Culture Design: How to build a High-Performing, Resilient Organization With Purpose
Presented by Krista White and James D. White
This talk delves into the topic of our latest book, Culture Design: How to build a High-Performing, Resilient Organization With Purpose and give attendees a crash course on how to use the lens of design thinking to teach leaders how to shape a culture that is resilient, powerful, and effective. We combine James D. White’s expert perspective, informed by more than thirty years of operating experience across sectors and in the boardroom, with his daughter Krista White’s millennial perspective of modern workers’ expectations from their company and its culture. Main takeaways include: empathy as an essential skill, how to tie culture to strategy, and what top leaders have done to shape their cultures.
About Krista White
Co-Founder, Culture Design Lab
Krista White is a multi-genre non-fiction author and fiction writer. As a co-founder of Culture Design Lab, her work focuses on research, in-depth interviews, and harnessing her writing and storytelling skills to craft powerful narratives. She collaborates with the team to weave their incredible combined experiences into digestible communications, reports, and publications for Culture Design Lab’s clients. In addition to her work at Culture Design Lab, Krista has consulted with individuals and companies on their strategies for intentional culture design, inclusion, and racial justice. She is also the founder and CEO of Kiki for the Future, a platform for LGBTQIA+ sex education, and recently graduated with her MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) at Sarah Lawrence College. All of her work ultimately centers around her values of liberation, connection, and joy.
About James D. White
Board Chair, Honest Company Executive Chair, Air Protein
James D. White is a transformational leader with over thirty years’ experience as a CEO and operating executive in the consumer products, retail, and restaurant industries, as well as an experienced corporate director and adviser with twenty years of experience on more than fifteen public and private boards.
White currently chairs the board of the Honest Company and is Executive Chair of the startup Air Protein, in addition to several other boards.
As Chair, President, and CEO of Jamba Juice from 2008–2016, he led the successful turnaround and transformation of the company from a made-to-order smoothie shop to a global healthy-lifestyle brand. He has held senior executive positions at Safeway, Gillette, and Nestle Purina PetCare. In 2020, he launched his own firm, Culture Design Lab, to coach, train, and lead CEOs, boards, Chief People Officers, and Chief Diversity Officers on operationalizing his diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) playbook. White is regularly featured in the media for his work, including Harvard Business Review, The Mentor, Shark Tank, the Wall Street Journal, the San Francisco Chronicle, Savoy, and Black Enterprise.
