Robert Richman on Culture, Open Space and Improv
In Action with Wendy
English - November 05, 2014 19:23 - 36 minutes - 33.8 MBTechnology Business agile changemanagement coaching culture facilitation highfunctioningteams holacracy kanban leadershipbrand organization Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Robert Richman is a culture architect and was the co-creator of Zappos Insights, an innovative program focused on educating companies on the secrets behind Zappos’ amazing employee culture.
Robert built Zappos Insights from a small website to a thriving multi-million dollar business teaching over 25,000 students per year. Through his work, Robert has been responsible for improving the employee culture at hundreds of companies like Procter & Gamble, Whole Foods and Amazon.
Previously a Zappos spokesperson and authority on employee culture, Robert is a sought after keynote speaker at conferences around the world and has been hired to teach culture in person at companies like Google, Toyota, and Eli Lilly. He has pioneered a number of innovative techniques to build culture, such as bringing improv comedy to the workplace.
His new book, The Culture Blueprint, is a systematic guide to how a workplace can help people grow, inspire amazing service, and ultimately drive revenue through amazing culture.
More information is available at his website, www.RobertRichman.com.
Culture
Culture exists when there are more than 2 people in the room.
Culture is about beliefs.
Impact beliefs by experience.
Strong vs Weak Culture
Not good or bad cultures — strong versus weak cultures
Weak culture is one in which there is not alignment between actions and values folds
Strong culture you can walk in and see the values in action without anyone telling them the story
Improv
Not improv for performance, but applying principles to a group
Agree and take to the next level
Start with the smallest of acts
Practice failing
Costs of Weak Culture
Unfulfilled promises to employees and customers
Lack of trust to bring best self to table
Subtle discomfort and insecurity
Results of Cultural Experience
Emotional Honesty — gives way to open communication
when someone is real with you, that’s when you can trust them
Improv and open space work best when culture already strong
Book is about getting tight into vision and values
Basic elements of culture — on boarding, creating leaders, teaching customer service
Successful Onboarding
Extend time for on boarding
Have several people start at same time
Create two-way conversations around expectations and what’s needed for success
Why Open Space?
Culture ownership needs to be on the leaders and the people
Open space is team building and strategy session at same time
Unlocking creating potential of company
If a place like Zappos who usually gets 10-20k calls a day can take a day and turn off phones to work on themselves, other companies can as well.
The Power of Stories
Story telling is “cultural currency”
getstory.com — power of somebody seeing themselves in the story