Humanity starts with you. According to guests Debbie Cohen and Kate Roeske Zummer, you’ll see real change when you become conscious of what no longer serves you and have the courage to try something different. In this episode of the Transform Your Workplace podcast, Brandon Laws interviews Deb and Kate, authors of Humanity Works Better: Five Practices to Lead with Awareness, Choice, and the Courage to Change, all about the systemic roadblocks that hinder humanity in the workplace and practical strategies for becoming “better humans.”
GUEST AT A GLANCE
Debbie is a thought leader and expert in leadership and management education. With twenty years of experience in coaching and leadership development, Kate is passionate about helping others reach their full potential in the workplace. Both women are dedicated to seeing companies place increased emphasis on the culture of humanity.
A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST
🔊 Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, sponsored by Xenium HR
🎙️ Host: Brandon Laws
📋 In his own words: “The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your go-to source for the latest workplace trends, big ideas, and time-tested methods straight from the mouths of industry experts and respected thought-leaders.”
PROOF IS IN THE NUMBERS
Debbie: We have a number of clients right now, and two of them, in particular, are coming to mind where these leaders and this organization are so focused on creating what they think of as human-centered organizations — starting with their people and knowing that profitability will come because of their people. One of them has 94% retention. So right now they’re just under 500. That’s incredible — doubling, doubling, doubling, rapid growth, huge change, 94% retention, a 100% virtual workforce.
Another client that we have who was not 100% virtual has doubled and exceeded their revenue targets — halfway through this year, they have hit their end of 22 revenue targets. So there is something very concrete about getting the best out of your people when you give the best that you have to them.
And I don’t mean cafeteria lunches and dry cleaning and fancy workout pods. […] There’s just something to be said for people feeling like they matter and that they are part of something big and exciting and fulfilling.
Kate: This is very fulfilling for the people who are learning these skills or relearning these skills in some cases. They want to be better humans. That’s very fulfilling work. How do I create deeper, more sustainable, and dare I say it, more loving relationships at work? And we know that, as Deb has just said, it actually leads to more productivity.
PODCAST EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Change Starts With You
Debbie: We’re just big believers that, when you start to change, the people around you will start to change. And so if something isn’t right in your workforce, if something needs to change, you can start choosing to show up differently and see what kind of effect that makes. If it doesn’t make an effect, you might not be in the right place, but it might surprise you what happens when you show up differently.
Kate: We absolutely believe in systemic change, but we actually believe that that happens with one person at a time. ‘You’ is really at the center of our book. And if you start to behave differently, you will actually create a different reaction from the people around you. So this book is really written for the individual, whoever that is, and we walk you through five different practices that start with creating safety, working together, claiming value, owning your impact, and — my personal favorite — daring not to know.
Heightened Emotions
Debbie: Emotions are hard. We love to focus on the doing of work, but heaven forbid we talk about how it feels to do that work. It’s messy, hard work, and you can’t quantify it or put it in a nice little box. You have to deal with the mess.
Kate: Work hasn’t caught up with what is needed in the workplace. We’re actually in the land of emotional intelligence, the land of emotion, which is the messy part of what we always talk about. But if someone is having a bad day or if someone’s mom is in the hospital, there’s this fear that they’re going to have emotions that we won’t know how to deal with. In short, we’re here to get stuff done, to solve problems, to do things, but if someone comes with a whole boatload of emotion, I don’t know how to solve that.
It’s Okay to NOT Know
Kate: We put on this armor. We think we have to be the big man or big woman on campus and sort of prove that we know more. And somehow that means I’m a leader. I love ‘daring not to know’ so much because you can’t know everything. […] You’ve hired the people on your team to come and work with you, and we want you to tap into that team more often than not. I think the fear is that we can’t say ‘I’ve got this problem, and I don’t know how to deal with it’ because we’re afraid that people are going to think that we don’t know what we’re doing. In certain circumstances, if you have the guts to say that you don’t know what to do, that will actually incite and engage people to step forward because they want to help you. They want to solve these problems, and they want to contribute in that way.
Asking Powerful Questions
Kate: We teach people how to ask what we call powerful questions. You start with the word ‘what’ and then fill in the blank.
Debbie: So, ‘what excites you about tomorrow?’
Kate: One of my favorites is ‘what else?’ Don’t just assume that the first answer is it. If you want to go deeper, ask them ‘what else?’ Because, then, you’re basically telling them that you’re really listening.
Finding What Matters
Debbie: You learn and grow from a place of discomfort because it’s pushing up against something that matters to you. And part of it is pausing and seeking to understand, become aware of what matters. And then choosing to have more of what matters in your life and less of other things that don’t.
Kate: This book is not just filled with stories and our five practices. It’s something that you can go through yourself so that you can learn about yourself. Pick one practice and one skill, and just try that and see how that changes. There are a lot of skills and practices and tools in this book so that you can ‘bite-size try’ a couple to make the change that you want to see in your own work.
LEARN MORE
Wanting to inject a little more humanity into your company culture? Grab a copy of Deb and Kate’s book, Humanity Works Better: Five Practices to Lead with Awareness, Choice, and the Courage to Change, wherever books are sold.