Enjoy the session.

Thank you. So of all, let me say what a privilege it is to be here with, everyone who's trying to shape the world of tech. It's a pleasure to be part of it. So back in the early two thousands, I was changing company, due to an acquisition, and many of you'll have been through that experience. You'll know what it's like. You're joining a company, but you didn't necessarily choose it or necessarily want to be part of it at the time. And I wanted to speak out and say I had some doubts about what I'd heard and seen, but I didn't feel like I could. I didn't feel safe or like I belonged in that environment, so I didn't speak out at And then I met a leader who did see the value of culture, and he was trying to change the environment, and he made it safe for me to have a voice.

He said to me, Come in and be the change that you want to see. Be deliberate, be intentional. And for me, that made the difference. It forever shaped how I see the importance of culture and our role in building that. It's one of the reasons why I like to speak at events like today where we're sort of hopefully in common ground in the way we see these things. Can I have the next slide please, Maria? If you have a look here, we've defined what we think, you know, creates a winning culture, but there's going to be loads of different things for every company that shape this. What I do know is that culture is way more than, you know, what we see, it's how we make people feel.

And it shows up in the literal moments, you know, who gets listened to, who feels comfortable being themselves. We talk about being diverse and our respect for diversity, but do we really make it possible to be diverse and live in a diverse environment? We believe that at the the heart of culture are our values, not just the ones we write down, by the way, but the ones that we actually live. And as an HR leader, I've seen what happens when there is a gap between what the company says and what it does, and that gap creates distrust. You know? People start to play it safe. Innovation suffers. But when values are real, they show up in decisions in how we treat one another, and they become the foundation for a much stronger human workplace.

If I could have the next slide, please, Maria. It matters because we are truly we've all heard the famous saying, you know, culture eats strategy for breakfast, but it it really does, you know, culture is the way we do things around here, so it becomes permeated through everything we do and therefore does have an impact on who wants to be part of the company.

If people have heard bad things about your culture, they they guess whether to join. They go online and they read about it now because they can see what Glassdoor or other places are saying about what it's like to work in that company and whether you do live your values and whether you live and believe, you know, live and die by them. I can have the next slide, Maria. What I'll say though is I think that neuroscience gives us a real insight here. Because when people feel excluded or dismissed, it activates the same part of the brain as physical pain. And when you think about that for a you think, well, I wouldn't ever hit anybody at work, hopefully. And therefore, if I wouldn't do that, why would I want to make them feel any kind of pain?

But doctor Naomi Eisenberger's research shows that social rejection lights up the same region as an injury would. And maybe if we can hold ourselves accountable from that lens, and we think back to those moments where we haven't felt like we belonged or whether we weren't included. It it sort of helps to frame that. And it shows up in really subtle ways. Could be the way people shut you down, the way they stop you contributing, making you avoid risk. The brain kind of goes into self protection mode. And that's why psychological safety is so important. We're hearing these words more and more. Amy Edmondson coined the term. She describes it as a shared belief that you can speak up without fear of embarrassment or punishment.

And her Harvard Business Review article, What Psychological Safety, shows that high performing teams aren't the ones that avoid mistakes. They're the ones that talk about them, that learn from them, that keep going. Brene Browner, the guru to many, she says that vulnerability isn't weakness. It's the courage to show up when there are no guarantees, because that's the space where innovation happens. And what this has led to us as at Synopsis, this understanding of what's going on in the world and how we feel, has been a relaunch of our values or a re our new values. So if we share the next slide, please. You'll see that we have tried to keep them super simple for values. I remember a time when I got handed my values on a card the day I joined the company and never talked about them again.

That's not how we plan to live this, synopsis. They're not just slogans, they're standards. They'll shape how we hire, how we lead, how we hold ourselves and others accountable. For me, they've I've said it already, but they are about building a workplace where people can speak up, where they feel safe, supported, and respected, especially those whose voices haven't always been heard. They're not just posters on a wall. Right? Although they are posters on a wall as well. You can see we've got them in our backdrops because they have to be lived daily through actions and decisions. They've gotta be communicated. They've got to be evolve. They've got to take feedback. We've got to find out if they resonate. And that's what we're doing right now, helping people to understand them. You know, remember, if you can remember nothing else, remember that agility is adapt to thrive. Courage is to challenge the status quo. Excellence will deliver exceptional value.

Trust built together. And what we're doing is we're having workshops where we're talking about them. And if you ask people which one resonates most, the answers are different. For me, I think that everything we do has to be underpinned by trust. But doesn't it take courage to trust? So I could debate with you all day which one comes and how we prioritise them. But whatever we do, all four of them truly matter to us. And I think, you know, here's the truth. They're not what you write down in a rebrand. They're what people feel in the day to day. They show up in meetings, in decisions, in how we respond to challenges. When people feel psychologically safe, when they feel that they truly belong, they don't hold back. They lead. They create. They lift others with them. So I guess I'll leave you with this. Your culture is not what you say. It's what you allow.

And I'd like to think that we can really build cultures that we can be proud of, where we can make it safe for people to be brave. Because when people show up and feel like they belong, they show up differently. And when they do, they move teams, companies, and even entire industries forward. Thank you. Maria, over to you. Let's see how we're bringing this to life at Synopsys.

Thank you, Elle. Thank you so much for sharing about our culture and about our values. And we appreciate really what we have because every one of us being in this company, we are not simply, experiencing the culture, but we are cocreating the culture. Actually, by our everyday choice, we contribute to the culture and we we create the culture around us. That's particularly why it's really important, for us being in people team, to think how we can multiply the effect of this of our positive culture to the community that we serve, to to our employees, to our families. With that in mind, we have created, two years back, we have created a new program, new initiative, which is called reverse mentorship program. What is this about? Reverse Mentorship Program is about creating payers, which will collaborate within a business domain for around six months at least.

And then if they want to continue their cooperation, they can continue, of course. But within the frame of this reverse mentorship program in Synopsys, which launched two years back, actually was piloted two years back. Emerging female employees act as mentors for established male executives in our company. And the main focus is, about, you know, creating opportunities for them to build the level of trust and belonging with the cam within the company. And, of course, it impacts how we innovate end of the day. When we were creating this program, actually, I had a conversation back then with, CEO and the president, and they were really supportive because, this was mind opening.

How come emerging female leaders, mentoring established male executives? This should be interesting. So let's try. And this is how this all launched. And in fact, how this works, this program, this initiative, particularly challenges the status quo around traditional way of thinking about leadership styles and how we act as leaders. The creative payers, come up with business related daily challenges that they experience, and they think about possible solutions together. They actually cocreate solutions. This helps them, actually to build and, expands the network across the companies, which is so much important, especially for emerging leaders, and also gaining confidence. Gaining confidence, especially for women in a male dominated domain like our industry is really important. And for, for the for the established leaders, it is about gaining fresh perspectives, perspectives that they, didn't have a chance to to see before.

And this, of course, helps sparking innovation and, of course, building trust within the company. So this is how this, this, program initiative particularly works. And I need to say this is beneficial for everyone involved. of all, this is beneficial for the company. Why? Because it supports supports, more, employee morale, supports more having more engaged employees. End of the day, it supports better relationship, better culture, for innovating and creating together. It helps mentors as our emerging leaders to gain confidence, to build networks, and for mentees as executive leaders to gain this other perspective, which maybe they were missing before, which will support them managing the teams and organizations below them. So this is beneficial for everyone. And I want to say that the during the last two years of implementation, the impact of this program was, pretty visible. So how it supported us in particular, if we go tangible, then I need to say that it created multiple opportunities for identifying, female employees for future and preparing them for future leadership roles.

It supported career conversations, career coaching. It supported succession planning for, the key positions that we have. And, for example, we created, a particular net a female network within the particular business group. We created women committee, to solve some of the issues that, are related to them. It helped us to refine, hiring process that we had to make it more inclusive and more comfortable for also female candidates to to apply for the very technical jobs, I need to say. And end of the day, it also helped, to promote and improve cross functional, cross team collaboration within the company. So this is the impact that we are experiencing so far, and we hope that, the multiplier effect of the positive culture that we nurture within the company will become even, bigger and better.

So what is our call to action at a personal level and at a company level? Overall, what we suggest for everyone in their own company, how to promote the better culture is about, of all, being yourself and, speak up because winning cultures that we wanna promote within our companies allow authenticity, of all. Right? Be proactive to speak up because your voice matter. It is marvelous to see how one person can make a difference by speaking up even within a bigger company. We should continuously investing in ourselves because we are responsible for our own growth. Right? Be responsible for your own or grow or growth. Always dedicate time for yourself to develop, to continue growing within the company, and, of course, help others, next to you. Because, by going together, we go higher. Right? So, this is, our call to action for, all employees that we have. And, we particularly in the people team strive for doing this.

And to sort of wrap up what we are, what we are talking about today as a call to action to everyone is, what I wanna say is that our culture, particularly, impacts impacts what we create. It fuels the innovation that we produce. Right? So our values not only drive us on a daily basis, but they impact lives. They impact lives of the employees that every day come to the work, and they have expectations from the company. They wanna grow together with the company. They tie their future with the company. And, end of the day, one question that I continuously ask and, suggest others asking themselves is about how we can, co create a space where everyone can be successful, can be thriving. Because end of the day, we are in the innovation industry and innovation requires inclusivity.

And, what we do is just not only creating a great technology, but why not also a great future for every one of us? So that's our food for thinking and our suggestion as a question to everyone to be asking ourselves. Because end of the day, only by reflection, by asking ourselves how we can contribute to the culture that we are experiencing, can make a difference and bring a better for change tomorrow. Thank you so much. And I think that that's all that we wanted to share, A, right, with the community today.

Yes. Thank you.