The Culture Creators

Culture holds a huge power to influence those within it. We read more and more about the impact of culture - particularly toxic culture - in business, government, sport clubs or communities. But still basic fundamental questions still remain unanswered: 1) What specifically makes one culture toxic and another buzzing with life? and 2) How do you actually steer culture from one place to another and avoid regressing back? These are the questions that continue to challenge executives, leaders and those wanting to make real change in the world. These are the questions we explore in the Culture Creators podcast. The podcast features in depth interviews with business leaders, sports coaches, community leaders and others that either have previous experience of steering culture from one place to another or are currently in the thick of managing it today. The purpose of the Culture Creators podcast is to build a repository of case studies, expert points of view and real life examples so that we can: a) better understand the mechanics and dynamics of this unseen, unaddressed and unaccounted for space that holds some much power to influence, and b) develop our own individual capacity to proactively shape and steer the cultures that surround us. Please subscribe to join us on this fascinating journey and develop your own deeper understanding of culture. Also please get involved by suggesting future guests that we all can learn from!!

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Episodes

Wednesday Aug 02, 2023

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

Wednesday Jun 28, 2023

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

Friday Apr 21, 2023

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

Monday Apr 17, 2023

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

Friday Mar 24, 2023

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
 
 
 

Friday Feb 24, 2023

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

Monday Feb 06, 2023

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

Thursday Jan 05, 2023

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 

Sunday Dec 11, 2022

Experienced HR Specialist Irene Makrillos, Director of HR Consultancy 12IC, shares key insights from being responsible for leading the integration of 3 different organisational cultures within an acquisition situation.
To read my own personal learning nuggets about culture from this episode, go to - https://open.substack.com/pub/brynedwards/p/m-and-a-integrating-3-cultures-together?r=k8517&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
 

Thursday Nov 24, 2022

Dr. Christian Duperouzel, lecturer at Curtin University's Business and Law School, talks through the wider findings of his Phd. study into Conscious Leadership and how that impacts our surrounding cultures.
In this conversation you will gain a great sense of the flow of the dynamics at play that shape culture and the importance of connection to the human spirit to safeguard against building toxic culture.
To read my own personal learning nuggets about culture from this episode, go to - Link

Deep dive further into Bryn's personal learning nuggets from each episode by following this Link

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Your Host Bryn Edwards 

After 4 years and 200+ episodes of the WA Real podcast that explored the stories, experience and expertise of people living in Western Australia and beyond, Bryn became aware of the presence a seldom acknowledged force that is constantly shaping our experience of life and work.

This is the unseen and surrounding force of culture.

Now the focus is on building better frames of reference to look deeper into mechanics and dynamics of this unaddressed influence, so that we all can create and experience more life-affirming creative growth cultures in all domains of life.

Bryn is a consultant at Wisdom in Your Life - voted best Cultural Psychology and Coaching Company in Australia in 2020, we have over 20+ years’ experience of providing simple solutions to complex people and cultural issues.

Learn more about Wisdom in Your life - visit website

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