CultureLab with Aga Bajer

What does a successful startup founder look like?  You probably have a vivid picture in your head – two supercharged recent college graduates bursting out of the gate with a fresh new idea that hits them like a lightning bolt, gets massive funding, and leads to a product launch that is an astounding success.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  My guest today is Ethan Mollick, an award-winni...

Today, my guest is the co-founder and CEO of X4 Group, Peter Rabey . Peter and his team managed to scale and grow their business through extremely challenging times. Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, X4 Group has realigned the entire business strategy to avoid layoffs. The reboot went so well that their business - and headcount - grew by over 50% since June. Tune in to this wide-ran...

Wendy Smith is an associate professor of organizational behavior at the Alfred Lerner School of Business at the University of Delaware. She earned her PhD in organizational behavior at Harvard Business School, and she researches a really interesting area - strategic paradoxes. For the interview with Professor Smith, click here. To be the first to receive the new audio postcards, please click here...

To say that 2020 has been a challenging year would be an understatement. But there are many ways to look at our struggles and Bobby Herrera, the founder and CEO of Populus Group, suggests that we choose to see them as a gift. In this wide-ranging conversation, Bobby and I talk about his entrepreneurial journey and the culture he is committed to cultivating in his company.  To join  CultureBrained®...

Dr Max McKeown is a visionary, and influential presenter who reveals insider knowledge, gleaned from twenty-five years' experience consulting for Pfizer, Topshop and Sony, amongst many other major global brands. In this conversation, we talk about how to find your next big idea, what role strategy plays in your ability to create the future you want and what scenarios could emerge if culture and st...

Garry Ridge is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the WD-40 Company, a billion-dollar business with a 93% employee engagement index. WD-40 has been making history when it comes to harnessing the power of organizational culture. It has kept its values aligned for over six decades by making them the heart and soul of the company. On its culture homepage, WD-40 has the following message for...

This audio postcard comes from Bobby Herrera, from Michigan. Bobby Herrera is the co-founder and CEO of Populus Group - one of the fastest-growing HR services companies in the United States with annual revenue of $500 million and many Fortune 100 customers. Bobby speaks beautifully about how he sees his role as the CEO during the times of Coronavirus. I hope you enjoy his message.          

Today, on the CultureLab podcast, we welcome  Aaron Dignan  - the author of one of my favorite business books of the past few years -  Brave New Work  and the founder of the  Ready . If you feel like the way we work hasn't worked for a while and if you are curious about what new ways of working we could adopt, you'll enjoy this conversation. In this interview, Aaron and I talk about why scale and...

It's in times like these that our values and ethical standards are put to the test. COVID-19 emergency and its aftermath will call for empathy, compassion, and generosity. If business leaders don't rise to the occasion, they'll put their companies at risk. In this audio postcard, crisis expert, Melissa Agnes, encourages us to put ourselves in our stakeholders' shoes and ask: how can we serve them...

When people don't speak up, the organization's ability to innovate and grow is at great risk. A culture of silence is a dangerous culture. A culture of openness and candor, on the other hand, offers immense benefits for creativity, learning, and innovation. But for people to speak up, they need to experience psychological safety and this is what Amy Edmondson , my guest today, has studied for more...

It looks like we might be in a pretty long tunnel. And while there's certainly light at the end of it, why wait? We can create some light right now by building human connections through the means we have available. Here's Thimon De Jong speaking on this topic.

We have a new postcard - this time from Ron Carucci. Ron says that we are currently in an odd, liminal space, in between chapters. And while it's undoubtedly a difficult season, things will resume eventually. So how can we prepare for our new normal? Listen in!

We have created the Audio Postcards series to help you tackle the challenges of COVID-19 pandemic in a calmer and wiser way. This week, the postcard comes from Aga Bajer and she shares three questions to explore with your team to regain a sense of control and purpose in these crazy times.

As time goes by, we all realize that the Coronavirus outbreak is, first and foremost, a human tragedy. But it has also become increasingly clear that COVID-19 is having a growing impact on the global economy, causing many businesses to switch to full-on survival mode. While taking short-term measures to mitigate the effects of the current disruption, many leaders ask themselves: How do you deal wi...

We have created the Audio Postcards series to help us tackle the challenges of the Coronavirus pandemic in a calmer and wiser way. This week we have a postcard from Toronto, from my dear friend Liane Davey who speaks about how not to let a good crisis go to waste. If you want to be on our postcard mailing list, sign up here: http://tiny.cc/5utvnz  

The quality of the relationship with your boss has a major impact on your career, satisfaction and even your overall wellness and health. And yet, it's much easier to find advice and guidance on how to be a good boss than on how to manage a relationship with one. In this episode, Mary Abbajay , the author of the best-selling Managing Up: How to Move Up, Win at Work, and Succeed with Any Type of Bo...

We have created the Audio Postcards series to help us tackle the challenges of the Coronavirus pandemic in a calmer and wiser way. The tricky thing with being a leader or an entrepreneur in times like these is that while we have no clear answers, our team, our family, and our friends are looking to us for guidance. And so it's important that we learn how to walk the line between the light and the...

We have created the Audio Postcards series to help us tackle the challenges of the Coronavirus pandemic in a calmer and wiser way. This postcard is second in the series and comes from Cy Wakeman. Cy challenges us to let ourselves and our teams be impacted by the current crisis and approach it with curiosity, using this "time-out" to grow, develop and perhaps even transform the way we think, feel a...

In difficult times, we all need some guidance, some inspiration and... an occasional kick in the butt. To help leaders, entrepreneurs and soloists navigate the unchartered waters of the Coronavirus pandemic and its impact on our lives, our team started producing  audio postcards. They contain powerful messages from the world's leading thinkers, leaders, movers, and shakers.  This message comes fro...

Our guest today is Nikki Gatenby . Nikki is a business consultant and best selling author, specializing in the field of culture and engagement at work, having been featured in The Guardian , The Times , Management Today , Chamber of Commerce and Corporate Rebels . Over the last 10 years as MD and co-owner of Propellernet , Nikki transformed the Brighton based SEO agency into a global marketing org...

Our guest today is Siobhan McHale , a culture change specialist, EGM People, Culture & Change at DuluxGroup and the author of The Insider's Guide to Culture Change . Siobhan has worked across four continents, helping thousands of leaders to create more agile and productive workplaces. She has been on the "inside", as the executive in charge of change in a series of large, multinational organizatio...

Our guest today is Kirsty Bashforth ,   the founder and CEO of QuayFive Ltd. Her new book on managing organizational culture ( Culture Shift) was published by Bloomsbury in July 2019. I n this episode, Kirsty and I talk about shifting culture so that it serves the business, its employees and the wider ecosystem.

Jitske Kramer is a Dutch anthropologist. She travels the world to learn from traditional healers, leaders, surprising innovators, and random passersby. She looks at the world and at organizations through the eyes of an anthropologist, and what she sees is fascinating. In this interview, we talk about what's involved in the making of a corporate tribe.  Episode Highlights Here are some of the thing...

Our guest today is Mike Ganino. He is a storytelling and communication expert who helps executives, teams, and thought leaders communicate, connect, and engage. Mike is also the author of Company Culture for Dummies and has been named a Top 30 Culture Speaker by Global Guru. Mike is also the executive producer of TEDx Cambridge and the head performance coach at Heroic Public Speaking , where he he...

Our guest today is Melissa Agnes. Author of Crisis Ready: Building an Invincible Brand in an Uncertain World , Melissa is a leading authority on crisis preparedness, reputation management, and brand protection.  Melissa's area of expertise is something that most of us don't enjoy thinking about. She works with organizations to explore questions such as: What will happen if things go off the rails...