MiniCultureCon 2019: Milwaukee Culture Conference Recap

On Thursday, October 24th, 2019, more than 60 #CultureGeeks gathered at Good City Brewing to experience MiniCultureCon Milwaukee 2019. Attendees represented organizations across wide ranging industries, and although titles were diverse, each attendee came with the intention to make connections, grow perspective and become more positive culture change agents at work.

MiniCultureCon Milwaukee 2019 attendees represented forward thinking organizations from across Wisconsin and beyond. Attendees received inspiration from four “MiniKeynote” speakers, each with their own unique backgrounds and subject matter expertise including, but not limited to, mindfulness, employee engagement, DE&I, emotional intelligence and change management.

MiniCultureCon Milwaukee 2019 Speakers:

• Jennifer Pulvermacher, Senior Advisor at FarWell
• Kristin Strunk, Organizational Development Manager at Harley Davidson
• Michelle Spehr, Health and Wellness Consultant at BSG | HJG
• Beth Ridley, Owner at The Brimful Life

From left to right: Nick Lombardino, Kristin Strunk, Jennifer Pulvermacher, Nate Bossow, Michelle Spehr, Beth Ridley, Zach Blumenfeld

MiniCultureCon Milwaukee 2019 Key Takeaways

After taking time to reflect on MiniCultureCon Milwaukee 2019, we’ve captured some key takeaways from our speakers and attendees:

Pause for Space: Snow Globe Effect

In Jennifer Pulvermacher’s presentation, “The Power of a Pause: Cultivating Agility Through Mindfulness,” she compared the human brain to a snow globe. Our minds are often filled with random, distracting thoughts that are competing with one another to hijack our attention. More often than not, we’re aren’t aware of this hijacking, and we fall into an unhealthy cycle of negative thought energy – worrying about things in the future or fixating on things that have already happened. This “snow globe effect” dramatically reduces our ability to be creative, make decisions and build healthy relationships.

Using regular mindfulness best-practices, we can become more resilient humans with increased capacity for awareness, concentration and creativity.

The Value of Micro-Cultures

In Kristin Strunk’s presentation, “Micro-Cultures: The Benefit of Starting Small,” she highlighted how prevalent micro-cultures are inside organizations and how, if setup correctly, they can provide incredible value. By definition, a micro-culture is a subculture created to align the visions, goals and strategies of the members of a department or group.

The subculture should always align with the organization’s values, but it can also take on its own unique personality.

To create healthy subcultures, it’s important to work within one’s group to reflect on current-state behaviors and systems, and then model ideal future state. Exercises to help with this process include “Start/Stop/Continue,” “Best Team Reflection,” and “Worst Team Reflection.”

Find Your WHY

Michelle Spehr presented “Find Your WHY: Creating Cultural Alignment Around a Shared Purpose,” in which she explained that teams that are aligned behind something that made them feel proud of their work strongly contributed to a positive organizational culture. She highlighted that projects that involved caring for each other, going the extra mile for customers, supporting the community, and servant leadership are examples of projects that can lead to a shared sense of purpose.

Develop your own WHY statement to help them find purpose in your work.

Authentic D&I Takes Courage

In Beth Ridley’s presentation, “Level Up Your Cultural Competency: Tips to Go from D&I Cheerleader to Change Agent,” she discussed how hard it is to go from talking about Diversity and Inclusion to living it. During her “real talk,” she shared her personal experience breaking down barriers with someone through real, honest conversation and a concerted effort to include this person in her life outside of what workplace D&I initiatives directed.

Really getting to know someone is the only way to overcome our biases and to start building real relationships based on trust and friendship.

Thanks CultureCon!

FarWell is honored to sponsor this event put on by CultureCon. FarWell supports the mission of CultureCon to connect humans to inspire positive change around organizational culture.

From left to right: Regan Burnham, Milena Mandic, Nate Bossow, Mike Maniaci, Steve McQuin, Jennifer Pulvermacher and Nick Lombardino

For more inspiring and empowering topics related to organizational culture, become a #CultureGeek and join us at our next event in Madison! Get Tickets to Madison Culture Con 2020. Tickets go fast, get them here before they’re gone.

Written by Mike Maniaci and Nick Lombardino.