In episode 295 of the IDEAS+LEADERS Podcast, I’m joined by Laura Kriska, Harvard Business Review contributor, TEDx speaker, and author of The Business of WE. Laura has spent over 30 years working with global organizations, helping leaders close the “us vs. them” gaps that quietly undermine trust, collaboration, and performance.

We talk about why division inside organizations is growing across cultures, generations, functions, and ways of working and what leaders often fail to see until it starts affecting results. Laura shares practical, research-backed insights from her work and her recent Harvard Business Review article on collaboration, showing how small, everyday behaviors can rebuild trust faster than most people expect.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How “us vs. them” thinking shows up in teams and why it’s more common than we think
• The subtle ways leaders unintentionally create division
• What actually builds trust in today’s hybrid and global workplaces
• Why language, goals, and resource decisions shape team dynamics
• Simple shifts that can transform collaboration almost immediately

This is a thoughtful and practical conversation on moving from awareness to action—and building what Laura calls a true “WE” culture inside organizations.

You can connect with Laura here: https://www.laurakriska.com/

Thank you for joining me on this episode of IDEAS+LEADERS. If you enjoyed this episode, please share, subscribe and review so that more people can enjoy the podcast on Apple https://apple.co/3fKv9IH or Spotify https://sptfy.com/Nrtq.