An organization’s workplace culture represents an opportunity to align with the communities it serves. In this episode of People and Strategy, DeRetta Rhodes, chief culture officer at the Atlanta Braves discusses how to enhance workplace culture — from the importance of giving employees a voice to how community involvement can create a sense of belonging.
An organization’s workplace culture represents an opportunity to align with the communities it serves. In this episode of People and Strategy, DeRetta Rhodes, chief culture officer at the Atlanta Braves discusses how to enhance workplace culture — from the importance of giving employees a voice to how community involvement can create a sense of belonging.
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Mo Fathelbab:
Welcome to today's episode of People and Strategy. I'm Mo Fathelbab, president of International Facilitators Organization and I'm honored to be here with you all today. People and Strategy is the podcast from the SHRM Executive Network, the premier network for executives and thought leaders in the field of human resources. People and Strategy is the podcast delivering in-depth conversations with HR executives and people leaders to advance the field of human resources by providing engagement and thought leadership to senior executives.
In today's episode, we'll be devoting time to the topic of workplace culture. For this conversation, I'm excited to be joined by DeRetta Rhodes, Chief Culture Officer at the Atlanta Braves. Welcome DeRetta.
DeRetta Rhodes:
Thank you, Mo. I'm so glad to be here with you today.
Mo Fathelbab:
So glad to be with you. So DeRetta, you have a very special and unique role. I would love to hear the journey of how you got to this role.
DeRetta Rhodes:
That's a great question. So a lot of times people are like, "Oh, did you play baseball? Were you always in the sports?" It's an interesting story for me. I actually worked for Turner Broadcasting at the time of which the Atlanta Braves were being sold, or had been sold to Liberty Media in 2007. I started working there in 2008, and at the time that executive team was still there, and so they were doing a lot of the due diligence that happens when, typically, a divestiture occurs. So I got to know a lot of those leaders at that particular time. So that was 2008.
Let's fast-forward. What happened is I got a phone call. This phone call happened about 2018, and it was a conversation with a leader that I had worked with before at Turner Broadcasting, and she had indicated that they were looking for someone to head up HR for the Atlanta Braves. I took the phone call, I had the conversation. The good news is that a lot of those leaders still either remembered me, or I'm sure they made phone calls about me, to figure out my style and figure out what I do and how I do human resources. That's the reason I got to the Atlanta Braves. Now, the story behind that is that I was a baseball mom for several years. My sons played baseball from the age of five until they graduated from high school.
Mo Fathelbab:
You must be their rock star.
DeRetta Rhodes:
Well, I am today. I didn't start out as a rock star, but now they take my calls and they call me unsolicited. I knew the play of the sports of baseball, I didn't understand and know the business of baseball until I started with the Atlanta Braves.
Mo Fathelbab:
Yeah. Then you became Chief Culture Officer. So did you create that position?
DeRetta Rhodes:
That's funny. Actually, my CEO created the position. When I came into the position, it was SVP of human resources. Interestingly enough, in 2019, as everyone knows from that standpoint, we went through interesting dynamics when it came to 2020. At that point in time, my role began to be much more specific about how do we do specific things within the organization, with leaders that had never experienced doing furloughs or had never experienced doing layoffs, or had never experienced what a work stoppage looked like. My opportunity to be very close with my executive team and to really work with leaders, on muscles that they may not have ever had to use before, became very critical. As that happened and as that evolved, my position then elevated to chief people capital officer. I was only having the vertical of human resources.
A year after that, my CEO and I were having a conversation about other things that really align themselves when you talk about culture. So when you speak to culture, it speaks to community, it speaks to our foundation that we're very involved with within the community, and it also speaks to communications and PR. At that point in time, he had a conversation of expanding my role to chief culture officer, and he and I had a great conversation, because I didn't even name it my CEO named it. The thought process is that there is an alignment of what culture is, not only for staff, but for fans, for community partners and everything else that you do within the world of baseball and the community that you serve. So that's how I got there.
Mo Fathelbab:
I love it. But just practically speaking, where does the Chief Culture Officer fit on the org chart relative to the CEO and the CHRO?
DeRetta Rhodes:
That's a great question. So my role is actually rolled up into one. I'm both the CHRO and the Chief Culture Officer and I report to the CEO. It is a critical position, my perspective, that you do have that particular seat next to the CFO, the Chief Legal Officer, considering things that have to be done from a strategic standpoint and the initiatives that have to be carried out. I guess I could say that I'm kind of a CHRO on steroids. I don't know if that's the best way to describe it. Then the opportunity that my role sits right under the CEO and I report directly to him.
Mo Fathelbab:
When you became Chief Culture Officer, was it your task to change the culture, to keep the culture? How are you curating the culture?
DeRetta Rhodes:
That's a great question. I think it really wasn't about changing the culture just because of the fact that when people hear the Atlanta Braves, they know the brand. The good news for us is that I can talk to people about the Atlanta Braves and they could have lived in Chicago all their lives and know what the Atlanta Braves is. What happened is more of what was going on within our business, because we were then gearing up to be spun off to be a publicly held organization, which is what we are now.
Last summer, Liberty Media made an announcement and they spun us off. A lot of that had to do with the fact that how do we structurally want to make sure that we kept what our brand truly is? I would say to you that it's more around enhancement, it's more around making sure that we're building what we said we were going to be and what we are, to not only our fans, but to our community partners, the fact that people want to come to the Atlanta Braves and come to a game. The other interesting thing for us is that we are not situated, like most baseball teams, we sit on a plot of land that is also called Battery development. So within the Battery development, it's an eat, play, work environment. We have all of that as well. So even if we're not playing a game, the whole ideal is that you would want to come to the Battery development, the home of the Atlanta Braves, to come eat, to come see a concert, any of those things that associate people with sports and entertainment.
Mo Fathelbab:
That sounds lovely. So you've talked about how some aspects of a sports team might be different from an HR perspective, as to being an HR leader at IBM as an example. Other than community and the team itself, what else might be different? I'm particularly interested in athletes. I'm imagining athletes may not be the normal employees at a company. How does that play out for you?
DeRetta Rhodes:
So it's interesting, when I think about my experience at Turner Broadcasting, we dealt with talent. So our talent would be our broadcasters, those who were in the field specifically at CNN or at any one of our other networks. To me, it's the same analogous that they're our talent. When you think about that, they're the talent that actually everyone sees within the confines of what the Atlanta Braves is.
What's interesting and what makes it different, just because I have had other positions in HR, such as in nonprofits or financial services, what's different about sports I think is the actual connection that we have with people. People have a fine understanding of who their team is. So if you ever speak to somebody about what their high school team was or what their college team is or what their national team is, they're very aligned with what that is. What you find is that there is an energy and a space which you have the opportunity to really impact how people feel about a sport, how they feel about the culture that the sport creates.
It's interesting, we now consider ourselves as Braves country. Not only do we sit in Atlanta, but we have other states and cities that consider us as their team or their hometown team. The familiarity and the community that that creates is a little different than other organizations. When someone comes to either The Battery or someone comes to a game, it's about how they feel; when they walk within the doors, when they get their ticket scanned, when they have someone that's a host that they've known every time they come to a game that's walked them to their seats, what that feeling is. It is about community and feeling like you're a part.
Mo Fathelbab:
Yeah. I want to shift to teamwork for a minute.
DeRetta Rhodes:
Sure.
Mo Fathelbab:
Yeah. One of the things that we often hear, and we've heard it here at SHRM24, when we attended that, is that when somebody isn't a cultural fit, when somebody isn't playing along with the company's values, there are different ways for dealing with that and sometimes it requires some tough action. Are you able to behave the same way with the athletes who are superstars, as you are with somebody else on your staff?
DeRetta Rhodes:
I would say to you that we hope that the clubhouse emulates what we're trying to emulate within the office. I think you recognize and see that when things happen with the players. The interesting thing for us, for the players, is that we actually focus with them, with the general manager and with that particular team on making sure they're paid. Also, making sure that there's an environment created where they feel like that they are being supported. A lot of what they handle with, in terms of how they are considered for their behavior, it's all handled by the general manager of the team.
What I will say to you is that if anybody has any experience with Brian Schnitt, he is an amazing, amazing leader and has been with the Atlanta franchise for many, many, many years, and he sets the tone. With him setting the tone, they know exactly how they're supposed to show up every single time for every single game. I think what you find is that we try to make sure that when we talk about having a championship team, we talk about what that looks like too, is having a championship team within the office. We make sure that there's parallels of what that looks like. We do a lot of engagement with the players, because understand all of them are on contract, they're under a player's union so that kind of affiliation looks a little different.
What I will say is that that part of the organization has made it very clear that we're all one. We do a lot of engagement with the players. A lot of them have their own foundations and they work with our foundation in terms of what they're doing in the community. You have found that what our leaders have created on the field and with our players is something that then transfers into the front office. In terms of determining and how do you relate with behavioral issues, those leaders make them just as accountable as we make our staff just as accountable.
Mo Fathelbab:
Thank you. Great answer. When you talk about the effectiveness of teams, whether it's the players or whether it is other staff members, what are some of those threads, what are some of those rituals or characteristics that you all look for or try to embody?
DeRetta Rhodes:
I think the biggest thing is that we talk about the values and it starts with the values. Any of us, that work in this space, know that values is about the behavior with which individuals show up. It's around collaboration, communication, what are the things that we're doing from community involvement? It's all of those things that we think are critical for individuals to want to come and be a part, to feel welcomed, to feel like they belong in that environment. And so we start there.
It's interesting. We just finished up on looking at our mission and we had to really think about reimagining it, because 12 years ago it looked very different. 12 years ago, we sat in just a single space stadium and now we have an enterprise of not just a ballpark, but also of The Battery development and all of those individuals that are involved in that, and the retail side of that too, and then all of our corporate sponsors that we have.
What we've realized is that we have created an enterprise with which, not only do we need to show up with our values, within the building, but we need to make sure that those values are espoused on a game day, they're espoused when we're doing a concert, they're espoused when someone decides that they want to come and celebrate at one of our restaurants. It's also espoused in the other corporate organizations that have their offices in our locations and the hotels that are also on our site. We realize a lot of what we've talked about with values, it has to be that it's not just within the four walls, it has to do with the fact that it is everywhere that we experience.
Mo Fathelbab:
Yeah. Thank you. I read an article in which you were being interviewed, where you talk about the importance of your voice and fierce conversations. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
DeRetta Rhodes:
Yes. I will tell you, and as I've grown in my career, one of the things that I did not use a lot of early in my career was my voice. I didn't understand the power of my voice. And so now we try to ensure that we create an environment where people are able to use their voice.
Interestingly enough, in 2020, we did a project which we called Voices. It was an opportunity, as we were going through all of the things that we were going through in 2020, the pandemic, a lot of the social injustices, and we really wanted to make sure that we were hearing from our staff. And so we created a platform for individuals to come in, have conversations, do different type of groups that they could speak, and speak very freely about what their concerns were, whether it was external, whether it was about things that were going on with them or whether it was about the organization.
I think what I have found throughout my career, what has developed me is when someone has been very direct and specific with me about feedback, when someone has been very real with me and transparent about things that I needed to focus on. I want to ensure that we provide that opportunity and that leaders are learning how to be able to do that and how not to be afraid of conversations, albeit they may be difficult, but knowing that once you get past that what it creates, in terms of camaraderie, what it creates in terms of the ability to work together in collaboration.
Mo Fathelbab:
Trust?
DeRetta Rhodes:
And trust, which to me is the paramount of that. We were able to build that. From there, we did an engagement survey, and from there we built different avenues from training, from individual contributors who have an opportunity to also speak. We also built a platform so people can come in and have conversations with leaders. We also built a buddy system for individuals to be able to have that type of connectivity, because the importance of someone being able to use their voice makes them feel as if they're valued. When you're able to connect that two, that is when someone feels like they're a part, that they belong and they are welcomed in the environment, although they may be different than anyone else that's sitting there. So that's what was very important for us. For me, personally, I won't say that it's my mantle, but I will say that it is something that I think is very critical for people to be able to do.
Mo Fathelbab:
Is there an initiative of which you're most proud in terms of having an impact on the culture at the Atlanta Braves?
DeRetta Rhodes:
I think the one that I realized was the most impactful is when I got there, in 2019, there were conversations that individuals would come and have with me and they would say, "I'm ready to start a family, and I don't think I can start a family here, because of the fact that there's 81 games at home that I have to be at, the times of the games, things of that nature." It dawned on me that there was an opportunity for us to look at what type of things were we doing for our staff to be able to be comfortable, to make personal family decisions about what they needed to do, whether they wanted to grow their family, whether they were dealing with other things such as aging parents.
We put a working group together. In that working group, they put together a recommendation of us actually having a parenting program. In that parenting program, we have a maternity leave, a paternity leave. Also, if you're making the decision to adopt or foster, you have the opportunity to do a leave at that particular time. We also created a wellness room, because at one point in time we didn't have that type of space for individuals. It wasn't a wellness room just for mothers, it was a wellness room that because we saw where, at the time, individuals were needing to make telemed calls. Telemed calls was not something that you did five years ago, maybe not even three years ago. Now there's definitely insurgence of that. This space gave individuals an opportunity to be able to just have a respite to make phone calls they need to make, to sit in a room if they need to. In other cases, we've had individuals that have had illnesses that needed to go there and just either do what they needed to do in a very quiet, restful zen-type space.
What I have found is that when we first started it, first of all, people were afraid to go to it, because they were like, "Is anyone knowing I'm coming?" We really had to start talking about the fact that no, that's not the case, that when you sign up for it, it's confidential. No one knows, you get a code. We've seen where we've gotten really great feedback from individuals. With both what we did for our parenting plan, we also realized that there was a need for us to have a working parents BRG.
We have a working parents BRG that comes together and they do different programming across the enterprise for whether it's family day, whether it's them bringing in speakers to talk about dealing with teenagers, or dealing with newborns, or dealing with aging parents. But they have been able to come together. What I have found is that there's been a strength in people saying, "I know that I can come here, and I can work and I can have a balance to have a family too." I think that's the one that I'm the most proud of, and I can't even say it's mine. I got a group of people together that talked through what are the things that really needed to happen for people to feel like they could do this and that they could be a part of an organization, that not only did they want to grow their career, they could grow their family. I just help give them space to be able to do that and to put that together. From that, we've just had great success from that.
Mo Fathelbab:
I was about to say, you created this space that made it happen. Absolutely. You used the term BRG. Same as ERG?
DeRetta Rhodes:
Same as ERG. So let me tell you, it's funny that you asked that question. I get the argument within my organization that we need to say it's a BRG because it's aligned with the business. Some of our employees are like, "Well, it's an ERG because it's about the employees." We interchange BRG and ERG, so it's either one. They know that it's a group of people that come together and work in these particular initiatives.
Mo Fathelbab:
And B stands for Braves?
DeRetta Rhodes:
B stands for business.
Mo Fathelbab:
Business. Got it. Got it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. What mistakes do you see organizations make as they try to impact culture?
DeRetta Rhodes:
I think the biggest mistakes organization make is that you cannot impact culture without giving voice to the people that are in the culture. If you're making decisions and you've not gotten the right individuals in the room to have the conversation, that's the challenge you typically have. I think we stub our toe, or we have a lot of backlash because you roll something out and who have you gotten that are the constituents or the ones that are the stakeholders that actually either have to carry it out, or have to live it, or have to do it. I think that's a huge challenge. By the way, not saying I haven't made that mistake before, because clearly I'm talking about it very intimately, so clearly I've made that mistake before. I think that because you are thinking, "Oh, we know this is right for the organization, we know this is what we want to do," but if you do it in an echo chamber, what you end up getting is not the results you thought you would.
Mo Fathelbab:
You don't get buy-in.
DeRetta Rhodes:
That's exactly right.
Mo Fathelbab:
Yeah.
DeRetta Rhodes:
The challenge that leaders have is that it takes a little bit more time to have to do that, but I think the end results, you see the fruits of what you've done as the end results, as opposed to having to go back and fix or having to repair or having to rethink how you did something because you may not have brought in the right constituents to make the right decisions.
Mo Fathelbab:
DeRetta Rhodes, what a pleasure. Thank you so much for being with us today.
DeRetta Rhodes:
Thank you. It was such a pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Mo Fathelbab:
Yes. Thank you. Thank you, thank you. Thank you all for listening and watching. You can follow the People and Strategy Podcast wherever you got your podcasts. You can also please give us reviews, because reviews help greatly with the visibility of those podcasts so other people could watch them. Finally, find all our podcasts on our website SHRM.org/podcasts.
Thank you for listening, and have a great day.