Unlearning Book Club: Creating Culture with Jyoti Jani

What if we re-imagined leadership through empathy, creativity, and systemic thinking? I know for some would-be leaders this sounds antithetical, but hear me out. There is substantial data to prove that you can still build great products, meet profit goals, drive innovation AND not be a dick while doing it.

So why haven't more leaders got on board?

According to McKinsey, organizations with strong cultures and cultural diversity outperform their peers by 33% in financial performance. Gallup data shows that high engagement correlates with 23% greater profitability and 78% lower absenteeism. And yet many of the values-driven leaders I speak with at Town Halls or after delivering a keynote tell me they are struggling to connect with people at work. They feel uncomfortable navigating emotionally charged conversations and do not know how to motivate their increasingly disconnected managers.

On this month's Unlearning Book Club I sat down with Jyoti Jani, author of Creating Culture and Founder of Spille:Play to help us explore these questions. With over 20+ years of experience in leadership development, workforce strategy, and creative facilitation, I was desperate to learn from Jyoti about her successes and failures in this work. I wanted to know why some leaders choose to grow and adapt, while others choose to stay mired in outdated and broken patterns.

As expected, Jyoti did not disappoint! We cover everything from the dynamics of power, emotion, and creativity within our systems to the influence of our home lives on our work personas and capacity for relationship.

Watch here >

Creating Culture

by Jyoti Jani

Culture determines everything we create. It’s an overarching system which shapes how decisions are made, how power flows, and how people feel every day at work. In a time when trust is low, burnout is high, and retention is costly, Creating Culture offers leaders a roadmap for sustainable transformation.

Inside the Book, You’ll Discover:

• The neuroscience of trust, creativity, and psychological safety

• How to shift from control to co-creation in leadership

• Practical tools for feedback, team repair, and shared leadership

• The business case for investing in emotional intelligence and play

• How to operationalize values so they shape real decisions—not just posters on a wall