Our Chief Meaningful Work Officer, Nikki Lewallen, had a rich conversation with Starbucks Technology Leaders, Jennifer Morales and Shawn Harris. Here’s our favorite quote from the episode:
“At Starbucks, we aren’t in the coffee business serving people, we’re in the people business serving coffee.”
In this episode, Shawn and Jen discuss the initiatives they’re implementing to create a culture that allows their partners (employees) to flourish and feel a sense of community. We were reminded of the power of words on both a macro and micro level and learned why we should be looking for culture “add” instead of culture “fit”.
Here were Nikki’s key takeaways that she inspires listeners to act on:
- Words Are Powerful, Be Intentional With Them Supporting Quote Jen Morales: “We often say at Starbucks that we aren’t in the coffee business serving people, but we’re in the people business serving coffee and our partners, which is what we call our employees, are really the heart of our business. Our mission is to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, one neighborhood at a time. We call our corporate offices in Seattle ‘The Starbucks Support Center’ for a reason. We are in support of our baristas and our partners in the stores because without them there wouldn’t really be a need for us. So this is very intentional. As partners, we share ownership of our company, but it’s more than that. We uplift each other because that’s what partners do.”
- Culture Add Instead of Culture Fit Supporting Quote Shawn Harris: “The idea of culture fit is not something you really hear that much at Starbucks in the hiring process, because that’s not really great for bringing in new diverse of thought, diverse of character, and diverse of background candidates. Jen Morales: “We’re really thinking more about culture add. How can we add to our culture? We can make it better by adding more, not just trying to fit everyone into the same bucket. ”
- Encourage Your People To Build Relationships Supporting Quote Jen Morales: “It’s great to bring more folks in, but we want them to stay. We want them to be able to grow and advance their careers and move around and move up the ladder. And so one of the other things we’re doing within Starbucks tech is looking at the ways we can actually help folks have additional opportunities, whether it’s exposure to other leaders or networking and using the information we have to help folks advance in their careers. That’s what we call ‘flourishing.’ It’s not just bringing folks in but actually staying and helping us build a wonderful tech organization.”
For this full episode of Gut+Science, listen here: https://link.chtbl.com/Q3HFOTL3
