An organization's cultural intention should be present in what team members and customers see and experience every day. The presence of this intention should be evident in the organization's well-communicated purpose, systems, processes and practices. It should include re-examining every single step of traditional HR (recruiting, interviewing, selecting, onboarding, promoting and firing). Failing to do so will result in a failure to achieve the desired culture.
In this paired keynote session, Menlonians Dan Roman and Richard Sheridan will highlight Menlo Innovations' journey to joy within their culture from both the perspectives of a front-line worker and a CEO. The talk will explore the difference between default culture (common) and intentional culture (rare), diving into the necessary connection between the intention of a culture and the processes, systems and practices that underpin it. By the end of the session, you will learn ways to identify practices that help create the culture your company wants.
About Dan Roman and Richard Sheridan
Dan Roman is a senior leader at Menlo Innovations and works predominantly as a software developer on projects that range from ERP systems for manufacturers to high-tech medical instruments to software for space researchers. Roman loves to share the Menlo story and is quite a storyteller himself. Roman has a particular passion for manufacturing and loves when the projects he is working on help companies improve their manufacturing results. 
Richard Sheridan is the founder, CEO and chief storyteller of Menlo Innovations. He is also the author of "Joy, Inc. - How We Built a Workplace People Love" and "Chief Joy Officer - How Great Leaders Elevate Human Energy and Eliminate Fear." Sheridan has spoken around the world about creating an intentional culture focused on "the business value of joy." His career in the software industry spans decades, and the first half was filled with enough misery that he was thinking of getting out entirely. Back then, he had an all-consuming thought: things could be better, much better. He realized that the problems the software industry faced were not technical but human. His life hasn't been the same since. Inspired by the Invention Factory of Thomas Edison, originally located in Menlo Park, NJ, Sheridan and the team at Menlo Innovations strive to "end human suffering in the world as it relates to technology" for the teams that build it, the people who use it and the companies that pay for it. Menlo's unique culture draws thousands of people annually who travel to see it operate and learn from Sheridan and the Menlonians. 
