Dear Brands, The Chairs Are Always Musical

Most of us at retail brands have experienced the shake-up that happens when a creative director or CEO departs and a new one joins. This type of top-down hierarchical change is the essence of corporate life -- and we condone and endure the pain points that come with it as the good corporate citizens that we are (to use a wonderfully loaded term trotted out by a former manager whenever it was time for the team to take the short end of the stick). The motivation we drum up during this transformation frenzy comes in part from the hope that our brand will get a refresh but, if we’re being honest, it’s also partly mixed with a bit of fear that we may be replaced or eliminated. What can we tell junior team members who confide in us with their fears except this is the corporate way? In these moments of change, we hope the business need for “what we know” is obvious but often that knowledge is hard to define and extremely dependent on leaders to recognize and give value.

As summer is upon us we’re now entering the next phase of the pandemic, termed a return to “the new normal,” though it is anything but. Many of us who have stayed at our brands have carried reduced teams through a work-from-home pivot and workflow disruptions of every sort imaginable -- so we were understandably a bit cobbled down as 2020 turned to 2021 (which I’d rather not mention is now half-way over). As Zoom calls give way to in-person office work over the next few months we’ll remember what’s missing but those who have started new roles during the pandemic will only sense a lack. The co-worker to your left is new, the one who used to be to your right is no longer at the company -- where is that institutional knowledge we were speaking of earlier? Human resources may have done their best to amplify self-care messaging during work-from-home but, much like the savvy consumers that herald our brands, we know better and it’s more than culture that’s missing. We are unintentional members of the digital frontier and back we’ve come with that knowledge to in-office workstations, skip-level-touchbases, and some kind of hybrid work model (or at least staying home when we’re sick). If the old ways of working were scrapped during the pandemic, and new ways quickly thrown together during work from home won’t hold, then what’s next? What technology will bridge the gap for our new hybrid workforce?

I do wonder if this post-Labor Day return-to-the-workplace narrative is in many ways just an accelerated version of brandlife. Our brands have lived several years in the span of a year-and-a-half. Some, like our athleisure friends, sing songs of fiscal success while others do not. And if the only workplace story we had was that in 2020 brands cut who they wanted from their workforce and that in 2021 those left were grateful to return to the office then there would be nothing amiss and brandlife would continue as usual. But, I’ve spoken to friends and former colleagues who are more than ready to move on from their current role and company after a year-and-a-half of pandemic-burn-out. This sentiment has even been named the “Great Resignation” and what it’s done is flip the paradigm. The employees now set the precedent and brands face potentially high turnover as employees move on. Brands will do their best to retain employees over the next six months so I’ve urged all my industry friends to use this paradigm shift to push your brand to adopt hybrid workplace tools that will improve your team’s quality of life.

As we see our friends and colleagues from other teams leaving we instantly know that our job is about to get harder. Regardless of whether your friend is upstream or downstream from your role, you know it will take time for their replacement to get up to speed. Likely, there are members of your team with a plan to leave too. To this, I say push harder and adopt a technology solution faster so they can leave a message in a bottle for the digital descendants who will fill these empty slots. Conveniently, it’s both the brand-loyal and self-serving thing to do!

A few months ago I penned a piece about how those of us at brands can help open up channels of communication and realign the digital tangle of information we’re presented with into something cohesive and shareable. As an Archivist by trade, I’m trained to traditionally step in once projects have been completed and the work is done, but after years of working at a brand, I’ve learned that there simply is not time to wait. Our brands are fluid and constantly changing -- and we only turn our focus toward preserving institutional knowledge when there is an urgent business need. The moment corporate attention waivers we drop the mic and move to the next on-fire project.

With an honest look at our teams, including those upstream and downstream, we see that amid the work and projects and deadlines people are always coming and going -- some are being onboarded and some are leaving with essential information. This flurry of activity is sometimes described as the “energy” of brands, but it’s just a constant game of brand musical chairs. I think a solid portion of this activity is misguided as we focus on administrative tasks, searching for previous work, or putting together redundant presentations. If we can redirect some of the activity towards creating long-term efficiencies and value-adds in our day to day then access to institutional knowledge starts to work to our advantage. We’ve pivoted greatly during the pandemic and with the Great Resignation upon us, it’s time to battle the pain points we face as brand musical chairs accelerates. All we need to do is capture the knowledge that our teams already have and give access to others when they need it. We live in the digital age so of course we must tackle this frontier with a digital solution. I spend my days working with brands just like yours, and they’re capturing what you’re not in an easy-to-use and intuitive platform called Enwoven. So if you’re at a risk-averse brand, reach out and I’m happy to give you a test drive to see what the fuss is about.