He intuitively focused on the unmet needs of his clients and prospects — the lack of a preferred, coherent experience for financial wellness and security.
Helping him articulate his vision, Unboundary partnered with Schlifske and his leadership team to set the 160-year old organization on a transformation journey to solve what their competitors couldn’t see or wouldn’t address.
Building shared foresight is a necessary step in creating the inspired engagement transformation demands. For Northwestern Mutual, this has meant strengthening the organization’s ability to look up and see beyond its walls. As people have developed the foresight to see and connect the signals that underpin and fuel the company’s vision, this has created buy-in and momentum.
Ethnographic research gave voice and clarity to what clients and prospects want to be able to do in their financial lives but lack the means to. The insights helped us produce design principles that are now guiding customer experience development. Equally as important, the insights have helped the culture shift further into an experience-centric mindset.
To engage and sustain people through the challenges of transformation, leaders have had to become activators — catalysts of new ways of thinking and working. Leaders have been equipped to lead immersive experiences for the enterprise and their teams, designed to help unlock beliefs and enable new actions. This system of content and intentional delivery is known as Remarkable Commitment — a rallying-cry commitment to disrupt the status quo and make financial wellness and security a remarkable client experience.
