The world’s first #EquityAtWork global movement has started in Miami
The world’s first #equityatwork Social Room has started up in Miami. The Host Team of this Social Room are not the usual suspects, charities, community groups, government or interest groups. These people are employees of one of the world’s leading HR Tech firms. They have a calling to host a global conversation and collaboration to put people first in the future of work.
This Social Room Host Group care about a future of work which puts people first at a time when the majority of people are not flourishing or growing at work. They call themselves UltiPeeps and they make some of the coolest HR Tech kit; helping to shape a better world of work and life. I call this kit 2nd Stream Tech. Their company is called Ultimate Software which also happens to be rated as one of the best companies to work for in the world.
2nd Stream Tech is a catalyst for putting people first but only if our workplace cultures are positively disrupted to elevate every person as a unique individual. Right now, most cultures are not like this — they have inbuilt inequities. We won’t see the full potential of 2nd Stream without first intervening in our enterprises to root out these inequities.
In the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) upon us now, 2nd Stream converges data so we can experience the wholeness of things, not just the parts. Here, the lens switches from the institutional ownership and use of data to individual ownership.
With 4IR, individuals get access to data which informs and augments their life-work story. As individuals, we are able to customise our experience as a customer or worker from the convergence of the data from all aspects of our lives — physical, mental, social and spiritual.
Many HR Tech companies use social media to talk about the features and unique benefits of their tech. In the #peoplefirstworkequity Social Room you will hear the stories first, then how the tech can support the story, and that is the right order.
In Miami, we talked much about the crisis in our workforces with only 15% of people happy or engaged at work. Most people work in cultures which do not allow them to be who they are because of the in-built inequities.
The 85% work to a one size fits all 20th century job description which only connects a part of a person. In the past of work, the design of work is about jobs, hierarchies, processes and organisations. Here people are fitted to the job. Variation and diversity in people doesn’t count. Diversity and inclusion of difference is feared and suppressed.
In 2nd Stream, the designs start with the individual and the who and why of their work from the whole of who each person is. Here work is not about a job but about one’s unique life-work purpose or personal #why.
Just as 2nd Stream deployed on our smart phones enables us to see a convergence of data about our work and our life in the one place, the parts of our life-work experience are becoming converged.
When I started work in 1978 I was taught to see work through the narrow lens of a job description and the single enterprise in which I worked. My home and social life and the causes I cared about were nothing to do with my work, they were separated out.
But the young kids today don’t have this narrow view. They see a convergence between life and work. They don’t see work contained within a box called a job. They see work as an agile collaboration of their strengths with others for a meaningful cause. Whether this cause be serving a customer with an exceptional service or product experience or looking after the homeless or doing something about plastic in the oceans — all this is the new work and it is boundary less and connected.
Emerging 2nd Stream future of work members, like the Ultimate Software team, see their work as making a contribution to make the world a better place. They see themselves as members of a global community or ecosystem of belonging and purpose, where work is anything that enables you or others to grow as a life-long journey. Here, 2nd Stream supports this journey. The journey is the Story.
Think of 2nd Stream as being the Data of our Work and our contribution to helping others to grow as the Story of our Work, whether customer or social good cause. The Data serves the Story but right now only 15% of people are able to live their authentic story.
These Ultimate Software members want to work with others to put things right in our global work places. The Hebrew word for putting things right is Justice. In vibrant work places, you see a state of intentional justness in place. The dictionary defines justness as “the quality or state of being just, equitable, or right”.
The people at Ultimate Software know that their work is not just about making the New Tech but about hosting a global conversation around intentional justness — about hosting a community of people who will work to put things right for the future of work by hosting a movement in the Social Room.
One of the hashtags we came up with is #equityatwork — another is #justnessforall. There will be others. I had the privilege of listening to ten people in Miami share with each other their own personal stories of a future of work which enables people to tell their own life-work story because the state of play is put right for every person, not just the privileged.
In the Social Room we are going to here many stories, both personal and corporate. The hashtag for the personal story is #Me and for the shared story #MeWe. The Ultimate Software Host Group are going to invite others to join a #MeWe movement for replacing inequity with equity in our work cultures.
A great contribution Gallup Group made was the understanding what enables the 15% to feel engaged at work. The 15% work for leaders who release them to be more of whonaturally are. These leaders fit the job around the natural talents of every individual and they build highly collaborative teams by discovering and engaging their combined natural talents. Gallup found that only 1% of leaders do this and they do it intuitively. Gallup believed that there are other managers who care about people but they needed a platform or tool to help them identify the natural strengths of their people.
I believed this too, so I began a search for such a tool and a friend of mine Malcolm LeLievre introduced me to the DNA Behaviour Platform. This was back in 2004 and I have since used DNA Behaviour to work with over 1,000 teams and individuals to build highly collaborative teams by elevating the strengths of every individual, regardless of gender, age, race or culture.
For 14 years I have used DNA Behaviour as an intentional fairness or justness strategy to intervene in workplace cultures to put things right by liberating people to rise above the talent poverty line.
I have got to work with inspirational future of work leaders like Jason SmithCEO of Back in Motion. Jason deployed DNA Behaviour with his team to co-create an organisation structure in his Support Office around a collaboration of strengths. Jason then moved to abolish the inequities of hierarchy and abuse of power within the workplace. Jason builds his business on the principles and practices of intentional equity. Jason has just written a cool book about this story — Outside In Downside Up Leadership. The result; back in Motion grew to a $50m business and today is expanding globally.
The person who developed DNA Behaviour is Lee Ellis. Lee was a fighter pilot in the US Navy. Lee was shot down over Vietnam in 1967. He was imprisoned in the infamous Hanoi Hilton. In 1972, Lee was released along with his mates, including fellow fighter pilot Senator John McCain. Lee rose in rank to become a Colonel and play a key role in fighter pilot syllabus for the US Navy. Lee was one of those 1% managers who believed that the work should be fitted around the individual and their strengths, so he changed the practice from fitting the pilot to the plane, to fitting the plane to the natural talents of the individual. For example, if a person was naturally relational and social he teamed them up to a buddy and a twin seater fighter, whereas in those days the Navy expected you to fly any plane. But Lee didn’t have a platform to help him to identify natural talent. So when he left the Navy he developed DNA Behaviour.
Fast forward to the present. As good as DNA Behaviour has been, it is like the analogue version. Now we have the digital and New Tech version called Brilliant Fit, developed by Malcolm LeLievre and his team at Brilliant Fit. I got to deploy Brilliant Fit live in Miami with the Ultimate Software Social Room Host Team. We identified everyone’s natural talents so everyone could play to their strengths in the Social Room.
For example, one third of people are naturally wired around Results. These guys will approach their life-work, including their input into the Social Room, around facts, data, process, research, analysis and the tech. They will not be afraid to confront and call out injustice when they see it and they will do it through logic, facts and evidence. This is exactly what we need in the #peoplefirst Social Room — the ability to fearlessly call out inequity in the workplace. Some of us can do this naturally.
Another third of people are wired around Relationships. These people will look to connect with others to heal, restore and put things right through connecting with people from the heart. They will reach out to find and share the compassionate stories, build personal connections to put things right through caring for people. They feel the world’s pain and want to heal it. Another third of people are Adaptive — which means they have both Relationships and Results. In Miami, we discovered our Social Room team has a mix of both talent groups.
The Social Room is all about connecting and building a community through creating and curating content. We need people to be contributing both in the Social Room — if you are a Creator, we want you to contribute your original content to the Social Room. If you are a Curator, we want you to like, share, retweet, comment and support what others create.
People are naturally wired about one or the other or both. In Miami we identified our natural strengths as a Host Team to create and curate from who we are.
The #equityatwork Social Room is also a movement, not a hierarchy. We hear so much these days about business ‘start ups’ with the focus on the people who Pioneer. Starting up a social movement needs pioneering talent but we also need the talents of a Follower. You can’t have a movement without followers and it is the followers who invite other followers to join the cause, the conversation and the collaboration to put things right. In any movement, there are usually more followers than pioneers and in the Miami Host team we have a perfect fit.
This is what I love about working with this special Host Team in the #peoplefirst or #equityatwork Social Room. They practice what they believe in. We started their own journey to host a global conversation around a future of work which engages every individual through equity by taking the time to discover and align each other’s talent. We started with who and then why, mine and yours #MeWe.
Will you join us in the Social Room through the lens of your own natural talents?
If you would like to know more about Brilliant Fit, feel free to make contact.
Cheers from both Miami and Melbourne!
