Cadence Culture Dialogue is a series where we have conversations on how we can be culture builders in our workplaces.

To be culture builders, there are skill sets that we need to strengthen. For example, the ability to communicate what organisational culture is and its value to people and business growth, the ability to create psychological safety, and to have quality conversations.

We invite you on this journey with us.

18 Feb
Quality Conversations, Cadence Culture Dialogue, Culture Building

Cadence Culture Dialogue Ep. 4: The Power of Quality Conversations

Welcome to the Cadence Culture Dialogue.

It's a dialogue on how we can be culture builders in our workplaces.

 

To be culture builders, there are skill sets that we need to strengthen. For example, the ability to communicate what organisational culture is and its value to people and business growth, the ability to create psychological safety, and to have quality conversations.

We invite you on this journey with us.

CADENCE CULTURE DIOLOGUE - EPISODE 4

The Power of Conversations

The way we talk shapes relationships and outcomes. The way we talk influences how others experience us and reflects on our brand and reputation.

Eddie Eng, Co-Founder

Transcript

Calvin: Welcome to the Cadence Culture Dialogue. It's a dialogue about how we can be culture builders in our workplaces. The previous dialogue was about organisational culture, so if you've missed it, check it out.

Click here to view the previous episode.

Eddie: Today's dialogue is about the quality of conversations at work. Please share with us your perspectives, questions, and comments.

 

Calvin: Let me begin with a question. Eddie, what is your view on improving the quality of conversations at work?

Eddie: Everything is influenced by the quality of conversations at work. According to research conducted by U.S. firm Gartner, poor communication is responsible for 70% of corporate errors. On the other hand, quality conversations that lead to well-connected teams can increase productivity by 20-25%, based on a McKinsey report.

Calvin: Wow, indeed. Our ability to have quality conversations at work is a powerful catalyst for achieving good work results.

Eddie: The way we talk shapes relationships and outcomes. The way we talk influences how others experience us and reflects on our brand and reputation. Calvin, how do we improve the quality of conversations?

Calvin: The quality of conversations is closely linked to how we talk. We don't lack the ability to talk, but what we do lack is the awareness of how we talk and the capability to do it better. Did you know that most of our talk is habitual and fixed? We don't even think about how we talk—we just talk.

Imagine if we could shift our talk from being unconscious to conscious, from being fixed to fluid. You could then adapt your conversational prowess to different situations and personalities. You could target your talk to be more effective and strategic. That way, you can foster more predictable and positive results in your conversations—both at work and in life.

Eddie: Amazing things can happen when the quality of conversations is great. I love this quote from Kevin Eyre, the creator and founder of SoundWave. SoundWave is a powerful tool that measures the nine voices in each of us. What are the nine voices, Calvin?

Calvin: Bro, you're testing me here. The nine voices are divided across three verbal styles: Ask, Suggest, and Tell.

The Ask Voices are Inquire, Probe, and Diagnose.

The Suggest Voices are Articulate, Advise, and Advocate. The three A’s.

The Tell Voices are Critique, Correct, and Challenge — the three C's.

Now, some of us intuitively have a sense of what these voices are, but only through a SoundWave learning journey will we get a deeper understanding of these nine voices. We also get a deeper awareness of the voices that we use. So each one of us has a Brilliant Three—our top three voices that we use most often. We also discover what are some of the voices that we run the risk of overusing, which has a negative impact, as well as the voices that we run the risk of underusing, preventing us from having a more effective outcome.

Eddie: I can think of one conversation that didn't go well. I was with a client, and you know, my top voice is the Advocate voice, and I would use my top voice to persuade my clients to take action. However, in this situation, the client wasn't too keen on my suggestion and pushed back with a long silence. Guess what voice came out of me so naturally and immediately?—Advocate voice.

Calvin: So with SoundWave, right, how did you adapt in that situation?

Eddie: Based on my natural self, when a person pushes back against my suggestion, I will Advocate with greater intensity, and the conversation will reach a standstill. With training from SoundWave, there is a greater awareness when a voice is not connecting with the other person, and to adapt by applying another voice, such as the Inquire voice, to seek to understand rather than to advocate my point of view. And you know what? It is amazing to experience how by applying a different voice, it leads to a very different outcome—greater engagement in the conversation.

Calvin, can you give us an example of how a SoundWave learning journey helped a company or a team to strengthen the quality of conversations at work?

Calvin: There was a workshop that we conducted recently. This was with an American MNC, and they were a regional sales team with about people from 10 countries around the region. So they are experts in their field of work, and many of them would leverage their experience and their expertise to Advise, Advocate, Correct, and even Challenge the people that they were engaging with, you know, that they were speaking with.

And what they realized through SoundWave was that they were underusing their Ask voices of Inquire, Probe, and Diagnose, and they were also not using one particular Suggest voice, which is called Articulate—being able to play back what they hear the other person saying.

Because of that, what happened is that all their efforts in trying to solution didn’t hit the nail on the head, because they didn’t quite understand the other party’s challenges, perspectives, and concerns, and therefore, they were not able to really resolve issues in a timely manner. They were not able to get through what they wanted to achieve.

But through SoundWave, realizing that they needed to turn on their Ask voices, after the workshop, for the next 90 days, that’s what they began to do. They began to use their Ask voices and Articulate voice, complementing their Advise, Advocate, Correct, and Challenge voices. And in so doing, they had much more effective conversations.

Eddie: I can imagine that. I'm curious to find out—what are the business outcomes that they achieved in this process?

Calvin: Through this process, over that 90 days, they were able to win new customers that they wanted to. They were able to retain some of their existing clients that were under competitive pressure, and within the organization, they were able to strengthen cross-team collaboration, plus improve performance management of their staff.

Eddie: The application of SoundWave is even more powerful when we look at helping organizations increase the quality of conversations in specific areas of need, such as developing the leadership team, culture, performance, coaching, stakeholder management, giving and receiving feedback, selling with confidence, and delivering the best customer experience.

Calvin: So Eddie, how does all this, which is related to the quality of conversations, link back to the core of what we do at Cadence Culture, which is culture building?

Eddie: The quality of a culture is defined by the quality of relationships, and the quality of relationships is defined by the quality of conversations.

Calvin: That is so true. So therefore, one way to strengthen culture is to work on the quality of conversations. Let's continue to do that—to strengthen the quality of conversations, one conversation at a time.

Eddie: Deepening the quality of conversations is at the core of what we do, and we keep working on it to get better.

Come journey with us at Friends of Cadence Culture. 

Calvin: Yes, we welcome you to join us as Friends of Cadence Culture. Do look out for the next Cadence Culture Dialogue. See you soon. Goodbye.

The quality of a culture is defined by the quality of relationships, and the quality of relationships is defined by the quality of conversations.

Eddie Eng

In Episode 3 of Cadence Culture Dialogue, Co-Founders Eddie Eng and Calvin discuss the concept of psychological safety in the workplace.
20 Nov
Psychological Safety, Cadence Culture Dialogue

Cadence Culture Dialogue Ep. 3: Psychological Safety

Welcome to the Cadence Culture dialogue.

It's a dialogue on how we can be culture builders in our workplaces.

 

To be culture builders, there are skill sets that we need to strengthen. For example, the ability to communicate what organisational culture is and its value to people and business growth, the ability to create psychological safety, and to have quality conversations.

We invite you on this journey with us.

CADENCE CULTURE DIOLOGUE - EPISODE 3

Psychological Safety

Teams with strong psychological safety are learning organisations where there’s significant business and people growth, innovation at all levels, strong teamwork, and the ability to attract top talent.

Calvin Yeo, Co-Founder

Transcript

Calvin: Welcome to the Cadence Culture Dialogue. This is a dialogue about how we can be culture builders in our workplaces. The previous dialogue was about the quality of conversations, so do check it out if you missed it.

Eddie: Today’s dialogue is about psychological safety. Please share your questions, perspectives, and comments with us.

Calvin: Eddie, let me begin with a question. Everyone is familiar with physical safety at work, but what is psychological safety?

Eddie: Quick story: In 2012, Google started Project Aristotle to uncover what makes a team effective. They spent two years studying 180 teams. After two years, they revealed five key factors that make a team effective, and the underpinning factor—the most important one—is psychological safety.

Calvin: That’s when the whole corporate world started paying attention to psychological safety, and everyone began trying to figure out what it means. So, Eddie, define psychological safety for us.

Eddie: Here, I’d reference Dr Amy Edmondson, a Harvard professor credited with coining the term psychological safety. Psychological safety is the experience of feeling safe to take interpersonal risks with others. This includes expressing ideas, asking questions, seeking help, sharing diverse views, admitting mistakes, and holding each other accountable.

It’s not just about taking risks with one or two colleagues we have strong, trusting relationships with—it’s about creating a psychologically safe environment where people generally feel secure enough to be open and candid with one another.

Calvin: Wow. I’m a big fan of Dr Amy Edmondson’s work. Over the last two decades, she has curated and showcased many examples of different teams and organisations—those with weak psychological safety and those with strong psychological safety—and the difference is like night and day.

Teams with strong psychological safety are learning organisations where there’s significant business and people growth, innovation at all levels, strong teamwork, and the ability to attract top talent. On the other hand, organisations with weak psychological safety have declined or even ceased to exist.

Eddie: Calvin, can you share with us a business example?

Calvin: Well, I’ve spent 17 years in the telecoms business, so let me share a telecoms example. Many of us may have owned a Nokia phone in the past, or at least heard of them. Their decline and disappearance was largely due to a fearful and emotional climate within the organisation, where employees were too afraid to speak up about the threats posed by Apple and Google in smartphone development.

When Apple and Google launched their smart devices, Nokia suffered a massive market share loss, losing more than 2 billion euros. This ultimately led them, in 2013, to sell their devices and services platform to Microsoft.

Eddie: From being the number one market leader to selling their business—yeah, that’s a huge fall.

Calvin: Eddie, based on your experience, what do you think is preventing leaders from creating psychological safety at work?

Eddie: You know, nobody intentionally sets out to erode psychological safety. However, the reality is that our intentions often don’t align with our behaviours, and we’re not always aware of it. I’ve fallen into this trap in the past. As a passionate and experienced consultant, I’m quick to provide solutions in any discussion, and I often communicate in a passionate tone. What I didn’t realise was that my behaviour was being perceived as strong and not open to others’ ideas.

Thankfully, one of my trusted colleagues gave me feedback that raised my awareness and gave me the opportunity to adjust my behaviour. This made me 

realise that the first step in building psychological safety is becoming aware of how others perceive our actions.

Calvin: Great, thank you for sharing that, Eddie. How do you think we can gain greater awareness, particularly in relation to psychological safety?

Eddie: One way is to create a feedback cadence with colleagues—regularly seeking feedback about how they feel and think regarding the way we approach things. For example, asking, “How do you feel about the way I communicated in the meeting?” or “How do you feel about my contributions to this discussion?”

When we actively invite feedback, show genuine interest in hearing others’ input, and respond positively and with gratitude, people start to see how open we are. This helps them feel safe enough to speak their minds.

Calvin: Wow, that’s a great point. Feedback cadence—I think that’s something we all need. I also remember working with clients who benefited from a Fearless Organization Scan. This tool, based on Dr Amy Edmondson’s research, combines survey results with a facilitated conversation. Teams can use it to identify areas for improvement and work together to strengthen psychological safety.

When we actively invite feedback, show genuine interest in hearing others’ input, and respond positively and with gratitude, people start to see how open we are. This helps them feel safe enough to speak their minds.

Eddie Eng, Co-Founder

Eddie: Calvin, what are the common pitfalls you’ve observed when leaders try to build psychological safety at work?

Calvin: Well, one pitfall I’ve personally encountered is waiting for psychological safety to be perfect before speaking up—expecting to feel completely safe before saying anything. Sometimes, it even led to blaming others for the lack of psychological safety when I or we failed to take responsibility for speaking up and taking action.

To avoid this pitfall, it’s important to complement the building of psychological safety with the courage to speak up. This has been a growth area for me personally. I’ve had to take responsibility to voice my thoughts even when I didn’t feel entirely safe. To do this, I reminded myself of the importance of why I was speaking up—what I was speaking up for—and how that purpose outweighed the perceived risks.

At the same time, I’ve learned to understand that rejection or disagreement from others when I speak up doesn’t diminish who I am as a person. It’s about being secure in my identity.

Eddie: Wow, I think it’s so important to be secure in our identity. That’s absolutely right. Fostering a culture of psychological safety is key to unlocking the full potential of a team. We’re continuing to gather best practices for leaders to cultivate psychological safety at work, and we’d love to share them with you. Come and journey with us as friends of Cadence Culture—click the link below to find out more.

Calvin: Yes, we’d love for you to join us as friends of Cadence Culture. And do look out for our next Cadence Culture Dialogue. See you soon!

Eddie: Goodbye.

A Special Invitation

We’d like to invite you to journey with us as we launch Cadence Culture Learning Series— online and in-person bite-sized sessions on Culture and Leadership. Click here to get your complimentary access.

12 Nov
Culture Building, Cadence Culture Dialogue

Cadence Culture Dialogue Ep. 2: Organisation Culture

Welcome to the Cadence Culture dialogue.

It's a dialogue on how we can be culture builders in our workplaces.

 

To be culture builders, there are skill sets that we need to strengthen. For example, the ability to communicate what organisational culture is and its value to people and business growth, the ability to create psychological safety, and to have quality conversations.

We invite you on this journey with us.

CADENCE CULTURE DIOLOGUE - EPISODE 2

Organisation Culture

Culture shapes the thoughts, decisions, and actions of everyone in the organisation. Culture determines the rhythm of work and relationships.

Eddie Eng, Co-Founder

Transcript

Calvin: Welcome to the cadence culture dialogue. This is where we talk about how we can be culture builders in our workplaces. The previous dialogue was about the journey that we've had and the power of why. Do check it out if you missed it.

Eddie: Today's dialogue is about organisation culture. Please share with us your perspectives, questions, and comments.

Calvin: Now on to this relevant topic of culture. People may have different ideas of what culture is, so let's begin by sharing what organisation culture is and why it is important.

Eddie: Organisation culture is the way that people work and relate with one another, comprising values and beliefs, assumptions and expectations, practices, and ways of working. Hence, culture shapes the thoughts, decisions, and actions of everyone in the organisation. Culture determines the rhythm of work and relationships.

You know, I’m working on a culture transformation project with a company from the real estate sector, right? And I observed that the culture regards seniority, expertise, and work experience as the key criteria for the organisation's success. Make a guess—who are the people proposing solutions and making decisions?

Calvin: The seniors, those with experience, the leaders.

Eddie: Spot on, bro. Apart from this group of seniors, everyone else takes orders and executes without questioning. The impact of such a culture is top-down, with hardly any bottom-up feedback. Without feedback, leaders aren’t able to anticipate challenges and address them ahead of time. By the time these challenges surface, the company risks not being able to deliver on time or deliver as agreed, impacting both revenue and bottom lines—and people’s morale hits an all-time low.

Calvin: That’s why organisational culture is so critical, because culture enables business. It’s the single most important determinant of an organisation's success. Culture is not an end in itself, nor is it just for the wellbeing of people—even though that’s important—it’s also for the organisation’s achievement of its mission, vision, strategies, and goals.

Eddie: In fact, I see a rise in business leaders investing in their organisational culture. Calvin, share with us your experience on how culture impacts business strategy.

Calvin: In my previous role as the head of business development in a telecom multinational, the organisation had great products, a strong mission, vision, and business strategies. However, we were steadily losing market share to fierce competition, and employee engagement levels were dropping. What was lacking was actually a culture strategy—a way of engaging with both clients and colleagues, internally and externally, so we could work better together. I developed a culture strategy with the senior leadership team to be more people-focused rather than solely product-focused, taking a strong consultative partnering approach. This turnaround improved employee engagement scores and business results.

Eddie: Wow. Culture really can be the strategy to turn a business around. I’m curious, Calvin, about your view on organisations applying the same culture strategy to achieve success. What do you think about that?

Calvin: Well, culture needs to consider the organisation’s business, industry developments, and people. So, a cookie-cutter approach doesn’t work, because every organisation’s culture is unique in achieving its business success. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all culture that can apply to every organisation.

Eddie: I agree, because culture is also dynamic and living, needing to grow and change over time to adapt to the organisation’s evolving goals and strategy.

Calvin: This reminds me of a recent project I did with an organisation that had a bold vision of tripling its output and expanding overseas. They needed to increase their workforce, particularly in areas like AI and analytics, and had to leverage the team’s collaboration and creativity to break through to a new level of effectiveness.

Eddie: I think many organisations want to grow in these areas. So how did you help this organisation build its desired culture?

Calvin: I started by helping them to appreciate their current culture. What had made them successful so far? What aspects were core to their identity and needed to be preserved as they transformed? We celebrated their successes, competencies, and attributes that were essential to who they were. At the same time, we recognised that what got them here wouldn’t necessarily get them to where they wanted to go. With new business and tech strategies, they needed a new culture strategy to support their growth.

We used an instrument called the Organisation Culture Assessment Instrument to map out their current culture and identify the preferred culture for the future. This allowed us to develop a strategic plan to help them transition towards this new culture for greater success.

Eddie: I really like this term—“culture strategy”—it feels like a trending word! Let me summarise what you said into three parts. First, know your current culture and appreciate its strengths. Second, define your preferred or desired culture and agree on what will enable business success. And third, implement the culture strategy. Simple? Perhaps in theory—but in reality, it’s a highly complex process. We’re curious to hear from you! What works for you in building your desired culture? What challenges do you face in building it? Share with us in the comments box.

Calvin: Yes, and do look out for the next Cadence Culture Dialogue. Our next session will cover the important topic of psychological safety.

Eddie: Let’s continue to make a difference in our culture. Thank you for joining us.

Calvin: Goodbye, and see you at the next dialogue.

Culture is not an end in itself, nor is it just for the wellbeing of people—even though that’s important—it’s also for the organisation’s achievement of its mission, vision, strategies, and goals.

Calvin Yeo, Co-Founder

Eddie Eng and Calvin Yeo have an open conversation about the journey of starting Cadence Culture
24 Oct
Cadence Culture Dialogue, Leadership

Cadence Culture Dialogue Ep. 1: Our Journey

Welcome to the Cadence Culture dialogue.

It's a dialogue on how we can be culture builders in our workplaces.

 

To be culture builders, there are skill sets that we need to strengthen. For example, the ability to communicate what organisational culture is and its value to people and business growth, the ability to create psychological safety, and to have quality conversations.

We invite you on this journey with us.

CADENCE CULTURE DIOLOGUE - EPISODE 1

The Power of Knowing Your "Why" and How It Led To The Starting of Cadence Culture

The reality is this: work culture is a force that shapes us. We are the product of our work culture.

Eddie Eng, Co-Founder

Transcript

Calvin: Eddie, I've worked with you for more than a decade. In the last 14 years that you were with this consultancy, you built an incredible training team. You created a culture that has won Great Place to Work multiple times over, and your work is recognised by both your colleagues and your clients. What led you to start Cadence Culture with me?

Eddie: You know, I'm really grateful, right? In fact, the incredible outcome is not mine alone. Yeah, you were part of that success, and so were many of our colleagues. And come to think of it, one of the reasons is because you're my buddy, right? This is true, but there’s more. The critical factor is really about knowing my why. Because you’re right. I was really comfortable and thriving in the work that I do, and I never thought of starting a company. You think about it—why start a business in this very challenging, uncertain economy? There’s so much risk that we need to take on. And of course, why put our friendship to the test?

Calvin: Well, thankfully, our friendship has stayed intact. So I hear that it's your why that led you to this decision. Share with us, what is your why?

Eddie: My why is really to journey with a community of culture builders who believe in building work cultures where people are fulfilled and businesses flourish. This is what makes me come alive. You know, I've dedicated 18 years to people development, and I realised one critical factor that influences the effectiveness of people development: it’s the work culture. You think about it—you know, we send people for training, for example, to learn design thinking. But if our work culture values stability and there’s no real room for risk-taking, people will do the same thing again and again. It’s just a matter of how well they do it, but there's no room to try new things. When this person returns from training and tries to apply what they’ve learnt, they will face pushback. The reality is this: work culture is a force that shapes us. We are the product of our work culture. So, Calvin, what about you? What led you to start Cadence Culture with me? What is your why?

Calvin: Eddie, you know, I’m not the entrepreneur sort of guy. I've been working in multinationals for most of my career, and I never dreamt of starting anything—not especially at my age of 56. But I realised that I needed to continue stewarding my giftings and my experience in order to strengthen these twin aspects of leadership and culture so as to benefit organisations and people. In this final third of my work life, I'm recentering myself in my calling to be a courageous Peacemaker and culture strategist—to work with organisations to restore, revitalise, and strengthen relationships and culture in order to bring out the best in people and performance.

Eddie: You know, Calvin, you are surely a culture strategist. I mean, I see how you integrate your business experience, your strategy consulting, and culture consulting—how you put all three together. Wow.

Calvin: Thank you, Eddie, and it’s my why. When you invited me to start this new consultancy with you, it was really for me to live out my why.

Eddie: I love this calling—the courageous Peacemaker and culture strategist. You need to put this on your calling card! You spoke about being a culture strategist, but what about courageous Peacemaker?

Calvin: Well, in organisations, as people work together and bring the best of their ideas, there is bound to be conflict—between teams and within organisations. Peacemaking is really a process of restoring relationships through healthy conflict in order to strengthen those relationships, which then become the foundation upon which we build culture.

Eddie: Indeed. Without healthy relationships, there is no culture. I have the privilege of being in the front row, seeing you in action—how you facilitate, consult, and coach your clients to restore relationships and shape their culture to deliver their strategy.

Calvin: Thank you, Eddie. I remember one particular client, a finance leader. She said that her top management was a separate layer, and people were not talking to them—a very top-down culture. But ever since her team worked with us, she mentioned that the layer was gone. Now, people are able to interact freely with the top management. This is the type of work that really gives us meaning, and we can only do what we do because we know our why.

Eddie: Thank you, Calvin, for reminding me about the power of knowing our why. We'd love to hear from you. What is your why? Why do you do what you do? Share with us in the comments.

Calvin: Yes, share with us. And do look out for the next Cadence Culture dialogue. We’re going to talk about the power of organisational culture.

Eddie: Let's continue to make a difference in our work cultures and our workplaces. Thank you for joining us.

Calvin: Goodbye. See you at the next dialogue.

As people work together and bring the best of their ideas, there is bound to be conflict—between teams and within organisations. Peacemaking is really a process of restoring relationships through healthy conflict in order to strengthen those relationships, which then become the foundation upon which we build culture.

Calvin Yeo, Co-Founder