CULTURE SHIFT with Kirsty Bashforth

Audio production by James Ede, Be Heard

Our guest today is Kirsty Bashforth, the founder and CEO of QuayFive Ltd.

She has an Economics degree from Cambridge University and spent 24 years at BP plc pursuing a career in commercial leadership, operations and organizational dynamics, working in UK, US, Denmark and Belgium.

Her new book on managing organizational culture (Culture Shift) was published by Bloomsbury in July 2019. She was named in the FT list of Top 100 Influential Women Leaders in UK Engineering in October 2019.

Episode Highlights

In this episode, Kirsty and I talk about shifting culture so that it serves the business, its employees and the wider ecosystem. Here are some of the things that we discussed:

• Kirsty’s early cultural influences and what put her on the path she is today
• Why culture is an important business enabler
• How to measure culture and the progress you make in shifting it
• Four factors that hold executives back when it comes to investing in organizational culture
• Ways of eliciting feedback on the impact you have on culture as a leader
• Why culture and strategy should be viewed as equal partners
• What does the discipline of behavioral economics bring into culture change
• The importance of aligning performance management system with organizational values
• How authentic leadership and vulnerability can drive culture change
• What to do to shift culture at a board level

Listen to the interview in the player below or on iTunes. If you like what you hear, please leave a review, and it may be featured on a future episode.

Audio production by James Ede, Be Heard

More About Kirsty Bashforth

At QuayFive, Kirsty Bashforth specializes in advising and equipping CEOs to improve performance and deliver strategy through focus on and alignment of their culture. She is an organizational dynamics troubleshooter using behavioural economics as the core philosophy in change management.
Kirsty has strong global commercial experience running international operations, leadership in driving shifts in organizational culture and behavior to improve business performance and a deep understanding of safety and risk in complex organizations and cyclical business environments. She led the work to reset BP’s culture and approach to change management in aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon accident in 2010.
She is married with 2 children and her interests include trainee pilot, Manchester United FC, Ireland Rugby Union, Viking & Medieval British history, the Isle of Man & Chocolate.

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• QuayFive

Books and Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

• Culture Shift by Kirsty Bashforth