While “psychological safety” has become somewhat of a buzzword in management circles, it’s a concept that forward-thinking leaders dismiss at their own peril.

“I cannot think of a place where lower psychological safety would help you in any way,” says Harvard Business School Professor Amy Edmondson, known for her pioneering research on the topic. “Lower psychological safety would make you take fewer risks, but not necessarily better risks. So having anxiety about what other people think of you isn't a great state for optimal performance.”

In this bonus episode of The Culture Kit with Jenny & Sameer, Edmondson, along with WD-40 CEO Steve Brass, joins hosts Jenny Chatman and Sameer Srivastava to discuss how to create a culture of psychological safety—and why it matters. This session was held November 13, 2023 as part of the Culture XChange series sponsored by the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation and is being broadcast publicly for the first time.

• The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth. By Amy C. Edmonson. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2018.
• “What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team.” By Charles Duhigg, The New York Times Magazine, Feb. 25, 2016.
• “When feeling safe isn’t enough: Contextualizing models of safety and learning in teams.” Sanner, B., & Bunderson, J. S. (2015). Organizational Psychology Review, 5(3), 224-243. https://doi.org/10.1177/2041386614565145
• Tribe Culture: How It Shaped WD-40 Company. By Garry Ridge. Telemachus Press, 2020.

Do you have a vexing question about work that you want Jenny and Sameer to answer? Submit your “Fixit Ticket!”

You can learn more about the podcast and the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation at https://haas.berkeley.edu/culture/culture-kit-podcast/.

*The Culture Kit with Jenny & Sameer is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

When Patrick Collison and his brother John Collison founded digital payment company Stripe in 2010, he didn't come in with “any kind of enlightened leadership expertise or genetic muscle memory.” As the company took off and grew to a dominant platform with $1 trillion in total payment volume and millions of customers, its culture grew more intentional—and strategic.

“Because Stripe's domain is really complicated and the details really matter, if we make a mistake—just one mistake—there's a very good chance that somebody's paycheck is wrong…There's a culture at Stripe of just really prizing the small details,” he says.

In this bonus episode of The Culture Kit with Jenny & Sameer, Collison shares his leadership journey and the evolution of Stripe’s unique culture in a fireside chat with hosts Jenny Chatman and Sameer Srivastava. This interview took place on April 16, 2024 as part of the Dean’s Speaker Series, co-sponsored by the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation. Bringing in a diverse mix of preeminent business leaders, the Dean's Speaker Series provides the Haas community with insightful perspectives on effective leadership and opportunities for thought-provoking discussions. Learn more.

Do you have a vexing question about work that you want Jenny and Sameer to answer? Submit your “Fixit Ticket!”

You can learn more about the podcast and the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation at https://haas.berkeley.edu/culture/culture-kit-podcast/.

*The Culture Kit with Jenny & Sameer is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

What are the benefits and challenges of running a fully remote company? What does research show about the shift to “work from anywhere”? In this bonus episode of The Culture Kit, host Sameer Srivastava interviews Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury, the Lumry Family Associate Professor at the Harvard Business School, and Brandon Sammut, Chief People Officer at Zapier, on how to use technology and organizational insights to create high-performing, inclusive, and engaging remote work cultures.

Choudhury is one of the pioneers in research on the future of work, especially the changing geography of work. He was included in Forbes’ Future of Work 50 list last year and Time’s Charter 30 list of thinkers and innovators shaping the future of work in 2024.

Sammut is a two-time chief people officer currently at Zapier, a software automation platform with an all-remote team that spans over 40 countries. He believes that remote work is the way to expand both individual opportunity and business results, drawing on his prior experience in talent acquisition, talent development, strategy, consulting, business development, and venture capital.

This episode is based on a CultureXChange forum held on April 11th, 2024 by the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation. Learn more.

Do you have a vexing question about work that you want Jenny and Sameer to answer? Submit your “Fixit Ticket!”

You can learn more about the podcast and the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation at https://haas.berkeley.edu/culture/culture-kit-podcast/.

*The Culture Kit with Jenny & Sameer is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

In a fireside chat with host Jenny Chatman, best-selling author Michael Lewis shares the inside story of the strange culture Sam Bankman-Fried created at his failed crypto exchange, FTX. Lewis got to know SBF for his latest book, "Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon." The story is a fascinating example of a strong organizational culture gone terribly wrong.

Lewis is known for his New York Times bestselling books, including Moneyball, The Big Short, Liar’s Poker, and The Blind Side. He started his career in finance on the bond desk at Salomon Brothers, and then left the business world to become a journalist. His books tell stories about real characters and provide insights into the business world—from working on Wall Street to the 2008 financial crisis to the rise and fall of cryptocurrency.

This interview was held on November 8, 2023 as part of the Dean's Speaker Series at Berkeley Haas. Bringing in a diverse mix of preeminent business leaders, the series provides the Haas community with insightful perspectives on effective leadership and opportunities for thought-provoking discussions. Learn more.

Do you have a vexing question about work that you want Jenny and Sameer to answer? Submit your “Fixit Ticket!”

You can learn more about the podcast and the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation at https://haas.berkeley.edu/culture/culture-kit-podcast/.

*The Culture Kit with Jenny & Sameer is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

In this time of quiet quitting and burnout, how do organizational leaders create a culture that encourages workers to go above and beyond their job description?

Organizational culture experts Jenny Chatman and Sameer Srivastava are back to answer this question from Meili Hau, the director of the Student Health Center at San Francisco State University. Tune in to hear Jenny and Sameer share real-world insights and research as well as strategies you can put to work to improve your workplace culture.

Do you have a vexing question about work that you want Jenny and Sameer to answer? Submit your “Fixit Ticket!”

Find the full transcript and learn more about the podcast at www.haas.org/culture-kit.

*The Culture Kit with Jenny & Sameer is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

1. Codification – Codify your values and norms and systematically bake them into the fabric of your organization.
2. Opportunity – Set up systems and opportunities for people to not only document their work and share knowledge across boundaries, but also to form relationships and meaningful connections that span those boundaries.
3. Leadership – Leaders should reinforce the big picture, laying out a strong vision that inspires people to go above and beyond their job descriptions to achieve big goals together.

• Who is Quiet Quitting For? [The New York Times]
• The Berkeley-Haas School of Business: Codifying, Embedding, and Sustaining Culture Case Study A and B
• Berkeley Haas Defining Leadership Principles
• Where Culture Really Matters: Berkeley’s Haas School [Poets&Quants]
• How Stripe Built a Writing Culture
• Dean's Speaker Series | Patrick Collison, Co-Founder & CEO, Stripe; Co-Founder, Arc Institute
• The Hidden Power of Social Networks
• Enculturation Trajectories: Language, Cultural Adaptation, and Individual Outcomes in Organizations [Management Science]
• Organizational Commitment and Psychological Attachment: The Effects of Compliance, Identification, and Internalization on Prosocial Behavior [Journal of Applied Psychology]

Do you have a vexing question about work that you want Jenny and Sameer to answer? Submit your “Fixit Ticket!”

You can learn more about the podcast and the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation at https://haas.berkeley.edu/culture/culture-kit-podcast/.

*The Culture Kit with Jenny & Sameer is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

Is it better for an organization to have one unified culture or a collection of mini ones? What are the benefits and drawbacks of each approach?

Organizational culture experts Jenny Chatman and Sameer Srivastava are back with more research insights, real-world examples, and tips for company leaders, this time about the complex world of subcultures.

Do you have a vexing question about work that you want Jenny and Sameer to answer? Submit your “Fixit Ticket!”

Find the full transcript and learn more about the podcast at www.haas.org/culture-kit.

*Culture Kit with Jenny & Sameer is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*

1. Awareness – know what subcultures exist within the organization and anticipate the possibility that they conflict in dysfunctional ways.
2. Agility – be willing to try out different cultural priorities. Before deciding that the counterculture is necessarily problematic you should look at what it is solving for.
3. Alignment – prioritize one cultural norm that applies to all units and unifies the organization rather than trying to be perfectly aligned on everything.

• The Role of Subcultures in Agile Organizations [Leading and Managing People in the Dynamic Organization]
• Maersk: Driving Culture Change at a Century-Old Company to Achieve Measurable Results [Berkeley Haas Case Series]
• Identifying Organizational Subcultures: An Empirical Approach [Journal of Management Studies]
• A Language-Based Method for Assessing Symbolic Boundaries [Sociological Methods & Research]
• The Lasting Leadership Lessons From The Challenger Disaster [Forbes]
• 5 Ways to Create a Culture of Innovation in Your Organisation [Salesforce Blog]

Do you have a vexing question about work that you want Jenny and Sameer to answer? Submit your “Fixit Ticket!”

You can learn more about the podcast and the Berkeley Center for Workplace Culture and Innovation at https://haas.berkeley.edu/culture/culture-kit-podcast/.

*The Culture Kit with Jenny & Sameer is a production of Haas School of Business and is produced by University FM.*