In today's episode, Tim and Junior dive into the world of cross-cultural communication and explore the importance of understanding cultural differences. From nonverbal communication to attitudes towards conflict and time orientation, they examine how cultural dimensions impact our behavior and interactions with others. Join them for an episode full of practical tips for developing intercultural competence and improving your effectiveness in a globalized world.(0:01:27) Introduction. Over 70% of failed international ventures are due to cultural differences. Cultural misunderstandings, we'll talk about those today, can cost companies millions of dollars, and they can damage relationships with partners and customers around the world.(0:14:25) Defining cultural differences. The way that we view cultural differences is often geographic, our awareness of that needs to be not just at the level of geography, but at the level of person-to-person. (0:20:09) Some cultural variables to consider. The effectiveness of our approach to culture will be dictated in some measure by the awareness of these differences that we've talked about and how those differences impact our behavior and strategy. Are your people used to communicating directly or indirectly? Do they value individualism or collectivism? How do they view hierarchy? What is their time orientation? How do they use nonverbal communication? What’s their attitude towards conflict?(0:37:55) Localization and globalization examples. Why won’t you find the same McDonald's menu in every country? (0:42:52) Geert Hofstede and power distance. Tim and Junior share a cultural dimensions theory based on a series of surveys that were done in the '70s and '80s at IBM.(0:47:32) Power distance and psychological safety. Cultures with low power distance that emphasize equality, individual rights, and autonomy create an environment more conducive to developing Stage 4: Challenger Safety.(0:51:20) Overcoming bias on global teams. Tim and Junior discuss how to create Stage 1: Inclusion Safety and frame humanity above human characteristics.(1:04:13) Developing interpersonal or intercultural competence. This is how you improve your teams on a practical level.

In this episode of Culture by Design, Tim and Junior discuss the importance of psychological safety in healthcare. They highlight the significant issue of medical errors in the industry and propose creating a culture of rewarded vulnerability to overcome the fear of speaking up. They also discuss the barriers to psychological safety in healthcare and the ultimate impact of psychological safety, which is to improve patient outcomes and reduce preventable medical errors, ultimately saving lives. The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety offer strategies for measuring and improving the fear of speaking up at all levels of the organization. By prioritizing psychological safety, healthcare leaders can create a better work environment and improve the quality of care for patients.Important Links and ReferencesWorld Health Organization. (2017). Global Priorities for Patient Safety Research. Retrieved from https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/258881/WHO-IER-PSP-2017.11-eng.pdf?sequence=1Institute of Medicine. (1999). To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. Retrieved from https://www.nap.edu/catalog/9728/to-err-is-human-building-a-safer-health-systemAchieving Physical Safety Through Psychological Safetyhttps://www.leaderfactor.com/podcast/achieving-physical-safety-through-psychological-safetyMagill SS, Edwards JR, Bamberg W, et al. Multistate point-prevalence survey of health care-associated infections. N Engl J Med. 2014;370(13):1198-1208. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1306801Allegranzi, B., Bagheri Nejad, S., Combescure, C., Graafmans, W., Attar, H., Donaldson, L., & Pittet, D. (2011). Burden of endemic health-care-associated infection in developing countries: systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet, 377(9761), 228-241. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61458-4Zimlichman E, Henderson D, Tamir O, et al. Health care-associated infections: a meta-analysis of costs and financial impact on the US health care system. JAMA Intern Med. 2013;173(22):2039-2046. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.9763

Layoffs are not just big business decisions. They are profoundly personal for both the individuals who are affected directly and those who remain after them. The goal of this episode is to explore how organizations can navigate through these difficult decisions and prioritize people and culture. If you haven't been affected by a layoff yet, chances are you'll eventually find yourself affected by one. You may avoid one, or maybe even run one. In any of those cases, today's discussion will help you.Episode Links and Resources-Layoffs That Don’t Break Your Company-Workers Feel Survivor’s Guilt as Pandemic Continues and Layoffs Deepen-6 Strategies to Curb the Impact of Survivor's Guilt in the Workplace-Roaring Out of Recession-Changes in the Work Environment for Creativity during Downsizing-No Security: A Meta-analysis and Review of Job Insecurity and its Consequences-The Paradox Of Layoffs: Engagement Drops When You Need It Most-Tech layoffs in 2023 are already one-third of last year’s number and it’s only January

In this episode, Tim and Junior will discuss the catastrophic consequences of a "nice" culture. The intention behind cultivating a nice culture is often genuine. Leaders believe they are doing a good thing that will motivate people and create inclusion. However, it often has the opposite effect, resulting in a lack of honest communication, intellectual bravery, innovation, and accountability.(11:01) We want to be polite, courteous, and kind, but still be willing to confront hard truths. "Nice gets dangerous very quickly, Junior, because people will say, 'Well, I don't want to hurt your feelings.' Okay, that could sometimes be the motivation, but more often it's that I'm actually trying to protect myself. So now in the room, we have shifted from playing offense to playing defense."(26:20) Niceness over time creates inertia in the organization. "The organization loses its ability to act preemptively because we're preoccupied with being nice. So, we can't address issues in a timely manner. We don't have, as I said, the tolerance for candor. And so, we wait, procrastinate, and fail to act. Meanwhile, a problem or a threat or a danger grows and compounds. Pretty soon, we have a crisis."(40:04) How do we combat the consequences of a "nice" culture? To combat a "nice" culture, you have to be willing to do these four things: 1) clarify expectations and performance standards, 2) publicly challenge the status quo, even if you helped create it, 3) provide air cover for people who speak up, and 4) confront performance problems immediately.Important LinksThe Hazards of a “Nice” Company Culture - HBR ArticleWhy Some Leaders are Afraid of Psychological Safety - PodcastDiagnose the Levels of Inclusion and Innovation in Your Organization

In today's episode, Tim and Junior will also talk about why psychological safety is impossible without emotional intelligence and the connection between these two important concepts. Emotional intelligence or EQ, as we define it, is your ability to interact effectively with other humans. It's your delivery system. This is a practical episode full of tips on improving your emotional intelligence and interactions in general. (03:40). Is EQ something that can be improved? There's a difference between a fixed trait and a learnable skill. Based on longitudinal studies, behavioral and social scientists have concluded that EQ is absolutely learnable. How would your life be different if you significantly improved your EQ? This episode is an opportunity for introspection and self-reflection, and this is the first self-reflection question that Tim and Junior ask during the episode. (06:27) Junior shares some stats surrounding EQ and its effects in the workplace. 71% of employers value EQ over IQ, and HBR found that EQ is a better predictor of workplace success than IQ in most jobs. The Center for Creative leadership found that 75% of careers are derailed from reasons related to emotional competencies like handling interpersonal problems, and unsatisfactory team leadership during times of conflict, and World Economic Forum named EQ a top 10 skill for 2020. (13:45) What is EQ? EQ is your delivery system and conduit of influence. This concept is applicable regardless of your role or profession, whether you're a chef, network engineer, journalist, or fishing guide. (16:12) Emotional intelligence is our ability to interact with other humans. Interpersonal effectiveness comes from 3 things: awareness (what you perceive about yourself and others), beliefs (what you believe about yourself and other people), and behaviors (the way you act, what you say and do).(21:16) EQ as an individual metric leads to psychological safety as a group metric. When we're talking about EQ, we’re talking about you as a person, your self-regard, social regard, self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, and social management. So when we measure emotional intelligence, we don't do it in groups, we do it at the individual level. But psychological safety? That gets measured at the group level since it's essentially the collective EQ of the group. (30:29) Teams don't outperform their leaders, they reflect them. We learn leadership and we learn culture by observing the modeling behavior of the leader. How would a team outperform the leadership that is modeled by the leader? They're not going to outperform that leader, they’ll reflect them. That's just Newtonian physics applied to organizational behavior.(36:58) What’s the anatomy of culture? From habits to norms, and from norms to cultures, culture is made up of discrete, everyday interactions.

What do you do if you want to bring psychological safety to your organization, but don't find yourself in a position of authority? Or if you do have some authority, how do you approach the topic of psychological safety with your teams and others who are not as familiar with the concept? In this weeks episode Tim and Junior will help you gain a better understanding of change management and cultural transformation.(02:26) What is the current state of adoption for psychological safety? At a practitioner level it's only been in the last five years or so that the term has achieved any meaningful level of traction. We are still early in the adoption curve. "If you look at the trend lines, though, we are on hockey stick trajectory, in terms of category growth and attention and search traffic and investment, and all of these other metrics that are really good indicators as to where this is going."(16:44) Is psychological safety a passing fad? How does it stack up against employee engagement? Where does it fit in to other DEI initiatives? It is not a passing fad. Why? Because "we now have this mounting body of empirical research that shows that psychological safety is related to a variety of critical outcomes". Psychological safety is related to key outcomes like employee engagement, retention, inclusion, innovation, and employee wellness.(32:09) How to get buy-off from leaders using the value equation. Some leaders are "not thrilled" about the term psychological safety others need to see a stronger connection to their key outcomes. It's your job to understand the stakeholders you are working with and to present psychological safety in a way that resonates with them. See our links to previous series on "What's driving demand for psychological safety?".(40:13) Don't muscle or smuggle change. The two classic failure patterns of organizational change management are muscling (trying to force it through) and smuggling (try to minimize it or do it covertly). "You've gotta square up to the reality of what a change initiative requires and what adoption requires."Important LinksWhat Psychological Safety Is Not - PodcastWhat Psychological Safety is Not - PostWhat Psychological Safety is Not - WebinarWhat's Driving Demand for Psychological Safety SeriesPt. 1 What's Driving the Demand for Psychological Safety?Pt. 2 Exclusion and Social InjusticePt. 3 Competitiveness and InnovationPt. 4 The Impact of Psychological Safety on Engagement and RetentionPt. 5 How Mental Health and Wellness is Driving Demand for Psychological Safety

Leadership is not an ethereal concept. It’s not as cinematic as you might think. It is about one simple and profoundly human thing--Influence. In this episode Tim and Junior breakdown 10 misleading leadership theories and how to avoid them. It's a straightforward and practical episode focused on core leadership lessons we can all learn from. (13:32) Leadership is not about charisma. Just because you have a personal magnetism, dash, and style it doesn't make you a leader. Charisma can be deceptive and superficial. Don't let charisma be the only qualification for leadership.(15:50) Leadership is not about eloquence. Eloquence, like charisma, can be deceiving. The question is "see what's behind them, what lies underneath those traits, because if what lies beneath is high quality, it's high character, it's good ethics, it's all of those things, then absolutely, add charisma to the pile, add eloquence."(22:03) Leadership is not about power. Your position, title, and authority cannot be proxy for leadership. "This is a diagnostic question that anyone can ask, and that is when you're looking at leaders, ask the question, "Is there fear around them? Do they produce fear? Do they use fear? Are they cultivating fear?" Fear is symptomatic of poor leadership.(26:31) Leadership is not about seniority. The passage of time "does not translate into greater experience, knowledge, expertise, competency, all of those things."(29:57) Leadership is not about scale. You are not by virtue of the fact that you're working on some important scalable issue, then by extension and by affiliation and by association a great leader. (32:08) Leadership is not about popularity. "The danger, I think, as leaders is when we're aiming at popularity." Oscar Wilde said, "Popularity is the penalty of success." Popularity can insulate you from critique. "You enter an echo chamber."(35:29) Leadership is not about fame. "You can see how people get to this point of thinking that popularity is synonymous with leadership. "Oh, this person has a massive following, right? They must be able to lead." That's certainly not true."(37:47) Leadership is not about winning. We do want our leaders to be competent but, "if you're framing leadership is about winning, then that's a zero-sum adversarial frame. You can do better than that."(39:32) Leadership is about wealth. We cannot judge someones ability to lead simply by the number of zero's in their bank account. Wealth is not a proxy for leadership. (42:38) Leadership is not about education. Simply having a degree or credential doesn't make one a leader. We do want highly competent people in leadership positions. However, gaining competence alone does not endow you with the ability to lead.Some people possess all of these things and are not leaders. Others possess none of these things and are. These 10 things only point to the possibility of leadership, but make no promises. Important LinksLeading with Character and Competence - Book10 Things Leadership is Not - DownloadPsychological Safety Podcast SeriesStage One: Inclusion SafetyStage Two: Learner SafetyStage Three: Contributor SafetyStage Four: Challenger SafetyOverview: What is Psychological SafetyBonus: What Psychological Safety is Not

In this episode Tim and Junior introduce the two leadership failure patterns found in The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety™ model - paternalism and exploitation. This is a very practical episode for managers and leaders but applies to anyone working with other humans. Progressing through The 4 Stages of Psychological safety requires balancing a combination of respect and permission while avoiding these two failure patterns.(03:11) Where did The 4 Stages of Psychological safety come from? While studying psychological safety Dr. Clark worked to identify how psychological safety is developed. During the research a pattern emerged, a sequence through four successive stages. Psychological safety isn't something you have or don't have. Every organization has a level of psychological safety it's a matter of degree. (10:16) The failure pattern of exploitation. Exploitation is the combination of low respect and high permission. Simply put exploitation is " treating someone unfairly in order to benefit from their work." All organizations are exploitative to some degree. "Think about, not, do we have exploitation in our organization, but to what degree and in what forms do we have exploitation?" (21:15) The failure pattern of paternalism. Paternalism is the combination of high respect and low permission. "I care about you, I value you, but please sit in the corner and don't touch anything." Paternalistic leaders are micromanagers and yet they're well-intentioned. If you want to overcome paternalism you need to learn how to transfer accountability and the critical thinking. (36:53) These patterns exist on a spectrum. In some cases there are blatant acts of exploitation as well as intentional acts of paternalism. Our intentions and motivations matter. "We need to have some time for reflection, and we need to think about the way that we're interacting, and it goes back to what we said before, let's examine our motives and our intent, is it clean, is it pure?"Important Links:The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety - BookWhat is Psychological Safety - Introducing The 4 Stages of Psychological SafetyThe Complete Guide to Psychological SafetyPsychological Safety Podcast SeriesStage One: Inclusion SafetyStage Two: Learner SafetyStage Three: Contributor SafetyStage Four: Challenger SafetyOverview: What is Psychological SafetyBonus: What Psychological Safety is Not

In this episode of Culture by Design, Tim and Junior explain the 5 Functions of Leadership, originally created to provide a job description for a CEO. When you're an executive leader, nothing is your job and everything is your job. Delegated authority is hard to find success in, but this episode will help you better understand how to be effective in any leadership role. Function 1: Vision & Strategy (07:26)Vision and strategy represent the direction of an organization. Inherent in the leader’s role is the commission to give the organization sight by painting a portrait of the future and inspiring others toward it. The essence of strategy is the deliberate reduction of alternatives to determine how value will be created. To achieve the vision, leaders need to apply strategy principles to achieve competitive advantage. Reflection Question: How are YOU doing painting the vision?Function 2: Alignment & Execution (19:56)To align an organization is to load-balance and pace the organization, and then cognitively and emotionally prepare people to achieve the vision and execute the strategy based on specific goals. Through alignment and execution, leaders convert vision into plans and plans into concrete activity. They merge priorities, plans, incentives, expectations, and measures to get desired results.The 5 Alignment QuestionsWhat are your concerns? Don’t ask people if they have concerns—of course they do. So let’s get them on the table and discuss them.In your view, why are we doing this? You need to check understanding, which you can only do if your people explain where you’re going and why, back to you. They need to teach it back.How do you see your role in this? This allows people to see themselves in context and personalize the direction they’ve been given.What support do you need? Again, it requires the individual to think more carefully through the personal implications of what they’re being asked to do.And finally, how committed are you to support this direction? This last question assesses the level of commitment; it ties a bow on the whole thing.Reflection Question: Are you prioritizing until it hurts?Function 3: Change & Innovation (31:22)By definition, leaders have a contradictory role. On the one hand, they need to preserve the status quo to create value today. They also have to disturb the status quo to create value tomorrow. Organizations change for three reasons: 1) to achieve higher value, 2) to achieve lower costs, or 3) to ensure compliance with legal, regulatory, and safety requirements. Businesses need change and innovation because competitive advantage isn't promised, it's perishable.  It’s the leader’s role to initiate change and innovation in order to gain, maintain, or reclaim competitive advantage.Reflection Question: Is my communication as a leader more discovery- or advocacy-based?Function 4: Talent Acquisition & Development (38:17)The fourth function is to acquire and develop human capital. Given the transitory nature of competitive advantage, the true source of sustainable competitive advantage is ultimately people. They are the source of ideas and action—the two assets most responsible for organizational performance. Senior leaders must be deeply committed to and engaged in acquiring and developing talent. They are in large measure defined not only by what they do but also by who they leave behind in the leadership pipeline. Leaders who develop a climate of psychological safety and cultivate a high tolerance for candor engage and retain their people at much higher levels than the competition.Reflection Question: Do you have top talent leaving? Why?Function 5: Values & Culture (45:46)Values are the primary ingredient in any culture. Research confirms what we now call the culture formation hypothesis–the modeling behavior of leaders is the central factor in culture formation. Leaders either show the way or get in the way. This central question now becomes: Culture by design or by default? Because intellectual diversity alone produces nothing, a leader’s most important job– second only to setting strategy–is to act in the role of a social architect and nourish a culture in which professed values become de facto values.Reflection Question: Am I modeling the culture I want to have? What am I doing to create it?

Psychological safety is the key to creating a safer workplace where employees can bring up concerns and problems before they become disasters. This week Tim and Junior explore the link between psychological safety and physical safety for organizations where lives are on the line.(02:24) Tim shares a personal experience about his time managing the Geneva Steel Plant. Safety protocols were not followed and a critical accident happened. The life of a worker was lost. (11:26) The Duty of Care and the fundamental hazard categories. In 1788 British Parliament passed The Chimney Sweepers Act which established a legal and a moral obligation to keep each other safe in the workplace. Frameworks have evolved around this duty and we've identified four fundamental hazard categories. They are chemical, biological, ergonomic and physical. We've used that framework for more than 200 years to make the workplace a safer place by identifying and removing hazards in these four categories.(28:36) Passive observation vs active participation.When we engage in an activity we do so on a spectrum of passive observation to active participation. During activities where safety is at risk passive observation enhances that risk. Passive observation is more likely to occur in environments with low levels of psychological safety.(36:18) Toyota production lines and the andon cord.Toyota's introduction of the andon cord is a great example of what it means to "stop the line". The andon cord enabled anyone on the production line regardless of position, title, or authority, to stop the line by pulling the cord. The main concern for Toyota was quality assurance. We can apply this same concept to safety. Anyone on the job, regardless of position, title, or authority should be given the power to "stop the line" at any moment and not be punished for it.Important LinksEbook - Breaking the Chain of Command: Achieving Physical Safety through Psychological SafetyWebinar - Breaking the Chain of Command: Improving Physical Safety through Psychological Safety