What’s the secret sauce to building a culture that sticks?

According to Amy Bayer, Global Director of DE&I, Employee Engagement & Culture, at Duck Creek Technologies, it’s not some magic bullet—it’s your people.

In this episode, recorded live at CultureCon 2024, Amy sits down with Nikki to talk about how Duck Creek has created a people-first culture that thrives in a fully remote world.

Spoiler alert: it’s not about big budgets or fancy tools. It’s about empowering employees to own culture—every single one of them.

Additional Resources:

Connect with Amy Bayer on LinkedIn
Connect with Nikki on LinkedIn
Follow PeopleForward Network on LinkedIn
Learn more about PeopleForward Network

Key Takeaways:

• Everyone Owns Culture: Culture isn’t just driven by HR or leadership—it thrives when everyone has a role and feels empowered to contribute.
• Flexible First Approach: Duck Creek’s ‘flexible first’ policy prioritizes trust and allows employees to work in ways that best suit their lives, which fosters engagement and balance.
• Programs Without Big Budgets: Building an engaged culture doesn’t require massive resources. Start small, stay intentional, and leverage the creativity of your team.

Leadership is more than a title—it’s about influence.

In this episode, Nikki speaks with Jess Goldberg, a leadership coach, Emmy Award winner, and lecturer at Columbia University, whose mission is to help leaders communicate with influence.

Jess shares her journey from journalism to leadership training and introduces her groundbreaking concept: the eight archetypes of influence.

Need a roadmap to effectively communicate with and inspire your team? Tune in for a deep dive into how communication shapes leadership and the power of influence in transforming teams and organizations.

Additional Resources:
Download 8 Archetypes of Influence
Get Jess' Top 5 Leadership Frameworks
Connect with Jess Goldberg
Connect with Nikki on LinkedIn
Follow PeopleForward Network on LinkedIn
Learn more about PeopleForward Network

Key Takeaways:

• Influence Requires Investment: Leadership influence is built over time, requiring consistent effort in building relationships, both up and down the chain of command.
• The 8 Archetypes of Influence: Jess developed these archetypes after years of observing leaders at top companies. These are not personality types but essential tools that leaders must employ in different situations.

Is traditional employment... dead? Bold claim, right? But that's exactly what our guest, Josh Drean, is here to unpack.

Josh isn’t just tossing around buzzwords—he’s a talent management and people analytics expert who’s been deep in the trenches of workforce innovation. He’s also the co-founder of Work3 Institute, where he’s actively rethinking how we work, why we work, and (most importantly) how we should work in this new digital-first world.

In this episode, we dive into what "non-traditional work" really looks like—spoiler: it's way beyond remote work and freelancing.

Together, we explore why today’s workforce is demanding more flexibility, autonomy, and purpose—and what leaders need to do right now to attract the next generation of talent (hint: it’s not just about offering snacks in the breakroom).

Additional Resources:

Josh Drean on LinkedIn
Work3 Institute
Connect with Nikki on LinkedIn
Follow PeopleForward Network on LinkedIn
Learn more about PeopleForward Network