Welcome to Season 2 of Clearing Obstacles, the podcast for leaders and aspiring leaders alike. In this episode, host Dan Kent from Best Self Coaching dives deep into the concept of workplace culture with Gustavo Razzetti, the founder of Fearless Culture and author of the book Remote, Not Distant. Gustavo shares his expertise on building a culture of ownership rather than accountability and discusses practical steps leaders can take to enhance their team's performance and engagement.

Throughout the episode, Gustavo emphasizes the importance of self-awareness, psychological safety, and effective decision-making. He introduces listeners to the Culture Design Canvas, a tool he developed to help organizations intentionally design their workplace culture. Additionally, Gustavo provides actionable tips for leaders to improve team participation and trust, ensuring that every voice is heard and valued.

Key points addressed are:

• Accountability is often imposed top-down by leaders, reactively when results aren't met. It focuses too much on metrics instead of behaviors that drive metrics.
• A culture of ownership is better than one of strict accountability - giving people decision-making rights closer to problems, rewarding behaviors that move the needle, allowing freedom which creates accountability.
• Leaders must model desired behaviors and set clear expectations for their team's ownership in the culture.
• Middle managers are often a bottleneck, focused on their own goals vs cross-collaboration needed today.
• To increase voices being heard constructively: Try techniques like "Voice of Employee" ambassadors, and understanding how the individuals on your team prefer to communicate.
• Use the Culture Design Canvas tool to assess current culture state, identify areas for evolution, drive experiments in bite-sized changes.
• Self-awareness is key for leaders - understanding your blindspots through feedback. Lack of self-awareness is a major pitfall.
• Culture signals are visible in behaviors and interactions if you look - it's not something invisible or abstract, contrary to our common perception otherwise.

Tune in to learn how to transform your organization's culture from within and create an environment where everyone can thrive. Whether you're a seasoned leader or just starting your leadership journey, this episode is packed with valuable insights and practical advice to help you clear the obstacles to help you Get There, From Here.

Fearless Culture: https://www.fearlessculture.design/

Insight: The Surprising Truth About How Others See Us, How We See Ourselves, and Why the Answers Matter More Than We Think, by Tasha Eurich: https://amzn.to/4crslI3

Work with Dan at Best Self Coaching: https://bestself.coach/