Mastering Workplace Culture Podcast By S. Chris Edmonds and Mark S. Babbitt cover art

Mastering Workplace Culture

Mastering Workplace Culture

By: S. Chris Edmonds and Mark S. Babbitt
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The Mastering Workplace Culture podcast examines the hard truths of workplace culture change. Proven culture leaders share unfiltered stories of breakdowns, breakthroughs, and their bold decisions. And they'll discuss the steps they took to drive sustainable, tangible change in which respect and results are modeled, monitored, and validated equally. This is practical insight for executives who cannot afford to let culture fail—and for those who are just as concerned with their leadership legacy as they are with today's results.2026 Economics Management Management & Leadership
Episodes
  • How Petco's CEO Rebuilt Values to Play to Win

    How Petco's CEO Rebuilt Values to Play to Win
    Mar 24 2026

    The newest episode of Mastering Workplace Culture features a rare, open conversation with Joel Anderson, CEO of Petco and longtime culture‑focused retail leader. From Toys "R" Us to Walmart to Five Below to Petco, Joel has spent three decades proving that culture—done intentionally—drives passion, discretionary effort, and performance at massive scale.

    Joel shares how his "People → Passion → Performance" leadership playbook began with an hourly associate's hand‑painted mural in Lubbock, Texas, and why it has guided every team he has led since. He explains why culture cannot start with metrics, how leaders get people "on the bus," and why discretionary effort—not pressure—ultimately transforms stores, teams, and the customer experience.

    He also reflects deeply on large‑scale culture transitions:

    • Walmart: Reviving local store culture and connecting hourly teams back to a mission much bigger than their daily tasks.

    • Five Below: Scaling from 361 to 1,600+ stores by formalizing values and behaviors for the first time—moving from "values through osmosis" to a structure that could grow nationwide.

    • Petco: Rewriting the company's values from scratch and shifting a legacy organization from playing not to lose to playing to win, all anchored in pet‑focused passion and human dignity.

    Joel's storytelling reveals what culture really looks like through the eyes of a CEO: Messy, human, imperfect, and deeply personal. He shares how leaders must build self‑esteem, create teams, and celebrate people—not just outcomes. And he offers practical insight for leaders at every level: Focus on strengths, understand superpowers, and build systems that help people succeed.

    This is a conversation about people, purpose, and performance—and how the right culture unlocks all three.

    ⏱️ Key Moments

    00:00–02:00 — Welcoming Joel Anderson, CEO of Petco, longtime retail leader

    02:00–04:00 — His retail journey and early culture roots

    04:00–07:30 — Walmart's culture: strengths, gaps, and the "people first" shift

    07:30–10:00 — The "People → Passion → Performance" mural story

    10:00–13:00 — Why leaders must start with people, not performance

    13:00–15:00 — Changing the conversation with store leaders

    15:00–18:00 — Mission boards, engagement, and activating passion locally

    18:00–21:00 — Why Five Below energized him and what he saw in the founders

    21:00–24:00 — Creating Wow Town: an experiential culture hub

    24:00–27:00 — Building Five Below's first-ever values + behaviors

    27:00–32:00 — Proving culture drives performance (the 2017 breakthrough)

    32:00–36:00 — Petco: playing to win vs. playing not to lose

    36:00–40:00 — Rewriting Petco's values + defining "Foster the Fun"

    40:00–45:00 — Rolling out new values and behaviors across the organization

    45:00–48:00 — The power of superpowers: focusing on strengths, not deficits

    48:00–50:00 — Gung Ho, worthwhile work, and leading with humanity

    50:00–53:00 — Life outside work: family, golf, milestones, and roots

    53:00–56:00 — Joel's advice to young culture leaders

    56:00–57:00 — Final reflections on values, gratitude, and team celebration

    We're confident Joel's leadership insights will help you see culture through a new lens. So, please:

    👍 Give this video a like to support people‑centered leadership

    🔔 Subscribe for weekly conversations with real culture builders

    💬 Comment with the culture principle you're taking back to your team

    🔗 Share this with a leader who's navigating culture change at scale

    #MasteringWorkplaceCulture #LeadershipDevelopment #OrganizationalCulture #RetailLeadership #PeopleFirstLeadership #BusinessTransformation

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    54 mins
  • Designing a Safer Workplace: Engineering Healthcare Culture

    Designing a Safer Workplace: Engineering Healthcare Culture
    Mar 17 2026
    The newest episode of Mastering Workplace Culture offers a candid, human-centered dialogue with Susan Thorn, a healthcare executive whose leadership style blends clear vision, empathy, and a firm grasp of operational needs. A former registered nurse, Susan now serves as a senior leader at Community Health System, where she oversees the welfare of over 11,500 employees. Her approach is grounded in a straightforward conviction: tThose who are most directly involved in the work possess the most critical understanding. Susan discusses her experiences, from her early work managing the COVID-19 response to her current leadership role across the system. She explains how a strong organizational culture can provide stability in a field facing burnout, staff shortages, workplace violence, and constant operational demands. Susan's stories highlight the realities of culture work in a major trauma hospital: •Long‑tenured teams disrupted by organizational transitions • Clinicians with exceptional patient skills but strained colleague relationships • Leaders need to rebuild trust by showing up physically on the units • Frontline staff eager to speak transparently—once leaders establish safety • Hiring for cultural alignment before technical skill • The "maintenance" required to sustain a healthy culture long‑term • Coaching leaders who must model respect even on hard days She also describes the ongoing balance between operational safety and human warmth—especially as workplace violence rises across the healthcare sector. Her approach blends engineering discipline with compassion: Design systems, educate teams, anticipate risks, and make workplaces both safe and humane. This conversation is a clear look at what values‑based leadership requires in an environment where pressure never fades. Susan's work demonstrates how culture becomes a form of workplace engineering—a system that protects, empowers, and sustains the people who care for others every day. ⏱️ Key Moments 00:00–00:31 — Opening MWC 00:31–02:07 — Introducing Susan Thorn and her unique background in nursing, safety, and system design 02:07–03:00 — Early connection with Chris & Mark during the COVID crisis 03:00–04:41 — Joining Community Health System: first impressions of a family‑based culture 04:41–06:00 — Early surprises, long‑tenured staff, and navigating cultural shifts 06:00–08:00 — From director to leader of 11,500 employees: "I take care of the people who take care of the people" 08:00–09:00 — The ongoing battle against burnout, staffing shortages, and workplace violence 09:00–10:34 — Why listening is the starting point for rebuilding values‑based culture 10:34–12:00 — Coaching senior leaders to model visibility, presence, and alignment 12:00–14:00 — Aligning brilliant clinical talent with values like respect and civility 14:00–16:00 — Workplace engineering: building culture like maintaining a bridge 16:00–17:00 — "Red carpet" employee experience from day one 17:00–19:00 — Why you can't "fix" culture by fixing one person 19:00–21:00 — Coaching misaligned clinicians and hiring for culture first 21:00–24:00 — Partnering with UCSF residents and creating safe learning environments 24:00–27:00 — Balancing psychological safety with physical safety amid rising violence 27:00–30:00 — The two cultures in healthcare: patient‑facing excellence vs. internal misalignment 30:00–33:00 — How psychological safety reveals the real state of culture 33:00–35:00 — The reality of subcultures—and why leaders must communicate the path forward 35:00–37:00 — Asking "What have I forgotten?" and keeping communication open 37:00–39:00 — From bedside nurse to culture shaper: expanding impact through system design 39:00–41:00 — Strategy during crisis: listening sessions, fractional improvements, and data‑driven wins 41:00–43:00 — Engineering respect into daily practices 43:00–45:00 — Why rollout fails when you forget to "take the people with you." 45:00–47:00 — Managing bad days, sustaining respect, and avoiding relational damage 47:00–49:00 — Personal wellbeing, resilience, and how Susan stays grounded 49:00–51:00 — Compersion: leading with compassion as a cultural advantage 51:00–52:00 — Closing MWC If Susan's perspective on culture, safety, and frontline‑first leadership resonated with you, help this message reach more leaders: 👍 Give this video a like to support conversations that center on real human experience 🔔 Subscribe for weekly episodes that explore culture through lived leadership 💬 Share your biggest insight about building safety—physical or psychological—in your own workplace 🔗 Send this episode to a leader in healthcare who needs encouragement and clarity right now #MasteringWorkplaceCulture #HealthcareLeadership #OrganizationalCulture #PeopleFirstLeadership #LeadershipDevelopment #...
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    52 mins
  • How Amber Jordan Transformed Culture in Rural Healthcare

    How Amber Jordan Transformed Culture in Rural Healthcare
    Mar 10 2026

    The newest episode of the Mastering Workplace Culture features an honest, compelling conversation with Amber "AJ" Jordan, CEO of Desert Sage Health Centers—a rural healthcare organization that transformed culture, strengthened leadership, and rebuilt trust across multiple sites through values‑driven alignment and measurable accountability.

    AJ shares how a single team conflict sparked her search for a stronger cultural foundation. What began with a book full of Post‑it notes led to a multi‑year journey grounded in transparency, data, and consistent leadership behavior. She describes the moment she realized she couldn't improve culture through isolated fixes—the entire organization, beginning with the executive team, needed shared expectations, clearer communication, and a common language.

    This episode takes you inside the realities of culture change in a close-knit rural setting: Young managers learning to lead, long‑standing interpersonal history, the strain of limited staffing pools, and the unique challenges of small‑town relationships. AJ explains how data‑driven insights, leadership vulnerability, Lean foundations, and repeated Executive Team Effectiveness surveys shaped a culture where respectful behavior mattered as much as performance.

    You'll hear how AJ and Desert Sage handled:

    Bringing frontline providers and clinicians into values‑based leadership

    Coaching high performers who struggled with interpersonal behavior

    Addressing skepticism from staff convinced that nothing would change

    Expanding culture work from executives → managers → staff

    Moving into a brand‑new medical building while protecting team morale

    Innovating an innovative drive‑through element to the clinic based on patient feedback

    Creating a leadership pipeline that elevated people from entry‑level roles to major responsibilities

    This is one of the clearest examples of how culture becomes a core operating system — not through slogans, but through repeated alignment, shared vulnerability, and daily accountability.

    ⏱️ Key Moments

    00:00 Bold Leaders, No Buzzwords (Opening Narration)

    00:21 Welcome + Introducing Amber "AJ" Jordan

    00:45 Who AJ Is and the Reality of Rural Healthcare

    02:07 The Post‑It Filled "Culture Engine" Book

    03:36 Team Conflict That Sparked a Culture Journey

    05:06 Why "Good" Wasn't Good Enough

    06:49 Discovering Measurable Culture Tools

    07:18 CEO Alignment + Building the Case for Culture

    08:55 Why Site Alone Can't fix Culture

    10:34 Young Managers, Small‑Town Dynamics, Healthcare Stress

    12:09 Accountability: The Long‑Standing Challenge

    13:51 The First Survey Results: A Painful Wake‑Up

    15:44 Leadership Scores All Over the Map

    17:31 Translating Clinical Strengths into Leadership Skills

    19:04 Lean Foundations: Respect + Continuous Improvement

    20:20 Skepticism, Naysayers, and Peer‑to‑Manager Transitions

    22:42 Leaders Go First: The Multi‑Year Rollout Strategy

    24:38 Beneficial Attrition + Coaching Interpersonal Outliers

    27:00 The "Green‑Green" Breakthrough Moment

    30:23 Culture as a Continuum: Progress Over Perfection

    34:23 Applying Culture During a Massive Building Move

    37:54 Innovating the Drive‑Through Clinic

    41:30 Accountability: The Hardest Cultural Value

    43:14 Leadership Development + Internal Promotions

    45:39 AJ's Advice for CEOs: Transparency + Vulnerability

    48:07 Olympic Reflections on Human Performance

    52:12 Desert Sage as a Culture Success Story

    54:26 Closing Narration + Call to Action


    Whether you're leading culture in a small organization in a small town or a large global corporation, we're sure AJ's culture story resonated. So please support more conversations that highlight real cultural transformation:

    👍 Give this video a like to elevate people‑centered leadership

    🔔 Subscribe to Mastering Workplace Culture for more in‑depth transformation stories

    💬 Comment with the insight you're taking into your own culture work

    🔗 Share this episode with a leader navigating organizational change

    #MasteringWorkplaceCulture #LeadershipDevelopment #OrganizationalCulture #PeopleFirstLeadership #HealthcareLeadership #BusinessTransformation
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    55 mins
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