Stories That Move
When we create videos for our clients, there's often an incredibly rich narrative that we can't include in the final cut. Being behind the scenes, we're fortunate to hear the depth and full context behind each story.
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Stories That Move
Smiley Poswolsky | Building Belonging
The difference between companies that retain top talent and those with revolving doors often comes down to one thing: a culture of belonging. In this illuminating conversation with workplace belonging expert Adam "Smiley" Pozwalski, we uncover why human connection has become the competitive advantage modern organizations can't afford to ignore.
Smiley shares his journey from being the slowest but most enthusiastic runner on his high school cross-country team to becoming a globally recognized keynote speaker who's delivered 700 presentations across 25 countries. His path wasn't linear - after experiencing his own quarter-life crisis in a stable but unfulfilling government job, he took a risk by self-publishing a book that eventually sold 10,000 copies and launched his speaking career.
The statistics he shares are compelling: 70% of Americans are disengaged at work, costing businesses $150 billion annually. Meanwhile, organizations that foster strong connections see dramatic improvements - 56% better job performance, 50% lower turnover risk, and 18 times more promotions. These numbers tell a clear story: belonging isn't just a nice-to-have, it's essential for business success.
Particularly illuminating is Smiley's advice for creating cultures that resonate with younger generations. As the first smartphone generation, Gen Z brings different expectations around speed, mental health awareness, and personal growth opportunities. Yet their fundamental needs mirror what we all seek: to be seen, heard, and valued for who we are.
Whether you're leading a global enterprise or building a startup, Smiley's practical guidance on treating "culture like a product" - something that constantly evolves and improves based on feedback - offers a roadmap for creating workplaces where people genuinely want to stay. Want to learn more? Join us at the Warsaw Growth Summit on November 6th, where Smiley will be delivering a keynote presentation on building cultures of belonging in our increasingly digital world.
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Anyone that's built a company, a successful company, understands the value of culture. They realize that it takes you know, like they understand that you can scale to a degree, you can grow to a degree. But if you really want to build a successful business, the reason people stay, frankly, the reason your customers stay, your clients stay is because of the culture right, because you can go buy a product anywhere right, there's always going to be a competitor, there's always going to be somewhere else you can spend your money. There's always going to be somewhere else you can get a job. But the reason people stay usually is the culture right and that has a big, a big part of that is human connection.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to Stories that Move. I'm your host, matt Duhl, chief Impact Officer and Co-Founder of DreamOn Studios, and co-hosting with me today is our Chief Operations Officer, alexis Grant. Today's guest is a globally recognized keynote speaker, best-selling author and one of the leading voices on workplace belonging and human connection when companies are looking to transform their culture and build more trust, engagement and meaning in the workplace. They call Adam Smiley-Pozwalski. Smiley has spoken to hundreds of organizations around the world and we're thrilled that he'll be one of the keynote speakers at the Warsaw Growth Summit coming up on November 6th. Consider this conversation a bit of a warm-up for what's to come. So, without further ado, let's welcome Smiley Pozwalski to Stories that Move. Hey friends, welcome back to Stories that Move. I'm your host. My name is Matt Duhl and I'm here with Alexis Grant.
Speaker 3:Hey Matt, how are you?
Speaker 2:I am so good. How are you doing today?
Speaker 3:Good Excited for our episode.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. So many of you know that have been listening that we have the Warsaw Growth Summit coming to Warsaw on November 6th, and we've had the privilege to have a handful of those speakers come on the podcast, share a little bit of their story. And so today we have another amazing guest that's going to be with us in Warsaw. So our guest is a globally recognized keynote speaker, bestselling author and workplace belonging expert. I'm excited to unpack what that means. So when companies want to drive culture transformation, increased trust, belonging, human connection and team environment, they call our guests Adam Smiley-Pozwalski. Adam, welcome to the show.
Speaker 1:Great to be here. Thanks so much for having me. I'm so excited for the Warsaw Growth Summit in November, so it's great to have this conversation today with you all.
Speaker 2:Excellent, excellent. Well, thank you, and hey, let me just take care of this right at the top.
Speaker 1:Do you like going by Adam or you like going by Smiley? Smiley works, okay, I can tell. I'll tell that story. Uh, I'll tell that story cause my mom did not name me Smiley, but I'll give you the full background at some point.
Speaker 2:Very cool. Well, hey, take a moment, introduce yourself to our audience. Let them know a little bit about you and some of the work that you're up to in the world today.
Speaker 1:Sure, uh well, it's great to be on. Thanks everyone for listening. My name is Adam Smiley-Pozwalski. I am a keynote speaker, an author, workplace belonging expert, so I help companies build a culture of belonging and human connection in the future of work with everything kind of facing modern day workplace whether it's hybrid, multigenerational, ai, culture, change, all the things. I help companies, teams, organizations really figure out how they can motivate their people, engage their people, increase, attract top talent, retain top talent and create a culture where everyone wants to do their best, work and stays and is excited to show up every single day. So I've been doing this work about uh, 10 years. I've done 700 keynotes in 25 countries. Um, so a lot of experience and I love it. I'm not going anywhere. I kind of want to do it for the rest of my life and um really feel very blessed that I get to do what I do every single day.
Speaker 2:Oh, amazing, so good. Okay, so rewind for us, tell us where you're from originally, um what was life like for you as a kid.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I currently live in California, in the Bay area, uh, san Francisco, california, but I grew up in Boston, massachusetts, um, and I went to a very big public high school. I was always kind of a kid that kind of felt like I didn't quite fit in, you know, was a little bit nerdy, kind of got picked on, kind of felt like I didn't quite fit in, you know, was a little bit nerdy, kind of got picked on, kind of just like one of those you know, not sure my place type of things. And I went to a very big public high school in Boston. There were over 2000 kids in my high school.
Speaker 1:I wanted to play a sport my freshman year and you can't see me if you're listening to the audio, or you all can't see me either when we're recording. But I'm not that big of a dude, uh, you can trust me. So football was not going to happen, out of the question, okay, uh, soccer also not going to happen. Our soccer team's like the best team in the state, and hockey I mean obviously come on now, uh. So I went out for one of the only sports left, which was cross country.
Speaker 1:Okay, now, I didn't know what the sport was. I assumed it was skiing, um, but it's actually running. You just go run, you know a few miles or five miles or 10 miles on the weekend. So we're doing hill workouts a couple of weeks into practice and I'm just kind of smiling, having a good time running up and down the hill and my coach, kind of hard-nosed Boston guy, starts screaming at me like what the hell are you doing, smiling? Stop smiling, kid, stop smiling, stop puking, kid, stop puking. So then the team nicknamed me Smiley and I was like one of the slowest kids on the team. I never placed at any of our races, but I was like our cheerleader.
Speaker 1:I'd be like come on, we gotta go like we got this, we're gonna win so I was like that kid I'm sure like a lot of you listening probably like I was that kid on my little league team or my you know track team or whatever basketball team, swim team, team, whatever. You're not like really good, but you have a role right.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And I ended up running kind of cross country indoor and outdoor track all 12 seasons, all four years of high school and I became captain my senior year.
Speaker 1:I was still one of the slowest kids on the team, yeah, but I had this role to play. So that was kind of my first experience of really belonging and having the sense that, like everyone on the team matters, you matter, you belong. Like whether you've been, you're the fastest kid on the team, whether you've been with the company for 20 years, for two years, for two weeks, you matter, you belong. So that was like really a formative experience for me and really gave me this kind of place in a very large high school.
Speaker 1:You're, you know, if you can everyone can remember freshman year of high school it's like, oh my gosh, it's overwhelming, yeah, it's just brutal, especially if you're like not quote, unquote one of the cool kids or whatever. And so that was just like this huge experience of, I think, shaping who I am in terms of like, oh, I have this huge gift to give, like I'm a very outgoing, extroverted, happy person, I love people, I love connecting. But that kind of gave me this kind of voice and kind of made me feel like I had a role to play. Yeah, so that was very formative for me, um, and it's something that I think has really shaped, obviously, my work today, but, but even just my me as a, as a human being.
Speaker 2:Awesome, awesome. So obviously such a huge formative piece of who you are today. What was the next step for you out of high school?
Speaker 1:After high school I kind of went on a little bit of a wandering career path. I think it's very important. A lot of times, you know, we hear from speakers or people that seem leaders, that seem, oh, they have it all figured out. And you know, it's very easy to kind of say that looking back now, especially with what I do now. But at the time, you know, I went to college. I went to a liberal arts college, small school, I studied film studies in college and then I moved to New York City. I was kind of figuring it out but I felt pretty lost. I then moved to DC.
Speaker 1:I was working for the United States government for a little while and felt just unsure of who I was and this was a time around, I think, a lot of people. There was a big shift of like I'm a millennial, I'm an elder millennial, so I was born in the early eighties kind of understanding that work wasn't just about, you know, getting a paycheck, but also about this sense of like, purpose or meaning or like I want something more. But also about this sense of like, purpose or meaning or like I want something more from my career than just paying the bills Right, and I want something more from my life than just like a house, and, you know, retiring at the age of 65 and wait, I can't even buy a house. So, like you know, I definitely want something more, like I want my days to have meaning, right, I want, I want to do something that I want to do, not just that other people say is a good job.
Speaker 1:And so I was in this kind of what I call my quarter life crisis and throughout most of my 20s up until really like the age of 30. So this is about a little over 10 years ago and I ended up quitting my job in Washington DC. I had this job that, on paper, was, you know, a good job, right Like government job, like you know, good security, job security benefits, et cetera, and you know decent salary, but kind of under. Realizing that I was internally very, very unhappy. I mean, I got, I was stressed out, I had panic attacks at night, I got shingles, which is like a nerve disease related to stress.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, gross, um, and, and really kind of mustering up the courage, uh, to be like, okay, I want to do something different with my life, right, I don't know what that is. Um, and I started kind of writing about my quarter life crisis, what I was going through the search for meaning. I started a blog on WordPress for $18. Um, and a lot of people were like you're a really great writer, like you should write a book, and I was like, yeah, yeah, I'm going to write a book. Um, so I ended up self publishing this book called the quarter life breakthrough, which is kind of about my career change, my career evolution, evolution and it sold 10,000 copies on Amazon, which is a lot.
Speaker 1:It's a lot for any book but for a self-published book, it's a lot, uh, and then that kind of led to my work now as a thought leader and as a speaker. So that book ended up getting picked up by penguin random house, so I republished it and then I really kind of learned that there was a lot of interest on the corporate side of how do we attract, retain millennials, how do we keep people happy at work, what is this new generation and now of course, gen Z looking for in the workplace in terms of meaning and purpose and flexibility and community and connection, all of these different things. How is the workplace shifting? And, um, you know so. So it's. There's like that great Miles Davis quote where it's like it takes a long time to get to to sound like yourself right.
Speaker 1:It takes a long time to kind of get where you're going and you know anyone that tells you like it's a straight line, I think, is kind of you know that's, it's crap, right. It sometimes is a little bit of a winding road and you got to kind of see what works for you and find yourself. So it took me, you know at least 30, 35 years to kind of figure out really you know their clues along the way but really kind of get into like who I really am and who I really what, what, what I was meant, what I meant to do, yeah excellent.
Speaker 3:That's awesome. Got lots of life to figure out. Still, if it took you 35 years.
Speaker 1:We all do. That's the point. That's why we're here. That's why we're here.
Speaker 3:There you go that's awesome. Well, tell me more about, yeah, I guess you know. So you were able to publish that book. It was picked up by Penguin House. Then what? What, I guess, inspired you to kind of go on this journey of? You said, 25 countries that you've spoken at. How did that happen?
Speaker 1:Yeah, for me it was kind of just realizing that I was really enjoyed the speaking Right and that there was and that there was interest there and that I could have an impact there, like I think I'm somebody that you know. When you write a book and you put it out there, like you might get, like somebody might write you a note or an Amazon review or something they might send you like this was really meaningful or thank you for this. But when you're speaking in front of a room, you get this immediate sense of feedback and appreciation. You can see how it's affecting someone from their facial expressions, their body language in the room, their laughter right how they kind of you know how they open up a little bit or how they engage with it.
Speaker 1:And I just started to realize as I was speaking that, wow, like this is really something that I love and it's something that I'm good at. In a way, that was kind of unique and different than anything I've ever done in my life, including writing, and I enjoy writing and I think I'm a good writer, but I really kind of the first time I ever did a speaking engagement, it was to do the crowdfunding campaign for my book, for my self-published book. So, to be clear, like I spent money, like I paid money.
Speaker 2:I didn't get paid I rented out a space I.
Speaker 1:I got a case of wine and a case of beer. I got cheese and crackers you know, like, it cost me a couple hundred bucks. I invited some of my friends and that was the first time I ever gave ever gave a talk.
Speaker 2:So, it.
Speaker 1:You know, and that's, and that's, that's where it went from. And I'll be honest, like there is a line from that I still use, that I use in that very first talk, and I guess that would have been 2013, 2014. So, you know, it just goes to show like, if you start, you don't, don't know what's going to happen. Yeah, um, and, and you and, and, if you just kind of listen to your heart, and if, if something is on your, on your heart, and you feel like you might have an urge there, you see, and maybe it's not the right thing, right, that happens all the time. Or maybe you can't figure out the financials, but I think you know I, I am a, I'm a thought leader, I'm a speaker, but I'm also an entrepreneur. Like I, I really identify with being a creative entrepreneur and and, and you know my, my creative story and my journey is about putting yourself out there.
Speaker 1:Like, when I started, um, I couldn't get a book deal. That's why I self-published. Like I went to an editor, um, at a local publishing house in San Francisco, and they're like yeah, yeah, we're not going to give you a book deal. And I was like, what do you mean? Like, it's a great idea. I'm a good writer. They're like, yeah, we're just not going to give you a book deal. Like you have no traction, you have no followers, you have no platform, you've never really published anything. Like you know, your mom follows you on Facebook, that's it. You know, and this is you know in the you know before, before you know, before Instagram was big, before TikTok was big I mean, it's, it's, it's early social media, but not not the current kind of landscape.
Speaker 1:And so I self-published and I and I ran a crowdfunding campaign like a Kickstarter Indiegogo I don't know if I'm sure some folks are familiar with those and and I put myself out there. And then I realized, oh, there are all these other people. People were giving me money to pre-order the book that I'd never met before, right, you know. And I'm like, whoa, 512 people are backing this book. Most of them are strangers. Like that's so cool. Like that's so cool, that's so powerful. When you put out your voice, and I realized that there was something your podcast is called Stories that Move. But when you put out a story and if it resonates and connects, and other people are like, oh, that's similar to my story, or I see elements of my story in your story. It creates this incredible ripple effect, this incredible kind of power, yeah, yeah, and a lot can happen from power.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, and a lot can happen from there, awesome, awesome. So obviously you were, um, you know, through your journey, through your life story, you had a message that was connecting in a really big way. So unpack for us a little bit more of work, pay, workplace belonging, um, what does that mean to you and why do you feel like it matters now, maybe more than ever before?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So you know, I kind of keep the definition of workplace belonging is pretty simple as being able to be yourself at work is feeling like you matter at work, it's feeling like you're a part of something, that you have a role, like kind of similar to my story of you know me on that cross country team back in high school, and I think why it's so important today is that just the majority of people don't feel that way. They don't really feel that way in the world, right, let alone in the workplace. So if you look at the data, like 70% of Americans are disengaged at their jobs, right, one fifth of those people are so disengaged they're actively undermining their co-workers work so they're literally getting paid by by their, their employer, by their job, to screw things up, to mess things up for their company. It's like, oh, I'm going to pay someone that's actively like undermining what we're doing here, like, can you imagine that's a fifth of of those disengaged folks.
Speaker 1:And then you kind of broaden out and you look at the loneliness epidemic right, 50% of Americans right now are lonely, one and two.
Speaker 1:So you have all these people 40% of workers don't, don't, aren't, don't, feel a strong sense of connection to their coworkers. 40% don't trust their coworkers. So you have all of these things happening where people basically are showing up to work every day, whether they work in person at a factory or at a restaurant or for a software company, or at a hospital or hybrid, remote, whatever it is, they don't really feel this strong sense of connection. We're more disconnected than ever and there's a lot of reasons for that, but the point being, people don't feel the sense of belonging at work, right, and people feel really disconnected and it leads to a lot of, you know frankly, just a bottom line business losses, right. So lonely, disconnected employees 45 percent lower productivity, lower quality of work, higher risk of turnover. They cost their employers one hundred and fifty150 billion per year in lost productivity. So this is like a major opportunity for companies that I think we're not paying attention to to kind of build a sense of belonging.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of times people think of belonging as something soft, as something oh yeah, we'll get to it later, we'll do it at the team retreat, they. You'll get to it, later We'll do a team retreat, they. And you know, like once a year we'll do a team building thing, we'll do a trust fall or whatever. And that's not what it is it's. It's actually like the ability to show up and have your coworker know who you are no, no, your name, no, your birthday no, if you have kids, their names, their birthdays, like what you like to do, what you don't like to do, who you are in the world, what your goals are, where you want to be. In five years you know if something's going on for you at home, right, something going on in your family, with your parents, with your kids, whatever, like that type of thing. That's a sense of belonging and I think, especially you know kind of in this world now, and also, and even more importantly, with the huge shift to ai.
Speaker 1:Yeah right, ai is an incredible tool. It's helping people become more efficient, but it's also leading, I think, increasing disconnection because people you know are now talking to ai agents. Or, you know, using chat gpt to talk to a quote-unquote therapist, or, to you know, using chat GPT to talk to a quote unquote therapist, or, to you know, have a chat bot instead of a friend, like all of these things. Um, people are losing that human connection.
Speaker 2:So I think my work is super important in this kind of digital age, technological age, hyperspeed, overwhelm. So I'm I'm curious how do you talk to, maybe business owners, executives, maybe it's people that are, you know, responsible to the stakeholders or the shareholders of the company or a restaurant of like we just need somebody to wash the dishes Like, how do you engage, you know, with those leaders to help them see the importance of what you're talking about?
Speaker 1:I I often, you know, especially with leaders really kind of I um really emphasize the data, right, cause I think that the data is is hard to ignore and it kind of makes a real business case for this stuff, right, so, um, you know I mentioned it's like cool, you want people to show up? Well, you're going to have. You people don't feel connected, they're going to not show up. Right, like lonely employees have more missed days at work. Double the sick days, lower productivity, lower quality of work, high risk of turnover, high high levels of connection 56 percent increase in job, in job performance 50. Drop in turnover risk. 18 times more promotions. Double the raises 170 increase in the chance that you're going to recommend your job to somebody. So, like, hey, we're hiring, you should work here, I love my job. Right, which is really important, right, that's how a lot of people hire is like, hey, who do you know who could work here? Um, which results in kind of is is annual savings of $52 million. So I really like to present and rely on the data because I think it makes business leaders realize that this is something super important and, um, they can see the tangible kind of bottom line impact of this stuff.
Speaker 1:Anyone that's built a company, a successful company, understands the value of culture. They realize that it takes you know like they. They understand that you, you can scale to a degree, you can grow to a degree. But if you really want to build a successful business, the reason people stay, frankly, the reason your customers stay, or clients stay, is because of the culture right, because you can go buy a product anywhere. Right, there's always going to be a competitor, there's always going to be somewhere else you can spend your money, there's always gonna be somewhere else you can get a job. But the reason people stay, uh, usually it's the culture right, and that has a big, a big part of that is is human connection.
Speaker 3:Yeah, hmm, now I was going to share just even a side story. So I joined DreamMound Studios in the fall, but prior to that I was at a marketing company for literally two and a half weeks. In that the experience that I had, you know. I joined the team. They said all the right things during the interview process, so even just like you can imagine the excitement of my first day but not once did anybody ask me you know what's your husband's name? Tell me about your family? What's your favorite color? So glad you're here. You know my name's Alexis. I was called Alexa for the first week by, I think, eight or nine different people of just like do you?
Speaker 3:see me, Do you hear me? Do you know me like, do you see me? Do you hear me? Do you know me? Do you care for me? You know just those fundamental questions even a child asks. And so, to your point, it's like are you hiring for productivity or are you hiring because that's the person you want in your team? And they're bringing more than just, you know, product and time, but true value as a person, Right. And so, yeah, I think you hit it right on the spot of like, yeah, culture matters so much. I mean, I quit the second weekend and they didn't even blink. They're like oh, OK, I'm like, what in the world you know?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Fortunately, dream On came along, and so still here.
Speaker 2:But you may have a client for Smiley though. Yeah, I think you really need to help them out. Yeah, I think you really need to help them out. Yeah, no, that's what.
Speaker 3:And again, it's not even like. It's not hard to just look at somebody in the eye and say, hey, I'm so glad you're here. Tell me more about you? Yeah, totally yeah.
Speaker 2:So. So, with that Smiley, we have, you know, a number of um, you know, entrepreneurs, who, who follow our show and listen, and small business owners. What would your encouragement be to them with what they're doing? Their teams, their clients? How should they be doing this?
Speaker 1:the right way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you know there's a, there's a lot, but I think you know one.
Speaker 1:One way to think about it and Alexis kind of mentioned this, but is to really kind of understand that, like belonging is everyone's job of, like, oh, that's HR, or like I don't have to worry about that. You know, maybe that's the chief of people, chief cultural officer, like somebody else over there is focused on this stuff and I can just do my job. I can focus on the numbers, or I can focus on revenue or sales or growth or whatever my you know accounting, whatever I'm responsible for marketing, and then somebody else will work about, worry about belonging. But I actually think that, especially in the kind of current future of work and where we are today, that's all of our jobs, right, and it doesn't always take a lot. So, like I think, like you know, I offer and you'll see in my talk, but I offer a bunch of practical tips and tools like people can use, right, whether it's like not always talking about work creating that one minute, five minutes at the start of a meeting for people to have a check in.
Speaker 1:You know, trying one new thing every meeting like having small win parties where people can can celebrate little things, not even huge accomplishments along the way, doubt clubs, and where people can share mistakes and things that they're nervous or scared about. Yeah, so I'll go into more of those when, when we're all together in Warsaw. But just like realizing that that's everyone's job now and and that I think like that and and and it's going to make you better at your work, it's going to actually help the work, whatever department you're in or whatever you're working on day to day, to focus on that connection and create that time and space for the connection too.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it'll help the bottom line actually help with the sales.
Speaker 1:It'll help with the business growth with you know, like with attracting new customers and clients. I mean anyone that is in a relationship, I mean anyone that is in some form of a sales business will understand the value of relationships, like the reason that somebody can stays with you or buys a house from you if you're in real estate or buys a car from you or even comes to your restaurant every Friday night with their family is mostly because of the people Right, because they have those deep relationships, because somebody knows their name, because they're building, somebody is understanding them as a person. They feel seen, they feel heard, they feel celebrated, and I think that that's only more important in today's world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So, you know millennials, I think, really helped to maybe start some of this movement inside the workplace. How much more is Gen Z leaning in? What are you seeing generationally and just some of the tendencies and things that just feel like, yes, this is what this generation is, moving us even more so towards the belonging.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I think that it's really important to kind of just like set the context for for gen z. Right, it's a smartphone generation, generation that does not know a world without the iphone. Right, like you know, in terms of the speed at which things are happening.
Speaker 1:Right, this generation that kind of always you know, like it used to be that you double clicked right like that's too much work now, so you swipe right yeah right, just like swipe, right to get, right like an uber, you can get food delivered, you can get a date, like all of these things happen so quickly. And then coming to the workplace and that not happening right yeah, like you can't swipe right to be like get promoted let me try that and I think that that is.
Speaker 1:That is like a big thing for Gen Z. It's, like you know, like, ah, like swipe, right. Like it's like you just got here. Like you know, I want to get a promotion. It's like it's your third day. Like you know, I want to get a raise, like you've been here for three weeks, like swipe, right. So I think that that is a huge kind of um learning gap and learning curve. So to understand that, like you know, on the one hand, companies do need to move faster and they are super slow and their, their policies and procedures are probably dated, but, on the other hand, there's a reason why you people have to spend some time at a place to kind of get promoted to, to kind of um it.
Speaker 1:It takes some time, like yes, you can be hungry, but like things are not going to happen as fast as you think, as they happen on your device, on your phone, right, right, so that there's a little bit of like a a a give and take there or kind of like setting realistic expectations.
Speaker 1:Um, but I also think you know, like people you know young people are really looking for the sense of like personal growth at work, so not just professional growth, but the ability to kind of grow as a person, to thrive as an adult. Right To like how to navigate this complex, overwhelming world that they find themselves in. It's like really kind of hard, like constant, fast pacedaced, moving things that are changing so quickly. They're looking for their boss to kind of be like a mentor or a guide, right, a coach, not just a boss or a supervisor, right, so that that sense of purpose has become a lot more personal. Right, it's not just about like the mission of the organization Like that's cool, but also like what is the mission of the individual? What is the mission of the organization? Like that's cool, but also like what is the mission of the individual, what is the mission of the employee? What's their personal purpose?
Speaker 3:how can the?
Speaker 1:company give back and support that. Um. So it's a little bit of a different kind of paradigm than it used to be, even more so than millennials, actually, just because of of the way the world is and technology, social media, mental health right. You're seeing the conversation really shift. Like mental health was not something that was spoken about right in the workplace a lot right yeah, prior right, like I think, really, if you could, you could probably say like prior to the pandemic, prior to cove, that was something that was like, you know, like go see if go see a therapist, right, like you know, like that's not something we're going to talk about here, but now it's really shifted and right, you're seeing skyrocketing rates of anxiety, depression among young people, gen Z teenagers, which is really alarming actually.
Speaker 1:But then, because of that, companies needing to pay attention to it more at work, right, yeah, and and not, it can't be just something. Oh, deal with that on your own time.
Speaker 1:deal with that at 8 pm, 9 pm, that has to be something that we have resources for um at work, or we can at least point people in the right direction. We have a support system. We actually we care about it. We can at least. We can at least support people on a basic level, not not saying that, like you know, you have to be trained to be a therapist. Like you're not a therapist, you're doing what you're doing, but you, you have to give care a little bit about what someone's going through.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I have empathy, exactly and curiosity, and be able to steer them in the right direction.
Speaker 3:Exactly, and curiosity and be able to steer them in the right direction. Yeah, it's so interesting even just thinking. You know you're talking about anxiety being out, you know, or sorry, anxiety just taking off and Gen Z employees and so forth, but it's really, you know, they are much more exposed to just other influences now, just through social media and such, just other influences now just through social media and such. And so it's like, even as a millennial, like I didn't have that. I'm not looking to my friend and saying, oh well, look at what she's doing in her career, right, like we were just going around and doing what we did and what we knew and leaning in, but like now there are so many distractions, and so how do we create that culture of belonging but also free of distraction?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're constantly kind of comparing yourself to your highlight, the higher highlight reels of everybody else. You're seeing all the other potential careers, other jobs or other companies out there and it's hard to stay focused. I mean, not just gen z, it's hard for anyone like it's not young just young people.
Speaker 1:Like everyone is susceptible to that right now yes right, and so that's just kind of the world, the kind of the modern world right now. Yeah, it's very hard for people to stay focused, to not be distracted, to not be comparing um, to not be overwhelmed, um, yeah.
Speaker 2:Smiley, you've had the opportunity to speak all over the world, many, many different companies, huge companies, Google companies, huge companies, Google, Apple, any companies that you can think of, and you don't have to name them if you don't want, but that were just doing it right where you said, oh, these guys are killing it. And then maybe the flip side of just situations that, oh, this is appalling, Like they are missing the boat, and what did that look like?
Speaker 1:Sure, I'll name a company in the former category but maybe not in the latter category. Yeah, yeah, so I can keep my job.
Speaker 2:Yeah good thinking.
Speaker 1:But in the former there's a company called Asana. They're a task management software company.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we use Asana. Oh, you use Asana. Absolutely, yeah, project management tool very, very successful.
Speaker 1:They started. I actually, you know, knew them when they were very small. I had a couple friends that worked there based in san francisco, and, and uh, their founders are both ex ex facebook folks, um, and, and they're really interesting because they've always had a really real emphasis on culture.
Speaker 1:They have a slogan called kind of treat culture like a product. So that means, I think, product in two different directions. So so, product as um, a product in like, if you think about those of you that that work, a product is like the app or the product is something that's constantly evolving. Whether it's hardware or software, it's something that's always evolving. You're changing a little tweak here. Maybe you're putting a new column. If you're a web designer, you change the UX, you change the design. If you're a podcast, hey, maybe we should put a story right before the intro, right, like whatever. Like you're constantly A-B testing. If you're doing social media, like does that work or that work, or should we do this or do that post? You're constantly testing, experimenting and iterating based on the results.
Speaker 1:Why don't we do that with culture too? Right, for too long culture has been this like well, our CEO in 1957 decided that our seven values are blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and that's our culture. And every year we go to you know chunky cheeses and it's like wait what We've hired like a thousand people since then. We've hired 50 people since then. Like, think about everything that's happened in the world since then. Like we got to evolve, we got to change, we got to try new things. We haven't.
Speaker 1:You know all of these new voices and new types of people like has our culture evolved with that? So it's treating culture like something that can grow and evolve. And you're taking these values that are like framed in the eighth floor conference room, right? Or on page 57 of the employee handbook and turning them into tangible programs, right? So you're not just talking about transparency, but they have this, you know like. You know, the CEO and leaders get up in front of the whole company and people can ask really hard questions and talk about things that are really hard, and you know the leaders will talk about them, even if they're really difficult things to talk about. Right. So not just talking about growth, but having access to coaching and personal development training for their employees, and I think then the culture as a product it becomes. People want to work there because of the culture too, so the product is actually the culture as well that that's why it's a great place to work.
Speaker 1:They've been best company, culture and tech by fortune magazine great place to work. Like, they're constantly in very high on all of these rankings and I think that that's a reason why, like, they're committed to this kind of growth and experimentation and trying new things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that and it's really important and I think it starts with kind of founders or C-suite executives, Like it always starts from the top. Sure To kind of have that be the case. In terms of the companies where it's the other flip side of that, I would say that the theme there is that they're really out of touch and not connecting deeply with their employees and if they do surveys, they don't listen to what people actually say on the surveys. We got feedback. It's like well, did you actually look at it? Did you listen to it? Did you follow up with people that said something that was a little constructive or hard to hear?
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you know. An example of this is like if every single person in your company wants to work from home at least one day a week or two days a week, right, ok, maybe not five, maybe they want to work five days a week. That's not realistic. But if everyone wants to work and everyone can work remotely and then you say you have to be back in the office five days a week, that makes no sense. That makes no sense. Yeah, right, it just doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1:Like there are going to be jobs and positions that have to be in person, right, if you work at a factory, that is an in-person job. If you work at a restaurant, you work at a hotel that is an in-person job period. But then there are jobs that do not need to be and you can have a hybrid arrangement where people are going to be happier and the data shows that they're more productive. Why are we forcing people back if they're going to be happier? They're going to work harder, they're going to stay longer if they have some more flexibility. So that's where it gets to be like wait, all of your people are saying one thing and you're going to do something else. Like that's not, that's, that's. That's not an alignment Right and you're not listening to folks Right. So, um, and I'm a big proponent of human connection and I'm a big proponent of the in-person. I believe that in a digital world, we need some of the in-person, but it doesn't necessarily need to be five days a week 365 days a year for most roles.
Speaker 1:There are going to be jobs and positions and um types of business where that's the case, right, if you work at a carwash like, you gotta be at the carwash like that's.
Speaker 4:That's what you do Right yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, right, exactly so. I just think where. Where it gets tricky is companies that are out of alignment with what their people are saying and asking for, and you can't adhere to everything that your people want all the time. You're not going to meet all of those demands it's impossible. But if you're completely ignoring them, if you're completely going against what they say, if you're not meeting them at least somewhere in the middle there it's a little bit alarming and likely that's going to be a culture that that that does not feel like a place that people want to do their best, work or stay. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, excellent, excellent. Well, smiley, as we wrap this up, and again for those in our audience that can join us at the Warsaw Growth Summit, you're going to hear much more from Smiley on November 6th, but any final thoughts, things that you'd want to share with the audience. Maybe people that are out there that are kind of sitting in a moment of frustration, feeling disconnected. What would be kind of your final words to them today?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would say that with with all this stuff, I say I think it's really about taking small, kind of tiny actions. I think it's like you know, we, it can get overwhelming to think about building a culture of belonging and human connection or a purpose-driven culture. Um, and it is. It's a lot of work, a lot of intention, a lot of energy, but it starts with these really small mindset shifts, right. So like if there's one person today that you can express gratitude today at work or appreciate, or send them a text message letting them know that you really appreciate how they showed up or something they've been doing for the team, like that goes a long way.
Speaker 1:A small little act of kindness, like buying someone coffee on your way in, right, knowing that their favorite sandwich is from their favorite deli or their favorite lunch place, and be like hey, I'm bringing in lunch today, I wanted to get you a sandwich Like these little things, I think, go such a long way in this kind of overwhelmed world. So it doesn't take much to just kind of start having an attitude. Uh, uh, of connection, of appreciation. Uh, it's, it's these little things that can go a long way.
Speaker 2:Excellent, excellent. So for people that want to follow you, connect with you, you know, potentially even bring you into their company, where should they connect with you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, my website smiley poswalskicom has everything. I'm on LinkedIn, most pretty active on LinkedIn, adam Smiley Pozwalski. I'm on Instagram as well, at what's up, smiley, and you can find me pretty much everywhere on the internet, so I'm out there.
Speaker 2:Love it Awesome. Well, smiley, thank you so much for your time today. So great to meet you. Can't wait to meet you in person here in the in the coming months, but I really appreciate you taking the time to share with us today. Thanks, so much.
Speaker 1:Thanks Matt. Thanks Alexis. It was great chatting with you and I can't wait to see all of you in Warsaw in a couple months. Perfect.
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