“To create a fantastic work culture, truly have fun as a team” with George Elfond CEO of Rallyware

Have fun at work! Work hard, play hard. We truly have fun as a team. Some events are more “corporate”, others are truly interest-based. Be it a beer night or a kayaking trip, ropes course or trivia game, it results in taking down boundaries and erasing the “us vs them” attitude.

As a part of my series about how leaders can create a “fantastic work culture”, I had the pleasure of interviewing George Elfond.

George is a renowned global expert in enabling Future of Work technologies in the enterprises today. Working with forward-thinking executives on making corporate learning insightful and actionable for the companies as well as fun and engaging for the employees, he was instrumental in improving KPIs through L&D technologies. He is the CEO of Rallyware, a digital platform that reinvents corporate training by connecting company-specific learning activities with operational and performance data. He received his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Rallyware first started at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We had this idea of automating and scaling engagement through technology for some time, so we took a chance. Our first customer was a major political advocacy organization in Washington, DC. The goal was to get students across more than 2,000 college campuses to develop relationships with their legislators and to advocate on the organization’s behalf. This challenge resulted in our first big win. The program results were phenomenal — broader participation, increased activity levels, and the emergence of power advocates. This was a kickstart for us to go on. Having been operating in the L&D industry for more than six years by now, we keep enhancing our learning and engagement platform, driving talent growth initiatives for businesses around the world to deliver the right training to the right people at the right time.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

Our customers are various organizations ranging from grassroot initiatives to corporate America. Once I spoke at an HR conference. After the presentation an attendee came up to me to share that his daughter was an active participant in a grassroot program developed by Rallyware. He said that he had never seen her being so engaged and passionate about sustainability. Not only she fostered more sustainable consumption in their family but she also rallied other kids in her school to participate in sustainability programs. For me, hearing this story from a stranger was my first hands-on experience of realizing how we are influencing lives of people.

Are you working on any exciting projects now? How do you think that will help people?

At this moment, we’re working on the enhancement of AI-driven training engine that delivers the right training to the right people at the right time. Even before people realize the need to learn something we’ll be there before that, predicting those needs before they escalate into somebody’s challenge. Think of it this way: you have a personal assistant that collects and analyzes all relevant data to facilitate your work and optimize time. Once it detects a minor issue, you get a personalized suggestion on how to fix it. This is how training becomes integrated into everyday lives of millions of workers around the world and drives each of them to their personal and professional growth.

The advantage lies in the fact that AI analyzes performance and learning patterns to provide learners with the right materials to engage with in the most appropriate form for each specific individual.

Ok, let’s jump to the main part of our interview. According to this study cited in Forbes, more than half of the US workforce is unhappy. Why do you think that number is so high?

There are 4 reasons:

1. Disconnect from company vision. When people don’t know why they do what they do, their work transforms into the “let me just get through the day” thing. Even the most hard-working and devoted employees will feel unhappy and disengaged when they fail to see how their work adds value to their company’s goal and, as a result, how they personally contribute to the overall vision.
2. Lack of proper communication, training, and recognition. Employees with poor skills and insufficient knowledge don’t feel confident and fail to perform their job in most cases. And when employees do their best but have no feedback or a simple “thank you”, they start asking questions. Am I really important to my company? Do I make any difference? Is there any reason I should stay here?
3. Lack of career clarity. The most productive and devoted employees always crave growth. But if things are foggy on the way to success, would anybody be happy about it? I believe the answer is no. The same goes with the lack of clear paths to success in the workplace, that is, vague career opportunities. Employees need to know what steps they need to take and how much time it will require to get a promotion. This way they will be energized and motivated to perform to their full potential.
4. Inefficient management. They say that people don’t quit their job, they quit their boss. There’s a fine line between a good and a bad manager. A good one will know how to balance support & guidance with employees’ autonomy, not making it all about micromanagement. At the same time, a good manager will know when too much freedom translates into confusion and chaos, unlike the bad one who lets the chips fall where they may. Happy employees come from companies where managers allow people to have some control over their work but support them with on-demand performance feedback.

Based on your experience or research, how do you think an unhappy workforce will impact a) company productivity b) company profitability c) and employee health and wellbeing?

The impact will be definitely negative in all three cases.

The research conducted by the iOpener Institute for People and Performance showed that employees who are happy at work stay twice as long in their company compared to unhappy ones; take ten times less sick leave; believe they are achieving their potential twice as much; and spend double their time at work focused on what they are paid to do. Also, HBR has analyzed numerous studies, concluding that happy employees are 31% more productive and three times more creative.

People drive business success. And if these people are unhappy, they will barely do the minimum, they won’t be inspired to grow professionally, and they won’t deliver great customer experience. The worst case scenario, they will stick at work just for a paycheck.

Can you share 4 things that managers and executives should be doing to improve their company work culture? Can you give a personal story or example for each?

1 . As an executive, make the vision very specific and hold your managers accountable for implementing and supporting it.

Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, once said: “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” The majority of companies succeed when they establish a clear vision and see what a real impact it can make. Google and Amazon didn’t become giants overnight. But the cut and try method has led them to where they’re now, shaping up their current vision. Amazon’s goal is to be earth’s most customer-centric company through building a place where people can find anything they might want to buy online. Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

However, having a specific vision is only the first step. Success comes when leaders and managers make the company’s vision flow through the daily operations and intertwine it with everyday work routines. It can be realized through the right setting of short- and long-term goals, team and one-on-one meetings, recognition, and the like.

Before starting Rallyware, I was hired to manage a department with low productivity. When I met people, I realized that they had no idea why their department exists and how it fits into the company operations. The next month was spent on moving people through the departments and that tripled the productivity.

2. Every decision made by anyone at the company needs to support one of the main directions we are developing. When anyone says “let’s do this” we now have a culture of asking back “which objective will it help us achieve”. Staying laser-focused helps us not waste time on what “feels good” but is not productive and double down on things that actually make a difference.

Nike is another good example of how companies manage to tie their vision with each individual’s efforts. Its vision centers around bringing inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. And their team does a great job, pushing the boundaries of sportswear manufacturing. They don’t simply produce sportswear, they reinvent it. Their team created Nike Vapor uniforms with Nike AeroSwift technology. These uniforms were designed to reduce distractions by maximizing support for thermoregulation, sweat management, breathability and movement, which is crucial for every athlete in the world. So while every employee in various roles and departments was working towards the creation of Nike Vapor uniforms, they knew why every activity was important, and how it contributes to the end goal. In turn, this goal completion supported Nike’s overall vision.

3. Invest time and resources into defining the right profile and mix of the team and make every hiring decision based on that.

The right profile is unique for each company and even each team. Employees should understand that their value is in the overall positive impact on the company and not a specific process or widget they are working with. If they get bored and want to move they don’t have to quit they can just switch the project.

At Rallyware, we don’t hire for skills. If they can teach a bear ride a bicycle in circus, we can train almost any human do anything. We hire for attitude and aptitude.

My favorite story was when we were interviewing our first HR manager. We already had few people working in the team but needed someone to setup more processes and take us to the next level. We ended up hiring a person who had absolutely no experience with HR. She just had a passion for people. Five years later, she is thriving with us and our people policies are loved by every employee.

One more important thing is setting up the right incentives unique to each team and each person. You know what they say: “Tell me how you measure me, and I will tell you how I will behave”.

We went away from dreaded annual reviews and switched to an ongoing system of measurable goals. Now we can definitely say that all the drama is gone. There are no more hard feelings and misunderstandings. Everyone knows what is expected of them and our employees can easily answer a question themselves about how they are doing.

4. Have fun at work! Work hard, play hard.

We truly have fun as a team. Some events are more “corporate”, others are truly interest-based. Be it a beer night or a kayaking trip, ropes course or trivia game, it results in taking down boundaries and erasing the “us vs them” attitude.

It’s very nice to suggest ideas, but it seems like we have to “change the culture regarding work culture”. What can we do as a society to make a broader change in the US workforce’s work culture?

First of all, we must understand and recognize that the workforce is changing: demographics, values, work styles, and physical work environments. As Millennials and Generation Z entered the workforce, work culture has undergone significant changes. The hardest thing is to actually recognize it and make it part of your day-to-day life.

Yes, these new generations value paychecks and comfortable working conditions, but, more importantly, they look for profound emotional engagement, personal growth, and meaning in what they do. Technological advancements distorted the notion of work-life balance. We’re on 24/7, so work schedules are now flexible. That one email you receive from a coworker at 8 pm on Friday while enjoying dinner with friends also counts. The workplace is no longer walled in. An employee sitting at a beach with their laptop can be as productive or more productive as someone sitting in the office.

We need to accept the change rather than fight it.

How would you describe your leadership or management style? Can you give us a few examples?

If we follow what we preach and hire only the right people, then my job as a leader is to get out of the way and allow them to succeed. Leaders still need to set directions and boundaries. Years ago, leaders’ job was to tell people how to do their job and monitor their actions. The new generations fail with this style of management. They want to feel empowered and they want to keep learning and growing. We, as leaders, need not stand in their way but rather provide them with the right tools, resources, and support to stay on course, be motivated, and engaged.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

Interestingly, this is also a culture question. Of course, we all need mentors. I am fortunate to have met many along the way and learn from them: from my college professors to accelerator advisors and investors. These people have been helping me in many different ways. With that said, I think the biggest impact is brought by my peers, fellow entrepreneurs, CEOs, friends. We are able to openly discuss challenges and ideas. And in these sometimes passionate debates you discover a lot. Wisdom comes from many sources, and a lot of them are practitioners, not motivational book authors.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

We’re very serious about driving non-profit programs that change the world for the better. Every year we select one mission-driven organization to benefit from Rallyware based on their mission and potential impact we could have on the world by partnering with them. One of the sustainability-driven partnerships we are proud to have been running for years is with Samsung. Our initial goal was to help Samsung and Boys and Girls Club of America educate youths — the future business leaders — on social and environmental issues to empower them as stewards of global sustainability. As a result, “Climate Superstars” program empowered by Rallyware was recognized for its impact on the future generations and awarded the Energy Star Partner of the Year.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go… must run twice as fast as that.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland.

This quote is my favorite for a reason. Our life is about motion. The Earth moves at a speed of 1,000 miles per hour. Our lungs expand and contract with every breath. The second hand on a clock keeps ticking… Nothing stays in the same place. Neither do we. We’re thinking, creating, inventing something new. We wake up every morning, ready to conquer the world. And it doesn’t matter if you get things wrong at first, what’s important is learning and moving forward. But you’re not the only one who keeps moving. And if you want to make a difference or create something great, you have to move faster than others. You have to run as fast as you can. Keep in mind, it’s not a sprint, it’s a life-long marathon.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Growth opportunities on demand.

I want us as a society to become an “intellectual uber”. Uber’s idea was that if there are people with a car and there are people who need a ride they can put them together. And the role can change from day to day. The movement would be about growth opportunities for everybody.

If the initial idea of Uber was to get to a destination with just a tap of a button, I want to help people develop and get to their dreamed career by removing barriers to efficient learning experience.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We wish you continued success!