Talia Fox is the modern Wonder Woman. As CEO of KUSI Global Inc., her goal is to foster the company’s mission: support today’s leaders and prepare tomorrow’s innovators.
With Fox’s leadership, she’s helped executives in nearly every industry, facilitating and designing interactive learning experiences that support cultural competence, organizational intelligence, productivity and leadership strategies.
According to the CEO, KUSI aims to elevate the mind, touch the heart and inspire action to create a more conscious and connected world.
Fox also offered her expertise to Hotel Business, recently moderating “Hot Topics—Breaking the Barriers: Creating an Industry for All,” where she guided a conversation between hospitality leaders about diversity and inclusion in our industry.
Fox spoke with Hotel Business about how she’s continuing this mission to improve the condition of humanity and create a more inclusive world.
Where did the idea for KUSI come from? What were its early days like? I worked in the nonprofit space early in my career as a therapist helping children and families move through horrible circumstances. Through this experience, I really began to see how business decisions, leadership and policies/procedures impact people’s lives. This inspired me to master business and leadership skills as a path for large-scale change in people.
The early days of KUSI were about engaging people, often powerful leaders, to have conversations about what really matters in business and life. We talked to thousands of people around the world about hopes and dreams. We had existential conversations about the “why” behind building businesses, working hard and achieving goals, and we talked about what factors make our lives and our work meaningful. All of these conversations ended with a similar conclusion: Uplifting and motivating people and doing things that are aligned with our deeply held values are good for the soul and good for business.
KUSI comes from my interest in turning deep conversations about life into a system or method that sparks change and gets results. I love systems and guidelines that help improve connections with people. KUSI represents a method that I have used for decades to engage leaders and organizations to think more strategically. We call the acronym KUSI a “people optimization methodology.” It might sound complex, but it captures a strategy that works. It is a method that you can use over and over to make people, businesses and things work better. K is for knowledge. Know the facts. Know your industry. Know your job. U is for understanding. Understand the “why” behind what you do and the impact that your behavior has on other people and business outcomes. S is for strategy. Based on solid knowledge and a clear understanding of the “why,” create a strategy that supports goals, growth and progress. And, lastly, the I is for implementation. Take action based on facts, a clear understanding of the impact of your decisions and a well-thought-out strategy.
How did you grow KUSI? Why do you think its mission resonates with so many leaders and employees? KUSI is and has always been about creating relationships and helping people. I share that my ulterior motive is to create a world where people feel energized, happy and excited about the possibilities the future holds. I realized that businesses and industries can be a petri dish for growing dreams for people. The hospitality industry connects people to dreams, and the business side of this equation should mirror that vision.
I think that the KUSI mission resonates because we have developed the art of elevating the mind, touching the heart and inspiring action around things that people, at their core, are already excited to do. Sometimes we think that we have competing priorities and values. For example, holding people accountable for their work and empathy and kindness can seem at odds. But, it is the consistent and strategic application of the latter that makes accountability effortless. Our mission resonates most with those that are willing to try a new approach. Many are shocked by how much creating a culture that celebrates diversity and inclusion and supports the growth and happiness of people can make everything else function better. Although a lot of research supports this observation, there is no substitute for seeing and being a part of this kind of transformation in organizations and in people.
How does KUSI’s work impact the hospitality industry? KUSI has launched a course called Conscious Equity along with a host of products that support “knowing better and doing better” to embrace and promote diversity, equity and inclusion. The hospitality industry can and should be leaders in creating a business culture that prioritizes a positive work experience, implements best practices in diversity excellence and develops models for building a diverse pipeline for executive leadership positions. The hospitality industry is about creating models that are so closely aligned with the kind of cultures that all industries should adopt—equity, fairness, understanding differences, understanding needs, creating a positive experience, etc.
HB was honored to have you moderate the diversity and inclusion Hot Topics session. What about the hospitality industry excites you? Why is it ripe for growth right now? That panel was very inspiring to me. I grew up in Las Vegas and absolutely love the hospitality industry. As a little girl, not more than eight years old, I have two very vivid memories: One was the amazing feeling of stepping into a hotel and being greeted by smiling faces asking questions about things that I liked. The other was walking into a hotel restaurant with my father and watching him be completely ignored once they heard his thick Bahamian accent. After the last experience, I noticed, for the first time, that none of the managers or people in charge looked like me. I am excited about the opportunity to encourage every player in the hospitality industry to make it his or her mission to eradicate racism (and other forms of discrimination) and make sure that the hospitality industry reflects the “best of” experiences we all have.
Why is diversity and inclusion so vital in the hospitality space? The sweeping intensity of racial and social justice movements across the world is a great opportunity for the industry to come together and set the standard with bold moves that increase knowledge, deepen understanding, create a strategy and implement diversity, inclusion and equity practices. I’m going to make a bold statement: Leaders in this industry who do not invest in diversity and inclusion strategic plans and prioritize diversity and inclusion in their retention and recruitment strategy will be left behind and will suffer.
What steps should hospitality leaders take to foster diversity and inclusion? Some clear steps hospitality leaders can take are:
• The Einstein method: Understand the problem before implementing a solution. Conduct a culture assessment and listening sessions to understand your culture.
• Develop strategic and communication plans, as well as an implementation strategy.
• Create a quality experiential baseline training for all leaders to ensure that behaviors and approaches reflect the company’s values and priorities.
• Create a quality experiential baseline training for employees to foster a connected culture.
• Track and measure the progress on habits and behaviors around culture, retention, recruitment and development activities.
What is a good day? I start my day with the intention of making it a great day. I demand bliss. That does not mean that everything goes my way. But, it does mean that I show up, do my best and detach from the results. I have three daily things that make a good day for me. They are: meditation/reflection, exercise and good (healthy) food. These lead to a host of other results for me: patience, energy, kindness, goal achievement, presence.
What is something our readers may not know about you? I have always wanted to be an actress or performer. And I have always dreamed of owning a hotel or bed & breakfast.
What challenges is the hospitality industry currently facing? How do you advise leaders to overcome those? The challenges and the opportunities are the same. I think that people have a lot of choices and are being more intentional about which businesses they support and why. In any industry, branding has always been the key to success. The way that a brand is shaped and influenced by social movements and a rapidly changing business landscape has become increasingly complex. Different things matter. Word travels fast. Brands rise and fall aggressively. Leaders need to be agile and take a systems perspective to business strategy. What are the factors that are impacting success? How can we create a system that allows us to experiment and test? What does innovation look like in your business and the industry as a whole? The power is inconsistently asking the right questions because the answers are always evolving and changing.
What are some of your goals for the future? KUSI would like to customize a self-paced Conscious Equity course for the hospitality industry. We would like to launch a movement that supports very specific “rules of engagement” around diversity, equity and inclusion. We want to promote a global perspective and encourage broad empathy for the kinds of experiences that people are having around the world. We want to help the hospitality industry answer the question, “What does it look like to drive change and be a part of cultural transformation?”
Any final words? We often do not get a chance to share our values. The KUSI values are captured by an acronym that speaks to the integrity of the human experience: RELIEF, which stands for respect, excellence, love, integrity, equity, freedom.