Mark your calendars: Saturday is the first annual “National Cinema Day.”

More than 3,000 theaters across the U.S. will sell movie tickets for just $3, including IMAX and other premium formats. Cinemas will also showcase remastered classics like Jaws and sizzle reels from upcoming releases like Marvel’s Black Panther sequel.

Labor Day weekend is typically the slowest holiday for box office, so this new tradition-to-be is a smart move. While theaters will lose money on ticket sales, they could see big returns from (immediately) concession sales and (in the long run) reminding hesitant moviegoers why streaming just isn’t the same experience.

Promising the world: You can’t fake ESG efforts.

Hybrid meetings: Are they ever not awkward?

Webcomic: Only murders in the (office) building.

(Source: Shutterstock)

It’s no longer a contrarian take to suggest that capitalism and environmentalism can go hand in hand. An enormous number of companies from top global brands to local retailers have reduced their carbon footprints — and heavily used those efforts for green marketing.

Everybody on the planet benefits when businesses consider the impact that their endeavors are having on the world. But is it possible to oversell yourself on the ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) front? When does it become so-called “greenwashing,” earning you the exact opposite reaction you wanted?

Harvard Business School professor George Serafeim, author of the new book Purpose and Profit: How Business Can Lift Up the World, told b. how to maximize revenue by focusing on environmental and social issues the right way.

Set Realistic Expectations

Claiming that your business is actively reducing its carbon impact or fighting world hunger sounds nice on paper — but businesses need to back up their big talk with concrete proof. “You’ve now created expectations about what the product stands for,” Serafeim said. “If you don't meet those expectations, you might face consumer backlash.”

The key is to focus on specifics. If you donate a certain percentage of your sales to a humanitarian organization, go ahead and highlight your generosity. However, if all you’ve done is switch to recycled toilet paper, then failing to live up to big claims could tarnish your brand’s value and leave it in an even worse position than it was before. Nobody appreciates being deceived.

Highlight Simple Principles

Complicated mission statements don’t typically resonate with people, Serafeim believes. While a nuanced plan is necessary for tough issues in practice, such as tracing a component’s carbon footprint throughout the supply chain, a mass audience often needs to hear a simple message.

“If something is authentic but can be digested in a very simple and tangible way, it’s something that is much more likely to be effective,” Serafeim said.

Listen to Fresh Voices

While “set it and forget it” is great for slow-cooker recipes, it’s no way to run your business or its ESG efforts. For leaders who are rooted in traditional principles, bringing in new people — who are more likely to question current structures and strategies — is an effective way to benefit from fresh perspectives.

“You don't want to throw out all the knowledge and experience that you have accumulated with hard sweat over decades, but at the same time, you don't want to be stuck in the past,” Serafeim said. “Successful companies have really become learning organizations. They learn how the environment around them changes, learn how customer preferences might be shifting, and learn how to adapt.”

Purpose and Profit: How Business Can Lift Up the World by George Serafeim is available now.

“I try to speak to at least one person that I feel is close to me. Whether they're a family member or a friend, I very much believe in the idea of positive momentum in one's life. When you speak to people that have a positive attitude about life, it just makes your day better.”

(Source: Shutterstock)

Dr. Steven Rogelberg is Chancellor's Professor at UNC Charlotte and a former president of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

Now that many of us have returned to the office for at least a couple of days per week — but not always the same days — collaboration happens in a hybrid fashion. If half your team is physically present and half of your colleagues are remote, what’s the best way to conduct a meeting?

You could host a fully virtual meeting, with everyone on separate computers, or a hybrid meeting with all on-site team members together in a single room joined by remote workers on a screen.

Hybrid Meetings Appear Less Effective and Inclusive

There’s not a huge amount of research on this front (yet), but based on my early data, hybrid meetings are just not optimal (again, yet). Effectiveness ratings tend to be lower for hybrid meetings than for virtual meetings.

Most importantly, team members attending virtually report not feeling a sense of inclusion. The meeting favors those who are in person at the expense of those attending remotely. Thus, a full range of voices and perspectives are not heard.

We’re Getting Better at Fully Virtual Meetings

Now that we’ve been doing Zoom for a few years, the effectiveness of fully virtual meetings seems higher than ever before. Here are some advantages over hybrid meetings:

• No head-of-table effects. The setup of a virtual meeting is inherently more democratic as all camera images can be seen equally with no one image being privileged.
• More voices emerge. The chat function allows for everyone to be heard, especially those who tend to be quieter in meetings.
• Great collaboration tools. From breakout rooms to anonymous polling and digital whiteboards, virtual meetings allow for more conversations.

Hybrid meetings will probably improve dramatically down the road as conference rooms are reconfigured to truly promote and elevate them (and as leaders receive training on how to better facilitate this tricky dynamic). As people come back to work, though, we don’t want them locked up in meetings all day! The freedom to interact spontaneously and casually is what we lost during the pandemic, and it would be nice to get it back.

(Source: Shutterstock)

With the weekend jusssssst about here, we’re planning to relax with Shacksbury’s Rosa. The Vermont cider-maker teamed up with California natural wine producer Martha Stoumen for a playful wine/cider hybrid. Fruity and bubbly, as it’s bottle-conditioned with native yeast — and at an approachable 7.6% ABV — this is a perfect sipper for the year’s hottest month.

Written by Antonio Ferme, Aaron Goldfarb, and Dr. Steven Rogelberg. Comic by John McNamee.

Unsubscribe | Privacy Policy | CCPA