Find the Good and Flaunt It

Employees want to feel good about their companies. They want to feel proud when they tell their friends and family where they work and what they do. In the wake of a crash, the cornerstone of any comeback plan is to refresh and reinvigorate the minds and souls of employees.

That’s a tall order, especially in industries that have been hit not only by the tsunami of the global economic crisis but also with industry-specific—or even company-specific—turmoil. Still, no matter how complex the challenges, an important part of the solution is to emphasize the good news.

“What a leader has to do is to convey a sense of optimism about the future,” says Lisa Quiroz of Time Warner. “At a time of downsizing and restructuring, employees are hungry for success stories. At Time Warner we’ve all been inspired by recent triumphs at CNN. During the presidential election cycle CNN shot up in the ratings to take the number 1 slot among cable news networks, primarily due to their ability to reach a younger and more multicultural audience, in addition to keeping their core audience. By developing a strategy to reach these new audiences through more diverse talent, opinions and content on the air, as well as a more inclusive marketing strategy, CNN widened their reach considerably, particularly to African American, younger viewers. At our recent Multicultural Summit, this success was shared with senior leaders across the company—it is a big win and a source of great pride at the company.”

In addition to lifting up success, talk to your high performers about the importance of the work they do. Remind them of ways in which the company’s products and services benefit people outside the organization. Biotech companies have often done well on this front. At Genzyme, which specializes in therapies for rare inherited disorders, researchers routinely connect with patients whose life prospects have been greatly improved. In an interview one pathologist recounted—with great feeling—seeing a five-year-old patient who was able to run around kicking a ball after receiving treatment with a drug she had helped develop. Without that drug, the child would not have survived.

Making such heartfelt connections may not be as easy for other organizations, but simply reiterating why the company exists—to help clients, to serve customers—reminds disheartened employees that there’s a greater purpose to their work.

This reaffirmation of a larger vision is especially relevant in recessionary times. “If you are asking people to take risks and to work harder with less prospect of reward, then give them a reason why they need to pull the stops out,” says Tom Stewart of Booz & Company. “At Booz we talk about how our clients need us more than ever—and that has the virtue of also being true.”

Managers can also reinspire and reinvigorate demoralized talent by finding and highlighting silver linings. Adam Quinton of Merrill Lynch stresses the learning opportunities opened up by economic downturns. “Young employees have never experienced severe economic contraction. So this is perhaps a once in a career moment—when competitors are in disarray and distracted providing the chance to up service levels, to innovate and gain an edge—something that would be much harder to do in more stable times.” The message is simple: accentuate the positive, whether it’s recognizing an individual’s exceptional effort, noting a team’s creativity in cutting costs, or acknowledging an idea for a new product or service. Share stories that remind people that they’re part of a culture and an organization they can be proud of. Look for and create opportunities for good news, and don’t be shy about publicizing them. “This is the time to resell and re-engage employees, especially high performers, on the company’s value proposition,” says Laird Post, principal at Booz & Company.

Amp Up Altruism

Tough times are precisely when not-for-profit groups (community service and arts organizations) need more than their usual level of support. Maintaining—even boosting—corporate donations is a great way for companies to stand out simply by doing the right thing. And when your top performers are working harder than ever with no promise of a raise, they want to believe that there’s at least a karmic paycheck: that they are contributing to the social good. In short, when it comes to restoring employees’ battered sense of pride in their organizations, charitable efforts offer a tremendous bang for the buck.

However, writing checks (or matching employees’ financial contributions), although deeply appreciated, doesn’t have the same effect as giving people a physical connection to doing good. In the summer of 2008, understanding that employees wanted a hands-on experience, Moody’s launched a program called Afternoon of Community Service.

The volunteer program took place during the working day—a first for the company. Groups of employees volunteered for a variety of activities, including sorting fifteen hundred library books at a public school in a poor neighborhood; planting thirty-one thousand flower bulbs in a city park; lending a hand at an organization that gathers clothing for and coaches disadvantaged women going out on job interviews; and preparing lunch for 135 people at a community soup kitchen on Broadway.

Almost everyone in Moody’s Corporate Finance Group (96 percent) participated in the program over a two-day period. Afterward, they were asked to answer a confidential survey about their experience. The results stunned Fran Laserson of Moody’s. “We’re a quantitatively focused company, our culture is not effusive or emotional. This is a group of people who rarely say very, yet close to 100 percent said they found the activity to be rewarding or very rewarding.” Some 97 percent want to participate in another afternoon of community service. Sixty-seven percent built relationships with colleagues they don’t usually work with. After the event 51 percent felt better about the company and 50 percent felt better about themselves.

As a follow-up, team leaders were asked to host gatherings for their groups to unpack the experience. “That was a quick win,” Laserson reports. “These meetings reinforced the camaraderie that grew out of the Afternoon of Community Service, boosting morale and deepening engagement.”

Recommit to Corporate Social Responsibility

There scarcely exists a corporate headquarters that doesn’t boast a large piece of marble inscribed with the company credo. Often, however, these credos are dismissed as empty words. Turbulent times offer organizations an opportunity to turn fine-sounding words into concrete deeds—and, in the process, demonstrate to doubt-plagued high performers that corporate leaders care about the social bottom line as well as the financial one.

Recommitting to corporate social responsibility programs in difficult times leverages the larger purpose behind an organization’s products and services. By reminding valued employees that they are part of an organization that is improving the lot of humankind, these programs deepen engagement and enhance performance.

Goldman Sachs’s 10,000 Women is a case in point. Launched in March 2008, this program partners with business schools and NGOs around the world to provide training and education to selected female entrepreneurs. In addition to receiving formal training, each of the women is paired with a Goldman Sachs mentor. The mentors and mentees connect using iMentor, an online tool, which enables protégées to post questions prompted by their class work or business experiences. Mackenzie Winner, a Goldman Sachs mentor, talks about how gratifying this experience has been. “The women have been extraordinarily grateful for our help, which has truly been rewarding for me, especially when we hear that our advice has positively affected their business. It is an amazing feeling to know that you have made a positive difference in someone’s life on the other side of the globe.” As Goldman Sachs has weathered stormy seas on Wall Street, 10,000 Women is one of the firm’s programs of public service which has helped maintain morale.

Pfizer with its Global Access program has gone one step further, incorporating altruism into its business model. The credo of this pharmaceutical giant is “working together for a healthier world.” True to this mission, in September 2008, Pfizer launched the Global Access initiative, a program that is exploring ways to increase access to medicines and improve health care for the working poor in a manner that’s commercially viable, socially responsible, and sustainable over the long term. One of the pilot projects is a partnership with Grameen Health which focuses on improving access and health care services provided by Grameen clinics in Bangladesh, one of the world’s most populous and poorest nations.

When the program was announced, project leader Ponni Subbiah was swamped with interest. “Employees wrote to me from all functional divisions within Pfizer—research, marketing, manufacturing, operations, even the auditing group—telling me how happy they were to see Pfizer involved in this area and how it made them proud to be part of this company,” says Subbiah. When Pfizer posted job openings for the internal team that would drive the program, people were so enthusiastic about the opportunity that they applied even if they didn’t have the right background. Others offered to volunteer in the evenings, after work, or on weekends.

“There’s a reason why we work for a health-care company and not some other organization,” Subbiah explains. “We value the chance to make an impact on people’s lives. Thus this Global Access initiative, which will increase access to our medicines by the working poor across the globe, feels very gratifying to us.”

“People are passionate about contributing to this program,” says Jean-Michel Halfon, Pfizer’s president and general manager of emerging markets, adding that in his more than thirty years with the company he’s never seen such a groundswell of employee enthusiasm. “People are really willing to go the extra mile and take on additional responsibilities just to be part of this program. This is a textbook case of how to turbocharge employee engagement.”

Reinvent the Business Model and Point the Way Forward

At a Hidden Brain Drain strategy session at Canary Wharf, London, in June 2008, participants—who held senior positions in the banking industry—talked about how daunting it was to be working in a sector where the business model was “broken.” In the words of one particularly outspoken managing director, “We know that we can’t do what we’ve been doing any more. It’s not just that mortgage-backed securities have dug us a deep hole; we simply can’t leverage money in ways we’ve gotten used to. But where do you go from here? No one—especially the current crop of CEOs—seems to know. What is the next engine for growth? The next big money spinner? I sure wish someone would pull me in on this challenge. Involving folks on the front lines in a redesign of the business model would go some distance towards convincing me to stay at this firm.”

Bankers in London are not alone. Many organizations and many sectors around the world are confronting broken business models, but some leaders are using the challenges thrown up by economic crisis—and the urgent need for innovation and strategic redirection—as opportunities to recharge and reengage top talent.

Determined to avoid the sharp blows of the 2001–2002 dot-com bust—which hit the tech sector particularly hard—John Chambers, CEO of Cisco, has taken precautionary measures. In 2007 he created (with vice president of development Annmarie Neal and senior vice president of emerging technologies Marthin De Beer) a series of high-profile “Action Learning Forums” to spearhead change in Cisco’s business model. The program brings together Cisco’s most outstanding talent to work in collaborative 10-person teams for three months. The 360 individuals who have participated to date cross every conceivable line—rank, function, generation, geography, and gender—but they share one thing: they are the brightest and the best, and they are being deployed to drive the next generation of innovation at the company.

The action teams are carefully structured. Hierarchal reporting relationships are thrown out the window—distinguished engineers interact on a level playing field with salespeople—and each group includes a psychologically savvy coach to facilitate team sessions. In addition, the objectives of the groups are aligned with John Chambers’s top strategic priorities, ensuring that everyone pulls in the same direction. Finally, venture capital prize money is awarded to winning teams, guaranteeing that the best business plans are funded and will get off the ground.

Billions of dollars of new value creation have been generated by these teams. One idea—Smart Grid, which revamps energy grids to make them faster and more cost effective—is projected to bring in $10 billion of revenue over the next five years. There have also been impressive gains on the people front. Twenty percent of those who participated have been promoted—indeed, Cisco has lost only 2 percent of these high-potential employees since the program started. It’s been an engagement and acceleration tool for the company.

When asked why Action Learning Forums have been so motivating for top talent, Neal points to “the extraordinary energy released when very capable people collaborate in an environment free of hierarchy and other artificial barriers and are told that the sky’s the limit, that nothing’s out of bounds.” She adds, “This framework motivates people to work wonders.”

Interestingly, Neal doesn’t mention compensation. Financial rewards—which are hard to come by in this economic climate—are not central to the program. Some of these high flyers will get promoted, but they are giving their all right now because they believe that they’re stakeholders in the future of the company and they can make a significant difference.