What does it take to be innovative in our workplaces today?

Mike, I think it's actually pretty common sense, it's just not common practice.

When I think about innovation, it really requires that people are leaning into, um, all the values and all the strengths that a team can bring, and I think what makes innovation difficult isn't our inability to do it, it's all the other things at work that get in the way.

And so when we're working at a pace that many of us are today, where we're f- working very pa- very, very fast-paced, moving from one thing to the next, to the next, to the next, there's deadlines, there's schedules, we are pushed naturally, physiologically and neurologically, to just move quickly.

And so innovation Does not always equate to efficiency.

It takes more time.

It takes an intentional connection and seeking to understand other people, which requires more time and more energy.

Nice.

So in that mess of a question, how do you assess and adjust culture when it's, let's say, a hospital or a not-for-profit or an NGO versus a culture when it's in a commercial setting?

Well, to answer that question around how do we assess culture, it always starts with making sure that the values that the company creates are truly the values that are at top priority for them.

and then creating desired behaviors around the value.

So that's where we start with any company, whether it's non-for-profit, for-profit, hospital, law enforcement, we start with supporting them around identifying the values that they believe are the most important for them.

So that's where it starts.

But what...

What I'm also thinking about is how different it is when we go into a hospital versus going into a corporate pharmaceutical company.

mm-hmm.

Natalie, tell us, what fired you guys up to write Leading the Culture Journey?

Thank you, Toby.

I'm super excited to be here and we were fired up for a number of reasons and really top two reasons that fired us up.

The first one being Rebecca and I both, as many people out there, have experienced work in a way that just didn't felt good.

We've been parts of teams.

We've reported to leaders where it didn't feel like a cohesive team and it was a place that we dreaded to go.

And so our first real ignition around wanting to learn more about culture and share with others were personal experiences of where we experienced cultures that weren't great, and within that experience realized many years later that we actually played a big part in that.

This culture stuff sounds great in theory, but how do we know if this is worth the investment? Is there any proof it's worth it? In effect, why would any business person read your book? Where's the proof?

Have you understood the sentiment of my question?

Yes, for sure, Simon.

Simon, I love that you said that it's an unfair, not your exact words, but it's an unfair assumption on the different generational differences.

And this is actually a very common topic.

It's a common topic.

In conversations like this, it's a common topic around what teams want trainings on and what leaders are looking for.

So we have ended up this year talking about generational differences a lot.

What's been a realization, a greater realization through the process of writing the book?