Cultivating a Coaching Organization: How to Consider an Action-Oriented Approach to Coaching Employees

Quite obviously, one of the most important things that our employees can do is finish their work.  This being said, one of the things we fail to account for when we coach our employees is the way they get work done. The Conative approach is built on a psychological model of understanding of human attitudes and behavior, that includes how they think (their cognitive function), how they feel (their affective function), and finally, how they get things done (their conative function). The idea behind understanding the conative approach is that we can create understanding and harmony in our productivity. We assume that people get things done in a similar way to us, so when we coach them on projects, we may be taking them through a process that is, at the very least unhelpful, and at the very worst a hinderance to how they are able to get work done.

There are two types of approaches we should consider when coaching our employees in how they do their work: 

1. Coaching specific processes that require uniformity across the company

2. Coaching for projects that require employees to take creative and productive action.

Specific Processes that Require Uniformity Across the Company

For very specific and set processes that need uniformity, we should coach our employees to get things done the same way every time. To illustrate this type of work, imagine if a large restaurant chain left each location and each employee to their own devices to figure out how to cook, clean, stock the kitchen, run the counter, and run the drive thru – on one location, you might get a manager that is exceptional and competent in all these areas, and another, you might get a manager who is inept – leading to wildly different experiences. Typically, these are processes that are necessary and require a specific set of tasks to be carried out in a certain order. They take time, and take practice to get right, but don’t take a lot of brain power to understand. They are the core of your operational excellence. These processes could be creating expense reports, following up with a customer on their order, or filling out paperwork to be in government compliance.

To be effective in coaching:

1. Anyone coaching these processes in your organization (if not you, your COO or managers) should have a good understanding what these processes entail, and why they need to be uniform, so you can explain the importance of precision.

2. These processes are thoroughly taught during an onboarding experience, so your employees have an understanding of them from the onset.

3. Documentation of these processes are easily accessed for employees to refer to. A task-management software might be helpful here to ensure consistency.

4.   These processes have enough detail to make them clear, but not so much detail that they are overengineered. If your process is simple, keep it simple to retain its efficacy.

5. Employees are given consistent and candid feedback – it is better to make small corrections throughout time than having to completely coach someone all over again.

 So those are the processes that require uniformity, what about the projects that have no one right way to get them done? How can you best navigate coaching your employees as they go through these projects? That’s what the next section is about.

Projects that Require Creative and Productive Action

For the projects with no clear answer of how to get them done, coaching get a little bit trickier. These projects really could be anything, like developing a year-long marketing plan, coming up with and testing a new product, or adjusting the client experience and journey. We often assume that, when we are leads on projects, that our employees get stuff done the way that we do. We might not literally believe that, but we tend to act as though it is true.

For example, I have an employee, Emmalee, who has been working for me for several years. The way that we start and complete projects is completely different. The differences in how we work can be extremely valuable, if we are aware of it. If we are not aware of it, we can slip into modes of work that are counterproductive for the other.  For me, an extraordinary amount of my energy naturally goes into innovating. I am constantly looking at the world and coming up with new creative solutions to be able to move our company mission and BHAG forward.  Then, I tend to evaluate what we have, and look for any shortcuts to solutions to avoid eating up valuable time. What I then tend to communicate to my team are bottom-line statements of the big-picture ideas and innovations that I am thinking. Quite clearly, not everybody thinks the same way that I do. Not everybody even begins their creative process with brainstorming, and not many people naturally have their energy going into creating new innovations and ideas. Further, I don’t really care to get too into the details, if I can help it. I just want the overview of what my employees are working on, and I tend to give them very few details when giving them strategic direction for projects.

Now Emmalee, on the other hand, has a more structured approach to her projects. She always begins with creating an outline and / or a plan of attack. She then reviews all of the present data that is available to her – conducting academic research as well as referencing top business books to make sure there is a solid basis for our claims and adjusting to any changes she might find from her original plan. Finally, she’ll review the project to make sure all of the materials therein hold up well.

Now, where can this get tricky? When I give her feedback on her projects, sometimes it involves brainstorming whole new ideas that don’t fit her original plan for her project. Sometimes, that’s helpful, because the new ideas could be better, provide a different prospective, and lead to a better outcome of the project. Other times, that’s unhelpful, because it causes her to go back to the beginning of her productive process, wholly recreating her plan of attack, that didn’t necessarily need to be recreated. If I am unaware of how Emmalee and I work, I have the potential to throw off her productive rhythm by inserting ideas that are challenging to adjust to. If Emmalee is unaware of how we work, because they don’t necessarily fit her plan of attack, she can find herself limiting innovations and ideas, not incorporating them even when they are helpful. If we do not take care to understand each other, there is legitimately a high potential for conflict or unnecessary stress. But, if we do take care to understand how the other gets work done, making small adjustments accordingly, what was once a conflict becomes a superpower. Because we have such different skillsets and modes of working, we can be much more productive, using each other’s strengths to get things done.

For example, while Emmalee is great at creating structure for projects, conducting research and synthesizing information from many different sources, she doesn’t particularly like starting from a blank page. For me, I get energy from starting from a blank page. When we work together, we tend to brainstorm together, and then she synthesizes what we say into an outline from which she can carry the project forward. From then on, I keep in mind the outline she created, so that she can more easily adjust to the changes and new ideas and get her projects done quickly, while still bearing in mind the feedback that I give her.

By taking the time to understand how my employee gets things done, I am able to effectively communicate and provide feedback and direction on their projects that is both helpful and conducive to how my employees do their best work.

To be effective in coaching:

1. Invest in assessment tools that help you and your employees assess their conative approach to getting work done. At PFD, we recommend the Kolbe A Report from Ware Withal.

2. Take time to review the tools with your employees. Your employees better understanding how they naturally get things done will only serve them. Ask them:  How do you deal with information? How do you organize? How do you deal with uncertainty? How do you use your time and energy?

3. Share your conative approach with your employees. Discuss: where might conflicts be? How have differences in the conative approach manifested in the past? Can we use our new understanding of the conative approach to resolve conflicts and better support the employee on projects?

4. Give your employees projects that they are interested in that best suit their conative method.

5. When employees are assigned to projects, their distinct conative approach should be incorporated into the project plans.

As you consider coaching to your employees’ conative abilities, take five minutes to ask yourself and write down:

1. Do I currently try to understand my employees’ conative approach to how they get things done? Do I try to micromanage projects to get done in a certain way? How do I adapt to my employees getting their projects done?

2. What are some tangible things that I can do to steward development in the conative approach my organization?

Recommended Reading: March 2021

As a part of our continued commitment to providing the best resources for leaders to better themselves and thrive, for our March Reading List, we recommend these two books: Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don't (Rockefeller Habits 2.0) by Verne Harnish and 3HAG WAY: The Strategic Execution System that ensures your strategy is not a Wild-Ass-Guess! by Shannon Byrne Susko.

Our theme this month: getting back to the basics.

We know 2020 and the beginning of 2021 has been challenging. We firmly believe that the tools and wisdom found in these books will help us to not only get through the last months of the pandemic, but to also take advantage of the ample opportunities in front of us so we can effectively scale our companies again.

Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don't (Rockefeller Habits 2.0) - Verne Harnish

This book was the winner of the International Book Awards for General Business and the winner of the Readers' Favorite International Book Award for Non-Fiction Business

It’s been over a decade since Verne Harnish’s best-selling book Mastering the Rockefeller Habits was first released. Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0) is the first major revision of this business classic which details practical tools and techniques for building an industry-dominating business. This book is written so everyone ― from frontline employees to senior executives ― can get aligned in contributing to the growth of a firm. Scaling Up focuses on the four major decision areas every company must get right: People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash. The book includes a series of new one-page tools including the updated One-Page Strategic Plan and the Rockefeller Habits ChecklistTM, which more than 40,000 firms around the globe have used to scale their companies successfully ― many to $10 million, $100 million, and $1 billion and beyond – while enjoying the climb!

3HAG WAY: The Strategic Execution System that ensures your strategy is not a Wild-Ass-Guess! - Shannon Byrne Susko

Every company needs a 3HAG—a 3 Year Highly Achievable Goal! The 3HAG WAY is a prescriptive framework that takes the guessing out of your strategy and ensures that you and your whole team are confident in where you are going. It breaks your strategy down into a clear and simple picture—so clear and simple that the whole team will be able to see where the company is going and where it will end up in three years’ time. This strategic clarity will align, engage, and empower your team to make confident decisions in order to achieve your 3HAG.

You’ll find step-by-step instructions to gut out your first 3HAG while building the confidence required to execute with speed toward your goals. The core purpose of this book is to have a significant impact on CEOs, leaders, and their companies and enable them to confidently realize their goals more quickly than they thought possible. And by achieving these goals they will positively impact their families and their communities.

Whether you run a team of four, forty or 40,000, the tools and framework in this book will help you articulate your company’s strategy in simple terms and create a Strategic Execution System that works. We’re going to take each step of the strategy and break it down for you so that you know exactly how to take these steps and why they’re critical to achieving your goal.

How Cautious Should I Be in Running My Business?

Undoubtedly, the pandemic and other various economic shocks have been leaving CEOs apprehensive and stressed about running their businesses. On the other end of the spectrum, with the vaccine rollout, economists are expecting the economy to take off this year. Considering these extremes and uncertainty, it can be challenging to make business decisions.  We don’t want to miss out on opportunities that inherently involve risk, but we also don’t want to shut down due to a series of bad decisions. As we move forward, the question on many business owners’ minds is: how much caution should I use when making business decisions?

 We know, as this past year pointed out, that we should be fairly cautious. Before the pandemic, the economy was doing well – unemployment was at record lows and there was increased household wealth and spending. As we know, when Covid hit our shores, that growth was reversed, the stock market tanked and unemployment skyrocketed. For many industries, the market froze, people couldn’t come in to stores to do their shopping, or supply chains were disrupted. We know from this past year that we should exercise a fair amount of caution to prepare for catastrophic events.

So, we know that, as business leaders, we should exercise a fair amount of caution. This seems obvious. Perhaps a more helpful and revealing question than the one above would be: how should I exercise caution in running my business?

The first question - how much caution – uses caution as a limiter in strategic decisions. It asks confident we can expect to be in our environment – and if we can’t be confident, makes decisions accordingly. This is fundamentally a fair question to ask – we should consider our environment and making decisions accordingly. It is especially relevant considering we are entering into an age where technological, social, political, ecological, and economic disruption will be common. The second question – how should I exercise caution -  uses caution productively as a key part of strategy. It is understanding that caution is not just something that limits action that would be taken otherwise, but it is used at the heart of strategy to keep the business alive.

There is a concept from Jim Collins called Productive Paranoia that is useful when making decisions on how to use caution in our business. According to Jim Collins:

Productive Paranoia is a concept developed in the book Great by Choice. The only mistakes you can learn from are the ones you survive. Leaders who stave off decline and navigate turbulence assume that conditions can unexpectedly change, violently and fast. They obsessively ask, What if? By preparing ahead of time, building reserves, preserving a margin of safety, bounding risk, and honing their disciplines in good times and bad, they handle disruptions from a position of strength and flexibility. 

Basically, Productive Paranoia identifies how, when things go badly, we can stay in the game.

Consider this example from WWII with Winston Churchill.  

When Germany invaded France, Churchill had to strategize how to best help their allies. He needed to send squadrons of men to France to aid them. Even though Churchill entered the battle to help France, Churchill knew that strategically, he needed twenty-five squadrons of men to defend England should France fall and Germany would turn on them next. No matter what happened in France, Churchill was not willing to risk those twenty-five squadrons. As we know now that decision to keep twenty-five squadrons was strategic and spot-on.

 The primary question for Churchill wasn’t, “how risky should I be when entering into battle?” He probably asked himself that later, but his primary question was, “what do I need, in case this all goes south, to survive?” His strategy was one that considered what was needed to survive, and made actions involving risk accordingly.

In business, we need to understand what our twenty-five squadrons are – what it is we absolutely need to survive in the event of a crisis, and strategically protect that. That way, we can confidently move in the market when times are good, garnering a greater understanding what we can and can’t risk, and when times are bad, we have what we need to make it through.

Life Planning in Uncertainty

In my last post, I provided an overview of a Vision Board and the benefits in seeing your dreams on a board that you develop. Vision Boards provide personal motivation and make each day purpose-driven -  even the difficult days. In turbulent times, life dreaming and planning may feel empty. We might feel like planning our long-term future is futile when the next few weeks are unpredictable. However, in times like we are all currently facing, this sort of life planning is more important than ever. This life planning gives us a “North Star” to always be aligning to, to make progress on, and to give us hope, regardless of the immediate difficulties we are facing.

Below are a few helpful reminders that should guide you as you dive into life planning in times of uncertainty:

Facts over feelings. 

Whether it is a global pandemic or a personal hardship, we tend to focus on the immediate feelings and make decisions based on that immediacy. Unfortunately, those feelings tend to be anxiety and fear based. Life planning allows us to focus on facts, future, and hope - taking a step back from our current circumstances that are causing us to fear. When we take a step back, we can contextualize those circumstances so we can make wise decisions. 

Focus on short term wins.

In turbulent times, it can be difficult to feel like we are making any progress on our goals, when we are consistently dealing with little emergencies that arise. So, to make sure we are indeed moving forward, we need to focus on the “little wins” that will eventually add up to larger wins, and eventually into your goals being accomplished. During a particularly difficult time in my life, I had a friend tell me that if “day by day” was too big, focus on “minute by minute”. In times of stress and overwhelm, Vision Boards, or any type of life planning can feel too big. We encourage you not to turn away from those big dreams, but instead focus on what you can “win” at in the short-term. A great place to start is with self-care goals like eating properly, drinking enough water, daily journaling, reading positive content. Those short-term wins will propel your desire and ability to achieve more.

Build new life skills.

“Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare.”

― Angela Duckworth, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

Life will always throw curve balls at us. It is how we handle those times and what we learn from it, that will determine our future. Learning how to deal with challenges will make the next challenge easier to overcome. Angela Duckworth’s book, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, is an excellent book that focuses on cultivation of tenacity. If you truly want to accomplish your big-picture life goals, you will need to learn new life skills. The person who has accomplished those goals (the person who you will be) is wiser, more experienced, more tenacious, and has more skills than you. It will take grit and tenacity through challenges to become that person, and you will need to persevere through your circumstances and challenges to get there.

With these three reminders in mind, I encourage you to take a step back from the present uncertainty of the world and either create or revisit your life plan. It is critical that you continue to engage with this plan to give yourself hope and something to work towards to effectively navigate this challenging time.

If you need some direction into your life planning, check out our blog post on vision boarding here.

Purpose at the Center of a Competitive Business Strategy

Model for the Triple Bottom Line

In this day and age, we are coming to understand that the social impact we have as businesses affect our ability to be functioning and profitable businesses. The idea of social responsibility when it comes to business is not new – in fact the idea of corporate social responsibility was created in 1953 by American Economist Howard Bowen, and thus was born the idea that businesses had a social contract with the society around them, and they therefore have an obligation to serve the needs of that society. In the 1980’s, R. Edward Freeman furthered this idea and created stakeholder theory, which modeled out the specific stakeholders and groups (e.g. employees, investors, government, community) to which companies should give regard when it comes to making decisions. In the 1990’s, another thought leader like John Elkington created the idea of the Triple Bottom Line that specifically looks at a business’ impact on people, profit and planet. This means that a company’s financial, social, and environmental performance is intentionally measured over time, to truly account for the full cost of doing business and to understand how we can improve our business functioning. Long story short: we’ve known about our companies’ responsibilities to the community and world around us for nearly seventy years, at the time this book is being written. We have made continual improvements and advancements to our understanding of these ideas of social responsibility, and it is becoming a necessary consideration to how we operate our companies.

The idea has been that corporations exist to maximize shareholder value, but corporations are starting to realize that if you only focus on [financial returns], you create resistance for your growth, and that diminishes shareholder value over the long run. A smarter strategy is one that creates wealth by benefiting other stakeholders. When your growth is good for the community, employees, customers, government, the country, environment, the world, and thereby good for shareholders, that is the ultimate strategy, because everybody wants you to win. - Kaihan Krippendorf

In my quest to understand how love and service can impact business strategy and operations, am presently inspired by new research coming out of Oxford in partnership with Mars, Incorporated on the Economics of Mutuality (EoM). I would argue EoM is a better, more advanced version of the stakeholder model.

A Simplified Model for the Economics of Mutuality - with purpose at the center

In Economics of Mutuality, a key question that is asked is, “what is the right amount of profit for a business to make?”, and it contends that maximum profits are not the “right amount of profits. This aligns with the stakeholder model, and it goes one step further. According to Dr. Jay Jakub, the Senior Client Advisor, Chief Advocacy Officer at EoM, Incorporated and pioneer in research regarding the economics of mutuality, the purpose of business is to create profitable solutions for the problems of people and the planet. In my understanding, this model differs from the stakeholder model in one key aspect: instead of viewing various stakeholders in relation to the firm, the company views itself as one of the many stakeholders.

Essentially, in this model it is not the business that is central, rather, the larger, societal purpose that the business hopes to advance is central.

This means that the business itself exists to do societal good, and it is a core part of the strategy and day-to-day operations, rather than Corporate Social Responsibility being one of the considerations a business makes in its overall strategy. In this movement, many stakeholder pain-points and motivations are evaluated, and non-fiscal performance metrics are emphasized to ensure that the social good that is being done is measurable. This approach is remarkable because it works. There have been several case studies that have come out of the EoM that have shown that regardless of the market or industry, companies have found success investing in the relationships of employees and the community at large, and this yielded greater financial returns for the business, as well as impressive results across human and social capital metrics. This human-centric approach worked for the distribution of Wrigley products in East Africa, where a new business model was developed to embrace the entrepreneurial spirit of the region, meet unique market conditions, and develop trust in the community. This approach also worked in Panama, where a construction company called Conservatorio was able to engage in projects of urban revitalization without a normal gentrification process, instead helping low-income residents take advantage of the revitalization process while keeping cultural centers intact. This approach also worked for SAP, the ERP system company, where an integrated strategy that focused on economic, social, and ecological consequences of their actions within a larger ecosystem contributed to a better financial performance and more trust in senior leadership.

As it turns out, developing meaningful relationships and being a positive force for good in the lives of your employees and your community is a viable business strategy – regardless of the industry we are in or the market we have.

When we take the time to truly humble ourselves, to understand how our actions impact the broader society in which we operate, and to actively choose to love and serve people around us, people will notice, and they will want to see us succeed.

Recommended Reading: February 2021

As a part of our continued commitment to providing the best resources for leaders to better themselves and thrive, for our February Reading List, we recommend these three books: Good Company by Arthur Blank, Willpower Doesn't Work: Discover the Hidden Keys to Success by Benjamin Hardy, and Business Made Simple: 60 Days to Master Leadership, Sales, Marketing, Execution, Management, Personal Productivity and More by Donald Miller.

Good Company - Arthur Blank

The Home Depot cofounder and owner of the NFL's Atlanta Falcons and MLS's Atlanta United shares a vision and a roadmap for values-based business.

Arthur M. Blank believes that for good companies, purpose and profit can-and should-go hand in hand. And he should know. Together with cofounder Bernie Marcus, Blank built The Home Depot from an idea and a dream to a $50 billion-dollar company, the leading home improvement retailer in the world. And even while opening a new store every 42 hours, they never lost sight of their commitment to care for their people and communities. In fact, in 2001, The Home Depot was voted America's most socially responsible company.

Blank left The Home Depot that same year with a burning question: Could the values and culture that made that company great be replicated? Good Company takes readers inside the story of how he did just that-turning around a struggling NFL team, rebooting a near-bankrupt retail chain, building a brand-new stadium, revitalizing a blighted neighborhood, launching a startup soccer club, and more.

"When good companies put the wellbeing of their customers, their associates, and their communities first, financial success will follow," Blank writes. "The entrepreneurs and business leaders of today and tomorrow have an extraordinary opportunity: to prove that through upholding values we can create value-for the company, for the customer, and for the community."

Willpower Doesn't Work: Discover the Hidden Keys to Success - Benjamin P. Hardy

We rely on willpower to create change in our lives...but what if we're thinking about it all wrong? In Willpower Doesn't Work, Benjamin Hardy explains that willpower is nothing more than a dangerous fad-one that is bound to lead to failure. Instead of "white-knuckling" your way to change, you need to instead alter your surroundings to support your goals. This book shows you how.
The world around us is fast-paced, confusing, and full of distractions. It's easy to lose focus on what you want to achieve, and your willpower won't last long if your environment is in conflict with your goals--eventually, the environment will win out. Willpower Doesn't Work is the needed guided for today's over-stimulating and addicting environment. Willpower Doesn't Work will specifically teach you:

• How to make the biggest decisions of your life--and why those decisions must be made in specific settings

• How to create a daily "sacred" environment to live your life with intention, and not get sucked into the cultural addictions

• How to invest big in yourself to upgrade your environment and mindset

• How to put "forcing functions" in your life--so your default behaviors are precisely what you want them to be

• How to quickly put yourself in proximity to the most successful people in the world--and how to adapt their knowledge and skills to yourself even quicker

• How to create an environment where endless creativity and boundless productivity is the norm

  
  Benjamin Hardy will show you that nurture is far more powerful than your nature, and teach you how to create and control your environment so your environment will not create and control you.

Business Made Simple: 60 Days to Master Leadership, Sales, Marketing, Execution, Management, Personal Productivity and More - Donald Miller

Is this blue book more valuable than a business degree?

Most people enter their professional careers not understanding how to grow a business. At times, this makes them feel lost, or worse, like a fraud pretending to know what they’re doing.

It’s hard to be successful without a clear understanding of how business works. These 60 daily readings are crucial for any professional or business owner who wants to take their career to the next level.

New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, Donald Miller knows that business is more than just a good idea made profitable – it’s a system of unspoken rules, rarely taught by MBA schools. If you are attempting to profitably grow your business or career, you need elite business knowledge—knowledge that creates tangible value.

Even if you had the time, access, or money to attend a Top 20 business school, you would still be missing the practical knowledge that propels the best and brightest forward. However, there is another way to achieve this insider skill development, which can both drastically improve your career earnings and the satisfaction of achieving your goals.

Donald Miller learned how to rise to the top using the principles he shares in this book. He wrote Business Made Simple to teach others what it takes to grow your career and create a company that is healthy and profitable.

These short, daily entries and accompanying videos will add enormous value to your business and the organization you work for. In this sixty-day guide, readers will be introduced to the nine areas where truly successful leaders and their businesses excel:

• Character: What kind of person succeeds in business?

• Leadership: How do you unite a team around a mission?

• Personal Productivity: How can you get more done in less time?

• Messaging: Why aren’t customers paying more attention?

• Marketing: How do I build a sales funnel?

• Business Strategy: How does a business really work?

• Execution: How can we get things done?

• Sales: How do I close more sales?

• Management: What does a good manager do?

Business Made Simple is the must-have guide for anyone who feels lost or overwhelmed by the modern business climate, even if they attended business school. Learn what the most successful business leaders have known for years through the simple but effective secrets shared in these pages.

Take things further: If you want to be worth more as a business professional, read each daily entry and follow along with the free videos that will be sent to you after you buy the book.

What Should Your Office Look Like? Creating a Workspace that Promotes Wellness and Productivity

We often underestimate just how much our physical environment impacts us, but it impacts us immensely. Many of us have been working at home lately, and for a few of us, it improved our productivity, but for the vast majority of us, it made it much harder to work the hours that we were used to. The average person will work 90,000 hours in their lifetime. That’s a lot of time to be spending in a space that is dull, cluttered, dark or nondescript. The spaces that we exist in affect our health and our ability to perform, and while we like to deny this fact for the sake of cutting costs in our business, we do intuitively know this to be true. We’ve been in spaces that are like a breath of fresh air – perhaps they have exposed brick, high ceilings, and plants everywhere, and they genuinely feel nice to go into. Conversely, we’ve been in spaces that are overwhelming and stress us out – they are filled with clutter, unkempt, and with little natural light. If we were trying to work long-term in the second space, we would feel more exhausted, less creative, less satisfied and less motivated. Our spaces should energize us, inspire us, and motivate us and our employees. So, as we get back to our offices when it’s safe to do so, it might be a worthwhile endeavor to upgrade our spaces to this end.

What would it look like to be able to step into your workspace and immediately know what kind of culture you have? Likely, if you have never considered this question, your environment is affecting your culture, you just haven’t put much thought into how. This isn’t to say that you necessarily have a bad culture if your workspace is uninspiring but think of how much better your culture could be if your employees were excited just to exist in your office each day because your company put some thought into how it looks and feels. When we get our office spaces right, we can only add to and show off our culture and company.

Evergent Office in Hyderabad, India

Consider a case study from one of our clients - Evergent - and their office in Hyderabad, India.

Evergent Hyderabad Office - Inspiring quotes, and open and ergonomic work space

They hired a top interior design firm Zyeta to transform a new, gorgeous 36,000 square foot office to emphasize employee health, collaboration and creativity.  Now, when you walk into the Evergent office, you’ll see a clean, organized, naturally lit and modern space, with brightly colored furniture, numerous plants, and different textures on the walls to add subtle visual interest. You’ll see giant, inspiring quotes that emphasize their creativity and global reach, ergonomically-focused furniture, and community spaces that allow for gathering – both in a work setting and on breaks. One of the things that Evergent wanted to emphasize was transparency and accountability to foster their culture of excellence and teamwork, so they decided to make all of the meeting rooms have large class doors and walls so anyone could easily see inside. There are no secrets to what you are working on, and you can easily reach and collaborate with all of the other people you could need.

Evergent Hyderabad Office gym to promote employee wellness

The Evergent office is made complete with a gym, and foosball and ping-pong tables. The office is so beautiful, that it has been toured by other big tech companies for them to get ideas on how they can improve their own spaces. Best of all, this new office reflects Evergent’s brilliant and colorful culture, and holds central the well-being and thriving of their employees.  Now, when new hires enter the building to begin their two-week onboarding process, they enter into a space that shows just how much Evergent cares about them and their success.

Now, when we think of incredible office design, we tend to think that considerations for the office are reserved for only the bigger companies, because we tend to believe that it is out of our budget or expertise. Perhaps we are going to the wrong places for inspiration. When we think of office interior design, we think of tech companies with slides between the floors of the office or a rock-climbing gym, or creative agencies with beer on tap in the kitchen. What we should know is that having foosball tables or treadmill desks is not a prerequisite to creating an office that is inspiring – and we should invest in beautiful and functional working spaces regardless of the industry we are in. Now, I am not a designer, nor should I be. I have created my fair share of unstylish places, and there are plenty of books you can read on office design from experts that are far more talented than me in this area. This being said, below are some considerations that I have found should be taken into consideration when you transform your working environment for your employees.

1. Your environment should have what you need

The first thing we need to consider is this question: do we have what we need to do our jobs? Our office design should, first and foremost, be functional. Our employees should have the right tools in the right space to be able to get their work done. When I was early in my career, working as an internship, nothing drove me crazier when I was given old, outdated equipment that would impede my ability to get tasks done. Make sure your employees have the right equipment to be able to do their tasks. If you have to do a lot of brainstorming and whiteboarding, make sure you have whiteboards throughout your office. If you have creatives who need to share their work with others, make sure you have TVs in the meeting rooms that they can connect to gather feedback. If you have a manufacturing facility, make sure your equipment is optimized for production and safety. If you need people to collaborate, have an open floor plan. If you need people to go and do deep work by themselves, have offices with walls. If you need both, have a combination of an open floor plan with smaller offices with walls. If you need an agility and flexibility, build that into your workspace with moveable tables and chairs on wheels. The needs you have for your business should be held central to your considerations when creating an office.

Evergent Hyderabad Office - includes open floor plan to promote collaboration, whiteboards, chairs on wheels to promote agility and flexibility, and meeting spaces that have TVs for presentations for feedback

2. Your environment should inspire you.

These next questions might seem obvious, but it is often overlooked when it comes to designing the office, and that is: What sort of spaces inspire you? Where do you get your best work done? While the idea is to create an office that is inspiring to everyone, you as the CEO lead and set the culture of your workspace, so your spaces should speak to you. Really consider these questions, and don’t answer them in a way that you think you should but aren’t actually reflective of where you are at. If you would do better in a cozy space with lower ceilings and a large armchair over an open-concept floor plan, take that into consideration. Take a look at these couple unconventional working spaces:

My “office” on an airplane - picture taken before the global pandemic

For me, where I absolutely get my best work done is sitting on an airplane. No kidding – for me, there’s something magical about being suspended 30,000 feet in the air, looking down at the earth below me. When I get on a flight, I am flooded with ideas and energy to tackle those ideas. Travel in general absolutely inspires me, so on years that aren’t affected by a pandemic, I would sometimes take day trips to work on my business and our strategic direction. On these days, I would get up early and head to the Denver International Airport, and I’d be in a new city by noon, where I’d spend some time, and be back home that night. I’d also travel to run our client offsites, so I’d spend quite a bit of time in the best office I could possibly have, where I am traveling at 500 knots and my desk is a tray table. These days and investment in travel are a reliably some of the best uses of my time - I’ll come up with ideas that I could have never done sitting back at home. What does this mean for our office that is headquartered in Colorado? First, I let some of my design-minded employees who spend more time in it than me optimize it for their needs.  Second, our office is travel-inspired. We have numerous pictures on our walls from the international places that we’ve gone and the people we met while we were there. These people, places, and cultures are consistent reminders of why we do what we do – to steward a movement, no matter where you are born, anything is possible. We are on a global mission to empower workplaces to create opportunities of thriving and upward mobility for everyone. Whether I am soaring 30,000 feet high in an aircraft, or I am in an office in the mile-high city, I am reminded of that, and I am inspired.

Bob Goff, working on Tom Sawyer Island, picture taken from his Twitter.

When I think of another unconventional office space, I immediately think of Bob Goff, New York Times Best Seller and founder of the Love Does, an organization that fights for human rights and education for children in conflict zones. In his book with the same name as his organization, Bob revealed he had a rather unusual office: he worked out of Tom Sawyer Island at Disneyland. He started there when he was a lawyer and law professor, worked there, and held office hours there for his students. While Disney may not have recognized Tom Sawyer Island as officially Bob’s office, working out of that particular little corner of Disneyland really works for him. Bob has an unusually attuned sense of whimsy, and he found it to be particularly inspiring – where he could reflect and understand who he was created to be and work accordingly.

With these two unconventional examples, this is to say, figure out what inspires you, and really run with it and incorporate it into your office space and design. As CEO, you have a lot of control over your workplace culture. How you show up every day matters to the overall tone and feel of your company, so your space should give you energy and creative inspiration.  

3. Your environment should be authentic to your company culture.

Our next consideration is a very important one, and that is: what is authentic to your company culture? If nobody in your company would honestly use a ping pong table in the break room, don’t waste your money in buying it. Dig into the culture you have, return to your foundational elements, like your core values and core purpose, and figure out the type of things to go into your space that would enhance that experience.

Evergent Hyderabad Office - Glass offices to promote transparency and accountability - something they really care about

As an example, while I greatly admire Evergent’s decision to have all glass conference rooms or open spaces in their Hyderabad office, I would never make that decision for my own office. Why? Because one of our core values is “Be the Confidant” – At PFD Group, we nurture a culture of confidentiality, trust, and vulnerability. When our clients reach out to us, they share their greatest opportunities and challenges. There are highly sensitive and confidential conversations that I regularly have with my clients. It would be imprudent and thoughtless of me to not have at least one office with soundproofing and opaque walls and doors so I can have these sorts of conversations. This isn’t to knock on Evergent’s decision to have such a transparent office – for their culture and office needs, a transparent and open workspace is a highly strategic and effective choice. In fact, like them, we have meeting rooms that our team can gather and strategize. But unlike Evergent, we have to design our space to support our core value of “Be the Confidant”, and that is important to note.

4. Your environment should support health and wellness

When I first started my coaching practice, I had an office in a co-working space. It was a smaller office, without any windows to the outside, only to the rest of the building. It worked for what I needed. I didn’t find it to be particularly inspiring, but that was okay, because I didn’t spend much of my time in the office anyway. Since I do my best work when I travel, I was always taking meetings around town, flying on airplanes to offsites, so I really was only in the office for short periods of time. As my business grew, I hired an Executive Assistant named Emmalee, and, after a few months, we outgrew the little office in the co-working building. As we looked for new offices, Emmalee had one request: that it have a window with sunlight. Because I spent so much of my time out of the office, I hadn’t considered the necessity of a window. Emmalee was spending so much time in the darker office, that inevitably, by 3:00pm each day, she felt drained and sluggish, even though she genuinely enjoyed her work and was learning a lot. When we moved offices, we got a space with a huge window overlooking the front range of the Rocky Mountains. With this change to our space, Emmalee reported that the days felt much shorter, and she remained energized and motivated throughout, increasing her productivity and capability. In fact, she is now no longer my executive assistant, but she heads up our marketing and client education efforts. To have such an office was undoubtedly a worthwhile investment.

Amazon’s Seattle Spheres.

There are many things we could consider when creating health in our working environment, but I want to focus on a couple of key elements that I believe should be in all offices. The first, is making sure we have the right layout and furniture to encourage health, whether this be through buying ergonomic furniture, or creating an office layout that encourages people to walk throughout the day. The second is to make sure we have elements of nature in our offices –through sunlight and plants. There are ample studies that show that having plants incorporated into our working spaces not only improve our mental and physical well-being, but they also boost our productivity. Natural light stimulates human metabolism and regulates blood pressure, while artificial light induces fatigue. 

One shot of the inside of Amazon’s Seattle Spheres. For more information, head to https://www.seattlespheres.com/

Large companies like Amazon are starting to understand this, making huge investments in creating sunny and plant-filled offices to give them a creative edge. The best example of Amazon’s work in this this called the spheres located in Seattle. The building is comprised of three large spheres, with glass to let natural light in, and more than 40,000 plants. Why did they invest all of this time and money? They recognize that people think and work differently when surrounded by plants.

My wife Kate’s family used to own a particularly special and inspiring space called Caribou Ranch. It was a recording studio built out of a converted barn in the Rocky Mountains near Nederland Colorado. Before a fire burned it down it 1985, it was an iconic recording studio.  Famous bands and artists like Elton John, Michael Jackson, Earth Wind & Fire, Chicago, Stevie Wonder and Amy Grant recorded there, and many of the albums and songs went platinum and won Grammys. Elton John even named one of his albums that he recorded there “Caribou”. Kate’s family knew there was something special about bringing talented people to a place where trees and mountains loomed overhead. Going there is like a breath of fresh air, where you could get needed reprieve and clear your head to do your best creative work.

Caribou Ranch - an inspiring setting for a recording studio

While you might not be able to create a near-biodome in the heart of Seattle or build a mountain campus, you can still incorporate plants and greenery into your spaces, and I encourage it.  In your office designs, make the investment of cultivating health. Not only give your employees a chance to have good furniture and to walk around, but also make sunlight and nature (like plants) be a central part of your office design. Your employees will be happier, healthier, more satisfied with their jobs, more productive, and more likely to produce their best creative work.

Evergent Office in Hyderabad - natural elements of plants and sunlight incorporated throughout

5. You can make small changes over time that add up to a cohesive design goal.

 If you don’t have the budget, these changes to your space don’t have to be made overnight. It is okay to slowly build a cohesive and beautiful office space over time – to prioritize the highest-leverage design elements and save the rest for when you have the budget and cash and buy other pieces later. Perhaps one quarter you will invest in whiteboards and a TV in your war room, and another quarter you will replace the desks, tables, and chairs. The important thing is that you make progress to bettering your space and culture. Small changes that you are making to create a better your space will still contribute positively to your employee experience. If you were to build slowly, make sure you have a plan for your needs and your space, so you don’t waste money on furniture or items that don’t match what you functionally need, or undercuts the design at a later point.

At PFD, as we have been building our coaching practice, we have prioritized different office design needs over time. In one iteration of our office (Q3 2019), we prioritized the creation of a War Room, so our strategy was highly visible. War Rooms can get messy-looking, which can undermine their functionality, so we used acrylic sheets as a design solution. The acrylic sheets anchored the War Room materials, giving it a clean, cohesive look, while also providing the functionality of a dry-erase board that allowed for the war room to be routinely updated.

6. If you don’t have the design talent to pull this off, find someone who does!

What if you’re like me, and you don’t have the design skillset to create an amazing office space? Like Evergent, you could get a professional interior design firm to come in, and create a beautiful office that is perfectly tailored to your needs. While, as CEO, you are in charge of the overall culture and employee experience, you don’t need to be and shouldn’t be personally in charge of every little detail. It’s okay to hire the right people to overhaul your environment. What if you have the resources to buy new furniture, but not necessarily to hire an entire interior design firm? That’s okay – having a great looking office space is still possible for you and your employees! If you don’t have the skillset, find someone who does! Perhaps one of your current employees would be interested in self-teaching interior design and would be happy to take on your working environment as a special project. That’s what happened for me - several of my employees have been quite happy to take over our interior design. Perhaps you could go to your local college’s design school and find an intern who would vastly benefit from having an entire office that they conceptualized and put together on their portfolio. Perhaps your spouse has a talented friend who just had a baby and is looking for a flexible gig while they raise their child. Whoever you hire to get the job done, just make sure they have context into your culture, needs, sources of inspiration, and elements that support health, like sunlight and plants. The possibilities are endless, it just takes some creativity into finding the right people to making it happen.

A suggestion: take some time (10-30 minutes) to brainstorm to truly consider your working environment and and write down:

1. What would it look like to be able to step into your workspace and immediately know what kind of culture you have?

2. In your current office space, does everyone have what we need to do their jobs? If not, what’s missing?

3. What sort of spaces inspire you? Where do you get your best work done? How could you incorporate what inspires you into your current space?

4. When it comes to working spaces, what is authentic to your company culture? What do your employees enjoy doing? What do you value, and what might it look like to incorporate what you value into your design?

5. Do you have any sunlight or plants in your office? Do you have opportunities for your employees to move around or sit in ergonomic furniture?  If the answer is no, what do you need to do to incorporate these elements into your workspace?

6. Who do you need to make this possible? If it is not you, what can you feasibly do to get the right people to transform your workspace?

7. What are you doing to make your home work space inspiring until you can get safely back to the office? Do you have plants? Ergonomic furniture? A standing desk? Are you going for walks frequently?

3 Reasons Why Accountability is a Game Changer in Building a Healthy Culture

We can all agree that accountability is an important factor in business.

Although most of us can agree with this statement, it is easy to deem the subject of accountability as something you will tackle when you have more time. Creating a culture of accountability does take work and commitment, but if done correctly, will provide endless benefits to your company and your people. At PFD, we want to help you succeed and would like to share how accountability is linked to a thriving business and workplace environment.

you attract “A” Players

Many leaders may find it hard to hold their peers accountable for fear that it will upset them. While it may feel like you are being someone’s friend by not holding them accountable, this is only harming the individual and the organization at a larger level. Not holding people accountable insinuates that you do not have any expectations for them. “A” Players want to have clear expectations, to be challenged, and to be held accountable. 

Keep in mind that “A” Players crave a culture of accountability, while “B” & “C” Players are often repelled by it because it does not give them a platform to underperform while going unnoticed. Overtime, accountability can become a flywheel for attracting “A” Players and repelling the “B” & “C” Players.

This is one of the single most important things you can do for your business because a great business can only be built with great people.

Your processes are more effective

A business could have some of the best processes out there, but if they do not have a key person accountable for each function, their processes become irrelevant. If a new process is introduced without clear roles of accountability, it becomes hard for the employees to know where they should focus their efforts. Not only do processes need to have people responsible for the various functions, but they also need to hold these people accountable. Once this is done, employees know their roles and responsibilities and can better focus their efforts to meet the expectations provided for them.

more freedom for everyone in the company, including you!

When done right, accountability will create more time for you, your leadership team, and all employees. When a culture of accountability is established, less time is spent micromanaging. This gives the management team more freedom to work on their tasks, and the lower level employees more freedom to complete their tasks in the most efficient way possible. As a result of this, the leadership team will spend less time worrying if deliverables have been completed and have more freedom to work on strategy and the vision for the company.

Accountability starts with you. 

Leaders set examples for their peers. In order to create a positive culture of accountability, you need to hold yourself and your peers accountable first. Overtime, this will create a ripple effect. A culture of accountability will emerge, holding a place for A players to thrive and contribute to the success of your company. 

At PFD, we cannot stress the importance of accountability enough. We highly recommend Metronome Growth Systems to help drive accountability, transparency, behavior, and alignment in your company. For extra clarity on functions within your business, we recommend taking your team through the Function Accountability Chart.

Remember accountability starts with you. Although it is important, it does not mean it is easy. Great things take work! We love helping companies build cultures where all employees are thriving; Accountability is one factor among many others that can help to create a healthy culture where both employees and the company thrive.

Vision Boarding: Creating Your Future and Your Personal Why

There is no correct time to invest in personal growth, but the beginning of each year is always a motivator for people to lay out big plans for their personal life. Here at PFD, we encourage companies to have a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal), 3HAG, and 1HAG, but we are also working on our personal Vision Boards (VB).

A Vision Board is your personal WHY.

That feeling of being overwhelmed or feeling like you are on a hamster wheel is taxing on your mental and physical health. A VB is a fabulous tool to keep you motivated and focused, which is enormously important as we all continue to face uncertain times.

My (Liz Kaufman’s) Vision Board - Pictures on a useable whiteboard. It has some visual elements with a focus on functionality, as I wanted the ability to regularly update it with words that are inspiring to me.

Whether you have built a VB in the past or if this is your first time, we have some advice on how to get started:

Know What You Want

Most advice with regards to building a VB includes, “if you have no time or money limitations, what do you want”. This advice is exactly what is needed, but can be overwhelming, therefore we have two activities to help:

• MY 75 – Taking the advice of no limitations due to time, money, or circumstances, list 75 things you want and want to achieve. Do not overthink this activity, just begin listing your hearts’ desires. Here are a few questions to help you get started:

  •  Where do you want to go?

  • Who do you want to meet?

  • What do you want to read and/or learn?

  • Who do you want to help?

  • What is the newest gadget that makes you excited?

  • What relationships would you like to grow?

• I AM statements – This activity is used by many personal growth coaches. When you write down “I AM” statements, it helps you actualize who you want to become. This is about your heart, mind, and soul. Words are the building blocks of your life, so ensure you are speaking positive words about yourself. Here are a few statements to help you get started:

  • I am generous with my money and time

  • I am respected within my care

  • I am part of a caring and loving family

  • I am an entrepreneur

  • I am confident

  • I am a home owner

Emmalee Harper’s Vision Board. It is made on two acrylic sheets sandwiched together, with printed pictures in between. It is highly visual and design-focused, with some added functionality of being able to write on it with a dry-erase marker. 

Build Your Vision Board

There is no right or wrong way to build your VB. There are only two qualifications; it should fit your personality/style and you should be able to see it daily. Here are a few ideas:

Materials

All you need is a blank wall, some pictures, paper, and tape, however, there are many examples of materials that can build a Vision Board that will work for your space and personality. A few ideas include:

• Corkboard 

• Whiteboard

• Acrylic Board (following this tutorial)

• Canvas

• Blank wall

• Window 

Style

Whether it be highly stylized or simple, it should be both functional and energizing. At PFD we have three examples of styles that you’ll see throughout this post:

• My (Liz’s) Vision Board - Pictures on a useable whiteboard. It has some visual elements with a focus on functionality, as I wanted the ability to regularly update it with words that are inspiring to me.

• Emmalee Harper’s Vision Board – It is made on two acrylic sheets sandwiched together, with printed pictures in between. It is highly visual and design-focused, with added some functionality of being able to write on it with a dry-erase marker. She also added some gold leaf to the pictures as an extra, fun touch.

• Ethan Martin’s Vision Board - Magazine clippings on canvas. It is highly visual, comprised of inspiring pictures and quotes.

Content

You do not need to include everything from you, MY 75 or I AM statements, but ensure your board is a mix of categories, personal growth, inspirational quotes, huge aspirations that scare you, short term wins that will energize you, and anything else that speaks to you. This board is YOU poured out into a visualization; it is not supposed to speak to someone else.

Ethan Martin’s Vision Board - Magazine clippings on canvas. It is highly visual, comprised of inspiring pictures and quotes.

Keep Your Board Fresh

As you achieve a win, first celebrate it, then replace it with a new goal (which is why you developed a My 75 and I AM statements). Adding to it often helps you to work on your future and refine the view of your life. Some areas may come into deeper clarity, while others may stay the same for a year and get moved to the next year. Your VB is always a work in progress. 

The last piece of advice is, get started. Create a grand vision for your life and speak it into existence each day. Though it may seem simple, this is a powerful tool. The PFD Team is here to help and we encourage you to share your Vision Boards, and we will be sharing ours. 

Recommended Reading: January 2021

As a part of our continued commitment to providing the best resources for leaders to better themselves and thrive, for our January Reading List, we recommend these three books: The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company by Robert Iger, No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Reed Hastings, and Post Corona: From Crisis to Opportunity by Scott Galloway.

The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company - Robert Iger

Robert Iger became CEO of The Walt Disney Company in 2005, during a difficult time. Competition was more intense than ever and technology was changing faster than at any time in the company’s history. His vision came down to three clear ideas: Recommit to the concept that quality matters, embrace technology instead of fighting it, and think bigger—think global—and turn Disney into a stronger brand in international markets.

Today, Disney is the largest, most admired media company in the world, counting Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and 21st Century Fox among its properties. Its value is nearly five times what it was when Iger took over, and he is recognized as one of the most innovative and successful CEOs of our era.

In The Ride of a Lifetime, Robert Iger shares the lessons he learned while running Disney and leading its 220,000-plus employees, and he explores the principles that are necessary for true leadership, including:

• Optimism. Even in the face of difficulty, an optimistic leader will find the path toward the best possible outcome and focus on that, rather than give in to pessimism and blaming.

• Courage. Leaders have to be willing to take risks and place big bets. Fear of failure destroys creativity.

• Decisiveness. All decisions, no matter how difficult, can be made on a timely basis. Indecisiveness is both wasteful and destructive to morale.

• Fairness. Treat people decently, with empathy, and be accessible to them.

This book is about the relentless curiosity that has driven Iger for forty-five years, since the day he started as the lowliest studio grunt at ABC. It’s also about thoughtfulness and respect, and a decency-over-dollars approach that has become the bedrock of every project and partnership Iger pursues, from a deep friendship with Steve Jobs in his final years to an abiding love of the Star Wars mythology.

“The ideas in this book strike me as universal” Iger writes. “Not just to the aspiring CEOs of the world, but to anyone wanting to feel less fearful, more confidently themselves, as they navigate their professional and even personal lives.”

No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention - Reed Hastings

Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings reveals for the first time the unorthodox culture behind one of the world's most innovative, imaginative, and successful companies

There has never before been a company like Netflix. It has led nothing short of a revolution in the entertainment industries, generating billions of dollars in annual revenue while capturing the imaginations of hundreds of millions of people in over 190 countries. But to reach these great heights, Netflix, which launched in 1998 as an online DVD rental service, has had to reinvent itself over and over again. This type of unprecedented flexibility would have been impossible without the counterintuitive and radical management principles that cofounder Reed Hastings established from the very beginning. Hastings rejected the conventional wisdom under which other companies operate and defied tradition to instead build a culture focused on freedom and responsibility, one that has allowed Netflix to adapt and innovate as the needs of its members and the world have simultaneously transformed.

Hastings set new standards, valuing people over process, emphasizing innovation over efficiency, and giving employees context, not controls. At Netflix, there are no vacation or expense policies. At Netflix, adequate performance gets a generous severance, and hard work is irrel­evant. At Netflix, you don’t try to please your boss, you give candid feedback instead. At Netflix, employees don’t need approval, and the company pays top of market. When Hastings and his team first devised these unorthodox principles, the implications were unknown and untested. But in just a short period, their methods led to unparalleled speed and boldness, as Netflix quickly became one of the most loved brands in the world.

Here for the first time, Hastings and Erin Meyer, bestselling author of The Culture Map and one of the world’s most influential business thinkers, dive deep into the controversial ideologies at the heart of the Netflix psyche, which have generated results that are the envy of the business world. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with current and past Netflix employees from around the globe and never-before-told stories of trial and error from Hastings’s own career, No Rules Rules is the fascinating and untold account of the philosophy behind one of the world’s most innovative, imaginative, and successful companies.

Post Corona: From Crisis to Opportunity - Scott Galloway

From bestselling author and NYU Business School professor Scott Galloway comes a keenly insightful, urgent analysis of who stands to win and who's at risk to lose in a post-pandemic world.

The COVID-19 outbreak has turned bedrooms into offices, pitted young against old, and widened the gaps between rich and poor, red and blue, the mask wearers and the mask haters. Some businesses--like home exercise company Peloton, video conference software maker Zoom, and Amazon--woke up to find themselves crushed under an avalanche of consumer demand. Others--like the restaurant, travel, hospitality, and live entertainment industries--scrambled to escape obliteration.

But as New York Times bestselling author Scott Galloway argues, the pandemic has not been a change agent so much as an accelerant of trends already well underway. In Post Corona, he outlines the contours of the crisis and the opportunities that lie ahead. Some businesses, like the powerful tech monopolies, will thrive as a result of the disruption. Other industries, like higher education, will struggle to maintain a value proposition that no longer makes sense when we can't stand shoulder to shoulder. And the pandemic has accelerated deeper trends in government and society, exposing a widening gap between our vision of America as a land of opportunity, and the troubling realities of our declining wellbeing.

Combining his signature humor and brash style with sharp business insights and the occasional dose of righteous anger, Galloway offers both warning and hope in equal measure. As he writes, "Our commonwealth didn't just happen, it was shaped. We chose this path--no trend is permanent and can't be made worse or corrected."