The Stories Behind a Purpose with CeCe Morken

These days, we’re all exhausted. And it’s not just the physical tiredness of managing kids, virtual schooling, shifting work locations in a house, or balancing disruptions as our personal lives and workspace converge. It’s a mental tiredness and fatigue, and the effects are pretty dramatic.  

It’s a good thing that companies were already working on body and mind wellness. Wellness support and training has become an integral part of many company’s benefit plans and training initiatives. The added stress and uncertainty of the pandemic has intensified the conversations about mindfulness, meditation, and a company called Headspace.

On this episode of What’s Your Story, Sally’s guest is CeCe Morken, President and CEO of Headspace, and she’s here to share her experience with how she found herself in this role and the benefits of finding your purpose.

 

More about CeCe Morken

CeCe Morken serves as President and Chief Operating Officer of Headspace. She is a highly accomplished technology industry executive with 35 years of experience building and growing organizations, from start-ups to global, publicly traded companies. 

CeCe joined Headspace after 13 years at Intuit, where she led multiple business units. She served as Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Strategic Partner Group, responsible for the accountant, financial institution, and enterprise platform business generating $700M in annual revenue — in addition to leading both the Corporate/Government Affairs and Corporate Responsibility functions for the company. Morken was also responsible for building strategic partnerships between Intuit and financial institutions, government and educational entities, and enterprise platforms, and also responsible for expanding global engagements, which doubled the velocity of contracts in the target countries of the UK, Australia, Canada, and France.

Before serving in this capacity, Morken led Intuit Financials Services (IFS). She led this business through a technology and business model transformation that moved the business to the number one ranking in share and product design across online and mobile platforms, leading the industry in open platform designs. Subsequently, CeCe led the strategic decision to divest the business and close the sale to the private equity firm Thoma Bravo in August of 2013.

Morken is a graduate of North Dakota State University, with majors in Economics and Business Administration, and attended the University of Chicago Booth’s executive development program. Morken currently serves on the Boards of GENPACT and NDSU College of Business. 

Morken has also been recognized as one of The Most Powerful Women in Accounting (2017), National Diversity and Leadership Most Powerful Women in Technology (2017 and 2019), and has received the Intuit CEO Leadership Award in 2011, 2014, and 2017, and the Bill Campbell Coaches Award in 2018.

 

Show Notes

• Headspace: Improve health and wellness of the world. This organization helps people build healthy routines through mindfulness in an app.
  • 46% of people over the age of 18 will have a diagnosable mental health issue
  • 60% of those are untreated
• Purpose of Headspace: Corporate social responsibility and working in service for the greater good.
  • What is the impact of mindfulness thinking?
  • How mindfulness has changed the workplace
• Study by Headspace:
  • 65% of employees report that most of the stress they feel is from work
  • 42% state that work/life balance is the greatest source of stress
  • 45% of those lose 2 hours a day because of stress
• There has been an increase of CEO’s listing mental health and mindfulness as a priority in the workplace. With the emphasis on this from other companies there are positive results and improvement.
  • Employers need to enable people to bring their whole selves to work. Virtual environment has mad that difficult
• The Headspace work environment is one to model. They offer the following:
  • Meeting breaks
  • No meeting days
  • Every other Friday off
• Headspace offers support programs for companies and shares their best practices with their employees
  • Offer flexibility for the caregivers in the family to prevent losing women in the workplace
• Mindfulness isn’t about taking more time, it’s about being present. It’s not about time, it’s about frequency. Being purposeful with your time.
• Headspace got big names like Sesame Street, John Legend, and other celebrities involved.
• Headspace Outreach
  • Working with Governor Cuomo's office giving all New Yorkers access to their app for free
  • Worked with other states hit hard, early on, by the pandemic
  • Made their app free to every unemployed person, all health care providers, and educators
• Headspace provides content like: music, stories, sleep casts, etc. All offerings are backed by science and clinical studies.
• Headspace worked with Sesame Street with the goal of helping young minds develop healthy habits.
• Hundreds of thousands have taken advantage of their app.
• CeCe shared a Storytelling meditation clip from the Headspace app on Wisdom: Mind, Body, Speech
  • The clip covered intention, mindfulness, voice and body of speech.
• How to manage, inspire and support a team virtually:
  • Best practices for management:
    • Don’t just ask “how are you?” ask “really…how are you?”
    • Start the conversation with their development, not just the business outcome
    • Be a good role model - take breaks, set up healthy boundaries
    • Ensure that you’ve got clarity of common purpose and do “less” better
    • Remind people why you are there and what you are focused on.
    • Speed - don’t wait for normal - make a difference and take advantage of the situation and lean in more.
    • How you spend your time is important, pick your career for the right reason.
    • Find purpose in your work.
    • Do something that makes your heart beat faster every day.