As we are preparing to do a company-wide event called “CXtravaganza”, a colleague asked why CX matters. Here is what our Director of CX, Amanda Chavez, had to say. The movement is on!
“10 years ago when I started doing CX, my first projects were, no lie, in this order: coming up with strategies to help prevent sexual assault in the military; finding ways to help families of Veterans who died by suicide; and coming up with ways to prevent active shooters in public spaces for the TSA. All this work required me and my colleagues to interview sexual assault survivors, the parents of children who died by suicide, and people who had lived through active shooters attempting to murder them.
Spending hours in interviews with these people–people who had survived the unimaginable–helped my team and I deeply understand and have true empathy for these folks. But empathy isn’t enough–you have to use this empathy to create solutions that matter so that others don’t have to suffer the same way. And you can’t do that unless you really understand what it feels like to go through the worst moment in someone’s life.
You may think what we’re doing today isn’t on the scale of some of those problems, but I disagree. We may not be solving the darkest moment in someone’s life, but isn’t it true that every single one of us has had a dark moment? Isn’t it true that everyone of us has had a struggle that has deeply shaped our experience, and that few others understand? To that end, anything we can do to lighten the load for another person–a person who is having their own struggles with and has faced their own darkness–is a contribution worth making.
In other words, by changing what we can, whether that change is big or small, we can make a difference that helps lighten the load for other people. And in the end, isn’t that why any of us goes to work in the first place?
So back to you, Bob. This is why what you’re doing today matters. Today, you’re empowering folks at this company to look at the world around them a little differently. You’re passing along tools to help our colleagues create experiences that empower others and help lighten the load they may be carrying. You are giving a gift today that will inspire others to do the same. And for that, I am so, so grateful to you.
Thank you all for sacrificing your time, energy, and effort for this event. You will never know how much it means to me.“
