During our annual conference, I’ll be leading a session on “speaking about employee ownership in front of a crowd.” I like to cover lots of topics when I speak, but when I start writing my speeches I decide on the one single point I most want people to remember. I tell people it’s the most important point, I try to reinforce it early and often, and I put it in simple declarative sentences.
One challenge for a speaker is knowing when not to elaborate. You know and love the details, but before your audience can hear them it needs to be rock solid on the major point.
For example, if your company is issuing stock options or stock appreciation rights to people who have never had them before, they need to understand many things: the tax implications, vesting, holding requirements, performance triggers, the advantages and disadvantages of 83(b) elections, the valuation of company shares… the list goes on and on, and people can lose the big picture in this sea of new information.
Consider starting by saying “the company believes that if we share company success with everyone, we will all be better off. We’re creating a stock option program so that all of you will receive a portion of any increase in the value of our company.” In fact, if that’s the only message that comes out of the first time you introduce the topic, that might be just fine. Let people absorb that message and decide what they think about it. The rest of the issues are the details that will fit into place better once people are settled about the big picture.
Another example is about ESOPs. At the NCEO we realized that most of an ESOP’s complexity is about two things: timing and the flow of money. We sometimes start presentations by stripping those two things out and focusing on how stock moves over the course of an ESOP. The flow of stock is easy: the transaction moves shares from the original owners to the ESOP. Over time, those shares are allocated into the accounts of individual participants, and are eventually sold for cash when the participant leaves the plan.
Of course, there is a lot more to say about it, but that’s not a bad starting point for people who are hearing about being an ESOP participant for the first time. In an ESOP rollout, you might spend a bit more time giving color to this simple framework by talking about what would have happened to the owner’s stock if she hadn’t sold to an ESOP. You might also use graphics (see pages 16 and 17 of the NCEO’s Employee Ownership: Building a Better American Economy booklet, for example).
In my own case, I’ve been trying to make a very simple message about why employee ownership is good for society. I personally love talking about research results and the nuts and bolts of how ESOPs work, but to keep it simple, my elevator pitch now revolves around explaining employee ownership in six words: it works; it lasts; it spreads.
It works because it makes people’s lives better. Employee-owners have more household wealth, more income, and more employer benefits (see OwnershipEconomy.org). It also works because employee-owned companies are more productive, more durable, and more tied to their communities.
It lasts because employee-owners have longer job tenure and because employee-owned companies are more likely to be around next year and in five years.
It spreads because people talk. Business owners thinking about who will own their companies after them hear from their peers at trade associations, executive groups, social events, or they may hear from their professional advisors. The stories about what happens after a sale to employees are, for some people, such a natural fit for what they want in their own companies that their main question is how to get there.
If you speak to an audience about your business or your practice, consider adding the employee ownership angle. The NCEO is happy to help with slides, data, and other resources.