Building Better Cultures

Welcome back to the Building Better Cultures Podcast with Scott McInnes!  We are kicking this season off with a bang, with two podcast episodes live from our Dublin offices.   In this first episode, Scott was joined by Cleo McCormack, Director, Future of Work Institute at Cpl Group.  Cleo traces her path from the beauty industry into tech, and argues that the biggest challenge in work today is a lack of human connection, and AI risks widening that gap.   Together, they explore what leaders need to do differently, why people need to know they matter, how to use AI to challenge your thinking rather than echo it, and what the future of work could look like.   In this episode, you'll discover:  Why change management for AI is really about people's identity, not just technology  How the "mirror and multiplier" idea shows how a leader's behaviour spreads through an organisation  Why leaders are shifting from being the all-knowing expert to being a way-finder and sense-maker  How to be vulnerable without losing credibility  What "mattering" means, and a simple way to help people feel seen: "I see you, I see what you bring, and I can't do it without you"  How to set up your AI to give you different perspectives and challenge your thinking, rather than reinforcing what you already believe  Why subtraction, knowing what to stop doing, may be the number one skill of the future  Timestamps  00:00 Introduction to the live recordings  00:47 Welcome to Cleo and the live audience  01:13 Cleo's career, from beauty to tech  04:55 What's happening in the world of work: the loneliness epidemic  09:27 What leaders need to do: the mirror and the multiplier  14:38 What is mattering?  16:36 The funeral speech exercise and reverse-engineering your legacy  17:42 Cleo's purpose: creating multiple versions of the future  22:06 Can mattering survive AI? Using AI to challenge your thinking  25:43 What does the future of work look like?  28:26 Psychological safety and building high-performing teams  29:19 Does AI give us time back to connect?    Connect with us:  LinkedIn  |  YouTube  |  Instagram    Connect with Cleo:  Website |  LinkedIn 

What We Get Wrong About Leaders (Best Bits) We keep throwing people into leadership roles and hoping they figure it out. Unfortunately, they often don't. In this best-bits episode of Building Better Cultures we look back to Episodes 48 and 49. We hear from Jamie Heaslip about the leadership gap, and how we still promote people without equipping them. And we hear from Zoe Routh about the craft of asking versus commanding. Jamie Heaslip starts with the unglamorous fundamentals: what actually forms a team is trust, accountability, healthy conflict and a shared view of results, and none of it works without psychological safety. His point is that safety and accountability aren't opposites. You need people safe enough to try things and fall short, and then honest enough to own the outcome on Monday morning. He's good on the contrast between sport and business too. In rugby the scoreboard arrives every weekend and the review follows immediately, while in business the equivalent feedback can be a quarter away, which is precisely why the best leaders don't wait for it. They're checking in weekly, agreeing what the shared goal is, and making it safe to say something didn't work. He finishes with a story about an injection moulding company making parts for defibrillators, and the question that reframes an ordinary job: think about the lives potentially saved because you did your work well, or the lives lost if you hadn't. Zoe Routh picks up what happens to people at the moment of promotion. You go from autonomy and expertise, where you knew exactly what good looked like, to a role where people start knocking on your door, and the sheer volume of interruption feels like it's getting in the way of the job. So people retreat to the tools, back to the craft they're good at. Her correction is the heart of the episode: the people stuff isn't what's stopping you doing the real work, it is the real work. Coaching people to higher levels and helping them become leaders themselves is the job description now. And she names the structural problem behind all of it, that we hand out leadership roles on the basis of seniority and years served rather than fit, because most organisations still don't offer a credible specialist track alongside a people-leader track. She closes on the consequence: a genuine crisis of trust in leadership, where institutions are rarely seen as both competent and ethical at the same time. The common thread? Being brilliant at the job is not the same as being ready to lead people doing it, and nobody is served by pretending otherwise. Key Takeaways Trust, accountability, healthy conflict and results are the fundamentals. They sound obvious, which is exactly why they get skipped. Psychological safety and accountability go together. People need to feel safe enough to try something and get it wrong, and grown-up enough to own the outcome afterwards. Sport gets a scoreboard every week, business often doesn't. That's an argument for checking in more often, not for waiting until the quarter closes. Good leaders agree the shared goal out loud. If everyone can name what we're going after together, challenging each other stops feeling personal. Pace matters across a season. You can't have your foot to the floor all year, so decide deliberately where the peaks are. Twenty or thirty goals means no goals. Direction comes from a small number of things and a clear sense of purpose behind them. Purpose is usually hiding in plain sight. Even a component in a factory can be the difference between a life saved and a life lost, if someone connects the work to the outcome. The interruptions are the job now. The instinct to retreat to the tools you're expert in is understandable, and it's the thing that stops people becoming leaders. The real work of leadership is growing other people. Coaching your team to higher levels, and to lead themselves, is the priority, not the thing you fit around the priority. We promote on seniority and service, not readiness. People end up in leadership roles because they've been there longest, rather than because it suits them or they've been equipped for it. Organisations need two credible career tracks. Without a specialist route that's genuinely recognised and rewarded, becoming a people leader is the only way to progress, and that serves nobody. Trust in leadership is the thing actually in crisis. Being seen as competent and being seen as ethical are different tests, and institutions rarely pass both. Timestamps 00:00 – Introduction: we throw people into leadership roles and hope 00:29 – Jamie Heaslip: the fundamentals of what forms a team 01:15 – Accountability when the scoreboard arrives every weekend 01:35 – Psychological safety, and making it safe to try things 01:55 – Pacing a season, and choosing where the peaks are 02:55 – Why the best business leaders don't wait for quarterly results 03:15 – Shared goals, challenging each other, and learning when it doesn't work 04:35 – Why thirty goals means no goals 05:29 – Defibrillator parts, and finding the purpose in the work 06:04 – Zoe Routh: when the people stuff feels like it's getting in the way 06:24 – The shock of the door starting to knock 06:44 – Retreating to the tools you're good at 07:04 – The people stuff is the real work of leadership 09:16 – Why we throw people into leadership roles 09:36 – The missing specialist career track 11:12 – The crisis of trust in leadership 12:14 – Competent or ethical, and why institutions rarely manage both 12:49 – Wrap-up Hear the full conversations EP048 – Jamie Heaslip: 48 | Tips on leadership and purpose from an Irish rugby legend | Podcasts EP049 – Zoe Routh: 49 | How to help your teams work better together | Podcasts Connect with us LinkedIn | YouTube | Instagram Connect with Scott McInnes: LinkedIn Tags leadership, leadership development, first time managers, promotion, career paths, coaching, psychological safety, accountability, trust, high performance, teams, workplace culture, sport and business, purpose, employee engagement, internal communications, Jamie Heaslip, Zoe Routh, Scott McInnes, Building Better Cultures, Inspiring Change, best bits, podcast compilation

The Belonging Question Diversity gets measured. Belonging gets felt. What actually creates it in an organisation? In this best-bits episode of Building Better Cultures, we delve back into Episodes 72 and 77 to hear about structural DEI accountability from Wema Hoover, and belonging as a fundamental human need in teams from Peter Docker. Both have operated at real scale, so this is practice rather than theory. Wema Hoover is direct about where most organisations get stuck. The barrier isn't a lack of good intentions, it's that the good intentions stop at communication. Saying what you stand for feels like progress, and a statement posted in a moment of public attention feels like action, but neither survives contact with the following quarter. What actually moves things is a diagnostic: what do our hiring numbers look like, what do our leadership teams look like, can we measure impact rather than activity? Then expectations set explicitly with leadership groups, and consequences when those expectations aren't met, repeated until the work is simply how the organisation operates rather than a programme with a start and end date. Asked what leaders should do, her answer starts closer to home: look in the mirror. Educate yourself, understand where your own gaps are, create the space for dialogue, and pay attention to the people who don't have the networks or the sponsorship, because talent doesn't surface on its own in systems that were never designed to surface it. Peter Docker builds belonging from the ground up, starting with a child who wants to be part of a group of friends and a street where neighbours look out for each other's kids. That gets him to a distinction worth borrowing: taking responsibility is not the same as being held accountable. One is chosen, the other is imposed, and people choose it when they feel they belong. He takes it to the Iraq deployment in 2003, where what mattered wasn't checking in on the task but checking in on the person, and then to the very ordinary version of the same thing for teams working apart: a postcard, a bar of chocolate, a call that isn't about work. He finishes on the strongest version of the argument. In genuinely extreme situations, people put themselves on the line for each other, and they don't do it because of rules or standards. They do it because they belong, and what works there works everywhere else too. The common thread? Belonging isn't a programme or a policy. It's built in the small, deliberate things leaders do, and measured in what people choose to do when nobody is making them. Key Takeaways Good intentions are not the problem, stopping at them is. Most organisations know what they want to say. Far fewer check whether anything changed. A statement is not a strategy. It's naive to think a post in a moment of public attention sustains anything on its own. Start with the diagnostic. Hiring data, the make-up of leadership teams, and honest measurement of impact tell you where you actually are, which is where the work starts. Expectations need consequences attached. Set them with leadership groups, be clear about what happens when they're not met, or you're describing an aspiration rather than running a business. The goal is for it to stop being a programme. When it's embedded in how the organisation works, it no longer needs a banner. Leaders look in the mirror first. Educating yourself and understanding your own gaps comes before trying to change anyone else. Notice who doesn't have the network. Sponsorship and visibility are how talent gets discovered, and the systems were never built to do that evenly, so it has to be deliberate. Taking responsibility is different from being held accountable. One is chosen and one is imposed, and people choose it when they feel part of something. Check in on the person, not the task. In a war zone or on a Tuesday, the question that matters is how are you, not where are we on the deliverable. Distance makes the small things bigger. A postcard, a chocolate bar or a call that isn't about work does more for connection than another meeting. In extreme situations people put themselves on the line for each other, and not because of the rules. They do it because they belong, and what works there works in business too. Timestamps 00:00 – Introduction: diversity gets measured, belonging gets felt 00:28 – Wema Hoover: what are the real barriers to equitable and inclusive cultures? 01:10 – Why a statement in the moment doesn't sustain change 01:30 – The diagnostic: hiring data, leadership teams, and measuring impact 02:30 – Setting expectations with leaders, and what happens when they're not met 03:10 – Embedding it so it stops being a programme 03:30 – What role do leaders play? 04:10 – Looking in the mirror first 04:50 – Creating the space for dialogue 05:30 – Seeing the people without the networks or the sponsorship 06:09 – Peter Docker: belonging as a fundamental human need 07:32 – Taking responsibility vs being held accountable 07:50 – The street, the neighbours, and looking out for each other's kids 08:44 – Iraq, 2003: checking in on the person rather than the task 09:38 – The small things that travel: a postcard, a chocolate bar, a phone call 10:26 – Why hybrid makes human connection matter more, not less 12:32 – People who put themselves on the line, and why they do it 13:05 – Wrap-up Hear the full conversations EP072 – Wema Hoover: https://www.inspiringchange.ie/podcast/episode/1fb175bb/80-unlocking-the-power-of-diversity-building-a-culture-of-inclusion-and-equity-wema-hoover EP077 – Peter Docker: https://www.inspiringchange.ie/podcast/episode/fa7c2f53/87-lead-from-behind-how-to-cultivate-healthy-cultures-and-empower-teams-peter-docker Connect with us LinkedIn | YouTube | Instagram Connect with Scott McInnes: LinkedIn Tags belonging, diversity equity and inclusion, DEI, inclusion, workplace culture, leadership, accountability, sponsorship, psychological safety, hybrid working, human connection, teams, employee engagement, internal communications, military leadership, Wema Hoover, Peter Docker, Scott McInnes, Building Better Cultures, Inspiring Change, best bits, podcast compilation

Bounce (Best Bits) Resilience gets thrown around a lot at work these days, but it's more than a buzzword. In this best-bits episode of Building Better Cultures, taken from Episodes 39 and 84, we hear an incredible story of resilience from Ryan Campbell, and the psychology that explains it from psychologist Niamh Fitzpatrick. Ryan Campbell was a kid who wanted to fly before he could really explain why, and who went solo on his fifteenth birthday. A few years later he was in a heavily modified light aircraft, alone, crossing oceans on a round-the-world flight. Then, aged 21, on an ordinary day at work in an ordinary aircraft, the engine failed at low level and he went into the trees. He woke up in hospital rebuilt with titanium and was told he had a complete spinal cord injury. In a split second, as he puts it, the very thing that made him him was gone. What happens next is the part worth staying for. Stuck halfway through learning to roll over on a rehab mat, twisted up and looking out through a gap under his own elbow, he sees Ben: a quadriplegic who had slipped while mopping a floor, with no feeling below the chest and barely any hand movement. Ryan had been feeling sorry for himself. He realised he was lucky to be a paraplegic. That was the first lesson, and it became the first item on a checklist he built for adversity, borrowed from the way pilots handle an emergency: gratitude, confidence, resilience. Niamh Fitzpatrick brings the psychology. She is practical about what leaders can actually do, starting with the uncomfortable truth that you cannot read a room over video, so you have to know people's baseline well enough to notice when it shifts. She is also firm about something most of us get wrong: measuring your own hardship against someone who has it worse doesn't make you feel better, it just makes your feelings inadmissible. And she closes on Viktor Frankl. The common thread? Resilience isn't a personality you either have or you don't. Both guests describe it as something you build, deliberately, usually while you're in the middle of the thing. Key Takeaways Adversity deserves a checklist. Pilots don't improvise in an emergency, they work a drill: aviate, navigate, communicate. Ryan built the same thing for setbacks so he wasn't deciding how to cope while coping. Start with gratitude, because it changes the size of the problem. Finding something to be thankful for, however small, shrinks the challenge and gives you perspective before you begin. Perspective usually arrives through other people. Ben didn't say anything profound to Ryan. He was simply there, and that was enough to reframe everything. Confidence doesn't require the whole plan. You need to believe you can take the next step, not that you can see the entire route. That is a much smaller thing to ask of yourself. Expect obstacles and you'll adapt faster. Resilience, in Ryan's version, is anticipating the need to change course rather than being surprised by it. Leaders can't read a room over video, so learn the baseline. Know how someone usually sounds, looks and turns up, and you'll notice the change that matters. You don't need to be a therapist to notice. Use your senses, trust what you're seeing, and know enough about people's lives to put it in context. Don't hold your feelings to someone else's account. Someone always has it objectively worse. That doesn't make what you're carrying any lighter, and comparison mostly just adds guilt. An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behaviour. Feeling anxious or low when something difficult has happened isn't a malfunction, it's a normal response to something that isn't okay. Allowing the feelings is what lets you move. Naming what you feel is what gets you to the point of asking what needs to change, internally or externally. Timestamps 00:00 – Introduction: resilience is more than a buzzword 00:25 – Ryan Campbell: a kid obsessed with aviation, and flying solo at fifteen 01:45 – The modified aircraft, and the round-the-world flight 02:25 – One ordinary day at work, aged 21 03:26 – Hospital, titanium, and the news of a spinal cord injury 04:05 – The rehab gym, and meeting Ben 05:51 – Why he decided he was lucky, and what Ben taught him about gratitude 06:33 – Building the checklist: step one, gratitude 07:17 – Step two, confidence, and only needing to see the next step 08:39 – Step three, resilience, and anticipating the need to adapt 09:02 – Niamh Fitzpatrick: what leaders should be watching for 09:52 – Learning someone's baseline, even over video 10:37 – Why comparing your hardship to someone else's doesn't help 12:18 – One piece of advice: an abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behaviour 13:22 – Wrap-up Hear the full conversations EP Ryan Campbell: 39 | How to successfully navigate change | Podcasts EP Niamh Fitzpatrick: 99 | The Pandemic Pushed Mental Health Out of the Workplace Shadows | Niamh Fitzpatrick | Podcasts Resources & Links Download your free copy of Bridging the Connection Gap Report: Bridging The Connection Gap | Inspiring Change Connect with us LinkedIn | YouTube | Instagram Connect with Scott McInnes: LinkedIn Tags resilience, adversity, mental health at work, wellbeing, psychology, gratitude, mindset, leadership, psychological safety, emotional awareness, aviation, spinal cord injury, recovery, perspective, Viktor Frankl, Ryan Campbell, Niamh Fitzpatrick, Scott McInnes, Building Better Cultures, Inspiring Change, best bits, podcast compilation

How We Work Now (Best Bits) Office, home, hybrid. Are we any clearer on how it actually works? In this best-bits episode of Building Better Cultures, Scott McInnes goes back to Episodes 71 and 37 with Chris Dyer and Jane Sparrow to hear how organisational culture is evolving as we work out how we'll probably be working for the next century. And that comes down to finding a happy balance between what employers need and what employees want. Chris Dyer starts with a definition worth stealing: culture is the norms. It is the way we work, the things people pick up in their first week, seen and unseen. From there he walks through the seven pillars he found repeated across the best organisations, from transparency and positive leadership to celebrating what makes people different rather than what makes them the same. He is especially good on mistakes, using the Post-it note, which began life as a failed glue, to make the point that how you respond to a mistake tells people whether it is safe to try anything. Then he gets specific about transparency: sharing goals across teams so people aren't unknowingly competing with each other, and sharing the numbers every month, good news or bad, including how long the company could keep going before layoffs. Jane Sparrow picks up the space in between. The third culture is neither home nor office but a new place that leaders have to shape deliberately, and she is clear that scrambling for the right tech and tools is the easy part. What takes work is the conversations, because everyone's situation is different. She closes on something worth sitting with: information from the centre, the comms team or HR, only really lands when a leader translates it into what it means for us. The common thread? This is less about where we work and more about whether culture survives the shift. Neither guest thinks it happens on its own. Key Takeaways Culture is the norms, not the posters. It is what people learn in their first week about how things actually get done, including the unwritten bits. Great cultures are consistent, not identical. The same pillars show up across very different organisations, each expressed in its own way. Celebrate what makes people unique, not what makes them the same. Organisations put real effort into differentiating themselves to customers, then ask their people to blend in. How you handle mistakes sets the ceiling on ambition. Punish them and people stop trying things. The Post-it note exists because someone documented a glue that failed. A mistake and an error are not the same thing. Getting something consistently wrong that training should have covered points at bad process, stress or multitasking. Trying something new and misjudging it is worth talking about, not punishing. Transparency starts with goals. If teams cannot see each other's objectives, organisations end up creating competition nobody intended. Share the numbers, including the bad ones. Telling people how long the company can keep going is uncomfortable, and it is also what trust looks like under pressure. The third culture has to be built on purpose. The space between home and office is new, and leaders shaping it deliberately is the difference between a culture and a vacuum. Tools are the easy part. Getting the right tech was the scramble. The harder, more valuable work is the conversations around it, because every person's situation is different. Information needs a translator. A message from HR or the comms team becomes real when a line leader explains what it means for this team, and asks what we start, stop and continue doing. Timestamps 00:00 – Introduction: less about where we work, more about how culture survives the shift 00:31 – Chris Dyer: culture is the norms, seen and unseen 01:41 – The seven pillars found across great company cultures 02:23 – Transparency, positive leadership, listening and celebrating what makes people unique 02:51 – Recognition that actually works 03:19 – What you do when someone makes a mistake 03:47 – The Post-it note, and the failure it came from 04:30 – Transparency in practice: shared goals, and why teams end up competing by accident 05:33 – Sharing the numbers every month, good news or bad 05:51 – Jane Sparrow: the third culture, and why tools alone won't build it 08:23 – Managing vs leading, and the leader's role when people are under strain 09:56 – Building connection deliberately, and mixing up how you do it 10:56 – Why information only lands when a leader translates it 11:20 – Wrap-up Hear the full conversations EP071 – Chris Dyer: Listen here EP037 – Jane Sparrow: Listen Here Connect with us LinkedIn | YouTube | Instagram Connect with Scott McInnes: LinkedIn