Dusha

Laurence McCahill and Carlos Saba have founded The Happy Startup School — a community of entrepreneurs that put happiness and impact before profits. In this episode they told us how to turn a company into a happy startup and whether it is the best way to become successful.

Оne of the most difficult issues we discussed was finding a passion that drives you. Other points were also meaningful:
— how people can make a living by doing creative things;
— why we should think twice before turning our hobbies into a career;
— why it is crucially important to stop and consider your ways, even if there is a rat race all around;
— what you need to do first before launching a new business: test the idea or test yourself;
— how communities can boost your business growth.

Moreover, Laurence and Carlos talked about the tool they have created for early-stage startups — The Happy Startup Canvas. This framework helps to create the DNA of organizations: define the main purpose and core values ​​of companies which are necessary for their future growth.

If you want to find your passion and build a happy startup, turn on this episode and let it be a source of inspiration to you.

Our today's’ guest is often presented as the “Apostle of appreciation” and very rightly so! Chester Elton, cofounder of consulting company The Culture Works, focuses on creating the culture of gratitude in organizations.

“Oh come on, again some stuff about gratitude?!” someone might think. And yes, this topic is really well-known and regarded as something ground level. But shockingly it is not only still in play but thriving and needed by people and companies alike! To prove that Chester quotes his engagement research conducted with over a 1’000’000 respondents all over the world. The research showed that 84% of employees are ready and willing to work harder, if their manager gave them more appreciation and expressed more gratitude.

Chester shared his practices and insights on how to build a culture of gratitude and make appreciation effective. One of the insights I really liked was the answer to my question: “Can you become fed up with appreciation?”. Chester said: “Artem, you are married as I can see. Do you get tired of sincere words “I love you” from your wife? No. And that’s why you don;t get tired of sincere and on-point appreciation, because “Thank you” in the workplace is the synonym to “I love you” in your personal life”.

Go grab your insights from the interview :-)

Today’s guest on Dusha podcast reminds me a story.

At 5:46 A.M. on January 17, 1995, a massive earthquake shook the city of Kobe, Japan, killing over 5,000 people, and leaving 300,000 injured or homeless.

Measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale, it was the worst earthquake Japan had experienced in over 70 years. One of the hardest hit parts of the city was Rokko Island, a manmade island about two miles square that sits 500 yards off the southern coastline, in the Port of Kobe. It’s connected to the mainland by only two bridges. Both were heavily damaged by the quake, and closed for traffic and people. For several days, people were unable to leave the island, and food and supplies were slow to get in.

P&G’s Northeast Asia headquarters is located on Rokko Island, as are the homes of many of the employees who work there.

During the days after the earthquake, some of the only accessible food was in vending machines. When a machine was found still working, a line would quickly form in front of it until its contents were gone. At one such machine on the P&G grounds, one of the men lined up was an expat manager from the United States on a temporary assignment in Kobe. When he finally reached the front of the line, he purchased four beverages— one for each member of his family—and then left. If he had been more observant, he would have noticed that everyone else in line purchased only one beverage and then went to the back of the line to wait for an opportunity to buy a second or third.

Fairness is an important part of the Japanese culture. Everyone in line surely would have preferred to purchase several items at once. But out of respect and fairness to the others, they waited in line for each purchase. And while the expat from the United States didn’t notice what the local Japanese employees did at the vending machine, they certainly noticed what he did. Even in this most extreme situation — when a man could surely be forgiven for thinking of his family first — his behavior was viewed as dishonorable. Long before the office was repaired and ready to resume operations, word had spread of his misdeed.

His reputation was damaged to the point that he could no longer function as a leader.

You can’t lead a group of people that doesn’t respect you. He was quickly reassigned back to the United States.

Knowing how your national culture influences the behaviour and the local and international organizational culture is crucial to success in international organizations.

Today’s guest, Annette Dahl, the CEO and Chief Trainer of C3 Consulting is the go-to expert when it comes to mixing and matching national cultures. In this podcast Annette shared practical tips to establish a functional organizational culture, including the Two Icebergs model and 3E principle.

Sit down, relax. Do you hear the wind blowing up the fire? No, that’s not a deadline closing by, that’s an amazing campfire conversation we have for you. In this episode we are joined by Jitske Kramer, corporate anthropologist and the founder of Human Dimensions.

Jitske travels all over the world to learn from traditional healers, leaders, surprising innovators and random passers-by. She looks at the world and at organizations through the eyes of an anthropologist. Cultural anthropology is the discipline that asks what it means to be a human among humans in organisations and beyond.

In this episode we explore how this wisdom can help us lead companies in modern age by the laws that are still working for all human beings. And to get the context to Russia, we are also joined by Arsenty Anikeev from “Training Boutique” that are official partners of Jitske in Russia.

In this paradoxical episode you will not find all the answers, rather you will obtain questions to seek the answers for yourself. Get ready to explore what it is to be human.

How many values should a company have? 3? 5? 20? Each company finds the right answer for itself (well, 20 is clearly too much, but you got my point). But our today’s guest has a clear answer for each company. John Waid, founder and CEO of Corporate Culture Consulting, states it clear — there should be 3 values, no more, no less.

Moreover, John says that each of these three values has its own role and purpose (more on that in the podcast). John shared how his approach helps people, companies and even countries stay connected and increase their results with corporate culture. We discussed cases of Delta, SouthWest Airlines, Boeing, KFC and many more companies, explored the influence of values on the numbers and wrapped up with a really great discussion of the role of a leader in the culture work.

The key insight for us was the decision to focus on 3 values connected to their single purpose. You may find this decision not practical for your company, but that’s not important — the real gold here is that each value should be questioned  “Why do we need it as a group and what does it help us to achieve?”. That way your values will really drive your results and behaviors of employees. Have a great time listening to this episode!

Self-determined salary. Collective decision making. AI that tells stories. Two of those three things are actually not a myth, and luckily for us, robots haven’t made it this far (yet).

Our today’s guest, Samantha Slade is the co-founder of Percolab, an international co-creation and co-design firm. She pioneers culture-driven practices and operational tools for the future of work and helps companies shift from traditional structures to non-hierarchical organizations of the future.

Not only has Samantha shared the numbers and research proving the efficiency of non-hierarchical organizations, she also gave really practical advice on how to introduce practices like self-determined salary and collective decision making in the workplace. To be honest, we were sceptical even though I saw Sam’s TEDx talk, but she’s crushed our doubts in an instant with real cases, examples and numbers based results.

In terms of culture we have discussed the values needed for the shift to a horizontal culture, how these values and practices should be introduced and what’s the key driver for success (spoiler alert: it’s something starting with “leader” and ending in “ship”).

How do you boil down the purpose in one phrase, especially a company purpose? How do you make that phrase catchy, so that employees, partners and clients are all energized by that phrase? A smart word play is not enough, you also need meaning, a touch of history and a representation of company’s future.

Luckily, there is a company that does just that – and for quite a while! BrightHouse company founded by Joey Reiman has been helping companies articulate their purpose for more than 20 years – and the companies are real giants like как Mercedes-Benz, Bank Of Montreal, Daimler Trucks & Buses, BCG Digital Ventures etc.

Here’s a Purpose crafted by Joey we want to share with you as an example – Mercedes Benz “First Lead The Way”. It’s absolutely beautiful in so many ways:

— You can understand it as “Those who came first will determine how things are” and that represents the history on Mercedes as the pioneer in their field.

— Or you can understand it as “Those who go ahead of everybody show the right way” and that clarifies the ambition and the future of the company since Mercedes are aiming to radically lower pollution and move towards the cars and engines of the future.

—  Or if you are an employee you can understand it as a clear call to action – whatever you do your main priority is showing others around you the right way to do things.

— And there are more meanings hidden in that purpose.

On our podcast Joey has shared what a purpose is, how it is different from mission and vision and how to get new results with purpose. Enjoy the interview!