Humanizing the Workplace with Ryan Stelzer
Companies arechangeable, and we’re fully cognizant of the fact that there may be some organizations, like if I’m an employee at Amazon in one of their distribution centers in the warehouse, the odds of me changing the culture in Jeff Bezos’ office is probably pretty slim. But there are little actions that I can take, whether I’m working on that assembly line or I’m working up in the C-suite, to practice active inquiry, and that is this process of thinking, talking, and creating.
Intro
In this episode of The Decision Corner podcast, Brooke is joined by Ryan Stelzer, co-founder of Strategy of Mind and co-author of the upcoming book, Think, Talk, Create. Stelzer’s expertise lies in management consultancy and pulling in aspects of psychology, philosophy and cognitive science to optimize the workplace. This conversation details important topics from the book, such as the importance of humanizing the workplace again, psychological safety and the consequences of taking a numbers-only approach. It also dives into small changes that individuals can incorporate into their daily lives to promote change. Some of the topics we discuss include:
- How the over-emphasis on numbers in organizations has caused us to de-humanize the workplace
- The issues surrounding short-term value-oriented decision making
- The importance of practicing active inquiry at all levels of the company hierarchy
- The secret to financial success and how it lies in psychologically safe organizations
- How psychological safety relies on all stakeholders to work together
- How to create a healthy blend of values within an organization
- How a ledger-only approach can limit your upward mobility