Mapping Ties: Stories of Togetherness at Work

Today I’m joined by Travis Tennessen, director of the Center for Community Learning at Western Washington University and writer of The Joy of Convening newsletter.Travis has spent more than 10 years helping people create spaces where communities can come together, share what they’re working on, and learn from each other. His work is rooted in a simple idea: when people feel heard, supported, and connected, better conversations happen.In this episode, we talk about how to bring people together in a way that feels real and useful. Travis shares how he designs group experiences, why trust matters so much, and how small tools can make a big difference in helping people open up.We also talk about “Talk Tiles,” a simple conversation tool built around eight themes: feelings, possibilities, actions, changes, support, identity, importance, and place. These prompts help people reflect, share, and listen without making the conversation feel forced.This conversation is for anyone who brings people together, whether you work with a community, run events, lead a team, teach, organize, or care about creating better spaces for people to connect.

In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Preben Arentoft, Ben Dunn, and Michael Bang about what it really took to build a community of agile coaches within LEGO Group. I asked how the community first came together, what helped it grow, and what kept people coming back.They also shared why they chose to keep things simple at the outset rather than over-structure the community, and how that helped it stay relevant as it expanded across teams and locations. To keep it real, they also shared what worked, what didn’t, and what they learned along the way about helping people connect, learn from each other, and improve how they work.I hope you’ll love it as much as I did.

In this episode, I talked with Nathalie Pannequin , a consultant in ESG, corporate culture, and employer branding, and the former Global Head of ESG at Ogury, about her transition from marketing to ESG leadership. If ESG doesn’t sound familiar to you, that’s ok, I had to look it up too. It stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance, which is a framework companies and investors use to evaluate how responsibly a business operates—not just how profitable it is.In this conversation, we explore the transition from centrally organized campaigns to volunteer-led Employee Resource Groups, and how that can empower employees to take ownership and drive meaningful change within their organizations.We talked about:Why community matters even more in uncertain timesHow small actions can spark lasting changeThe power of employee-led initiativesCreating safe spaces for conversations that aren’t always easyEnjoy!

Lata Hamilton is a Change Leadership and Confidence mentor, author of the best-selling book “Pioneer Your Career Change”, and the creator of the “Leading Successful Change” program. Lata has worked with some of Australia’s biggest companies on changes that have impacted over 100,000 people, operating model changes impacting thousands, global cultural transformations, and digital transformation that is literally changing the way that we work. Lata also won Best Independent Consultant in the Change Awards in 2025, and speaks about the future of work and career in the age of AI.Lata highlights the need for early and strategic engagement with change champions, the value of two-way feedback, and the importance of maintaining these networks for continuous improvement and community building long after the formal change process has been rolled out and implemented. Read Lata’s “Pioneer Your Career Change” book: www.latahamilton.com/pioneer See Lata’s website and course: www.latahamilton.com

Welcome back, community builders! I’m your host, Anamaria Dorgo. Today, I’m joined by Cory Welsh to talk about the power of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) for women in the workplace.Cory is a Senior Enablement Lead at LinkedIn and the Global Co-Lead of the Member Engagement pillar for [email protected] this episode, you’ll hear how LinkedIn’s longest-running ERG is structured, what drives its purpose, and how a volunteer-led initiative can create real impact across a global company.Cory also introduces a powerful idea: the Vision to Values Strategy. It’s a simple way to keep a community focused by tying its work back to the company’s bigger vision. At LinkedIn, that means empowering and inspiring women to grow their careers while staying authentic.The strategy starts with a mission statement and breaks down into three clear pillars: building skills, strengthening the community, and amplifying impact. These guide the ERG’s work and ensure every effort connects to LinkedIn’s mission and values.Enjoy the conversation! 

Today I am in conversation with a special guest. Beth West is the Director of the  Patricia A. Tietjen, MD Teaching Academy at Nuvance Health. Beth discusses how communities of practice are used to enhance clinician education, foster engagement, and build connections among healthcare professionals.This episode is packed with practical tips, and lots of lessons learned during the several iterations of the community between 2021 and today. Beth has so much wisdom to share, and her commitment to continuous improvement and learning is nothing short of amazing! I recommend you grab a pen and paper for this one! 

Today, Anamaria is chatting with Daniel Prial and Sebastian Auris from Umicore. Daniel is the Communications and Community Expert and part of the Digital Workplace Team, and Sebastian is a Chemical Technician and one of the Digital Heroes, the community we explore today. Digital Heroes is a change agents community of about 300 colleagues around the world who are helping their coworkers navigate the maze of their organizations digital workplace. We talk about the need for the community, the early days, and how it evolved over time, and linger on the community dynamics, with its challenges and opportunities. If you are building an internal community and would like to share that story with our listeners, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠please fill out this form⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and we will reach out to you.

For this conversation, Anamaria is joined by Andrew Scullion, a senior Ruby Developer, and staff developer at Fullscript. Andrew’s story highlights an important message when it comes to building internal learning communities: designing a low barrier, straightforward, recurring learning session with your peers, has the potential to create ripples across a function. Not all communities need to come with a big strategy, massive resources or complexity. Some communities are small, intimate, real, and focused on the things that matter to their members in the moment. Andrew shares what motivates him to hold space for experimentation and learning for himself, and his colleagues, and explains how anyone in the organization can create an approachable, sustainable mini-community.If you are building an internal community and would like to share that story with our listeners, ⁠⁠⁠⁠please fill out this form⁠⁠⁠⁠, and we will reach out to you.

Anamaria is talking to Alla Zhdan, a Community Consultant and Community Builder, as she is taking us behind the scenes of the Project Managers Community she led for four years at SoftServe. We went into details on how Alla found and engaged the 15 Community Leaders for the 15 locations where the company was present. Expect a step-by-step, detailed process in her work, and make sure you have a pen and paper. There were lots of wisdom nuggets shared!Enjoy!⁠Connect with Alla on Linkedin.If you are building an internal community and would like to share that story with our listeners, ⁠⁠⁠please fill out this form⁠⁠⁠, and we will reach out to you.

We're excited to bring you behind the scenes of a community of practice within academia. Our guest today is Danielle Taschereau Mamers, the Managing Director of the Critical Digital Humanities Initiative. We are exploring a community of humanities faculty members who are doing research around questions of social justice and they are doing that using digital tools.This is a story about a group of colleagues that started having lunch together turned into a grassroots campus network, turned into colorful community with a rich learning ecosystem. Danielle shares the initiatives that her and her small team have enabled for the community members, and the impact they saw as a result. Enjoy!Connect with Danielle on LinkedIn, and explore more of her work.If you are building an internal community and would like to share that story with our listeners, ⁠⁠please fill out this form⁠⁠, and we will reach out to you.