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

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The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed how we connect. Before, many of us believed the conventional wisdom that face-to-face experiences are “better” than online connection. Not only is this misleading, but right now, connecting online is urgent and imperative.

The good news? Creating a brand community during a pandemic is possible and transformative—both for community members and the brand. When an organization can successfully bring people together, generosity, sharing, and support take place. Real relationships form, ones that sustain and nourish community members and markedly enrich and improve brands.

Here’s how brands can create community now:

Step 1: Recognize this is the time for community.

There’s no doubt organizations are strained from the pandemic and economic fluctuations. Plenty are thinking, “I don’t have time to focus on my community right now—I’m just trying to stay afloat!”

But relationship-building and being profitable are not at odds. They go hand in hand. Think about it: Your brand can’t exist without people. It’s your customers, users, staff, partners, and volunteers that make your organization what it is. Relationships based purely on transactions are much less sustainable than those cultivated with creativity, trust, and loyalty.

Step 2: Identify your organizational goals.

What do you hope your brand community will do for your organization? These are seven common ways community can benefit an organization:

1. Innovation: creating new value for stakeholders
2. Talent recruitment and retention: attracting and retaining people
3. Customer retention: keeping customers involved
4. Marketing: informing the market of offered value
5. Customer service: helping customers and users with the brand service or products
6. Advancing movements: creating a fundamental shift in a culture or business
7. Community forum: making the brand a destination for a specific community

Start by identifying one goal, without focusing on how much you expect the community to deliver. During the pandemic, it might be especially valuable to consider how your community can help you innovate amid crisis. For instance, a retail brand might find ways to stay nimble by inviting its top ambassadors to discuss new partnerships and give back to their local communities.

Step 3: Understand prospective member needs.

This is an important one. Even organizations with well-established communities must check in with members’ wants and needs right now because so much is in flux.

Depending on your organization, your prospective community members might be your staff, volunteers, or customers and users who actively engage on social media, reach out by email, or proactively interact with your brand. Whomever they may be, a great way to learn more about them is with online surveys. Then, you can invite select respondents to speak further in a phone or video interview.

Understanding who your prospective members are as full human beings (beyond their connection to your organization) is critical. So, asking about demographics (age, location, etc.), career, political priorities, cultural preferences, challenges, and aspirations are excellent places to start. Given the pandemic, consider questions like these:

– What has changed in your life in the last few months? 
– Which activities can you no longer do?
– What new opportunities have emerged? 
– What challenges are you facing right now? What’s keeping you up at night?

Brand communities are only successful when they support their members’ goals. Listen to what your prospective members need right now, and identify where their goals overlap with your organization’s.

Step 4: Create your first community experience.

After talking with people, use your insights to reflect on the question: What’s one specific experience I can create for prospective members to help support them in a meaningful way? It might be an interactive webinar, a community forum, a user-generated resource site, or a virtual event series. You can’t solve all of your prospective members’ problems, of course, but you can pick one to start.

For example, XY Planning Network, an organization of fee-based financial advisors, knew its members were overwhelmed with constant economic shifts during the pandemic, resulting in long hours and a high-stress environment. So, the organization began offering free weekly Zoom meditation sessions to its members for support. Another company, Buffer, a social media software app, knew many of its users were struggling to navigate to the new digital environment brought on by the pandemic, so it began offering a series of educational webinars and free training.

Whatever the experience, it should align with members’ values and those of your organization. The more specific you can be in addressing members’ needs and values, the better. People are being inundated with cookie-cutter invitations to generic-sounding online events. Brands that take the time to send custom, personal invitations to thoughtfully-designed gatherings will stand out from the rest.

Step 5: Plan for the long run.

Brand communities don’t magically establish themselves after a single experience or event—especially online. It takes time for relationships to form. Don’t beat yourself up if your first experience is not a smash hit. Dust yourself off, write down what you learned, and try again. Consistency and patience are needed to get through times of crisis.

In the beginning, bringing people together requires extra patience and stamina, and a willingness to fail. Don’t expect perfection. You’ll make progress by listening to your community’s needs and planning the next step. Then repeat. Most importantly, remember to have fun in the process. Building brand communities should be fun for your members and you.

As he watched the devastating fires in Australia destroy nearly 7,000 square miles of countryside and 3,000 homes last year, Terry Tamminen (above, right) thought of canaries that miners carried into coal mines to determine if carbon monoxide had collected in mine shafts.

“Australia was a microcosm, and these fires are a warning that we should pay attention to,” says Tamminen. “Here’s a developed nation with lots of resources, and the whole country is literally on fire. The climate science tells us that this will be our future if we don’t change quickly.”

Tamminen has spent a career making change happen quickly and for the better — whether as secretary of the California EPA under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, CEO of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, or co-founder of leading environmental NGO Seventh Generation Advisors. Here are five lessons learned from three decades of making a positive impact on the planet.

01 Learn And Adapt

Australia’s infernos give business and government leaders in other countries an opportunity to anticipate how climate change will impact their communities. “Businesses need to be thinking both about mitigation and adaptation, and policymakers need to be thinking about how to be a part of the solution of the climate emergency instead of standing in the way of progress,” he says.

02 Stay Positive

Tamminen recalled working with Leonardo DiCaprio on a formal address to the U.N. Climate Summit. They wanted to write a speech that described problems and solutions to the climate crisis, “but we kept listing the problems and looking at the science, and we found ourselves almost in tears trying to write the speech,” he says. “It’s hard to stay positive, but in the end, we wrote a persuasive speech that called for bold, unprecedented action.”

03 Share Best Practices

As head of the California EPA, Tamminen ushered in impactful policies, including the Million Solar Roofs initiative and California’s landmark Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which emphasized economic development opportunities around clean/efficient energy and waste reduction. “We proved that a strong environment and a strong economy are two sides of the same coin,” he says. 

04 Amplify Change

Through his work with global celebrities, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Jane Goodall, and Barak Obama, Tamminen has helped amplify issues and success stories to inspire change. With climate change, “We need clear voices and people we can trust, and we tend to trust celebrities,” he says. “It’s important to harness celebrity to get the message out, to normalize it, and make people realize that their actions matter and that they can be part of the solution.”

05 Think Generations Ahead

Tamminen founded 7th Generations Advisors based on the ancient First Nations philosophy that decisions we make today should result in a sustainable world for future generations. That same philosophy needs to guide actions as society confronts climate change. As individuals and as a society, “We need to be thinking generations ahead and act with urgency,” he says.