Shut the Culture Up: Getting it Right

This week Michelle and Maria continue their ‘Shut the Culture Up’ series, and welcome Nicole Metzel back to share her experience and perspective. In this episode, they look at how culture is defined within an organization, how to determine it, and how to make improvements to it.

They begin by exploring how to help upper management understand their organization’s culture, and taking an in-depth look at the varied approaches to transparency within a business, particularly during the current pandemic. The importance of beliefs, the roles and preparation of effective leaders, and the tools to help fix culture issues through such exercises as facilitating feedback sessions, and performing pulse checks are discussed as well. Admittedly, no organization is perfect, but today’s episode is filled with insight and advice on how to make the necessary improvements to the culture of any business that will ultimately benefit all of its stakeholders.

The Finer Details of This Episode:

• Helping upper management understand their organization’s culture
• Approaches to transparency, particularly during COVID-19
• The importance of an organization’s beliefs
• Leading as ‘a duck, an armadillo, and a chameleon’
• Preparing leaders for their roles
• Tools to ‘fix this shit’
• Facilitating feedback sessions/roundtables
• Pulse checking

Quotes:

“If we sit back as leaders and take no active role in defining what our value system is, it means that we sort of have to accept what we get.”

“No one will ever tell the Emperor that he is naked.”

“Being transparent about your challenges as a company, and allowing people to openly share their transparent challenges with you...that’s how you create that trust relationship.”

“They will make assumptions about your beliefs if you do not take a position...particularly with large issues.”

“There is not a perfect organization on planet Earth – it does not exist.”

“If we were ‘perfect world’ what would it look like...what are the things that are getting in our way of being in that perfect place, and what are the solutions to solve those things?”

“You can’t fix culture overnight.”

“People in your organization are your most valuable asset above anything else.”

Show Links:

REL Talent homepage: https://www.reltalent.com/

An Everyone Culture: https://www.amazon.ca/Everyone-Culture-Deliberately-Developmental-Organization/dp/1625278624