The Culture Climb: How to Build a Work Culture that Maximizes Your Impact

by Jaime Taets, Chelsey Paulson

Nonfiction Book Awards Silver Medalist

Culture is a mountain effective leaders must climb, and this definitive guide will take leaders to the top.

For over a decade, Jaime Taets, chief vision officer and founder of Keystone Group International, has been the go-to consultant for executive teams hoping to untangle their issues and improve their businesses—profits, strategies, and services—along the way. And throughout that time, Jaime has learned that most business problems are actually people problems. To get at the root cause, leaders must go deeper than the business layer with questions that are rooted in culture and people.

Jaime developed “The Impact Model” for this reason; to help you as a leader understand all the factors woven together that create a strong culture.

The Culture Climb will help leaders

• understand and examine their work culture in a simple yet comprehensive way,
• discover how to use culture to grow a healthy and sustainable business, and
• push past all the theories about culture to help leaders make real change.

If you want to get your business unstuck—if you want to take it to the next level—you are going to have to address culture. The Culture Climb can show you how.

Genres: Nonfiction, Business

224 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 20, 2023

Reviews

[Scot Glasgow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley, Greenleaf Audiobooks and Fast Company Press for providing an Advanced Review Copy of this audiobook. As an individual that has read countless books on leadership, teamwork, collaboration and organizational effectiveness, I will still able to take some useful things out of this book.

The Good:

I quite liked the blending of Rule Following / Autonomy & Empowerment with the 80/20 Pareto principle. In short, 80% of the time, rules, regulations and guidelines are sufficient to resolve an issue. The remaining 20% of the time, personal autonomy and empowerment should be utilized to make decisions that will positively impact the scenario (this could be a customer service concern, organizational decision, etc.)

Additionally, I quite enjoyed an actual focus on metrics - measuring the effectiveness of an organization's Culture Climb through hard numbers, rather then subjective celebrations about "how much better" things are without any concrete evidence to that effect. My day job is as a Business Performance Analyst, with a specific focus on measuring the effectiveness, efficiency and service of customer service representative teams, so this is especially interesting to me.

The Not so Good:

I find myself making this criticism in many such book, but the simple fact of the matter is that books like this represent themselves as groundbreaking, new, thoroughly researched, etc, and often rehash the ideas and information of better predecessors. I don't want to read about what Steven Covey or Carol Dweck wrote about years earlier when I can (and have) read straight from the source in each case.

Overall:

A solid 3/5, and a book I would recommend for those interested in the subject matter. the narration by Tanya Eby was well done.

[Sydney · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this for a work book club. It was pretty mediocre. The majority of the book felt like it was trying to sell executives on the importance of culture - don’t get me wrong that’s important - but the hard part is the actual doing. While there is a (rough) framework, there just isn’t enough to actually implement - probably intentional so you have to hire their consulting firm. The other problem for me is that this isn’t very applicable to my world in non-profit or government work.

[Rebecca Petrilli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to an advance copy of this courtesy of NetGalley. This book offers valuable insights for anyone in a leadership role. Creating a culture where people feel valued and their input truly matters is a key component of a great organization. This book is going to offer the most guidance to people already in leadership positions, but there's much to gain for anyone looking to better understand how to assess and improve organizational culture.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a small business owner in the service industry, my business lives or dies with my staff. This book is JAM PACKED with information that isn't only applicable to a business as small as mine, but is also highly actionable. I loved the resources that were available for download online, and look forward to trying a few out and seeing the impact their implementation can have.

I started my reading journey with the audiobook, which is clear and easy to understand, though this book has so much great info, that I felt I needed to go back and visit the ebook in order to really get the full effect of everything that is shared here. One thing I loved about the audiobook was that I could break it into small pieces, and listen while I worked. With the ebook, I loved having the images and diagrams, and also the clickable links at the back that show where the author found some of the foundations that these concepts are based on. I would highly recommend getting both, and using them together as resources with the items that are available online to give these ideas a solid shot.

Thank you NetGalley, Greenleaf Audiobooks, and Fast Company Press for sharing this ebook and audiobook for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

[Willow field · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Culture Climb" audiobook is a must-listen for anyone interested in building a robust corporate culture. As someone who has worked for companies that have greatly emphasized culture, I found this book to be incredibly insightful, eye-opening, and impactful.

The author, Jamie Taets, does an excellent job of presenting complex ideas in a digestible and thought-provoking way. The book is not watered down but provides excellent guidance on areas of culture that are often overlooked.

I highly recommend "The Culture Climb" audiobook for anyone looking to improve their company's culture or interested in understanding the value of a strong culture. It is a great listen, perfect for your car ride into the office. This audiobook is a valuable resource for anyone looking to elevate their company's culture to the next level.

Thank you so much, Netgalley and Greenleaf Audiobooks, for an advance copy for my honest review.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the first half of this book seriously off-putting and almost DNF'd. The writing was over simplified as if the author was speaking to a child. They over-explained the "what" and the "why" of culture, and I don't know who the author was trying to convince, because anyone picking up this book clearly believes in the importance of culture already. The second half was far better since it finally addressed the "how" with some pretty detailed tools. However, most of these tools were impractical for me in my current role. Apparently I wasn't the target audience, but I was at the very least able to pick up some of the professional verbiage, and I'm hoping this will help me to better discuss the building blocks of culture in my own workplace.

2.5 stars rounding to 3

[Christina Spriggle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good business book on building culture. Easy to read and a provides a good framework for how to think about culture overall. Culture is complex and it's not aspirational. You can certainly aspire to evolve your culture, but it is what it is today. Overall good reminders with some relevant stories included.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rounded up from a 4.5. I listened to an advance copy of the audiobook for Netgalley. I thought this was an extremely helpful book that speaks to a company’s culture and how to create a great one. HR professionals and business leaders would gain the most from this in my opinion.

[Erin Newkirk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Culture is a Culmination

We can no longer shrug off Culture as a feeling, an intangible. We all know Culture is critical, and we have the tools to measure and build the kind of Culture we can be proud of.

[Blood Guts · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing that I haven't read before but it makes an easy read and is a good but general reference to when incorporating culture into your work life / life style / brand etc

[Summer Szell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides a great format for building culture. That’s a solid part of the book, but it’s a bit of a dry read.

[MagicallyMermaid · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book as an advanced copy. I believe it is a must read for anyone who runs a business or is an any type of leadership position! Highly recommend.

[LaShanda Chamberlain · Rating 4 out of 5]

The culture of an organization is huge…. culture is one of the main reasons people considering leaving. With that being said, as a leader, you must embrace culture in a positive manner. This book contains a wealth of practical advice to build a successful culture within an organization.