Measuring what makes life worthwhile - Chip Conley
Summary
TLDRThe speaker discusses the importance of reevaluating what we value in leadership and business, using the story of a Vietnamese immigrant, Vivian, to illustrate the significance of emotional connections over tangible metrics. Inspired by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Bhutan's focus on Gross National Happiness, the speaker advocates for a 'transformation pyramid' that prioritizes intangible values like meaning and connection. He challenges the reliance on traditional measures like GDP, urging leaders to consider metrics that reflect true well-being and happiness, both for individuals and organizations.
Takeaways
- 😀 The 21st century calls for a reevaluation of what we consider valuable and how we measure success, with a focus on intangibles like emotional connection and meaning.
- 🌟 Vivien's story illustrates the importance of emotional connections at work, which can provide inspiration and meaning beyond the tangible aspects of a job.
- 🏢 The speaker's company, Ziv, learned from Vivien's example to prioritize the emotional well-being of employees and customers, leading to increased loyalty and reduced turnover.
- 📉 During economic downturns, focusing on intangible values can help businesses thrive, as seen when the speaker's company grew despite industry-wide revenue drops.
- 📚 The speaker rediscovered Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs and adapted it into a 'Transformation Pyramid' to address higher-level needs in business.
- 🔍 The company started measuring less tangible metrics, such as employees' understanding and belief in the company's mission, and customers' emotional connections.
- 📈 By focusing on these higher-level needs, the company saw significant improvements in customer loyalty and employee retention.
- 🌐 A global survey revealed that while 94% of business leaders recognize the importance of intangibles, only 5% have ways to measure them, indicating a gap in current business practices.
- 🇧🇹 The concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH) in Bhutan offers an alternative to GDP, focusing on well-being and creating conditions for happiness rather than just pursuing economic growth.
- 📊 Bhutan's approach to measuring GNH includes a system of indicators and metrics that value quality of life over mere economic output.
- 🤔 The emotional equation proposed by the speaker suggests that happiness is about wanting what you have, not having what you want, challenging the Western pursuit of happiness as an external goal.
- 🛠️ The speaker advocates for a new approach to measurement in business and economics that values intangibles and the human aspects of work and life.
Q & A
What is the main theme of the talk?
-The main theme of the talk is the importance of focusing on intangible values and metrics in leadership and business, particularly in the 21st century.
What is the significance of the story about Van Quash (Vivien)?
-The story of Van Quash (Vivien) illustrates the idea that what truly counts in one's job is not the task itself but the emotional connection and the impact one has on others, such as taking care of people far from home.
What was the speaker's first business venture?
-The speaker's first business venture was buying a pay-by-the-hour motel in the inner city of San Francisco and starting a company called Ziv.
How did the economic downturn affect the speaker's hotel business?
-During the economic downturn, the speaker's hotel business in the San Francisco Bay Area experienced the largest percentage revenue drop in the history of American hotels.
Why did the speaker receive letters from places like Alabama and Orange County?
-The speaker received letters because people mistakenly thought his company, Ziv, was French due to its name, and they wanted to boycott it during a period of anti-French sentiment in the U.S.
What concept did the speaker rediscover in the self-help section of a bookstore?
-The speaker rediscovered Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which later inspired him to create the transformation pyramid.
What is the transformation pyramid?
-The transformation pyramid is a concept the speaker developed, based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which includes survival, success, and transformation as key levels of organizational and individual needs.
How did the speaker's company address the higher needs of employees and customers?
-The company started asking questions about employees' understanding, belief in, and impact on the company's mission, as well as customers' emotional connection with the brand in various ways.
What is Gross National Happiness (GNH)?
-Gross National Happiness is an alternative measure of success proposed by the King of Bhutan, focusing on the well-being and happiness of citizens rather than just economic growth.
What did the speaker learn from the Bhutanese approach to happiness?
-The speaker learned that Bhutan creates conditions for happiness to occur, using a system of four essential pillars, nine key indicators, and 72 different metrics to measure GNH.
How does the speaker suggest we should rethink our approach to counting and measuring in business and life?
-The speaker suggests that we should move beyond just measuring tangible metrics and start valuing and measuring intangibles like emotional connection, employee happiness, and cultural respect.
Outlines
🌟 The Power of Counting in Leadership
The speaker introduces the concept of reevaluating what we count in leadership, using the story of Vivian, a Vietnamese immigrant who found joy in her work through emotional connections. The narrative shifts to the speaker's experience with his company, ZIV, during economic downturns and the realization of the importance of intangible values. The speaker discusses Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs and its application to business, leading to the creation of the 'Transformation Pyramid,' which emphasizes survival, success, and transformation. The lack of metrics for these higher needs prompts the speaker to explore less obvious measures of employee and customer satisfaction.
📊 Measuring the Intangibles in Business
This paragraph delves into the speaker's journey to find metrics for the intangible aspects of business, such as employee mission understanding and customer emotional connection. The speaker discovers that focusing on these higher-level needs leads to increased loyalty and reduced employee turnover. Despite the awareness of intangibles' importance, only a small percentage of leaders measure them, leading to a broader discussion about the limitations of traditional metrics. The speaker challenges the audience to value the intangibles and not just the tangibles, using Einstein's quote to emphasize the point.
🌈 The Quest for Gross National Happiness
The speaker shares his experience in Bhutan, where the focus is on Gross National Happiness (GNH) over GDP. The King of Bhutan's innovative approach to measuring and managing happiness through four essential pillars, nine key indicators, and 72 metrics is highlighted. The speaker contrasts the Bhutanese model with the Western pursuit of happiness and suggests that the Bhutanese way of fostering gratitude and contentment with what one has could be a more effective approach. The influence of Bhutan's GNH movement on global leaders and the potential for a new global currency of well-being is also discussed.
🛠️ Rethinking Our Metrics for a Better Future
In the final paragraph, the speaker calls for a rethinking of the metrics we use to measure success, both in business and in life. He criticizes the reliance on GDP as an outdated industrial-era model and suggests that we need a new set of tools to value intangibles. The speaker reflects on the importance of employee happiness and its connection to business profits, advocating for business and political leaders to count what truly matters: people and their well-being. He concludes by encouraging the audience to start counting meaningful metrics in their own lives and businesses.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Leadership
💡Hierarchy of Needs
💡Transformation Pyramid
💡Intangibles
💡Gross National Happiness (GNH)
💡Metrics
💡Emotional Connection
💡Employee Engagement
💡Cultural Shift
💡Service Industry
💡Census
Highlights
The speaker emphasizes the importance of reevaluating what we count in leadership and business, suggesting that what we count truly counts.
Introduction of Vivian, a maid whose emotional connection with others exemplifies finding joy in one's work beyond the task itself.
The founding of the company ZIV with the intention to create joy in life, reflecting the speaker's values.
The economic downturn post-9/11 and the impact on San Francisco Bay Area hotels, including the speaker's company.
The humorous anecdote of the company's name being mistaken for French and the resulting boycott threats.
The rediscovery of Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs as a framework for understanding human needs in business.
The concept of the 'Transformation Pyramid' introduced as an extension of Maslow's hierarchy for organizations.
The realization of the lack of metrics for intangible aspects such as employee meaning and customer emotional connection.
The introduction of less obvious metrics to evaluate employee and customer satisfaction beyond traditional measures.
The positive outcomes of focusing on higher needs, including increased customer loyalty and reduced employee turnover.
The speaker's experience with other leaders who focus primarily on measurable, tangible outcomes.
A survey indicating that while 94% of business leaders value intangibles, only 5% measure them.
The journey to Bhutan and the exploration of an alternative to GDP: Gross National Happiness (GNH).
The description of Bhutan's approach to measuring and managing happiness through various indicators and metrics.
The concept of creating a 'habitat of happiness' rather than directly creating happiness itself.
The 'Emotional Equation' proposed by the speaker, focusing on gratitude and contentment with what one has.
The potential influence of Bhutan's GNH model on large neighboring countries like China and India.
The call to action for leaders to start valuing and measuring the intangible aspects of life and business.
The idea that business and political leaders should use metrics to account for people and their well-being.
The conclusion that inspired employees and sizable profits are not mutually exclusive and can coexist.
Transcripts
[Music]
[Applause]
and I'm going to talk about the simple
truth in leadership in the 21st century
in the 21st century we need to actually
look at and what I'm going to actually
encourage you to consider today is to go
back to our school days when we learned
how to count but I actually think it's
time for us to think about what we count
because what we actually count truly
counts let me start by telling you a
little story this is Van quash she came
to this country in 1986 from Vietnam she
changed her name to Vivien because she
wanted to fit in here in America her
first job was in an inner city motel in
San Francisco as a maid I actually
happened to buy that Motel about 3
months after Vivian started working
there so Vivian and I have actually been
working together for 23 years
with the youthful idealism of a
26-year-old in 1987 I started my company
and I called it ziv a very impractical
name and uh because I actually was
looking to create Joy of life and this
first hotel that I bought Motel was a
pay by the hour notel motel in the inner
city of San Francisco as I spent time
with Vivien I saw that she had sort of
aat of Eve in how she did her work made
me question and curious how could
someone actually find joy in actually
cleaning toilets for a living so I I
spent time with Vivian and I saw that
she didn't find joy in cleaning toilets
her job her goal and her calling was not
to become the world's greatest toilet
scrubber what counts for Vivian was the
emotional connection she created with
her fellow employees and our guests and
what gave her inspiration and meaning
was the fact that actually she was
taking care of people who are far away
from home because Vivian knew what it
was like to be far away from home
that very human lesson more than 20
years ago served me well during the last
uh economic downturn we had uh in the
wake of theom Crash and 911 San
Francisco Bay Area Hotels went through
the largest percentage Revenue drop in
the history of American hotels we were
the largest operator of hotels in the
Bay Area so we were particularly
vulnerable but also back then remember
we stopped eating french fries in this
country well not exactly of course not
um we actually started eating Freedom
fries and we actually started boycotting
anything that was French well my name of
my
company so I started getting these
letters from places like Alabama and
Orange County um saying to me that they
were going to boycott my company because
they thought we were a French company
and I'd write them back and i' say wait
a minute we're not French we're an
American company we're based in San
Francisco and I'd get a t response oh
that's
worse so one particular day when I was
feeling a little depressed and not a lot
of ziv I ended up in the local bookstore
around the corner from our offices and I
initially ended up in the business
section the bookstore looking for a
business solution but given my befuddled
state of mind I ended up in the
self-help section very quickly and
that's where I got reacquainted with
Abraham maso's hierarchy of needs I took
one psychology class in college and I
learned about this guy Abraham maslo as
many of us are familiar with his
hierarchy of needs but as I sat there
for 4 hours the full afternoon reading
maslo I actually recognize something
that is true of most leaders and one of
the simplest facts in business is
something that we often neglect and that
is that we're all human and each of us
no matter what our role is in business
actually has some hierarchy of needs in
the workplace so as I started reading
more maslo what I actually started to
realize is that actually maslo later in
his life wanted to take this hierarchy
for the individual and apply it to the
collective to organizations and and
specifically to business but
unfortunately he died prematurely in
1970 and so he wasn't really able to
live that dream completely so I realized
in that do crash that my role in life
was to channel Abe maslo and that's what
I did a few years ago when I actually
took that five level hierarchy of needs
pyramid and turn it into what I call the
transformation pyramid which is survival
success and transformation it's not just
fundamental in business it's fundamental
in life and we started actually asking
ourselves the questions about how we
were actually ing the higher needs these
transformational needs for our key
employees uh in the company these three
levels of the hierarchy needs actually
relate to the five levels of maso's
hierarchy of needs but as we started
asking ourselves about how we were
addressing the higher needs of our
employees and our customers I realized
we had no metrics we had nothing that
actually could tell us whether we were
actually getting it right so we actually
started asking ourselves what kind of
less obvious metrics could we use to
actually evaluate our employees sense of
meaning mean or our customer sense of
emotional connection with us for example
we actually started asking our employees
do they understand the mission of our
company and do they feel like they
believe in it can they actually
influence it and do they feel that their
work actually has an an impact on it we
start asking our customers did they feel
an emotional connection with us in one
of seven different kinds of ways
miraculously as we ask these questions
and start giving attention higher up the
pyramid what we found is we created more
loyalty our customer loyalty rocket our
our employee turnover dropped to one3 of
the industry average and during that
5year bust we tripled in size now as I
went out and started spending time with
other leaders out there and asking them
how they were getting through that time
what they told me over and over again
was that they just manage what they can
measure and what we can measure is that
tangible stuff at the bottom of the
pyramid they didn't actually even see
the intangible stuff higher up the
pyramid so I started asking myself the
question how can we get leaders to start
valuing the intangent if we're taught As
Leaders to just manage what we can
measure and all we can measure is the
tangible in life we're missing a whole
lot of things at the top of the
pyramid so I actually went out and
studied a bunch of things and I found a
survey that showed that
94% of Business Leaders worldwide
believe that the intangibles are
important in their business things like
intellectual property their corporate
culture their brand loyalty and yet only
5% of those same leaders actually had a
means of measuring the intangible in
their business so as leaders we
understand that intangibles are
important but we don't have a clue
actually how to measure them so here's
another Einstein quote not everything
that can be counted counts and not
everything that counts can be counted I
hate to argue with Einstein but if that
which is most valuable in our life and
our business actually can't be counted
or valued are we going to spend our
lives just mired and measuring the
mundane it was was that sort of heavy
question about what counts that led me
to take my CEO hat off for a week and
fly off to the Himalayan Peaks fled off
to a place that's been shrouded in
mystery for centuries a place some folks
called shangrala that's actually moved
from the survival base of the pyramid to
becoming a transformation role role
model for the world I went to Bhutan the
teenage king of Bhutan was also a
curious man but this was back in
1972 when he ascended to the throne two
days after his father passed away at age
17 he started asking the kind of
questions that you'd expect of someone
with a beginner's Mind on a Trip through
India early in his reign as as king he
actually was asked by an Indian
journalist about the bhes GDP the size
of the bhese GDP GDP and the King
responded in a fashion that actually has
transformed us four decades later he
said the following he said why are we so
obsessed and focused with gross domestic
product why don't we care most about
more about gross national happiness now
in essence the King was asking us to
consider an alternative definition of
success what's what has come to be known
as g& or gross national happiness most
world leaders didn't take notice and
those that did thought this was just
Buddhist
economics but the King was serious and
this was a notable moment because this
is the first time a world leader in
almost 200 years had suggested that that
in tangible of
happiness again that that leader 200
years ago Thomas Jefferson with the
Declaration of Independence 200 years
later this King was suggesting that
intangible of happiness is something we
should measure and it's something that
we should actually value as government
officials for the next three decades
next three three, years as king this
King actually started measuring and
managing around happiness in Bhutan and
including just recently taking his
country from being an absolute monarchy
to a constitutional monarchy with no
Bloodshed no coup and Bhutan for those
of you who don't know it is the newest
democracy in the world just two day two
years ago so as I spend time with
leaders in the g& movement um I got to
actually really understand what they
were doing and I got to spend some time
with the Prime Minister over dinner I
asked him an impertinent question I
asked him how can you how can you create
and measure something which evaporates
in other words happiness and he's a very
wise man and he said listen bhutan's
goal is not to create happiness we
create the conditions for happiness to
occur in other words we create a habitat
of Happiness wow that's interesting and
he said that they have a science behind
that art and they've actually created
four essential pillars nine key
indicators and 72 different metrics that
actually help them to actually measure
their g& in fact one of those one of
those key indicators is how do the Banes
feel about how they spend their time
each day it's a good question question
how do you feel about how you spend your
time each day time is one of the
scarcest resources in the modern world
and yet of course that little intangible
piece of data doesn't factor into our
GDP calculations so as I spent my week
up in the Himalayas actually started to
imagine what I call an emotional
equation and it focuses on something I
read long ago from a guy named Rabbi
Heyman shakel how many know him anybody
1954 he wrote a book called the real
enjoyment of living
and he suggested that happiness is not
about having what you want instead it's
about wanting what you have or in other
words I think the botines believe
happiness equals wanting what you have
imagine gratitude divided by having what
you want
gratification the botines aren't on some
aspirational treadmill constantly
focused on what they don't have uh their
religion their isolation their deep
respect for their culture and now the
principles of their g& movement all have
actually fostered a sense of gratit
gratitude about what they do have how
many of us here as tedsters in the
audience spend more of our time in the
bottom half of this equation in the
denominator we're we are a bottom heavy
culture in more ways than one
um the reality is in western western
countries quite often we do focus on the
pursuit of happiness as if happiness is
something that we have to go out an
object we're supposed to or maybe many
objects uh actually in fact if you look
in the dictionary many dictionaries
Define happy Define pursuit as to chase
with
hostility do we pursue happiness with
hostility good question but back to
Bhutan bhutan's actually bordered on its
North and South by 38% of the world's
population could this little country
like a startup in a mature industry be
the spark plug that actually influences
a 21st century of middle class in China
and India bhutan's actually created the
ultimate export a new Global Currency of
well-being and there are 40 countries
around the world today that are actually
studying their own g& you may have heard
uh this last fall Nicholas sarosi in
France announcing the results of an
18-month uh study by two Nobel
economists focusing on happiness and
wellness in France sarosi suggested that
world leaders should stop myopically
Focus fusing on GDP and consider a new
index what some French are calling aiv
index I like it co-branding
opportunities and just three days ago
three days ago here at Ted we actually
had a simal cast of David Cameron
potentially the next prime minister of
the UK actually quoting one of my
favorite speeches of all time Robert
Kennedy's poetic speech from 1968 when
he suggested that we're myopically
focused on the wrong thing and that GDP
is a misplaced metric
so it suggests that the momentum is
Shifting I've taken that Robert Kennedy
quote and actually turned it into a new
balance sheet for just a moment here
this is actually a collection of things
that Robert Kennedy said in that quote
GDP counts everything from air pollution
to the destruction of our redwoods but
it actually doesn't count the health of
our children or the Integrity of our
public officials as you look at these
two columns here doesn't it make you
feel like it's time for us to actually
start figuring out a new way to count a
new way to actually imagine uh what's
important to us in
life certainly Robert Kennedy suggested
at the end of the speech exactly that he
said GDP measures everything in short
except that which makes life
worthwhile wow so how do we do that well
let me say one thing we could just start
doing 10 years from now at least in this
country why in the heck in America are
we doing a census in 2010 we're spending
10 billion on a census and we're asking
10 simple question it is Simplicity but
all of those questions are tangible
they're about demographics they're about
where you live how many people you live
with and whether you own your home or
not that's about it we're not asking
meaningful metrics we're not asking
important questions we're not asking
anything that's intangible Abe maslo
said long ago something you've heard
before but you didn't realize it was him
he said if the only tool you have is a
hammer everything starts to look like a
nail we've been fooled by our
tool um excuse that expression
um we've been fooled by our tool GDP has
been our
hammer and our nail has been a 19th and
20th Century industrial era model of
success and yet
64% of the world's GDP today is in that
intangible industry we call service the
service industry the industry I'm in and
only 36% is in the tangible industries
of manufacturing and agriculture so
maybe it's time that we get a bigger
toolbox right maybe it's time we
actually get a toolbox that doesn't just
count what's easily counted the tangible
in life but actually counts what we most
value uh the things that are intangible
I guess I'm sort of a curious CEO I was
also a curious economics major as an
undergrad and I learned that economists
measure everything in tangible units of
production and consumption as if each of
those tangible units is exactly the same
they aren't the same in fact as Leaders
what we need to learn is that we can
actually influence the quality of that
unit of production by actually creating
the conditions for our employees to live
their calling and in fact in Vivian's
case her unit of production isn't the
tangible hour she works it's the
intangible difference she makes during
that one hour of work this is Dave
arringdale who's actually been a
longtime guest at Vivian's Motel he
stayed there a hundred times in the last
20 years years and he's loyal to the
property because of the relationship
that Vivian and her fellow employees
have created with him they've created a
habitat of happiness for Dave and he
tells me that he can always count on
viven and his staff and the staff there
to make him feel at
home why is it that Business Leaders and
investors quite often don't see the
connection between creating the
intangible of employee happiness with
creating the tangible of financial
profits in their business we don't have
to choose between inspired employees and
sizable profits we can have both and in
fact inspired employees quite often help
make sizable profits right so what the
world needs now in my opinion is
Business Leaders and political leaders
who know what to
count we count numbers we count on
people what really counts is when we
actually use our numbers to truly take
into account our people I learned that
from a maid in a motel and a king of a
country what can you start counting
today what one thing can you start
counting today that actually would be
meaningful in your life whether it's
your work life or your business life
thank you very
much
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