Welcome to the Culture First Podcast
How does work culture shape human behavior and experience? How do humans create culture?
From uncomfortable truths to heart-to-heart conversations, the Culture First Podcast uncovers what it really takes to build a better world of work.
We all aspire to rise above the day-to-day commotion and bring more humanity into our work lives. Our host Damon Klotz has dedicated his career to understanding how we find meaning in our work and spends his days trying to better the experience humans have within organizations.
Join him as he explores journeys of trials and triumphs with the people who put culture first- despite all the things that get in the way.
The Culture First Podcast distills the wisdom of People & Culture experts into insightful stories for the modern leader.
Episode transcript
DAMON KLOTZ: When it comes to building a better world of work, we know that it all comes back to the culture that we foster within our organizations.
DAMON KLOTZ: However, what we don’t always know are the steps we need to take to create that culture. There is a seemingly endless amount of questions that we need answers to, like are there repeatable formulas from companies that have created successful cultures that we can use in our workplace? How do we confront the biases that are hindering employee career development and advancement? Is there such a thing as allowing too much of the self in the workplace? And how do we encourage vulnerability at the office in a way that still fosters psychological safety?
DAMON KLOTZ: My name is Damon Klotz. I am a work culture evangelist and I’m here to help get to the bottom of these questions. I feel very lucky that the team at Culture Amp has given me the opportunity to create this show, which we have called Culture First: Stories for a better world of work. Over the coming months, I’ll get the pleasure to share the inspiring and informational conversations I’ve had with People & Culture experts. To give you an idea, we’ve got psychotherapist and relationship expert, Esther Perel.
ESTHER PEREL: That’s how we relate. We see people, we hear them, we touch them, we smell them, and if all of that becomes asepticized, it does change your experience of the social environment.
DAMON KLOTZ: Activist, DeRay McKesson.
DERAY MCKESSON: Learning is actually part of the process of what it means to grow, and the more and more that we normalize that, the closer we get to building the world that we both want and the world that we deserve.
DAMON KLOTZ: Optimist and bestselling author, Simon Sinek.
SIMON SINEK: At the companies that have a bias for money before people, trust sometimes suffers, cooperation suffers, innovation suffers, and in hard times everybody’s like Sayonara, I’m out of here!
DAMON KLOTZ: Famed hotelier, Chip Conley.
CHIP CONLEY: My favorite question to ask all of my direct reports is how can I support you to do the best work of your life?
DAMON KLOTZ: We’ve also got Adam Grant, Claude Silver and many more. My goal is to help distill the best ideas from some of the smartest and most successful leaders, so that we can learn how to create the cultures that we deserve in our workplaces and in our communities. So make sure you subscribe to Culture First on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Because trust me, you do not want to miss a single episode.
