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On Culture: The Impact We Have




Dear Culturati Insider,


Impact is a plural concept. It shows up in what organizations achieve, in how leaders affect the people around them, and in what individuals come to believe, attempt, contribute, and carry forward because of our choices. We tend to count results such as reach and return because they are measurable. Yet every strategic choice produces both an organizational outcome and a human experience. A conversation the other day reminded me that while vision gives impact direction and strategy makes the choices required to pursue it, execution ultimately depends on people: how they interpret the plan, locate their role within it, and decide whether to participate. Lasting institutional value emerges when others can continue what we started.


Leadership informs this by whether people feel seen, trusted, and able to exercise judgment. An idea gains force when teams test them against real needs and build the ecosystem required for adoption. Strategies advance when priorities, resources, and behavior move with them. Managers then translate organizational intent into daily performance by connecting people to purpose, clarifying expectations, recognizing contribution, and developing capability—Gallup finds they account for 70% of the variation in team engagement. Agency carries the effect further. Across 8,865 employees in 33 countries, 87% said helping improve their company’s social or environmental impact increased motivation and loyalty and gave their lives greater purpose and meaning. Together, mattering and agency translate objectives into shared ownership and allow their impact to extend beyond any one leader or team.


Taken together, these ideas suggest a broader scorecard for measuring our impact:


     - What changed because of my work, and for whom?


     - Whose judgment did I invite into the outcome?


     - Did my leadership deepen someone’s capability, confidence, or sense of purpose?


     - Could people see that their contribution mattered?


I have been considering these as I close my final regular edition of On Culture. Over nearly five years, I helped transform Culturati into a year-round executive learning community spanning five in-person Summits with 526 unique executive attendees (70% C-suite) representing more than 330 organizations across 42 industries in 9 countries. We built an on demand video library garnering more than 30,000 views and On Culture grew to more than 4k subscribers with a 76% increase in open rates. I am proud of these numbers and of the strategy, programming, partnerships, operations, editorial, and experience design behind them. But it's the moments between the metrics that I will hold close to my heart: late-night conversations about leadership challenges that could be discussed almost nowhere else; a group of us picking apart the puzzle of AI and human judgment; paella and provocation at Eugene and Steven's; and the many, many relationships created because of it.


Culturati changed me as surely as I helped shape it. Years of keynotes, working sessions, spirited debate, and candid conversation has increasingly brought me back to the same question: as our tools grow more powerful, what must we cultivate in ourselves to use that power wisely? I leave with a deeper conviction that the future will be shaped as much by curiosity, judgment, compassion, and community as by technology; that purpose earns credibility through choices; that hospitality changes what people are willing to share; and that leaders need places where they can think incompletely out loud. Whatever comes next, the impact I hope to make is deeply human: helping people flourish, helping organizations become more worthy of the potential within them, and connecting vision to the trust, agency, and shared meaning required to make it real.


I am deeply grateful to Eugene, Annie, Steven, Josh, and all of you for the trust, rigor, generosity, humor, and lived experience you brought to this work. Whatever impact I had here was created with and for you, and you certainly had an impact on me. Please stay in touch on LinkedIn and via myste@mystewylde.com. I plan to continue writing and can be followed here and aspirationally...here.


To what we make possible in one another,


Myste Wylde

I also want to express my personal gratitude to the people below. The list is alphabetical by first name, not importance, and is definitely not comprehensive. Some of you became dear friends. Others shared a powerful conversation, made a generous introduction, offered a kind word at exactly the right time, or left me with an idea I still carry. You may not even know the impact you had, but you did... Alandra W, Albert S, Alison G, Amy W, Annette A, Annie P, Autumn R, Bill B, Bjorn B, Brian J, Brett H, Brooke S, Brooke W, Caitlyn F, Carol S, Cate P, Charlie H, Charlotte S, Chris E, Chris H, Chris J, Chris T, Christie S, Cyndi B, Dana L, Darren M, David A, Dean C, Diane L, Dickie S, Douglas F, Drew G, Eileen M, Elsa Z, Eric S, Ethan B, Eugene S, Geoff W, Gidi P, Greg W, Holly P, Jacquie H, Jan R, Jen S, Jenny Y, John A, Josh JD, Julie Z, Karan N, Kate H, Kathleen L, Kathryn F, Katie P, Katy B, Katy G, Kevin O, Kim S, Kristen K, Leigh C, Liz JD, Lori K, Lynn M, Matthew D, Mayerland H, Megan F, Michelle G, Michelle L, Michelle N, Noah Z, Paul Z, Rad W, Rajkumari N, Ray W, Sandi, Shakeel R, Shuronda R, Sol R, Steve A, Steven T, Suraj H, Tauri LP, Tom M, Trei B, Tyson T, Vaishali J, and Valerie J. And to everyone who served on our advisory boards, steering committee, or as a volunteer or intern, I thank you. 



As AI takes on more analysis, prediction, and execution, the ability to exercise sound business judgment is becoming even more essential. Join us Thursday, August 27, from 12–1 p.m. CT for a Culturati: LIVE conversation with Bjorn Billhardt, CEO of Abilitie, on how organizations can develop leaders who think strategically, collaborate across functions, and make confident decisions when the answers are not obvious. We’ll explore how applied learning is reshaping business education and preparing individuals to create value in an AI-enabled world.

The Leadership Moments That Shape Careers Long After They’re Over

Forbes

By Benjamin Laker

 

Summary: Leadership impact is often created in moments that appear operationally small: noticing work others overlook, responding to failure with curiosity, sharing credit, or remembering an ambition voiced months earlier. Across hundreds of everyday interactions, employees form durable judgments about whether their contribution carries weight, whether authority will be exercised with fairness, and whether they are trusted to grow. Specific recognition strengthens commitment and agency; blame under pressure suppresses candor and delays learning. Long after targets and initiatives recede, people carry forward the confidence, judgment, and sense of possibility a leader expanded or diminished. That human inheritance becomes leadership’s most enduring legacy.


You Have a Big Idea. Here's How to Turn It Into Impact

Fast Company

By Greg Satell

 

Summary: A consequential idea creates impact by meeting reality. Curiosity exposes the assumptions beneath it, while direct contact with the people closest to the problem reveals whether the need is real, the value is distinctive, and the idea can hold up beyond the room where it began. That process often brings friction, but it also sharpens the work, showing what must change and which partners, capabilities, and relationships can carry it forward. Originality may begin the process. Scrutiny, adaptation, and adoption give an idea reach, relevance, and staying power.


How to Ensure Your Company Acts on Your New Strategy

Harvard Business Review

By Andy West, Antoine Montard, Sébastien Lacroix and Whitney Zimmerman

 

Summary: Strategic impact depends on converting choices into owned priorities, resource shifts, and coordinated action. McKinsey research across more than 400 companies found that this ability separates the highest-profit performers from the lowest, yet most large companies direct more than 90% of spending to the same areas year after year. Leaders create movement by challenging inherited budgets, defining what teams will start and stop doing, and giving people the agency and resources to act as conditions change. Companies that reallocate dynamically have delivered 30% higher annual shareholder returns. Strategy gains force when the people responsible for execution help shape it, understand their role, and have the authority to move.


How Managers Impact Team Productivity

Gallup

 

Summary: Anyone who manages people has an outsized influence on whether strategy becomes performance and whether employees experience their work as meaningful. Gallup finds that managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement, largely through everyday choices about clarity, recognition, trust, development, and the use of individual strengths. When people understand how their role advances the mission, organizations can see 15% higher productivity and 32% lower turnover. The impact reaches beyond output: effective people leaders make contribution visible, create room for agency, and give employees credible evidence that they matter to the work and to the organization.


When Employees Engage in Impact Work, Loyalty and Motivation Rise

Trellis

By Tove Malmqvist

 

Summary: Agency deepens impact by giving employees a meaningful role in creating it. In research spanning 8,865 employees across 33 countries, 87% said personally helping improve their company’s social or environmental impact increased motivation and loyalty; the same share reported greater purpose and meaning. That participation also strengthens adaptability by allowing people closest to the work to surface risks, shape solutions, and respond as conditions change. Leaders build agency by giving employees real influence over decisions and implementation, then making the connection between their contribution and the outcome visible.


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