Building Better Cultures

Orlagh has worked in HR and organisational change for more years than she cared to admit to in this week's interview :-). She started her career in Retail and FMCG before moving into Financial Services as Group HRD in RSA. She then returned to Ireland to become Chief People Officer in AIB and, more recently, interim HRD in Virgin Media Ireland.

She set up Human Leadership in 2018 to help organisations thrive in the changing world of work by focusing on leadership and the role of human qualities in the digital era.

For more on Orlagh and on Human Leadership see her website - www.human-leadership.com

Show Notes:

58s – A bit about Orlagh her work, clients, kids and a crazy dog! – 2.20 – Human Leadership – 5.52 –Everybody in business wants to feel as though they’re playing a part – 3.57 – There are opportunities for human characteristics in the digital age – 5.50 – The changing nature of the world of work – 6.20 – What makes a leader a great leader – 12.00 – The education system needs to support a new way of learning – 13.15 – How does a leader create an engaging workplace? – 17.30 – The role of leader as a communicator during change – 19.40 – The power of connection and purpose – 21.30 – Helping leaders to translate strategy – 23.50 – Unearthing compelling stories in RSA – 24.50 – An Post getting stories to postal staff – 26.00 – Stories build pride – 26.30 – Orlagh’s leadership role models – 28.00 – We’re all works in progress and just need to be the best version of ourselves. – 29.50 – Orlagh’s advice for her 20-year-old self – You don’t need to do it all.

Over a 25 year career in PermanentTSB, Ger worked his way from bank teller to the role of HR Director. This was the first time in its 200 year history that the bank appointed an HR Director from a non-HR background.

His commercial background allowed him to open doors to parts of the organisation that, previously, HR hadn't felt equipped or confident to approach. And it gave him an understanding of the business that allows the HR team to connect enable and build capability that connects with people across the organisation in a much more meaningful way.

Show Notes:

1.20s – Ger’s career history – 2.40 – Bringing the voice of the customer inside – 5.00 – developing a strong leadership culture through the business – 6.28 – Line managers’ role in Big HR – 8.40 – Character, Competence and Connection make a great leader - 11.50 – Some thoughts on listening – 14.10 – Balancing the past, with today and the future – 15.00 – Customers don’t and shouldn’t care about siloes – 18.00 – Fear and being inquisitive – 20.00 – Cognitive diversity and creating psychological safety – 23.00 – the roles of leaders during change is fundamental – 25.50 – Permanent TBS’s changing model – 27.20 – Responsibility for culture sits with Executive and Leadership Teams – 28.50 – Ger’s role models – 30.10 – Ger’s advice to his 20-year-old self – ‘understand yourself’

Harry has worked with words for many years. He started life as an editor before joining the London-based agency 'The Writer' in response to an advert that called out their mission 'to stop the tyranny of linguistic mediocrity'. Six months ago he became Monzo Bank's writer though, as he says himself, "Everyone here is a writer, I've just got the job title".

To find out more about Harry you can view his profile on Linkedin. To have a look at Monzo's tone of voice and to read more about 'active language monkeys', see www.monzo.com/toneofvoice.

Show Notes:

1.07 – A bit about Harry – 3.30 – Monzo – the digital bank that lives in your phone – 5.00 – Why does a company need to define the tone of voice – 8.30 –Tone of voice isn’t about turning the staff into automatons – 10.18 – Tone of voice guidelines vs rules – 11.43 – Creating Monzo’s tone of voice - 15.40 – Monkeys and avoiding the passive voice – 18.35 – The ‘read aloud and listen’ test – 19.35 – We should write as we speak – 20.50 – The problem with ‘professional’ writing - 21.55 – Building trust through human writing – 22.55 – Embedding tone of voice across your business – 24.17 – Giving people skills and confidence – 26.37 – Making it real through examples – 27.50 – Prove it works – 28.40 - Going public with the tone of voice – 29.45 – The benefits (and pitfalls) of lifting another’s the tone of voice

Throughout his career, Eric has worked in tech roles both in startups and in large multinationals. He has worked for brands including TomTom, Gilt Groupe and, most recently, Zalando, the German online fashion retailer. In Zalando, Eric, along with his 500-strong tech team, is responsible for tech infrastructure and systems across the business.

As someone who started his career with little respect for 'management', Eric is now an advocate of strong, human leadership.

Show Notes:

1.25 – Eric talking about Montana, the SIMMS, respect for management and GILT Group – 4.10 – Moving from being a specialist to being a leader – 4.33 – In tech start-ups, profitability and delivery is key but leadership’s critical– 6.08 – Great leaders are human, great at simplifying and communicating – 9.18 – ‘Junior leaders need to have basic comms skills – 10.14 – Zalando’s Tech Constitution – rethinking how individuals, teams and the company should behave – 12.14 – Creating a culture where its OK to say ‘you’re wrong’, Ford’s Pinto and Intel’s repositioning – 15.55 – Creating cultures and environments where you fail and learn – 16.40 - It’s important to take the right risks in order to grow – 18.10 – when failure does happen they’re asked to teach others how to ensure it doesn’t happen again - 19.10 – being comfortable sharing stories of success and failure to make the company better – 20.25 – Leader’s role is to help bring their people through their change curves - 22.30 – communicate, communicate, communicate during change – 23.15 – Finding early adopters who can support the team – 24.28 – successful change can bring people together – 25.20 – Eric’s leadership role models, learning, humour and psychological safety – 29.05 – Respect leadership sooner but don’t get into it sooner! Learn ‘just in case’ not ‘just in time’.

​Tom has worked in communications for over 20 years. He started his career in PR working with brands like Microsoft, Intel and Gateway before, in the late 1990s with the advent of the Irish tech boom, turning his attention to tech startups, working in Iona, Marrakech and Cape Clear.

In 2005 he joined Microsoft Ireland before moving to HQ in Seattle in 2009. He's worked in a number of roles in PR and CSR and, more recently, in internal communications, where he's played a key role in driving global change for 15,000 staff across 140 countries in Microsoft Services.

For more on Tom's career, see his LinkedIn profile here.

Show Notes:

58s – A bit about Tom and his career journey – 3.33 – Getting people involved in change – 4.35 – We will use AI but there’s always a role for people – 6.00 – Managing change for 15,000 people – 7.35 – Case for change, over-communicating and vision – 9.40 – Getting your people on board – 10.50 Change is a journey, not a straight A to B – 12.50 – Handling uncertainty – 13.30 – The role of leaders – 15.15 – Upskilling leaders in communications – 16.30 – Being a people manager is hard work! – 17.50 – Planning comms during long term change – 19.00 – Involving people shows they have a voice – 20.00 – The power of storytelling during change – 24.00 – Tom’s leadership role models – 26.35 –Tom’s advice for his 20-year-old self – keep learning and look at things differently