June 6, 2023

Episode 44: Scaling Empathy within Organizations with Debi Yadegari

Debi Yadegari, CEO and founder of Villyge, sits down with The Future of Teamwork host and HUDDL3 CEO Dane Groeneveld to discuss scaling empathy in the workplace. Debi talks about her experience becoming a mother and how it helped her realize the need for more empathy top-down at organizations. She also encourages businesses to transform their cultures into more of an asset with her SaaS platform Villyge. Villyge is a platform to open up dialogues between employees and managers. It offers a variety of tools and content to help teams meet in the middle with more empathy for the employee and the various life challenges people face while juggling work and life.

Guest Bio

I am the Founder and CEO of Villyge, a manager enablement platform that helps managers support and respond to their employees’ personal “Life Events” (things like burnout, miscarriage, leave, divorce, elder care, loss, coming out, and more) in an appropriate, timely and productive manner to drive culture, boost productivity and improve belonging.

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Recap & Takeaways

[00:11 – 04:29] Meet Debi Yadegari, CEO and Founder of Villyge
[04:37 – 07:59] How Debi landed on creating a SaaS platform
[08:02 – 13:08] How Villyge works to allow better dialogues between employees and managers
[13:08 – 18:09] Psychological safety around sharing your life events with managers, getting in front of quit
[18:09 – 20:02] Knowing your team’s strengths and weaknesses, seeing the whole story with struggling employees
[20:02 – 23:54] Inserting empathy and flexibility when seeing employee journeys unfold
[23:55 – 25:49] Life events as invisible career barriers and disruptors
[25:49 – 28:44] Educated and engaging inclusivity initiatives around life events and culture
[28:45 – 32:08] Flexible arrangements in off-boarding and retirement that harmonize with career advancement of other employees
[32:10 – 39:18] What it’s like to use the Villyge platform and how it provides a foundation of communication
[39:17 – 42:13] Leadership guidance in the wake of tragedies that affect employees
[42:13 – 44:25] Using Villyge without sharing life events, a catalog of webinars for support
[44:27 – 46:20] What the future of teamwork looks like using a system like Villyge
[46:22 – 47:56] How to contact Debi