Jun 22, 2020

As seen in Fast Company: Kind Snacks founder opens up about company culture in the age of COVID-19 and beyond

Excerpt from Fast Company

Our team has been working from home for over two months, and I’ve been stunned to observe how well the model is working. I’d like to attribute its success to Kind’s uniquely entrepreneurial culture, and I do believe this is playing a role in sustaining high levels of productivity, teamwork, and ingenuity. And other company leaders assure me we are not alone. They tell me that, generally speaking, their teams are working hard and nothing has fallen apart. Many of us are questioning whether an office culture is necessary.

Maybe there are even benefits to this new remote work setup. At Kind, some team members deal with five-hour round-trip commutes to our office each day. Not only is this detrimental to their health, sanity, and our environment, but it also cuts into their productivity or time with family. The smooth transition into our new work-from-home normal tells me there must be room to improve and rejigger these suboptimal scenarios of old…

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COVID-19          Culture          Leadership

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Ultimately, what we achieve as corporate leaders, even in the form of social impact, must work hand in hand with how we go about achieving it. How we act along our journeys is at least as important as–if not more so than–the destination. For example, if we are donating a portion of profits to at-need communities, but not being open-minded, respectful, and honest in how we lead in the workplace, we risk undermining our larger goals by contributing to a disrespectful, intolerant, or unethical culture. In fact, a company with no stated social mission that is modeling positive values like integrity and respect may be doing more good for our world than one with a big ESG commitment failing at the basics of kindness.

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