strategy+business^ issue^9872
organization’s direction. This makes employees feel more trusted and engaged.
A more high ground–oriented employee experience leads employees to interact
more thoughtfully with customers. This makes the customer experience more
appealing. Customers recognize that the company understands them better than
its competitors do. This leads to revenue growth, which filters back to the leaders,
who adjust their investments accordingly.
One aspect of the mind and brain that gives this virtuous circle its power
is neuroplasticity, or the tendency of human neural circuits to become stronger
with repetition. The more frequently and intensively customers, employees,
and leaders occupy the high ground in their minds, the more embedded that
activity becomes in their brains, and thus in their conversations, and thus in the
organization’s culture. This is how some companies gain an iconic qualit y that no
other company can seem to replicate: Their conversations take people into a high
ground frame of mind and it becomes second nature to look for investments that
will give the enterprise a distinctive long-term identity. Neuroplasticity becomes
even stronger when people know that they are participating in a project designed
to improve their thinking and the organization’s culture, and that they have a
choice about how to participate.
What then might this type of three-part experience design look like in an
actual company? Let’s imagine examples of LX, EX, and CX, showing how they
would fit together.The catalyst: Leadership experience
Consider this hypothetical situation: Every quarter, the top 50 executives of a
well-regarded financial-services firm meet for three days. Closed off from the
rest of the company, these sessions include performance reports, discussions of
top personnel, consideration of pending deals, and debate about a few urgent
crises. On rare occasions, the CEO overrides the ordinary agenda.
On one of those occasions, she began, “We’re in a leadership crisis. Lastfea
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