Episode 2 - Human-Centered Change with Alla Weinberg
Mar 17, 2023
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Alla Weinberg, CEO of SPOKE & WHEEL, a culture design & people development company, discusses culture design and its role in supporting organizations through digital transformations, emphasizing the importance of creating a culture of safety. They explore the challenges of building such a culture, including extreme monitoring, fear of layoffs, and lack of diversity and inclusion. The podcast also covers strategies for promoting connection and performance in the workplace, the concept of change management, understanding trauma response, and prioritizing culture to foster innovation and growth.
Culture design is crucial in creating an environment for successful digital transformation by understanding how people interact and prioritizing performance over connection.
Psychological safety, trust, and connection are essential for fostering a culture of safety in organizations, and design thinking approaches like the Circle Way can facilitate conversations that flatten hierarchies and ensure all voices are heard.
Deep dives
The importance of culture design and its connection to digital transformation
Culture design, which incorporates principles from design, neuroscience, positive psychology, and relationship research, is crucial in creating an environment for successful digital transformation. It involves making the invisible visible by mapping out the current culture and understanding how people interact. A successful digital transformation requires changing how people work and work together. Prioritizing performance over connection, monitoring employees excessively, and neglecting employee well-being work against creating a culture of safety. Organizational change and cultural transformation can start yielding visible results within three months, but sustained change requires tailored strategies, trust from leadership, addressing trauma, and a growth mindset. It is important to prioritize physical safety, emotional safety, and then psychological safety in organizations.
The impact of psychological safety on organizational culture
Psychological safety is a state of calmness, relaxation, and connection to others in our nervous system. It is essential for fostering a culture of safety in organizations. Trust and safety are different, as trust relates to our relationship with specific people, while safety is a state of our nervous system. Prioritizing performance over connection, monitoring employees excessively, lay-offs without workload adjustments, and a lack of diversity and inclusion undermine psychological safety. Building connection and trust with employees is crucial for both performance and creating a culture of safety. A design thinking approach, such as the Circle Way, can facilitate conversations that flatten hierarchies and ensure all voices are heard.
Examples of cultural change practices and conditions for sustainable change
Measuring psychological safety and trust in engagement surveys, offering flexibility in work arrangements, and investing in employee well-being are practices that foster cultural safety. It is essential to start with smaller business units and gradually expand culture change efforts based on the specific needs and pace of the people involved. Sustainable cultural change necessitates understanding the organization's unique conditions and the availability of resources. Change management should align with the growth mindset, address trauma sensitively, and prioritize connection and trust over performance. Implementing protocols like the Circle Way and being trauma-aware can contribute to a successful culture design process.
The importance of physical safety, emotional safety, and psychological safety
Physical safety, emotional safety, and psychological safety are interconnected and should be prioritized in that order to build a culture of safety. Ensuring physical safety means creating a workspace where employees feel safe and protected. Emotional safety involves validating and supporting employees' emotions without punishment. Psychological safety enables employees to speak up, share ideas, and admit mistakes without fear of retribution. Neglecting any of these aspects undermines the foundation of a safe culture. Recognizing that humans have evolved to prioritize connection and that our nervous system responds to change with fear and different responses is essential for implementing effective culture change.
Alla is the CEO of SPOKE & WHEEL, a culture design & people development company that builds cultures of safety.
She is a culture designer & author who has incorporated her design background with the principles of neuroscience, positive psychology, and relationship research to offer the most customized and compassionate cultural solutions available. In this episode, Alla and I discuss the merits of culture design in aiding organizations through digital transformations.
