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Welcome to Changemaker stories from LOCAL - an ongoing series of personal interviews with leaders driving change across every industry and discipline. Because change shouldn’t mean going it alone.
This week we've been talking with Jorie Sax, a creator and innovator whose career has taken her across sports, adult beverages, and airlines. Jorie shared her perspective on humanity, impact, and the value of good work. Here are a few valuable lessons from Jorie's journey:
I come from a family of retail entrepreneurs. Successful client service is about the customer relationship. The lesson I’ve learned since birth is to center every experience around “you” and “us” – not “me”.
The world is bigger than yourself. If you allow for listening and focusing on the other person, it will lead to an understanding of the impact you can make.
Even though I work in innovation, humanity is where I always choose to start.
Great changemakers I encounter share a few traits. They have conviction and a great sense of autonomy that drives them, blended with an openness and excitement.
To start a project well, you have to understand the landscape first. The tools, the people, the motivations. If people aren’t motivated for improvement, then it’s not the right environment to drive successful change. I ultimately want to work with people who are willing to go on the change journey.
Change is not a solo effort. You have to build trust and understand others' motivations to enable collaboration.
I like situations where no one has made a leap yet. I like to be the first to dive in. I am also not afraid to hear “we’ve done it before” if there’s been lots of effort but no concrete results.
I stay away from situations where I sense the wrong priorities, like the desire for a new “shiny object”.
My time as a clinical massage therapist taught me that where the pain is most intense isn’t where the focus should be. This goes for corporate change, too.
Anything can be overcome if you show up with good intent. Barriers, complex infrastructure, lack of budget.
Any time you are putting a smile on peoples’ faces you are doing something important.
I worry about the reactive nature of how we live our lives today, without purpose or intent. Everything has to be so fast. We have to know all the answers. We should be more thoughtful about how and why we do things.
I’m a fan of Britt Dougherty. She was the first leader in my career to imbed the human element of her team into everyday work. I still have a plaque that reads HUMAN on my desk from her as a reminder to remain grounded in myself.
I live in Chicago. I love the section of the city in between the Shedd Aquarium and Adler Planetarium, a patch of grass next to Lake Michigan. I go there to look over Chicago and get reinvigorated by the city’s energy.