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How We Work Now (Best Bits)

Office, home, hybrid. Are we any clearer on how it actually works?

In this best-bits episode of Building Better Cultures, Scott McInnes goes back to Episodes 71 and 37 with Chris Dyer and Jane Sparrow to hear how organisational culture is evolving as we work out how we'll probably be working for the next century. And that comes down to finding a happy balance between what employers need and what employees want.

Chris Dyer starts with a definition worth stealing: culture is the norms. It is the way we work, the things people pick up in their first week, seen and unseen. From there he walks through the seven pillars he found repeated across the best organisations, from transparency and positive leadership to celebrating what makes people different rather than what makes them the same. He is especially good on mistakes, using the Post-it note, which began life as a failed glue, to make the point that how you respond to a mistake tells people whether it is safe to try anything. Then he gets specific about transparency: sharing goals across teams so people aren't unknowingly competing with each other, and sharing the numbers every month, good news or bad, including how long the company could keep going before layoffs.

Jane Sparrow picks up the space in between. The third culture is neither home nor office but a new place that leaders have to shape deliberately, and she is clear that scrambling for the right tech and tools is the easy part. What takes work is the conversations, because everyone's situation is different. She closes on something worth sitting with: information from the centre, the comms team or HR, only really lands when a leader translates it into what it means for us.

The common thread? This is less about where we work and more about whether culture survives the shift. Neither guest thinks it happens on its own.

Key Takeaways

Culture is the norms, not the posters. It is what people learn in their first week about how things actually get done, including the unwritten bits.
Great cultures are consistent, not identical. The same pillars show up across very different organisations, each expressed in its own way.
Celebrate what makes people unique, not what makes them the same. Organisations put real effort into differentiating themselves to customers, then ask their people to blend in.
How you handle mistakes sets the ceiling on ambition. Punish them and people stop trying things. The Post-it note exists because someone documented a glue that failed.
A mistake and an error are not the same thing. Getting something consistently wrong that training should have covered points at bad process, stress or multitasking. Trying something new and misjudging it is worth talking about, not punishing.
Transparency starts with goals. If teams cannot see each other's objectives, organisations end up creating competition nobody intended.
Share the numbers, including the bad ones. Telling people how long the company can keep going is uncomfortable, and it is also what trust looks like under pressure.
The third culture has to be built on purpose. The space between home and office is new, and leaders shaping it deliberately is the difference between a culture and a vacuum.
Tools are the easy part. Getting the right tech was the scramble. The harder, more valuable work is the conversations around it, because every person's situation is different.
Information needs a translator. A message from HR or the comms team becomes real when a line leader explains what it means for this team, and asks what we start, stop and continue doing.

Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction: less about where we work, more about how culture survives the shift 00:31 – Chris Dyer: culture is the norms, seen and unseen 01:41 – The seven pillars found across great company cultures 02:23 – Transparency, positive leadership, listening and celebrating what makes people unique 02:51 – Recognition that actually works 03:19 – What you do when someone makes a mistake 03:47 – The Post-it note, and the failure it came from 04:30 – Transparency in practice: shared goals, and why teams end up competing by accident 05:33 – Sharing the numbers every month, good news or bad 05:51 – Jane Sparrow: the third culture, and why tools alone won't build it 08:23 – Managing vs leading, and the leader's role when people are under strain 09:56 – Building connection deliberately, and mixing up how you do it 10:56 – Why information only lands when a leader translates it 11:20 – Wrap-up