Cum Laude Speech Elisabeth Garrett '01 Thanks for the Kind Introduction
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Cum Laude Speech Elisabeth Garrett ’01 Thanks for the kind introduction, Sharon. I’ve had a few nightmares someone would dig out old yearbook photos of me, I know that if I shared with you one of me my Junior Year with Sharon and the Whiz Quiz team, well… I’m sure we would all agree that there’s hope for each and every one of you yet! And, we can all go home now. It is good to be back home in Fort Worth with y’all … and to speak to a crowd that gets what I mean by y’all. Looking out at those grins, I love it! You’re sitting there, so proud. And you should be. Very proud. Congratulations! This is no small achievement: Cum Laude, so well done to each of you! Maybe your parents are here to share in the sweetness of your moment and are basking in your achievements as if they were their own. (I’ll let you in on a secret, mine are here too. It still feels pretty good to have a ready-made fan club). When Sharon Hamilton asked me whether I’d be willing to speak today, I thought with a squeal “Wow! Really, me?!?” and then within instants the “imposter syndrome” had set in, and it was suddenly “Wow? Really?!? Me?” my sisters are the real brains in our family. So, if you are a sibling who hasn’t had the honor of Cum Laude bestowed upon you today, I’d say hang in there. You just might be the one asked to come back to speak here one day. So what wisdom can I, a meagre “non-laude” alumna of Fort Worth Country Day, impart upon you today? I’ve been thinking about this a fair bit and decided to share with you a lesson I’ve been learning over the last few months. It came about during my final performance review with my former boss as I was heading into my current role. He was extremely complementary of my skills and how I had delivered within that role. I was beaming (for the record, this is how you always dream your performance reviews will go) and then he got real with me… he cautioned, “Eli, all that skill, enthusiasm and energy it’s amazing but I must warn you, what got you here, won’t get you there. Bringing only that to this next role will simply not be enough.” Well, that was sobering. And yet, I am so grateful to Benjamin for that honest advice. I’ve found myself mulling over it in the past few months, especially in moments when I realize I can no longer react, answer or push a decision on to someone else as I may have done before. There are new demands, new challenges, and days where I will confess that I feel I must be on the verge of getting it all wrong. Yes, I’m still tackling that imposter syndrome. I decided to look into this “What got you here, won’t get you there” phenomenon a bit more and picked up Marshall Goldsmith’s book by the same title. I would recommend it as it’s a good read, but for now, I’ll share with you some of my takeaways, ““As human beings we almost always suffer from a disconnect between the self we think we are and the self that the rest of the world sees in us.” “Most successful people possess extraordinary skills; that's why they do well. But once people attain success, their bad habits or behavioral foibles move to the forefront. In fact, often, the more successful leaders become,” the more their issues and failures to change can halt their rise or progress. The sad reality is that when you succeed, you don’t think you need to change. However, I’m here today to tell you that in this world, if you fail to do so, you won’t continue to succeed. And this is partly due to the nature of our world today. Can I ask by a show of hands how many of you are familiar with the term VUCA world? Anyone? Ok, a few of you. It’s a term I learned about 7 or 8 years ago but it has really come to life for me in the past 6 months. VUCA was a term coined by the US Military in the 1990s acknowledging that following the end of the cold war the world is now: VOLATILE UNCERTAIN COMPLEX AMBIGUOUS This has been the world in which you have spent your entire life. A world in which the speed of change has been faster than that of generations that came before you, with more uncertainty, chaos and ambiguity than has ever been faced before. I could go through a litany of current headlines to showcase this. (e.g. the current nuclear escalation with North Korea, the ongoing horror devastating Syria and the greatest refugee crisis since World War II that should leave us even more horrified by our global community’s inaction; East Africa on the brink of another devastating famine; Turkey’s recent vote to change its constitution and offer Erdogan unchecked powers; the call for another snap “Brexit” election in the UK that could change Europe as we know it today. I could go on, but that is just today’s context. Given this context, I’m grateful I work for Unilever. For those of you who don’t recognize the big U, it is one of the world’s leading fast moving consumer goods companies with a turnover of €52.7 billion in 2016, is the No. 1 employer of choice in 34 countries, and has a portfolio that includes some of the world’s best known and most loved brands including Dove, Knorr, Hellmann’s, Lipton, Ben & Jerry’s, Magnum and Lux. But it is Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan which motivates me the most as an employee. Our CEO, Paul Polman has long argued that given the dynamics of the VUCA world of finite resources and infinite disruptors, we must be able to do business differently. He challenged us to see that we are at a turning point in history and has set for us an ambitious goal TO GROW OUR BUSINESS, WHILST DECOUPLING OUR ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT FROM OUR GROWTH AND INCREASING OUR POSITIVE SOCIAL IMPACT through the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan. Our ambition goes beyond just changing our own business. We want to change the very way business is done. A new business model with sustainability at its heart is vital for quality of life around the globe to improve. But only the businesses that grasp this will survive. After all, “no business can succeed in a society that fails.” And we are seeing this approach working, Brands with sustainable living at their core accounted for nearly half of Unilever's growth in 2015 – growing 30% faster than the rest of the business. We are seeing sustainability drive innovation as we create products to meet emerging needs such as laundry products and shampoos that use less water. I was so proud to work with our supply chain as we succeeded in 2015 to become the first large company to ensure zero waste from our factories was ending up in landfills. It is an incredible feat of ingenuity and resolve that has now been extended to every Unilever site. We’ve even partnered with customers like Kroger to help them do the same. In my current role in the Global Learning Team, I get to ensure that these VUCA themes feature prominently in the trainings which we design and deliver to our Unilever leaders. Our aim is to improve the resilience and effectiveness of their leadership in the midst of constant upheaval. We encourage them to train themselves and impart to their teams a drive to be more agile and innovative in their responses to ever-changing market realities. If you’ve read the Wall Street Journal and know of the recent rebuttal of Kraft-Heinz/3G’s bid for Unilever, which makes this moment one in which we need that resilience, agility and creativity from our leaders to continue to hold fast to our purpose. And… if you can keep using Dove or picking up a pint of Ben & Jerry’s for me, I’d appreciate it In the face of this kind of challenging moment, especially in a moment of transition like you and I find ourselves today, I’m convinced that this VUCA thing actually offers some unique opportunities if we only chose to see it from a different perspective. Volatility demands leaders capable of sharing a clear vision for a future state that is worth striving towards. I would argue Polman has succeeded in instilling this within Unilever. Articulate a clear vision, full of purpose and conviction, and be willing to pioneer a way to direct others towards that new reality. We need more leaders to cast clear visions amid volatility, and be willing to take those often lonely first steps into the unknown. When uncertainty paralyzes those around you, I would challenge you to seek understanding. This requires you to be able to know more than one side of the story. I highly recommend traveling, as this does wonders to foster understanding. It’s amazing what you can learn about yourself when you don’t understand anyone or anything around you. Having recently moved to my seventh country, I can assure you there is always something more you can try to understand.