The best lessons I’ve ever learned about teamwork came from repurposing a tray of taco meat. It all started with a small community organization working to reduce food waste in South Central Pennsylvania.

One of the most common questions we hear from Cultivators is some variation of, “How do I get buy-in for my change initiative?”. Whether you’re seeking peer support to launch an ERG, or leadership buy-in for an organizational culture initiative, challenging the status quo is hard without support, and even the best ideas can be shut down before they start. So how should we go about getting buy-in? What happens when we hit common blockers? How can we move past a "no"?

At Cultivate, we believe that stories are powerful. We also understand how challenging it can be to tell your story in a (virtual) room full of strangers. Which is why when we heard about the work that Ophelia Johnson and Craig Thomason are doing at Merck, we knew we needed to bring their expertise to our community of Cultivators. Let this replay empower you to tell the right kind of story.

Workplace communities have put their stake in the ground– they aren't going anywhere. Whether you lead an Employee or Business Resource Group, learning community, a community of practice, or something of the like– it's more important than ever to treat your group like a foundational part of the business as a whole, with its own clearly defined purpose and ways to measure success.

Us Cultivators usually have at least one idea stirring in our heads at any given time. Quite often, we're marinating on more than one. Sometimes we'll bounce an idea off of our coworkers or our fellow changemakers (in the Cultivators Community) so that we can find out if it has merit.

I don't know how to play chess, but that hasn't stopped me from watching The Queen's Gambit twice. When Benny gets salty with Beth for not coming to New York City, he says something profound: Maybe is a loser’s word, Beth.

We love to argue. It can be something simple and timeless, like debating whether The Office is funny or something bold and new, like trying to pitch a 4-day work-week to your boss.

On a blistering Los Angeles day in 1988, Richard Montañez was going about his work as a janitor at a PepsiCo manufacturing site when he heard a noise and saw people rushing to the lines. One of the Cheetos manufacturing lines had broken down.