HR vs. Chief People Officers: What’s in a Name?
BY Kara Cutruzzula August 16, 2022Gone are the days of “human resources personnel.” We’ve entered the people era. Among the radical shifts in office life (hybrid workplaces, expanded commitment to DEI, and intergenerational teamwork), a tidal change is occurring at the management level as well. If employees don’t want to be treated like expendable, interchangeable cogs in a corporate machine, then the operations supporting them are adjusting accordingly. The office of “human resources” appears to be on its way out (at least in name). Replacing “resources” are titles like chief people officer, head of people and culture, and other more employee-centric names. The Rise of the CPO As an experienced HR professional, Kimberly Samon found her own job title transitioning to chief people officer back in the late ’90s. That company was ahead of the curve, but she’s noticed the designation become more widespread over the last few years. Currently, CPO executives are seen in many industries—and their absence can send a negative signal about a job. “Now if you get a call from a recruiter and they say ‘CHRO,’ the company is actually not positioning itself to be very progressive in the eyes of people who do what we do,” said Samon, who works with companies in the capacity of chief people officer and senior people strategy through her consultancy KSL Advisors. “If you think about it, when you hear the term ‘human resources’ it’s implying that it’s like a widget, that it’s a thing. Whereas when you use ‘people,’ it’s much more intimate and understanding and there’s a sense of relationship and community there. It signifies something about the company and how they value the people equation within the overall context of success in their organization,” said Samon. Corinne Murray, a founder of Agate Studio, a consultancy firm focused on the future of work, agrees that employing executives with the titles of chief people officer or chief culture officer sends a message down the company chain. “It’s definitely a brand message from the company trying to say that there’s a level of progressiveness that happens here, and we acknowledge and recognize that you, the workers, are more than just the work you produce and you are more than just a line in one of our spreadsheets.” Of course, a name change doesn’t automatically translate into a shift in culture or leadership. “I know plenty of companies who use the ‘chief people’ nomenclature, but then they still treat people like widgets. That ‘human resources’ kind of phrase is hard for a lot of people to break,” said Samon. So how can “people people” at companies do their work effectively while also translating an important brand message? The answer lies in another relatively new concept: employee experience. How Employees Think About HR “Go to HR” and “HR needs to see you” always had an ominous ring, didn’t it? These phrases conjure up images of a bland office manned by a stern overlord. Traditionally, employees associate the acronymic HR with hiring, firing, compensation, or problems during their tenure. But someone who’s in charge of people and not resources feels like an improved level of support. Companies who haven’t yet made the change in their own structure should keep in mind change at the corporate level takes more work than zhuzhing up an org chart. “It has to be backed up with a change in behavior, a change in service level, and certainly a change in culture for a lot of companies,” said Samon. This action can often be neglected, said Murray. “In a lot of cases, I see people being named these different titles, but the scope of the work hasn’t quite changed to adapt to the title.” Someone can be an empathetic leader, but company policies and values–from corporate communications to employee experience all to the way to how workplaces are designed–need to align as well. “It’s still pretty fractured,” said Murray. However, there are ways to bridge the gap between what companies claim to stand for and what they actually do. Leading From the Top Creating an employee-centric company begins at the top of the ladder. “All of this [change], unfortunately, hinges completely on the upper echelons of the company’s leadership. Depending on how empathetic and progressive and create-your-own-adventure kind of leader a person might be, it can make or break how truly employee experience-centric a company is,” said Murray. This means looking at the company’s board, CEO, and other chief-level folks who make important strategic decisions, and not allowing the entire employee experience to rest on a single person's shoulders. Take parental leave, for example. As Murray pointed out, “Most companies still only have maternity leave, not parental leave, even though there are tons of studies about fathers needing to be more involved in children’s lives and the benefits of that, not even taking into account that not everyone who works for you [may] ascribe to the male or female gender identity.” Listening to Those People So what do employees want in this post-pandemic world? Samon observed the two factors employees are looking for most are trust and flexible work, which go hand-in-hand. “They want to be treated like grownups. Back in pre-pandemic days, we required folks to come to the office, because we felt like we had to have eyes on them for them to do their jobs and we could track hours. We somehow convinced ourselves as companies that hours translated into productivity,” said Samon. “Workers today are saying, it doesn’t matter where I am–with technology, I should be able to do my job equally well. And if I can do my job in four and a half days versus five days, then I shouldn’t be penalized for being more productive than other folks.” Offering a flexible work arrangement is one way to bolster claims of being people first. Samon advises companies to follow talent, not geography. "If you have a great employee who lives outside of a commutable distance of an office, then you should be able to hire that person," she said. Knowing Whether Your People Practices Are Working Measurable KPIs keep a business humming and thrumming. But how do the heads of people and culture measure their own levels of success? Samon highlighted four key metrics which, taken together, tell a story about the health of a company. •Engagement scores (how do folks feel about the company, leadership, compensation package and culture?) •Attrition data (which employees are leaving?) •Exit-interview data (to understand if people are leaving due to work culture or compensation) •Length of time to hire (does the company have a great reputation and can it attract the right skill sets?) “I’ve never seen a company that had outstanding performance and failed in those four areas,” said Samon. Taking stock of the entire employee journey is paramount. HR’s job doesn’t end with the onboarding process, but continues through the thousands of touchpoints an employee has with the company throughout their tenure, from how people receive information about their job, to training an employee to be self-sufficient, to the actual tools used in a workplace. “Those touchpoints equal experience,” said Murray. “It’s not just snacks and ‘We'll throw you a party because we’re happy you’re here,’ or saying you can wear jeans. Experience is all these very mostly unsexy things that do or do not create more hurdles for you to cross over before you can get your work done,” she said. “The culmination of those things equal culture, and people very justifiably can become disenchanted with a company and with that internal brand quite quickly,” if they aren’t up to a certain standard. Put simply: If employees are unhappy, changing the name of your HR department isn’t going to suffice. Tweaking a Title for Today’s World Some companies are going one step further, dialing in on emotions in the workplace by creating “chief happiness officer” jobs, writes Callum Borchers in the Wall Street Journal, combining the traditional duties of HR with team-building activities and a hyper-sensitivity to how workers are feeling. The job, in other words, is about creating good vibes. Be warned: This can arrive with an additional level of stress for the happiness officers themselves, who might feel they have to be in a persistent good mood. Similarly, “chief well-being officers” and “chief wellness officers” are also becoming more prevalent, with an emphasis on employees’ emotional rather than physical health, going beyond the simple gym reimbursements popular in previous decades. Fancy updated job titles aren’t limited to the happiness index, however. The transition to remote work has inspired a few companies to create “head of team anywhere,” “head of dynamic work,” and “head of remote” job positions for leaders dedicated to fostering a more successful hybrid workplace, reports Emma Goldberg in the New York Times. The lack of rigidity or diehard commitment to old norms can be a signal to potential employees that a company is adapting to the current moment. There’s Still a Ways to Go Since early 2020, employees are savvier than ever before. From refusing to jump back into full-time office life, leaving for new opportunities, and learning how to negotiate beyond salaries and bonuses, empowered employees are on the rise. “People are far more choosy about the companies that they join. There’s a host of people who are just going to go to top dollar. Then there are a host of people who are really looking at the purpose, the flexibility, and how the job fits into their lives more than ever before,” said Samon. This leaves a workplace ripe for disruption. “The leaders are people who are ready to roll up their sleeves and design a future that doesn’t necessarily look like the past,” said Murray. “There are boundless opportunities of what we can learn and what we can create.” You can join the tide, or watch it roll in. Kara Cutruzzula is a journalist, playwright, and author of Do It For Yourself, a motivational journal designed to guide people through their work and creative projects. Her next book, Do It Today: An Encouragement Journal, will be published in October.
Why Your Team Needs to Create Happy Accidents
BY Kara Cutruzzula April 27, 2021Serendipity? In a pandemic? It sounds impossible to believe, but serendipity–that strange alchemical gathering of the right people in the right place at the right time–might be what your company needs after a year of remote working. Previously, employees could hash out ideas or get to know each other over happy hours or those awkward but valuable chats during the long walk to the break room. Now, unless you're accidentally Zoom-bombing someone, those kinds of happy accidents rarely happen in the workplace. The flexibility of remote work has bloomed into a confusing side effect: our work lives are more rigorously planned and rigid than ever. Luckily, there are tools to change that–to invite the serendipitous moments, conversational detours, and friendship so crucial to creating a healthy company culture, retaining employees, and sparking innovation. One of these tools is Donut. This five-year-old start-up connects individuals for conversations that build camaraderie, collaboration, and community through a variety of different programs in Slack. The donut-hole version of their story: they're creating a fun, low-friction way for employees to build meaningful relationships with their colleagues in a decidedly non-awkward way. Donut co-founder and CEO Dan Manian joined Fast Company contributing editor Lydia Dishman in a From Day One webinar recently to talk about bringing teams together, encouraging inclusion, and finding a happy medium for both introverted and extroverted employees in this new world. Speaking of serendipity: Dan Manian of Donut, below, with moderator Lydia Dishman of Fast Company, above (Image by From Day One) The first question that may come to mind when thinking about the Herculean task of keeping employees engaged at the best of times–let alone in a pandemic–is: why do connections, or relationships between coworkers matter? Manian opened by setting the stage that this isn’t purely a question of warm and fuzzy feel-goods: "There's actually been quite a bit of research around how a more connected workforce drives more productivity, innovation, and retention." Dishman added that there's a business case to be made for greater collaboration, and traditional measures of productivity and collaboration have changed radically. Especially after this past year, people are missing mentorship, learning, and social interactions, regardless of their company size, industry, or employee type. And when connections weaken between individuals, all companies–whether we’re talking about large, matrixed Fortune 100 organizations, startups scaling rapidly, or teams that have gone remote for the first time–are at risk for silos popping up within the workforce. "That traps innovation within certain teams or certain departments," Manian said. Donut fights silos by creating these connections through serendipitous interactions right in Slack. "We want to be integrated with where people are doing their work,” Manian said. That means not having to learn a new program–employees can build connections in the tools they already know, where they’re already spending their time. Connection at work typically takes many forms: through coffee meetings, structured development programs, small group discussions like employee resource groups, and even chance run-ins in the hallway or around the coffee machine. Donut’s technology helps take the spirit of these programs and serendipitous interactions and put them into motion in a way that works whether employees are co-located, fully remote, or taking a hybrid approach. The app is probably best known for setting up random virtual coffee chats, but it does more than that. For example, customers use Donut to run more equitable, seamless skip-level 1:1 meetings; give new managers an accountability group to practice what they’ve learned in training; and stimulate asynchronous, often-lighthearted conversation through Watercooler topics within a Slack channel. (The latter of which came directly out of customer feedback and a desire to recreate the office watercooler in a low-pressure way.) After all, there's the slight issue of getting everyone out of their bubble. Dishman cited research that suggests a higher state of anxiety during times of chaos makes people more risk-averse. "As a result, they're less likely to seek out those different perspectives and just fall back into what's always worked before, and that desire to bring things under control can also lead to a go-it-alone mentality," she said. Anyone who's thought about maintaining the status quo over the last year can relate–it often didn't feel appropriate to be innovative or to experiment. But for CEOs and managers, providing a bit of uplift can go a long way. "One of the things that's gotten harder is that you used to be able to walk into an office and feel the vibe a little bit," said Manian. "You'd kind of know if the office [mood] is down or not, and that's kind of hard now." Since execs can’t currently walk the hallways and stop by desks, they need another way to connect with team members of all levels that feels similarly serendipitous (which is where the skip-level 1:1 program came from). Inclusive by Design In one way, the year's crisis has been an equalizer for employees, at least when it comes to having your voice heard. Every meeting attendee now has the same-sized Zoom square, the same access to a microphone. Gone are the days of jockeying for a seat at the conference-room table or pretending that perching on the window ledge is a fine consolation prize. And remote workers aren't treated as second-class citizens when everyone else is remote, too: poor connection, missing the chance to speak, and unread Zoom chats are now everyone’s problem, and hopefully a source of empathy in the future. Donut ensures its programs are inclusive in many ways, internally and externally. This means thinking about everyone’s experience and making sure that people’s different social needs and communication styles are respected. "Different people want to build relationships in different ways," said Manian. One way to ensure that people are comfortable? No forced fun, to paraphrase Dishman. When employees opt in, they’re more likely to participate, make authentic connections, and generally feel the benefits of engaging. As for the 24/7 Zoom culture, Manian thinks individuals should be adaptable. "Now that we're a year into this, there's probably a time and a place for having your video on. But sometimes people just need a break, and it kind of needs to be okay to turn it of." Consider that permission to grab a coffee and conversation over the old fashioned way–over the phone, of course. That's So Random, in a Good Way Of course, you can't simply wait around for these serendipitous moments to happen. You have to create them. Part of setting up a Donut channel is selecting the frequency, which means that connections can happen daily, weekly, monthly, or even quarterly depending on the program’s goal. Another approach is Donut's Lottery Intros feature, which allow one participant (or a fixed group of participants) to get randomly introduced to new people each cycle. Okta, a workplace-software company, instituted a Donut Lottery program in which employees opt in to be paired for a 30-minute coffee with the CEO. Instead of confusing calendar checks and "are you free" emails, the Donut program makes an introduction to whomever was chosen on Slack, opens up a multi-party direct message, and creates a Zoom room so all you have to do is come prepared for facetime with the boss. "I think that's a really creative way for executives in this environment to be more accessible," said Manian. Organizations can discover how useful Donut is to their company through an analytics dashboard, which shows program by program, channel by channel, how many participants are in each round, and how many introductions have lead to meetings. Some companies even tie Donut participation back to eNPS and other employee engagement measurement, helping to complete the picture of why this matters so much. The point is to create sustained connections and to find new and different things to talk about. (Please, no more "happy Friday" Zoom happy hours.) Many Slack-oriented companies already have their own common language full of emoji-speak and goofy internal memes. This language is how we connect to one another, how we tell each other "I get it, too," and how we bond despite all the obstacles in our way. Looking ahead, Manian reflected on the advantages of hybrid work and of how Donut can help companies cast a wider net. "The first thing that pops to mind is actually the opportunity to be more inclusive geographically and not have people get left out of the room," he said. Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner who sponsored this webinar, Donut. You can watch a video of the conversation here. Please visit our conference page to register for more upcoming events. Kara Cutruzzula is a journalist, playwright, and author of Do It For Yourself, a motivational journal designed to guide people through their work and creative projects.
Motivate: How to Give Your Employees an Energy Boost
BY Kara Cutruzzula September 28, 2020Motivation is a delicate issue. The now-maligned "hustle culture" was previously sustained by a cultural obsession with productivity. Working smarter and faster is always better, the thinking goes. But the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing economic and emotional fallout revealed the cracks in that system. Now, urging workers to try harder and stay motivated when the world feels like it's falling down feels disingenuous, or even destructive. But no workplace–or worker–would refuse a morale boost if it's delivered with authenticity. Every employee’s situation specific to them and deserves a specific set of tools. An employee who's feeling uninspired might not enjoy the new responsibility of training incoming employees, but someone who feels like they've plateaued and is seeking new growth opportunities might thrive in that situation. Someone who is coming back from a furlough is going to have a different outlook than someone in management who hasn't had a free moment since March. My guided journal Do It For Yourself offers prompts to encourage creativity and productive work, and these strategies can be applied to companies, and the people who keep companies running. Here are a few situations you might recognize, and how you might be able to respond. When Time Feels Untethered to Reality How can we respond to fatigue, indecision, and setbacks? How can employees think positively about their careers, both in the day-to-day grind and in the larger arc of their lives? There is no simple trick for them to orient themselves in the arc of time (if there was, Jeff Bezos would be selling it right now), but there are a few tools we can use to think about our careers and companies almost from an outsider's perspective. The author's motivational journal, designed for anyone seeking to boost their productivity Shuffling the same to-do list around every day often makes you lose sight of the larger goal. What is this all for, anyway? To frame the future for your workers, go big: Write a future Wikipedia entry for the company, and encourage employees to write one for themselves. Detail what you've already accomplished and where you want to go, all in third-person perspective. Remembering the big dream can help you work backwards to set daily, weekly, and monthly goals. When They Need to Be Selfish for Their Own Good There are so many pressing demands on our time, energy, and emotional resources. For some employees, work might fall to a lower priority than taking care of their family or other concerns. And you know what? It's OK. Or it should be OK. Being an empathetic manager starts by understanding that no one should be expected to prioritize their 9-to-5 over everything else. To build themselves up, sometimes they need to do something for themselves. Maybe that looks like taking a vacation day, even in the middle of a big project. Maybe that looks like allowing employees to work with more freedom. Everyone is adapting–and the way to ensure employees' happiness in the long-term is to recognize that work should ideally be a place not to drain our limited energy, but to sustain it. When They’re Faced With a Ridiculous Deadline The wheels of business continue to turn, and with Q4 chugging along, you might be making up for lost time, turning toward larger projects, or already feeling the pre-holiday madness. What your team needs is sprint energy and a clear goal. It's easy to say, "Work faster! Work harder!" but the truth is everyone is probably already working as fast and as hard as possible. One strategy you can use to urge everyone forward is to remind them of the past. Think back: It's likely your team has seen this hurdle before (or a variation of it), whether it was a dash toward releasing a new product or meeting a quarterly quota. Remind the team of how they jumped this hurdle in the past. Maybe they formed new collaborations, reframed the goal, or adjusted the timeline. What worked once can work again. The circumstances are different and more complicated but recalling their previous ingenuity can encourage resilience in tough moments. When They Need More Human Connection "Zoom fatigue" has become so common that people are planning vacations simply to get away from their screens. This has profound effects on employee behavior. Meetings feel more like a chore than ever before. Even if your company has mastered the transition to remote work, we're more than six months into the pandemic and it's time to refine your system, or at least add more of a human touch. You can still conduct business while remembering you're all people on the other side of the screen. The next time you're having a routine meeting, try opening by asking everyone to go around and briefly talk about someone they admire. Whether their answer is a grandparent, colleague, or a Fortune 500 CEO, the act of reflecting on this person–and why they're so notable–can tell the rest of the group a lot about them and share in their goodwill. A few additional ideas for improving and humanizing Zoom and Slack: •Ask everyone to share the best thing they've read recently in the chat. •Have "blackout" times on Slack. These are specific hours where everyone logs off and commits to one task instead •Try "silent Zooming." Sounds counterintuitive (more Zoom?), but rather than having meetings that exhaust everyone with discussion, simulate your old office environment by joining a Zoom where a bunch of people gather in a library-like setting, doing their work without an obligation to say anything. •And it never hurts to shorten a meeting by 15 minutes. When They Return After a Crisis There seems to be a welcome new element of empathy going around, at least when it comes to friends, acquaintances, and coworkers. Call it a kind of communal commiseration. So many people have known someone who's had a health crisis (or been sick themselves) or been affected financially, that there's a deeper understanding that everyone is trying their best. Office griping now feels tedious among our shared knowledge of what hard things really look like. If your employees are going through their own crises, don't underestimate the power of simplicity. "We missed you." "You don't have to apologize for not being here." "Your help is invaluable." When life is moving fast, it's easy to forget to show gratitude. Take a moment and say the words. Reassure them that they haven't missed anything major and to not stress out over catching up. One saying that feels particularly apt in this moment is "things of quality have no fear of time." When Their Energy Levels Aren’t in Sync Even if days feel the same lately, there are still ebbs and flows to the work day. Research has shown there's a link between time of day and mental task alertness, and still more research has shown people are more likely to be ambitious and self-confident early in the day. To better understand the peaks and valleys of the people around you, try checking in on specific energy or focus levels. Say, for example, at the beginning of a meeting. You can ask everyone what their energy is at the moment on a scale of 1 to 10. They can say their answer or record it in the chat. At the end of the meeting, re-ask the question. The simple act of quantifying and acknowledging something ephemeral like "energy level" can clear the cobwebs. Our coworkers usually aren't ignoring us, and many office frustrations can be attributed to more personal aspects of people's lives. Opening up clearer channels of communication and not being afraid to fully own up to the fact that sometimes work is hard and sometimes everyone's exhausted can ease a burden you didn't know was there. When the Company's Future Is Uncertain One saying that feels particularly relevant during these few difficult months is "the only way out is through." So simple it could be a cliche, but it's incredibly effective. Clearly, every industry has fundamentally changed and the future is hazy. But while the natural inclination is to hunker down and cling to what worked in the past, this moment deserves the opposite: a full embrace of the future, whatever that may be. If employees are mired in the daily grind but there's been no company talk of 2021 goals, that can create a situation ripe for whispering Slack convos and confusion. And asking employees to continue at a breakneck pace without reflecting on their hard work and adaptability might get them thinking, "Well, everything else is changing, why don't I start looking around, too?" It's easy to lose motivation if they're thinking that maybe the company won't be around in a year or that they haven't had any words of encouragement from management. Even if you can't offer definitive answers, one exercise to try as the year winds down is to encourage a dialogue about what we should all leave behind–and what we want to embrace and move toward. Focus on the individual rather than the company. Have a candid discussion about the situations and work expectations that are better left in 2020, but encourage forward-looking thoughts, too. Maybe the company won't be around in a year, or maybe your workforce will undergo radical changes, but it's crucial to remember that you're here together now, and you can encourage each other now. You cannot let the precariousness of today distract you from the inevitability of the future. Lift up and encourage one another not because you're coworkers, but because you're human. Kara Cutruzzula is a journalist, playwright, and author of Do It For Yourself, a motivational journal designed to guide people through their work and creative projects.
Keeping Employees Engaged (and Sane) During Uncertain Times
BY Kara Cutruzzula March 20, 2020This is definitely not business as usual. No matter which industry you work in, it's almost certain that the coronavirus pandemic and its economic aftershocks will affect your business and, more specifically, your team. Right now, it feels as though everyone is starting at the beginning and scrambling to keep up. If you're in a leadership position, this can feel like an even bigger challenge. As difficult as it is to navigate uncertainty on a personal level, those in team leadership, top management, and human resources are often looked toward as beacons of hope or guidance. Is it possible to be everything to everyone? To keep employees engaged and thriving as much as possible, while also keeping your own sanity and emotional reserves well-stocked? There are ways to deal with these challenges, and it starts by assessing what your employees need most right now. Give them your attention Open-door policies and frequent check-ins are popular with hands-on managers during the best of times—and for good reason. Employees feel more engaged and invested in their work when they feel heard and understood. That's especially true now, when our attention is split in a million ways. "It’s hard, but the more you give your team your presence and attention, the more trust you build and the quicker your meetings will go because everyone will know what’s going on," writes Jake Kahana, a frequent proponent of remote work and co-founder of Caveday, which facilitates deep work sessions for individuals and companies through online and in-person meetings. Even if your team is adapting to a remote work set-up, consider the ways you can offer your undivided attention, even in small bursts. Kim Scott, author of the book Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity, recently wrote on Twitter that she's found "shorter, more frequent 1:1's are often a better way to keep in touch than longer weekly meetings. So much happens in a week, especially now." Maybe now that looks like a ten-minute phone check-in or an individual Slack message off the main group. Communicate like you've never communicated before Radio silence is the enemy. Offer small updates, even if the update is that you don't have anything new to report. They show the team that they're still a priority, even during a time of crisis. Nobody has a guide for how to handle this. "Whether you're in HR or the business, we're on a learning curve and getting a PhD in Business Continuity Planning and Crisis Management," says Alex Seiler, partner and head of HR, Americas, at Control Risks, a specialist global-risk consultancy that helps organizations succeed in a volatile world. "I think communication more than ever is critical, and [on our team] we've increased how often we communicate and the channels by which we communicate (email, Skype, internal podcast). We've also continued to stress that we are in this together and to talk about our own personal journeys as a leadership team, to reinforce that what people are going through isn't lost on us. We've created shared team sites with useful tips, information on working remotely, and just general connection amongst the business, and we'll continue to fine tune this as the situation evolves." You can also consider how you're communicating with prospective team members. I have a friend who's interviewing for a new job and completed an in-person interview last week, before social distancing became the norm. She actually received an email this week from the hiring person saying that a decision would be made in the next week or two. That's communication. Even though hiring a new employee is probably at the end of their priority list, sending that one quick email shows the company is still functioning, that they respect the prospective employee's time, and sets a clear expectation for an outcome. Make calculated decisions (but don't be afraid to change your mind) Employees love bosses who can make decisions. And now, during a time when so much is uncertain, it can feel cathartic to have decisions made for you that erase some of that uncertainty. Major changes such as remote work schedules, paid time off and sick leave, adjusted working hours for parents whose children are now home–employees will be grateful if you can share your decisions on these topics before they have to approach you themselves. In a recent piece for Forbes about how pandemics reveal leadership character, executive coach John Baldoni writes that during this moment, leaders should be straight with their employees, "Reveal what you can about the business, but do not make promises you cannot keep, e.g., no layoffs. Stick to the facts." But don't feel like you have to make rush decisions because of this current instability. "There are many actions people should take over the next several weeks and months, but the decision to act should be based on deliberation, sober reflection on data, and discussion with experts–not in reaction to a headline or a tweet," writes Art Markman in the Harvard Business Review. Lead by example. Everything's crazy. I can't believe this is happening. When will things go back to normal? These are all natural feelings, and it's important to share some of your concerns with your employees–you're not a robot. But people gravitate toward and take a cue from leaders who set a good example of how to manage during a crisis. One high-profile example is Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who's apparently working 19 hours a day fighting the virus and updating the public–and is allegedly running 3½ miles a day as stress relief. (He's 79 years old.) There's no doubt that the team working under him marvel at his dedication and doggedness. (You do not have to mimic his routine, of course–actually, please do not.) There's no reason to burn yourself out, but can you can help provide a sense of calm for those working around you by maintaining a regular-as-possible work-life schedule with a well-structured day, standard meetings, and even just eating and sleeping as much as you can and communicating that sense of health and well-being. Offer up kind feedback. "While productivity may not have dipped, we need to remember the human element of connection," Seiler told From Day One. "Employees will miss working with their colleagues side-by-side, so we need to focus on the psychological shifts they have to go through. We need to find ways to create connections–for example, Zoom lunches and happy hours–to get creative." This isn't the time for a full-fledged performance review. Avoid that. But do be liberal about giving feedback and praise. Employees don't want to feel like they're alone or, worse, like their adaptability isn't being noticed. Extend a few generous observations their way: I'm very impressed by how you're handling all of this or You're doing excellent work, even despite the circumstances. And take a cue from Seiler and think about innovation in tandem with moderation: "We need to think creatively about health and wellness needs during this time, like a mindfulness/meditation app that employees can use to set aside time to disconnect from work. We don't want people to burn out, and they need to know when to step away from their computers, now that many are stuck at home seven days a week." Throw out your old expectations–and create new ones. While it's natural to want to stick to a timeline established earlier in the year, extend a favor to everyone and re-evaluate your goals and expectations now, so that later you don't feel compelled to scramble and try to meet them. "We’re not working hard by working more hours," writes Kahana, the Caveday cofounder. "We work hard by delivering our work on time and by collaborating well with our team." The same feeling holds on the interpersonal level. If an employee is not responding to your Slack messages or is having trouble adjusting to whatever new technology they were forced to adopt in 24 hours, consider one of the dozens of other urgent needs probably calling for their attention right now. If an employee is following up about paid time off or flexibility with working hours, remember that their responsibilities likely encompass the needs of their family, friends, and of course, themselves. Remember that everyone is working hard, and everyone is human. Kara Cutruzzula is a journalist, playwright, and lyricist and writes Brass Ring Daily, an encouraging newsletter about work and creativity. She's the author of the forthcoming motivational journal, Do It For Yourself.
The Secrets to Building a Better, More Purposeful Team
BY Kara Cutruzzula November 18, 2018Many companies have a Cyclops problem, often narrow-mindedly seeing only what’s in front of them. So then how do businesses today build diverse, inclusive, purposeful teams? The answers come from a few different sources, according to the lively and informative panel “Building a Purposeful Team” at the From Day One conference, featuring experts with deep knowledge of creating diverse teams. But let’s start with the benefits: not only do inclusive teams bring a greater breadth of knowledge and backgrounds helpful for finding solutions, but for the bean counters among us, diversity also has a significant impact on the bottom line. Khalil Smith, practice lead of diversity and inclusion at the NeuroLeadership Institute, pointed out that diverse teams generate returns inside their organizations, highlighting that a large percentage of patents are developed by immigrants. (Research proves this out: More than one-third of individuals who have contributed to technological innovation in the U.S. are born outside the country, according to Fortune.) Companies that pursue diversity become more attractive to a broader array of job seekers, as well. Job candidates armed with that knowledge embrace businesses that champion diversity and tend to turn their backs on those stuck in the 20th century. “Candidates are doing the research,” said Jennifer Abbondanza, vice president of corporate initiatives for NBCUniversal’s Office of Diversity & Inclusion. “They know who gets it and are doing inclusion,” but it’s still the company’s responsibility to create an environment where people of all types feel comfortable enough to speak their mind. “That’s what is going to curate the best ideas and decision-making,” she said. Attracting a Broad Base of Candidates Increasing the talent pool starts with the job description, said Penda Aiken, president of leading staffing agency Penda Aiken Inc., and this is reinforced by the company mission and description. “The culture also needs to make employees feel like the company has social responsibility. It goes beyond lip service,” she said, pointing out the recent internal crisis at CBS, which saw the ousting of longtime executives. “What is the company culture and how is that being backed by leadership?” How to Communicate Company Culture Projecting this culture—and living by its high standards—is crucial, said David Raper, senior executive of corporate citizenship at IBM, global markets. “It starts at the top with the view of not just the company, but what sort of society are we as a company creating, internally and externally?” The next trick, then? Building processes to carry out the mission. Harnessing Data to Make Decisions Over at NBCUniversal, Abbondanza uses data to inform hiring culture, and works with the talent-acquisition team to research populations they want to better understand and around which they can develop strategies to counter unconscious bias. But data, of course, isn’t the end-all, be-all. As NeuroLeadership’s Smith said, there is bias inherent in AI and technology, which is primarily created by young to middle-aged white males. The people who create AI might not know where their biases are hiding. As machines churn through data sets, even that data is consciously curated by humans. “We can’t assume that artificial intelligence or machine learning is a silver bullet or will solve for all of [these unconscious biases],” he said. Training Against Bias While corporate training has long had a bad reputation for being dull or boring or locking people in a room against their will, unconscious-bias training is gaining traction—and yet still more can be done. Aiken says the diversity-recruiting process can run into a roadblock. Her staffing firm might find the best talent and arrange the interview, but ultimately the hiring manager or team decides who’s getting the gig. If hiring managers fall prey to their own biases, then “everything that’s being done to promote diversity and inclusion is for naught,” she said. The challenge with difference-focused training is that it often backfires. Research shows that it can infuriate the people it’s intended to educate—white men—while highlighting differences rather than bringing people together. The counterpoint, said Smith, is to be deliberate about training and create common goals: What are you working on collectively, and what are you coming together to do? “If you have a brain, you have bias,” he said, but if you’re not aware of your biases, you can’t mitigate them. Keeping Your Employees Happy Moderator Kristen Bellstrom, deputy digital editor at Fortune, posed this question to the group: Even when you hire the right people, why do companies still have trouble keeping women and people of color on their teams, and what can they do to fix it? Companies have to think beyond bean bags and cold-brew coffee, and inclusion goes beyond an open-office floor plan, said Aiken. What matters more is how people are treated. “Communication is critical,” she said. Successful companies emphasize social activity, and ask how they can contribute to the surrounding community. During his experience at IBM and previously at Housing Works, Raper said a culture of inclusion came from the top down. “It really did matter to the CEO. They talked about it all the time, and there were clear values at each company.” Another valuable idea is to hold an open-door policy. Ultimately, it’s about transmitting this diverse thinking into the DNA of the company. “Whether you’re a CEO or a person at the company, it’s about how to bake it into your behaviors,” he said. Abbondanza seconded the importance of communication from the top. At NBCUniversal, they have a skills-building Talent Lab and diversity elements included in their programs: “There are lot of tools in the toolkit,” she said. No one knows exactly which one is working the most, but you need to use them all.” Busting the Old Boys’ Network Where did you go to school? Who do you know? Are you someone I might want to get a drink with later? While traditional job-hiring practices can lean on antiquated questions with inherent biases for wealth and background, diving into the data can take the conversation one step further. NBCUniversal creates a healthy sense of competition toward its diversity goals, said Abbondanza, by stacking up data across teams to see how each fares. But as each panelist elaborated, the broader picture is to think about how we, as individuals, can participate in an expansion of the workforce—and beyond. Aiken noted that the primary elections, occurring the same day as the conference, will see more women of color than ever run for Senate and other political roles. In the end, creating better teams is less about networking with the same groups, and more about creating footholds in a diverse range of other networks. And that’s what they call breaking new ground. Kara Cutruzzula is a writer living in Fort Greene. Her articles, essays, and plays can be found here.