From toxic workplaces to creating culture where being human makes you successful

What if the way we've been running workplaces has been wrong all along? Sarah Dena spent 25 years working inside the HR profession, only to come to a painful realisation - she'd probably contributed to some of the very practices that make workplaces feel dehumanising. In this conversation, Sarah, Managing Director of New Wave Learning and founder of The Culturevators, makes a compelling case for emotional culture - the idea that how people feel at work determines how they behave, and that leaders who ignore this are leaving their most valuable data on the table. We get into what culture actually means, the gap between a leader's intent and the impact they create, why returning to the office is really a conversation about trust, and what it means to bring your whole self to work without it falling apart. Sarah also reflects candidly on leaving corporate life, building a business from scratch, raising emotionally confident daughters, and why she believes the window to make workplaces more human is right now. This is a conversation about leadership, connection, and what it really takes to create conditions where people can do the best work of their lives. Learn more about The Culturevators: https://www.culturevator.co.uk/ Learn more abont New Wave Learning: https://www.newwavelearning.com/ Connect with Sarah directly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahdena/ Our conversation at a glance: Chapters 00:00:00 Intro to Sarah and New Wave Learning 00:04:24 How The Culturevators started from pain 00:07:03 What do we mean by culture in the workplace? 00:12:23 How to get people on board with company values 00:15:20 How much of yourself should you bring to work? 00:23:05 The next generation of leaders are changing things 00:28:21 Accepting that we all have biases 00:33:54 How to create culture when our teams are spread across the world 00:39:02 Should working hours matter? 00:46:15 The problem with the term "human resources" 00:48:08 Why Sarah left her HR career 01:00:03 Sarah's vuision to help parents raise emotionally intelligent children 01:12:13 Future workplaces - will we have AI managers? 01:19:12 Quickfire Questions