Emergent Culture Labs

Chris Angell & Jodee Bock
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Emergent Culture Labs explores what actually makes teams, organizations, and communities thrive. Through conversations with leaders, thinkers, and practitioners, we look beneath strategies and systems to the human conditions that shape how people work together. From leadership and culture to trust, conversation, collaboration, and change, we explore a different way of thinking about how healthy organizations grow. Culture isn’t something you build. It’s something you tend.

Episodes

  1. Sep 11

    Your Team Has Opinions, They're Just Not Telling You

    Get our book, Roots - The Human Framework Beneath Thriving Teams at https://www.emergentculturelabs.com/book  Episode Outline 1. The Power of “Yes, And”Chris and Jodee start with the creative dynamic they experience together: exploring “what if?” and building on ideas instead of immediately finding reasons they won’t work. They contrast this with teams where new ideas are quickly shut down with “we tried that before” or “that won’t work.” 2. Having Conviction Without Needing to Be RightThe conversation moves into the tension between strongly believing what you see and remaining open, curious, and committed to learning. Healthy disagreement doesn’t require people to soften their convictions. It requires them to stop treating disagreement as a threat. 3. Why People Take Their Best Ideas With ThemPast experiences teach people how safe it is to speak up. When disagreement has led to anger, judgment, or conflict, people learn to withdraw. As Jodee puts it, when people withdraw, they take their best ideas with them, and those ideas often move from the meeting room to the water cooler. 4. The Conditions That Make Healthy Disagreement PossibleChris and Jodee connect the conversation to Roots. Safety means disagreement doesn’t threaten the relationship. Trust comes from feeling seen and understood. Direction keeps people focused on where they’re collectively trying to go, even when they disagree about how to get there. 5. Are You Making More Withdrawals Than Deposits?The conversation shifts to the relational cost of task-driven workplaces. Emails, deadlines, requests, KPIs, and status checks can all become withdrawals. Without enough relational deposits, people become defensive, disengaged, passive-aggressive, or resistant when leaders suddenly want creativity and collaboration. 6. People Are More Complex Than the Roles We Put Them InChris and Jodee explore our tendency to reduce people to categories, expectations, or black-and-white judgments. Teams become more expansive when people become curious about how someone came to see the world the way they do rather than simply deciding that their different perspective is wrong. 7. Small Acts of Care Create Disproportionate ResultsCare can be remarkably simple: initiating contact without needing something. Asking about someone’s trip, what they learned, or what life is teaching them can take two minutes but affect the relationship for days. Repeated across a team, those small interactions begin to change the culture. 8. The Human Framework Beneath the ResultsThe episode closes with the idea that when something in an organization “just doesn’t feel right,” the problem is often human rather than procedural. Processes and systems matter, but thriving teams also depend on the less visible human conditions beneath them. That is the work of tending the roots.

  2. Sep 4

    Living Culture

    Learn more about our book, Roots - The Human Framework Beneath Thriving Teams at https://www.emergentculturelabs.com  In this episode, Chris Angell and Jodee Bock explore the concept of "living culture" — the idea that organizational culture is not a static system to be managed but a living, organic entity that requires attention, curiosity, and genuine human connection. They discuss why industrial-era thinking continues to suppress authentic workplace relationships and what it costs organizations in engagement, creativity, and talent retention. Drawing on real client experiences, the Barry Wehmiller story, and the nature of emergent conversations, they make the case that the best cultures grow from the inside out — not from top-down mandates. This episode is for leaders, HR professionals, and culture builders who sense something is missing but haven't yet found the language to name it.

  3. Aug 28

    All the Magic is in the People with Monica Gadda-Hendrix

    Learn more about Monica Gadda-Hendrix at https://gaddahendrixconsulting.org/  Get our book, Roots - The Human Framework Beneath Thriving Teams at https://www.emergentculturelabs.com/book    EPISODE OUTLINE: 1. What Happens When You Start Saying YesMonica shares how her consulting firm grew from a part-time practice into a 10-person company. Much of the growth came when she stopped giving opportunities away and started saying yes. 2. Organizations Need More Than AdviceLeaders often already know something isn't working. Monica's team helps them see the larger picture and, importantly, stays involved in actually implementing solutions. 3. What You Have to Do vs. What People NeedOrganizations constantly navigate the tension between compliance, funding, and bureaucracy and what their people actually need. The challenge is meeting those demands without losing the passion behind the work. 4. If You Do People Well, You Can Do Almost AnythingMonica believes strong organizations understand their people and communities rather than simply focusing on tasks. Chris and Jodee connect this to the difference between relationships and transactions. 5. The Problem Usually Isn't the Real ProblemClients often arrive asking Monica's team to solve one issue, but there is usually more happening underneath. Her team continually "zooms out and zooms in" to understand how the pieces affect each other and uncover what's really going on. 6. Are You Willing to Face the Real Problem?Finding the root problem doesn't mean an organization is ready to address it. Sometimes people stay stuck because change requires energy they simply don't feel they have. 7. Conviction Changes the Energy of the WorkChris connects this to Embodied Conviction: there is a different energy when people deeply believe their work matters. Monica sees this in her own company, where demanding work can still be energizing because people believe in what they're doing. 8. The Magic Is in the PeopleIn the debrief, Chris and Jodee connect the conversation back to Roots and the power of getting the right people connected around meaningful work. As Chris puts it, "all the magic is in the people."

  4. Aug 21

    The Fourth Turning is Here

    Learn more about our book, Roots - The Human Framework Beneath Thriving Teams at https://www.emergentculturelabs.com  Chris Angell and Jodee Bock explore Neil Howe's "The Fourth Turning Is Here" and what its historical framework of cyclical societal change means for company culture today. They unpack the four "turnings" — High, Awakening, Unraveling, and Crisis — and make the case that we are currently in a Fourth Turning, a period of institutional breakdown and low trust. The conversation connects this macro-historical lens to practical leadership decisions around trust, alignment, shared values, and building cultures that can weather change. This episode is for founders, executives, and HR leaders who want to think beyond the next quarter and build organizations designed to last.

  5. Aug 21

    The Things We Hide with Tyler Dickerhoof

    Learn more about our book, Roots - The Human Framework Beneath Thriving Teams at https://www.emergentculturelabs.com Learn more about Tyler Dickerhoof at https://www.tylerdickerhoof.com  In this episode, Chris Angell and Jodee Bock sit down with author and speaker Tyler Dickerhoof to explore what happens when leaders stop hiding their fears and insecurities — and what it costs when they don't. Tyler shares the deeply personal story behind his new book, "The Things We Hide", including a tragic farming accident at age 14 that shaped decades of intense, driven behavior he didn't recognize until it started damaging his relationships and teams. This conversation is essential listening for anyone in a leadership role who wants to understand how unexamined personal wounds quietly shape workplace culture — and what to do about it.

  6. Aug 21

    Welcome to Emergent Culture Labs

    Learn more about our book, Roots - The Human Framework Beneath Thriving Teams at https://www.emergentculturelabs.com In this episode Chris Angell and Jodee Bock explore what it actually takes to build a thriving organizational culture — and why most leaders are solving the wrong problem. They discuss the difference between culture by default versus culture by design, why leaders are the single biggest influence on how culture develops, and how the "five whys" of problem-solving applies to cultural dysfunction. This episode is for leaders who already believe people matter but haven't yet found a system for acting on that belief.

  • 6 Episodes

About

Emergent Culture Labs explores what actually makes teams, organizations, and communities thrive. Through conversations with leaders, thinkers, and practitioners, we look beneath strategies and systems to the human conditions that shape how people work together. From leadership and culture to trust, conversation, collaboration, and change, we explore a different way of thinking about how healthy organizations grow. Culture isn’t something you build. It’s something you tend.

Information

  • Creator
    Chris Angell & Jodee Bock
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    6
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Emergent Culture Labs
  • Show Website
    Emergent Culture Labs