An Aligned People and Culture Strategy

February 4, 2020
By Sal Silvester

In this episode of Sal Silvester on the Future of Leadership, Sal talks with Courtney Graham, a strategic human resource management leader and the Chief People Officer at Four Winds Interactive. She talks about how she and her fellow members at Four Winds created an aligned and people-first culture. Courtney also shares experiences about her time at ReadyTalk and shares strategies for driving employee retention, internal communication and trust in the workplace. Courtney gives examples of the top trends in workplace culture and how to create a workplace that aligns culture and business growth.

In this episode:
2:20 – Sal introduces Courtney Graham, Human Resource strategist of Four Winds Interactive.
4:35 – Courtney talks about trends in the workplace, leaders in the workplace and building talent.
5:58 – Courtney shares strategies on retaining top employees and her experiences at ReadyTalk, one of the top places to work in Denver.
7:21 – Being intentional of what you are trying to create, aligning workplace culture and business growth.
8:00– Intentional alignment with growth strategy and the 3 pillars Courtney uses at Four Winds.
9:42 – Creating a listening tour for 400 employees using focus groups.
11:46 – Courtney discusses how she creates transparency through understanding how people give and receive information and how storytelling can create vulnerability.
13:44 – How people are communicating in the workplace, and consistently keeping up with the trends.
16:19 – Sal and Courtney discuss how gamification has engaged and connected employees to each other within the workplace.
20:38 – Courtney talks about engagement tools and her experience using employee net promoter scores.
25:15 – Her talent philosophy is an employee being responsible for their career, and the employer is responsible for creating a place for the employees to grow and learn.
28:36 – The timing of the planning process and how to create measurable outcomes.
29:38 – Courtney talks about how she creates on-going conversation with the measurable outcomes and goals.
33:30 – She discusses what is changing as she uses artificial intelligence and how Four Winds is using Text Recruit to build relationships.