It’s our 10th episode and our first guest! Dr. Kristine Gentry (cultural anthropologist and founder of Culture Grove) and co-host Monica M. Smith (intercultural leadership expert and founder of Tradewinds Career Consulting) sit down with Madhuri Kumar, a global talent executive who has led culture, change, and people strategies across Fortune 500s (GE, Halliburton), tech and health tech, nonprofits, and higher ed (UT Austin, University of Houston). With a Wharton Global CXO certification and doctoral work in leadership of change, Madhuri helps enterprises architect human-centered AI adoption that fuels growth, resilience, and innovation.

• Why this AI wave is different: GenAI is employee-led and pervasive. Policy, trust, and enablement must catch up.
• Culture as the multiplier: High-trust, resilient cultures experiment, learn fast, and adapt together.
• Leaders’ playbook for AI change: Transparent comms, clear timelines, shared language, safe experimentation, and real feedback loops.
• Resilience over fear: Treat AI as a people and trust challenge, not only a tech rollout.
• A practical model in the wild: How broad AI fluency and employee autonomy (e.g., weekly share-outs, hackathon rituals) accelerate adoption.
• Jobs & skills are shifting: Entry-level tasks are automating; upskilling and role redesign can move people into higher-value work.
• Quality & ethics: Prompt engineering, bias checks, and data validation are new must-have capabilities.
• HR tech reality check: Messy, bolt-on data stacks meet a moment where AI can finally help clean and personalize (e.g., adaptive L&D).
• ROI truth: Many orgs use AI; far fewer see returns. Culture and clarity of use-cases make the difference.

• 00:00 Welcome, milestone 🎉 & intro to our first guest
• 03:20 Madhuri’s origin story: learning the “math of change” across cultures
• 08:17 How AI differs from past transformations (employee-led, faster, broader)
• 14:00 Resilience & trust as the real adoption currency
• 17:30 Building shared language & autonomy (AI fluency programs, show-and-tell rituals)
• 28:28 Prompting as power; where humans stay superior (for now)
• 31:32 Bias, ethics, and responsible AI in people practices
• 38:37 Rituals that scale learning: demos, hackathons, open houses
• 42:12 Adoption ≠ ROI (yet): why culture bridges the gap

New episodes every other Wednesday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen. If today’s conversation sparked ideas for your team’s AI journey, connect with Kristine at Culture Grove to explore an AI-ready culture audit or leadership session. Or connect with Monica at Tradewinds Career Coaching to obtain training, guidance, and coaching for global leaders and their culturally diverse teams

Thanks for Listening!

We’d love to hear from you.

Kristine Gentry, PhD

kgentry@culturegrove.com

🌐 www.culturegrove.com

🔗 LinkedIn: Kristine McKenzie Gentry

Monica M. Smith

tradewindscareerconsulting@gmai.com

🌐 www.tradewindscareerconsulting.com

🔗 LinkedIn: Monica Mary Smith

If you enjoyed the show, please: subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who cares about building better teams.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Show description

RTO isn’t a culture strategy. It’s a seating chart. In this episode, Monica M. Smith (Tradewinds Career Consulting) and Dr. Kristine Gentry (Culture Grove) unpack why so many “back to the office for culture” mandates fall flat and what actually builds connection, trust, and performance. We explore the post-pandemic “great realignment,” the comfort vs. culture trap, and how leaders can replace visibility theater with systems that drive clarity, accountability, and belonging, wherever people work.

If you’re a CEO, CHRO, or people leader wrestling with hybrid/remote decisions, this conversation gives you a practical lens: treat culture as an operating system based on values that impact beliefs, behaviors, and structures.

Show notes & timestamps

01:10 — Why RTO now?

Real estate pressures, investor optics, and nostalgia meet employee agency and flexible norms forged during COVID.

02:30 — “Culture” vs. comfort

Leaders often conflate seeing people with leading people. Visibility ≠ value. Proximity ≠ performance.

08:55 — Performative culture in action

From shutting off Slack comments to perks as distraction—the difference between branding and behavior.

22:40 — What employees actually feel

Why authenticity beats slogans—and why perks can’t paper over weak systems.

26:45 — What’s working now

Trust, outcome clarity, conflict skills, manager coaching, reasonable workload boundaries, and belonging across locations.

33:30 — From perks to infrastructure

“Don’t smoothie-bar your way to trust.” Build processes, rituals, and decision rules people can rely on.

40:50 — RTO + the DEI rollback

Two control moves dressed in “culture” language; why uniformity undercuts belonging and results.

43:40 — The bottom line

If you lack trust, communication, and alignment, being in the same room just magnifies dysfunction.

If you build systems that reinforce values, culture spreads—regardless of location.

Key takeaways

• Policy isn’t culture. Returning bodies to buildings won’t fix misaligned beliefs, behaviors, and structures.
• Clarity beats proximity. Define outcomes and operating norms; stop using attendance as a performance proxy.
• Model > mandate. Executives must live the values; managers can’t carry what leaders won’t model.
• Build systems, not perks. Trust grows from consistent processes (decision rights, conflict norms, workload boundaries), not smoothie bars.
• Flexibility is strategy. Treat hybrid/remote as a talent and performance advantage—not a concession.
• Belonging ≠ sameness. Design for contribution across locations and life stages; uniformity erodes inclusion and innovation.

Call to action

If this sparked ideas or debate, share the episode with a colleague and bring one prompt to your next leadership meeting:

“What system, if we improved it this month, would most increase trust across our team?”

Thanks for Listening!

We’d love to hear from you.

Kristine Gentry, PhD

kgentry@culturegrove.com

🌐 www.culturegrove.com

🔗 LinkedIn: Kristine McKenzie Gentry

Monica M. Smith

tradewindscareerconsulting@gmai.com

🌐 www.tradewindscareerconsulting.com

🔗 LinkedIn: Monica Mary Smith

If you enjoyed the show, please: subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who cares about building better teams.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AI doesn’t have to be a layoff story. it can be a growth story. In this episode of Collaborative Culture, hosts Dr. Kristine McKenzie Gentry and Monica M. Smith explore what it means to lead AI adoption with your culture front and center.

They discuss how leaders can turn the AI revolution into a moment for innovation, inclusion, and trust — not fear.

You’ll learn how to:

• Build a culture-first AI strategy that aligns with your company’s values and long-term goals
• Engage employees as co-creators in AI transformation
• Avoid “spreadsheet-style” leadership that undermines innovation
• Recognize and reward the human expertise that drives technological success

Whether you’re an executive, HR leader, or entrepreneur, this episode offers a roadmap to integrating AI without losing the heart of your culture.

Episode Highlights:

• (01:31) What it means to lead with a culture-first AI strategy
• (04:45) Why innovation and culture are inseparable in the AI era
• (06:37) How leaders can anchor AI transformation in company purpose
• (09:24) Change management pitfalls — and why 70% of initiatives fail
• (15:20) Retaining talent in the age of automation
• (18:19) Lessons from Chevron’s Hess acquisition and culture’s impact on performance
• (20:22) Practical steps for leaders: assess readiness, foster dialogue, build innovation teams

Referenced Resources:

• Ranjay Gulati on Deep Purpose (Harvard Business Review Press)
• Charles O’Reilly on Innovation Culture (Stanford Graduate School of Business)
• MIT Sloan Management Review Podcast (Episode link in show notes)

Subscribe:

Follow Collaborative Culture on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen — and leave a review to help others find the show!

Thanks for Listening!

We’d love to hear from you.

Kristine Gentry, PhD

kgentry@culturegrove.com

🌐 www.culturegrove.com

🔗 LinkedIn: Kristine McKenzie Gentry

Monica M. Smith

tradewindscareerconsulting@gmai.com

🌐 www.tradewindscareerconsulting.com

🔗 LinkedIn: Monica Mary Smith

If you enjoyed the show, please: subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who cares about building better teams.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.