Recently, we put Cultivator Jesse Dondero in the hot seat and allowed the Cultivators Community to ask him anything. It got pretty scandalous. Just kidding. But, we learned a lot.

Last week, we asked our team to share their favorite podcast episodes, hoping to learn a little more about our diverse interests and what makes us tick.

Today, we’re sitting down Community Manager Melissa Thi Le of the Cultivators Community, a community where voices are heard, solutions are shared, and changemakers around the world can mobilize for change.

We all have ideas—but too few of us turn them into reality. In an organizational setting, that can translate to billions of dollars in missed opportunities. And for a company like Novartis, it can mean missed opportunities to save lives.

At Cultivate, we know that innovators need both a roadmap and organizational support to bring their ideas to life. That’s why we created our Advance Your Idea platform, an interactive learning curriculum designed to help people generate, advance, and make their ideas happen.

I used to live for the 'essential' checklists that promise to get you a CEO-worthy routine or turn you into the most interesting person at a dinner party―but I never follow through on them.

None of us, or our organizations, are immune to bias. Even if we educate ourselves, grow awareness of our privileges, listen actively, and promote inclusive mindsets within ourselves and our teams (and we should be doing all of the above), the reality is we will never be 100% in the clear.

We love to argue. It can be something simple and timeless, like debating whether The Office is funny or something bold and new, like trying to pitch a 4-day work-week to your boss.

I used to be really passionate about Emerging Markets, and it was my dream job to get a position for which I could focus on that. I spent a year meeting with anyone who was doing anything related to Emerging Markets. Inevitably, I met a few Cultivators.

I’m not sure how we did it, folks. We got in touch with Steve Garguilo’s people and locked in thirty minutes to ask him anything we wanted.