In this episode of Sparks by Ignium Phil Rose talks to Laura Gallaher about organisational psychology and its role in understanding and predicting behaviour in the workplace. They discuss the challenges of predicting behaviour in complex adaptive systems and the importance of leaders being open to introspection and self-awareness. They also talk about the Columbia shuttle accident and its impact on organisational culture at NASA, and the changes that were made to address these issues and enable the organisation to launch the next shuttle safely.

The episode explores the importance of understanding specific behaviours in organisational culture and the difficulty of getting clients to articulate them. They emphasized the need for a continued presence to ensure sustainable change and the importance of having a common purpose to inspire people to buy in. They also talked about the significance of storytelling and preserving history in organisations and society.

The episode also covers the concept of effective culture in organisations and how it can be achieved through the missing links culture model. They discussed the critical role of unity and communication in organisational change, and the importance of leaders staying humble, being vulnerable, and being open to feedback. 

1.    Understanding and Predicting Behaviour in Organisations

Phil Rose and Laura Gallaher explore the concept of organisational psychology and its focus on understanding, explaining, and predicting behaviour in the workplace. They discuss the challenges of predicting behaviour in complex adaptive systems and the importance of leaders being open to introspection and self-awareness.

2.    The Columbia Shuttle Accident and Organisational Culture

Laura and Phil discuss the Columbia shuttle accident and its impact on organisational culture at NASA. They explain that the accident was caused by a psychology problem within the organisation, rather than an engineering problem. They also discuss how Dr Philip Mead led the culture change initiative at Kennedy Space Center following the accident.

3.    Analysis of Organisational and Team Dynamics at NASA

They discuss the intrapersonal fears that prevented engineers from speaking up about concerns regarding the Challenger disaster. They also discuss the impact of hierarchy and retribution on psychological safety and the importance of changing organisational design and leader behaviours to create a more open environment.

* Organisational culture and its impact on behaviour

4.    Importance of Specific Behaviours in Organisational Culture

The importance of understanding specific behaviours in organisational culture and the difficulty of getting clients to articulate them. They also discuss the need for a continued presence to ensure sustainable change and the importance of having a common purpose to inspire people to buy in. The speakers also touch on the issue of safety in mission-critical businesses and the importance of keeping safety as the number one priority.

* The role of storytelling in preserving and shaping culture

5.    The Importance of Storytelling and Preserving History

Laura and Phil share their personal experiences of visiting the 9-11 memorial and how it brought the story alive for them. They discuss the importance of experiencing the story multiple times to truly understand and reflect on it. They also highlight the risk of the story degrading if it's not told the right way or passed down through Chinese whispers.

6.    The Importance of Effective Culture in Organisations

The speakers delve into the missing links culture model and how it can help organisations achieve effective culture traits such as maturity, diversity, community, and unity. They discuss the importance of self-acceptance, self-awareness, and self-accountability in achieving maturity, and how diversity of thought and respect for differences are key to achieving diversity in an organisation.

* The importance of self-acceptance, self-awareness, and self-accountability

7.    Unity and Communication in Organisational Change

The importance of unity and communication in organisational change, highlighting the need for leaders to set context and give people space and time to process information. They also emphasize the importance of emotional connection and humanness in building engagement and unity, and the need for leaders to stay humble, be vulnerable, and be open to feedback.

* Organisational change

Discussion on the role of communication in building unity in society

The role of communication in building unity in society and how the Gallaher Edge model can play a role in this.

* How can organizations create a culture that promotes psychological safety?

* How can leaders create psychological safety within their teams?

* How can leaders foster diversity of thought and ensure inclusion and respect?

* What role does self-acceptance, self-awareness, and self-accountability play in creating a positive culture?

* What does unity mean in this model?

* What are the signs of defensiveness and how can we recover from it?

Dr Laura Gallaher is an Organizational Psychologist, Keynote Speaker, USA Today Bestselling Author and Leadership Coach. She began her career at NASA Kennedy Space Center. After the Space Shuttle Columbia exploded upon re-entry in 2003, killing everybody aboard, Kennedy Space Center hired Laura and a team of organizational psychologists to change the cultural influences that were deemed to play a role in the tragedy. She worked for 8 years with NASA to positively influence culture, develop leadership capacity, and improve organizational performance at Kennedy Space Center.

 

She was also hired to help manage the change associated with radical changes in the performance management process and philosophy at Walt Disney Parks & Resorts. Laura’s company, Gallaher Edge, applies the science of human behaviour to organizations so they can get their edge, achieve together, and enjoy the journey. She helps executive teams have conversations they didn’t even know they needed to have. Organizations are just people. Gallaher Edge helps executives learn what it takes to be more profitable by truly putting people first.

 

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Listen to the show: https://sparksbyignium.transistor.fm/episodes

Connect with our guest, Laura:  https://lauragallaher.com/ or https://www.gallaheredge.com

Learn more about Scaling Up: https://scalingup.com/

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Connect on LinkedIn Phil Rose https://www.linkedin.com/in/coachphilrose/

 

Purpose, pressure, Organisational change, psychology, culture, diversity, humanness, NASA, leadership