Walk a Mile in Another's Shoes

Easy to say, hard to do.

While in Johannesburg we went to the restaurant on the top floor of our hotel. When returning from a bathroom visit, I realized that our group of nine were the only white people in the restaurant. In that moment I got, in a small way, what it feels like to stand out as different. No, I didn’t feel watched, threatened or apprehensive walking through the restaurant. I just noticed that, for the first time I can remember, I was the different one. 

Yes, being 6’4” I stand out, but not like a woman, black or brown, Latino, Asian or LGBTQ person. 

I am well aware that as a white, heterosexual male living in the United States I am in the privileged class. The world I live in has been run, controlled and tilted in the favor of people like me. In the last 20 or so years there's been a reckoning of this uneven power dynamic. 

This experience reminded me of the saying: to develop empathy, walk a mile in  someone’s shoes. I did not walk a mile in the shoes of any of the people mentioned above, but for one brief moment, I got a sliver of an experience of what standing out as different might feel like. 

The first written reference of this phrase seems to be from a poem written by Mary T. Lathrap, called “Judge Softly,” written in 1895, a time when she, as a woman, was not allowed to vote in the United States. In it she says, “Walk a mile in his moccasins,” challenging readers to see things from the other's perspective. 

I once worked on a project for a F100 shipping company that was having 100% turnover with their contract driver pool, annually. Obviously, this was not a sustainable model. The president organized a group to tackle the problem and our firm was hired to assist them. The group had identified a few things they wanted to implement to solve the problem. Through our facilitation, we encouraged them to get into their drivers' worlds. They agreed. They had a number of people, including a VP, go on the road with their drivers and live their life from dawn to dusk for a couple days, interviewing them as they drove.  

What they learned the drivers needed and wanted had no semblance to what the group had been prepared to deliver. Like the F100 company, the thing the drivers wanted most was more revenue. As independent business owners who didn’t have transparency into the F100 company's load opportunities, they felt they were at the mercy of the company. 

As a result of spending a few days in the drivers' world, the company built a mobile load board app that not only provided the drivers with access to the company's loads but also provided access to other public load boards to help their drivers get more loads; resulting in more revenue to the drivers. Walking a mile in their moccasins, or in this case driving hundreds of miles in their cabs, totally transformed the company's business as well as their drivers'. 

I’m sure you’ve heard of the show Undercover Boss. I like the show; and like the undercover boss, am frequently moved to tears by the stories the executives hear about their employees' life challenges. While the concept is great, you don’t have to go on a show or be undercover to get connected to the most important people in your organization, the front line worker. 

Starbucks' new CEO, Laxman Narasimhan, took over on March 20. Before assuming his new role, he earned a barista certification and immersed himself in the company's operations. He then announced plans to work as a barista one half day per month to stay connected with the company's culture, customers and employees.

Some have pointed out that no matter his intentions for working as a barista, “he won't actually be experiencing the life of an hourly worker. He's not dealing with the financial and emotional stresses that go with living paycheck to paycheck. He's not struggling with child care issues or driving an hour to work, worrying about the price of gas."

While this may be true, I suspect he will be interviewing the baristas to develop a higher level of understanding of their world, not just their job. I am confident he will develop a much higher degree of empathy for his most important employees, the front line workers. This is particularly important as Starbucks' former CEO and founder has been accused of trying to bust union organization by its baristas. 

I believe that to be an effective leader in today's rapidly changing world, where those different than white heterosexual males are looking for equity and inclusion, we each need to walk a mile or two in another's moccasins. I believe that Laxman Narasimham’s working as a barista is a wonderful example of what is possible. 

If you want to be a great leader, you need to develop a social consciousness for your front line employees. So go out and be with people that aren’t like you. Get in the trenches and do their jobs, learn about their lives and challenges, live a sliver of their life; and I bet your judgment, decision making and how you lead will be positively altered.