Alex Barker leads Be More Pirate, a social movement that supports people and organisations to challenge the status quo. Here she says the best people to hold brands to account are their own people
I had the pleasure of meeting Ashton Barnett-Vanes, a young medical doctor undertaking an internship at the World Health Organization HQ in Geneva. In one of the most expensive cities in the world, all WHO interns were unpaid, making the opportunity untenable for anyone without the means to fund themselves.
Talented medics from low-and-middle income countries were losing out on valuable training, cutting edge knowledge, and useful connections. In 2012, Ashton started a campaign to make those internships paid, and five long years later it became a reality. “..after a campaign led by a former intern, the UN agency has agreed to provide full financial support for its young workers by no later than 2020. It told the BBC that targets are also in place to ensure that 50% of interns come from developing countries by 2022.”
It is still the most successful example I have ever seen of someone challenging their employer and winning.
It’s no longer enough to stand for something, it’s who you stand up to that counts. When we think of activism, we might imagine street protests, placards and petitions; bold explosions of collective action directed at a single big issue.
But something is changing.
If passed, the 2021 Police, Crime and Sentencing and Courts Bill will limit the effectiveness of protests organised by groups like climate movement Extinction Rebellion. Legal limitations will be imposed on routes and noise levels, and the likelihood of arrests and fines will increase.
While this move might kill our ability and desire to protest, the climate crisis, however, is going nowhere, so if companies like Barclays are to be held accountable for their continued investment in fossil fuels, activism must shapeshift.
I would argue that the best people to hold corporations to account, on any issue, are their own people. We are starting to see a new incarnation of activism - a trojan horse that could be infinitely more powerful than its predecessors, if executed carefully. For the next few decades we’ll likely witness a rise in ‘employee activism’. It works on the basis that the people best placed to force change are those sitting closest to the levers. So rather than direct our attention at big, vague, overwhelming issues, it is more effective to pick something you are more or less in control of, and challenge it directly.
I have seen people start with changing simple cultural norms ‘we will not deliver bad news via email’ - a small way of making the culture kinder. Or via bigger ideas like a product team telling leadership they want to boycott Black Friday.
We call this ‘professional rule breaking.’
Using this approach, you begin to dismantle the system from the inside, rather than throw stones at it from a distance. In theory, it should be very effective, however, there is a risk it becomes a hot mess, with Basecamp and Brewdog leading the way.
Brewdog had previously been a beacon of light within the B Corp movement; an oft-cited case study demonstrating the possibility of a profitable, employee-led, purpose-driven business.
Not so it seems. The open letter from former employees suggests that underneath the veneer of punchy marketing and a fair and inclusive business model, lay something quite different. Brewdog founder James Watt eventually issued an apology and a vow to act, though in response the ‘Punks with Purpose’ group remain skeptical. Tech company Basecamp’s approach to mutiny was different; the leadership decided to squash all internal challenge with an outright ban on political discussion, thereby outing themselves as decidedly less progressive than their prevailing public image. Even the Harvard Business Review suggests that a ban is a bad idea, and evidently the third of employees that left, agreed. When I say it could become a mess, this is not without great respect for those who choose to speak up. It is incredibly brave to publicly challenge an employer. But, in both cases, the question I have is this: did either side feel satisfied with the outcome?
Basecamp co-founder on decision to ban political discussions at work
Polarisation, employee activism, and a new era for organisational culture
We’ve run workshops on rule breaking with hundreds of people across the public and private sector and have observed that while a challenge may be right and true, if delivered in the wrong way, it results in defensiveness and no change whatsoever. A mutiny can be used as a mechanism to raise the bar and foster greater understanding and connection. It just depends on how you do it. Heated pub rants and back-channel whispers continue because there is no space given to shape or practice delivering challenges, and it is extremely rare that companies take the step of training staff on how to do it constructively. And why would they, you might think? Why would an employer invite this disruption? Well, there is precedent. Studies have shown that a concept called intelligent disobedience actually improves team outcomes, particularly in high-risk environments like the military where assertiveness saves lives. In those situations, fear of your superior cannot stop you from doing what you believe to be right, even if it means disobeying orders. To overcome individuals’ lack of confidence in making direct challenges, we use our workshop space to facilitate controlled mutinies whereby small groups decide together upon a rule to break, and put forward their suggestion to the rest of the company. If it gains consensus, leadership must step aside for an agreed period of time and allow the new rule to be tested. The critical factor is that we ask leaders to agree in advance to hearing out their team, no matter how uncomfortable it might be. By gaining consent and allowing time for the idea to sink in, you lower the chance of defensive reactions. The goal is to create workplace norms via consensus, rather than by accident or top down. We follow the original pirate crew principles of open democracy and push teams to acknowledge that if a group of illiterate sword-carrying strangers in 1700 could find a way to exist harmoniously, then there is no excuse in 2021 to be driven by cultures of fear.
Employee activism works when you start small, with a sharp focus on your own experience. Done like this, we stand a chance at something far better than the equivalent of brands holding up placards.
