Welcome to Difficult Conversations with Dr. Anthony Orsini. My special guest today is Siobhán McHale, one of the world’s leading experts in culture change in the workplace. Over the past 30 years, she has helped thousands of leaders create more agile and productive workplaces through positive culture change. She is most well-known for steering the radical seven-year culture change project at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) and transforming the organization from the lowest performing bank in Australia into one of the highest performing and most globally admired banks in the world. Her work at ANZ was so incredible, that Professor John Kotter used it as a case study at Harvard Business School. These insider roles have given Siobhán a different perspective on culture change, compared to the views of academics, consultants, and journalists, who are mainly writing on the topic of transformation. The insights she has gained have allowed her to develop a groundbreaking approach to bringing about real and lasting change described in her book, The Insider’s Guide to Culture Change, which has been described by culture pioneer, Carolyn Taylor, as “The most groundbreaking thinking on how to change workplace culture that I’ve seen in many years.”
We start off by learning about Siobhán's journey. and why she defines culture as “how things work around here,” She tells us how she took ANZ from worst to best. Siobhán explains that culture is co-created, and how important communication is at every level. She takes us through the four steps to positive culture change that she describes in her book and explains what she means by “culture disruptor” As Siobhán said in her book, “Culture change is the hardest work you will ever do,. She explains why it’s so hard and why emotional intelligence and the power of roles are essential to positive culture. We end with Siobhán telling us the most difficult type of conversations she’s had in her life and she gives advice on how to navigates through them,. Dr. Orsini shares an old joke about conflict resolution If you enjoyed his podcast, please hit the subscribe button to find out more about what we do and how we teach communication. Go ahead and download this episode now!
Host:
Dr. Anthony Orsini
Guest:
Siobhán McHale
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