VIM Executive Coaching recently met up with a rather engaging person whose profession was writing, shooting, editing and disseminating corporate explainer videos.
Anticipating our next question, he defined the explainer video in rather monotonal fashion as “a very powerful tool for businesses to communicate their products or services effectively.”
Thinking we were about to clamor to sign a hefty contract, he added, “These short videos serve as a concise and engaging way to explain what your company does, who you are, and why potential customers should choose you…”
Had we not ended the spiel with a polite nod and a smile, we are certain the explanation of the “short” explainer video might have gone on for hours!
We did manage to learn that super large companies often offer such videos for new employees to explain just what the company does.
We asked, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, “You mean its possible for someone to spend months or years at a job not knowing what it is that the company does?”
The answer, not surprisingly, was yes. It is possible for a person to work at a job for a large organization never quite knowing what the other workers or the executives are doing in other departments and divisions. It got us to thinking about executive leadership.
It seems rather a shame
We can well understand a large airline with 45,000 employees or a Big Pharma organization with as many employees having entire overseas divisions that can go for years without so much as a shared email, let alone a holiday card or an outing at the ballpark.
It is the way of the world, we are told, and corporate explainer videos notwithstanding, employees can go merrily on their way never realizing what anyone else is doing.
What about a smaller organization (let’s say a law or accounting firm) of, perhaps 200 employees filled with mistrust, or a research division where most of the workers never authentically communicate or are locked in their silos of suspicion or carry deep-seated resentments based on bitter past reactions and interactions?
What about the myriad of divisions within a large financial institution or automobile manufacturers or brokerages where unhealthy fiefdoms have been created to the detriment of the bottom-line?
Where are the corporate explainer videos for those situations? Unfortunately, they don’t exist, and therein is the larger problem.
It may sound rather trite, but large corporations with tens of thousands of employees are indeed, a hundred smaller units where managers and workers alike, have no choice but to communicate and solve problems in an authentic manner.
We have a problem
In even the largest corporations terrible and often catastrophic problems occur. The problems do not necessarily stem from major breakdowns in technology or completely botched marketing strategies, rather the inability to engage in mindful discussion, authentic leadership or compassionate interaction.
The seemingly “simple” breakdowns we describe above, cascade into serious, multi-faceted consequences that range anywhere from large-scale sexual harassment to bribery to built-in biases to unethical pressures on a sales force. When executive leadership or one-by-one, its management, fails to recognize problems or worse, intentionally glosses over serious issues the organization, leads to organizational failure.
Another way we suppose we might describe those oversights as a lack of authentic communication and an explanation of “who we are, each one of us, in every mindful moment.”
The corporate explainer video man has created a nice little niche in telling new employees who they work for and what the other divisions around them might be doing. However, knowing what the organization does, is not the same thing as mindfully embracing how each manager or leader can authentically interact in order to create a strong work place.
Indeed, there has never been an explainer video created to replace the vital act of mindfulness. The nurturing of executive leadership mindfulness and authenticity is what we do and fortunately, there is no video to replace the necessity of mindful discovery.