Building Better Teams

In this episode of Membership IQ, host Sarah Sladek welcomes Cassandra Price, a leader in generational collaboration and an advocate for workplace transformation. Cassandra shares her experience founding the Canadian chapter of the Multi-Generational Employee Resource Group Exchange (MERGE) at Bayer, which fosters collaboration across generations. She discusses Bayer’s shift to Dynamic Shared Ownership (DSO)—a groundbreaking leadership model that decentralizes decision-making and fosters innovation at all levels. 

Cassandra explains how DSO empowers employees, builds community, and helps organizations adapt to the ever-changing business landscape. The conversation also explores generational trends, workplace microaggressions, and the importance of leading from any level. Tune in for insights on building inclusive, forward-thinking teams and navigating organizational change.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Welcome back to another episode of the Membership IQ. This is where you go to get smart about membership and community building. And I'm really excited to have a representative of the XYZ University Advisory Board joining us today. Cassandra Price. Hey, hey, hello. Welcome to Canada. She's dialing in from Canada and I'm in the process of a move.

So, Cassandra, why don't you do a little intro for our audience? Hi, everyone. Excited to be here. As Sarah said, I'm in the middle of a big move from Calgary to Toronto. Um, and I'm going to be an associate market manager, uh, in the pharmaceutical space. Been in that industry for about nine years, and one of my proudest accomplishments is actually founding the Canadian [00:01:00] chapter of what we call the Multi Generational Employee Resource Group Exchange, or MERGE, um, and that focuses on collaboration.

Of all the generations in the workforce. So meeting Sarah, uh, was one of the most exciting moments. Um, and she gave us a presentation that inspired everybody and built on the, um, the motor, the momentum that we had started, uh, in generational collaboration at Bayer. So very excited to be here and to talk to like minded individuals.

Yeah, so fun. So, um, let's talk about that for just a moment. So let's talk about Merge. So you started up this generational community within Bayer, and what motivated that? Why were you so interested in getting this project started? You know what, it's actually a really interesting story. Um, so we have an internal platform, um, an intranet.

And You know what? I didn't see a lot of people, um, Millennials at the time. And now Gen Z [00:02:00] has come into the workforce in full force. Um, but I was always the younger person represented on my team. And one day this really exciting article popped up and it was called Young Bayer. And I was like, Oh my gosh, there are Other young people in this organization looking to have a meeting of the minds, um, and this was global.

So it was really neat because now we had people from the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Brazil, South Africa, India, uh, Mexico, and we all had the same idea and the same values to say, hey, how do we take the best of what is, bring everybody together, and instead of Using microaggressions, like, you know, Hey Boomer, or the young people are entitled or things like that.

We decided to come together and and bring our strengths and and create our own opportunities. I [00:03:00] love that. It's really, really cool. Um, all right. So one of my questions for you today is just what, what's, what's the trend right now? What's, what's the burning question? Some of the things that you're concerned about when you're thinking about the future you're talking about, it's just the hot topic of the day within Bayer, within Merge, Yeah.

That's true. What's the word on the street? Well, if you do a quick Google search of Bayer, you'll quickly learn that we're going through a pretty revolutionary transformation right now. And our CEO, Bill Anderson, is calling this Dynamic Shared Ownership, DSO. Really interesting topic to delve into. Um, and all that I'm going to share is actually publicly available information, but we are all globally being trained on this.

And it's really interesting to see an industry like pharma that I have even in my tenure, um, in the industry has seen it go from command and control [00:04:00] to somewhat agile to now a fully innovation focused organization. So what does that mean exactly? Well, yeah. Like merge, which is basically a grassroots kind of micro enterprise, if you will.

We're taking those learnings and allowing everybody's voices from different perspectives to now actually contribute to business outcomes. So we've organized different cross functional teams to solve different problems that we've never, um, come together to solve before. And, uh, we're reshaping the organization from the bottom up.

With support and stewardship from the top down, so that's been really interesting to see not just theoretically people talk about that, but to actually get to live it and practice it. Oh my gosh, that's amazing. And that is quite a transformation because you were just saying, you know, that merge evolved out of this, you [00:05:00] know, need to learn about generations, but also for young people to have, you know, have a community and a place to belong at Bayer and now we've, we're on the whole other end of DSO dynamic.

I love that dynamic shared ownership. So what's inspiring that. Transition all the way from, you know, command control agile to DSO. Is it, is it senior leadership? Is it board? What, what is it that's motivating this change? There's a lot of different forces at play. One, uh, the pharmaceutical industry has changed as a whole.

Um, and a lot of experts believe that this is because. Patients are more involved in their own care than ever before, and they have access to real time information. So patient advocacy and patient involvement is definitely changing the needs of the industry. Second, the speed of which information travels to, [00:06:00] uh, doctors and pharmaceutical companies, um, and industry in general.

So we need to find a way to harness, uh, real time things and have these micro innovations. Or we're really not going to be able to keep up with the pace of the world. And third, uh, we don't have these, we call them blockbuster drugs so much anymore. It's very specialized, uh, and moving towards a personalized medical care.

And so the pipeline isn't what it used to be, even when I started in the industry almost a decade ago. And so we're having to change the way that we're approaching markets, um, and the way that we can best serve doctors and patients. So then what does that mean for, you know, like you in the middle of this move, you're uh, changing roles, all the things, but kind of to the quote unquote in the trenches, how does this transition to DSO change your everyday [00:07:00] work life?

Yeah, I wanted to share some of the principles that we're being taught and I find this to be kind of inspiring and kind of, you know, obvious. And I love that because we're getting down to a human level of leadership. So something that we're being taught is ways to put ourselves into the creative mind versus the reactive mind.

And so we've been asked to share with people that we usually don't work with again and say, Hey. You know, today, this is how I'm feeling. And when I'm in a reactive mind, I'm not able to make crazy good innovative decisions. I'm pulling back and I'm trying to maintain rather than build. And so building that kind of Um, organizational empathy, uh, has been really powerful and also gives you a tool to somewhat politely and respectfully call people out and say, Hey, maybe we need to take a moment and put ourselves [00:08:00] back in the creative mind so that we can come back and solve this problem effectively as a team.

And, um, you know, looking at it from as many perspectives as possible. Wow. And that is. Oh my gosh, that is so important, right? And yet so many organizations struggle with just that idea of getting, we're still struggling in so many spaces to still get out of this hierarchical mindset. And this, it's always been done this way mindset.

And that's really admirable that your company's transitioning over to this model. I love it. So what is your advice? Because in the short period of time. that you've been in the workplace, because you're still, I still consider you young professional, right? Um, and in, in this period of time, you've seen a lot of disruption, a lot of change.

And just curious, what tips or, [00:09:00] you know, advice do you have for leading an organization and a team through a time of change? Yeah, and if there's one thing we know for sure, that change is constant. Um, so we, as leaders, and people like myself, who's mostly been leading up, um, we need to be attuned to that, um, and to our dynamic, uh, world and marketplace that we're in.

So I Mostly aligned with a stewardship type of leadership, which is really where the leader is guiding and bringing out the best of the team, um, and kind of understanding, uh, what motivates each person. And allowing them to thrive. So I think that that's really effective in a changing way because you don't have necessarily a rigid infrastructure.

You're tailoring the leadership to what's best to harness everybody's potential. And in my somewhat short tenure, I've seen [00:10:00] leaders at my organization having less than 10 direct reports. Now they have 30 or more direct reports. It's a very different style of leadership where you need to trust your employees and they need to trust you.

So the only time that I come to my, um, technically direct manager, who now is a senior leader. The only time that I come to those people is when I encounter barriers or I need to think through a larger scale problem. I'm able to solve these problems directly with who's involved, um, and, and come up with creative solutions on my own.

And that is true workplace empowerment when you're letting your people do things like that. Yeah, it reminds me a little bit of, um, A while ago, I think it was Zappos was coming out with this idea of kind of circle management. It reminds me a little bit of that, that you have your little circle, but you're also working with [00:11:00] other circles and you're very empowered to make decisions.

So, you know, we just keep, we innovating in terms of what does the workforce of the future look like and what works best, right? But we know that we can't stay in the past. So, um, and I like that idea of being very collaborative and empowering people. And, uh, it's fantastic. Let's talk a little bit about generations.

So obviously in your role at Merge, you know, you've been bringing generations and community building, but, and, and you already mentioned, you're seeing more Gen Zs come into the fold. And I'm just curious in your, in your work, what are you seeing in terms of some generational trends? Yeah. And of course, this topic is near and dear to my heart.

Uh, I would say Merge officially started in 2019. And it's kind of interesting to see how even since [00:12:00] then, uh, there's been a big shift. And I've noticed it in popular culture. Um, like with the ERA's tour, I've noticed, uh, TV shows like MasterChef Battle of the Generations. The challenge, which had season 40 now, and again, the eras represented there were representative of different generations.

So, I think, globally, we have a keen interest in this topic now, and we're more connected to it than ever before. So, that is very exciting to me. But you also need to approach it in the right way. And I think it's interesting because when I first started talking about Merge, there was a lot of people who said, you know, you have these young people coming into the workforce and they haven't had their chance to sweep the floors yet and earn their stripes.

And us as young people are just completely baffled by statements like this because we've come in more educated than ever before, lots of experience, [00:13:00] lots of perspective, and when we're told to sweep the floors, then it's very demotivating to us. So what I have seen is an immense amount of change and appreciation for the different skills that other generations bring on both sides.

And that has been really enlightening to see, um, especially, uh, in my organization, because we're now allowing and organically having different perspectives represented, um, and not just immediately kind of working on stereotypes and microaggressions. We're aware of these biases and we're building, um, Better collaboration and perspective from, uh, the different experiences we all bring.

That's great. Yeah, even like the phrase, you know, the phrase is pay your dues, earn your stripes, put your nose to the grindstone, work your way up the ladder. Like those are all, those all harken back to a previous [00:14:00] era. And even like earn your stripes, like that kind of harkens back to military. So, um, definitely things have.

And, um, uh, the microaggressions, you know, I think we're still dealing with them, but yes, it is. It is improved. It is improved compared to what the work, what the work environment was like, you know, eight years ago. Um, but there's still that bullying and still, so I'm happy to hear like, you're, you're really, really working on changing that, which is, um, amazing.

So obviously. Those efforts, uh, impact community building, team building, and, um, for those who are tuning in, who might be struggling with, gosh, we're trying to get people on the same page, we're trying to build community, uh, what, what advice do you have to pass along to them? Yeah, [00:15:00] it's funny, when we first started up, people wanted tangible tools and resources, and I thought, oh my goodness, I don't have anything like that.

But perhaps we could co create it. We had everything that we needed, um, to build our own deck. And so we started off with a generation, we call it the generational workshop. Um, and it became immensely popular because this is a very common I don't know if I would call it a problem, but it's a very common trend because we all have different lived experiences and it's not always easy, um, to come from a place of understanding, um, to harness how these different perspectives can actually make us stronger as a team.

So some things that we have implored in our, uh, in our workshop is to say, So for example, if you're going to bring a team together and you're going to do an icebreaker, I was in one where they said, what was the [00:16:00] first concert you attended? And that immediately divided the group because you had some people whose first concert was Madonna and other people who were embarrassed to admit that it was Justin Bieber.

So I would, you know, think through this as a leader or somebody trying to bring together a team Um, think about shared values and how different experiences build different perspective, uh, and try not to find ways to potentially divide the team, uh, think about ways that help them better understand each other.

Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah, the concert question, that, that is a fun one, but yes, it can, you know, certain questions like that right away, people are like, oh, well, you're really young if you are going to, or you're really old if you went to that person's concert. Yeah. Uh, it is really kind of fun. That's a great, great, great advice.

So, [00:17:00] uh, again, people tune in to hear, uh, some strategies, best practices. What's really working right now? What's something that you would pass along? Again, some great advice, uh, a tip that you'd like to share with our audience. Yeah, I think Throughout my answers, I've kind of implied the importance of leading up and getting, getting your hands dirty, getting your feet wet, whatever sort of expression you like.

Um, even if you're earlier in your career, it is important to build these intangibles and these leadership skills, um, and to be able to influence. The organization that you want to see so merge was my first taste of this And it was really exciting and empowering and even speaking to other people that I went to school with who are similar progression in their careers They didn't have nearly the engagement or the passion that I did [00:18:00] because every day I felt like I had a true voice So if senior leaders can create a framework or even grassroots initiatives where people can truly make change, that's important.

And I think having the courage, um, as, cause if you think about it, I was early career, um, doing a lot of this, uh, this work. So, um, having the courage to lead up. Um, I think that those are really important skills to have in the dynamic workplace, and the stronger that I got at doing these things, uh, in a safe environment, a safe to try kind of atmosphere, um, the more confident I was to apply it to actual business objectives and my job, um, and that has made me, um, I feel more and more empowered and successful, um, and that's why I've been included in a lot of these conversations with DSO because these [00:19:00] skills have prepared me for a transformation like this.

Right. Cassandra, every time we talk, I learn something new from you and, uh, you are, you are such an amazing advocate, like Bayer is so lucky to have you and, um, it's, you know, just for, for those who are tuning in, look at, look at this great advocate, like, but that was intentional. Um, the company is in investing.

and you empowered you. They're leading the way, they're trying new things, they're innovating, they're not standing still. And as a result, you have really found a home there and you speak very highly of the company and you've been able to lead in the company. And I just think that's amazing. And congrats on your work with Merge as well.

Anything else you would like to add before we conclude our talk? Yeah, it's been wonderful conversing with you, Sara. I'll always. It's inspiring, [00:20:00] and I love your content, so thank you for having me here. Um, I think just a few words of wisdom in terms of my work with the generations is certainly seek to understand, think about the change in technology that all of us have lived through.

Think about the impactful global moments. that have shaped us, um, and how our perspective from our age, uh, have, has, uh, changed the way that we experience the world. And I think when we start to look at things from a lens of empathy like that, then, uh, the rest becomes a lot more simple. And that moment of let me step back and put myself in your shoes has really made all the difference, um, being somebody who has led projects and teams, um, and has led up and I hope to, to lead a bigger teams in the future.[00:21:00] 

Um, but, you know, be empathetic, be a stewardship leader, and, um, certainly leverage all the potential that the generations have to offer. Yes, excellent, excellent advice. So can, I know you're going to continue to lead up, and I know you, you will also, uh, continue to bring up the next generation behind you, and that's great advice.

For all of our listeners. Thank you for being here today, Cassandra. It was awesome to talk to you and, uh, good luck in your move to Toronto. I'm going to come visit you at some point in Toronto and it'll be great fun. So wishing you all the best. Thanks for being here and thanks for tuning in to the membership IQ.

Stay tuned for our next episode.