Dr. Waajida L. Small

▶0:00HostWelcome to the Built by People podcast, where we share the stories and insights of the world's top HR leaders. Join us as we dive deep into the minds of HR executives, uncovering their strategies, challenges, and triumphs in shaping today's workforce. I'm excited to welcome Wajida to the Built by People podcast. Wajida, thank you so much for joining us today. And as a starting question, I always have to ask if you could share a little bit more about your career journey.

▶0:47GuestAnd first, thank you for having me, Dave. I have been in human resources my entire career since graduating from undergrad. I won't say how many years, but it actually started out— I started out as an intern in my sophomore year, and shortly before I graduated undergrad, I'd had an opportunity to submit my resume to the same organization that I did my internship. Didn't hear from them for a while, and they called me, and my first full-time job out of college was in human resources. And so this has been my life. I've mostly been in public and nonprofit sectors, mission-driven organizations, which is at the heart of what I do. I don't think I would work for any other type of organization.

▶1:38HostRajita, how did you identify the need for a unique culture-building approach at Trinity? And what specific challenges were you trying to address with your ways of being framework? Can you talk a little bit about what that Ways of Being framework is?

▶1:53GuestSure. So when I actually got to Trinity, they were in the process of finalizing values. They had done a series of charrettes with the congregation, the community members that Trinity serves, to determine what they wanted, what we called at the time, the core values to be. Oftentimes values are associated with leadership. And in 2020, we had a transition in our senior leadership of the church. And so while the core values were there, like in most institutions, core values tend to become, I'll say, weaponized, if you will. It's like, you aren't living the values, or are you demonstrating these values? And that's not really what we wanted. That's not what the new leadership wanted for our organization. It's how are we as people, how are we serving the community? So if you don't know, Trinity is an Episcopal church, so we are a religious institution, and just the way we see things is a little different. We do God's work, and so how is it that we want to be as people to ensure that we are providing the service that we need for those who are in need? And so as we started to look at what we wanted the culture to be, our rector post-Easter 2023 had talked about what that kind of Holy Week was. And in his description, he essentially described what the ways of being are. So it's giving the best of yourselves, being in service of others, and bringing people together into community to share God's love, to feel God's love. The interesting thing is working for Trinity, you don't have to be a Presbyterian, you don't have to be a Christian. We have people of all faiths. And so it was, how do we translate this in a way that is applicable for everyone? And at the end of the day, it really didn't have to be translated beyond that. We are always giving the best of ourselves. We are acting in the service of others regardless of the role that you have. Was helping people understand at all levels of the organization how their work contributes to, to our culture. The values are single words that sometimes are used to dictate a particular behavior. But with the ways of being, this is how we want people to be all of the time, regardless of whether or not they're in the workplace or outside of the workplace. When you think about people who genuinely care about others who are mission-driven, who are service-focused. That's who they are as people.

▶4:59HostCan you walk us through the process of developing and implementing your culture initiative at Trinity, including any resistance or obstacles you encountered along the way?

▶5:08GuestSure. It was quite a lengthy process. And so was this— we had to reintroduce the culture because everyone was so used to the values, even though anytime anyone heard the core values, the response you got was like this long, deep sigh. And so it was transitioning people, one, away from what they were used to, and then two, from the actual values, but then shifting their mindset in terms of what they understood as a value.. And in most organizations you have a set of words with definitions. And so how do we get away from a set of words with definitions? Because we had questions of what are the new values going to be? And it was, we're not going to have any new values. The values don't demonstrate who we are as an organization and how we want our staff to be what we want them to embody all of the time. And so we did work with a consultant. We had focus groups, we had conversations with senior leadership, we had conversations with managers, we have quarterly manager meetings. And so for 3 quarters, a part of the quarterly manager meetings were discussions around the ways of being. What does this look like in action? How are we having conversations with our staff? How are we actually integrating the ways of being into our performance management. We began introducing the ways of being into our performance management process in 2024. We still have conversations around the ways of being. We're doing more work at the senior leadership level to ensure that we are leading by example, we are embodying the ways of being. We're still having conversations with the staff. I don't think that there was any resistance in the true definition of what resistance is. It was more of, this is different, help me understand, what does this mean? Are we going to be graded on these core values? Is it going to be in performance management? Are we going to— do we have to have specific goals around it? I think with our training sessions, our sessions with our consultant, as we started to build out the framework, we have what the definitions are, examples of what the ways of being are. What does it mean to give the best of yourself? Here are some examples. What does it mean to bring people together into community, etc.? And it's been received very well, actually, because at the end of the day, this is who we were. We just hadn't articulated

▶8:09Hostit. How do you balance creating a faith-based organizational culture while still ensuring inclusivity for employees who may not share the same religious beliefs?

▶8:20GuestThat's an interesting question, and we get that question with candidates. Do I have to be an Episcopalian? And of course the answer is no. I think there are a couple of things that help with the inclusive culture. The Episcopal Church in general is, at least in my experience and in my opinion, inherently inclusive. And so when you think of other Christian religions, there's issues with can priests be married, can women be priests, etc. And so historically, the Episcopal Church has always been inclusive. There have always been priests who are women. You have always had the option of getting married, if you will. And so while they follow a traditional, I'll say, Christian path because it is a Christian religion, at the core of it is literally God's love and the openness and what that means. I think specifically with Trinity, given its history, where it's located, the people that we serve, We serve everyone under the sun who needs, regardless of where they are. And so our workforce is very representative of the population that we serve in terms of, again, the ways of being and the, I will say, personal core values that people have. You ask 99% of our organization why they want to work for Trinity, It is because of the work that Trinity does, the lives that Trinity changes with the services that they provide, with the grants that they provide. And so I would say the biggest challenge, it's less of a challenge for inclusivity and more of a challenge of the looking at the organization as an institution rather than just a church, because we have a very large footprint. And so it's more of finding the balance between the work that we do for the church and operating as an organization.

▶10:45HostVegeta, what impact has your culture initiative had on Trinity's ability to serve your community?

▶10:51GuestSo we've been doing that before the implementation of the Ways of Being. I think with the implementation of the Ways of Being and the shift in the culture, we have gotten better at helping everyone at all levels see the connection that their work has to the work that we do with the community. And so oftentimes when you are an accounting clerk, you're not actually feeding the homeless or clothing the people or providing resources for the unhoused. And so it's very difficult for you to see the connection that you have. However, when you look at the ways of being, giving the best of ourselves, being in service to the community, bringing people together, that work you do, we can't send out a grant, right, without you processing a piece of financial information. And you know that grant is going to an organization who provides housing for the homeless. Or provides money for a food bank to purchase food to assist the food insecure. And so again, part of it is the mind shift and thinking about who you are, the work that you do, the organization that you work for, and really having a deeper connection to the work. So I think for me, that's been something that I felt we struggled with for a long time because it was always, how are we engaging in this particular behavior versus who we are? How do we connect to the work and what is the impact that we have? And helping folks understand that regardless of the job, that you have an impact on the work that Trinity does.

▶12:50HostWhat parting advice would you like to share with our

▶12:55Guestcommunity? I would say that, or my advice would be, always look inside. Yes, we use the term values, but what do you personally value? What kind of impact that you want to have? Who do you want to be inside and outside of the workplace? That for me has always dictated my leadership and how I lead myself, how I lead my team, how I show up for my organization, just really being true to that person because that is what is going to guide you to always be present and do good work.

▶13:38HostThank you so much for joining us today on the Built By People podcast.

▶13:41GuestIt was a pleasure. Thank you for having me.