Many organizations struggle with a culture of silence in which critical concerns are neither welcomed nor raised, essential feedback is unshared, and vital ideas are left unsaid. But how do you measure a lack of something? How do you deal with something that isn’t there? What strategies and habits need to be implemented to deal with silence? This final episode of Season 5 is a recording of an online live Healthy Culture Initiative event with Megan Reitz and Mary Inman. Listen in on this critical conversation between your host, Tobias, and these guests as they explore how to deal with a culture of silence. Megan Reitz is a facilitator, teacher, speaker, executive coach, researcher, and author dedicated to exploring and finding ways to improve the way people interact with one another in the workplace. She is Professor of Leadership and Dialogue at Ashridge Executive Education – part of Hult International Business School. She is ranked as one of the top 50 management thinkers in the world by Thinkers50 and is on the 2021 HR Most Influential List of Thinkers by HR Magazine. Megan is the co-author of "Speak Up: Say what needs to be said and hear what needs to be heard". Mary Inman is a lawyer and partner in Constantine Cannon’s London Office. She launched the firm's international whistleblower practice and specializes in representing whistleblowers worldwide under American reward programs. Mary is a recognized expert and frequent author and speaker on areas related to the application of the American whistleblower laws internationally and the use of whistleblower laws worldwide. Duration: 01:22:03

As we are now taking steps into a new post-pandemic normal in many parts of the world, it seems like many organizations are struggling with how to have trusting and constructive internal conversations about how and where they do their best work. As a result, internal trust in leadership seems to be shaken. An essential foundation for a healthy culture is an organization’s ability to have hard and important conversations that can move the organization forward. Fred Dust, the author of "Making Conversation: Seven Essential Elements of Meaningful Communication", is passionate about designing creative conversations to solve big problems. In this engaging episode, your host Tobias and Fred discuss how our ability to have these types of conversations matters immensely. Fred Dust is a former senior partner and global managing director at the international design firm IDEO. A leading voice and practitioner of human-centered design and networked innovation, he helps organizations in media, finance, retail, and health confront disruption stemming from shifts in consumer behavior, social trends, economic pressures, and new technology. Prior to IDEO, Dust trained as an architect and spent eight years working with independent artists and major art organizations. He chairs the board of Parsons School of Design and sits on the boards of the New School, NPR, and the Sundance Institute. He lives in New York City. Fred is the author of "Making Conversations: Seven Essential Elements of Meaningful Communication". Duration - 1:01:18

We live in times in which circumstances change rapidly, decisions are rarely black and white, and it's hard to know what is right, true, and most important. With our current political climate, polarization, and media culture, there are considerable risks involved in decision-making. How do we build a healthy organizational culture with an ethical compass in turbulent times?  Professor and ethics expert, Alison Taylor, is currently writing a book for Harvard Business Review Press on how companies can do the right thing in a turbulent world. In this insightful episode, your host Tobias and Alison discuss her key learnings on what it takes to lead with values in the midst of crisis and uncertainty. Alison Taylor is the Executive Director at Ethical Systems, a collaboration between leading academics in the fields of behavioral science, systems thinking, and organizational psychology. She holds an M.A. in International Relations and Organizational Psychology with her fields of expertise being ethics, management, and social responsibility. Alison has spent the last two decades working with MNCs on issues such as culture and behaviour, ethics and compliance, human rights, and risk. She has been Managing Director at non-profit business network Business for Social Responsibility, and a Senior Managing Director at Control Risks. She teaches professional responsibility and leadership to MBA and undergraduate students at NYU Stern and offers guest lectures on matters of business, public policy, sustainability, and political science. Duration: 58:35

A culture of speaking up and listening up does not happen by default. Leaders need to build it with intentionality and an awareness of their blindspots. Researcher and author Megan Reitz is passionate about helping people flourish in their workplaces through the way they speak with, listen to, learn from, and care for each other. In this engaging and helpful episode, your host Tobias and Megan discuss building cultures of listening, understanding positions of power and its impact, and a framework for fostering psychological safety. Megan Reitz is a facilitator, teacher, speaker, executive coach, researcher, and author dedicated to exploring and finding ways to improve the way people interact with one another in the workplace. She is Professor of Leadership and Dialogue at Ashridge Executive Education – part of Hult International Business School. She is ranked as one of the top 50 management thinkers in the world by Thinkers50 and is on the 2021 HR Most Influential List of Thinkers by HR Magazine. Megan is the co-author of "Speak Up: Say what needs to be said and hear what needs to be heard".   Duration: 50:38

Values that don’t cost us something aren’t worth anything. In the struggle between upholding the principles we say we believe in and a possible loss of prestige or financial gain, our values get tested and are often found lacking. Sweden's leading political scientist, Bo Rothstein, gave up a coveted professorship because he couldn’t teach political ethics with good conscience in a role funded by a financier who supported a cause Bo believed conflicted with the values that the role represented. In this insightful episode, your host Tobias and Bo discuss the role of trust in building strong institutions and healthy organizations. Bo Rothstein held the August Röhss Chair in Political Science at the University of Gothenburg from December 1994 to June 2021. His long and illustrious career includes roles as visiting scholar and professor at distinguished universities including Harvard, Cornell, and Stanford. Bo is the author of "Just Institutions Matter: The Moral and Political Logic of the Universal Welfare" and "Social Traps and the Problem of Trust", both with Cambridge University Press. His latest book is "Making Sense of Corruption" (together with Aiysha Varraich) published by Cambridge University Press in 2017.  Duration: 42:24

The pandemic has greatly impacted how organizations gather. Not having been able to put all the focus on a few physical gatherings or corporate retreats, organizations have hopefully had an opportunity to think through what values and behaviors are actually promoted through their stories, rituals, and processes. INSEAD's Associate Professor, Mark Mortensen, has investigated the nature of conflict in distributed collaborations and its relationship to identity, context, and communication. In this engaging and helpful episode, your host Tobias and Mark discuss the benefits and challenges of hybrid and remote work, and how this impacts psychological safety in the workplace. Mark Mortensen is the owner/principal consultant of Global Works Consulting and is an Associate Professor and the chair of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD. Mark's research explores collaboration in today’s global work context, focusing on alternative structures of organizing: collaborations and teams that are global and virtual, matrixed, overlapping, and dynamically allocated. Mark is a regular contributor to management education journals such as the Harvard Business Review, MIT-Sloan Management Review, and IESE Insight. He has been featured as an expert in media outlets including the Financial Times, Economist, Boston Globe, and Globe and Mail. Duration: 58:37

Building a healthy culture and fostering ethical decision-making requires an environment in which concerns are raised and dangerous blindness is avoided. However, creating such an environment seems to be one of the most challenging aspects of leadership. Best-selling author Kim Scott has thought long and hard about how organizations can facilitate the hard conversations that need to happen in order to build trust and transparency. In this engaging and insightful episode, your host Tobias and Kim discuss "radical candor" and how practically applying it helps all members of an organization to invite and give better feedback with compassionate honesty.  Kim Scott is the author of Just Work: How to Root Out Bias, Prejudice, and Bullying to Build a Kick-ass Culture of Inclusivity, and Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity. She is the co-founder of the companies Just Work and Radical Candor. Kim was a CEO coach at Dropbox, Qualtrics, Twitter, and other tech companies. She was a member of the faculty at Apple University and before that led AdSense, YouTube, and DoubleClick teams at Google. She lives with her family in Silicon Valley. Duration: 1hr 04min

We often don't know what to do with regret. Organizations often have a culture that causes its employees to be solely future-focused, not dwelling on past failures. While there is certainly a need to move forward, the danger is that past regrets become taboo; people can feel like there is something wrong with them if they have regrets. However, best-selling author Daniel Pink believes that regret can become a positive driver resulting in powerful results. In this inspiring and encouraging episode, your host Tobias and Daniel discuss different types of regret, self-compassion, and how leaders and HR and Ethics professionals can deal with regret in a productive and restorative way.   Daniel H. Pink is the author of five New York Times bestsellers, including his latest, The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward, published in February. His other books include the New York Times bestsellers When and A Whole New Mind — as well as the #1 New York Times bestsellers Drive and To Sell is Human. Dan’s books have won multiple awards, have been translated into 42 languages, and have sold millions of copies around the world. He lives in Washington, DC, with his family.   Duration: 50:53

On 24 February 2022 Putin ordered the Russian army to attack Ukraine. At the time of this episode, there are more than 1.5 million refugees from Ukraine that have crossed the border to another European country. Amid this pain, fear, and uncertainty people are still taking leadership.  This episode is a conversation with one of those brave leaders: Serhii Bolchuk, the co-founder of Agape Ukraine. This moving interview tells their unfinished story of pivoting from serving people in their own facilities to now desperately trying to evacuate them. And yet, Serhiy still believes there is hope.    Serhii Bolchuk and his wife, Natalia, are the founders of Agape Ukraine - an NGO focused on serving people with disabilities. In Ukraine, people with disabilities often lack any governmental support and are typically left to the care of their mothers. Without the support of physiotherapists and disability-friendly facilities, their freedom is often limited, and they find themselves isolated from society. Agape Ukraine built the state-of-the-art Agape Rehabilitation Complex that offers physiotherapy, assisted living, and developmental activities. In addition, they arrange regular retreats for children and adults.  To learn more: https://www.agapeukraine.com/en/golovna-english/

Office politics. It's a phrase to which many have some kind of gut reaction. Probably a highly negative one. Niven Postma makes the case that it's essentially impossible to avoid office politics. In every organization, there is a need to socialize and build momentum for ideas in ways that are outside of the formal process and hierarchy; it happens all the time. In this insightful episode, your host Tobias and Niven discuss aspects of office politics, how to build healthy organizational cultures, and key learnings regarding the hybrid work environment.   Niven Postma is a strategy, leadership, and culture consultant partnering with clients in diverse industries around the world to (re)ignite the discretionary energy of people and teams, build an enabling culture, and develop meaningful strategies. Niven is the author of the best-selling book, "If you don't do politics, politics will do you - A guide to navigating office politics ethically and successfully" (published in 2020). Her articles and ideas can be found in various well respected media and podcasts. Niven is a Harvard Business Review contributor and a visiting lecturer at Henley Business School.  Duration: 46:54