Charlie Sull, Co-Founder of CultureX and Cultural Researcher at MIT, talks in detail about the importance of effective cultural measurement. Charlie shares the key research findings of what makes a positive culture and why most traditional cultural measures simply don’t work.

Overall, Charlie’s message is clear:

• Culture matters

• Culture is a significant driver of any organisations capacity to create and deliver value

• Most cultures are not where they need to be

• However, with senior buy-in and effective cultural measurement this can be easily addressed.

Read my personal learning nuggets from this conversation - Link

In this absorbing conversation Nilesh Makwana, co-founder and CEO of illuminance Solutions, shares a key truth upon which to create organisational culture: that deep down we are all the same, all part of humanity.

Nilesh talks about how his extensive global travels and the experience of coming to Australia as an international student and the requirement to integrate into a new culture forced a deeper sensitivity and appreciation of allowing culture and diversity to flow, and in doing so allowing creativity to emerge.

For me, one of the most interesting points to emerge in this conversation was the suggestion that the true face of the culture of an organisation, at a point in time, only reveals itself through its behavioural responses when the pressure comes on in challenging times, not necessarily when things are going well.  

This got me thinking about how this could signify a general ‘bluntness’ or blindsightedness in the general capacity and sensitivity to read and manage culture in low pressure situations, if we are dependant on high-pressure events to really read culture.

This suggests two interesting potential solution avenues:

1. develop greater cultural sensitivity in low pressure periods

2. organisational cultural pressure testing

To read my other personal learning nuggets that I took from this episode, please go to: https://open.substack.com/pub/brynedwards/p/culture-deep-down-we-are-all-the?r=k8517&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

In this wonderfully human conversation, Louise Forster, CEO of Advocare, and I explore how culture can act as a ‘hard drive’ storing the full impact of an organisation’s prior journey and how the unseen aspects of culture reveal themselves.

What shines brightly in this conversation is how connected Louise is to the people around her which provides many great stories and examples of just how culture plays out.

The conversation also provides a great insight into the responsibility of the CEO role to balance the management of culture and drive performance of an organisation.

To read my own personal learning nuggets that I took from this episode, please go to: https://brynedwards.substack.com/p/what-is-stored-in-your-culture-louise#details

In this conversation Catherine Leach - Founder, Owner and MD of Leach Legal – talks about the importance of creating a grown-up adult company culture. She also highlights the significant role stories play in weaving company values into the culture.

To read my own personal learning nuggets that I took from this episode, please go to: https://brynedwards.substack.com/p/creating-a-grown-up-company-culture#details

In this fascinating conversation Emeritus Professor Gary Martin, CEO of the Australian Institute of Management Western Australia, dissects culture to provide a deeper level of understanding and avoid the growing tendency to use it as a ‘catch all’ phrase.  

To read my own personal learning nuggets that I took from this episode, please go to: https://brynedwards.substack.com/p/dissecting-culture-with-emeritus#details

Joe Brennan is a founding partner and Managing Director of Eire Total Access, which provides scaffolding and access solutions to the commercial, residential, industrial and oil and gas sectors throughout Western Australia.

In this episode Joe talks about the impact of alcohol on working culture, what he’s done to unwind that and importance of recognising the impact work has on our connections.

This will be a confronting conversation for some, while validating for others.

To read my own personal learning nuggets from this episode, please go to: https://open.substack.com/pub/brynedwards/p/how-alcohol-shapes-workplace-culture?r=k8517&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Daniel Simpson is General Manager of BSS and Gryphon Psychology, a mental health provider specialising in the resources and heavy industry sector.

I caught Daniel at an interesting point in time as BSS looks to leverage culture to maintain company values as it scales and expands through its strategy plan.

To read my own personal learning nuggets from this episode, please go to: https://open.substack.com/pub/brynedwards/p/leveraging-culture-to-maintain-company?r=k8517&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

#ceo #culture #workplaceculture #eap

Doug Bester, CEO of Sentient Computing, shares how his time in working in traditional engineering environments gave him a clear guide of what not to in creating a leading edge virtual reality company that draws on local talent within the computer gaming community.

Sentient Computing is a Perth-based software development company that specialises in providing powerful and immersive virtual environments particularly in the resource sector.

To read my own personal learning nuggets from this episode, please go to: https://open.substack.com/pub/brynedwards/p/learning-from-the-past-of-what-not?r=k8517&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web