The CultureING Podcast Tynan Allan

As the current President & CEO of TELUS Spark Science Center, Dr. Mary Anne Moser is an award-winning designer and communications director. Mary Anne brings more than 25 years of experience in entrepreneurial roles where science meets society. Twelve years ago, Mary Anne co-founded Beakerhead, an international first that brings people together at the crossroads of art, science and engineering, and was their full-time CEO for 6 years. Mary Anne has worked across a variety of not-for-profits from the Banff Centre to the University of Calgary to innovative organizations created by the government. Being a working mother of triplets has made Mary Anne a coveted leader to work for, as she understands the individual needs of her team members and is a major advocate for flexibility.



This episode is brought to you by Peninsula, which offers 24/7 HR, health & safety, and employment support to Canada’s small and medium businesses. For the white-glove treatment and an initial consultation just for CultureING Podcast listeners, head to this link and enter the code "CULTURE".



In this episode, you will learn:


Having a moonshot vision for your team is incredibly motivating and definitely ties to increased employee engagement
If you want collaboration, you need to build a coaching culture where performance isn't measured by how well someone does their job, but how much they collaborate and learn together.
The moonshot vision you set actually attracts the type of people you want. If you declare that you're going to play in an international league, you will attract ambitious people that aren't interested in a slow-paced environment. Don't be surprised when the right people come to your door when you set an aspirational goal and make it public.
Setting up cross-functional teams can help leaders get to know their employees much better and reduce silos in a significant way.
"Separate ideas from their owners. It's not personal." When you surround yourself with a strong safety net to funnel ideas through, then about 1 every 9 idea will likely be great and they'll affirm and encourage you. Your crew also needs to be there to help you understand.
Steady not flashy is a great way to live to find a steady-state, recognizing it's not supposed to be easy all the time and still being resilient in that place.
When going through leadership transition, taking a genuine look at what you've got and being honest about it is crucial. Whatever change mandate that is required, which often is what prompts a transition, lean into that, "set an aspiration together and then see who wants to opt in, and who who might want to opt out."



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Jordan Raynor is a serial entrepreneur and author who has the honor of working to help Christians connect the gospel to their work. In November 2017, Jordan wrote and published Called to Create: A Biblical Invitation to Create, Innovate, and Risk, which became an instant national bestseller. Since then, he and his team have helped more than 3,000,000 Christians do their most exceptional work for the glory of God and the good of others. In 2020 Master of One: Find and Focus on the Work You Were Created to Do was published, and coming soon is Redeeming Your Time.

This episode is brought to you by Peninsula, which offers 24/7 HR, health & safety, and employment support to Canada’s small and medium businesses. For the white-glove treatment and an initial consultation just for CultureING Podcast listeners, head to this link and enter the code "CULTURE"

What you'll learn from this episode:


Learning that work is a service to the world is incredibly important on the journey towards mastery, it needs to become part of your motivation.
To encourage mastery at work, companies should:

Have exceptionally high standards for their talent & hiring.
Look for ways in your team to allow them to be more focused in their discipline, and remove things pulling away from that core thing.
Establish workplace cultures that foster Deep Work.
Guard your employees and encourage them to create boundaries so they can do undisturbed, focused, deep work regularly (ideally 4 hours per day).


Being efficient with your time is something to be celebrated but believing that work is meaningless isn't the goal.
Work was part of the original perfect design by God (Genesis 1).
"Passion follows mastery, passion follows service. It grows with competency over time because that's how God created us. God created to serve us. We create the serve other people. When you understand work like that, you're fired up and you want to do as much as much work as you can for the good of others."
Your area to master = the area of life you're disproportionately skilled in.

Also mentioned in this episode:


Jordan's new book Redeeming Your Time releases Oct. 19, 2019, and if you pre-order, head to JordanRaynor.com to enter into the sweepstakes for a Trip to Israel
Jordan's podcast episode with Dee Ann Turner (Fmr. VP of Talent at Chick-fil-A)
Jordan's course "How to Land a Book Deal with No Platform"

Today's episode was actually recorded before the Covid-19 pandemic with Bench's VP of People, Bonnie Powell, who I admire so very much. While some of the information shared might be a bit "out of date," the golden wisdom contained is truly timeless, and most certainly still music to my ears as I believe it is breakthrough thinking for the HR & company culture space.

Today you'll learn:


What I love, and is a now bit surreal, was that we actually discussed remote working and creating flexibility for employees before it was forced on us. That is true pioneering folks!

How approaching layoffs can be done in a human way.

What it looks like to throw HR "Best Practice" out the window, and begin to make decisions about people that actually work and make sense for you, your team members, and your company


This episode is brought to you by Peninsula, which offers 24/7 HR, health & safety, and employment support to Canada’s small and medium businesses. For the white-glove treatment and an initial consultation just for CultureING Podcast listeners, head to this link and enter the code "CULTURE"



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Connect with Tynan on LinkedIn

For the past 6 years, Habanero Consulting has been on the notoriously tough-to-get-on Great Place to Work list! This is nothing short of incredible.

Join Tynan Allan as he interviews Steven Fitzgerald, Habanero's President, and resident company culture alchemist about the nitty-gritty details of what it truly takes to make it on this list.



You'll learn about:


The humility required by leaders to continually adapt your approach to company culture
Why building a culture of shared responsibility for culture is so important
How to approach your purpose and make it something that develops without limitation of a charismatic leader always spurring it on
What it takes to stay teachable and aware of how you show up as a leader, and how that might need to change



This episode is brought to you by Peninsula, which offers 24/7 HR, health & safety, and employment support to Canada’s small and medium businesses. For the white-glove treatment and an initial consultation just for CultureING Podcast listeners, head to this link and enter the code "CULTURE"

Duncan Wardle, Former Head of Innovation & Creativity for Disney spent 30 years with the organization and is now invested in helping businesses like yours wildly improve their innovation capabilities. This episode is the right resource for you to understand how to begin transform your company culture into one where creativity can flourish. Today, innovation is no longer just a buzzword to throw in your investor deck. With the dizzying speed at which technology has progressed over the last decade, innovation has become a tangible difference-maker. A tool that allows companies to create and execute incredible ideas faster than ever, leapfrogging the competition in the process.
Some questions I ask:

How did you get the job of being in charge of innovation at the most innovative company on the planet?
How do you manage having an innovation team and still having the whole company produce novel ideas?
How to go about changing to a creative-focused culture? Where does it start?
What can we do to build trust so that our creative ideas are well-received?

In this episode, you will learn:

Crazy stories of Duncan working with Princess Diana, Michael Jackson and sending his son’s Buzz Lightyear into space in partnership with NASA
What it looks like to take culture from something you talk about, to something you take action on.
Building trust starts with doing crazy, big things without caring.
How to make creative meetings go well with “plusing” meetings

This episode is brought to you by Peninsula, which offers 24/7 HR, health & safety, and employment support to Canada’s small and medium businesses. For the white-glove treatment and an initial consultation just for CultureING Podcast listeners, head to this link and enter the code "CULTURE".

Co-Founders of Routine, Neige & Pippa Blair make a stellar team. As the innovator, Neige has always been bringing brilliant formulas for natural products to her friends. With the help of Pippa’s business mind, they brought Routine to life! At the heart of their success is a commitment to relationships & caring for one another, and the insights on building company culture are therefore quite compelling!

Some questions I ask:

What are the ways you’ve found best suit how you work together as a team?
How do you take ideas from R&D, bring them to the team and then decide if they go to market or not?
What are some of the myths surrounding natural products?
How did you begin to be taken seriously as a brand?
What have you found to be the bedrock of your company culture?
Is Routine Wine coming anytime soon?!

In this episode, you will learn:

The original story of Routine Deodorant
Why Niege & Pippa don’t often use the word entrepreneur
How to thrive within family (and best friend) business. How it became natural. Bottom line: it’s critical to find a role for everyone that suits their personality.
The whole idea of making a place where people want to be, the culture will take care of itself
How most of the beauty & skincare industry is marketing… not necessity.
Culture: You can define it, or it can just happen. If you create the space, a place where people want to be, that’s the first step. Neige & Pippa believe that if everything’s fed for their employees (their soul, their bodies), then the culture holds itself together quite well

This episode is brought to you by Peninsula, which offers 24/7 HR, health & safety, and employment support to Canada’s small and medium businesses. For the white-glove treatment and an initial consultation just for CultureING Podcast listeners, head to this link and enter the code "CULTURE".