“The way we define happiness at work is that it's about how you feel in the workplace. Does work typically make you feel good or does work typically make you feel bad? And of course, nobody's happy at work every single day. If somebody's happy all the time, there's something wrong with them. We all have good days and bad days at work.” S04E09 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Alex Kjerulf, Chief Happiness Officer at Woohoo Inc., a global thought leader in workplace wellbeing...
Aug 08, 2025•48 min•Ep. 65
"No leader should lead alone... they need a peer group, they need people they can share with, they need to be continually learning and developing, and they need… a support network." We're republishing one of our "Culture Classics" featuring Sandy Hall , resilience specialist and founder of re/cognition . With a background in neuroscience and years leading IBM’s Best Workplace Program in New Zealand, Sandy brings a unique blend of science, soul, and strategy to leadership. In this episode, Sandy ...
Jul 25, 2025•50 min•Ep. 64
“I'm always surprised that nobody seems to be worried that we're investing since 70, 80 years, huge amounts of money in training and development, leadership courses... And despite that, we only have... 23% engaged employees around the world, 11% if you go to Europe... So either managers are stupid, or they do it on purpose, or we don't give them what they need... The managers... the ones that I thought were losing a lot of impact, were most of the time, ego-system driven... Those guys, however g...
Jul 18, 2025•42 min•Ep. 63
"Culture is not about popcorn, peanuts, ping pong. It's about having a heart of gold and a backbone of steel... Be a caring organization... It's a balance between being tough minded and tenderhearted... It's simple, it's not easy, and time is not your friend." We're republishing one of our "Culture Classics" featuring Garry Ridge. Garry is a “champion-of-hope” leader and has defined culture at the WD-40 Company for an impressive 35 years, where he is currently serving as Chairman Emeritus. As th...
Jul 11, 2025•38 min•Ep. 62
“A huge catalyst for growth, a huge accelerant, a huge way to improve the business on every dimension is to be a more people-oriented company… The more you support people and the things they want to do with their lives outside of work, the more people are going to cherish the relationship with their employer, the more loyal they're going to be, the harder they're going to work. It becomes this symbiotic harmonious relationship that makes the employee's life better, it makes the business more suc...
Jul 04, 2025•36 min•Ep. 61
“We‘re a service business that just happens to collect waste. I never get out of the bed in the morning thinking I’m in the waste industry. Never, ever, ever. I don’t go to the waste management trade shows. Personally, I can’t think of anything worse to do. It doesn’t inspire me. But I will read every book about the service industry. I want to know what’s the best service industry in Asia. I want to know what’s the best service industry in the US. What’s the latest thinking in service? And then ...
Jun 27, 2025•46 min•Ep. 60
“AI will put humanity in the centre, and we will value that. We'll value the connections, even for companies, the level of service, the attention that you pay off, that will be at the centre. And I'm convinced it's going to have a big effect.” S04E05 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on David Tomás, founder and CEO of Cyberclick, a successful digital marketing company and one of Spain’s most people-centric workplaces. David is an entrepreneur, author, and business angel with ov...
Jun 20, 2025•43 min•Ep. 59
“The thing to be careful about, which always worried me, was just drinking your own Kool-Aid too much… “strong convictions, loosely held” the value of the company, which means that this is our culture, this is how we do things. We're very, very committed to this... if you come along and you speak a truth that's going to improve or… invalidate something in here we are not attached to it. We will throw it out and adopt your truth... So I think it's extremely important… when creating your culture t...
Jun 13, 2025•44 min•Ep. 58
“The number one thing that I hear business owners complain about is my employees don't think, care, or work like I do… The profit-sharing program that I use is for the leadership and the people making the decisions every day that affect profit the most... the goal is to bridge that gap… the thinking, caring, and working like an owner. An owner is going to be… very effective with his time because he's extremely motivated for the success.” S04E03 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight...
Jun 06, 2025•48 min•Ep. 57
“The first thing that I needed to do was to start creating a safe space for my staff to challenge me. The harder part was for my staff to fail. And sometimes when they failed, we lost clients. And that was really bitter, bitter pills to swallow. But I realized very quickly that if I was to create the safe space, I had to stop micromanaging. Because the minute I started micromanaging, the space was no longer safe.“ We're republishing one of our "Culture Classics" featuring Dillon Jearey , a Cape ...
May 30, 2025•48 min•Ep. 56
“Your team will always only perform to right here. They're never going to perform above you. They're not going to run faster around the track than you are. They're only going to run as fast as you're running. If you're showing up early, they're going to show up early. If you show up late, they're going to show up late. If you do two extra calls, they're going to do two extra calls… So if we want a higher and higher and higher performing team, then we have to have higher and higher and higher per...
May 23, 2025•37 min•Ep. 55
“I always think of culture like a garden... We're always in the middle of the journey. There's no real finish line to culture. It's always like that garden. You're always replanting it. You're always finding new crops. You're finding a new kind of seed to plant. And sometimes it doesn't work out and it's a failure. That's okay, too. There's learning in that as well.” We're republishing one of our "Culture Classics" featuring Erik Lilla, founder and CEO of Metro Star Gymnastics, a powerhouse prog...
May 16, 2025•45 min•Ep. 54
“I think that when your people really believe that you care for them, they show up every single day, and they give you 110%... Your people are your business. At the end of the day, as a leader or owner you're just one person. Your people are the face of your company. And if you really breathe life into them and you support them and you actually care for them and see them as more than just a worker, I think it can completely change the experience of your customers or clients.” S03E20 of the Rethi...
May 09, 2025•30 min•Ep. 53
“Is it companies who put employees first? Do they perform better than companies who put customers first? Or those that put stakeholders first? I thought it was a fundamental question needed to be answered. And the answer [that came through John Kotter’s research] surprised everybody… The companies that outperformed by a factor of 10 were those that treated all 3 equally. That the employees, customers, and shareholders were all like a 3-legged stool.” We're republishing one of our "Culture Classi...
May 02, 2025•31 min•Ep. 51
“People are always looking for three things. They look for something to believe in, which is the vision. They look for someone to believe in, which is a leader, and then they're looking for someone to believe in them, which is their self-worth.” S03E18 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Shivani Gupta , engineer-turned-entrepreneur-turned-educator, TEDx speaker, bestselling author, and mentor for female entrepreneurs and leaders. In this episode, Shivani dives deep into how co...
Apr 25, 2025•42 min•Ep. 52
“I think that culture has always been there… There are two fish swimming in a pond, and a bigger fish swims past them and says, “How's the water?” And when he swims away, the fish look at each other and say, “What's water?” Culture is always there. It's always around you. You can feel it, but you don't even realize you're in it.” We're republishing one of our "Culture Classics" with Miren Oca , the visionary behind the Ocaquatics swim school in Miami, a business whose primary customers are its o...
Apr 18, 2025•43 min•Ep. 50
“If you think your team or your organization are not working well, are not doing things, are not to be trusted, are not ready for this, there's something in you here that is all of that. So what in you needs to change, so this space appears for the rest of the team to rise? Be hungry for the collective intelligence to arise. Be happy when you join a meeting and the outcome from it is different from what you envisaged it was going to be. Go with the curiosity of seeing what the solution will be, ...
Apr 11, 2025•41 min•Ep. 49
“Who you choose as your partner, what you choose as your vacation or your place of work, or the community you choose to live in, I think if these are not aligned to your values, you have a very low chance of success in the long run.” We're republishing one of our "Culture Classics" with Robert Glazer , founder and chairman of Acceleration Partners, a global affiliate marketing agency that’s recognized by the Glassdoor Employee Choice Awards for two years in a row. He's also the author of six boo...
Apr 04, 2025•44 min•Ep. 47
“What really changed was the experience during the pandemic. The pandemic, in my view, put a very bright spotlight on things that are not working in society as well, put a spotlight on inequalities that exist in society. But it also put a stark spotlight on what is not working in the workplace, why people are actually quitting, why they're frustrated, and why engagement levels are so low.” S03E14 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Stephan Meier , leading expert at the interse...
Mar 28, 2025•46 min•Ep. 48
“I think my deepest ambition for work is that it's a place where we don't just have well-being, but we have well-being in its true sense, great social connections, great relationships. It's not lonely anymore. It's not miserable. That we support each other and challenge each other, but it's also a place of personal growth and development… And that we go to work to grow and evolve as humans, as well as deliver a great service to other people.” S03E13 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spot...
Mar 14, 2025•43 min•Ep. 46
"The best organizations will win the battle for talent by creating cultures that allow people to be their best more frequently. And that means one of your practices as a leader needs to be gathering stories that tell you when your people are at their best." We're republishing one of our "Culture Classics" with Spencer Harrison , a professor of organizational behaviour at INSEAD Business School and TED speaker. Spencer's expertise and research are widely recognized in the field, and his work has ...
Mar 05, 2025•54 min•Ep. 45
“At some point in the Industrial Revolution, it made sense that we create humans that conform and just produce. In our day and age we need to go back to what makes us human, especially with AI taking over all those manual processes. We need to relearn to be the children now. To be creative, to be human, to have human connections… Whatever happens, deal with it with love... You can't lead anybody until you love yourself. And you can't lead anybody that you don't love.” S03E11 of the Rethink Cultu...
Feb 14, 2025•50 min•Ep. 44
“It's not about charity, it's about impact… unlocking the human potential through making people see that enormous power they have in making a difference.” S03E10 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Masami Sato , founder of B1G1, a global social enterprise dedicated to integrating impactful giving into everyday business operations. Masami is a 2-time TEDx speaker, Amazon bestselling author of four books, and a transformative leader whose B1G1 movement has delivered over 360 mil...
Jan 24, 2025•40 min•Ep. 43
“We know that our P&Ls have to yield a net positive financial result, but I think also businesses need to yield a net positive people result… Net positive just means giving more than you take… When you use co-creation… people feel ownership and you don’t have to explain or implement it afterwards because when you’ve co-created, everybody is involved, and everybody knows what we’re talking about… In a company where people lead themselves, what do we need leaders for? We need leaders to give u...
Jan 10, 2025•47 min•Ep. 42
“The magic… is what happens between that frontline employee and the customer… the outcome is impact. It’s impact on people’s lives. And ultimately that impact, it drives business success. The framework to get there is to choose your mindset, create your culture, know your customer, define your differentiator, and pursue innovation and iteration. And those are not things we do once, we set them, we’re good and now we’re going to do something else. They’re continual. Culture is living, it’s people...
Dec 20, 2024•43 min•Ep. 41
"I can tell you from experience of… 11 years in a healthy, good culture way versus, winning at all costs... It feels a lot easier. And winning comes a lot easier. It’s a lot more fun. I’ve developed a lot more meaningful relationships in the business… people stay longer because they like it here... Don’t underestimate the power of impact that you can have on families outside your four walls because of the values you live and breathe every day inside your four walls… that can be world changing if...
Dec 06, 2024•46 min•Ep. 40
"We found that there are some common traits in great managers… The best ones are really good motivators… sometimes they have to make tough decisions, but they're good at influencing people by helping to convince them why they are excellent… The best practice organizations… they have a really good intentional process for developing their… highly effective managers as coaches… I think if we do things right, and we combine autonomy with great managing, great leadership, that we could have the best ...
Nov 22, 2024•47 min•Ep. 39
“You see companies: “I'm going to put a… ping pong table in the break room… and I'm going to have a massage therapist come in and do chair massages…” Those are all nice amenities, but they aren't culture… Culture… is the force that keeps everything together… Some people never get that, they never understand this is necessary… But if… they want to stick around for a while… they need to create a workplace that the people want to come back to every single day… You're going to be alone unless you un...
Nov 08, 2024•40 min•Ep. 38
"If you're not happy and you're not enjoying your environment, it's going to be hard to feel fulfilled… I tried a few different things, and they didn't work out… I think that really helped build my resilience and helped teach me that maybe the world judges successes and failures based on outcome. But it helped me create a deeper meaning for myself of what, actually, success looks like. And for me, it's really following my beliefs and having that clarity and focus and passion." S03E04 of the Reth...
Oct 25, 2024•39 min•Ep. 37
"It feels good to do good with your business. I think we underestimate ourselves as businesspeople and the impact that we can have on people in the world. And we look at politicians and policy, and we look at the slow going, and the barriers to things changing. If we want a more just and equitable future, where all of us can thrive and seek opportunity, business can play an important role in doing that... It starts with caring for your people and giving them good jobs. Not jobs where you're depe...
Oct 11, 2024•45 min•Ep. 36
