Overcome Stubborns

How Companies Can Lead in an ‘Age of Outrage’

The nation is on edge. We’re anxious and angry, distracted at work, and eager to brawl out our differences in public. At the highest level, our presidential candidates have framed Tuesday’s election as “an existential battle for the nation’s character, its democracy and the safety of its residents.” Social media influencers on both sides of politics have turned pain and rage into a lucrative business model. More and more families are becoming estranged over disagreements great and small, while contempt and disrespect have become ingrained habits for many.The mood seems contagious, with “assuming the best in others” in rare supply. Boeing endured a costly, contentious strike by unionized machinists who demanded restoration of their pensions. In September, Fortune reported that employees at Amazon were “rage applying” for other jobs after their CEO ordered workers back to the office five days a week.Is this our new modern culture–or are there ways to reduce the rage? Karthik Ramanna, professor of business and public policy at the University of Oxford, describes the moment as an “age of outrage” in his new book, The Age of Outrage: How to Lead in a Polarized World, published last week by Harvard Business Review Press.As election season in the U.S. reaches its peak, rhetoric is sharpening (not to mention quite foul) and the public is feeling nervous and emotional. While tension and even anger over political, ideological, or values differences is nothing new, for the title of his new book, Ramanna chose the word outrage. There’s just something different about the current tenor of the moment: A hotter temperature and a higher pitch. For companies, dealing with this force is no longer a PR task, but a “critical capability,” he writes.Managing in the age of outrage is not the same as managing isolated incidents of disagreement, Ramanna told From Day One. It’s a mistake to treat corporate mishandling of these ongoing issues as mere PR problems or temporary. Those who do will find themselves playing defense day after day. “Tomorrow there’ll be a new issue, and the day after there’ll be a new issue. That approach isn’t going to work,” he said.The outrage Ramanna writes about is typically focused on leaders and institutions, and HR and business executives are preparing for stress and heightened emotions following the election season. Learning from embarrassing corporate gaffes, many firms have been increasingly proactive, institutionalizing their responses to angry employees and the public with social-issues working groups. These are cross-functional committees assembled to prepare for crises, both internal and external, and determine whether the company will respond–and, if so, how–when they arise.Ramanna warns employers against prioritizing processes over outcomes when preparing a response to outrage. Agree to rules of engagement, but “we don’t want to get too bogged down in that process. We want it to be more of an informal guidance to the way we operate. It’s more important that we actually trust each other than that we have written rules that say we trust each other.” The rules should be simple, he said, “things that people can recall in an instant. If people can’t recall what the rules of engagement are when they’re in the heat of the moment, then they’re not very useful.” For this reason, Ramanna is reluctant to overly formalize the process, “because that might actually kill what you’re trying to do.”As a leader, you should temper expectations. “No matter what you do,” he writes, “you can never fully address the demands made of you.” Remember also that “you will always be seen as part of the problem.” Instead of wrongly believing you have the power to solve all problems or quell all outrage, aim for “turning down the temperature.” In The Age of Outrage, Ramanna describes how.A Framework for Turning Down the TemperatureRamanna offers a four-part, cyclical framework for turning down the heat. First, identify the source of the outrage. That is, the deep-seated and underlying causes fueling the anger. Look beyond the inciting incident to the wound it has irritated, and manage your own preconceived notions of your antagonists and their motivations.Second, determine the extent to which the organization can effectively respond. What is within your responsibility to address, and what is within your capability to address? This is where your company’s values and mission can guide you. If you say you will protect reproductive rights, for example, then it’s imperative to step up when the issue arises in the public arena. In fact, moments of anger present an opportunity for clarifying an organization’s values, Ramanna writes.Third, take stock of the leader’s influence. Now that you’ve identified what is an attainable and appropriate response, how will the leader win the support of others in influential positions as well as the support of the workforce?And finally, build resilience. “A resilient organization (or system) is characterized by the delegation of authority,” Ramanna writes. “By situating decision-making close to ground realities, the organization both improves the informativeness of its decisions and diversifies its thinking and, as a consequence, can endure and even thrive amid negative shocks.”Are Corporate Values Outmoded?Values statements and public commitments to causes or communities may be useful guideposts for how to focus corporate response in the age of outrage, but they can also make it harder to deliver. Companies have caught themselves in dreadful thickets in the name of transparency and principles. When corporate behavior, or the behavior of business leaders, doesn’t reflect publicly stated values and beliefs, companies feel the pain. Ramanna cites Disney’s entanglement with Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill in 2022. Despite being a public advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, the company did not publicly oppose the bill and was at the same time writing checks worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to politicians who sponsored it in the state senate. NPR reported that “Disney employees shared their outrage on social media when the company did not denounce the proposed legislation.” (In 2024, Disney resumed political donations to Republican candidates in Florida who voted in favor of the bill.)Being publicly “good” and values-forward can indeed make you a target, according to New York University professor Alison Taylor, who, in her book Higher Ground: How Business Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent World, points out that those seeking a target for their outrage will look for the companies and leaders most vocal about their principles.“Some companies can legitimately argue that these are not part of their value proposition. That’s not the case with Disney,” Ramanna said. “Part of why they got into the problem in the first place was when the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill was initially being proposed, they said, ‘Oh, we’re neutral in this.’ No, you’re not neutral. You’ve already established that you’re not neutral, and now it looks opportunistic to claim that you’re neutral.” Where the issues are directly related to the business or its stated values and identity, then you can’t step aside. You must proactively engage.Despite shifting political winds, “there is also little doubt that many institutions today have adopted a more progressive culture,” reported the New York Times this week. “They acknowledge bias and power imbalances between people of different genders and races. Despite efforts to roll back D.E.I. programs, few businesses or schools would doubt the importance of recruiting people from different backgrounds. A range of progressive causes—climate change reduction, workplace protections and higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans—remain popular.” Even so, in an age of outrage, corporate values aren’t as simple as they used to be. As belief systems diverge so severely, it can be tough to get people to agree, even in the workplace. Ramanna distinguishes between “opportunity values” and “outcome values.”While outcome values tend to divide, opportunity values can unify: Even if you can’t agree on the outcome, at least you can agree on the rules of engagement—how a group arrives at conclusions and makes decisions. “The commitment to the opportunity values is more meaningful than the commitment to outcome values, especially when you’re dealing with this outrage,” he said.Bracing for a Polarized Workplace Post-ElectionTo be clear, Ramanna isn’t interested in prescribing values or making ethics judgements, nor does he offer advice on business strategy. Companies have to do that on their own, he said. But when it comes to managing in an age of outrage, he does advocate a kind of corporate stoicism: Concern yourself only with what you can control.With the election and its aftermath upon us, Ramanna urges employers anxious about the workplace climate not to quit before they start, but make a plan to lead in an age of outrage. “Look, it’s never too late. On one hand, you might say, ‘Oh my God, I should have started this six months ago, five years ago,’ whatever it is. But on the other hand, if you don’t start it today, it’ll still be too late in six months.”Despite the outcome of the election, he said, leaders can count on two things. “No. 1, that we’re not going to have some magical healing on the day the elections are over or the results become clear. If anything, we’re going to be sharply divided. The second thing is, as a business, you have to figure out a way to work through that.”Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is a freelance journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about work, the job market, and women’s experiences in the workplace. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Quartz, Fast Company, and Digiday’s Worklife.(Featured photo by Solstock/iStock by Getty Images)

BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza | November 04, 2024

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Overcome Stubborns
By Katie Chambers | November 01, 2024

Creating a Culture for Workers to Explore, Grow, and Belong

Vail Resorts has become a global leader in luxury ski experiences, owning and operating 42 ski resorts in four countries around the world: the U.S., Canada, Switzerland, and Australia. This comes after a period of exponential growth. Just 10 years ago, the organization had only 10 resorts. So, its workforce has had to grow and diversify as rapidly as its portfolio.Being inclusive in a business with tens of thousands of workers at peak season means developing leaders to broaden their skillset to engage with people in a more human-centric way. That calls for showing workers how they can explore a wide variety of jobs, to expand their capabilities, and have a sense that they belong. Everyone shares the same mission: to create the experience of a lifetime.Engaging Seasonal and Year-round WorkersThe vast majority of Vail’s workforce is seasonal, Lynanne Kunkel, chief HR officer at Vail Resorts, shared during a fireside chat at From Day One’s Denver conference. We have about 55,000 employees total at peak, and about 49,000 of them are seasonal. And our seasonal workforce is our frontline,” she said.Being in the experience business, she says, the company’s mission is to provide guests with the experience of a lifetime. This value system is also embedded in the organization’s human resources approach. “We create the experience of a lifetime for our employees, so they, in turn, can create the experience of a lifetime for our guests,” Kunkel said. “We put a lot of emphasis on understanding our frontline employee experience to make sure we’re [accomplishing that].” A large part of the year-round workforce are the frontline managers, so the company also prioritizes investing in their ability to properly support the seasonal teams.Housing in resort towns is notoriously pricey, so Vail Resorts offers a program to help employees live within a commutable distance to work. “We build housing that is owned and operated by Vail Resorts. We also have master leases with other developers in our resort communities so that we can support employees if they want to come for a season,” she said. This is especially crucial for first-time employees who may be unfamiliar with and have little connection to the area.Prioritizing Employee Retention“Seasonal employees have a choice every season to decide: Do they want to re-up with Vail Resorts? Or do they want to go do something different?” Kunkel said. “And so, over the years, we have spent a lot of time trying to understand what differentiates the frontline experience.” Vail Resorts used the global labor shortage during the pandemic as an opportunity to refresh its employee value proposition, which is now: “Explore. Grow. Belong.”Investing in employees is also top of mind. “We invested $175 million in employee experience through a combination of wages, benefits, frontline development programs, [and] frontline recognition programs, all in service to the idea that our frontline employees don't just work for Vail Resorts. They are Vail Resorts. They are the experience that is the differentiator for our guests,” she said.Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton of the Denver Post, right, interviewed Lynanne Kunkel, CHRO of Vail ResortsKunkel hopes talented employees will “come for a season, but stay for a career,” attracted by different job types and the opportunity to participate in development programs for career growth. The organization has a workforce management system that allows employees to qualify for skills outside of their core responsibilities and try out new positions through open available shifts. Not only does this allow for upskilling, but it also gives workers the opportunity to take on additional hours for extra income.The highest performing winter employees are also invited to stay through the summer for a special development program. “Epic Service Summer is an opportunity for them to get a differentiated development experience as part of their summer employment,” Kunkel said. The program has had a marked impact on both growth and retention. “We found that the participants in that program are getting promoted in their next season at five times the rate of their peers, and at two times the rate of their other high-performing peers. If they’re not getting promoted, [then] they’re moving laterally at three times the rate of their peers and two times the rate of their high-performing peers.”Creating a Diverse Workforce That Reflects the Future of the IndustryModerator Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton, neighborhood reporter at The Denver Post, notes that the ski industry has a reputation for being “very homogenous.” Vail Resorts is striving to change that.“We as a company have made a declaration that the future of the sport is inclusion,” Kunkel said. Vail Resorts has been using the CRM system Epic Pass to “understand our guests, and our guest behaviors and preferences, in an extreme amount of detail,” she said. “With Epic Pass and the data that comes from it, we’re able to make targeted investments in improving the guest experience in a data-driven way.”Vail Resorts is also using data to understand the demographics of the industry and society at large–-and the gap that exists there. “Over 70% of skiers start the sport as beginners below the age of 18,” Kunkel said. With the majority of children in the U.S. being non-white, “the future of the industry is counting on these kids to start skiing before the age of 18. If we don’t invest now in building inclusive resorts where people feel welcome, our business will not be sustainable. The best way to make our resorts welcoming is to aspire to have our internal employee demographic mix mirror what we believe is the demographic mix of the future of the sport.”Preparing for Continued Growth“There are some changes happening within the company that were announced recently that are going to take place over the next two years,” Boyanton noted. Vail Resorts recently announced the commencement of a two-year resource efficiency transformation plan.“We have three resorts in Australia [and] two resorts in Switzerland, and we are very committed to continuing to build out Europe as our next region of operation,” Kunkel said. “As we’ve looked at what it’s going to take for us to support the global expansion of our company into other geographies, this was a good time for us to take a look at our organization effectiveness [and] invest in some great organizational design work in order to scale the company to support that expansion.”As it grows, Kunkel says, Vail Resorts will continue to invest in the employee experience. “The whole idea of this is to create a scalable platform as we grow, to allow our frontline teams to focus on the guest experience and give them the scalable tools and support that they need to be able to do that in the most efficient, effective way.”Katie Chambers is a freelance writer and award-winning communications executive with a lifelong commitment to supporting artists and advocating for inclusion. Her work has been seen in HuffPost and several printed essay collections, among others, and she has appeared on Cheddar News, iWomanTV, On New Jersey, and CBS New York.

Overcome Stubborns
By Angelica Frey | November 04, 2024

Efficiency and Worker Happiness: How to Find a Middle Ground

Dialogue is essential when addressing people-management challenges and sustaining a positive corporate culture, says Ginger Gregory, Ph.D., executive vice president and chief human resource officer of Biogen. “Treat people like adults, measure them on their outcome, [connect them in the office] sometimes, and let managers manage their own teams,” she said in a fireside chat moderated by Callum Borchers of the Wall Street Journal at From Day One’s Boston conference.Gregory encourages managers to make the right decisions for their teams,  especially within a company that spans diverse roles, from frontline lab work to corporate positions. This reflects a more nuanced view on fairness, where fair no longer means the same for everyone. “We have people working labs, we have people working manufacturing, who have to be in the facilities,” she said. “We do manage it based on the role first, but those roles with more flexibility we encourage it. If you don’t treat people like adults, engagement drops,” she said.Biogen’s engagement hinges on its mission, in that it creates life-saving therapies, a process that sometimes takes years, and, due to the nature of the process itself, some products might not reach the finish line.“We’re very mission driven. Often, employees can see [patients] and see how products are developing,” said Gregory. This enables workers to see how their efforts directly contribute to meaningful outcomes and the impact they’re making. “We’re a team, and in the last 12 months we launched three new products. We’re keeping the patient story front and center.”For example, they offer products for muscular atrophy and multiple sclerosis, and they make it a priority to understand life from a patient’s perspective—not only in their daily work but also in what patients experience beyond the workplace, says Gregory.Ginger Gregory of Biogen was interviewed during the fireside chatA similar approach has positively impacted retention as well, which Gregory attributes to HR's specialized training. “When I started in this career, it was when McKinsey’s War for Talent paper came out: how do we develop talent? How do we get managers to care?” she said. At Biogen, managers are walked through conversations centered on thriving, both for themselves and for their direct reports.“Managers are getting much better at engaging in dialogues with people,” she said. Part of this effort involves orbit programs, where an employee tries out a slightly different function for a set amount of time. “That’s a short way we can get people to try out different things; managers need to know what people want, but they also have to be open to what happens,” said Gregory.Diversity, equity, and inclusion also remain a core value at Biogen. The company has stood firm on its beliefs and practices. “We haven’t rolled back anything. When I came to Biogen, we were already quite advanced, we had employee network groups, community labs, and more,” she said. “We have not changed our approach: inclusion is part of our cultural essential, and we have the backing of our Board and CEO, we believe it’s going to help us be higher performers.”Ultimately, the work being done at Biogen not only fosters a strong internal culture but also enhances the company’s overall mission. By prioritizing open dialogue and understanding the patient experience, Biogen reinforces the value of each employee’s contribution, creating a workplace where individuals feel valued and engaged. This alignment of purpose both inside and outside the company ensures that every effort is directed towards achieving meaningful impact in the lives of patients and the broader community.Angelica Frey is a writer and a translator based in Boston and Milan.



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