4 highlights from CultureCon '23

Before I let some of the best bits of CultureCon 2023 fade from my memory, I’m working hard against the grain of my very own forgetting curve!

Are you familiar with the forgetting curve? It’s the theory that we forget approx. 75% of newly acquired knowledge after just 6 days unless we put the effort in to retain it… so, here I am.

Firstly CultureCon was a truly excellent one day conference focused on culture for good.

I’ve summarised 4 of the most memorable things that have stuck with me and make perfectly good share-able ideas that I've taken back to the team at Nature. Perhaps one of these will be a good idea you can use where you work.

Using space to energise

The conference was hosted across two spaces at the State library which is an incredible place to attend a conference for starters.

How this worked, was that everyone at the conference was in the same space for approx. 60 minutes at a time. 2-3 speakers or panels would run back-to-back in that space. Then after approx. an hour, we’d move to the second space. More speakers, panels and so on. Then back to the first space again.

It was genuinely energising and kept the whole group fully focussed. No sitting for hours on end getting restless in a dark room where you find yourself wondering if lunch would be sandwiches or sushi.

If you are planning a conference or even hosting a workshop, remember to get people moving every so often. Geez it makes massive difference to how people engage with the session(s) and each other.

Renter v owners at work

Dean Gale from Phuel gave a superbly high energy session that focused on the idea of personal accountability.

When challenge or change occurs at work, if we respond like a renter, we are less likely to own the problem and more likely to wait for someone else to deal with it. When we respond like an owner, we jump in, look for ways to own the problem, find a solution and ultimately create value within the business. It’s a powerful way of thinking about how people respond in those tricky moments as they usually are the moments that matter.

Dean’s session was easy for me to like, as it reminded me of one of our values at Nature which we call having an owner’s mindset, and to us, it means being responsible for the way we work and the work we do.

It’s a great question to ask yourself in those moments where things aren’t going to plan, will you be a renter or an owner as you simply can’t outsource accountability… so it’s up to all of us to decide how we operate in the moments of challenge or change.

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People make the place

Professor Juliet Bourke from UNSW shared some of her recent research on what drives inclusivity in the workplace.

In addition to sharing what people can do to make workplaces more inclusive, the thing that really stuck out to me was what she said about our ability to influence our own inclusion.

Her research has shown that when you perceive yourself as different from other people, you are 3 time less likely to be included.

That stat really fascinated me. If you’ve ever had a time in your life where you felt different from the group, did you lean in and get involved anyway or did you lean out and potentially magnify your differences?

The conversations I have mostly heard when it comes to inclusion have been focussed on what leaders, colleagues and workplaces can and should do to drive inclusion.

This research was a great reminder to me that if we can find a way to avoid getting focussed on the things that make us different to other people at work, then we can also do ourselves a solid and encourage our own inclusion.

I also loved a quote by Juliet...Inclusion is contagious.

A fresh take on hiring for culture fit

A lot of places talk about culture fit when they hire and the people that stay in the business.

Damian Zahra from Bunnings spoke about one of their philosophies being about seeking people they foresee as culture contributors. Whether you have 50 or 50k employees, this makes a real difference to any businesses hiring process.

I’ve since googled the term culture contributors and now know this frame of reference has been written about by the likes of ?Forbes and HBR but it was new to me.

We all know everyone who joins our workplace will change it a little bit, but geez this felt like a fresh and important angle on how we find the best people for our place especially when I join the dots back to our value at Nature, having an -owner’s mindset and the difference this could make to us.

A big shout out to Associate Professor Karl Treacher, group CEO of The Culture Institute of Australia who MC’ed the event and all the speakers who left me with new ideas, fresh perspectives and a big dose of inspiration for culture in the workplace. This is the good stuff that glues us together.

I highly recommend Sydney peeps get along to CultureCon when it hits your town in October too.?