The cavnessHR Culture podcast – Episode Zero

Daniella: Hi, I'm Daniella Young the host of the cavnessHR Culture Podcast where we discuss everything to do with corporate culture, leadership and organizational behavior. On here you'll hear it all. The good, the great, the bad and the ugly because I'm going to interview a huge variety of guests from literally every different field. One of the things that I'll be asking many of my guests, is how their life experiences have influenced their world views. Their leadership, how they built their companies or their careers et cetera. For episode zero, let me tell you about my own.

Daniella: I was born and grew up in a religious cult. Yes, seriously. Like communes, weird sex practices and the apocalypse always on the horizon according to our prophets. It does sound like it's from a movie, but it was real. I was actually a third generation member which means that my mom was born there. Pretty much all of my relatives were involved as well. The cult was called, The Children of God, and it was this group that started harmlessly in the 60s, in the United States. It was all about hippies searching and then finding a place of love, of Jesus, of community. Many of them grouped around this dynamic leader, a topic we will talk a lot about on this podcast. His name was David Berg. This group lasted more than four decades and became more and more extreme because Berg and his followers started to drink their own Kool-Aid.

Daniella: Eventually, Berg's teachings would include religious prostitution, pedophilia and abuse of children. Along with living in completely isolated communities around the entire world while preparing for the Apocalypse. Of course, when I was growing up, I didn't even realize how crazy it was, because that was the only thing I knew. Another thing we'll talk about a lot in this podcast is, socialization and why we think the way we do and why our cultures are the way they are. We're also going to talk a lot about groupthink in future episodes and that's what I was dealing with and that's what many of us deal with in the workplace if we're not careful.

Daniella: I ended up escaping, getting away from that life when I was 15 and coming to the US. I was able to put myself through high school and college and I eventually became an officer in the US Army. Which to some folks is a whole other kind of cult. In fact, throughout my six-year career, people would always say, "Wait. So, you left one cult and then you joined another cult? That's crazy." Everyone would laugh. But later I started to realize some interesting similarities and some key differences. Which I am sure is something you'll hear more about if you stay tuned.

Daniella: During my time at the military, I had some really interesting and awesome experiences. Including when I participated as one of the first women in the Army engagement teams. Which was when the Army first started putting women into deliberate ground combat alongside the men. It was a very interesting and necessary move and in many ways, it helped us change the culture of the entire US military. Two years later, the first woman graduated from Ranger School and four years later, all combat roles were open to women. We also learned a whole bunch of things about diversity, about inclusion and about how really truly when leaders embrace different points of view, it lowers their risk and it increases their profit or the success of the operation. That's really important when you're on the ground and people are trying to blow you up. It's also really, really important in business.

Daniella: When I was an Army Captain and back in Afghanistan the second time. I Shared my life story with my leader and you will hopefully hear from him as one of my guests because he's a phenomenal reader. He thought about my story, and then he asked me, "Daniella, do you know what kind of insights you must have into leadership and group culture that nobody else does." Honestly, at the time, my answer was, "No." Since then, I've realized a lot of things, including the fact that he was right. I have really spent my entire life studying culture and leadership. From a very close up and personal view. I just didn't always realize it. I have 31 years of experience in strong, institutional organizations that inspire and motivate their people sometimes in totally crazy ways, but by appealing to human nature.

Daniella: I've seen so many things. Now I'm a culture strategy coach who helps business leaders who want to create an intentional, strong growth culture in their organization, but need a little bit of help. Because in reality, we can't all be an expert at everything. I help them to apply some basic military principles of how you get from point A to point B. Which is the end goal of that strong growth culture and I help them implement tools and tactics to use. As well as checkpoints along the way, to make sure that they're not getting off track. I have one saying that some people love and some people hate, but nobody can deny. You can't spell culture without cult. My experience has taught me that there's one way to build strong teams and to craft a culture. There's one way because it's based on human nature. It doesn't vary that much. There's good and bad, but they're both sides of the same coin.

Daniella: We learn so much from everything that we go through in life. What does really vary, when you're talking about organizational behavior, when you're talking about culture is what values are we applying? What kind of leaders are we bringing in? How are we embracing diversity of mind and life experience that we surround ourselves with and so many other things? That's what is going to determine if the organization that you, an awesome leader is building, is going to be great or horrifying. These days I'm so in love with culture and leadership that I'll be interviewing others on this very topic and sharing what I learn with all of you. It will be short, snappy and very, very interesting. Some suggestions from our guests you're going to agree with, some you're going to hate. But the beauty of being a business owner is that you get to drive the train. So for now, come along with us for a ride on the cavnessHR Culture Podcast.

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The cavnessHR Culture podcast – Episode Zero

Hosted by Daniella Young

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