EMOTIONS: the door to the future

Among the many things that we have learned in these past months, the one that strikes me the most is the collective recognition of the power of emotions.

Because of the transference of value from processes and results to the relevance of humanity, emotions now play a very significant role in our daily lives: people claim to be heard, to be treated with empathy, and receive a treatment that nurtures their soul.

While the business and economy collapse, we have unconsciously shifted to put the importance in people, what Simon Sinek refers to as heart count.

This is no discovery, not a new theory or academical construct — it is just a consequence of the need for survival, the need to protect our loved ones, a new shift towards humanity.

In the midst of a dramatic pandemic, we see people marching in the streets of the world to claim justice, to claim equality, to reivindícate the power of women, to demand being treated with dignity.

This has happened many times in history, but there is a compelling new factor. People who claim and complain are no longer driven by leaders (like Mandela, Gandhi, Milk, or Luther King). They represent themselves, upon observing the inability of state, leaders, church, and government to reivindícate their rights. They are not outside on the street because of a common purpose; they are connected by a common emotion.

HOW THIS TRANSLATE TO THE BUSINESS WORLD

For many years, we have been worked on the “pull” ability. That is, attracting clients and customers to our products, to our stores, to our services. It has been all about having a great product at a great price and value, in the right place.

Therefore, that is how corporations have changed their processes and have adopted their deliverables to the “needs of the client”, most of the time led by market studies, focus groups, and many more, or simply by the self-centered idea that “this is what people need”.

And this model has indeed been successful. Companies that have concentrated on the needs of their client, produced “client-friendly” solutions have led the market in a really powerful way.

The next step, that few but even more successful organizations have taken is to construct a true sense of purpose — and this connects their business to their clients but furthermore, to their employees. In 2003, Jagdish Heath and his colleagues first punished “Firms of Endearment”, a fascinating study of how companies with purpose succeed financially above those who don’t have it. The reason for that is that they link the dots: business, product, client, and employees with a higher sense of transcendence that becomes not only a differentiator but improves sales and internal wellbeing.

IS PURPOSE ENOUGH TO BE A DIFFERENTIATOR AND A CATALYST TO SUCCESS?

Indeed it has been, no doubt about it. There is hardly anything more valuable than having a common purpose and to fulfill it. Purpose has adherence, to the extent that it has now superseded the traditional tripod of mission, vision, and values.

The reality is that it has become too common, too general and many times disconnected from reality. Purpose addressed collectivity but lacks individuality. We are still in front of a collective way of operating, but we need to go one step further and that is understanding the individual within the collectivity, the person that is seen as a dot in a chart when we analyze big data to understand behavior.

HOW ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE NEEDS TO MOVE FROM THE TRADITIONAL TRIPOD

In a paper that I published some years ago, we analyzed how in the 1980s major corporations transitioned from a conduct-driven model to the cultural tripod: vision, mission, and values.

Tradutional culture tripod worked for a while but tended to be very abstract and difficult to interpret in particular in global construct.

This led to two mainstream tendencies that we see today: culture understood as behaviors, a series of expected ways of conducting business. This is a very relevant change because they address not only the collectivity but the individual and what is expected from him or her.

The second way it has been addressed is through standards, expected conduct that defines true leadership, and that also bring consequences in their breach.

We must recognize the value of these methodologies to bring a gray, sometimes blurred culture to life. They continue to be, however, top-down.

THE POWER OF EMOTIONS

Behavior and perception are both ruled by emotions. We all have emotions and produce emotions, Goleman introduced the fabulous Emotional Intelligence which intertwined with traditional intelligence, bringing individuality to the equation.

But we need to deconstruct this one level further... understand the general client and value proposition as a mix of emotions — to nurture and promote.

If every conduct is driven mostly by emotions and so is every reaction, emotions are the basic atom of human behavior.

In order to build organizational culture, we need to go into the depth of how the system reacts, how it feels, and the emotions that are produced in the specific individuals. By driving emotions, we can build common behavior and therefore a culture that rather than “top-down” ends up being wall to wall.

Understanding how we feel through these emotions we can design an outstanding employee experience driven by the most basic energy that drives us, and our clients, every day.

The amazing Pixar “Inside Out” works on the basic human emotions, their control, and how they affect behavior. Neurologists and behavior experts have been able to decompose emotions in close to 80 specific and distinct varieties.

If we are able to construct a culture based on emotions we touch humanity at its core and are able to drive conduct from the heart, mind, and soul: the most fascinating humanistic trend and an even deeper regressive HR approach that will build a fabulous culture and client experience.

Flourish and encourage emotions... the deepest approach to basic humanism