Sowing the Seeds of a Resilient Corporate Culture with Craig Mason

Ever wonder how external and internal business forces shape an organization's culture and affect its bottom-line success? 

We sit down with Craig Mason, CEO of Raise Health, as we delve deep into a handful of workplace culture challenges. With his extensive experience spanning over a decade and a half in the health tech landscape, Craig offers valuable insights into why fostering a healthy culture is critical and that a thriving culture serves as the key to employee fulfillment and connectivity, boosting the long-term success and sustainability of the organization.

Craig shares how external factors, such as market trends, industry regulations, and societal norms, constantly exert pressure and influence on an organization. Meanwhile, internal dynamics, including leadership style, employee behaviors, and organizational structure, shape how these external forces are interpreted and responded to within the company. A leader's understanding of this intricate dance can prove invaluable to strengthening and evolving an organization's culture.

Craig recounts the trials of steering cultural shifts, especially after a visionary founder's passing—when the organization's identity is most vulnerable. He walks us through overcoming resistance to change and recognizing the distinct microcultures that thrive within a company.

For leaders and change-makers seeking pathways through similar terrain, Craig's experience serves as a guide, emphasizing the power of strategic communication and  clarity of the company's core mission.

Join us in discussing strategies to cultivate a workplace where people don't just work—they thrive.

Connect with Craig on LinkedIn

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Transcript

William Gladhart: 0:00

Welcome to the Leadership Levers podcast. I'm your host, will Gladhart, CMO at the Culture Think Tank. Our Culture Think Tank community is committed to advancing workplace culture and well-being. We're a virtual hub for authors, investors, leaders, managers and employees worldwide to connect, engage in candid discussions, share ideas and explore resources for cultivating a healthy work environment. We're here today to learn about the actions leaders have taken to address cultural change. Our guest today is Craig Mason, CEO of Raise Health. Thanks for taking the time to join us.

Craig Mason: 0:39

Ah, thank you so much, Will. I'm excited to be here.

William Gladhart: 0:41

I thought we would start by having you share with our audience a bit about yourself, your organization and your background.

Craig Mason: 0:48

Yeah, absolutely so. I've spent the better part of 15 years as a health tech innovator here in Kansas City, working everywhere, from the largest of the large, now leading a startup of just a couple of people. So I've seen everything from fortune 10 to less than 10 people, but have always had a passion for bringing enthusiasm, curiosity and delivery and impacts into the healthcare tech space.

William Gladhart: 1:15

Awesome. Well, we'll be discussing three questions today as a warm-up to start our conversation. Would you share why you believe a healthy culture is critical?

Craig Mason: 1:23

I think that culture truly is the personality and measuring stick of an organization. Are you curious? Are you conservative? Are you operations over everything? Are you impact over everything? Can you play all these different things to find the heartbeat of how the organization operates and, most importantly, how people survive or thrive inside that organization? Because we spend so much time in these organizations, it has to align with who we are, otherwise there's friction of that culture and also determines how an organization survives. Big tasks in the task of time.

William Gladhart: 2:00

Absolutely so. What do you see as the biggest challenge leaders face when addressing cultural change within an organization? Or you know what have you specifically faced in your own or another organization?

Craig Mason: 2:11

Yeah, you know, I think the biggest thing really is resistance to change, like we're inherently creatures of habit and the majority of the time that we're awake is at work, so our personality, our identity and our ability to grow are inherently intertwined with this corporate culture. I had an opportunity to work at a very large health tech organization and got an opportunity to spend time leading a culture initiative and we did a large survey of our employees and one of the things that we realized in that is that the culture that the people define was based off of who they worked with, so the clients. If they worked externally, most of the time they started to identify the culture of our company with the culture of the client or, if they were internal, the culture of the micro org that they worked in. So it really was a ton of micro cultures and we realized that you have to reinforce and articulate what it is and. But then when you make a big change, how do you help people understand and really embrace that?

Craig Mason: 3:13

So when I was at this organization, we had the unfortunate passing of the founder and CEO, who was a visionary leader and impactor in the health tech space, and the new CEO that was selected was very much an operations focused person. So we went from a culture of big vision and impact over everything to operational efficiency and sharing profitability and process over everything. Very hard change in a culture. But we had to change our mindset, our responsibilities and that first several months was really hard because people were so used to weeks, months, years of this behavior. But the leadership started to articulate the things behind, why we were doing this and how to help us achieve things. So to get that resistance realigned to the pulse of how the organization was going to continue to succeed.

William Gladhart: 4:05

Yeah, I think that's a great point. You bring Craig about the behavior and the action, but the communication of the leader specifically impacts and ripples through the organization. But what you described as even more challenging because having those microcosms or those microcultures, both internal and external, I mean, they all operate very differently, they communicate differently and those grew out of some sort of inherent culture that developed and then basically having a realignment across the board To a very different guiding principle yeah, that's a really hard change. So you kind of articulated it a little bit. But what do you think leaders can do to address the challenges they are facing? Or what is something that you've done?

Craig Mason: 4:47

I think the biggest thing is really tying it back to the why. What is the vision, the mission behind the reason that the company exists in the first place? And then what is the purpose? How are we serving our customers? So once people understand the why of the thing that you're working on, then they're more prepared to understand what and how tied to what they're doing.

Craig Mason: 5:07

So being able to articulate how the status quo is detrimental to achieving that, why that vision, that mission and the customer need, and how this new culture and this new way of doing things helps us achieve this aspiration, this vision and the delivery that we're focused on. It starts to create that bond and that connection from what you're used to, of that. I signed up to work here because of X and I was really passionate and believed in it and in order to still achieve that in my role and to help the organization achieve that. If I stay the way that I am, it's detrimental, but if I embrace this, then it helps me, and so it really starts to realign some of your perspectives. That we have is to hey, in order for us to succeed, we have to be invested in this change to ultimately go and achieve the outcomes that we've always signed up for as an organization.

William Gladhart: 5:57

I really appreciate that viewpoint, especially thinking about the different components and elements that it takes to actually start moving those pieces forward. I love what you shared today. Is there anything else you'd like to share or add or any insights for other leaders?

Craig Mason: 6:11

It's hard every day and it isn't something. It's like your yard. You don't just set it and forget it. It either thrives when you fertilize it and when you water it, or it dies out and gets covered in weeds. It leaves, excuse me, with weeds if you ignore it. So it is a constant thing that you have to manicure and pay attention to for it to be what you want it to be. You can't just say, oh great, it's perfect and let it go. So it really is one of those things that, the more you think about the culture, how people are thriving, how to make things easy for them and what you believe the pulse of the organization is, and continue to monitor that, get in the weeds with them and understand what it is that to help get rid of them and that's one of those weeds, so that you can all collectively have skin in the game to go achieve it.

William Gladhart: 6:57

That's a great example. I think we can all envision exactly what it looks like. Or a perfectly manicured golf course. Or, you know, we've all driven by the lawn that, well, no one took care of. So you know there's a dramatic difference, but relating that to culture and the culture journey is really fantastic. So, Craig, I've enjoyed having you on our Leadership Levers podcast. Thank you so much for your insights.

Craig Mason: 7:18

Hey, thanks for having me, I appreciate it.

William Gladhart: 7:20

Thank you for joining us on the Leadership Levers podcast. You may find all our Leadership Levers episodes in our Culture Think Tank community at www. culturethinktank. ai. Join the community at no charge and tune in weekly as we invite leaders to share their experience in strengthening culture, one action at a time.