The Empathy Edge

In today’s episode, I have an amazing conversation with one of the true leading brand innovators in the industry - Marty Neumeier. Marty has worked with so many innovative companies to advance their brands and culture and written many books on the topic that I, and millions of others, have fallen in love with. With empathy being such a strong thread through everything he talks about, we discuss the role of empathy and good design in creating a charismatic and authentic brand. 

Key Takeaways:

• You have to have empathy for your audience - but then you need to test things.
• There is a right way and a wrong way to test creative designs and brand strategies!
• Empathy is a marketing metaskill that  enables you to make better creative decisions and campaigns.
• You have to be okay with accepting feedback and checking your ego if your ideas don’t resonate with the customer. Customer feedback helps you to be a better creative.

“As creative people, we fall in love with our ideas.. Empathy is the starting place. But then you have to prove your ideas work. You have to make sure your compass is accurate.” - Marty Neumeier

About Marty Neumeier: Marty Neumeier is an author, designer, and brand advisor whose mission is to bring the principles and processes of design to business. His series of “whiteboard” books includes Zag, named one of the “top hundred business books of all time,” and The Designful Company, a bestselling guide to nonstop innovation. His first book, The Brand Gap, has been read by more than 23 million people since 2003. A sequel, The Brand Flip, lays out a new process for building brands in the age of social media and customer dominance. His latest book, Scramble, is a “business thriller” about how to build a brand quickly with agile strategy. 

In 1996, Neumeier founded Critique magazine, the first journal about design thinking. He has worked with innovative companies such as Apple, Netscape, Symantec, Kraft Foods, Adobe, Google, Microsoft, Riot Games, and Capital One to help advance their brands and cultures. 

Today he serves as Director of CEO Branding for Liquid Agency in Silicon Valley, and teaches a five-tier program on brand mastery through his company Level C. Neumeier travels extensively as a workshop leader and speaker on the topics of brand, design, and innovation. He and his wife divide their time between California and France.

Connect with Marty Neumeier:  

Level C masterclasses: levelc.org

Personal website: martyneumeier.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/martyneumeier/

Don’t forget to download your free guide! Discover The 5 Business Benefits of Empathy: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria’s brand strategy work and books: Red-Slice.com

Hire Maria to speak at your next event: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-Ross

LinkedIn: Maria Ross

Instagram: @redslicemaria

Twitter: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice

In today’s episode, I have an amazing conversation with one of the true leading brand innovators in the industry - Marty Neumeier. Marty has worked with so many innovative companies to advance their brands and culture and written many books on the topic that I, and millions of others, have fallen in love with. With empathy being such a strong thread through everything he talks about, we discuss the role of empathy and good design in creating a charismatic and authentic brand. 

Key Takeaways:

• If you start with the question  “What does the company need to make a profit?” you’re starting on the wrong foot.
• Brand loyalty is about trust and you can’t have trust without empathy.
• You can't use your logic alone, you have to use magic. That magic starts with empathy.
• Power has shifted from companies to customers and customers are in the driver's seat.

"Branding is all about feeling, about how a customer feels about a product, service, or organization. If you don't know how they feel, how do you proceed?" —  Marty Neumeier

About Marty Neumeier: Marty Neumeier is an author, designer, and brand advisor whose mission is to bring the principles and processes of design to business. His series of “whiteboard” books includes Zag, named one of the “top hundred business books of all time,” and The Designful Company, a bestselling guide to nonstop innovation. His first book, The Brand Gap, has been read by more than 23 million people since 2003. A sequel, The Brand Flip, lays out a new process for building brands in the age of social media and customer dominance. His latest book, Scramble, is a “business thriller” about how to build a brand quickly with agile strategy. 

In 1996, Neumeier founded Critique magazine, the first journal about design thinking. He has worked with innovative companies such as Apple, Netscape, Symantec, Kraft Foods, Adobe, Google, Microsoft, Riot Games, and Capital One to help advance their brands and cultures. 

Today he serves as Director of CEO Branding for Liquid Agency in Silicon Valley, and teaches a five-tier program on brand mastery through his company Level C. Neumeier travels extensively as a workshop leader and speaker on the topics of brand, design, and innovation. He and his wife divide their time between California and France.

Connect with Marty Neumeier:  

Level C masterclasses: levelc.org

Personal website: martyneumeier.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/martyneumeier/

Don’t forget to download your free guide! Discover The 5 Business Benefits of Empathy: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria’s brand strategy work and books: Red-Slice.com

Hire Maria to speak at your next event: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-Ross

LinkedIn: Maria Ross

Instagram: @redslicemaria

Twitter: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice

Join me for my conversation with Wedgewood Pharmacy’s Dan Rowan, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, and  Jodi Donohue, Director of Marketing, to see how Wedgewood Pharmacy has proven that you can achieve high levels of empathy and meaningful customer communication no matter the size of your company. Wedgewood started as a local community pharmacy and has grown to one of the largest compounding pharmacies in the United States, all while maintaining the personalized touch they had from the beginning. To Wedgwood, empathy is about more than just being nice, it is about truly listening, utilizing design thinking, and seeing things from your customer’s perspective, allowing everyone to truly live the company’s mission and purpose.

Key Takeaways:

• No matter how big you get, you need to keep checking in with your customers on a regular basis and keep the feedback loops open. 
• Make the time within your own company to just listen. 
• You can achieve empathy and customer communication at scale and be wildly successful while doing so!

"If you really listen to your customers, and your internal and external stakeholders, you can drive an incredible organization." —  Dan Rowan

About Wedgewood Pharmacy: 

Wedgewood Pharmacy is the largest 503A animal-health compounding pharmacy in the U.S. and has also served the human-health market since its founding in 1980. Compounded medications are preparations customized to the unique needs of a patient. They are created and prepared by specially trained pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in state-regulated facilities when mass-manufactured drugs are not, according to the prescriber, available or are not appropriate for a patient. 

In its 40 years, Wedgewood Pharmacy has grown from a local community pharmacy to become one of the largest compounding pharmacies in the United States; it is the leading pharmacy in animal health. Wedgewood Pharmacy serves more than 50,000 prescribers and hundreds of thousands of patients throughout the U.S. every year.

George (late) and Lucy Malmberg, both pharmacists, purchased Wedgewood Pharmacy in 1981; the pharmacy was founded in 1980. In June 2016, New Harbor Capital, became the majority shareholder of the company. In July 2018, the company acquired Diamondback Drugs, Scottsdale, Arizona. In 2020, the company began production at Wedgewood Connect, an FDA-registered 503B Outsourcing Facility, in San Jose, California.

Wedgewood Pharmacy is accredited by the Pharmacy Compounding Accreditation Board (PCAB®) for compliance with PCAB and other nationally recognized compounding standards. PCAB was formed by eight of the nation’s leading pharmacy associations and is a service of Accreditation Commission for Health Care. As a third-party accreditation organization, PCAB has developed the highest national standards against which providers are measured to demonstrate their ability to effectively and efficiently deliver quality compounded medications to consumers. Wedgewood Pharmacy employs more than 650 people in its state-of-the-art compounding pharmacies in Swedesboro, New Jersey and Scottsdale, Arizona, in its Wedgewood Connect 503B Outsourcing Facility in San Jose, California, and its Wildlife Pharmaceuticals/ZooPharm facilities in Colorado and Wyoming

Connect with Wedgewood, Dan Rowan, and Jodi Donohue:  

Website: WedgewoodPharmacy.com

Facebook: facebook.com/WedgewoodPetRx

Twitter: twitter.com/wedgewoodpetrx

Dan Rowan on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/danrowan

Jodi Donohue on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jodi-donohue-41a4252

Don’t forget to download your free guide! Discover The 5 Business Benefits of Empathy: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria’s brand strategy work and books: Red-Slice.com

Hire Maria to speak at your next event: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-Ross

LinkedIn: Maria Ross

Instagram: @redslicemaria

Twitter: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice

Gear up for this sneak peek into the mind of marketing leader Kristen Elliott, VP of Marketing for Eddie Bauer and how she encourages creativity and makes tough decisions. In this episode, Maria and Kristen talk about how a global brand thrives while still maintaining its values and how to stay connected, both as employees and with their customers, even during this time of physical separation. They also explore how Kristen’s passion for her work as an end-of-life doula translates over into her role at Eddie Bauer in embracing the “soft skills” to connect and create in an honest, ethical way. 

Key Takeaways:

• In a crisis, clients aren’t looking for the next flashy thing. Rather, they want something that is dependable, high-quality, and a good value.
• At the end of the day, you have to do the right thing over anything else.
• Technology has opened up the opportunity for people to be more creative and collaborative.
• Transforming your brand starts from the inside out and innovation is based on a good culture.
• You hired your people for a reason! Give them the direction and the tools, then allow them to go forth and create.

"One of the questions you have to ask yourself as a leader or brand is are you willing to lose some customers to do the right thing? The answer for us was yes. It wasn't even a question." —  Kristen Elliott

About Kristen Elliott: Kristen Elliott is the heart-centered VP of Marketing for Eddie Bauer. She has helped lead the company through many phases of its evolution back to its roots as an outdoor outfitter. In addition, Kristen is an end-of-life doula and is trained to guide people to find meaning in their lives, come to terms with their unfinished business, have those really hard conversations, and think deeply about all the joy, fulfillment, and love they’ve experienced. As a result, they often come to know their fears, hopes, regrets, and gratitudes at the deepest level. They find deep joy in living and themselves. Except...they’re at the end of their life. She is the host of the Dying to Live podcast. Kristen is also working on a program that helps the living navigate these same big topics to their deep joy, while they're still kicking. 

Connect with Kristen Elliott:  

Website: KristenElliott.co

Instagram: instagram.com/kristenelliottseattle

Dying to Live Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dying-to-live-podcast/id1520135869

Connect with Eddie Bauer: 

Website: www.eddiebauer.com

Instagram: instagram.com/eddiebauer

Facebook: facebook.com/EddieBauer

Don’t forget to download you free guide! Discover The 5 Business Benefits of Empathy: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria’s brand strategy work and books: Red-Slice.com

Hire Maria to speak at your next event: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-Ross

LinkedIn: Maria Ross

Instagram: @redslicemaria

Twitter: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice

The ability for you to be you at work and feel like that is respected, valued, and appreciated. That is psychological safety. While not always talked about or viewed as important, psychological safety is one of the key factors in building a high-performance team and company. More importantly, it is the key to activate your employees to align and buy into your company’s purpose and mission.  In this episode, Maria and Susan discuss these and other crucial factors encompassed in the intersection of empathy and psychological safety. 

Key Takeaways:

• An organization truly comes alive when you can articulate how your existence makes the world a better place - that is your purpose. 
• Psychological safety is key to drive success in high performing teams. Employees who feel psychologically safe are more likely to stay loyal, innovate, perform, and move up. 
• Many companies have realized how much communication, connection, and community their organizations need to have because of the global COVID-19 crisis.

"Is your culture psychologically safe? If you don’t know the answer, find out quickly. Understand what affects policies, practices, and behaviors then set the cultural and behavioral norms to better engage your employees." —  Susan Hunt Stevens

About Susan Hunt Stevens: Susan Hunt Stevens is the Founder & CEO of WeSpire, an award-winning employee experience technology platform focused on engaging people in purpose-driven initiatives, ranging from sustainability to social impact, holistic wellbeing, and inclusive cultures. She founded WeSpire to use her digital behavior change expertise to help people embrace healthier and more sustainable lifestyles after her son was diagnosed with serious food allergies. She was named an EY Entrepreneur of the Year for New England, a Boston Business Journal Woman of Influence, and to the Environmental Leader 100 list. Prior to WeSpire, she spent 9 years at The New York Times Company, most recently as SVP/General Manager for Boston.com, a $60M digital media division.

Connect with WeSpire and Susan:

Facebook: facebook.com/WeSpire/

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/wespire

Susan Hunt Stevens’ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/huntstevens/

Twitter: twitter.com/gowespire

Check out the State of Employee Engagement Survey: WeSpire's 7th Annual research report on how organizations engage employees, examining how companies are driving and promoting positive impact initiatives like sustainability, wellbeing, and inclusive workplace culture. Download the 2019 report here, and take some time to contribute to their 2020 research: https://www.wespire.com/resource/state-of-employee-engagement-2019/

Don’t forget to download you free guide! Discover The 5 Business Benefits of Empathy: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria’s brand strategy work and books: Red-Slice.com

Hire Maria to speak at your next event: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-Ross

LinkedIn: Maria Ross

Instagram: @redslicemaria

Twitter: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice

In this episode, Maria and Rebecca discuss:

• Why mission is the key to creating a culture where people outperform and outdeliver.
• What is a “good” culture and how you can start creating one. 
• How to retain the DNA of your culture as you scale and grow. 
• What the incoming talent generation expects from cultures and how to retain top talent.

Key Takeaways:

• A good culture is one that aligns on the company’s purpose, mission and vision. Beyond that, everything the company does strategically or tactically connects up to that.
• Your culture is going to grow, change and evolve as you diversify and bring in new people. You want to keep the majority of it the same, but it is a great thing that it is changing. Society changes as different generations have a voice and world circumstances change, so too will your company change and that is exciting. 
• To kickstart the change, you need insight from every level of your company as well as what others think about your company. Your aspirational culture is great, but not if it is in discord with what you are actually doing. 

“Shouldn’t work be a place where people are thriving, happy and excited to do good work? Millennials and GenZ have choices. They have been steadfast in not accepting the status quo. And I applaud them because it impacts all of us and creates better workplaces for all of us." - Rebecca Friese

About Rebecca Friese: A Workplace Crusader with more than twenty years of experience in change management leadership, Rebecca transforms organizations. By identifying outdated practices from the ground floor to the boardroom, Rebecca helps everyone, from Fortune 500 behemoths to hopeful start-ups, build the capacity to implement market-leading cultural changes. Having taken on every role from employee to a consultant to Vice President of People, she knows what it takes to chart a new course for talent management. Now, Rebecca is on a mission to help organizations not just be better places to work, but exceptionally innovative, engaging, and forward-thinking places to work. She’s seen what happens when work sucks for people—when top-performing employees become dejected, disengaged, and ultimately leave organizations, and leaders are left scratching their heads at why this happens more often they expected, and how it affects their bottom line. What matters to employees may be very different than what managers think. In her book, The Good Culture: The Leader's Guide to Creating a Workplace That Doesn't Suck, Rebecca provides a step by step approach to creating a Good Culture, making an impact on your people strategy and ultimately the success of your organization.

Connect with Rebecca Friese:  

Website: www.flynconsulting.com

Book: The Good Culture: The Leader's Guide to Creating a Workplace That Doesn't Suck - www.thegoodculturebook.com

#thegoodculture

#workshouldntsuck

Twitter: twitter.com/rebecca_friese 

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rebeccalynnfriese/

Email: [email protected]

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria’s brand strategy work and books: Red-Slice.com

Download a free guide: The 5 Business Benefits of Empathy: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

Hire Maria to speak at your next event: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-Ross

LinkedIn: Maria Ross

Instagram: @redslicemaria

Twitter: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice

In this episode, Maria and Elisa discuss:

• How to have constructive political debates and conversations with people that you don’t agree with.
• The challenges of and the responsibilities in the media to balance debate, opinion, and civil discourse. 
• How to get involved and stay informed no matter what the outcome of the election. 

Key Takeaways:

• Speak for yourself. You cannot possibly speak for anybody else! Not every private thought has to become public expression. 
• Every website is responsible for the community that they develop on that site. You are the one who sets the tone. You set it with your behavior. You set it by having actual guidelines, Terms of Service, and then enforcing them. 
• You are free to say what you want, but you are not free from the consequences of what you say. The more we can stick to the facts, listen, and try to find common ground, the better chance you will have where both parties walk away, maybe still set in their ways, but at least it can be a civil conversation.
• We are hampered by very different realities depending on the media consumed. 

"People coalesce around a leader who dares to speak their truth and who they want to hear that from. No matter what your beliefs are, you can find your own community." —  Elisa Camahort Page

About Elisa Camahort Page: Elisa Camahort Page was the Founding COO of BlogHer, Inc. She and her two co-founders took BlogHer from a grassroots phenomenon to a national women’s media brand. Through BlogHer’s community practices and her own, Elisa built community, grew a business, and championed inclusivity in words and action at the intersection of content, community, and commerce. She was responsible for BlogHer’s events line of business, P.R., thought leadership and market research practice, and the care and feeding of BlogHer’s renowned online community. After leaving BlogHer and its acquiring company in 2017, Elisa turned her attention to civic engagement and social impact, co-authoring Road Map for Revolutionaries: Resistance, Activism, and Advocacy for All, an Amazon #1 new release in Political Advocacy, and launching her commentary podcast, The Op-Ed Page with Elisa Camahort Page. Elisa has spoken on the global stage, including TEDx, Commonwealth Club, 92nd Street Y, SXSW, DENT, DLD Women, U.S. Embassy Moscow, and the headquarters of Google, GoDaddy, LinkedIn, Logitech, and Coca-Cola. Her writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Mashable, San Jose Mercury, and FoxNews.com. Elisa serves on the board of directors of the NanoSTEAM Foundation and Our Hen House. She is also an Astia Advisor and longtime member of the SXSW Interactive programming committee.

Connect with Elisa Camahort Page:  

Website: ElisaCP.com

Book: Roadmap for Revolutionaries: Resistance, Activism, and Advocacy for All - elisacp.com/books

Podcast: The Op-Ed Page Podcast, with Elisa Camahort Page - messy.fm/opedpage

Twitter: twitter.com/ElisaC

Instagram: instagram.com/elisacp/

Facebook: facebook.com/elisac

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria’s brand strategy work and books: Red-Slice.com

Download a free guide: The 5 Business Benefits of Empathy: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

Hire Maria to speak at your next event: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-Ross

LinkedIn: Maria Ross

Instagram: @redslicemaria

Twitter: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice

In this episode, Maria and Ian discuss:

• Building a business out of empathy that is sustainable and serves the community. 
• The growing trend of conscious consumerism and making it a priority in your business.
• Parker Clay’s mission and how it is helping to attract the right customer and keep them loyal. 

Key Takeaways:

• There is no business without people - they make your business. 
• As consumers, we should champion the brands that are really working hard to celebrate the value of people and make a beautiful product, because both can exist together.
• The more transparent you can be as a company in making sure that every customer touchpoint tells the same story, the more you can gain the trust of your customers and make it easier for customers to default to wanting to be part of your mission. 

"We celebrate the value of people without compromising on the value of our product. You don't need to choose between those things and we are never going to compromise on people." —  Ian Bentley

About Ian Bentley Co-Founder and CEO:

In 2011 everything changed for Ian Bentley when he and his wife Brittany traveled to Ethiopia to adopt their daughter. Not only did they fall in love with the country, the culture, and the people they met, but they also saw first hand both a need and an opportunity to develop a company that could meet that need. Ian and his family moved to Ethiopia in 2012 to help support vulnerable women and children, and it was there they founded Parker Clay as a way to further transform the community through trade.

With a background in business development and a passion to enact change, Ian, along with his wife Brittany, laid the framework for Parker Clay while living in Ethiopia. Their desire was to create a company that showcased Ethiopian leather and premium craftsmanship, while also providing meaningful work and job training to underemployed and unemployed people in Ethiopia. Now Ian is co-founder and CEO of Parker Clay, a premium leather company making products in Ethiopia. Parker Clay is deeply committed to producing every product ethically and sustainably without compromising on quality, while also focused on creating job opportunities that empower vulnerable women to not just survive but thrive. 

After living in Ethiopia for three years, Ian, his wife Brittany, and their 5 children moved back to their hometown of Santa Barbara to open the flagship Parker Clay store and continue to grow the business in the United States.

Connect with Ian Bentley:  

Website: ParkerClay.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ianwbentley

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria’s brand strategy work and books: Red-Slice.com

Download a free guide: The 5 Business Benefits of Empathy: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

Hire Maria to speak at your next event: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-Ross

LinkedIn: Maria Ross

Instagram: @redslicemaria

Twitter: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice

In this episode, Maria and Renee discuss:

• What mindfulness is, how it fits into your busy life, and why it matters. 
• The link between mindfulness and empathy.
• Practical skills you can use to practice presence.
• Why there is a strong correlation between teams and leaders that operate with mindfulness and how they perform, innovate, and collaborate. 

Key Takeaways:

• One of the benefits of mindfulness is that it brings a level of awareness to the world around you. Without that awareness, you can’t take action and you can’t do anything about it. You cannot choose to shift your attention if you don’t know your attention is being pulled away.  
• We can get so rigid with how to do mindfulness correctly, but you know what the best way to do it is for you. If you don’t know, try some things out and see what practicing presence means for you. 
• We, as people, are always feeding off of each other - it’s the mirror neurons, an unconscious process. Mindfulness and being present gives us choice and agency to choose to respond rather than having an automatic reaction. 

"Presence is an experience. It's a feeling in your body and is about going into your body, because the only thing really reliable in this world, especially right now, is the information we’re getting from our system." —  Renee Metty

About Renee Metty, Mindfulness Expert and Founder of With Pause: With 20 plus years of experience working with individuals, teams, and organizations in high-pressure situations, Renee is skillful at facilitating change with ease and making the seemingly impossible possible.  She is a mindfulness expert and the founder of With Pause, where she helps individuals, entrepreneurs, and teams embrace mindfulness for better performance. She founded a mindfulness-based preschool in West Seattle in 2010 and has since transitioned to working with individuals, teams, and organizations as an Executive Coach, Leadership Development Consultant and Facilitator using mindfulness as the lens.  She began her corporate journey after graduating with a BS in Business Administration in several Fortune 100 companies.  Renee has a Master’s in Early Childhood Education and a Master’s in Special Education.  Currently, she is a Ph.D. Candidate studying Business Psychology interested in the impact mindfulness can have on leadership and organizational effectiveness. She's developed a three-phase protocol and incorporates a variety of tools and strategies to support leaders looking to deal with overwhelm and uncertainty while helping them gain clarity and a path to action.

Connect with Renee Metty:  

Website: WithPause.com

Twitter: twitter.com/withpause

Facebook: facebook.com/withpause

Instagram: instagram.com/withpause/

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/reneemetty/

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria’s brand strategy work and books: Red-Slice.com

Download a free guide: The 5 Business Benefits of Empathy: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

Hire Maria to speak at your next event: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-Ross

LinkedIn: Maria Ross

Instagram: @redslicemaria

Twitter: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice

In this episode, Maria and Scott discuss:

• The myth of work-life balance and why it hurts your employees more than helps them.
• Why there is more than one standard organizational structure that can lead to a successful business - and why leaders who refuse to understand that will fall behind.
• Five workplace concepts that won’t exist in five years - and how to prepare for them now. 
• What type of culture makes a team successful and brings out the best in your employees. 

Key Takeaways:

• Create the right culture and do all you can to unleash the potential of the people on your team - get the right people, make them feel empowered to do great work, make decisions, and work together. People will deliver more if they feel empowered. 
• Research shows that annual reviews don’t work and critical feedback rarely leads to better performance. Move toward real-time mentorship and coaching between the team members where the expectation of learning and improvement gets so ingrained that people will naturally seek and find experiences to help them close any gaps that they may have. 
• Make opportunities more accessible at smaller increments. Give employees a chance to try something new, to stretch their skills, and learn and grow in many different ways. 

"Right now, we are more aware than ever how fast things can change. Even though the pace of change at work was pretty quick before, we've run this giant global experiment that's going to leave us in a new place. It is important to capture the energy of a moment like this." —  Scott Burns

About Scott Burns: Scott Burns is a leader in bringing data and technology to complex challenges. Back in 2000, he co-founded GovDelivery, the largest digital communications platform for the public sector, which served over 1,000 government agencies and enabled personalized communication with over 200 million citizens by the time it sold to another company in 2016. 

Currently, Scott is focused on using data and technology to make work better at both the individual and organizational level as the CEO and Co-Founder of Structural, a dynamic people directory and internal opportunity marketplace. Launched in 2017, Structural now serves tens of thousands of employees across ambitious organizations of all sizes.

Scott has been recognized in Business Journal’s 40 Under 40, Titans of Technology, and Federal Computer Week’s Federal 100 list recognizing the most influential people in Federal Technology. Most recently, Scott was recognized as one of Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal's ten "Most Admired CEOs."

Connect with Scott Burns and Structural:  

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smburns/

Learn more about Structural: https://www.structural.com/

Structural on Twitter: https://twitter.com/structuralai

Structural on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/structural-inc/

Connect with Maria: 

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com

Learn more about Maria’s brand strategy work and books: Red-Slice.com

Download a free guide: The 5 Business Benefits of Empathy: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

Hire Maria to speak at your next event: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-Ross

LinkedIn: Maria Ross

Instagram: @redslicemaria

Twitter: @redslice

Facebook: Red Slice