THE DEEP DIVE: Rebuilding a Resilient Workplace Culture with Aga and Shani

Welcome to our new format called “The Deep Dive.”
Once per month, I sit down with a fellow culture geek and the co-founder of Wonder, Shani Persson, and we explore a topic critical to building a thriving culture at scale.
In each episode of the Deep Dive we explore a variety of topics, including organizational values, diversity, equity, and inclusion, leadership, employee engagement, and much more.
We’ll be examining everything from the latest trends to timeless philosophies that will help you make better decisions and be successful in your culture work.
Today’s episode is all about Rebuilding a Resilient Workplace Culture.
In times of crisis, companies face immense challenges that can have lasting effects on their culture and relationships. In this interview, we explore how to navigate these challenges and emerge stronger on the other side.
Shani and I explore ways to manage layoffs, build trust, recover from crisis, cultivate resilience, and adopt a growth mindset. We offer practical ideas and perspectives to help you thrive in the face of adversity when building a thriving culture at work.
Episode highlights
- Dealing with cyclical layoffs.
- Rebuilding trust by acknowledging and taking responsibility of what happened.
- How SCARF model can come in handy in navigating difficult times at work.
- “Dear Company” exercise: processing the past and moving on.
- Cultivating a resilient work environment proactively.
- The role and impact of showing up with our full humanity during difficult times.
- Reclaiming agency, even when a lot is outside of people’s control.
- Cultivating an antifragile, crisis-ready culture.
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.
More about Shani Persson
Shani is one of the founders of insight- and experience design lab, Wonder. A company aimed to inspire and support companies, institutions, groups or individuals to help themselves and others thrive through more human experiences. Creating conditions for humans with minds, bodies and souls to thrive has always been my mission. I’ve spent more than 10 years in corporate people-functions – driving change, and building culture and experiences for co-workers.
A nerd for anything human development, learning, leadership, culture and experiences that enhance our wellbeing and contribution. And love to explore any ways – cold plunges, meditation and biohacking included – to lead fulfilled lives with healthy minds and bodies, and of course – designing impactful human experiences.
More about Aga Bajer
Aga is the founder and CEO of CultureBrained® – a boutique consultancy on a mission to empower purpose-driven leaders to make work synonymous with fun, meaning and belonging. Aga is passionate about cultivating thriving cultures where people do their best work and solve wicked problems. Before establishing CultureBrained®, Aga led consulting teams in companies like Hay Group, Korn Ferry, and PwC.
In the past 20+ years, Aga helped hundreds of clients to attract, hire, develop and retain A+ talent, accelerate personal and business growth, drive impact and create legendary cultures that scale.
Aga is the founder and host of a one-of-a-kind, global community for Culture Leaders, the CultureBrained Community, where members connect with outstanding peers to discover new ways of cultivating thriving cultures at scale in the brave new world of remote and hybrid work. She is the author of Building and Sustaining a Coaching Culture and the creator and host of one of the most popular podcasts on culture, the CultureLab.
Aga has worked with senior leadership teams of many major organizations, startups, and scaleups. Her client portfolio includes Microsoft, AWS, Nordea, ANZ, Ideo, Toyota, Porsche, Hilton Hotels and Resorts, Citibank, GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Leo Pharma, Hellenic Bank, Eurolife, Bank of Cyprus, Eurobank, Wargaming, Sanofi, Amdocs, SAP, and many others.
Additional resources
Accreditation Program – Codifying Company Culture
CultureBrained® Community – a one-of-a-kind virtual community for Heads of Culture, founders, and leaders who want to up their culture game.
Want more tips on evolving culture?
Subscribe to my newsletter, the CultureLab Insider, and get the new blog posts, podcast episodes
and other free resources delivered to your inbox every Tuesday.