Episode 42

Changing a Company Culture

Jim Gilkey

Brought to you by your hosts:

Hannah Brenner
L&D Specialist

Derek Smith
L&D Specialist

With special guest:

Jim Gilkey | trueU

Jim Gilkey is the Director of Member Development at trueU. Jim was drawn to trueU because of his passion for helping others grow and excel. He grew up thinking a job was just a means to an end but came to find out that simply doesn’t have to be the case. It is possible to be truly passionate at work. trueU helped reinforce that, and now Jim wants to share that message with others. His role at trueU is to work with members to quickly identify their needs and help them build a path to maximize the impact of their trueU experience. Before trueU, Jim worked at Odyssey, helping to build and manage their local sales division. He has more than 8 years of sales and management experience across advertising, marketing, and technology industries. In his free time he can be found reading (endless piles of) management books, playing with his 5 kids, coaching the little league team, or serving as a big brother for Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Description

This week, we welcome Jim Gilkey, the Director of Membership Development at trueU, to discuss changing a company culture.

Jim started by defining a company culture as “the shared beliefs or attitudes that drive the behaviors within an organization.”

The caveat to this concept is that culture can very easily become accidental, meaning a culture that arises without the input or influence from your company’s leadership.

To create or change a culture, Jim recommends starting with conversation: What are people talking about? What’s on the minds of your employees? What challenges are they facing, and how do they overcome them?

The answers to these questions can tell you a lot about your current company culture. The processes and concerns are the pulse of your organization and are at the center of your culture.

Once you’ve established what your culture is, it’s worthwhile to understand how you can better influence it.

Jim mentions a client of trueU, Morales Group, that values service to others. To demonstrate this value, Morales Group offered Lego bricks to employees who demonstrated and embodied their core values. When enough bricks were collected, they were built into a model of a house and a full-scale version of the house was then built in a poverty-stricken area of Mexico.

Jim tells us that having leadership emphasize your core values is absolutely crucial. For instance, if your company values learning, it’s important for leaders to show this. They can demonstrate it many ways such as a company-wide initiative of reading a particular book.

This kind of emphasis on company culture can yield great results and a great way to get leadership on board.

When you’re finished listening to this week’s episode about company culture, be sure to listen to our free, on-demand webinar called “Change Your Culture, Change Your Results.”

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