Introducing Corporate Soul Consulting

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Welcome to the latest newsletter.?Today, I am very happy to introduce Corporate Soul Consulting. Neil Cassie explains what it is all about. The next big topic is the importance of Trust and Psychological Safety at work to drive performance and innovation. Also, great insights from PWC′s CEO Tim Ryan that are worth reading in full length or watch some of the video content. Enjoy the read.

Introducing Soul System? Consulting

When Ralf Specht first shared the idea for his new book, Building Corporate Soul & its core methodology the Soul System?, it was with two trusted people – Kevin Allen, his ex-colleague & Neil Cassie, who had consulted for Ralf’s company, Spark44 during Ralf’s tenure as CEO.?Individually, but separately, both Kevin & Neil said, “…. this is an idea for its time. It projects forward into the territory where all companies will have to perform. CEOs are going to want to activate the Soul System within their companies. How are you going to do that?”?Ralf said, “I don’t know, I haven’t written the book yet but anyway, isn’t that what you do?” Typical Ralf, always to the point.

So, the idea of ‘Soul System? Consulting’ was born.

Its purpose was to partner with clients - whether they were starting from scratch or were already on the path - & accelerate their journey to being a Soul Company. Kevin & Neil have since been joined by Ina Distel & Stuart Hardy to complete the team & enable the creation of bespoke client programs aligned with their status and of course, the principles of the Soul System? .

Together, to that end, the team have created a universal model that will apply to any client brief or scenario - the 3 Be’s:?‘Being; Believing; Belonging’.

The model incorporates six powerful questions, asked of leaders, so that they can judge the gap between their current status & the standards required to be a Soul Company.

If the 3 Be’s & Soul System? are the constants, we have committed to a varied menu of offers under the ‘Soul Consulting’ banner to ensure we serve discrete client needs effectively – and have the capability to produce bespoke programs & packages.

Ina leads our Seminars program; Kevin our Emotional Intelligence program; Stuart our Innovation program & Neil leads our Strategic Consulting program. All are committed to sustainable, transformational outcomes that drive value creation & performance.

This enables us to partner organizations across the spectrum - from ‘one-on-one’ leadership development to online scale training for all employees.Critically, our team always operate interdependently, ensuring that we always bring clients a rich perspective & the level of experience required to deliver the Soul System?.

Full details of the respective programs may be found on our website?www.buildingcorporatesoul.com

Of course, Ralf will always be our leader, guide & inspiration, as he has been throughout the development of ‘Soul Consulting’.?He remains the first point of contact for any client engagement and indeed, the navigator of the team in terms of how best to deliver the Soul System.

We are therefore, ready to unleash Corporate Soul with you & would be delighted to answer any questions you may have or indeed to visit you to discuss your views & needs.

Our mission is to make soulless companies a thing of the past & we hope that you will join us on that journey.

Business Roundtable outperform on key KPI′s

I am a great admirer of JUST Capital , the non-profit organization in the US that focuses on driving an entrepreneurial mindset that powers success by clear #ESG criteria. The Business Roundtable (BRT) declaration from 2019 has now “celebrated” its third anniversary.

JUST CAPITAL have now taken a closer look at how that statement’s signatories have performed over that time relative to their peers across our key stakeholder categories: “BRT signatory performance in the JUST rankings has actually trended upwards in the last three years. Currently, 63% of signatories are in the JUST 100 (compared to 49% in 2020), and no BRT signatory is in the bottom decile (14% three years ago). BRT signatories also have significantly higher average rankings than other Russell 1000 companies in all five stakeholder categories (workers, communities, customers, environment, and shareholders and governance).

But what really catches the eye is their actual performance on the underlying issues. We find that BRT signatories:

• Pay an estimated 3.2% more of their workers a living wage.
• Use 2.4x more renewable energy as a proportion of total energy use.
• Have 26% fewer workplace safety incidents per person-hour worked.
• Have 66% less direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions per dollar in revenue.
• Give 455% more in charitable contributions per dollar in pretax profit.
• Provide 3.5 hours more career development training to their employees.

They're also more transparent. For example, they are

• 2x more likely to disclose measurable diversity and inclusion targets,
• 9x more likely to disclose conducting pay equity analyses,
• 4x more likely to disclose providing employees with child care service subsidies,
• 2x more likely to have a paid parental leave policy, and
• 7x more likely to include ESG KPIs in executive compensation or remuneration metrics.

With more than nine in ten Americans in agreement that the largest U.S. companies should do more to build an economy that allows every American to succeed through hard work and creativity, and to lead a life of meaning and dignity, this is the kind of corporate leadership we need more of.”

I am really looking forward to my meeting with JUST CAPITAL′s CEO Martin Whittaker at the end of September. I believe, JUST CAPITAL needs to extend its ambition beyond the US.?Find out more about the detail findings here.

The Power of Flexibility at the Workplace – American Express Leads the Way

American Express is the only financial services company in the Soul Index. A while ago, the firm introduced Amex Flex for its staff. Initially offered in Taiwan, various US and UK locations are now part of the system. “Offering flexibility has always been a part of our culture, and with Amex Flex, we want to achieve the best of both worlds – recapturing the creativity and relationship building of working together in person, while also retaining the flexibility and progress we have made in a virtual environment,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Stephen J. Squeri in a recent letter to shareholders. “The vast majority of colleagues have told us through our surveys that having regular in-person interaction is important, but my message to our colleagues is to come to the office with a purpose. Our time in the office will be spent connecting with each other, holding group meetings, and focusing on building relationships, networking, and mentoring.”?The results from the latest staff survey are very convincing.

Ben Jerry′s and Unilever Meet at the Courthouse

Ben & Jerry's has always been one of the most recognized companies for its adherence to social purpose. When they were acquired by Unilever, many have thought this would be the end of social purpose but actually the founders themselves were surprised to see the fast- moving consumer goods giant to accept continuity in Ben & Jerry′s policies but also to adapt Purpose for many of the mass market Unilever brands. Now, for the first time, management of Ben & Jerry′s clashed with Unilever management about distribution in Israel, especially the West Bank territories.

Ben & Jerry's last year said it no longer wanted to sell its products in the occupied West Bank because it was "inconsistent" with its values, which prompted Unilever to sell the brand rights to a firm called Zinger who make the ice cream available to all consumers in Israel and the occupied West Bank. It is an open dispute which now is getting to court: "This decision for us to go to court is because of Unilever's (UL) sale without our input, which is a clear violation of the letter and the spirit of our original acquisition agreement with Unilever," board chairperson Anuradha Mittal said in an interview with Reuters. "If Unilever is willing to so blatantly violate the agreement that has governed the parties' conduct for over two decades, then we believe it won't stop with this issue. If left unaddressed, Unilever's actions will undermine our social mission and essential integrity of the brand, which threatens our reputation and ultimately our business as a whole.”?It′ll be interesting to watch how the relationship will develop.

LinkedIn reaches 50% Gender Diversity at the Leadership Level Globally

LinkedIn is my favorite example of a company that has got a sound Soul System? which is applied in the everyday behaviors. But even Linkedin had to confess in 2015 that their Diversity efforts at the leadership level were not where should have been.

Finally, LinkedIn has reached gender parity (49.4%) across hundreds of leadership roles (Director+) on a global basis. Learn all about this in this short video.?Learn all about this in this short video.

It's Just A Dream to Think Employers will soon Regain the Power over Workers they Long Possessed

Tim Ryan , US Chair of 普华永道 , is very clear about the changing dynamics: "Anybody who thinks the power dynamics are going go back, honestly and humbly, I think they're making a mistake. The reality is, every trend would point in the same direction. All of us, whether we're leading a professional services firm, whether we're running the largest manufacturing operation in the world, whether we're a startup organization, we are only as good as our talent, and top talent is going to have their pick. So, we don't see those dynamics changing."

In a long?interview ?with the Washington Post, Ryan talks at length about the changes to the workplace that already impact every industry and the implications that will be critical for workplace leaders to understand.?If you rather watch the video of the interview, click here.

Psychological Safety Framework that Leads to Innovation

Praveen Ponnuru , the CEO of Alpine Recruitment & Retention Solutions, shares a simple and great framework in the context of psychological safety which is one of the key prerequisites to drive performance and innovation inside companies:

Connection: When you touch people deeply, they will go the extra mile with you.

Being Heard:?When people feel heard, it boosts their self-esteem.

Being Valued: When people feel valued, it gives them gratification and fulfillment.

Being Trusted: When leaders and managers are transparent with their words, actions and treat employees fairly, trust will be established.

Eliminating Fear: When people aren’t afraid, they support each other’s perspectives and ideas.

Leading to Innovation:?When people feel connected, heard, valued, trusted, and unafraid, they innovate.

HBR on Trust

Alongside Praveen′s view on psychological safety, this article about The Neuroscience of Trust is a great read for the weekend.?Click here to read the full article from the Harvard Busienss Review

Transformation needs faith and trust

And one more on the topic of trust. When it comes to transformation processes, the lack of trust is one critical barrier to successful transformations. This article from Maril Gagen MacDonald highlights the impact of “Co-created transformations”. They may require an initial leap of faith, trusting our own humanity as change leaders, as well as the humanity of others: “However, only by trusting each other and working together can we design truly lasting, sustainable solutions for organizational change”?Definitely worth a read.

Most Creative People by FastCompany

?Finally, a bit of inspiration from Fast Company and their latest Most Creative People list. It includes many individuals and their approach to creativity in many different areas:

• How game designer Luis Antonio created the indie hit "Twelve Minutes", the most novel game in years: Behind his psychological thriller of a game is a rate digital worlds that treats characters like real people
• Meet the guy who get you excited for all the new Disney, Marvel and ′Star Wars′Asad Ayaz is a jedi-level marketer for the 华特迪士尼公司 .
• How 微软 VP Burg Burg protects individuals and governments from cyberattacks - the VP for Customer Security used the legal system to thwart a Russian-backed cyberattack against Ukraine.

And many more:

My latest interview with HR.COM on why Startups are better positioned for building a company with soul.?Click here to read.

The next edition of the Building Corporate Soul newsletter will be in your mailbox on September 4. Please continue to join me on my mission to make soulless companies a thing of the past in 2022!