The Culture Builders

The Culture Builders – The Three Big Fixes For Leaders

Sun, sand and strategic thinking? At the time of recording, many leaders are turning on the out-of-office note and heading for a well-earned holiday. But they are departing from professional lives that are busier, more complex and stressful than ever. With a myriad of new factors to contend with, the question ‘who would want to be a boss?’ rings truer than ever.
Jane and Chris dip their toe into the waters of leadership life on this podcast – taking a short look at the three big challenges that leaders face – empowerment, strategic thinking and burn out. All three are linked, and they each bring with them a specific set of needs and mindful actions to ensure you enable, achieve or avoid each one.
Plenty of practical tips, as you would expect, with some sound advice on what to do to make the space and build the trust. If you are about to turn off, tune in and get some holiday inspiration to mull over as you take your well-earned R&R.

The Culture Builders - The Warmth of a Cold Culture

Want to be part of a really strong, positive and supportive culture? It’s going to cost you – the price of a swim in freezing cold water… But it’s worth it, as that action buys you entry into a rapidly growing network of people, mainly women, who are part of the Bluetits Chill Swimmers club.
Sounds extreme, but for the 80,000+ people in the network, it’s a way to build courage and overcome their fears & self-assumptions. Founded by Sian Richardson, the Bluetits encourages people to safely swim in open water in the UK – all year round. It’s freezing cold, it’s scary and asks people to uncover their bodies with a mix of people. But it’s also a celebratory, supportive culture within which people bring their true, vulnerable selves to the swims.
The ethos, as Sian explains to Jane Sparrow, is to simply say well done to those that turn up. Even if they never get wet (remaining dry tits) they are part of the club, and valued for their contribution. It’s a powerful, shared experience – the magical moments of post-swim celebration and connection, powered by adrenalin, help to connect and fuel people’s sense of inclusion.
It doesn’t take much imagination to think how the principles that Sian shares could easily be extended to a professional world.

The Culture Builders Deep Dive - Bringing Values to Life

What can beer theft (or lack of) teach us about how to bring values to life in an organisation? Or what does it mean to be Daring at 4am in the loading bay of a warehouse? Listen in as Owen and Chris talk about their experience with values and the ways in which organisations bring them to life. 
You'll be asking tough questions of your own organisational values - are they static, active or progressive? Do they encourage action, or simply make people feel good? 
Values live or die based on how people bring them into their day to day work. Chris and Owen talk about examples of where this happens, and the pitfalls of the opposite being the case... prison for some. If you are about to craft a new set then listen carefully, and value every word. Then, take your values for a spin
 
* It was Keats BTW, not Byron or Shelley

The Culture Builders Burst - Talking Psychological Safety

Psychological Safety is a phrase we all bandy about, and more - it's big business and a major focus for many organisations that genuinely want to ensure it exists in strength within their teams. But, as most people to define it and we stumble - it's not a simple thing to grasp (or indeed create) and many of us end up talking about trust and safety to speak up.
 
Which, yes, it is both. But it's also so much more. Jane took time with one of our team members - Janine Roberts - to bring the subject to life, and open up what it means, the power it brings to us all, and some simple starting points on how to ensure it's a key factor in your team. If you want to better articulate the concept, then listen no further, as the two bounce around ideas on how to do this and ways in which you can engage people in this critical topic.

The Culture Builders Deep Dive – connecting cultures with language ‘hygiene’

This episode is a cautionary tale of linguistic privilege. What? You say. Listen on and find out, as Chris interviews Heather Hansen – a Global Communication Expert and author of the book ‘Unmuted’. She spends a great deal of her professional life helping people to feel more confident speaking in a second language (in particular, English). But, as she explains, the main root problems lie with the native speaker, not the person trying to improve.
Listening to this is a cold-shower wake up for native English speakers – challenging us to rethink how we communicate with our global community, and to use language and stories that others will understand. As Heather explains, so many good conversations and sources of insight and innovation are stifled when we fail to account for the people that have had the bravery to learn our language. And, as all good teachers do, Heather’s got some great tips, advice and sources of learning to help everyone improve their global communication.

The Culture Builders Deep Dive - find your route to appreciation

Jane is joined by our Head of Consulting - Tyson Matheson - to talk through the 'five languages of appreciation' - sharing tips, stories and ideas that can help to build a stronger culture within any organisation.
Find time to listen and think about how you prefer to demonstrate it, and the reasons why you want to show appreciation (hint: It's not to receive it back). Jane and Tyson share some ideas on how to use the thinking in your daily professional life, and how to start a 'movement' in your team that sees this being a core skill for everyone.

The Culture Builders Deep Dive - From Fruit Flies to Frozen Planet - a Cultural Journey

From an audience of fruit flies, to a global one numbering in the billions, Nicki Sheard, President, Brands & Licensing for BBC Studios, has had a highly varied career that's led to her current role. She's worked in FMCG, Fashion and Gaming sectors, and has held a number of roles across the BBC group.
Jane got the chance to talk to Nicki about her experiences across this diverse portfolio and share them on our latest podcast. The singles biggest differentiator in each role has, for Nicki, been the culture. She has drawn learnings from every experience, good and bad - helping her to understand the key levers to focus on and how to create a positive, effective team that enables people to challenge, learn and grow.
 
For Nicki, the podcast was a great exercise around reflection - helping her to work through the experiences she's had, and how it has shaped her approach to building a strong culture within her BBC team.
 

The Culture Builders Deep Dive – Word of the Year

It’s mere days before we hear the strains of Auld Lang Syne played across the globe, as we say goodbye to a challenging 2022, and step into an uncertain 2023. Jane and Chris’s advice is simple – have a word ready to set the tone.
Over the last few years The Culture Builders’ team has made it a habit to choose a personal word each year that helps them find new and more productive ways of working and thriving. Jane and Chris share their previous words and, as an exclusive sneak-peek, share their next year’s ones now. The question is… What’s yours going to be?

The Culture Builders Deep Dive – Meet the Bank of Me

Over the last two years the pressure of work has simply grown and grown – phrases such as ‘The Great Resignation,’ ‘Quiet Quitting,’ and ‘Husk Workers’ have all sprung up as we all find the professional life more challenging than ever, and leaving us to ask the tough question of ‘why’.
On this podcast, Chris and Jane talk through the key factors that led them to creating the Bank of Me app – a tool aimed at helping busy professionals to stay well, focused and productive in a very tough environment. Burn-out is the word of the moment, and the impact for organisations is huge. More than ever there’s a need to provide support and advice to those struggling with the daily grind.
Four years ago we launched the book on this podcast, and now it's the turn of our app!

The Culture Builders Deep Dive - impact of isolation

 Jane Sparrow, speaks with designer and maker Stephen Bailey - who shares his story behind being self-employed and working alone, as well as the experience of taking part in an 'impact of work' study and how it made himself more aware of his mental wellbeing, particularly during the pandemic.
Lots of ideas, tips and inspiration to help us all move forwards with our health.