The Culture Builders

The Culture Builders Deep Dive: Leadership Lessons for your first 90 days in post

How do you prepare to step into a new leadership role? What can you do before the move to make sure you're at your best for it? What do you need to do, for yourself and others, during the first 60-90 days in role to get off to the best start? In this episode Jane gets to talk to Seb Monk - Chief Experience Officer at property tech and shared living start-up, Lyvly - about how he prepared for the move and what he's been doing in his early days in post.
 
Seb shares learning from the environments and transitions across his career, including moves from the armed forces into corporate law, on to retail with Waitrose, into Dyson and now to Lyvly. He draws our attention to the things he's kept and tried to repeat, and the things he's done differently this time around.

The Culture Builders Burst – 5 festive actions to top up your human bank account

As we all wind down to the end of 2019, to the end of a decade and enter what will no doubt be a very interesting period, we wanted to share five things you can do for yourself and those around you. They are small things to help prepare for the festive period and to set yourself on the right track for 2020.
Chris and Jane share their five top tips for you – they are easy, positive and ones you can involve others in. Simple ideas around staying hydrated, saying thank you and getting your 2020 To Do list off to a flying start.
Enjoy them, try them and have a great festive season.
The Bank of Me team

The Culture Builders Deep Dive – creative cultures are founded on trust

Heather Golding is the founder of TonyG – a company that has created branding and campaign materials for some of the world’s biggest retail brands. Every listener will have experienced their outputs in some way, their work with global brands appears on our high streets and in stores across the world.
We took some time to talk to Heather in her Warwickshire office and, helped by the local birdlife, we asked her to share views on creating creative cultures. Her take on this hard-to-grasp area is as surprising as it is practical. It’s not about slides, music or targets, it’s about trust, playfulness and great leadership.
To get you started, Heather shares her three tips on building creative organisations, and how to bring in people not normally given the ‘creative’ label. She’s a delight to talk and listen to – we loved recording this, and think you will love listening to it

The Culture Builders Burst – taking stress apart

It’s Stress Awareness Day, and there are many conversations and ideas around the topic – causes, symptoms and (critically) cures. Inevitably the majority of this will focus on the workplace. It’s a sad state that stress in our careers has become such a presence – there’s no doubt that it has only increased in the last decade.
However, it’s also heartening that it’s a topic we are more comfortable talking about (as with mental health, which is a close conspirator with stress). It’s something we constantly raise through our work, taking about the causes and the cost, but also how, in an adult way, we can tackle it. We will never have a stress-free world, but managing what stress we do allow in our lives is an important coping factor. In this Burst, Jane shares thinking and practical ideas on this pertinent topic.

The Culture Builders Burst - the cornerstones of wellbeing

We wholly support the increased focus on personal, team and organisational wellbeing. Supporting individuals to work and live their lives in ways that deposit into their personal bank account (keeping them in the ‘black’ in our terms) creates cultures that sustainably achieve business targets, are amazing places to work and attract the best talent.
But it’s also a confusing area – what is and isn’t ‘in scope’ for wellbeing, and where to begin? Jane Sparrow shares how we outline wellbeing, and the areas we see as critical to focus on. As we say, ‘it’s not rocket science, it’s people science’. And we can all do it.

The Culture Builders Deep Dive – Growing and managing an international culture within DAZN

Rapid international growth is a major challenge for many young organisations. Aside from the inevitable logistics, one of the most frequent issues (or indeed opportunities) is the cultural differences that are encountered as companies move into new markets and territories.
This has been the case for DAZN – the first OTT live sports broadcaster – as it seeks to rapidly build a global brand from a UK base. Joining us on the Bank of Me podcast this episode is their SVP of Talent and Resourcing, Suzana Thurston. She has been at the sharp-end of this growth – sourcing and developing a 3,000 strong workforce – and has seen first-hand how the blend of Asian, European and American cultures has developed.
Owen, who has been working with DAZN to help managers work through the complexity of international-management, took some time with Suzana to talk through the journey and challenges and successes that the company has experienced.

The Culture Builders Burst – Checking in on your passion

Passion today, passion tomorrow, energy from people – Jane Sparrow shares the three questions she encourages the leaders and teams to consider when they are facing long-term challenges and change.
During these times it’s easy for things to grind us down, to lose sight of the positives and to be drained by the tasks at hand. In this short podcast Jane gives some practical tips on fuelling your ‘Bank Account’  and finishing a challenging work thinking ‘I learnt and grew’.

The Culture Builders Deep Dive – learning tips from leaders – Steve Thorn

For this episode Jane is joined by Steve Thorn, Executive Director, Digital at Civica. We’ve been wanting to feature him on a podcast for some time – he’s long been a source of inspiration for us and his experience and approach to his career is something we are always keen to share.
Steve has the most amazing tips and stories on leadership – from the names and roles of 272 people aboard a Royal Navy ship to the ’25 names game’ – his approach to managing and growing people helps him, and others, overcome the challenges we all face when working in large teams. In particular, he shares his ideas on ensuring virtual teams work well together – many of his pieces of advice will have you slapping your forehead at your own lack of ingenuity to think up the things Steve puts forwards.
There’s a reason why we’ve featured him in both books, and there’s a reason why you will love every minute of this podcast. So, sit back and let Steve share some of the best advice you will ever be given.

The Culture Builders Deep Dive – the balancing act that is personal wellness

The struggle to maintain a healthy lifestyle alongside the ever growing demands of our jobs is real and common. Following some recent conversations with clients on this challenge, we asked our colleague Owen Cook to sit down with Beccy Matthews - the head of our physiological faculty - to discuss the links and impact between our physical health and our overall performance.Beccy draws on her 15 years of experience in the fitness and nutrition industries: outlining the three key areas of our physiological well-being that we should all focus on - using the analogy of a three-legged stool to stress the importance of them in balance. She talks about how the choices we make create knock on effects, both good and bad across our lives, depositing in or withdrawing from our 'human bank accounts' - giving practical advice on how to think about these different, but interconnected facets; small tips to help, even when you're under pressure; and ideas for those who are already doing well but want to maximise the benefits of their efforts.

The Culture Builders – 4am mindfulness & the morning chorus

Listening in on a colleague delivering a webinar on mindfulness was the inspiration and motivation I needed to do something that’s been on my list for some time.
Like most people, I’m guilty of doing far too much and paying way too little attention to the things that absolutely need my focus. Pausing isn’t easy in an always-on ever-demanding world. But, at 4am, I found the time and the peace to try a mindfulness exercise.
This is a slow episode. Most of the audio invites you to take time out, listen, be mindful about what you are hearing and truly enjoy something wonderful. A gift from us – enjoy the dawn chorus and the little sparrow that started it all.