Vivowire: Leslie Knope, Stranger Things & Ted Lasso

Welcome to edition #54 of Vivowire, the Workvivo newsletter!

I (Lisa) watch a lot of TV. Like, a lot. My middle name is Couch Potato. (Actually, it’s Catherine, but Couch Potato feels so much more me.) 

So, let’s take a look at some of the latest trends and tips in employee experience through the medium of the small screen.

Which is a total 180 from what we usually do in this newsletter 👀

Let's go!👇🏻

This Week’s Top 3 Thumbstoppers

1. How To Train a Team of Leslie Knopes

TL;DR: If you want managers who’ll champion your employee experience, you’ll need to help them be as passionate and empathetic as the Deputy Director of Pawnee’s Parks and Rec Department. 

You know who’s a great manager? Leslie Knope.  

Sure, she can be a little intense – she did make up 24 of her own holidays to celebrate every milestone with her best friends and colleagues, including Haircut Day and Second Haircut Day – but the Pawnee public servant has demonstrated some great examples of championing employee experience. 

Parks and Rec is one of my all-time favorite shows, so I might be a little biased. But here are my arguments…

• Exhibit A: She’s all about recognition – She voices her appreciation for her colleagues all the time, and even commends them on their specific skills. In fact, she probably gets a little too specific sometimes...
• Exhibit B: She cares about career progression – For pretty much the entire show, she acts as a mentor to April, who starts out at the Parks Department as an intern and eventually goes on to work at a foundation that helps other people find their dream jobs. 
• Exhibit C: She leads by example – This is a massive understatement, but Leslie is passionate about her career – and she wants her team to feel the same. She doesn’t just show up every day and expect those around her to create purpose in their work, she helps them do that. She’s also more than willing to do the work herself, from dredging the local river to dealing with raccoon infestations.
• Exhibit D: She treats her teammates – and herself – with compassion – It makes a difference when managers recognize their colleagues as individuals who have more going on in life than their day job. Celebrating their birthdays, marking their anniversaries, and remembering their milestones are simple but impactful examples. 

If you compare these points with a recent guest post on our blog about developing managers who champion EX, you’ll find plenty of crossover. 

Its author, Fabian Sandoval, writes that bosses who can deliver a great employee experience need to be emotionally intelligent, dedicated to trust and transparency, generous with feedback, empowering, empathetic, invested in professional development, and more. Sounds a lot like Leslie Knope to me. 

Read the article on our blog here. 

And make sure to always channel Leslie-Knope-levels of self-love – “Hey, Leslie. It’s Leslie. Hang in there. I love you. Bye.”

2. Are You Working With a Mind Flayer?

TL;DR: Don’t let power-hungry colleagues take the pleasure out of your work, and never stop listening to Kate Bush. That’s all you need to know. 

You know who wouldn’t be a great manager? Vecna. Yes, the bad guy in Stranger Things who can transform into a fifty-story-tall shadow monster called the Mind Flayer. 

Not only does Vecna – or even his human form, Henry Creel – fail to exhibit any of the wonderful qualities we see in Leslie Knope, he’s also prone to being a little power-hungry. (Again, an understatement.) 

Any Stranger Things fan will know just how negative an impact Vecna has on people. The same can be said for someone who's power-hungry at work.

While listening to Running Up That Hill won’t make a difference between life or death, it’s still worth a shot. 

In both cases, blocking everything out with a pair of noise-canceling headphones and Kate Bush on repeat is strongly advised. 

Like Vecna, real-life people with power-hungry tendencies make it harder for the people around them to do their jobs and enjoy their work.

According to a recent article in CNBC Make It, people who are power-hungry “take it upon themselves to enforce rules that oftentimes management doesn’t even really care about”. 

So, if you find yourself comparing your colleagues to Vecna, what can you do? 

CNBC has some suggestions:

1. Cover your bases – Keep your own manager in the loop so you never feel like you’re on the back foot
2. Speak up to them directly – Let the person know if they’re overstepping. They might not realize, and a professional heads-up could make all the difference
3. Talk to your colleagues – Feel like it could just be you who’s falling victim to a power-hungry coworker? Chances are your teammates are going through the same thing, and being able to demonstrate a pattern of behavior if you need to escalate the issue with HR is important. 

I just have one addition: when in doubt, play Kate to drown it out. 

Read the CNBC article here. 

3. Under the Lens… Informatica, Ted Lasso & Teamwork

TL;DR: Teamwork makes the dream work. Just ask the overwhelmingly positive fictional football coach.

I’m playing a dangerous game by using a TV show I’m not up to date with yet as an analogy, but let’s throw caution to the wind. 

Ted Lasso is a show about football, which ordinarily I’d have zero interest in. But it has some important messages that apply to organizational teams as well as those that kick a ball around. (That’s what football is, right? 👀)

When coach Ted joins Richmond FC, he consistently makes the effort to include every single person in the company in the team’s goals, values, and achievements. He breaks down the barriers between the players and the club’s owner, Rebecca Welton, for example, and even manages to make Roy Kent and Jamie Tartt treat each other with civility. 

It’s not just Ted that values true teamwork; software company Informatica does too. Informatica describes itself as a values-driven company and has four core pillars: Do Good, Act as One Team, Think Customer-First, and Aspire and Innovate. 

The company says that acting as one unit means “connecting, communicating, and collaborating as one diverse team”. But how is that commitment impacting its people?

It has a 4.1-star rating on Glassdoor, where 85% of employees say they’d recommend working at the company to a friend and 91% approve of its CEO, Amit Walia. The highlights of its reviews refer to its great work culture and great people. 

On Comparably, Informatica has an A+ score (4.9 stars!) and top marks across the board for areas like Team Score, Executive Team Score, Leadership, Happiness, and Manager Score. When asked to review their teams on the site, employees used words like ‘open communication, less hierarchy’, ‘helpful’, ‘learning’, ‘sharing’, ‘caring’, and ‘approachable’. 

Acting as one team has clearly worked out for Informatica, and I’m assuming the same will be true of Richmond FC – I just need to put aside some time to catch up and actually find out. 

The bottom line? Be like Informatica. Be like Ted Lasso. Be like Leslie Knope. But never be like Vecna. And if someone around you is like Vecna, having the right team behind you will make all the difference. 

And remember Ted's words of wisdom – “If you care about someone, and you have a little love in your heart, there ain’t nothing you can’t get through together.”

Quote of the Week

“We have to remember what’s important in life: friends, waffles, and work. Or waffles, friends, work. But work has to come third” – Leslie Knope, Deputy Director at Pawnee's Parks and Recreation Department

What’s up at Workvivo?

3 Ways to Communicate Company Culture with Employees: Here are three ways for internal communications teams to communicate company culture with employees, including practical tips and advice. Learn more here!

From NASA to Chick-fil-A: Key Lessons for Every Leader: The second season of our Employee Experience Podcast was full of crucial leadership lessons. Read a recap here!

Internal Comms Checkup: 6 Symptoms of an Ailing Approach: Overdue for an internal comms checkup? Realizing that an apple a day won’t make your employees stay? We’re here to help. Find the blog here!

Final Thought 

Thanks for reading this week's issue! I'm looking forward to an evening of catching up on Ted Lasso, listening to Kate Bush, and hiding the fact that I'm watching Parks and Rec for the 10,000th time from my fiancé Jim.

In the ever-inspiring words of Pawnee's Ron Swanson, "I'm not one for speeches. So goodbye." 

👋🏻 

If you have any feedback or just want to say ‘howdy’, simply reply to this email or reach out on LinkedIn.