Meaningful

[Meaningful Mondays] Think EX, not just UX

[Meaningful Mondays] Think EX, not just UX
Userlevel 5
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  • Director of Brand at Typeform
  • 13 replies

Thinking about the people who power our businesses today. We all want to bring our best self to work, but there are so many things that get in the way, so many friction points, and so much politics and ego to wade through.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Employees are people, too. If we give the same attention EX as we do to UX, and help people do their best work despite the challenges and obstacles in their way, we would’ve done a great thing for the overall bottom-line, sure -- but people also leave their workday behind with a sense of pride and accomplishment, thus impacting their home and community as an extension of a company’s potential impact.

#peoplefirst

 


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Userlevel 7
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Paul - some fabulous points here but one I want to call out is “culture IS strategy”: I agree that this is a key and critical component of how successful any business is going to be. Far too often companies espouse that “employees are their most critical assets” but fall far short of walking the talk. In fact, in a previous company (who very strongly encouraged their staff to rank/vote the company up in the country’s best employers survey - to the point of calling you out if you had not voted or had not voted high enough, in an anonymous survey???) when someone decided to leave due to mental and physical health reasons, NO ONE in HR or even the direct managers contacted the individual to ask them how they really were, were they ok… they only wanted the transition plan. 

Needless to say, while the company is making successful strides, the key resources that were the heart and soul of the original firm that I had joined pre-merger, have all gone due to the change in the culture. And that part of the business is suffering. 

While one company’s culture may not be a match for an individual employee, we need to see how we fit in the cast of characters and we all need to be treated with humanity, dignity and empathy. Sometimes, we also have to suck it up and take orders when things are in crisis mode - even if we are not used to it. But once out the other side, we dust off, get washed up and see if things are where we (both sides) need to be. Inclusion needs to be real - and by this, I mean into the culture. Everyone needs to play a role in the culture - just like in team sports, where some folks are better at one function than another, but it’s how the team does together. 

EX is a great way to put it.. and I am sure there are many meaningful conversations to be had inside and outside the walls of an organization to make it better. 

thanks for your insight!

des

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Thanks John. I think we forget that so many people are affected by a firm’s activities, that it’s simpler to focus on the obvious: customers. But these are systems, not individual units, and connecting the dots requires a different mindset and approach — which doesn’t come naturally to most people (and mostly to our detriment).

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