Summary:

Anu Mandapati, the Global Head of Culture and Inclusion at Magic Leap, discusses how to co-create an environment and culture that empowers and engages teams. She emphasizes the importance of shared responsibility and collaboration in driving change and achieving goals. Anu highlights the need for regular conversations about team goals, ways of working, and accountability. She also explains how to navigate conflicts and foster constructive interactions within teams. Anu believes that when individuals feel valued and their voices are heard, teams can achieve higher performance and enjoy their work.

Key Takeaways:

• Co-creation of culture requires shared responsibility and collaboration from all team members.
• Regular conversations about team goals, ways of working, and accountability are essential for success.
• Constructive interactions can be fostered by focusing on team agreements and creating a safe space for dialogue.
• The journey and experience of working together as a team are as important as the outcomes.
• When individuals feel valued and their voices are heard, teams can achieve higher performance and satisfaction.

Chapters:

| [0:03:27] | Myth of individual responsibility in culture and the importance of shared responsibility |

| [0:04:54] | Co-creation of culture and goals within teams |

| [0:07:11] | Empowerment and engagement of employees through shared responsibility |

| [0:09:09] | Coaching leaders to facilitate generative conversations and create an environment of collaboration |

| [0:11:13] | Frequency of refreshing co-creation practices in teams |

| [0:17:14] | Constructive interaction and healthy dialogue in conflict resolution |

| [0:19:48] | Similarities and differences in co-creation for in-person and remote teams |

| [0:22:17] | Asking the right questions to create the desired environment |

Connect with Dr. Jim: linkedin.com/in/drjimk

Connect with CT: linkedin.com/in/cheetung

Connect with Anu Mandapathi: linkedin.com/in/anumandapati

Music Credit: winning elevation - Hot_Dope



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To discuss this topic with us today in the studio. is Anu Mandapati. Anu is the Global Head of Culture and Inclusion at Magic Leap and it's such a pleasure to have her here with us in the studio. Welcome Anu.

Anu Mandapati: Thank you. I'm so glad to be here.

CheeTung Leong: Anu, would you be able to share a little bit more about what Magic Leap does and what your role is within the organization?

Anu Mandapati: Absolutely. So Magic Leap is an augmented reality technology company, and so we're really focused on immersive experiences and really pushing things to the next level, for example, in health care. We have a product called the ML2. It's a Magic Leap 2, and it is a device that you were able to use in conjunction with specific software.

And so it's used in a variety of organizations. And that's just one example. So my remit, what I focus on it magically is I'm the global head of culture and inclusion. So really making sure that we are creating a culture where people feel valued, celebrated, appreciated, that they're able to have the employee experience that they need and that they desire to really be able to have this be, one, one amazing experience and part of their entire career journey.

So we focus on the employee experience as far as the culture aspect of it and also the inclusion experience. So what are we doing to really make sure that we are focusing on equity on inclusion on belonging as well as diversity.

Anu Mandapati: As soon as I started within the first few months I've been at magic leap for a year and a half and one of the things that I did is to Make sure that we did a listening tour for the first three months to really understand the state of diversity equity inclusion and belonging And we created our first ever global deiv strategy A maturity model to really look at where is the organization?

Where do we want to be? specific steps to move us forward. And then we actually released internally our transparency report. So that was a big deal in our organization for where our, the maturity of the organization is.

CheeTung Leong: It's awesome. And for you personally, what is one moonshot goal that you have for the next 12 months?

Especially cause I'm in an augmented reality tech company, taking that and then, partnering that with learning, I think that the future is limitless and so that is my moonshot goal.

CheeTung Leong: I think simulators for all kinds of learning and being able to immerse yourself in the simulator environment and learn from that is, is so powerful. What is one leadership or HR myth that you wish would go away?

Anu Mandapati: When it comes to culture, when it comes to anything within an organization, I think people feel like they have to go at it alone and they don't. It is a partnership and we're all in this together. And when we are in this together, this is how we're able to actually drive change faster and in a more sustainable way.

But really every single one on the team, so talk through with me a little bit of that perspective and that approach that you've taken to this area.

Anu Mandapati: Whenever I think about any goal any way that we want to experience culture within an organization we could be focusing on diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. We could be focusing on, the overall culture as well. Everybody has to have shared responsibility.

We have the opportunity. It's an invitation. Sometimes you hear in organizations, people talk about being a culture carrier. What that is saying is that some one person is setting the culture, or maybe it's your executive team, and then everyone else is expected to carry that culture. But instead, if we actually focus on culture co creation, or even anything that we're doing, if we do it in partnership with each other, Then everyone actually has shared responsibility.

So the co creation piece of it is knowing that what I do matters. And so what everyone around us, what they do matters. And so when we feel like our actions matter, we're more likely to be engaged and then really focus on what's that common goal. So we can come together to move that forward. And in a variety of companies, what I've seen when we embrace that kind of approach and way that we collaborate together, that's actually how we're successful in any initiatives, in any goals for organization or specific teams.

Suddenly this is on me now, like everything's on me. Have you encountered that? Like how do you initiate this conversation within an organization?

Anu Mandapati: So let's say we look at a team level at the team level, we have a conversation about, what do we want our team experience to be? What is our, what are our team goals that we want to achieve? And as we talk about that, it's not a few individuals deciding what that is. It's individuals. It's the team coming together.

So they have a say, so we're inviting them to, to speak up. I want to hear your voice. What you say matters. It doesn't mean that we agree on everything that everybody says, because obviously we have to be able to drive things forward. But if the team can come together and hold each other responsible, so we're coming up with very clear outcomes and goals of what we want to achieve.

There's a challenge on our team. So we are going to actually Figure it out together. We are going to come up with the decision and we are going to come up with the solution. And so what I see is instead of people feeling like there's more on their plate, they're actually excited. They're re energized.

They're empowered because now there's that shared responsibility and what they say, what they think their voice actually matters more. So I see it going towards the other side and it's a great way for disengaged employees to feel connected again, because. You want them to feel connected at that organizational level, but you want them to feel connected to that team level to that's where they're going to be spending more of their time is at that team level.

So day to day interactions will actually be able to impact satisfaction. Scores will be able to impact retention to, for example.

Not every opinion can be acted on and have you seen a need to, to coach and train leaders to be able to have these generative conversations with their team?

Anu Mandapati: Absolutely. And I think what it is we want to brainstorm ideas. We want to be able to ideate. It doesn't, there's no way that, if there's eight people on a team, we can't go in eight separate directions. So it's about how do we provide this environment? So in improv. There's an activity where they do where it's yes.

Downsize that to the top three or five and then let's vote on it and let's move forward together. And then what starts to happen is your individual voice is important. Our team voice is more important. And if you have that environment where you know that you are valued. It's okay. Whatever. As a team, we decide to move forward because I know that I am respected.

I am valued. I'm appreciated. So I think the team is able to coach itself, and it actually takes away. There's less that the leader actually has to do in this case, because in, if it's more of a, leader says A, B or C, and that's how we move forward. Everything stops at this person.

And so we actually, what I see I'm also a team effectiveness coach. And what I see is that this drives results. Just you get there much faster and. The way most teams work, only about 12 percent of teams describe themselves as high performing. That's a really low number. And so when we're co creating, that skyrockets.

This is a team that's actually able to execute. They get results. They are known for their results and they're having fun. They're enjoying what they're doing and being with one another. So it's, the productivity piece is happening and then the culture piece is happening too. And that's, what's actually going to drive results and impact faster.

CheeTung Leong: What you've described is very much the holy grail in both in leadership and in HR. This is the ideal, like we would love the team to do this. And I'm curious, do you find that there is a specific time in the life cycle of a team that it makes sense to do something like this? Because I'm thinking through, there are a couple of teams,

So people come and go, and that the Tuckman model of forming, storming, norming, performing doesn't always happen in. Like operational teams, because they're just there all the time. So do you find that this idea of co creation is something that needs to be refreshed every quarter, or do you feel like this is something that you can do once and guide behaviors for the whole life cycle of that team?

Anu Mandapati: I definitely think it's something that you do, more regularly. It's not a one and done because sometimes you have team members leave and new team members join, and it's also as a refresher. So where, when are we checking the status of how are we doing? When it comes to, we give project updates, are we actually taking the same amount of time to focus on team updates?

So post mortem, how, how did it go? What needs to be different next time we do this? We do it so well when it comes to projects and goals and outcomes based on, organizational business needs. This needs to be a part of that as well. So the more that we're talking about this, it has to be a regular conversation because what's out of sight is out of mind and it, we never revisited again.

And then that's actually where communication, that's where productivity, all of this stuff can be negatively impacted. And I don't think that there is a specific cadence. I think the team decides that. So is this something that if we're on an op team. Is this something that we do, every three months as a team, we come together.

CheeTung Leong: And who do you think is well placed to initiate these conversations

Anu Mandapati: I think in the very beginning, the team leader, has a conversation and then it's, as a team, let's decide. If we're having these conversations every three months, it doesn't have to be the team leader who has this conversation or who drives it, it could actually be members of the team.

Because again, we want this to be co created. It cannot land just on the shoulders of the team leader. It can get started that way. And then we all come together and decide, this is the shared responsibility again. So I think start with the team leader, but then, the team members have to continue and the team leader is a part of the team.

So this person's also a team member.

And I'm not just saying one thing in a spa day and then doing something when we get back to regular operations.

Anu Mandapati: I think it's taking a step back really. And what's. the vision for this team? What? What is it that we want to achieve? And then that's already that's typically set because you've got some business schools and outcomes. So I think it's communicating that, here's what we're working towards.

Now let's actually talk about ways of working together. So as a team, I'm going to be, bringing us all together and we're going to have a conversation about ways of working. So think about what you individually need and what do we as a team need, and then we can start discussing how we can all show up for one another in that way to make sure that we achieve our outcomes.

So I'm going to go back to the number eight. So there's eight team members. You may have. Two team members who are disconnected. So what is the team going to say about how we bring these people back together? It's not about, shame, blame, evaluation or judgment. What it is, what do we say?

And it could be something as simple as a code word. I've had teams who say this. So if we say Banana. That means not everyone's paying attention. We've got to reconnect. Maybe we all need to take a break, for five minutes, get re energized and jump right back in. And so it's a way for people to stay connected.

We are human beings. We're going to have things weighing on us from outside of work, right? Everything is interconnected and there may be things that are off. So even as a team member coming in saying, Hey, I'm having an off day. So I need a little bit of grace and space, today. Fantastic. We're here for you.

We can say one of our group agreements, one of our team agreements is that we all want to hear. Each other's voice. We all want to hear, different ideas and opinions. So we really want to invite people who haven't spoken up yet to do that. So you're not pointing fingers and singling anyone out, but you're referring back to here's the team agreement we made.

And so let's honor that and create some space. And the more teams start to practice. Practice is what's going to lead to progress. We're not looking for perfection. So the more teams start to practice this, it's going to become easier for them to do. And then we can also help hold each other accountable and support one another.

One person who's driving the, who's leading the meeting, for example,

CheeTung Leong: That's a really nuanced way of operating. And. I was just thinking through if we're referring back, for example, to team covenants, team agreements, and inviting people to come in. Do you feel like there's a very fine line that needs to be treaded between that kind of.

Mature inclusivity versus a little bit of that passive aggression, which people sometimes show at work and we're all human beings, so it just comes out maybe wrong one day. And that kind of gets people annoyed. Have you seen how leaders like manage this or how individual team members as well?

Like, how do they manage this?

So how can you engage in a conversation in a dialogue when there's completely opposing views and. And still have it be a productive environment. I think about feedback. If someone's giving constructive feedback, I could take that in a personal way where it's not about my behavior or my actions.

It's about who I am, or I can take that about, maybe in this situation, the action I took didn't really give the result that I wanted. So I think that there are individual coaching moments here. If someone's taking something really personally, if someone's being really passive, aggressive or inappropriate, and needs a little bit of a timeout and some coaching with their leader like that, that absolutely we do.

We actually are able to have healthy dialogue and the most high performing teams. They actually are able to navigate conflict very well, and it's because the more time that you're spending together and you know what those parameters are, you know what you're committed to. You actually show up a little differently.

So maybe I'm giving you a little bit of positive intent. When you may have said something and I didn't know how to take it instead of assuming. I'm going to actually ask you, can you tell me exactly like what you meant by that as opposed to making that assumption and then turning it into an unhealthy conflict?

We can have a healthy conversation around it.

Do you think that there are differences between how this this plays out for teams that are in person in an office together versus teams that are remote distributed or hybrid?

Anu Mandapati: It absolutely can and it does also does not need to be so Every team, whether it's, a hybrid version where some are remote and some are in person or if it's completely distributed teams, I've been on all of the above and I've also had very successful team conversations and relationships and we were able to execute too.

So I think it's, again, it's. When we have a meeting, so a framework of, I, I always go back to the framework of no feel and do you know if I'm in a meeting, what do we want people to know? What do we want them to feel? What do we want them to do? That helps me come into a meeting to know what it is that I'm gonna say, what it is that I, that I want to achieve.

If I want them to feel really confident, I want to make sure that, they're confident in the direction that we're heading. So I'm going to ask them what other questions might you have. I want to make sure that I address all of those objections and questions. And so you have the clarity that you need.

So I think that there's small things like that, that we can actually do. And it's really, again, checking in with people and asking them the questions that are most, that are most important that are in our head, but that we don't actually typically ask. So for example, on a lot of employee engagement surveys, we may actually see questions and not even question statements.

I'm going to ask them, how do you feel included and how do you feel excluded? And so when I'm doing that, I'm going to get just information. That's so much richer. And so I'm and then I know what actions that I need to take. So I think with any of these models, whether it's hybrid, whether it's completely in person or whether it's completely remote when we're having conversations, we want to make sure we're asking the right questions so we can create the right environment to be able to produce the results that we want.

CheeTung Leong: I like that focus very much on knowing, feeling and no feel and do. I think that, that framework actually works really well when thinking about the team dynamics and pulling everybody together. If you could summarize all of this Anyone who works in a team and how they could, build a little bit more of this co creation of culture, how would you summarize it for them?

What are we committing to? How do we hold each other accountable? And how do we support one another? And it's having these open conversations that's going to get us the results that we want. And we're not talking about just the business outcomes. We're actually talking about the employee experience, how we want to experience our workplaces, how our team, interactions to get to those results.

CheeTung Leong: Very cool. And very much that the destination the journey itself together is the destination you're journeying together as a team, but at the same time, while the outcomes are important. That experience is in itself valuable and we need to think that way. This is such a great conversation.

If people wanted to find you to continue this conversation, what's the best way for them to do

Anu Mandapati: yeah. LinkedIn is the best place to reach out to me and I'm more than happy to connect.

Thank you so much for being with us today, everyone. And my name has been CT. I hope you enjoyed this. Thanks for listening.