This isn’t your father’s customer base. It takes more than tweaks to meet their needs; it takes a complete overhaul. A new book Winning Digital Customers, lays out six big reasons why you need to transform — starting yesterday.

The world is changing rapidly, and once-loved “legacy” brands are falling out of favor. The reason is painfully simple. At one time these brands exceeded customers’ needs and stood for something they cared about. (That’s how you earn love.) But today’s customers are different. Very different. The vast majority are living a lifestyle that has digital at the center…and many companies haven’t transformed to meet them there.

To deliver ‘digital’ at the increasingly elegant level today’s customers expect, most of today’s large companies need to reinvent themselves in a variety of ways, and quickly. Unfortunately, many aren’t designed for this kind of rapid change. They might lack an aligned vision, or encounter resistance, or have the wrong technology. Maybe they’re entrenched in a way of thinking that just isn’t customer-centric. And so despite their best efforts, they fail.

Let’s say your organization is already using digital for marketing and e-commerce, but you are not truly “digitally driven.” Maybe you provide customers with a good app—but it’s really just an add-on. You’re not aggressively creating products and experiences that take full advantage of the potential of digital. You can’t honestly say you’re digital at the core. If this describes you, is it truly necessary to change? 

Most likely yes. Here are just a few reasons why.

REASON 1: You Need to Remain Relevant to the Customer

Customers today demand a superior digital experience. A Salesforce study found that 80 percent of customers view “the experience” a company provides as equally important as its products and services. But across industries, most experiences offered today are simply not up to customers’ expectations. PwC found that 49 percent of U.S. consumers say that companies are providing a “good” customer experience today. 

Brands also spent a lot of energy on online content about their brand and products. But market research shows that consumers today have massive cynicism today about what brands “say” about themselves. As Trinity Mirror and Ipsos Connect found in a study, almost half of consumers have a general distrust of brand and 69 percent specifically distrust their advertising. 

So how do consumers evaluate your brand and products if they assume most of what you say is a lie? Mostly, from their own digital experiences. If your website is confusing and disorganized, that is the message people will take away. If your signup process is cumbersome, they assume that your product will be as well.

REASON 2: You Need to Gain the Efficiencies to Be Cost-Competitive

Companies that are winning in the digital economy are delivering a dramatically improved value proposition—offering customers more for less. It helps to have investors who are patient about whether the company operates at a profit. But more long-term, these companies are able to operate in a different way—harnessing tools like crowdsourcing, AI, and process automation. 

If you don’t have access to these types of opportunities to increase efficiency, it’s difficult or even impossible to be price-competitive with those that do.

REASON 3: You Need to Attract and Retain Talent in the Organization

Millennials want to be a part of companies that are digitally savvy. This might be the most important reason of all to ensure that your company has a high level of digital effectiveness.

A study by the market research firm Penn, Schoen, & Berland found that 82 percent of millennials can be swayed in their career decisions by a digitally equipped office, while 42 percent would leave a company due to “substandard technology.” Similarly, Microsoft found in a study that 93 percent of millennials polled cited modern and up-to-date technology as one of the most important aspects of a workplace. 

REASON 4: Digitally Driven Companies Have Greater Revenue Growth 

A study by the Aberdeen Group found that the top 20 percent of companies as measured by their “quality of digital customer experience” enjoyed an average year-over-year increase in revenue of over 35 percent, compared to a 7.7 percent average for the rest. 

“Digitally advanced” companies create 9 percent more revenue than their industry competitors, as reported in a study conducted by MIT. And digitally “mature” companies are almost three times likelier than lower-maturity organizations to report annual revenue growth significantly greater than their industry average, according to yet another study, this one by Deloitte. 

REASON 5: Digitally Driven Companies Have Better Profit Margins

Despite the investments they need to make to transform, studies show that digitally driven companies deliver better returns. A Harvard Business School study found that the three-year average profit for “digitally centric companies” was 5 percent more than that of those companies “behind the curve.” A different study at MIT concluded that “digitally mature companies” are 26 percent more profitable than competitors. 

What’s more, digitally effective companies tend to be highly customer-centric. A KPMG study showed that “customer-centric” companies saw a projected profit growth rate that was 3.6 percent greater than “non-customer-centric” companies. 

REASON 6: Digitally Driven Companies Have Higher Valuations

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, digitally driven companies have consistently higher valuations. According to MIT, more digitally “mature” companies achieve market valuations 12 percent higher than competitors. Forrester calculated that in recent years, the stock price of “leaders in digital customer experience” grew by nearly 30 percent more than that of lagging brands. 

Bottom line? It’s a new era. There have been many periods of time when businesses could operate in more or less the same manner for decades, updating their advertising campaign periodically, creating marginally “new and improved” products every few years, and making small incremental changes to keep cutting costs and drive profits higher. 

Whether your business is window washing, restaurant supplies, maritime navigation, or podiatry, your customers’ expectations are digital. Your competitors are leveraging digital to drive better customer experiences and increased operational efficiencies—enabling them to offer more compelling value propositions to customers. If you aren’t doing the same, it’s going to be tough to remain relevant and price competitive.

Brand Activism is when a brand takes a stand to help drive change towards the most urgent problems facing society, based on its own beliefs, purpose and values. As Phiip Kotler and Christian Sarkar suggest in their book Brand Activism: From Purpose to Action, it is “how progressive businesses are taking stands to create a better world.” 

And lately we’ve seen many good examples, such as  Ben & Jerry’s efforts to end racism; the Penzey Spice company looting their own store in support of #BlackLivesMatter;  Burger King and McDonald’s sharing a kiss (pictured above) in support of gay pride; And Patagonia closing their stores so employees could join the Climate Strike. 

You could almost claim 2020 as the year of Brand Activism.

The 2020 factor

With COVID-19 taking hold in early March and then George Floyd’s murder by a police officer in Minneapolis — starting a series of riots, violence and civil unrest around the world — many feel we have reached a tipping point where the economic and social inequality that has plagued the nation for centuries must be driven out. And public pressure is starting to mount up and hold business and brands to account. 

According to Forbes, over 28 million Instagram users participated in #BlackoutTuesday, posting empty black tiles in silent (and some might say, empty) solidarity. More recently, shareholders worth a collective $620 billion, pressured Nike, FedEx and PepsiCo to terminate their business relationships with the Redskins unless the team agreed to change its name. On Facebook, more than 200 big-brand spenders boycotted the platform  over its handling of hate speech. One could say 2020 has been a wake-up call for brands and businesses to step up to drive change where the government has been unsuccessful.

Brand Activism is here to Stay

Some groups dismiss Brand Activism and things like the temporary withdrawals from Facebook as little more than PR stunts. As founders of a social innovation and brand activation consultancy, we strongly believe Brand Activism is much deeper here to stay:

 And here are 5 reasons why: 

1. Gen Z isn’t stopping: As Dr. Arlo Brady, CEO of Freuds, comments; “The recent rise of backyard activism is vital and it can often act as a ‘gateway drug’ for action on the Global Goals. Gen Z gets hooked on impact, much like a gondola-end BOGO deal in the supermarket that you spy from the street, it pulls you in”. Gen Z also has tremendous buying power—an estimated $143 billion in the United States alone. And let’s face it — buying power is power. 

2. Activism moves the PR machine: As Adam Fetcher in Fast Company points out; “There are a lot of organizations that desire to emulate Ben & Jerry’s but lack a serious history of working on behalf of causes larger than their own success. There’s no manual, and there are no shortcuts to credibility. It requires a willingness to build a foundation that’s not driven by PR. If you can focus on impact over attention, the press will cover your efforts with the depth it merits — at a time when you actually deserve it.”  

3. People expect Brands to fill the gap: “By choosing brands that align with their values, shoppers are voting with their wallets for the kinds of businesses they want in the world — and paving the way toward a more sustainable and just economy. We’re in an unfortunate time where Governments and Institutions provide less and less moral leadership and we now expect to see it from the brands we buy,” says Bthechange. Edelman’s Trust Barometer finds 81% of consumers say they expect brands to do the right thing and 71% say that placing profit before people will lose their trust forever. 

4. Purpose-driven brands perform better: According to Deloitte, Purpose-driven companies witness higher market share gains and grow three times faster on average than their competitors, all while achieving higher workforce and customer satisfaction. “This trend is only set to strengthen as young people around the world are growing up with a deeper sense of purpose than previous generations and are seeking out products that directly support causes about which they care.”

5. Brand Activism is the road to Growth: The Deloitte report goes on to say, “By leading with purpose, being authentic in how they tell stories and articulate their impact, focusing on all humans, and imbibing empathy, many of these companies are outpacing their competitors and leaving an impact on everyone they touch.” So if you are looking to buy into a brand that will grow in value and also help to make the world a better place –  choose an activist brand. 

As a B-corp that helps brands, retailers and non-profits activate purpose at retail, we wholeheartedly agree. Activism starts from the inside out. There is no rule book. There is no relief from responsibility and things aren’t always going to go to plan… and do you know what? That’s OK. Be authentic. Understand your unique purpose then connect the ‘why’ of your purpose with the ‘way’ of profit. Then, if the engine of commerce, fueled by social innovation and kept in check by an ever more conscious consumer can create sustainable, scalable solutions for what the world needs and what people want, then brands can and should become the most powerful instruments for change the world has ever seen.

Now that’s activism done right in our book.

We all hopped on the Zoom celebration as a team. All in different locations. All were wearing our newly minted company swag. Hats, shirts, even some confetti and “We’re #1” foam fingers. 

I watched as the names were read off. “At #52, this company offers foosball, beer kegs, and lattes,” the emcee proudly announced. I breathed a sigh of relief. Not us, at least we weren’t last.

It was not clear to me when we submitted our entry in the fall of 2019 and how many participants there would be or how we would rank. I knew our culture was special, but assumed that everyone else thought the same about their own company, too. So, when we were notified in early 2020 that we had been selected as a finalist, I was excited. Really excited.

To hear there were fifty-two “finalists” gave me pause. The emcee started at the top and counted down. 

When he named us as the fourth “Best Place to Work in Indiana,” I was thrilled. As a start-up, merely four years old, it was an honor to be counted among the very best places to work. So, what set us apart? How did we become one of the best places to work? It’s called Culture, a word that is used increasingly to define the work environment. Let me share the four pillars for a winning workplace culture, based on our experience.

Pillar 1: Created By the Team, Not For Them

We set out to broadly define who we are as a company, and what we stand for. Leadership comes from the top, but the creation of a company culture must come from all. Mandating a culture and expecting buy-in is a recipe for disaster. I worked at a previous company where the founder determined the culture, talked about its importance, wrote it on the walls, and never got buy-in from his teams. At Invesque, we created the culture collectively, and we stand by it every day, valuing the input from every individual.

Pillar 2: Clearly Articulate — No One Should be Left Guessing

It starts with key words, or what I call anchors. What do anchor’s do? They keep the ship in place and avoid drifting. 

These anchors are words that describe critical elements of the culture. For us, these anchors are Teamwork, Family, Excellence, Positive Energy, and Fun. But words just create a framework. Culture is defined by examples and stories. Any thriving culture should be easy to explain and describe. When everyone has bought into the elements of culture, it should become second nature to explain. It’s like when you ask someone to talk about their best friends. I would never expect to hear an answer like, “I’m not sure, it’s hard to define who my best friends are.”

Pillar 3: Core To Your Business, Not an Afterthought 

We lead with who we are, as defined by our culture. For example, in every company meeting, I remind the team how important each person is to its overall success. I highlight the specific contributions of many. I focus on our teamwork and usually weave in examples of positive energy and fun that I have observed while leading the company. At times, I’ve had to highlight where we haven’t lived up to our cultural convictions and identify opportunities to improve — that illustrates our culture’s best. I also weave these cultural themes in communication with the board, shareholders, and other stakeholders. Because of our cultural standards, everyone we touch knows who we are and what’s important to us.

Pillar 4: Not Just Words, But Behavior 

Culture, at its core, must be defined by how we behave and perform. As we talk about family, for example, we give our employees flexibility to work where they want and when they want. We have an “unlimited vacation” policy. As we think about fun, we keep the mood light, even in difficult times. We frame the dialogue in a way that finds a way to have fun. This was highlighted when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. As a team, we created events and activities to perpetuate the fun part of our culture. One person started a weekly Zoom exercise class for the company. Someone else started a monthly book club. Another person set up a Zoom wine tasting. And yet another spearheaded a company newsletter showcasing what people did with their families, pets, and leisure time. What was most interesting about culture during this time is that each of these initiatives came from someone different in the organization. The result? We rose to #4 in four years! 

We did it by building the culture from the ground up and building on a solid foundation. A positive culture is a powerful tool for the long-term success of any organization. Building it for the long-haul and using it to navigate challenging times is what makes it powerful. It’s what defines the best companies and attracts and retains the best talent. As we look to the future of work, culture will increasingly be a defining characteristic that distinguishes the best of the best.

When Boeing grounding its 737 Max airplane in 2019, following two deadly crashes that killed 346 people, they lost $5 billion in direct revenue by the summer of that year. The overall loss – ranging from damage to the brand to lost customers – was valued by investors at over $25 billion. In late 2019, new revelations about problems with the 737 Max further increased Boeing’s losses. In late December, Boeing fired its CEO Dennis Muilenburg due to the 737 Max fiasco.

What led to this disaster for Boeing? On the surface, it came from Boeing’s efforts to compete effectively with Airbus’s newer and more fuel-efficient airplane, Airbus 320. To do so, Boeing rushed the 737 Max into production and misled the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to get rapid approval for the 737 Max. In the process, Boeing failed to install safety systems that its engineers pushed for and did not address known software bugs in the 737 Max, glitches that resulted in the eventual crashes.

The New Normal

However, these surface-level issues had a deeper cause. Ironically, the airline industry’s transformation in recent decades to make airplanes much safer and accidents incredibly rare is key to understanding Boeing’s disaster.

Boeing’s leadership suffered from what cognitive neuroscientists and behavioral economists know as the normalcy bias. This dangerous judgment error causes our brains to assume things will keep going as they have been – normally. As a result, we drastically underestimate both the likelihood of a disaster occurring and the impact if it does.

Boeing’s 737 Max disaster is a classic case of the normalcy bias. The Boeing leadership felt utter confidence in the safety record of the airplanes it produced in the last couple of decades, deservedly so, according to statistics on crashes. It would be impossible to imagine that the 737 Max would be less safe than these other recent-model airplanes from their perspective. They saw the typical FAA certification process as simply another bureaucratic hassle that got in the way of doing business and competing with Airbus instead of ensuring safety. 

Think it’s only big companies? Think again.

The normalcy bias is a big reason for bubbles: in stocks, housing prices, loans, and other areas. It’s as though we’re incapable of remembering the previous bubble, even if it occurred only a few years ago.

Normalcy Bias in a Tech Start-Up

Of course, the normalcy bias hits mid-size and small companies hard as well.

At one of my frequent trainings for small and mid-size company executives, Brodie, a tech entrepreneur, shared the story of a startup he founded with a good friend. They complemented each other well: Brodie had strong technical skills, and his friend brought strong marketing and selling capacity. 

Things went great for the first two and a half years, with a growing client list – until his friend got into a bad motorcycle accident that left him unable to talk. Brodie had to deal not only with the emotional trauma but also with covering his co-founder’s work roles. 

Unfortunately, his co-founder failed to keep good notes. He also did not introduce Brodie to his contacts at the client companies. In turn, Brodie – a strong introvert – struggled with selling. Eventually, the startup burned through its cash and had to close its doors. 

The normalcy bias is one of many dangerous judgment errors, mental blind spots resulting from how our brains are wired. Researchers in cognitive neuroscience and behavioral economics call them cognitive biases.

Fortunately, recent research in these fields shows how you can use pragmatic strategies to address these dangerous judgment errors in your professional life, relationships, or other life areas. 

You need to evaluate where cognitive biases are hurting you and others in your team and organization. Then, you can use structured decision-making methods to make “good enough” daily decisions quickly, more thorough ones for moderately important choices, and in-depth ones for truly major decisions.

Such techniques will also help you implement your decisions well and formulate truly effective long-term strategic plans. In addition, you can develop mental habits and skills to notice cognitive biases and prevent yourself from slipping into them.

Preventing Normalcy Bias Disasters

In particular, with the normalcy bias, it helps to use the strategy of considering and addressing potential alternative futures that are much more negative than you intuitively feel are likely. That’s the strategy that Brodie and I explored in my coaching with him after the training session, as he felt ready to get back to the startup world.

While Brodie knew he wouldn’t be up to starting a new business himself, he also wanted to avoid the previous problems. So we discussed how he would, from the start, push for creating systems and processes that would enable each co-founder to back up the other in cases of emergencies. Moreover, the co-founders would commit to sharing important contacts from their side of the business with each other, so that relationships could be maintained if the other person was out of commission for a while. 

So what are the broader principles here? 

1) Be much more pessimistic about the possibility and impact of disasters than you intuitively feel or can easily imagine — to overcome the normalcy bias’s challenges. 

2) Use effective strategic planning techniques to scan for potential disasters and address them in advance, as Brodie did with his new business plans. 

3) Of course, you can’t predict everything, so retain some extra capacity in your system – of time, money, and other resources – that you can use to deal with unknown unknowns, also called black swans. 

4) Finally, if you see a hint of a disaster, react much more quickly than you intuitively feel you should — to overcome the gut reaction’s dismissal of the likelihood and impact of disasters.

For more than a century, think tanks have played an important role in society, serving as sources of expertise for policymakers, places to explore new ideas, and critical catalysts for bringing creative solutions to action.

But as the coronavirus pandemic ripples through society, trust in institutions weakens, and the country’s demographics shift, the traditional think tank model is being stress-tested. “The COVID-19 crisis presents significant challenges to a sector already struggling with funding shortages, credibility, and relevance,” notes On Think Tanks.

Joe Waters thinks an alternative to these Washington, D.C.-based institutions can bring a fresh perspective and new voices to society’s critical issues locally and globally. In 2018, Waters co-founded the nonprofit ideas lab Capita to build a better think tank focused on the cultural and social transformations affecting young children, and to foster new ideas to ensure a future where children and their families flourish.

From his perch in a small town in the Blue Ridge mountains, Waters works from what Pope Francis calls “the peripheries.” By looking from the edge rather than from the center, “we bring a different perspective to the issues,” says Waters. It’s a perspective that enables Capita to combine unusual concepts and convene unlikely collaborators to generate new models, frameworks, and ideas.

Here are four ways Capita is building the think tank of the future for a post-pandemic world:

Think Outside the Beltway

Waters, based in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, is far enough from Washington, DC, to be independent of the “group think” that often permeates the nation’s capital. That’s a critical perspective to have as Waters and his team develop new ways to envision a better future for children and families.

“The Trump victory in 2016 surprised a lot of the political class, and that is because there is such a wide gulf between D.C. and the average American citizen,” says Waters. “It’s critical and positive to have think tanks outside of the bubble.”

Digital-first

The pandemic is forcing more organizations to decentralize operations, reduce face-to-face networking, and embrace technology. For Capita, being digitally native was a founding principle. Waters recognized that the form and function of the think tank work had to adapt to a new 21st Century landscape. The pandemic only reinforces this imperative.

“Digital first means using technology to make research and content accessible to all voices, crowdsourcing ideas and democratizing the intellectual property an organization generates, Waters says. “We don’t want policy papers to sit on the shelves. We want them out with our audiences to help us shape future research.”

A ‘Gig Economy’ Think Tank

What are the implications of rapid change for the future of children and young families in the U.S.? For Waters and his team, questions like this informed an approach that is nimble and fluid. Rather than staff up, Capita finds experts and contracts with them.

For example, Elliot Haspel, early childhood and K-12 education policy expert, frequently teams up with Capita on research and policy development. Capita also partners with larger institutions, including the Bank Street College of Education and Knowledgeworks, to provide insights into how today’s trends will impact young people and their families in the future and explores how emerging issues might alter childhood experience everywhere.

“Our approach applies the model of the sharing economy to think tanks,” says Waters. “It’s an efficient approach built around shared networks and resources that makes sense in a pandemic – and beyond.”

Intersectional Problem Solving

Waters believes that “intersectional innovation” – a concept explained in Frans Johansson’s The Medici Effect: Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts, and Cultures – is critical to understanding how to innovate more powerfully to achieve better outcomes for young children and their families.

Johansson argues that transformative innovations emerge from the intersection of different disciplines and cultures. This intersection is what made the Renaissance in Florence – funded mainly by the Medici family – such a prolific period of innovation. Capita uses a similar model to create opportunities to combine unusual concepts and convene unlikely collaborators to generate new models, frameworks, and ideas.

Together, these four principles keep Capita tightly focused on its north star – the significant trends impacting young children. “We live in an age of acceleration, liquidity, and fragmentation,” Waters says. “Our interest is not simply how children and families can flourish today but figuring out ways to help the children who won’t be born for another decade and beyond flourish.”

PODCAST PEOPLE: A SUMMARY FROM THE REAL LEADERS PODCAST

“We’re going through the largest capital experiment in the history of the world right now. And we’re guessing how we’re going to restart our economies.”

Gary A. Bolles is an internationally recognized expert on the future of work and the future of of learning, aimed at finding solutions on every scale, for individuals, organizations, communities, and countries.

The following is a summary of Episode 76 of the Real Leaders Podcast, a conversation with internationally recognized speaker, Gary A. Bolles. Read or listen to the full conversation below.

The Future of Work

Gary explains that the workforce is moving beyond the old model that divided life into three phases (education, work, and retirement). Even before the changes brought about by the pandemic, career trajectories have been shifting towards the Japanese model, Ikigai (reason for being) which suggests that the secret to a long and happy life is to pursue four things. Gary lists these as the four domains of the Great Reset and the future of work:

1. Something you can make money at
2. Something you’re good at
3. Something that you love doing
4. Something that the world needs

He emphasizes that young people today are reversing this trend:

“They’re asking first, what does the world need? If I can focus on that I’m going to love doing it, if I love doing it I’m going to get better at it, and if I get better at it, I’ll get paid better for it.”

https://open.spotify.com/episode/436fhCpjQ1zZtnTsgmhhn7?si=hOeQaQ2vSKGxr5ndf2eViQ

Inclusive Capitalism

Gary explains that our current economic system can’t offer equal opportunity because it rewards capital over labor, which prevents people at the bottom of the ladder from climbing higher, let alone reaching the top. Consequently, adapting this system into an inclusive model will require modifying the system to increase accessibility to opportunity, and upgrading human potential to help people continually develop the skills that can solve the problems of tomorrow. This will require transforming education systems, companies making much bigger investments in training, and personal commitments to lifelong learning.

“There’s no question that we need to double down on Capitalism, but it has to be inclusive capitalism. It has to be where we’re helping people to be able to find or create meaningful, well-paid work and then they get compensated fairly for it.”

The Great Reset will address four levels of society: individuals, organizations, communities, and countries, each with its own problem statement.

“Individuals just want to be able to find or create meaningful, well-paid work today and tomorrow. That’s all people want. Organizations keep telling me that they need talented workers that can help them solve the problems of today and tomorrow. Communities want to be ecosystems where everybody can thrive. And countries want to build inclusive economies. This is what we’re all designing for. Now where do you fit?”

Transcript

Connect

Find more of Gary’s insights here:

• Twitter
• LinkedIn

Millions of Americans are out of work as a result of the pandemic. It’s not their fault. A growing number of small business owners have been forced to close their shops through no fault of their own.  

The combination of the virus, the ongoing social outcries, protectionism, and trade wars have rocked our great entrepreneurial nation’s very foundation. These shockwaves aren’t expected to subside anytime soon. The long-term impact of so many unemployed people creates uncertainty everywhere, from our local neighborhoods and downtowns to state and federal agencies. We’re all wondering when businesses can recover and begin hiring again. We all need hope. We need something positive to rally around and look to as we go through these monumental changes. 

Now is our opportunity for a reset — we need to change the game.  

The crisis has given us the chance to rethink how to bridge the gaps in our society that separate the haves from the have-nots. We have a unique excuse to evaluate where we stand. It’s time to rethink the status quo and explore new ideas. Now is the time to have an open and honest conversation about the pivotal role that businesses play in employing people and building wealth. To save the American Dream, which is about opportunities that create a greater quality of life for everyone, we need to teach people the basics of financial and business literacy. 

Opening up business 

We have a vast knowledge gap in our country when it comes to financial literacy. In our corporation, we’ve spent more than 40 years trying to rectify that. Every associate in our corporation is taught how to speak the language of business. We call this open-book leadership system, “The Great Game of Business.” Our end goal has always been to build a business of businesspeople who think and act like owners. They are taught the tools needed to take control of their destinies and are empowered to develop plans that create and protect their jobs and help grow the company.  

The whole idea of transparency and financial literacy teaches people how to succeed even during the worst of times. When we tell people the truth, we build a foundation of trust for the company to stand on going forward in good times and bad. To do that, we’ve tried to eliminate the fear people have that they can’t understand business. By opening the books and embracing transparency, we give our associates the information they need to make the best decisions. But that can only happen when they truly understand the financials that they have a part in creating.  

In closed-book companies, associates often assume that all of the profits go into the owners’ pockets. Meanwhile, owners don’t think their associates understand all of the liabilities or risks they’ve taken on. This leads to a lack of understanding on both sides — and results in resentments and mistrust. These are among the many tensions in business today that could quickly be resolved through transparency and financial education.  

When you teach and share the numbers with everyone in the company, three things happen: you inspire trust and confidence; people engage in creating their vision of the future, and the entire organization unites around shared goals. 

Leaders need to understand the power of trust. It’s amazing how freeing it is to trust in and share information with employees. Everyone sleeps better at night because they know they can arrive at solutions by working together.  

Developing a new language 

Changing the game by teaching people the game of business works. We’ve seen it in thousands of companies worldwide who are creating a better future for themselves and their associates. We understand that taking that step might require a giant leap of faith — and a lot of hard work. Just like we’ve seen the value of adding STEM courses to school curriculums, we need to add financial literacy. And if the academic institutions won’t do it, then businesses must become the teachers. 

Teaching financial literacy requires the same immersive approach that some schools take in teaching students a foreign language. We need to speak it all day, every day until it becomes routine and becomes the language that everyone speaks across the entire company. It crosses departments. It helps us work together and highlights where we make a difference to each other — which is something we need now more than ever.  

Building a better quality of life 

A significant aspect of teaching financial literacy to associates is that education doesn’t stop inside the business. We’ve heard time and time again of people bringing it into their homes and communities. It becomes a formula for building a better life. People have told us things like: “I’ve always had a budget, but I truly didn’t understand it. Seeing how a business is run and how small things can affect so many people shows me how to make a difference.”  

Teaching people the language of business also results in much more than financial success. Informed associates are empowered to make recommendations, fix problems, and have a say in the company’s direction. A transparent system gives them the ability to understand what they need to lead a secure and fulfilling life.  

That’s why we believe business can make a positive difference in the world. It empowers people to pursue their dreams. But to truly change the game, we need everyone working together and playing off the same song sheet. When we open up the business rules to everyone and provide the information on which to act, it empowers everyone to move forward hand in hand to achieve the American Dream. 

The death of a loved one is not the only type of devastating loss that leads to grief. Your own company’s initiatives can also be emotionally traumatizing to employees.

When you understand that any significant change to a person’s current reality can trigger grief, it becomes easier to see how company initiatives can trigger the stages of grief in employees. Cost-cutting and “right-sizing” efforts, from reducing benefits to layoffs, are emotionally traumatizing events for your people. Significant changes in job responsibilities can also be a culprit. 

Here is a scenario: Your company has decided to implement a new computer system resulting in a reduction of waste, rebalancing work, changes in job responsibilities, and layoffs. Your boss needs you to “sell” the resulting changes to the team. After the first couple of meetings, you feel the team is not dealing well with the proposed changes. Some people seem to be in denial that the changes will ever transpire. They are saying things like, “We tried this before. It didn’t work then, and it won’t work now.” Others seem to be angry, telling teammates that they will not adhere to the new system rules, layouts, and responsibilities. Still, others seem to be bargaining with you. They ask for exceptions to be made to the processes to protect certain aspects of the old systems. Others are upset and depressed by the situation. They know layoffs are coming, and they are worried they will be unemployed when the project is implemented. A few seem to have accepted the new processes and are supportive.

To better understand change and change management, you decide to research how people respond to change in the workplace. After a quick Google search, the images that appear on your computer screen all seem to revolve around or contain elements from Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s Five Stages of Grief. This surprises you, but as you look at the images and think about your employees, terms begin to overlap and jump out at you, Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Depression. Acceptance. You realize that your employees aren’t sabotaging the effort deliberately; they are grieving. The changes that do not seem overwhelming to you are overwhelming and emotionally traumatizing to your people. You realize “selling” is not what is required. Compassion, open and honest communications, and support are what your employees need from their leader.

As is true when dealing with any grieving or emotionally traumatized employee, this situation will require the leader to engage in the grieving process with each employee. Departmental meetings and project information websites filled with answers to frequently asked questions are not going to help. They will only serve to further add to the grief, as employees will interpret these as an even greater lack of engagement by the company and the leader.

Leading people through these times will require the ability to adapt your leadership style to deal with each employee personally and individually. When done well, this approach leads to the building of trust in both the leader and the company. When you engage and acknowledge what a person is feeling and dealing with, employees will feel more emotionally secure. This security then leads to greater loyalty, higher engagement, and higher morale, which will lead to the initiative achieving its full potential.

Here are some tips for leaders dealing with leading employees through emotionally traumatizing change on the job:

• Recognize the behaviors you are witnessing are likely the stages of grief playing out in the workplace and not only resistance to change or an attempt to sabotage the initiative. Acknowledge and engage in your employees’ grief process.

• If there are layoffs, make sure your company is doing everything possible to transition those people fairly, graciously, and generously. Every employee is watching to see how the company treats those who leave the organization.

• Meet with employees individually and engage them in the awkward, emotional, and uncomfortable conversation about what they are feeling. Often, having a discussion with a genuinely compassionate leader who listens and just being heard will help the employee move to acceptance more quickly. Additionally, these discussions will provide you with insights into how best to address the employee’s concerns.

• Adapt your leadership style to provide coaching and support each employee’s needs. Strive to lead each employee with compassion.

• Don’t sell. Communicate the positives and negatives openly and honestly. Employees know when a leader is applying spin to the messages.

PODCAST PEOPLE: A Summary from the Real Leaders Podcast

“For me today, it’s about continuing to demonstrate to people that you can build a great business that does something good for the world, that can be a catalyst for sustainable impact.”

Jodie Morgan is the CEO of GreenMantra, the first company in the world to upcycle post-consumer and post-industrial recycled plastics. These plastics are turned into synthetic polymers and additives that meet specific performance requirements for industrial applications. GreenMantra is among the Real Leaders 100 Top Impact Companies of 2020.

The following is a summary of Episode 68 of the Real Leaders Podcast, a conversation with GreenMantra CEO, Jodie Morgan. Read or listen to the full conversation below.

The Solution Lies in the Problem

Jodie details the behind-the-scenes efforts of recycling companies tackling the problem of plastic from every possible angle. She explains Advanced Recycling, which considers the properties of plastic on a molecular level. However, Jodie affirms that the ultimate solution to an overabundance of plastic is not to eliminate plastic entirely.

“At GreenMantra, we believe that plastic has a really important place. It is what gives us fuel efficiency. It’s what preserves our food. But at the same time, we have to have something that we can do with this plastic after it’s been used. The reason it’s so effective is because it never breaks down. But the problem is also that it never breaks down.”

Through an innovative and environmentally friendly process, GreenMantra breaks down plastics. The process produces a variety of waxes, polymers, and other high-value products. These can be formed into items which would otherwise be made from virgin plastic. But GreenMantra products can also function beyond the traditional uses of plastic, they have been incorporated into essential constructions like roofs and roads.

Hope for Recycling

Jodie poses an optimistic view on plastic pollution, and believes it is a problem that we can truly solve if we rally and work together. In order to move towards a solution, she explains the need to form a database or network that will bring solutions providers together with the people that are searching for solutions.

“I think it’s accepting the fact that this problem is big enough that no one has to worry about competing with each other. And many of the things that we’re facing have already been solved in other places. We just have to look for those solutions and bring those people or companies in to help us to address the problems that we’re having in plastic.”

Transcript

Connect

Learn more about GreenMantra, or follow on:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn