safety as a manager, and will introduce you to some tools that'll help you along the way.
What makes a manager good or bad? Effective or ineffective? (02:56) Our ability to manage and to lead depends on how well we interact with others. McKinsey has found that only 15% of managers create a psychologically safe work environment. This is the biggest and most chronic deficiency in all of leadership.
Most managers have not been trained to lead. Why? (12:48) Leadership as an investment activity isn’t profitable short-term. Leading teams and businesses requires much more than technical competence, it requires cultural competence, at the heart of which lies psychological safety.
How do you implement psychological safety on your team? (27:47) When sharing the concept of psychological safety with your team you need to define the term, set clear expectations, enforce those expectations, live those expectations yourself, and reward vulnerability.
Important Links:
https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/leadership/five-fifty-is-it-safe
https://www.forbes.com/sites/timothyclark/2021/06/21/what-psychological-safety-is-not/?sh=72511fc66452
Today's lesson:
Proximity Prevents Hostility
Key Points:"There’s a lot of hatred, prejudice, discrimination, and contention between and among people who don’t really even know each other. Humans tend to fear difference, especially at a distance." -James Baldwin 1963 “Many of our society's greatest problems are created by people who don’t feel seen and heard.” -David Brooks “Prejudice and ethnic strife feed off abstraction” --Alain de Botton
Today's key action:Here it is: Spend time in the same physical space as someone with different bumper stickers than you and make a concerted effort to understand their perspective by asking questions.
Today Tim and Junior will be discussing coaching and accountability. These are two of the most important tactical levers a leader has and they always go together. If we do these things well, we’ll be able to effectively transfer two things to our people: 1) Critical thinking and 2) Ownership. In this conversation, Tim and Junior will reference the coaching and accountability matrix created by Dr. Clark which we have included below.
(01:52) Coaching and accountability are connected. "You can't really separate them. They don't come apart. If you think about what coaching is, coaching is really about a cycle of delegation and then holding someone accountable through the process and then coming back and reporting. It's about that ongoing journey. So coaching cannot be separated from accountability."
(09:41) The pattern of our communication will dictate the quality of our coaching. What is your ask to tell ratio? "What's your pattern of communication? Are you telling people what to do all the time? Are you asking questions? What is your ratio?
(17:55) What are the three levels of accountability and how do they play into our coaching conversations? What level of accountability do the highest performers operate at? When we are coaching, can we help others move up to higher levels of accountability?
(28:12) Introducing the coaching and accountability matrix. This diagram serves as a powerful diagnostic tool for leaders, coaches, and managers. Whatever the position, stewards can look at the people for whom they have responsibility and assess their mode of performance based on the two dimensions: coaching and accountability.
(39:09) Where do you fit on the coaching and accountability matrix? What level of accountability do you operate at? Use this matrix not only in your coaching situations but as a measure of your own performance.
Important LinksThe Coaching and Accountability Matrix
Today's lesson:
Urgency is a Catalyst, Seldom A Sustainer
Key Points:Urgency is good, but only in doses. If we rely consistently on urgency, what do we get? Stress, poor decision-making, and decreased creativity. Urgency has a short shelf-life, it relies heavily on emotion and that emotion dissipates, so in the long run you should rely on vision and discipline to keep you going over a long period of time.
Today's key action:Here it is: Keep your sustainability/urgency ratio higher than 3:1. For every 1 week that’s absolutely crazy, you need 3 that aren’t. For every piece of messaging you give to your team about pushing harder, send 3 that are about pace, intention, and sustainability.
Today's lesson:
Mistakes Are Not the Exception, They Are the Expectation
Key Points:Do we want more mistakes, or fewer mistakes? We want the right kind of mistakes. We need to distinguish between an operating environment and a test or experimental environment. It’s the difference between practice and the game. Each time we make a mistake, we learn about a cause and effect relationship. We learn what causes what. We learn what doesn’t work. That’s experimentation, that’s discovery, that’s exploration, that’s problem solving. We are expected to fail and learn when we experiment and practice. We can't be afraid to do so.
Today's key action:Share your next mistake.
What happens when you don't have psychological safety, and how does it affect your bottom line? In this episode of the Culture by Design podcast, Tim and Junior share some of the research behind the need for psychological safety at work. You can't fully understand these costs and not walk away with a renewed conviction to foster an environment of psychological safety. Our suggestion? Take this data to your teams and start the conversation around how psychological safety impacts you and your organization.
Seven questions to assess your personal impact on psychological safety (01:56). Tim and Junior open the episode with several self-reflection questions. When asked in a survey environment, 60% of respondents said that at least one of these things had happened to them during the prior 24 hours.
How cultures are formed (10:12). The way that we either interact, either healthily or pathologically, makes a difference. Any time humans interact, cultures are created, which means that cultures are constantly created because we're constantly interacting. This means that cultural quality, like interaction, runs along a spectrum from pathology to health.
Consequences of punished vulnerability (17:15). Junior shares some stats from Christine Porath's work on the costs of workplace incivility.
Cost 1: Bleeding out your best talent (19:47). An environment that fosters psychological safety is very quickly becoming a requirement for top performers. These employees know what kind of environment they need to do their best work. They won't tolerate unsafe environments where
they can't contribute meaningfully, they can't make things better, and they can't challenge the status quo.
Cost 2: Failure to innovate (24:52). Companies with a strong culture of psychological safety are 4.5 times more likely to be innovative than companies with weak cultures. When employees feel safe to take risks and share ideas, they're more likely to come up with new and innovative solutions.
Cost 3: Hostile work environment (30:31). Cultures of punished vulnerability can very quickly turn hostile, and there are very significant liabilities and exposure that we incur as organizations that come with hostile work environments.
Cost 4: Low-velocity decision-making (39:39). Low psychological safety makes the necessary discussion for analysis and decision-making shallow and slow. But having it allows you to do the most thorough analysis and assessment of risk.
Cost 5: Learned helplessness (44:50). A lack of psychological safety can induce conformity, passivity, and learned helplessness which lowers
the bar of performance.
Rewarding vulnerability and investing in its benefits (47:57). Tim and Junior explain the LIVE model (look, identify, validate, encourage), a tool to help individuals actively reward acts of vulnerability in their workplace.
Mentioned Links:
Christine Porath | Workplace Incivility
Psychological Safety Behavioral Guide
The 4 Stages Culture Diagnostic
Today's lesson:
Leaders Get Paid for Judgment
Key Points:
Judgment is the correct application of your expertise but just because you’re an expert doesn’t mean you have good judgment. Quality judgment is a skill that must be developed. Not everyone is born with it. We can think about the decision making process the same way we think about physical production. If the quality of your raw materials and your inputs is poor, then your outputs will be poor.
Today's key action:Identify an area of your professional life that you feel would benefit from some deliberate, aggressive, self-directed learning. And then book a 20 minute slot on your calendar within the next two days to do some intentional learning.
In this week's episode of Culture by Design, Tim and Junior explain The Ladder of Vulnerability. We all experience vulnerability at work differently, and you have a ladder of vulnerability that's unique to you. This episode, and the online resources available to accompany it, will make it easier for you to talk about vulnerability at work. With these tools, you can change the conversation around vulnerability by providing a more practical, data-driven approach.
Today's lesson:
Become an Agile, Self-directed Learner
Key Points:
The biggest barrier to learning today is not access, it’s motivation. Many individuals stop learning when they get out of school or they don’t have outside requirements, external expectations, or a structured learning environment. Many people stop learning even though it’s an innate need and desire. The solution? Make learning completely your responsibility and avoid learning welfare like the plague.
Today's key action:Identify an area of your professional life that you feel would benefit from some deliberate, aggressive, self-directed learning. And then book a 20 minute slot on your calendar within the next two days to do some intentional learning.
In this episode of Culture by Design, we're finishing up our Character and Competence series with the final episode. And if you've been with us each week, thank you. This has been an impactful few weeks where we've discussed topics including integrity, humility, accountability, courage, learning, change, judgment, and finally today, we cover the fourth cornerstone of competence, vision. Tim and Junior will discuss, vision is to see what does not exist, to see what others cannot see, and to see potential and possibility in yourself, in others, and in the organization.
This is a LeaderFactor Single Point Lesson. These 10-minute episodes are packed with practical learning on a single topic. These episodes will be published in addition to our regular full-length episodes every Monday.
Today's lesson:
Leadership makes it harder to get to reality.
Key Points:
When you step into a formal leadership role, you face a built-in obstacle: you have to work harder to stay in reality. Why? Because now there’s a power differential. Honesty and candor comes with risk; it can be dangerous. You get less feedback and it’s filtered. In addition, leaders often develop a tendency to focus inwardly. Welcome to the reality distortion field. What's the solution? An open door policy will never work. That’s passive. The solution is to go get reality by soliciting feedback, being accessible, and rewarding the feedback when it comes.
Today's key action:Go solicit feedback from those who have local knowledge regarding an issue you’re currently working on.
In this week's episode of Culture by Design, Tim and Junior dive into the penultimate episode of their series, Leading With Character and Competence, with a discussion on judgment. If decisions are the primary output of any leader, then improving decision-making is a crucial part of becoming a better leader. The two define and frame the concept, and then share practical ways to improve judgment as a learnable skill.
Judgment diagnostic questions (00:00). Tim asks listeners a few questions to gauge where they're at with their judgment abilities. The first one? Would you say that you're a good decision-maker?
Judgment, systems thinking, and searchlight intelligence (00:00). Junior brings up analysis paralysis and the components of good judgment, including good information.
Tackling adaptive challenges with good judgment (00:00). The faster you can identify adaptive challenges, the better your judgment will be. What are the opportunities, threats, and crises facing your organization?
Judgment and delegation (00:00). Do you use your judgment to multiply force and accelerate the development of people around you? Can you resist the arrogance and overconfidence that comes with success?
This is our first LeaderFactor Single Point Lesson. These 10-minute episodes are packed with practical learning on a single topic. These episodes will be published in addition to our regular full-length episodes every Monday.
Today's lesson:
You will grow based on what you demand of yourself.
Key Points:
As humans, it is natural for us to seek comfort and equilibrium, but equilibrium leads to mediocrity. In the end, mediocrity will deny you the opportunity to discover who you really are and who you can become. What's the answer? Demand more of yourself. Don’t wait for your environment to demand more of you because it might not. Embrace discomfort (but not to your panic zone) and recognize that there has never been a time of significant progression that wasn't characterized by discomfort.
Today's key action:
Write down an area of your life that's falling or has fallen into equilibrium in which you should demand more of yourself. Then go and do whatever might be appropriate to improve
In this episode of Culture by Design, we're entering the second half of our Leading with Character and Competence series with a discussion on the first cornerstone of competence, learning. Tim and Junior discuss what it means to be an agile self-directed learner, why it's important to learn at or above the speed of change, and how to keep yourself competitive and relevant in an increasingly fast-paced, changing environment.
Character vs. Competence (0:01:21). If character is the infrastructure, competence is the superstructure. Tim and Junior introduce the next four episodes of this series, all of which will focus on how listeners can develop and improve their levels of competence.
The perishability of knowledge (0:05:08). We live in a different world than it was just a couple of years ago. Things are changing quickly, and the perishability of knowledge and information are accelerating. Tim and Junior discuss how the linear nature of a career has been disrupted.
The desire for stability and job security (0:13:13). Through a story about union negotiation, Tim illustrates the human need for stability, and how our concept of stability has changed over time. We're no longer looking for a role that'll last us decades, we're looking for one that'll grow with us.
The three types of learning (0:15:00). There are three types of learning: permanent, continuous, and agile. Permanent learning is based on permanent qualification, continuous learning is ongoing qualification, and agile learning is rapid, collaborative, self-directed learning at the moment of need.
Formal vs. informal learning (0:22:03). Eventually, we graduate from opportunities and environments where we learn formally. This means we have to be proactive in creating and seeking out places and times to learn informally. Junior shares four self-reflection questions to help listeners assess their current impact on their learning.
Encouraging learning in leadership (0:24:17). If you're a leader, people are watching you. They're watching how you interact with others, how you perform, and how you learn. If you can lead by example, you'll increase the learning agility of your team because you're creating that prevailing norm on your team.
Reading for curation and pattern recognition (0:39:30). Tim and Junior share their advice on how to maximize what you read, plus a small discussion on Tim's most recent Harvard Business Review article, How to Read a Business Book.
Links
How to Read a Business Book (HBR)
In this episode of Culture by Design, Tim and Junior talk about courage as a leadership trait. Courage is a characteristic you need if you want to take risks, innovate, and progress. It's the biggest difference between managers and leaders. This episode is full of practical advice on developing courage, including embracing reality, deep listening, and aiming high.
We're going to define courage a little more, we're going to talk about the difference between leadership and management. We're gonna talk about why it's so important for each of us to develop at an individual level, and then we'll talk about how to do that.
(0:02:38) Management vs. Leadership, what’s the difference? The risk profile of leadership as an applied discipline is quite a bit different than the risk profile of management. Why is leadership higher risk? Because leaders venture farther into the unknown than managers do. And it takes courage to explore, to disrupt, and to create.
(0:15:29) What is your leadership-to-management ratio? As disciplines, leadership and management complement and yet compete with each other. They’re interdependent but not interchangeable. They represent different roles, but not different people.
(0:28:54) Creativity requires courage. If innovation is about deviation and disrupting the status quo, then creativity is part of that process. But luckily, courage, like creativity, is a learnable skill.
(0:35:11) Tim and Junior share four ways to increase courage. (1) Listen, (2) change before it becomes obvious, (3) embrace reality, (4) aim high.
In today's episode, Tim and Junior continue the "Leading with Character and Competence" series by discussing the third cornerstone of character: accountability. Great leaders love accountability. They are not afraid of transparency and take ownership of their actions and outcomes. Their high levels of accountability help them avoid blame, denial, or excuses.
(02:30) Tim and Junior describe accountability through stories. The opposite of accountability is irresponsibility, which involves shedding accountability and entitlement.
(15:24) Leadership is not just about total transparency; accountability must be internal, not only forced externally. "And that all goes back to how much accountability you are going to take for yourself. Is it intrinsic? Or are you waiting for the control systems around you to keep you in line?"
(21:43) Tim and Junior share ways to improve accountability, including finishing what you start. "Urgency is a catalyst, but seldom a sustainer. It doesn't keep you going over the long haul. So you have to find some other source of motivation." They also emphasize avoiding short-term thinking, stating, "All the significant and good things I can think of, whether in an organization or in personal life, come from short-term sacrifice, not short-term gratification."
(27:45) Be intentional about the values for which you hold yourself accountable. "If you're not explicit about the principles to which you're accountable, then you're only accountable to your own self-interest."
(34:52) Accountability improves confidence. "The more accountable you are over a longer period of time, the more confidence you can have in yourself that you'll be able to do what you say you're going to do."
(37:28) Tim shares a story about entitlement using turkeys as an example. Entitlement is on the opposite end of the accountability spectrum. Organizations need to understand that "that which is consistently given is consistently expected." Individuals should also be mindful of this type of entitlement in themselves.
(40:28) Let achievement be its own reward. "Why are you doing what you're doing? Is it for others? Is the accountability to your goal externally driven? Are you doing it for fame, glory, and money? What can you do to shift that accountability to yourself?"
(44:55) Accountability to higher ideals lasts a lifetime. "Accountability to integrity as an ideal lives longer than you. It's an aspiration that you can have for a lifetime. Accountability to improvement, accountability to compassion, accountability to whatever ideal you choose."
Important LinksLeading with Character and Competence: Moving Beyond Title, Position, and Authority
What's at stake? (0:00) If we do this well, we’ll create sanctuaries of inclusion and incubators of innovation. But if we do this poorly, we’ll be perpetually dissatisfied, we’ll create toxic cultures, and our organizations will suffer.
The current state of hiring, firing and promotion (9:00). Do most organizations make these decisions based on technical or cultural criteria? Tim and Junior talk about the process, outcome, and consequence of both.
What role does psychological safety play currently in the hiring, firing, and promotion of most organizations? (16:00) For most, it's a back seat role. If leaders aren't accounting for psychological safety, what are they looking for?
Technical competence isn't everything (19:40) Tim and Junior discuss the cultural and interpersonal components of hiring and why they should be considered in conjunction with technical skill and experience.
Psychological safety is at the heart of healthy culture (24:15). Tim gives listeners an overview of what psychological safety is and how it fits into the HR space.
The difference between cultural fit and cultural competence (29:30). Tim and Junior talk about why using the term "cultural fit" can be dangerous. Cultural competence, rather, has to do with your ability to contribute to a culture of psychological safety.
Firing and psychological safety (34:00). Tim and Junior make the claim that organizations aren't letting people go that should be let go because cultural competence is not a criterion for evaluation.
Promotion and psychological safety (44:45). Turns out, you get what you tolerate. What promotion criteria should we use to ensure that they will perpetuate healthy norms and build a vibrant culture?
Measure psychological safety on your team for free (59:45). Tim and Junior give listeners the chance to put this into practice with a totally free 4 Stages™ Team Survey license.
The Complete Guide to Psychological Safety
Hiring, Firing, and Promotion Webinar
The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety
LeaderFactor Note #12: 3 Most Deadly Hiring Mistakes
On this week's episode of Culture by Design, Tim and Junior explain the theory behind the name of the podcast. Their claim? Culture is inevitable, and whether yours is a bad one or a good one is up to you.
This week's episode is a team favorite, and is definitely worth the listen. Tim and Junior talk about why the workplace is a vulnerable place, what vulnerability is, and why actively rewarding vulnerability matters. Whether you're motivated by making others around you feel comfortable at work, or you want to improve team performance, you should model and reward acts of vulnerability across The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety.
Rarely do organizations reward leaders for the things they stop doing. We should be excited at the prospect of simplifying processes and getting operational clarity. Clarity creates speed. How do you create clarity and eliminate the "resistance" to organizational change? In this week’s episode of Culture by Design, Timothy R. Clark interviews Marcelino Sanchez, Managing Principal at Agilityze on how you can infuse agility into the DNA of your culture. Here are a few gems from this episode:
We have an impact on all of the micro-cultures we interact with. (10:51)
There is a different culture at work, at home, with friends, and every where we interact. Each social situation presents its own micro-culture and an opportunity to shape that culture. In turn, the cultures of which we are apart shape our own behavior for better or worse. We have the power to intentionally impact cultures around us and be a positive force for good.
"People don't resist change what they resist is being changed" (18:28)
Working in change management and dealing with organizational change you will always run into "resistance". However, the term resistance itself is not that helpful. "Resistance is a term used to blame other people for our inability as leaders to shape and influence behavior" (18:44) Blaming others doesn't solve problems, it creates new ones. Instead, we should focus on bringing others in to co-author change. By inviting others to get involved they become advocates for changes instead of victims of the change. (23:05)
Organizations rarely prune their operational overgrowth (29:57)
Without deliberate interference organizations end up with a cacophony of metrics, dashboards, scoreboards and misaligned incentive structures. Agility requires simplicity and clarity. Although organizations rarely reward individuals for things they stop doing, it's worth taking a look at your metrics, processes, and run a start, stop, continue exercise. (38:28)
Clarity and simplicity will accelerate change (51:32)
Creating simplicity and clarity begins in our interactions. Leaders have an important job to eliminate confusion especially at the top. A small amount of confusion at the top of the organization can have massive ripple effects down the line. If we create clarity at the top it will help change to happen naturally and organically without the typical resistance.
About Our Guest
Marcelino Sánchez, Managing Principal at Agilityze, is an Organizational Change and Opex practitioner, trainer, and coach. His project portfolio includes change management capability building, strategy deployment, M&A, corporate transformations, deploying lean/six sigma, Union/Management partnerships, employee engagement, and implementing operating systems among others. He has coached managers and change agents at all levels including CEOs, executive teams, managers, project teams, and task forces.
How do you create a deeply inclusive environment? (1:15) Tim explains that there's a process and a sequence, and it starts with a focus on your values and beliefs. Once you lay the foundation, you can focus on behaviors and skills, then policies and procedures. In essence, you need to advocate for humanity over human characteristics.
What are junk theories of superiority? (8:00) To create deeply inclusive cultures, we have to eliminate biases and preferences towards certain characteristics, which ultimately create exclusion.
The four stages of psychological safety build inclusive cultures (10:33). As a function of respect and permission, the foundation of psychological safety is inclusion. We want to know that we belong.
Inclusion is a human right (20:45). You shouldn't need to think about it. It's a safety that isn't earned, it's owed.
How to create a culturally flat organization (27:15). Regardless of position, title, or authority, you should be allowed to contribute, participate, and create value.
The definition of psychological safety (2:00). Tim and Junior discuss how vulnerability plays into the definition of psychological safety and what it means to create a culture of rewarded vulnerability.
Defining culture is like squeezing Jell-O (6:05). If culture is human interaction, psychological safety gives us the terms of engagement to interact.
It's impossible to not have any culture (11:45). Just like fish have water, humans have culture. You're in it, and it's in you.
The history of psychological safety (13:20). Numerous social scientists and psychologists have contributed to the psychological safety space, and Tim and Junior synthesize their contributions to a timeline.
How did the four stages come about? (30:00) Tim explains how his professional career in the world of leadership and culture contributed to The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety framework.
What factors drive and contribute to the demand for psychological safety? (45:00) Mental health, social justice, and a variety of other social and cultural factors have played a hand in the demand, and Junior and Tim give us their take on the what and the why.
What is challenger safety? (1:12) Challenger safety is the fourth and final stage of The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety. Do you feel like you can be candid about change? Challenger safety satisfies the basic human need to make things better.
What does challenger safety look like across industries? (4:00) Whether you’re an executive at an up-and-coming startup in Silicon Valley, a nurse in a state hospital, or a tenured professor at a prestigious university, every job needs challenger safety.
What’s the social exchange for this stage? (8:00) When we create challenger safety, we give air cover (protection) in exchange for candor. Tim and Junior discuss why we should value candor in the workplace. After all, what’s the point of bleached, sanitized feedback?
What happens when organizations try to hide their lack of challenger safety? (16:00) Silence is expensive. When teams claim they have a speak-up culture, but do everything in their power to keep their teams quiet, their ruse quickly becomes obvious. Eventually, the candor will come out.
How do we avoid echo chambers? (20:00) If all a leader wants in a meeting is validation that they already have the best ideas, they should have a meeting with themself. Tim and Junior explain that avoiding the dangerous traps of groupthink involves harvesting the power of candid feedback.
Where does the word innovation come from? (22:00) Junior and Tim are surprised to learn that the Latin root of the word “innovate” means to renew or alter.
What is pride of authorship? (27:00) It’s exactly what it sounds like: the sense of ownership that someone feels over their idea, solution, comment, or deliverable. It suffocates feedback and encourages echo chambers.
Is innovation an engagement issue or a culture issue? (34:00) As the precursor to employee engagement, psychological safety creates a culture of rewarded vulnerability that allows innovation to happen.
How do I neutralize the power difference of hierarchies? (40:45) Hierarchy can easily stifle innovation. When superiority and hierarchy dominate your company culture you definitely won’t innovate.
What’s the difference between social and intellectual friction? (46:30) In these moments of collision, a leader’s task is to simultaneously increase intellectual friction and decrease social friction. High intellectual friction lets your team harness creative abrasion and constructive dissent and arrive at real innovation.
What happens if you fail to have challenger safety? (53:40) You’ll want to hear it straight from Tim and Junior themselves. Listen to the end to find out.
Resources Mentioned in the Episode:
The Psychological Safety Behavioral Guide
LeaderFactor Note #26
HBR Article: Don’t Let Hierarchy Stifle Innovation
Podcast: Don’t Let Hierarchy Stifle Innovation
Or learn more at leaderfactor.com
Tim and Junior define contributor safety (01:00). Contributor safety satisfies our fundamental human need to create value. It's the perfect blend of autonomy and accountability, freedom and guidance.
The social exchange of contributor safety (5:00). When we create contributor safety for others, we empower them with autonomy, guidance, and encouragement in exchange for effort and results.
Why do we hate being micromanaged? (9:15). Tim and Junior explain why micromanagement gets on almost everybody's nerves and why we crave autonomy and freedom.
A leaders contribution vs. an individual's contribution (14:35). Leaders have to be willing to let go of the reins of execution and find fulfillment and value in innovation.
The Micromanager vs. the Absentee Landlord (19:45). Micromanagers don't know when to stop offering guidance and trust their employees to do their job. Absentee Landlords aren't willing to offer guidance and direction while expecting perfect outcomes.
Contributor safety introspection questions (23:40). Junior asks a series of questions and asks listeners to crack themselves open and figure out where they fall short in the world of contributor safety.
Discovery and advocacy (27:25). But when you’re willing to ask more than you tell, you transfer those core critical thinking skills to your team instead of keeping them all for yourself. Letting go of the reins means that you transfer not only the execution aspects of the job, but also the fulfilling parts of the work at hand: outcomes, success, discovery, and deliverables can be transferred too.
Tolkien's contributions to contributor safety (39:35). Tim shares a quote from famous writer J. R. R. Tolkien.
How coaching affects contributor safety (41:00). Microcoaching and accountability are fundamental skills that any leader has to acquire in order to be successful in dynamic business environments.
The three levels of accountability (44:10). In any team, individuals may work under three different levels of accountability–task, process, and outcome. Those who work at task-level accountability need to be walked through every aspect of the job. Once a team member shows that they can complete tasks sufficiently, they graduate to process-level accountability: tasks can be strung together in a predictable, consistent process and they will still know what to do. The third level of accountability is where good employees can become influential innovators: outcome-level accountability. Here how we get our work done, how we accomplish our tasks, and how we manage projects and processes don’t matter so much. It’s all about the outcome.
Stage 2 Learner Safety is is part two in our four part series based on Timothy R. Clark’s book The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety: Defining the Path to Inclusion and Innovation. In this episode Timothy R. Clark and Junior Clark answer key questions around how to create a culture where there is both encouragement to learn and engagement in the learning process.
What is Learner Safety? (2:10)
Learner safety satisfies our basic need to learn and grow. We all engage in the learning process and in that process we engage in acts of vulnerability related to learning. A culture of learner safety means those acts of vulnerability are rewarded. Learner safety always precedes contribution and contributor safety.
What is the social exchange? (6:00)
The social exchange is "encouragement to learn in exchange for engaging in the learning process". Who goes first, the team or the individual contributor in the learning process. The leader and the team have a first mover responsibility to provide the encouragement to learn. You can't assume individuals show up ready to learn. The leader sets conditions and sets the tone and it cannot be delegated. We will never grow out of our need to have encouragement to learn. There will always be some trepidation in the learning process.
The organization has an imperative to drive "learning agility". (13:43)
Learning agility means you are learning at or above the rate of change. Without learning agility your organization will slowly become obsolete. Organizations are always becoming obsolete it's just a matter of the rate of the burn.
Examples of punished learner safety. (16:51)Learning is both intellectual and emotional. When someone shuts down our learning process we don't forget. Instances of punished learning vulnerability have lasting effects, they trigger our self-censoring instinct, and shut down the learning process. When you take punished vulnerability to learning public it becomes a nuclear weapon.
How do you balance performance with mistakes? (26:23)How do you make mistakes allowable as fuel for learning but eliminate mistakes when the stakes are high? The key is creating a place and a time where we have room to make mistake and having clear boundaries between the execution and innovation environments. There is a difference between being on the operating table and practicing on a dummy. First define the boundaries.
A leader/teacher's job is to transfer critical thinking and accountability. (34:38)In order to help transfer critical thinking to the learner you must ask questions. The three types of questions are the what, why, and how questions. Part of the answer of creating learner safety is to move away from didactic questions to questions that transfer critical thinking. Learner safety is not soft or enabling but it does require good faith and intent without ulterior motives.
High learner safety is correlated with innovation. (45:45)One of the jobs of the leader is to oil the gears of collaboration. If individual contributors have high levels of learner safety they are more likely to explore new ideas, discover new solutions, and innovate faster than the rate of change.
What is the role of the individual in learning process? (49:37)You are primarily responsible for your own learning and develop. You cannot rely on your organization. It is your job to become an aggressive self-directed learner. If the organization can help you, that's great. Sometimes you will have more support and sometimes you will have less. You have to take responsibility. Without aggressive learning you have "retired while on the job".
Important Links from This Episode.
- Purchase a copy of "The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety" on Amazon.
- Download a free excerpt of the book.
- Stage 1 Inclusion Safety Podcast Episode
- What is Psychological Safety?
- The 4 Stages Behavior Guide (Learner Safety Behaviors)
This series is based on Timothy R. Clark’s book The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety: Defining the Path to Inclusion and Innovation.
You can purchase your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Stages-Psychological-Safety-Inclusion-Innovation-ebook/dp/B07Y3ZJ8B2/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+four+stages+of+psychological&qid=1585587097&sr=8-1
Or download a free excerpt here:
https://www.leaderfactor.com/resources/the-4-stages-book-excerpt
What are The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety? (3:00) Tim and Junior give an overview of the concept as a universal pattern that spans all cultures, demographics, and needs.
The social exchange for inclusion safety (15:45). Every stage is reciprocal, but inclusion safety is different: to qualify for inclusion safety all you have to be is human and harmless.
Inclusion in the context of diversity and equity (22:40). In the DEI space, inclusion sits very closely with diversity and equity. But what do their relationships look like?
Inclusion safety and behavioral families (00:00). Inclusion safety behaviors exist in behavioral families, some of which are asking, greeting, and validating. Junior shares his personal experiences as a dishwasher.
Interaction is not connection (37:23). Oftentimes, we assume that just because we’re interacting with another human that that’s an automatic connection. Tim and Junior discuss why that’s not the case.
Bonding vs. bridging (41:10). Our natural affinities induce bonding behaviors: it’s easy to connect with these people. But when we don’t have natural affinity we need to engage in bridging behaviors.
Inclusion is a prerequisite for innovation (47:15). While it’s probably uncomfortable, the dividends of inclusion are worth it.
In this week’s episode of the Culture by Design podcast, Timothy R. Clark is joined by Melody Wilding, author of Trust Yourself: Stop Overthinking and Channel Your Emotions for Success at Work. As an executive coach, professor of Human Behavior, licensed social worker, and Harvard Business Review contributor, Melody has lots to say about how burnout, ambition, sensitivity and empathy.
Today Tim and Junior sit down to discuss Tim’s recent Harvard Business Review article titled “Don’t Let Hierarchy Stifle Innovation.” There are a lot of concepts that Tim wasn’t able to include in his article that are discussed today, including how to improve our interactions, how to unleash bottom-up innovation and the role that hierarchy plays in innovation and execution.
You can read the HBR article here: https://hbr.org/2022/08/dont-let-hierarchy-stifle-innovation
About the article (1:30). Junior introduces the first line of the article as the theme of this podcast. Tim shares what motivated him to write the article in the first place.
Innovation, hierarchy, and division one football (7:30). Tim shares an analogy from his college football days that explains how extra layers in a hierarchy makes things complicated.
Whose job is it anyway? (11:15) Tim claims that it’s the senior leadership’s responsibility. They have to enlist the rest of the organization, but innovation is embedded in every role. Do we teach our managers how to manage innovation?
Interactions have an element of quality (15:25). Being at the top of this spectrum of quality means that fear, anxiety, inhibition don’t get in the way. Is it free-flowing? Energetic Candid?
Sustainable competitive advantage (21:15). Tim and Junior discuss what innovation does for an organization and why it pays dividends in the long run.
A culture of rewarded vulnerability (30:30). If participation rights aren’t enforced from day one and in the day-to-day, innovation and change won’t happen. You can’t fake the quality of interaction for more than a couple of hours.
Innovation is unknown (37:00). This will usually cause some angst, a little bit of “I don’t know” and that discomfort is part of how you’ll know that you’re in exploratory inquiry.
Normalizing constructive dissent (42:15). Tim and Junior break this down: what is dissent? And what do they mean by constructive?
How empathy regulates discovery (50:40). Empathy means “I will try to understand with compassion and curiosity how you arrived at your conclusions from these data.” Tim explains why empathy is crucial to the innovation process.
Back by popular demand is another special episode talking about engagement and psychological safety. Tim and Junior talk about which is a lead measure, which is a lag measure, and which is a consequence of the other. This episode comes from a previous webinar recorded in 2021. Give it a listen:
Why are we talking about this? (1:00) Employee engagement surveys have been a key part of organizations for the last few years, but which comes first in the causal chain: psychological safety or employee engagement?
Employee engagement as expression (2:00). Tim shares his favorite definition of employee engagement from William Kahn and sets the stage for the discussion with the history of company culture measures.
Our environment enables our expression (10:20). Culture is a product of our environment and our expression is also influenced by our environment. Tim and Junior explain that psychological safety enables our expression.
What is vulnerability? (15:30) Not all acts of vulnerability are created equal, but everyone experiences vulnerability across The 4 Stages. Tim and Junior discuss that rhetoric can’t change punished vulnerability in an organization, but modeling and rewarding behavior can.
What is threat detection? (20:30) We are constantly asking the same question: am I in a safe environment or not? If we feel that we’re safe, we’ll offer a performance response. If we don’t, we’ll jump to a fear response.
The causal pathway (26:20). Employee engagement is a mediator between psychological safety and performance.
From theory to practice (31:30). How do you model and reward vulnerability across The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety? How do you fuse respect and permission to make psychological safety happen?
Bring home along with you (03:45). After an identity crisis in her early twenties, Caroline turned to academics to find where she belonged as she pursued a Master’s degree in cultural identity studies.
Workplace. Mind. Body. Life. (11:00) Caroline talks about her four-pillar framework that she uses at Fidelity. In her words: “It’s more than a fruit bowl and a yoga class.”
Never assume (20:20). Caroline’s first of three gems–to avoid groupthink and accommodate neurodiversities we need to shed assumptions.
How to become more self-aware (30:00). Caroline and Tim share practical ways to learn more about yourself.
Resilience is everything (38:20). After the global pandemic, Caroline learned that sometimes you choose the challenges, but sometimes they choose you.
About Our Guest
Caroline was born and raised in Germany and educated in England, Ireland, France and Scotland and now calls London home. An identity crisis in her early twenties led to her pursuing a Masters in Cultural Identity studies and sparked a passion for personal development, aspiring to become her best self. She cares passionately about helping people maximise their potential and creating a psychologically safe and inclusive environment where everyone can be truly themselves.
Caroline is a certified mindfulness teacher, transformational coach and Mental Health First Aider and has a background in teaching and people & change consulting.
In her current role as Fidelity International’s global Wellbeing Lead, Caroline helps create a wellbeing-centric culture where employees feel well supported and are able to thrive, asking for help when they need it. She is leading Fidelity’s global wellbeing strategy focussed on four holistic wellbeing pillars: Workplace, Mind, Body & Life.
She is also helping to improve accessibility and enablement for employees with disabilities and health conditions, including neurodiversity, invisible illnesses & mental health.
In this week’s episode of Culture by Design, Lindsay Kaplan, head of People Development at Clif Bar joins Timothy R. Clark to talk about anxiety, vulnerability, and what it takes to be a human leader. She advocates for authenticity, empathy, and adaptability as the main characteristics of good leaders and encourages listeners to chase a growth mindset.
Unique and formative beginnings (4:00). Lindsay has been working since she was sixteen years old, living in an all-female household, surrounded by incredible working females as role models. When she left that environment and launched into the world, she kept her head down and worked until she found the L&D world (which didn’t take long).
It’s just like the first day of school (13:00). Lindsay compares onboarding to the first day of school. She explains how remote work has impacted the onboarding process for many organizations that can’t quite replicate the way things used to feel. But compensation for these changes isn’t the answer.
Am I committed to being a human leader? (15:15). Lindsay explains what culture means to her (both professionally and individually). She and Tim discuss how human leadership can shape culture in the best ways. But leadership has gotten more complicated. Those of us who committed to being leaders five years ago may need to recommit. Are you willing to be authentic, empathetic, and adaptive?
Not everyone needs to be a people leader (22:00). You can be high-performing and successful without leading others, but in order to do so, organizations need to allow for that growth. Lindsay explains that people should lead humans only when they want to and are good at it. Why can’t other people lead processes, technology, and resources?
Vulnerability in personal and professional life (24:00). Creating spaces for people to come together, share, ask questions, and connect has changed Linsday’s professional life. In her personal life, Lindsay had to learn to let go of fear and ask for help. Acknowledging (and actively sharing) her vulnerabilities welcomed support into her life that she couldn’t have found anywhere else.
Learning from a growth mindset (33:00). Making mistakes is an act of vulnerability that helps us overcome complacency and actually grow. While making mistakes isn’t “fun,” Tim and Lindsay agree that there’s something exhilarating about it.
Why am I doing it this way? And concerns about burnout (36:55). Looking forward to the next few months, what is Lindsay excited about? What is she concerned about?
About Our Guest:
Born and raised in California, Lindsay grew up in a household of all women, raised by a single mom. She has worked in many industries, including retail, technology, sales, beauty, and wellness, and discovered Learning and Development when she worked for a start-up in San Francisco. She saw the value of the connection that occurs for new employees when they have a good onboarding program and wanted to help people as they started one of the most vulnerable and exciting moments in their careers.
Lindsay currently lead People Development at Clif Bar and company where her team’s mantra is to “lay the foundation for what truly matters most; purpose, well-being, and personal/professional growth.” She is a wife and mother of two children, ages five and eight, both of who have probably taught me more about herself and her capacity for growth more than any career moment.
Lindsay’s goal is to help leaders and employees foster a culture of the psychological safety, inclusion, and growth. At the end of the day, she helps people do their job better while actively adding to a culture of respect and resilience.
In this episode of Culture by Design, Timothy R. Clark is joined by Bobbye Sweat, Director of Diversity and Inclusion for First Command Financial Services in Forth Worth, Texas. Bobbye shares her experiences in seven different industries as she has worked to meet people where they are. She explains that if you really care, you’ll be authentic. That foundation of inclusion makes all the difference.
Bobbye’s origin story (02:00). Raised by a single dad in Arkansas, Bobbye learned the importance of relationships and caring for others from her father, “Mr. Mom”. That one lesson changed the way she approached interactions for the rest of her life.
How Bobbye got her professional start (13:30). When Bobbye worked at Telecom during her junior year of college, she was encouraged to take a full-time job in the engineering field when all she wanted was to be a teacher. Her mentor helped her see the opportunities in front of her, which jumpstarted her professional career. Bobbye took her dad’s words to heart when he said: If you have the attitude and aptitude for learning, you can do anything you want to.
How do you leverage and take advantage of opportunities? (18:00). Bobbye tells the story of how she has been able to work in seven different industries during her professional career. She explains that when people enter new environments with enough support and encouragement, they thrive. They put their head down and get to work.
From phones, to airplanes, to DEI (24:45). While Bobbye was working at Boeing, she noticed that while the work atmosphere was diverse, people weren’t talking. She wondered: how do we get people to look at each other and leverage our differences? As a pioneer in the DEI space, inclusion solidified everything that Bobbye had learned in her career. She learned to link the passion to the purpose of the work.
A foundation of inclusion makes a world of difference (30:00). Bobbye explains that organizations that are truly inclusive will enjoy its byproducts: diversity, equity, innovation, and other business outcomes. When inclusion is the primary focus and foundation, you can get your footing and build from there. No organization can commit itself to a diverse workforce without an inclusive culture, where policy and practice works for everyone.
Leaving a legacy (31:30). When asked what she wants to pass on to the next generation, Bobbye responds that authentic caring is her main focus and goal. As Theodore Roosevelt said: “People don’t care what you know until they know that you care.” When we’re willing to meet organizations where they are, culture can change.
Meet unkindness with kindness (34:30). Bobbye says: pick your battles. Sometimes you'll have to remove yourself from situations, sometimes you need to speak up. This balance of forgiveness and standing your ground is one that Bobbye has learned well. Ask yourself: “What did I do to serve someone else today?”
Maintaining authentic caring through intent and motivation (39:10). Bobbye shares her practical tips on how to care authentically. Sometimes it means doing the opposite of what people would expect you to do.
Creating a speak-up culture (44:00). People continue to ask the question: “Will I have a voice in this position?” Bobbye explains that you can’t expect an organization to magically produce a speak-up culture when it is not designed to sustain one. You have to meet the organizations where they are.
About Our Guest:
Bobbye Sweat is the Director of Diversity and Inclusion for First Command Financial Services in Fort Worth, TX.
Bobbye joined First Command in August 2020, bringing over 16 years of Diversity & Inclusion leadership experience to her current role. Prior to First Command, Bobbye was D&I Integration Director for Hallmark Cards; the Head of the Diversity & Inclusion at Mercedes-Benz Financial Services; Senior Manager Diversity & Inclusion at JC Penney; Associate Director Diversity & Inclusion at AT&T and Senior Manager Network Services & Customer Care Operations at The Boeing Company.
Bobbye received her MBA in Total Quality Management from City University of Seattle. She is a Certified Diversity Professional (CDP), and a Certified 4 Stages of Psychological Safety Consultant.
Introduction
This episode is a recording of a previous event “The Ladder of Vulnerability” you can find the full video at https://youtu.be/RugFkYK-Fxo
If psychological safety is a culture of rewarded vulnerability, the most practical way to increase psychological safety is to model acts of vulnerability yourself and reward the vulnerable acts of others.
But not all acts of vulnerability are created equal. What you perceive as a low-risk act of vulnerability might be high-risk for someone else. We call this the Ladder of Vulnerability. You have a ladder that is unique to you: it comes from your environment, your role, socialization and education, your confidence, and the way people treat you.
In this live virtual event, Timothy R. Clark was joined by panelists Rafael Ramos from Coca-Cola FEMSA, Chantal le Roux from Amazon Web Services, Zaineb Haider from Cigna, and Tracey Walker from RSM. Together they discuss their own personal ladders of vulnerability based on the LeaderFactor vulnerability self-assessment.
As a participant, you’ll also have the opportunity to take the Ladder of Vulnerability self-assessment at https://www.leaderfactor.com/events/ladder-of-vulnerability-self-assessment
What is Psychological Safety (2:47)
Psychological safety can be defined in five words “a culture of rewarded vulnerability”. Human interaction is a vulnerable activity. The question is what are we going to do about that? Are we going to reward the vulnerability of others?
What are Some Common Acts of Vulnerability? (4:15)
When we say that we are being vulnerable it translates into specific behaviors. The live attendees shared a few examples of common acts of vulnerability including:
-Stating that you disagree
-Admitting you don’t know something
-Sharing mistakes
-A handshake
-Meeting new people
-Providing feedback
-Being in a minority group
-Sharing something personal
-Challenging someone who has more authority than you.
The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety™ Framework (7:15)
Psychological safety is a combination of respect and permission. It includes four stages that social groups of all kinds progress through. Inclusion is the first human need that we need to satisfy. Each stage represents a higher level of vulnerability.
- Inclusion Safety
- Learner Safety
- Contributor Safety
- Challenger Safety
The Ladder of Vulnerability Self-Assessment (11:35)
All participants are invited to take a 20 question self-assessment. https://www.leaderfactor.com/events/ladder-of-vulnerability-self-assessment
Meet our Panelists (13:10)
Chantal le Roux
Inclusion, Diversity & Equity Program Manager for Amazon Web Services
Chantal le Roux is an Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Programme Manager for Amazon Web Services. She has a background in transpersonal psychology and special needs education. Her work focuses on supporting people in recognizing and reaching their potential.
Rafael Ramos
Chief Supply Chain and Engineering Officer for Coca-Cola FEMSA.
Mr. Ramos joined Coca-Cola FEMSA in 1999 and was appointed to his current position in 2018. With over 31 years of experience in the beverage industry, he previously served in several senior management positions, including Manufacturing Director for Southeast Mexico, Manufacturing and Logistics Director, Supply Chain Director for Mexico and Central America, and Supply Chain Director of FEMSA Comercio.
Tracey Walker
National Leader of Culture, Diversity and Inclusion for RSM
As principal within the $3B RSM enterprise, Tracey Walker serves as National Leader of Culture Diversity and Inclusion (CDI). She designs RSM's national diversity, equity and inclusion programming, policy and enterprise-wide strategy, creating a culture of inclusion for the 15,000 domestic employees across 90 offices in the US and Canada. She also supports the cultural effectiveness efforts of RSM International.
Zaineb Haider
Senior Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Advisor at Cigna
Zaineb Haider is the Senior Advisor for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Cigna. Zaineb designs and leads Inclusive Leadership Enablement across the Cigna Enterprise. Zaineb’s experience is in DEI organizational assessments, strategy design and implementation, cultural intelligence and DEI facilitation. Prior to joining Cigna, Zaineb was a Senior Consultant with Ivy Planning Group providing DEI consulting and training services to leading Fortune 500 corporations,
Tracey Walker Ladder of Vulnerability Insights (17:29)
Tracey shares her insights on the top three most vulnerable items and her bottom three items in her self assessment.
Rafael Ramos Ladder of Vulnerability Insights (20:54)
Rafael shares his insights on the top three most vulnerable items and his bottom three items in her self assessment.
Zaineb Haider Ladder of Vulnerability Insights (24:51)
Zaineb shares her insights on the top three most vulnerable items and her bottom three items in her self assessment.
Chantal le Roux Ladder of Vulnerability Insights (28:33)
Chantal shares her insights on the top three most vulnerable items and her bottom three items in her self assessment.
Panelists Group Discussion and Insights (31:33)
Question (31:33): Let’s assume we are taking this assessment as a team and now we are aware of each other's ladders of vulnerability. What would you do differently? How would this help you in everyday work life?
Question (37:28) How has the culture (geographically and socialization) of which you are apart influenced your ladder?
Question (42:15) How do we reconcile the need to fit in with the need to be ourselves?
Closing Remarks (48:02)
Cultures of rewarded vulnerability are cultures with high psychological safety. To improve psychological safety in your organization is to model acts of vulnerability yourself and reward the vulnerable acts of others. The 4 Stages Improve platform will help you uncover your team members’ areas of greatest vulnerability and then help you reward that vulnerability through data-driven action plans.
https://www.leaderfactor.com/improve-psychological-safety
On this week’s episode of Culture by Design, Timothy R. Clark is joined by Wenche Fredricksen, Senior Vice President Head of Diversity & Inclusion at DNB, Norway’s largest bank with over 10,000 employees. Wenche wears her heart on her sleeve as she tells Tim her story and explains how she found success in failing, being average, and being human. She encourages listeners to bring their full selves to work and advocate for psychological safety in their workplaces.
It all started in a Norwegian fishing village (01:45). As the first in her family to finish high school, Wenche searched for role models in unexpected places. When asked, “isn’t it enough?” in her current education pursuits, Wenche responds: “No, it’s not enough.”
Don’t minimize differences, maximize them (07:00). Born in the north of Norway, Wenche speaks a dialect of Norwegian that wasn’t commonly heard in her profession. Everyone in the corporate world spoke the southern dialect, so what did Wenche do next?
Diagnosed as a burned-out perfectionist (09:05). Wenche is really vocal about the 3-year gap in her CV. What caused it? A serious case of burnout that left her questioning why she couldn’t be human at work.
Sharing doesn’t lead to connection, sharing is connection (17:05). Why do we hide the laundry basket on our bed in Zoom meetings? Why do we pretend that life begins and ends at work? Being authentic at work means sharing things about your personal life.
A unique motherhood experience (20:55). As the adoptive mother of two children from Colombia, Wenche has found insight into issues that she otherwise wouldn’t have come in contact with. She talks about coming face-to-face with racism and micro-aggressions directed at her children, and how diversity in her family has contributed to her commitment to the DEI world.
Use an abundance mentality (28:20). Wenche gives her advice on how to embrace the stories of others. She highlights the need to avoid compliance, chase commitment, foster respect, and connect with change agents who have initiatives of their own.
A plug for psychological safety (35:00). Learn why psychological safety matters to Wenche, and why she values cultures of rewarded vulnerability.
About Our Guest:
Wenche Fredricksen is the SVP Head of Diversity and Inclusion and DNB (the largest bank in Norway with 10.000+ employees). Previously she worked at Accenture for 30 years, having roles in consulting, HR and as Nordic Diversity and Inclusion Lead for many years. Wenche is an inspirational storyteller who actively uses her life experiences to drive change and build a more diverse and inclusive world.
Her work has been profiled in the media numerous times (Huffington Post, Personal & Ledelse, Ledernytt, Podcasts ++). Her work has been recognized externally on several occasions.
This week on Culture by Design, Timothy R. Clark is joined by James Evans, Director of Knowledge Lab at the University of Chicago. They talk about how to activate diversity, how to harness collective intelligence, and the paradoxical interplay between innovation and execution. You won’t want to miss the gems from this episode:
What is computational social science? (2:30) Turns out, it's hard to explain. It's how we engage in collective action, thinking, and memory. It's reducing the data to make sense of it. It's using computation to create better social policy. In short, it's unprecedented.
Insights and findings in collective intelligence (8:00). We all need help with maximizing collective intelligence. Dr. Evans shares his insights on the subjects. He highlights the power of diversity of experiences, perspectives, and identities across contexts.
How to activate the diversity of their team members (12:20). Teams that are “flat” are more likely to combine elements in novel ways and produce disruptive outputs.
Success is its own worst future failure (13:00). If something succeeds too well., it crystallizes itself and destroys any of the diversity that could make it better. We need to find creative destruction, not destructive creation. Many organizations are compositionally diverse but don’t harness that power.
Ways to activate diversity in a team (15:45). Big teams are less likely to activate their underlying diversity (more efficient, but less innovative). Cultural flatness dramatically improves innovation. Interdisciplinary teams maximize the possibilities of creation.
Cultural flatness neutralizes hierarchies (23:00). We experience cultural flatness when we’re agnostic to title, position, authority, and power distance. We can debate issues on their merits and remove the exaggerated difference in the chain of command.
What really facilitates productive difference? (36:00) Dr. Evans discusses where innovation actually lies in teams and organizations. Older participants crystallize the system. Diverse expeditions are the real game-changers.
Protecting boundaries and silos create a reservoir of ideas (40:30). This is why innovation is so difficult! It’s a complete paradox. Teams cannot execute and innovate at the same time. We must surf the boundaries between execution and innovation in order to be successful.
About Our Guest:
James Evans is the Director of Knowledge Lab at the University of Chicago, which has collaborative, granting and employment opportunities, as well as ongoing seminars. He also founded and now directs the Computational Social Science program at Chicago, and sponsors the associated Computational Social Science workshop. He teaches courses in augmented intelligence, the history of modern science, science studies, computational content analysis, and Internet and Society. Before Chicago, he received his doctorate in sociology from Stanford University, served as a research associate in the Negotiation, Organizations, and Markets group at Harvard Business School, started a private high school focused on project-based arts education, and completed a B. A. in Anthropology at Brigham Young University. He is especially interested in innovation—how new ideas and practices emerge—and the role that social and technical institutions (e.g., the Internet, markets, collaborations) play in collective cognition and discovery.
In this week’s episode of Culture by Design, Timothy R. Clark is joined by Nelson Derry, Global Head of Culture, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Aesop. Nelson’s inspiring upbringing and the depth of his career experience have shaped his worldview and taught him valuable lessons. He and Tim explore his story and discuss what it really takes to intentionally change organizational culture. Hint: it involves shedding bias and harnessing divergent perspectives.
Here are some gems from the conversation:
Your difference is your greatest strength (7:00). Nelson’s mother risks it all to give Nelson the opportunity to learn. Nelson learns how to harness his differences because of his environment.
One interaction can change a life (10:15). A complete stranger decides to support Nelson and invest in his future, completely changing the trajectory of his life and career. He sends Nelson from Nairobi, Kenya overseas to England.
The value of showing up, having courage, and being humble (15:20). Nelson explains the value of consistent interactions in environments where you are encouraged to thrive.
Live above demographics and psychographics (18:00). According to Nelson, you’re not responsible for your first thought, but you’re responsible for your second thought and your first action. The power lies between your first thought and your first action.
When things are hard, it’s not the time to play it safe (22:00). Nelson and Tim talk about lessons learned from Jacinda Ardern, the New Zealand Prime Minister who intentionally appoints an extremely diverse cabinet in the midst of a global pandemic and terrorist attacks.
Harnessing the differences in divergent perspectives (26:30). Easy doesn’t equate to performance. Performance requires the hard work of diverse, divergent perspectives.
Trapped in the paradigm of unwheeled luggage (27:30). Nelson talks about what it means to be a prisoner in your own paradigm. He tells the story of a 1950s entrepreneur who identifies a game changer, but the response he gets is lukewarm at best.
The compounding effects of behaviors (33:00). Nelson explains how behaviors become habits, how habits become norms, and how norms change organizational culture.
Save a seat for those without a voice (36:25). Nelson shares his experiences navigating a world where he felt compelled to hide his differences.
Affection for humanity is contagious (42:00). Nelson models for and teaches others how to supersede bias and prejudice and interact with others intentionally.
About Our Guest:
Nelson currently serves as the Global Head of Culture, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Aesop. He is responsible for driving a company-wide strategy around Aesop’s People Commitments including Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Culture transformation, Engagement, and Well-being.
Prior to joining Aesop, Nelson led the Global Organisational Culture Practice at North Highland serving as a trusted advisor to senior leaders and supporting them with their people transformation agendas including culture and behaviour change, communications & engagement, leadership development, and diversity & inclusion.
Previously Nelson spent a decade at Goldman Sachs in a variety of leadership roles including Head of Strategy and Change within the European asset management business as well as leading several operations teams.
An award-winning executive he has been recognised by the Financial Times and EMPower as one of the Top 30 U.K. and US Future Leaders for contributions to workplace inclusion.
Nelson is the author of ‘Rise of the 2020 Leader - Entering a new era of Trust, Purpose, and Inclusion’. His thought leadership and articles have been featured in publications including Manage HR Magazine.
He is also a regular speaker and storyteller at company events and industry conferences on the topics of high-performing teams, organisational culture, leadership, and diversity & inclusion. Most recently he was invited to deliver the keynote address at the Diversity & Inclusion Workplace Summit, hosted by Business Forums International.
Nelson has been a judge at several international industry awards. Most recently he was invited to be a judge at the U.K. Employee Experience Awards for the ‘Most Innovative Employee Engagement Initiative’ category. He also judged the ‘Global HR Leader of the Year’ award at the Leadership Excellence Awards hosted by GDS.
In this episode of Culture by Design, Timothy R. Clark is joined by Jeri Larsen, Chief Operations Officer at YouScience. They talk about how to meet the individual needs of team members, what it means to be a self-directed learner, and tackle some of the hardest elements of organizational culture. The main question at play: How can we make sure that our people are the happiest?
Here are some gems from the conversation:
Jeri talks about her upbringing and professional timeline (3:00). As the youngest of eleven kids, Jeri learned to hold her own in a loving and motivating family. She has dabbled in Pre-Med, English, university instruction, government procurement/contracting, and corporate training. She says that her job is “to grease the skids and throw the elbows.”
The decade of cultural awakening (10:18). Since the Industrial Revolution, we’ve polished the chain of command and the operational pieces of our organizations, what’s left is polishing our people. How can we innovate? Be creative? Automate? How can we make sure that our people are the happiest?
Organizations are increasingly kindness-driven (15:30). Even though hierarchies prevail in every organization, you can still be kind regardless of how much brass is on your shoulder.
Assume good intent (18:30). As a teenager, Jeri’s mother taught her to assume that everyone is trying to do their best. Nobody is trying to sabotage you. If something feels deliberate, there is a reason behind it, and that reason probably has little to do with you. Bring humility into the equation and allow forgiveness to win.
You need to watch a culture that works (25:10). Seeing both functional and dysfunctional cultures has been phenomenal for Jeri’s outlook on business and workplace culture. In any organization that you take part in, find something positive that you would want to replicate. If you can’t find a single thing, run.
Patterns of self-directed learning (26:30). Sticky notes are Jeri’s best friend. Keep track of everything worth remembering. Don’t ever assign something that you wouldn’t be willing to do yourself. If needs be, get down and do it. As you climb the ladder of hierarchy, you won’t get the feedback that you need unsolicited. Find the people around you who keep you sound and provide you with insights. Who are the people that can be absurdly honest with you, and will still love you anyway? They can tell you if you’re out of line.
Meet needs individually (30:00). Jeri gives anecdotal advice on what it looks like to address individual needs on your team. What will feel like validation for one colleague, won’t for another. She also gives advice on coaching the ‘uncoachable.”
Advice to Gen Zers (40:10). Learn to read a room and develop emotional maturity. Be willing to succeed in the role that you’re in before you ask for a new one. Your creativity and curiosity are some of the best things that we can welcome into our workforce.
About Our GuestJeri currently serves as the Chief Operations Officer at YouScience, an EdTech company helping align talent, education, and industry by empowering students to find their best-fit future.
Prior to YouScience, Jeri has been in multiple executive roles across a variety of industries including SVP of Sales Ops at MX (fintech), VP of Strategy and Analytics and VP of Client Engagement and Success at Skipio (MarTech). In her career, Jeri has had the opportunity to meet organizational needs from the perspectives of: Sales, CX, OPS, and L&D in both the public and private sectors.
Recently, Jeri has been featured as #8 on Women We Admire's "Top 50 Women Leaders of Utah" list and believes better talent and people management are the key to creating better client experiences.
Wife to a burly mountain man and mom to three kids, they are all taller than she is and twice as snarky. When she's not in the office, you may catch her and her family whitewater rafting or camping off-grid. Off-river, she'll usually have a book in her hand and a dog on her lap.
In this week’s episode of Culture by Design, Chantal le Roux, Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Program Manager at Amazon Web Services joins Timothy R. Clark to talk about how to embed inclusive strategy into workplace culture. It’s core business, something that people need to take ownership of in order to create spaces that are truly psychologically safe.
Here are some gems from the conversation:
Chantal describes her background and upbringing (1:30). Born premature, Chantal faced some developmental difficulties and differences that brought insecurities and challenges. This taught her a level of empathy that allowed her to become the therapist that she is today. She has lived in South Africa, Beijing, the United States and Berlin.
Chantal defines and explains her background in transpersonal psychology (5:30). Although it has been around since the 70s, many people are unaware of this vast field. The focus is psychology beyond ego: it connects an individual to their role in the universe and how they interact with and are affected by the world around them. “I am into helping others reach their potential, no matter the setting.”
Chantal shifts her work from education to the corporate space (8:30). This started with Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Cape Town, and Chantal still works for AWS today as an Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Program Manager. Her role is business-embedded, which means she gets to dive deep into the lives of Amazon’s employees. She’s learned to meet people where they’re at so that people can access the information that they need.
When and how do you know that you’re making a difference? (10:35) According to Chantal, if perspective and/or environment has changed, you’ll know that you’re making a difference. But it’s not a finite or short-term journey.
Thinking long-term, thinking as an owner (12:35). When Chantal makes a decision as a leader at Amazon, she doesn’t choose what’s most convenient, she thinks about sacrificing short-term comforts to make choices that are investments. People want to arrive at inclusion as fast as possible, but there’s no real way to microwave inclusion.
Get to know yourself (15:00). Inclusion isn’t a superficial practice, it’s deep personal work. It stems from how you show up as a human. Committing to inclusion means finding your personal values and aligning them with the values of your organization. How do you connect with someone who is surface-acting?
It’s your role to show up and be authentic (24:00). Choose to be authentic so regardless of whether or not those around you will change and follow suit. It may seem awkward on the outside, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not worthwhile.
Inclusion as a practice, not just a theory (26:30). Who isn’t going to raise their hand and say that they’re all for inclusion? Even if you understand the theory and believe that it’s core business and are willing to allocate resources to the space, that is all very different from recognizing that this is your role, not the role of the Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Program Manager. It’s not agreeing to it in theory, it’s committing to it in daily practice.
Any inclusive strategy should be embedded into what you already do (29:20). It’s not an optional extra, it’s changing and adapting what you’re already doing. Then you commit to it and you do it consistently.
Self-compassion isn’t for you, it’s for the people you support (31:00). When you role model self-compassion, you give people permission to do the same. Why are we animated and motivated to do that for others, but never for ourselves?
Are you an ally outside of work? (35:00). When you have a real understanding of inclusion you cannot disengage or ignore acts of exclusion outside the workplace. There is no boundary between addressing something inside the workplace and addressing something outside of the workplace. There won’t be any off-switch to inclusion.
About Our Guest:
Chantal le Roux is an Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Program Manager for Amazon Web Services. She has a background in transpersonal psychology and special needs education. Her work focuses on supporting people in recognizing and reaching their potential.
In this episode of Culture by Design, Timothy R. Clark is joined by Suhail Al Kharsah, Enterprise Agile Coach with the Central Transformation Office for Pharma International at Roche. Suhail shares the gems that he has learned from his many diverse professional and cultural experiences. Together they discuss the fluidity of connection, the need to overcome perfectionism mindsets, and how to set expectations that allow for experimentation.
Here are some gems from their conversation:
Listen to Suhail’s travel timeline (2:36). Originally from Syria, after thirteen years Suhail moved to Yemen for sixteen years. He gained an appreciation for other cultures while living away from home, and has also lived in Oman (five years) and Qatar (twelve years). He also experienced some fundamental professional transitions during this time. Each of these different roles and interactions have shaped his views on connection, contribution and collaboration.
The pandemic forced the fluidity of connection (5:09). When the pandemic hit Suhail’s organization, they had already begun their transformation journey a couple of years prior. However, the shift to virtual life left Suhail wondering: my work is to connect with people and facilitate reflection in teams, how am I supposed to do that from my living room? He explains that situations like these encourage us to challenge our assumptions.
Approach changes with optimism (9:40). Growth happens when we choose to be mobile. We will shift our learning when we remove ourselves from one atmosphere and enter another. If you want to change the way you react to different changes and stay ahead of the learning curve you shouldn’t stay in a role for more than three years. Avoid becoming stale and take on a new challenge.
It’s safe to be human (14:57). We have an innate need embedded in us to belong to family, community and country. But belonging in and of itself isn’t safe, we have identities that need to be protected and included. What is your personal narrative for psychological safety? For being human?
We’re a work in progress (17:50). We’re human, we will never be a final or a finished product. Allow mistakes to become part of your narrative, they aren’t the exception, they’re the expectation. There is no such thing as permanent competence and mastery.
Turn judgment into curiosity (20:45). Curiosity can be compassionate, patient, and empathetic while judgment can be harsh, critical, and vindictive.
Holding masks is tiring (23:00). People come to their workplace with their roles in mind: the first is their on-paper job description, and the second is managing perceptions regarding that role. You don’t need to worry about bringing your “correct” self to work because perfect presentation isn’t achievable.
Embrace an experimentation mindset (26:00). Experimentation mindsets help us use good assumptions to have more accurate anticipation. This will allow us to overcome the grip of perfectionism. Ask yourself: what’s your definition of done? Expectations need to be appropriate in the context of experimentation.
It’s a journey, not an event (34:15). Psychological safety will not come from one meeting, one training, or one book. Leaders, ask yourself: what capabilities do I need to build in my team? Embrace the concept of polarities: it’s not either empowering employees or maintaining control, it’s both. Empowerment must always include accountability.
Confirmation and desirability bias (41:00). Having self-reflection regarding our unconscious bias is key for any leader. You harvest what you plant. What are you saying yes to? What are you saying no to?
About our guest:
Over a career spanning for more than 21 years with Roche, Suhail held a number of leadership positions with increasing responsibility at a global and local level. Currently Suhail is working as Enterprise Agile Coach with the Central Transformation Office for Pharma International. Throughout his career, Suhail has developed a diversified experience varying from Sales and Marketing, Human Resource management and agile coaching.
He is passionate about unleashing people’s power to be the best version of themselves and has a strong belief that Psychological Safety is the main gate for a thriving and fulfilled life.
Suhail is a pharmacist in the background and has an MBA from Strathclyde Business School.
On this week’s episode of Culture by Design, Timothy R. Clark is joined by Garry Browne, Head of Learning and Development at Nestle UK and Ireland. They discuss all things reflection, passion, and introspection.
If intrinsic motivation and self-awareness are your jam, if you’re curious about the interplay between leadership and inclusivity, or if you want to learn how to harness your interests into work that you’re passionate about, press play.
Here are some gems from their conversation:
We are products of our past (12:22). If you want to bring your best self to work you have to acknowledge the things that have shaped you. Pause and reflect: What values from my upbringing drive my unconscious behavior today?
Inclusive leadership is both morally right and business-critical (19:30). It’s an acknowledgement that difference and diversity are good, and then creating the environment to harness each in turn. Leaders should reflect on their everyday behavior and ask themselves: How safe is the environment that I’m creating? Does it foster abrasive thinking?
Curiosity is quality reflection time coupled with humility to execute (32:00). We have a tendency to think that if we give people information, that’s learning. This type of learning pales in comparison to experiential, reflective learning. Systematic introspection deepens learning and accelerates effectiveness. If curiosity is today’s superpower, then reflection is its facilitator. Think: Am I swallowing information or applying it?
Garry’s final words for the episode? (36:52) Work on yourself. There is huge value in knowing what drives you; put yourself into workspaces that align with your passions, be curious about your intrinsic motivations, and of course, remember to reflect.
About our guest:
Garry Browne was born in London to Irish immigrants who worked in the pub trade for 30 years. Growing up in this environment, he interacted with people from all walks of life. This is where he developed a real interest in human behavior. He worked in a number of fields (including sales and supply chain) before landing a job with Nestle, where he now works as the Head of Learning and Development. Garry is currently in the final stage of his Masters degree in Coaching and Behavioral Change at Henley Business School.
Why is change so difficult to maintain? How can exploring beyond quantitative data improve problem solving? This week Tony Daloisio, author of The Journeyman Life, joins Timothy R. Clark to discuss the recipe for lasting change and the possibilities of influence and intuition in leadership and business thinking. Here are some gems from the episode:
Bringing Yourself to the Doorstep of Change (11:28)
We only have two choices: will we change or will we change our belief about needing to change? Change requires conscious internal awareness and a willingness to reach the precipice of decision with the determination to do things differently.
The Two Parts of a Rocket: Overcoming Gravity and Sustaining Change (16:57)
People are like rockets. Most spend their time trying to muster up enough determination to bust through gravity, which requires a sense of urgency and focus that is created through crucible experiences. While urgency is a catalyst, it is seldom a sustainer. Sustaining change isn’t as “sexy” as sowing the seeds of change, but a cadence of accountability and outside support will help us maintain momentum.
A Leader Has Scalable Influence (24:43)
Until a leader changes, nothing else can change. We cannot lead other people at a higher level than we are leading ourselves. Each of us, whether part of a team or not, has a brilliance side and a shadow side. Ignorance of this shadow side will cause our business culture to mirror our shadows instead of our brilliance.
An Intuitive Approach to Possibility (33:11)
There is a difference between advocacy decision making and inquiry decision making. Do we engage in problem solving with a determination to prove the validity of our preconceived notions? Or do we engage in exploration of the problem, relying on the contributions of others? Are we willing to hold our opinions lightly?
About Our Guest
Dr. Tony Daloisio, author of The Journeyman Life, started his career as an inner-city high school principal where he advocated for disadvantaged youth. He received a PhD from the University of Connecticut in the field of Organization Psychology and Counseling Psychology, and now works as an organizational psychologist and a professor of leadership and organizational change at Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business. A partnership with the late Dr. Stephen R. Covey, author of the blockbuster New York Times bestseller The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and then his son, Stephen M. R. Covey, brought on the development of the consulting practice Principle Centered Leadership in the early 2000s. He is also the CEO and founder of Charter Oak Consulting group, which was listed as one of Inc. Magazine’s fastest-growing companies. If you’d like to learn more about Daloisio and his journey, visit his website here.
Rarely do organizations reward leaders for the things they stop doing. We should be excited at the prospect of simplifying processes and getting operational clarity. Clarity creates speed. How do you create clarity and eliminate the "resistance" to organizational change? In this week’s episode of Culture by Design, Timothy R. Clark interviews Marcelino Sanchez, Managing Principal at Agilityze on how you can infuse agility into the DNA of your culture. Here are a few gems from this episode:
We have an impact on all of the micro-cultures we interact with. (10:51)
There is a different culture at work, at home, with friends, and every where we interact. Each social situation presents its own micro-culture and an opportunity to shape that culture. In turn, the cultures of which we are apart shape our own behavior for better or worse. We have the power to intentionally impact cultures around us and be a positive force for good.
"People don't resist change what they resist is being changed" (18:28)
Working in change management and dealing with organizational change you will always run into "resistance". However, the term resistance itself is not that helpful. "Resistance is a term used to blame other people for our inability as leaders to shape and influence behavior" (18:44) Blaming others doesn't solve problems, it creates new ones. Instead, we should focus on bringing others in to co-author change. By inviting others to get involved they become advocates for changes instead of victims of the change. (23:05)
Organizations rarely prune their operational overgrowth (29:57)
Without deliberate interference organizations end up with a cacophony of metrics, dashboards, scoreboards and misaligned incentive structures. Agility requires simplicity and clarity. Although organizations rarely reward individuals for things they stop doing, it's worth taking a look at your metrics, processes, and run a start, stop, continue exercise. (38:28)
Clarity and simplicity will accelerate change (51:32)
Creating simplicity and clarity begins in our interactions. Leaders have an important job to eliminate confusion especially at the top. A small amount of confusion at the top of the organization can have massive ripple effects down the line. If we create clarity at the top it will help change to happen naturally and organically without the typical resistance.
About Our Guest
Marcelino Sánchez, Managing Principal at Agilityze, is an Organizational Change and Opex practitioner, trainer, and coach. His project portfolio includes change management capability building, strategy deployment, M&A, corporate transformations, deploying lean/six sigma, Union/Management partnerships, employee engagement, and implementing operating systems among others. He has coached managers and change agents at all levels including CEOs, executive teams, managers, project teams, and task forces.
What does it mean to be brave at work? Do you look at bravery as a skill that you can develop? This week Ed Evarts joins Timothy R. Clark to discuss what that looks like for leaders and individual contributors to be brave at work. Here are our takeaways:
Bravery impacts everybody.We will all have to face tough conversations and situations. Our bravery will impact our job satisfaction, career paths, and the quality of our relationships. Only facing these challenges head on, with bravery, can help us intentionally shape positive outcomes.
The cost of avoidance is regret.Regret can be positive if we learn from it. Although we can't eliminate all regret being brave can help us to minimize the amount of regret we carry.
With options we have answers.Often during trials we don't look at all of our options. When we have options we have opportunity, if we don't have options then we haven't looked at all the potential answers and outcomes. Having uncomfortable conversations can help highlight alternative options.
You can't be brave without the desire to be brave.If you don't have the motivation to be brave or to speak up then you won't. If those around you don't have the motivation to be brave then they wont. We can increase bravery in ourselves and others when we build strong relationships, practice bravery ourselves, and reward bravery when we see it.
Bravery will never be easy.When you are in situations of heightened stakes and stress it's still going to be hard to say what needs to be said. You may stumble over your words, you may want to avoid conflict. Bravery isn't easy but it's essential for better outcomes.
About Ed EvartsEd Evarts is the founder and president at Excellius Leadership Development, a leadership development organization focused on helping clients build their self-awareness on how others experience them in the workplace so they can manage that experience effectively.
Ed is the author of Drive Your Career: 9-High Impact Ways to Take Responsibility for Your Own Success (coming out September 2020) and Raise Your Visibility & Value: Uncover the Lost Art of Connecting on the Job. He is also the host of a weekly podcast, Be Brave @ Work, where he chats with everyday folks and thought leaders on how to say what needs to be said and do what needs to be done more effectively.
What happens when you treat your people as the number one asset in the building? There are positive consequences that ripple throughout the organization. This week, Paul Phelan, Head of Leadership Development at Jardine Motors Group shares his story and unique experiences with leadership training. Here are a few of our key takeaways:
People are the #1 asset of a company.Organizations cannot run without good people. It's a leader's role to create a positive environment and to take care of the needs of the individuals in their care. When they do there is a positive ripple effect throughout the organization and the customer experience.
Ask yourself "How do we make this amazing?"How do you make the employee experience amazing? How do you make the customer experience amazing? Can you create experiences that people will never forget? There is always room to improve the experience for both your customers and, more importantly, your employees.
Don't go chasing titles.Underneath our titles, we are all people trying to do great work. Titles can distract us from making a meaningful difference in the lives of others if we take our titles too seriously.
Take learning outside of the office.Your training environment matters. When you're sitting around a nice table in the office many leaders are still staring out the glass window thinking of work. Taking the training out, off-site, and curating the environment for learning makes a big difference.
Make training feel real and meaningful.Instead of running through fictitious scenarios to train try using real-life playback scenarios. It's better to use things that have really happened than to pretend you're in a certain situation.
About Paul PhelanHi, I’m Paul Phelan, Head of Leadership Development at Jardine Motors Group.
I’m an award-winning Leadership Development Professional, with over 20 years of Leadership Development and Senior Management experience within both the fashion and automotive retail industries.
As a qualified professional, across a wide range of industry-leading psychometric tools, and along with my own unconventional and thought-provoking facilitation style and Coaching skills, I have successfully designed and delivered a range of Leadership interventions at all levels, all evidenced by strong tangible ROI / ROE results.
My aim in life is to unlock individual's hidden potential and empower them to achieve a fulfilled professional and personal life.
How do you put people in the best positions to be successful? How do you draw stories and insights from data to shape your employe engagement experience? The answer is empathy and an absolute focus on helping people. This episode features our conversation with Brandon Springle, Director of Human Resources for Shaw Industries. Here are a few of our takeaways:
Leaders don't solve problems in isolation.Leaders need to recognize they don't have all the answers. They need to go to the source and listen for understanding. Needs have changed. When leaders listen to the individuals that have the feedback they can really move the needle forward
A paycheck is not enough to retain and sustain talent.There's been a shift in employee expectations and behavior.We're in the midst of the great resignation. Employees are thinking about their options and opportunities. Instead of seeking overtime many employees are seeking to spend more time with family. Leaders need to be very intentional about creating an environment where people want to be. A paycheck is not enough to retain and sustain talent.
Build an employee experience program not an engagement program.
Data has become more and more important in trying to drive the right actions. Metrics that only focused employee engagement can be replaced with metrics that focus on employee experience. You should draw stories and get insights from data to shape your employee experience. Employee experience decisions can't be made by gut feeling alone, they should be backed by hard data.
Overcome bias with empathy.We're all flawed in some way. Always assume positive intent even when it doesn't appear to look so positive. "The first thing I try to do is build relationships with people that I connect to, even if it's a quick connection, just so we can have an honest conversation. If I can control my response to a degree, seek to understand and seek to educate, if there's a teachable moment, then I think we end up with a much better outcome in that situation. "
You can't ignore "hot topics" today.What happens in the world does have an affect on people and their performance. In the past many leaders and organizations would ignore highly political topics as if they were not happening. Today leaders need to focus on having these conversations in a healthy and constructive way.
About Brandon SpringleBrandon is a dedicated HR Leader with over 15 years of evolving experience working in multiple industries including Manufacturing, Background Screening, Health Insurance, and Sports & Entertainment.
Brandon is a certified coach/facilitator leveraging the “4 Stages of Psychological Safety” framework created by Dr.Timothy Clark. Brandon is also certified as a Change Manager with intimate knowledge of the ADKAR process created by Prosci.
Brandon's superpowers include active listening, workforce assessment, talent development, strategic planning,
organizational design, conflict resolution, and cultural design.
Brandon is an intuitive and empathy driven leader focused on providing an amazing experience at all levels
through a service-oriented approach that is rooted firmly in psychological safety.
Strategically, Brandon is future focused as he curates proactive solutions that affect positive change.
Brandon recognizes that there is power in aligning individually diverse talents to a shared vision where the success
is dependent upon the collective brain trust of the “team”.
More than anything, Brandon loves to see people thriving as opposed to simply surviving.
What does it mean to be an authentic and inclusive leader? Voted “Most Supportive Leader” by her employees and colleagues, Zoe Mitchell shares her story and her advice for becoming an authentic and inclusive leader with host Timothy R. Clark. Here are a few takeaways from this conversation.
Look to help others succeed.
If you're leading a team ask yourself "How can I help somebody get to where they want?" or "How can I help this group of people get to what they want?". The deepest satisfaction in leadership is helping others succeed and watching it happen.
Leaders create the cultures of the team.
If you choose to be a true leader, you have to understand your impacts, the things that you say, some things that you don't say, what you're working on and what you're doing. You are setting up a culture for your team, you control it because you're the one holding everybody accountable, including yourself.
Getting real feedback as a leader requires rewarded vulnerability.Be vulnerable with your team to let them see that you don't always have the answers and you are open to feedback. It takes time to build the trust and transparency with your team so they feel safe to give you feedback. You build the safety and trust by rewarding the act of vulnerability that is giving feedback to someone with a title. How you respond and what you do with the feedback makes the difference.
Be vulnerable with your team.What works is being vulnerable. So being able to be vulnerable with my team to let them see that I don't always have the answers. Sometimes I make mistakes just like you do. And so when you give feedback, it lets people know that you're talking to a human being.
Do not ignore your employees.
There's other companies that are constantly ignoring employees and it's huge consequences. There's a bigger impact or trickle down when people are ignored in an organization. It can lead to major problems, scandals, security breaches or worse.
About Zoe MitchellVoted “Most Supportive Leader” by her employees and colleagues, Zoe Mitchell is an award-winning Inclusive Leader with over 20 years of corporate experience building, leading, and maintaining successful high-performing diverse teams. As a former finance senior leader, she is experienced at driving business deliverables and performance metrics while building an inclusive work culture. Her results as a leader speak for themselves and she owes it all to her inclusive leadership style.
Zoe is also the author of the book “Inclusive Leadership Now” where she takes a day in the life of a leader (or someone who wants to be) and layers in practical guidance and real examples of how to incorporate inclusion. She spends her spare time mentoring and coaching University students and young professionals, loves traveling the world (now planning for countries 26 & 27), playing soccer, and eating foods from around the world. Did you hear her say “Ay”... well she is Canadian, so you may hear her slip in one or two of them!
This week Timothy R. Clark interviews Kenny Luck founder of Every Man Ministries and ECPA platinum award winning author of 24 books. Together they discuss connecting in a post-pandemic virtual world and the importance of getting your relationships right. Here are a few takeaways from this episode:
Human beings are created and engineered to be known.People want to bring their whole selves to their work. They don't want to bring parts of themselves. No one likes to live compartmentalize because human beings are created and engineered to be known. If we're forced to hide parts of ourselves, you're not getting the full capacity and potential of a person.
Ask the second question.Connecting with someone requires that you ask "the second question". It's not about "how are you doing today" it's about "how are you really doing today". Get to know your team members and find out what their passions are. In many companies, there's an intersection between the passions of employees and their employer.
We all need connection.90% of the people that you meet are wrestling with some big challenge. When you just ask a simple question that you're thinking inside that applies to everyone, and you say it out loud, you discover that there is this reservoir of willingness to engage. We all need to connect with each other. The pandemic has give the world a shared traumatic experience and opened us up to connect.
"Be a golden ruler."There are certain principles that transcend what's right, and to transcend bias effectively, you have to serve another person without expectation of reciprocity. When you can wade past all of the noise and past all of the cultural movements and see a human beings as they are you will recognize many opportunities to serve.
Authentic over SyntheticPeople want authentic experiences and they want to be their authentic selves. The distinction is between authentic and synthetic, between the real thing and a knockoff of it. Being synthetic is safe but it's not fulfilling or satisfying. Being authentic is vulnerable but the rewards are great if we can get past our fear of being known.
About Kenny Luck
Kenny Luckis the Lead Pastor of Ministries at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills, California. He is the Founder of Every Man Ministries, an ECPA Platinum award-winning author of 24 books covering marriage, family, and men's issues. His most recent b0ooks for men include Dangerous Good and Failsafe. In 2022 he will be touring with Jesus Culture and Hillsong United for the Dangerous Good City Transformation Tour in partnership with A-21 and Capital Records to reach and activate men in their local cities, raise awareness, and reduce demand in the fight against sexual slavery.
Kenny has been married to his wife Chrissy for thirty-three years (in a row). They have raised three wonderful millennials (Cara, Ryan, and Jenna) and live in Southern California
everymanministries.com
In this episode Timothy R. Clark interviews Dr. Reggie Crane on how to approach shared meaning. Reggie is a retired Air Force, Chief Master Sergeant, former Booz Allen Hamilton organizational development consultant, and founder Next Level Coaching and Consulting. Some highlights from the episode are:
First understand the processes and then get everyone on the same page.
"Everything has a process and all you have to do is sit down, understand that process and be able to communicate with people around you, to ensure everybody is on the same page. Then you can do pretty much anything that comes before you."
Shared meaning enhances commitment.
Sit down and focusing on having conversations to get on the same page in terms of what things are important to you, what things are important to them. This shared meaning becomes the foundation for the team to work effectively together.
Help team members understand the relevancy of their job.
Why is what you are doing relevant? It's gotta be relevant because you're doing it, otherwise you wouldn't be doing it. It then becomes easier to understand what kind of things do you believe you have to keep doing or do differently to either maintain or enhance that relevance in the future? This sparks innovation.
Democratize participation.
Every job comes with a voice. There is real power in allowing others to have a voice and there is real value that the organization gets by enabling the everyone to have a voice.
About Dr. Reggie CraneDr. Reggie Crane is a retired Air Force Chief Master Sergeant, former Booz Allen Hamilton Organizational Development Consultant, Founder of Next Level Coaching and Consulting, and Workforce Development Program Manager for the Air Force Technical Applications Center. He is an experienced organizational development consultant, executive coach, trainer and public speaker. Dr. Crane has an extensive organizational communication, conflict management, leadership and team development background. He has widespread expertise in using a range of assessment instruments to enhance self-awareness, interpersonal relationships, communication and team effectiveness.
Timothy R Clark invites Mark Polson to discuss design thinking and how to create a climate where creativity and innovation thrive. Highlights from this episode include:
Creativity isn't something you have or don't have.Creativity is a very human thing. We tend to think of creativity as being talent, but creativity is really something that falls along a continuum. Everyone falls somewhere along that continuum. One end of the continuum is people who like to work within a very high structured type of situation and on the other end you have those who are less likely to work within existing paradigms.
The climate leaders foster can draw out creativity or close it off.Two-thirds of climate is driven by local leadership. Creativity requires a leader to draw-out the best in people because being creative takes courage. Creativity is a vulnerable act and creating a climate where others can have creative courage requires a leader foster high degrees of psychological safety.
Evaluate ideas through the three P's.When a new idea is presented to you it's best to evaluate the idea through looking at the positives, potentials, and concerns. This way of framing feedback ensures that you validate ideas and reward the vulnerability of sharing those ideas. Even if you disagree with an idea everyone can walk away feeling very good about themselves and the discussion.
Creativity requires raw unfiltered ideas.One of the things that organizations do is require ideas to be fully crystallized and evidence-based before being brought to the table. This process neutralizes the desire to put new ideas out there. If there is a truly new and raw idea then you can't measure it against anything else. Instead work with raw ideas to make the smallest actionable step and test it.
Design thinking is centered on human needs.The whole idea of design thinking is it's really based upon this idea of considering the human, the technological and the strategic needs of the business or the entity. When you are designing something you are designing for a specific purpose and it may require research. In your initial research you are oftentimes uncovering unarticulated needs which leads to the opportunity to innovate into new space.
Innovation requires organizations to tolerate ambiguity.A lot of what innovation comes down to is an organization's capacity to tolerate ambiguity or to tolerate uncertainty because there is a there is a certain level of comfort that you have to have with ambiguity in the creative process. There is a lot of learning from trying something and maybe failing at it.
About Mark PolsonMark Polson is the Principal and Founder of Polson & Associates, a consultancy focused on Design Thinking and helping organizations build their capabilities in creativity and innovation in an increasingly competitive and complex world.
In August of 2021, Mark was appointed Associate Professor for the MPS Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing and Management program in the School of Graduate Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Prior to his appointment, he had been an Adjunct Professor for fifteen years teaching the course, “Managing the Creative Process”. As a passionate advocate for lifelong learning, he has been recognized twice with Faculty Leadership Award voted on by the MPS students. In 2021 Mark was also the recipient of the Coty Award for Professional Excellence, given to distinguished alumni of the MPS Program.
Prior to establishing Polson & Associates, Mark was with The Estée Lauder Companies for over 28 years. As Vice President of Creativity & Business Innovation, he worked closely with business units across the organization to help teams develop a design-driven approach to solving strategic business issues, especially in the use of Design Thinking tools and methodologies. Over the course of his career working at ELC, he consulted with leadership teams in the UK, Europe, South Africa, and Asia Pacific.
Mark is a member of the Rutgers Business School Marketing Program Advisory Board. He also sits on the Boards of several philanthropies.
Timothy R Clark invites olympic medalist, speaker, trainer and consultant Dan Collins to discuss olympic team cultures. Dan believes that winners are created at all levels and prides himself on working with leaders to create safe, challenging, and purposeful environments. Some highlights from this episode include:
Making your contribution matter.Your contribution matters. It really matters. Take work seriously, playing small doesn't help anyone. Think bigger and dream bigger because there's enough room in the world for everyone to be at their best. What a place that would be.
Finding your strengths and leaning into them.Everyone's got strengths. There's no one on the planet that doesn't have a great set of strengths. Teams and organizations are built on individual strengths. To find your strengths you've got to put yourself under pressure. You've got to heat them up and really test them and you'll be better for it.
Getting a higher level of self-awareness and commitment.In order to improve you need to surround yourself with friends, family, and colleagues who will tell you when you are not performing at your best. Only when you're told the truth can you get better. It requires a commitment to excellence.
Micro-coaching is better than a performance review.Inside organizations the traditional coaching model is vastly different from coaching in the athletic world. Instead of yearly/quarterly performance reviews there needs to be informal daily micro-coaching similar to the frequency of coaches and athletes.
About Dan Collins | Winners at all Levels
Dan has spent his life dedicated to the art of excellence - being at his personal best with unwavering commitment to his goals. From preparing for big moments as an Olympic athlete representing Australia to managing elite sporting organisations across the globe, Dan’s experience gives him deep insight into the personal quest we all take to discover our best selves.
With a commitment to serving others and making a real impact, he doesn't shy away from tough conversations.
Dan believes that winners are created at all levels and prides himself on working with leaders to create safe, challenging, and purposeful environments - that’s where excellence lives.
Timothy R. Clark invites Love Odih Kumuyi to discuss Diversity and Cultural Transformation. Love is the Founder and Culture Engineering Officer at Unsiloed with 15 years of interdisciplinary experience utilizing law, policy, education, and research to help organizations engineer inclusion. Here are a few key take aways from the conversation.
Delighting in diversity.If you are working towards a diverse organization it's important to have psychological safety as a prerequisite. If you are inviting difference into the room then you should be prepared to welcome it and embrace it with delight.
Diversity needs inclusion to thrive.You can count diversity numbers all day but if you don't have high psychological safety, then you're not talking about inclusion quite yet. Organizations who have diversity without inclusion are most likely diverse by chance. Diversity without inclusion will not last.
You can't ignore the past.Before you can move on to unlock the power of a diverse and inclusive culture you must acknowledge the past failures of your organization. Culture is not just additive, you have to repair old harms and rebuild the foundation in order to do the work well.
Culture is a constant journey not a destination.
When it comes to cultural transformation you are never done. You can't just say "this is a plan going live March 1st, let's all arrive". You cannot just "hit the reset button" and pretend that everything is fixed. Instead, it's a small continuous effort toward creating shared values, supportive communities, and high levels of psychological safety.
Culture does't happen by chance.The culture you want isn't going to happen by chance. You need to engineer experiences for a more courageous and connective dialogue not just more online diversity trainings. It's hard to have empathy for, or understand, your team when you don't know their story or struggles. Creating space to learn each other's stories is one way to design a more inclusive culture.
About Love Odih KumuyiLove is the Founder and Culture Engineering Officer at Unsiloed
As an attorney and Equity, Inclusion and Justice scholar-practitioner, Love founded Unsiloed with a singular mission: To help organizations make psychological safety and human-rights part of everyday culture, for everyone. As a two-time immigrant she understands first hand the challenges of being 'othered' and is keen on using creating spaces that feel accessible.
Formerly the Associate Dean at Cornell University, Love worked in dynamic capacities with corporate organizations, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), U.S. Peace Corps, law firms, and universities across the globe. With 15 years of interdisciplinary experience utilizing law, policy, education, and research to help organizations engineer inclusion, she believes with 100% certainty: When we create workplaces where it's not too expensive for employees to be themselves, innovation abounds and everyone wins.
Love’s superpowers are peacebuilding and conflict transformation. She’s passionate about driving systemic change with empathy, fostering learning and facilitating dialogue — all in an effort to redefine human relations, promotes inclusion, and build psychologically safe workplaces where people can thrive. She is an adjunct professor at New York University, certified Psychological safety trainer and coach, mediator and restorative justice practitioner.
Timothy R. Clark invites Nicki Eyre to discuss Navigating Workplace Bullying. As someone who experienced both opportunity and adversity during her career, including her own experience of feeling bullied at work Nicki Eyre brings unique insights and expertise on how to navigate bullying in the workplace. Here are a few key take aways from the conversation.
Acts of bullying fall on a spectrum.
Acts of bullying fall on a spectrum from overt, blatant, clearly destructive forms of bullying to subtle mild forms of bullying. The intention behind a leader's actions matters. Often new managers can, for lack of proper training, unintentionally find themselves bullying team members. Leaders may intentionally make life harder or try and "manage-out" team members that are underperforming or they feel threatened by. If you are to combat workplace bullying it's important to know where it lies on the spectrum and to address it early.
Current practices lead to escalation.Anti-bullying policy and they'll give you a grievance policy and everything pushes it up the scale towards a more adversarial approach. Then organizations become concerned about how to keep out of court. Instead we need to recognize bullying behaviors earlier and resolve issues before they escalate. You have to look at the main causes of bullying in an organization and work to change behaviors and culture.
We need cultural accountability.In addition to performance accountability (what gets done) we also need cultural accountability (the way that it gets done). Everyone in an organization regardless of their role plays a part in creating value for the customer. It's important that we recognize the work others do and the way that they do them.
Speaking up is not enough.What happens when you speak up that is far more important than speaking up. Because if things aren't being done differently, if someone is punished for speaking up or if they are not heard, then there isn't a point to speaking up. We can't have a speak up culture without first creating an environment of rewarded vulnerability (psychological safety).
Small behaviors make a big difference.One of the things organizations get hung up on is trying to do something really big to make a difference. In reality, it's a series of small things that you do consistently to keep you moving forward in the right direction. There are no quick fixes. It is not a static process but one that you must continually work on.
About Our Guest
Nicki Eyre is the Founder and Managing Director of Conduct Change. She also leads the work of the Conduct Change Foundation as they research and campaign for the implementation of effective routes to redress for individuals, both in terms of approach and legislation, as well as supporting individuals to move on when they are struggling emotionally.
Nicki is a Member of the International Association on Workplace Bullying & Harassment, and was recently invited to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in recognition of her work in this area.
Welcome to “Culture by Design” a LeaderFactor Podcast.
My name is Timothy R. Clark and we’ll be taking this journey together. I’ve spent my career studying and leading organizational transformation, and I can tell you that culture is always the biggest challenge. In the 2020s, our shared aspiration is to create a sanctuary of inclusion and an incubator of innovation. Ok, but how do you do that?
Here’s the thing: You can approach culture by design or by default. Either way, in the end, you get a culture. But if you approach it by default, you should fully expect to get a culture you don’t want.
This podcast will provide you with the insights you need to create culture by design. We’ll bring together expertise from around the globe to discuss the unique challenges facing leaders working in highly dynamic environments.
We’ll cover a variety of topics, but always tie them back to the formation or reformation of culture. The principles and practices we discuss will help you scale your influence as a cultural architect.
Subscribe to the Culture by Design podcast and join me on this journey.