Collaborative-Culture

What if great leadership isn't about having the answers or maintaining control, but about helping other people flourish? Most organizations talk about their values, purpose, and commitment to people. But what happens when the way leaders actually behave doesn't align with those promises? In this episode of Collaborative Culture , Kristine and Monica sit down with Lara Bezerra , former glob...

Almost every company says its people matter. But saying you're "people first" and designing an organization around people are two very different things. In this episode, we look at three organizations that challenge conventional assumptions about how work should operate and demonstrate different ways organizations can put people-first principles into practice. Compt: Choice and Agenc...

What happens when the management practices that once made you successful stop working across cultures, countries, and time zones? In this episode of Collaborative Culture, Dr. Kristine Gentry turns the tables and interviews co-host Monica M. Smith about her new book, Making It Real: Amplifying Global Collaboration with the Trade Winds GUIDE Framework . When experienced leaders begin managing acros...

Most leaders agree that empathy matters. Putting it into practice can be harder especially when people disagree, performance falls short, or a difficult decision needs to be made. In this episode, Dr. Kristine Gentry and Monica M. Smith sit down with Rob Volpe, author of Tell Me More About That: Solving the Empathy Crisis One Conversation at a Time, to explore how empathy becomes a practical leade...

What if the biggest obstacle to solving a problem isn’t the problem itself but the way we approach it? In this episode of Collaborative Culture, Kristine and Monica sit down with Jim Sholler, author of Solved in Seven: The Power of Disciplined Problem Solving , to explore a deceptively simple idea: before we rush to fix something, we need to make sure we understand what’s actually wrong. Drawing o...

Collaborative Culture is back for Season 2 with a new theme: Good People Doing Great Things . In this season premiere, Dr. Kristine Gentry and Monica Smith reconnect after the summer and share what listeners can expect from the podcast’s next chapter. Through a mix of candid co-host conversations and interviews with guests from around the world and around the corner, Season 2 will spotlight the pe...

Episode Description What does it actually take to build an intentional culture, especially inside a large organization navigating transformation, new technology, shifting customer expectations, and constant change? In this replay episode of Collaborative Culture , Dr. Kristine Gentry and Monica M. Smith revisit their conversation with longtime financial services executive Ron Thalheimer. Drawing o...

Episode Description What if the problem with your people data is not that it is wrong, but that it was built for a completely different purpose? In this replay episode of Collaborative Culture , Dr. Kristine Gentry and Monica M. Smith revisit a powerful conversation with Dr. Nicole Eisdorfer, organizational psychologist and founder of Truer Words. Nicole brings both a research and practitioner len...

Episode Description AI is still moving fast, and many leaders are still asking the same question: how do we bring AI into the organization without creating fear, confusion, or a culture of replacement? That is why we are re-sharing this episode of Collaborative Culture (originally Episode 8). In this conversation, Dr. Kristine Gentry and Monica M. Smith talk about AI adoption as a culture issue, n...

Episode Description As more organizations work across borders, time zones, functions, and cultures, collaboration cannot be treated as something that “just happens.” It has to be intentionally designed. In this replay episode of Collaborative Culture , Kristine and Monica revisit a conversation that feels just as relevant today: how global teams collaborate, what companies often misunderstand abou...

Replay Description: As we revisit key conversations from Season One , we’re starting where it all began. In this replay of our very first episode, Dr. Kristine Gentry and Monica Smith introduce themselves, share the work that brought them to this podcast, and explain why they wanted to create a space for deeper conversations about culture, collaboration, leadership, and the way people work togethe...

Episode Description In the final episode of Season One, Dr. Kristine Gentry and Monica Smith pause to reflect on the conversations, guests, and core ideas that shaped the first season of Collaborative Culture . From the very first episode, the podcast has been grounded in one central belief: culture is not a “soft” skill or topic. It belongs in the boardroom, not just the HR department. Across 22...

Episode Description In this episode of  Collaborative Culture , Dr. Kristine Gentry and Monica Smith explore the human and cultural side of mergers and acquisitions. For years, leaders heard that roughly 70% of mergers failed. More recent research from Bain suggests that the story has changed: close to 70% of deals now succeed, especially among experienced acquirers that have developed strong...

Show Description In this episode of  Collaborative Culture , Monica Smith and Dr. Kristine Gentry take a second look at artificial intelligence and ask a more important question: why are so many AI initiatives failing to deliver results? Drawing on recent research and real-world company examples, they make the case that AI is not just a technology shift. It is a culture shift. They explore wh...

Show description In this special Episode 20 of  Collaborative Culture , Monica Smith turns the mic toward co-host Dr. Kristine Gentry for a deeper look at the framework behind her work helping organizations build stronger, more intentional cultures. Drawing on her background as a cultural anthropologist and founder of Culture Grove, Kristine explains why culture is often misunderstood, why su...

In this episode of  Collaborative Culture , Dr. Kristine Gentry and Monica Smith unpack the complicated topic of executive presence. They begin with an important truth: executive presence can be a loaded term. In many workplaces, it has been used to reinforce narrow ideas of leadership tied to gender, race, class, accent, age, and personality. But when approached thoughtfully, it can also des...

Episode Description What does it actually look like to build an intentional culture inside a high-stakes organization—especially one navigating constant change? In this episode of  Collaborative Culture , Kristine Gentry and Monica Smith sit down with  Ron Thalheimer , a longtime financial services leader whose career spans banking in Chicago, transformation work in London, and more than...

Episode overview In this episode of  Collaborative Culture , Dr. Kristine Gentry and Monica Smith tackle a common misconception in workplace culture efforts: the belief that a single assessment, survey, or workshop can “fix” culture. Together, they break down why popular tools like Myers-Briggs, CliftonStrengths, DISC, Hogan, Enneagram, and Working Genius can be useful, but only as  inpu...

In this episode of  Collaborative Culture , Kristine Gentry and Monica M. Smith sit down with  Wendy Woolfork , founder of  Purpose Walk , to explore what it really takes to build resilient, high-performing workplaces in a world defined by volatility, pressure, and constant change. Wendy shares how she helps senior leaders and teams identify the “behavioral tripping hazards” that qu...

Everyone’s talking about AI and a lot of people are quietly panicking. In this episode of  Collaborative Culture , Kristine Gentry (Culture Grove) and Monica Smith (Tradewinds Career Consulting) unpack how leaders can separate  signal from noise  in AI transformation without torching trust, morale, or the talent you can’t afford to lose. We get practical in three high-impact areas:...

Episode summary A text message at 3 a.m. telling employees to check their personal email before work. That’s not just a layoff story. It’s a culture story. In this first episode of 2026, Dr. Kristine Gentry and Monica M. Smith unpack how  the way organizations handle “hard moments”  (layoffs, RTO mandates, and AI messaging) shapes trust, retention, and long-term brand reputation. They al...

Episode Description Most organizations are drowning in dashboards—engagement scores, turnover reports, productivity trackers, badge swipes, time in office. But how much of that data actually tells you anything real about your culture? In this episode of  Collaborative Culture , Monica Smith and Dr. Kristine Gentry kick off Part 2 of their “Metrics That Matter” mini-series by breaking down the...

In Part 2 of our  Metrics That Matter  series, Kristine and Monica sit down with organizational psychologist  Dr. Nicole Eisdorfer , founder of  Truer Words , to unpack why so many HR and culture metrics feel useless, and what to do about it. Nicole blends HR practitioner experience with IO psychology research to explain why most HR data wasn’t designed to measure culture in th...

Episode Summary In this first episode of our three-part  Metrics that Matter  series, Kristine and Monica pull back the curtain on how organizations are  trying  (and often failing) to measure culture. They walk through the real business case for culture, revenue growth, turnover savings, and performance, and then dig into why most “culture metrics” are actually measuring somet...

It’s our 10th episode  and  our first guest! Dr. Kristine Gentry (cultural anthropologist and founder of Culture Grove) and co-host Monica M. Smith (intercultural leadership expert and founder of Tradewinds Career Consulting) sit down with  Madhuri Kumar , a global talent executive who has led culture, change, and people strategies across Fortune 500s (GE, Halliburton), tech and hea...