AR2021-Research as a Catalyst for Organizational Transformation (Robin Beers, Wells Fargo)

—> Excited to be hear to talk about organizational transformation and role researchers can play

 

 

—> Come from academic background of organizational psychology, for user-centered design and research
—> Specialized in diversity, equity, and inclusion

 

 

—> While doing doctoral research went to South Africa , with a focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion  programs and how South Africa was setting up their programs, relative to the United States
—> At this time I became familiar with ubuntu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

—> Directly translated, ”I am because we are”
—> Means that we don’t really know our own human-ness unless it’s in relationships with other people
  • It’s an interconnected and interdependent worldview

 

—> Ubuntu touched me personally, and I realized relationship between humans allow us to effect change in world, organizations, and personal lives
—> I’d like you to go within for a moment, and think of time in life where you felt amplification of your own humans through relationship with others
—> For me, ubuntu, is something I have brought in with my role as a leader

 

—> Business is changing, as we are in a VUCA world marked by features of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity, for over a decade
—> Organizations continue to operate from old assumptions and rules

 

—> Set of assumption rooted in the industrial era, where we lived in  a predictable, controllable environment
  • How we approach problems in orgs is very mechanistic

 

—> Another idea, orgs operate from is Milton  Friedman, and his thoughts on the social responsibility of business
  • Shareholder value as primary value businesses needed to focus on
  • But this has been changing in recent years

—> The Business Roundtable is an industry org of 150 US Based CEOs.
  • Previous principles were rooted in shareholder primacy
  • The members came together in 2019 to radically redefine what they thought what a corporation was
—> The new of purpose of the corporation is to promote an economy that serves all Americans
  • A shift from shareholder to stakeholder capitalism
  • Many CEOs signed agreement including Wells Fargo
—> Statement stressed commitment to all stakeholders from customers to affected communities
  • Marc Benioff of Salesforce said business is about improving state of world
  • Larry Fink of BlackRock said that businesses must make positive benefit to society and benefit all stakeholders
—> Researchers have role in making business more human

 

 

—> We have special superpowers for new capabilities into organization
  • We all need these powers to navigate a VUCA world

 

—> Powers follow research arc of an engagement
  • Learning: What data tells us
  • Connecting: Making meaning from the data and conversations across functional areas
  • Generating: What we will do with our new insights

 

—> Gone is the myth that the future is predictable. Only thing orgs can do, is control how quickly we learn, and research helps us learn quickly
  • We up level the entire org, by making everyone learn
—> Do this though deep listening, empathy, synthesis, making connections
  • Capabilities all people need to cultivate today

 

—> The image represents concept of out-there vs in-here
  • Came up with turning research lens onto the organization itself.
  • To help us and org see reality out there, and whether it’s in alignment with our internal assumptions and business objectives

 

 

—> We researchers occupy unique vantage point since we see end-to-end customer experience
  • This is not how organizations are typically reflected
  • They are sliced into departments line of business, and product areas
—> Research is a platform for silo-busting and conversations across disciplines

 

 

—> I orchestrate research for cross functional organizations
  • People will come up to me after research workshops and they’ll say it was fantastic to talk to each other, and see their perspective
—> Allow cross-functional conversations, otherwise they don’t happen

 

 

—> Due to orgs breaking things into small parts, we don’t know how it fits into a bigger whole
—> As researchers we see big picture, and how things are seen holistically
  • Since we are asking business to consider customer experience in concert with internal assumptions and decision making processes, makes the work truly powerful

 

—> Now what? Let’s start grappling with what this all means and what’s in and out of alignment

 

—> This picture is intentionally fuzzy to convey ability to hone in on what really matters
  • Coined frame of “Experiential Significance”
—> Experience is this feeling when you are in the field, and something hits you as right and important, and needs to be addressed to make a difference
  • Example includes understanding the importance of how race impacts how people interact with healthcare system
—> Feeling is about “rightness” and awareness
  • It also gives us cool term similar to terms quantitative researchers use

 

 

—>  When we think about learning, connecting, and generating, we can bring to research endeavor to the whole organization
  • We all have experienced the feeling of studying one thing, and discovering a host of issues outside the work
  • We need to ask how organizations are designed

 

—> Need to know how levers will be pulled as a result of research,
  • Can be studying something that calls org to re-examine where it stands on any point of org structure, such as:
    • Strategy
    • Structure
    • Pressures
    • Rewards
    • People

 

—> Strategy connotes business direction
  • What do we need to do to capture competitive advantage

 

 

—> In past example, I grabbed designers, product people and went to three cities to do ethnographic research to see how people manage their finances
  • At the time, the business focused on budgeting tools for people in response to tools like Mint, and other fin-tech tools
—> Product people designed tools that were complex and asked people to put in a lot of data
—>  We kept seeing though that people weren’t keeping strict budgets,  and instead they did constant tracking of money
  • Online banking helped facilitated this tracking
—> Our research highlighted that strategic trajectory of business creating tools with a lot of input, needed to shift towards automation and ease of use, and focus on surfacing information for the customer

 

—> Now let’s talk about structure, or where location of design making power is

 

 

—> We had Merchant Services come to us, and ask us to reduce step businesses took for taking credit cards for small business
—> Wells Fargo was losing market share, and thought it was that application was too arduous to complete
  • Mental model of competitors was radically different, i.e. just sign-up and start using the service
—> The “application” mentality came out of rules of underwriting and risk at Wells Fargo
  • They did research with all kinds of small businesses
  • Came in and had sense making session and multi-functional group of folks, including Underwriting
—> Underwriters treated every merchant with the  thought their credit card volume would explode
  • This caused them to ask lots of questions during the application process
—> Underwriters also hoped “I hope nothing bad happens”
  • Few curious partners in the organization
—> But engaging with customer data led underwriters to embrace design thinking question and reduce steps in credit card application, and being ambassador safeguards of risk

 

 

—> Next, let’s talk about process: the flow of information and how it’s supported by the business

 

 

 

—> Example of customer journey map to digitize SBA application, which required lot of back and forth between back office workers at Wells Fargo, and the customer
—> Emotional up and down throughout the process
  • Research with team members and Wells Fargo employees
—> Internal employee pain points were related and led to customer pain-points, so we went back to the product team
  • Pointed out that digitization of bad process would be insufficient, and that we needed to redesign process holistically
—> We had to figure out how to meet MVP date with something simple for the customer, but the change was eventually embraced

 

 

—> Rewards: Or how incentives motivate behavior
  • Wells Fargo Sales Scandal is example of this, where customers received Wells Fargo products they didn’t want or even knew that they had

 

—> Prior to the scandal, I co-led an ethnographic study with data-science partner to understand how customers new to bank used different channels
  • Very political project, and external insights clashed with internal mental models
—> From bank’s view, the “store” or bank branches were the center of the universe of the company.
  • We were barred from changing incentives or how branches worked
  • Meanwhile, customers thought of Wells Fargo as just their bank, not a sales center
—> All channels existed to provide services that managed finances
  • We were scared to challenge sales vs. service view of the world, and had to grapple with people’s mindsets before people could embrace findings

 

—> We wanted to avoid political trouble, so were cautious about presenting considerations
  • But senior folks commissioning study kept saying findings should be more actionable
  • We realized business people were not interested in engaging with the issues raised by sales/service schism

 

—> We had to move away from the view of bank’s service as being a cost-center
—> Said this was an issue, and had to focus on creating new conversation and hearing people speak in different ways and language

 

—> Over all of the levers described is culture
—> We need craft skills, and organizational consulting skills and having an understanding of how orgs are designed and levers that may be tripped as we go about our work

 

—> We are in time of cultural revolution with the pandemic and social inequality- I believe and hope that orgs in coming years needed to ask deep questions
  • Why we exist?
  • Who we include?
  • Are we benefiting all stakeholders?
  • Are we harming some?
—> So take your seat at the table, and research will be predictive in helping the future
—> We have superpowers of listening, connecting, generating, and human-centered perspective rooted in Ubuntu
—> We are interdependent and our relationship with humans drives businesses

 

—> Thank you!

 

Q&A
  1. When you are uncovering things in research that are directly against the company’s cultural norms or effigies, how did you contextualize findings to avoid tripping reflexive responses??
A:  Spend time upfront to define research goals and priorities
  • Ask for all stakeholders to be in session where they explicitly state their assumptions about what they think is true
—> Through exercise can pinpoint core beliefs and feed the beliefs back to people
  • Have it documented
  • If we hear something out of alignment with assumptions, we can do comparison of what we see/what we belive
  1. I’m curious how Wells Fargo signing the agreement to promote an economy for all Americans changed and trickled down to the day to day culture (if at all).
A: Like a lot of companies there is more commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion
  • On Enterprise council working to put action plans in place, workforce outcomes and recruiting
  • Advocacy and creating culture of belonging
—> It is happening, and are under regulatory scrutiny, and growth crap, as we work through the issue
  • So it is a start/stop pattern