Rizing Evolution – The Future Proofed Enterprise Podcast
Episode 7 Transcript: Culture, Strategy, and Technology
(Editors note: this transcript was machine generated then lightly edited. You can read a summary, watch the original episode on LinkedIn or see the list of all podcast episodes.)
Bonnie Graham
And start the recording. You’ve been warned, and let’s get the live stream going and I’ll tell you all what I tell all my guests. Behave yourselves and that’s already live, so here. We go. Zoom is coming up. LinkedIn page. Here we are. I see us all. Everybody wave. Hello. We don’t have a fancy countdown clock.
Enrique Rubio
Hello.
Bonnie Graham
Let’s have the music. Andrew. We’re ready.
Narrator
Welcome to a fresh perspective on business technology. This is rising evolution. The future proofed enterprise presented by rising a Wipro company you’ll hear from business and technology innovators who know how to use the latest technologies and business strategies to transform industries and importantly, how these technologies and strategies. Can be shaped to your business needs in your way. Help your organization move an exciting new. Questions now here’s your host and moderator, Bonnie D Graham.
Bonnie Graham
That’s me, Bonnie D in the house. Happy to be here. I have a question for all of our listeners. Everybody panel away fellow. We’re on LinkedIn. We’re on Facebook and we are virtually on audio simulcast on The Voice of America business channel. I’m going to ask my listeners and viewers, what did you have for breakfast? That’s what we’re going to talk about today. What the show is rising in Wipro, we’re talking about breakfast. Well, it’s very important to the topic. So as usual, I have a little intro that I cowrote full disclaimer. Cowrote with ChatGPT. There are human editing elements in this poem, Patty. It’s a poem. Take it easy now. Patty’s going to check me and make sure I really did this. So let me read this, and then we will see if everybody liked it. Let me find the poem. Here we go. OK. Welcome listeners and viewers to a voyage profound where culture, strategy. And technology are intricately. Around join us as we unravel the tales untold of how these forces shape business. Oh so bold, our panel of experts, leaders of industry diving into stories and strategies. A Symphony cultures embrace of tech strategies. Dr. transformational track. I like that one. The. In this synergy lies a business revolution, a Nexus of forces. I dynamic solution when I call your name. Wave. Hello, Sherri Anne Meyer. Enrique Rubio, Dr. Patty Fletcher got Sharma all so bright. Join me, host Bonnie Graham, shedding new light on rising evolution, where the future unfolds. Use that word twice. Sorry, culture, strategy and tech. What eats what for breakfast? We asked to be told so. Audience, get ready for this journeys to light. As we explore the future fusion, I’m getting echo here where we explore the fusion where these elements unite, turn in TuneIn absorb, let the discussion brew for the convergence lies business evolution anew. Let’s go around the table. What’d you think, Enrique again?
Enrique Rubio
I don’t know what I love the most. The actual poem or the narration of the poem, and both of them great. I’m curious. I’m curious for you to tell later on what the prompts were for you to kind of like, create that poem and keep it.
Sherry Meyer
Yes.
Bonnie Graham
I’ll tell you in a minute when we go around the table, I’ll tell you right now. Jody, what do you think of the?
Jyoti Sharma
It was eloquent.
Bonnie Graham
Eloquent. Oh, by the way, I specialize in cold reads. I don’t sit here all night and pronounce everything. So that’s why there are a couple of stumbles there. Patty, what do you think?
Patty Fletcher
It reminded me of it was the night before Christmas. I loved it very. Very on point right now.
Bonnie Graham
Very good. Cherry. What do you think?
Sherry Meyer
It was lovely. It was my favorite yet out of this whole series.
Bonnie Graham
Oh, I’m glad. Let me tell you how. I do it. Hannah Hale, Shari’s colleague at Rising writes an abstract which you all saw in the invitation for the show. I take the exact wording in her abstract, and then I add your names and I feed it into ChatGPT and I say please write a poem for my opening monologue on this show using the following text. And I just glum it into there and hit submit. Then I start the countdown 1000 one 1002 before I hit 3. Ohh, that’s how fast it is. That’s all I do. Then I take it and I look for places where I want to change the rhyme scheme or a word here or there. And that’s about it. We’re talking about 8 minutes of total work there. Enrique, what do you think? Impressive.
Enrique Rubio
I use tragedy every day, and that alone the uses that I have for tragedy. It’s just mind, mind blowing. I think it’s just incredible. It would have taken you probably hours of work. To create a poem like that, and now you can take just 8.
Bonnie Graham
Minutes. That’s fascinating. Not me, actually. I’m a part of a poetry group and I write a poem.
Enrique Rubio
Me would have taken me.
Bonnie Graham
A day so.
Enrique Rubio
Hours.
Bonnie Graham
Only about 20 minutes 20 minutes. But thank you very much. I appreciate that. So here we are. We are talking about that old phrase. What eats what for breakfast? We’re talking culture. We’re talking tech. We’re talking strategy and that’s what we want to know today. And that’s why we have our wonderful panel here.
Enrique Rubio
You would have taken me hours.
Bonnie Graham
So our topic officially is culture, strategy and technology. What’s for breakfast or what’s eating? What for breakfast? Old phrase, new. Look at it in this new environment. So again, my special panelists are we have Sherry Anne Meyer, who is one of the Co producers of this series. We finally got you on the panel, Sherry. It’s about time. Thank you. And Doctor Patty Fletcher, who I work with, she was my mentor at SA page 12 years ago. And here she is. We’ve stayed in touch over the years and two newcomers to my world GOT Sharma so happy to have you here. And Enrique Rubio. So here’s the deal. I didn’t tell anybody who you are other than your names and what you do. They see your smiling, happy faces and they know you’re happy to talk about this because you’re all looking so excited. So let’s go around the table and get some introductions in your own words. We’re going to start with Sherry. You want to be Sherry. Or Sherry Anne today. Who would you like to be great?
Sherry Meyer
Berry is.
Bonnie Graham
Sherry is great. Well, we know Sherri’s great, but you want to be Sherry. I’m going to put you on speaker of you, Sherry. Why don’t you give us a 3 minute bio, an overview. And we’re not just looking for a CV. We’re looking for. What are you doing here? Why does this topic excite you? What’s your passion for it?
Sherry Meyer
What am I doing here? I am insanely curious. I fell into tech by. I was a writer. I thought I would never want to do technology. And then SAP came along. I thought it was the most boring thing on the Earth to sit around and program and got into technology with SAP and found out how creative it really can be. And I also have a passion, of course, for humans. So I moved from HR into technology and have since been working on making technology more human for people to use. Through communications prompt primarily, so I’ve been in HR. I’ve been in it. I’ve been a volunteer board member for ASUG America’s SAP users group, and now I’m here at rising as court communications.
Bonnie Graham
What do you have for breakfast today, Sherry?
Sherry Meyer
Oh, what did I have her. Oh, I had delivery from Panera. It was an egg sandwich.
Bonnie Graham
It wasn’t going to ask.
Sherry Meyer
Good.
Bonnie Graham
Me, it just seemed appropriate. That’s all. So we’ve got a little culture in there. We got a little strategy in there. And if you ordered it, there’s probably some technology in there. So I think we’re.
Sherry Meyer
There was, it was DoorDash.
Bonnie Graham
There you. There you go. See, she covered it all. There you go. We do a lot of a lot of impromptu. Yeah. Improv here. Let’s move around the table. Thank you, Sherry. Enrique Rubio. I met you on our prep call about a week ago. Was looking forward so much to welcoming you. And here you are. I wonder what microphone you’re using and then give us your bio. What you got there?
Enrique Rubio
Yeah, Bonnie did. Thank you so much for inviting me. And Sherry as well. I got a blue Yeti that I’ve been using for a long time and great. My name is Enrique Rubio, originally from Venezuela, now living in the beautiful city of Flagstaff in the northern part of the state of Arizona. Whoever has been here probably knows that this is one of the most beautiful cities ever, and I am just an hour away from the Grand Canyon, which is a true blessing. I actually started my career in technology. I am an electronic engineer. I worked for a long time in telecommunications and then I fell into HR, fell in love, but fell just by coincidence into the world of charts as opposed to Sherry. My stories, technology to culture rather than culture, or in this case, communications to technology. I am the founder of a global community called Hacking ITAR, where we bring thousands of HR leaders and professionals to participate in our community and our learning programs. Most of them deliver in the form of events with conversations and experts in the in different areas of culture and performance. And strategy and technology of. Course I am incredibly passionate about the future of work, particularly about the role that HR plays in the future, and I gotta say that I am a true believer in HR. That doesn’t mean that everything that we do today is the right way of doing to do. Things. But I’m a true believer in. Our power to become trailblazers that are leading the way for people and organizations to lead others and mark the way forward for people, for organizations, for leaders into what is unknown for many and we call it the future of work. I believe in that role of HR becoming a trailblazer. And that’s why I do hacking a car. That’s why I have. I participate in these conversations that what? That’s what keeps me up at night, how to how to realize this situation. How to help gather people to truly embrace their power. And the idea that they are Trail Blazers. We just need to close a few gaps. We just need to learn a few skills and then we can do it. That’s a little bit about me and what keeps me up at night.
Bonnie Graham
I wish you were enthusiastic, Enrique. I don’t know. No, that was. That was lovely. And my question for you is hacking, HR, the name of your company. What kind of reactions do you get from people? We all know that hacking doesn’t.
Enrique Rubio
I’m a little boring. I’m a little boring.
Bonnie Graham
Folks have a. Positive impression on people it does recently, but and originally did just briefly. How did you name it? Hacking HR Enrique.
Enrique Rubio
Yeah, it’s, you know, it comes. It comes a little bit from the technology space. You know the word hacking and hacking means changing something from the core, like hackers know that when you want to hack something, you can’t just change the facade of something. You cannot go to the lines of code to the ones and zeros. To hack something, and that’s what I was thinking about HR. I want to change HR from the course, so I have to go to the basics of HR, meaning the ones and zeros. You know, going to the language of technology to really sort of change the way we do things and that’s why I wanted to combine kind of like hacking and HR and not everybody, you know, thinks that this is a cool name. I mean, I remember a guy back in 2017 when I created this. He was like, oh, I don’t think everything in the chart needs to be hacked. And I’m like, well, I didn’t say everything, but a lot of things need to be hacked. In HR. So anyway, it’s been quite a journey and you know we are one of the largest and fastest growing communities in HR in the world. So the name has stock I think.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you. Thank you. I wanted to ask, I’m sure everybody is wondering quickly what do you have for breakfast?
Enrique Rubio
I have. I had. Oatmeal.
Bonnie Graham
OK, alright. We don’t want no bats of.
Enrique Rubio
And then more things. And then a sandwich I have. I usually have like 3 breakfasts. OK, we’ll stop.
Sherry Meyer
Hello.
Bonnie Graham
An oatmeal doctor, Patty Fletcher. You and I go so far back. I know you do with Sherry as well. Patty. It’s just a delight to have you here. So putting you on speaker view, what have you been up to? I know you’ve been disrupting. A lot of things Patty officially and unofficially. Go ahead. Bring us up to.
Patty Fletcher
I have so for those for those who don’t know me, first of all, this is wonderful, Bonnie. And thank you so much. And you know, all roads to for me lead back to SAP and everybody on here is, you know, example of that. So me grew up in enterprise software. You know, Sherry, you and I probably joined the SAP world a little bit around the same time. And in the world of HR, nobody knew who SAP was on this side of the pond or in any segment.
Sherry Meyer
Right, that was great. Yeah, it was great.
Patty Fletcher
Right. And so that really set me off in a career at the intersection of people, business and technology and really my career has been marked by large scale transformation, category disruption, net new category creation as well as kind of getting culture to change. And I disagree with. Culture. Each strategy for breakfast you need. And so and it’s really important as we think about that technology piece and data piece moving forward, Sherry used the word curiosity and I don’t believe curiosity killed the cat. I think it enabled the cat to have 10 lives, right. And so it really does come down to for me when I think about the future of work, which I think you said, Enrique, I think about it and I’m a futurist. The future of industry, and that’s where the tech and the economy and all those things, right, therefore the future of leadership and I am, you know, we’ll talk probably a bit about that today. Therefore, the future of work and therefore the future of how work gets done. So I continue to do that with my career and I’m really thrilled to be talking about that today.
Bonnie Graham
Tell me about your book. Patty. Come on. I see something. They’re about disrupting. What was your book title?
Patty Fletcher
Yeah. So I have a book bestseller Disruptor success strategy from women who break the mold. Old it’s an anti lean in book. I don’t believe in lean in. If women leaned in anymore, our faces would hit the ground and this is really around disruption. And make no mistake, right like disruption is, you know, just like hacking a word that can be negative but it’s not for me. I’ve been born with this thing where I cannot see a status quo that’s inefficient and effective. More inequitable and not create a new norm that actually is and that’s where my passion comes from. Leveling the playing field so all talent can thrive. And that’s why this topic is so important. Changing that world of work and being able to disrupt and follow those who broke the mold in order to be bold.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you. I think we have a panel of disruptors here today. Sherry, what do you think? I think we’re all disruptors. Patty. Patty knows that I started something called Game Changers Radio in 2011 for SAP. On a whim or on a dare, I dared myself and it turned into 48 radio series over 10 years and brought millions of listeners to thought leadership for SAP.
Sherry Meyer
We absolutely do it. It was it was staffed, yes.
Patty Fletcher
Finance. It’s been a pleasure watching.
Bonnie Graham
And it’s just it, just I just kept doing it but. But people said, what are you doing? That’s not your job. I said, who cares? It’s just so interesting to get these people on here and not be selling anything just. To be a. Leader in thinking about technology, about the future, about breaking the mold Patty about disrupting, about changing the game, and it just went on and on and on. And here I am. 56 series later and I connected with Sherry and here we are. So thank you very much, Patty. What do you have for breakfast? Seriously.
Patty Fletcher
I had a ham and onion.
Bonnie Graham
Ooh, homemade or ordered. Oh. All right, all right. All right. OK. There you go. GOAT Sharma. So happy I met you. Nobody else was on that Prep calling you and I just rocked and rolled. I think we’re on for 45 minutes. Talking, getting to know each other. Oh, such a pleasure to have you here. Please share with everybody. Who are you and what’s your passion for our topic? Well.
Patty Fletcher
Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Jyoti Sharma
We were. Thank you so much. Uh, firstly, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, everybody. Thank you so much. Bonnie Cherry rising team. Paddy. Enrique, you know, really looking forward to contributing my bit to the panel today. My name is Jyoti Sharma and I’m calling in from a rainy and very Christmassy London. In my current role I’m the founder and CEO of Tara Cares Global, which is an AI startup enterprise that is empowering women and female individuals and more importantly their employers and healthcare systems, with science in how we change the face of menopause and. Healthy aging in females and I’ll come in a bit. Why? I’m curious about the. Topic, but I founded this venture in summer of 2022 when all of us were reeling out of the pandemic and after a very intense introspection during the pandemic. At that time I was an executive director at Evi London, one of the BIG4 consulting firms where I was leading the people experienced business at the intersection of culture, strategy and technology. Across 100 plus countries and Europe, Middle East, India and Africa. Very similar to, you know, most of the speakers here. Most of my career has been shaped by SAP and SAP’s acquisitions. And for more than 22 years, I’ve implemented. And LED some of the largest tech enabled transformations for companies like Johnson and Johnson, PepsiCo, Bayer, amongst others growing tech alliances with SAP SuccessFactors, Microsoft core tricks, and service. Now my passion for this topic and you know when Hannah reached out to me, I was. I was over the moon because it finds its origin in my first hand experience as a consultant as ASAP press best selling author for migrating to the cloud with SuccessFactors as a tech leader being part of organizations, advising the C-Suite and organizations of all sizes. And also sharing in the journey of my customers for focused on finding that magical blend of culture, strategy and technology, you know, similar to Patty, I don’t think anyone eats anyone for breakfast. It really is up to the leaders and to the people who are sponsoring that transformation and what they do with what the, the resources that they have. Now I’m also a researcher for the National Institute of Health and Care Research in the UK and a graduate member of British Psychological Society, which gives me the privilege of having spent more than 4000 hours investigating the lived experience of menopause, transition of women of all ages, ethnic ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds. So. In in my role right now and the company, what we are doing is we are empowering organizations with science. We are organize, we are empowering organizations with you know, the power of individual differences in how. We need to reimagine the approach that organizations take to address the suffering, the silence and stigma of menopause transition, and I am flying the flag or shaping the future of female world. I know we’ve been talking about future of work for I think at least two decades, as long as my careers, you know, spans. And we are looking at shaping the future of female work and that’s what I would be contributing throughout the discussion here. So really delighted to be here.
Bonnie Graham
I have two questions for you, Jody. Number one is, do you ever? Sleep.
Jyoti Sharma
I do. I sleep, I sleep 8 to 10 hours.
Bonnie Graham
You told me on a prep call, but I wanted everybody else to hear it. That was beyond amazing.
Jyoti Sharma
Yes, 8 to 10 hours night sleep, yeah.
Bonnie Graham
And the second question, you know what’s coming? What’d you have? For breakfast today.
Jyoti Sharma
Oatmeal and a boiled egg and a.
Bonnie Graham
Quote from a Movie or a TV show or a song lyric and you’re going to explain it. Let’s make this short because we have so much to talk about. Sherry, I’m predicting there’ll be a Part 2 of this topic. It’s no way we’re going to get through all this. So Sherry has brought us a quote from Billy Joe Armstrong from Green Day. It’s a little bit of a long quote. She’s going to explain what it has to do with our topic. The quote is she, she screams in silence, a sullen riot penetrating through her mind, waiting for a sign to smash the silence with a brick of self-control. There’s the chorus. I don’t when you’re all going to say, are you locked up in a world that’s been planned out for you? Are you feeling like a social tool? Without of, you scream at me until my ears bleed. I’m taking heed just for you. How’d I do? Sherry? Is that OK?
Sherry Meyer
Is it wonderful? So little did you know I was a punk rock fan. I love Green Day and that particular song my daughter goes to that particular song. She decided when she was about 10 years old was my song, and I hadn’t really listened to the words until she said that. And I was like it. Is my song. That is so me screaming in silence. And what it has to do with our show today is really, I feel like technology has given all of us on this panel and all of us in the world a much bigger voice, a much be a bigger opportunity to say things and to know other people on other people’s culture. More so than ever before. So I really see technology influencing culture in very positive ways and vice versa. And so it’s a circle, right of the culture, strategy and technology, they all kind of weave together in some way or another, but that’s one of the reasons I chose that. Well, besides I. Of the song.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you very much. Open to butcher it too much. That was a cold read, by the way, but I sense that there was a motion in those words. Enrique Rubio has picked a quote from The West Wing American serial political drama TV on NBC from 1999 to 2006. This is from episode Noel, with the two dots over the E originally aired December 13th. 2000 Season 2 Episode 10 Let me read the scene if that’s OK with you, Enrique and. Then you can.
Enrique Rubio
That’s a long one, yeah.
Bonnie Graham
Explain. I know Leo McGarry played by John Spencer. I like him. Tells the story to Josh Lyman. Played by Bradley Whitford. Who is? Mental health. He’s concerned about the guys walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can’t get out. A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up. Hey, you, can you help me out? The Doctor writes a prescription, throws it down the hole and moves on. Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up. Father, I’m down. In this hole. Can you help me out? The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down the hole and moves on. The friend walks by. Hey, Joe, it’s me. Can you help me out? And the friend jumps in the hole our guy says. Are you stupid? Now we’re both down here. And the friend says. Yeah, but I’ve been down here before and I know the way out. Enrique, what does this have to do with our topic? I love the scene. Go.
Enrique Rubio
Ahead. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that’s The West Wing is one of my favorite shows, and I’m actually watching it for the second time now, reminding myself that politics doesn’t have to be about hate and, you know, a polarization. It can be about disagreeing with kindness. And compassion and trying to reach common ground. Right. But the reason why I chose that quote, which by the way, I didn’t know it was in December of 2000, you know, very telling. And now we’re in December, 23 years later. There, but it’s because there’s, uh, there are people that have traversed the journey of creating better organizations. They have connected the dots between culture, technology, people and strategy. And they have done the work they have been doing, research, talking about this for such a long time. Part is one of them. You know, years and years talking about this, talking about this. And yes, many people. Listen to her, but also a lot of people have been incredulous about the fact that you can connect the dots between technology, culture, performance and strategy, and now they are realizing. Yes, it kind of makes sense that if people are well and if they are cared for and if we focus on their improved experience, they will deliver better for the business. And therefore our basis will do. Better so find those people that have been in the hole. It doesn’t have to be literally a hole, but find those people have been talking about this for such a long time. The party fletchers of the world reach out to them and tell them I want to do this. I I never believed that this was possible. But I now know I’m aware. I just need some help. Help me out. Get out of this hole. To make my company my organization more competitive in this very, you know, difficult set of circumstances while at the same time I care for the people. That to me is the friend that jumped in the hole is Patty. She jumped in the hole and now she’s telling people I’ve been. I’ve been researching about this now, let me help you get out of here.
Bonnie Graham
That was brilliant.
Patty Fletcher
Best friends forever.
Enrique Rubio
Yeah.
Bonnie Graham
I think so. Well, a lot of friendships are made on these. Shows. He’s going to be on who’s holiday, who’s going to be on who’s holiday list. I can see the lists are getting bigger there. Thank you very much. Enrique. I enjoy researching these quotes. Obviously, people don’t send me the whole thing, but I go out and I spend. That was on Wikipedia. And yes, I do donate when they ask me for money cause it’s like I don’t. I don’t know who writes all this stuff and the quality vary. These, but it’s just wonderful to read the background on these movies and TV shows and singers. So thank you very much. I had fun. Patty Fletcher has picked a scene from Fargo, American Black comedy crime drama FX TV series. This is from season 1. I don’t have the exact episode name. Ah, let’s see. Fargo’s created and primarily written by Noah Hawley. Inspired by the 1996 film written and directed by the Coen brothers, and takes place in a fictional universe, there we go. So let me read the scene. Patty, we have Lauren Malveaux, a hitman for hire played. By Billy Bob. Norton, do you know the human eye can see more shades of green than any other color? Gus Grimley was a Duluth police detective officer played by Colin Hanks. What Lorne malvo? I said, did you know the human? I could see more shades of green than any other color. My question for you. Is why, Gus? No, no, no, no, no, just, just hold on. Lauren. When you figure out the answer to my question. Then you’ll have the answer to yours. OK, Patty, unravel for me. What? Have we got here?
Patty Fletcher
Number one, I’m a little disappointed because I did not hear your North Dakota accent, so.
Bonnie Graham
Tell me, what is it supposed to sound like? Patty, go.
Patty Fletcher
Ahead, you know it’s so funny. When I went there for a customer for SAP years ago, I couldn’t believe that accent was real. So and it is so. So what is this about? Right. So the human eye is biologically set. To see several shades of green and when we think about the origins as humans, it makes sense this enables us whether we are the prey or the predator to see, and it’s because it’s the only color we really see straight on, right, and then the rungs, you know, kind of concentric circles really help us there. But what that enables us to do is to be able to distinguish kind of and those kinds of things from a predator or prey that is camouflaged. And when I think about this quote, it’s really kind of taking off from what Enrique just talked about. When we think about technology, it’s the eye, right? But it’s also the green, and that’s what AI is enabling us to do in every single industrial revolution leading up to AI was all about replacing, you know, bad work and going and helping out a little bit with some of the things here, but. Replacing kind of unsafe work. Work that too much time and ultimately started in placing people when it came to decision making. And yet here we are on a totally different shift with AI has nothing to do with that. It’s cognitive shifts. And so when we think about this quote, it’s not only what are the things that we are trained to look at, but what’s the new ways in which we should not only what we see, but what do we hear, what do we feel. So that’s why and I can’t make to dive in.
Bonnie Graham
The new ways in which we should isn’t that interesting. It reminds me of research I did for a poem for my writers digest poem of the day in April. I think it was Patty where I discovered that on the set of gone with the winds, the director wanted Vivian Lee, I think to have blue eyes. And she had green eyes. So they hired a very famous makeup artist to come in and make sure everything in the environment. Around her when she was being filmed. Made her eyes look the color the director wanted green or blue. Very, very interesting. Way back in the 1930s, it just reminded me. Thank you very much, Patty. Let’s move on and I’ll work on that accent. Patty, I didn’t know. North Dakota had one. I obviously didn’t see Fargo. I’ll. I’ll work on. I promise I will disrupt. Jyoti Sharma has sent us a quote. From Robert Long, Robin Longstride, Ohh, played by Russell Crowe, the. Movie 2010 action film going back in history here, Robin Hood based on the Robin Hood legend. The film is directed by Ridley Scott and stars Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, William Hurt, Mark Strong, Mark Addy, Oscar Isaac, Danny Houston, Eileen Atkins and Max von Sidow. Very, very interesting here. So here is the quote, rise and rise again until lambs become lions. OK. Go ahead, Jody. What does this have to? Do with our topic.
Jyoti Sharma
Right, so I fixed that code 1 because I absolutely love Robin Hood and only topical that I live in England now and he was from Nottinghamshire. There are a couple of reasons why. Firstly, this scene in the movie is when Robin Hood is an adult and he’s being reminded of the visionary and the philosopher that his father was. And so he has to go back and remember the scene when his father made him touch, you know, an inscription and rock which says rise and rise again until the Lambs become lions. For me, it resonates with the topic. #1 Kate Blanchett was cast in this film in 2009 to play Maid Marian because, and she replaced Sienna Miller and Sienna Miller had to exit because when the script was rewritten, she seems to be too young for the role. Right. And so think about women and aging. And I have first hand experience. So I have had the privilege of, you know, learning from the best, but always was, at least with women, with people who were 10-15 years senior to me in experience and age. And I was. Supposedly, the kid on the block, and now I’m. I’m tall. Ohh. You’re too young to be talking menopause. But that’s the whole point that menopause does not see age and there are women in their 20s and 30s were also being diagnosed of menopause. So the double edged sword that women have to face in terms of aging you know is we are we are. We haven’t made any pro any progress in terms of what women face at the workplace. The second one is the when I say rise and rise again until lambs become life. People that we are engaging with our chief diversity Officers, Chief HR officers. So for me, the Chief people officer at say Unleashed Harris who took and looked at the platform and said, OK, I’m going to connect you to my global benefits leader. These are the lions and lionesses of the workplace and we have to continuously. Reinforce the topic of the female work the future of female work, which essentially if and I’ve been saying this for at least 10 years, when I was also working in corporates that until. Unless we reorient our strategies to talk to the female health span, reproductive and post reproductive health span, it is not going to solve the problem period. You know, I have friends who came back from pregnancy and maternity didn’t have a career. You come, step into your 40s and you’re not promoted, and then you know, organizations find a way to, you know, exit you from the organization, right. So. The Whoever is listening to us, whether your middle management, senior manager, no matter at what level of the organization you are, if you are looking at your female workforce and saying one-size-fits-all or looking at your future of work strategies and talent strategy and saying oh, this isn’t going to work well, the women’s role has evolved. Right now we have more leaders, we have women like Patty. Sherry, I mean, I think every one of us is a disruptor over here. And so I cannot tell you how many projects we’ve done where they just could not figure out the career path. Or the career path would suit a male worker, but it will not suit a female worker. Because guess what? When she goes into her 30s, she’s going to start thinking about starting a family. But she’s also a rock star. So how do you, in fact, women are more demanding at the workplace, right? Because they’re good at work and they’re good at in family and you have to make sure that you empower and. Enable her is because she’s spending 70 to 80% of her time in the workforce. So for me that that the, the voice of the visionary. You know if you think you are a visionary leader unless and until you actually can raise everybody to that level and elevate your workforce strategies which are around the healthy. Aging and destigmatize it. You know, there are some brands now who are removing that. Hey, this is an anti aging wrinkle cream or whatever. And that. Yeah, I mean there are there. There are I forget the name of the brand but the brand is saying you should not because you’re promoting. The support for anti-aging health when you’re 25, you’re aging. When you’re 35, you’re aging, and menopause is just a natural developmental stage.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you for the reality check.
Jyoti Sharma
So.
Sherry Meyer
So interesting, Bonnie, because what she’s talking about is really one of my points about, and I don’t know if you want to jump into this or not, but.
Bonnie Graham
Well, I want to read your statement. #4 Sherry. I want to go into the round table. Thank you, Jody. That was very, very interesting. I will tell you that whenever I’m introduced to a new company, whether it’s a guest on a radio show or in some way, I look at their board. And I count the number of female names. Sometimes it’s hard to tell, sometimes it’s hard to tell. But I count the.
Sherry Meyer
You can see that on one hand.
Bonnie Graham
Number.
Sherry Meyer
What’s that? You can do that on one hand.
Bonnie Graham
Absolutely. And if I see it’s all male names. I say damn, when are they going to get the message? What’s the problem? Seriously, it bothers me. It’s it still bothers me. And it should bother everybody. Why not everybody. Right. Let’s disrupt across the board. Thank you all for the quotes. I appreciate it. That was a lovely scene in the movie. I did. Watch the clip, Jody and the young person playing Robin Hood was talking. And then the father, then the older Robin Hood said the same thing. It was a beautiful scene. So thank you very much.
So let’s go on. I’m going to pick one statement from each of you, and I don’t think we’ll have time to cover a lot. So we’re have to schedule Part 2 and that’s just fine. Cause Sherry’s with us today, I’m going to read a statement from Sherry and this will segue nicely. Sherry into what? And Sherry will unpack it in about 3 minutes and then I’m going to go around the table. So I want you all to sit at the edge of your chair. It can’t be multitasking. Who’s got to pay? Engineer. So I will be asking Enrique, who’s virtually sitting next to Sherry. Agree or disagree one minute commentary, then Patty. Agree or disagree with Sherry and or with Enrique. Then Geode, you have the whole table to disagree with. If you want to. Then if you have time, I’ll go back to Sherry and ask her to wrap it up. At that point, I will have picked a statement from you. Enrique. I’ll put it in a private chat to you. You have two seconds to say yes or no. If you don’t like it, I’ll pick another one and we’ll do the same thing around the table. Let’s see how far we go. So, Sherry statement. #4 says this is all about people, not technology, who makes tech decisions. This is often the subject of debate and marketing. Who is your audio? You want to reach the person with the money to fund technology, but influencing that people, that person’s purchasing decision is quite tricky. I’m going to stop there. Sherry want you unpack this for us? Go ahead.
Sherry Meyer
Yeah, I’d love to. So my most recent position and my most recent position, I’ve had the opportunity to delve into marketing more and did that some with SAP, right, whenever I was building up an audience for something. Whenever I write, who is the audience, it’s really difficult to tell because yes, most tech companies will tell you it’s the CFO. It might be the CEO for HR. They try to tell you it’s the CHRO. Well, is it really? I mean, you can get that person’s attention, but really it’s the people that are using the technology that are going to be part of the project team, that influence everything, right. And then there are strategic things beyond your control, like whatever someone else deems the strategy is or. What the culture is right we’ll definitely influence the technology decision, but when it comes down to it, to me it’s all about how your people are going to work with the technology and how your people are going to make your business better. Right. So I think that it is very the three things we’re talking about are very much part of a circle or a triangle. You need all of them to succeed. And I don’t think we should second guess who that audience is. I think lots of people need to hear your story.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you. Good word. Story, storytelling. Communications. Getting the message out. Let’s go around the table. Enrique. Agree or disagree with Miss Meyer? What do you? I haven’t called her. Miss Meyer probably ever since I’ve known her. I’m getting formal here, Enrique. Go ahead.
Enrique Rubio
I definitely agree and I say this. As a technologist, right, I technology is the tool that helps us do better, or it can help us do worse. And that’s the one key thing that we have to to acknowledge, right? I mean, it doesn’t matter who you’re selling to and what matters is what the tool is going to be doing. For the people, for the workplace, and for the extended community of stakeholders that that company may be impacting, but ultimately. For, for in agreement with you, Sherry, for people who think that technology is the panacea that will resolve all the problems they have, they are in the wrong and they will. They are going down a road where they will find no way out. And alternatively for people who think that. Technology will enhance. The goodness of whatever process they have in place, they are, whether they have the answers for everything right now or the right technology right now doesn’t really matter that much. They are in the right path. So anyway, in short technology is there to. Serve a purpose, and that purpose is to enhance whatever processes we’re designing, whether they enhance them in a positive way or they make them worse. So that to me is a is an important thought for people who have.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you, Patty Fletcher. Agree or disagree, you got a lot to chew. On there, go ahead.
Patty Fletcher
Yeah, I’d say yes. And. And there’s a word Enrique used, which is enable and this is something I’m just going to say out loud. I have a visceral reaction to the word empower and power means I can give you power and I’m going to take it away. Technology is a great enabler and Sherry, having sat on both the HR and marketing side of the house, I will say my new definition of marketing is to facilitate business between people, right? People do business with people with HR. I think it’s about facilitating relationships and my one concerning caveat would be from an HR organization. Is when you’re using tech to facilitate those relationships to beat your competition, to make your customers happy. Don’t do it for the workplace of today and yesterday. That’s what happens 100% of the time. Sherry, you and I saw that today. Sub all the time from right going to on Prem then going to SAS and now here we are with. Cognitive. So I would say for HR. It’s really about thinking deeply the new role of a manager in facilitating someone’s career and ability to get work done versus finishing the project on time within budget, right? We gotta look at those kind of little futurist things so agree, but we have to change the why and the how to be about facilitating those relationships. It’s the only true differentiator that another company cannot compete with. And it’s also make no mistake in expectation of all the workforces, multiple generation and across genders.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you got a lot to talk about here. Agree or disagree with anybody or everybody? Go ahead.
Jyoti Sharma
I think I partially agree with everybody and the reason I say that is you know to Shari’s Point, yeah, who are the decision makers? I don’t know if I misread, but there’s a there’s a slight assumption that it’s Mace, mostly male dominated, you know boards that we are looking at. I can tell you from first hand experience of building this venture. For 18 months now that I’ve had better response from men than women. When it comes to menopause, when it comes to healthy aging, and I’ll tell you why. Because women are also suffering from that generational conditioning because their mother said, just get on with it, you know, so the thing is that it’s. We do need diverse decision makers, but at the same time, again, Patty to your point, yes, agree that in power I take I give the power, I take it away. But we are still in a place where. And you do need the power. You do need to be able to control your destiny and for that, yes, there are certain structural changes that have to be made in organizations for women to be in that position, right. So the point is that whether you use, empower, enable, whether you say, hey, what, when you are looking at your both strategies, you know one of the points I made was. When you’re looking at the fee, the when you’re promoting diversity in leadership and making a female centric strategy. That’s when we start talking, if it’s even if it’s a male dominated board. But are you looking at a female centric strategy to say, hey, I’ve got 20 women in 40 to 45 age bracket and I want to accelerate their promotion to the board, you know, before they start hitting, you know, difficult stages in their life. So I would partially agree, yes, technology. It’s all about the people, not just about technology, but technology, how it is, how it has evolved over the years. If people don’t fit to the evolving landscape of technology, then people are gonna. Not find themselves useful as well, right? So I would. I would stay in the middle over here.
Bonnie Graham
Interesting Sherry. Good conversation start anything you want to say back.
Sherry Meyer
It’s a great, great conversation starter and I think really what it comes down to is assumptions. I heard Jodi say that, you know, she had much better response from males who listened to her pitch about menopause than she did from females.
Bonnie Graham
To your colleagues.
Sherry Meyer
Which, you know, maybe there’s a bit of a stigma attached, but those are the things you don’t know, right? And one of my very, very early communication classes, a woman stood up and she said she was trying to teach us how to speak. So let’s write whatever the other party would completely understand. She said they had different parents than you did. And I’ve always remembered that because that is so fundamental, my parenting, my culture. I mean, my company country that my parents came, countries that my parents came from, how long they were here, where I went to school, what kind of challenges do I have, especially as a young woman growing up, right, not the same challenges most men had, all those influenced my decisions where I am at now, you know, for most of my working career. I was a single mom. I made decisions about my career. I saw things about business and work that I needed to fit my life so. It’s a very, very individual thing and you cannot get to do that until you really speak to someone in person and get. To know them.
Bonnie Graham
Walk a mile in their shoes.
Sherry Meyer
Yep.
Bonnie Graham
And who bought those shoes or made them for them in the beginning? Thank you, Sherry. Very, very interesting. I’m going to move on. And Enrique Rubio. I have picked 2 statements for you because I think there’s a nice segue between your statement two and three. I’ll read them both and then give us a 3 minute unpacking. And then at this round, Patty, you’re sitting next to Enrique and then it’ll be Jody and Sherry. Round it up. So Enrique says to build successful organizations, we have to understand that people and business success are two sides of the same coin. Therefore, we need to focus in people strategy as much, if not more, as we focus on business strategy, that statement 2. Here’s 3 the traditional approach to competitive advantage solely focused on business differentiators is not enough anymore to help organizations succeed. Here’s the kicker, the real competitive advantage is culture. Not only. Strategy for breakfast culture is the strategy I wanted to get that one in there, Enrique. Go ahead.
Enrique Rubio
Yeah, thank you. Well, my statements are so long like my quote. So but thank you for reading them both you know, so eloquently. But yes, we have neglected the human component of any organization for such a long time. Right. And we have treated people. Like if they work COGS in the machine and we, you know, many organizations continue to do that, they continue to treat people like they are cogs in the machine and the machine is supposed to make money for a small group of people that employees never even know about. By the way, and that approach doesn’t work anymore and it just doesn’t work for many reasons. One of them is people are overworked, burned out, stressed, depressed, anxious and they can’t produce as well. And this is impacting organizations, but of course it’s impacting people’s mental health and what ends up happening is that. They leave an organization, they may leave an entire field of expertise like people are living in right now because they are burned out just because they are not finding the impact they want to achieve. And they are finding a negative impact on their health. So we can’t disconnect the success of an organization from the success of the people and the success of the people has many different shapes, by the way. One shape can be them being well and cared for. Another shape can be them being well paid. And of course, you know all of these things are true simultaneously. Another one can be them growing professionally to do something else later in life, and again, all of these statements can be true, but the ultimate message here is that you can’t disconnect the success of our of an organization with from the success of the people. These are two sides of the same. Thing of the same coin. Now what happens? You know, in in my view is that we have focused so much on making on trying to make organizations better by only focusing on making business decisions, for example. Making people come to work back in an office, right? I mean, that is that is a business. This sort of excuse, uh, so to speak, right. And we are disregarding the fact talking to Jodi by the way, that there are single moms out there that are doing very well by working remotely because now they have more flexibility. There are people who have parents that are aging and perhaps ill and they have flexibility by working remotely. But if we only focus on whether working in the office is right for the business and not working remotely, it’s right for the people. We’re making a mistake the same way that if we only focus on whether people are happy or by working remotely and not. How that impacts productivity and performance, then we’re also making a mistake. So these two conversations have to happen simultaneously and they pertain to the question of how do we create a culture where people are cared for, where they are taken into account, where we care for their human experience, not just their employee experience, but their human experience while simultaneously. They deliver for the business results, productivity, performance and whatnot, and I think these two questions are not opposing to each other. They are part of the same discussion. So that’s my whole point with this idea that people and business success are two sides of the same coin.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you very much, Sherry Anne. We need to make a decision. We can go around. Agree or disagree? We’ve got 7 minutes left or I can read one statement from Patty and have her unpack it. And one from GOT and do a Part 2 where we go around. What would you like me to do?
Sherry Meyer
Go with the latter and then.
Bonnie Graham
Go with the latter. OK, Patty, I’m just going to read your statement. Number three. If I put it in the chat, it’ll take too long. So this this, I think, is a very interesting.
Sherry Meyer
We’ll divert you.
Bonnie Graham
And addition to the conversation, you say the skill set of leaders and managers must be reevaluated based on business constructs that represent organizational culture that promote innovation, that promote compassion, that promote communications that work to create positive connections between people within teams and between business strata. Adopting new technologies, tools and processes that better enable. I didn’t realize this one set. That better enable employees to deliver within their roles becomes easy. Managers become advocates and avenues for internal mobility, upskilling and reskilling. We haven’t covered that at all. Patty, you wanna take two minutes? Unpack that, and then I’ll pick one from Jody and Shari’s. Gonna promise a part too. Go ahead, Patty.
Patty Fletcher
Yeah, sure. It’s a lot of what? What? And I do wish we could have gone around and talked about and what Enrique had just spoke about, but it really does come to culture and for me, right. I have been in this space and I, you know, 20 years working in in gender equity and underrepresented equity and now looking at the new majority. And here’s what the new majority expects. Whether you’re a woman or you’re also seeing that in incoming generations, and that is things around, how are you going to invest in my personal definition of success? So, Enrique, when you’re talking about success, we have to remember what G OT said, which is one size doesn’t fit all each demographic. Each individual based on all the things that that Bonnie and Sherry just talked about, we have our own definitions of success. And yet we have to address what success looks like and who needs to be successful. And we think about middle managers. In another show, we can talk about the work that I did there. That was Seminole at ASAP on. This is the. Role in achieving whatever success that looks like. Notice I didn’t say the role in achieving finish the project. On time and within budget, your people are your most competitive advantage. If you are not investing your tools, your enablement in a way to grow managers differently to understand humans and they’re not using AI to help with that deep understand. Ending people are going to continue to lead the pandemic was a great example of what happens with the erosion of culture that’s based on the wrong definitions and constructs of culture. So I totally agree with it, but it leads the whole point of this thing. Bonnie is when we start introducing new topics, it creates new conversations. That the board and C-Suite must have, and we keep stopping at the word culture and we’re not diving in and up with what that actually means. And I will tell you as a C-Suite leader, as a boardroom person, as a person who’s been an operator, it’s incredibly difficult to lead a dead. Set of employees. If you don’t first start with any culture of inclusion, that’s the problem, and that’s what Geoff’s work is, is doing it, and you, Enrique, and enabling that.
Bonnie Graham
Thank. And I’m going to read a statement from Jody, but I want to say, how does the conversation reach the boardroom? Patty, it doesn’t always get there. What’s that trajectory? That’s.
Patty Fletcher
It’s are that I oh, we can talk about that in another thing, yeah.
Bonnie Graham
Whole other Sherry, I think there are two more topics here. We have two more shots. We’re set. Tell Hannah. Just need to write any more abstracts. We’ve got January and February all sewed up. Statement #2. This needs to be said. Healthy aging for a healthier enterprise. Prioritizing healthy aging within. Workforce is not just a compassionate approach, it’s a savvy business strategy. Got go ahead. I can give you 2 minutes 3. Minutes tops go.
Jyoti Sharma
Yeah, I think one minute is plenty because everybody has really spoken to that effect. When we talk about healthy aging with everything we talked about, it’s a very individual experience.
Patty Fletcher
Exit.
Jyoti Sharma
You know how your early life was, what your genetics is, and here I’ll introduce the notion of individual differences and HealthEquity how a particular individual person reacts or experience illnesses or, you know, to treatments that are given to them. So when you’re looking at a healthier workforce, just investing millions of dollars. In saying ohh we’ve got mental health and well-being initiatives and we’ve invested so much in XYZ Tech, which is a well-being platform, but you’re working bloody 40 hours. You know, in in a day or whatever, 48 hours in two days and you then say, oh, now we’re going to have a one day off where our employees meet with their families, but they don’t have the energy to meet with their families because they’ve been, you know, slogging like an like a horse the whole week. Right. So it’s all upside down. So what? Organizations need to look at is when you, if you’re really invested, as Patty said, in a healthier workforce. But if you don’t have your finger on the pulse so you know leaders were. Saying. Come back to the workplace. There are younger women who have premenstrual disorders, who are doing much better working from home during their menstruation during their menstrual cycle, versus coming back to the office. Right. And who did? Who determines culture? What is culture? The leaders determine the what are the acceptable norms in the organization? That’s what. Culture is right now. If you are rewarding bad behaviors in your organization, you are creating that culture.
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
Jyoti Sharma
Right. So, so and when I say healthy aging health, where does health come from stress is one of the biggest drivers of bad health, very stress coming from it’s from you know we did a study and I have to say that we did a study with the National Health Services in England during the pandemic and during the pandemic. The workplace stress actually reduced. You know why? Because they weren’t meeting their managers, who were toxic. Because everybody was still virtual and they didn’t have in person toxic exchanges in the corridors. So the whole point is we need to look at societal, health, family, health, workplace, health. It’s all interconnected. And if every leader, every team member, is not invested and have. Just looking out for each other, we are all doomed.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you.
Jyoti Sharma
And it’s a collective responsibility.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you. It’s been a real pleasure tapping into the, the mindsets, the expertise, the experiences and the brains of the four of you, I’ll share with you and I’ll talk about a Part 2 and maybe even a Part 3. But I’m going to bring one point up before we go. And to me, it’s the diversity of who’s in that boardroom, who is willing to listen to the needs of the different pieces of that human workforce. Does somebody understand what a single mom needs, what an aging person needs, what a young person needs, what somebody who is only going to be remote needs? There is no water cooler. There are no face to face meetings, getting rid of the toxicity. In personalities that somehow trickle up to the top and don’t get shown the door, we all know organizations have those, so there’s so much more to talk about. Patty, that was my sleeping had had to get that in. I’ve been there. Been there seeing that. I want to thank the four of you, Sherry Ann. It’s just wonderful having you on the panel. It’s about time. As I said, Enrique Rubio, delight to meet you. So smart. I love the word hacking in your company. I think that was absolutely brilliant. Patty Fletcher reuniting. It’s just wonderful to see you again.
Patty Fletcher
Feel so good.
Bonnie Graham
Everything that comes out of your mouth is just a beautiful phrase. You just phrase everything so well, you don’t Lord your expertise, you just share it with us. You do it beautifully. Patty and Yoda. Your breath of fresh air. All of your research, all of your intelligence. It’s the wonderful things you share with us, your perspective that we wouldn’t get from anybody else. So I’m going to tell everybody, people say the future is already here and I say to my panelists, to my audience, the answer is no, no, no. That was yesterday’s future. That was the future of the sentence I. Just said it’s. In the past already I’ve got 30. Seconds to go. Thank you to Andrew at Voice America, our engineer. Today, thank you to our listeners, our viewers. The future hasn’t happened yet and we’re all going to do our best to intelligently and compassionately and passionately make it a better one. Everybody, happy holidays, wave goodbye. Don’t go away, panel. Don’t go away, Andrew, are we out?
All clear. Great job today, everyone. Fantastic show.