Marie Gill is the community leader of the Flourishing at Work Network and the Co-founder of Florens – A Flourishing Collective. Marie also founded the Green Apron Alliance, Starbucks’ corporate alumni program. 

Florens – A Flourishing Collective helps organizations collect data to assess organizational health and well-being when it comes to employees and culture.

In this episode, Simone and Marie zoom in on the complexities of creating caring cultures in organizations. 

They identify characteristics of the leaders of the future; Talk about the role employers play when it comes to the well-being of their team members; Look at how data is a key driver for building caring cultures; And focus in on how little things help people flourish in all aspects of their lives.

Listen in to MAKE YOUR COMMUNITIES THRIVE. 

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This concludes “Insider Insights,” the second season of the Building Community Podcast.

In this episode, your host Simone reflects on five takeaways from this season.

These look at the Team4Life™ approach, which emphasizes that organizations …

… get to know people as people

… create moments that matter

… use technology to improve experiences

… don’t re-invent the wheel

… offer community for all

Listen in for more on the numerous benefits organizations can take away from actively building community for their current and former teams.

And subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you enjoy your listen – so you will be first to know when the next season airs.

Thanks for being along for the ride!

As you work to MAKE YOUR COMMUNITIES THRIVE.

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Jana Panfilio is the Co-founder and President of 6453 Alumni, an alumni-founded network of former Nike employees and former Nike-sponsored athletes. 6453 Alumni was established to connect its members, offer personal and professional enrichment, and expand member impact on the world.

Jana focuses on creating a vital, diverse, and inclusive global network and community. She is a Marketer, a Creator, a Collaborator, and a Champion for Human Potential.

In this episode, Jana shares what it takes to start an alumni network without the formal backing of an organization. And she lets us in on some of the roadblocks they have overcome along the way.

Listen in to MAKE YOUR COMMUNITIES THRIVE.

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Gaurabh Mathure is the Co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Tydy, an all-in-one platform that delivers tailored employee experiences to organizations and teams across the globe. Tydy’s goal is to envision, design, and craft meaningful on and offboarding experiences based on employee data.

In this episode, we’ll learn how technology can facilitate improved HR efforts that ultimately result in more authentic and positive employee experiences.

Gaurabh also talks about the three things that will help organizations scale their HR efforts and he points out the role of “employee experience designers” in innovative organizations.

Listen in to MAKE YOUR COMMUNITIES THRIVE.

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Alicia M. Hernríquez is Head of People at Liveblocks and a Founding Member at Troop HR. Liveblocks is a seed-stage startup that was founded in 2021. Alicia’s role is to build the foundation of the people function and help cultivate culture from the ground up.

In this episode, Alicia speaks about how People Operations Leaders and HR teams can best support employees while at the same time positively shaping corporate culture; And how executive leadership can impact teams through targeted encouragement.

Today, it is more critical than ever that organizations invest in their people and offer innovative development opportunities. – Join Alicia and Simone in this episode to find out why, and how.

Listen in to MAKE YOUR COMMUNITIES THRIVE.

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Carolene Méli is an experience strategist who specializes in bringing teams together through in-person experiences. Carolene is the founder of Brands of the Med Business Community, a business community that supports, develops, and connects small business owners based in the Mediterranean.

In this episode, Carolene shares her knowledge and best practices for creating exceptional team experiences. These are essential in today’s corporate world, where remote work often blurs the lines when it comes to employees being seen and valued, and expectations being communicated.

And then Carolene and Simone chat about the four key elements that make up every single experience worthy of the term “incredible”.

Listen in to MAKE YOUR COMMUNITIES THRIVE.

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Jon Picoult is the Founder and Principal of Watermark Consulting, a boutique consulting company, specializing in customer experience improvement services. Jon helps companies impress customers and inspire employees.

In this episode, Jon and Simone dive into customer experience design principles for employee and alumni audiences.

They also discuss ways companies can encourage loyalty and cultivate engagement among their customers and employees. – It’s the simple touches that prove to have the most impact.

Listen in to MAKE YOUR COMMUNITIES THRIVE.

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Randal Weidenaar is an organizational culture researcher and Founder and CEO of VP Culture. He specializes in helping organizations become people-focused. Additionally, he supports them with building thriving organizations by focusing on the connections that are so core to every human.

In this episode, Randal shares his knowledge about how organizational leaders can intentionally create a corporate culture that leads to employee satisfaction. He also shines the light on several aspects leaders can utilize to best support their teams.

And we’ll learn about a secret nugget in this conversation – the ONE thing that motivates all people and cultures.

Listen in to MAKE YOUR COMMUNITIES THRIVE.

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Celina Guerrero is the founder of Tessellate Partners, LLC and an Entrepreneur and Sales and LinkedIn Coach for service-based businesses and consultancies. Celina supports clients with building relationships that build businesses.

In this episode, Celina and Simone dig deep into Community and Social Selling parallels and talk about the many similarities between community-building strategy and sales strategy.

They emphasize the importance of listening to and understanding the wants and needs of your community while focusing on one-on-one connection and building trust. - These are essential for community building AND today’s sales strategies.

Listen in to MAKE YOUR COMMUNITIES THRIVE.

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Jared Narlock is a Leadership Development Speaker and Coach at Peaceful Powered Leadership LLC. There, he focuses on helping leaders find peace in pursuit of courageous leadership while building trust with their teams.

In this episode, we’ll assess the role that leadership and employee relations have when it comes to today’s corporate successes and failures. And we look at approaches that can help reduce employee turnover, as more people are working remotely today.

Jared shares different angles that leaders can deploy to best support team members leaving the organization, without letting personal feelings get in the way. This is what putting your team members first truly means in everyday life.

Listen in to MAKE YOUR COMMUNITIES THRIVE.

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Anna Moreno Damico is the Global Senior Manager of Alumni Strategy & Engagement at BCG, Boston Consulting Group. In that role, she is responsible for the alumni strategy of the BCG Global Alumni Network.

The BCG Global Alumni Network was started in 2000 and today counts over 33,000 alumni throughout the world who, as BCG says, “all have green blood ;)”. Their members enjoy the development and learning opportunities offered through the BCG alumni community.

In this episode, we zoom in on the BCG as a best-practice model for corporate alumni networks.

And Anna gives insights into her team’s role in designing programs for former colleagues and shares details about how to give and receive value in return.

Listen in to MAKE YOUR COMMUNITIES THRIVE.

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This concludes “Connecting with Connectors,” the inaugural season of the Building Community Podcast.

In this episode, your host Simone reflects on some of the biggest questions of this season.

Have we looked at corporate culture through the wrong lens in past years? Is there any community out there that’s perfect? And what value do boomerang employees really bring to organizations?

Simone also shares ten valuable community lessons to wrap up this year. Listen in!

And subscribe on Apple Podcast or wherever you enjoy your podcasts – so you will be first to know when the next season airs.

Thanks for being along for the ride!

As you work to MAKE YOUR COMMUNITIES THRIVE.

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