Culture Architects™
David J. Friedman
Most leaders know that a strong culture is a foundation for building a great organization, but great cultures don't just happen on their own. Rather, they're designed and built systematically, brick by brick. Each week, join David J. Friedman, the best-selling author of Culture by Design, as he speaks with extraordinary leaders, from all walks of life, and they share their biggest successes, failures, and lessons learned on their culture journeys. If you're searching for the best insights on building a high-performing culture, then Culture Architects, a production of CultureWise, is for you.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Aug 26, 2024 • 28min
25. Faith, Leadership, and Culture Reinvention w/ William Vanderbloemen (Part 1)
In this episode, David welcomes William Vanderbloemen — pastor and author of Be the Unicorn: 12 Data-Driven Habits that Separate the Best Leaders from the Rest. Equipped with over 15 years of ministry experience and a solid foundation in professional executive search, William is his own leader at Vanderbloemen Search Group, an award-winning firm committed to shaping the leadership and cultures at churches and other faith-based organizations.
Aug 12, 2024 • 31min
24. Who Not What: Becoming Leaders Worth Following w/ Tim Spiker (Part 2)
The conversation continues on the two most important areas of effective leadership, as backed by the data from Tim’s book and his years of experience in leadership development. Tim and David do a deeper dive on the value of a leader’s emotional maturity, especially in culture-building.
Aug 5, 2024 • 22min
24. Who Not What: Becoming Leaders Worth Following w/ Tim Spiker (Part 1)
David sits down with Tim Spiker, author of The Only Leaders Worth* Following: Why Some Leaders Succeed, Others Fail, and How the Quality of Our Lives Hangs in the Balance. The book is guided by the principle of Who* Not What, which is that ¾ of a leader’s effectiveness is determined not by what they do, but by who they are. Tim describes the findings in his book as the “accidentally-discovered and rarely-leveraged truth within leadership.”
Jul 15, 2024 • 30min
23. The Famous Way: Culture and Legacy in a Family Business w/ Marc & Brian Blaushild (Part 2)
David and the Blaushilds talk about how to keep the rapid growth of a company like Famous Supply always about the people and the culture. Marc and Brian also affirm the power of transparency in building trust, and they open up about the wisdom they would share with their younger selves.
Jul 8, 2024 • 27min
23. The Famous Way: Culture and Legacy in a Family Business w/ Marc & Brian Blaushild (Part 1)
For the first time in Culture Architects history, David is joined by father-and-son tandem Marc and Brian Blaushild of Famous Supply. Famous Supply is a fourth-generation family business established in 1933, and an award-winning distributor of HVAC, plumbing, and other building products. Culture is this company’s number one priority, as shown through their forty Fundamentals and their system called The Famous Way.
Jun 17, 2024 • 29min
22. Systems That Shape Culture: Lessons from Beacon Building Products w/ Martin Harrell (Part 2)
The conversation between David and Martin Harrell touches on the power of systems in forming habits, and the ROI on working on culture. Martin continues to share his experience with culture-building amidst rapid company growth, as well as his advice for young people who are planning to go into leadership.
Jun 10, 2024 • 25min
22. Systems That Shape Culture: Lessons from Beacon Building Products w/ Martin Harrell (Part 1)
David sits down with Martin Harrell of Beacon Building Products. Drawing on his 20-year career that spans from accounting to sales to corporate leadership, in this episode Martin shares his insights on the culture of an acquired family business: from the challenges of a distributed workforce, to the power of a common language.
May 13, 2024 • 29min
21. Why Culture Is Field Fastener’s Best Investment w/ Jim Derry (Part 2)
David and Jim continue their conversation on the culture-building journey at Field Fastener. Jim shares his favorite Fieldamentals, visions for the future of the company culture under different leadership, and the easiest and hardest parts about culture-building in a family business.
May 6, 2024 • 27min
21. Why Culture Is Field Fastener’s Best Investment w/ Jim Derry (Part 1)
In this episode, David is joined by Jim Derry, the CEO of Field Fastener. Since their acquisition in 1990, Jim and his brother Bill have grown the company into one of the fastest-growing privately held companies in America, providing solutions for various C-class items and serving over 35 countries to date. The key to their success is their culture — and in this episode, Jim explains why culture is the “single most important investment” they’ve ever made.
Apr 15, 2024 • 27min
20. Chief Servant Leadership: Systems that Scale Culture w/ Kevin Schnieders (Part 2)
In this second part, Kevin Schnieders fills in the details of his culture-building experiences at EDSI, and unpacks the title of ‘Chief Servant Leader.’ He and David discuss what it means to be recognized as a “cool place to work.”
