Make Work More Human with Renee Smith

How can we make work more human? Kevin talks to Renee Smith about the high cost of fear, and the deep impact of love. Renee Smith is the Director of Organizational Development at Washington state’s Department of Enterprise Services. She’s not just bringing love into workplace, but into government – the most stereotypically bureaucratic kind of workplace! She has her work cut out for her – but her story is that much more inspirational for it.

• What is the most significant job of a leader? Renee says the answer is simple – to eliminate fear from the workplace.
• When you take away fear, what takes its place? The opposite of fear is love – and we can’t feel both at the same time. Renee says that when we eliminate fear, we build organizations that are based on love.
• Renee has done qualitative research on the long-term impacts of fear and love in the workplace. Out of the interviews she conducted came evidence for the long-term negative impacts of fear, and the benefits of love. She tells the story of this large-scale research project.
• Talking about love in the workplace makes a lot of people feel uncomfortable. But why? As a society, we’ve locked love away out of whole spheres of our lives. But what happens to our humanity when we divide our lives in this way? And what benefits might love bring to the quality of our work and lives?
• What are the different facets of love? A feeling of belonging, a feeling that you matter, and feeling cared about. Feeling respected and feeling included. Love doesn’t just mean romance – the concept of love includes aspects that can make our workplaces and whole lives more fulfilling.
• Renee shares the 4 themes associated with fear coming out of her research, and the 3 themes associated with the deep impact of love.
• Learn more about how you can make work more human, and Renee’s research, here!
• If you or someone you know is interested in bringing the benefits of love to your enterprise, let us know! Email Kevin at kevin@higherpurposepodcast.com.

An Extraordinary ExperimentThank-you for listening to this episode of the Higher Purpose Podcast. Remember, if you ever think that your work could be less ordinary, there’s not much between you and something extraordinary. Just 13 weeks, and a bold experiment. Find out more about the Extraordinary Experiment here!