Rethink Culture

“At some point in the Industrial Revolution, it made sense that we create humans that conform and just produce. In our day and age we need to go back to what makes us human, especially with AI taking over all those manual processes. We need to relearn to be the children now. To be creative, to be human, to have human connections… Whatever happens, deal with it with love... You can't lead anybody u...

“It's not about charity, it's about impact… unlocking the human potential through making people see that enormous power they have in making a difference.” S03E10 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Masami Sato , founder of B1G1, a global social enterprise dedicated to integrating impactful giving into everyday business operations. Masami is a 2-time TEDx speaker, Amazon bestsell...

“We know that our P&Ls have to yield a net positive financial result, but I think also businesses need to yield a net positive people result… Net positive just means giving more than you take… When you use co-creation… people feel ownership and you don’t have to explain or implement it afterwards because when you’ve co-created, everybody is involved, and everybody knows what we’re talking abou...

“The magic… is what happens between that frontline employee and the customer… the outcome is impact. It’s impact on people’s lives. And ultimately that impact, it drives business success. The framework to get there is to choose your mindset, create your culture, know your customer, define your differentiator, and pursue innovation and iteration. And those are not things we do once, we set them, we...

"I can tell you from experience of… 11 years in a healthy, good culture way versus, winning at all costs... It feels a lot easier. And winning comes a lot easier. It’s a lot more fun. I’ve developed a lot more meaningful relationships in the business… people stay longer because they like it here... Don’t underestimate the power of impact that you can have on families outside your four walls becaus...

"We found that there are some common traits in great managers… The best ones are really good motivators… sometimes they have to make tough decisions, but they're good at influencing people by helping to convince them why they are excellent… The best practice organizations… they have a really good intentional process for developing their… highly effective managers as coaches… I think if we do thing...

“You see companies: “I'm going to put a… ping pong table in the break room… and I'm going to have a massage therapist come in and do chair massages…” Those are all nice amenities, but they aren't culture… Culture… is the force that keeps everything together… Some people never get that, they never understand this is necessary… But if… they want to stick around for a while… they need to create a wor...

"If you're not happy and you're not enjoying your environment, it's going to be hard to feel fulfilled… I tried a few different things, and they didn't work out… I think that really helped build my resilience and helped teach me that maybe the world judges successes and failures based on outcome. But it helped me create a deeper meaning for myself of what, actually, success looks like. And for me,...

"It feels good to do good with your business. I think we underestimate ourselves as businesspeople and the impact that we can have on people in the world. And we look at politicians and policy, and we look at the slow going, and the barriers to things changing. If we want a more just and equitable future, where all of us can thrive and seek opportunity, business can play an important role in doing...

"High self-worth leaders want to create environments where everyone can flourish. Low self-worth leaders create environments that control people. So, if they're willing to work on their self-worth… we can build a democratic company in a Democratic Leadership style… seeing how employees feel differently when they work in a WorldBlu certified freedom-centered company, because suddenly they're seen....

"I present a vision of the world the way it was meant to be… As we come together in organizations, we need leaders who know how to be good stewards of the people who join this organization, and we send them home fulfilled each night, which will create better families, heal the brokenness we're seeing in our communities… We could heal the brokenness in the world, if we had leaders who had the skill...

"I learned a very hard lesson in my early twenties when I was running my painting business. I had a lot of my painters quit partway through the summer and I didn't understand why they were quitting on me… I was dictating. I wasn't inspiring them. I wasn't sharing my vision with them or my goals. I wasn't treating them like teammates. I was being a dictator. And my dad said to me, Kristi, people ar...

"If leaders are willing to be vulnerable and listen to their employees.. those are cultures which empower everyone to feel safe and to bring their whole selves to work... A lot of leaders are still trying to hide behind stuff.. and they are not sleeping well at night. The most peaceful place for a leader to be is to have stated values and then can stand in the spotlight of those values." While Ret...

"We founded the company with a crazy big mission. We wanted to end human suffering in the world as it relates to technology, by returning joy to both technology and to the teams that design it and build it… I had this picture in my head of, what do I want my work life to look like? And I thought… a big opening collaborative work environment, a place filled with human energy, a lot of collaboration...

"I always hesitate a bit when organizations are like, happiness, happiness, happiness… because our pitfalls will never go away… I will always have those pitfalls. But if I can become conscious and intentional, then I can start to own my pitfalls instead of my pitfalls owning me. And I can start to take responsibility for them… We can talk about it together and no one ever punishes someone for bein...

"Leaders are usually less perfect than we were taught, or books tell us about them because leading is a very complicated thing… I always like to joke with my clients… when they say, we don't know how we're going to take our culture to the next level. I tell them, give me the ingredients you have, and I'm going to help you out the same way that sometimes I get invited to a friend's house and say, t...

"You can't be productive unless your team is happy… It's not the foosball tables and the perks. It's that deeper happiness that comes from doing some meaningful work for people that you like and respect, working with people that you like and respect." S02E16 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Nathan Donaldson from New Zealand. Nathan is the CEO and founder of Boost, a custom so...

"As a manager, as a leader… one of your goals is to build the best team that you can afford… So when people say, I can't attract any talent… it's not the talent's fault. Just because you have a job… just because you have a vacancy, there is no God-given right for amazing people to show up at your door and apply for it… Are you a shit place to work or are you an amazing place to work?" S02E15 of th...

"I think business owners have to really rethink who and how they hire, our judgments, our biases, and what as a society we can do, even as a small business like mine, to make it a more vibrant and equitable place... I wanted to make sure that we were treating everybody, no matter what their background was, where they were from, what language they spoke, what addiction they were overcoming, what ja...

"If you're not properly leading yourself, it's hard to lead others... How you do one thing is how you do everything. And if… the three areas of your life, if they're in order, if… yourself, mind, body, spirit is good and your family and relationships is good, then it's much easier to be good in the work world." S02E13 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on David Henzel , a serial e...

"What I would tell a leader is that culture starts with you, but it's made up of the collective. You have to set the tone for it and be that role model. You have to inspire people to be their greatest. Don't be afraid to put your people first… You have to be intentional about it… So don't tolerate people who are taking away from the culture… You are that beacon. You should be the culture evangelis...

"I tell founders this all the time, your goal is to build the company, the environment, to build the place where all the best people in your industry want to work and never want to leave." S02E11 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Jeff Hoffman , a successful entrepreneur, CEO, motivational speaker, and Hollywood film producer. He has also the producer a Grammy-winning jazz albu...

"If it was easy to become a great leader, we would have totally different politics, totally different companies, totally different burnout rates… "Okay, interesting, why is it so difficult for me?" I think investigating that makes us humans. And that makes you also a better leader if you understand what happens inside yourself. It's also easier to be compassionate with others." S02E10 of the Rethi...

"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." S02E09 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Spencer Harrison , a professor of organizational behaviour at INSEAD Business Sc...

"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. It's very easy for a leader to get to a point in their career where they know themselves well, they can be self-aware, they can develop the skills and be a passionate and vital leader inside an organisation. But unless...