My 2023 Big Idea: Workplaces Can Model the Culture Our World Needs
Daniel Lubetzky
Founder of KIND Snacks & Camino Partners | Husband, Father, Shark on Shark Tank🦈 | Let's replace “us vs. them” with solving problems together 🤝| The Builders Movement |
What we do at work matters in the world and what happens in the world matters at work. In 2023, not just what we do but how we do it will shape our enterprises and the communities in which we build those enterprises. As we wade through increased economic uncertainty, political division, and social unrest, the companies with a strong foundation of values will be the ones that not only survive, but also emerge stronger.
In this time of disruption, tried and true playbooks citing a linear pathway to success will prove increasingly useless. Instead, the teams who invest their time and resources in cultivating a toolkit of values like integrity, ingenuity, respect, and entrepreneurial drive will be most resilient and adaptable to the continued unpredictability.
The teams who truly thrive will go even further. They will use their own workplace culture to model the values our world needs more of. Their leaders will see themselves as ambassadors for those values. Doing so will require teams to invest in the hard daily work of striving to understand the complexities underlying cultural issues they may be uniquely positioned to help solve. This necessitates introspection, tough conversations, compassionate collaboration, and authentic commitment to action. Checking boxes or virtue-signaling cannot advance sustainable impact; in fact, these approaches ultimately do society a disservice by delivering only the illusion of progress.
For me, the greatest challenge of all is that of overcoming the division that has polarized our world to such an extent that our communities and companies are suffering. To reknit our social fabric, rebuild our relationships, and strengthen the ideas that give our enterprises their cutting edge, we will need to cultivate workplace cultures that champion curiosity for ideas we are inclined to disagree with; compassion for people who are different; and the courage to experience the discomfort of introspection, hearty debate, forgiveness and growth.
In the future, companies that outperform will be those whose teams have the skills to view differences and disagreement not as threats, but as opportunities to learn, improve and innovate. Every small interaction between teammates, stakeholders and customers is an opportunity to model what our Starts With Us movement refers to as the “Three Cs” of compassion, curiosity and courage, skillsets that are essential to overcoming sameness and unlocking the power of difference.
Rekindling our openness to difference, breaking through the walls of our echo chambers, and rebuilding connections in an increasingly digital work environment will reunite our teams, spur creativity, and help put our broken world back together.
What about you – what do you want to see more of at your workplace in 2023?
Director of Marketing and Communications, Global Protect Oceans, Lands and Freshwater
2yAn approach centering on the three C’s — compassion, curiosity and courage — resonates so much today. We have to aim to internalize these in not only our organizations’ values but also how we handle differences and debate in our own workplaces. Thank you for this inspiring nudge!
Writer
2yThe word that stood out to me while reading your words is DIFFERENCE and there in my mind lies the problem. As long as people see "others" as DIFFERENT thus putting them in a preconceived category the world will continue to stay divided but just as important so will the "other".
Where Strategy Meets Soul ✨ Innovation & Growth for a More Connected World
2y100%! Our workplaces are perfect test-beds for modeling the broader world we want to see. A 3 C's workplace also creates a culture of belonging that addresses the crisis of loneliness and emotional isolation, benefiting both the work culture and personal happiness and wholeness.
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2yI like that, Daniel Lubetzky 🇺🇦.
Swiss Dutchie based in Vienna
2y100% agree with your big idea! Along compassion and curiosity I also think we should all take responsability and acccountability for our actions and their impacts. I believe that understanding the implications of our decisions is key to making more conscious and less harmful choices.