I got an email from a conference I attended two weeks ago that prompted me to think about the most important takeaway from that day: community.
It’s something I hope we can remember this election week.
The conference that got me thinking about community was Seramount’s WorkBeyond Summit, which honors the 100 best companies for working parents. At a gala Seramount named the top ten – Johnson & Johnson was No. 1 – and celebrated each company’s working parent of the year. It recognized the top law firms for women and diversity. It put on a robust conference with panels delving into big issues employers and employees face when it comes to managing and being a working parent.
Here are five things from the conference that I thought about today.
1) Inclusivity makes companies stronger. Subha Barry, president of Seramount, backed this up with facts and data, not feelings and division.
2) Elevating people for what they’ve done well – particularly when it’s hard – is powerful. The winners of the working parents of the year award were beaming when they came on stage to loud applause.
3) Competition can be good. Companies were recognized for being in the top 10. Companies were also recognized for the number of years on the top 100 list. (J&J had the most – one more than Merck.)
4) There is no archetype for a best working parent. They were moms and dads; birthing, non-birthing and adoptive parents; married, divorced, or always single parents of all ages. What united them? They were working parents who had figured out how to do two challenging things well – and were recognized by their colleagues for it.
5) Trust people to engage in weighty topics. While the pacing of the conference was great, what really struck me was the depth of the sessions. They were meaty – and there were as many people at the end as the beginning of the day.
On that last point, one session stood out, “Navigating Parenthood in a Changing World”.
There were four panelists, two moms, two dads. They worked at Capital One, Gilead Sciences, AbbVie and Sanofi. What connected their stories – stories about loss and struggle and perseverance – was they all had managers who supported them. (The mom from Sanofi even had her manager in the audience!)
These companies weren’t just spouting policies that sounded nice; they were backing them up with managers who had been trained and empowered to implement them.
Which brings me back to election week. Whoever wins the presidency, half of the country is going to be upset. We live in divided times.
But community based on care can bring us together. Most Americans are caregivers, in some form, at some time. And no way everyone at the Seramount conference voted for the same presidential candidate or political party. Still, they came together as a community, lifted up by a universal message of care.
