Global Thought Leadership for Aging and Longevity | Jean Accius

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Thought Leadership for Global Change

An interview with Jean Accius about using thought leadership to inform, influence, and have an impact on the global conversation of aging, longevity, and long term health care.

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Today’s guest is Jean Accius, a nationally recognized thought leader on aging, longevity, and long term health care policy as well as the Senior Vice President of Global Thought Leadership at AARP.

Jean shares with us what organizational thought leadership is at AARP, who their target audience is, and what successful thought leadership looks like for them.  Bill and Jean have deep conversations about the multi-generational workforce that exists today, how nontraditional partners can be the key to spreading the conversation, and how Jean is leading a team to influence the influencers for positive change around the world.

Three Key Takeaways from the Interview:

• How to take thought leadership from idea to impact.
• What AARP is doing to share their thought leadership in the age of COVID-19.
• Why Jean encourages his team of thought leaders to go out in the community and come back with new ideas.

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And if you need help scaling organizational thought leadership, contact Thought Leadership Leverage!

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Transcript

Bill Sherman Hello and welcome. You’re listening to Leveraging Thought Leadership. I’m your host, Bill Sherman. Today we’re talking about one of my passions, organizational thought leadership. The people who create, curate and deploy thought leadership on behalf of their organization. My guest today is Jean Accius. He’s a nationally recognized thought leader on aging, longevity and long-term health care policy. He’s the senior vice president of Global thought leadership at AARP, and he provides strategic direction, leadership and expertise for all of the thought leadership initiatives that AARP performs. Welcome to the show, Gene.

Jean Accius Well, thank you so much, Bill, for having me. I’m excited to be on the show with you today.

Bill Sherman So let’s start here. What is your role at AARP? Describe what thought leadership is within AARP. What are you doing?

Jean Accius Absolutely. Well, thought leadership works within a group, really to position AARP as an organization that’s at the forefront of issues that shape the lives of people as they live in age. Our goal is to identify emerging topics, is to challenge the status quo and then to engage new audiences that can really become potential allies and thought partners in helping the world see aging in a totally different lens and a very positive lens, to be exact.

Bill Sherman Now, who are your target audiences? Who are you trying to reach and what are you trying to achieve?

Jean Accius Absolutely. So we work across think tanks, academia, government, industry and nonprofit organizations. Our audience is really influencers, top leaders, major policymakers. And our goal is really to help advance emerging issues and to surface new solutions. We do this in three ways. One is that we believe that leadership is driven by this very strong belief that sharing knowledge is the world’s most important currency. So for us, it’s really about what are those thought provoking insights that’s backed by evidence that really provides a new angle on an issue that where AARP has something to say. We also focus on influencing conversations among leaders, both in thought and practice. As you kind of think about the global trends around longevity, in particular, we want to position AARP as that leading organization that fosters change, that creates pivot points, and that inspires solutions. And then finally, it’s about impact, right? So one is information is the world’s most important currency. Two, it’s really about influencing conversations and building new partnerships. Three is really about impact. And then for us, we want to serve as a connector. We also want to inspire change. Going back to what I said earlier, in terms of the fact that we want to help the world see aging in a totally different light, that there is value and experience and wisdom that comes with getting older and how can we create solutions that allow everyone to age as they would like.

Bill Sherman So you mentioned thought provoking questions, right? Are you coming with questions? Are you coming with sort of policy templates to people, some mix of the two. When you go to your audiences, what modalities are you using and how do you want them to respond?

Jean Accius Absolutely. So it’s a it’s a mixture of all of the above, both in terms of exactly are there thought provoking questions that are unresolved. And I think a lot of the work around thought leadership is really to tackle some of these complex and difficult questions is really to kind of think big and to really think about what could the potential possibilities be. So for us, it’s really along those lines of really what are those big ideas, those big questions. And then we actually start by having a range of conversations with untraditional partners. So it’s not just the folks that know the work of AARP, but we also want to focus more specifically on those who do not. And then what are the opportunities to cross-pollinate and think about solutions to help address those questions. So in some cases, it might be policy, but in some cases it might be work that we’re doing with the private sector.

Bill Sherman So I want to dig a little bit deeper on that. You said untraditional partners. So give me a sense of who would be untraditional for you and why. Show me sort of the range of who you’re talking to and listening in to.

Jean Accius That’s a great question, though untraditional in the sense that we want to work with groups that have not traditionally worked on aging issues or groups that have not thought about the growing trend, that people are aging and living longer. And we want to be able to influence them to start to think about how do you actually put aging on the agenda for the work that they need to do?

Bill Sherman Can you give an example of that?

Jean Accius Absolutely. So we released a huge report called the Longevity Economy. And that report was able to quantify the economic contributions of people over the age of 50 in the United States. And the tune was around $8.3 trillion. Using that insight, we’ve been able to partner and show up at places as most recently as CBS, which is the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas here. In Las Vegas, and say, well, why is AARP at CBS? Well, we wanted to influence private industry and technology executives, that this is a market that you need to be paying attention to, that this market in particular spends roughly about $140 billion in technology. And they’re looking for solutions to really help meet their needs. We wanted to counter this notion that older adults are fearful or scared or don’t know how to use technology. So we want one of. Yes. So that’s just one of many examples in terms of exactly how can we as an organization partner with untraditional groups, people that typically don’t think about our issues in a very meaningful and strategic way.

Bill Sherman So with that then, where does your team sit within the organization? Where does the thought leadership function get housed? Because there’s many different places. I’ve seen that location. Tell me about how you sit within the organization and who you most frequently work with across the organization.

Jean Accius We are housed in our policy group. We’re housed within our policy group within AARP, and we work across all of the entire enterprise. We work very closely, as you can imagine, with our colleagues in communications and marketing. We work very closely with our colleagues on the executive team and their staff for our executive position opportunities. We work very closely with our publication ARM because, again, what we’re doing is really thinking about how do we start these conversations, really start these discussions in a way that really drive towards meaningful and tangible change. So from a policy standpoint, we have an opportunity to kind of think about how do we really marry public, private and nonprofit sectors together in a way to really tackle some of these big ideas. And then the other aspect of that is really kind of blending this notion of individual and social responsibility within the mix. So it’s a great job. I am having a I’m having fun.

Bill Sherman Bill That’s fantastic. Now, let me dig on that. So I’ve heard very few people who say they went to school to have a career in thought leadership. Tell me a little bit of how you landed here. What was your journey, you know, to wind up being an executive of thought leadership in an organization? And what surprised you along the way?

Jean Accius Well, I’ll start by saying this. I was raised by my grandmother up until before. And my first job was actually working in the retirement community when Marriott used to own senior living services. So if I was next gen to older adults, I had an opportunity to work for Governor Jeb Bush in Florida doing some policy work. And that’s where I actually realized how key policy was. But throughout all of that, it was really a combination of my lived experience of watching my parents and my family get older. It was the lived experience of interacting with older adults throughout the state of Florida. It was the lived experience of moving to Washington, D.C. to also see that. And then the education complemented that. So when I actually came to AARP, I actually it was very opening to me that I had an opportunity and that opportunity was to be able to take that storytelling, to take that lived experience, and to couple that with data and insights and say, What are we missing? Or what is a different way of looking at this issue? What will make something stick in memory? And it was those questions that really allowed me to be able to navigate within the organization to be the SVP of Thought Leadership.

Bill Sherman So if I hear you correctly, it’s this ongoing curiosity of what are we missing? What should we be talking about? How do we drive powerful conversations that deserve time and attention that be for you?

Jean Accius That’s exactly right, Bill. And aspect of this is to think about is that there’s so much information out there. So the question is, how are you breaking through the noise? Are you providing that powerful insights in those conversations that really resonates with people’s attention and not only resonates with the intention, but sparks them into action?

Bill Sherman And I think that sparking to action is a real key thing, right? These are not ideas that should sit on a shelf and gather dust. You’re really trying to change how people view the world and then how they act within it. And you said something earlier that I’d love to explore further.

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We talked about influencing the influencers. Let’s talk a little bit about that. Who are you trying to reach? How do you reach them? And maybe a story too. Or two of success.

Jean Accius So I’ll give you a nice concrete example. There’s been a lot of conversations about the future of work, and now Covid 19 has accelerated those conversations.

Bill Sherman Absolutely.

Jean Accius And one of the things was that people are talking about automation and job replacements, but no one was actually having a conversation about what I would consider to be one of the key most important assets that any company has, and that’s their workforce. And the fact that force is living longer and either want to or need to work. And how can corporations foster a multigenerational workforce? So as an organization, we decided that we would actually spark a conversation around diversity, fostering a multigenerational workforce across the lifespan. And what we wanted to do was influence the influencers in this particular case. Our target audience was C-suite executives and private industry. We hosted a huge US summit that brought together over 150 C-suite executives from around the world. It was a global summit all around the conversation around future of work. We had major leaders from Morgan Stanley to BlackRock to others who participated. Wall Street Journal who participate in this conversation. And before we knew it, that conversation, those ideas around fostering a multigenerational workforce started to spread like wildfire. We ended up creating a collaborative called Living Learning. And any longer, where we are engaging global companies from across the world to sign up and learn how they can foster more multigenerational workforce. So I want to kind of walk you through this process. There was an idea there was an opportunity to influence and elevate epistemic point of view. We had a huge convening that included in-person social media. And the whole nine Yards hosted the convening. There was a series of articles and reports written around the convening and some of the key takeaways. And then we basically translate all of that into a coalition, a collaborative where companies who are really serious about fostering a multigenerational workforce could join. There’s no fee for joining. It’s just an opportunity to learn from each other and to share promising practices. And I’ll tell you where we are right now at 28 global companies that represent more than 1.5 million employees and over $840 billion worth of total revenue.

Bill Sherman That’s fantastic. And so that was an idea that originated in your team. And then I would guess you had to sort of sell this vision internally and get other stakeholders within the organization to align. Probably your senior executives and marketing that. Talk about that process. When you have the idea and say, here’s an idea that we should be having and communicating out there. How do you build internal support to go champion an idea like that? Because that’s a fantastic story of what happened. How about the effort behind the scenes?

Jean Accius Well, as you could imagine, our bill that is critically important is to be able to pitch the idea internally, particularly to pitch the idea to the right key stakeholders. In our case, we were very fortunate that our CEO loved the idea and championed it. And as you could imagine, when your CEO loves an idea, things tend to move a little quicker in some cases. But I will say that there are other members of the executive team as well as part of the CEO leadership team that was really supportive of this effort because we all saw that this was a wonderful opportunity for AARP to really be that thought leader. The work that I do is really leveraging the insights and thought leadership across all of AARP in order to really amplify our unique perspective. And I really enjoy that. But in our case with respect to this particular initiative, we had the support of our executive team and our senior leadership.

Bill Sherman Fantastic. So you lead a team, correct? You do in that team. Are they responsible for uncovering issues and developing ideas or what is the team like?

Jean Accius So I will share with you that within a group we have three broad and specific goals. One is around Verity. The others are on financial resilience. And then the third is around personal fulfillment. It is what our CEO likes to refer to as health, wealth and self, meaning the fact that in the absence of your health and the absence of having financial resources or ability or the ability to rebound, it has tremendous impact on your overall well-being. And as a result, we’re structured as a team along those lines where we work on those three areas of focus. Broadly speaking, our team has the opportunity to really kick ideas around. We are very fortunate in a sense that we have the support of our leadership to really kind of experiment and to test and to push and to explore. Realizing that at the end of the day, the goal for us is really to help elevate issues and seek solutions. And we can do that internally and externally.

Bill Sherman So one of the things that I think is very relevant now is for other leaders who have teams that are doing thought leadership, how do you develop them on the thought leadership track? So how are you encouraging them? Because you talk about thinking and asking what questions should they ask? How are you leading and how are you mentoring your team?

Jean Accius That’s a beautiful question. Part of what I do is actually encourage our team to do what we refer to as Think days, or we call it creative mayhem and creative. And it’s really an opportunity where you’re not technically doing quote unquote work if you can actually go out and work on something and to really kind of bring those ideas back. It’s really a way to foster innovation and creativity. So that is one example of how we do that, both in terms of encouraging our team members to go out into the community, to talk to people, to talk to different people, to talk to different people in different industries and sectors and just have conversation. What are you hearing? What are what are you reading? The other aspect of what we do is really encourage our team to have a pulse on the issues that we work on, really kind of thinking about who are those influences within the issues of health security, within the issues of financial resilience, within the issues of personal fulfillment. What are they talking about? What are they thinking about? What are they missing? So we are constantly doing that environmental scan. And then thirdly, in critically important is ensuring that the work and ideas that we’re doing is up to our strategic priorities as an organization. We’re very lucky in a sense that everyone on our team has been gone through the process of innovation training, really going to them, really kind of thinking about design, thinking and not being so quick to say no, but to say yes, I and rather than saying or we say yes and really thinking about how we build that and then finally join our team meetings. We have a discussion question that is, you know, what’s on your mind. And it’s just really an opportunity for us to battle around with an issue. And we ask each team member to raise a series of questions and issues, and then we just kind of battle it around. And we just had one most recently last week where someone was mentioning a report and it just spun into a brainstorming session. So is the opportunity to be nimble and to be willing to be open. And the other aspect of this, too, is that we really encourage our team to have a growth mindset. So the opportunity to continue to learn and then for us as managers and leaders to provide them with the resources in order to invest in their professional development is critically important. So they feel that they’re value and that their opinion matters.

Bill Sherman I think you painted a picture really interesting of you’re encouraging questioning and that there’s almost an entrepreneurial spirit in. Please, please.

Jean Accius Absolutely. In fact, we actually screen for that. Really? We actually screen for that in terms of the candidates need to be able to demonstrate how they’ve had an entrepreneurial spirit, how they’ve been very proactive in looking at problems and coming up with solutions, how they’ve tried to collaborate with traditional and untraditional partners. So we really do look for that as part of our screening process to come onto our team.

Bill Sherman And with that, I also this goes back to the unexpected groups that you talked about earlier and in your you then said later here with your team encouraging them to talk to people and have unexpected conversations, either with people they normally wouldn’t talk to or talk to, just subject matter experts and see what they’re missing. It’s really looking for the gaps is this theme that I’m hearing is you’re looking for what’s missing in this conversation and how do we serve it?

Jean Accius That’s exactly right, Bill. In addition to looking for the gaps and encouraging our team to be entrepreneurs in every respect, we also encourage them to read books in magazines that they typically would not read to really kind of spark that thinking as well. I think it’s critically important for us to really be on the front lines of trying to change systems in order to change lives. And the best way to do that is to be very close to what the problems are, what the discussions are, and also fill those gaps. So the fact that the proximity to the problem is critically important. So I do I really encourage my team to get out into the community, to get out there and get close to the problem, really kind of think about the opportunities in which we can try to solve and address them.

Bill Sherman So let me ask you a question about Covid 19 on two layers. We’re now in roughly June of 2020. Right. And so you’re asking people to get close to the problem. And so events have been canceled. It’s harder to go out and just have one on one conversations with people face to face. How have you and your team adapted for the information and environmental scan component? And how is that changing how you deploy your ideas and get them out there in an environment where you can’t get those senior execs together and say, hey, let’s get together and really work through this problem the same way?

Jean Accius So I’ll tell you that today we actually launched a series of fireside chats with major thought leaders, influencers and changemakers around Covid 19, and that didn’t necessarily address what we’re seeing with Covid 19, but more importantly, to understand what are the lessons were learning from Covid 19 and how can we actually rebuild and reimagine our future. So we’re much stronger moving forward. And our keynote speaker to kind of launch this was Wes Moore. And I don’t know who else about Wes is the CEO of Robin Hood Foundation and two time New York Times best seller author. He’s also a veteran and social entrepreneur. And it was a fireside chat. We did it virtually, and it was an opportunity to really kind of dig into some of these issues and have a very thought provoking, inspiring conversation. And our plan is to actually do this series for the next couple of weeks, really kind of roll up our sleeves to explore what are the not just the challenges, but also what are the opportunities to address this issue in a very meaningful way. We’re also using a virtual platforms and other means to engage our senior executives across the entire organization. And during this time where we have to practice and be in compliance with physical distancing guidelines. And I think that is just really an opportunity to think about what are the different modes, whether that is virtual platforms, whether it is podcasts, where there’s more use of social media, how can we stay more connected and have these meaningful conversations in a way that really drives towards the solutions that we all are seeking?

Bill Sherman And one of the things that really struck me as we’ve been talking is you’re trying to accomplish some of these goals, not just on a domestic U.S. footprint, but really on a global footprint. You’re trying to elevate the conversation of aging globally.

Jean Accius That is exactly right, Bill.

Bill Sherman Tell me a little bit more about that and how you’re trying to achieve on a global impact, the conversation around aging.

Jean Accius So similar is the fact that some of these issues around aging is really around the world and that there’s opportunities to really understand and learn what are these innovations and these ideas that’s happening across the world. And so from a thought leadership standpoint, we are working with NGOs, civil societies and other major leaders from across the globe, really to elevate the issues of aging and to ensure that people are empowered around the world to make the most of a longer and healthier life. We do this through some of our partnerships. We have relationships with the United Nations. In fact, AARP has a designation with the United Nations. And because of our ongoing efforts with the United Nations, the UN secretary general is going to be interviewing our CEO. And they just.

Bill Sherman Fantastic.

Jean Accius Looking at older adults in light of Covid, which is huge. We also have great partnerships with the World Economic Forum, where we’ve been very engaged with the World Economic Forum on major projects like a living learning and earning longer initiative as well as with our OECD. We think that there’s opportunity to really kind of explore ways in which we can build these relationships that span across new audiences and cultures and really create new thought partners in changing how the world sees aging. It’s a very exciting time where we engage and we explore issues both domestically and internationally, and we’re able to actually really elevate and show the value of what it means to get older across the world.

Bill Sherman Shane This has been a great conversation, and now I’ve got a deeper understanding of how much you and your team truly have on your plate as you’re trying to elevate the world’s attention to issues of aging and make an impact on many lives. Thank you for being here. And thank you to you and your team for the work you do.

Jean Accius Thank you so much, Bill, for your leadership and all that you’re doing.

Bill Sherman Thank you. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please join our LinkedIn group. Organizational Thought Leadership. It’s a professional community where thought leadership practitioners talk shop about our field. So if you’re someone who creates curates or deploys thought leadership for your organization, then please join the conversation in the organizational thought Leadership LinkedIn.