Category: Podcasts

A Delightful Box

category Leading, Orchestration, Podcasts

Monthly subscription boxes continue to be a household go-to, so making a business stand out is a challenge. Beauty product company BirchBox brilliantly realized that its sustainability as a business depended on placing the Orchestration of the customer Experience in the most savvy hands – those of its customers. Birchbox launched as a transformational company giving consumers the beauty counter-sampling Experience, curated and shipped to their homes each month. Because they are a mostly digital interface, BirchBox knew that in order to avoid fading into a saturated market, they needed to stay relevant, and what better way to do that than to put the power into the hands of the consumer? Using customer input, they are able to tailor the Experience to the customer’s beauty preferences and then offer products that the customer might not have found themselves. By Orchestrating and personalizing the Experience, BirchBox can delight its customers every time they open a box. Founder Katia Beauchamp shares how she built Birchbox and divulged that she believes “if you’re going to do something discretionary, it’s the retailer’s responsibility to make it really delightful.”

How can we Orchestrate a personalized Experience for our internal and external customers? As leaders, how can we invite others to provide input?
One Physician’s Guide to a “Feeling Connected” Practice

category Connection, Leading, Podcasts

In health care, we are often conditioned to be emotionally detached–the pace, complexity, and stress can otherwise be overwhelming. Yet, in this Greater Good podcast, Dr. Leif Hass shares his practice for Connection–finding time to see and care deeply for his patients and colleagues each day. This practice not only benefits his patients, but Dr. Hass as well. When he visits a patient, Dr. Hass acknowledges the suffering they are feeling rather than simply focusing on the pain scale of one to 10. By asking about suffering, he is taking both the physical and emotional pain into consideration. Dr Hass has learned that with a thoughtful pause, deep breath, and time to acknowledge someone’s distress, compassionate care is easier to deliver. And he invites the whole team into this approach, beginning with gratitude for the teams’ commitment and effort first, then encouraging them to care for others in this unique yet simple way. 

Dr. Hass goes on to share his “Feeling Connected” practice where he tunes into powerful moments of Connection. He spends time reflecting on one person and on a time he felt a true bond with this person. Dr Hass considers how the Experience felt, what made it memorable, and then he writes about it. Writing it down helps solidify the memory and makes it really stick. Studies show this practice of writing about our bonding Experiences also helps to make us kinder to others. 

​​​​Alfresco Chats Fuel Connection

category Connection, Leading, Podcasts

Jose Carlos Sanchez, mayor of a small town in Algar Spain, reignited an age-old cultural ritual of nightly outdoor chats known in Spanish as ‘charla al fresco’ to fuel Connection.  Sanchez noticed people were spending too much time on social media, feeling socially isolated and lonely, particularly with the COVID-19 pandemic. He encouraged the practice of outdoor chats to the community to bolster mental health and wellness.  When the sun sets, neighbors gather safely on their front steps to catch up on the day. “It’s like a therapy session for residents offering psychological release and keeping loneliness at bay.” The simple act of being together, asking questions, listening intently, and sharing stories with one another helps  people feel Connected. 

What Intentional daily or weekly rituals might we create to simply Connect with others? What questions would we ask? How might creating space for Connection impact the cultural fabric of our organization?
Making a Magical Connection

category Connection, Leading, Podcasts

It takes at least seven minutes to have a true, Connected conversation. In an age where technology buzzes, pings, and interrupts us on a nearly continual basis, this finding by social psychologist Sherry Turkle inspires us to think about how we can practice Connection. She discusses conversation and gives us some ideas about how to make it happen in this podcast from the Note to Self series “Infomagical.”

What does it take to have a truly human, face-to-face interaction for seven minutes these days? Why seven minutes? It takes that long to get past the settling in – the initial chat – and really dig into the meat of the conversation.

As leaders, when we encourage our team members to truly connect, and take the time to do it right, we create a Connection culture–a culture where Connections are sought after because they create valuable interactions. We know it’s not easy to remove all of the dings, mental distractions, and alerts urging us to send a text. It seems so much easier to shoot off a quick note and be done with it. But creating human Connections opens the door to so much more –and is truly time well spent.

Try having a full seven-minute, face-to-face conversation with someone - no phone, computer, or device - and discuss something you've recently heard, read, or watched. What is the hardest part about this exercise? What did you discover that you would have missed if you had Connected for only a minute or if you had been distracted by technology?