Rethink Culture

“You lead human beings and human beings have lives and sometimes those lives are going really well and other times are dealing with challenges. Recognize the humanity in the people that you lead… If we lean in with curiosity and lean in with compassion first and we make people feel like they are genuinely cared about and valued as part of our team, you will see people accomplish things that you ju...

“In the first 100 days in most organizations, employees feel overwhelmed. They feel unconnected... unseen, unheard, unappreciated… Lots of times leaders will say, "Well, it will be better if we're all back in the office." Why? What proof do you have? As we look at research data... the great majority of employees are happier working remotely than want to work in the office.”   ~Joey Coleman We're r...

"None of us will build great companies. We will lead incredible people who will build great companies. It's a choice. It's a conscious choice." ~Ron Lovett We’re republishing one of our Culture Classics featuring Ron Lovett , Canadian entrepreneur, author of Outrageous Empowerment and Scaling Culture , and CEO of VIDA Living. Ron built and sold a 3500-person security company before launching VIDA...

“I believe culture is cash. I think our company culture always delivered at least 10 percent extra in revenue. I believe 10 percent on top was always due to the culture because they really wanted to be successful. They really wanted to see the company succeed… When you have high-quality people that feel really good about the company they work for, you're going to feel it at the customer level. Whe...

“The way we define happiness at work is that it's about how you feel in the workplace. Does work typically make you feel good or does work typically make you feel bad? And of course, nobody's happy at work every single day. If somebody's happy all the time, there's something wrong with them. We all have good days and bad days at work.” S04E09 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on...

"No leader should lead alone... they need a peer group, they need people they can share with, they need to be continually learning and developing, and they need… a support network." We're republishing one of our "Culture Classics" featuring Sandy Hall , resilience specialist and founder of re/cognition . With a background in neuroscience and years leading IBM’s Best Workplace Program in New Zealan...

“I'm always surprised that nobody seems to be worried that we're investing since 70, 80 years, huge amounts of money in training and development, leadership courses... And despite that, we only have... 23% engaged employees around the world, 11% if you go to Europe... So either managers are stupid, or they do it on purpose, or we don't give them what they need... The managers... the ones that I th...

"Culture is not about popcorn, peanuts, ping pong. It's about having a heart of gold and a backbone of steel... Be a caring organization... It's a balance between being tough minded and tenderhearted... It's simple, it's not easy, and time is not your friend." We're republishing one of our "Culture Classics" featuring Garry Ridge. Garry is a “champion-of-hope” leader and has defined culture at the...

“A huge catalyst for growth, a huge accelerant, a huge way to improve the business on every dimension is to be a more people-oriented company… The more you support people and the things they want to do with their lives outside of work, the more people are going to cherish the relationship with their employer, the more loyal they're going to be, the harder they're going to work. It becomes this sym...

“We‘re a service business that just happens to collect waste. I never get out of the bed in the morning thinking I’m in the waste industry. Never, ever, ever. I don’t go to the waste management trade shows. Personally, I can’t think of anything worse to do. It doesn’t inspire me. But I will read every book about the service industry. I want to know what’s the best service industry in Asia. I want...

“AI will put humanity in the centre, and we will value that. We'll value the connections, even for companies, the level of service, the attention that you pay off, that will be at the centre. And I'm convinced it's going to have a big effect.” S04E05 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on David Tomás, founder and CEO of Cyberclick, a successful digital marketing company and one of...

“The thing to be careful about, which always worried me, was just drinking your own Kool-Aid too much… “strong convictions, loosely held” the value of the company, which means that this is our culture, this is how we do things. We're very, very committed to this... if you come along and you speak a truth that's going to improve or… invalidate something in here we are not attached to it. We will th...

“The number one thing that I hear business owners complain about is my employees don't think, care, or work like I do… The profit-sharing program that I use is for the leadership and the people making the decisions every day that affect profit the most... the goal is to bridge that gap… the thinking, caring, and working like an owner. An owner is going to be… very effective with his time because h...

“The first thing that I needed to do was to start creating a safe space for my staff to challenge me. The harder part was for my staff to fail. And sometimes when they failed, we lost clients. And that was really bitter, bitter pills to swallow. But I realized very quickly that if I was to create the safe space, I had to stop micromanaging. Because the minute I started micromanaging, the space was...

“Your team will always only perform to right here. They're never going to perform above you. They're not going to run faster around the track than you are. They're only going to run as fast as you're running. If you're showing up early, they're going to show up early. If you show up late, they're going to show up late. If you do two extra calls, they're going to do two extra calls… So if we want a...

“I always think of culture like a garden... We're always in the middle of the journey. There's no real finish line to culture. It's always like that garden. You're always replanting it. You're always finding new crops. You're finding a new kind of seed to plant. And sometimes it doesn't work out and it's a failure. That's okay, too. There's learning in that as well.” We're republishing one of our...

“I think that when your people really believe that you care for them, they show up every single day, and they give you 110%... Your people are your business. At the end of the day, as a leader or owner you're just one person. Your people are the face of your company. And if you really breathe life into them and you support them and you actually care for them and see them as more than just a worker...

“Is it companies who put employees first? Do they perform better than companies who put customers first? Or those that put stakeholders first? I thought it was a fundamental question needed to be answered. And the answer [that came through John Kotter’s research] surprised everybody… The companies that outperformed by a factor of 10 were those that treated all 3 equally. That the employees, custom...

“People are always looking for three things. They look for something to believe in, which is the vision. They look for someone to believe in, which is a leader, and then they're looking for someone to believe in them, which is their self-worth.” S03E18 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Shivani Gupta , engineer-turned-entrepreneur-turned-educator, TEDx speaker, bestselling auth...

“I think that culture has always been there… There are two fish swimming in a pond, and a bigger fish swims past them and says, “How's the water?” And when he swims away, the fish look at each other and say, “What's water?” Culture is always there. It's always around you. You can feel it, but you don't even realize you're in it.” We're republishing one of our "Culture Classics" with Miren Oca , th...

“If you think your team or your organization are not working well, are not doing things, are not to be trusted, are not ready for this, there's something in you here that is all of that. So what in you needs to change, so this space appears for the rest of the team to rise? Be hungry for the collective intelligence to arise. Be happy when you join a meeting and the outcome from it is different fro...

“Who you choose as your partner, what you choose as your vacation or your place of work, or the community you choose to live in, I think if these are not aligned to your values, you have a very low chance of success in the long run.” We're republishing one of our "Culture Classics" with Robert Glazer , founder and chairman of Acceleration Partners, a global affiliate marketing agency that’s recogn...

“What really changed was the experience during the pandemic. The pandemic, in my view, put a very bright spotlight on things that are not working in society as well, put a spotlight on inequalities that exist in society. But it also put a stark spotlight on what is not working in the workplace, why people are actually quitting, why they're frustrated, and why engagement levels are so low.” S03E14...

“I think my deepest ambition for work is that it's a place where we don't just have well-being, but we have well-being in its true sense, great social connections, great relationships. It's not lonely anymore. It's not miserable. That we support each other and challenge each other, but it's also a place of personal growth and development… And that we go to work to grow and evolve as humans, as wel...

"The best organizations will win the battle for talent by creating cultures that allow people to be their best more frequently. And that means one of your practices as a leader needs to be gathering stories that tell you when your people are at their best." We're republishing one of our "Culture Classics" with Spencer Harrison , a professor of organizational behaviour at INSEAD Business School and...