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Let’s do some rethinking, starting with Rethink.

Rethink is a Canadian advertising agency created in 1999 to take a new approach to marketing – breaking down the silos of traditional firms for an integrated approach and also wanting to rethink the predominant corporate model that profit comes before people and product. They approach those three Ps in this order: People, product and profit. They believe if you provide people with a culture that inspires and protects creative thinkers, your staff will come up with better ideas and products, which will lead to greater profits.

Let’s look at some different ways Rethink has revised its own operations to liberate and inspire people, since they might apply in your own workplace:

Appreciation: When someone goes above and beyond the call of duty, they are given $300 for an experience they can share with their spouse or partner. Usually it’s a dinner – Rethink dinners are coveted – but it’s contoured to the individual and before the pandemic, it might be a spa day, tickets to a sports event or a night at a boutique hotel.

Barges, speedboats and submarines: They divide their clients into the categories of barges (big-buck clients on retainer who can be hard to move forward or steer in a new direction because of their size) and speedboats (smaller, nimble clients who can move quickly with fewer levels of approval). “We believe that every creative staff member should divide their time between barges and speedboats,” the three founders – Ian Grais, Tom Shepansky and Chris Staples – write in Rethink the Business of Creativity. “An employee who works only on barges is likely to burn out, stop trying or abandon ship altogether.” Submarines are passion projects: change efforts carried out on a pro-bono basis that ride below the surface of daily activity but may inspire brilliant bombshells. “If you feel like you don’t have enough speedboat projects to go around, encourage your creatives to work on a change proposal and build themselves a submarine,” the founders say.

Shared learning: If you want people to learn, have them teach. If someone has special wisdom, invite them to share with others over lunch. Record it for posterity. Every time someone goes to a conference, arrange a Lunch ‘n Learn afterward.

Friday updates: Every Friday, Rethink sends out an email to all staff with updates on clients, business in general and the work everyone’s doing. But the secret sauce of the updates are anonymous “shoutouts,” in which people recognize assistance, large or small, they received from others. And to keep it from being too much work if you copy that idea, crowdsource it and delegate the task to different people.

WOOOing: That stands for ’working out of office’ – a policy even before the pandemic of allowing people to work at a time and place that’s best for them. It’s not a perk. It’s a productivity strategy that more companies might now recognize.

Unskippables: Not all meetings are a waste of time. Identify the key ones and make them unskippable. Back that up by holding time in people’s calendars for the meeting and making it clear they are to be present.

Founder facetime: Anyone in the organization can access direct mentorship from the founders (or, they suggest, in other organizations the senior leadership team). It’s a democratic approach to mentoring. Each of the three founders commits one or two days each quarter to 30-minute, one-on-one mentorship sessions. Staff members book a time and ask questions, share concerns, seek advice and generally learn from the top bosses.

In Leading with Gratitude, consultants Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton – dubbed the Carrot Guys for their series of books on recognition with “carrot” in the titles – echo this people-first approach by arguing we have a gratitude gap with far too many employees feeling unappreciated. They note that a recent study found people are less likely to express gratitude at work than anywhere else. “Practising gratitude offers the greatest effect for the time dedicated,” they insist.

Don’t worry that a policy of showing gratitude will lead to charges of favouritism or the recipient being labelled a “teacher’s pet.” If it happens, it happens. That’s a fact of life. Be specific and public with your praise, so everyone understands why it’s happening. At the same time, ensure that everyone – and that includes people doing grunt work – gets a chance to be in the spotlight now and then.

“So what about those who are underperforming? Our argument: Gratitude for things they do well, on time, and to expectations can have a catalytic effect on their morale and motivation, and therefore [on] overall results,” they write.

People, then product, then profit. Join the Rethink team and Carrot Guys in reconsidering how you support and encourage your people.

Cannonballs

  • Schedule five to 10 minutes before formal online meetings for remote employees to gather and have the informal conversation and kibitzing that was second nature in the office, suggests Harvard Business School professor Ashley Whillans.
  • Consider a Zoom agreement in your organization like the one entrepreneur Seth Godin proposes, beginning with: “If you promise not to check your email while we’re talking, we promise to not waste your time. If you agree to look me in the eye and try to absorb the gist of what I’m saying, I agree to be crisp, cogent and on point. If you are clear about which meetings are a waste of time for you to attend, we can be sure to have them without you.”
  • To make your virtual meetings more effective, consider a 60-second rule. Consultant Justin Hale advises in the first minute of discussion on a problem doing something that helps participants to experience it: “You might share shocking or provocative statistics, anecdotes, or analogies that dramatize the problem.”

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