Elevating the Human Experience with Amelia Dunlop

Amelia Dunlop is Chief Experience Officer and US Customer Strategy and Applied Design Leader at Deloitte. Her core belief is that before we are consumers, we are humans with values and emotions. She uses that belief to influence how she connects businesses with their customers. As a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal’s CMO Journal and Adweek, Amelia holds a deep passion for the written word. Her first book, Elevating the Human Experience: Three Paths to Love and Worth at Work, tells the story of how Amelia discovered her own sense of love at work, and embraces the readers who may be struggling with that very same thing. She is Marcel Schwantes’ guest this week on Love In Action.Elevating the human experience is fundamentally about acknowledging human work and nurturing growth through love, Amelia says. “So many traditions and philosophies teach that the human condition is one of suffering,” she remarks. “There are many things you and I may not have in common but [we can understand] that feeling of suffering we share, and so that’s why I believe every experience could be made just a little bit better.” [7:56]Burnout, loneliness and isolation are not new concepts, Marcel comments. People were burning out pre-pandemic, but it’s at the forefront now. Amelia shares how workplaces have created these problems, and how they intersect with lack of self-worth. The increasing amount of attention around burnout, DE&I, purpose and well-being shows that we all want to feel loved and worthy, she explains. When you don’t put the human at the center, these problems arise. [10:21]The first path to elevating the human experience is the path of the self; you must see yourself as inherently worthy of love. “For me, one of the struggles growing up is that all we were taught about external affirmation… Everything you do is graded, and so we have this mindset that we’re only worthy when we get a certain letter grade,” Amelia claims. She talks about how this translates into the workplace. [14:17]In order to continue growing professionally, we need to learn to grow personally, Amelia quotes. It takes the whole head and heart to show up equally. She recalls how she learned to understand herself in the context of an obstacle. [19:46]Amelia describes the four ways we can show up as allies at work. “The first is as a friend, [who] just wants to be there on your journey with you; the second is as a mentor, who offers you a short way to see the world a little differently; third is as a sponsor, who uses their power, formal or informal, to remove obstacles for someone else; and fourth is as a benefactor, which is the combination of the first three.” [27:26]When workers feel like they belong, are respected, and are psychologically safe, it creates the ideal work environment, which translates to better results and productivity, Marcel cites. “Some of these things seem intuitive [in that] it’s definitely the type of world I want to live in and the workplace I want to be a part of, but we’ve also done the research to demonstrate,” Amelia adds. “Organizations that focus on this human experience are twice as likely to outperform their peers over a three year period.” [31:04]“We have about 40 years of research from Gallup that says [recognizing your employees’ contributions improves employee engagement,” Marcel affirms. “It does something special to the human spirit when somebody lifts and builds you up through gratitude.” [37:00]ResourcesAmelia Dunlop on LinkedIn