John Sullivan
VP of Kao Consumer Care Americas Region
When John Sullivan, VP of Kao Consumer Care Americas Region, first engaged with Culture Conscious, the Consumer Care group was merging multiple departments into one cohesive unit, bringing together team members from Canada, the U.S., Latin America, Australia, and Asia. “Our goal was to not just be a team on an org chart but to truly operate as one,” John shared, “moving faster and achieving innovative results that raised the bar on what a team could achieve.” The process with Culture Conscious became a unifying journey, where team members learned more about themselves and each other, building strong bonds, empathy, and momentum.
Insightful, Adaptable, and Impactful Programs
Having previously participated in DISC, StrengthsFinder, and Myers-Briggs programs, John noted that the approach and results from the Culture Conscious engagement have been very different. “It has been the most insightful, adaptable, and impactful set of programs I have participated in,” he explained. Culture Conscious’s Enneagram Essentials and Team Essentials programs gave the team a common language and framework to discuss motivations, values, and approaches to risk and decision-making. “We all came away with a much clearer understanding of each other's core motivations,” he said, “and what really made each other tick.”
Accelerating Decision-Making for Innovative Results
One of the team’s challenges involved the need for a new e-commerce site—a project that required speed and agility rather than traditional, time-consuming processes. John explained, “As we learned with Culture Conscious, some Enneagram types prioritize perfection and adherence to process, while others focus more on speed and agility. Culture Conscious helped us understand these and many other differences and align around them.” This alignment, he noted, had a direct impact on the team’s decision-making speed, leading to the completion of an unconventional e-commerce project that increased the five-year NPV by roughly $10 million.
Sustaining Values Through Reflection Practices
After the workshops, John implemented Culture Conscious recommended practices to keep the team’s learning alive, such as using their bi-weekly meetings as a time for reflection. “In each meeting, we spend a few minutes answering a question about our values—like how each person has embodied risk-taking or collaboration,” he explained. “This has kept the core values we developed together at the center of our work.”
Enhancing Communication with Culture Conscious Tools
John also found Culture Conscious insights helpful in his communications with people outside the team who hadn’t yet been through the program. “I’ll preface conversations with phrases like, ‘In the spirit of our team value of risk-taking…,’ which lets people know I’m focused on growth, not critique.” These tools, he emphasized, “have been invaluable, allowing us to bring understanding, empathy, and alignment into every part of our work.”