Greater Than

Jennifer Brandel is Co-founder of Hearken, a people powered process and technology that enables organizations to better engage and collaborate with their stakeholders, as well as the Co-Founder of Zebras Unite, a network creating a more ethical, inclusive and collaborative ecosystem for mission-based startups. For her work in journalism and entrepreneurship, Jen won the prize for “Best Bootstrap Company” at SXSW and won the News Media Alliance Accelerator Prize. She received the Media Changemaker Prize by the Center for Collaborative Journalism, was named one of 30 World-Changing Women in Conscious Business, is a Columbia Sulzberger Fellow, an RSA Fellow, AND a member of the Guild of Future Architects and the National Civic Collaboratory. Jenn and I talk about building a values-based business, why process should come before product, alternatives to the unicorn model, so much more:

• How combining the philosophical underpinnings of business and working with the Bahai faith taught her an effective way to impact journalism and plant the seed for starting Hearken

References and resources:

• Zebras Unite

Select highlights:

• "Just by tweaking the process of how news stories got made, we ended up creating a different sounding and differently consequential journalism. Other newsrooms started asking us about it, and I knew I would regret not trying to help others make it work, because I do think it is universally applicable process that makes the world a little bit better."

Dave Inder Comar is an attorney and Founder of law practices Comar Mollé and Just Atonement. He has an amazing ability to humanize law, approaching it with creativity and empathy to make policy something people can use that helps them navigate the changes organizations face today. He’s a bold leader, having led a case against George W Bush Administration for illegal acts of aggression in the Iraq War, getting so far as the 9th circuit where it was acquitted due to the immunity provided to high ranking officials by federal law. In this episode we talk about law in business and the workplace, and how it can be a creative, generative function for businesses:

• The dual-entity structure of his practices and how it enables him to be flexible and creative in his practice.

References and resources:

• Comar Mollé

Select highlights:

“We’ve tried to create a nurturing space where lawyers who share those values can come and have an economic foundation and have some economic security from the practice, but we also want to give people freedom to do the things that they wanted to do… I think that’s something that not a lot of firms can not say, and so as a result, we’re able to attract some really awesome lawyers.”

“We’ve created at the firm our own ecosystem where we’re cultivating those values. And those values start to emerge in the lawyers themselves. So that is a really important product of the firm itself, that type of professional development is something I’m most proud of.”

“Culture is the river, and the rules and regulations are the dam. You can impose some structure, but the culture is the river, and ultimately a good lawyer will know how to inspect the culture and come up with a set of documents that people can actually use and will be incorporated into the company’s culture.”

“A lot of times people just want to be heard. A lot of people get a lawyer because they haven’t felt heard. And so if you provide a mechanism where people can feel heard, you might be able to resolve it before it gets miscommunicated and misconstrued in different ways.”

“I think compliance is evolving. That would have been a surprise to me years ago to predict that. I think there is an understanding that there has to be some dignity at work.”

” I think that’s something every company should do and it starts from the board all the way down, and that’s create a culture of compliance.”

“Like everything in life, there’s a psychological bias that it isn’t a problem until something terrible happens. As lawyers we can see the things down the road that are coming… I do think lawyers can have a lot of value in terms of compliance, and also creating the culture of compliance where any person can feel comfortable saying I dont actually know if this is compliant with our internal policies.”

“People should feel safe at work. And if the workplace doesn’t feel safe, that’s a terrible indictment of the company.”

“The ultimate value should be, in my view, creating a place for human dignity to thrive.”

Emily Schildt is the founder of Pop Up Grocer, a traveling pop up grocery store that lies at the intersection of exhibit, retail store and grocer. She's also a brand communications and marketing consultant, and previously was the director of digital engagement at Chobani in its early days. Recognized as an innovator in the retail space, AdWeek named Pop Up Grocer "Best Pop-Up" in its first annual retail awards . In this episode we talk about:

• How her experience as a brand communications and marketing consultant informed her strategy for Pop Up Grocer, and why she forewent market research and created a brand that was what she wanted to see in the world.

References and resources:

• Pop Up Grocer 

Select highlights:

• "Especially when you think about the current time we are living in and how that might affect peoples shopping habits, I think they definitely want to make decisions that are grounded in values and missions and interests and activism of the company, so that's something we certainly think about in our product selection."

Satsuko VanAntwerp is a design researcher and service designer working on creating human-centered AI. Having previously founded a social sector design consultancy for government agencies, you'll hear how she brings her experience in business and the social sector to make more just and equitable AI. In this conversation we talk about:

• why she sees large scale AI as an opportunity to shift until recently invisible power structures

Recommended Resources

• Compass recidivism rate research

Select Highlights

• "Design, what I'm representing, is the desirability. What does the human want, how do we make this usable? Does this make sense for society, and is it humane and responsible?"

Sarah Judd Welch is CEO of Sharehold, a people-driven innovation agency, and started one of the first community agencies when the concept of community in tech was just getting started. Sarah and Lauren talk about:

• The need for creating a new set of competencies and capabilities and value systems that allow businesses to serve their customers better.

Recommended Resources

• Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World by Dr. Viveck Murphy

Select Highlights:

• "The capacity to listen to customers, I think thats probably one of the most fundamental skills a company can develop in 2020 for a competitive advantage."

Nate Nichols is Founder of the Palette Group, a Brooklyn-based creative production haus. In this conversation that tears down the silos of the personal vs professional journeys, Nate and Lauren talk about:

• Business as a platform to explore one's identity and to self-express

References and Resources:

• Palette Group

Select highlights:

"There's something in me that when I am self expressed, there is value there."

"When you do set those brand values, if you do that work to design the brand values that you want people to see in your company, you'll attract those people you're speaking about, you'll attract those people in the recruitment process who you'll just immediately get along with because their values align with the brands values. So when they do come aboard, it's just easier to be themselves and be self expressed, because they're fully aligned with the brand values. And thus, your organization will just run way more fluid, way more efficiently because everyones just genuinely happy to be there."

"Thats the beauty of branding, if you're really true to yourself and your values you'll be able to create messaging and language and creative that represents that position and those values. So people look at you and experience you in a way that you dont even have to talk anymore."

Lisa Gralnek is Founder and CEO of LVG & Co, a values-driven growth strategy firm. In this conversation Lisa explores brand-based, values-led strategy considerations for businesses seeking growth.

• Why getting back to your values and your customers' values is the most important thing, especially in times of change and uncertainty, and how values-led brands are better positioned to stay relevant in times of change,

References and Resources:

• LVG & Co

• The Value of Values: Setting the Course

Select Highlights:

"How do you measure success against your goals? That's why KPIs are critical. As they say what you measure grows."

"Leadership is really where values come in. Values in themselves are leading principles and leadership needs to own them and infuse them through the organization in order for any of the other stuff to happen."

"If we say values are our guardrails for decision making, values are also then our guide for action taking."

Ara Katz is CEO and Founder of Seed Health, Co-Founder of Luca Technologies and serial entrepreneur recognized by a number of lists and publications. Ara and I talk about transitioning from tech to the health and biotech industries, and how she has merged the thinking of both to build an incredible product and experience. In this conversation we discuss:

• How company distribution is critical in making decisions that align with your values from the get go, the difference between board votership and input, and how a diverse eclectic group of investors helped to balance Seed's direction and vision

Select highlights:

• "I think there are always challenges for being first or for being early, and you pay for that. But then the ROI has a lot to do with thought leadership, but then of course the experience, both conscious and unconscious of what it means to be in touch with a company or brand the humans that work there, the product itself. There's that gestalt effect where 1+1 is truly 3, that amplifier.... That's where I believe companies go from 10 to the 2nd to 10 to the 6th."

Zach Nies is Managing Director of the TechStars Sustainability Accelerator in partnership with the Nature Conservancy. He's a serial entrepreneur who was part of the first companies to take a BCorp designated company to public offering and is passionate about how the business, human and technology elements interplay. In this rich conversation, we talk about:

• Why leaders need to see personal growth as a critical part of their company’s success

References and resources:

• TechStars Sustainability Accelerator in Partnership with the Nature Conservancy

Quotes

• "How you create the container for progress is different than how you create the container to maximize motion."

Marshall Sitten is Senior Vice President, Impact & Insights, Citi Community Investing & Development at Citi; Professor of Service Design at the School of Visual Arts; Co-Founder of the Service Design Network NYC chapter.

In our conversation, Marshall and Lauren talk about Service Design as a methodology and the impacts of its application in his projects at Citi Bank. Some highlights include:

• Marshall's journey in establishing a service design practice at Citi Bank's community development and financial inclusion, and the start of the City of New York's Service Design Studio

References & Resources:

• NYC SDN community

Quotes:

• "Service design emerged as a push back of this idea that you can treat people as linear, rational mechanistic actors and that you can engineer their responses and engineer delivery of value. What we all know is that's nonsense, you cant. What I have learned about service design is that you can capture so many of the intangibles of what takes place when someone uses a service and how it produces value for them in their life, how it helps them solve a problem."