Business Lessons From the 2024 Presidential Campaign

Like many, I've spent the past few days processing the outcome of the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election. Moving through phases of shock, disbelief, anger, and sadness, I soon found myself shifting to curiosity, reflecting on valuable lessons for leaders who seek to avoid the kind of disconnect that marked the results.?

Vice President Harris did an admirable job engaging with the public, especially given the significant constraints she faced. However, her efforts ultimately fell short. The campaign hadn’t anticipated the ways in which the electorate has evolved, including increased intersectionality across demographics, needs, and communication channels. This shift mirrors the evolving landscape of your own customers and employees.

The truth is, people are complex and defy simplistic categorization by race, gender, socioeconomic status, or other traditional demographics. The election highlighted how a decentralized media landscape and the electorate’s evolving identities and needs challenged past assumptions. Companies face a similar challenge. A one-size-fits-all approach, rooted in outdated assumptions about customer and employee personas, no longer resonates in today’s environment.

Had the Democratic Party prioritized active listening, real-time feedback loops, and co-creation with constituents earlier, they could have developed a clearer, more accurate understanding of what truly matters to today’s electorate—and how best to engage them. A more collaborative approach that allowed voter perspectives to shape the campaign's direction in real time would have sharpened insights, strengthened voter loyalty, and fostered more adaptability.

For organizations looking to avoid similar missteps, the takeaways are clear: meeting people where they are, co-creating with them, and establishing ongoing, bidirectional feedback loops are critical for staying connected and responsive to the needs of those they serve.

Listening to Understand Instead of Making Assumptions

To truly understand our constituencies, leaders need to replace assumptions with active listening and meet people where they are. This is particularly important today when there is a growing divide between the lived experience of the C-suite and its employees and customers. A study by Harvard Business School highlights that CEOs typically spend only 6% of their time with frontline teams, 3% with customers, and 72% in meetings. They caution that this isolation puts CEOs at risk of “operating in a bubble” and losing sight of their workers' realities. For leaders, spending more time with frontline employees, customers, and key stakeholders is crucial for gaining the comprehensive understanding needed to guide effective and relevant decisions.

Ongoing, Bidirectional Real-Time Feedback Loops

Traditional tools like polls and annual surveys often provide limited, surface-level insights, while true understanding requires open dialogue and channels for ongoing, candid feedback. Creating these channels gives employees and customers a sense of being heard and signals that the company values their experiences, encourages continuous improvement, and fosters higher engagement. Technology now makes this easier than ever, enabling organizations to gather and respond to feedback in real time. From digital platforms that deliver immediate responses to customer needs, to tools that capture and analyze employee insights, feedback loops cultivate a culture of responsiveness. This strengthens relationships and builds trust—essential for driving both employee engagement and customer satisfaction.

Co-Creation for Better Solutions and Real Commitment

Co-creation is a transformative strategy that unlocks more innovative solutions and drives authentic commitment by harnessing the power of collective intelligence and fostering active collaboration. Unlike traditional, transactional methods, co-creation involves continuous engagement, shared accountability, and empowers contributors—be they employees or customers—to play an integral role in shaping the organization and its offerings. Leaders can initiate this process by cultivating a shared vision that invites broad participation, creating a culture of inclusion and ownership. Frontline employees, especially those interacting directly with customers, offer unique and invaluable insights that can deeply inform product development, ensuring alignment with customer needs. Establishing channels for idea-sharing—such as internal social platforms or “action teams”—enables employees to actively contribute their perspectives on organizational changes, helping to assess potential benefits, challenges, and considerations.

How is your organization listening, co-creating, and leveraging ongoing feedback loops to stay in tune with the evolving needs of your people? Share your thoughts below!