Culture: The Real CEO

CultureCut: The Power of Yes!

What if your default response was “yes”? In this Culture Cut, Dr. Eliezer Jones and Jon Ackerman explore how a culture of yes drives innovation, builds trust, and creates psychological safety on teams. It’s not about saying yes to everything. It’s about leading with openness, curiosity, and a genuine desire to help. From improv’s “yes and” mindset to real workplace examples, they break down how shifting your instinct from “no” to “yes” can transform how ideas grow and how people feel at work.  Start with one brave yes.

Raquel Arakanchi: OU Executive Fellow for Digital Media and LEAD

In this episode I sit down with Raquel Arakanchi, an OU Executive Fellow, who I have the pleasure of working with daily. Together we explore culture from the inside and dive into navigating onboarding, high expectations, and the energy of a mission-driven organization in real time. We talk about burnout, boundaries, and the tension between passion and sustainability, especially in roles that are always “on.” We also dive into the power of mindset, why positivity matters more than we think, and how individual behavior shapes team culture. From leadership responsibility to personal accountability, this episode is a real, honest look at what it takes to build a culture that’s both high-performing and human. Because culture isn’t what you say, it’s how your people show up every day.

CultureCut: Addressing A Toxic Culture

In this CultureCut, Jon and I tackle one of the most difficult, and most important, topics in organizational life: toxic culture. What makes a culture toxic? How does it slowly take root inside teams that once felt healthy and mission-driven? And most importantly, how do you address it without burning everything down? We explore the subtle warning signs leaders often miss: fear-based communication, lack of accountability, avoidance of hard conversations, favoritism, burnout disguised as commitment, and values that live on posters but not in practice. We also unpack the emotional toll toxic environments take on high performers and why strong people often leave before culture improves. But this episode isn’t just diagnostic, it’s prescriptive. We discuss practical steps leaders can take to confront toxicity head-on: naming reality, rebuilding trust, setting behavioral standards, creating psychological safety, using empathy and modeling the change they want to see. Culture shifts when behavior shifts and that starts at the top. If you care about building healthy, mission-aligned organizations, and having the courage to fix what’s broken, this conversation is one you won’t want to miss.

Rabbi Derek Gormin: NCSY Managing Director of Public School Educational Excellence

What does it really mean to live with a happy attitude, especially in demanding, mission-driven work? In this episode, I sit down with Rabbi Derek Gormin, Managing Director of Public School Educational Excellence at NCSY, for an honest conversation about happiness as a daily practice. We explore mindset, leadership, emotional honesty, and how a positive attitude shapes culture, resilience, and impact. Rabbi Gormin shares practical insights on staying grounded and joyful, even when the work is hard and outcomes are uncertain. A thoughtful, energizing episode for anyone leading, teaching, or striving to live with more purpose and joy.

CultureCut: Unreasonable Hospitality

In this CultureCut, Jon and I explore the powerful ideas behind Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara and what they teach us about building exceptional organizational culture through servant leadership. Using stories and principles from the book, we discuss how going beyond what’s “reasonable” transforms not just customer experience, but internal culture as well. We unpack how leaders who see their role as serving their people create trust, ownership, and excellence, and why culture isn’t built through perks or slogans, but through consistent, intentional behavior. We also examine what servant leadership looks like in real-world, mission-driven organizations: how empowering staff, modeling care, and paying attention to the small details can lead to extraordinary outcomes. Whether you lead a nonprofit, business, or team of any kind, this conversation challenges you to rethink what great leadership and culture truly require. If you care about culture, leadership, and creating environments where people feel valued and inspired to do their best work, this episode is for you.