Find episode transcript below.
ANNOUNCER:
00:00:00:00 Welcome to PwC Pulse, a podcast to provide insights to help you solve today's business challenges.
KELLY PEDERSEN:
00:00:09:29 Hi, I'm Kelly Pedersen, Global Retail Leader at PwC and I'm thrilled to welcome you to this episode of The PwC Pulse podcast. Today we're diving into an inspiring transformation journey with Dress for Success, a global non-profit making waves in its mission to support unemployed and underemployed women achieve financial independence.
00:00:29:07 For any business, organizational change can be as exciting as it is challenging. Growth often brings complexity, new strategies, innovative ways to serve customers, and the ever-important task of aligning stakeholders. Joining me today to explore key lessons leaders can draw from a transformation journey is Michele Meyer-Shipp, CEO of Dress for Success. Michele, welcome to the podcast.
MICHELE MEYER-SHIPP:
00:00:52:23 Thanks so much. I'm really happy to be here.
KELLY PEDERSEN:
00:00:55:01 Great. Really happy to have you. Before we dive in, we've got some rapid-fire questions to get to know you a little better.
MICHELE MEYER-SHIPP:
00:01:00:26 Let's do it.
KELLY PEDERSEN:
00:01:01:25 All right. What is your favorite place in the world to visit?
MICHELE MEYER-SHIPP:
00:01:05:19 So I wish I had one answer to this. So I'm going to give you three places. Some of my favorite places to visit have included Machu Picchu, South Africa, Safari, where I had a great time, and Kona, Hawaii. I love the landscapes and the diversity of landscape in Kona.
KELLY PEDERSEN:
00:01:21:29 That's, I love all three of those places. That's amazing. What is your favorite book that you recommend?
MICHELE MEYER-SHIPP:
00:01:26:24 And here again, Kelly, I don't have one answer, so I'm going to give you a couple. So one of my favorite, favorite books from a personal and professional perspective is called ‘The Four Agreements’ by Don Miguel Ruiz. It's a great book on life lessons for living your daily life, and the best way. And then, two books that I love from a business perspective:
00:01:47:16 One is called ‘Expect to Win’, and the second is called ‘Strategize to Win’, both by Carla Harris, who's an executive at Morgan Stanley. Really great books.
KELLY PEDERSEN:
00:01:57:09 Awesome. I have to check those out. And last, who is someone you admire?
MICHELE MEYER-SHIPP:
00:02:01:09 The people I admire are the women we serve. They are incredible. They are resilient. They are committed, they are loyal, and they've demonstrated great tenacity. So, I would have to say, the women we serve for sure.
KELLY PEDERSEN:
00:02:13:19 Excellent. I can't wait to hear more about it today. Thank you for sharing with us. So now let's get into our topic for today. First question. Could you start by telling us about Dress for Success and its mission, and what personally drew you to get involved?
MICHELE MEYER-SHIPP:
00:02:26:09 Yeah, sure. I'm happy to, Kelly. Dress for Success has been around for 26 years. We're a global organization. We have just over 130 affiliates in over 20 countries, and our mission is to support unemployed and underemployed women in securing meaningful jobs at a livable wage.
00:02:46:08 So that they can secure economic independence. It is an amazing organization. All of our affiliates are independent non-profits, and they kind of roll up under the Dress for Success Worldwide umbrella, where I'm the CEO and at worldwide, our role is to really help empower the affiliates by building their capacity
00:03:07.:09 and bringing them strategic partnerships, programs and sponsorships. I actually was drawn to the organization after spending over 20 years in Big Corporate. I wanted to find a way in this kind of, I think, maybe last chapter of my career and thinking about how I can give back from a really grassroots effort.
00:03:29:01 And I made the pivot out of corporate to Dress for Success, because it gives me that exact ability to do that. During my entire career, I've been focused on helping people with access and equity in the workplace. So this role here at Dress for Success allows me to do that in a really genuine and authentic way for people who need us most.
KELLY PEDERSEN:
00:03:51:26 I love that, I love, I describe the transition from more of a corporate environment to kind of giving back in this way. It's really inspirational. It's great to hear.
MICHELE MEYER-SHIPP:
00:04:00:09 Thank you.
KELLY PEDERSEN:
00:04:01:05 So second question, it's essential for an organization to recognize when transformation is necessary. I mean, we deal with it all the time in our clients. What initially sparked the need for change or transformed for Dress for Success? And was this driven by like a particular event, for example?
MICHELE MEYER-SHIPP:
00:04:16:13 I'd say there are two pieces to this. First of all, that last part of your question, was it driven by a particular event? I would say, COVID had a market impact for us on kind of the lights going off that we needed to do something differently. Our affiliates traditionally served women in person every day with a brick and mortar office building or space.
00:04:41:04 When COVID happened and all of their doors were forced to shut, there was this moment of, ‘Oh my goodness, now what do we do?’ So there was this immediate need to pivot. Coinciding with that, over the past couple of years, even pre-COVID, the business did recognize that we were seeing a shift in the needs of the women who were coming to us, and they didn't just need clothing or they didn't just need help with a resume, but they needed a lot more than that.
00:05:10:27 So those were the two things that really drove the transformation and got us underway on a journey that I'm really excited about, where we're starting to see progress. And I know there's lots more to come.
KELLY PEDERSEN:
00:05:21:05 Yeah, that's really exciting. I really love that story. So we also heard that you conducted a listening tour to gather insights from over 200 stakeholders, including board members, donors, which I'm sure was a major undertaking. How can input from various stakeholders like this help shape strategic plans?
MICHELE MEYER-SHIPP:
00:05:39:02 Kelly, I will tell you this that I really do think the listening tour is everything. The listening tour, in my opinion, candidly writes the strategy. And for me, seeing it come true here at Dress for Success, it mirrored similar situations I've had in previous organizations where I've worked. Everywhere I worked, I've been charged with crafting a strategic path forward, and I've always started with a listening tour.
00:06:06:13 The listening tour is critical and key because it allows you to get from your stakeholders’ key insights that you don't know to know, right? So what's working? What's not working? What are some of the key challenges? What are the low-hanging fruit opportunities? What does success look like?
00:06:23:07 When you start asking your diverse group of stakeholders from all different aspects, what they think about these questions: what I find always emerges is a pattern and a theme, and you start to hear similar concepts from all of the stakeholders, no matter what their position.
00:06:42:00 And the strategy literally writes itself because you're starting to hear from everyone. This is what's missing. This is what we need. This is what works, etc. So using the listening tour as an anchor is, I think, an essential part of any strategic planning process, especially when you're trying to drive a big transformation that will require you to get your stakeholders to move along with you.
KELLY PEDERSEN:
00:07:06:10 That's great. I think so many individuals and organizations can learn from that methodology, and just listening and hearing what the stakeholders around you have to say, I think that's really insightful. So next question, what were the most significant lessons you learned about organizational change and leadership alignment during periods of rapid growth that you're experiencing? And how did this help everyone from C-suite to affiliates stay on the same page?
MICHELE MEYER-SHIPP:
00:07:30:05 I would say communication, communication, communication. And not just any communication, but transparent communication about the timeline, the plan, the good, the bad, the ugly, all of it. You really need to be open and honest with your folks about what you're anticipating, what the timeline looks like, how it will impact the organization, how it will impact them in their day-to-day roles.
00:07:59:26 Because you really want your folks to be engaged with you in the process and you want them to come along. And you also want to the extent you can alleviate fears. Granted, there will likely be people that are unnerved when there's transformation.
00:08:14:10 And to that end, I think it's also really important to talk to your team members about the ability for everyone to be agile, to be really flexible, knowing that things are going to change, the timeline may change, the order in which we execute certain priorities may have to change. So agility and flexibility is critical and really showing people what that looks like and exemplifying it goes a really, really long way.
00:08:42:00 I would say, finally, you want to be really consistent and you want to make sure that there is alignment across the organization. So that's where the link back to that communication is so essential, because you're letting your stakeholders know and in particular for us, our worldwide staff and our affiliates,
00:09:01:10 ‘Here's the timeline, here's the plan.’ And you're meeting with them routinely, letting them know where you are in the process, what's changing, how it's impacting them, etc. And you're giving them a space to ask questions and to perhaps share concerns because I also recognize that I don't know what I don't know.
00:09:20:24 The worldwide entity doesn't know what it doesn't know. So to give affiliates the space to keep us posted along the way allows us to continue to be agile as we move forward.
KELLY PEDERSEN:
00:09:31:18 Such great insights mean changes are given and change is necessary. Especially, when the world we live in today with so many transformations that I mean, it just comes back to communication sometimes and setting expectations exactly what you said. I think that's spot on. So next question is, technology and innovative thinking can be pivotal during transformation. How did implementing new solutions help in this process?
MICHELE MEYER-SHIPP:
00:09:53:14 Oh, it was everything. I mean, especially again, as I stated before, closing our doors and not having a way to get to our women, using technology was everything for us. It allowed us to create virtual programming, virtual connection points, virtual meetings, virtual mentoring circles, etc.
00:10:14:09 We actually launched something we call our Dress for Success online community, where all of our clients could actually register and plug in for regular meetings, workshops, and even peer-to-peer mentoring month by month.
00:10:30:17 And I've actually sat in and listened to some of those meetings. And it's really great because people are sharing with each other and supporting each other as they move along the journey. But we've done things like, had some of our corporate partners do career fairs virtually, or do resume tip workshops or interview workshops or executive presence workshops and the like for our clients virtually and through the community
00:10:56:25 we're also able to bring speakers. We're able to have ongoing dialog. It's been a really meaningful way for us to move forward. And then in addition to that, using the technology, we've been able to actually track and measure, use, impact, viewership, all the things.
00:11:13:08 So that's been really helpful as we think about impact measurement in a way that we might not actually track when people are coming in and out of the door and they may not sign in, or they may not register at the front desk and things of that nature. So this has given us a really keen way to be really diligent with those impact measures, and I love that. So it's been great.
KELLY PEDERSEN:
00:11:35:16 Yeah, I love that too. And it gets really interesting. Next question is, adopting a customer-focused approach often requires significant adjustments. What were the most valuable changes you made to improve how you meet clients’ and customers’ needs?
MICHELE MEYER-SHIPP:
00:11:48:24 I would say, we made the kind of changes that allowed us to meet them where they are at. And what I mean by that is, again, during the pandemic and even following, we learned that different clients had different needs and they had different challenges in getting to us. So we actually, for example, during the pandemic, had several affiliates open up mobile units.
00:12:14:26 So there are Dress for Success mobile units in several communities across the US in particular that actually go to the community. So we take the service to the community. In other instances, some of our affiliates actually took their services and set up satellites on college campuses, in community centers, in different other social service agencies so that the clients could actually see us there.
00:12:43:01 Because in many instances, both during and after COVID, folks were unable to get to us. So those mobile services, that online community allowed us to do that as well. I think the other thing that we heard during the listening sessions we had throughout COVID were that folks were interested not just in the career-development piece, but they really wanted support with the coaching and mentoring.
00:13:09:00 They really needed help with financial literacy, and they wanted to learn more about digital acumen. So we were able to again meet them where they're at and bring them programming content related to those topics that has continued to this day. So it's been really great to keep that open mind, to be flexible. And it kind of connects back to listening to stakeholders, which we talked about at the top of this.
00:13:32:18 It's constantly pressure testing. What we're doing with our end users to make sure that it's relevant, it's helpful and it makes sense. And being ready to pivot as we move forward as the workforce and as things change every single day.
KELLY PEDERSEN:
00:13:50:03 So many people, I think, have this perception that non-profit organizations need to do different things fundamentally than for-profit organizations. But I think the things that you described are exactly what the for-profit organizations should do. So it’s very fundamental things to drive success.
MICHELE MEYER-SHIPP:
00:14:05:00 Definitely.
KELLY PEDERSEN:
00:14:06:03 So my last question is, non-profits can face many of the same challenges as for-profits, but without a complexity like fundraising, stakeholder engagement like we've discussed. What lessons from this transformation can you share that could be universal across all organizations?
MICHELE MEYER-SHIPP:
00:14:22:28 So I think it goes back to something you just alluded to, and that is being constantly mindful of who all of your stakeholder groups are and being attentive to all of those stakeholder groups. And it's actually really ironic with my background coming from corporate, where I had a pretty contained group of stakeholders I had to manage and care about.
00:14:44:17 Well, here my stakeholder group is quite broad, it's very vast and it's very diverse. So I constantly am thinking about who are all of my stakeholder groups, how often am I touching in with them, and what are the things I need to make sure I'm sharing with them, and what are the types of questions I need to ask them?
00:15:03:22 So from our own worldwide employees to our affiliate executive directors and their employees, and then they have their own boards of directors that want to hear from us. Corporate donors, sponsors, our clients, of course, and then other community partners that we work with.
00:15:21:09 We have tons of community partners that we work with. So really being thoughtful about keeping stakeholders engaged during the transformation process is essential. So everybody knows where you're going and everyone knows what the plan is. Just by way of example, as we've gone through our transformation with our corporate partners,
00:15:43:00 we have kept them looped in all along the way at where we are at every stage of the process. And we're very grateful that several of them have stepped in to help us in the process. They're like, ‘Oh, you're trying to do this? Well, we can help you with that.’ Or, ‘Hey, we want to show up and be supportive there’ or whatever it might be. So it's been really great to keep that level of transparency going on.
00:16:05:09 And then, also really just being grateful and always expressing our thanks to people for their support of us. I think those two things are really critical.
KELLY PEDERSEN:
00:16:15:01 Again, great insights. Well, Michele, thank you for joining me today and sharing your work and lessons. I hope these insights will spark ideas for others’ own leadership journey and help with navigating the challenges of change.
MICHELE MEYER-SHIPP:
00:16:26:22 It's my pleasure. I'm really excited about this. I'm really excited about the work we've done with you guys, and I'm excited about what's to come.
KELLY PEDERSEN:
00:16:33:28 Yeah, me too. Thanks, Michele. And to our listeners, if you found this conversation helpful, please be sure to subscribe, leave a review and share this episode with anyone who might benefit. You can also find Dress for Success podcast: More Than the Dress, available on all podcast platforms.
ANNOUNCER:
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