Workhuman Radio

Mike Wood welcomes Erica Dhawan, one of the speakers at WorkHuman Live 2020, to this week’s show. Erica is the world’s leading authority on Connectional Intelligence and the founder and CEO of Cotential. She is a speaker, trainer and consultant, as well as a bestselling author and podcast host. Named the Oprah of Management by the Thinkers 50, Erica is considered one of the management thinkers most likely to shape the future of business. She and Mike chat about digital body language, the topic she will speak on at WorkHuman Live 2020.

What is Digital Body Language?

A modern dilemma is that while body language makes up 75% of communication, today 70% of our communication is digital. As a result, it’s becoming more difficult to express what you mean in the workplace, and to grasp what others mean. These days we don’t talk the talk, Erica says, we write the talk. She defines digital body language as the cues and signals we send in our messages that truly make up the subtext of what we mean. She says that it is a key skill to help reduce the empathy deficit that strains workplace relationships. 

New Signals

Mike asks what signals we should look for in digital communications. Erica responds that digital body language shapes every interaction we have now, even face to face ones. Some of the new signals are word choice, response time, medium choice, and email signature. The key thing to keep in mind is how our digital body language signals are received by others. She says that we should first ask ourselves if we've given the other person enough context and if we're being clear, then if we’re using an emotional tone that’s in keeping with our company culture.

Practice Patient and Careful Responses

Today’s advanced technology, Erica says, has created a culture where we feel that communication has to be instant. One of the most important elements of digital body language is to practice patient and careful responses. Be patient; you shouldn’t panic or get upset if someone doesn’t respond immediately, Erica says. A better approach is to include response time expectations in your messages. When you rush to respond to messages, there’s a high chance that your response will have mistakes and typos. Hasty responses can cause a breakdown in trust, Erica points out. Respond carefully and thoughtfully. 

Using Sarcasm and Humor

There are times when we can use sarcasm or humor in our digital communications effectively, but it depends on the audience and our relationship with them. Erica describes when sarcasm and humor is appropriate, and when it’s better not to use it. Ultimately, she says, everyone has their own style of sarcasm, and if it can cause misunderstanding, it’s best not to use it at all. Mike adds that there still needs to be a tone of business in your writing. Erica comments that digital body language is a whole new skill set but it’s critical for teamwork and leadership in the modern age.

Resources

EricaDhawan.com

Erica Dhawan on Twitter | LinkedIn 

WorkHuman Live 2020

Sabrina Baker is the founder of Acacia HR Solutions, an HR consulting firm focused on the startup and small business space. She started her company in 2011 after she was laid off from her corporate job. Since then she has been helping startups and small businesses with their HR needs. She joins Mike Wood to chat about the biggest HR trends of the past decade, and what we should expect moving forward.

Social Media Is The Biggest Thing 

While the #MeToo Movement of 2017 was certainly one of the biggest stories of the last decade, Sabrina says that it would not have been as big without social media. She feels that social media has had the biggest impact on the last 10 years. It has given a voice to people to share their stories and a platform to impact many long standing issues on a global scale. Mike comments that many issues had been open secrets until the advent of social media. People had heard about them but there were never enough voices advocating for change. Social media has made it possible for one person to share his or her story and then have other people join in, until the veil is lifted off the problem. 

Lifting The Veil Off Mental Health Issues

Mike says that he believes the issue of mental health is going to get more and more coverage in this new decade. A lot of people struggle with mental health challenges and it’s being understood that we should talk about it more. Employees are also recognizing that they need to take care of their employees’ mental health. Sabrina agrees and adds that it’s a positive sign that people are willing to speak more openly about mental health and learn how to better deal with the issue in the workplace. Mike comments that what your employees are dealing with is a mirror of what society is dealing with. As a company, you need to address it and provide resources to help your people. 

Where’s The Line?

Employees can’t leave their problems at the door when they come to work, Sabrina says. We need to figure out our role as employers in helping our people through their challenges. Mike poses the question, Where is the line? How can employers help without crossing boundaries? Sabrina responds that small businesses are great at helping employees because of their small teams and close bonds. The problem arises in large companies, she says, where they are afraid to get involved because they don’t want to cross the line. However, they can help through their company policies. Large companies can keep it diplomatic, while creating policies for employees to get the help that they need.

Staying Human In A Tech-Oriented World

As the world becomes more technology-oriented, will we need to address the lack of human to human connection? Sabrina says yes. If we don’t put limits on how we use technology to interact - if we don’t put our devices down sometimes and just speak to each other, and model the same to our children - we’re going to struggle to make meaningful connections. Technology is only going to increase, Sabrina says. We have to figure out the balance of using technology for all the great benefits it provides vs letting it take over all our interactions.

Resources

AcaciaHRSolutions.com

Sabrina Baker on LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram 

WorkHuman Live 2020

Dan Miller is the Director of Content Marketing at WorkHuman, and this month’s Human of WorkHuman. He joins Mike Wood to talk about his interesting journey and his approach to life.

Covering Sports

Mike asks Dan to talk about the various jobs he’s had. Dan says that his first job after college was as a disc jockey. He then worked as a reporter, covering business, music and sports. He shares some experiences reporting on sports games before the internet: you had to have 3 headlines ready before the 9:45pm deadline, he says. He recalls interviewing athletes in the locker rooms and contrasts hockey players’ and baseball players’ attitudes towards reporters. 

Woodstock and His Favorite Music

Dan had the opportunity to cover the 25th anniversary of Woodstock in 1994. He says that he wanted to experience the event from the crowd, so he set up a tent. He recalls being in the middle of the Green Day mud fight and seeing some famous acts as well as other bands who were relatively unknown at the time. Mike asks him to name his favorite musician. He responds that The Who is his favorite band because of Pete Townsend’s songwriting ability. He likes classic rock, but listens to all types of music.

His Acting Career

His radio DJ stint led Dan to a role as an extra in the B-rated horror movie, The Stuff. Mike jokes that he found the movie on YouTube and showed it to the entire office team.

From Reporter to Content Director

Dan relates his journey from reporter to his role as Director of Content Marketing at WorkHuman. He says that he foresaw early on that online was coming and he prepared himself for it. He describes how he moved to AT&T then Microsoft then Monster.com. He describes it as an amazing experience to be at the forefront of creating a digital presence for so many businesses. Along the way he refined many skills, including recruiting and HR, that prepared him for his present role at WorkHuman.

His Approach To Life

Mike comments that he values the advice and insights Dan gives him about work and life. He feels that the diverse mix of youth and experience at WorkHuman makes their company well-rounded. Dan says that he has a positive approach to life. He likes adventure and is always looking to do something different and new.

Resources

WorkHuman Live 2020

Mike Wood is pleased to welcome Aaron Hurst to this week’s show. Aaron is the founder of Imperative, a SAAS platform that helps people understand their purpose. He and Mike chat about how investing in relationships makes work more meaningful.

From Volunteering to Pro Bono Work

Aaron launched the Taproot Foundation to change volunteerism. Through his foundation, people contributed their professional skills pro bono, instead of just volunteering time. Aaron soon recognized that people were using their pro bono work to get fulfilment in their lives. The challenge, he realized, was how to make work itself more meaningful. He founded Imperative as a solution to this problem. His company created a purpose assessment to help people uncover what brings purpose to them. Imperative also launched a peer coaching platform to help employees align and grow with their organizations.

Relationships Matter

150,000 persons have completed the purpose assessment, Aaron says. While just knowing your purpose increases your odds of being fulfilled, Aaron understood that there was still a need for a model to help people live out their purpose on a daily basis. He saw that people who find their work meaningful tend to have good relationships with their peers, a network they can rely on for support, learning and growth. Imperative’s platform allows employees to build those relationships with their peers. Mike agrees that it’s the people you work with who make you stay at a company. 

Mental Health Issues

Aaron cites statistics that show that 50% - some researchers say up to 75% - of millennial turnover is tied to mental health issues. This is due in part to the fact that many people do not have strong relationships. Mike comments that first jobs are usually a big let down from the lofty expectations of college. “You can get a little bit depressed right out of the workforce,” he says. Social media can add to the depression, especially when you see everyone “living their best life on Facebook” and your life cannot compare. Mike says that we all need to have a supportive network at work to lift us up together.

Investing In Relationships

Even when your job seems menial, you find it purposeful when you have a great relationship with your peers. Aaron says that if you focus on relationships, it feeds everything else. He challenges listeners to think about the people who bring meaning to their work, and to invest in building more of those relationships. 

Resources

Imperative.com

The Purpose Economy book

Taproot Foundation

Dr. Patrick Malone is the Director of Key Executive Leadership Programs at American University. He is also one of the presenters at WorkHuman Live 2020, where he will speak on the gift of gratitude and the power of kindness. He joins host Mike Wood on this week’s show to talk about his work, and why kindness and gratitude matter.

It Matters

Patrick mentions research that shows that parents value achievement over caring. He finds this alarming since he has dedicated his career to discovering the impact of kindness and gratitude. Modern neuroscience has proven that these traits matter. When humans connect heart to heart in the workplace, there is a marked improvement in the organization’s performance. Mike adds that when you’re happy at work you do better work.

Authentic vs Fake Kindness

The secret of authenticity, Patrick says, is showing your true self and maintaining a moral compass even while you exercise different styles in your relationships. We have a sense of whether someone is being real with us. Patrick explains the neuroscience behind this intuitive feeling. He laments the emphasis we have placed on metrics and data over the years when what really matters is the human connection. Mike comments about WorkHuman’s platform where employees can give gratitude to one another. He contrasts it with another platform that gamifies recognition: there is a leaderboard and employees have a quota of points they have to award each quarter. Mike and Patrick agree that such a system is counterproductive since there is little authenticity. Placing measurements and tangible rewards for gratitude and kindness defeats the purpose. Kindness, gratitude and authenticity spring from the heart. 

How Dr. Malone Works With Organizations 

Mike asks Patrick to describe some of the work he is doing with organizations. Patrick responds his work centers around areas related to kindness and gratitude, such as meditation, mindfulness, self-awareness and emotional intelligence. He remarks that people are ready for this kind of work. It all boils down to the ability to touch hearts and souls and getting people to be more vulnerable. Practices such as meditation and mindfulness actually create new neural pathways that allow the brain to see more. This is important in careers where you need to make split-second life and death decisions, Patrick says. More neural pathways mean that you can make better decisions because your brain is seeing more.

Host Mike Wood chats with Norm Laviolette, founder of the Improv Asylum and author of the new book, The Art of Making Shit Up. Norm has also been a speaker at WorkHuman Live for the last four years. He and Mike talk about his book, and his approach to team building.

The Improv Approach

Norm started Improv Asylum with his partners 21 years ago. Soon they were asking themselves how they could expand and bring the principles of improv to the workplace. He says that their IP was that they were able to create teams in a pressurized environment, a valuable skill in the business world. They created a program based on improv principles, that taught businesses how to build teams and cultures. Norm says that they wanted to address common challenges such as how to help teams work better together and build better ideas, as well as create healthy cultures where people want to listen to each other and are okay with taking appropriate risks and sometimes failing. Today, he gets to share these principles around the world.

Your Job Is To Get Good

Mike asks how Norm got started with launching his book. Norm responds that his clients kept asking him if he had written a book that they could use as a resource. It was when Wiley, the publisher, approached him that he finally decided to write one. The lesson in this, he says, is that if you put yourself out and start doing stuff, you attract people to you. That’s how we find a lot of the speakers for WorkHuman Live, Mike comments. Norm emphasizes that your job is to get so good with your message that people will find you. It may not be as quickly as you want, but keep going nonetheless. When you start working,  you’re taking the steps to greater things.

Laughter Is Good Medicine

Mike has taken an Improv Asylum class and he has thoroughly enjoyed it. Laughing with people is valuable, Norm says. You’re relieving stress and that’s always a good thing. There’s a deeper strategy as well: when people start laughing, they relax. When they relax, they're willing to think differently or hear messages that they would have been closed off to before. Laughter is really good medicine.

Resources

Get the book: The Art of Making Shit Up

See Norm Laviolette at WorkHuman Live 2020

Mike Wood welcomes 7-time author and speaker Neil Pasricha to the WorkHuman Radio Podcast this week. Neil runs the Institute for Global Happiness and in his latest book, You Are Awesome, he shares practical tips for building resilience and bringing positivity back to work and life.

A Happy Experiment

Neil relates how a failing marriage and a friend in crisis inspired him to create a blog to cheer himself up. He started 1000AwesomeThings.com where he posted one positive thing every day. His blog became a viral hit and won him the Best Blog In The World award. This led to him writing his first book and his first TED Talk. Mike comments that his little daily dose of positivity set his entire career. Neil agrees and explains that his blog experiment became his connective tissue and social circle.

You Can’t Win

Anxiety, depression and suicide rates are spiking, Neil points out. We’re more connected than ever before, yet we’re lonelier. We should be happy yet we feel worse than ever! This is confusing since we live in the best time ever to be alive. Neil believes that resilience is the muscle we all need to build today. Mike says that as technology has advanced making us more connected, we’re more reminded of what we don’t have. We’re not just keeping up with the neighbors anymore, we’re trying to keep up with everybody, and that’s a fight we can never win. Neil adds that this sense of endless failure contributes to driving up our anxiety.

Bringing Positivity Back to Work

What can we do to bring positivity back to work, Mike asks. Neil replies that we spend most of our time at work, but we’re the least happy there. Our employees want to be engaged in meaningful work that challenges them and that they’re passionate about. The problem is that we’re drained of energy: we have a low resilience mindset and we stimulate ourselves with caffeine to get through the day. The solution is simple, Neil says. Simple daily activities, like taking a walk, keeping a gratitude journal, or doing a random act of kindness, can drive a positive mindset. He invites leaders to take his free 20 for 20 Challenge with their teams. You will create a happiness habit that will not only impact your team, but will yield positive business results. 

Resources

GlobalHappiness.org

Neil.blog

Brittany Harris is the VP of Learning and Innovation at The Winters Group, a global diversity inclusion and equity consulting firm. She will be speaking on Authenticity at WorkHuman Live 2020. She joins Mike Wood on WorkHuman Radio to discuss how she supports leaders and organizations in operationalizing diversity and inclusion.

A Skill Set

The Winters Group approaches Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) education as developmental. It’s a skill set that requires ongoing work around understanding yourself and others, and creating an inclusive culture where everyone can be authentic. The company supports organizations through cultural audits and identifying metrics, as well as DEI strategy development. Brittany sees her work as a passion: she and her company are change agents, she says. In addition, motherhood has reshaped how she sees her work. It’s even more important and urgent now, she says. Mike agrees that you need passion for your work, otherwise you will leave.

Framing Cultural Competence

Cultural competence is the ability to effectively engage across differences. It doesn’t come easy, Brittany points out, because it’s human nature to be most comfortable around people who are just like us. It takes intentional effort in the four E’s to build cultural competence:

Exposure - increased contact with diverse people;

Experience - engaging in transformative experiences that shift our perspectives and build connections;

Education - to give greater context about different people and cultures;

Empathy - being able to take the perspective of others and understand an experience that is not my own.

Brittany reiterates that these skills take time to develop, and it’s a model to keep top of mind in your daily interactions. Mike encourages listeners to get out of their comfort zones and talk to people who are different. When you do, you’ll realize there isn’t much difference. He believes that much of discimination comes from fear of others. Brittany adds that one way to minimize the fear is to assume positive intent. 

Resources

WintersGroup.com

The Inclusion Solution blog

Brittany Harris on Twitter |  WorkHuman Live 

Get your ticket for Workhuman Live 2020

Mike Wood chats with Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) consultant and speaker, Joe Gerstandt, in this week’s show. Joe helps organizations understand what inclusion is and then put processes and behaviors in place to make it a reality in their companies. 

How He Came to This Work

There aren’t many straight white males in the D&I space. One of the things Joe is doing more of now, is sharing his story and the lessons he learned through his journey. He believes that this work is his calling, but 25 years ago, he would have rolled his eyes at the idea. He says that a lot of personal change occurred along the way to bring him to where he is today. His first job in the US Marine Corps taught him about racial diversity. His years in college educated him about gender. His years in sales changed his view of the world and how we interact. 

Privilege

Once in a while, Joe encounters a situation where someone doubts his credibility or expertise on this issue because of who he is. For the most part, though, he says that he still benefits from a tremendous amount of privilege. When he speaks about D&I issues in front of audiences, he generally is given the benefit of the doubt. That’s where it usually shows up, he says, who gets the benefit of the doubt and who is really listened to. For example, one time he delivered a D&I presentation to an all-male senior executive team who said that it was the best presentation that they had ever heard on the topic, and it finally made sense. Afterwards, the VP of HR, an African American woman and the one who had invited him, thanked him and commented that what he said was the same things she had been saying to them! She had hired him because she felt that they would listen to him more than they listened to her. Mike comments that many  women have that same experience and it’s got to be quite frustrating, not to mention a waste of money!

Making Inclusion a Reality

Inclusion can be a reality if those of us who care about it speak up. Once we see the issues, we should point them out and have conversations about it. We also need to design against it, Joe says. We can’t just rely on our good intentions for things to change, we have to actually put practices and rules in place to push back against negative behavior. 

Get to Know People

Joe says that meeting people is one of the most valuable tools for change that we have. It’s easy to mistrust or hate people that you don’t know. Once to get to know someone, however, that quickly changes. We absorb ideas about different groups from our culture, as well as how they are portrayed in the media. However, many of our ideas are under-informed. When we enter relationships with expectations that are rooted in racial stereotypes, that’s how bias usually shows up, Joe remarks. Once he met different people, his views changed and he became more proactive in bringing more diversity into his network of relationships. Mike implores listeners to broaden their horizons, to get to know people on a human level, and we’ll realize that we’re not as different as we think we are. Joe adds that if you have an actual relationship with them, you’ll find that you've got a lot in common as well.

Resources

JoeGerstandt.com 

Joe on Twitter | LinkedIn 

Get your ticket for Workhuman Live 2020

John Wamback, Director of Creative Services/Operations, is this month’s Human of Workhuman. He is in the process of building out a project management team to support marketing and other areas of the organization. He chats with Mike Wood about his penchant for Christmas lights, and how he is being a spark at the office.

Come to the Island

John has been inviting Mike to his ‘island’ in Worcester since he joined the company three months ago. He explains that the ‘island’ is really 80 acres of property that includes a pond and an island. Local residents pooled together to buy the property to prevent Norin Company from purchasing it and turning it into a corporate retreat. It’s run like any association, John says. You pay your dues and you have access to all the facilities, including the island. It’s a family club, but the men have a regular monthly get-together. Mike comments that these get-togethers are important. 

Obsession with Christmas Lights

Mike talks about the Be The Spark campaign in their office. It is about how they can spark joy in their colleagues’ lives. He has heard that John is into Christmas lights. He asks him about it. John relates how he and his father started stringing white Christmas lights around the bushes in their yard. Every year they added more and more lights, and today he strings about 2800 lights. He does this on the Friday after Thanksgiving, and it’s become bigger than Thanksgiving now. Friends come over and they have a big party. His father passed away two years ago, but he continues the tradition because it keeps him connected to his Dad. It means a lot to his mother that he carries on the tradition.