Good Morning. Every day is a new chance to lift each other up.

An update from enso.

Give birth again
To the dream.
Women, children, men,
Take it into the palms of your hands.
Mold it into the shape of your most
Private need. Sculpt it into
The image of your most public self.
Give birth again
To the dream.

The words above come alive for us in three ways:

• First, they are the enduringly epic and profoundly relevant words from Maya Angelou’s poem “On the Pulse of Morning”.
• They are also, in Maya’s actual voice, the narrative of a film in our latest work with Lyft.
• And finally, they are, and have always been, in essence, the mission of our creative impact agency, enso.

What Maya boldly proclaims is that every moment is an entirely new moment of limitless possibility in which each of us get to choose whether we default to a “New Normal”, or look for opportunity in the seeming mess of clay that may be the circumstances of the day, and instead, mold it into our “New Better”. As an impact agency, what has distinguished us from traditional agencies is that it was never enough to simply reflect the stasis of culture back to itself to generate impressions, but to build initiatives where people can participate and generate positive impact.

When Lyft asked us to help think through how to be in service to this moment, we made sure the mindset of creation was one seeking the greater opportunities available, and to generate something that truly empowered communities (communities that COVID has left in particular need) to go out and create their “New Better”. Or in Maya’s more eloquent words, “Give birth again to the dream”.

Our new work for Lyft launches today, introducing the LyftUp program, providing access to 1.5 million rides to help people reach food, jobs and services — in partnership with Goodwill, United Way, My Brother’s Keeper Alliance and National Urban League.

To bring attention to this cultural initiative, we have also made a film that follows Americans of all races and backgrounds, as they seize a common morning as their moment of courage and resilience to overcome adversity and ignite their bright new dream. We saw the moment as having bigger potential than could be met by yet another advertising copy “manifesto/anthem”. We needed a true evocation. We realized the perfect evocation had already been meticulously and divinely crafted by one of America’s greatest writers, poets, and activists, Maya Angelou, in her epic poem, On The Pulse of Morning. And to bring true gravity to this launch, we used the actual recording from the site of its first recital, the Inauguration of President Clinton. It’s a moving evocation to lift ourselves, and each other, into our collective “New Better”.

To bring Maya Angelou’s words to life, we worked with amazing teams at Lyft (brand, production, social impact), our long-time partners Therapy Studios, and so that the medium and the method matched the message, a multitude of diverse filmmakers and Lyft drivers from across America. In total, we were able to hire 22 filmmakers and 66 on-screen talent, shooting 44 good mornings across 70 locations in 11 states. All captured over 7 days.

Maya’s words have connected each of us with a sense of hope and love — a welcome respite in a storm that says we all have the power of cultural alchemy in this moment of history:

Here on the pulse of this new day
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister’s eyes, and into
Your brother’s face, your country
And say simply
Very simply
With hope,
Good Morning.

Please explore, and share, the Lyft Alliance’s amazing work, including free rides to communities who lack access to food, jobs and essential services.
We hope word of this program reaches everyone that needs support.

Good Morning is the most recent work of a busy period for enso. In alignment with our mission, we are lucky to work with many leaders and partners who also see this time to not be a default to “business as usual” but as an opportunity to use their capabilities and powers to leap towards a New Better:

• The Work Happiness Score on Indeed
  Work is not a good experience for far too many people (85% are disengaged), which holds people and companies back. We worked with leading experts (including Sonja Lyubomirsky and Jan-Emmanuel de Neve) and Indeed’s product, marketing and data teams to design a better way for people to find good work. Now people can review companies they work for on the dimensions that matter to humans thriving; things like feeling appreciated, trusted, feeling belonging. This input drives a Work Happiness Score for thousands of companies, meaning over 250 million monthly Indeed users can make much better decisions. This work is now embedded in the core Indeed product, but also includes ongoing documentary content with expert guidance, and data insights in collaboration with leading experts.

• Lead with Indeed
  The world of work has been turned upside down, but even before Covid-19, massive changes were under way: a need to reskill over half of the workforce (WEF), to make work more meaningful for more people, to accelerate workforce equity. Based on the recognition that the old playbooks are not useful to build the next era, Indeed has built Lead as a forum for people who hire to learn from each other. We framed this initiative as Rebuild Work, with a broad agenda for people who hire to reimagine old practices and guide companies towards better.

• Nico, the Neighborhood Investment Company
  Real estate is traditionally one of the best investments, but it is inaccessible for many, which means far too few residents own a stake in their neighborhood. Nico is a bold vision to change that model: a B Corporation set up to enable accessible real estate investing for local people, with a focus on social and environmental health, not just shareholder returns. enso was proud to develop the foundational branding and launch campaign for Nico, and despite only just launching, the company has already become a Fast Company World Changing Idea finalist, and been acclaimed by Mayor Eric Garcetti.

• Everytable finds a way
  We’re also proud of a client partner we had the privilege of helping launch into the world a few years ago, Everytable, for their powerful pivot to answer the call by the City of Los Angeles to feed giant swaths of people left food-insecure by COVID. The story about that pivot here in Fast Company.

In addition to these projects, we’ve been continuing to support Grow with Google and we’re cooking a few other things we can’t share just yet.

enso is now eight years old. We started with a hope for a future of business that aligns business success with social impact. We’re happy that agenda is now much more widely embraced, but for too many, signaling purpose has become enough, rather than driving real progress. We feel even greater urgency in accelerating the shift in how business is done; if you have ideas, guidance or wisdom to share on that front — we are always listening and grateful for it.

Thanks for your support over the years, and here’s to lifting each other up every day, so that someday soon we may see each other and with hope say,

“Good morning.”