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Welcome to The Culture Code podcast. On this podcast, you’ll learn how to grow, shape, and sustain a high-performance culture with the CEO of LEADx, Kevin Kruse. From designing and delivering highly effective leadership development programs, to measuring and improving the employee experience, you will understand what it takes to cultivate a thriving company culture. Through interviews with Chief People Officers, deep dives into key topics, and recordings of our invite-only community sessions, we bring you cutting-edge, data-backed insights from the most desirable companies to work for in the world.
Kevin Kruse: Hello everyone. I'm Kevin Kruse. Welcome back to the Culture Code. Today, our guest is the Chief People Officer at Appearin, Addie Johnson. Addie, welcome and tell everyone where you're joining from today.
Addie Johnsen (she/her): Hi, Kevin. Thanks so much for having me. I am joining you today just north of Boston.
Kevin Kruse: On the East Coast, just north of Boston, and as I mentioned, I'm also on the East Coast, a little south of you in Philadelphia. We're going to dive deep into culture topics. But let me start by already throwing you a curveball. Just share with everyone: Are you guys fully remote? Are you hybrid? Are you in the office? Because that's obviously on a lot of Chief People Officers' minds. And I think it's so relevant to the kind of culture that Appearion has.
Addie Johnsen (she/her): Yeah, absolutely. Hybrid would describe us best, hybrid sliding towards fully remote in some of our locations. We are about 65 full-time people located around the globe, in some different countries, 10 different states in the US. So by nature of what we do, most of our work is remote anyway. So our time in the office is spent more to connect, to socialize. But most of us are 80% plus remote, if not fully remote with the organization.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: For those who might not be familiar with Aperian, how big is your organization and in plain language, what do you do?
Addie Johnsen (she/her): Sure. Well, our mission is to bridge boundaries through deeper understanding of ourselves and others, and we do that through our platform, Appearion, which is a learning platform for growing cultural competence and inclusion within and beyond the workplace. Our platform offers assessments, live instructor-led training, self-paced learning, and additional tools for individuals to develop better awareness of ourselves and others, so that teams can collaborate more inclusively. We've been around for over 30 years. And as I mentioned, we're a smaller global organization. So a lot of the challenges that our clients face, like working across time zones, cultures, and wanting to build more inclusive global spaces, we understand. We live that and need to practice and walk the talk ourselves every day. You're in Appearance.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: So let's dive in more deeply. How would you describe your company culture in just a few words?
Addie Johnsen (she/her): Mission-driven, absolutely, as you just called out, is first of mind. Tied to that is being globally minded. So, really thinking outside of ourselves and being authentic. It's always been very important to us that our insides match your outsides. We are who we say we are, really connecting not just our intent and what we do, and how we do it, but the impact of our actions as well.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: What are some of the ways you foster or sustain this culture? Any unique rituals or traditions related to your culture?
Addie Johnsen (she/her): Yeah, great question. And not too surprising, it comes back to our values and being really deeply rooted in our values, tied with our mission. Of course. We fortunately went through a really great period these past several months of taking another deeper look at our values. To your point, we do have a lot of folks here that have been here 10, 15 years, myself over 17 now. So really taking a deep look at not only who we have been, who we are now, but also who we want to be. So it's given us a really important opportunity to ensure that our values are very clear, intentional, and not just something that looks good on a website or a job description, but is really deeply embedded into all of our processes, policies, and recruitment. It really touches every portion of the employee lifecycle. So that means as a new hire, you're really connected to our values. You know what they are and what they mean to you in your day-to-day work and how they actually show up and can help you solve problems. They're in our performance management systems. It's having us take the opportunity to think about values that maybe we're really exhibiting well, and what are some that we might want to lean into a little bit more and might offer a growth edge for us. But really thinking through our values, all that we do, that is our root, that's our foundation, and our values certainly speak to the culture, again, who we are today, but also who we want to be.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: 70% of engagement is correlated to the manager, and front-line managers touch more employees than any other leadership group. What are some of the ways you develop your front-line managers?
Addie Johnsen (she/her): Well, you're right. As a smaller organization, by nature, we don't have entire departments set up to provide that formal training necessarily. However, we've been able to prioritize setting our managers up for success when they first enter that management career path. All of our managers right now at Appearion started off as individual contributors. So as they start down that management path, they already have a sense of relationship and credibility with their teams. They actually understand what their teams are doing because they've been in that role themselves. So starting them off on the right foot is really helpful. Access to our tools and training is really important. So as a provider of products and services to our clients, we're helping our clients understand how to provide feedback across cultures, for example, how to build psychological safety within a global team. So we're ensuring that our managers and internal teams have access to that same training and content. So that again, we're walking the talk. Because of our size, we do also have the advantage where we can offer one-on-one coaching with myself and other experts in the organization. We have very few intact teams. Most of our teams are remote; they're globally dispersed. So having a mentor in another culture or location that can provide really important insight to our managers about managing across cultures and working with different work styles has been really, really helpful. So most of that learning, while it's not in a formal process per se, it's on the job in real moments and real challenges that come up that they're able to learn and grow.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: Related to culture, are there any special initiatives or results you’re most proud of?
Addie Johnsen (she/her): Yes, there are probably two that have come up in the past year, in particular. One is based around our values and ensuring again that they're not just something that looks good on a website, that folks really understand what they mean and how they can be used as a tool to solve challenges that come up in the workplace. So we had our departments go through team by team, and do an indexing exercise for each of our values. For example, take a look at the value 'Stay curious and keep learning.' What does that value look like when maybe we're not living it enough? Maybe we're not asking questions, we're not taking the initiative to stay on top of trends in our industry. But also, what does it look like in excess when we're so curious that maybe we're starting to shift into shiny object syndrome and we're not focusing on what we also need to get done in our work. So really having every person in the organization understand what those values look like, over and under, and when they're done just right in our roles. So we were able to roll that out across our organization this year and are embedding that moving forward in our performance management system as well. So we're really proud of that. And the second initiative, kind of culture, two of our values are trusting each other and taking ownership. So as a management team, we wanted to try something called Refresh Fridays, where we have all of our local offices, and one PM on Friday afternoons. So allow folks to start their weekends a bit early, come back more refreshed on Monday. That was a scary thing to do. We're shortening the work week. How will that impact our productivity? How will that impact teams working across time zones? But we really had to focus on those values. Do we trust each other to get work done? And will folks be accountable for their work, and we believe that folks will. So that was an opportunity for us to really put those values into practice this year through that new initiative.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: How long have you had Refresh Fridays rolling now?
Addie Johnsen (she/her): We started them earlier in the summer. So it was an interesting experience to see how it works in the summer when folks already have some vacation planned in certain parts of the world. But we also recognize that was the busiest period for our product development team and our marketing team. So they weren't necessarily able to take advantage of it so much. Now that we're going into the last quarter, where they can take their breath a little bit, it's more challenging for our sales team and closing out end-of-the-year initiatives as well. So we're going through an iterative process with this policy, collecting feedback as we go, making sure that our intent to reward employees and allow them to feel refreshed is actually matching the impact. But we've had wonderful feedback so far. So again, we're constantly iterating and fine-tuning to be able to keep this policy in place.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: That's great, and I want to go back and underline something you said. We're not done with the interview. You talked about every team sort of doing this review and indexing across the values, and that it's not just what to do if you're under-indexing. But you can over-index. And this is for our listeners. I want to unpack that a little bit, because, and I noticed it's great that you take an assessment-driven approach. I saw on your website, it looks like your assessment, or at least a big part of it, is based on the five-factor model of personality, which is the gold standard, of course, for behavior and personality. And when you get into personality work, you realize that almost every strength can also be a weakness or a derailer if you're not aware of the potential downside. Similar to what you mentioned, someone who has a high growth mindset, high openness to experience. That's usually a good thing. You're going to be a learner. You're going to be an innovator. But if I'm constantly thinking in the clouds and researching to the point where I'm missing deadlines, or I can't make a decision, we can over-index on that as well. And I think most people just automatically think when it comes to their strengths. When it comes to certain personality traits, higher is better. You know, I want 5 out of 5. Okay, that's good. As long as you're not overdoing it, over-rotating on your swing. And I think that's really helpful for people to understand.
Addie Johnsen (she/her): Yeah. And I wanted to add on that a little bit in terms of our particular approach to work style preferences. For sure, there are personality differences that come in and can impact how we make decisions, how we see the world, what biases we may come in with, but our approach in looking at differences or different aspects of diversity as well as work style preferences. There's not one that's better or worse than the other. It's more understanding that we have different approaches. What are those differences, and what are some concrete strategies to bridge those differences, to bridge those different work styles? So you might have folks that are really engaged by taking risks, and that gets them excited, and then you have folks that are more comfortable with certainty and risk can make them more uncomfortable. There isn't one that's good or bad, for sure, anything in excess can cause trouble, but being able to understand the value that each of these workstyles can bring to the workplace, really respecting that, embracing that. That's what's going to build a workplace with more inclusion and belonging.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: Love it, love it. What book would you recommend that your colleagues read? (or podcast, video, etc.)
Addie Johnsen (she/her): Well, we do send one to everyone that we really want them to live, embrace, and dig deep into, and that is "Inclusive Leadership." It is written by our founder, Dr. Thunling, and co-written by our colleague, Dr. Cheryl Williams. It's really overwhelming to where you're at in your own journey to become more inclusive. How can I, as an individual, contribute to a workplace, and even beyond the workplace to my family, to my community, to inspire others to be more inclusive? And the book's approach is looking at it, starting with the individual. What are specific behaviors that you can change that will have a larger impact? So it makes it practical, more doable, again, at the individual stage, and seeing what large impact can start just from you, the individual. But coupled with that, I think a good partner book to that, of course, is Adam Grant's "Think Again." It's all about being flexible in thinking and taking what you think is the truth, and your preset notion of something, and going, 'Is that true? Is that right?' And that is really a critical approach to diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging. What is my perception? What biases are coming in? What can I relearn? And what can I think about differently?
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: Yeah, I love that, great recommendation. I'm curious. So, Addie, how long have you been a Chief People Officer or head of people in your career now?
Addie Johnsen (she/her): I have been in a version of this role probably about 6, 7 years, a department of one as a member of our leadership team about 7 years now.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: So let me ask you, imagine you could send a message to a younger version of yourself, a note to yourself on day one when you, you know, first took on the role. What advice would you give?
Addie Johnsen (she/her): It's so important to have good partners and good vendors, that obviously provide great products that make your life easier, you're more productive. But to seek partners and vendors that have shared values. It can be lonely in a CPO position, in any HR position. And you can develop really wonderful partnerships and mentorships with vendors by being creative through your network. Really thinking not only about the product that they're offering, but the values that they have as well. So, I have wonderful partners in place now that I'm so grateful for, and really focusing on their values as well has been something I've learned recently, the importance of as well.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: I'm certainly glad again. What excites you the most about your company right now?
Addie Johnsen (she/her): Hmm! I think my priorities are aligned also with our development roadmap too, for our platform or product. Yeah, as we look ahead to 2024, there is more conflict, there are more barriers, more boundaries everywhere in the world right now, and our mission is to break those down and to give folks the tools to bridge. So it feels very hopeful to be in a position that can help. And I internally am looking forward to using our platform more to give more ownership to individuals on their learning journey, meet them where they're at, and provide more formal education through a platform for managers or people managers. And we'll be able to do that externally, too, because it is hard as a department of one or department of 50, even to know where to start and how to really help your employees along their learning journey, especially around inclusion. So I'm excited to focus more on that internally, use more of our own products internally, and be able to reach a wider audience externally as well.
Kevin Kruse - LEADx: Yes, it sounds like you're excited. The internal external is the same. Some new functionality, even more usage. That's fantastic. Addie, I appreciate this time. Time is our most valuable asset. So I don't take it lightly. You've given me some time to share experience and wisdom and show, you know, that you can foster great culture, do amazing initiatives without that 20-person support team in place. So thanks again, Chief People Officer at Appearion, Addie Johnsen. Thank you.
Addie Johnsen (she/her): Thank you.