Workers Want to Stay Home
Employees aren’t anxious to return to an office, which may forever change communication. Studies show that, since the pandemic, 61% of people would prefer to work from home full time, compared to 27% before the pandemic. Also, although about 32% didn’t want to work from home at all before the pandemic, 4% now have the same sentiment.
Employees report positive results from working from home, including greater efficiency. Although many have been challenged with children at work, overall, the unintended experiment has been successful.
Because more people will work from home, at least part time, teams need to be better collaborators, and managers need to be better managers. We have relied too heavily on simplistic measures, such as time spent in the office, with no better measures of accountability, output, and impact.
Leaders will need to find ways to keep employees connected to their organizations and to each other. Many employees are feeling “Zoomed out,” but we’ll need ways to socialize and build informal connections that help develop trust and make work easier to manage.
Phrases of 2020
Research firm Sentieo scoured investor calls to identify increases in certain phrases. The following represents the number of transcripts in which the word or phrase was used—not the number of times they appeared.
“Unprecedented times” was the phrase that increased the most from the previous year: 2,218 this year compared to only 3 last year. The second highest increase was “work from home.” Others were “furlough,” “challenging,” “technical difficulties,” “new normal,” and of course, “you’re on mute.”
This study reminds me of a farcical YouTube video, “Every Covid-19 Commercial Is Exactly the Same.” Both are good lessons in overused words that quickly become tiresome to hear. Let’s try to be more original in 2021.
Companies Leave Ad Agency Over Founder's Remarks
Several companies dropped ad agency Richards Group after the founder referred to a proposed Motel 6 ad as “too Black.” Stan Richards, the firm’s 87-year-old, white founder, also said the ad might alienate the chain’s “white supremacist constituents.” Although the agency created Motel 6’s slogan, “We’ll leave the lights on for you,” the company—along with Cracker Barrel, Home Depot and Keurig Dr Pepper—have ended the relationship. Another customer, The Salvation Army, said it were “deeply concerned” but “encouraged by the fact that Mr. Richards has made an apology.”
The founder made the comments during a Zoom meeting with more than 36 employees and referred to an ad with Black, latinx, and white motel guests. Richards apologized on another Zoom call, and he has been replaced as CEO by Glenn Dady, his planned successor. The company issued a statement on its website, including this quote from Richards:
“If this was a publicly held company, I’d be fired for the comments I made. But we’re not public, so I am firing myself. Our employees, first and foremost, deserve that.”
United Airlines’ Response to Passenger Death
United Airlines is doing damage control after a passenger flying from Orlando to Los Angeles was rushed to a hospital in New Orleans and died. The cause of death hasn’t yet been reported, but the airline confirmed that the passenger had Covid-19 symptoms.
Customer response is fierce, partly because the passenger’s wife told others that her husband had Covid, and partly because the airline continued to fly the plane with passengers. Like most airlines, United asks passengers about their symptoms before flying, but they do not verify.
Communications are scant. I see nothing on United’s home page but found a news release dated December 16, two days after the passenger death, titled, “United and CDC Work Together on Contact Tracing Initiative for All International and Domestic Flights.” Recent tweets mention nothing about the situation, although one conveys the same message as the news release: “comprehensive, voluntary contract tracing.”
Some might feel that this is the least the airline can do in the situation.
Robinhood's Misleading Communications
Investment app Robinhood will pay $65 million in fines for misleading customers. The 2013 start-up has grown rapidly, attracting younger, inexperienced investors with no-fee accounts and no minimums. But Robinhood generates revenue through “payment for order flow,” essentially a kickback from Wall Street firms and the same practice Bernie Madoff used to defraud investors.
Robinhood uses behavioral nudges and notifications to push users to invest in riskier stocks, resulting in higher trading volume, sometimes dramatic losses—and more revenue for the company. An NBC article describes the visuals:
When smartphone owners pull up Robinhood’s investment app, they’re greeted with a variety of dazzling touches: bursts of confetti to celebrate transactions, the price of bitcoin in neon pink and a list of popular stocks to trade.
Charles Schwab, meet Candy Crush.
A competitor compared the design to Las Vegas.
Of course, all is well when stocks go up, but when stocks decline, users have to make up the loss. For one 20-year-old man, his bill appeared to be $730,000, and he committed suicide.
Trader Joe's Criticized for "Racist Packaging"
A 17-year-old started a petition to encourage Trader Joe’s to “Remove Racist Packaging From Your Products.” Briones Bedell explains her perspective:
The grocery chain labels some of its ethnic foods with modifications of “Joe” that belies a narrative of exoticism that perpetuates harmful stereotypes. For example, “Trader Ming’s” is used to brand the chain’s Chinese food, “Arabian Joe” brands Middle Eastern foods, “Trader José” brands Mexican foods, “Trader Giotto’s” is for Italian food, and “Trader Joe San” brands their Japanese cuisine.
She received 5,956 signatures and was aiming for 7,500.
The company responded in a series of statements, including this one:
We want to be clear: we disagree that any of these labels are racist. We do not make decisions based on petitions.
In addition, the LA Times reported, “More than 80 of the 100-plus readers who responded to The Times’ call for opinions said the labels would not change their feelings about Trader Joe’s or its product.”
Bedell claims that her petition was a success and cites this NY Times article with a quote from a company spokesperson: “Labels such as Arabian Joe’s and Armenian Joe’s were no longer in use, and that the label Trader Joe San is currently used on only about three products.” Bedell’s latest post is titled, “Trader Joe’s Discontinues ‘Arabian Joe’ and ‘Armenian Joe’ Labels.” The NY Times article explains, “The supermarket chain said it was in the process of phasing out names, including Trader Ming’s and Trader José, that have appeared on its international food products.”
Discussion:
What’s your view of the labels: racist, fun, or something else?
Read Bedell’s post, Trader Joe’s statements, and the NY Times article. Can she claim credit for a decision?
How do you assess Trader Joe’s response, particularly the statements on its website? What, if anything, should the company have done differently?
Fauci: "Numbers Don't Lie"
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the lead infectious disease expert in the U.S., was asked whether the nation has the worst COVID outbreak, and he said, “Numbers don’t lie.”
CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta interviewed the doctor at a Harvard School of Public Health forum. Dr. Gupta asked, “We're not quite 5% of the world's population, yet represent 20-25% of the world's infections ... I mean, that has to be the worst. Is it not the worst?"
Dr. Fauci responded, “Yeah, it is quantitatively if you look at it, it is. I mean the numbers don't lie.”
The doctors are looking at infections per capita. Of course, we could look at other measures. In this interview, President Trump considers the number of deaths as a percentage of those infected.
Discussion:
Do numbers lie? Can they? What about this book: How to Lie with Statistics?
Find evidence to both support and dispute the claim that the U.S. is the “worst.” What measures can you find? Which do you find more meaningful?
Wishing Someone Well
News outlets are reporting that President Trump wishes Ghislaine Maxwell “well.” An associate of Jeffrey Epstein, Maxwell is charged with child sex-trafficking and has pleaded not guilty.
President Trump knew Epstein and Maxwell and met them “numerous times over the years.” according to his interview with Axios. When an Axios interviewer questioned the president’s previous statement that he wishes her well, he explained what he meant:
"Her boyfriend died in jail, and people are still trying to figure out how did it happen. Was it suicide, was he killed? And I do wish her well.”
“I'm not looking for anything bad for her. I'm not looking bad [sic] for anybody.”
“I do. I wish her well.”
“I wish her well. I'd wish you well. I'd wish a lot of people well.”
Discussion:
What does it mean to “wish” someone “well”?
What's your view of President Trump’s comments? Appropriately empathic towards Maxwell, compassionate, insensitive towards victims of sexual abuse, polite, or something else?
The president defended his initial comments. Should he have done so or changed his approach? Why?
How to Check in on People in Difficult Times
A New York Times article, “How to Ask if Everything Is OK When It’s Clearly Not,” suggests ways to offer compassion. Here are Anna Goldfarb’s recommendations:
Check for signs of distress: moodiness, unkempt appearance
Check yourself first: Are you in a good place to engage?
Be specific about your observations: What behavior could indicate a problem?
Ask general or specific questions, depending on your relationship:
“Is anything on your mind?” or
“How are your kids adjusting to so many changes at school?”
Or just make a statement: “I’m wondering how you are.”
Talk about your own challenges; be vulnerable
Just listen; you don’t have to solve anyone else’s problem
Set a time to follow up
This article reminds me a model for appraising whether we offer compassion. This version is in Building Leadership Character, adapted from Jennifer Goetz, whose article was published in Psychological Bulletin.
Discussion:
How comfortable would you feel engaging someone in this way during the pandemic? What might prevent you from doing so?
Think of a time when you offered someone compassion. How does the appraisal model apply? How about a time when you didn’t offer someone compassion?
Zuckerberg Testifies About 2012 Emails
Mark Zuckerberg faced one particularly tense moment during the U.S. Congressional Antitrust Hearing. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) accused Facebook of antitrust activities in its acquisition of Instagram:
“Facebook, by its own admission ... saw Instagram as a threat that could potentially siphon business away from Facebook. So rather than compete with it, Facebook bought it. This is exactly the type of anti-competitive acquisition the antitrust laws were designed to prevent.”
Nadler’s conclusion is based on 2012 emails among Zuckerberg and his staff. In one email he wrote about Instagram:
“One way of looking at this is that what we’re really buying is time. Even if some new competitors springs up, buying Instagram, Path, Foursquare, etc now will give us a year or more to integrate their dynamics before anyone can get close to their scale again. Within that time, if we incorporate the social mechanics they were using, those new products won’t get much traction since we’ll already have their mechanics deployed at scale.”
Within an hour, Zuckerberg sent a second email, which some say proves his guilt:
“I didn’t mean to imply that we’d be buying them to prevent them from competing with us in any way.”
During the hearings, Zuckerberg defended the acquisition:
“I think the FTC had all of these documents ... and unanimously voted at the time not to challenge the acquisition. In hindsight, it probably looks obvious that Instagram would have reached the scale that it has today. But at the time, it was far from obvious.”
Discussion:
Research and describe relevant U.S. antitrust laws.
Read more about the 2012 emails and watch the hearings. How well did Zuckerberg defend the Instagram acquisition?
Did Zuckerberg’s follow-up email prove his guilt? Why or why not?
Tech CEOs Testify Before Congress
CEOs of four major tech companies—Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon—answered U.S. lawmakers’ questions about potential abuses of power. Themes from both Democrats and Republicans included relationships with third-parties, social media monitoring, advertising, search results, and other potential antitrust moves.
The CEOs joined by video and started with an opening statement. After that, no one was spared tough questions. Sundar Pichai was grilled about search engine results and Google’s business in China. Mark Zuckerberg defended its acquisition strategy. Jeff Bezos responded to accusations of using vendors’ data to build competitive products. And Tim Cook, who received the fewest questions, defended practices for developers, including fees charged through the App Store.
Discussion:
Watch the CEOs’ opening statements. Which were the strongest and weakest? On what criteria do you base your analysis?
Which leadership character dimensions do the CEOs exhibit or fail to exhibit.
Assess the CEOs’ delivery skills. What differences and similarities do you notice?
Now assess the technology set-up: lighting, background, camera angle, eye contact, and so on. What lessons do you learn for your own video meetings?
Should I Go Outside? A Visual
Researches created a visual to help people make informed decisions as communities re-open during the pandemic. The group has a consulting firm that helps organizations assess risk, and the visual is a representation of their work.
The COVID-19 Risk Index uses color coding to identify the likelihood that you’ll contract the virus during various activities, such as visiting the hospital, grocery shopping, or going to the dentist (which I did yesterday).
Discussion:
How effective do you find the visual for helping you assess risk? On what criteria do you base your analysis?
What, if anything, is missing from the index? How could you adapt the tool for local regions?
Developing Trust During the Pandemic
In his opinion piece, “How to Actually Talk to Anti-Maskers,” New York Times writer Charlie Warzel focuses on developing trust. He provides examples from previous pandemics and ways to encourage people to reduce spread of the disease.
Warzel explains the importance of empathizing with people and “meeting people where they are.” To meet resistance from people who don’t want to wear masks—and from those who may not get a vaccine when one is developed—Warzel emphasizes character and communication:
You cannot force public trust; you have to earn it by being humble and transparent, and by listening. And you can’t fake that care and maintenance — it’s the grueling and deeply human work of democracy, which is never finished.
Discussion:
What persuasion strategies does Warzel describe? Consider logical argument, emotional appeal, and credibility.
Think about a time when you persuaded someone by first empathizing with their point of view. How did it work? What effect did your approach have on your relationship? You might also think about a time when someone persuaded you in this way.
Which leadership character dimensions are illustrated in Warzel’s article?
Comparing Company Messages About Masks in Stores
Several companies have implemented policies for customers to wear masks in their stores during the pandemic.
Here are a few of these messages to compare. For some, the requirement is hard to find; search for “face” or “facial.”
Discussion:
What are the communication objectives of these statements? Who are the primary and secondary audiences?
In what ways are these messages similar and different? How do you explain the differences? Consider customer demographics, locations, products/services, etc.
Which do you consider most and least effective and why?
In addition to the Starbucks tweet here, find other social media company posts about customers wearing face coverings. Apply the same questions to these posts.
Redskins Drop Their Name
Add The Washington Redskins to the growing list of organizations that are changing their name following the killing of George Floyd and protests around the world. The NFL team has been under pressure from fans and sponsors but, until now, has resisted changing the 87-year-old name.
Redskins owner Dan Snyder said he would never change the name, but requests could no longer be ignored from FedEx, Bank of America, PepsiCo, and Nike, the NFL’s apparel partner, which removed Redskins products from its website.
A team statement announced the decision, with no replacement name or logo yet.
Discussion:
Did the team do the right thing by changing the name? Why or why not?
What are your thoughts about announcing the changing without a new name a logo? Should the team have announced both simultaneously? Why or why not?
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/13/sports/football/washington-redskins-new-name.html
AI to Increase Politeness in Writing
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon’s Language Technologies Institute are using artificial intelligence to make writing sound more polite. Their work goes beyond previous AI attempts to mark tone in written communications by replacing impolite sentences with more polite language, and the results are sentences that sound natural.
This table compares other computer results with those of this team. In the third column, we see more polite revisions of the first column.
For the second example, the authors argue that using first-person plural we “creates the sense that the burden of the request is shared between speaker and addressee.”
Discussion:
What’s your reaction to this work? How helpful would you find this program?
What’s your view of the revised sentences in column three: natural and better, stilted and insincere, or something else?
Why aren’t people more polite in their writing. In other words, why do we need this program—or do we?
P&G Commercials Demonstrate Empathy
Two Proctor and Gamble ads illustrate the role of empathy in understanding aspects of being Black in America. The first ad here, “The Look,” shows how a Black man experiences others’ reactions to him throughout the day. The second ad allows the viewer to watch intimate conversations that Black families have about race.
Discussion:
How would you describe the role of empathy in addressing bias?
What are the objectives of these ads? How well do they meet those objectives?
What makes these ads effective—or not—in your opinion?
Analyzing the NFL's Apology
Years after NFL players “took a knee” to protest police brutality and other discrimination against Black people, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell apologized “for not listening to NFL players earlier.” On June 5, less than two weeks after a police officer murdered George Floyd, Goodell posted a video to express his regret in handling player protests.
The response came on the heels of a video of Black NFL players saying, “What if I was George Floyd?” and asking the league to listen to its players.
Goodell’s video was introduced on NFL’s Twitter account with this statement:
“We, the NFL, condemn racism and the systematic oppression of Black People. We, the NFL, admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest. We, the NFL, believe Black Lives Matter.”
Skeptics wonder what will change in the league. Jim Litke, an Associated Press sports writer notes the lack of diversity within the NFL: “Three-quarters of the players are people of color, but just four head coaches, two general managers, and one owner, Shad Khan of the Jacksonville Jaguars, are.” Litke also points to Goodell’s shaky record of handling other “big issues,” like player concussions and domestic violence.
To that last point, this isn’t the first time Goodell apologized publicly. With a different delivery style, in a 2014 video, he said, “I got it wrong” after four players were temporarily benched for domestic violence incidents.
Discussion:
Analyze Goodell’s video message: primary and secondary audiences, communication objectives, content, organization, etc.
Compare this video to Goodell’s 2014 video. What differences do you notice in the delivery style? How do you explain Goodell’s strategic choices?
What’s your view of the latest apology: genuine, placating, or something else?
On face value, what leadership character dimensions does Goodell demonstrate? Which dimensions could Goodell display more strongly or directly?
Theme Parks in Japan Discourage Screaming
To prevent the spread of COVID-19, theme parks in Japan ask visitors to wear masks and to try not to scream while on rides.
In a video, two executives on the Fujiyama coaster at Fuji-Q Highland wear masks are stone-faced and don’t scream. According to a spokesperson, the park created the video to prove that keeping quiet is possible:
“We received complaints that the theme park association’s request to not make loud noises was impossible and too strict. That’s why we decided to release the video.”
So far, Disney parks in Florida are requiring masks, but they haven’t requested that visitors keep quiet.
Discussion:
How effective do you find the executives’ video? Consider principles of persuasion discussed in class: logical argument, emotional appeal, and credibility.
What, if anything, could improve the park’s messaging?
Why wouldn’t Disney in Florida follow suit? What cultural, political, and other factors may be at play?
Company Statements About George Floyd's Murder
Business Insider has assembled a list of companies’ statements and promised actions following the killing of George Floyd and the public protests.
TikTok, General Motors, McDonald’s—many brands are jumping into the conversation and posting messages that are both placating and inspiring.
Discussion:
Read the list of statements and actions. Which sound most meaningful to you?
Should all brands post a message? Which should, and what is important to convey?