In the midst of the pandemic, I took great pleasure in writing a number of fictional leadership messages that executives might distribute to employees at the start of the year.
Penning these fictional missives served two important purposes for me.
One, they forced me to reflect on all that I had read, seen, discussed, debated, agonized over and fretted about related to organizations, company culture and the evolving nature of leadership today. An intellectual synthesizing if you will.
Two, it gave me the opportunity to provide some thoughts and language to the many incredible people I’m fortunate enough to be connected to, inspired by and whom I work and collaborate with. To a person they are genuine, earnest, integrity-driven, largely optimistic, empathic humans. They care deeply about their teams, their colleagues, their partners and their customers. In the main, they want to do the right thing – a very simple motivation that seems harder to define, let alone deliver, with each passing day.
As such, I appreciate you taking the time to read this post.
I thank you for indulging my mental gymnastics and for letting me think out loud. You’re a mensch.
If the fictional letter below inspires or provokes you to pen something to your team, then that’s an added bonus for me.
As the promise and potential of 2025 lies ahead of all of us, I wish you nothing but the very best. I hope you continue to lead with empathy and integrity and recognize the greatest privilege we’re given is the opportunity to help others grow, learn and succeed.
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Colleagues,
I welcome you back from what I hope was a period of relaxation and rejuvenation. I hope you were surrounded by the people you treasure most and that you felt seen, understood and appreciated. I also want to acknowledge those who may have struggled or suffered over this period too. I hope you found some small respite or relief during this time.
Each year when I share this letter, I intend for it to be both a guiding light and a yardstick for the year ahead. It is my attempt to outline the ideas that are driving me, and it also serves as a means for you to evaluate my leadership through the year. Accountability is a core part of this business and being accountable to each of you is something I consider vital to our continued success.
I’ve structured my ideas under the notion of embracing.
I find that word incredibly motivating and, ironically, deeply human. Embracing means not shying away from something but committing deliberately to it. Embracing, as a physical act, is perhaps the simplest sign of love and affection we can show another person. To be clear, I’m not suggesting that hugging your colleagues without their consent is now universally condoned. However, holding love and affection for those we work with is something I believe we can all aspire to.
So, what are we embracing?
Embracing AI
No more ambiguity on this point. AI will be a core element of our future success. To think otherwise is dangerously naïve. While AI – and our own AI strategy – evolves at breathtaking pace, the opportunity to augment many of our existing competitive advantages while accelerating our ability to bring these to market cannot be ignored. Our competitors are certainly not standing idly by in this area. Team leads have been explicitly asked to highlight 3-5 areas in their domain where AI could be implemented. Several of those are already underway and we’re seeing early signs that are very positive.
I recognize this will create concern and anxiety of job security and layoffs for many of you. Let me be clear, our position on AI is that it is a way to augment and accelerate the numerous talents in this organization. As we look for areas to deploy AI, augment and accelerate will be the mantra. Removing bottlenecks, repetitive low value work and mindless tasks is a boon for us and a benefit we can pass on to customers.
Let me be equally clear, each of you cannot be an idle passenger on this journey. AI literacy will be a necessity to work here. We have created several working groups, company forums and learning credits to enable each of you to remain knowledgeable on this topic. AI literacy* has also been added to the annual performance evaluations we all get. To highlight how vital it is, each member of the Executive Team and our Board of Directors will be evaluated on their AI literacy too. AI will be universally embraced and embedded in this organization.
Embracing Connection
While AI has the potential to augment and accelerate our business, it is only through human connection that the vital curiosity, creativity and collaboration of our people can flourish. To that end, we’ll continue to operate as a hybrid organization as our data suggests this allows flexibility for the majority of our colleagues. We’ve been diligent in reducing unnecessary meetings – AI might help us further in this regard – and disciplined in only having people come in to the office for work that cannot be done as effectively remotely. Onboarding all new colleagues in-person has been an area where we’ve seen them acclimate and start to contribute faster. In surveying that group they have appreciated being able to connect and bond faster through in-person onboarding before they move into our hybrid operations.
I must credit and commend the discipline of our team leaders for making hybrid successful. They have rigorously reviewed how their individual teams interact to determine what work requires in-person attendance and what can be done remotely. Our experience highlights that individual teams have a finer sense of these trade-offs than Corporate, as such we’ll not be mandating a one-size, universal return-to-office policy in 2025.
Connection also means identifying the informal connectors and influencers we have in the company. We’re increasingly aware that our traditional org chart doesn’t define the vital flow of information and ideas in the company. Our organization is a myriad of informal networks where title, tenure and extrovertism are less important than trust, empathy and domain expertise. Understanding where those informal networks exist – and the colleagues at the heart of them – will be a critical investment we make in 2025. Leveraging human connection and informal networks will be universally embraced and embedded in this organization.
Embracing Unlearning
Curiosity and inventiveness have been important elements of our culture. Those attributes have enabled us to bring great products to our customers. While those values still burn bright among our teams, I fear that we’ve become too rigid in many of our approaches and too comfortable in our processes or opinions. That has slowed us down and stifled our responsiveness. Our ability to innovate in 2025 and beyond will require us to become more comfortable in unlearning and in questioning our current base assumptions.
Speaking personally, it can be hard to adopt new ways of thinking and working. After all what we know is what has gotten us to this place in our careers. Unlearning requires that we remain open to a “beginners’ mindset” and to considering if there isn’t a better way to doing something. To regularly asking, “is there a better, more effective way to do this?” There can be “no sacred cows” in our quest to question and unlearn across this organization. To make this intent more tangible, we’ve added a number of incentives at the team and division level for executable ideas that measurably enhance our operations and processes. We’ve also refined the way we evaluate curiosity and inventiveness in our performance metrics and reviews to capture this new behaviour. Embracing the ability to Unlearn and to not rigidly hold on to previous ways to doing things will be universally embedded in this organization.
Embracing Foresight
I considered requesting a company-wide mortarium on terms like transformation, change and unprecedented because they feel platitudinous to you all in today’s environment. Those terms are just our lived reality, I’m more driven by how we can become better at facing these challenges and creating a thriving organization for us all. As I reflect on things we’re good at – but need to become great at – I believe that we’ve not created an environment where we prioritize actively looking for signals of what is coming next and consider how to proactively seize those opportunities or ward off those threats. We’re excellent at the here and now and mediocre at the what’s next. That needs to change.
Like AI, connection and Unlearning, I’m committed to making foresight a broader responsibility and accountability across the organization. Traditionally foresight – or actively looking for signals of what’s coming next – was the domain of Susan and her team in Corporate Strategy. They’ve performed that job admirably, but I believe it is time for foresight to be an active part of all of our roles. Mine included. I consider foresight as the companion to Unlearning. Being attuned to the signals we’re getting from the market, customers, politics, societal trends can serve as harbingers of new opportunities or new threats. I believe that each of us, in our teams and divisions, must become more adept at surfacing what we’re seeing and then determining its potential impact on the organization. Embracing foresight as a company-wide competency will be something that we’ll universally embed across the organization.
Embracing Paradox
This theme is one I’m still grappling with but share in the spirit of transparency and positive intent. I take paradox to mean holding two potentially conflicting views simultaneously. Recent political events have reminded me just how polarized our society has become. We’ve lost all sense of nuance, and seemingly all ability to reason, debate, discuss or consider alternate opinions. I believe we all lose when we’re unwilling or unable to consider opposing opinions. One paradox that recently came to mind was the requirement to lead with surety and lead with transparency. Surety because that’s what our investors demand. Transparency because that’s what you, my colleagues, deserve. The paradox, or balance, being there are times when transparency will mean sharing things our investors do not like. However, I believe that all leaders inside this organization need to hold the ability to embrace paradoxes like this. Polarization has no place in our organization. Again, how this theme embeds into our organization is something I’m actively discussing with members across the organization. I look forward to updating you on our progress in our next Town Hall.
These 5 themes are what I consider the fundamental building blocks for enabling our organization to thrive in 2025.
Four of them are inherently human first skills and behaviours – connection, unlearning, paradox and foresight – and reflect my belief that each of you are the reason this organization has enjoyed the success we have and the customer loyalty we enjoy. The Board and the Executive Team share my conviction that your commitment, creativity and collaboration are the foundation of our continued success.
We see AI as a tool to help augment and accelerate the potential in each of you. But, as I shared earlier, each of you have an accountability to step into that potential and that opportunity. The Board and Executive Team are committed to supporting each of you in this area.
Finally, I will continue to embrace what I believe is my fundamental accountability to each of you. That is the role of Chief Sensemaker. As your leader I take accountability for making sense of the world, crafting and executing strategies and plans that make sense and, critically, ensuring that each of you understand and can make sense of the decisions we make. I don’t do that alone of course but ensuring each of you can make sense of our Purpose, Vision and Strategy is the surest way I know to get your full-bodied commitment in 2025.
With that commitment, there is nothing we collectively set our minds to that we cannot achieve.
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If you’ve read this far, I thank you.
If there are areas I’ve missed or you completely disagree with me, please reach out. Feedback is a gift…and it helps me Unlearn!!
The photograph of Jimmy Carter is an acknowledgement of one of the world’s unique leaders. While many may debate his impact as the 39th President of the United States, none can argue his impact as a global humanitarian. His compassion for his fellow man was matched only by a tireless work ethic and a deep humility that seems so sadly missing from many we label leaders today. Carter worked unflinchingly to raise the tide for all and to unite us around a common humanity. That’s a leadership legacy I think we should all aspire to.
My very best to you and yours for the year ahead.
