Praise for Bring Your Human to Work
“This is an important moment. We are all trying to figure out how to create a workplace that’s inclusive, meaningful, and inspires the kind of creativity that leads to innovation. Erica Keswin’s heartfelt, accessible, well-researched book, BringYourHumantoWork, is what we’ve all been waiting for.”
—KATIE COURIC
journalist and bestselling author
“When people thrive, business thrives. And that’s why companies that prioritize employee well-being will win the future. In BringYour HumantoWork, Erica Keswin shares the science and the stories of companies that get it right. If you want to build a thriving workforce, this book is for you.”
—ARIANNA HUFFINGTON founder of Huffington Post and founder and CEO of Thrive Global
“If you care about people as much as profits, this book is full of useful ideas for making work life better.”
—ADAM GRANT
NewYorkTimesbestselling author of GiveandTake,Originals, and OptionBwith Sheryl Sandberg
“One of the best employee habits is honoring relationships—with colleagues, clients, and ourselves. Erica Keswin shares the science and stories from companies about how great relationships happen.”
—CHARLES DUHIGG bestselling author of ThePowerofHabitand SmarterFasterBetter
“Erica Keswin’s BringYourHumantoWorkis the wake-up call we need to show that building a great company is about way more than just a focus on the bottom line. Erica has created a must-read for leaders, managers, and employees trying to navigate this Dot Complicatedworld where work, life, and purpose blend more closely together than ever.”
—RANDI ZUCKERBERG
CEO of Zuckerberg Media, and NewYorkTimesbestselling author of DotComplicatedand PickThree
“In an age of disruption and rapid technological change, there’s a growing desire for meaning and authenticity at work. Erica Keswin’s incisive new book shows us how to find it. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a leader, or anyone looking for a more purpose-driven job, this book answers your big questions.”
—DORIE CLARK author
of
EntrepreneurialYouand
StandOut, and adjunct professor at Duke University Fuqua School of Business
“Hugely insightful and stunningly practical, BringYourHumanto Workoffers a wealth of powerful strategies for humanizing technology, hiring the right people, designing a smart office layout, and so much more. Discover the ten essential ingredients elite organizations use to create extraordinary workplaces—wrapped inside a framework that’s both fun to learn and easy to customize.”
—RON FRIEDMAN, PHD author of TheBestPlacetoWork
“Social isolation is one of the greatest risks in today’s digital world. Erica’s BringYourHumantoWorkgoes beyond acknowledging this challenge to offer specific, practical, and creative ways to create belonging in the workplace. Leaders who apply her insights will not only engage employees, but customers and investors as well.”
—DAVE ULRICH
Rensis Likert Professor at Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, and partner at the RBL Group
“In her impactful new book, Erica Keswin digs deep through relatable, real-world examples to uncover how working human is essential to both honoring relationships and helping employees feel happier and more fulfilled in the work they do each day. She also uncovers a universal truth that affects all of us: recognition is a fundamental human need, one that can influence everything we do. Her book is aptly named; it’s time for us all to bring our human to work.”
—DEREK IRVINE
vice president, client strategy and consulting at Globoforce
“In a world where busy is equated with status, competence and ambition, people are seemingly having a more and more difficult time disconnecting. And in our quest for busy we have lost our, as Keswin says, ‘Human!’ In BringYourHumantoWork, she discusses practical strategies for building workplace cultures that embrace our human, using technology as a tool for good, and helping us form more meaningful connections. If we are to build a more human workplace, this is a book not to be missed!”
—GAIL BERGER, PHD
assistant professor of instruction in industrial engineering and management sciences at Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management
“This book gives the reader a rich collection of actionable steps which any organization can use to become more authentic, genuine, and human. It is chock-full of examples from large and small firms, high-tech and no-tech organizations, start-ups and established companies. I guarantee you’ll come away with good ideas for making the firm you work in even more human.”
— JACK ZENGER
bestselling author and CEO of Zenger-Folkman, a firm dedicated to elevating leadership behavior
“This insightful book is loaded with action plans, resources, powerful statistics, and real-life stories of heart-centered leaders and their organizations. If you are looking for an actionable list of things to do to up-level your culture and bring more human to work, BringYour HumantoWorkis a lovely guide offering us easy-to-integrate steps and practices to bring our human in.”
—ANESE CAVANAUGH
author of ContagiousCulture, and creator of the IEP Method®
“Erica Keswin’s BringYourHumantoWorkwill transform the way you think about finding meaning and connection through your work. It is a must-read for anyone passionate about building a purposedriven life and career. There are so many essential lessons for business and nonprofit leaders on how to build a culture that inspires the very best from their people.”
—SHIZA SHAHID cofounder
of Malala Fund, and founder of NOW Ventures
“BringYourHumantoWorkhighlights an important message and one that I’ve always believed: building relationships is one of the most important aspects in building any business. This is more important than ever in our digital age. Read this book, invest in relationships. Your business will thank you.”
—SHELLEY ZALIS CEO of the Female Quotient, and founder
of the Girls’ Lounge
Copyright © 2019 by Erica Keswin. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Getting Started on This Human Business 1 Be Real: Speak in a Human Voice 2 Play the Long Game: True Sustainability Is a State of Mind 3 The Sweet Spot: Finding That Special Something Between Tech and Connect 4 Mind Your Meetings: Honoring Relationships with Purpose, Presence, and Protocols 5 Well-Being at Work: Finding the Human Side of Wellness 6 Give Back: You’ve Got Nothing to Lose, Only Inspired Employees to Gain 7 Disconnect to Reconnect: Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way 8 Space Matters: Curating Connection Starts with the Water Cooler 9 Take Professional Development Personally: Empower Employees to Be Their Best Selves 10 Say Thank You: It’s a Human Thing to Do
Acknowledgments Notes Index
Getting Started on This Human Business
I’ve always been a connector. Whether I was connecting people with great jobs as an executive recruiter, or setting up marriages as a side hustle, I’ve long believed in the importance of connection. I also know firsthand that, in this digital age, it’s getting harder and harder to set aside our devices and the alluring promise of all those digital “friends.” Even for me.
Which is to say I get why my three teenage kids feel so drawn to their digital lives. I understand how digital distractions complicate the workplace. I see the challenges, because technology is front and center in all of our lives.
I remember a lunch with a close friend where technology completely changed the dynamic of our friendship. My girlfriend couldn’t put away her phone when I tried to confide in her. Every time I opened my mouth to share something, she would look down, or her phone would buzz again and again, until I finally gave up.
In my role as a workplace strategist for the past 25 years, my focus has been on helping companies improve their performance through people. A few years ago, I started seeing behaviors I had not seen before. More and more, employees were calling into meetings from down the hall, texting bad news to clients instead of calling, and eating lunch alone at their desks, wearing headphones.
Parents, friends, CEOs, and managers all know that something’s off, but they don’t know exactly what it is, or how to fix it.
Let’s face it. We’re living in the Wild West. And there’s no new sheriff coming to town.
That’s one of the reasons why I wrote this book—to help create some rules of the road. At home, at school, and in the workplace, we’re frowning into our phones, shooting for “Inbox Zero,” and obsessively framing our lives into selfie-ops instead of living them. In so many ways, we’re missing out on one another.
I wrote BringYourHumantoWorkto inspire and guide those of us who want to be truly connected, to be real humans—in our lives, and especially at work.
What It Means to Be Human
Over the last five years, I started hearing a buzz about “human” workplaces. Even the most senior leaders—male ones at that—were talking about being vulnerable, compassionate, and yes, human. I found myself wondering: “What did people mean by ‘working human’?” “As opposed to what?” I wanted to know.
What I’ve discovered is that while everyone uses the term “human” differently, they are all pointing in the same general direction: people crave work-life balance, sustainable work practices, and authentic, purpose-driven work cultures. People are no longer willing to accept work as a soul-crushing, Dilbertesque, cubicled nightmare. However, as with many trends, while a strong, shared sentiment is being expressed and a legitimate problem is being revealed, the solutions are a little bit all over the place. I became very curious about this so-called “human” business, and I wanted to learn more. I set out to investigate the buzz and to determine if it really matters.
After talking to hundreds of CEOs, entrepreneurs, managers, and employees around the country, I have found that, in light of the digital deluge occurring around us, we all need a more human
workplace. Putting phones in a basket during a meeting, eliminating email, ensuring that employees take vacation—all of these mini-fixes are on the right track. But I’ve learned that there is one thing anyone and everyone can do to ensure a more human workplace: Honorrelationships.
A human workplace honors relationships. And yes, it matters.
Bringing your human to work is not rocket science, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. It takes hard work and discipline. It requires honoring relationships in everything we do—creating our values, running meetings, deciding who we hire, using technology, choosing whom we partner with, and evaluating and rewarding talent. Working human in the twenty-first century means that we absolutely must come to terms with the ubiquitous digital presence that sometimes feels overwhelming but can also be a powerful tool for getting ourselves, our products, and our messages out there. Bringing our human to work is both about putting technology in its place in order to build strong relationships and about inviting technology to the table, making good use of everything that can create a more human workplace.
Bringing our human to work will help us manage our technology and ourselves, too. Yet that’s not the only reason this book is so important for businesses today. As you may have heard, the millennial generation (people born between 1981 and 1996) will comprise nearly 75 percent of the global workforce by 2025.1 These young, passionate people are changing the game in many important ways. And their influence on today’s society and workplace includes a demand for a more human life at work.
For instance, this generation has redefined what it means to be “social,” blurring the boundaries between private, public, and work lives, and demanding that company values be taken off the walls and actually felt through the halls. Millennials want their work lives to have meaning and to work for companies that lead with a purposeful culture. Too many business owners aren’t sure how to do that or even what it means. I know, though, that meaningful values play an important role in the human workplace.
So for starters, let’s define “culture.” Culture refers to how it feels to interact with a company, as a consumer, an employee, a vendor, or a partner. What is the company vibe or personality? How do people behave when nobody’s looking? Culture is important, often thought to be number one on the list of critical factors in building a successful business. One of my favorite companies is JetBlue, a true leader in establishing a human workplace (and a company I have studied in depth). They hold top leaders accountable for maintaining the super cool, connected feeling of their corporate culture. Management is expected to show up to flip burgers at the holiday barbeque, attend regular new-hire orientations, and uphold and promote this uncommonly human culture. They are evaluated on how well they do this—in fact, their bonuses are based on it!
So let’s agree that culture matters. But what kindof culture is a human culture? Fun cultures are great. By-any-means-necessary money-making cultures certainly have their fans. A meaningful culture—a place where people can feel like they are plugged into something bigger than themselves—that’s a human culture. That’s the kind of place that businesses need to create if they want to succeed in this purpose-driven marketplace and the race for young, very-much-in-demand talent.
As important as culture is, it is just one part of creating a human workplace. Honoring relationships is the theme that brings everything a human workplace stands for together. What does this mean, on the ground, in your particular company? And even if you get it right, will all this human business help the bottom line?
Here’s a number to consider: $300 billion. According to the American Institute of Stress, $300 billion is lost in our economy every year to stress.2 Imagine the human impact we could make if we could get that money back. Or, better yet, if that stress hadn’t happened in the first place. By working human, I believe we can begin to literally cut our losses and cultivate a more human world. Prepare to change the way you do business.
Options
A human business, like a human being, is both incredibly complex and utterly simple. Our basic needs are few (food, water, shelter, affection), but the ways we go about meeting those needs are infinite. Let’s say you’ve established that you want to bring your human to work. Great! Signmeup!But, what’s next?
Maybe you’ve heard about B Corps, those for-profit companies that are certified as being “of benefit” to the world, and maybe you think you should convert your business into one that gives something away for each sale, like they do at Toms or Warby Parker. What if you are a marketing agency? An architect? A management consultant? How would you do that?
Should you develop an entire language like JetBlue’s, where employees drink what they call the “Blue Juice,” the brand-specific language that makes them who they are? Should you create a values-alignment position, like Etsy; a chief purpose officer, like PwC; or a chief culture officer, like Union Square Hospitality Group?
Maybe you’re wondering: Is texting with clients okay? How can we get the most out of our meetings? What does it mean to actually be “present”? What’s the deal with vacations? If vacations are unlimited, why are people not taking them? How do you manage your emails so you have time to connect with your team? Are performance reviews a human way to evaluate employees? What kind of space works best for today’s employees? And how should we say thank you?
There are an awful lot of details to consider. My 10 surefire ways to design a human workplace are based on what I’ve seen in my decades of work as a management consultant and my time spent as
a researcher and writer, visiting and studying companies around the country. Believe me, I’ve seen it all. I’ve met dazed and confused management teams; wise-beyond-their-years entrepreneurs; sleepy corporate bureaucrats; nimble, innovative, inspiring executives; and everything in between. Through hundreds of interviews with CEOs, founders, managers, and employees, I’ve noticed trends, themes, common errors, and keys to success. So what follows is what I have distilled to be the macro, micro, glamorous, and nitty-gritty things that get results when you bring them to work.
Let’s remember: just as no two humans are alike, no two companies are alike. While there are 10 surefire ways to approach the challenge of the human workplace, depending on the needs of your company and your stage of growth, you can pick and choose areas to focus on. If you are one of the lucky ones starting from scratch, you can build a human workplace from the ground up. If you have a specific problem with meetings or questions about technology or professional development, for example, you can pick up tips from the chapters that speak to you.
With that said, Chapter One—Be Real: Speak in a Human Voice— is a must for everyone. In this chapter, I tackle the importance of finding your company’s real voice and appreciating the value of values—two of the most important steps in creating a human workplace.
Peppered throughout the book, I shine a spotlight on people, places, and things to help you on the road ahead. At the end of the day, only you know what your workplace needs. By the time you are finished with this book, I hope you will see that whether you want to start a business, grow your current one, recruit the best and the brightest to work for you, or just feel more connected all around, bringing your human to work is good for people, great for business, and just might change the world.
1
Be Real: Speak in a Human Voice
Ellen Bennett, a self-described “millennial with an old soul,” struts across the conference stage, describing how five years ago she wanted to “make the world a better place.” “All I had was my phone,” she tells the audience. Fast forward to today’s event: the New York City 2015 Tech Table Summit, a collection of leaders and tastemakers in hospitality, and this proud, f-bomb-dropping, totally pumped CEO has taken the stage. Her company, Hedley & Bennett, is the go-to purveyor of chic aprons, outfitting pro and DIY foodies around the world. How did one young woman turn something as hohum as a kitchen apron into a booming lifestyle brand, worn and loved by employees in over 5,000 restaurants and hotels worldwide?
As Bennett puts it, “Be real, and encourage other people to be real.” Sounds easy enough. But what does it mean to “be real”? What does being real have to do with launching a successful business? As Bennett explains, when she started making aprons, all she had was her phone and herself. It was only “fitting” that her product would be infused with her special touch and her naturally sparkly personality—there wasn’t anything getting in her way! Admittedly, not all companies are cut from such personable cloth. Yet regardless of a founder’s temperament, the product, or the available resources, the same principle applies: authenticity is good for business.
While I invite readers to pick and choose from the 10 chapters in this book to find what works for them, this chapter is first for a reason. In order for a human company to flourish, it has to be
genuine, aligned, and true to itself. A real company actually flaunts its humanity; it doesn’t hide it. More and more, customers of all ages are flocking to authenticity1 and so are employees.
In fact, in a 2013 study, professors from Harvard University, the London Business School, and the University of North Carolina discovered that when companies emphasize newcomers’ “authentic best selves” over an organizational identity, this emphasis leads to greater employee retention and customer satisfaction within six months.2
In this chapter, I share three ways smart companies are bringing their human to their brands by being real.
Know Your Brand’s Values
Even if you haven’t taken the time to sit down with your employees to articulate and communicate your company’s set of values, one thing is for sure: these values drive everything you and your company do, whether you’re aware of their impact or not. The thing about values is that they are hard at work, calling the shots of your business, even when they are implicit. That’s why it’s so important to make our values seen and heard.
Learning How to Live by Values atJetBlue University
It’s Wednesday in Orlando, Florida. Outside the windows of this building, located a few miles from the airport, the sky is grey, but the auditorium is bright and lively. One by one, 176 people stand up and share their story:
My name is Mickey. I’m from Jamaica, and I used to be a bartenderatMadisonSquareGarden.
Myname isGloria.I’mfromMinnesota,andI’ve workedin childservicesandluxuryretail.
My name isJonah, and I’m an actor , but my dog made it ontoBroadwaybeforeIdid.
The crowd—mostly a thirtysomething, cosmopolitan mix of extroverts and charmers—cracks up. They are asked to hold their applause between introductions, but their enthusiasm makes it hard. When I was invited to attend the new-hire orientation at JetBlue University, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. For anyone new to the crew, the experience is the same—total Blue-Juice indoctrination. “Drinking the Blue Juice” is how JetBlue folks refer to their training.
To be honest, I didn’t really understand all this amped-up team spirit at first. Then I heard, again and again, from all over the map at JetBlue:
Afteracareerinaviation,thishasbeenmydream:tohave ajobatJetBlue.
IlovemyjobhereatJetBlueandhopeit’smylast.
MynameisAmanda,andbeforeJetBlue,Iwasanobody.
As the leader-in-residence (the JetBlue executive who serves as an emcee during the training) announced at the first night’s pep rally, “We’re kind of a cult!”
After studying this feisty, highly disciplined company of 21,000 crew members, it became clear to me that their success had nothing to do with size or innovative technical brilliance like that of Google or Apple. They have only 5 percent of seats traveling in the air, yet their revenue over the 10 years ending in December 2016 grew almost 3x, far out-pacing the revenue growth of the industry.3 And, size notwithstanding, JetBlue has become one of the most iconic
brands in the world. How did they do it? It’s actually super simple and completely within reach for all of us.
Like Ellen Bennett’s aprons, so clearly distinguishable from ordinary aprons, JetBlue also has a strong, very human, and very approachable brand identity. As a Johnson & Johnson executive asked a JetBlue leader at a meeting on innovation, “You guys have managed to be an airline associated with love. How on earth do you do that?”
It starts with their values.
At this recent orientation, Brad Sheehan, vice president of JetBlue University, described the company values to his 176 new crew members like this:
Safety We want our crew members to feel safe, so we takecareofthemphysicallyandmentally.
Integrity—Wedotherightthingwhennooneislooking.
Caring Ifwe can benicetoeachother , itiseasiertobe nicetoourcustomers.
Passion—The fuel that drives us to come to work. While we can’t controlgasprices(onetype offuel),we can hire forandcontroltheotherkindoffuel.
Fun—Howyoubringyourpersonality toJetBlueandmake it to work. We want you to bring what we saw in you to workeveryday.
Leader after leader, speaking to the group, emphasized these values, describing them as the underpinnings of everything the company does. According to Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer Mike Elliott, these values are the “glue” that holds JetBlue together. These dynamic speakers didn’t just tellthe group the values; they showedhow the values came alive in story after story, in videos, and sometimes in a customer’s own voice.
One unforgettable tale was told via an audio recording of a mother’s voice. She recounted how she stood with her developmentally delayed teenage son outside of the “family bathroom” near her gate, waiting for a key that never came. The situation was getting dire; the boy desperately needed to use the restroom. A JetBlue crew member found her and not only helped her get into a different bathroom appropriate for the young boy, but also helped the mother take hands-on care of the boy in a situation where most would have turned away to avoid such intimacy.
It goes without saying that no group of people will always be aligned, yet these JetBlue values are clearly heartfelt, and even more importantly, alwaystop-of-mind. That’s what it takes. Crew members are expected to have these values memorized, in the order they are listed and at the ready.
Truthfully, every time I fly JetBlue, I can see the values in real time. Recently I took a JetBlue flight from San Francisco to New York. After a long week of work, I was exhausted. Melvin, the lead crew member, welcomed us aboard and announced that he was going to be working with his best friend, James. Because I know the science showing that having friends at work makes us better at our jobs, I smiled. Everyone around me seemed more relaxed as well.
Later in the flight, I struck up a conversation with James. He had come from another airline and said that his experience at JetBlue was dramatically different. JetBlue is, he said, “a truly caring airline.” He told me about the flowers he received from his boss after a death in the family and described how accommodating managers are about switching schedules to attend to personal business. He also told a story about a time he and Melvin got into a car accident one night while driving to their hotel after a day of flying. JetBlue sent a car with crew members to visit them at the hotel and to make sure they were okay. James said, “JetBlue takes such good care of me, and I am so grateful that I want to take care of my passengers and everyone around.”
JetBlue just gets it. They know that relationships are key to any fundamental set of values, and moreover, they know how to honor a
web of relationships. In order for employees to share these values with customers, they need to feel that they themselves are on the receiving end of the values. That is to say, for the in-flight crew to make folks on the plane feel safe, they themselves have to trust the pilot, ground operations, and leaders. Safety begets safety; integrity begets integrity; caring begets caring.
SPOTLIGHT
Ground Control Brings Culture to Airbnb
Airbnb’s brand is all about creating a sense of belonging, and not just for their guests and hosts. They actually have a group of employees (10 people in San Francisco and someone in almost every office around the world) whose role it is to take the values off the walls and into the halls. Similar to the role of ground control in an airline, the group takes care of the office environments, events, internal communications, employee recognition, celebrations, and even the design of the office. According to Mark Levy, the former head of employee experience, these people aren’t “forcing fun, they’re reinforcing and supporting how we bring the culture alive.” Levy says, “They do it through pop-up birthday celebrations, anniversaries, or baby showers as well as creative themed events based on holidays or events—whether it’s Pride or the launch of their entry into Cuba.”4 This is the kind of effort it takes to truly scale culture.
LyftPuts Values in the Driver’s Seat
The ride-sharing market is worth billions and was originally dominated by Uber. Then along came Lyft, a San Francisco–based
ride-sharing company identified by a glowing pink moustache on the front dash. How did they manage to break into the space?
They let their values drive them, that’s how.
An article on Medium illustrating the differences between Lyft and Uber notes, “[A] key difference between the two companies’ cultures is that Lyft passengers are encouraged to sit in the front seat and engage in conversation, while Uber operates more like a traditional taxi service, where passengers sit in the back seat and mind their own business.”5 That is to say, Lyft emphasizes human connections. Lyft’s mission is “to reconnect people through transportation and bring communities together.” It sounds lofty, but a mission has to be. Like any strong brand, Lyft knows that developing and embracing core values is the way to manifest that mission, however aspirational it may be. Their official core values apply to passengers, drivers, and employees alike:
Be Yourself. Great communities start with great individuals.Liveauthentically,andtrustyourvoice.
CreateFearlessly. Challenge convention, take risks, and make an impact. If it’s broken, fix it. If it doesn’t exist, inventit.
Uplift Others. Invest in kindness, and always put communityfirst.Deliverdelight,andbeaforceofgood.
MakeItHappen.Now.Lifeisshort.Liveupfront.
How does a ride-sharing business bring these values to life? First, they hired someone to focus on it. Ron Storn joined Lyft as the vice president of people (he recently left), and it was his job to ensure that the values were felt throughout the organization—from welcoming employees’ dogs to the office, to ensuring that each team has a budget to do community service work each month. Employees are hired based on these values, then evaluated and compensated on them as well. Each new employee receives a coffee card to take
colleagues from other teams out for “coffee and conversation.” To oversee it all, a rotating Culture Board was established. Everyone involved should have input into how to improve and scale the culture.
Which is to say, Lyft gives its customers more than just a ride; it literally puts its values in the driver’s seat.
Both JetBlue and Lyft lead with their values, building the very fundamentals of their company mission around them. This creates a clear direction for leaders to manage their teams, and it inspires employees to be engaged. Having such a distinctive purpose, laid out in a clear set of values, is just good business.
Speak in an Authentic Voice
Once a company knows who they are and what their values are, that identity must be shared with customers, employees, and the world. This is a company’s voice, and like all voices, it must be heard. In order to breathe life into a brand, companies need to confidently broadcast what that brand stands for. Smart companies take pains to establish their voice systematically and meticulously, over the lifespan of the business.
Telling stories—personal stories, professional stories, and brand stories—is the perfect vehicle for expressing the truth of your company’s brand. Stories are free, are always available, and are such a core part of our human DNA that they automatically make us feel good. Especially when they’re true. Best of all, when a company brings true stories to light, the culture becomes more attentive to stories, and it’s a virtuous cycle. Leaders and managers learn to keep their eyes and ears on what’s most important: the real experiences of real people.
Union Square’s HonestHospitality
People have always considered honesty to be one of our most valued virtues in the study of philosophy and ethics. The old adage goes, honesty is the best policy. And when it comes to bringing your human to work, it’s an absolute must.
Erin Moran, a seasoned, successful consultant, is the very first chief culture officer at Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG), an immediate signal that this company a highprofile, trendsetting restaurant group—is getting serious about bringing their human to work. Which makes sense. Meyer’s business strategy is based on what he calls “enlightened hospitality.” When I asked him what prompted him to hire a CCO, he told me that ever since he realized that any good business is in a constant state of finding balance between an emphasis on finance and on culture, he wanted a culture officer to work alongside the chief financial officer. “I could have named it anything . . . chief storyteller,” he said. And chief storyteller would have been an apt title for Moran.
Moran and I met at the USHG headquarters in Manhattan just as an afternoon wine tasting was winding down. Moran is warm, a great listener, and smiles easily. After sharing her story about how she ended up in this exciting position three short years ago, she revealed to me that after she accepted the job, she “had a panic attack,” and actually said to Meyer, “I don’t think this is a good decision anymore.” Being a person of integrity (one of the USHG’s “Family Values,” and no doubt one of the qualities that Meyer found so appealing in Moran), she understood that it would be difficult, to say the least, to take care of the culture—and the people—in an industry where she had absolutely no experience. She also worried that she would have a hard time establishing credibility, never having waited a single table her entire life (“I was always working either in retail or in college as a teacher’s assistant”).
After Meyer convinced her that her outsider status was a benefit, Moran forged ahead, trying to establish rapport, gain insight, and develop programs that would keep the culture rich and meaningful and the employees happy. One of the most powerful experiences she’s had in her three years as head of culture (or, as she confessed
to me, perhaps in her entire career) was when she gave a talk on the topic of unity in front of the 125 employees of the Modern, a high-end restaurant owned by USHG. Sensing an opportunity, she decided to forgo the typical executive talking points on the value of unity and instead spoke in a real voice about herself and her challenges. According to Moran, she was “completely open and vulnerable . . . own[ing] the fact that [she’d] never walked in their shoes.”
She received a standing ovation and an overflowing inbox of praise. While Moran didn’t say this, I can only imagine that she received a credibility spike from her employees as well.
SPOTLIGHT
The Schmutz Pact
Harry Gottlieb, the founder of Jellyvision, the maker of interactive benefits communication software ALEX and Jackbox Games, was having lunch with a good friend one day when she told him that he had a piece of food stuck in his beard and helped him wipe it off. When he thanked her for being the kind of friend who does such things, she said, “We have a Schmutz Pact, right? Like you tell me, and I’m going to tell you.”
Schmutzis a Yiddish or German word for dirt or grime. We all know how valuable friends who will save us from our schmutz are. Not so long after that conversation, Gottlieb sent out an all-company email inviting folks to participate in an “old time Chicago-style ballot stuffing” to help a friend win votes for an internet contest. A brave programmer named Jeremy wrote him an email, ever so tactfully suggesting that Gottlieb was, inadvertently of course, asking the staff to cheat. Obviously Gottlieb was “horrified!” And grateful.
At the next all-hands meeting, Gottlieb stood up and praised Jeremy, explaining that’s “what a friend does: he doesn’t shame you when there’s something wrong. He assumes you don’t even know there’s a problem and points out the issue in a kind, collegial way.” And this is when Gottlieb announced the importance of their companywide Schmutz Pact, a catchy phrase for what he used to call “being honest and kind at the same time.”
An Empire ofPersonalTouch
Competition is fierce in every industry, and food and lifestyle brands are no exception. One way to stand out from the crowd is to be truly authentic, by leaving your fingerprints on everything you do. Showcasing this personal touch is not just a “nice to have,” it’s a powerful business strategy.
When it comes to combining personal touch with business, Food52 is one such company that gets it right. Food52, founded by Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs in 2009, is a strong competitor in the online food and lifestyle space and an early devotee of sincerity and authenticity as part of their brand. What started as a hotline for everyday home cooks (all 52 weeks in a year, get it?) is now a booming brand with a line of cookbooks, a podcast, an online shop with more than 2,000 kitchen and home goods, a series of offline pop-ups, and an audience of 12 million across platforms. In a 2016 article, NewYorkMagazinereferred to the company as “an empire.” Yet one of their official core values is PersonalTouch:Wetreat everyoneinourcommunitywithwarmthandcare,andwemake suretheyknowtherearerealpeoplebehindthescenes, and they take this very seriously.
The first time we talked, Hesser explained to me that since their primary interest is food, which is “so personal and inherently social, and forever has brought people together,” their aim was to “replicate that in a way that is productive and genuine online.” This meant that
