Dianne Chipps Bailey, National Philanthropic Executive at Bank of America Private Bank, discusses charitable giving by affluent US households. Talia Fox, CEO of Kusi Global, talks about her book The Power of Conscious Connection: 4 Habits to Transform How You Live and Lead.
Hosts: Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec. Producer: Paul Brennan.
This is Bloomberg BusinessWeek with Carol Messer and Tim Stenebeck on Bloomberg Radio. We've been talking about Charlie Munger and as Noah Bouhier in his story on Charlie talks about how Munger made a lot of different donations. He promoted abortion rights, education, He served as chairman of the good Smaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, multimillion dollar requests to the University of Michigan, University of California at Santa Barbara Barbara. We talked about the housing facility that he proposed, but it was very philanthropic.
Tim, he was philanthropic and he was also I think many people would argue quite the leader. And that's what we're talking about with our next guest is leading the way here. She's the founder and CEO of a consulting firm that's worked with the likes of Northorpe, Grumman, Lockheed, Martin, the SEC, the US Army, US Marine Corps, Booz, Allen Hamilton, and more, including Harvard and Howard Universities. The company's name, KUSSI is an acronym for knowledge, Understanding, Strategy and Implementation, and in the company's own words, is quote committed to transforming, inspiring and cultivating leaders around the world.
So let's get to it. Her new book is The Power of Conscious Connection for Habits to transform how you live and lead. We have with us Talia Fox. She's the chief executive officer of the consultancy Cousy Global and a fellow at Harvard University. Talia, nice to have you here with us. You know, we're talking about Charlie Munger, quite a leader and someone who also kind of seemed to live to the fullest and was very honest and transparent about his views. Tell us a little bit about how you are thinking about how people can transform how they live and lead.
Yeah, you know, it's amazing with his death, he almost reached one hundred years old, and what you were describing about all of the giving that he did with his time here. That is what conscious connection is about. It's about being conscious of what's happening in the world and the needs and being connected to the power that you have to change. And that power can look different from many different people.
So let's think about I want to think about your own journey as a leader, because you started this consultancy quite a few years ago and you work with companies to help cultivate leaders and it's not just companies that you work with, but you also offer these online learning modules. Can you talk a little bit about your own journey as a leader, because when I speak to people who do this type of work, I always want to get an understanding of Okay, well, how do they develop themselves into somebody who can actually teach these skills.
Yeah.
So my background is in psychology, so I really studied. I started off in nonprofit studying the impact that leadership has on real lives, and I started doing keynotes speaking events for nonprofit organizations. But I was very connected to the fact that leadership decisions impact. I was able to look into children's eyes and see the impact of leadership decisions. I've had quite an interesting journey of being a single mom, of having to really find my way and study what matters and what makes a difference in achievement. And so I've read literally hundreds of books and I have been on a hunt for my entire twenty year career, twenty plus years finding out what are those core ideas, what are those core things that really make a difference in how we live and lead? And that is really what this book is about I'm sharing those stories, the stories of achievement and the hack that I call it to a great leadership and a great life.
So let's get to the four habits. So talk to us, walk us through them, if you will.
So it's very interesting because the four habits make up the acronym love. But that absolutely was a beautiful coincidence. So the four habits are listening, observe, value, and engage, And each of these habits is connected to a leadership skill that we want to master. So listening is connected to emotional intelligence that's very critical for our success, and so I outline in the book how to do that. Observation is cannected to systems thinking. This opportunity to be to see patterns and to understand how interdependent we are. Values is connected to cultural competence, our capacity of to value people, to value connection to value differences, to really be able to see all the big issues happening in the world and understand how adapt how to adapt our world views to those and then lastly engage. The real critical key value, particularly in the world we are in today, is to be able to communicate in such a way that connects instead of divides and so that habit makes up the acronym love, which I don't know my Department of Sense folks on how I feel about that acronym. I was actually cringing at how fluffy it was. But when I saw it right there, I said, oh, it makes up love. I wasn't going to shy away from it, and so we're sticking to it. So we'll see if leaders can handle the experience of that being so conscious connected in their strategy.
It's so funny because you know, you do work with clients like the Department of Defense, the US Army, the US Marine Corps. What's the reaction to the folks when you share with them this methodology, Well, our.
Our firm kusai kusi knowledge as you've shared understanding strategy implementation. That is really that has been the strategic approach that we use when we go and do culture transformation projects. So this book I wrote not only for my clients but also for It's for the people, and so it's really about on an individual level and on a leadership level, what are those habits that we need to master on a regular basis, on a daily basis to impact change.
Talian.
You know, we talk with leaders all the time, you know, and I'm curious about when you're working with the defense contractors do a lot of government work, it looks like consultants university. I mean, what is it that people often come to you and say, Okay, here's we've got this situation, here's what's wrong, or here's what's wrong with our leadership? Like help us? Or do they not even know?
What's interesting is that, you know, I really wish that people would be more pulled by purpose as opposed to push by stress. But typically when people do come to Kusai, there's something happening in the news. There is racial issues, social issues, political issues, and you're seeing a huge divide or even bleeding out executives. You're seeing problems, serious problems. We actually call it a culture shot. They need to be triaged if you will to get the culture back on board. You've got a lot of conflict. People aren't talking to each other. That's when people say, okay, who do you go to? You go to Kusai for those kinds of challenges, and we really come in with sort of skills and systems to support in a full scale culture transformation.
So what are the issues right now that the companies that are coming to you right now are telling you that they're facing.
So right now, we're dealing, of course, with a lot of diversity, equity and inclusion issues, particularly around conversations about politics, conversations that are really highly tense, and so there is this opportunity. I mean, in the government, they have an act in a law that you're not supposed to talk about these things. But people know their social media and so one of the things that we're doing is how do you have these difficult conversations. How do you say authentic without having to get into the weeds of what's actually happening in the world. So how do you build those relationships in a way that feels professional but that also feels authentic.
Well, I'm curious, you know, I'm glad you went there, because it's fascinating. We have conversations and I feel like they certainly picked up momentum when it comes to diversity inclusion coming off of the pandemic, coming off of George Floyd. It's amazing how here we are, how many years out from that, how many years before that that we were having those conversations, and yet we still have a problem. I don't know you talk with leaders, you work with companies. What is the fix so that we don't have to have the conversation anymore, because it just is.
I don't think it's a fix. I think it's it's actually almost like hygiene, cultural hygiene. I love that you have new people coming into an organization. This is something where where people we have feelings, we have triggers, we have experiences, we have life, and so we really need to treat it as a constant opportunity to create space to be able to build this environment where people are committed to innovation, committed to growth, committed to being their best selves. But in order to do that, the soil has to be We have some very specific communication strategies and ways that this culture operates, and we need to make sure that everyone is on the same page. I kind of like to use the very plain language of in this house, this is how we behave in this house. This is how we talk to each other, and that's that's the corporate speak. This is what we do here together, and this is how we have these kinds of conversations and connect and deal with each other.
Corporate hygiene. Is that what you said?
Yes, I just like I like that.
I like that, right, It's just it just is like you do it because you're yeah, you have to.
You should be gotta brush your teeth.
You gotta brush your.
Teeth actly And using that analogy, the more you keep brushing your teeth, you have less cavities, less places you want to be going on a wonderful trip somewhere, and you have to go get a root canal. But that's what organizations are dealing with right now. I will tell you if I was leading in any large organization, I would not lead a team that has not been trained on how to manage and communicate. I think in this day and age, it's almost like not having a website or people not being able to use a computer.
It's a great way, but it's a great way of thinking about It's a different mindset, and I think that's really important in terms of changing ultimately the outcome. Tell you Fox, thank you so much, Chief executive Officer the consultancy Kusai Global, a fellow at Harvard And of course her book is the Power of Conscious Connections for Habits to Transform how you live and lead. Tim and I mentioned earlier Charlie's been talking of course about the passing of Charlie Munger, who, along with Warren Buffett, really built Berkshire into the behemoth it is today. But we also have talked about how Charlie Munger was also very philanthropic and took positions on different rights, whether it was abortion rights, which he promoted, he talked about education, served as chairman of the Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, but he also gave multimillion dollar gifts to various universities, so education was certainly front and center, which is something we just kind of think about tim more broadly, if you will on this Giving Tuesday.
Yeah, Giving Tuesday is that decade old grassroots movement and it encourages people to give to charities on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving. Carol, maybe you've gotten some emails today from charitable organizations or nonprofits that are trying to I won't want to say take advantage, but you really lean into This day is one that is one where people give away a lot of money.
Well, and I think about as we all get ready to spend money on gifts and so on and so forth, to think about giving back to society more largely and more broadly. Our next guest has a study on giving trends of affluent households and has found that charitable giving among this set is now above pre pandemic levels. Diane Chips Billy is National Philanthropic Executive at Bank of America Private Bank. She's with us on Zoom from Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina. Diane, nice to have you here with Tim and myself, you know, and thinking about the story and thinking about Charlie Munger specifically, tell us a little bit about the demographics among affluent households who gives the most. Give us an idea of just kind of that background, if you.
Will, absolutely, Carol, and thank you to Tim as well for having me today. I'm thrilled to share more about the Bank of America study of philanthropy, But before I do that, I think providing a little bit of context into why this research into affluent Americans wealthy Americans is so important. If you look at donor participation stretching back to before the Great Recession, you know, back in the six seven era, we saw two thirds of Americans overall general population making contributions to charitable organizations every year. Now that general participation number is down less than fifty percent, so really a substantial decline. That's why days like Giving Tuesday are so so important.
I want to make sure.
I want to make sure Diana get that that number right. You're saying. Post financial crisis, we saw charitable giving reach a certain level, and now since then it's down a little less than fifty percent.
So it's the overall participation in giving is less than fifty percent. It's around forty nine percent when you and that's gone down from two thirds before.
Yes, yeah, thanks you for the city.
But when you look at giving from wealthy Americans, we see that eighty five percent compared to the forty nine percent in the general population, are supporting charitable organizations year over year. So when you think about people like Charlie Hunger, you know that it's those donors that are really carrying the day. Nonprofits increasingly relying on a smaller and much more affluent circle of supporters.
Why is it down though?
There are lots of reasons, you know. The first, of course, is the pressure of income and wealth inequality. We're seeing other reasons that matter as well. That first is trust. When we look at trust and societal institutions among affluent Americans. Our research tells us that twenty one percent of affluent Americans have a great deal of trust in nonprofits to be able to meet the challenges of the day. That twenty one percent is the highest percentage if you look at trust in Congress as for example, only four percent of the affluent Americans that we studied said they had a great deal of confidence in Congress to solve our issues. But still that that represents a decline and trust overall. You know, another reason that we think that giving is declining that's really so interesting are changing patterns of religion. You know, in our research, we know that religion continues to get the biggest piece of the pie from aflin Americans. When it comes to prioritizing their giving. The most giving goes to religion, but it's coming from a smaller group of donors. Participation in giving has declined substantially, But those who are giving are giving with urgency and with enthusiasm, with medium gifts that are six times higher than the next category, which is basic needs. But so many people learn patterns of benevolence and practices of benevolence in worshiping communities. And so when we see declines in participation. There you saw the Pew research right, which says that now thirty percent of Americans classify themselves as nuns.
N n e say use for a second, Claire by.
Nuns and nees, and so that's atheists, agnostic and spiritual but not religious. So you know, when you see those increasing rates of people who do not identify with worship communities, you know, do we lose those patterns and traditions of charity.
How does something like war, geopolitics, climate change, how do these things impact the giving world?
So let's use global unrest and war as for example. So we do see surges in giving when it is being responsive to headlines, right, that urgency of what we're seeing in Israel and Palestine with humanitarian need, et cetera. That does inspire a surge in participation in giving and in generous giving for the time period of the news cycle. So, Tim and Carol, I'm here to tell you that the work that you're doing is incredibly important to focus on individuals where that generosity is needed most, because we do see a bit of retraction when the media moves on to different news stories. However, the uncertainty that also comes from geopolitical conflict and unrest does also have an overall chilling effect as it relates to giving, as do challenges in the economy. So if you look at twenty twenty two, which is the period in which we studied, that are covers our research. You know, remember I don't have to tell you market volatility and define interest rates inflation, even among affluent Americans, those uncertainties in the economy, in geopolitics, that does cause a bit of a retraction and a little more caution in getting.
Yeah, no, yeah, we often see that right when there's little nervousness, and certainly in terms of the outlook and we are at a time if we're trying to figure out kind of what happens next. Dane, thanks so much, really appreciate did Happy holidays. Diane Chips Bailey, National Philanthropic Executive at Bank of America Private Bank, on Zoom from Charlotte, North Carolina on this Giving Tuesday, which is.
What I'm thinking about because I haven't given my to my organizations yet sometimes yet before thee.
I know, the end of the year, that's when everybody's like, exactly, get it done. Stick around everybody. This is Bloomberg
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