Out of Scope Issue #121: Climate Comms and Other Hot Topics
Plus: Top Gun CEOs and moon-bound art
Happy Friday! This week we witnessed the emergence of more corporate trends and the rising climate taking center stage (again). But first...
📡ON OUR RADARÂ
The boardroom is turning into Top Gun. Bank of America, Nike, and others have hired Afterburner, an executive coaching service run by former fighter pilot Christian Boucousis. Programs offered by Afterburner promise to teach business leaders to bring a wartime mentality to high-stakes situations, providing military strategies for decision-making under pressure. Plus: participants get to feel like Tom Cruise (at least, for a day).
The Knot is the latest company to rebrand for Gen Z. The wedding planning website has debuted new features designed to cater to "nontraditional ceremonies," reflecting the younger generation's more expansive vision of what a wedding can be. It's another response to the reality-drenched shift all businesses face: new generations have new expectations.
A year out from the Great Resignation and the rise of quiet quitting, employees are settling into new norms that may trouble some employers. New research shows that people invest less time and emotional energy into work. People are going into the office less, taking more vacations, and generally working fewer hours. As a result, employee satisfaction has improved. Read more at WSJ.
💡ON OUR MINDS: Climate Comms and Other Hot TopicsÂ
After enduring the hottest month on record, the escalating climate issue has become a global topic. Regardless of views, the blistering effects of the heat are seared into our daily existence. From agricultural repercussions to billions of hours lost in labor due to heat exposure, climate impacts are landing squarely on both human well-being and economic productivity.
And companies are feeling the heat: Many of Amazon's drivers and warehouse employees went on strike to protest sizzling working conditions. Others within the industrial and agriculture industries, as well as those in other labor-intensive jobs, are grappling with how to cope when thermometers regularly exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Given the pervasiveness of a warming world and its impact (we're literally debating naming the deadliest heat waves by their impact on lives and health), companies and brands may need to consider regular climate communications going forward for the safety of their employees, customers, and daily operations.Â
It may be tricky: Corporate messaging is mixed in the broader ESG landscape. And consistency of that messaging tends to be lacking in corporate environments. More broadly, ESG has its share of supporters and detractors in the investing and political realms, and depending on the climate (pun intended), some brands doubled down or shied away from ESG communications and commitments. Dealing directly with sweltering weather may require more consistent and deliberate messaging—stay tuned!Â
🥊QUICK HITS:Â
In case you missed these reads.
An archive of contemporary art, poetry and other cultural artifacts of life on Earth, is en route to the moon.
Gwyneth Paltrow introduces a new element in holistic emotional well-being: alleviating loneliness through an Airbnb stay at her Goop guest house.
The Cut delved into Vogue's 2022 "word of the year," "gatekeeping."
The World Wildlife Foundation plays off Twitter’s rebrand into X with a quick and clever ad.
Thanks for reading,
HL
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This week’s newsletter is brought to you by a Malayan sun bear named Angela.