Work in Progress – People & Culture

Bad behavior is often tolerated in the name of “performance,” especially during fast growth. In this episode we sit down with Britt Bargfeldt, VP of Group Talent and HR Development at Stark Group, to challenge that trade-off and show what it looks like to scale results without sacrificing decency. Stark has in recent years grown from 5,000 to 20,000 employees across Northern Europe through major acquisitions, and Britt shares the practical people strategy choices that helped the organization keep moving and keep its standards.
We get specific about how culture becomes measurable: a clear leadership model, engagement survey follow-up, performance talks that include how people thrive, and real consequences when leaders act against values. Britt explains why “decency” is not soft, it is a prerequisite for sustainable performance, retention, and credibility. We also unpack why Stark runs with a small group headquarters, what autonomy really means in practice, and which HR elements stay non-negotiable so data and expectations stay consistent across countries.
Then we go deep on Stark’s leadership development program “Future Fit” designed to close the gap between leading 5,000 and leading 20,000 in a volatile world shaped by AI, economic shifts, and cross-cultural complexity. Expect a candid look at emotional intelligence, trust, leading upward, learning agility, and how to design training that actually sticks through cohorts, coaching, mentorship, and real exposure to the business. Subscribe and share this with a people leader who cares about the “how,” and leave a review with the leadership behavior you think should never be rewarded.
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Calling it HR can quietly shrink your job down to contracts, policies, and paperwork and that’s exactly the trap Nina Carøe wants to break. From Zensai’s Copenhagen office, we sit down with Nina, Chief Human Success Officer and “scale-up evangelist”, to unpack why her team chose the name Human Success, and how a simple shift in language can change what leaders expect, what gets prioritized, and how the people function shows real business value.
We dig into Nina’s path building business credibility in the people space, and how early exposure to revenue, customers, and outcomes shaped her view of modern HR strategy. From there we get practical about the real bottleneck: many organizations have decent people operations and an HRIS, but still can’t scale employee engagement, performance management, alignment, or learning and development beyond spreadsheets and annual rituals. Nina shares how Zensai thinks about making “people signals” visible early, using people analytics responsibly, and connecting emotions and experience to company performance without turning it into a surveillance mindset.
Then we go straight into the future of work: AI is changing product development, sales, marketing, and the internal operating model, which makes workforce planning and forecasting wildly harder. Nina explains how they analyze which roles will change, where skills gaps will appear, and how organizations will flatten when 600 people most likely become 200 people with AI.
We close with sharp advice for people leaders interviewing for new roles: Set clear expectations, assess whether leadership will make you successful and solve the biggest people pain point so your function becomes a need-to-have.
Share this conversation with a people leader you believe will benefit from listening in - in our opinion anyone in a people role will!
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Sustainability stopped being a side project the moment it began shaping risk, resilience, and growth. In this episode we speak with Mette Søs Lassesen, an executive leader and board member with roots in law, the UN, Rambøll and several advisory roles, to unpack why ESG belongs at the center of business strategy and how HR can move it there. From global frameworks to day-to-day decisions, she shows how the conversation has shifted from reporting for regulators to building capabilities that win markets.
We trace the journey from CSR storytelling to investor-driven ESG, the rise of data-heavy reporting, and the EU’s omnibus simplification that gives companies breathing room. Mette explains why that pause is an opportunity, not an exit ramp: time to embed sustainability in operating models, align incentives with responsible outcomes, and turn circularity, decarbonization, and biodiversity into product and service advantages. Boards are already reframing the agenda in terms of risk, value creation, and supply chain resilience, and HR can translate those goals into skills, roles, and behaviors.
You’ll hear concrete ways to hardwire ESG into people systems: hiring for scarce capabilities, upskilling teams, redesigning incentives so innovation and sustainability pay off, and using clear metrics to prove impact. We talk talent attraction and credibility, why purpose must show up in the work itself, and how HR can speak the language of risk and performance to move the sustainability agenda to the center of any business discussion. We also make sense of SDGs, CSRD, and emerging EU rules, focusing on what’s next and what truly matters for the business model.
If you’re ready to move beyond check-the-box reporting and build resilience that lasts, this conversation is your playbook. Subscribe, share with a colleague who owns a piece of the ESG puzzle, and feel free to leave a review!
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Hvad hvis personlig udvikling ikke handler om at vælge en karrierestige, men om at gøre udvikling og læring til en del af hverdagens opgaver?
I denne episode dykker vi ned i initiativet 'SOL' (Styrker og Læring) hos Styrelsen for Grøn Arealomlægning og Vandmiljø – et projekt, der vandt Dansk HR's Pris 2025. Vi taler med en del af teamet bag initiativet og får indsigt i, hvordan de flyttede udvikling ud af kursuslokalet og ind i det daglige arbejde.
Baggrunden for SOL- initiativet var, at der i organisationen blev fremsat et ønske om at kunne tilbyde nogle gennemsigtige karriereveje og udviklingsmuligheder i styrelsen. Fremfor “blot” at rykke på det ønske uden yderligere refleksion,  iværksatte holdet bag det, der blev til SOL,  en grundig analyse af behov og muligheder for udvikling for medarbejderne. Det viste sig, at bedre dialoger, daglig sparring, løbende feedback samt muligheden for at bruge styrker i opgaveløsningen i langt højere grad kunne imødekomme de behov for udvikling, som en moderne styrelse står med, end fastlåste, klassiske karriereveje ville kunne. Med solid data og opbakning fra direktionen skabte HR udviklings-teamet dernæst et fælles sprog, konkrete værktøjer, et træningsmateriale, samt ikke mindst et helt nyt MUS koncept, der mulig gjorde at læring og udvikling fremover kan finde sted i dagligdagen - fremfor “blot” når man tager på kursus eller rykker opad på en karrierestige. 
I episoden beskrives det: 
Hvordan et lineært karriereblik blev erstattet med et fokus på styrker og energi.
Hvordan konkrete værktøjer som styrkekort og energidagbøger kan hjælpe med at spotte udviklingsmuligheder + energidrænere og gøre plads til en bedre opgaveløsning.
Hvad indholdet og filosofien er bag de træninger og workshops, hvor lederne og medarbejderne bliver introduceret til selv at skabe læring i hverdagen.
Hvordan initiativet har skabt en stærkere feedbackkultur og større modstandskraft under omstruktureringer og forandringer.
Hvordan tankegangen nu er integreret i alt fra onboarding af nye medarbejdere til et helt nyt MUS-koncept.
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What if the real competitive edge with AI isn’t faster automation but smarter collaboration? In this episode, we sit down with Professor Jacob Sherson, founding director of the Center for Hybrid Intelligence, to unpack a people-first blueprint that turns generative AI into a true advantage. Instead of chasing “AI-first” hype, Jacob explains how to design workflow assistants, build learning cultures, and create interfaces where humans lead and AI assists. The goal: protecting and amplifying firm-specific human capital, the tacit expertise your competitors can’t copy.
Jacob walks us through the 4P maturity model—Projects, Platform, Policy, and People—and explains why People is the multiplier that unlocks everything else. We dig into practical wins: a bank that used a brave, fail-fast pilot to boost employee advocacy by 35%, and an industrial company that leveraged disciplined one-pagers to map workflows and embed AI touchpoints in days. You’ll also learn the FERC method—Frame, Explore, Refine, Commit—which keeps authorship, judgment, and accountability squarely with the humans, while still tapping AI for speed and breadth.
Jacob challenges the “San Francisco consensus” predicting the end of cognitive jobs and shows us how markets still reward authenticity. Customers value products with a human touch; over-automation risks commoditization and price pressure. Guardrails, phased rollouts, and bias dashboards make ethical practice part of the interface. Most of all, Jacob makes the case for HR to step up as the engine of AI innovation—potentially as a chief hybrid intelligence officer —translating mindset shifts into new business model lines, not just efficiency gains.
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