972 Lena McDearmid: Revolutionizing Workplace Culture
From Perks to Purpose: Creating a Safe Space for Bold Ideas and Innovation
Many companies make bold claims about their company culture, but how many truly live up to their hype? It’s one thing to get clarity on company values; it’s a whole order of magnitude different to actually operationalize those values successfully.
If you’re an employee, you know what makes the difference and how a toxic culture saps your energy, creativity, motivation and productivity. And if you’re an entrepreneur building a business you may not realize the multiplier it is to focus early on creating a culture not of perks but purpose.
Lena McDearmid is an expert in all things company culture. A serial entrepreneur, she founded the consultancy Wryver (pronounced ‘river’) to help businesses small and large improve their performance by creating truly inclusive, people-first and inspirational company cultures with deep psychological safety.
She says company culture isn’t just a “nice to have,” but an absolute necessity for sustainable success. Today we explore how to create people-first trust and safety that drives innovation, and why culture is the ultimate differentiator—even more important than product, funding, or market.
Before founding Wryver, Lena co-founded the fintech company Momnt, where she served as COO and Chief Culture Officer. With Wryver, she’s on a mission to create teams that trust each other and organizations that are future-ready in an AI world. With more than 20 years in leadership, consulting, and culture strategy, she focuses on strengthening the trust, rhythms, and structures that determine whether teams succeed or stall. Wryver focuses on transforming culture into a measurable sustainable driver of business performance, bridging the gap between good intentions and lasting impact—so humans thrive and results follow.
🔑Key Takeaways🔑
✨💡 Why Culture Isn’t “Nice to Have”—It’s Everything: Company culture spells the difference between success and failure. Study after study finds that 65% of business failures can be traced back to poor culture, not product or market missteps, but to things like leadership misalignment, weak communication, or lack of psychological safety.
🤝 🤎 Purpose Not Perks: Forget the ping pong tables and free snacks. Perks aren’t culture. Culture is about how decisions get made, how disagreements are handled and how your company supports (or shames) failure. Are your team members confident to speak up and innovate or do they fear the consequences?
🌱🧠 Psychological Safety Is Non-Negotiable: To truly innovate, your team needs two big things: psychological safety and playfulness. Without trust and the freedom to fail, bold ideas won’t surface.
🔥🛠️Leaders Go First (With Vulnerability): Learn why the best leaders model mistakes, hold themselves accountable, and invite feedback. It’s not intuitive for everyone, and that’s why not everyone who’s good at their job should be leading people. You may be the CEO but you may need a Chief of Staff or a Chief People Officer.
🤖 ❤️AI Is Changing the Rules: New tools can make teams more efficient, but AI will never replace creativity, empathy, and thoughtful leadership. Now, more than ever, a people-first culture is critical to your success.
👩🔬 🤟 For Female Founders—A Competitive Edge: Women are naturally collaborative and are building some of today’s most successful, high-ROAS teams. The data is in—female-led companies consistently deliver higher returns, and their focus on culture is a major driver.
More about Lena McDearmid at wryver.com
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More about Lena at Wryver
Lena McDearmid is the founder and CEO of Wryver, a consultancy that helps leaders create company cultures where people and performance thrive together. Previously Lena co-founded the fintech company Momnt, where she served as COO and Chief Culture Officer. With Wryver, she’s on a mission to create teams that trust each other and organizations that are future-ready in an AI world. With more than 20 years in leadership, consulting, and culture strategy, she focuses on strengthening the trust, rhythms, and structures that determine whether teams succeed or stall.
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