Insights
The Virtual Layoff and Cultures in Flux
The virtual layoff is here. Jessica Kriegel, our Chief Scientist of Workplace Culture, weighs in on this new culture phenomenon in The Washington Post, arguing that McDonald's decision to layoff corporate staff virtually was the more compassionate route: “If I were...
McDonald’s is Teaching a Master Class in Layoffs
Since WFH scaled quickly with COVID, there's been a debate in HR and management circles about whether layoffs should be done in-person or remotely. In-person feels more connected and respected for some, but there's also the ignominy of walking out of your office with...
Build a Results-Driven Sales Culture
Sales cultures are unique in their constant, top-of-mind relationship with targets and goals. And often goal setting, performance pressures, and a concentration on CRM leads sales teams to a too-narrow focus on strategizing. Time for a reset. Time to step back,...
How to Tell a Real Job from a Ghost Job
On CNN's Early Start, Chief Scientist of Workplace Culture Jessica Kriegel walks us through the job seeker’s reality of applying for “ghost jobs” — positions that organizations post that don’t actually exist — and breaks down the reasons why employers are leaving...
The Lasting Impact of a Strong Keynote Speaker
Some organizations think of keynote speeches as one-offs. But the right keynote speaker can create a memorable experience for your people.
The State of Women in the Workplace
On MSNBC, Jessica Kriegel, Chief Scientist of Workplace Culture, discusses the burden on women in the post-pandemic workplace and how women in leadership can advocate for advances in flexibility that will shift them out of a CWO (Chief Worry Officer) role.
The Crucial Difference Between Accountability and Responsibility in Your Culture
Often we are asked about the different between responsibility and accountability when working with workplace cultures. And there's a simple way to answer: a responsible employee completes what they are asked to do. They can be leaned on. They speak up when they are...
Your New Performance Review Template
Ah, the annual performance review. It’s likely that leaders and the employees they manage both dread this experience, regardless of its perceived necessity. But a yearly review isn’t actually what’s necessary, it’s the chance to give and receive feedback. Employees...
The Critical Role of Business Acumen in Your Culture
Michelangelo. Aretha Franklin. Pelé. All three of these individuals are viewed by many as the greatest artist, singer, or athlete (respectively) that ever lived. While they all practiced and worked hard to refine their skills, their level of talent makes it seem as...
Empower Women, Empower Your Organization: The Value of Women in Leadership
The glass ceiling is still there. Here’s a hammer. A culture of exclusion hobbles your engagement and financial growth. Our new research reveals that when organizations foster inclusivity and tap women to lead, Culture Strength and employee fulfillment...
Decoding Cyberloafing and “Bare-Minimum Monday”
Another workplace trend hits social media and Chief Scientist of Workplace Culture Jessica Kriegel asks: when are we going to drop the trend obsession and have the deeper conversations about productivity that we need to have?
Why Firing Will Backfire at Tesla
Antiwork and the move to unionize isn’t going anywhere. On CNN's Early Start, Jessica Kriegel talks through the destructive effects that Elon Musk’s recent reactive firings at Tesla will have on the company — and on any company that follows his lead.
The Negative Culture Impact of Layoffs
On CNBC, Jessica Kriegel gets tough about the error of mass layoffs and how resisting the current layoff wave is a positive act of nonconformity for today’s CEO.
The Evolution of Business Acumen Training
Numbers tell a story and there’s always a story behind the numbers. Over the course of Culture Partners’ existence, we have had a front-row seat to how organizations and their leaders have adapted and evolved to meet the demands of the business world. It's not that...
Your Culture Is on LinkedIn: 4 Ways to Use It Well
Your employees are on LinkedIn. More than 900 million members are registered on the platform with an estimated 310 million active users. LinkedIn defines itself as “business and employment-focused social media platform,” and there are countless think pieces about how...
The 5 Cs: Qualities That Define Great Leadership
Want to be a stronger leader? Build a stronger team on these five principles.
Southwest Airlines: The Culture Crisis That Could Have Been Avoided
"How did we go from the most stable and profitable airline in history to the greatest meltdown in airline history? Three words: lack of leadership," said the Southwest Pilots Association. Where many might see a PR crisis, those three words — "lack of...
Tech Layoffs and the Need for Culture-Centered CEOs
Tech layoffs are in bloom. On Bloomberg, Jessica Kriegel guides us through the moment and how CEOs can diverge from groupthink, clarify results, create cultures of fulfillment, and not feed the anti-work movement. Jessica will be talking in-depth about workplace...
Taking the “Hush” out of Hush Trips
Jessica Kriegel defines "hush trips" on CNN's Early Start and advises CEOs and CHROs: stop fretting about productivity and build "work from the beach" trips as a culture perk to invite creativity, innovation, and psychological safety from your people. Jessica will be...
Radically Rethink Employee Engagement: Create Employee Fulfillment
Year after year, tension around employee engagement within organizations heightens as employee engagement trends down and the number of “actively disengaged” employees ticks up. As employers, you may be experiencing this in both direct and indirect ways. Maybe your...
Helping Leaders Use Critical Thinking Skills in Decision-making
Critical thought should always precede action. Yet, it’s surprising how often business decisions are made without sufficient analysis of the objectives, options, and potential consequences of those decisions. Having enough time for critical thought is a factor,...
Building Your Leadership Pipeline with Business Acumen
Training and leadership development have become crucial for filling employee skill gaps and talent needs in today's labor market. Harvard Business Review states that many large companies have failed to pay adequate attention to their leadership pipelines and...
ODL: Using Culture To Shape A Multinational Expansion
Solid. Soft. Risky. These are three words that ODL, Inc., manufacturer of glass for doors and entries for more than 70 years, discovered they needed, as a company, to anchor the values of their culture: Solid. A strong, inclusive workforce dedicated to quality in...
Disney and the Deluded Dream of the Pre-Pandemic Office
Jessica Kriegel talks with Christine Romans on CNN's Early Start about Disney CEO Robert Iger's clinging to an outdated playbook that falsely cuffs creativity to being in-office, discounting research on how remote work is working for the health, happiness, and...
Back to the Office with Compassion and Purpose
Jessica Kriegel appears on CNN's Early Start to talk about how compassion, seeking a purpose fit, integrating gratitude, and staying present (rather than "future tripping") can invigorate you and your organization as we pivot into 2023.
2023: The Year of Workplace Culture
Jessica Kriegel appears on Mornings with Maria/Fox Business to forecast how strengthening workplace culture will upend the trends and steady organizations through cycles of antiwork sentiment, economic flux, remote-work changes, and other radical shifts in the way we...
Employee Fulfillment: The Future of Workplace Culture
Employee engagement is dead. The data tells a story: there is a disconnect between engagement, the way organizations measure engagement, and your employee’s personal values. By moving away from engagement to employee fulfillment, you will reconnect your people to your...
Cardiac Pacemakers: 9x stock price growth
“We were going 90 miles per hour on an icy road, headed toward a cliff.” This is how president Jay Graf described the feeling at Cardiac Pacemakers (CPI), developer of cardiovascular technology, following its acquisition by one of the foremost global pharmaceutical...
Flexible Materials: From divestment threat to 12% return on capital
Challenge Flexible Materials, part of a large global packaging manufacturer, was flagging, with contributing revenue at less than 10 percent. Unless the company could rise above the cost of capital, its parent company would divest. Solution A new CEO with extensive...
“Career Cushioning” is the Newest Scare Trend for Employers to Watch
Jessica Kriegel, Chief Scientist of Workplace Culture, joins CNN's Early Start to discuss the newest workplace scare trend: "career cushioning," and to weigh in on Twitter's continuing culture debacle under the reign of Mr. Musk.
SSM Health: The first health care organization in history to receive the Baldridge National Quality Award from the President of the United States
Challenge Sometimes shifting just one cultural belief can transform a whole organization. In the case of SSM Health, which operates a network of 11,000 hospitals and care facilities in Missouri and the Midwest, human resources leadership realized that one cultural...
OGE: A focus on accountability leads to 3x share price
Challenge Operating within an industry with eight times the fatality rate of others, Oklahoma Gas and Electric (OGE) leadership knew that a reduction in Reportable Safety Incidents (RSI) would not only boost employee morale and organizational culture, but could also...
IVAC: No new products for a year, but 15% boost in sales
Challenge It’s the situation all leaders dread: Dennis Antinori, VP of Sales for the medical products company IVAC, had a national sales meeting on the calendar with several new products to launch. Two months to go before the meeting, Antinori got the news from the...
Learning Leader Alert: The Relationship Between Business Acumen and Leadership Mindset
Managers make decisions every day, whether financial, customer-related, employee, and/or organizational decisions. They can make those decisions solely through the lens of their own job responsibilities, departments, and personal goals, or… They can make them in...
Building a Culture that Wins During a Recession
Like most leaders, you’re feeling the weight of a looming recession. You're making plans to weather the storm if and when it comes. While your instinct may be to batten down the hatches, it may be the wrong path. During the Great Recession, leaders who found balance...
5 Business Acumen Concepts Every Manager Should Know
In order to make smart decisions affecting their organization’s financial resources, all managers must understand basic business acumen concepts. Lacking some or all of this knowledge can create barriers in a leader’s decision-making process, including – but not...
Making Room for Political Diversity in the Workplace
At the end of every election season, it’s ever more clear: we live in a time of political divisiveness in our general culture. When we are at work, how do we listen to and speak with each other about potentially polarizing topics, where our political affiliations tap...
Culture Partners Acquires Paradigm Learning
Today, we are excited to announce that we have acquired Paradigm Learning, developer of the most impactful tools in experiential business learning that directly connect people to driving results. “This is a huge benefit to our clients. Paradigm Learning empowers...
Clarify Results to Create Culture Strength
Creating a results-driven culture means getting clear on what you need to achieve. Our new research reveals that aligned clarity of results alone can boost your organization’s Culture Strength by 44%. Trying to move along without “meaningful, measurable results,” as...
New Research Determines How to Strengthen Workplace Cultures by 62%
As the redefinition of the workplace continues, new research by Culture Partners finds that activating four factors within organizational culture increases workplace culture strength by 62%. Surveying 4,960 employee responses from 26 different global organizations...
Acme-Hardesty: “Culture as Constitution,” and 3x financial returns
In 2016, Jeff Kenton came on as Acme-Hardesty's new president. A distributor and supplier of oleochemicals, as well as a developer of bio-based, renewable solutions, Acme-Hardesty, based in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, was at a growth point. Kenton saw, immediately, an...
Don’t Get Stuck in the Problem: Invest in Workplace Culture
A theory. We’re obsessed with the problem, not the solution. Take “toxic culture.” The phrase pops up again and again and while identifying and rooting out toxicity in workplace culture is crucial, we’re also fueling an endless media feedback loop with our...
Build Culture Strength to Bust the Toxic Workplace
Let’s start with a number. According to Forbes, more than 90% of North American CEOS and CFOs believe that improving their culture would increase financial performance. 90%. A staggering figure. According to the same article, leaders don’t know which door to...
Return to Work and Career Management
Jessica Kriegel, Chief Scientist of Workplace Culture, joins CNBC's Squawk Box to discuss Return to Work and Career Management. Jessica points to the need for leaders to model the right culture and the way that culture is created no matter where work takes place.
Empowering your Culture with Accountability
True accountability is about inspiring your people to take ownership over what needs to be done in order to achieve the results the company is working towards. In this eBook, we’ll walk you through a different view of accountability, and how to instill it...
Uncovering the Key Factors That Determine Your Culture Strength
The case for culture deepens. In new research, we have found that when organizations create positive, results-driven cultures, they level up — even in a challenging context of workplace redefinition, soaring employee turnover rates, and employee disengagement....
Culture Partners & UKG Form Strategic Alliance
Culture Partners and UKG have formed a strategic collaboration to help organizations activate culture to create more people-centric experiences, further driving and sustaining business growth. The partnership marries UKG’s award-winning HCM solutions with Culture...
Novelis: How Adjusted EBITDA increased 119% year over year
In 2016, Novelis, the leading sustainable aluminum solutions provider and world leader in aluminum rolling and recycling with more than 14,000 employees in 10 countries, had a moment of reckoning. Under new leadership and embarking on a partnership to supply the...
Prioritizing Feedback over Aggregate Annual Reviews
Our Chief Scientist of Workplace Culture, Jessica Kriegel, joined CNN to discuss Employee Performance Reviews and the need to create experiences of ongoing feedback. Many dread Annual Performance Reviews because of the aggregate nature of feedback. Instead, you can...
The Neuroscience of Goal-Setting and Its Impact on Your Culture
Have you ever set a lofty personal goal and surprised yourself by actually achieving it? Think about the most important goal you have. Do you know how to get there? Goal-setting has been linked to higher motivation, self-esteem, confidence, and autonomy. Once...