Nov. 25, 2020
COVID-19: Cascading Change in Life and Work
The COVID-19 pandemic has proven to be the great shake-up force in companies across the world. Pivoting as a company operating in these times and supporting employees in a virtual environment has elicited many necessary changes in human capital...
The COVID-19 pandemic has proven to be the great shake-up force in companies across the world. Pivoting as a company operating in these times and supporting employees in a virtual environment has elicited many necessary changes in human capital practices. In this episode, we listen in as a young start-up company shares its lessons learned and approach to pivoting operations to support the needs of a vastly changed workforce and pave the way for a vibrant future.
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What's working on purpose anyway? Each
week we ponder the answer to this question.
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People ache for meaning and purpose at
work, to contribute their talents passionately
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and know their lives really matter.
They crave being part of an organization that
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inspires them and helps them grow into
realizing their highest potential. Business can be
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such a force for good in the
world, elevating humanity. In our program,
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we provide guidance and inspiration to help
usher in this world we all want
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Working on purpose now. Here is
your host, doctor Elise Cortez. Welcome
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back to Working in Purpose program.
Thanks for junat again this week. I'm
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your host, doctor elist Cortest.
Do you live from Dallas which is home
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based for me? By way of
introduction, I'm a management consultant specializing in
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meaning and purpose, organizational logotherapist,
inspirational speaker, social scientist and author.
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And guess what My book is out
today November seventeenth, Purpose Ignited is here.
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It's actually now sitting around at people's
homes and offices. Thank you so
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much for your support and your interest. You can learn more about me at
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Alice Cortez dot com or Gusto Dashnow
dot com. If you've been tuning in
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for a while. You know this
program is a thought leadership series that enlightens
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and inspires listeners and viewers with insights
from distinguished business leaders, authors, and
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subject matter experts. By listening in, you're part of the movement to create
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inspirational leaders and enlightening workplaces where we
can thrive and do business that betters the
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world. Glad you're here Now Onto
this week's program with us today is Karen
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Weeks. She is the senior vice
president of People at Order Group and was
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named one of the twenty twenty Notable
Women in Talent by Crane's New York Business.
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She is a certified career coach,
speaker advisor to start up companies,
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Girls in Tech NYC board member,
and the published author Upsetting the Stage,
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a guide to preparing for any feedback
conversation. She also hosts a podcast,
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Getting Off the Hamster Wheel, which
sounds fantastic. We'll be talking about how
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she and the team at Order Group
are making their new way forward in the
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pandemic. Do you join you today
from New York City? Karen, Welcome
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to Working on Purpose. Thank you
so much for having me. I'm so
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excited to be here. Isn't this
fun? This is amazing, and congratulations
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on your book. Thank you,
it's so exciting. Were having a more
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fun than I supposed So don't tell
anybody, okay, right, So it's
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so great. So it's as we
were saying, isn't it nice to be
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on the other side of the mic? Right? It is. I love
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sharing stories, so it'll be fun
to kind of share mine this time.
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Well, that's where I want to
start, right since our listeners don't know
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you, and I've had a conversation
or two, so I know a couple
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of things about you, but our
listeners don't know much about you. So
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I thought it would be important if
you just started to say a little bit
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about your background. You're an HR
professional today twenty years in, but you
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told me something fascinating. You started
in theater arts. That's so amazing.
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So paint the picture of your background
for us a little if you would.
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Absolutely so, I thought I was
going to be a stage manager. I
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actually worked professionally for a couple of
years as a stage manager, and while
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I loved the work, when it
had to be my livelihood, it was
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very stressful, at least for me. It's like being an actor, You
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don't know where your next job is
going to be. If you're going to
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have another job, are you going
to get paid? So I thought that's
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too much stress for me. I
tried moving out to LA and worked for
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a talent agency for a while.
I thought, maybe the business side of
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the arts, maybe you would be
the right balance, and just LA wasn't
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right for me. It could have
been because I was just so young,
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both literally and in my career,
but I realized that that wasn't the right
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place either. So all of a
sudden, I was sitting there about three
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four years into my career, going
I don't know what I want to be
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anymore? What do I do?
And so I kind of took a step
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back and thought about I really enjoyed
creating a shared experience for people, and
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I like helping people with their careers, which is what I was doing for
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the actors getting jobs. And someone
said I think that's hr and I said,
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okay. So I tried it out, and almost twenty years later,
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here I am, wow, that's
amazing. It's really amazing. Right.
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I sort of fell into human capital
similarly, and once I got there,
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I went I went, oh,
this is where I'm supposed to be people
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or my products. Perfect, Okay, So I since you know that I'm
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a meeting and work researcher. I
think you know that anyway. Yes,
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I'm meeting and work and identity researcher, among other things. You know,
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I have to ask you why you
love HR. I think the thing that
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for me is and this has really
been interesting to watch this evolve ever since
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I first got into HR, when
it was much more transactional still and focused
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on payroll and benefits and those who
are of things, is that companies now
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realize the success of their people is
directly tied into the success of their business,
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and it's I'm no longer a cost
center. I'm actually helping you hit
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your business goals by hiring and retaining
the right people creating the right environment for
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them. And that's why I got
into HR. I wanted to help people
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with their careers and help them be
in a space that they felt safe and
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excited and they could be themselves,
and so to be a part of creating
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that culture. But now businesses realize
how important that is as well, and
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I think that's just fueled my fire
even more. One thing that you and
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I have in common is we recognize
that work can be such a great part
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of life. Right, it's such
a It's not something that you should drag
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yourself into. In fact, the
reason why I started posting Working on a
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Purpose five and oute years ago is
I wanted to tell stories about people who
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showcase stories about people who are passionate
about their work because I found out in
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my research and most people didn't recognize
that you could be passionate about what you
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do. What it comes. I
know, well, you work so much,
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and especially right now, when work
is so integrated into life, if
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you're not enjoying what you're doing,
it's actually impacting the other pieces of your
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life. So it's not just about
enjoying nine to five. It makes you
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a healthier person and a happier person
in general. Absolutely, you actually live
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longer too when you're having a better
time at work. So it turns out
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you're not one of those people that
actually ends up having a heart attack on
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Monday morning oftentimes, which is a
terrible stat right, Yes, you and
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I are working to alter that tide. All right, Well, let's talk
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about Order Groove. I had never
heard of your company before I tell for
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our listeners. What do you do, who do you serve? How do
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you get started? What's the purpose
of a company? Yeah, so ten
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years ago our CEO, who's also
our founder, actually is a big tennis
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player, and his strings would always
break and he wouldn't have the next set
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of strings and it would impact his
game. And he said, there's got
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to be a way where I get
the strings exactly when I need them based
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on the amount I play. And
that prompted order Groove And so we are
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a SaaS technology platform that helps retailers
and brands create recurring revenue products. So
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whether that subscriptions to like dog food
or diapers, whether that is a re
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order program, so you're able to
be notified when we think you're going to
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need your next order, whether that
is like a monthly box to can't to
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handle all your wellness. It can
look like a lot of different things.
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But we work with Vitamin Shop,
Honest Company, Walmart, Canada, Pet
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Smart, lots of different companies in
order to help, especially in today's times,
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how you get what you need when
you need it. I love that.
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That's great. I don't think I
could have quite generated that from when
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I got on your website. That's
fantastic. Okay. And now one of
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the things that you said when we
first spoke on the phone, and I
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love that that we met on I
think it was LinkedIn. I appreciate one
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of us found the other one.
But you've said that order group puts people
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first and empowers them, and of
course you had me at that statement.
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So it's so important, So tell
me how I think it is really through.
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We believe we hire smart, professional
adults, and so we are going
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to treat you that way. Now
if you show differently, we'll deal with
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that separately, but we're going to
assume the best of you because that's why
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we hired you. So we offer
flexibility. We allow you to manage the
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time the way you need to.
We try to think through flexible programs that
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support whatever way you like to work
and however you're living your life. And
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actually that really helped us going into
twenty twenty was that we already had that
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muscle of flexibility and trust that we
were not going to micromanage people. And
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we believe that you are going to
be your best self, and with that
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intent, most people are. It's
amazing when you ask people to be their
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best they usually present their best.
Oh my goodness, So look at the
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questions coming here really quick. Let's
describe this. So we want to we
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want to distinguish. So we've got
a question here, is that this is
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an HR or shopping company. So
Karen is an human resource professional and Karen
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distinguished. How you would describe the
company? Yes, so we partner with
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e commerce companies to work with retailers. Okay, so they're not an HR
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company. That's important that you recognize
that, listener, Thanks for weighing in
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with us. And then look at
this question. How would want to apply
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for a position with this company?
See? Look put this. Oh my
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gosh, it's fun. Alrighty,
I was amazed. So we have a
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career site. It's ordergroove dot COM's
backslash careers, and we're hiring and engineering
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and marketing specifically right now. But
we also have some open pipeline for sales
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roles and we're going to need client
services roles probably in the new year.
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Awesome, how fun is this?
Right? Thanks listeners for engaging with us.
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Thank you. Yeah, all right. So one of since this what
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I wanted to focus on the show
is I really wanted to showcase what companies
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innovative companies are doing to address the
COVID situation, which seems to be ongoing
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for for who knows how long.
So help us understand the challenges or opportunities
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that the pandemic is. Percentage Order
Group as an operation, it's not from
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a nature a vernage point first,
but as an operation, it's so interesting
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because we are so thankful that because
a lot of stores shut down, even
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though some of our clients stores were
open. Home Depot is one of our
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clients and they're clearly an essential business. But even with that, our clients
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had to rethink how they were running
their business and so they turned to us
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to be a partner there, either
because they were having inventory issues because their
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warehouses warehouses were shut down, or
they were trying to get more inventory online
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or do different deals. How do
I buy online, pickup and store.
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There were so many different things that
they had to think through, so we
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immediately had to re partner with them
on how to build the best programs for
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them based on this whole new world
that they were going through. Okay,
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so that's that's one major thing.
What else help us kind of understand what
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I want to do here? For
our listeners and our viewers just help them
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really understand and you know, just
the breadth and depth of what you as
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your company has kind of dealt.
So that's a major one how to serve
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your clients. What else, Yeah, I think internally we were very much
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New York centric from a team perspective. Face time was important to us,
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and so we not just literally had
to go work from home, but how
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do we keep that collaboration in those
relationships strong As we were making some really
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big business decisions. Even though we've
been around for ten years, it's probably
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been the last five or six years
that we really kind of hit the ground
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running, and we're so very startup
be so we are trying things for the
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first time, partnering with brand new
partners, trying to train new partners to
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work with us for the first time, and we had plans to do a
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lot more of that in person,
or at least for our team to be
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in person, and all of it, all of a sudden was remote,
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and so we had to think about
new platforms to use, new tools to
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use, how to best share learnings
and languages, learnings and communication different channels
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with our external partners. As we
were trying to do it internal as well.
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Yeah. One of the things that
I think I've heard as a refrain
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from so many people is just the
sheer amount of learning that people have had
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to do this year, right,
learn how to learn new technology and learn
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new ways of expressing yourself, learn
new ways to communicate, and learn new
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ways to try to be relevant and
funny even you know, when you don't
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get the personal presence. And so
I really want to acknowledge just you know
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what this has taken, right,
So what we're all up against in order
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to be able to handle an address
and you know, shock and jib if
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you will. And so I really
appreciate that you guys have been able to
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continue to iterate and innovate yourself and
your company. Did you say seventy five
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people? Yes? Okay. And
so another questions coming in with all that
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you have an I T department I
would assume so because you're so technology based.
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Yes, we have software engineers.
We actually don't have sort of I
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support like if my computer breaks,
I have to just go to Apple.
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But we have a very large product
and engineering team that's building our own product
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and a couple of things roll back
quick on you Karen, I should have
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clarified this because of our conversation.
You may not be in New York City
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right now? Are you in New
York City? I am actually right now.
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We just spent a month in Virginia. But I'm back at you,
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okay. So I want to talk
more about that in the next segments.
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Let me let's understand it from your
advantage points as an individual human being separate
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from order group. How has the
pandemic been for you? What are some
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things that you've learned or you've had
to deal with. Yeah, it's really
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interesting because I am a helper and
a healer by nature, so I want
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to make sure everybody else is okay. What can I do to help you?
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Friends, family, co workers,
anyone in society, like anyone I
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want to try to help. And
I realized that my adrenaline kicked in and
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I was trying to help everybody else, and after a few months, I
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totally collapse because I never took care
of myself. And so that is actually
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one of my biggest learnings was the
thing that was always sort of my best
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attribute ended up causing some self harm, and so I had to take care
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of myself and make sure I was
I'm only as I'm only as good for
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others if I'm good to myself.
So that was one of my biggest learnings.
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Otherwise, I actually really leaned in
my husband and I are very fortunate
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we've got a decent sized place in
New York, even though it's New York
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US, and the two cats and
the dog just kind of hung out and
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watched the Law of Netflix. Actually
went back and watched some old eighties TV
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shows just for fun and a little
escapism, and we would just try to
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find moments to step outside with our
masks and be as safe as possible in
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our neighborhood, just to get some
fresh air and appreciate what we did have.
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Let me, let me grab what
key point that you just made there
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for our listeners and our viewers.
And that's the point about self care.
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That we really can't take care of
other people unless we take care of ourselves.
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And so so much of what I'm
doing in the world is help people.
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Help people. We get present to
their passion or inspiration and their purpose
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and their meaning because I want them
to live on the same level as sleeping,
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eating, drinking water, etc.
It should be that basic and fundamental
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because that's all a form of self
care. And just to your point,
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you can't take care of other people
if you're not taking good care of yourself.
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So that is a fantastic way to
take us into our first break.
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I'm doctor Elise Cortez, your host. We've been in the air with Karen
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Weeks. She's a senior vice president
of people at Order Group. She's the
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author of Setting the Stage, a
guide to Preparing for any feedback conversation,
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and the host of the podcast Getting
Off the Hamster Whale. We've been talking
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a bit about how she got into
HR, what she loves about it,
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and what Order Group is up to. After the break, we're going to
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get into how they've been able to
respond to their employees to support them and
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keep them growing and thriving. Stay
with us, we'll be right back.
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Doctor Elise Cortez is a management consultant
specializing in meaning and purpose. An inspirational
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speaker and author. She helps companies
visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop
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purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures
that elevate fulfillment, perform and commitment within
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the workforce. To learn more or
to invite a lease to speak to your
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organization, please visit her at Leise
Cortez dot com. Let's talk about how
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to get your employees working on purpose. This is working on Purpose with doctor
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Release Cortez. To reach our program
today or open a conversation with Elise,
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send an email to Alise ali se
at Elise Cortez dot com. Now back
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to working on Purpose. Thanks for
staying with us, and welcome back to
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working on Purpose. As as I
said at the beginning of the show,
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I wanted to tell you where to
find my book, Purpose Ignited, is
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now on Amazon. I actually wrote
the book to turn readers onto their passion,
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inspiration and purpose and transform them into
inspirational leaders. It really was a
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true labor of love. I loved
every moment of it, and frankly,
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it wouldn't year without the pandemic.
I can tell you that right now.
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So that's one of my pluses from
the pandemic. If you're just joining the
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program, my guest is Karen Weeks. She's the senior vice president of People
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at Order Group, joining us today
from New York City. I'm your host,
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doctor Elias Cortez. So I want
to get into how some of the
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things that you and I have talked
about already on the phone about some of
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your response, what you've done to
take care of your people. But before
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we do that, let's kind of
unfold the events for people so they recognize
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what happened. So you told me
that you said that New York City began
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talking about the pandemic in late February, and by March ninth, people were
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working from home. That's amazing.
So help us back, take us back
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in time and tell us what was
like at that time, your experience,
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what it was like to be at
order group and your people. It was
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so interesting. I don't know if
I was naive or just had never experienced
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something like this before. Obviously none
of us have, but I could.
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Looking back, I can't get over
how fast everything changed. I was actually
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at a conference in Florida at the
end February, texting with our leadership team
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around Okay, so first we should
make sure there's no international travel, you
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know, literally the next day,
no US travel, probably later this afternoon.
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If anyone is traveling, they have
to quarantine. I mean, it
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was just happening so fast. And
then by the first week of March,
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we were realizing it was not if, but when are we going to send
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everybody home? And it was very
distracting. People were writing the subway.
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It was so unclear what was going
on. The news was just a waterfall
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of now this is canceled, Now
this is canceled, and everybody's anxiety which
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is skyrocketing through the roof. So
we came together as a leadership team and
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talked about it. I am so
thankful that I did not actually have to
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call that meeting. Our CEO did
and he said, I'm worried about the
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team. Let's come together and talk. And so we very quickly decided that
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we just need to send everybody home. So on Friday, we said,
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grab what you need. We're going
home. Maybe for the rest of the
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month, maybe into April, we'll
see, but take what you need.
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And obviously we are still remote today
and so we definitely underestimated everything. But
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yeah, I mean, it was
just rapid fire. But we didn't want
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people to be distracted by what was
going on. We didn't want anyone to
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get sick. We were so thankful
but that no one had gotten sick yet.
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You know, we work in a
huge building in New York City.
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We just didn't want to take any
of those risks. We are a company
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that's fortunate everybody has laptops, they
can technically work from home. Let's just
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do it, I know for me
being in Dallas a little bit later.
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Way, So it was it was
the middle of March when it hit us,
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and same thing I was. My
daughter's spring break was starting to unravel.
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She was going to go skiing and
Colorado they closed that down. She
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says, I'm want to come back
home, Mamma. Can't we maybe go
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down to Austin? Like, yeah, sure, let's do that. I'm
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driving down to Austin and I hear
they're shutting down Dallas and they're shutting down
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Austin, and I same thing,
like you, what is happening? I
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mean, I had no idea.
Right the shock that we've gone through on
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this and what we've gone through as
a world is incredible. So I just
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want to presence all that for what
we're going to talk about as we talk
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about your how you've taken care of
people. But I also want to get
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to what you also said on the
phone, which I thought was really interesting
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as you said that two weeks after
you know, I guess when you guys
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found out about this. New York
City was shut down, and people complied.
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You said, masks were worn and
all kinds of things. So help
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us into that world. It's it's
very hard to imagine New York shut down
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or you know, cloistered and people
changing their behavior that quickly. Yeah,
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it's really interesting. There's something about
New York City that, even though we
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are so big, we are a
strong community and we come together and take
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care of each other when we need
to. I wasn't here for nine to
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eleven, but I heard a lot
of stories about that. I saw it
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after Hurricane Sandy because we were here
for that, and it's just what New
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York City does. So people may
have not liked it. Obviously, huge
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economic economic impact, which was scary
and sad for so many businesses, as
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everybody around here as a small business. But we knew that New Yorkers were
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dying at a pace that was not
okay, and not that any pace is
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okay, but really not okay,
and so we had to shut it down,
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and so we followed the orders.
You saw stores shut down, you
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saw people stay home. So I
live on one nearest street in Brooklyn,
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which is a very busy street,
lots of restaurants, lots of shopping Saturday
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night, you know, booming with
people. I was walking the dog at
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eight thirty on a Saturday. I
went maybe three blocks and around and I
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saw one person And that was the
moment where I said, this is serious,
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Like we are not messing around here, and thank goodness, people are
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taking it seriously. And as soon
as masks were decided that that was the
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thing to do, everybody wears masks, even on the streets, not of
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course in stores, but even just
walking on the street because we're also clustered
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here. Yeah. So it's just
it's so hard to imagine. I have
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been working from home for so many
for so long that that that part didn't
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didn't do it. But I can't
even imagine what it's like if you're used
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to going into an office building and
you used to be walking around to go
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get dinner and all those sorts of
things. I just can't imagine how up
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ending all of that has been.
Yeah, and there's a real grief about
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it. And realize how much you
may complain about your commute, but that's
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actually a really precious time that you
have by yourself. Maybe it's to decompress
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from the day or prepare for the
day. It's the only time you get
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by yourself, depending on your family
and home situations. So there was a
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real grief for losing all those things, and people who had weddings or special
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trips planned, none of that was
happening, and so I think that was
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one thing that also people weren't expecting. Again, after that initial adrenaline rush,
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there was a real sadness for what
was happening, not just literally but
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also what we were losing. But
I think I've heard it best, especially
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as we go into the holiday season. I would rather not see my family
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now, or not go into the
office or whatever today, so that I
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can and others can in the future. And I think that was the attitude
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that people finally got us they worked
through their grief. Well said very well
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said, Well, I'm very intrigued
with the the the cascading effects of this
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pandemic, as how it's how it's
going to affect society, how it's affecting
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you know, how how do we
rent office buildings? How how you know
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how much what's the price of gas? Where are people living? I have
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a I'm very very much imagine that
the makeup of cities and suburbs and small
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towns is going to change a lot
as people start to move. And in
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fact, you told me that of
your seventy five employees, ten have permanently
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moved away from New York City and
another five to seven have temporarily moved elsewhere.
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That is so fantastic, I think, Well, so talk to me.
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It talked to us about that.
What how is this communicated? Did
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they say, hey, I'm going
to go to Montana or did they did
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you did? Did they need to
tell you? Or how did this work?
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Yeah? So it started with people
just naturally doing what they need to
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do. We talked about flexibility earlier. We were saying, do what you
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need to do with your families,
be safe, what ever you know works
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best for you. So some people
just kind of scattered to either be closer
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to their family because they were single
or on their own, or they needed
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to be closer to elderly parents or
whatever the thing was that was driving it,
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and we just sort of it just
kind of happened. But then as
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it went on and on, you
know, and mid April became well we're
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not going back till June. And
as we got closer to June, clearly
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that was not changing, and so
we actually changed our language to say we
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will always have an office for people
to go to when it's safe. However,
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this is working in the worst of
times, us being more distributed across
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this country and working remote is working. We're still hitting our goals, people
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are successful in their roles. So
we're actually going to keep this as an
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offer. If you want to move
outside of New York or outside one of
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our hubs, if permanently, that's
totally fine. Just talk to us so
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we can make sure we're set up
as a entity in that state and those
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you know, legalies and tax purposes. If you want to if you end
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up staying in New York but you
only want to go into the office a
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couple of days, that's totally fine. So we gave people the choice and
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we said we're going to move to
a flexible work from anywhere policy. Just
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work with us to make sure we
have you set up the way you need
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to. And we've started hiring outside
of New York City for the first time,
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which is very exciting for us,
and we found amazing talent because of
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it. So it all stemmed from
we trust our people to make the right
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decisions about their lives and still be
a great order group of team member.
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It actually doesn't. It totally against
everything we thought. It actually doesn't matter
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where they're doing that work from.
That's amazing. A couple of things I
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want to fuck on that. First, you know that you do trust them.
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It's amazing what happens when you trust
people. They want to keep that
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trust and it's precious to them,
so they lean into it, right.
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I think that's amazing. So then
the next thing that's interesting is that you
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instituted that you could work from anywhere. That's fascinating. Now what I didn't
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know. You're teaching us something gach, you meet something new. So you're
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saying that in order to support or
be an alignment legally that if you have
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to sort of have an arrangement with
whatever state that they're in. Yeah,
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we actually have to register as a
business in that state. So if someone
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does move to Montana and where we
are not recognized as a company there,
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we need to because we actually both
for employment law and employment tax purposes,
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but also potentially for sales tax.
So there's myself in the finance head of
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finance work together to kind of make
that work within the tri state area,
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you don't have to worry about it. But the minute you get a from
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a non commutable distance to one of
our offices, we have to set up
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a nexus in that state. Okay, that's really important and good to know.
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Thank you for that. And the
next thing I want to drill down
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on it and talk about is you
know you said this notion that you you
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trusted the employees to make the choices
and decisions that were best for their lives.
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And what I know about know to
be true about that is you're now
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what you're doing is you're allowing You're
creating a space for people to architect their
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lives in an optimal way. Well, what employee is not going to be
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thrilled to death to be at that
company and want to give their best for
406
00:25:52.400 --> 00:25:56.200
that you've allowed them instead of So
what I'm so intrigued with right now,
407
00:25:56.519 --> 00:26:00.000
Karen, is that I'm very much
on the have to be able to help
408
00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.960
employees stop doing this thing or they
create all these systems and require people to
409
00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:10.160
go into all manner of you know, trying to wrap themselves around that in
410
00:26:10.240 --> 00:26:12.839
order to lose all of their individuality
just so they can, you know,
411
00:26:14.279 --> 00:26:17.599
drum to the heartbeat of the company
and all the policies and all the procedures,
412
00:26:17.640 --> 00:26:22.000
and it's just it takes their soul
away from that. So I really
413
00:26:22.039 --> 00:26:25.160
really applaud that you took the notion
that you were going to be truly you
414
00:26:25.160 --> 00:26:30.160
are people centric. Well, it's
really interesting that you mentioned, you know,
415
00:26:30.240 --> 00:26:33.079
sort of all the pieces of their
lives and being able to bring that
416
00:26:33.119 --> 00:26:37.200
to the table because then on top
of COVID obviously all the racial injustice that
417
00:26:37.279 --> 00:26:42.200
happened over the summer, and we
were having really tough conversations around how do
418
00:26:42.240 --> 00:26:48.240
we make sure people feel welcome and
can be their whole selves and you know,
419
00:26:48.400 --> 00:26:51.759
whether that is you know, their
background, their ethnicity and what that
420
00:26:51.799 --> 00:26:55.599
means to them, whether that is
the chaos that's happening around them because they've
421
00:26:55.599 --> 00:27:00.519
got kids or whatever, whatever their
true identity is, we want them to
422
00:27:00.559 --> 00:27:04.359
be comfortable. And it continued to
build on the same theme of you know,
423
00:27:04.359 --> 00:27:07.559
one of our values is what you
see is what you get, and
424
00:27:07.599 --> 00:27:11.319
it's all about authenticity, and we
realized it was all building on that same
425
00:27:11.440 --> 00:27:15.680
value of whatever your life needs to
be, whether it's this moment because we're
426
00:27:15.680 --> 00:27:18.559
going through this really odd time,
or because of what's important to you in
427
00:27:18.559 --> 00:27:22.200
your life. We want to be
able to support that because if you're able
428
00:27:22.240 --> 00:27:26.039
to live your true life, then
you're actually able to be a better employee
429
00:27:26.079 --> 00:27:30.680
of order group. And that's where
that marriage I was talking about earlier of
430
00:27:30.240 --> 00:27:36.000
individual success and business success actually go
together. I think the splendid I love
431
00:27:36.039 --> 00:27:37.400
it. That's one of the big
reasons I want to have in the Showcaring
432
00:27:37.440 --> 00:27:41.359
because I think you're showcasing some really
best practices there, and I think that's
433
00:27:41.400 --> 00:27:45.680
fantastic. So again, why do
I do the show. It's about stewarding
434
00:27:45.680 --> 00:27:48.880
the conversation towards creating a workplace where
people can actually thrive and we can do
435
00:27:48.920 --> 00:27:52.440
business in a way that betters in
the world. So I think you really
436
00:27:52.480 --> 00:27:56.559
are showing some great practices there.
You're welcome. Quick question again from a
437
00:27:56.599 --> 00:28:00.759
listener. Do you do you have
to file a business in each territory?
438
00:28:00.359 --> 00:28:04.240
It's a great question. I don't
want to give an official answer because I'm
439
00:28:04.279 --> 00:28:07.599
not one hundred percent sure. I
think it depends on the state. So
440
00:28:07.720 --> 00:28:10.920
if there is, you know,
income tax and some of those things you
441
00:28:11.000 --> 00:28:15.279
do have to register. There was
one state that we were investigating that we
442
00:28:15.319 --> 00:28:18.519
didn't think we had to because of
whatever laws were down there. So definitely
443
00:28:18.559 --> 00:28:22.000
work with you know, someone who
knows a lot more than I do.
444
00:28:22.880 --> 00:28:26.599
But it's it's a good question.
You just should ask yourself the question and
445
00:28:26.640 --> 00:28:30.039
then find the expert who can give
you the answer. Awesome. Thanks thanks
446
00:28:30.079 --> 00:28:33.880
listening for weighing in with us on
the conversation. Okay, so I want
447
00:28:33.880 --> 00:28:36.559
to talk a little bit more about
what you've done to support your employees.
448
00:28:37.079 --> 00:28:41.200
I know that you know you've had
practices that supported them through the pandemic,
449
00:28:41.279 --> 00:28:45.400
plex schedules, et cetera. But
what else have you done to support your
450
00:28:45.400 --> 00:28:48.640
employees and reach out to care for
them. Yeah, so we've done it
451
00:28:48.680 --> 00:28:52.400
a couple of different ways. We've
tried to think about the individuals. So
452
00:28:52.559 --> 00:28:56.839
we've also this summer did some extra
company days off, so a random Friday
453
00:28:56.880 --> 00:29:02.559
and additional time at late day to
give some extended time because one thing we
454
00:29:02.559 --> 00:29:04.480
were hearing a lot, which I'm
sure other people have heard, is that
455
00:29:04.559 --> 00:29:10.599
it's very hard to disconnect when you
are living and working in the same place
456
00:29:10.920 --> 00:29:14.440
and your escapes aren't probably there.
You know, I can't go to the
457
00:29:14.440 --> 00:29:15.640
movies. I can't go to a
concert after a long day, so I
458
00:29:15.680 --> 00:29:19.680
just kind of keep working. And
so we wanted to force people basically to
459
00:29:19.720 --> 00:29:22.960
take some time off, so we
did things like that. We also really
460
00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:26.839
focused on some community building. So
what used to be, you know,
461
00:29:26.920 --> 00:29:30.519
sitting at a kitchen table and chatting
while we ate lunch, or you know,
462
00:29:32.119 --> 00:29:36.880
bowling after work or whatever. We
wanted to still build those community so
463
00:29:36.880 --> 00:29:41.039
we've done a lot of small group
things. We personally have found big company
464
00:29:41.119 --> 00:29:44.839
wide zoom things are not successful for
us. I don't know if we're too
465
00:29:44.880 --> 00:29:47.839
big. I don't know if it's
our personalities, but we do much better
466
00:29:47.839 --> 00:29:51.000
in smaller groups. So we do. One of our product managers loves to
467
00:29:51.039 --> 00:29:52.200
cook, so he does a cooking
class, you know, every couple of
468
00:29:52.200 --> 00:29:56.720
months. We have a book.
It's he's got a whole setup, he's
469
00:29:56.720 --> 00:29:59.799
got a second camera. It's amazing. You can really tell. He gets
470
00:29:59.799 --> 00:30:03.359
into can you smell and taste of
food? Oh my god, he's going
471
00:30:03.400 --> 00:30:06.279
to figure out how to do that. If anyone does, he will.
472
00:30:07.440 --> 00:30:10.640
You know. We would done book
clubs and workout classes and movie nights and
473
00:30:10.680 --> 00:30:14.000
things that small trivia nights things that
smaller groups can do than we found that's
474
00:30:14.039 --> 00:30:17.519
a good way to build community.
But then we also had to think about
475
00:30:17.519 --> 00:30:22.440
new platforms to use. So,
you know, our engineers whiteboarded all day,
476
00:30:22.519 --> 00:30:26.440
and when they didn't have those whiteboards
either A, we actually literally got
477
00:30:26.440 --> 00:30:30.119
a task grab it to bring some
whiteboards to some of our engine engineering managers
478
00:30:30.200 --> 00:30:33.880
home so they have them. But
we also found some online tools as well.
479
00:30:33.519 --> 00:30:37.720
Google has something, for example,
that they were able to start using
480
00:30:37.119 --> 00:30:42.119
to as best as possible recreate how
they like to work together and how they
481
00:30:42.119 --> 00:30:45.880
collaborate together. Well done, very
well done, you know, and it
482
00:30:45.960 --> 00:30:48.920
just it really you know, it
just takes an investment, it takes support,
483
00:30:49.000 --> 00:30:52.000
it takes reach, it takes all
of this. So it really really
484
00:30:52.039 --> 00:30:56.519
applaud what you've done. So and
again it's it's an example Karen's will,
485
00:30:56.559 --> 00:31:00.960
thank you, thank you. It's
it. I like I said, I
486
00:31:00.039 --> 00:31:03.880
am so thinkful. I know plenty
of people who work at organizations that we're
487
00:31:03.960 --> 00:31:08.799
not taking this approach, and their
teams were suffering, their teams were leaving,
488
00:31:10.039 --> 00:31:11.000
hr people were leaving. You know, if you're not going to listen
489
00:31:11.000 --> 00:31:14.920
to me, why am I here? And I am so thankful that that
490
00:31:15.039 --> 00:31:18.119
was not the case. At Order
Group, Greg and Aaron, who are
491
00:31:18.279 --> 00:31:19.960
our CEO and CEOO. You know, they were right next to me,
492
00:31:21.200 --> 00:31:22.799
if not ahead of me a couple
of times, saying like, we need
493
00:31:22.839 --> 00:31:26.960
to figure this out. So I'm
very lucky for that reason. It's awesome.
494
00:31:27.000 --> 00:31:30.279
It's awesome. Let's celebrate its celebratory. I love it. It's time
495
00:31:30.279 --> 00:31:33.519
for our last break. I'm at
least Cortez your host. We were in
496
00:31:33.559 --> 00:31:36.279
the air with Karen Weeks. She
is a senior vice president of people at
497
00:31:36.359 --> 00:31:38.400
Order Group and was named one of
the twenty twenty Notable Women in Talent by
498
00:31:38.440 --> 00:31:42.079
Crane's New York Business. She's a
certified career coach, speaker, advisor,
499
00:31:42.279 --> 00:31:47.039
Syrup Companies Girls in New York Tech
Board member. Stay with us, We'll
500
00:31:47.039 --> 00:31:51.160
be right back. We've been talking
about really the response to COVID. Here
501
00:31:51.200 --> 00:31:53.480
after the rick, we're gonna get
into hearing about some of the unexpected gifts
502
00:31:53.519 --> 00:31:59.400
from the pandemic. Stay with us. Doctor Release Cortez is a management consultant
503
00:31:59.599 --> 00:32:05.640
especializing in meaning and purpose and inspirational
speaker and author. She helps companies visioneer
504
00:32:05.759 --> 00:32:12.480
for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop
purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that
505
00:32:12.640 --> 00:32:17.480
elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment
within the workforce. To learn more or
506
00:32:17.559 --> 00:32:22.440
to invite a lease to speak to
your organization, please visit her at Elise
507
00:32:22.519 --> 00:32:27.240
Cortez dot com. Let's talk about
how to get your employees working on purpose.
508
00:32:34.359 --> 00:32:37.720
This is working on Purpose with doctor
Elise Cortez. To reach our program
509
00:32:37.759 --> 00:32:44.319
today or open a conversation with Elise, send an email to Elise ali Se
510
00:32:44.880 --> 00:32:55.279
at Elise Cortez dot com. Now
back to working on purpose. Thanks for
511
00:32:55.359 --> 00:32:59.119
sting with us, and welcome back
to working on purpose. Another one else
512
00:32:59.319 --> 00:33:01.279
that I have for you. Lots
going on over here. We've launched Gusto
513
00:33:01.400 --> 00:33:06.039
now, which is a growth and
transformation e learning platform featuring leadership and professional
514
00:33:06.039 --> 00:33:08.160
development courses. We do it in
English, Spanish and Portuguese my favorite,
515
00:33:08.240 --> 00:33:12.799
my favorite languages. If you're just
joining us, my guest is Karen Weeks.
516
00:33:12.799 --> 00:33:15.759
She is a senior vice president of
people at Order Group, joining us
517
00:33:15.759 --> 00:33:19.079
today from New York City. I'm
your host, doctor Lee's Cortez. So
518
00:33:19.160 --> 00:33:21.839
let's talk gifts. Karen. One
of the things that was fun when we
519
00:33:21.839 --> 00:33:24.000
were talking about what we wanted to
hear, what we wanted to discuss today
520
00:33:24.119 --> 00:33:29.279
is you said, hey, I
found a couple of gifts. So one
521
00:33:29.279 --> 00:33:30.559
of the things that you said,
which I thought was so beautiful in one
522
00:33:30.559 --> 00:33:34.440
of our exchanges, is you said, companies that are doing this right meaning
523
00:33:34.440 --> 00:33:37.599
getting the response that are that are
going to get recognized for that through retention
524
00:33:37.640 --> 00:33:42.400
of their team. So tell us
about some of that feedback you were mentioning
525
00:33:42.519 --> 00:33:45.240
from from in our exchange, that
you're getting from from employees. Yeah,
526
00:33:45.400 --> 00:33:52.079
it's so amazing because this goes back
to you know, when you trust people,
527
00:33:52.119 --> 00:33:57.559
they trust you back in trust.
Bank investments are very very important because
528
00:33:57.599 --> 00:34:00.519
depletion is much bigger than re earning
it back. And so, you know,
529
00:34:00.880 --> 00:34:05.200
we've heard a lot of things.
We've done some trials around, some
530
00:34:05.720 --> 00:34:12.559
stress management classes, we tried different
coaching for folks if they wanted that.
531
00:34:13.039 --> 00:34:16.719
So we basically we've been taking the
reactive approach and just trying different things,
532
00:34:17.239 --> 00:34:20.880
learned from it, and then we'll
figure out what's right for twenty twenty one
533
00:34:20.920 --> 00:34:25.599
from a more strategic standpoint. And
I have been so overwhelmed by team members
534
00:34:25.599 --> 00:34:29.440
reaching out to me and saying,
you know, I can't believe a company
535
00:34:29.480 --> 00:34:31.360
cares as much about me. Thank
you so much for doing this, Thank
536
00:34:31.360 --> 00:34:35.920
you for doing this for my family? How are you doing during this?
537
00:34:36.480 --> 00:34:38.360
And the fact that someone even thought
to ask me, which is not the
538
00:34:38.400 --> 00:34:42.960
case in a lot of companies,
shows that they felt taken care of enough
539
00:34:43.000 --> 00:34:45.920
that they were willing to think about
someone else. So, you know,
540
00:34:45.960 --> 00:34:47.920
the poll surveys and all that are
helpful, and I like seeing the feedback
541
00:34:47.960 --> 00:34:52.440
there, but honestly, those one
on one conversations mean the world to me
542
00:34:52.440 --> 00:34:55.559
because it means that what we're doing
is adding value to someone's life, and
543
00:34:55.559 --> 00:34:59.880
that's the whole reason why we should
be doing it. Yeah, I started
544
00:35:00.079 --> 00:35:02.800
got when you were talking that there's
this sense of we're in this together,
545
00:35:02.840 --> 00:35:07.000
and we got finis who we're taking
care of each other, and we're going
546
00:35:07.039 --> 00:35:08.800
to get through the other side of
this together. And what I also know
547
00:35:08.840 --> 00:35:13.599
about that from a meaning vantage point
is that what that gets to is there's
548
00:35:13.840 --> 00:35:17.239
a limbic resonance that's happening among your
team where everybody's kind of driving at the
549
00:35:17.280 --> 00:35:22.440
same energy level, and that connection
is actually shared and it's palpable. It's
550
00:35:22.480 --> 00:35:24.920
so interesting how it works, and
so when you get to when you when
551
00:35:24.960 --> 00:35:29.119
people feel like you care about them. In fact, I had Bob Chapman
552
00:35:29.159 --> 00:35:31.960
on my radio show. He is
the CEO of Very Way Miller, and
553
00:35:32.480 --> 00:35:37.800
his whole thing is about caring for
your employees, just like you're talking about
554
00:35:37.119 --> 00:35:43.599
extremely successful with businessman and business owners. So beautiful. And then the other
555
00:35:43.639 --> 00:35:45.920
thing. You've alluded to this before, but I want to make sure we
556
00:35:45.920 --> 00:35:49.159
showcase it as a topic here.
But you said one of the things that
557
00:35:49.199 --> 00:35:52.800
the pandemic is ushered in is this
notion of bringing your whole self to work.
558
00:35:52.400 --> 00:35:55.559
Say more of what that means and
why that's important. Yeah, So
559
00:35:55.719 --> 00:36:01.079
it actually started because a couple of
people were embarrassed by their homework setups.
560
00:36:01.880 --> 00:36:06.239
You know, you've watched CNN or
whatever, and they've got the bookcases behind
561
00:36:06.280 --> 00:36:08.119
them. You know, I cheated. I set up a little bit today
562
00:36:08.159 --> 00:36:12.559
before our conversation, and we wanted
to let people know, like, that's
563
00:36:12.599 --> 00:36:15.800
not normal, that's not expected.
You just be you. And so we
564
00:36:15.840 --> 00:36:20.400
actually did a photo contest of the
most creative way you set up your home
565
00:36:20.599 --> 00:36:23.760
office. And so people were showing, you know, desk chairs on top
566
00:36:23.840 --> 00:36:27.480
of dining room table. So they
had a standing desk. Someone else was
567
00:36:27.559 --> 00:36:31.519
using their kids like easel as a
little thing for their laptop. The purpose
568
00:36:31.719 --> 00:36:36.639
was like, it's okay that this
is messy. Just just survive and that,
569
00:36:36.719 --> 00:36:37.280
you know, that's what we're trying
to get out of this. So
570
00:36:37.519 --> 00:36:42.400
that's kind of how it started.
And then you know, through Black Lives
571
00:36:42.400 --> 00:36:45.039
Matter and some of the things that
happened over the summer to this ongoing sense
572
00:36:45.159 --> 00:36:47.079
of oh my gosh, now I'm
trying to figure out if my kids are
573
00:36:47.119 --> 00:36:50.400
going back to school or not.
I don't know what to do about that.
574
00:36:50.960 --> 00:36:54.079
So it just continued. That's the
cycle of you are a whole person.
575
00:36:54.320 --> 00:36:58.039
You've always been a whole person,
by the way, but twenty twenty
576
00:36:58.079 --> 00:37:01.239
has really brought that to light.
And so whether that is you're feeling sad
577
00:37:01.320 --> 00:37:05.800
today, you're feeling stressed today,
Today is just a bad day. That's
578
00:37:05.840 --> 00:37:08.199
okay, I'm actually doing pretty good
today, and let's celebrate that, Like
579
00:37:08.239 --> 00:37:13.519
what's making you feel more positive today, Let's celebrate that. I've got,
580
00:37:13.559 --> 00:37:15.119
you know, a little one over
here and a dog over here. That's
581
00:37:15.159 --> 00:37:19.280
okay. If they bark, do
not apologize. We had our all hands
582
00:37:19.320 --> 00:37:22.559
meeting, which is our big town
Hall this week and our CEO Aaron was
583
00:37:22.639 --> 00:37:27.880
presenting and her son was having a
total meltdown and she led him into the
584
00:37:27.960 --> 00:37:30.119
room and he just sat there and
yeah, he said some funny things and
585
00:37:30.239 --> 00:37:34.400
like, that's fine. It is
what it is right now, and you
586
00:37:34.400 --> 00:37:37.400
know, don't apologize for that.
That's your life, that is who you
587
00:37:37.440 --> 00:37:40.239
are as a person. And like
I said, I always try to encourage
588
00:37:40.280 --> 00:37:45.840
that, whether it was mental health
or inclusion or just the quirky selves that
589
00:37:45.880 --> 00:37:49.960
we all are. But twenty twenty
has said has put that on full display
590
00:37:50.079 --> 00:37:52.760
as we've been doing all of this
from our home. Now, you're reminded
591
00:37:52.800 --> 00:37:55.440
me when I first had my daughter
in two thousand and three. I remember
592
00:37:55.480 --> 00:37:59.559
having because I did some work from
home back then too, and I remember
593
00:37:59.719 --> 00:38:04.079
being horrified if she'd like set any
sort of sound or if she cried.
594
00:38:04.119 --> 00:38:07.519
I mean, the world was over
with right. So right now we see
595
00:38:07.559 --> 00:38:10.599
dogs coming through and cats. The
funniest thing sets cats and that the back
596
00:38:10.679 --> 00:38:14.760
ends of cats and showing up in
the video and they're like, okay,
597
00:38:14.840 --> 00:38:20.679
that's your Yeah, you know.
It happens on Sanon during the election,
598
00:38:20.800 --> 00:38:23.239
some guy's teenager like walked into the
live bead. You know it is what
599
00:38:23.320 --> 00:38:27.159
it is? Yeah, yeah,
I think it's It's definitely a whole new
600
00:38:27.159 --> 00:38:30.239
world, right, so it goes
it certainly speaks to your authenticity value.
601
00:38:31.480 --> 00:38:34.840
Okay, Well along those lines,
one of the other things that I thought
602
00:38:34.880 --> 00:38:37.639
was definitely worth talking about that you
you told me in our first conversation is
603
00:38:37.639 --> 00:38:43.760
that your CEO is stewarding honest racial
conversations and all of this. So how
604
00:38:43.840 --> 00:38:46.079
is this happening and what it begins? Do you see taking place from that?
605
00:38:46.920 --> 00:38:52.800
Yeah? So he really struggled with
the CEO email that he was supposed
606
00:38:52.800 --> 00:38:54.840
to send, you know, in
mid June, and he and I had
607
00:38:54.840 --> 00:38:58.400
a conversation. He said, I
don't want it to sound like a template.
608
00:38:58.440 --> 00:39:00.000
I don't want it to sound like
everybody else, but I know I
609
00:39:00.039 --> 00:39:04.000
need to say something. And I
told him, I said, so tell
610
00:39:04.039 --> 00:39:07.159
them that, like say, I
don't know what to say right now.
611
00:39:07.719 --> 00:39:10.199
I don't have the answers. I
want you to know. I'm struggling with
612
00:39:10.239 --> 00:39:13.920
this and this crushes my soul.
I don't have the answer, but I'm
613
00:39:13.920 --> 00:39:15.960
here as your ally, and that's
fine, Like that can be your email,
614
00:39:16.039 --> 00:39:21.079
That's okay. And I think that
opened the conversation. We actually started
615
00:39:21.119 --> 00:39:24.880
a diversity council after that. We're
volunteers from across the organization have joined together
616
00:39:24.960 --> 00:39:29.400
to try to figure out how to
have more of those conversations. We did
617
00:39:29.760 --> 00:39:34.760
training with managers about how to have
some of those uncomfortable conversations because we're not
618
00:39:34.800 --> 00:39:37.440
going to have the answer. Order
group is probably not going to solve racial
619
00:39:37.440 --> 00:39:42.800
injustice and systemic racism in this country, but we can do our part to
620
00:39:42.800 --> 00:39:46.079
make sure that our team members know
that they are supportive. They are welcome
621
00:39:46.559 --> 00:39:52.960
no matter your background, no matter
anything like you are welcome here. And
622
00:39:52.039 --> 00:39:55.639
so just by saying those words out
loud, I think opened up the dialogue
623
00:39:55.719 --> 00:39:59.400
for others to have some of those
conversations. And I've had some of the
624
00:39:59.440 --> 00:40:02.480
most honest conversations with our team members
that I think I've had the four and
625
00:40:02.480 --> 00:40:07.559
a half years that I've been there. So that's fantastic. And so in
626
00:40:07.599 --> 00:40:10.800
addition to even opening up a conversation
around a race, that's just it's so
627
00:40:10.840 --> 00:40:14.199
important to talk about it anyway.
And I want to say two things about
628
00:40:14.199 --> 00:40:16.840
that. One, I appreciate an
applaud that your CEO knew that he needed
629
00:40:16.840 --> 00:40:21.519
to do something about that and sought
your help to do that. And two,
630
00:40:21.760 --> 00:40:23.760
I want to recognize that, you
know, that's a growth. That's
631
00:40:23.760 --> 00:40:28.599
a step of growth for for people, right to step in around something you're
632
00:40:28.639 --> 00:40:30.039
you don't know anything about, You're
uncomfortable, but you know you need to
633
00:40:30.079 --> 00:40:32.719
address. And by the way,
you're the guy that's in the leader's seat.
634
00:40:34.239 --> 00:40:37.119
So I do a lot of work
with executives and helping them. You
635
00:40:37.159 --> 00:40:40.400
know, when you're a leader in
a pandemic like this, it is really
636
00:40:40.400 --> 00:40:44.639
difficult. I mean, you're like
looking around like it's on me, right.
637
00:40:45.039 --> 00:40:47.559
So I really appreciate an applaud all
of our leaders that have had to
638
00:40:49.280 --> 00:40:51.639
not know what to do in this
thing and not know who to be in
639
00:40:51.679 --> 00:40:52.679
this thing, and you know,
they're like, I just let me just
640
00:40:52.679 --> 00:40:54.480
call uncle. I'm telling you,
I don't know what to do here.
641
00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:58.760
And so I end up working out
with a lot of them to support them,
642
00:40:58.760 --> 00:41:00.559
and I know you do too.
So I really want to applaud your
643
00:41:00.639 --> 00:41:05.920
CEO for his courage, his willingness
to be vulnerable and not know and just
644
00:41:05.960 --> 00:41:08.719
step in it. Yeah, And
I think vulnerability is one of the so
645
00:41:08.760 --> 00:41:13.000
funny we talk about that as one
of the key attributes of leadership, and
646
00:41:13.199 --> 00:41:16.320
it's I think twenty twenty is an
example of this. Is when you show
647
00:41:16.400 --> 00:41:21.679
up to be those things like you
show up to be vulnerable, you show
648
00:41:21.719 --> 00:41:24.480
up to be authentic. This is
the moment where actually being it now means
649
00:41:24.519 --> 00:41:29.280
more than any other time, because
it's in the hardest times that people tend
650
00:41:29.320 --> 00:41:31.559
to retreat or go into their safe
zone. If you're willing to be vulnerable
651
00:41:31.719 --> 00:41:37.159
and have those conversations, now,
that's the sign of true leadership because it's
652
00:41:37.199 --> 00:41:39.239
hard to do that now it is. Yeah, speaking of that, I
653
00:41:39.280 --> 00:41:43.239
want to grab a question that you
and I talked about that is really important.
654
00:41:43.239 --> 00:41:45.480
I really appreciated that you said that. In all of this, you've
655
00:41:45.519 --> 00:41:51.199
embarked in some specific training to help
managers have difficult conversations with employees. So
656
00:41:51.760 --> 00:41:54.159
what kind of training is this and
what kinds of issues is the training designed
657
00:41:54.159 --> 00:41:59.800
to address? Yeah, it was
initially designed to talk more about some of
658
00:41:59.840 --> 00:42:05.840
the uncomfortable personal conversations, so mental
health burnout, which is now part of
659
00:42:05.840 --> 00:42:09.039
mental health obviously. But you know, I feel you know, I think
660
00:42:09.039 --> 00:42:13.360
some people feel like I'm only allowed
to talk about race if I'm feeling discriminated
661
00:42:13.360 --> 00:42:16.320
against while actually maybe there was a
microaggression that I felt that I never talked
662
00:42:16.360 --> 00:42:20.840
to anybody about. And you're not
going to have those conversations if you don't
663
00:42:20.840 --> 00:42:23.480
create space for them. And so
that was the training for the managers is
664
00:42:23.519 --> 00:42:28.719
how in your one on ones do
you first of all just overall creating psychological
665
00:42:28.760 --> 00:42:32.039
safety, you trust and those things
just in general on your team, and
666
00:42:32.039 --> 00:42:36.400
then in your one on ones,
how do you ask some questions about not
667
00:42:36.480 --> 00:42:37.880
just how are you doing, because
it's easy to say fine or hanging in
668
00:42:37.920 --> 00:42:40.960
there or whatever, but how is
your day? How is this day compared
669
00:42:40.960 --> 00:42:44.400
to yesterday, how is this compared
to last week? What's a win?
670
00:42:44.559 --> 00:42:47.400
What's a roadblock? If you ask
some pointed questions, you actually get much
671
00:42:47.440 --> 00:42:52.760
more insight into how someone's doing.
And then showing that vulnerability and authenticity of
672
00:42:52.800 --> 00:42:55.960
how you're doing opens that opens the
safety net of oh, I can really
673
00:42:57.000 --> 00:43:00.719
talk about this because they're willing to
talk about it. And then stepped into
674
00:43:00.800 --> 00:43:05.679
some things around you know, how
do you find the balance between I understand
675
00:43:05.679 --> 00:43:08.199
what my team is going through and
I really empathize that something's really stressful,
676
00:43:08.400 --> 00:43:12.320
versus I'm a manager and I need
to be a leader of this organization is
677
00:43:12.360 --> 00:43:15.480
sort of where my order group hat
without feeling like I'm just towing the company
678
00:43:15.559 --> 00:43:20.599
line. And how to find that
balance to someone may share you know,
679
00:43:20.679 --> 00:43:22.800
I don't know if this is the
right place for me, and how to
680
00:43:22.840 --> 00:43:25.039
have that conversation because that's okay,
Like people aren't going to stay at companies
681
00:43:25.079 --> 00:43:29.400
for thirty years. That's totally okay, But that's an awkward conversation. So
682
00:43:29.920 --> 00:43:32.599
that's where it sort of went through
during the training was managers were bringing up
683
00:43:32.599 --> 00:43:37.599
some of these questions as well.
I want to acknowledge that. That's fantastic.
684
00:43:37.800 --> 00:43:39.000
So again, you know, you're
wondering, why do I bring this
685
00:43:39.000 --> 00:43:43.360
man up, But I really do
revere Bob Chapman and his whole idea of
686
00:43:43.360 --> 00:43:45.320
truly human leadership. And he one
of the things that he says and on
687
00:43:45.360 --> 00:43:49.440
the conversations that I've had with him, is he can go out there and
688
00:43:49.480 --> 00:43:52.480
he speaks to organizations all over the
world about this. He says, I
689
00:43:52.599 --> 00:43:54.400
talk about how important it is to
care for employees, but the pieces the
690
00:43:54.440 --> 00:43:59.400
problem is people don't know how to
do that. Yes, you're teaching them
691
00:43:59.440 --> 00:44:01.199
how to do that. That is
so fantastic watch out. But do you
692
00:44:01.199 --> 00:44:07.360
hear this business progressing progress? Okay, we're almost out of time, but
693
00:44:07.360 --> 00:44:09.960
I want to grab that two more
questions for you here. You already talked
694
00:44:09.960 --> 00:44:13.599
a little bit about some of these
smaller events that you're doing, but you
695
00:44:13.840 --> 00:44:16.159
said you were trying to figure out
how to do virtual company events where people
696
00:44:16.159 --> 00:44:20.719
feel engaged, and you like the
small events, and you you already told
697
00:44:20.760 --> 00:44:22.039
us about the cooking. But the
reason I want you to talk about this
698
00:44:22.079 --> 00:44:27.239
is because in my consulting with my
clients I hear some of the biggest burnout
699
00:44:27.320 --> 00:44:30.119
is people don't they're not feeling connected, they're not feeling like they're they're together.
700
00:44:30.960 --> 00:44:34.440
So say a little bit more about
some of the things that you've been
701
00:44:34.440 --> 00:44:37.639
doing beyond the cooking class. Yeah. And I think the other thing too
702
00:44:37.719 --> 00:44:42.719
is people are also on zoom meeting
it as a concept, not literally the
703
00:44:42.719 --> 00:44:45.679
company fatigue and if I have to
get on one more video call, I'm
704
00:44:45.679 --> 00:44:49.360
going to puke. And so we've
also tried to do some offline things.
705
00:44:50.119 --> 00:44:52.679
Apparently food is a thing for us, because we also did a recipe book
706
00:44:52.679 --> 00:44:55.440
where people got to share recipes from
their families, which was also sort of
707
00:44:55.440 --> 00:45:00.400
part of the inclusion piece. So
we've been trying to do small things where
708
00:45:00.440 --> 00:45:05.079
people can get a chance to get
to know each other more on their time.
709
00:45:05.519 --> 00:45:07.920
So if they missed this one,
that's okay, because there's another one
710
00:45:07.000 --> 00:45:10.840
tomorrow morning, or there's another one
at lunch, or there's one completely offline,
711
00:45:10.880 --> 00:45:15.280
and you don't have to worry about
getting on another zoom call. Another
712
00:45:15.280 --> 00:45:20.159
one that we've been using there's an
app called Donut and it randomly pairs people
713
00:45:20.159 --> 00:45:23.119
in Slack to have a donut and
coffee. And so now obviously that's all
714
00:45:23.199 --> 00:45:29.000
virtual, but especially for new hires, we've been really encouraging them to sort
715
00:45:29.039 --> 00:45:31.679
of join that channel because that's the
way you meet those random people that you
716
00:45:31.719 --> 00:45:36.559
would have bumped into in the elevator, and so we've been trying to leverage
717
00:45:36.559 --> 00:45:39.679
a couple of things like that.
We also started to use something that does
718
00:45:39.719 --> 00:45:45.320
a random question every week and another
Slack channel, so we're big Slack users
719
00:45:45.199 --> 00:45:50.280
that it's a random This week it
was what's your favorite side dish for Thanksgiving?
720
00:45:50.800 --> 00:45:54.559
And the question all of a sudden
prompts twenty five messages about very strong
721
00:45:54.599 --> 00:46:00.480
opinions about Thanksgiving meals and so that's
another example of I don't to be on
722
00:46:00.480 --> 00:46:02.119
a zoom call. I don't have
to do it at two o'clock. I
723
00:46:02.159 --> 00:46:06.239
can see that at ten o'clock at
night if I want to and respond about
724
00:46:06.280 --> 00:46:09.199
why I feel admit that you mashed
potatoes are so important. So I think
725
00:46:09.199 --> 00:46:14.719
it's really leveraging technology, but also
going back to your roots of some people
726
00:46:14.760 --> 00:46:16.960
just want to get together and chat
about something they have in common and that's
727
00:46:17.119 --> 00:46:22.559
enough. My biggest concern is definitely
with the new hires that don't have those
728
00:46:22.599 --> 00:46:25.719
relationships prior and how to make sure
they feel part of the community. While
729
00:46:25.760 --> 00:46:29.920
done, it's just beautiful, Karen. So we've done it. We've managed
730
00:46:29.960 --> 00:46:30.719
to get all the way to the
end of the show. So I like
731
00:46:30.800 --> 00:46:34.800
to give my guests the last word. So you know, this program,
732
00:46:34.880 --> 00:46:37.679
Karen, is one that's listened to
across the globe. What we're up to
733
00:46:37.840 --> 00:46:42.320
is trying to help our listeners learn
how to find or develop work places that
734
00:46:42.360 --> 00:46:45.320
are meaningful and stewart inspirational leadership and
do better in the world in terms of
735
00:46:45.360 --> 00:46:50.400
business. What would like to leave
with listeners with So I think my biggest
736
00:46:50.400 --> 00:46:52.840
thing is it's not about getting it
right or wrong. It's about getting it
737
00:46:53.000 --> 00:46:57.760
right for your company. So we've
talked a lot about authenticity. What is
738
00:46:57.800 --> 00:47:00.760
your company stand for? What's the
promise that you've laid out for your team,
739
00:47:00.800 --> 00:47:05.119
and how are you actually going to
live that through your values, through
740
00:47:05.119 --> 00:47:07.880
your culture, or through your employee
promise, whatever you want to call it,
741
00:47:07.199 --> 00:47:12.679
but do what's right for your organization
and then actually live it. And
742
00:47:12.840 --> 00:47:16.559
that will not only give your company
more purpose and stand out amongst the competition,
743
00:47:16.840 --> 00:47:22.199
but it'll also make your team actually
feel everything that you've promised to give
744
00:47:22.199 --> 00:47:25.519
them when they first joined the team. That's beautiful. What a great way
745
00:47:25.519 --> 00:47:30.199
to finish It's just the whole conversation. We've had a fantastic exchange, Kar
746
00:47:30.280 --> 00:47:34.199
and you've really helped us understand what
Order Group has had to deal with confront
747
00:47:34.239 --> 00:47:37.719
how they've responded, How you really
have created a place where you trust your
748
00:47:37.719 --> 00:47:44.039
employees and you're doing your best to
help them help steward their overall full life.
749
00:47:44.079 --> 00:47:46.119
Not just what they're doing an order
group, but how do they actually
750
00:47:46.199 --> 00:47:50.559
create a life that works for them. And I've really applaud that and celebrate
751
00:47:50.599 --> 00:47:52.400
that. That's why I wanted to
have you on the show. Thank you
752
00:47:52.440 --> 00:47:54.119
for sharing. Thank you so much, and thank you so much for letting
753
00:47:54.159 --> 00:47:58.119
me share our stories. I hope
they helped others. Absolutely, I'm sure
754
00:47:58.119 --> 00:48:00.199
they will. You want to learn
more abou Karen Weeks, her book or
755
00:48:00.199 --> 00:48:06.079
her podcasts, start by visiting her
own personal website. It's Karen Dweeks dot
756
00:48:06.119 --> 00:48:09.199
com. Let me spell that for
you. It's ka r e n D
757
00:48:09.440 --> 00:48:15.559
like David Weeks w e e ks
Karen Dwaits dot com. Last week,
758
00:48:15.559 --> 00:48:17.920
if you missed the show live,
you're always catching recorded podcast. We run
759
00:48:17.960 --> 00:48:22.679
the Ar with Ron Barger and Andy
eb who are launching a servant investment fund
760
00:48:22.760 --> 00:48:25.960
anchored in conscious capitalism called serv Investors. I heard from one listener who told
761
00:48:27.000 --> 00:48:30.280
me he was moved to tears of
inspiration when they read their company credo on
762
00:48:30.360 --> 00:48:34.800
air. Truly magnificent what the human
spirit can do working from purpose. Next
763
00:48:34.840 --> 00:48:37.880
week we'll be on the air with
doctor Hollywood's author of The Golden Thread,
764
00:48:37.079 --> 00:48:40.000
Where to Find Purpose in the stages
of your life. You're up for a
765
00:48:40.039 --> 00:48:43.599
treat, so there, Remember that
work is at least of their relfe.
766
00:48:43.599 --> 00:48:52.519
So let's work on purpose. We
hope you've enjoyed this week's program, be
767
00:48:52.639 --> 00:48:57.280
sure to tune into Working on Purpose, featuring your host, doctor Elise Cortez,
768
00:48:57.480 --> 00:49:01.360
each week on the Voice America Empowerment
Channel. Together, we'll create a
769
00:49:01.360 --> 00:49:09.039
world where business operates conscientiously, leadership
inspires impassioned performance, and employees are fulfilled
770
00:49:09.079 --> 00:49:14.199
in work that provides the meaning and
purpose they crave. See you there,
771
00:49:14.719 --> 00:49:15.199
Let's Work on Purpose.
1
00:00:06.320 --> 00:00:10.560
What's working on purpose anyway? Each
week we ponder the answer to this question.
2
00:00:11.119 --> 00:00:15.800
People ache for meaning and purpose at
work, to contribute their talents passionately
3
00:00:16.120 --> 00:00:20.640
and know their lives really matter.
They crave being part of an organization that
4
00:00:20.719 --> 00:00:25.879
inspires them and helps them grow into
realizing their highest potential. Business can be
5
00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:30.600
such a force for good in the
world, elevating humanity. In our program,
6
00:00:30.679 --> 00:00:34.679
we provide guidance and inspiration to help
usher in this world we all want
7
00:00:35.320 --> 00:00:47.240
Working on purpose now. Here is
your host, doctor Elise Cortez. Welcome
8
00:00:47.240 --> 00:00:49.799
back to Working in Purpose program.
Thanks for junat again this week. I'm
9
00:00:49.799 --> 00:00:52.759
your host, doctor elist Cortest.
Do you live from Dallas which is home
10
00:00:52.759 --> 00:00:56.439
based for me? By way of
introduction, I'm a management consultant specializing in
11
00:00:56.520 --> 00:01:00.520
meaning and purpose, organizational logotherapist,
inspirational speaker, social scientist and author.
12
00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:04.760
And guess what My book is out
today November seventeenth, Purpose Ignited is here.
13
00:01:04.959 --> 00:01:07.680
It's actually now sitting around at people's
homes and offices. Thank you so
14
00:01:07.799 --> 00:01:11.640
much for your support and your interest. You can learn more about me at
15
00:01:11.640 --> 00:01:15.519
Alice Cortez dot com or Gusto Dashnow
dot com. If you've been tuning in
16
00:01:15.560 --> 00:01:19.680
for a while. You know this
program is a thought leadership series that enlightens
17
00:01:19.680 --> 00:01:23.480
and inspires listeners and viewers with insights
from distinguished business leaders, authors, and
18
00:01:23.519 --> 00:01:26.840
subject matter experts. By listening in, you're part of the movement to create
19
00:01:26.879 --> 00:01:30.040
inspirational leaders and enlightening workplaces where we
can thrive and do business that betters the
20
00:01:30.040 --> 00:01:34.560
world. Glad you're here Now Onto
this week's program with us today is Karen
21
00:01:34.599 --> 00:01:38.159
Weeks. She is the senior vice
president of People at Order Group and was
22
00:01:38.239 --> 00:01:42.879
named one of the twenty twenty Notable
Women in Talent by Crane's New York Business.
23
00:01:42.200 --> 00:01:46.840
She is a certified career coach,
speaker advisor to start up companies,
24
00:01:47.040 --> 00:01:51.079
Girls in Tech NYC board member,
and the published author Upsetting the Stage,
25
00:01:51.079 --> 00:01:53.879
a guide to preparing for any feedback
conversation. She also hosts a podcast,
26
00:01:55.040 --> 00:01:57.879
Getting Off the Hamster Wheel, which
sounds fantastic. We'll be talking about how
27
00:01:57.920 --> 00:02:01.120
she and the team at Order Group
are making their new way forward in the
28
00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:05.239
pandemic. Do you join you today
from New York City? Karen, Welcome
29
00:02:05.280 --> 00:02:07.759
to Working on Purpose. Thank you
so much for having me. I'm so
30
00:02:07.759 --> 00:02:12.960
excited to be here. Isn't this
fun? This is amazing, and congratulations
31
00:02:12.960 --> 00:02:15.280
on your book. Thank you,
it's so exciting. Were having a more
32
00:02:15.319 --> 00:02:19.080
fun than I supposed So don't tell
anybody, okay, right, So it's
33
00:02:19.080 --> 00:02:21.639
so great. So it's as we
were saying, isn't it nice to be
34
00:02:21.719 --> 00:02:25.159
on the other side of the mic? Right? It is. I love
35
00:02:25.199 --> 00:02:29.479
sharing stories, so it'll be fun
to kind of share mine this time.
36
00:02:29.919 --> 00:02:31.680
Well, that's where I want to
start, right since our listeners don't know
37
00:02:31.719 --> 00:02:35.319
you, and I've had a conversation
or two, so I know a couple
38
00:02:35.319 --> 00:02:37.560
of things about you, but our
listeners don't know much about you. So
39
00:02:37.639 --> 00:02:38.960
I thought it would be important if
you just started to say a little bit
40
00:02:38.960 --> 00:02:44.039
about your background. You're an HR
professional today twenty years in, but you
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told me something fascinating. You started
in theater arts. That's so amazing.
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So paint the picture of your background
for us a little if you would.
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Absolutely so, I thought I was
going to be a stage manager. I
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actually worked professionally for a couple of
years as a stage manager, and while
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I loved the work, when it
had to be my livelihood, it was
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very stressful, at least for me. It's like being an actor, You
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don't know where your next job is
going to be. If you're going to
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have another job, are you going
to get paid? So I thought that's
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too much stress for me. I
tried moving out to LA and worked for
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a talent agency for a while.
I thought, maybe the business side of
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the arts, maybe you would be
the right balance, and just LA wasn't
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right for me. It could have
been because I was just so young,
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both literally and in my career,
but I realized that that wasn't the right
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place either. So all of a
sudden, I was sitting there about three
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four years into my career, going
I don't know what I want to be
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anymore? What do I do?
And so I kind of took a step
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back and thought about I really enjoyed
creating a shared experience for people, and
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I like helping people with their careers, which is what I was doing for
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the actors getting jobs. And someone
said I think that's hr and I said,
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okay. So I tried it out, and almost twenty years later,
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here I am, wow, that's
amazing. It's really amazing. Right.
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I sort of fell into human capital
similarly, and once I got there,
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I went I went, oh,
this is where I'm supposed to be people
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or my products. Perfect, Okay, So I since you know that I'm
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a meeting and work researcher. I
think you know that anyway. Yes,
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I'm meeting and work and identity researcher, among other things. You know,
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I have to ask you why you
love HR. I think the thing that
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for me is and this has really
been interesting to watch this evolve ever since
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I first got into HR, when
it was much more transactional still and focused
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on payroll and benefits and those who
are of things, is that companies now
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realize the success of their people is
directly tied into the success of their business,
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and it's I'm no longer a cost
center. I'm actually helping you hit
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your business goals by hiring and retaining
the right people creating the right environment for
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them. And that's why I got
into HR. I wanted to help people
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with their careers and help them be
in a space that they felt safe and
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excited and they could be themselves,
and so to be a part of creating
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that culture. But now businesses realize
how important that is as well, and
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I think that's just fueled my fire
even more. One thing that you and
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I have in common is we recognize
that work can be such a great part
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of life. Right, it's such
a It's not something that you should drag
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yourself into. In fact, the
reason why I started posting Working on a
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Purpose five and oute years ago is
I wanted to tell stories about people who
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showcase stories about people who are passionate
about their work because I found out in
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my research and most people didn't recognize
that you could be passionate about what you
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do. What it comes. I
know, well, you work so much,
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and especially right now, when work
is so integrated into life, if
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you're not enjoying what you're doing,
it's actually impacting the other pieces of your
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life. So it's not just about
enjoying nine to five. It makes you
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a healthier person and a happier person
in general. Absolutely, you actually live
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longer too when you're having a better
time at work. So it turns out
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you're not one of those people that
actually ends up having a heart attack on
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Monday morning oftentimes, which is a
terrible stat right, Yes, you and
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I are working to alter that tide. All right, Well, let's talk
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about Order Groove. I had never
heard of your company before I tell for
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our listeners. What do you do, who do you serve? How do
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you get started? What's the purpose
of a company? Yeah, so ten
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years ago our CEO, who's also
our founder, actually is a big tennis
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player, and his strings would always
break and he wouldn't have the next set
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of strings and it would impact his
game. And he said, there's got
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to be a way where I get
the strings exactly when I need them based
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on the amount I play. And
that prompted order Groove And so we are
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a SaaS technology platform that helps retailers
and brands create recurring revenue products. So
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whether that subscriptions to like dog food
or diapers, whether that is a re
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order program, so you're able to
be notified when we think you're going to
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need your next order, whether that
is like a monthly box to can't to
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handle all your wellness. It can
look like a lot of different things.
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But we work with Vitamin Shop,
Honest Company, Walmart, Canada, Pet
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Smart, lots of different companies in
order to help, especially in today's times,
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how you get what you need when
you need it. I love that.
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That's great. I don't think I
could have quite generated that from when
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I got on your website. That's
fantastic. Okay. And now one of
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the things that you said when we
first spoke on the phone, and I
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love that that we met on I
think it was LinkedIn. I appreciate one
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of us found the other one.
But you've said that order group puts people
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first and empowers them, and of
course you had me at that statement.
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So it's so important, So tell
me how I think it is really through.
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We believe we hire smart, professional
adults, and so we are going
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to treat you that way. Now
if you show differently, we'll deal with
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that separately, but we're going to
assume the best of you because that's why
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we hired you. So we offer
flexibility. We allow you to manage the
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time the way you need to.
We try to think through flexible programs that
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support whatever way you like to work
and however you're living your life. And
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actually that really helped us going into
twenty twenty was that we already had that
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muscle of flexibility and trust that we
were not going to micromanage people. And
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we believe that you are going to
be your best self, and with that
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intent, most people are. It's
amazing when you ask people to be their
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best they usually present their best.
Oh my goodness, So look at the
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questions coming here really quick. Let's
describe this. So we want to we
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want to distinguish. So we've got
a question here, is that this is
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an HR or shopping company. So
Karen is an human resource professional and Karen
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distinguished. How you would describe the
company? Yes, so we partner with
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e commerce companies to work with retailers. Okay, so they're not an HR
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company. That's important that you recognize
that, listener, Thanks for weighing in
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with us. And then look at
this question. How would want to apply
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for a position with this company?
See? Look put this. Oh my
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gosh, it's fun. Alrighty,
I was amazed. So we have a
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career site. It's ordergroove dot COM's
backslash careers, and we're hiring and engineering
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and marketing specifically right now. But
we also have some open pipeline for sales
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roles and we're going to need client
services roles probably in the new year.
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Awesome, how fun is this?
Right? Thanks listeners for engaging with us.
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Thank you. Yeah, all right. So one of since this what
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I wanted to focus on the show
is I really wanted to showcase what companies
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innovative companies are doing to address the
COVID situation, which seems to be ongoing
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for for who knows how long.
So help us understand the challenges or opportunities
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that the pandemic is. Percentage Order
Group as an operation, it's not from
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a nature a vernage point first,
but as an operation, it's so interesting
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because we are so thankful that because
a lot of stores shut down, even
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though some of our clients stores were
open. Home Depot is one of our
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clients and they're clearly an essential business. But even with that, our clients
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had to rethink how they were running
their business and so they turned to us
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to be a partner there, either
because they were having inventory issues because their
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warehouses warehouses were shut down, or
they were trying to get more inventory online
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or do different deals. How do
I buy online, pickup and store.
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There were so many different things that
they had to think through, so we
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immediately had to re partner with them
on how to build the best programs for
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them based on this whole new world
that they were going through. Okay,
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so that's that's one major thing.
What else help us kind of understand what
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I want to do here? For
our listeners and our viewers just help them
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really understand and you know, just
the breadth and depth of what you as
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your company has kind of dealt.
So that's a major one how to serve
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your clients. What else, Yeah, I think internally we were very much
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New York centric from a team perspective. Face time was important to us,
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and so we not just literally had
to go work from home, but how
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do we keep that collaboration in those
relationships strong As we were making some really
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big business decisions. Even though we've
been around for ten years, it's probably
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been the last five or six years
that we really kind of hit the ground
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running, and we're so very startup
be so we are trying things for the
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first time, partnering with brand new
partners, trying to train new partners to
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work with us for the first time, and we had plans to do a
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lot more of that in person,
or at least for our team to be
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in person, and all of it, all of a sudden was remote,
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and so we had to think about
new platforms to use, new tools to
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use, how to best share learnings
and languages, learnings and communication different channels
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with our external partners. As we
were trying to do it internal as well.
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Yeah. One of the things that
I think I've heard as a refrain
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from so many people is just the
sheer amount of learning that people have had
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to do this year, right,
learn how to learn new technology and learn
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new ways of expressing yourself, learn
new ways to communicate, and learn new
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ways to try to be relevant and
funny even you know, when you don't
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get the personal presence. And so
I really want to acknowledge just you know
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what this has taken, right,
So what we're all up against in order
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to be able to handle an address
and you know, shock and jib if
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you will. And so I really
appreciate that you guys have been able to
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continue to iterate and innovate yourself and
your company. Did you say seventy five
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people? Yes? Okay. And
so another questions coming in with all that
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you have an I T department I
would assume so because you're so technology based.
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Yes, we have software engineers.
We actually don't have sort of I
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support like if my computer breaks,
I have to just go to Apple.
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But we have a very large product
and engineering team that's building our own product
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and a couple of things roll back
quick on you Karen, I should have
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clarified this because of our conversation.
You may not be in New York City
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right now? Are you in New
York City? I am actually right now.
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We just spent a month in Virginia. But I'm back at you,
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okay. So I want to talk
more about that in the next segments.
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Let me let's understand it from your
advantage points as an individual human being separate
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from order group. How has the
pandemic been for you? What are some
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things that you've learned or you've had
to deal with. Yeah, it's really
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interesting because I am a helper and
a healer by nature, so I want
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to make sure everybody else is okay. What can I do to help you?
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Friends, family, co workers,
anyone in society, like anyone I
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want to try to help. And
I realized that my adrenaline kicked in and
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I was trying to help everybody else, and after a few months, I
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totally collapse because I never took care
of myself. And so that is actually
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one of my biggest learnings was the
thing that was always sort of my best
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attribute ended up causing some self harm, and so I had to take care
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of myself and make sure I was
I'm only as I'm only as good for
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others if I'm good to myself.
So that was one of my biggest learnings.
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Otherwise, I actually really leaned in
my husband and I are very fortunate
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we've got a decent sized place in
New York, even though it's New York
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US, and the two cats and
the dog just kind of hung out and
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watched the Law of Netflix. Actually
went back and watched some old eighties TV
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shows just for fun and a little
escapism, and we would just try to
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find moments to step outside with our
masks and be as safe as possible in
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our neighborhood, just to get some
fresh air and appreciate what we did have.
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Let me, let me grab what
key point that you just made there
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for our listeners and our viewers.
And that's the point about self care.
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That we really can't take care of
other people unless we take care of ourselves.
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And so so much of what I'm
doing in the world is help people.
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Help people. We get present to
their passion or inspiration and their purpose
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and their meaning because I want them
to live on the same level as sleeping,
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eating, drinking water, etc.
It should be that basic and fundamental
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because that's all a form of self
care. And just to your point,
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you can't take care of other people
if you're not taking good care of yourself.
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So that is a fantastic way to
take us into our first break.
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I'm doctor Elise Cortez, your host. We've been in the air with Karen
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Weeks. She's a senior vice president
of people at Order Group. She's the
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author of Setting the Stage, a
guide to Preparing for any feedback conversation,
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and the host of the podcast Getting
Off the Hamster Whale. We've been talking
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a bit about how she got into
HR, what she loves about it,
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and what Order Group is up to. After the break, we're going to
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get into how they've been able to
respond to their employees to support them and
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keep them growing and thriving. Stay
with us, we'll be right back.
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Doctor Elise Cortez is a management consultant
specializing in meaning and purpose. An inspirational
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speaker and author. She helps companies
visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop
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purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures
that elevate fulfillment, perform and commitment within
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the workforce. To learn more or
to invite a lease to speak to your
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organization, please visit her at Leise
Cortez dot com. Let's talk about how
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to get your employees working on purpose. This is working on Purpose with doctor
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Release Cortez. To reach our program
today or open a conversation with Elise,
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send an email to Alise ali se
at Elise Cortez dot com. Now back
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to working on Purpose. Thanks for
staying with us, and welcome back to
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working on Purpose. As as I
said at the beginning of the show,
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I wanted to tell you where to
find my book, Purpose Ignited, is
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now on Amazon. I actually wrote
the book to turn readers onto their passion,
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inspiration and purpose and transform them into
inspirational leaders. It really was a
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true labor of love. I loved
every moment of it, and frankly,
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it wouldn't year without the pandemic.
I can tell you that right now.
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So that's one of my pluses from
the pandemic. If you're just joining the
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program, my guest is Karen Weeks. She's the senior vice president of People
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at Order Group, joining us today
from New York City. I'm your host,
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doctor Elias Cortez. So I want
to get into how some of the
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things that you and I have talked
about already on the phone about some of
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your response, what you've done to
take care of your people. But before
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we do that, let's kind of
unfold the events for people so they recognize
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what happened. So you told me
that you said that New York City began
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talking about the pandemic in late February, and by March ninth, people were
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working from home. That's amazing.
So help us back, take us back
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in time and tell us what was
like at that time, your experience,
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what it was like to be at
order group and your people. It was
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so interesting. I don't know if
I was naive or just had never experienced
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something like this before. Obviously none
of us have, but I could.
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Looking back, I can't get over
how fast everything changed. I was actually
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at a conference in Florida at the
end February, texting with our leadership team
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around Okay, so first we should
make sure there's no international travel, you
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know, literally the next day,
no US travel, probably later this afternoon.
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If anyone is traveling, they have
to quarantine. I mean, it
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was just happening so fast. And
then by the first week of March,
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we were realizing it was not if, but when are we going to send
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everybody home? And it was very
distracting. People were writing the subway.
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It was so unclear what was going
on. The news was just a waterfall
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of now this is canceled, Now
this is canceled, and everybody's anxiety which
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is skyrocketing through the roof. So
we came together as a leadership team and
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talked about it. I am so
thankful that I did not actually have to
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call that meeting. Our CEO did
and he said, I'm worried about the
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team. Let's come together and talk. And so we very quickly decided that
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we just need to send everybody home. So on Friday, we said,
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grab what you need. We're going
home. Maybe for the rest of the
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month, maybe into April, we'll
see, but take what you need.
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And obviously we are still remote today
and so we definitely underestimated everything. But
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yeah, I mean, it was
just rapid fire. But we didn't want
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people to be distracted by what was
going on. We didn't want anyone to
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get sick. We were so thankful
but that no one had gotten sick yet.
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You know, we work in a
huge building in New York City.
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We just didn't want to take any
of those risks. We are a company
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that's fortunate everybody has laptops, they
can technically work from home. Let's just
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do it, I know for me
being in Dallas a little bit later.
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Way, So it was it was
the middle of March when it hit us,
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and same thing I was. My
daughter's spring break was starting to unravel.
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She was going to go skiing and
Colorado they closed that down. She
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says, I'm want to come back
home, Mamma. Can't we maybe go
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down to Austin? Like, yeah, sure, let's do that. I'm
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driving down to Austin and I hear
they're shutting down Dallas and they're shutting down
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Austin, and I same thing,
like you, what is happening? I
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mean, I had no idea.
Right the shock that we've gone through on
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this and what we've gone through as
a world is incredible. So I just
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want to presence all that for what
we're going to talk about as we talk
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about your how you've taken care of
people. But I also want to get
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to what you also said on the
phone, which I thought was really interesting
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as you said that two weeks after
you know, I guess when you guys
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found out about this. New York
City was shut down, and people complied.
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You said, masks were worn and
all kinds of things. So help
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us into that world. It's it's
very hard to imagine New York shut down
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or you know, cloistered and people
changing their behavior that quickly. Yeah,
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it's really interesting. There's something about
New York City that, even though we
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are so big, we are a
strong community and we come together and take
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care of each other when we need
to. I wasn't here for nine to
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eleven, but I heard a lot
of stories about that. I saw it
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after Hurricane Sandy because we were here
for that, and it's just what New
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York City does. So people may
have not liked it. Obviously, huge
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economic economic impact, which was scary
and sad for so many businesses, as
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everybody around here as a small business. But we knew that New Yorkers were
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dying at a pace that was not
okay, and not that any pace is
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okay, but really not okay,
and so we had to shut it down,
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and so we followed the orders.
You saw stores shut down, you
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saw people stay home. So I
live on one nearest street in Brooklyn,
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which is a very busy street,
lots of restaurants, lots of shopping Saturday
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night, you know, booming with
people. I was walking the dog at
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eight thirty on a Saturday. I
went maybe three blocks and around and I
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saw one person And that was the
moment where I said, this is serious,
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Like we are not messing around here, and thank goodness, people are
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taking it seriously. And as soon
as masks were decided that that was the
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thing to do, everybody wears masks, even on the streets, not of
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course in stores, but even just
walking on the street because we're also clustered
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here. Yeah. So it's just
it's so hard to imagine. I have
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been working from home for so many
for so long that that that part didn't
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didn't do it. But I can't
even imagine what it's like if you're used
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to going into an office building and
you used to be walking around to go
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get dinner and all those sorts of
things. I just can't imagine how up
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ending all of that has been.
Yeah, and there's a real grief about
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it. And realize how much you
may complain about your commute, but that's
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actually a really precious time that you
have by yourself. Maybe it's to decompress
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from the day or prepare for the
day. It's the only time you get
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by yourself, depending on your family
and home situations. So there was a
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real grief for losing all those things, and people who had weddings or special
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trips planned, none of that was
happening, and so I think that was
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one thing that also people weren't expecting. Again, after that initial adrenaline rush,
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there was a real sadness for what
was happening, not just literally but
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also what we were losing. But
I think I've heard it best, especially
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as we go into the holiday season. I would rather not see my family
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now, or not go into the
office or whatever today, so that I
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can and others can in the future. And I think that was the attitude
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that people finally got us they worked
through their grief. Well said very well
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said, Well, I'm very intrigued
with the the the cascading effects of this
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pandemic, as how it's how it's
going to affect society, how it's affecting
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you know, how how do we
rent office buildings? How how you know
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how much what's the price of gas? Where are people living? I have
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a I'm very very much imagine that
the makeup of cities and suburbs and small
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towns is going to change a lot
as people start to move. And in
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fact, you told me that of
your seventy five employees, ten have permanently
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moved away from New York City and
another five to seven have temporarily moved elsewhere.
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That is so fantastic, I think, Well, so talk to me.
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It talked to us about that.
What how is this communicated? Did
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they say, hey, I'm going
to go to Montana or did they did
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you did? Did they need to
tell you? Or how did this work?
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Yeah? So it started with people
just naturally doing what they need to
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do. We talked about flexibility earlier. We were saying, do what you
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need to do with your families,
be safe, what ever you know works
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best for you. So some people
just kind of scattered to either be closer
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to their family because they were single
or on their own, or they needed
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to be closer to elderly parents or
whatever the thing was that was driving it,
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and we just sort of it just
kind of happened. But then as
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it went on and on, you
know, and mid April became well we're
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not going back till June. And
as we got closer to June, clearly
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that was not changing, and so
we actually changed our language to say we
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will always have an office for people
to go to when it's safe. However,
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this is working in the worst of
times, us being more distributed across
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this country and working remote is working. We're still hitting our goals, people
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are successful in their roles. So
we're actually going to keep this as an
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offer. If you want to move
outside of New York or outside one of
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our hubs, if permanently, that's
totally fine. Just talk to us so
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we can make sure we're set up
as a entity in that state and those
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you know, legalies and tax purposes. If you want to if you end
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up staying in New York but you
only want to go into the office a
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couple of days, that's totally fine. So we gave people the choice and
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we said we're going to move to
a flexible work from anywhere policy. Just
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work with us to make sure we
have you set up the way you need
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to. And we've started hiring outside
of New York City for the first time,
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which is very exciting for us,
and we found amazing talent because of
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it. So it all stemmed from
we trust our people to make the right
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decisions about their lives and still be
a great order group of team member.
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It actually doesn't. It totally against
everything we thought. It actually doesn't matter
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where they're doing that work from.
That's amazing. A couple of things I
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want to fuck on that. First, you know that you do trust them.
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It's amazing what happens when you trust
people. They want to keep that
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trust and it's precious to them,
so they lean into it, right.
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I think that's amazing. So then
the next thing that's interesting is that you
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instituted that you could work from anywhere. That's fascinating. Now what I didn't
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know. You're teaching us something gach, you meet something new. So you're
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saying that in order to support or
be an alignment legally that if you have
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to sort of have an arrangement with
whatever state that they're in. Yeah,
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we actually have to register as a
business in that state. So if someone
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does move to Montana and where we
are not recognized as a company there,
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we need to because we actually both
for employment law and employment tax purposes,
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but also potentially for sales tax.
So there's myself in the finance head of
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finance work together to kind of make
that work within the tri state area,
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you don't have to worry about it. But the minute you get a from
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a non commutable distance to one of
our offices, we have to set up
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a nexus in that state. Okay, that's really important and good to know.
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Thank you for that. And the
next thing I want to drill down
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on it and talk about is you
know you said this notion that you you
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trusted the employees to make the choices
and decisions that were best for their lives.
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And what I know about know to
be true about that is you're now
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what you're doing is you're allowing You're
creating a space for people to architect their
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lives in an optimal way. Well, what employee is not going to be
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thrilled to death to be at that
company and want to give their best for
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that you've allowed them instead of So
what I'm so intrigued with right now,
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Karen, is that I'm very much
on the have to be able to help
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employees stop doing this thing or they
create all these systems and require people to
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go into all manner of you know, trying to wrap themselves around that in
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order to lose all of their individuality
just so they can, you know,
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drum to the heartbeat of the company
and all the policies and all the procedures,
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and it's just it takes their soul
away from that. So I really
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really applaud that you took the notion
that you were going to be truly you
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are people centric. Well, it's
really interesting that you mentioned, you know,
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sort of all the pieces of their
lives and being able to bring that
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to the table because then on top
of COVID obviously all the racial injustice that
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happened over the summer, and we
were having really tough conversations around how do
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we make sure people feel welcome and
can be their whole selves and you know,
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whether that is you know, their
background, their ethnicity and what that
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means to them, whether that is
the chaos that's happening around them because they've
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got kids or whatever, whatever their
true identity is, we want them to
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be comfortable. And it continued to
build on the same theme of you know,
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one of our values is what you
see is what you get, and
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it's all about authenticity, and we
realized it was all building on that same
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value of whatever your life needs to
be, whether it's this moment because we're
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going through this really odd time,
or because of what's important to you in
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your life. We want to be
able to support that because if you're able
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to live your true life, then
you're actually able to be a better employee
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of order group. And that's where
that marriage I was talking about earlier of
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individual success and business success actually go
together. I think the splendid I love
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it. That's one of the big
reasons I want to have in the Showcaring
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because I think you're showcasing some really
best practices there, and I think that's
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fantastic. So again, why do
I do the show. It's about stewarding
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the conversation towards creating a workplace where
people can actually thrive and we can do
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business in a way that betters in
the world. So I think you really
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are showing some great practices there.
You're welcome. Quick question again from a
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listener. Do you do you have
to file a business in each territory?
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It's a great question. I don't
want to give an official answer because I'm
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not one hundred percent sure. I
think it depends on the state. So
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if there is, you know,
income tax and some of those things you
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do have to register. There was
one state that we were investigating that we
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didn't think we had to because of
whatever laws were down there. So definitely
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work with you know, someone who
knows a lot more than I do.
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But it's it's a good question.
You just should ask yourself the question and
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then find the expert who can give
you the answer. Awesome. Thanks thanks
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listening for weighing in with us on
the conversation. Okay, so I want
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to talk a little bit more about
what you've done to support your employees.
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I know that you know you've had
practices that supported them through the pandemic,
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00:28:41.279 --> 00:28:45.400
plex schedules, et cetera. But
what else have you done to support your
450
00:28:45.400 --> 00:28:48.640
employees and reach out to care for
them. Yeah, so we've done it
451
00:28:48.680 --> 00:28:52.400
a couple of different ways. We've
tried to think about the individuals. So
452
00:28:52.559 --> 00:28:56.839
we've also this summer did some extra
company days off, so a random Friday
453
00:28:56.880 --> 00:29:02.559
and additional time at late day to
give some extended time because one thing we
454
00:29:02.559 --> 00:29:04.480
were hearing a lot, which I'm
sure other people have heard, is that
455
00:29:04.559 --> 00:29:10.599
it's very hard to disconnect when you
are living and working in the same place
456
00:29:10.920 --> 00:29:14.440
and your escapes aren't probably there.
You know, I can't go to the
457
00:29:14.440 --> 00:29:15.640
movies. I can't go to a
concert after a long day, so I
458
00:29:15.680 --> 00:29:19.680
just kind of keep working. And
so we wanted to force people basically to
459
00:29:19.720 --> 00:29:22.960
take some time off, so we
did things like that. We also really
460
00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:26.839
focused on some community building. So
what used to be, you know,
461
00:29:26.920 --> 00:29:30.519
sitting at a kitchen table and chatting
while we ate lunch, or you know,
462
00:29:32.119 --> 00:29:36.880
bowling after work or whatever. We
wanted to still build those community so
463
00:29:36.880 --> 00:29:41.039
we've done a lot of small group
things. We personally have found big company
464
00:29:41.119 --> 00:29:44.839
wide zoom things are not successful for
us. I don't know if we're too
465
00:29:44.880 --> 00:29:47.839
big. I don't know if it's
our personalities, but we do much better
466
00:29:47.839 --> 00:29:51.000
in smaller groups. So we do. One of our product managers loves to
467
00:29:51.039 --> 00:29:52.200
cook, so he does a cooking
class, you know, every couple of
468
00:29:52.200 --> 00:29:56.720
months. We have a book.
It's he's got a whole setup, he's
469
00:29:56.720 --> 00:29:59.799
got a second camera. It's amazing. You can really tell. He gets
470
00:29:59.799 --> 00:30:03.359
into can you smell and taste of
food? Oh my god, he's going
471
00:30:03.400 --> 00:30:06.279
to figure out how to do that. If anyone does, he will.
472
00:30:07.440 --> 00:30:10.640
You know. We would done book
clubs and workout classes and movie nights and
473
00:30:10.680 --> 00:30:14.000
things that small trivia nights things that
smaller groups can do than we found that's
474
00:30:14.039 --> 00:30:17.519
a good way to build community.
But then we also had to think about
475
00:30:17.519 --> 00:30:22.440
new platforms to use. So,
you know, our engineers whiteboarded all day,
476
00:30:22.519 --> 00:30:26.440
and when they didn't have those whiteboards
either A, we actually literally got
477
00:30:26.440 --> 00:30:30.119
a task grab it to bring some
whiteboards to some of our engine engineering managers
478
00:30:30.200 --> 00:30:33.880
home so they have them. But
we also found some online tools as well.
479
00:30:33.519 --> 00:30:37.720
Google has something, for example,
that they were able to start using
480
00:30:37.119 --> 00:30:42.119
to as best as possible recreate how
they like to work together and how they
481
00:30:42.119 --> 00:30:45.880
collaborate together. Well done, very
well done, you know, and it
482
00:30:45.960 --> 00:30:48.920
just it really you know, it
just takes an investment, it takes support,
483
00:30:49.000 --> 00:30:52.000
it takes reach, it takes all
of this. So it really really
484
00:30:52.039 --> 00:30:56.519
applaud what you've done. So and
again it's it's an example Karen's will,
485
00:30:56.559 --> 00:31:00.960
thank you, thank you. It's
it. I like I said, I
486
00:31:00.039 --> 00:31:03.880
am so thinkful. I know plenty
of people who work at organizations that we're
487
00:31:03.960 --> 00:31:08.799
not taking this approach, and their
teams were suffering, their teams were leaving,
488
00:31:10.039 --> 00:31:11.000
hr people were leaving. You know, if you're not going to listen
489
00:31:11.000 --> 00:31:14.920
to me, why am I here? And I am so thankful that that
490
00:31:15.039 --> 00:31:18.119
was not the case. At Order
Group, Greg and Aaron, who are
491
00:31:18.279 --> 00:31:19.960
our CEO and CEOO. You know, they were right next to me,
492
00:31:21.200 --> 00:31:22.799
if not ahead of me a couple
of times, saying like, we need
493
00:31:22.839 --> 00:31:26.960
to figure this out. So I'm
very lucky for that reason. It's awesome.
494
00:31:27.000 --> 00:31:30.279
It's awesome. Let's celebrate its celebratory. I love it. It's time
495
00:31:30.279 --> 00:31:33.519
for our last break. I'm at
least Cortez your host. We were in
496
00:31:33.559 --> 00:31:36.279
the air with Karen Weeks. She
is a senior vice president of people at
497
00:31:36.359 --> 00:31:38.400
Order Group and was named one of
the twenty twenty Notable Women in Talent by
498
00:31:38.440 --> 00:31:42.079
Crane's New York Business. She's a
certified career coach, speaker, advisor,
499
00:31:42.279 --> 00:31:47.039
Syrup Companies Girls in New York Tech
Board member. Stay with us, We'll
500
00:31:47.039 --> 00:31:51.160
be right back. We've been talking
about really the response to COVID. Here
501
00:31:51.200 --> 00:31:53.480
after the rick, we're gonna get
into hearing about some of the unexpected gifts
502
00:31:53.519 --> 00:31:59.400
from the pandemic. Stay with us. Doctor Release Cortez is a management consultant
503
00:31:59.599 --> 00:32:05.640
especializing in meaning and purpose and inspirational
speaker and author. She helps companies visioneer
504
00:32:05.759 --> 00:32:12.480
for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop
purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that
505
00:32:12.640 --> 00:32:17.480
elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment
within the workforce. To learn more or
506
00:32:17.559 --> 00:32:22.440
to invite a lease to speak to
your organization, please visit her at Elise
507
00:32:22.519 --> 00:32:27.240
Cortez dot com. Let's talk about
how to get your employees working on purpose.
508
00:32:34.359 --> 00:32:37.720
This is working on Purpose with doctor
Elise Cortez. To reach our program
509
00:32:37.759 --> 00:32:44.319
today or open a conversation with Elise, send an email to Elise ali Se
510
00:32:44.880 --> 00:32:55.279
at Elise Cortez dot com. Now
back to working on purpose. Thanks for
511
00:32:55.359 --> 00:32:59.119
sting with us, and welcome back
to working on purpose. Another one else
512
00:32:59.319 --> 00:33:01.279
that I have for you. Lots
going on over here. We've launched Gusto
513
00:33:01.400 --> 00:33:06.039
now, which is a growth and
transformation e learning platform featuring leadership and professional
514
00:33:06.039 --> 00:33:08.160
development courses. We do it in
English, Spanish and Portuguese my favorite,
515
00:33:08.240 --> 00:33:12.799
my favorite languages. If you're just
joining us, my guest is Karen Weeks.
516
00:33:12.799 --> 00:33:15.759
She is a senior vice president of
people at Order Group, joining us
517
00:33:15.759 --> 00:33:19.079
today from New York City. I'm
your host, doctor Lee's Cortez. So
518
00:33:19.160 --> 00:33:21.839
let's talk gifts. Karen. One
of the things that was fun when we
519
00:33:21.839 --> 00:33:24.000
were talking about what we wanted to
hear, what we wanted to discuss today
520
00:33:24.119 --> 00:33:29.279
is you said, hey, I
found a couple of gifts. So one
521
00:33:29.279 --> 00:33:30.559
of the things that you said,
which I thought was so beautiful in one
522
00:33:30.559 --> 00:33:34.440
of our exchanges, is you said, companies that are doing this right meaning
523
00:33:34.440 --> 00:33:37.599
getting the response that are that are
going to get recognized for that through retention
524
00:33:37.640 --> 00:33:42.400
of their team. So tell us
about some of that feedback you were mentioning
525
00:33:42.519 --> 00:33:45.240
from from in our exchange, that
you're getting from from employees. Yeah,
526
00:33:45.400 --> 00:33:52.079
it's so amazing because this goes back
to you know, when you trust people,
527
00:33:52.119 --> 00:33:57.559
they trust you back in trust.
Bank investments are very very important because
528
00:33:57.599 --> 00:34:00.519
depletion is much bigger than re earning
it back. And so, you know,
529
00:34:00.880 --> 00:34:05.200
we've heard a lot of things.
We've done some trials around, some
530
00:34:05.720 --> 00:34:12.559
stress management classes, we tried different
coaching for folks if they wanted that.
531
00:34:13.039 --> 00:34:16.719
So we basically we've been taking the
reactive approach and just trying different things,
532
00:34:17.239 --> 00:34:20.880
learned from it, and then we'll
figure out what's right for twenty twenty one
533
00:34:20.920 --> 00:34:25.599
from a more strategic standpoint. And
I have been so overwhelmed by team members
534
00:34:25.599 --> 00:34:29.440
reaching out to me and saying,
you know, I can't believe a company
535
00:34:29.480 --> 00:34:31.360
cares as much about me. Thank
you so much for doing this, Thank
536
00:34:31.360 --> 00:34:35.920
you for doing this for my family? How are you doing during this?
537
00:34:36.480 --> 00:34:38.360
And the fact that someone even thought
to ask me, which is not the
538
00:34:38.400 --> 00:34:42.960
case in a lot of companies,
shows that they felt taken care of enough
539
00:34:43.000 --> 00:34:45.920
that they were willing to think about
someone else. So, you know,
540
00:34:45.960 --> 00:34:47.920
the poll surveys and all that are
helpful, and I like seeing the feedback
541
00:34:47.960 --> 00:34:52.440
there, but honestly, those one
on one conversations mean the world to me
542
00:34:52.440 --> 00:34:55.559
because it means that what we're doing
is adding value to someone's life, and
543
00:34:55.559 --> 00:34:59.880
that's the whole reason why we should
be doing it. Yeah, I started
544
00:35:00.079 --> 00:35:02.800
got when you were talking that there's
this sense of we're in this together,
545
00:35:02.840 --> 00:35:07.000
and we got finis who we're taking
care of each other, and we're going
546
00:35:07.039 --> 00:35:08.800
to get through the other side of
this together. And what I also know
547
00:35:08.840 --> 00:35:13.599
about that from a meaning vantage point
is that what that gets to is there's
548
00:35:13.840 --> 00:35:17.239
a limbic resonance that's happening among your
team where everybody's kind of driving at the
549
00:35:17.280 --> 00:35:22.440
same energy level, and that connection
is actually shared and it's palpable. It's
550
00:35:22.480 --> 00:35:24.920
so interesting how it works, and
so when you get to when you when
551
00:35:24.960 --> 00:35:29.119
people feel like you care about them. In fact, I had Bob Chapman
552
00:35:29.159 --> 00:35:31.960
on my radio show. He is
the CEO of Very Way Miller, and
553
00:35:32.480 --> 00:35:37.800
his whole thing is about caring for
your employees, just like you're talking about
554
00:35:37.119 --> 00:35:43.599
extremely successful with businessman and business owners. So beautiful. And then the other
555
00:35:43.639 --> 00:35:45.920
thing. You've alluded to this before, but I want to make sure we
556
00:35:45.920 --> 00:35:49.159
showcase it as a topic here.
But you said one of the things that
557
00:35:49.199 --> 00:35:52.800
the pandemic is ushered in is this
notion of bringing your whole self to work.
558
00:35:52.400 --> 00:35:55.559
Say more of what that means and
why that's important. Yeah, So
559
00:35:55.719 --> 00:36:01.079
it actually started because a couple of
people were embarrassed by their homework setups.
560
00:36:01.880 --> 00:36:06.239
You know, you've watched CNN or
whatever, and they've got the bookcases behind
561
00:36:06.280 --> 00:36:08.119
them. You know, I cheated. I set up a little bit today
562
00:36:08.159 --> 00:36:12.559
before our conversation, and we wanted
to let people know, like, that's
563
00:36:12.599 --> 00:36:15.800
not normal, that's not expected.
You just be you. And so we
564
00:36:15.840 --> 00:36:20.400
actually did a photo contest of the
most creative way you set up your home
565
00:36:20.599 --> 00:36:23.760
office. And so people were showing, you know, desk chairs on top
566
00:36:23.840 --> 00:36:27.480
of dining room table. So they
had a standing desk. Someone else was
567
00:36:27.559 --> 00:36:31.519
using their kids like easel as a
little thing for their laptop. The purpose
568
00:36:31.719 --> 00:36:36.639
was like, it's okay that this
is messy. Just just survive and that,
569
00:36:36.719 --> 00:36:37.280
you know, that's what we're trying
to get out of this. So
570
00:36:37.519 --> 00:36:42.400
that's kind of how it started.
And then you know, through Black Lives
571
00:36:42.400 --> 00:36:45.039
Matter and some of the things that
happened over the summer to this ongoing sense
572
00:36:45.159 --> 00:36:47.079
of oh my gosh, now I'm
trying to figure out if my kids are
573
00:36:47.119 --> 00:36:50.400
going back to school or not.
I don't know what to do about that.
574
00:36:50.960 --> 00:36:54.079
So it just continued. That's the
cycle of you are a whole person.
575
00:36:54.320 --> 00:36:58.039
You've always been a whole person,
by the way, but twenty twenty
576
00:36:58.079 --> 00:37:01.239
has really brought that to light.
And so whether that is you're feeling sad
577
00:37:01.320 --> 00:37:05.800
today, you're feeling stressed today,
Today is just a bad day. That's
578
00:37:05.840 --> 00:37:08.199
okay, I'm actually doing pretty good
today, and let's celebrate that, Like
579
00:37:08.239 --> 00:37:13.519
what's making you feel more positive today, Let's celebrate that. I've got,
580
00:37:13.559 --> 00:37:15.119
you know, a little one over
here and a dog over here. That's
581
00:37:15.159 --> 00:37:19.280
okay. If they bark, do
not apologize. We had our all hands
582
00:37:19.320 --> 00:37:22.559
meeting, which is our big town
Hall this week and our CEO Aaron was
583
00:37:22.639 --> 00:37:27.880
presenting and her son was having a
total meltdown and she led him into the
584
00:37:27.960 --> 00:37:30.119
room and he just sat there and
yeah, he said some funny things and
585
00:37:30.239 --> 00:37:34.400
like, that's fine. It is
what it is right now, and you
586
00:37:34.400 --> 00:37:37.400
know, don't apologize for that.
That's your life, that is who you
587
00:37:37.440 --> 00:37:40.239
are as a person. And like
I said, I always try to encourage
588
00:37:40.280 --> 00:37:45.840
that, whether it was mental health
or inclusion or just the quirky selves that
589
00:37:45.880 --> 00:37:49.960
we all are. But twenty twenty
has said has put that on full display
590
00:37:50.079 --> 00:37:52.760
as we've been doing all of this
from our home. Now, you're reminded
591
00:37:52.800 --> 00:37:55.440
me when I first had my daughter
in two thousand and three. I remember
592
00:37:55.480 --> 00:37:59.559
having because I did some work from
home back then too, and I remember
593
00:37:59.719 --> 00:38:04.079
being horrified if she'd like set any
sort of sound or if she cried.
594
00:38:04.119 --> 00:38:07.519
I mean, the world was over
with right. So right now we see
595
00:38:07.559 --> 00:38:10.599
dogs coming through and cats. The
funniest thing sets cats and that the back
596
00:38:10.679 --> 00:38:14.760
ends of cats and showing up in
the video and they're like, okay,
597
00:38:14.840 --> 00:38:20.679
that's your Yeah, you know.
It happens on Sanon during the election,
598
00:38:20.800 --> 00:38:23.239
some guy's teenager like walked into the
live bead. You know it is what
599
00:38:23.320 --> 00:38:27.159
it is? Yeah, yeah,
I think it's It's definitely a whole new
600
00:38:27.159 --> 00:38:30.239
world, right, so it goes
it certainly speaks to your authenticity value.
601
00:38:31.480 --> 00:38:34.840
Okay, Well along those lines,
one of the other things that I thought
602
00:38:34.880 --> 00:38:37.639
was definitely worth talking about that you
you told me in our first conversation is
603
00:38:37.639 --> 00:38:43.760
that your CEO is stewarding honest racial
conversations and all of this. So how
604
00:38:43.840 --> 00:38:46.079
is this happening and what it begins? Do you see taking place from that?
605
00:38:46.920 --> 00:38:52.800
Yeah? So he really struggled with
the CEO email that he was supposed
606
00:38:52.800 --> 00:38:54.840
to send, you know, in
mid June, and he and I had
607
00:38:54.840 --> 00:38:58.400
a conversation. He said, I
don't want it to sound like a template.
608
00:38:58.440 --> 00:39:00.000
I don't want it to sound like
everybody else, but I know I
609
00:39:00.039 --> 00:39:04.000
need to say something. And I
told him, I said, so tell
610
00:39:04.039 --> 00:39:07.159
them that, like say, I
don't know what to say right now.
611
00:39:07.719 --> 00:39:10.199
I don't have the answers. I
want you to know. I'm struggling with
612
00:39:10.239 --> 00:39:13.920
this and this crushes my soul.
I don't have the answer, but I'm
613
00:39:13.920 --> 00:39:15.960
here as your ally, and that's
fine, Like that can be your email,
614
00:39:16.039 --> 00:39:21.079
That's okay. And I think that
opened the conversation. We actually started
615
00:39:21.119 --> 00:39:24.880
a diversity council after that. We're
volunteers from across the organization have joined together
616
00:39:24.960 --> 00:39:29.400
to try to figure out how to
have more of those conversations. We did
617
00:39:29.760 --> 00:39:34.760
training with managers about how to have
some of those uncomfortable conversations because we're not
618
00:39:34.800 --> 00:39:37.440
going to have the answer. Order
group is probably not going to solve racial
619
00:39:37.440 --> 00:39:42.800
injustice and systemic racism in this country, but we can do our part to
620
00:39:42.800 --> 00:39:46.079
make sure that our team members know
that they are supportive. They are welcome
621
00:39:46.559 --> 00:39:52.960
no matter your background, no matter
anything like you are welcome here. And
622
00:39:52.039 --> 00:39:55.639
so just by saying those words out
loud, I think opened up the dialogue
623
00:39:55.719 --> 00:39:59.400
for others to have some of those
conversations. And I've had some of the
624
00:39:59.440 --> 00:40:02.480
most honest conversations with our team members
that I think I've had the four and
625
00:40:02.480 --> 00:40:07.559
a half years that I've been there. So that's fantastic. And so in
626
00:40:07.599 --> 00:40:10.800
addition to even opening up a conversation
around a race, that's just it's so
627
00:40:10.840 --> 00:40:14.199
important to talk about it anyway.
And I want to say two things about
628
00:40:14.199 --> 00:40:16.840
that. One, I appreciate an
applaud that your CEO knew that he needed
629
00:40:16.840 --> 00:40:21.519
to do something about that and sought
your help to do that. And two,
630
00:40:21.760 --> 00:40:23.760
I want to recognize that, you
know, that's a growth. That's
631
00:40:23.760 --> 00:40:28.599
a step of growth for for people, right to step in around something you're
632
00:40:28.639 --> 00:40:30.039
you don't know anything about, You're
uncomfortable, but you know you need to
633
00:40:30.079 --> 00:40:32.719
address. And by the way,
you're the guy that's in the leader's seat.
634
00:40:34.239 --> 00:40:37.119
So I do a lot of work
with executives and helping them. You
635
00:40:37.159 --> 00:40:40.400
know, when you're a leader in
a pandemic like this, it is really
636
00:40:40.400 --> 00:40:44.639
difficult. I mean, you're like
looking around like it's on me, right.
637
00:40:45.039 --> 00:40:47.559
So I really appreciate an applaud all
of our leaders that have had to
638
00:40:49.280 --> 00:40:51.639
not know what to do in this
thing and not know who to be in
639
00:40:51.679 --> 00:40:52.679
this thing, and you know,
they're like, I just let me just
640
00:40:52.679 --> 00:40:54.480
call uncle. I'm telling you,
I don't know what to do here.
641
00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:58.760
And so I end up working out
with a lot of them to support them,
642
00:40:58.760 --> 00:41:00.559
and I know you do too.
So I really want to applaud your
643
00:41:00.639 --> 00:41:05.920
CEO for his courage, his willingness
to be vulnerable and not know and just
644
00:41:05.960 --> 00:41:08.719
step in it. Yeah, And
I think vulnerability is one of the so
645
00:41:08.760 --> 00:41:13.000
funny we talk about that as one
of the key attributes of leadership, and
646
00:41:13.199 --> 00:41:16.320
it's I think twenty twenty is an
example of this. Is when you show
647
00:41:16.400 --> 00:41:21.679
up to be those things like you
show up to be vulnerable, you show
648
00:41:21.719 --> 00:41:24.480
up to be authentic. This is
the moment where actually being it now means
649
00:41:24.519 --> 00:41:29.280
more than any other time, because
it's in the hardest times that people tend
650
00:41:29.320 --> 00:41:31.559
to retreat or go into their safe
zone. If you're willing to be vulnerable
651
00:41:31.719 --> 00:41:37.159
and have those conversations, now,
that's the sign of true leadership because it's
652
00:41:37.199 --> 00:41:39.239
hard to do that now it is. Yeah, speaking of that, I
653
00:41:39.280 --> 00:41:43.239
want to grab a question that you
and I talked about that is really important.
654
00:41:43.239 --> 00:41:45.480
I really appreciated that you said that. In all of this, you've
655
00:41:45.519 --> 00:41:51.199
embarked in some specific training to help
managers have difficult conversations with employees. So
656
00:41:51.760 --> 00:41:54.159
what kind of training is this and
what kinds of issues is the training designed
657
00:41:54.159 --> 00:41:59.800
to address? Yeah, it was
initially designed to talk more about some of
658
00:41:59.840 --> 00:42:05.840
the uncomfortable personal conversations, so mental
health burnout, which is now part of
659
00:42:05.840 --> 00:42:09.039
mental health obviously. But you know, I feel you know, I think
660
00:42:09.039 --> 00:42:13.360
some people feel like I'm only allowed
to talk about race if I'm feeling discriminated
661
00:42:13.360 --> 00:42:16.320
against while actually maybe there was a
microaggression that I felt that I never talked
662
00:42:16.360 --> 00:42:20.840
to anybody about. And you're not
going to have those conversations if you don't
663
00:42:20.840 --> 00:42:23.480
create space for them. And so
that was the training for the managers is
664
00:42:23.519 --> 00:42:28.719
how in your one on ones do
you first of all just overall creating psychological
665
00:42:28.760 --> 00:42:32.039
safety, you trust and those things
just in general on your team, and
666
00:42:32.039 --> 00:42:36.400
then in your one on ones,
how do you ask some questions about not
667
00:42:36.480 --> 00:42:37.880
just how are you doing, because
it's easy to say fine or hanging in
668
00:42:37.920 --> 00:42:40.960
there or whatever, but how is
your day? How is this day compared
669
00:42:40.960 --> 00:42:44.400
to yesterday, how is this compared
to last week? What's a win?
670
00:42:44.559 --> 00:42:47.400
What's a roadblock? If you ask
some pointed questions, you actually get much
671
00:42:47.440 --> 00:42:52.760
more insight into how someone's doing.
And then showing that vulnerability and authenticity of
672
00:42:52.800 --> 00:42:55.960
how you're doing opens that opens the
safety net of oh, I can really
673
00:42:57.000 --> 00:43:00.719
talk about this because they're willing to
talk about it. And then stepped into
674
00:43:00.800 --> 00:43:05.679
some things around you know, how
do you find the balance between I understand
675
00:43:05.679 --> 00:43:08.199
what my team is going through and
I really empathize that something's really stressful,
676
00:43:08.400 --> 00:43:12.320
versus I'm a manager and I need
to be a leader of this organization is
677
00:43:12.360 --> 00:43:15.480
sort of where my order group hat
without feeling like I'm just towing the company
678
00:43:15.559 --> 00:43:20.599
line. And how to find that
balance to someone may share you know,
679
00:43:20.679 --> 00:43:22.800
I don't know if this is the
right place for me, and how to
680
00:43:22.840 --> 00:43:25.039
have that conversation because that's okay,
Like people aren't going to stay at companies
681
00:43:25.079 --> 00:43:29.400
for thirty years. That's totally okay, But that's an awkward conversation. So
682
00:43:29.920 --> 00:43:32.599
that's where it sort of went through
during the training was managers were bringing up
683
00:43:32.599 --> 00:43:37.599
some of these questions as well.
I want to acknowledge that. That's fantastic.
684
00:43:37.800 --> 00:43:39.000
So again, you know, you're
wondering, why do I bring this
685
00:43:39.000 --> 00:43:43.360
man up, But I really do
revere Bob Chapman and his whole idea of
686
00:43:43.360 --> 00:43:45.320
truly human leadership. And he one
of the things that he says and on
687
00:43:45.360 --> 00:43:49.440
the conversations that I've had with him, is he can go out there and
688
00:43:49.480 --> 00:43:52.480
he speaks to organizations all over the
world about this. He says, I
689
00:43:52.599 --> 00:43:54.400
talk about how important it is to
care for employees, but the pieces the
690
00:43:54.440 --> 00:43:59.400
problem is people don't know how to
do that. Yes, you're teaching them
691
00:43:59.440 --> 00:44:01.199
how to do that. That is
so fantastic watch out. But do you
692
00:44:01.199 --> 00:44:07.360
hear this business progressing progress? Okay, we're almost out of time, but
693
00:44:07.360 --> 00:44:09.960
I want to grab that two more
questions for you here. You already talked
694
00:44:09.960 --> 00:44:13.599
a little bit about some of these
smaller events that you're doing, but you
695
00:44:13.840 --> 00:44:16.159
said you were trying to figure out
how to do virtual company events where people
696
00:44:16.159 --> 00:44:20.719
feel engaged, and you like the
small events, and you you already told
697
00:44:20.760 --> 00:44:22.039
us about the cooking. But the
reason I want you to talk about this
698
00:44:22.079 --> 00:44:27.239
is because in my consulting with my
clients I hear some of the biggest burnout
699
00:44:27.320 --> 00:44:30.119
is people don't they're not feeling connected, they're not feeling like they're they're together.
700
00:44:30.960 --> 00:44:34.440
So say a little bit more about
some of the things that you've been
701
00:44:34.440 --> 00:44:37.639
doing beyond the cooking class. Yeah. And I think the other thing too
702
00:44:37.719 --> 00:44:42.719
is people are also on zoom meeting
it as a concept, not literally the
703
00:44:42.719 --> 00:44:45.679
company fatigue and if I have to
get on one more video call, I'm
704
00:44:45.679 --> 00:44:49.360
going to puke. And so we've
also tried to do some offline things.
705
00:44:50.119 --> 00:44:52.679
Apparently food is a thing for us, because we also did a recipe book
706
00:44:52.679 --> 00:44:55.440
where people got to share recipes from
their families, which was also sort of
707
00:44:55.440 --> 00:45:00.400
part of the inclusion piece. So
we've been trying to do small things where
708
00:45:00.440 --> 00:45:05.079
people can get a chance to get
to know each other more on their time.
709
00:45:05.519 --> 00:45:07.920
So if they missed this one,
that's okay, because there's another one
710
00:45:07.000 --> 00:45:10.840
tomorrow morning, or there's another one
at lunch, or there's one completely offline,
711
00:45:10.880 --> 00:45:15.280
and you don't have to worry about
getting on another zoom call. Another
712
00:45:15.280 --> 00:45:20.159
one that we've been using there's an
app called Donut and it randomly pairs people
713
00:45:20.159 --> 00:45:23.119
in Slack to have a donut and
coffee. And so now obviously that's all
714
00:45:23.199 --> 00:45:29.000
virtual, but especially for new hires, we've been really encouraging them to sort
715
00:45:29.039 --> 00:45:31.679
of join that channel because that's the
way you meet those random people that you
716
00:45:31.719 --> 00:45:36.559
would have bumped into in the elevator, and so we've been trying to leverage
717
00:45:36.559 --> 00:45:39.679
a couple of things like that.
We also started to use something that does
718
00:45:39.719 --> 00:45:45.320
a random question every week and another
Slack channel, so we're big Slack users
719
00:45:45.199 --> 00:45:50.280
that it's a random This week it
was what's your favorite side dish for Thanksgiving?
720
00:45:50.800 --> 00:45:54.559
And the question all of a sudden
prompts twenty five messages about very strong
721
00:45:54.599 --> 00:46:00.480
opinions about Thanksgiving meals and so that's
another example of I don't to be on
722
00:46:00.480 --> 00:46:02.119
a zoom call. I don't have
to do it at two o'clock. I
723
00:46:02.159 --> 00:46:06.239
can see that at ten o'clock at
night if I want to and respond about
724
00:46:06.280 --> 00:46:09.199
why I feel admit that you mashed
potatoes are so important. So I think
725
00:46:09.199 --> 00:46:14.719
it's really leveraging technology, but also
going back to your roots of some people
726
00:46:14.760 --> 00:46:16.960
just want to get together and chat
about something they have in common and that's
727
00:46:17.119 --> 00:46:22.559
enough. My biggest concern is definitely
with the new hires that don't have those
728
00:46:22.599 --> 00:46:25.719
relationships prior and how to make sure
they feel part of the community. While
729
00:46:25.760 --> 00:46:29.920
done, it's just beautiful, Karen. So we've done it. We've managed
730
00:46:29.960 --> 00:46:30.719
to get all the way to the
end of the show. So I like
731
00:46:30.800 --> 00:46:34.800
to give my guests the last word. So you know, this program,
732
00:46:34.880 --> 00:46:37.679
Karen, is one that's listened to
across the globe. What we're up to
733
00:46:37.840 --> 00:46:42.320
is trying to help our listeners learn
how to find or develop work places that
734
00:46:42.360 --> 00:46:45.320
are meaningful and stewart inspirational leadership and
do better in the world in terms of
735
00:46:45.360 --> 00:46:50.400
business. What would like to leave
with listeners with So I think my biggest
736
00:46:50.400 --> 00:46:52.840
thing is it's not about getting it
right or wrong. It's about getting it
737
00:46:53.000 --> 00:46:57.760
right for your company. So we've
talked a lot about authenticity. What is
738
00:46:57.800 --> 00:47:00.760
your company stand for? What's the
promise that you've laid out for your team,
739
00:47:00.800 --> 00:47:05.119
and how are you actually going to
live that through your values, through
740
00:47:05.119 --> 00:47:07.880
your culture, or through your employee
promise, whatever you want to call it,
741
00:47:07.199 --> 00:47:12.679
but do what's right for your organization
and then actually live it. And
742
00:47:12.840 --> 00:47:16.559
that will not only give your company
more purpose and stand out amongst the competition,
743
00:47:16.840 --> 00:47:22.199
but it'll also make your team actually
feel everything that you've promised to give
744
00:47:22.199 --> 00:47:25.519
them when they first joined the team. That's beautiful. What a great way
745
00:47:25.519 --> 00:47:30.199
to finish It's just the whole conversation. We've had a fantastic exchange, Kar
746
00:47:30.280 --> 00:47:34.199
and you've really helped us understand what
Order Group has had to deal with confront
747
00:47:34.239 --> 00:47:37.719
how they've responded, How you really
have created a place where you trust your
748
00:47:37.719 --> 00:47:44.039
employees and you're doing your best to
help them help steward their overall full life.
749
00:47:44.079 --> 00:47:46.119
Not just what they're doing an order
group, but how do they actually
750
00:47:46.199 --> 00:47:50.559
create a life that works for them. And I've really applaud that and celebrate
751
00:47:50.599 --> 00:47:52.400
that. That's why I wanted to
have you on the show. Thank you
752
00:47:52.440 --> 00:47:54.119
for sharing. Thank you so much, and thank you so much for letting
753
00:47:54.159 --> 00:47:58.119
me share our stories. I hope
they helped others. Absolutely, I'm sure
754
00:47:58.119 --> 00:48:00.199
they will. You want to learn
more abou Karen Weeks, her book or
755
00:48:00.199 --> 00:48:06.079
her podcasts, start by visiting her
own personal website. It's Karen Dweeks dot
756
00:48:06.119 --> 00:48:09.199
com. Let me spell that for
you. It's ka r e n D
757
00:48:09.440 --> 00:48:15.559
like David Weeks w e e ks
Karen Dwaits dot com. Last week,
758
00:48:15.559 --> 00:48:17.920
if you missed the show live,
you're always catching recorded podcast. We run
759
00:48:17.960 --> 00:48:22.679
the Ar with Ron Barger and Andy
eb who are launching a servant investment fund
760
00:48:22.760 --> 00:48:25.960
anchored in conscious capitalism called serv Investors. I heard from one listener who told
761
00:48:27.000 --> 00:48:30.280
me he was moved to tears of
inspiration when they read their company credo on
762
00:48:30.360 --> 00:48:34.800
air. Truly magnificent what the human
spirit can do working from purpose. Next
763
00:48:34.840 --> 00:48:37.880
week we'll be on the air with
doctor Hollywood's author of The Golden Thread,
764
00:48:37.079 --> 00:48:40.000
Where to Find Purpose in the stages
of your life. You're up for a
765
00:48:40.039 --> 00:48:43.599
treat, so there, Remember that
work is at least of their relfe.
766
00:48:43.599 --> 00:48:52.519
So let's work on purpose. We
hope you've enjoyed this week's program, be
767
00:48:52.639 --> 00:48:57.280
sure to tune into Working on Purpose, featuring your host, doctor Elise Cortez,
768
00:48:57.480 --> 00:49:01.360
each week on the Voice America Empowerment
Channel. Together, we'll create a
769
00:49:01.360 --> 00:49:09.039
world where business operates conscientiously, leadership
inspires impassioned performance, and employees are fulfilled
770
00:49:09.079 --> 00:49:14.199
in work that provides the meaning and
purpose they crave. See you there,
771
00:49:14.719 --> 00:49:15.199
Let's Work on Purpose.
