Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Shannon Carriere. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Shannon, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Some of the most interesting parts of our journey emerge from areas where we believe something that most people in our industry do not – do you have something like that?

A common belief in the business world comes from the Peter Drucker quote- “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Out of this statement came years of “culture” eventually becoming its own functional area of human resources, with loads of practitioners that see culture as the most important thing in an organization, and a never ending critique of “but how is the culture”.

This isn’t to say that there’s anything wrong with a focus on culture– but trying to actually create a culture with cultural activities misses the entire understanding of what it is meant to be. A company culture is derivative of the systems (social, procedural and technological) and the behaviors those systems inspire.

I have spent many years as one of the cultural practitioners, training employees about culture- and I was a true believer. Yet, around every corner there was a system in place that contradicted or deviated from what I was preaching until I realized how in danger my own credibility was. Without trust, the training only bred skepticism and doubt. Training a person about what the company culture IS, does not a culture make.

Building systems- social procedural and technological- that create desired behaviors are the true root of building a company culture that is meaningful and attractive to employees and candidates. You can never be wrong or misleading about the culture, because the systems and their results tell a clear and honest story about who you are.

Shannon, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

It’s been a long and interesting journey experiencing and leading HR in the expanse of industries- from construction to medical device to software and many others. I “fell” into HR in an early role where I was asked to do some brand and culture training. I didn’t want to- but always eager to learn and give value- I did it and surprisingly fell in love with facilitation and the impact it can have on an organization if done well. 20+ years later, that early experience and drive still plays out when I’m working with teams to build internal systems for better people functionality. Instead of sharing what employees can do to influence their environments, I’m on the ground floor improving the environment functionality for a lasting impact. Culture isn’t something we make, rather something we live within. I work with clients to get to the bottom-line purpose of people systems to put their teams in the best position possible to achieve results.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Professionally, I “grew up” believing that HR was in charge of accountability. Most of my experiences with HR seemed like that person was searching for someone to catch doing something “wrong”. When HR was in the room everyone was tense. As I engaged more closely with the department though- I realized this was actually a symptom of something bigger. When executives and other leaders in an organization don’t have a practice of accountability, the burden falls on the department that has a legal obligation to stay on top of things. I started seeing this play out first hand in organizations that had accountability struggles. When I saw a few operational leaders engage in strong accountability, I also noticed they didn’t seem “afraid” of me and neither were their teams. We worked together to solve problems, instead of hiding from them and waiting for something to explode. This HR reputation still exists and it’s a mission of mine to show that we can experience the workplace differently.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Very early in my career I was introduced to Gallup’s StrengthsFinder. At the time, I was all about getting the work done and I didn’t really care if someone saw it differently. Reading this was the first step in giving me pause to see what is behind the behaviors and action of each individual. I don’t use assessments like these in my practice anymore, but if you’re working with me, we are always understanding first the motivations of others to shape and strengthen our approach.

Contact Info:

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannoncarriere/
• Other: shannon@carrierehr.com

Image Credits

Logo courtesy of Fusion marketing