Unpacked: Culture Chronicles Podcast

Ep. 5 – Challenging Norms: The Intersection of Work and Society with Kella Auld

In this conversation, Danielle Marshall speaks with Mykella Auld, social scientist, educator, and co-founder of Odyssey Alliance and The Work Well Studio. Together, they explore how organizational culture is shaped through learning, leadership practices, and the unspoken systems that guide behavior in workplaces, schools, and society. Mykella brings a multidisciplinary lens grounded in sociology, policy, and lived experience navigating high-control systems earlier in life. The discussion moves through power, emotional expression, data, retention, and the ways institutions often overlook the human side of leadership development. At its core, the episode asks what it takes to build cultures that are not only effective, but also humane, accountable, and sustainable.

You may already feel it in your work: the gap between what organizations say they value and what people actually experience. When culture is left unexamined, it still forms, often in ways that shape who stays, who leaves, and who feels safe enough to speak. This conversation helps you see those patterns more clearly and consider how learning, leadership, and power quietly shape your everyday decisions.