Culture First with Damon Klotz (Culture Amp)

Sarah Walsh has been integral in making women’s football in Australia what it is today. Following a club career that saw her play in the NWSL in the United States and in the A-League Women in Australia, she won 70 caps for Australia’s national team the Matildas and has spent the second half of her career fighting for equity and equality for today’s athletes.

In the 2023 Women’s World Cup, the Matildas captured the hearts of Australia and the world with record breaking audiences glued to their screens to see the Matildas secure Australia’s highest-ever finish at a World Cup.

The timing of this episode was made even more special by the announcement that  the 2023 Collective Bargaining Agreement from Football Australia has gone even further to create the right conditions for high performance. 

For Sarah, the years and years of work leading up to this moment in time just keep paying off, and to hear her fully grasp the enormity of what she has achieved as she speaks with Damon in this episode is truly special.

Sarah and Damon recorded this conversation live at the inaugural SXSW Sydney in front of a standing room only audience. They discuss the conditions needed for high performance, the importance of culture on and off the pitch and the pivotal moments in Sarah’s life that saw her become the trailblazer she is today.

Show notes: 

This episode pairs well with Damon’s recent conversation with Jamila Rizvi, who detailed exactly what we need to do to make work and the workplace a better, safer and more equitable place for women. 

If you've enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow and leave a review.

Learn more about Culture Amp at www.cultureamp.com or @cultureamp on Instagram

Learn more about the Matildas at www.matildas.com.au

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Intuitively, you might get the sense that empathy and compassion play a key part in the making of a Culture First organization. Yet their definitions, inherent differences, and potential downfalls remain somewhat of a blur, especially in the context of the workplace.

The next two episodes of the Culture First podcast are dedicated to bringing clarity and applicable knowledge around these skills. Part 1 focuses on applied empathy, while Part 2 will bring compassion fatigue into the light.

In this episode, Damon meets with Michael Ventura, CEO and founder of Sub Rosa, and author of Applied Empathy. Together they explore topics such as how a manager can assess empathy levels, the kind of questions an empathetic leader should ask, what empathetic decision-making looks like, and whether a manager can build a team that fosters empathy when the larger the organization doesn’t.

Next, we hear from Stacey Nordwall, Culture Amp’s People Program Lead about hardwiring empathy within the fabric of People Operations and employee experience.

Finally, Damon chats with Ellen Sweeney, Head of People Operations at MeUndies, to learn about how the company approaches this, and how you can screen new hires for high levels of empathy.

As a gift to our podcast listeners, we’re offering “Connecting to Your Whole Self”, an excerpt from Michael Ventura’s book Applied Empathy.

And if you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave us an honest review.

To learn more about Michael Ventura, go to https://appliedempathy.com/.

To find out more about MeUndies, visit https://www.meundies.com/.

To connect with Stacey Nordwall, head to https://www.linkedin.com/in/staceynordwall/.

To watch this podcast's video teaser, get an update when new episodes launch or find more information, head over to www.culturefirstpodcast.com, and to learn more about Culture Amp, visit www.cultureamp.com.

Host: Culture Amp’s Work Culture Evangelist, Damon Klotz. 

Production:  Sarah Lessire.

Assistant Production: Ayla Cleworth

Editing: Nick Jaworski at Podcast Monster. 

Design: Nicole Dominic, Amelia Chieng and Christine Tapawan. 

Culture Amp Data: Vivian Woo. 

Video: Kyle Doan. 

Original music: Sarah Lessire. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this Culture First episode, Damon Klotz sits down with the iconic Simon Sinek in a conversation wholly shaped around Simon’s concept of the Infinite Mindset of company culture. Inside, you’ll get a sneak peek into Simon’s background and how it shaped his perspective on life and work. You’ll also hear about the massive role that storytelling plays in Simon’s work and how you can use it to help people connect with ideas on a deeper level.

Simon’s passion for shaping leaders with an Infinite Mindset shines throughout this chat, and he mentions Walmart, Microsoft, and Patagonia, organizations that have embraced the Infinite Mindset as he walks us through the tools and leadership skills that are required to build it. This interview was recorded in 2019, just moments before Simon stepped on stage to address an audience of more than 1,000 people and culture professionals at a Culture First event, which makes Simon’s concerns about the power and influence of big tech companies and the need for balancing their role in society even more relevant today.

Simon Sinek is an unshakable optimist who works to inspire people to do what inspires them so that we can change our world for the better. Simon and his team work with leaders and organizations in nearly every industry to help transform company culture and create a better working world. He is fascinated by the people and organizations that make the greatest, lasting impact on the world. He has devoted his life to sharing his thinking, and leading a movement to inspire people to do the things that inspire them and may be best known for popularizing the concept of WHY in his first Ted Talk in 2009. It has since become one of the most watched talks of all time on TED.com, with 37+ million views. Simon is a bestselling author and shares his ideas in the books Start With Why, Leaders Eat Last, Together Is Better, Find Your Why, and The Infinite Game.

​​If you've enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow and leave a review.

Learn more about Culture Amp at www.cultureamp.com or @cultureamp on Instagram

Learn more about Simon at simonsinek.com

Show notes:  

Simon recommends two books in this interview. He actually says they belong on the national curriculum: Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl and How to Talk to Kids So Kids Will Listen by Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Culture First: Stories for a better world of work is a podcast about work culture by Culture Amp, the People & Culture platform.

Join host Damon Klotz as he dives into heart-to-heart conversations with well-known and underground culture experts, and hear stories of trials and triumphs by people who are leading the culture first revolution.

Guests will include Esther Perel, DeRay McKesson, Chip Conley, Simon Sinek, Claude Silver, and many more.

Whether you are a seasoned leader who is passionate about developing people, a new manager aspiring to grow their people skills and better their team's culture, or a lifelong People Geek, this show is for you.

Subscribe now.

To watch this podcast's video teaser, get an update when new episodes launch or find more information, head over to www.culturefirstpodcast.com.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode of the Culture First podcast, our host Damon Klotz invited Didier Elzinga, the CEO of Culture Amp, to step into the interview seat and speak with Esther Perel, a renowned psychotherapist and pioneering voice in understanding modern relationships and workplace dynamics. 

Together, Didier and Esther discuss the importance of relational dynamics and the power of storytelling in solving conflicts and creating meaningful connections. The conversation touches on the complexities of today’s workplace cultures, such as how to bridge cultural differences, build trust in remote work environments, and find the right balance between empathy and accountability in leadership roles. 

Some of the key takeaways from this episode include managing expectations, fostering psychological safety, and responding to the changing values of different generations. Listen to this insightful discussion to gain practical strategies for enhancing leadership skills and boosting organizational potential by focusing on building quality relationships and practising compassionate communication. 

Show notes: 

Esther's original Culture First Podcast Episode with Damon Klotz

Esther’s website

Where Should We Begin? The game

Esther’s podcast, Where Should We Begin?

Key Takeaways: 

1. Effective leaders balance empathy and accountability:

• Leaders need to be empathic and care about their employees' personal challenges and emotions, but they must also hold them accountable for their responsibilities. This balance ensures that employees feel supported yet understand the importance of meeting expectations and fulfilling their roles within the organization.

1. The importance of in-person interactions:

• Although remote work offers convenience, it lacks the richness of in-person interactions essential for building relationships, trust, and effective collaboration. Leaders should treat in-person interactions as valuable resources and use them for activities that significantly benefit from face-to-face engagement, such as brainstorming sessions, mentorship, and fostering team cohesion.

1. Explicit communication of expectations is key:

• Unstated expectations often lead to resentment and misunderstandings. By clearly articulating what they expect from their team members, leaders can ensure that team members understand their roles and responsibilities. This approach promotes accountability and reduces the potential for conflicts arising from unmet, unspoken expectations.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, Damon Klotz speaks with Jenny Sauer-Klein. Jenny is an experience designer and masterful facilitator who specializes in designing dynamic learning experiences that help companies engage their employees and bring their culture to life.

Damon and Jenny talk about how the shift from IRL to URL has led to a complete redesign in how we’re connecting. Together they explore how to define and scale intimacy in this new world.  

Jenny shares a framework to design the perfect 60-minute meeting that will leave attendees engaged and feeling connected.

This episode originally appeared as part of Working through it series. Check out the series for more tips and stories of people navigating periods of transition. https://www.culturefirst.com/working-through-it/intro

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave us an honest review.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The death and rebirth of soft skills, with Claude Silver

They’ve been called fluffy, vital, old school, new age… While few people in the world of work disagree about their benefits, many still argue over what to call them, and how to define them.

In this episode, Damon meets with Claude Silver, Chief Heart Officer at VaynerMedia and executive coach, to discuss whether soft skills need rebranding, and what HR and Marketing functions might have in common. Hint: it’s a soft skill.

Next, we hear from Dara Blumenthal, Ph.D., developmental coach and critical theorist, to explore what holds people back from adopting and learning soft skills.

Finally, Damon chats with Richard Taylor, VP of Employee Experience at Nasdaq to learn about how he approaches this, and what listening means at Nasdaq.

As a gift to our podcast listeners, we are offering a free one-on-one coaching session with Claude Silver or Dara Blumenthal. Two winners will be picked and assigned one of the two coaches randomly. To participate in this raffle, head to www.culturefirstpodcast.com/softskills.

And if you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave us an honest review.

To learn more about Claude Silver, go to https://www.claudesilver.com/.

To find out more about Kate Snowise, visit https://www.darablumenthal.com/.

To connect with Richard Taylor, head to https://www.linkedin.com/in/richptaylor/.

To watch this podcast's video teaser, get an update when new episodes launch or find more information, head over to www.culturefirstpodcast.com, and to learn more about Culture Amp, visit www.cultureamp.com.

Host: Culture Amp’s Work Culture Evangelist, Damon Klotz. 

Production:  Sarah Lessire.

Assistant Production: Ayla Cleworth

Editing: Nick Jaworski at Podcast Monster. 

Design: Nicole Dominic, Amelia Chieng and Christine Tapawan. 

Culture Amp Data: Vivian Woo. 

Video: Kyle Doan. 

Original music: Sarah Lessire. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode of the Culture First podcast, Damon Klotz interviews Dr. Marcus Collins, professor and best-selling author of For the Culture: The Power Behind What We Buy, What We Do, and Who We Want to Be. Together, they discuss the profound impact of culture on brand and organizational success. They delve into the definitions and misconceptions surrounding culture. They explore how brands like Patagonia and e.l.f. Beauty authentically maintain consistency between their external and internal cultures. They also touch upon how culture can be leveraged as a competitive advantage and the role of storytelling in creating authentic connections. A highlighted conversation stems from Collins' insights into pragmatic cultural transformation and maintaining authenticity within brands.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Join Damon at Culture First Virtual 2024 to hear from Esther Perel, Megan Rapinoe and Ben Crowe. Register here to get your free ticket & a thank you for being a Podcast listener. Register now.

This May, people leaders and culture creators from all over the world will gather to share innovative ideas and insights on improving organizational culture.

Join us at Culture First Global 2024, a free virtual conference where leaders connect on culture at work, to hear from Esther Perel, Megan Rapinoe, and an outstanding lineup of thought leaders and industry experts.

Join Damon at Culture First Virtual 2024 to hear from Esther Perel, Megan Rapinoe and Ben Crowe. Register here to get your free ticket & a thank you for being a Podcast listener. Register now.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, Damon sits down with Rachel Botsman, a leading expert and author on trust in the modern world, to discuss the positive impact of trust in the workplace.

You'll hear Rachel and Damon discuss:

• How Rachel navigated the changes to her professional life without being on physical stages with audiences.  
• The process Rachel uses before she creates a new keynote speech.  
• The definition Rachel uses for trust: “Trust is a confident relationship with the unknown.” 
• The relationship between trust, humility and ego. 
• The rise of employee activism and why employees want to know just what their organization stands for, but also what a company stands against. 
• Analyzing the role that vulnerability has on trust when building new relationships.  
• Four phrases we need to rethink in the workplace

Rachel Botsman is a trust expert, author, and lecturer at Oxford University. She is passionate about teaching people how to think differently and challenge ideas around trust and humility.

She has been recognized as one of the world’s 30 most influential management thinkers by Thinkers50, one of the Top 10 most influential voices in the UK on LinkedIn and honoured as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Have you ever caught yourself saying “Once I’ve achieved this, I’ll have time for that” or “I would love to, but I’m just too busy’?

Yes? Same!

Our relationship with time and the perpetual quest for control can lead us to feeling incredibly overwhelmed. 

Enter Oliver Burkeman, the author of "4000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals." In his book, Burkeman delves into the profound concept of our mortality and how it shapes our perspective on time. 

The conversation Damon and Oliver have in this episode will, without a doubt, help you make better decisions with your time not only at work, but in your personal life, too.

We're passionate about creating a space for discussions that straddle both realms as our work and our lives continnue to overlap more than ever.

Five key concepts to listen out for are:

• Embracing your limitations. 
• The idea of waiting for perfect control. 
• How to be aware of the productivity trap. 
• The joy of seeking novelty in the mundane.
• And did the term ‘strategic underachievement’, as coined by Oliver, lay the foundations for the quiet quitting trend? 

As usual, this episode is packed full of actionable takeaways for everyone looking to build a culture first workplace.

​​If you enjoy listening to Culture First, please subscribe, follow and leave a review.

Learn more about Culture Amp at www.cultureamp.com

SHOW NOTES:

At the top of the episode, you’ll hear Damon reference one of Oliver’s latest New York Times articles, as he sets a challenge for every listener: Opinion | Stop Multitasking. No, Really — Just Stop It. - The New York Times.

Damon also mentions the work of Alain de Botton.

You’ll also hear Oliver reference the work of Cal Newport, an MIT-trained computer science professor at Georgetown University who also writes about technology, work, and finding depth despite distraction.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is the second part of a two-part series on layoffs and their impact on the employee experience. The episode focuses on the long-term impact of layoffs, based on research conducted by Culture Amp. The study analyzed data from layoffs in the tech sector between March 2020 and December 2023, including over 3,300 layoff events by 2,400 companies.

Chapters

03:30 - Rebounding After a Layoff

07:00 - How Long It Takes to Rebound

11:46 - Determinants and Drivers of Engagement Post Layoff

18:50 - The Impact of Second Layoffs

22:01 - Main Takeaways and Conclusion

During this episode, we discussed the health impacts of layoffs on individuals. You can read more about that below.

Medical studies have shown that the trauma of unemployment causes disease. One study found that being laid off ranked seventh among the most stressful life experiences — more stressful than divorce, a sudden and serious impairment of hearing or vision, or the death of a close friend.

Experts say that it takes, on average, two years to recover from the psychological trauma of losing a job.

Source: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-01-17/tech-layoffs-stress-trauma-unemployment-economy#:~:text=One%20study%20found%20that%20being,trauma%20of%20losing%20a%20job.

If you've enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts or follow and hit five stars on Spotify.

Learn more about Culture Amp at www.cultureamp.com 

Follow Damon on LinkedIn to get his latest leadership insights, and follow him on Instagram to see behind-the-scenes footage from the podcast. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Do you feel like trust works both ways in your workplace?

With the sustained rise in remote or semi-remote roles, the importance of trust in the workplace is top of mind. But trust needs to work both ways, right? The question isn’t only "can employers trust their employees", it also needs to be "can employees trust their employers?"

Rachel Botsman is a trust expert, author and lecturer at Oxford University. She's passionate about challenging ideas around trust and humility and has been recognised as one of the world's 30 most influential management thinkers. Honoured as a young global leader by the World Economic Forum, Rachel’s TED Talks have garnered more than 5 million views.

Rachel defines trust as a confident relationship with the unknown and in this short snippet of a longer conversation she really helps us understand how we can cultivate it in our workplaces.

Show notes:

This conversation is full of laughter and warmth. The full episode is the same and can be found here.

Learn more about Rachel Botsman by heading to www.rachelbotsman.com

Learn more about Culture Amp by heading to www.cultureamp.com  

We believe in creating a better world of work, if that’s important to you too, please subscribe and leave us a review to make sure you don’t miss an episode.

If you missed Culture First Virtual 2024, you can now watch all of the sessions on demand from people like Esther Perel, Megan Rapinoe, and Ben Crowe. Click this link to download your favourite session.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, Culture Amp’s Work Culture Evangelist Damon Klotz sits down with psychotherapist and best selling author Esther Perel to explore what makes up the fabric of work culture: relationships.

Esther shares ways to develop relational intelligence in the workplace, explains where trust originates and how to cultivate it, and gives us insight into how cultures of innovation can be fostered.

You’ll also hear the lessons Wade Foster (CEO and Founder of Zapier) and Courtney Seiter (Director of People at Buffer) have learned when it comes to creating fully remote Culture First companies. 

Listen in at an Ampersand event and meet CEO and Founder Elizabeth Eichorn to learn about how she’s helping others deepen relationships at work.

As a gift to our podcast listeners, we’ve partnered with Esther Perel to offer you a highly valuable tool to engage relational intelligence: “8 questions you should ask when hiring someone, by Esther Perel”.

To download these questions or read this episode's transcript, head to www.culturefirstpodcast.com/relationships

To learn more about Esther Perel, go to https://www.estherperel.com/ or https://howswork.estherperel.com/

To find out more about the Ampersand Dinners, visit https://www.ampersanddinner.com/

To watch this podcast's video teaser, get an update when new episodes launch or find more information, head over to www.culturefirstpodcast.com, and to learn more about Culture Amp, visit www.cultureamp.com.

Host: Culture Amp’s Work Culture Evangelist, Damon Klotz. 

Production:  Sarah Lessire.

Editing: Nick Jaworski at Podcast Monster. 

Design: Nicole Dominic, Amelia Chieng and Christine Tapawan. 

Culture Amp Data: Vivian Woo. 

Video: Kyle Doan. 

Original music: Sarah Lessire. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, Damon speaks with Aubrey Blanche, Director of Equitable Impact & Design at Culture Amp.

Damon and Aubrey discuss building anti-racist organizations, the work of Professor Ibram X. Kendi & her first memories of what equality and inclusion meant as a young child. 

You’ll also hear some special reveals about the content and speakers for Culture First as well as the announcement of our MCs for our North America event.

Register for Culture First 2021 here: https://culturefirstglobal.cultureamp.com/?utm_source=cfpodcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=C%3A21q2cfg%7CD%3A2021_03_31%7C

Listen to the other episodes mentioned in the episode here: www.culturefirstpodcast.com

Read more about Culture Amp's Anti-Racism work here: https://www.cultureamp.com/antiracism/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Do we lose access to curiosity as we age? Or is it like a muscle that's always there, but just needs to be activated and strengthened?

Scott Keoni Shigeoka is an internationally recognized curiosity expert, speaker and author and he's known for translating research into strategies that promote positive wellbeing and connected relationships around the globe including at UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center and through his popular courses at the University of Texas in Austin.

In this vibrant and very human conversation with Damon Klotz, Scott helps us remember that we have the capacity to explore and explains just how to use exploration to connect better with others. He tells us how curiosity can boost morale, increase collaboration, and how it can ease conflict and tension in the workplace and everywhere else.

Scott also encourages us all to start being an 'admitter', explaining how understanding the limits of your knowledge will always help people believe that you’re not completely out of touch.

Show notes:

If you've enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow and leave a review.

Learn more about Culture Amp at www.cultureamp.com or @cultureamp on Instagram

If you missed Culture First Virtual 2024, you can now watch all of the sessions on demand from people like Esther Perel, Megan Rapinoe, and Ben Crowe. Click this link to download your favourite session.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode Damon speaks with Mollie West Duffy, co-author of the book No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power Of Embracing Emotions At Work. She’s also one half of the workplace culture Instagram account @lizandmollie. 

Mollie is an expert in organizational design, development, and leadership coaching. She’s currently the head of organizational development at communications firm RALLY, and previously led organizational design at global innovation firm IDEO.

Damon and Mollie discuss the new rules of emotions at work. In this highly actionable episode, we examine the difference between under-emoters, over-emoters, and even-emoters. Then Mollie and Damon explore ways to work with each, the importance of communicating your needs when working remotely, and why right now is not the time to be asking the question, ‘how are you?’

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave us an honest review.

www.culturefirstpodcast.com

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode Damon Klotz sat down with Richard Taylor, VP of Employee Experience at Nasdaq, to learn about how they think about building a culture first company. 

What’s holding your employees back from a transformative experience? Nasdaq asked this question, and what they learned was surprising. By deeply listening to employees, the people team gained unexpected insights into key pain points and employee needs. 

In this episode, you’ll learn how, by addressing your employees’ deep-seated desire to be productive and grow professionally, you can build a transformative culture that is both empowering and highly accountable. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

For the first time on the Culture First Podcast, we are doing a mini-series where we go behind the scenes of a company to learn how they put Culture First at all levels of the company. 

The first company that we will be exploring is Wilson Sporting Goods. While many people would know Wilson for their products, you probably don’t know that they’ve been around for over 100 years, and it was only in the last few years that they launched retail stores. 

In the first episode of this series, we will be speaking with the Wilson CEO and Chairman Joe Dudy. 

In this episode, you’ll hear how Joe worked his way up from an entry-level role in the company to eventually becoming CEO. Joe will talk about how he thinks about company culture, measuring employee experience and what he’s excited about as the company moves into the retail space. 

You’ll also have to listen to the end as Joe answers the question about the impact Wilson the volleyball from the movie Castaway had on the company culture and the bottom line.

To hear more from the team at Wilson Sporting Goods, make sure that you register to join us at Culture First. Geoff Watts will join me live in conversation to discuss how Wilson put Culture First. Make sure you click the link above to get your free ticket.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This episode contains the never heard before full interview from our very first episode with Esther Perel. 

It was this sit down conversation that sparked a friendship between Esther and Damon that continues to this day. We believe in the magic that real conversations can create, so we want to take you back to that moment in time, back to the start and give you access to the first time Esther and Damon sat down together.

For the first time ever, we’re releasing the full interview from start to finish. This conversation offers a great opportunity to be reminded of the foundational elements of relational intelligence, and gives you tangible takeaways to help you build a better world of work. 

Psychotherapist Esther Perel is the New York Times bestselling author of The State of Affairs and Mating in Captivity. Fluent in nine languages, she helms a therapy practice in New York City and serves as an organizational consultant for Fortune 500 companies around the world. Esther’s TED talks have garnered more than 20 million views and she is the host of the podcast Where Should We Begin?

​​If you've enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow and leave a review.

Learn more about Culture Amp at www.cultureamp.com or @cultureamp on Instagram

Learn more about Esther at www.estherperel.com or @EstherPerelOfficial on Instagram.

Show notes: 

In this episode Esther mentions: John Gottman’s metaphor of the The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The four communication styles, according to his research, that can predict the end of a relationship are criticism, defensiveness, contempt, and stonewalling.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Join our host Damon Klotz as he reflects on the 7 parts of the working through it series and how they’ve helped him work through it during this time. Damon will share which moments from the episodes he has found himself coming back to, where he’s struggling and how he plans to act on these learnings in the future. 

For this episode we've also created a toolkit for you to use as you continue to work through it. Head to culturefirst.com/working-through-it/toolkit to download your copy. 

www.cultureamp.com

www.culturefirst.com

www.twitter.com/cultureamp

www.twitter.com/damonklotz

www.culturefirstpodcast.com

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode Damon speaks to Kelsey Crowe, Ph.D., author of There is No Good Card for This: What to do and say when life is scary, awful and, unfair to the people you love. Kelsey and Damon discuss what stops us from asking for help, how to show up for people who are suffering, and coping with grief at work.   

What do you say to a colleague who is grieving? Whether someone is experiencing a personal or professional setback, it’s tempting to shy away from uncomfortable topics. This episode will help you approach these important conversations and minimize the fear of saying the wrong thing. 

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave us an honest review.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

While we all know that the world has changed significantly, what you might not know is that the state of mental health in the workplace has also been adjusting to respond to it. 

One of those changes was that in June of this year, the world's first International Standard (ISO) to address Psychological health and safety at work were published.

To better understand what is happening with mental well-being and the workplace, Damon sat down with the Co-Founder of Unmind, Dr Nick Taylor. 

In this episode, you'll learn: 

- The macro trends and policies impacting mental health in the workplace

- Why disclosure is such a complex subject when it comes to mental health 

- How to focus on your mental wellness before supporting others on your team

- Tips for anyone who's managing a team of humans in this complex environment 

Links referenced in the episode: 

ISO Standard 45003

Culture Amp & Unmind Partnership

Culture First Global On Demand Content

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Adam Bryant is currently senior managing director at the Ex-Co Group, but you might also know Adam for his work as a columnist on one of the most popular NY Times columns of all time. 

That column was the iconic Corner Office, where he interviewed CEO’s of the world’s top companies and notoriously never missed a single week of publication in his 18 year tenure. 

If your ambition is to be a leader who leads with empathy and humanity, then you had better take notes during this conversation with Adam. After interviewing so many leaders, he knows what it takes to step up and ground an organization's strategies in meaningful, mission-driven, and purposeful ways.

Adam and Damon cover a lot of ground in this chat. How to build a great CEO-CHRO relationship, Adam's thoughts on why there are way “too many bad bosses in the world”, and we talk diversity - Adam is confident we need a path forward that includes lived experience and connecting with other people’s stories on an emotional level.

Adam hasn’t stopped interviewing the world’s great leaders, even after leaving the New York Times. His latest book, The Leap to Leader, contains practical strategies and tactics for building a loyal following, moving up quickly to broaden your impact, and making the subtle but crucial mindset shifts that are required to lead others effectively.

If you have a leadership program at your work or a slack or teams channel for managers, we humbly request that you share this episode with those groups. Adam has interviewed arguably the most important business leaders of the 21st century and he’s distilled those learnings to help you become the leader that the world needs right now.

If you've enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow and leave a review.

Learn more about Culture Amp at www.cultureamp.com or @cultureamp on Instagram

Connect with Adam Bryant on X @adambbryant or @ExCoLeadership

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode of the Culture First Podcast, we take you on the road with us to give you a front-row seat to an incredible conversation that took place at SXSW Austin this year.

In this episode, Didier Elzinga, CEO and Co-founder of Culture Amp, will moderate a discussion on achieving and sustaining a high-performance culture by drawing upon lessons learned from the world of high-performance sports.

He was joined by Lindsay Verstegen, Chief People & Diversity Officer at the Detroit Lions, John Ferguson, Chief HR Officer at NASCAR, and Ben Crowe, former global Nike executive and one of the world’s most in-demand professional mentors and mindset coaches, working with CEO’s, teams, executive teams and athletes.

They discuss the importance of intentional pauses, building relationships, and the need to fix the environment rather than the individual. The conversation provides valuable perspectives on leadership, team dynamics, and the power of data in understanding and supporting employees.

Show notes and timestamps:

03:21 - Creating a Culture of Belonging and Inclusion

12:20 - Navigating Uncertainty: From 'Me' to 'We' Mindset

32:29 - Fixing the Environment, Not the Individual

33:51- Data-Driven Insights for Organizational Improvement

34:09 - The Power of Vulnerability and Trust in Leadership

36:31 - Connecting with Intrinsic Motivations for Success

41:18 - Feedback as a Catalyst for Growth and Development

49:48 - Bridging the Gap in Multi-Generational Teams

Click here to download the State of the Manager Report mentioned during this interview.

If you've enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow and leave a review.

Learn more about Culture Amp at www.cultureamp.com or @cultureamp on Instagram

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, Damon Klotz and Chip Conley explore what it means to be a modern elder, ponder the notion of our identity being wrapped up in our work, and what role the manager can play in creating the environment and culture to do the best work of your life.

If you'd like to listen to the full episode with Chip click here: https://www.cultureamp.com/podcast/how-to-learn-unlearn-stay-curious-at-work-with-chip-conley

Learn more about Culture Amp by heading to www.cultureamp.com

We believe in creating a better world of work, if that’s important to you too, please subscribe and leave us a review to make sure you don’t miss an episode.

If you missed Culture First Virtual 2024, you can now watch all of the sessions on demand from people like Esther Perel, Megan Rapinoe, and Ben Crowe. Click this link to download your favourite session.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode of the Culture First podcast, host Damon Klotz, along with co-hosts Fresia Jackson, Director of People Science at Culture Amp, and Justin Angsuwat, Chief People Officer at Culture Amp, delve into the trends shaping the future of work in 2025. 

They discuss the implications of AI on job roles, the evolving dynamics between employees and employers, and the declining favorability of do-it-all leadership. The episode is packed with research data, including insights from over 1.3 billion data points and input from thousands of employees, shedding light on the current workplace landscape. 

Key trends like team-focused performance reviews, decision intelligence, and leadership strategies are explored, offering listeners valuable perspectives on navigating the complexities of the modern workplace.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Cleo Wade describes herself as a friend and a community builder. She's the author of bestselling books - Heart Talk, poetic Wisdom for a Better Life and Where to Begin, a small book about your power to create big change. Cleo’s also got a new book coming out in May this year - pre-order it here!

From the data we collect here at Culture Amp, we know how important it is to give employees a chance to be heard, give feedback and share stories about their experience at work. Creating space for these conversations is important in the workplace and society at large. When we create space to come together and learn from each other, truly amazing things can happen. One of the 2024 workplace trends we identified in our first episode of the year is the idea of commute-worthy experiences. Basically, we're asking companies to truly think about what type of experience they want people to have in the office.

If we can hear what Cleo has to say, we’ve got a much better chance of creating workplaces that justify their employee’s commute.

Show notes:

If this conversation has left you wanting more, the link to Damon's full conversation with Cleo is here.

Learn more about Cleo Wade by heading to www.cleowade.com

Learn more about Culture Amp by heading to www.cultureamp.com  

We believe in creating a better world of work, if that’s important to you too, please subscribe and leave us a review to make sure you don’t miss an episode.

If you missed Culture First Virtual 2024, you can now watch all of the sessions on demand from people like Esther Perel, Megan Rapinoe, and Ben Crowe. Click this link to download your favourite session.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

For the first time on the Culture First Podcast, we are doing a mini-series where we go behind the scenes of a company to learn how they put Culture First at all levels of the company. 

The first company that we will be exploring is Wilson Sporting Goods. While many people would know Wilson for its products, you probably don’t know that they’ve been around for over 100 years, and it was only in the last few years that it launched retail stores. 

In the second episode of this series, we will be speaking with the Wilson VP of HR, Geoff Watts.

In this episode, you’ll hear how Geoff thinks about company culture, measuring employee experience and what he’s excited about as the company moves into retail. 

If you’d like to hear more from Geoff, register to attend Culture First Virtual Americas, where Geoff will be joined live on stage with Damon Klotz.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, Damon sits down with Anna Binder from Asana to talk about the journey she’s been on as she’s scaled Asana. As the newest board member of Culture Amp, Anna built a culture powered by clarity, co-creation, and inclusion and shares what she learned from her role at Asana and talk about what’s next for people leaders in 2022

Anna Binder serves as Asana’s Head of People Operations, a role she has held since May 2016. During her time at Asana, both Inc. Magazine and Fortune named Asana as a Best Workplace for four years in a row, and the company has been named a Best Place to Work in 2021 by Glassdoor. Prior to joining Asana, Anna was MuleSoft Inc.’s VP of People.

Damon also officially welcomes Anna to the Culture Amp team as she takes on the role as a newly appointed member of the Board of Directors.

If you enjoyed this episode please leave a review and subscribe if you haven't. To listen to more podcasts & access the transcripts head over to www.culturefirstpodcast.com, and to learn more about Culture Amp, visit www.cultureamp.com.

To find the videos from Culture First Global 2021 mentioned at the start of the episode head to www.cultureamp.com/community

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We can't think of a better way to mark International Women's Day than with a crystal clear call to action to all employers, laying out exactly what is needed to improve the world of work for women. 

Jamila is Deputy Managing Director of Future Women, where she supports governments and employer organisations working towards gender equality.

Listen to Jamila dictate the email that she would like us to send to CEO’s around the world who are ready to improve the world of work for women. 

Jamila's email is not only a conversation starter, but a shareable resource brimful of practical advice on what we can all do to create real change. 

Show notes:

To hear Damon and Jamila's full conversation head here.

To read or copy Jamila's complete email head here.

Learn more about Jamila at jamilarizvi.com.au and Future Women at futurewomen.com

Learn more about Culture Amp at www.cultureamp.com or @cultureamp on Instagram

If you missed Culture First Virtual 2024, you can now watch all of the sessions on demand from people like Esther Perel, Megan Rapinoe, and Ben Crowe. Click this link to download your favourite session.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, Damon sits down with Minda Harts, founder of The Memo, and author of the book by the same name. Minda has dedicated her life’s work to supporting the career development of women of color. Listen below to learn Minda’s approach to improving workplace inclusivity. 

In the modern business landscape, everyone seems to be vying for a seat at the proverbial leadership table. However, Minda suggests it might be time to throw out the old table and build a new one designed to include a wider range of voices. Together, Damon and Minda explore ways to amplify the voices of diverse employees.

We then hear from Lindsay Kaplan, Co-Founder of Chief, a private community created to connect and support women leaders. Lindsay shares the importance of creating a space for authenticity and vulnerability within a community of leaders.

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave us an honest review.

To learn more about Minda Harts, go to http://mindaharts.com/

To learn more about Chief, go to https://www.chief.com/

To watch this podcast's video teaser, get an update when new episodes launch or find more information, head over to www.culturefirstpodcast.com, and to learn more about Culture Amp, visit www.cultureamp.com.

Host: Culture Amp’s Work Culture Evangelist, Damon Klotz. 

Executive production:  Sarah Lessire.

Production: Ayla Filipiak

Editing: Nick Jaworski at Podcast Monster. 

Design: Nicole Dominic, Amelia Chieng and Christine Tapawan. 

Culture Amp Data: Vivian Woo. 

Video: Kyle Doan. 

Original music: Sarah Lessire. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Have you ever wondered what happens to your survey data after you submit your response? In this episode, we will dive deep into the world of employee experience data and how Culture Amp turns data into insights.

Join us as we explore what happens when one individual responds to a company engagement survey. First, we’ll share how the company uses it. Then we’ll share how this one response goes on a journey to land in the largest employee data lake where Culture Amp can use that response to answer questions like “what impact does engagement have on retaining customers?” and “what is the best performance rating scale?”

This episode will be the first in a series as we explore the 34 million data points that make up Culture Amp's data lake. Before we explore the depths of Culture Amp's research, this episode will provide all listeners with the foundations of people analytics and data collection.

My guest on this episode is Fresia Jackson. Fresia is a People Scientist and Lead Researcher at Culture Amp. Here are just a couple of things that keep Fresia busy every day. 

• Overseeing Culture Amp's research projects connecting Culture Amp’s data to business outcomes. 
• Determining the most impactful hypotheses by keeping her ear to the ground of what’s going on in the world and how our data can provide insight into creating a better world of work
• Disseminating research results by crafting findings into a story, evangelizing that story internally, so they're put into practice and sharing the story externally to share our science with the world. 

If you've enjoyed this episode, please make sure you subscribe and leave a review.

To hear from more Culture First Leaders, register to join us at Culture First. Culture First is a series of free virtual experiences exploring how culture, science, and innovation can guide organizations, leaders, and teams through the challenges and the opportunities of reworking work for everyone. Get your free ticket here.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jamila's role as Deputy Managing Director of Future Women, an agency that supports governments and organizations that are working towards gender equality, is the culmination of a lifetime of fighting for change. Jamila is a former advisor to the Australian Government on gender and early childhood education and also a best-selling author for adults and children, columnist, media commentator and fellow podcast host.

Damon's conversation with Jamila is packed with actions you can take into your own workplace and covers everything from the way language in performance reviews negatively impacts women’s chances of promotion to the scary ways that AI is being coded with inbuilt biases.

We start with Jamila taking us on a history lesson about just how we ended up in a world of such great gender disparity and finish with a message from Jamila for you to send to your CEO if you, like me, want to make work actually work for women. 

We hope that this episode will leave you feeling confident that a path to fairness exists and we're excited to arm you with the facts and research to support yourself and your coworkers as we all move towards a better world of work for women.

If you've enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow and leave a review.

Learn more about Culture Amp at www.cultureamp.com or @cultureamp on Instagram

Learn more about Jamila at jamilarizvi.com.au and Future Women at futurewomen.com

Listen to Jamila's story about Mina here: https://www.cultureamp.com/resources/2022-culture-first-on-demand-apac/how-to-make-work-work-for-women

Show notes:

At the end of this episode, Damon says to Jamila: If someone's listening and they want to send this episode to their CEO telling them "We want change, we want to make work for women", and you, Jamila, get to write a little memo that's attached to this email that goes off to the CEO, what would you like that message to be?

And here's Jamila's answer, your memo to copy/paste or attach to anyone you're sending this episode on to:

Safety first. Every organisation, including this hypothetical one needs to stop thinking about sexual harassment and in the workplace as a HR issue and start thinking about sexual harassment as an occupational health and safety issue. If your employees are not safe at work, that is not about interpersonal relationships and that person's experience of being your employee, that is about them being safe at work. And if you think about the extraordinary amount of money that is spent in this country by building and construction companies, mining companies, for example, on making sure their employees are safe while doing risky work, imagine if we took that same lens and that same urgency and adamancy around safety to ensuring that women were free of sexual harassment and discrimination and victimisation in workplaces. Think about how you're keeping people safe from sexual harassment. Make training mandatory for staff, make sure there is a confidential, clear complaints mechanism for people to follow.

Explore the provision of paid domestic and family violence leave, and provide training for frontline responders to sexual harassment in workplaces because often it is not HR who hears it first. It is an ordinary line manager who does not know what to do.

Address your pay gaps. Don't tell me you don't have one because the chances are you do. It is illegal to pay different people different amounts of money for the same work because of their gender. Start there, start with your audit and rectify unequal pay.

Look at broader company-wide pay gaps. Why is it that pay gap exists in your organisation and most organisations have them? The WGEA (Workplace Gender Equality Agency) data shows us that different industries have different degrees of a pay gap, but all industries experience them.

Implement transparency. Transparency of pay gap data, transparency of salary bands and a review of discretionary payments. Often pay gaps increase because of discretionary payments, bonuses, superannuation, gifts, that kind of thing. Look at how you can be more explicitly fair about that.

Evaluate and revise gender and language in promotion and recruitment.

Work-life balance and the idea of how that is modeled, how that is prioritized and how that is accepted. How do you create an acceptance of the very diverse and individual lives your employees lead? And I'm not talking about a diversity of just those employees. And I'm not talking about diversity meaning that you've diversified your marketing department to make sure the glossy brochure looks diverse. I'm talking about recruiting, retaining and promoting diverse employees and then supporting them to be able to attain work life balance in a way that is meaningful and real. And that means senior leaders in the organisation demonstrating and modelling that balance, creating informal opportunities to have conversations with women and with various minorities and people who face disadvantage at work, especially those who don't work full time in the physical office.

Avoid promoting presenteeism. Make sure that your office culture is inclusive at home as well as at work.

When you give feedback, ask for feedback about how you give it. So often we always think we're giving great, helpful, useful feedback. And too often, employees, particularly women who face some kind of barrier or disadvantage, don't have the opportunity to say, this doesn't work for me. This isn't helping me.

From Jamila Rizvi, Deputy Managing Director of Future Women

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Lucy is an award winning British playwright and is the Executive Producer, and writer for the TV show Succession. She is known for her compelling story telling that often explores themes of power, corruption, and the dark side of human nature.

In part one of this episode we are going to learn about Lucy the writer, the storyteller and the world creator.

You’ll hear Lucy applying her techniques for world creation to the company cultures we all experience every day and we'll explore the “note behind the note” - a brilliant mechanism Lucy uses to analyze feedback from above to help her get to the heart of what the right next step to take is. 

Lucy helps us to remember that stories are not just entertainment. They can also be powerful tools for understanding ourselves and the world around us. They can help us to see things from different perspectives, challenge our assumptions and help us to feel connected to others. Ultimately, the best stories help us to find meaning in our lives.

Show notes: 

If you love our Pop Culture First episodes, be sure to check out this conversation between Damon, Priya Parker and Gary Ware about a very different workplace run by, the legend himself, Ted Lasso.

Bonus content:

Culture Amp is excited to announce that Culture First is back and our virtual event series is going global with three events across APAC, The Americas and EMEA. 

At this year’s Culture First, today’s guest Lucy Prebble, will be doing an exclusive sit-down with Culture Amp CEO Didier Elzinga. As a thank-you for listening to the Culture First podcast, we’d love to give you access to this brilliant bonus session. 

Head to http://cultureamp.com/podcastcfg to register for what is sure to be jam-packed conversation between Didier and Lucy.

If you've enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow and leave a review.

Learn more about Culture Amp at www.cultureamp.com or @cultureamp on Instagram

Connect with Lucy Prebble on Twitter @lucyprebblish

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We believe that compassion is mandatory in the building of a Culture First organization. If like us, you’re passionate about people, there’s a good chance you also have high levels of compassion. However, compassion does come with a risk of secondary trauma exposure, or “compassion fatigue”.

In this episode, Damon meets with Taryn Hughes, CEO of Forest Hughes & Associates, somatic trauma recovery specialist, and creator of the first-ever workplace friendly secondary trauma recovery program - Compassion Fatigue RESET™️. 

They talk about what compassion fatigue is, how it differs from regular burnout, and how to remedy, mitigate and prevent it.

We then get on the ground with Leah Hirsch, Director of Professional Development at Math for America, and hear about how she’s implemented Taryn's program "Compassion Fatigue for Career Satisfaction" to address teachers’ compassion fatigue at Math for America.

Finally, Damon chats with Mai Ton, Founder of EMP HR Consulting, to understand how we can reconcile the fact that an organization has an infinite need to provide care and support for their people, but only a finite capacity to do so.

We have partnered with Taryn Hughes to offer our podcast listeners a highly valuable brochure: “Secondary-trauma exposure at work: its impact and a mitigation technique.” Get your copy at www.culturefirstpodcast.com/compassion

And if you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave us an honest review.

To learn more about Taryn Hughes and compassion fatigue, go to http://foresthughes.com/.

To find out more about Math For America, visit https://www.mathforamerica.org/.

To connect with Mai Ton head to https://www.emphrconsulting.com/.

To watch this podcast's video teaser, get an update when new episodes launch or find more information, head over to www.culturefirstpodcast.com, and to learn more about Culture Amp, visit www.cultureamp.com.

Host: Culture Amp’s Work Culture Evangelist, Damon Klotz. 

Production:  Sarah Lessire.

Assistant Production: Ayla Cleworth

Editing: Nick Jaworski at Podcast Monster. 

Design: Nicole Dominic, Amelia Chieng and Christine Tapawan. 

Culture Amp Data: Vivian Woo. 

Video: Kyle Doan. 

Original music: Sarah Lessire. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In what ways are today’s workplace expectations shifting, and what does it mean for the future of professional growth? 

In this episode of the Culture First podcast, Damon Klotz sits down with Isabel Berwick, the Working Careers Editor at the Financial Times and author of the bestseller 'The Future Proofed Career,' to tackle these very questions. 

Isabel and Damon discuss key themes around adapting to uncertainty, the role of AI in the workplace, the significance of curiosity, and maintaining a healthy work-life balance. They also touch on the importance of career development, building relationships and networks, practical advice for self-advocacy, and specific tips for engaging with senior leadership. 

Show notes: 

Isabel’s book The Future Proof Career

Isabel’s articles on the Financial Times

Working It podcast

Key Takeaways: 

1. Embracing change and uncertainty: It’s important to be comfortable with uncertainty, particularly around career development. Today’s rapidly changing landscape requires us to not only accept change but actively engage with it to better understand and navigate new norms.
2. The value of human skills: As AI and automation become more prevalent, human elements like creativity, empathy, and interpersonal skills become crucial. These skills are what differentiate us from machines and add unique value to our work.
3. Importance of visibility and self-advocacy: Practicing self-advocacy and visibility can help you stay top-of-mind in your organization. Ways to do so include being present in meetings (both physically and virtually), promoting others' work alongside your own, and using clear communication during meaningful interactions, like speaking with a CEO. 

Download Culture Amp's ROI Calculator Template here: https://www.cultureamp.com/quantitative-benefits-deck

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode of the Culture First podcast, host Damon Klotz speaks with Bob Sutton, an organizational psychologist, Stanford management professor, and New York Times best-selling author. They discuss the negative impacts of power differences within organizations, the concept of destructive and constructive friction, and the critical role of leadership in mitigating such friction. The episode delves into Bob Sutton's latest work on 'The Friction Project' and explores how effective leaders can navigate cultural challenges. Additionally, they discuss Bob's famous 'No Asshole Rule,' exploring the detrimental effects of toxic behaviors in the workplace and the importance of building supportive and psychologically safe work environments. The conversation is enriched with real-life examples from companies like Google, Microsoft, and Pixar, along with valuable insights and actionable advice for transforming workplace culture.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode Damon speaks with Rajkumari Neogy, an epigenetic coach and executive consultant focused on the intersection of neurobiology, culture, and empathy in today’s business world. She is also the author of “The WIT Factor: Shifting the Workplace Paradigm by Becoming Your Optimal Self.”

Damon and Rajkumari discuss the role that exclusion and trauma can have in the workplace. Together, they look to understand whether these feelings can carry over from previous workplaces and if feeling excluded significantly impacts your ability to perform at a high level. 

This episode is from Part 6 of Culture Amp’s Working Through It series. Learn more about the series at www.culturefirst.com/workingthroughit 

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave us an honest review.

Connect with Damon Klotz on LinkedIn

Connect with Damon Klotz on Twitter

Follow @CultureAmp on Twitter

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How do we foster love and magic within our organizations? This is the question on which architect Pamela Oshoke Abalu and serial entrepreneur Chinedu Echuero founded the Love & Magic Company.

Their job is to help change-makers develop enthused and powerful business solutions. In this episode of the Culture First Podcast, Damon explores with them what it means for work to be “love made visible”.

They discuss the concept of seeing your customer or employee as your beloved, designing for your mother, and empathy as fuel for innovation. 

Later in the episode, Erika Kuhl, former VP of Community at Salesforce, talks to us about her journey building a 3 million+ member thriving Salesforce Trailblazer Community where members go to connect, learn and give back. We learn about her journey having the company recognize the community’s value, and the role that deep listening played.

As a gift to our podcast listeners, we are offering Oshoke and Chinedu’s “How To Bring Your Idea To Life”, a profoundly valuable playbook presenting a systematic and scientific approach to organizing teams and innovating.

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave us an honest review!

To download the “How To Bring Your Idea To Life” Playbook or read this episode's transcript, head to www.culturefirstpodcast.com/love

To learn more about Oshoke and Chinedu's work, go to https://loveandmagic.company/.

To find out more about Erica Kuhl, visit https://www.ericakuhl.com

To watch this podcast's video teaser, get an update when new episodes launch or find more information, head over to www.culturefirstpodcast.com, and to learn more about Culture Amp, visit www.cultureamp.com.

Host: Culture Amp’s Work Culture Evangelist, Damon Klotz. 

Production:  Sarah Lessire.

Assistant Production: Ayla Cleworth

Editing: Nick Jaworski at Podcast Monster. 

Design: Nicole Dominic, Amelia Chieng and Christine Tapawan. 

Culture Amp Data: Vivian Woo. 

Video: Kyle Doan. 

Original music: Sarah Lessire. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

For the first time on the Culture First Podcast, we are doing a mini-series where we go behind the scenes of a company to learn how they put Culture First at all levels of the company.

The first company that we will be exploring is Wilson Sporting Goods. While many people would know Wilson for its products, you probably don’t know that they’ve been around for over 100 years, and it was only in the last few years that it launched retail stores.

In the third episode of this series, we will be speaking with the Wilson Director of Retail for North America, Erin Pelton.

In this episode, you’ll hear Erin share her experience building a career in the retail industry, why Wilson was her dream opportunity and the importance of diversity, inclusion and belonging when you launch a new initiative within an established organization. 

If you’d like to hear more from Wilson Sporting Goods, register to attend Culture First Virtual Americas, where their VP of HR, Geoff Watts, will be joined live on stage with Damon Klotz.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

‘Pop’ Culture First is a new style of episode and one that we’d love to do more of if you, our audience, agree!

In this episode, you’ll hear Damon and his guests unpack the leadership styles of Ted Lasso and Logan Roy, both lead characters in smash hit shows that take us to the edge of what typical leadership is often confined to. When we say smash hit, we mean it! In 2023, Ted Lasso received 21 Emmy nominations, while Succession received 27!

Priya Parker, author of the best selling book 'The Art of Gathering', compares the two starkly different management styles of the main characters in each show and breaks down for us what we can learn from how they gather and how they use or abuse power. 

Gary is a Culture First Chapter Lead Volunteer for Culture Amp in San Diego, a facilitator and a master improv teacher, and dives deep into what Ted Lasso, as a leader, taught us across the three seasons. 

Our guest’s thoughts on why The Lasso Way works, and why the cruel manoeuvres of Logan Roy don’t, are well worth the listen!

​​If you've enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow and leave a review.

Learn more about Culture Amp at www.cultureamp.com

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode Damon speaks with Srinivas Krishnamurti, VP of Product at Culture Amp and former CEO of Zugata, about the steps we need to take to create a fairer and equitable performance management process. They discuss organizational justice, how remote work can level the playing field and why your current performance process might be leaving learning opportunities on the table. 

This episode is from Part 6 of Culture Amp’s Working Through It series. Learn more about the series at:

www.culturefirst.com/workingthroughit 

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave us an honest review.

Articles mentioned during the show: 

https://www.cultureamp.com/blog/performance-management-post-covid-19-things-to-consider/ 

https://www.cultureamp.com/functional-performance-review-ebook/ 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The research team at Culture Amp are on the cutting edge of everything people + data science, and in this episode you'll get access to the top findings from their latest publication: The State of the Manager Report.

The study looks at feedback from over 1 million employees, which analyzed 250,000 plus managers from 3,304 companies during the time period of July, 2022 to 2023. This makes it one of the largest and most comprehensive State of the Manager reports published.

Fresia is a Lead Research People Scientist at Culture Amp. She's bringing her I/O Psychology background (M.S.) to the Culture First podcast for the third time to dive deep into this report and talk about how she and the team identify research projects, determine hypotheses, oversee the data analysis, interpret results, and ensure those insights get into the hands of campers and the broader community.

SHOW NOTES

Download your copy of the 2023 State of the Manager Report.

If you've enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow and leave a review.

Learn more about Culture Amp at www.cultureamp.com or @cultureamp on Instagram

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How to learn, unlearn & stay curious at work, with Chip Conley 

In this episode, Damon Klotz and Chip Conley explore what it means to be a modern elder, ponder the notion of our identity being wrapped up in our work, and why the older generation's emotional intelligence is just as important as the younger generation's digital intelligence. 

Rebel hospitality entrepreneur and New York Times bestselling author Chip Conley disrupted his favorite industry... twice. At age 26 he founded Joie de Vivre Hospitality (JdV), transforming an inner-city motel into the second largest boutique hotel brand in America. 

He sold JdV after running it as CEO for 24 years, and soon the young founders of Airbnb asked him to help transform their promising start-up into the world’s leading hospitality brand. Chip served as Airbnb’s Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy for four years and today, he acts as the company’s Strategic Advisor for Hospitality and Leadership. 

Damon also reveals the first details about our upcoming Culture First Global event series. Make sure you check the box that says you heard about the event via this podcast for your chance to win.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave us an honest review.

Subscribe & leave a review below:

Culture First on Apple Podcasts

Culture First on Spotify

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode of the Culture First podcast, Damon Klotz interviews Seth Godin, renowned author, marketer, and entrepreneur. They delve into the essence of company culture and explore the significance of defining workplace culture by setting expectations and not tolerating disruptive behaviors. The conversation also highlights the importance of storytelling, enrollment, and the distinction between productive and busy work. Seth emphasizes the role of strategy in embodying a company's vision and explains how leaders can foster environments where significant work thrives. The episode offers insights on the challenges of balancing short-term results with long-term strategy and how to make impactful changes within organizations.

Key Takeaways: 

1. Value of Time: We won't get a second chance at today, so it's essential to make the most of it.
2. Choice of Workplace: You've chosen to work in a particular place; this decision shouldn't be taken for granted.
3. Pride in Work: Use your current platform to perform work that makes you genuinely proud.

Show notes: 

Seth’s newest book This is Strategy

Seth’s blog

If you've enjoyed this episode please rate, review and subscribe to Culture First on Apple and Spotify.

You can watch the full video version of this podcast episode here.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

For years Major League Baseball has measured everything related to the game. From the data that individual teams use for onfield performance to the analytics they use to tailor the brand and gameday experience for the fans. 

Brand is a promise to the customer, culture is how you deliver on that promise. In this episode, you’ll hear how Major League Baseball started their journey to create a culture of feedback and analyze the data that most closely impact their employees to deliver that world-class brand experience. 

The guest for this episode is Kiera Connerty, Director of Talent Management at Major League Baseball. Kiera is a graduate of West Point and former Captain in the United States Army. After leaving the Army, she joined the NBA’s People and Talent team before joining Major League Baseball in 2019. 

This episode is a rare chance to go behind the scenes to learn what it takes to run one of the most recognizable sports brands globally and the journey they’ve been on to put culture first. 

You can hear more from Kiera at this year's Culture First Americas conference: https://culturefirstglobal.cultureamp.com/events/details/culture-amp-events-culture-amp-events-presents-culture-first-americas/

If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to Part II of this special episode with Lucy Prebble, executive producer and writer from the hit tv show Succession. If you’re curious about why you both loved and hated Logan, why Shiv was as deeply flawed as her brothers and why a bromance like Tom and Greg’s made us feel all kinds of things, then hit play because all those questions and more will be answered.

As Lucy and Damon take a deep dive into the world of Waystar Royco and Succession, Lucy shares openly to what lengths deeply researched real world stories were used to create this fictional company, goes on to explain that Logan Roy’s media mogul character was the only archetype in the show, and then takes us inside the writer’s room that leaned on the power of constraint to tell this story for the ages in the most Succession-y way possible, and yes, Succession-y is a word. 

As hard as it was to watch at times, as the dark side of the world of work was broadcast into our living rooms, this television show that is, at it’s core, about love and power - the need for it, the absence of it, and the lengths people will go to get it and then keep it - can be received as a gift to us all in the way it helps us find clarity on the types of companies and company cultures that we want to create and be part of.

If you haven’t already listened to Part I, where we learned about Lucy’s background as a playwright in London’s West End, her time as a TV Showrunner and how she nearly didn’t accept the offer to work on Succession, you can - check it out here.

Show notes: 

If you love our Pop Culture First episodes, be sure to check out this joyous conversation between Damon, Priya Parker and Gary Ware about a very different workplace run by, the legend himself, Ted Lasso.

Damon also mentioned his recent conversation with Jamila Rizvi on how to make work actually work for women. You can find that brilliant episode here.

Bonus content:

Culture Amp is excited to announce that Culture First is back and our virtual event series is going global with three events across APAC, The Americas and EMEA. 

At this year’s Culture First, today’s guest Lucy Prebble, will be doing an exclusive sit-down with Culture Amp CEO Didier Elzinga. As a thank-you for listening to the Culture First podcast, we’d love to give you access to this brilliant bonus session. 

Head to http://cultureamp.com/podcastcfg to register for what is sure to be jam-packed conversation between Didier and Lucy.

If you've enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow and leave a review.

Learn more about Culture Amp at www.cultureamp.com or @cultureamp on Instagram

Connect with Lucy Prebble on Twitter @lucyprebblish

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode Damon speaks with Lars Schmidt, one of the leading voices when it comes to modern HR practices, employer branding and open sourcing the future of work. 

Damon and Lars debate how much of this new normal is going to still be present in the workplaces of the future. 

This episode is from Part 7 of Culture Amp’s Working Through It series. Learn more about the series at www.culturefirst.com/workingthroughit 

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave us an honest review.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, Damon sits down with DeRay McKesson, civil rights activist and host of “Pod Save the People”. DeRay works to connect individuals with knowledge and tools, and provide citizens and policymakers with policies that ensure equity.

Empowering employees to bring their whole selves to work is a staple of a Culture First organization. But does that mean leaders should make space for activism in the workplace? Damon and DeRay McKesson explore how organizational activism can be a key lever for systematic change. Together, they uncover key ways that businesses can drive meaningful change at the structural level, beyond merely programming.

We then hear from our very own CEO Didier Elzinga, who shares how business leaders can create space for activism in the workplace and empower systematic change.

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave us an honest review.

To watch this podcast's video teaser, get an update when new episodes launch or find more information, head over to www.culturefirstpodcast.com, and to learn more about Culture Amp, visit www.cultureamp.com.

Host: Culture Amp’s Work Culture Evangelist, Damon Klotz. 

Executive production: Sarah Lessire.

Production: Ayla Filipiak.

Editing: Nick Jaworski at Podcast Monster. 

Design: Nicole Dominic, Amelia Chieng and Christine Tapawan. 

Culture Amp Data: Vivian Woo. 

Video: Kyle Doan. 

Original music: Sarah Lessire. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What can 200,000 employees tell us about the relationship between engagement and performance? 

It turns out quite a lot. 

On the latest episode of the Culture First Podcast, we are returning to the data to bring you the latest in employee experience research. 

In the first part of our data and research series, I sat down with Culture Amp's Lead Researcher Fresia Jackson to lay the foundations for the scope and size of the data lake that Culture Amp has. You can listen to that episode here: https://www.cultureamp.com/podcast/diving-into-data 

In part two of our data exploration, we are looking at a specific study just completed by our data and research team. 

In this episode, you'll learn: 

• How we standardized the data to get the most robust engagement and performance research set in the world. 

• The different types of performance rating systems organizations have implemented, and we find out if there is a sweet spot when it comes to how often you should measure performance. 

• What type of feedback do your high performers need? 

• The external reasons that may be causing underperformance for some of your employees and what you can do about it. 

If you've enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow and leave a review.

Learn more about Culture Amp at www.cultureamp.com 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Are you stressed? Or could you get benefit from getting a little more specific and looking within to see if something else is happening? Maybe you identify disappointment, exhaustion or feeling unsupported?

Damon's guest today is Award-winning psychologist Susan David, and in this episode she'll break down why getting specific with our emotions activates our readiness potential, allowing us to move forward and have the necessary conversations about why work can sometimes feel really hard. 

As one of the world’s leading management thinkers, Susan won the management idea of the year when she expertly defined emotional agility. Her book Emotional Agility went on to be a #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller and winner of an Amazon Best Books of the Year Award. With more than 11 million views, Susan’s TED Talk, The Gift and Power of Emotional Courage, was named one of the most popular talks of the year.

Right when the world needs it most, Susan and David discuss emotions, how we process them, how we handle them, how they show up in the workplace and then they narrow in on how to create space between ourselves and our emotions in order to take action and move forward. 

At the heart of this conversation is a quest to figure out why we have normalised the idea that while emotions are foundational to our experience as a human, they are still misunderstood or sometimes even excluded from our experience at work.

This conversation will sharpen your emotional agility and help you learn how to see your emotions as helpful data points that signpost our deepest needs and values.

If you're craving a healthier relationship with your emotions and the emotions of others this episode will help!

Show notes:

If you've enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow and leave a review.

Learn more about Culture Amp at www.cultureamp.com or @cultureamp on Instagram

Connect with Susan David on X @SusanDavid_PhD

Susan has generously offered all Culture First listeners free access to the Emotional Agility Quiz: Join over 140,000 people who have taken the free Emotional Agility Quiz. The quiz takes just 5 minutes to complete. You'll receive a free 10-page personalized report offering specific strategies to help you become more Emotionally Agile.

She has also offered our listeners the Emotional Agility Pyramid and How to Get Unstuck resources.

Listen to Checking In with Susan David created in partnership with TED and which focuses on coping with our heightened emotions brought on by the pandemic and its aftermath.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, Damon sits down with Lainie Tayler the General Manager People at Carman's Kitchen & Founder of HR Squad to discuss reimagining the employee experience and how to retain your best employees. Lainie Tayler is the founder of HR Squad and an experienced Performance Coach, whose mission is to help people achieve their professional and personal goals.

In this episode, you’ll hear: 

• Why Lainie believes in the whole person experience and not just the employee experience 
• The feedback loops they’ve created to move fast and execute 
• How being intentional about feedback has removed the need for a formalized performance process 
• What the right amount of transparency is with your employees 
• And why one of their wellbeing initiatives was recently picked up by the media, I’ll give you a hint, it’s called a doonah day and I think we could all use one of those from time to time. 

If you’d like to learn more about Carman’s Kitchen onboarding program, you can watch Lainie’s session from Culture First APAC here: https://www.cultureamp.com/resources/culture-first-on-demand-apac/how-carmans-kitchen-achieved-96-employee-engagement 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The open-source movement has given us an insight into the decisions that organizations around the world have been making to help their employees work through it during a crisis. But we don’t always get to learn about how or why they make the decisions that end up in the open-source policy or document. 



To learn more about prioritizing open and transparent communication during this crisis, Damon Klotz sat down with Tariq Meyers, Global Head of Belong, Inclusion, and Diversity at Coinbase.

Damon and Tariq discuss what was happening in the room when Coinbase created the now-public documents to help leaders with their response to the constant changes. You’ll also hear Damon and Tariq discuss the Black Lives Matter movement and explore ways to make space for conversations about race at work.

Open Source Documents and Memos: https://blog.coinbase.com/coinbase-planning-and-response-to-covid-2019-d0cb3379bc3e

Connect with Tariq Meyers: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tariq-meyers/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is the first part of a two-part series on layoffs and their impact on the employee experience. The episode focuses on the immediate impact of layoffs, based on research conducted by Culture Amp. The research analyzed data from layoffs in the tech sector between March 2020 and December 2023, including over 3,300 layoff events by 2,400 companies.

The conversation explores the impact of layoffs on employee engagement and the employee experience. It discusses the decline in engagement levels after layoffs, particularly in trust, pride, and commitment. It also highlights the importance of leadership communication and development opportunities in mitigating the negative effects of layoffs. The conversation debunks the myth that doing one large layoff is better than multiple smaller layoffs and emphasizes the role of managers in supporting employees during this challenging time.

The episode concludes by discussing alternative strategies to layoffs and the importance of treating employees with decency and humanity throughout the process.

Chapters

03:40 - Research Methodology and Data Set

07:08 - Immediate Impact on Employee Engagement

13:55 - Decline in Commitment and Confidence

20:34 - Importance of Transparent Communication

23:22 - The Role of Leadership Communication and Development Opportunities

27:45 - Debunking the Myth of One Large Layoff Being Better

33:46 - The Importance of Managers in Supporting Employees

38:24 - Exploring Alternative Strategies to Layoffs

Articles mentioned in this episode:

Business Insider - A better way to handle layoffs

Axios - Employers are "afraid" to conduct layoffs in viral video era

If you've enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts or follow and hit five stars on Spotify.

Learn more about Culture Amp at www.cultureamp.com 

Follow Damon on LinkedIn to get his latest leadership insights & follow on Instagram to see behind-the-scenes footage from the podcast. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We're signing off for the year with the one thing we all need to hear right now + some exciting news about 2024.

If you enjoy and find value in this podcast, please don't hesitate to subscribe, follow and leave a review.

Learn more about Culture Amp at www.cultureamp.com or @cultureamp on Instagram

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

If you've ever doubted the ability of a Culture First company to have their delicious Culture cake and eat it, too - Garry Ridge is about to lay down a 20-minute Master Class on exactly how he made it possible.

Our guest today was one of the very first CEO's that Simon Sinek recognised as putting his Golden Circle into practice and in this episode, you’ll hear Garry talk about his relationship with Simon Sinek and he lets us in on the tweaks he made to Simon’s own formula for creating a Culture First company.

Garry Ridge’s leadership style is unique, bold and a balance of his Australian upbringing and his time on the road as a travelling salesperson. All this combined with his infinite mindset saw him become the longest serving Australian chief of a listed US company - a company that sells one of the most recognisable household items in the world - WD40!

This conversation was recorded back in 2020, but we never released it in full. We want to honor Garry’s incredible legacy of 25 years as CEO of WD40 with this extended version!

If you've enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow and leave a review.

Learn more about Culture Amp at www.cultureamp.com or @cultureamp on Instagram

Learn more about Garry at thelearningmoment.net and on Twitter @LearningMoment

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

COVID-19 has rapidly impacted individuals and organizations around the world. However you’ve been affected, the stress and anxiety from this global pandemic can take a meaningful toll on our health and wellness.

In this episode, Damon Klotz speaks with Wendy Suzuki, Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at New York University, about how extreme stress affects our brains. Throughout their conversation they explore simple techniques for calming anxiety, the difference between good and bad anxiety, and physical actions we can take to improve our physical and mental wellbeing.

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave us an honest review.

To learn more about Wendy Suzuki, go to https://www.wendysuzuki.com/.

Join our Culture First community to discuss how you and others are #WorkingThroughIt.

Head to www.culturefirst.com/workingthroughit to experience our brand new multimedia series called Working Through It. It's a seven-part journey to navigate through a crisis.

Host: Culture Amp’s Work Culture Evangelist, Damon Klotz. 

Production: Ayla Filipiak.

Editing: Nick Jaworski at Podcast Monster. 

Design: Nicole Dominic, Lauren Mahoney, For the People Agency.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We are excited to announce a new seven-part series of the Culture First Podcast as we navigate the impacts of the global pandemic and explore the new world of work.

Join our Culture First community to discuss how you and others are #WorkingThroughIt.

Head to https://www.culturefirst.com/workingthroughit as we begin a collective journey through this crisis, together.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode of the Culture First podcast, Damon Klotz interviews Shane Battier. Shane is a two-time NBA champion and former player for the Miami Heat. He was recognized as a scholar-athlete at Duke University, earning accolades such as the National Player of the Year before being drafted sixth overall in the 2001 NBA Draft. Beyond basketball, Battier is committed to philanthropy through his foundation, which focuses on educational resources for underserved youth. In this episode, Damon talks with Shane about the role data plays in decision making and the importance of teammate-ship over leadership.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode of the Culture First podcast, Damon Klotz interviews Amy Lavoie, VP of People Science at Culture Amp, about the role of people science and people analytics in the modern workplace. They discuss practical examples of using data to make decisions, the importance of combining science and technology, and the future of people analytics. The conversation highlights the need for people scientists who can analyze data, provide insights, and consult with leaders to drive meaningful change. They also emphasize the importance of democratizing data and connecting people analytics with business performance metrics.

Learn more about the latest in people analytics here. https://www.cultureamp.com/people-analytics

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Join Damon at Culture First Virtual 2024 to hear from Esther Perel, Megan Rapinoe and Ben Crowe. Register here to get your free ticket & a thank you for being a Podcast listener. Register now.

How will the top 7 HR trends of 2024 impact your workplace? 

Damon breaks down his top three employee experience predictions for 2024, along with key predictions from four experts around the globe. 

In this new era of work, our technology, leadership, and communication are all hyper-focused on prioritizing ease and creating more cohesive workplaces. 

It’s a new era born of an understanding that when both work and the world outside work feel hard, it can be overwhelming to be a working human. 

So, listen in to see how 2024 promises to make it easier for people to do their best work, and to feel valued, purposeful, and confident that they have the tools and support to work well. 

If you’re ready to level up as a new year begins, 2024 has the potential to drive essential progress in the workplace evolution – where we tune into the requirements of organizations and employees to create truly impactful and engaging employee experiences. 

As we navigate generational workplace change, rethink the role of the office, and adapt to emerging technologies, the possibilities are endless. Here’s to a new year of making good things happen at work.

To read Damon’s article on this topic click here.

If you enjoy and find value in this podcast, please don't hesitate to subscribe, follow and leave a review. Learn more about Culture Amp at www.cultureamp.com or @cultureamp on Instagram. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, Damon Klotz sits down with author, poet, and community builder Cleo Wade. This conversation is designed to inspire listeners through the power of poetry, space creation, and storytelling. Cleo’s empowering message gives us the tools to build the communities and connections that we need more than ever right now.

Cleo Wade is the author of the bestselling books, Heart Talk: Poetic Wisdom for a Better Life and Where to Begin: A Small Book About Your Power to Create Big Change in Our Crazy World. She has been called the poet of her generation by Time Magazine and one of the 100 most creative people in business by Fast Company. 

To learn more about Cleo Wade head to www.cleowade.com.

This episode originally appeared as part of Working through it series. Check out the series for more tips and stories of people navigating periods of transition.

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave us an honest review.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, Damon sits down with Priya Parker, master facilitator, and author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why it Matters.

Priya provides listeners with a masterclass in the art of gathering. Here are some of the questions you might have about your work meetings: 

• Have you wondered if your meetings were serving the right purpose? 
• Have you questioned whether the right people are in the room? 
• Do you worry that the way you gather at work is impacting someone’s ability to feel like they belong?

Don’t worry, these questions are being asked at every level of organizations around the world right now. Priya will lay the foundation for how to gather, why to gather and what we can do to make our gatherings more meaningful. 

Damon and Priya also analyze some famous examples of workplace culture in the form of Ted Lasso and Succession to learn what they can teach us about gathering.

By the end of this episode, you’ll also learn the difference between a conversation and a gathering and why you need to find the deepest need of your gatherings to truly create a meaningful experience. 

To hear from more Culture First Leaders like Priya Parker make sure that you register to join us at Culture First. Culture First is a series of free virtual experiences exploring how culture, science, and innovation can guide organizations, leaders, and teams through the challenges and towards the opportunities of reworking work for everyone. Get your free ticket here.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode of the Culture First Podcast Damon sits down with Claude Silver to provide a sneak preview into their respective upcoming conversations with Susan David about emotional agility and toxic positivity. 

You’ll hear insights into how VaynerMedia trains leaders for emotional agility, the quotes from Susan David that have impacted him the most, and the question that will help you better understand your emotions, thoughts and stories you tell yourself about work. 

To hear more from Susan David and Claude Silver register for Culture First Global Americas where they’ll be in conversation. Register at https://culturefirstglobal.com/americas. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome back to another episode of the Culture First Podcast. In this episode podcast host, Damon Klotz talks about what's to come in the future for this podcast and for announces new Culture First events for 2022 and beyond.

Culture Amp is excited to announce that Culture First – Culture Amp's annual, global virtual event series – is back! I'm inviting you to join us and the community as we explore the role of culture, science, and innovation in building better workplaces and overcoming uncertainty.

Head to the link in the episode show notes to register now to join over 30,000 international attendees for any or all of our three regional experiences:

• Culture First APAC - September 7, 2022
• Culture First Americas - October 26, 2022
• Culture First EMEA - March 2023

Explore ideas, share your experiences, dive into the data, and gain the clarity and skills you need to turn current and future uncertainty into opportunity.

By reworking work, we can build a better world of work – for everyone.

We'd also love to hear from our listeners if there's particular guests you'd like to hear from on the podcast.

You can send me an email podcast@cultureamp.com or contact me @DamonKlotz on social media.

I'd love to know if there's a company leader, author, or practitioner that you want to hear more from. One of the core principles when we design culture first each year is to ensure that for every well-known guest like Simon Sinek we also create space for emerging leaders or people who don't typically speak at events like ours. So no guest suggestion is a bad suggestion. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Leaders at all levels are faced with an increasingly blurred boundary between personal and professional. As we try to understand exactly how much of our full selves we can bring to work, managers are uniquely positioned to create a safe space for vulnerability - in times of crisis and beyond.

In this episode, Damon Klotz speaks with Larissa Conte, Founder of Wayfinding. Together they explore what this changing environment can teach us about leading, how to manage our egos when budgets and hard decisions are at play, and ideas for areas where leaders are struggling the most right now.

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave us an honest review.

To learn more about Larissa Conte, go to www.wayfinding.io.

Episode Resources:

http://www.wayfinding.io/alchemical-leadership

http://www.wayfinding.io/executive-rites-of-passage

 https://way-finding.teachable.com/p/wayfinding-toolkit-for-turbulent-times

Join our Culture First community to discuss how you and others are #WorkingThroughIt.

Head to www.culturefirst.com/workingthroughit to experience our brand new multimedia series called Working Through It. It's a seven-part journey to navigate through a crisis.

Host: Culture Amp’s Work Culture Evangelist, Damon Klotz. 

Production: Ayla Filipiak.

Editing: Nick Jaworski at Podcast Monster. 

Design: Nicole Dominic, Lauren Mahoney, For the People Agency.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Interviews with a curated list of workplace culture experts and thought leaders full of actionable insights to help all of us create a better world of work.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode of the Culture First podcast, Damon Klotz interviews Vincent Stanley, Patagonia’s Director of Philosophy. They discuss Patagonia’s unconventional approach to business, emphasizing cultural confidence and the importance of storytelling in building a responsible company. Vincent shares insights on Patagonia's foundational values, decision-making processes, and the importance of focusing on both environmental and societal responsibilities. The discussion highlights Patagonia's unique practices such as their transition to organic cotton and commitment to feedback culture, offering valuable lessons for other mission-driven organizations.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Simon Sinek identifies two different kinds of games: finite and infinite.

Finite games, such as football or chess, have known players, fixed rules, and an agreed-upon objective that often ends the game with a winner and a loser.

Infinite games, on the other hand, can be played by known and unknown players, have no exact rules and an infinite length of play. 

An unshakable optimist, Simon believes in a bright future and works toward improving our ability to build it together. For him, a big part of this relies on the adoption of what he refers to as the “infinite mindset”.

In this episode, Damon and Simon explore what an “infinite mindset organization” looks like, what makes a great leader, and we can how to go from being know-it-alls to being a learn-it-alls.

Having identified resilience as a core part of the infinite mindset, we then hear from Kate Snowise, founder of Thrive.How and Corporate Psychologist turned Executive Coach. She places resilience at the core of her coaching practice, and talks to us about the unshakeable power of knowing our “Why”.

Finally, we get to hear from Garry Ridge, CEO of the exemplary Infinite Mindset company WD-40. Gary and Damon discuss what putting culture - and humans - first looks like at WD-40, and how that has paid off over the years.

As a gift to our podcast listeners, we are offering the first chapter of Simon Sinek’s bestseller, “The Infinite Game”. This highly-praised book highlights remarkable patterns about how the greatest leaders and organizations think, act and communicate.

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave us an honest review.

To get your free download of the first chapter of “The Infinite Game” or read this episode's transcript, head to www.culturefirstpodcast.com/infinite

To learn more about Simon Sinek, go to https://simonsinek.com/.

To find out more about Kate Snowise, visit https://www.thrive.how/.

To discover more on Garry Ridge's leadership vision, head to https://thelearningmoment.net/.

To watch this podcast's video teaser, get an update when new episodes launch or find more information, head over to www.culturefirstpodcast.com, and to learn more about Culture Amp, visit www.cultureamp.com.

Host: Culture Amp’s Work Culture Evangelist, Damon Klotz. 

Production:  Sarah Lessire.

Assistant Production: Ayla Cleworth

Editing: Nick Jaworski at Podcast Monster. 

Design: Nicole Dominic, Amelia Chieng and Christine Tapawan. 

Culture Amp Data: Vivian Woo. 

Video: Kyle Doan. 

Original music: Sarah Lessire. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Scaling Culture, with Ambrosia Vertesi

Numerous organizations face a common dilemma: how to maintain their foundational culture and values while experiencing tremendous growth.

In this episode, Damon Klotz sits down with Ambrosia Vertesi, co-founder of HR Open Source and former Vice President of People at Duo Security, to discuss the why and the how of scaling culture.

Ambrosia shares many of the lessons she learned during her time at Hootsuite and Duo Security and gives us insight on how to support managers during big company changes. 

Later in the episode, Molly Graham, Co-Founder of &Then, invites us to dive deeper into what it actually means to “give away legos”, and the vital role that humility plays during fast growth.

Lastly, we get to hear Chloe Sesta Jacobs’ running boots on the ground. Chloe is Head of People and Culture at Deputy, a scheduling software company that is experiencing tremendous growth.

As a gift to our podcast listeners, we are offering our Culture Crunch Report, a comprehensive collection of trends in employee engagement, organizational design, company culture, leadership and management, and their differences across varying company maturation phases.

If you enjoy this episode, subscribe and leave us an honest review!

To download the Culture Crunch Report or read this episode's transcript, head to www.culturefirstpodcast.com/scaling

To connect with Ambrosia Vertesi, go to https://ca.linkedin.com/in/ambrosiavertesi

To read Molly Graham's article on sharing legos, go to https://firstround.com/review/give-away-your-legos-and-other-commandments-for-scaling-startups/

To find out more about Deputy, visit https://www.deputy.com/

To watch this podcast's video teaser, get an update when new episodes launch or find more information, head over to www.culturefirstpodcast.com, and to learn more about Culture Amp, visit www.cultureamp.com.

Host: Culture Amp’s Work Culture Evangelist, Damon Klotz. 

Production:  Sarah Lessire.

Assistant Production: Ayla Cleworth

Editing: Nick Jaworski at Podcast Monster. 

Design: Nicole Dominic, Amelia Chieng and Christine Tapawan. 

Culture Amp Data: Vivian Woo. 

Video: Kyle Doan. 

Original music: Sarah Lessire. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode of the Culture First Podcast Damon sits down with Professor Jane Burns and Adam Smiley Poswolsky to discuss how to talk about mental health in the workplace.

Professor Burns is a Board Member of the NDIA, Committee Chair at Open Arms Veterans & Families Counseling and formerly involved in Streat and Beyond Blue. 

Adam is a keynote speaker on workplace belonging and the future of work as well as the author of Friendship in the Age of Loneliness. He also writes for Harvard Business Review and his TED talks have amassed over 2 million views.

In this episode you'll learn:

• The foundational level of knowledge everyone needs to understand a topic as complex as mental health
• What the research is showing us when it comes to the global loneliness epidemic
• What role does the organization and company culture play in positively and negatively impacting mental health
• How a manager can play a critical role in supporting the mental health of their team
• The questions you can ask your team members to better support them to talk about mental health

This is an incredibly important episode and one that we hope gives you a better understanding as well as practical actions to take to create mentally healthy workplaces.

This is an incredibly important episode and one that we hope gives you a better understanding as well as practical actions to take to create mentally healthy workplaces. If you or someone you know needs help, please use the following resources as a guide. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, please call the emergency services in your local area.

Mental health resources: 

‍This page contains a wide range of mental health services around the world.

https://www.wearespur.com/org/mentalhealthhub 

Culture First Global 2022

To hear more stories from Culture First Leaders make sure that you register to join us at Culture First Global. Culture First is a series of free virtual experiences exploring how culture, science, and innovation can guide organizations, leaders, and teams through the challenges and towards the opportunities of reworking work for everyone. Get your free ticket here. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, Damon meets with Tania Luna, Co-CEO of LifeLabs Learning, whose work revolves around learning, psychology, and surprise. Together, they shine a light on the opportunity leaders have to make the most out of the COVID-19 crisis being nimble and adaptive.

In times of crisis, the environment we operate in changes the norms we are used to. When volatility and uncertainty are at their peak, we need different tools than the ones used when things are predictable, consistent and clear. LifeLabs has a playbook to help leaders manage anxiety and increase resilience across organizations. Damon and Tania touch on the resources outlined in the playbook and discuss how we can recover and thrive in the midst of uncertainty. 

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave us an honest review.

To learn more about Tania Luna and LifeLabsLearning, go to https://lifelabslearning.com/faculty/tania-luna/.

To watch this podcast's video teaser, get an update when new episodes launch or find more information, head over to www.culturefirstpodcast.com, and to learn more about Culture Amp, visit www.cultureamp.com.

Host: Culture Amp’s Work Culture Evangelist, Damon Klotz. 

Executive production:  Sarah Lessire.

Assistant production: Ayla Cleworth

Editing: Nick Jaworski at Podcast Monster. 

Design: Nicole Dominic, Amelia Chieng and Christine Tapawan. 

Culture Amp Data: Vivian Woo. 

Video: Kyle Doan. 

Original music: Sarah Lessire. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

As most people are trapped at home, forced to grapple with the stress and anxiety from a confined space, there has never been a more relevant time to prioritize mental health. People are experiencing widespread and prolonged burnout and looking for ways to build meaningful connections in this new environment.

In this episode, Damon Klotz speaks with Dr. Omar Dawood, Chief Medical Officer and Head of Sales at Calm. Together they explore how to make space for vulnerability at work and tactics for navigating the unknown with resilience.

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave us an honest review.

To learn more about Calm, go to https://www.calm.com/.

Join our Culture First community to discuss how you and others are #WorkingThroughIt.

Head to www.culturefirst.com/workingthroughit to experience our brand new multimedia series called Working Through It. It's a seven-part journey to navigate through a crisis.

Host: Culture Amp’s Work Culture Evangelist, Damon Klotz. 

Production: Ayla Filipiak.

Editing: Nick Jaworski at Podcast Monster. 

Design: Nicole Dominic, Lauren Mahoney, For the People Agency.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode of the Culture First podcast, Damon Klotz interviews Amy Gallo, an esteemed author and workplace expert. Damon and Amy have an in-depth discussion on conflict resolution, feedback, and workplace culture. Amy shares her experiences and professional insights, addressing the perils of 'artificial harmony', the importance of establishing norms for healthy disagreements, and the role of empathy in feedback. The conversation explores managing conflicts both in-person and remotely, emphasizing psychological safety, clear communication, and the value of difficult yet necessary conversations. Featuring personal anecdotes, professional strategies, and cultural references from shows like 'Succession', this episode provides valuable advice for fostering high-performance and healthy workplace environments.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

All eyes are on leaders as the world of work tries to adapt in the face of crisis. Fortunately, this is not the first time we’ve had to do this, and there are many learnings we can use as a guide. Whether we like it or not, there may never be a ‘return to normal.’ Now is the time to redefine how we work in this new world.

In this episode, Damon Klotz speaks with Chris Fussell, President of McChrystal Group. Chris shares an optimistic framework for leading through periods of change. Together, Damon and Chris explore strategies to turn fear into action, lead with vulnerability, and keep the momentum that drives us forward. 

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave us an honest review.

To learn more about McChrystal Group, go to https://www.mcchrystalgroup.com/.

Join our Culture First community to discuss how you and others are #WorkingThroughIt.

Head to www.culturefirst.com/workingthroughit to experience our brand new multimedia series called Working Through It. It's a seven-part journey to navigate through a crisis.

Host: Culture Amp’s Work Culture Evangelist, Damon Klotz. 

Production: Ayla Filipiak.

Editing: Nick Jaworski at Podcast Monster. 

Design: Nicole Dominic, Lauren Mahoney, For the People Agency.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

DeRay McKesson is a civil rights activist, community organiser, and host of Pod Save the People. He started his career as an educator & human capital leader and is the co-founder of Campaign Zero. Many of the marches DeRay has helped organize contributed to the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement.

DeRay has become a key player in the workplace when it comes to confronting the systems and structures that have led to mass incarceration and police killings of black and other minority populations. He is a board member of Rock The Vote, was named one of the World’s Greatest Leaders by Fortune Magazine in 2015, and one of the 30 Most Influential People On The Internet by Time Magazine. You might also know DeRay for famously wearing a blue Patagonia vest.

Show notes:

Damon's full interview with DeRay can be found here. In the full episode you’ll also hear from Culture Amp CEO Didier Elzinga and his thoughts on role of the organization in actively creating a better world and how leaders can best support their employees to be activists in their community.

Learn more about DeRay McKesson at www.deray.com

Learn more about Culture Amp by heading to www.cultureamp.com  

We believe in creating a better world of work, if that’s important to you too, please subscribe and leave us a review to make sure you don’t miss an episode.

If you missed Culture First Virtual 2024, you can now watch all of the sessions on demand from people like Esther Perel, Megan Rapinoe, and Ben Crowe. Click this link to download your favourite session.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this bonus episode of the Culture First Podcast, our host Damon Klotz announces the four keynote speakers for Culture First Americas. 

Join him at Culture First on Wednesday, the 26th of October, to hear from Susan Cain, Valerie Jarrett, Oliver Burkeman and David Whyte. 

Click this link to get your free ticket.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Leaders around the world are trying to help their teams navigate an incredible amount of uncertainty. This can lead to a deep sense of frustration about the world, the workplace, and our role within it. That’s why we need to have the courage to have difficult conversations about topics such as race, politics, equity, and belonging.

In this episode, Damon Klotz speaks with Michelle Kim, Co-Founder and CEO of Awaken. Michelle and Damon talk about how to manage a team in times of political trauma, create space for uncomfortable conversations at work, and minimize the impact of uncertainty for your employees.

* Michelle wanted listeners of the show to know that she asked Culture Amp to make a donation to The Transgender Gender-Variant & Intersex Justice Project in lieu of a payment to Awaken for her time today. 

Culture Amp has made a donation of $2500 to the TGI Project and we want to thank Michelle for her leadership and generosity.

Resources

Blog posts referenced:

• https://medium.com/awaken-blog/managing-teams-in-times-of-political-trauma-what-to-do-what-to-say-to-boost-psychological-safety-b5782969d6fa 
• https://medium.com/awaken-blog/urgently-looking-for-anti-racism-training-for-your-company-start-here-f4d2f7e97111
• https://medium.com/awaken-blog/20-allyship-actions-for-asians-to-show-up-for-the-black-community-right-now-464e5689cf3e
• List of Black owned DEI companies + Black DEI professionals: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1giDIGTd5XvuCrP9n-Y70_NQPegvmcejdg8x3ypM5Iu4/edit#gid=0
• TGI Justice Project Website - http://www.tgijp.org/

Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn, and learn more about Awaken on their website.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.